Twin Reincarnation: Epics Of The Worldline-Chapter 333 Midterms (3)

[Lucy’s POV: ]

[Time’s up.]

[All papers will be collected and the environment will be released.]

[The practical testing will start as soon as the individuals are on the field.]

-Oooooooooooooong!

The moment the timer on the clock hit all zeros, the papers present in this special space we were in vanished from this room and the entire special worlds around us, the sunset scenery before me, started vanishing into white particles...

A new world was opening up before me, and the rest of the students must be experiencing the same thing right now.

"It’s been a while..."

I was in the middle of a forest, surrounded by tall magical trees, a canopy of greenery above my head giving way to the droplets of sunlight that washed me down in its wake.

The area I had ended up in was the very middle of this island that contained various kinds of natural as well as artificial environments and this place itself was something I was familiar with already.

[ "Area 3. You?" ]

[ "Six. I’m in the mountains. It seems we will have to work separately this time. Haaa..." ]

There were a lot of places in this place, on this island.

Places like volcanic regions, grasslands, open areas, a desert on one side, a clear beach on the other, icy mountains and even forest regions like the one I was in.

Everyone was transported to random locations and there was always a chance that the students might encounter one another so, their locations were mostly far away from each other to make the chance of their encounter as low as possible.

But still, however big the island might be, it was possible for two students to meet each other.

And when that happens, the academy makes sure that the tests that they face along the way are something that tests their abilities in a harsher manner.

"Though, the common rules weren’t going to apply in this situation."

There was a threat looming over our heads and the practical tests that the headmaster might have prepared for us might be more difficult than dealing with the demonic humans.

We didn’t know that, so we first had to gather as many of those rocks as we can before getting the action started, however, before that...

"Open system surveillance."

[Surveillance function request received. Checking for clearance.]

[Special clearance detected. Permission observed.]

[Opening system interface.]

Tens of green screens opposed up all around me and I was now able to see everything that was moving on this island.

"This thing makes the task easier."

The entire surveillance system that the judges were using was now also available to the two of us thanks to the special clearance we had. It made things easier, and not only was it possible to find the demonic cultists thanks to this, it was also possible to locate the hidden rocks that we were supposed to collect.

"Hmmm..."

And, this was something only we knew about as of now, but the students will find out soon that each of the pyramidal rocks that we were supposed to collect were different.

[ "I’ll collect these things on my end and you do the same on your side. Keep watching out for those bastards... I saw some distortion in barrier on the northern end, so check it as well please." ]

[ "North... hmmm. Oh? Wait... damn. Ohhh! Would you look at them~?" ]

I had only moved a few steps when she suddenly started laughing out of the blue.

[ "What happened?" ]

The sarcastic laugh was all familiar to me already so there was no need for me to even ask just why she was laughing like that in the first place.

[ "Change the filter. Look at the four cardinal directions. Look at the centre points where the barriers are crossing." ]

She saw something that made her laugh like that, and knowing her, it wasn’t going to be anything good.

"The four directions..."

It was concerning so I quickly changed the filter she was talking about and looked back at the screens from a different angle... but, everything was still the same.

[ "There’s nothing?" ]

[ "Exactly." ]

[ "What?" ]

There was nothing over there and it was good enough to make her laugh like that? What exactly am I missing here?

[ "Haha, dummy. Refresh your memories. Remember what happens when various elemental barriers of higher order intersect." ]

[ "...they release excess energy? But how is that... oh. I see what you mean." ]

[ "Slow dimwit, ptff." ]

There were multiple barriers present around the island that were not only protecting it from the outside world, it was also a defence line against the outside forces. 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

And there were a number of these barriers surrounding the island.

’They were higher grade protective mechanisms, and they were of different kinds so it was a natural thing that whenever various barriers like these exist together, they release the extra energy that they build up during the Mana conversion process.’

The released energy either gets circulated back into the spell system by an external mechanism, or in some cases, they just let it be and the released energy is released freely.

And the barriers around this island were of the later category where the spells released the energy freely which, on the filter that we were using right now, looked something unique.

[ "They are using a powerful illusion, hun?" ]

[ "They are already inside, yes. Perhaps they had infiltrated a while ago." ]

Only the students were allowed in this space for a better examination process so not even the teachers themselves came here if possible.

The island itself was mostly empty and since the headmaster had no need to check up on it, he might not have cleaned them up even if they were here for a while now.

’The barriers that should have been releasing energy continuously weren’t active at all. There was no sign of active Mana fluctuations and everything looked too normal even though it wasn’t supposed to.’

It wasn’t a malfunction in the surveillance system as these things were part of the system and were untouchable, so it meant there was something that made those place look like they were at the moment.

[ "Three days max. They shouldn’t have been here for more than a few days since the island was cleaned up for the exams a week before.

They might have known about the working of the islands, but they underestimated the functionality of the surveillance system." ]

They were using a great illusion magic to make it look like the barriers were all fine and that there was nothing wrong with anything.

[ "Found them. Lol... they look tough as well." ]

Everything was pretty normal and the teachers that were looking at all of this, the individuals busy with looking after the students wouldn’t ever notice the fact that there would be someone dumb enough to try something like this.

[ "They are good, man..." ]

Their movements were stealthy and they were not doing anything to reveal even their shadows.

[ "Highly trained assassins and combat troops... they aren’t just some countryside demonic humans. They are the real deal." ]

These individuals that we were no seeing on the screens were spread out all throughout the island already and even though they were in the areas around the students, they were avoiding interacting with anything and anyone if possible.

[ "Hehehe. Do you see what they are trying right now?" ]

They weren’t here for just a mindless massacre.

They would have begun that already if they were after dumb things like that.

[ "They are drawing a magic circle." ]

They were elites that were highly trained for covert operations and right now, they were creating a magic circle throughout the island using their unique artifacts that were undetectable to the system we were using right now.

[ "They are going to be a real challenge, El." ]

These bastards were the real deal, not something like that pig bastard we killed when we were kids.

They knew how to conceal and control their demonic powers well, they knew how to use their enhanced physical and magical powers to their advantage, and they also had support of some experienced individuals.

’As we could see on the surveillance, they possessed costly artifacts that are difficult to get from a low ranking dimensional merchant.’

They much meant whoever was backing them, was capable enough to use a hundred plus units of artifacts just to deal with some kids of a backward world.

[ "Hey, Lucy bastard. Let’s kill them properly this time." ]

[ "You just stole the words from my mouth, El. I was going to say the same... just reselling those things will be around a few hundred thousand Oz. And then there’s their hearts as well." ]

[ "Hehehe~. I want them to be contracted with higher nobles~. It will be fun!" ]

She liked their approach at the initial infiltration.

She had already figured out they were using a costly artifact that cost a fortune to maintain that kind of illusion, and they were taking a risk by coming into the territory of an offspring.

Their movements were seamless and even though they passed through the terrain covertly, since they had their unique artifacts, even system detection wasn’t picking them up.

’They were good at this... so much so that one might even think that this wasn’t their first time doing something like this.’

But the two of us can tell since we had experience fighting even the highest grade demonic contractors...

[ "Alright then, let’s do this~." ]

They were most probably contracted with multiple demon nobles under a certain demon faction and were trained by an apostle of a high ranking demon.

They might have been together for a while and perhaps have completed certain missions until now, but, that wasn’t going to be enough to deal with us... as well as the rest of them.