Zavier looked at the changing expression of the host and knew that she had heard at least some of the toxic spew.
If he were in her place, he would have ignored the people and would have continued on with what he had to say since the opinion of the people didn't matter much to him but the host was different from him it seemed.
"Please be attentive towards me for a little bit. You will then have plenty of time to talk among yourselves. I implore you all to observe basic etiquette at the very least. Since I am here on behalf of the university, you should at least give me the courtesy that I am due by being in that position."
Her words fell on deaf ears. The group at the centre back was still gathered in a circle and was listening to one of the men talk. He seemed to be giving them some instructions. Zavier wasn't interested in hearing that drivel so he was busy filtering all of it out. Sometimes the perception system could really be a chore.
They still didn't give face the girl despite the fact that she had used the name of the university to get their attention.
As Zavier was one of those who were attentive towards her, he was shocked when she suddenly disappeared from view as if she had never been there.
In the very next instant she was standing next to the middle aged teacher who had been beside Zavier's group from the start.
There were loud gasps from the audience members who had seen the scene of her appearing out of nowhere in the middle of the audience.
The middle aged teacher who was the nearest victim of Mabel's surprise attack was an odd man who had been mumbling to himself for the most of that time. The old man was the teacher of the group of students next to Zavier's group.
Zavier knew because he had been trying to ignore him for that much amount of time but his heightened hearing had proved to be quite troublesome for him to control.
The speed of the host was faster than the blink of an eye. Zavier was dumbfounded. He had not expected that she was fast enough to deceive even his transcendent senses. He had been unable to follow her with his eyes that had been improved after he had learnt the perception system. The perception system had granted him 360 degree vision with no blind spot as a passive skill and yet he had only noticed the girl after she had shown herself in the middle of the audience.
The middle aged teacher looked as if he had lost his soul. He was too frightened to even utter a single coherent sentence.
There was dead silence all around the gymnasium. The audience that had been busy mocking her was now afraid that she might have heard what they had had to say about her before. Each culprit was sweating buckets in nervousness and yet the girl seemed to be unfazed as if she was already expecting this response.
The audience members were afraid to make any more noise as they didn't want to be the next target of the host. The way she had appeared out of nowhere had given lots of people goose bumps. The scene would definitely keep those who had badmouthed her awake for several nights in a row.
There was pin drop silence in the hall. Some of the audience had even forgotten to breathe as they gazed at the girl who they hadn't paid any importance to before.
Mabel's speed had confused all the audience, even some of the teachers weren't sure what she had done.
None of them had managed to follow the path that she had taken. Either she was using some means of stealth, or she was just fast beyond comprehension. They were busy deciphering the method that she had used.
Only the few of the top notch mages were able to deduce the essence of the bizarre movement skill. Of course, even though he had been unable to see her with his Time-Space Eye, he was able to come to the right conclusion by using the knowledge that he had gathered. This was only possible because he was confident in his Time Space Eye.
Zavier didn't believe that she could have moved fast enough to avoid the Time-Space Eye. He was sure that she couldn't have used any stealth or acceleration skill, so there was only one other possibility that was practically obvious.
Based on the data that was available to him, Zavier had come to the conclusion that the girl had used some kind of teleportation magic or some other magic skill.
"What was that skill? Sure looks pretty useful."
Almost immediately he received a system message that confirmed his earlier doubts.
[User has witnessed the execution of one of the advanced spatial magic skills.]
"Is it possible for me to learn it as well?"
[User can learn any magic skill that exists in the system.]
[Current level is insufficient to learn this skill.]
Zavier had seen that coming. He had expected the answer to be something like that. Ever since he had come to this world, he had been hearing the same thing. He was either too weak or hadn't had enough time to get better.
Zavier was really sick of it but he had no choice to acknowledge that answer as it was the truth. He really was too weak.
He told himself that he had come here to do exactly that; to get stronger.
