"Where is the school?" Damien said as he leaned over the rail of the ship.

What he saw was not a luxurious school, but a wooden dock with a rickety old shack beside it. The dock was big yet, deserted. Behind the dock was a lush forest painted yellow and dull green. The rest of the obviously vast island was hidden by an unnatural screen of fog.

The huge ship had, by now, considerably slowed down and was slowly drifting towards the dock. A minute later the ship was docked. The gangplank was lowered on the wooden pier.

"Everyone! Assemble near the shack!" A woman in her late teens was standing at the quarterdeck issuing orders. She wore the same clothes as that man Damien had met prior to boarding the ship. Damien deduced that she was probably Kristy whom that man had talked about. She had jet black hair that fell down to her shoulders. On her oval face was a set of almond-shaped eyes. There was an air of indifference around her.

'She looks quite cute', Damien thought. As if she could hear thoughts, she turned a hostile gaze towards him. Damien quickly turned away and followed others down the ship.

After everyone had assembled Kristy and the other man walked towards them and stood in front of the door of the shack.

"Mellow morning everyone!" The man said in a cheerful tone. Kristy, on the other hand, rolled her eyes, 'Here he goes again' she said to herself.

"As you know you all have enrolled in the Hydra Academy of Mages and Magical Research: commonly known as the Hydra Academy."

There was unrest in the crowd. Slowly the whispers were getting louder.

"Who the heck is this person?"

"What a waste of time."

"I would appreciate if you all would remain silent," A terrifying wave of Mana washed over the group of teens, scaring them and causing the buzz to die down immediately. Everyone standing there understood that this man was no joke.

With a smile, he continued.

"Continuing from where we left off; This academy is praised as the best academy in the Black Dragon Empire. You all should be honoured that you all were invited here on this island. To clear your doubts we are, right now, standing on the soil on which this academy is built. As for where the Academy is? It is on the other side of this forest," he pointed to his left at the autumn affected forest.

"If you were obsessed enough to do some research about The Hydra Academy, you would have found out that on an average about 100 people graduate from this Academy. Now here we have," the man spread his arms, "Umm... Around 600 enrolments. And not forgetting other ships we have almost 2300 enrolments. By now you should have realized that with less than 5% graduation rate, Hydra Academy has a knack for expelling students."

The man gave a small chuckle at the fearful faces of the soon-to-be-expelled students.

"I am a third-year student here tasked to oversee your first exam- that is to reach the school gates by tomorrow morning. You have to go through this forest which is infested by herald rank monsters. You will reach a yellow bricked road which will lead you to the school gates which will close tomorrow at 10 o'clock. Failure to do so will result in immediate expulsion. You can fight amongst yourselves and/or make your own groups. Killing each other is not allowed. Also, you will have to use-" the man opened the door of the shack to reveal a pile of different weapons, "- these weapons."

Kristy walked up and said, "No one cares how you do it, but you have to pass the school gates in order to actually enrol in the academy. The catch is you can't have any external help so hand in all your magical enchantments, potions and objects."

A few people unwillingly handed over potions and miscellaneous items.

"I said all!"

And over half the people parted with their magical items.

Damien stood there.

'Okay, what the heck?! Over half the people had their hands on magical potions and items! What do I have?'

Damien looked at his bag which had a few sets of clothes and some paperwork in it.

"So go ahead choose your weapons, your first exam will begin in 30 minutes," said the man as he disappeared with Kristy.

Immediately like a horde of beasts, everybody ran towards the shack. The loss of their enchantments and potions had created a void of insecurity which could only be filled by these weapons. Damien was pushed forward by the crowd's momentum.

Inside the shack, there were a lot of weapons piled up. Damien immediately found a sword of his liking but before he could reach it another youth grabbed it before him.

"Move it maggot!! This is mine", shouted another boy who had a spear in his hand. By this time Damien knew that the weapons here would barely suffice for the large group. By his estimate, there were only 600 weapons and armours.

Damien found another sword with a gold hilt and a small mana engraving on it. As he grabbed it, Damien felt it be unnaturally light. He assumed that it was made of special material. He failed to realize that his passive ability potentia had boosted his pure attributes by almost 40% over the past month. Damien found chainmail and immediately put it on. Then he managed to get out of the cramped shack that, strangely, did not topple.

'We can form our own teams, that's a pretty big advantage but who will form a team with me? Who do I know? Erina? She will right out kill me if I approach her, say nothing about teaming up. Erza? I guess she will do...'

Damien, after some searching, found Erza. She had already formed a group and since he didn't have the time or luxury to choose anyone else, he approached her.

"Hey, Erza! Can I join you?" he addressed her with a smile.

"Oh! Damien," Erza, "Sure, In fact, I was looking for you."

"Is that so?" Damien laughed but inward he breathed a sigh of relief.

"Damien come here let me introduce you to our members", Erza took Damien towards a red-headed girl with red eyes and very pale skin.

