Published: May 28th 2025, 6:39:30 am
Malkah’s team outwitted Astur’s cadets, but the moment of respite was short. After a few sharp turns and deceitfully similar corridors, they stumbled upon a swarm of Rustclaws led by a huge Alpha. The boys couldn’t turn back for fear of meeting the cadets, so their only way out was to fight. Odo and Harwin were drained, so Malkah took the lead. His lack of skills—and proper weapons—made the combat painfully slow, even with the Alpha Rustclaw waiting in the background for their prey to get tired.
A small Rustclaw managed to pass through Odo’s defenses and catch Malkah unprepared. The boy raised his hands to protect his face, and the Rustclaw buried its claws into his flesh. Malkah clenched his teeth as the blood dripped down his arm. Out of nowhere, fiery-red mana surrounded his body. The Bloordreaver power-up was immediate. Malkah shook the mutant rat from his arms and kicked the one he had in front, violently sending it against the hedge despite its weight.
The Alpha Rustclaw stood on its hindquarters, observing the fight.
“Lord Malkah! Please stand behind me!” Odo grunted as his [Steadfast Shield] flickered against the blows of two Rustclaws.
Odo and Zaon were both Sentinels, although their approaches to their Class were completely opposite. Zaon was a nimble warrior who used his skills to create opportunities for his attacks. Odo, on the other hand, stood firmly on the ground, creating an impassable wall between allies and foes. It wasn’t hard to guess Odo’s [Sentinel’s Oath] was aimed at protecting his lord.
Malkah ignored Odo, passing through the Rustclaws, and slashed the Alpha’s stomach. His blade gleamed red like it was covered in blood, but it was mana. The Alpha Rusclaw pounced on the boy, but it was too slow. Malkah stepped aside and buried his knife into the iron mane like a matador stabbing a bull.
The Alpha Rustclaw stumbled as blood poured in torrents.
Malkah’s eyes turned red as he stepped forward and slashed the creature’s neck. More blood splattered across the ground. Either he had carefully studied the position of the Rustclaws’ vital arteries, or he had a detection skill. Nobody could be that lucky.
Odo pushed his way toward Malkah’s while Harwin shot [Mana Arrows] from the other side of the corridor. The arrows were only half as effective without a bow, but it was better than nothing.
The Rustclaws entered in a state of confusion as their formation broke.
A moment later, the Alpha Rustclaw fell, and the swarm broke apart.
Malkah was bleeding, but at least they were able to catch their breath.
“Lord Malkah, have my potion,” Harwin said, rummaging through his pouch.
“Save it,” Malkah replied. “Let [Fleshknit] do some work while I have mana to spare.”
The Alpha Rustclaw faded into mana specks, leaving a shiny totem behind.
Odo snatched it and put it in his pocket.
“Let’s move, before the hedge decides to swallow us.” Malkah jogged down the corridor, away from the fountain room, leaving a worried Odo and Harwin behind.
The henchmen set off a moment later.
Malka’s [Bloodreaver] was a blessing and a curse. At any moment, he was more of a liability than an asset. They would've been overrun without Odo and Harwin keeping the Rustclaws at bay. Luckily, the boys have good crowd control skills. However, the moment Malkah got wounded, his skills skyrocketed. I dared to say he was Leonie's only rival in the Cabbage Class. The boy had even gone toe-to-toe with a Lv.1 Zaon during our introductory match. However, the downside of his Class was too big to ignore.
“Who even came up with the Bloodreaver Class?” I asked.
The System Avatar remained silent.
Hours advanced painfully slowly, and regardless of the Corrupted Gloomstalker, no other instructor climbed down the watchtower. I tried to keep an eye on Holst’s cadets whenever I could. I had only seen them once, when I visited Holst’s classroom, but that had been enough for [Foresight] to store their faces in my brain.
Luckily for Malkah and the henchmen, as time passed, and cadets dealt with the monsters, traversing the corridors became easier. The greatest threat was Astur’s group, but Harwin seemed to have a sixth sense for danger, and he steered the group into safe corridors and depleted fountain rooms.