Mabel had achieved her goal with the hall being so silent and in awe. She was finally being given the respect that she was due.
Mabel seemed satisfied as she turned towards Zavier's group; specifically she was looking at Calista who was standing at the front of their group.
Mabel nodded her head towards Calista with a smile on her face as if to greet her.
Calista looked calm as she nodded her head back at her in courtesy. The smile on Mabel's face grew deeper as she looked at Calista's greeting.
Mabel turned around and walked a step forward before she vanished once again and returned to the podium with the same spatial technique that she had displayed earlier.
The audience couldn't get used to a godly movement like that. The students especially were still in awe of the skill as they looked at her with stars twinkling in their eyes. They were hoping that they might get to learn such skills if they qualified the test that the university had prepared for them.
This time all the eyes were on Mabel as if everyone had come here to see her instead of the qualifiers.
While the audience was mesmerized with her movement skills, Zavier was shocked to see something else entirely. He was one of those who had witnessed the exchange of greetings between Mabel and Calista.
From this he could easily infer that their teacher definitely knew Mabel before even coming here. They were already acquaintances at the very least, friendly enough to exchange greetings in the middle of a huge audience without a care.
Since Mable had already deterred those who might have interrupted her midway, she didn't have to be worried about starting over again.
As such she started announcing the rules of the test that was about to be conducted. She had to make sure that the audience heard her clearly so that there was no claim later about not being told about the rules in advance. The university had to deal with many such cases every year. Those students who had always believed themselves to be absolute geniuses, when failed would resort to almost anything to get that passing grade.
"For the first qualifying test, the participants have to regroup into teams of three people each. All the participants will be spread out randomly. You will be starting out at a random position within the location that the test will take place in. As soon as the test starts, you will look for other members of your team to gather into a three man cell. There are fifteen hundred of you, so at the end of this activity hopefully there will be a total of 500 three-man squads."
As soon as she said the last line, Zavier's brows furrowed. He felt that there was something wrong with that sentence. It was almost as if she was announcing the extent of the danger that lay in that location. It seemed that not every one might be able to last until they found their team members.
"Only the participants who manage to re-form their team successfully will be able to take part in the subsequent tasks since they will all be group tasks."
In fact all the randomness was only an illusion. Caesar University had a great amount of prestige in the world and they would not just leave the testing of each individual to luck. If the team selection was truly random then that would have surely left some gaps in the testing process. Therefore, the university had already planned it thoroughly and the team compositions had been decided. The university had excessive data on each individual who was participating in the test. Categorization of each individual was carried out based on the his/her usual test scores and the team composition made use of that data in order to establish balance between overall team strengths. All the teams as a whole would have a similar strength at least on paper.
This would ensure that there would be the same chance of success for each individual participating in the test and would leave no leeway for complaints and dissatisfaction.
"The venue that has been selected for the test for you all is called Dark Forest. Some of you might have heard of it but for those who are unaware, let me tell you that it is a training ground carefully designed and nurtured by Caesar University in order to develop a forest that is as close to the real deal as possible. Countless resources and mana are constantly being invested in that place to maintain it. The dangers within are real and very much capable of hurting even a fully fledged mage if they are not careful. The environment within is harsh and unpredictable so you all need to be on your toes at all times or you might be heading back early."
In fact Mabel wasn't trying to scare off the participants by telling them all about the dangers. She was only trying to make sure that no one got hurt beyond recovery by giving them a heads up. She had done this out of goodwill alone yet many of the participants were already shaking. She wondered whether it was out of excitement or out of fear.
"The squads would then have a list of tasks to accomplish within a set time limit. The completion of each task would yield points depending on the difficulty of the task. Within the time limit the squads will have freedom to do absolutely anything to complete the task list. But the squads failing to gather a specified minimum number of points before the expiry of the time limit would be disqualified and they would be immediately sent back to their hometowns. Only the ones who manage to cross that threshold will advance to the next task. As for the task list and the time limit for the completion, they will be announced after the testing begins."
