“The exam starts now!?” said a nearby voice.

“I thought you were supposed to learn stuff at an academy and then get tested! What the heck is this!?”

Max looked around in shock. None of the students had been prepared for testing to begin so soon; but they still had no idea what exactly the current test was. In fact, the instructor’s words could be just a bluff, a bit of showmanship before the start of the school year.

The crowd of students was quickly turning into an angry mob as they murmured and complained amongst themselves.

The instructor at the front shouted, “SILENCE.”

The crowd of students quieted down, but a feeling of discontent still lingered in the air.

The instructor grinned at the power he held over them all.

The students could complain all they wanted, but they still had all come here with the goal of becoming climbers. In the end, they would do as the instructor told them.

“Beyond these doors is a battle chamber,” said the instructor. “Each and every one of you will have to fight to the death. By the end of the day, this year’s class of student climbers will be cut in half.”

A fight to the death!?

None of the students around Max were yelling any more. A foreboding silence overtook them all. Had any of them honestly woken up that morning with the expectation of killing someone? Or dying themselves?

The instructor crossed his arms. “If you have qualms with this form of testing, you can stay here and formally rescind your place from the academy. You have ten minutes to make your decision.”

The man lifted his wrist watch to his eyes.

“Tick-tock,” he smiled.

Someone at the front of the crowd shouted at the instructor. “This isn’t fair! What kind of test is this!?”

Max looked up to the clock tower of the academy building. They had ten minutes to make a decision.

He wasn’t sure what to do. After the attack from the assassin last night, he’d resigned himself to doing what he had to do to find his sister, even if it meant getting his hands dirty. But this did feel a bit extreme. Then again, if after ten minutes, no one went through the doors—Max could run through and win by default.

One climber strutted up the steps of the academy. “Ha! I’m not afraid of a little fighting. Bring it on.”

The boy was the first to step into the building. A whole slew of students then followed behind him.

After two minutes, the crowd of student climbers had been cut in half.

A boy sighed at the back.

“I give up. I’m going to do as my parents told me and become an accountant,” he said. “Climbers still have to pay taxes after all.”

With that, the boy dejectedly walked away from the school.