After Ian finally defeated Annie, Sett became incredibly happy. He knew he had made the right call to wait. Now things could get interesting.
Following that day, Annie and Ian began to train together. The two would alternate between helping one person improve their skills.
On days when Annie was the main focus, Ian would help her develop attack skills. At first, she was only learning how to shoot out blasts of wind. From there, she would start to branch out and get creative with her attacks. Ian's support helped her greatly.
When Ian was the focus, Annie would help him improve his attacks and reaction speed. However, to do this, she pretty much became a living punching bag for him. Using her wind barrier, she would let Ian try different attacks to try and break it. Not only that, she would also help him with his speed by not putting up her barrier until he launched an attack. This, in turn, helped her with reaction time as well.
Out of every pair in the class, Annie and Ian were the two who were improving the most. After four months of training, Annie had developed a basic attack style, and Ian had improved his speed and attack power.
Meanwhile, most of the other pairs had barely made any improvements. Darren and his partner were the two who had improved the least.
Darren had only slightly improved his ability to switch between elements, but he still struggled. His partner had only managed to improve his reaction time enough to compete with Darren.
By now, it had been nearly nine months since Ian and the others started school. All of them had left their mark in some way. Kevin's intelligence, Ellie's dedication, Emmett's resilience, Zoey's intimidation, Amanda's perfection, and Ian's impossible feats. They all were shining in their own unique way.
Now they had to prepare for the last hurdle of the school year. Exams.
Final exams were just around the corner. Ian and his group weren't playing around anymore. They would gather together to study. Even Annie joined them after slowly getting closer to Ian and the others.
Once exams came, they all put in maximum effort to score their best. Sadly, they wouldn't receive their scores until after the school year ended.
During final exam week, Ian made it through all of his tests feeling confident. He knew he wouldn't get the highest score, but at least he was sure he'd be up there.
Once Ian was done with his written exams, all he had left were his physical exams, which were both with Sett. The first one was his physical training and combat class. For the final exam, he had to fight against Sett again to demonstrate his improvements. If the students showed major improvements and were able to last long enough in the fight, they would pass.
The majority of the students managed to pass this exam. Ian and Annie had gotten the highest scores in the class. However, Darren had not passed. He barely improved in any way. His fighting style was still the same, and his flaw was still abusable. Even his partner had passed the final, and yet Darren had not.
After doing his physical education and combat exam, Ian had one left. His nature survival exam. This class was fairly easy for Ian. Most of the lessons went over things he was already familiar with or knew. He was the top of the class.
Most of the students had trouble having to learn how to forage for food, hunt properly, set up a shelter, and live off the environment. This was almost second nature for Ian. But now, it was time for the final exam of the class.
On the last day of exam week, all of the students who took the nature survival class had to meet Sett at the training grounds late in the afternoon after finishing their other exams. Around 120 students showed up for the exam. None of them knew what to expect.
Once all of the students showed up, Sett gathered their attention and said, "Welcome, my students. You have made it far, but now it is time to test what you've learned. This exam will not be easy. In fact, many of you might not pass."
The students looked worried upon hearing this. They had no idea what was in store for them.
"I'm warning you all right now. This exam will last for three whole days and nights. You will have the choice to take the exam and possibly pass my class, or not take the exam and fail my class," Sett continued, sounding more serious than ever.
The students became more concerned now. None of them thought this exam would last three days, and they didn't even know what the exam entailed.
Sett observed all of the worried faces before continuing, "For this exam, you will be sent into an academy-owned forest. This forest will be filled with real live creatures, ranging from null rank to silver rank. However, for your safety, silver rank creatures are far and few. This forest is also surrounded by a protective barrier that prevents any creature from leaving or entering the area. This barrier will also be linked to special bracelets given to you. These bracelets will teleport you out of the forest if you take too much damage."
Sett and a few other instructors started handing out light metal bracelets that had runes on them. When Ian received his bracelet, he put it on, and it immediately shrank to fit his wrist.
After passing out the bracelets, Sett went on to say, "Now, as for how this exam will work. You will be allowed to go into the forest alone or in groups. However, if you choose to go in groups, you will be graded together. You will also be given the option to take equipment with you into the forest."
Students started talking happily to one another upon hearing they could work in groups. Students quickly started getting into groups. One group consisted of 12 students.
Seeing this, Sett smiled evilly. "Grading for this exam will be drastically different from any other exam. You will all start with 100 points. You can earn or lose points on this exam based on a number of factors. You will lose points for taking equipment with you. Each piece of equipment is worth different amounts of points. You will also lose points from damage taken while inside the forest. If you take too much damage and get teleported out, you will lose 10 points immediately, so the more people in your group, the more points you risk losing."
Hearing this, students start to look worried again. Losing points seemed really easy. They were all wondering how they could earn points now.
Sett looked at all their worried faces again, smiling. Then he continued, "Finally, to earn points, you'll have a list of objectives that give different amounts of points. Some of these objectives are to start a fire, build a shelter, and forage for food. You will also gain 5 points for each member of your group who makes it out. Lastly, hunting also gives you points in different ways."