The participants were mostly sweating buckets by then. They had never thought that the testing would be that complicated. They had only heard that the test was difficult but they had never imagined the scale of difficulty to be that high.
Just when everyone thought that the instructions had concluded, Mabel opened her mouth once again and the words that came out brought a fierce light in the eyes of all the participants.
"I know that you all might be feeling a bit pressured at the moment but you can rest assured that the scenario with random teaming would not last for long. The second phase will include team competitions between the different schools. All of you who share the same high school would be teaming up together. You would then represent your high school in the second event. Those who fail to clear the first scenario would not be allowed to represent your school in the team event."
Zavier's eyes turned sharp as soon as he heard the announcement. He carefully looked around and found that some of the individuals had the same reaction as him and knew that they too had understood the essence of the early announcement of the second event that Mabel had made.
Zavier looked at Mabel oddly. She was definitely not a good person if she had done this just to get back at the audience who had failed to give her the proper respect earlier.
In fact, it had looked as if Mabel was only telling them the contents of the second test early out of goodwill but the daggers hidden behind her beautiful smile were visible to Zavier. Due to her words, the participants would never be able to properly team up with people from other institutes. They would try to sabotage all the others so as to make it easy for themselves in the second round.
Zavier and some others had understood the scheme perfectly so they knew how dangerous the first task could be. All their hopes rested on their team composition for the first test. As long as it wasn't someone truly unbearable like Baird from his school, Zavier was sure that he would be able to make do somehow even if they were weak. He would just have to work a little harder even if he had an incompetent teammate but that was at least better than having a teammate who you wanted to kill more with each passing second.
"Now that I have announced all the rules of the tests that lie ahead of you, I wish you all to stay safe and sound till the end of the test. Best of luck for the upcoming hardships headed your way."
After the final parting words, Mabel was done with her announcements. The test could finally begin.
Another person came forward and stood at the podium with a list in his hand. It was an old person who didn't like anyone important so no one paid him much attention.
"All the people whose names I call, please come forward and meet up with your team members. Henceforth, the teachers please stay back and leave your students to handle themselves on their own."
But as soon as he began announcing names, all the eyes and ears turned towards him in full attention. The man was hardly concerned with whether the people heard him or not.
Each person whose name would be called would rush out of the crowd towards the spot right in front of the podium. The team of three would gather at that point and would then move towards the back once they had met up with each other.
The same process was being followed in order to divide all the participants into three man cells but the process was turning out to be rather long.
Zavier too was waiting for his name to come out of the mouth of the announcer but it seemed to be taking a long time.
Since he had no other thing to do at the moment other than waiting, he began listening to the conversations of the other participants who were like him waiting to be assigned to their teams.
His perception skills made sure that he didn't even have to move in order to hear their conversations.
"Why is this happening?"
"Why are the rules so different from what I have heard? It wasn't like this the last time. My older brother also participated the last year and told me all about it. There were no events like this at that time."
"Yes, the difficulty of the test is on a whole other level this time. I wonder why that is."
"Didn't you hear? The test has been altered to make sure that no one pays for their way in this time. I heard that the previous year some idiots managed to enter the university through unfair means, cheating and family influence. The difficulty has been raised and the test has been altered to avoid such a situation again."
Zavier had heard that such a thing had happened on another occasion as well so he was sure that the kid must have known about it beforehand. After all, among all the participants he had seen so far, that kid was clearly the least flustered. He was also the most knowledgeable regarding the situation. All others were just running around like headless chickens in terror and nervousness.
"The difficulty has been raised to destroy the monopolistic attitude of the influential families. I heard that some families forced the schools to give out the recommendations to their own family members instead of the deserving kids. If so then this is really the best method to keep the influence of those arrogant families from extending into the university as well."
