With a thousand totems hidden in the maze, only half of the cadets could meet the requirements to pass the exam. My greatest concern, however, was that the exam promoted deception, sabotage, and conflict among cadets. Although no cadet's level exceeded the low tens, skills were still dangerous in the right hands.

I wondered what Astur was thinking when he came up with this idea. For someone who worked with kids and young adults, his lack of foresight was painfully obvious—unless he wanted to generate conflict between the cadets.

There was a silver lining, though.

No rule prevented the cadets from cooperating.

The Cabbage Class remained in a compact group as they rushed into the maze, moving away from the other cadets. Teaming up had a downside, though. They would need to find forty-four totems while having the searching capacity of a much smaller group. Furthermore, gathering the totems was only half of the test; the other half was planning the extraction, which meant finding the route to the exits ahead of time.

I glanced over the maze. As expected, most of the other squads broke into small groups of two or three cadets each, though about half of the cadets went on their own, prioritizing speed over safety. Considering the competitive nature of the Imperial Academy, it wasn't surprising that alliances fractured and rivalries intensified.

The first half an hour of the exam was uneventful. There was no sign of the totems of monsters. Cabbage Class jogged through the western side of the maze with Leonie in the front and Yvain and Cedrinor closing the group. Then, they reached an open space near the western edge of the maze with a fountain in the middle. The maze was riddled with places of interest like that.

Leonie raised her hand, and the group stopped.

"They are ahead of the rest," Talindra said, excited.

"I told you cardio was important," I replied.

In the exam scenario, more movement meant more chances to get resources. I hoped the kids were wise enough to realize they still had eleven hours of exercise ahead of them. It wouldn't matter if they were the first to gather the totems if they were too exhausted to extract them. As expected of the first selection exam, the test was about both strength and endurance. However, unlike past years, this one involved a lot of strategy and planning.

No one in the Cabbage Class matched Ilya's wits, but there were capable minds among them. I had little doubt they would eventually figure out the right answer to the test. Leonie was resourceful in her own way, although less devious than Ilya. By far.

"If they flock like that, it means they are scared. Quite expected coming from a class led by a knight killer and a useless cabbage," Rhovan said, prompting a laugh from his retinue of knights.

Talindra recoiled like someone had slapped her.

Rhovan was dressed to impress. His black Imperial Knight dress uniform was immaculate. The chains keeping his cape in place were polished to the point they looked like small mirrors. His cloudy gray hair was slicked back to perfection, and I wondered if there was a Stylist Class out there that I didn't know about. Unlike Janus, Rhovan looked like a proper veteran.

I shot Rhovan a sharp glance, wondering how these fools managed to be insufferable without getting themselves killed, especially when everyone around them had access to superhuman strength and magic.

"My question is, how long until they start betraying each other?" Rhovan said with a devilish smile.

"If you see backstabbers in every shadow, maybe the problem is you," I replied.

Although I thought my retort was quite clever, none of the Knights laughed.

"In the end, the only certainty is our Class and Level," Rhovan said.

"Maybe you are right. Let's see how your lot does when the scavenger teams start picking off stragglers."

Rhovan raised an eyebrow and brushed me off.

"There will be no stragglers in Hawkdrake Squad. Instead of running around the lake and playing house, we focused on real training. Soon enough, you'll see the difference between a pretender and a true Imperial Knight," Rhovan said, looking over my shoulder at the maze below.

Talindra remained silent, but I noticed her knuckles turning white as she tightened her grip on the folds of her robe.

"Teaching has more nuance than smashing kids' fingers with a sword, but I don't expect you to understand that. Not yet, anyway. If you want advice, you are always welcome to spectate at one of our lessons," I mockingly pointed out.

My words didn't go down well with Rhovan.

"You will not be so cocky when your cadets start giving up, Robert Clarke."

"My cadets will not give up."

"How can you be so sure? You have never seen what a selection exam is about," Rhovan said with a winning smile. "I don't care what naive thoughts you have formed, but you are wrong. The cold, hard fact is that commoners rarely pass the first selection exam. They don't have the talent to become an Imperial Knight. The majority give up."

