The instructor tossed the core in the air and then snatched it with his hands.

The instructor had a grin that Max didn’t like. It reminded him of the sadistic looks Sakura gave him during training exercises.

“That concludes the lecture part of today’s lessons,” he said. “But now, there’s one last test.”

28

“Today’s last assignment,” said the instructor, “is to collect four monster cores and then meet me back at the arrival teleporter.”

The instructor then looked down at his watch. “You have until the end of the day, or roughly, three hours. If I have to come looking for you, you’ve failed the test and will have a significant deduction in points. Trust me—you don’t want to lose points. It will matter in the final exam. That is, if you even live through today’s test.”

Before any of the students could ask a follow-up question or berate the instructor for his extreme teaching style, he vanished.

“That teacher is crazy,” said one student. “He should be arrested.”

Max ignored the naysayers and tried to pay attention to the other more knowledgeable students to see how they were going about the test.

The most confident climbers turned away from the group and marched off into the woods. Cyrus and his thugs left together in their own direction as well.

Max considered the parameters of the test. Each student needed to collect four monster cores. This was a difficult task because climbers at their level could only use their trait three times before needing a significant break. Three wasn’t the daily limit, but you didn’t want any dead time in a pressurized time test. That meant you either had to be so efficient with your trait that you could defeat two monsters with one attack or you had to team up with others. Perhaps that was even the secret point to the whole test. Evaluate the assignment and figure out the most efficient way to get it done.

Max grinned. He was going to crush this test. He looked around to see if there were any super powerful students he could team up with when a girl with bright green eyes stood right in front of him, blocking his vision.

“Want to partner up!?” said Casey.

Max looked over the pretty girl’s shoulder and saw that most of the students had already disappeared on their hunts for monster cores.

“Sure,” he said.

“Hurray,” the girl cheered. “Honestly, I felt like I had to do you the favor. You wouldn’t get far with a weak trait like slice during this test.”

Max looked at her dumbfounded. He thought he was doing her the favor, but he would keep that to himself.

“Okay,” he said. “Step one. Let’s go over our abilities and figure out how we can best complement each other’s powers.”