In the Magus Academy, there was a special, enclosed room that seemingly had no access to the outside world. There were no windows or doors in sight, but that didn't seem to bother the dozens of people in uniforms.
A massive cube was floating in the center of the room, each side emitting bright light split into several screens, each with different moving images.
All the people inside the room stared at the screens with paramount seriousness.
Each was focused on their personal screens. Some were taking notes, others were tasked to keep an eye and notify others when they saw something relevant.
Right in the middle of the circular room, five people stood close together, their cloaks and uniforms indicating they were of a higher rank. Then, behind those five, two people stood. One was a woman, who had a glass artifact in one of her eyes, and a middle-aged man with grey hair. The man would occasionally react to the reports, indicating he was the one in charge.
"Let me see the whole data once again."
"Yes, headmaster." The woman said.
Right as the words left her mouth, the cube's light shifted a bit, and a much larger screen appeared alongside the soft glow of the contraption.
[Mystara - 8217 - Day 10]
[Total points: 227,898,942]
[Platoon 1: 101,494,474]
[Platoon 2: 66,631,927]
[Platoon 3: 59,772,541]
[Acolytes passed: 273/300]
[Acolytes eliminated: 22]
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[Arrakis - 2189 - Day 8]
[Total points: 179,119,863]
[Platoon 1: 73,087,465]
[Platoon 2: 63,864,321]
[Platoon 3: 42,168,077]
[Acolytes passed: 233/300]
[Acolytes eliminated: 18]
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[Andora - 6210 - Day 9]
[Total points: 191,294,693]
[Platoon 1: 80,561,663]
[Platoon 2: 42,971,037]
[Platoon 3: 67,761,993]
[Acolytes passed: 246/303]
[Acolytes eliminated: 27]
The gray-haired man was none other than Delbrand, the Magus Academy's headmaster.
For the last 9 days, he had been staying in this secure room. He had even forgotten sleep and any other need, as he was unable to keep his eyes and mind off the screen. After all, this was the first live test in a long time in the history of the Magus Academy.
The people standing in front of him started to pass some notable happenings on each planet to the headmaster, starting from the urgent one.
"The acolytes assigned to Arrakis Desert have some problems with the native sandworms creature. They have spotted colossal-sized sandworm, how should we proceed?"
Delbrand checked the notes and replied, "Tell the acolytes to retreat and send the sandworm's locations to the commander in charge."
"Yes, Headmaster," the man retreated and fiddled with the cube in front of him
Another one came and gave the next report.
"Headmaster, an increased abyss creature activity has been detected on Andora planet. However, the commander in charge said he can handle this matter himself."
Headmaster Delbrand's expression turned a bit sour. This was news he didn't like to hear, as such activity normally would lead to unpredictable results. He would rather not involve the student with the magus alliance task. However, for this kind of situation, it was standard procedure to send some reinforcements for the team in charge. A ll N OVE L FU LL . c 0m
"Create an urgent message requesting optional participation for the privileged class."
"Yes, Headmaster."
After making sure both of the notifications were properly prepared, Delbrand proceeded to look at the next report.
"The acolytes assigned to finish the test on Mystara are wrapping up their mission faster than expected. The first platoon has managed to clean up the root of the mutation. The holder of the top rank is still Oliver the Sword Saint, who has just crossed the 1 million points threshold."
Hearing the news made Delbrand heave a sigh of relief. After all, one out of three planets appeared to have successfully finished their mission. That left two more planets to worry about and two more days of supervising this special Magus Academy event.
Looking at the data once again, the millions of points racked up by the acolytes were proof they were successful in this mission. However, his main concern was still the number of acolytes who got eliminated.
He spent a lot of effort creating a safety measures by developing the new combat armor. However, in a real combat situation, nothing was 100% guaranteed.
The armor could indeed increase the survival rate of the acolytes by automatically teleporting them to a base station in outer space just outside the planet. However help may not arrive in time, or they may be dead before anything could be done. It was proven that out of the 67 reported incidents, 10 acolytes were too late to be saved.
He still believed such a test was definitely something necessary for this generation, hence he could do nothing except hope that nothing bad would happen in the next 2 days.
Unfortunately, just hours after, he realized fate was not on his side. One of the men in uniform reported on urgent data from Andora planet.
"Headmaster, the energy scale emitted by the planet has suddenly increased tremendously."
The headmaster quickly turned to look at the cube confirming the data.
"Get me eyes on the ground!"
A screen beamed from the cube and showed an image from one of the combat suits of the acolytes stationed near the energy shift event. His eyes almost bulged out of his face when he saw the glowing wooden staff taken from inside a massive tree.
This situation quickly surprised him and Delbrand suddenly turned emotional.
"Why is there an artifact inside the tree?! Why have we not been notified about this?"
Having an artifact inside such a sacred tree would be something bad for the primordial lifeform and, from the look of it, the commander in charge knew about this.
This new information added with the emergence of a stage 6 Abyss creature quickly made the headmaster decide to send an urgent message.
"Send a priority message: Warning to all acolytes in Andora, retreat and wait for reinforcements!"
"Yes, headmaster."
At the same time, the headmaster saw the rapid increase in energy scale and was forced to update the calamity level of the planet to level 3
This Level 3 was something that should be dealt with by multiple magus at the peak stage or a grand magus. It was definitely unsuitable for the academy's acolytes.
Not willing to take any chances Delbrand added an extra order.
"Send out the standby magus reinforcements as a backup right away!!"
"Yes, Headmaster!"
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