Rhovan wasn't completely wrong, but he wasn't completely right either. People didn't give up based purely on logic or reason. Emotions and perception were huge factors. During my teaching days back on Earth, most students gave up when their effort didn't match the short-term outcome, regardless of how close or far they were from their actual goals. Some simply resigned from academic, athletic, or artistic excellence because they had failed in the past. Others gave up because they were merely pursuing goals that had been imposed on them by others.

There wasn't one cure-all way of fixing those problems, but I was confident that discipline, trust in the process, and a deep sense of community would be enough to get my students through hardship.

Suddenly, the picture of Izabeka appeared in my mind, and she told me to squeeze Rhovan's wallet dry.

"Ten pieces of gold, all of them cross the exit line," I said.

Rhovan examined my face.

"Cocky."

"Put your money where your mouth is," I said, offering a handshake.

"Ten pieces of gold it is," Rhovan replied, squeezing my hand. Then he turned around, but he still had one last snarky comment in the chamber. "Easiest win of my life."

Rhovan's departure didn't help to ease Talindra's nervousness. If I had to guess, the year she spent teaching by his side hadn't been pleasant. She watched him go without a word, her fingers tightening even more around the folds of her robe.

Talindra gave me a worried glance that reminded me of my mother.

"If you win that bet, you'll be embarrassing Rhovan in public, and that might not have been the wisest move. He had taught generations of Imperial Knights before Astur became the Grandmaster. He's powerful around here."

Talindra's worried eyes made me feel bad.

"I couldn't resist. I take great pride in my job, and that includes protecting my students' honor," I said, turning around and focusing on the maze. "Some teachers might lack knowledge or not use the best teaching techniques, but a good teacher always bets on their students. That's the person I want to be."

Talindra nodded and pulled her little notebook from the folds of her robe.

* * *

For the first half an hour, Cabbage Class traversed the maze following Leonie's judgment call: get away from the other squads as fast as possible. They found no cadets, monsters, or totems, just green, impenetrable hedge walls. The maze was silent. The thick walls prevented them from hearing what was happening on the adjacent paths. After the first minute of the trial, the sounds of rival squads had completely vanished.

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"How are you doing back there?" Leonie asked as they turned a corner and lined up through a long, slightly curved corridor.

"No monsters. Only cabbages!" Cedrinor replied, looking over his shoulder.

No other squads seemed to be following them. Finally, they reached an open space no bigger than the internal gardens of the Academy's main building. There was a fountain in the middle with a statue of a deer throwing fresh water from its mouth.

"We should be far enough. Let's rest for a moment before figuring out our strategy," Leonie said.

The cadets nodded. They had tacitly agreed that Leonie was the leader. Over the past few weeks, she had proven herself to be not just a strong fighter but also remarkably intelligent. She was also the group's spokeswoman.

"What do you think about all of this, Leonie?" Genivra asked after they replenished their waterskins.

"I think this is strange. There isn't supposed to be cadet-versus-cadet combat in the first selection exam. There's no precedent. Even when my father studied here, the first selection exams were like what Zaon and Ilya told us," Leonie replied. "What do you think, Yvain? Sir Enric told you about his time as a cadet?"

The boy shook his head.

"He instructed me, but I am as lost as you are. Even Ghila the Gorilla seemed surprised when Astur announced the exam. We can't discard the possibility this is a first-time thing," he said, biting his finger.

The first selection exam was always a test of mental and physical endurance. Although the format changed yearly, it was always a mixture of long running times, poor environmental conditions, and unpredictable opponents. Cadets never knew exactly what to expect—only that it would push them to their limits and beyond.

Rup loudly whined.

"Are we test subjects?"

"They are Imperial Knights, they know what they are doing… probably," Cedrinor tried to cheer her up with little success.

There was a moment of silence, but Leonie cleared her throat.

"It doesn't matter if this is the first time. The other cadets are just a variable of the test, just like the maze and the monsters," she said, raising her voice. "There has to be a smart way of meeting the conditions to pass the exam."

