A knock came, just then, and their attention shifted in unison to the door. The door creaked open, revealing the same old academy staff member as before.

He stepped inside, boots thudding against the floor and moved toward the round table with the manner of a man delivering something important.

With a quiet rustle, he placed a single parchment onto the center, just within reach of Yerin, who instinctively leaned forward, her fingertips already brushing the aged, wax-sealed edge.

“This may contain your squad’s instructions,” the old man said, his voice dry and without inflection.

“You may open it now.”

Then he turned, without waiting for questions or reaction, already walking toward the door. At the threshold. Suddenly, he paused, just long enough to toss a glance over his shoulder.

“…Also, good luck.” And with that, he was gone, the door clicking shut behind him, and the quiet that followed felt a shade deeper than before.

Without waiting for anyone to suggest otherwise, Yerin broke the seal with a calm sort of decisiveness.

She unfolded the parchment slowly and carefully. The academy’s emblem, faintly embossed along the inner fold, caught the ceiling lantern light and gleamed.

As she brought out the paper from the parchment, a long pause stretched across the room, almost questioning.

Arlok’s brow furrowed first. “Huh? Is this a joke?” He leaned forward, disbelief plain on his broad face, thick fingers gesturing to the blank page. “There’s nothing on it.”

“…Wait,” Ruvian murmured, not looking at Arlok but at the parchment itself, gaze fixed on it. “Give it a few seconds.”

And then, almost on cue, it began.

Thin tendrils of ink, black as pitch and unnaturally fluid, began to stretch across the page in elegant strokes, as though an invisible quill hovered just above the surface. Gradually, the word slides into existence.

Arlok exhaled a quiet “ohh,” this time softer, the awe replacing the exasperation in his voice, while the others leaned in with hushed wonder, eyes reflecting the glow of shifting letters.

Yerin set the parchment down at the center of the table without a word for everyone to see. Her eyes moved across the text, silent at first, tracking the living ink as it settled.

Then, voice calm and collected, she began to read.

{Arrival Information}

{Current Time: 6:00 AM}

{Expected Arrival: 10:00 AM}

* The forthcoming voyage will extend over a period of approximately four hours. Throughout this interval, all participants are required to remain strictly within the confines of their assigned quarters. This restriction is not a mere courtesy; it represents a binding directive issued under the authority of the academy.

* Any premature attempt to leave these quarters prior to an explicit command from authorized personnel will be formally recorded as a breach of regulation and subject to disciplinary measures, irrespective of the individual’s motive or circumstances. Within the context of this trial, the academy prioritizes adherence to protocol above displays of initiative or defiance. Participants are therefore strongly advised to exercise restraint and patience until further notice is provided.

{Island Grid System Deployment}

* The testing grounds designated for this trial have been organized into a layout, resembling a cartographer’s lattice. This arrangement takes the form of a ten-by-ten coordinate grid etched directly into the landscape. The horizontal axis is denoted by the letters A through J, while the vertical axis is numbered from one to ten, thereby producing a total of one hundred distinct sectors.

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* Of these, only eighty will actively host participating squads, while the remaining twenty have been intentionally left vacant to create additional variables and strategic possibilities during the trial.

* Participants will not approach the island on their own initiative, nor will they disembark at a location of their choosing. As the vessel nears the jagged shoreline, every individual will be blindfolded without exception.

* Transportation to the designated coordinates will occur through advanced spellwork, lifting and depositing each squad into its assigned sector. The process is deliberately concealed to ensure impartiality and to heighten the necessity of adaptation once the trial begins.

{Deployment Coordinates}

* The precise coordinates of each squad’s entry point will not be disclosed in advance. Instead, this information will be revealed exactly one hour before deployment. Until that time, participants are required to remain in a state of readiness.

Yerin remained silent for a few seconds, her gaze still fixed on the parchment as one slender finger tapped against its surface rhythmically. “So even now,” she murmured, not quite asking, “we’ve no real idea where we’ll be placed.”

Her tone suggested an awareness deeper than doubt, as if she had already begun measuring the cost of such randomness in strategies of what was to come.

Arlok, sprawled comfortably in his chair with a posture too loose to belong to someone truly worried, gave a short grunt of amusement, followed by a low, masculine chuckle.

“Sounds fun,” he said, the words rolling off his tongue like someone daring fate to make things worse.

Horren turned toward him with a grimace as if concerned with his confident statement. “You call being tossed into an unknown battlefield with a blindfold over your eyes ‘fun’?” Horren muttered, the words heavy with contempt.

Arlok leaned back. He had seen enough brawls to know panic rarely helped and rarely lasted. “Easy there, Hogen,” he said, flashing a lopsided grin.

“We get serious when serious comes knocking. No point in burning through nerves before we’ve even set foot on land. Let your brain breathe, let the body stay loose. You don’t want to show up to war already strangled by your own tension.”

Then Shima, who had been quiet until then, turned her head slowly, a faint smirk curling at the edge of her mouth.

“Oh, I see,” she said, her tone dry and twice as sharp. “So that’s why you’re so lacking upstairs. You’ve let your brain get a little too loose.”

“Huh?! Hey, what did you just say!?”

“Enough, both of you. Look, there’s more to the instructions,” Yerin said. Her finger drifted toward the lower half of the parchment, and the group’s attention followed.

The ink had continued to darken, revealing the next section, and with each line that formed, the shape of the trial became clearer.

* Each coordinate on the grid represents a distinct domain, functioning as an isolated biome. These areas vary in form, ranging from dense jungles and tangled undergrowth to flowing rivers, cavern networks, barren plains, and other distorted landscapes.

* Movement between these grids requires time, with progress influenced by the difficulty of the terrain. As a result, careful planning is necessary to balance resource collection, the risk of monster encounters, and the possibility of conflict with opposing squads.

Ruvian’s gaze didn’t leave the parchment, though his thoughts were. He already knew most of this. The mechanics, the framework and the drop points of every named character. The parchment served only to confirm what he’d prepared for.

Then, the parchment darkened further as more words were written.

* Voidspawn do not remain at fixed locations. Instead, they move, roam, and continuously shift their nesting grounds as time progresses. Certain zones are expected to exhibit higher concentrations of particular types of creatures. Examples include flying beasts that are more commonly found in elevated highlands, aquatic monsters that dominate the rivers and lakes, while dense forests harbor their own array of predators.

* In addition, the point system governs progression. Participants earn points only through the act of slaying Voidspawn. Upon a successful kill, the creature leaves behind a crystallized remnant known as a Voidshard. These shards must be manually extracted and secured by the squad’s designated Holder in order to be officially counted toward the team’s total score.

——Point System Breakdown——

•Lesser-Rank (Minimal threat, commonly hunted)

Type of Voidshards:

-Green = 10 Points

-Blue = 20 Points

-Red = 30 Points

•Wretched-Rank (Moderate threat, requires skill to defeat)

Type of Voidshards:

-Green = 50 Points

-Blue = 60 Points

-Red = 70 Points

* At present, the most dangerous creatures within the testing grounds are classified as Wretched-Rank. All entities of greater threat have been removed by the academy to ensure that the trial remains within intended parameters. This condition cannot be guaranteed to remain constant.

* Should participants encounter a being of higher classification, the only acceptable course of action is immediate retreat. Engagement is strictly discouraged; hesitation may prove fatal. In such circumstances, survival must be regarded as the highest priority.

PP= 3950

ME= 510