The downside was that fewer monsters prowled around, which meant fewer chances to get totems.
My inner clock told me six hours had passed since the start of the exam. A hundred cadets had already been flushed out of the maze, and a small army of Librarians of the Nature Circle helped them tend to their wounds.
“Lord Malkah, please. Let’s stop for a moment. You have to rest,” Odo said.
The sixth totem had a high mana price. The boys were exhausted, and their already low mana pools were now dangerously empty. The fight with Astur’s cadets had turned the tide against them.
Despite the deep cuts on his arm, the bruises on his back, and the dry blood on his face, Malkah ignored them and pushed down the corridor. Odo and Harwin had to cling to his shoulders to stop him, but the red Bloodreaver mana gave Malkah enough strength to drag them for meters before stopping.
“Let me go. We still have work to do!”
They had only collected six totems—none from fountain monsters—and the number of corridor monsters holding totems had seemingly dwindled to near zero.
“Lord Malkah, please,” Harwin said. “It’s enough. We have enough.”
“Your math is incorrect, Odo. We need twelve.”
“We have enough!”
Malkah stopped and turned around. Despite his wounds, he seemed completely lucid, almost like his body—or his Class—had completely shut down the pain. His eyes jumped from Odo to Harwin back and forth, looking for an explanation.
“Lord Malkah, with all due respect, two scrubs like us will not become Imperial Knights. Reaching this point is already beyond anything we ever aspired to be,” Harwin said, pulling a potion from his pouch. “Four totems are enough for you. We even have two for Rup or some other idiot who needs them.”
“Fenwick might need all of them,” Odo pointed out.
“Or Yvain. House Osgiria might have cash, but they lack the bravery of House Stormvale.”
Malkah massaged his eyes.
“You can’t be serious. We already got this far.”
“We are here to help you, Young Master, but there’s only so much we can do before becoming a burden,” Harwin said. “You are in good hands. Instructor Clarke is a good man. He will treat you well, and the others are not bad either. You won’t need us.”
Malkah was going to protest, but the ground trembled.
The hedge walls shook, and the corridor was covered in tiny leaves.
Suddenly, roots broke the ground and coiled together into a humanoid form.
Thorned Sapling Lv.10 (Corrupted) [Identify]: A highly territorial creature formed by corrupted mana-loaded roots of plants possessed by Forest Spirits. It will attack anything considered a threat to their commanding Spirit. Weakness: Fire, Drain.
Harwin looked at the sky.
“The sixth hour! Extraction phase has commenced!”
“They aren’t going to make it easy for us, uh?” Odo replied.
Malkah’s blood evaporated into small mana projectiles as more and more Thorned Saplings emerged from the ground.
“Which way?” Malkah shouted, holding the quivering blades.
“East!” Harwin replied without even looking at the map.
Malkah turned around and unleashed a barrage of crimson shards over the nearest Sapling. The boy’s skill wasn’t all that different from my [Mana Mastery], except that he could strengthen his body. The first Sapling was reduced to splinters as Malkah focused on the next monster. Odo and Harwin followed, opening a path before being completely surrounded.
Harwin led the group away from the Thorned Saplings, but Astur wouldn’t make it easy for them. New summoned monsters plagued the corridors and the safe fountain rooms to replace those who had been defeated. If my hunch was correct, none of them had totems to drop. Not only would extraction be more difficult with all the new monsters, but finding extra totems would be nearly impossible.
Malkah seemed to have the same realization because he finally capitulated.
“Avoid any unnecessary fights. We are not going to get any more totems,” he said. “I’m sorry.”
Odo channeled his [Steadfast Shield] and rammed through a group of unsuspecting chubby Mana Stingers, grinning.
“Don’t apologize, Lord Malkah. You led us well.”
