A purple ring-shaped crack tore apart the very sky on gate 28B. The portal with purple streaks of mana crackling out like sparks of electricity stood tall in gate 28B of the Ternet Portal Station, reaching up to an enormous 5 meters in height. An attendant pointed her hands toward the portal and asked me to step inside with no one else around.

I quietly walked through the portal. Just like crossing over from one room to another, I stepped in from one end and appeared on the other end of the portal. But, the world around me had changed. The dome of the station was much smaller than the one I had just been in. What should have been glass panes on the left and right were now a completely different building.

"Welcome to Agriche City," the attendant on this side of the portal said. "Are you here for the entrance examinations as well?"

"Yes, that would be correct."

"Please join the other two students over there." The attendant pointed at a seating spot a bit further away from the portal. "You will be guided ahead by a teacher from Agriche."

I nodded and walked over to the metal seats. The two other students from Ternet going to Agriche were seated there. A young blonde girl with ringlet curls at the tips of her long hair that reacher her waist sat with her legs crossed and eyes closed tight. She wore a pink dress with her arms on the top of her long skirt.

Skipping a seat next to her. A young lizardkin with green scales all over his body sat with his arms crossed and eyes similarly closed, seemingly deep in thought. The lizard-kin had thick and short limbs with a heavy tail extending all the way to the ground from his unusually long body. The sight of a lizardkin was rare enough to surprise one, but I was much more surprised by what was on its head.

{That's a cauldron, right?}

It was. It was a cauldron covering the tip of his forehead.

{The one they use to cook, right?}

I pursed my lips and walked past the two of them. Skipping one seat, I too sat down next to the two of them.

"Nice hat, buddy," I said. Not looking at the lizard.

"Thank you." The lizardkin turned to me with a wide smile on his face. His voice was strangely chirpy with the ends of his words elongated like a narrator for a kid's TV show. "Name's Cauldron!" he said, extending one of his arms towards me.

"Y-you've named the hat..." I remarked, meeting his handshake awkwardly.

"No, friend! Cauldron is my name."

"Pfft."

A giggle rang out from next to us. I and Cauldron turned our heads to his side to see the ringlet curls lady snort before covering her face and crossing her legs again.

Cauldron shrugged and I did so too. "I'm Ralph Rubinstein, nice to meet you, Cauldron."

"Oooh!" Cauldron's eyes sparkled and he bobbed his head ahead, causing the cauldron on his head to cover his sight. Cauldron moved the Cauldron and smiled again.

{This is so fucking confusing!}

System spoke out the words of my heart at the perfect time.

We waited like that for a few seconds before Cauldron broke the silence again. "I'm nervous," he said.

"Don't worry too much." This time, it was the ringlet curl girl who answered. She still sat in the same noble way as before without looking at the two of us, but this time her eyes were open. "Though we can't predict what form it will assume this year, the exams have a history of adjusting its difficulty for each student."

"Oh, is that so?" Cauldron looked at me for reaffirmation.

I nodded. "Just be careful, the exams also have a history of trying to measure your mental fortitude and ability to handle unexpected situations a tad more than your skills."

The ringlet curls girl turned towards me this time. It seems she was surprised to see someone else having researched the past exams.

"You guys have studied a lot about previous exams, now I'm even more nervous!"

"Pfft."

The girl laughed again before covering her mouth and averting her gaze. "I'm Florris Yergsil," she said.

"I'm Cauldron! This guy is Ralph!"

"Yeah." Florris kept her gaze away from the overtly cheerful Cauldron. The sight of a new group of friends coming together made me giggle a little.

After that, Cauldron kept bringing up strange topics to converse on from QuackDonalds to different Anime shows on air. Florris tried to stay away from the conversation, but when Cauldron called her out on her attempts the two of them went back and forth while I laughed from the sides. Soon enough, a person with an ID hung around his neck came to us.

"Are you the prospective students for Agriche Academy?"

"Yes, we are from Ternet."

"Great, follow me. You'll be taken to the examination site."

The man guided us through the Portal Station. We passed by the exits and continued on to the other end of the station. Soon, we reached a much smaller portal with complete darkness on its other side in a far-off gate in the Portal Station.

"Go inside. This portal opens up to the exam site," the man said. "I wish you the best of luck."

With that, Cauldron nodded and walked into the portal. His body disappeared into the darkness and Cauldron was gone from our sights. Florris gave me a nod before going in as well.

Taking in a deep breath, I followed behind at the end and walked into the portal.

***

The world of darkness covered my senses.

And then, a breeze climbed up my feet and pushed back my hair.

With a blink, the darkness was replaced by the bright blue sky and the drifting white clouds. I felt like I could almost touch the clouds if I reached out just a little bit.