Zavier managed to find another one who had some level of intellect. He felt a little better to see some individuals who were actually quite promising compared to the ones he had seen so far. The idiotic ones weren't even able to elicit a competitive spirit out of him.
Zavier felt that the testing method was the best method to judge the true character of a candidate. By teaming them up with strangers, the university had made sure that the candidates would not hesitate to show their true selves without and hindrance. For Zavier the true test was that of one's character. Everything else was only second.
The test would also be a good measure of the squads' decision making skill and team spirit. Zavier could tell that a lot of effort had been put into the designing of the new test. He didn't know what the contents of the previous tests were, but the new test was truly a multi-dimensional test.
While Zavier was consumed by his own thoughts, he heard the surprised exclamation that Calista had let out. It looked like even Calista was shocked to hear the contents of the revised testing system.
This was the first time that a testing system like this was being implemented so she was impressed with the sheer ingenuity of the person that came up with it. At the same time she was a little worried about the participants who actually had to go through with it.
Of course her pity was only reserved for the other students. She was fully confident in the student she had chosen. Of course that student was none other than Shiranui. Calista had great interest as well hopes for Shiranui who was not only a great talent but also the person that she had taught the most among all the students who had come with her this time. So it was obvious as to who she was rooting for in the competition.
She knew that Shiranui was someone who would shine everywhere due to her competitive spirit and her rock hard will. Other than her if there was one person who she was sure could pull this off, then it had to be Zavier. She had seen his recent rise and the extent of his abilities. He was not weaker than her when he pushed himself to the limit. Calista knew his abilities because she had witnessed it all, and had also been saved by him countless times during the mission that was still vivid like a nightmare to her.
While everyone was busy waiting for their names to be called out, they hardly noticed that Mabel who had left the podium earlier, walked down the stage and headed towards Zavier's group with slow steps as if she had nothing to do with the things happening around her.
To Zavier she was the cause of all the mayhem that would come later. But for now he could only watch as she headed towards Calista. As soon as they came close to each other, Zavier lost his hearing for some reason. It was like all sounds had been distorted around Mabel. She was the only addition to the scene so he assumed that she had done something so that no one would be able to hear their conversation.
Although Zavier was unable to hear, he could still see what was happening with his Time Space Eye. From the looks of it, Calista and Mabel seemed to be old acquaintances. From the pleasant atmosphere surrounding the two, Zavier was sure that the relationship between the two was not ordinary.
Calista seemed to be a little excited as she started talking to Mabel. Zavier could tell the extent of it from just her facial expressions that were blooming like the spring.
Calista called all the students closer and Zavier took this as a chance to listen in to the conversation between the two. As it turned out, Calista only wanted to introduce everyone to Mabel.
"This is my student, Shiranui. Her talent is so great that she might even surpass me and Valerie soon."
Mabel politely greeted Shiranui who was unable to raise her head for some reason. Mabel wondered why that was. In fact, at the same time, Zavier too had been looking at Shiranui which was the very reason that she was unable to face his gaze calmly.
Calista then proceeded to introduce the next person that she thought was the best among the students that she had brought along with her.
"You don't need the introduction about the whole Adam family but you need to meet this newcomer. His name is Zavier and he just might be the greatest talent that the Ad…"
But before Calista could even complete her introduction of Zavier, someone interrupted her by grabbing the attention of Mabel who was Calista's only audience.
The conversation between the person who had interrupted Calista and Mabel had been silenced once again. Zavier was unable to make out anything they said.
He looked towards the other girls and found that they hardly felt that something was wrong. They were looking back at him with normal expressions.
Zavier felt as if he was the only one who was being kept out of the loop but of course that wasn't the case. In the noise of over fifteen hundred individuals all the sound had been drowned out and the girls could hardly hear the person next to them with their full focus. After all, they didn't have enhanced hearing senses like him.
From the obvious discontent, Mabel appeared to be slightly disappointed that she had been unable to stay longer for a chat with Calista.