The boys headed back to the Dreadshade fountain room, but their way was interrupted by monster patrols. After the Thorned Saplings and the Mana Stingers, they stumbled into short and stumpy Sandstone Golems and a swarm of Rustclaws. The silver lining was that the monster's presence faded the closer they got to the fountain—most of the new monsters spawned near the exits on the northern side of the maze.
“We should be there after the next turn.” Harwin huffed.
The boy spoke too soon because the same two cadets from Astur’s Class appeared around the corner, closing their path. Malkah, Odo, and Harwin were dangerously near exhaustion, covered in dirt, bruises, and dry blood. On the contrary, Astur’s cadets seemed well-rested and, strangely enough, their black uniforms were unreasonably tidy.
I counted fifteen shiny totems in one of the cadet’s pockets—five more than in their previous confrontation.
“Let us through! You have enough totems already, and we don’t want trouble,” Odo said.
Astur’s students exchanged a confused glance.
“You seem to be under the false pretense that we are merely trying to complete the test,” the cadet who had used the ice spells against the Stone Golem said. “That’s a given. We are trying to score best in our Class, so hand over the totems and we will let you go.”
Odo raised his [Steadfast Shield], but the spell quivered due to lack of mana.
“Tell your lackey to hand the totems and return to your cozy home, little dukeling,” the ice cadet said. “Return to Papa. You don’t belong here.”
Malkah stepped forward as crimson mana flowed into his knife, making it grow until it became the size of a longsword. Surprisingly, Odo and Harwin moved aside instead of trying to stop him. Malkah’s impassive mask had disappeared. His jaw was tight, and his eyes burned with a passion I couldn’t believe possible until now.
Instead of the hedgehog stance of the Kigrian Knights, Malkah raised his blade into vom tag—his arms high and steady as the longsword angled over his shoulder. The crimson mana along the blade gleamed like heat off a kiln.
“You know nothing about me.”
The ice cadet lunged, his frosted knife blade moved in a tight arc, aiming at Malkah’s face. Malkah didn’t retreat. He stepped into the strike, twisting his hips as he brought the sword down in a brutal diagonal strike from vom tag. Crimson mana screeched against magical ice. The force of Malkah’s blow drove the ice cadet’s blade down.
In one fluid movement, Malkah pivoted, turning the initial cut into a circular motion and trapping his opponent's blade in a tight bind. With a flick of his wrist and a subtle shift of his feet, the cadet was off-balance. The back of Malkah’s hand struck the ice cadet across the face with a loud crack. The swords released from the bind, and the cadet stumbled back onto the ground, blood smearing his face.
The wind cadet was already upon Malkah, his [Gust Blade] causing the air to tremble. Odo stepped forward, but a giant icicle hit his side, sending him against the hedge. Vines coiled around his chest and wrists, threatening to drown him in the green wall. Harwin rushed to help him.
Malkah parried the [Gust Blade], but a dozen minor cuts appeared on his skin. In that moment, the ice cadet struck, freezing the ground around Malkah and locking him in place. Above, the wind cadet used [Aerokinesis] to shift mid-air, driving his knee hard into Malkah’s face. The boy’s crimson mana flickered as he drifted in and out of consciousness. Finally, he fell to the ground.
Harwin pulled Odo from the vines while Astur’s cadets passed by Malkah’s side.
“The totems, Big One. Now.”
“You will pay for this,” Odo panted.
Malkah’s mana flickered as he regained a sliver of consciousness and struggled to get back on his feet. He clenched his teeth. His body refused to obey him, like his joints were made of stone.
Suddenly, Ilya jumped the hedge and landed on my side.
“Didn’t I tell you to look over Leonie?” I asked.
Ilya pointed to the east.
The crack of thunder echoed through the corridor as a lightning whip struck the wind cadet square in the chest. Leonie panted, her straight white hair tangled into a frizzy mess, and her uniform mangled like she had been thrown into a clothes dryer with them on. The ice cadet raised a crystalline ice wall, but Leonie’s spell shattered it with a flick of her wrist.
Aeliana darted into the corridor, three daggers floating over her head, each like a scorpion stinger, with Kili by her side.
