Merena's eyes widen when she hears Eve's name
"You're Eve Leoneo!?" She says with her eyes and mouth wide open in surprise
"Do you know me" Eve asks with curiosity
"You're really popular!!!" The girl says with excitement. "You are one of the three kids that Elaine Leoneo took in and not only that, but you are also one of the 5 Squires to have awakened golden arcane energy this year!!!"
"There are only 5 people that have awakened golden arcana?" Eve asks. "I didn't know it was that rare."
Merena quickly moves her arms to catch a fish that she saw move near her. She takes it out of the water and places it on a rock a bit further from the pond
"Golden arcana is the rarest color of arcane color." She says as she walks back into the pond. "This year is actually pretty weird."
"What do you mean?" Eve asks with curiosity while looking at the water
"Try to guess how many people awakened golden arcane energy last year?" Merena says while looking at the water
"Hmmm.... three or maybe two." Eve says while staying focused on the water
"None." Merena says
Eve raises her head and looks at Merena
"None?" Eve asks with surprise
Merena nods
"The year before that there was only one." Merena says. "And the year before that one, only two. That's why people call our generation, the golden generation. There have been more people to awaken gold and red arcane energy in our generation's test than the last three."
"What about you?" Eve asks as she catches a fish
She walks to the rock and puts down her fish next to Merena's
"What is your arcane color?" Eve asks
Merena gets out of the pond and joins Eve
"I also awakened the golden color." She says with a wide smile
" You're one of the five, huh?" Eve says while starting a fire
"No, I wasn't including myself when I said that five people also awakened it. If I add myself and my brother, that means that there are seven golden arcana users in our generation." Merena says
Somewhere else in the forest two figures were walking one stuck to the other
"I want to go home." Someone whispers
Seleph was walking through the forest and stuck to him was another Squire who was shaking like a leaf. The Squire had short golden hair, and golden eyes, and was a bit shorter than Seleph.
"What's up with this guy?" Seleph thought as he looked at the young boy. "I went to the place where a bunch of pillars of light appeared and saw this guy in the middle of it all."
Seleph looks at the Squire
"As soon as I saw him, I knew that I couldn't beat him." Seleph thought
"SO WHY ARE YOU SUCH A SCAREDY CAT!?!?!?" Seleph yells with frustration
The young Squire looks at him with trembling eyes. He had gotten scared of Seleph's sudden yell
"I... I can't help it." He says with tears in his eyes. "This forest is so scary and creepy!"
"How did you even manage to beat those Squire's that attacked you?" Seleph says with a suspicious face
The Squire gets down and puts both hands on his head
"Iiiiiii! Don't remind me of that! It was so scary!!!" He says while shaking
Seleph keeps walking
"I'm leaving~~" he says
The Squire quickly gets up and runs after Seleph
"DON'T LEAVE ME ALONE!!!" He yells as he runs towards Seleph
The exam continued with everyone fighting each other for points. As the point collection race continued, more and more Squires kept getting eliminated. Just like that, three days had already passed
Back in the tower, in the room where people were gathered before a wall of screens, the entrance exam seemed to have taken them by surprise
"How many Squires are left?" The person at the end of the table asks
"There are quite a lot of them left." The brown-haired man answers. "About 500 to a maximum of 600."
"I see." The person says. "There are a lot of them left even though the test was only supposed to last a day according to our calculations. Securing a house, water, and food was the right thing to do it seems."
They all look at Adam who is coming out of his house after sleeping through the night.
"He is the one in the best mental and physical state." The violet-haired woman says. "Some have already been eliminated due to lack of food, sleep and water or by Djinns while they were sleeping. How did he know the exam would last this long?"
"What is that Squire's name?" The person at the end of the table asks
"Adamas." The orange-haired woman says while looking at a tablet. "Adamas Leoneo. He's one of the kids that was taken in by Elaine."
"Which one?" The brown-haired man asks curious
She looks at the tablet and raises her head
"The one with the new color". She says
The room goes silent
"So, this is the child who awakened the new color." The person at the end of the table says with interest
Back in the forest, Adam headed into the pond to catch some fishes. After that, he roasts it with some fire and eats it as he walks away from his settlement.
"In the end, I ended up losing the Djinn." Adam thought. "Where exactly did it go? Did someone else kill it or did it leave the forest?"
Adam, who was chewing, suddenly stopped and put his hand on the handle of his sword.
"Four." He thought. "Four people entered my Sensus area. They are a little farther from each other, but they won't meet if they continue their respective roads. However, both roads converge at the end of the right before my camp. Do I ambush them separately or do I use the confusion that will take place when we all meet?"
Adam smiles
"My blood is boiling with excitement." He mumbles
He takes his sword out of its sheath and waits for the people at the converging point of the two roads. As soon as they are about to come out of the vegetation around, Adam jumps toward the two that are on the road at the right
"What the-!!!" One of the two says when they notice Adam
Adam frowns and lands behind them. He gets up, turns around, and puts his sword back in its sheath
"Who's that?" Adam asks while looking at the second person. "Seleph?"
