After a few hours had passed, finally, the streets of Kluemwood City that were once crowded with young people now had only normal citizens who seemed relieved to be able to walk without having to worry about bumping into anyone.
As for where all these young people had gone, it didn't take much thought to figure out what it was.
At this moment, each and every one of them was inside one of the immense fields of the Eitsirc Academy, a field that had been built specifically to receive the enormous amount of applicants they received every year.
This was no ordinary field, but one that had been improved countless times to provide as much comfort as possible, from weakening the sun's rays, to changing the temperature and even improving the qi and mana density in the area, to ensure that the applicants were in an optimal state at all times.
"Ahh, as expected from the Eitsirc Academy, even an outdoor area like this already has such a high concentration of mana!" A young mage said, an expression of comfort on his face.
"With this, I feel my training speed improving rapidly!" Said another pugilist who was currently doing some push-ups.
For the vast majority of supers, an environment like this was not something they could afford, even there were those who didn't know that this was possible, so their surprise and admiration was completely understandable.
"Hmph..." A young blond man couldn't help but snort at this, a look of superiority in his eyes. "It's like they've never seen anything like this..."
Just as there were supers who had no access to this kind of environment, there were also those who were very well acquainted with this, after all, the children of prominent families, sect descendants or heirs of famous figures were also among the applicants.
These, due to the facilities they had from a young age, could not help but feel superior to ordinary supers, as mostly the gap in abilities between the two was quite wide.
After all, a super that received specialized resources and training from a young age had an indisputable advantage over those who did not.
Though of course, this was something only available to a small number of supers, so they were in the minority among all groups of applicants.
"Tch, another spoiled brat..." Said one young girl upon hearing what both people said, apparently annoyed by their behavior.
"Who said that?" Said annoyed the young blond man as he turned around.
But when he did, he couldn't find any culprit due to all the people currently looking at him, causing him to turn around in a slightly more sour mood.
It was clear that some enmity could be felt between those two groups, who were talking behind each other's backs. But thanks to the fact that they were only a few minutes away from the start of the entrance exam, no one wanted to create too much trouble and risk being vetoed.
This was something that had happened only a handful of times in the past, where two hot-blooded individuals decide to create a ruckus and end up not only getting kicked off the Academy grounds, but also being banned from taking the entrance exam ever again, for many, that was a fate no different than ruining your future.
Finally, there was a third group mixed by people who regardless of whether they had resources or not, did not care about the disputes between normal supers and those who were born with silver spoons.
Included in this group were three young people who were currently eating some sweets in the shape of swords, which apparently was a specialty of Kluemwood City, although they didn't know why.
"Do you think they'll start with the written test first or the physical?" asked Sarah with real interest on her face.
"Hm, I hope it's the physics, I feel like my body is already asking for some action." James replied, flexing his right arm.
As for Jay, he was still busy playing with the smart watch app.
*Woosh*
Just at that moment, a considerably strong breeze swept across the huge green field, causing all the applicants to immediately pay attention.
Without anyone having noticed, a person had appeared in the air, his appearance indicated that his age was around 30 years old, as for his clothing, he was wearing a simple shirt with dress pants.
"Good afternoon everyone, my name is Ligim and I will be in charge of supervising today's entrance exam."
Despite the distance between him and all the other applicants, plus the fact that he had spoken in a calm and normal manner, everyone present was able to hear him clearly.
"As you all know, the entrance exam normally consists of two parts, the written and the physical, both of which would be conducted right here, however, because we have seen that the number of entrants from past years have not met certain requirements to stay at the academy, we decided that it would be better to take a general test beforehand to see what level all of you are at."
As he finished saying that, a large screen showing an island of considerable size filled with lush vegetation suddenly appeared next to the man.
"If you're wondering what this general test is about, it is quite simple. Each of you will be transported to this island, which is a developing terrain of the academy, there's only one requirement to pass, survive 1 full day on this island. Although we have cleared out most of the strong monsters, there are still a few that you must be wary of."