Astur’s cadets jumped into a defensive formation, showing no trace of fear. They seemed confident of winning a two-on-five combat. They locked in the fight like the outcome had already been decided.
Aeliana engaged the wind cadet, pushing him away from Odo, while Kili focused on dodging icicles and closing the gap between her and the ice cadet.
Astur cadet’s bravado was quickly shattered when the rest of Cabbage Class appeared around the corner.
Genivra used [Wind Step] to shoot forward, followed by Yvain and Rup’s puppet. Kili, Fenwick, and Cedrinor closed the group. Each one of them was dirty and bruised, like they had wrestled bears in the mud. Considering the glowing blades and the defensive skills, they still had some fuel in the tank.
Astur’s cadets were smart enough to retreat as soon as the tides turned. The wind cadet shot himself across the corridor like a bullet with [Aerokinesis], and the ice cadet used one of his ice pillars to the same effect. A moment later, the two cadets disappeared, leaving behind a frozen trail that made any attempt to chase extremely difficult.
“Don’t chase them, Aeliana! They are dangerous!” Kili yelled.
“They had many totem!” Aeliana complained.
Genivra helped a dizzy Malkah get on his feet. He was still groggy from the blow to his face and had trouble balancing. The boy blinked repeatedly, like trying to focus his gaze.
“You need a potion, man,” Genivra said.
“I’m fine,” Malkah replied, almost dropping to his knees.
Without warning, Rup grabbed Malkah’s bloody nose, pulled his head back, and plugged the potion vial into his mouth. Malkah coughed, but the potion went down. An instant later, Odo and Harwin stepped between the girl and their lord, albeit fairly gently.
“Step back, furball! That’s not how you treat the future lord of Stormvale!” Odo said.
Rup glared at him.
“Look at the state your lord is! You should be ashamed of calling yourself a loyal subject of the Kigrian dukedom!”
The others agreed with Rup’s assessment.
Malkah was far from okay, but the potion seemed to revitalize it enough to walk on its own.
“Let’s go,” Leonie interrupted them. “The vines will only give us thirty-seven seconds before they attack us, and we have already spent twenty.”
The cadets nodded and walked down the hall into the fountain room. Meanwhile, Talindra and Zaon joined me. They seemed relieved the kids had finally gathered.
“I’m definitely not cut out to be a teacher,” Zaon pointed out.
“You’ll learn to trust your students,” I replied, patting his shoulder.
We followed the cadets. They sat around the fountain, drinking water, cleaning their wounds, and munching on jerky. Although only six hours had passed since the start of the exam, they looked like they hadn’t slept or eaten in a week. Kili and Genivra stood across the fountain, somewhat apart from the rest, guarding the entrances.
“Fountain rooms aren’t safe places anymore, so let’s debrief quickly,” Leonie said, taking the lead and putting her map on the edge of the fountain. “We found two exits. One is on the northern side, and the other is on the western side, both near the corner of the maze. We gathered nine totems.”
Yvain stepped forward, extending his map next to Leonie’s.
“We found an exit northeast of here, but there were a lot of cadets around. It might be extremely crowded. Even the fountain rooms were ransacked early over there,” he said. “We found only eleven totems. We are one short.”
Leonie nodded.
“It’s okay, we have one to spare.”
“You are a woman of honor,” Yvain said with a slight bow.
Leonie bowed back and turned to Cedrinor.
“The eastern section is a no-go zone. We spent more time avoiding other squads than actually fighting monsters. It has to be the most well-documented area of the maze,” the boy said, showing his map. “Everyone except Basilisk Class seems to see us as an easy pick, so I advise avoiding this area. We only got ten totems. We are two short.”
Fenwick babbled something I couldn’t understand. I hadn’t realized, but his face was completely swollen. Talindra told me he had been stung by a Mana Stinger, and he seemed to have some sort of severe allergic reaction. At least Dolores had appeared in the moment of greatest need.
I focused back on the fountain room.
“What about you, Honored Heir?” Aeliana said.