{HOST!!}

The system's window snapped me out of my trance as the breeze grew stronger. My mouth and eyes were pushed back as I started falling from the sky. All around me, dozens of people were falling down in similar ways with the ends of many small portals right above us.

"FUCK!"

"AAA!"

Barely audible screams rang out from the falling children as we reached closer and closer to the giant island below us each second. A volcano with streams of lava covered the eastern end of the island while a thick rainforest rested on the northern end! A hilly blizzard streamed down in the south and an unending desert was in the north. At the center of the place was a small dome-shaped building.

It was different. It was different than everything I had read up on.

I kept looking around to see people start dealing with the issue. Some gathered together to create a shockwave on the ground while some used flames or winds to propel themselves, some even used the terrain below to their advantage commanding the ground or the snow to cushion their falls. All the talents from all over the world began their measures to overtake even this situation.

{Host! That guy over there!}

I flipped my falling body to the side to see one guy use a skill. Feathers came rushing out of her back as a pair of wings was formed on his back.

I could use him!

"[Wind Magic: Gust(E-)]"

A wave of wind shot from my left palm and propelled me toward the winged guy and another shot out from my right to push the winged guy a bit further from me.

{What are you doing?!}

Right then, the guy lost his balance and was pushed by the wind. A cloud was passing right over his head and he fell under its shadow. Now!

"[Dark Dissolve (E-)]"

I used one of my four dark awakening skills on the winged person. Underneath the shadow of the giant cloud, he disappeared from everyone's sight. Everyone except mine!

Using another wind gust, I rushed toward the guy and grabbed the back of his shirt with one hand. Before he could react, I swung my feet over his back and sat on top of him.

"What is— MMF!"

I covered his mouth with my other hand and settled on my ride. "[Dark Dissolve (E-)] [Dark Dismiss (E-)]" With the skills active on me as well, I had disappeared under the shadow of the clouds too and got rid of any sounds both of us made.

"Shut up." I leaned in on his ears and said. "I'm hitching a ride, flappy bird."

"Fuck, get off! I can't fly like this!" the guy screamed back.

"Floating will do too, get me to the ground. You don't have a choice, by the way."

Flappy bird's wings were struggling to hold the air and had stopped flying, he could still float though. We glided through the air at a much tamer pace than before and dropped down towards the Island. I pulled his hair and had him take us down to the rainforest on the ground.

"What? My wings will tear!"

"Manage."

"Fuck you!"

Soon, we came right above the leaves of the trees. I slowly stood up on his back and before we could crash against the trees, I kicked myself off his back and jumped down to the ground.

I passed through the cover of the leaves and hard branches before landing on the ground on my feet.

-THUD!

A crashing sound rang behind me as Flappy Bird smashed his face against the ground as well.

"You alright?" I asked. Before he could look up and answer, though, a deep voice spread into the air.

"AHEM! Hello and welcome, prospective students of the Agriche Academy. I am Professor Don Broscious. A teacher of Dungeon Expedition, and your Chief Examiner today!"

The calm and teasing tone spread all over the Island as all the examinees looked at the sky.

"Now, now you all must be surprised." Professor Broscious said and then imitated a high-pitched voice. "'how can they drop us like that?!'" Giving out a giggle for his own joke, the Professor Broscious coughed and then spoke normally again.

"Like every year, this time too, you are being tested in the Dream Gate that opens once every year, here in Agriche City. No matter what happens, you won't die in here and your injuries in the gate won't reflect outside the dungeon. With the help of a few kind researchers, we managed to open artificial portals into the Dream Gate and decided to drop you in directly without bothering to measure your skills, just for fun. HAHAHAHA!"

{This fucker is really enjoying this}

"Whew well. Like always, the entrance exams will decide which of the 3500 of you belong to the top 1600, and Agriche . You will be scored and ranked by our computers and of course, this exam is being televised all over Agriche City. Guild masters and talent scouts are waiting to sponsor you! There are also people waiting for you to suffer with beers in their hands, so put on a good show for us, ok? I've also put money on a few of you! AHAHAH!"

Wait! What are the conditions? What is the objective for victory? I was about to scream those words out loud when he continued.

"Right! The objective of the exams. Well, figure it out yourselves. You'll be in there for the next two days so you've got time. Ok now, bye, for reals! Ciao! Adios!"

A sigh escaped me as I brushed the dirt off of my hands. Coming in the top hundred was not something I wanted to do, so I had to be careful. Moreover, the barrage of spells had almost emptied my mana. I could recharge on time while fighting physically, but I had bottomed it this time, so recovery would take a while.

I walked ahead and stretched my hand toward the Flappy Bird. He grabbed it and lifted himself up, his eyes full of scorn. It looked like he would blow up on me, but I waved my hands.

"Save it for later... The Entrance Exams have already begun."