The cadets nodded. That was Mister Clarke's first lesson: work smarter, not harder. While he still had them put in a lot of effort, being strategic with the effort always took precedence over sheer hard work.

"Aight, eggheads, come up with something then," Odo said.

"When did you learn self-awareness? That's impressive for a musclehead," Harwin replied.

"Shut up, Beak Nose!"

The group laughed but instantly became silent when Leonie opened her mouth.

"As I see it, gathering the totems is only the first task. We need to map the maze and plan a safe route for extraction. Collaboration isn't prohibited, but neither is stealing from other teams," she said, massaging her temples.

"What if we wait at an exit and steal from those who try to leave?" Genivra asked.

"It's risky," Kili interjected. "What if nobody uses the exit we guard? We need forty-four totems, but there's no certainty we can poach that many. We should split, gather as many totems as possible, map the maze, and regroup when the second phase starts. We should avoid fighting other cadets as much as possible during the gathering phase and use our numbers to extract safely."

Nobody had heard Kili weave so many words in the past month, which raised some eyebrows.

"W-what?" she asked, suddenly conscious of all the glances put on her.

"Invisible Kili has a point," Aeliana said in her hesitant Ebrosian. "This exam is like life in desert. Many problem. Little resource. Still hope. Master Clarke taught us well. He made us a team."

Suddenly, the ground shook, and the wild birds scouting the maze for potential new nests fled. The cadets formed a defensive circle, but the earthquake receded an instant later, and there was silence for a moment. Then, a distant howl filled the air.

"I suppose that explains the lack of monsters so far. Very mindful of them giving us a grace period," Fenwick said.

Many other howls answered the first one.

"Where's Dolores, by the way? Don't you need your Spirit Animal to fight properly?" Rup nervously asked.

"Where's your body double, by the way? Don't you need your puppet to fight properly?" Fenwick mockingly replied.

Rup's puppet was considered a weapon, so she had been forced to leave it in the box outside the maze. The only items cadets could bring were the supply bags, which contained a waterskin, dry meat, a low-grade health potion, enchanted paper, and a long knife. The fact that a health potion had made its way to the supplies was slightly worrying, but nobody wanted to mention it.

Suddenly, Rup's puppet walked into the fountain area.

"Here she is," Rup said with a mischievous grin. After all, there weren't any rules against using skills. "Where's your Spirit Animal, farmboy?"

Fenwick rolled his eyes.

Dolores, as usual, wasn't being cooperative and had stayed in the well by Cabbage House.

"If there are no objections, let's split up," Leonie interjected before Fenwick and Rup could continue arguing.

"I call dibs on Leonie!" Aeliana jumped up.

No one was surprised by her pick. However, the problem was that Leonie and Aeliana were two of the most powerful combatants. To ensure everyone passed the selection exam, the teams had to be balanced. After some discussion, mixing, and shifting, Cabbage Class was divided into four groups.

The first group was Aeliana and Leonie. As both were extremely skilled in offense and defense, the two of them would be safe in a smaller group. To no one's surprise, the second group was Malkah, Odo, and Harwin. The third group was Rup, Kili, and Cedrinor. Kili was one of the powerhouses of Cabbage, but her appearance left much to be desired, so Rup's puppet and Cedrinor's height helped make the group look somewhat threatening. Finally, the last group comprised Genivra, Yvain, and Fenwick. The three were solid duelists, and Yvain was somewhat known among the high nobility circles. Hence, the chances of other nobles picking on the group decreased compared to a commoner-only group.

"Alright, cabbages!" Leonie said. "Let's put into practice what Instructor Clarke taught us. Let us pick our fights, gather totems, map the maze, and return here when the extraction starts. Oh, and the most important thing of all, let's stay out of trouble."

The cadets nodded and spread through the fountain area. They had arrived by the southern entrance, which left north, east, and west unexplored. The ground trembled again, and the deer statue on top of the fountain cracked. Something moved inside the stone.

"Go! We will take care of this one!" Leonie shouted.

Six hours might sound like plenty, but the maze was likely designed to make even that amount of time feel like not enough.

"Are you sure?!" Malkah asked from the eastern entrance.

