Guardian Of The End

It turned out that Wade indeed knew how to skin a chicken. He didn\'t tell them how he had obtained this skill but it turned out to be helpful for all them.

"Its best for all of us if I do this in seclusion." Wade had said before moving away from the group.

Jason had once seen the worse done in a butcher house. The experience was enough to almost turn him into a vegan.

\'In the mean time, I think its a good idea to test this new string skill.\' Jason silently thought. He went near a thick tree and aimed his hand at the branch.

[ Host, I think you should start small… ] the system worried.

\'I know that I can potentially cut myself but this can help me improve both my healing ability and pain tolerance.\' Jason replied.

He created another string and threw it at the tree. Jason only used his index and middle finger to control the strings but they worked perfectly.

[ Ahem, maybe you should see your hand. ] The system pointed out.

Jason\'s eyes instantly turned to his fingers. He had felt a slightly painful sensation spreading across his fingers.

Though the sensation hadn\'t been painful, the real damage was much worse. His fingers had been cut deeply by the thread whereas the thread had barely dug into the trunk.

At most, the thread had gone 2 cm deeper.

\'This is going to be hard.\' Jason thought while dispelling the thread. He flexed his fingers a bit and let his passive healing do his job.

Simultaneously, Wade returned with the edible portions of the chickens. None of them knew how to cook food but the brown-haired boy looked like he had survived many years out in the wild.

"Light up a small campfire. I will do the rest of the things." Wade instructed.

Though he had the fire element as well, Wade wanted to set up a few things to make sure that the cooking would go smoothly.

Amber took it upon herself to create a stable campfire. She gathered the firewood they had collected and set them up in a way that will allow them to cook the meat.

Wade came back with what looked like a handmade thing to grab and turn the meet. It was basically an extra long stick carved perfectly to hold the chicken.

"You guys can sit back and relax if you want," Wade offered. "Its going to take about fifteen minutes for these to be cooked perfectly."

After hearing his words, Jason and the others decided to do some time pass. All of them tried shooting with their elements, the target being a branch high in the sky.

Jason had huge amounts of practice in this and was easily able to aim at the branch using his lightning element. Amber was able to guide a tiny amount of her fir towards the branch as well.

[ Imagine she looses control and the entire place goes up in fire. ]

\'That\'s not a good thing to imagine though I am sure that Izzy would get us out.\' Jason shrugged.

A wonderful smell soon entered his nostrils. Wade had cooked the chickens perfectly and gestured for them to come and eat the chickens.

"How did you learn all these things?" Mila asked curiously, her teeth biting the chicken.

"I am an orphan and used to go from one orphanage to another. I picked some skills on the way." Wade replied.

The others fell silent. Jason knew that Amber, Zeke and Mila had parents. He and Wade were the only ones who had grown up without any parents.

"I am an orphan too," Jason sighed. "I know how it feels to be alone."

The silver-haired boy couldn\'t help but remember moments from his past life. He hadn\'t specifically said that he was talking about his current life.

Jason had been an orphan on Earth as well. He had still remained an orphan in Clover but he had a family in his second life.

"I just busied myself by learning things that will help me survive in the world. Then all of a sudden, Miss Izzy visited me and asked me whether I wanted to come to this academy." Wade smiled. "And here I am, telling something about myself to others kids."

"Its good to share things with others," Zeke replied. "It makes you feel relieved. I always tell things to my grandpa whenever no one else wants to hear it. He keeps those things secret and even lets me slack off during training time."

"You sure love to slack off and sleep." Amber observed.

"Its just in my nature." Zeke shrugged.

"I would love to slack off and become a cloud," Jason admitted. "Imagine the fun one could have by simply staring at the sky and relaxing."

"Except it would get boring real quick unless you could talk to other clouds." Amber pointed out.

"Then does that mean that male and female clouds exist?" Mila questioned curiously. "If yes, baby clouds must exist as well."

"Baby clouds…" Wade chuckled when he heard the term.

The brown-haired boy had to admit that it was fun to be around other children his age. He had never felt like he had belonged anywhere until that moment.

Perhaps the academy was truly the place for him…

Time continued to pass by in this manner and night soon arrived. All of them went to sleep one last time.

"Wake up, sleepyheads."

The next morning, a sweet voice echoed inside their ears. The children slowly rubbed their eyes and looked around.

Isabella was standing in the middle of their small protection. Her eyes looked proud yet she kept her facial expressions under control.

"Its time for all of you to return. I will give you a detailed analysis on  your first test." Izzy explained before snapping her fingers.

A magic circle suddenly appeared on the ground. The runes ignited together and activated the magic circle in a matter of seconds.

Izzy teleported her children back to the first year arena. Since they had been living out in the wild for an entire week, it was Monday again and it was their turn to use the arena.

All of them woke up soon enough and looked at Izzy with a serious expression. They had done their best to survive in the best and considering their age, they had done a pretty good job.

"First of all, I was the one who had removed the food and water pills to provide you an extra challenge. I have done the same thing previously and those students had ended up fighting amongst themselves." Izzy informed.

\'We were right.\' Jason thought with an inward smile. He and the system had come up with the correct theory.

[ Told you. It was the only reasonable explanation considering that we had counted the pills and no one except you could touch the dagger and access its storage. ]

\'But how did she did it? I thought she wouldn\'t be able to do anything as long as the pills were inside the daggers.\'

[ I have no explanation for that. Ask your teacher about that. ]

"Furthermore, you guys got the food and the fruits which took care of both your nutrition and hydration needs. Jason and Amber, you both fought well. Wade, you were amazing as well." Izzy praised.

The three children felt a sense of pride in this yet Mila and Zeke hadn\'t received any praise.

"As for Zeke and Mila, you both contributed indirectly. You might not realize but the two of you allowed all five of you to communicate with each other." Izzy smiled.

Zeke and Mila exchanged a confused look. Neither of them understood how they had done that but their mood improved.

"Now coming to the main goal of the survival test… teamwork. All of you did the most splendid things possible. Your teamwork was much more than just fighting together and though the time was short, you all bonded a bit."

Izzy let her words sink in while she looked at her children\'s expressions. What all of them had went through would soon be experienced by the remaining classes.

However, all those classes will have the teacher teaching them everything. They will also have an adult living with twenty four seven during their stay in the forest.

Izzy was supposed to do the same thing yet she had convinced Albus to let her class take the test alone.

\'All of you are going to be different than the others, either in a good or bad way. I can\'t don\'t know what the future holds but I can train you to survive this society who\'ll silently mark you all as prodigies aka monsters.\'

Izzy had experienced many kinds of treatment by people in the past. Though she was only twenty two years old, Izzy had experienced more dangerous things than majority of people thrice as old as her.

"Can I ask what we will do next?" Jason curiously asked.

"We will be working on your reflexes and fighting abilities. Those are the only things I am going to teach you in the next twenty days before you have to go for the trial. I hope all of you are ready."

"I don\'t feel like I am ready." Mila admitted the truth.

"Neither do I…" Zeke followed.

The others nodded their heads one after the other.

"That\'s why I am here." Izzy smiled. "Its my job top make sure that you can live through the trial and learn something more than just fighting."

"That being said, congratulations on surviving. I would\'ve given you a break but we are short on time. Go back to your rooms and freshen up. We will meet here in an hour for your reflexes training."