The two people that came out first were Seleph and the Squire that he found. The two were not in a good condition. They both looked starved and tired, it seemed like not only had they not been eating enough but that they had not been getting enough sleep.
"I don't know." Seleph answers slowly
Seleph looks at the other path that leads to where they are
"Adam." He says
"I know." Adam replies instantly
They both draw out their swords and face the other path. The noise made from the movement of the people walking toward them got closer with each passing second. Until, suddenly, the noise made from the movement of the people starts reducing which meant that they had slowed down.
"One or both of them is able to use Sensus!" Adam and Seleph thought at the same time
"They slowed down." Seleph whispers
The Squire starts to shake in fear
"This is bad! This is bad! This is really bad!" He says while shaking in fear
Adam looks at the Squire then looks at Seleph with a confused expression. Seleph simply shakes his head. The two then focus back on the people approaching them slowly. Suddenly, noise from the path starts to close in and occur at a faster pace, shorter intervals, and louder. The two had started to run towards the three of them. They come out of the forest with their swords raised. One of them swings at Adam but Adam dodges it by backing away and then kicks the person in the face. The other swings at Byron and overpowers him making him fall to the ground
"If only I was in good condition!" He thought
Seleph, dashes forward and tries to strike the person with his sword. The person dodges by quickly backing away, however, when the person does so she and Adam bump into each other. They both quickly turn around and face each other but don't move.
"Adam?" The person says
Adam frowns and takes a closer look at the person in front of him. He was extremely dirty and was in a similar condition to Seleph and the Squire who followed him.
"You... are... Arlo?" Adam says with uncertainty
Arlo nods. He then slowly moves his sword toward the sheath. To show Adam that he didn't have any ill intentions. Adam looks at the person he kicked in the face and upon taking a closer look, he recognizes the person
"Byron?" Adam says while looking at the person
"Hehehehehehe." Byron makes it slowly due to his condition
Adam sheath is sword
"Are you not going to eliminate us?" Arlo asks
"I have no intention of fighting someone who isn't in good condition." Adam says while walking back towards his settlement
After walking for a while, the group reaches Adam's settlement. When they reach the settlement, everyone except for Adam looks at it with starry eyes.
"What's all this?" Seleph says with surprise
"This place feels so safe!" The Squire that follows Seleph says with a huge smile
"A house, a barrier, fish drying out in the sun, and a river with clean water." Byron says with glistening eyes
The four of them rush into the settlement and take some of the fish and rabbit meat that Adam kept outside, then all head inside and settle down. Adam sighs and goes in
"So, how did you know that the test was going to last this long?" Arlo says while eating some fish. "If you consider that everyone is an enemy, the test shouldn't have lasted longer than a day."
"I know that there are strong people." Adam says while drinking some water from a cup made from wood. "And the forest is much bigger than you think. Just from knowing that and the location of the other Squires. If you also consider that people will need to hunt for food search for a water source plus the fact a person cannot stay awake for two days straight."
"Impressive." Arlo says in a thoughtful tone. "I was only worried about my points and focused on gathering them, but you thought about everything else."
"That's not all..." Adam mumbles while staring at his reflection in the water in the cup
Seleph looks at Adam while eating some rabbit meat
Someplace else, still within the forest, Noah was walking through the forest by himself. He puts his hand on a tree trunk and closes his eyes. After a bit, he opens them and does the same, but this time while touching the ground
"...Odd." Noah says while looking deeper into the forest. "Something... Something is very disturbing here."
"That's not all." He thought as he looked around "The way the arcane energy is within the forest is odd. Is it because of the Djinns? They told us that there were Djinns in the forest, but I have yet to see one or even sense one. Something is amiss."
Back in the room full of screen
"How many Squires were eliminated by Djinns?" The woman with violet hair says while looking at her tablet
"None." The person at the end of the table says while looking at the screens.
The other teachers look at him
"How is that possible?" The short brown-haired teacher says. "I am sure that there were Djinns in the forest when I checked it before the exam."
"There definitely are Djinns in the forest." The person says. "They simply aren't showing themselves."
"They aren't showing themselves?" The orange-haired woman says. "That's odd. Djinns are beings that act based on their sole desire for destruction. Now that I think about it, the forest is mostly in good condition and the damage that was caused to it was done by the Squires."
The room goes silent. Everyone was analyzing the situation and trying to know what could have caused it. They were also trying to predict what could possibly happen in the next few days but in the end, no one could conclude on either point
"Enough thinking." The person at the end of the table says. "Dispatch a team to investigate the forest, however, tell them to interfere with the exam as little as possible."
The brown-haired man nods and runs out of the room.
"I just hope that we are just overthinking this." The person at the end of the table says while staring at the screens
To be continued