The group turned towards Malkah, but Odo spoke first.
“We didn’t get to find any exits, but we have two totems to spare.”
His statement raised some eyebrows.
“You are not seriously telling me the three of you collected fourteen totems?!” Cedrinor said.
Harwin put his hands on his hips and huffed.
“First of all, disrespectful. Second of all, we would’ve collected twenty totems if those idiots from Astur’s Class hadn’t chased us!”
Odo pushed him away.
“We collected six totems—four for Lord Malkah, two to spare,” he said.
The chattering suddenly died.
“What about you two?” Rup asked, horrified.
“We only came here to help Lord Malkah get settled in.” Odo shrugged.
Rup punched Odo’s ribs, just where the Astur cadet’s icicle had hit him, making the boy bend over and groan in pain.
“We can steal from someone! There are eleven of us!”
“Too risky. There are a hundred things that can go wrong. Someone can get injured and swallowed by the vines, or we can lose our totems. The rabble has already been eliminated. Only the most dangerous cadets remain in the game, and most squads have double the numbers of Cabbage Class,” Odo grunted. “Let it be, munchkin. We are out.”
Nobody spoke, each silently weighing the henchmen’s decision.
Out of nowhere, Kili dropped from the ruined statue.
“We won’t need to fight,” she said with a devilish grin. Then, she put her hand in her pocket and pulled a handful of totems. “I helped myself to a little gift while they tried to escape. They seemed to be in a rush, so I thought I could ease their load.”
The world seemed to stop. I hadn’t even realized Kili had stolen from Astur’s cadet. Down in the fountain room, Harwin and Odo tried to hug Kili, but the girl slipped through them like a slippery mouse.
Malkah bowed, unable to hide his smile.
“House Kigria is in debt with you—”
Before he could finish the sentence, Odo forced him to straighten, and Harwin covered his mouth with both hands.
“You won’t get the favor of House Stormvale or the Kigrian Dukedom so easily! This one is on us!” Harwin said defensively.
“Yeah! This one is on us!” Odo added, even more defensively.
Kili rolled her eyes.
“Whatever, you weirdos.”
Ultimately, the group decided to use one of the exits on the north-west side of the maze. We followed from the top of the wall, heart in hand. Groups of cadets still traversed the corridors, hoping to find leftover totems, but the newly summoned monsters served to hide the original ones. Most seemed to realize their best bet was to ambush unsuspecting groups near the exit points.
“Two groups in our three and four, non-scavengers, probably. One in our twelve, scavengers for sure. Over there, two groups are spying on the exit, non-scavengers,” Kili said as Cabbage Class stopped by a shadowy passage in the hedge wall. In front of them, there was a thirty-meter clearing with sparse columns and naked half walls. The place was designed for ambushes.
“We can probably fight one or two groups,” Genivra said.
“We should wait for them to fight with each other. We still have time,” Yvain replied.
“There’s another way,” Cedrinor said, stepping outside their hideout.
Two cadets with the insignia of Astur’s Class jumped from behind the column. A dozen totems shone through his pocket. The other scavenger teams shyly approached, smelling blood.
“What is he doing?!” Leonie whispered.
“Flaunting Mister Clarke’s gift,” Rup sighed, following Cedrinor outside the cover. “Let’s go. He knows what he’s doing.”
One by one, Cabbage Class emerged from the hedge until the eleven of them were in plain sight. Astur’s cadets stopped short, his mana signature suddenly disappearing. They examined Cabbage Class and seemed to realize they had no chance against eleven foes.
Seeing the elite cadets retreating, the other scavengers imitated them.
“That’s what I thought! Scrubs!” Cedrinor said, tossing a rude gesture in their general direction.
Kili, Rup, and Rup’s puppet joined the rude gesturing.
I made a mental note to teach them about humility in victory.
“That’s the power of friendship.” Ilya grinned.
“That’s being a bad winner,” I replied.
One way or another, the eleven cadets from Cabbage Class crossed the finish line, each with four totems in their pocket.