Silver was enjoying the look of horror on the Academy teacher in front of him. He had found him to be somewhat cocky and domineering. Silver thought this look was a nice change as he casually walked over to the Zafan and lightly petted the fur on its abdomen. The 2-meter tall beast responded with a satisfied growl and looked at its master in a puzzled manner. 

"What a good boy you are, haha. Do I get extra points for petting him?" Silver joked as he finally looked toward Lucas. 

"Hahaha, you're an interesting kid. I'll give you that" Lucas grasped onto Silver's shoulder. Applying a little bit of his magic will, he could only feel the slightest hint of mana. 

[ Hmm, he can only be considered as a beginner-level mage at best. What secrets is this kid hiding? ]

Lucas became even more puzzled. As he discovered the youngsters' level, more questions were left unanswered. 

"Say, kid. How did you do it?" Lucas thought of just asking straight away. Perhaps the youth was agreeable and easy-going. 

"Not telling" Silver stuck out a tongue and walked off, shrugging away Lucas' hand 

This kid! He needs to learn some manners. 

Lucas became slightly irritated as the youngster showed him no face. 

"Hahaha, what a splendid display of courage," A burly teacher greeted as Silver approached the rest of the youngsters who passed the first trial. Victor was pleasantly surprised at the ability of this scarlet-haired youth who had just won him 10 million gold coins. 

"Thank you, sir," Silver replied as he nodded respectfully. 

"Not bad. With your unmoving heart and brave soul, I am sure you will go far in the future" Victor acted as though it was only the two of them and gave Silver some encouraging words. 

"May I know what your name is?" he added. 

"Silver." 

"Silver, huh? It suits you indeed," Victor laughed. 

Some of the crowd members who had just recovered from the whirlwind of emotions started to question why they even bothered to cheer this unknown youngster. This was a competition, after all. Even if they could feel some pride that a youngster like them was able to make a joke of this challenge, it also caused them anxiety. Why were they unable to do the same? What secrets was he hiding?

But soon, the lucky few who hadn't been affected badly by the beast's roar were able to fill in their clueless mates. 

"Did he pet the Zafan? That's impossible! I refuse to believe this," shouted a youngster who was unlucky enough to have even pissed his pants a little. 

"Believe it or not. We are seeing it with our own eyes," another stated. 

"Impossible! That beast must have scrambled our brains. We are simply not thinking straight and must be seeing things." the first replied. 

"Well, that might be the case for you, but like my bowls, my eyes are also trustworthy," the other rebutted as he held his nose and walked away. This action was met with loud snickers and laughter from the crowd. Soon, word started to spread through the crowd about the scarlet-haired youth's accomplishments in the trial. 

Those who did not see the actual events began to have doubts as they heard several witnesses giving the same account of events. They couldn't even look in the general direction of the dreaded beast, and yet someone had touched it? Impossible!

But the cruelty of reality was that no matter how many times you deny it, the truth remains the truth. as they forced themselves to look over at the students surrounding the academy teacher, the scarlet-haired youth stood, with a slight smile covering his face. 

Soon a lot of them went from doubting the youth to wondering about his origins. Which family had managed to cultivate such a monster? Or was he perhaps from one of those legendary sects or a spy? It seemed no one could answer any of these questions, but everyone knew one thing for sure. The name Silver would become famous after these trials. 

After another hour or so, the trial began to slow down again, so the Academy teachers decided to wrap things up.

"Ladies and gentlemen. This now concludes the trial of courage. As is customary, we have allowed spectators for the first trial. Unfortunately, from this point onwards, we must go our separate ways" Lucas took out a dark object from his pocket and walked towards the other teachers. 

"What? Is it over just like that? What the hell? I waited years for this opportunity," a youngster in the crowd cried out. 

"Exactly, I was just about to make my move. And why won't they at least let us watch the rest of the trials so we can better prepare ourselves for next year? What kind of bullshit is that?" added another 

"Give it up already, unless you're looking for trouble. The Academy has always been this way," An old spectator replied. 

"Why should we even listen to you, old man Isaac? What do you know? According to your words, they were supposed to start with a trial of combat. And yet here I am, left out of the trials completely without having gotten to showcase my strength one bit," An angry youngster retorted. 

"I..." Isaac started but decided against it and just lowered his head in defeat. In the distance, Lucas was holding out a dark item in his hands, and soon, a huge blue array appeared on the floor ahead of him. 

"Step into the magic circle. It will teleport you all into the location where we will be holding the second trial," Lucas said as he walked into the array and disappeared into thin air. The other teachers and students also went through, followed by the trial participants. 

As he stepped through the array, Silver was met with a large expanse of greenery as far as the eye could see. The odd thing was that no matter where he looked, no one else was around. 

[ What the hell? Where did everyone else go? Could this be part of the trial? ]

Silver questioned in his head. 

"Hello all, Congratulations on completing the first trial," came a lady's voice which Silver couldn't see. 

"I am Anna Leeds, and I shall be hosting this year's Survival trial. As the name suggests, it is a test to see if you can fend for yourselves and survive in harsh environments," the lady continued. 

"So long as you are able to survive for the next 24 hours, you will pass and go on to the final trial. However, be warned that there are many dangers lurking, so diligence would be in your best interest. I wish you all the best of luck" Anna's voice cut off at this point, and Silver was only left with the sound of the breeze hitting the tall grass. 

He was confident in passing this trial as he was used to fending for himself and wandering around in forests on his own. However, Silver was worried for his new friend Zac. What if he couldn't defend himself against some of the dangers out there. 

Or what if one of the other youngsters who had passed was an assassin after his life? Would the Academy teachers intervene if two participants began killing each other? Or would they just watch on as impartial judges? Silver started walking off in a direction, as he knew the only way he could ensure Zac's safety was if he was by his side. 

About a few dozen kilometers opposite the direction Silver was heading, Isabella was in a battle with a Kyder. She didn't know If it was just her luck or if the trial was purposefully made to be this difficult. Either way, she didn't like the fact that she was now in a life-or-death situation with this D-class beast. 

Further south from her position, Zac wasn't faring any better. He had initially chased a lone wolf into the forest, intending to score some easy points. Surely killing some magic beasts would award points, right?

Ironically, the wolf had led him to its pack, and he now found himself surrounded by 12 E-class beasts. To put it quite frankly, it was at this point he knew, he fucked up.