Her long light red hair went down to her waist with split bangs that reach her chest. She had a round face and thin blood-red lips. Her small nose made her look all the more adorable. She had a slender yet well-endowed body whose height rivalled that of Damien. She was wearing a grey long skirt with a black blouse. In her frail looking hands were two bronze daggers with mana engraving. Damien from just one glance knew she was a vampire. He had read a lot about them. And this one had a threatening atmosphere around her.

"This is Maria Alfonsi she is from the Bloodhaven empire but her father is a Count working under Marquis Alexander," after being introduced Maria gave a slight nod to Damien whilst he introduced himself.

"Nice to meet you black hair boy," she said with an expressionless face while her eyes examined Damien's neck.

"Likewise," he replied. Damien thought, 'I should make a mental note to not sleep anywhere within a radius of 30 metres around her.'

"Next we have Julie Eastwood she is from Black Dragon Empire as well her father is a knight in the imperial army", introduced Erza.

Julie was a merry black haired girl. She had sparkling eyes and a cheerful smile on an oval face. She was, to Damien's relief, shorter than him. Julie wore a green shirt with a shorter brown skirt. Dark brown stockings covered her legs.

As for defensive equipment, Damien noticed the petite girl was wearing just a leather armour on her chest, then he noticed the bow and quiver in her hands, 'she is an archer'. Her arrows also had the same mana engraving.

"Finally we have Eric, he is our heavy hitter as you can see from his axe and combined with you Damien we have a pretty solid offence!"

He was a tall handsome teen with short spiked black hair and dark blue eyes. He had rolled up the sleeves of his white shirt. Damien could see that he was wearing chainmail underneath his shirt. He wore blue trousers with a brown belt that had a dagger strapped to it.

Eric was swinging his double-headed battleaxe around to get accustomed to it. He didn't even bat an eye towards him. However, he gave Damien the same feeling his father did which was quite relaxing.

"Everyone this is Damien, he is the one with the SS class ability," these words caused the trio to stop what they were doing and turn their attention towards Damien. Their faces meant business. They inspected him with curious eyes.

"Woah Man! What does your ability do?" asked Eric as he leaned in towards Damien.

"Interesting," whispered Maria as she scanned him once again.

"Uh, it kinda strengths me over time," Damien took a step back hiding his discomfort.

"Ah, a passive one it is? Sadly mine is an active one which I can only use when I become a Neomage," he made a thoughtful expression.

After greeting everybody, he noticed that all weapons had the same engraving. He did not know why it was so. It probably was a locator spell? Well, it was just a guess, right now he had to focus on the exam.

"All right we gave you your 30 minutes now get to work," Kristy's voice seemed to come from nowhere but, everyone could hear it.

"THE ENROLMENT EXAMS ARE NOW DECLARED OPEN!"

With that announcement, everyone ran into the forest.

***

"Another one!?" Damien cursed. This was their sixth encounter with a herald ranked beast.

This time it was a Dual-Headed Claw Serpent.

Claw Serpents were a species of snakes which had one to three pairs of claws present under their belly. They were quick, venomous and were expert at an ambush. Their sharp steel like claws could rip leather armour to shreds. And this one had two heads which made things even worse.

Why had this 5 meters long, yellow-green predator which had one pair of sharp claws and two long necks splitting out on the same end, not ambushed them? Well, it was because of a stray arrow from Julie hit this one in the eye. So that arrow was still sticking out of one of its eye, while its heads thrashed around in pain.

Damien dodged the sprays of neon green blood which would make anyone think- 'This thing is totally corrosive.'

"Julie fire more arrows! Eric come with me for a follow-up attack! Erza, Maria take the sides," Damien lunged at the serpent as he issued orders.

Unsociable as he was, dire situations tend to change people.

Everyone followed Damien's lead.

Two arrows flew in the air and hit the snake at the base of its necks. The other head hissed and bared its long fangs against approaching Damien. Damien jumped and slashed vertically. One of the serpents heads bent low and struck from underneath. Damien had predicted this, so he used his sword to block the one coming from below by swinging it downwards while he used his other hand to grab the arrow lodged in the other's eye socket.

He yanked it off resulting in a splash of neon blood on his metal chainmail.

The snake's head which was blinded roared in pain as it lashed out at Damien.

The other head of the snake tried to catch off guard but failed to notice that Eric was about to strike with this axe. Ezra took this chance and aimed at that head with her spear.

A moment later, one head of that snake fell down with a thump. Not to forget the miraculous amount of blood that formed a small puddle on the ground was still gushing out of the served neck.

The other one-eyed head could not help but go berserk due to the pain. It randomly released Mana attacks which were easily dodged by Damien and co.

"Be kind, kill him," muttered Maria.

"Stay wary of the blood," said Julie. "I have a feeling it isn't neon for nothing."

"You are-" Damien dodged a Mana attack "-quite right."

Damien took off his shirt and chainmail which had started to hiss and threw it away.