"We have this, Heir Malkah," Aeliana replied.

With a nod, Malkah's team entered the path. Rup, Kili, and Cedrinor took the northern route. Genivra, Yvain, and Fenwick went to the west. A moment later, Leonie and Aeliana were alone with the fountain's monster.

"I hope this one has a totem," Leonie said, channeling her mana.

The fountain shattered, and a formless shadow jumped on the grass.

"A Dreadshade!" Leonie shouted.

The shadow grew, morphing into a serpent the size of a minivan.

Aeliana was paralyzed in fear as the Dreadshade transformed into the creature that plagued her nightmares. "S-sand Bats!" She muttered, breaking the Restrain Hex.

The Dreadshade-turned-snake coiled its body and shot forward like a spring.

"Dirty Socks!" Leonie shouted, and the Restrain Hex shattered.

Leonie felt like a weight had been lifted from her shoulders. She had been trapped with the powers of a Lv.1 for so long that she had almost forgotten the power of a Lv.11 Sorcerer. Adrenaline rushed through her body, like she had suddenly leveled up ten times.

Leonie summoned her mana and unleashed her [Stormlash]. A cracking whip of thunder burst from the palm of her hand, striking the Dreamshade between the eyes. The force of the spell startled her. It was stronger than she'd expected. The creature wavered for a moment before its entire body shimmered as it transformed into sand, starting with the head and working its way down as it sank under the grass.

"What is that!" Leonie shouted.

"Sand Eater!" Aeliana answered, her tanned face pale as snow. "Careful, it will attack from below!"

The ground trembled.

The Sand Eater's head and part of its body reformed into flesh as it burst up from below, snapping at where they had just been standing. As the snake fell, it turned to sand again and slipped underground. They exchanged a quizzical look veiled by the dust that had been kicked into the air.

"Close your eyes!" Leonie shouted.

"What are you talking about?"

"Just do it!"

Aeliana obeyed. Taking a deep breath to calm her nerves, she let her senses expand. She immediately noticed what Leonie meant. While she may not be able to physically see the Sand Eater, her mana sense had advanced to the point that she could see its mana signature, outlining the creature like an X-ray.

"I'll distract it, you snap it!" Aeliana shouted, running towards the fountain.

As she ran, the Sand Eater jumped from the ground as it tried to bite her again. Aeliana dodged to the side and continued running. The snake slithered after her above ground, hot on her heels.

Leonie saw it—a bright mana spot in the back of the serpent's head. The core. Aeliana used her [Blade Dance] and attached a string of mana to the handle of her knife. Then she danced, taunting the creature and flinging her knife in arcs towards it. The Sand Eater hissed and took a dip into the ground again. Aeliana turned like a ballerina, her blade tracing circles around her.

Leonie closed her eyes and focused on her mana sense. The fact that Aeliana trusted her enough to put herself at risk didn't help to calm her down. The Sand Eater was circling Aeliana, slithering underground like it was part of the soil itself. A shiver ran down Leonie's spine.

Suddenly, the tides of mana changed as the Sand Eater emerged behind Aeliana's back. Leonie was ready, the power crackling in the tips of her fingers. Her magic now seemed to react to her very will. [Stormlash] covered the distance in the blink of an eye, hitting the core on the back of the serpent's head. There was an explosion of light, but instead of a rain of viscera, the Dreadshade fell to the ground, back to its shadow form.

The creature was still alive. It turned around, and Leonie could feel two cold eyes fixed on her. Her throat dried. Dreadshades could read people's minds and become what one feared the most. She knew what came next.

The Dreamshade quivered, like a blur of multicolor paint, and turned into a naked woman. Her body was slender, and her skin was pure silver, resembling the texture of the velvety bark of a Knoso tree. The woman's hair was white as snow, and her eyes were intense: electric blue, charged with vicious mana. Two orange butterfly wings emerged from her back. She was beautiful.

Leonie trembled with fear, and mana surged through her body as a natural reaction to the creature's presence.

"What is that?" Aeliana asked.

"The Nychtys Queen," Leonie replied, her eyes suddenly turning blue as well. "My mother."

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