Chapter 30: Another Near Death Experience.
Meanwhile, completely oblivious to the heated discussion happening behind him, Ethan finally crossed the last section of glowing threads before stumbling out of the obstacle with an exhausted breath.
"Haa..."
"Haa..."
He bent over slightly, resting both hands on his knees while greedily drawing in air.
"Okay..."
"That definitely wasn’t as easy as I thought."
He let out a helpless laugh before wiping the sweat from his forehead.
His original plan had almost backfired spectacularly.
Towards the end of the second obstacle course, his spiritual sword touched one of the zapping threads, an intense electric current had surged straight through the blade and into his body. Even though the handle itself wasn’t metallic, the condensed spiritual energy had acted as a perfect conductor, shocking him so badly that he had nearly lost control on the spot.
Left with no other choice, Ethan had immediately abandoned the sword and painstakingly reshaped his spiritual energy into a much thinner probing strand. The process had been far more difficult, especially since he had only recently learned basic spiritual energy manipulation from the Guide practice classes he had managed to stay awake through whenever he wasn’t secretly sleeping in the back of the classroom.
Thankfully...
It had worked.
Barely. And he was now standing at the starting point of the last obstacle course.
At this point, Ethan wasn’t even thinking about the countdown timer anymore.
All he wanted was to finish this stupid course as soon as possible, proceed to his rank evaluation, and finally get the rest his poor body had been desperately begging for.
Although...
The thought of that evaluation still made his heart tighten. Because even now...
He still had absolutely no idea what rank he had become.
Or worse...
Whether he had ranked up at all.
What if...
After everything he had suffered...
He was still...
Just an F-Rank Guide?
He forced himself to get rid of those distracting thoughts from his head. As he stared at the course ahead.
Well, Ethan... you’ve already come this far.
This is the last obstacle.
What could possibly happen?
The moment that thought crossed his mind, Ethan stared at the course ahead and immediately found countless answers to his own question.
Apparently...
Quite a lot could happen.
He could misjudge a jump and fall straight off one of the gravity pillars, earning himself a concussion that might keep him bedridden for weeks... or even months if fate decided to be particularly cruel today. Worse still, if he landed on the wrong gravity pillar at the wrong moment, the altered gravity could slam him directly onto the scorching metal platform beneath the pillars, where the heat alone looked capable of burning him badly.
"..."
He was honestly beginning to question whether this academy was secretly trying to reduce its student population.
Seriously...
How had he managed to survive all the way to the final obstacle?
What unsettled Ethan even more was the realization that this was only the first semester assessment. If this was what they considered an introductory examination, then what kind of nightmare were the later assessments going to be?
Forget graduating...
I’d be lucky if I survived until next semester.
Despite the endless complaints running through his head, Ethan forced himself to focus. Rushing in blindly had never been his style, especially not after everything he had endured to reach this point.
Instead, he quietly stood to one side and carefully observed the students currently attempting the obstacle.
The course consisted of dozens of towering pillars suspended above the heated platform below. Every pillar was painted either black or white, and after watching for a while, Ethan noticed a pattern.
One color generated overwhelming gravity that dragged students downward with terrifying force.
The other produced the opposite effect, making students so light that even the slightest push threatened to send them flying off balance.
Interesting...
He already had a rough idea.
Unlike the heavily built Sentinels, Ethan’s body was relatively light. Trying to force his way across the high-gravity pillars would only crush his stamina and slow him down tremendously. If his assumptions were correct, then his safest route would be the low-gravity pillars.
Now...
He simply had to determine which color represented which effect.
His eyes followed one student after another.
One landed confidently on a black pillar before immediately dropping to one knee under the crushing pressure.
Another accidentally stepped onto a white pillar and nearly floated sideways before barely catching the next platform.
"Shit!"
The third wasn’t so fortunate.
The poor student completely lost his footing and was flung off the course with a horrified scream before landing on the heated platform below, where instructors immediately rushed over to retrieve him.
Ethan subconsciously swallowed.
"...Noted."
A few moments later, a faint smile appeared on his face.
He had figured it out.
Without wasting another second, Ethan stepped forward and officially entered the final obstacle.
The first few jumps went exactly as he expected.
Landing on the white pillars made his body incredibly light, almost as though gravity itself had forgotten he existed. Every leap carried him farther than normal, forcing him to carefully adjust his balance in midair before landing on the next pillar.
It wasn’t easy.
If anything, it was terrifying.
One wrong movement and he’d overshoot the next platform entirely. Halfway through the course, his calculations were suddenly thrown into chaos.
The pillar beneath his feet shifted.
"What the—"
The gentle pull vanished without warning.
A crushing force slammed into his body instead.
Ethan’s eyes widened.
"So they change?!"
His legs buckled instantly as the sudden increase in gravity nearly drove him flat against the pillar. Before he could fully recover, the next pillar had already switched as well.
"Damn it!"
Thinking quickly, Ethan circulated spiritual energy through his legs at the last possible moment before launching himself toward the nearest white pillar.
His foot barely caught the edge.
For one horrifying second, half his body hung over the scorching platform below.
Heat surged upward, making his face pale.
"Nope!"
"I refuse to die like this!"