"Are there any questions~ dear students?" As she finishes her explanation of the exam’s rules, the professor opens the discussion for any questions to be directed to her. The silent, contemplating expression displayed on the students’ faces something that tells her clear of something, that at the very least, they are taking this thing seriously.

’As they should, they are the future of the academy, no, the world, after all,’ she thought to herself as she waited for any question that might come her way, that wait finally being broken as one frail-looking, glass-wearing male student hesitantly raised his hand before he was noticed by her.

"Yes, student Lukas Belle, is there anything unclear in my explanation?" she asked with a gentle tone, prompting the young man to voice out his thoughts.

"T-that, professor, regarding the place that the academy is going to send us to, I-is it really going to be an infested island?" the young man named Lukas asked with worry apparent in his voice, this thing that he pointed out causing the entire atmosphere among the students to turn worried as well.

It is only right for these young mage-aspirants to be worried more than when they are thinking about how they can compete with the older students.

After all, Infested Islands are places not only populated, but dominated by powerful beasts and monsters, a place that will drive a population of humans without any group of powerful mages to protect them to a complete wipeout, without any trouble on the beasts and monsters’ part.

What is even worse is that the creatures populating this kind of place is not only powerful, because if that is the case, even just a single powerful mage is more than enough to deal with such creatures, part of the threat is their power, but what sets them apart and makes them truly dangerous compared to other beasts is that they are semi-sentient, capable of intelligently fighting at the very least.

And even despite the danger these islands pose, the magic academy still decided to send their freshmen students to hunt monsters and beasts that will pose a threat to their lives.

"Ah, I see your worries, child." Seeing the fear in the frail-looking student’s eyes, the professor nods and reveals a comforting smile before she starts explaining, her next words calming down these students quite a bit.

"Indeed, infested islands are dangerous, but there is also a level of danger to them, the one you’re going to be sent on is an F-Tier Island, meaning even in the worst-case scenario, there’s only going to be E-Tier enemies there, nothing that the older students cannot handle and nothing that any of you cannot run away from, I believe."

The professor comforted, those words of an authoritative, as well as knowledgeable figure, something that the students, some years younger than her, could trust in near entirety, once again shifting the focus from how careful they should be during this secret exam back to what sort of things they should do in order to avoid being left behind in the dust of the older students.

There’s no more concern after that. It appears like the only thing bugging the students is the fact that they are about to enter what could possibly be a dangerous space, and with the professor’s assurance, they become pretty relaxed that groups have already formed, intending to pass this exam together.

Seeing that the students are already adapting well to the surprise the academy just dealt them with, the professor couldn’t stop herself from smiling, this time not the amused smile watching her students’ worried expression, but rather a relieved smile of an educator seeing that the one she is teaching is learning well.

"Well, know that the participation of stronger opponents is not the end-all of things for your children~~ the older students might be there to compete with you for points, but they are there to be your opportunity as well~~~" the professor said with an air of mystery as she allowed the students to talk among themselves.

Picking up her items as she felt like her job here was already done, she then left one last line before she dismissed herself, further emphasizing the mysterious words that she had left before.

"That’s what the three-day grace period is for, after all~~."

Only some students hear her words, as most are already discussing among themselves what sort of things they should prepare in order to survive during this secret exam, groups starting to form, taking advantage of numbers to hunt stronger, possibly higher-scoring beasts and monsters.

This is the problem that Novus encountered.

Even he himself knows the value of having teammates when working on a dangerous island like that, after all, for quite a few occasions during his hunts in the Evolution Domain, he can’t help but think of how much better things would be even if there’s just another person who has his back.

’The hunts would’ve been so much easier...’ he thought to himself as he furrowed his eyebrows, thinking of ways to deal with the problem at hand.

That problem is that no one seems to want to form a group with him.

Sure, how he dealt with Hellas the day before is something that pulled a good amount of positive attention on him; however, this is an entirely different matter, and being sharp-tongued won’t do any good when the matter they need to contest with is in terms of each student’s combat prowess.

And with his image regarding his own combat prowess, something that couldn’t really be said to be good, his classmates are doing their best to avoid even making eye contact with him, almost as if he’s someone who has this incurable, highly infectious disease.

’On the other side, if I hunt alone, then I guess there will be hardly any problem hiding my current strength... people will question how I am even capable of hunting a lot of beasts and monsters though...’

Seeing that there’s also a problem no matter how he deals with this upcoming exam, Novus sighs in annoyance for a bit, feeling like he was forced into a lose-lose situation where he is restricted to a certain degree either way.

"Haah... there’s still three days anyway, let’s think of this slowly..." he reminded himself to calm down as he took out another Evolution Crystal from the Storage Space, manifesting it directly inside his mouth as he ingested the liquid as if he was taking calming medicine, the flow of warm energy refining his body, truly making him calm down a little bit.

Taking his time just sitting in there while student after student started leaving the classroom, he felt like quite some time had already passed when he stopped consuming Evolution Crystal again, the sunlight no longer peaking on the windows of the classroom as it already hung high in the sky, shining down the hottest as it signaled the halfway mark of the day.

’I should meditate back in my room... as for exploring within the academy and the floating island, I guess I’ll go with that tomorrow...’ he thought to himself as he stood up from his seat, taking a leisurely walk back to the dormitories, where he plans to improve himself even more.