Immediately, each of the postulants felt their body become incredibly light at the same time that their vision blurred.
Several of the postulants couldn't help but be amazed at this, especially the mages with a background, who were the most familiar with this sensation and also knew what it was due to.
'Large-scale teleportation?!' thought Sarah, who was also among the people who had experienced this sensation before.
Everyone's surprise was completely understandable, after all, this was a spell of a considerably high level, but despite that, the examiner conjured it without the slightest effort, clearly demonstrating that he could only be at the rank (B) at the very least.
But before they could think of anything else, everyone's field of vision changed, the examiner's voice echoing in each of their ears.
"Good luck to everyone."
With that, the wide grassy field was cleft .ompletely devoid of people, leaving only the belongings they each carried on the ground, arranged so that there would be no confusion when they retrieved them.
***
Deep in the lush forest that made up the majority of this island, a certain black-haired young man currently sat in the middle of a small stream, an expression of surprise plastered on his face.
"Wow... I really didn't expect something like this to happen..." Jay said as he slowly stood up and began to inspect his belongings, "Hm, apparently they took everything from me except for my clothes."
Since the academy wanted to test the power of the applicants and not the background they had, the examiner was only in charge of transporting them, not their belongings.
Looking around, more and more trees filled his vision, since almost the entire map of the island showed that it was covered in forest, he had no idea where on the island he might be.
"Hmm... well, although it's only a day, it would be better to stay alert."
After leaving the river, he decided to climb up to the tallest tree he saw in order to get an idea of where he was.
While he had no problem staying in this place, he wanted to get some information anyway. Unfortunately, no matter where he looked he could only see trees, the island was undoubtedly much larger than it looked on the map.
Without much else to do, Jay climbed down from the tree and started walking upstream, practicing his wind control along the way.
He knew he might run into some other postulant along the way, but he really wasn't that worried about it, after all, he now had a method of being able to detect if there was anyone near him.
After having recovered, in the process of familiarizing himself with his body, he also worked on strengthening the connection he felt with his little ones as this would only bring him benefits.
Leaving aside the abilities of his little ones that he used to the fullest when he was in the South Zone, such as the power of suggestion and energy enhancement, there were other things that Jay focused on.
By this point, after experimenting for several weeks, Jay had managed to discover other basic abilities of the parasites, most of these being things that they used almost unconsciously but were not fully available to Jay.
Among the things he discovered were the mental connection they seemed to have with each other, which allowed them to communicate without using words, the only bad thing about this was the fact that it only seemed to be available when he had a certain number of parasites in his body, as to the reason for this, Jay wasn't sure.
Another ability, and the one that would undoubtedly be incredibly useful at this time was nothing more and nothing less than the ability that the parasites had to be able to detect any living being in the vicinity.
Both were abilities he had seen and used in some form in the South Zone, respectively when his little ones relayed their emotions to him and when they detected almost at the same time as the system that two rank (C+) supers were fast approaching towards him.
Fortunately for him, after his authority in the system leveled up, his connection with his little ones became even stronger than before.
Originally he could only vaguely discern what his little ones were feeling, but now he could clearly distinguish what they were trying to tell him, although they were still talking in short sentences od two words, it was much better than before.
As for the "Radar of living beings" they possessed, although Jay could only sense it very faintly and a short distance of 10 meters, if he used it in conjunction with the confirmation from his little ones, it served quite well.
After an hour of walking through the increasingly steep wooded terrain, Jay finally made it to the source of the river, which was a large lake almost as big as a soccer stadium hidden by a large number of trees.
"Hm, this place isn't bad at all." He said as he appreciated the pleasant scenery before his eyes, "Although... I don't remember seeing such a large lake on the map of the island...."
Suddenly, his sense of alarm was quickly triggered the moment he was only a few meters away from the lake, causing him to immediately slow down as his expression turned into one of awe.
Right now, even though his radar's detection range only covered an incredibly small part of the lake, there wasn't a single inch of water that wasn't showing signs of life.
