Emery arrived at the Magus Academy's grand hall, and he saw that massive congregation of acolytes have already crowded the place. At a glance, there were at least thousands of them present on the scene.
There were about 3000 acolytes in total waiting for their mission. Even though it sounded like such a huge number, this amount of people was not even one-third the number of the acolytes who came in the first year.
Each year, the academy would take at least 10,000 new acolytes from myriad worlds across the universe. But in the third year, the numbers have dropped to 8,000, and on this particular test, only a few exceptional and outstanding acolytes from the regular class were allowed to take part.
This was not mentioning the fact that the mid-test would be a real-life mission where their survival would be put onto the table. Thus, some of the acolytes who were not confident with their strength decided not to take part in it.
As Emery walked closer into the crowds, one acolyte noticed his arrival and stared at him. And as if it was the spark, before long, hundreds of eyes in the hall were on him. Part of it was thanks to his privileged uniform, but there was not even one acolyte there who didn't know who he was.
Thanks to his reputation, the crowd parted ways as Emery continued to walk with an indifferent look on his face.
"That's the savage acolyte!"
"Do you guys know? He's in the top 20 privilege class ranking!"
"You are not updated, you idiot, he's now the 9th ranked acolyte. He was even able to match that dragon prodigy!"
"Really?! No way!!"
Those random discussions about him and his achievements, Emery decided to ignore all of them and just continued to walk. He passed the bewildered groups of people before finally hearing a few familiar voices.
"Oh, Emery is here!" Klea exclaimed, and the other Earth acolytes immediately turned to look at him, followed by his teammates Annara and Atlas.
"Why are you coming in so late? I was starting to worry that something bad had happened to you," Klea said while grabbing his hand and putting her cheek on his arm.
Apparently, Emery really was almost late, as not long after his arrival, a few magus came. the magus didn't say anything and just waved their hands. Immediately after, three huge portal swirls opened, one towards the Mystara mission, one to Arrakis, and finally one for Andora mission.
Emery, along with the others, stepped into the portal for the Andora mission. Moments after entering the portal, their vision went black for a second, before they saw a massive black spaceship in front of their eyes.
The ship has a unique design. Silver veins cover the surface of the ship, glowing with energy and emitting white motes of light every so often. Meanwhile, the overall body of the ship looked less like a vehicle and more like three tubes joined together with a circular, ball-shaped joint. Along the body, a row of windows could be seen.
"This is the ship Deliverance 003, and this will be your transport to Andora."
"I think this is one of the newer model, never seen one before" voice Roran
All the selected acolytes entered the ship without raising questions. They all gathered at the ship's main chamber. Glasses could be seen all around them.
While waiting, Emery looked around and discovered that there were many familiar faces among the nearly 1000 acolytes currently on board.
The easiest and most common way to spot the team leaders was by finding out where the privileged class acolytes are, as they would usually be the one who became the group captains.
[Rank 3 - Eesho Nephilim]
[Rank 4 - Zack Talon]
[Rank 10 - Arcana]
[Rank 16 - Sigurd]
[Rank 19 - Jinkan Nephilim]
[Rank 28 - Vida Themary]
[Rank 32 - Lyndell]
[Rank 34 - Abrafo]
[Rank 52 - Orion]
[Rank 58 - Rayne]
[Rank 61 - Trish]
[Rank 63 - Rofos Trigeson]
[Rank 66 - Armand Nephilim]
[Rank 84 - Roran Harlight]
[Rank 85 - Simoan Nephilim]
[Rank 87 - Jordi Nephilim]
[Rank 95 - Julian Kaesar]
He recognized half of the 30 privileged class acolytes, added Annara, and Atlas, there are 33 of them.
A few moments later, a slight rumble could be heard as the ship started to rise. Everyone's gaze turned to the window, and they realized they had ascended into space at almost breakneck speed. However, none of them felt anything. Not even the faintest tremor. In fact, everyone inside felt more like they were taking a relaxing boat ride.
As the ship stopped ascending, four magus in uniforms appeared in front of them.
The magus who stood at the front was burly with dark hair, white hair on the sides, and a light beard. He was a Peak Full Moon Magus, while the other two were Crescent Magus. Behind them, three dozen saint realm fighters stood in orderly manner and watched their every move.
Even though the saint realm fighters were covered head to toe in nondescript armor that concealed their identity, the movements and gestures they did made it clear that they were nothing short of veterans.
Right after, a large screen appeared above the four magus and the figure of Headmaster Delbrand was shown, he was sitting in his room with poise manner and calmly speaking.
"Acolyte of the Magus Academy, Today you are embarking on a new kind of test!" The headmaster stopped for a moment and said, "I believed the real test of courage and strength can only be shown in a real mission. The mid-test will be marked upon the completion of the mission, the contribution you are giving, and your action leading to it."
"I will be waiting for your safe return, good luck acolytes."
When the video stopped, the Peak Full Moon magus spoke up.
"Listen up! I am Commander Raynor, and I will be the commander in chief for this mission, you will all listen to my orders. Otherwise, I swear to god that I will make sure failing the test will be the least of your worries."
He then explained briefly about the mission, basically similar to what Roran talked about in the meeting. Then, as expected, the commander proceeded to explain the chain of command, and right after, a notification appeared in Emery's mind.
[With your privilege rank you are now the commander of platoon 3]
[Will you accept the rank?"]
"Yes."
[You are now in command of platoon 3]
[Choose a team to be on the platoon]
This line of messages was not unexpected as it was part of the information briefed by the Harlight prince.
With that commenced, Emery quickly accepted the name of the squad leaders under their agreement. [Sigurd, Lyndell, Orion, Roran, and Julian]. Now that all 5 groups successfully link to his as part of the same platoon, another message came to mind.
[Will you choose a vice commander position?]
"Yes! Julian Kaesar"
Afterward, another 5 squad leaders were randomly assigned to their platoon. The first name that came up right away couldn't help but make Emery rub his forehead. It caused him a little headache.
[Rank 10 - Arcana]
Well, it sort of makes sense as Emery took his position, and now the man added to his platoon.
Next, there were 4 other names that came after the kid-looking acolyte's name.
[Rank 40 - Wage Gasa]
[Rank 41 - Ian Gasa]
[Rank 58 - Reyne]
[Rank 61 - Trish]
Emery recognized Trish, the female water element specialist who fought with him before, and Rayne was the archer with rune stones who fought with them against the bone dragon. As for the other 2, the ones with the same family name, he never met nor fought them so he didn't know anything about them.
After seeing that the chain of command was set, the commander once again opened his mouth.
"This will be 3 days of deep space travel! Follow the instructions and be ready in 3 days."
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