Upon hearing that hunting gave points, Ian's interest piqued. He was paying close attention to the following information.
"Each creature brought into the forest was captured and tagged with a colored band. Each color gives different points. Blue gives no points; these are your null rank creatures. Green gives 1 point; creatures with this color are weak copper rank creatures. Creatures tagged yellow give 2 points: these are your strong copper rank to weak silver rank creatures. Anything tagged orange is considered dangerous. These are fairly strong silver rank creatures. Creatures tagged orange will give 5 points." Students started to get excited to hunt creatures now.
"And lastly, red. There are four creatures in total tagged red. These creatures are extremely dangerous. They are powerful silver-ranked creatures that should be avoided. However, they are also worth 20 points. To collect your points, you have to bring these bands back with you." Sett took a moment to bring out a chalkboard with a map on it.
"This map shows you the four areas where these four creatures have taken residence. Each one of them has taken one of the four quadrants. To the northwest, the winged lynx took refuge. The northeast was claimed by the snow fox. Near the edge of the southwest, the great stone turtle roams. Lastly, and possibly the most dangerous of the four, is the purple monkey located to the southeast. I would advise you against trying to fight these creatures, but that's your choice." After Sett finished talking, he turned to the other instructors there and began to talk to them.
After speaking with the instructors, Sett turned back to the students to say, "For now, you will have one hour to finish up any last-minute things. I expect you all to be back within that time. Anyone who doesn't will automatically get a zero on this exam. Now go do what you need to do."
As soon as Sett finished talking, all of the students left. Ian didn't have much to do before the exam. The only thing he needed to do was leave Lucky with either Ellie or Emmett.
It only took Ian a few minutes to drop off Lucky and explain what was happening to Ellie. Once he was done, he returned to the meeting area. Most of the students weren't yet back.
Seeing as he had a lot of time left, Ian made a quick run to the cafeteria for a snack. By the time he returned to the meeting area again, a majority of the students had arrived.
Once Everyone returned, Sett said, "Now then, you'll be given the option to go with one of us five instructors to one of the five dedicated safe starting points around the forest. There will be supplies and other tools at these starting points for you to grab if you so choose to. You will have to register your group members at these starting points before entering the forest. Once everything is said and done, the test will officially begin."
With that, the students all started to gather around one of the five instructors. Ian looked at the five instructors and where they were going to go on the map. He eventually decided to go with Sett, who was going to take his group to the northernmost point of the forest. Once everyone had grouped with an instructor, the groups were guided to their respective starting points.
Only twelve students decided to go with Sett. There was a group of five that was going to work together, a group of four, and two friends who were teaming up. Ian was the only one who wanted to go in alone.
At the starting point. Ian was surprised to see a small base camp set up. There were two tents set up there, a small one and a larger one. Besides the two tents, there were also a few tables filled with supplies, bags, tools, tents, and other things.
Sett went up to the small tent and opened it up. Inside, there was a small booth table with a small stack of papers. He sat down behind the desk before saying, "Okay, students, grab the supplies you wish to take with you, then line up to register your groups. I'll then give you all a projector crystal that has the list of objectives you can complete."
The students all nodded in acknowledgment before walking to the tables to grab supplies. Ian also walked up to the table to have a look around. He wasn't interested in the different tools and bags, but he was interested in the weapons available.
There were swords, bows, axes, hammers, and much more. Ian browsed the weapons for a bit before landing on a pair of knives. If he chose to take them, he would lose five points. However, he could easily make them back.
After a bit of debating, Ian decided to take the daggers. He walked up to Sett with the weapons and registered himself with them.
Sett looked at Ian curiously. He looked at the daggers in front of him and smiled. "Is that all you're taking, Mister Ian?"
Ian nodded as he registered himself. He then grabbed the daggers and waited off to the side.
All of the students looked at Ian as if he were insane. They didn't understand how he was going to be able to survive with only a pair of knives.
Most of the groups grabbed bags, tools, and camping equipment. They believed they could sacrifice a good amount of points right off the bat and make it up later. One group sacrificed 40 points, the other sacrificed 50 points. As for the two pals, they sacrificed only 25 points.
Once every group registered and gathered their stuff, they all headed to the forest entrance. They all waited patiently for Sett to give them the signal to enter. After a few minutes of waiting, Sett received word from the other instructors that every student was ready.
With that, Sett gave the signal, and everyone rushed in. Only Ian stayed back for a bit. He didn't run headfirst, instead, he walked in slowly, observing his surroundings.
Ian smiled to himself. Being in a forest felt natural to him. It had been months since he was in a forest and could finally let loose.
He turned around to look at Sett on the other side of the barrier. With a smile on his face, he gave Sett a quick wave before hopping away.
He jumped from tree to tree, moving fluidly. He used the terrain to his advantage, traveling faster than if he ran. He was back in his home turf.