"I guess it is kinda acidic," said Damien as he wiped his body with a clean part of his shirt.

His trousers and belt, however, had but one stain of that blood which he hastily wiped off.

He could not help but sigh at the fact that his pocket was burned through.

He realized that he was standing shirtless and exposing his pale skinny body to everyone.

"Gotta say, Damien, those muscles are shaping up," laughed Eric.

"Umm, I guess I can cover myself with that snake's hide," said Damien

"Eric dodge!" screamed Julie.

Eric managed to defend against the blow but that dual-headed claw serpent's momentum was enough to send him flying. He landed two metres back and rolled once before getting back on foot.

"Crap," Damien cursed under his breath as he was forced to back off against the continuous assault of the snake.

"Julie arrows!" Shouted Erza as she tried to help Damien before he succumbed to the vicious strikes.

"I am running out of them," she replied.

"I told you all to end it's suffering quickly," said Maria from the side.

"We will have to resort to Mana attacks if it continues on!" Said Julie.

"No, not until the end game, we still have a mile to cover," retorted Damien as he struggled to keep up with the monster.

This was a beast that was driven to the corner. It was at a point where it did not care for its own life but only lived to hurt or kill it's enemy- to say it was something short of a mindless monster would be an understatement.

"Eric strike now!" Damien cried out as he leapt back with Erza. Both of the crouched down.

"Arrrrrrgh!" Eric bellowed as he threw his axe with full power. The Serpent was unable to see Eric because an arrow had pieced that eye. When it heard the sound and leaned back to see what was coming to it. Whether by luck or by calculation, because the serpent leaned back, it came in the path of the axe's trajectory. That being said, it was obvious that it was the final nail on the serpent's hypothetical coffin. The 'nail' however did not kill it immediately but was stuck in the snake's neck offering it yet more suffering.

"Kill it already," sighed Maria.

Damien jumped and sliced the snake's neck this time killing it.

"Too many monsters," Damien used his shirt that was lying at distance to wipe his sword. It was unfortunate that the sword was slightly eaten up by its corrosive blood.

"Hey Damien, can you lend me your shirt? I need to clean my axe," said Eric.

"I need to clean my spear."

"I need to clean my arrows."

Damien made a poker face, "Seriously?"

"Yes!" the three said in unison.

He sighed and threw the shirt to Eric. Damien was reminded of the season of autumn when a chilly wind made him shiver. He hurriedly picked up the corpse of that snake and tried to speed up the draining of blood. He then took out a short knife and started dismantling the corpse.

After an hour of dismantling, the end products were- four thin makeshift daggers constructed from the fangs of the snake, eight thicker daggers made from its claws and one Damien wrapped in snakeskin.

"Kinda weird but will do for now," he gave a dejected sigh. That is all he could do- cut out two sides of a shirt from the corpse and tie them with the sleeves of his former shirt.

"Let's keep moving then," said Damien.

***

It was night, the moon was absent from the sky so the eerie forest bathed in starlight.

In a certain part of this forest, two boys and three girls were sitting around a bonfire. A thick slice of meat was being roasted above it.

"I am thirsty," groaned Erza.

"Aren't we all," Damien stretched his body.

"There are no water resources around here," said Eric, "I had scouted in a radius of 200 metres."

"Let's eat and keep moving, we can not afford to sleep lest we show up late," said Maria.

After twenty minutes or so the group resumed their journey. A little more than a quarter mile was left. They would have easily transversed it in a few minutes had it not been for the thick vegetation and a beast showing up every thirty metres.

"Fellas, I think something is wrong," said Eric as he moved through the thick tree trunks.

"What's the matter?"

"We have already travelled about two hundred and fifty metres, yet we did not meet any beast."

"You all should see this," came Damien's voice from the front as he stopped in his tracks.

The ones following behind leaned over his shoulder to see a wide clearing, devoid of grass. In the centre of this clearing lay a black giant snake several dozen metres long and as thick as the tree trunks beside Damien.

"E-Everyone," came Julie's shaking voice, "I think we are surrounded."

They looked up to see smaller yet similar black snakes coiling on the tree branches and while some were dropping down. Softs hisses surrounded them.

"Okay people," said Damien as he drew his sword and makeshift dagger."I am sorry, I can't find a cool line..."

"How about, 'Who is down for some snake leather'?" said Eric.

"L.A.M.E.," said Maria.

"Oh! I know 'This is it'!" exclaimed Erza which made snakes direct more hostility to their group.

"'Who wants snake kebabs?'"

"Eww, not me."

"Do they exist?"

"Guys, GUYS! Let's focus on this scaly issue first," said Damien.

"Lame line," snapped Maria, "You should feel bad for making it."

"Uh yeah never mind," said Damien while the snakes got dangerously close. The bigger snake raised its head to see the intruders. It hissed towards them.

"Let's go hacky-slashy with their leader first," said Damien as his troupe rushed towards the Big Black Snake.