"Sorry, I need to get back now. There is something that they need me for. If you need any help here, feel free to look for me anytime. Sorry, you will have to excuse me this time."
It looked like Calista had some serious business to attend to since she had left in quite a hurry. She didn't even bother to look back as she left due to her work emergency.
Calista seemed a little put off since Mabel had left in the middle of their conversation. She hadn't even introduced all the students to Mabel before she had had to go.
Zavier could tell just by looking at the slightly puffed up cheeks of Calista. Still he couldn't keep staring at her and started to ignore her.
When Calista was sure that it was about to be the turn of her students to make the appearance near the stage, she gathered them all up to pass on some instructions and in order to give the last minute motivational pep talk.
"All of you listen up. You just need to keep one thing in mind during the test. No matter what happens you do not give up or lose your will to fight. Give your best at all times because only then would you be able to enjoy the win afterwards. I expect all of you to do really well in this test. I even boasted about all of you to Mabel so don't you dare go and make me lose face.
Especially you Zavier should not think that this test would be easy. All of you put in your best efforts and leave the rest up to luck and providence. Good luck to all five you."
One by one each of the girls had their names called and they all went to join up with their teammates for the first round while Zavier had to wait a little more.
The girls managed to form their teams successfully with other high school students and Zavier was left alone.
The wait was longer for him as he seemed to be at the very bottom of the list of the names. Finally, Zavier too heard his name being called and he let out a sigh of relief as all the waiting had been making him nervous. It had got him thinking that somehow his name wouldn't be announced even after the activity was over. He was worried that somehow his name had been taken out of the list.
Thankfully, his fears proved to be groundless and he soon left his group behind to join up with his new teammates. On his way towards the stage, Zavier kept wondering what kind of teammates had been assigned to him.
The teams that had already gathered up had been given a list during this duration. The list comprised of all the tasks that they had to accomplish in the duration of the test.
Since Zavier hadn't met up with his team yet, he still didn't know much about the contents of the task. He wondered how difficult they were since many of the individuals who had read through them had been making weird expressions.
The list also had a number written in front of each task. This was the number of points that the task would yield upon completion. There was a lot of other information as well but the one thing that stuck out like a sore thumb was the option that even Zavier was a little worried.
"A card will be given to each individual that can be used to redeem the number of points after the completion of each task. The holder of the card has to protect it at all costs. If an opponent manages to snatch it away, all the points will be transferred to the enemy participant.
Any participant that fails to keep a hold of their card and their card ends up stolen, that participant will no longer have the qualification to keep participating in the trial since no card means that the participant will no longer be able to redeem points for their task completion."
Zavier understood with just one look at the contents of information written on the list given to him. The true test was not to see who was able to complete the most tasks without getting too injured. The true test was the protection of their cards from other participants since that was the easiest way to pass the test without doing anything at all. All they had to do was to knock down some weak ones and get a hold of their cards.
Zavier felt that if he did the test that way, he might be able to beat the test without any trouble at all since he still had the overpowered skill Blood Blade and not to even mention that he alone had a team of three individuals; of course his clones included.
Zavier also found that there existed another technicality in the information on the list. Although it stated that anyone who lost his card would be unable to continue with the test, nowhere did it mention in clear terms that the participant would be eliminated from the competition.
This meant that all those who managed to lose their cards to someone would still remain in the field and would continue to prey on other participants in order to get a card back to continue with their test.
Just this little detail had increased the difficulty of the test by a huge margin because even if there was one person who resorted to such means, then a vicious chain would begin that would result in all of them being dragged into the turmoil that would only bring about more misery and more failures.
Zavier had to admit that whoever had designed the test was not only quite ingenious but was also very depraved for coming up with such a situation where not even one's own teammates could be trusted. After all, they might screw you over just because the next test had been announced earlier which was a team competition between various schools.
Therefore, the teaming at the moment was only a way to increase the difficulty even more.
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