Aeren found himself in a group of ten, with Lyra leading them. There was no time for introductions; with the clock already ticking, they all sprinted toward the opposite end of the vast field.
Lyra's confidence was infectious. She set a punishing pace, her voice ringing out clearly as she directed her team. "Stay close! Watch your flanks!"
A few minutes into their run, the group was ambushed by a pack of vicious-looking monsters.
Lyra didn't flinch.
"Form up! On me!" she shouted, her commands sharp and precise. "You, on the left! The rest, stay close! You (Aeren), stay back and be ready to support!"
Her team, fueled by her decisive leadership, moved as a single unit. Aeren, playing his assigned support role, followed her every order without question, waiting for the right moment to act. It wasn't long before the monsters were vanquished, and they were running again.
The fight had taken a toll. A few students were already visibly winded, their breath coming in ragged gasps. The path ahead led them to an enormous, sheer mountain that seemed to rise out of nowhere, its peak lost in the clouds.
Lyra stopped, scanning her tired team. The time was already slipping away.
"We have no choice!" she shouted. "This is a test of will, not just strength! Break your limits now, or we all fail! The instructors didn't say we all had to finish, but if you lose your stamina, you'll be on your own. Climb, even if it kills you!"
Her voice was a galvanizing force. The tired students, inspired, began their climb, with Lyra leading the charge. Aeren fell in behind them.
But the mountain was a gauntlet. One student was taken down by a monster hiding on a ledge. Lyra didn't look back. The rest of the team kept climbing, pushing past the fallen and into a new fight with another monster. They defeated it, but with more time lost.
After another forty-five minutes of grueling ascent, only two people remained at the summit: Lyra and Aeren.
"Looks like we're the only ones left," Lyra said, a faint smile on her face.
Aeren simply nodded in agreement.
They started running again, racing down the other side of the mountain. They were almost at the finish line when a massive monster—its skin a dark crimson and its eyes glowing a deep blue—emerged from the forest. It immediately lunged at Lyra.
Lyra met its charge, her blade flashing as she fought with fierce determination. The battle was a blur of motion, but the monster was too strong, too fast. As Lyra began to falter, Aeren appeared behind the beast and, with a single, clean strike, ended its life.
"This is it," Lyra said, her voice serious as she caught her breath. "This is the monster with the red core."
She immediately began to dissect the creature, her movements practiced and precise. A few minutes later, she and Aeren had retrieved the glowing red core. They ran the rest of the way, bursting through the finish line with just seconds to spare.
An instructor met them, took the core, and gave them a few moments to rest. Lyra, still catching her breath, patted Aeren on the shoulder. "You have good stamina. Thank you for the help."
They sat in silence for a few moments before Aeren broke it.
"Where are you from?" he asked.
Lyra looked at him, her expression a mix of exhaustion and relief. "Calvess City. But things are getting worse there every day."
Aeren's head tilted slightly, an unreadable look in his eyes. "What's happening? I thought Calvess City was famous for its talented people."
"Haven't you heard?" Lyra replied, a serious note in her voice. "The duke's daughter was murdered. They still haven't found the killer." She spoke with a genuine sense of loss. "I even met her once. She was talented. She would have reached a level few could even imagine."
"But now she's dead," Aeren stated bluntly, his tone completely flat. "If she had a little calm mind, she might have survived."
Lyra stared at him, shocked. "What do you mean?"
Aeren looked back at her. "What?"
"You said she might have lived if she had a little calm. What do you mean by that?"
"Oh, that," Aeren said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "I saw her once, too. She was a bit... wild. She wanted to fight anyone she saw fit. I just thought her family background gave her a false sense of security. I figured the one who killed her didn't care about that at all."
A glimmer of suspicion flashed in Lyra's eyes, but she didn't pursue it. They sat in silence until their Systems hummed to life, delivering their results. Both had passed the exam, securing a place at the Academy without being at the top, but far from the bottom.
Lyra's system hummed, and a triumphant grin spread across her face.
"I passed!" she shouted, a joyful echo bouncing off the walls of the great hall. Her excitement was a stark contrast to the quiet exhaustion of the other students.
She turned to Aeren, her eyes bright. "Did you hear? I passed!"
"I didn't need to," Aeren replied, a hint of amusement in his tone. "Your happiness is loud enough."
"And what about you?" she pressed. "Did you pass?"
"Yes," he said simply.
"Tell me your rank!" Lyra insisted, her curiosity overriding her joy. "And your class. I got a rank of 200 in C-class. What about you?" she said proudly, chin held high.
Aeren glanced away for a moment. "I ranked 230," he said. "And I'm also in C-class."
Lyra's grin widened.
"Hah! I'm higher than you!" she declared. Her hand went to her chin, a thoughtful look on her face. "Aeren, the instructor said we could input mana into our Systems now to see our full details. Have you tried it?"
Aeren looked at his blank-looking orb, then back at her. "No. Have you?"
"I'm about to!" Lyra beamed. She closed her eyes, placing a hand on the orb and pouring her mana into it. For a few seconds, she wavered, feeling a surge of dizziness as her mana drained. Then, a voice spoke directly in her mind.
[System analyzing mana owner...]
A few seconds later, the voice returned. [Hello, Lyra. How can I help you?]
Lyra gasped, her eyes wide with wonder.
"It's real! It's really real!" she whispered, her voice full of awe. "System, tell me my stats and other details!"
[Affirmative.]
Name: Lyra Vex
Age: 15
Rank: 200
Class: C
Agility: 60
Strength: 55
Mana: 120
Skills: Not found
Talent: Sword
Quest: Not given [Academy provide you]
Status: You are the only person who can see and hear the System.
Lyra's smile faltered slightly as she read "Skills: Not found," but she quickly recovered. She knew she had skills, but it made sense that the Academy wouldn't display everything right away.
"Hey, Aeren, did you see my stats?" she asked, a mischievous glint in her eyes.
Aeren looked at the empty air beside her head.
"No," he said, "I can't see anything."
Lyra laughed, the sound bubbling with happiness. "Hahaha! I knew it! This is amazing! You have to try yours!"
Aeren's expression was unreadable. He did as she suggested, closing his eyes and trying to input his mana into the blank orb. A moment passed, then another. He tried again, pouring more mana into the orb. Nothing.
He stood there for several minutes, a strange, quiet calm on his face as the black orb remained completely silent and unresponsive.