Rockheart nodded and made sure to throw the slackers a well-earned glare of disapproval. “We will be using the introductory settings, so the simulated raiders will be far less intelligent than any dungeoneers you will face in real life. Even Sir Rosencrantz Brandybutter will be that much less clever. Not that he was particularly clever to begin with during his tragic and ill-begotten life.”
Logan turned to Inga. “Wait, I’m sorry. Brandybutter was alive at one point?”
She nodded. “The Apothos of the raiders was collected, enchanted, and turned into simulations. Their classes can be changed, and their stats adjusted at will, but each one is based on a real raider who was unfortunate enough to be captured.”
“So you’re telling me they’re ghosts,” Logan said flatly. “We’ve been fighting ghosts all this time?”
Inga nodded and shushed him, clearly not as interested as she should’ve been.
Rockheart was in full lecture mode now. “Those who do well on the Placement Exam will be rewarded with a draught of Red Lotus Juice.” He revealed a cloudy glass bottle with a flourish. The bottle itself glimmered with ethereal light, and the red liquid within the bottle seemed to burn with pent-up energy.
Inga’s antennae went wild. “That could really help us.”
“I’d rather have beer,” Marko said with a dopey grin.
Rockheart silenced them all with a lingering stare. “Yes, the tincture is powerful, to be certain. But, the benefits of doing well don’t end there. Those with the best scores will get first choice when it comes to picking the actual dungeon used for the Winnowing. The world is a hard and unforgiving place, and Shadowcroft mirrors that reality. Do well and you will get to choose any of the thirteen dungeons on Arborea—the one most favorable to your guardian form. The top scorers will also get extra time—nine hours instead of six to prep those dungeons and to alter them and outfit them in any manner they deem appropriate. And you’d do well to choose wisely since you will be facing real dungeoneers.”
“Did I hear him right?” Logan asked.
“Yes, you heard me right,” the rector prime spat. “We are abducting real dungeoneers as we speak, stolen from across the multiverse... That is what called Shadowcroft away. The Final Exam will be in a real dungeon, with real threats, and there is a good chance if you fail, you will die with a cracked gemstone and your Apothos will be devoured by these supposed heroes, who will return to their various worlds.
“The dungeoneers will be fighting for their lives, not mere simulations of the Cell. As for you, you all will be fighting for your place at this school. Again, you might survive your Final Exam, but if your scores put you at the bottom of your clan, you will not survive the Winnowing.” His eyes shot to the Terrible Twelfth and seemed to linger for a little too long. “Expulsion shall be the reward for your failure and weakness. You will become a wandering monster. You will have no minions, no home, no hope.”
That idea hit Logan hard. Tet-Akhat might be a solitary creature, but he wasn’t. Being alone, without friends, wandering forest paths of some forgotten world, would be hell for him.
He raised his hand.
Rockheart sneered and folded his arms. “Yes, Mr. Murray.”
Logan stood. “I’m assuming Inga and I will be able to take both parts of the Winnowing together.”
Whispers, laughter, and gasps erupted from the student body.
Rockheart hushed them all with a violent look. “That would help you, Fungaloid, but what of Inga? She is a promising dungeon core. Do you even know what you are suggesting?”
Inga stood next to him and grabbed his hand. “I know exactly what Logan is suggesting. We’ve spent the year working together. Yes, I’m a promising dungeon core, but I also know an opportunity when I see one. It would be my honor to throw my fate in with Logan Murray.”
Logan felt a knot of emotion fill his throat.
Chadrigoth burst into laughter and so did the rest of his cronies. All except Tet.
The cat woman merely looked at Logan, shaking her head.
He didn’t care. He nodded at Inga.
“We’ll do this together... if you’re sure.” Inga’s brow furrowed as her antennae shrank and she anxiously bit her bottom lip. “Sometimes I’m not too terribly good on tests. Performance anxiety.”
“Of course we’re going to do this together,” he said, letting confidence fill his voice. It may have been unearned confidence, but he’d learned that one of the most important aspects of leadership was giving people hope. And nothing inspired hope more than confidence.
He did have to wonder what she meant about not taking tests well, though. Would she find the nerve to tell him?
Chapter Twenty-Eight
IT TOOK ANOTHER MONTH for the students to get through all the material in their classes and the teachers to work through the seemingly endless sea of students who needed to take their Placement Exams. The staff ran the Tartarucha Cells twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, to get through the whole school.
For Logan and his friends, it was largely business as usual—cultivating in the Akros Coliseum in the morning, perfecting the Boundless Wheel technique, studying in the Codex Athenaeum at night, and doing their best to survive Rockheart’s Core Calisthenics.
The stony-faced professor had become even more vindictive since their trip to the Slaughter Pits, pushing them to the very limit of their capabilities. Obstacle courses. Duels. New monsters. Even an Inferno pit, designed to roast Logan alive—he had to constantly circulate Apothos along his meridians and through his skin or risk being burnt to a cinder. Yet instead of breaking Logan and the others, it only pushed them to excel. Logan had climbed his way up to Iron Trunk cultivator, Rank 7, and even Marko had reluctantly started to give half a damn.
The satyr still spent far too much time getting blackout drunk with the Gelatinous Knight, but his attitude had shifted since the field trip. Seeing a real dungeon core in action had seemed to spark something in him. Either that, or the fight against the dungeoneers. Either way, he was taking their morning meditation seriously. The Boundless Wheel hadn’t really been working for him, but he’d stumbled upon a different technique called Drunken Master Falls Down Well—not a joke, an actual technique—that seemed to do the trick. Marko was also putting in extra hours at the library and had even started fiddling around with dungeon designs with Professor Arketa.
Logan was feeling better than ever about their chances, both as individuals and as a team.
The opposite seemed to be true for everyone else at Shadowcroft, though.
Once the rest of the first-years started taking their Placement Exams, an air of darkness and stress filled the hallways and dormitories. Even though the weather was warm again—the chill of spring rains turning into the furious blaze of summer sun—everyone was working too hard to really enjoy it. Also, rumors ran rampant. There were stories of dungeon cores who completely failed, botched their Placement Exams so badly they never stood a chance in the upcoming Winnowing. Other gossip told of students who did so well it spelled doom for one cohort or another. It was hard to get to the heart of those rumors, but one thing was certainly true: the standings on the leaderboard seemed to change nightly.