The extra is a fox eyed jester-Chapter 50: Exams II

’Mortal, stop here.’ Akathartos commanded.

Azazel looked around.

He stood above a cave carved into the cliffside of the mountain where the Forest of the Damned rested.

He had no doubt the dean and the spectators were somehow watching but he had specifically avoided fights for that very reason since he knew if he remained passive, the spotlight would be given to someone else.

Although he had a feeling that the dean would keep an eye on him due to his eccentric behavior, he didn’t worry too much.

There was nothing a well-crafted bullshit couldn’t solve.

Also he had made sure his entrance to the cave was something anyone would miss if they weren’t actively paying attention.

Strangely enough or perhaps not too strange, the cave had been covered with an illusive layer, a rather complex one.

He was only able to get in because he could see through the illusion due to the effect of his exclusive class passive skill.

He just needed to close his eyes and perceive the weave beneath the illusion.

The next thing he did was mark a silver coin.

He had stopped using gold simply because using a coin the worth of an average man’s yearly salary didn’t sit right with him.

Though the higher the currency the more mana it could hold but silver worked just fine.

After marking the coin he tossed it off the cliff, then used influence on it, directing it towards the entrance of the cave.

After doing that, he left.

He needed to hunt after all, he didn’t know how long it would take to bond with a legendary grade creature and he wasn’t about to forfeit the chance to enter the S-class.

The exams had mentioned eliminating a candidate as the criteria to getting points and thankfully, he didn’t have to actively engage in fights.

Because the one time he needed his card to give him a good class it gave him a marksman, in a battle Royale. A marksman!

Sighing at the weapon within his grasp—a revolver—he clicked his tongue with disappointment.

He wanted to show everyone what the useless son of the Astavores’ was capable of.

Now he was stuck playing coward.

But that was fine, it was very fine in fact.

Azazel was never the type to embrace things the hard way, anything that promised stress was something he would avoid or procrastinate if it wasn’t really urgent.

Patience was a virtue and that he had.

So he claimed the top of a tall tree, close to an open space which promised chaos but far enough not to get spotted.

Soon enough just as he predicted a group of people encountered another, and just like that, conflict began to brew.

However...

What fun was it if they were still playing gangs?

So Azazel had gracefully fanned the flames to burn with intense fervor.

A little use of influence here and there, an ally ’accidentally’ stabs his teammate with a weapon and another does the same, similarly on the other group Azazel had made sure they had their share of the pie.

That little gesture was enough for them to start fighting and Azazel? He reveled in the chaos.

When both teams were critically injured and tired, Azazel unleashed a barrage of bullets at them.

Thanks to his class, even if he wasn’t a marksman, for the duration the skill was active, he would become as good as an experienced expert.

His little plotting had gotten him over a hundred and fifty points, which meant he eliminated more than fifteen aspirants.

It still wasn’t enough, so he stopped hiding and started looking for prey to hunt.

By the time twenty minutes had passed by, he had already acquired more than three hundred points, enough to get him to class C or if he was lucky B but nowhere enough to get him to the S-class.

But it was enough, for now.

He had more pressing matters to attend to.

Akathartos hadn’t uttered a single word since but Azazel wasn’t bothered, the blade wasn’t much of a conversationalist.

Without wasting any more time, Azazel searched for the connection with his marked coins, as he closed his eyes, he could notice four distinct tugs all in different places, no doubt the coins he had given Elias, Nathaniel and Lily.

Then there was the last coin, the one he had placed in the cave containing the eggs of the twin ravens.

He locked on to it, stared at the empty space where he knew Viola and a few instructors were watching him, then he simply disappeared.

Gone... just like the wind.

And in his place, a single silver coin lay.

****

The cave didn’t feel abandoned, rather it felt like time had simply ceased to exist within it.

Cold was present, with dry air leaving the cave stripped of the usual mineral dampness caves usually had.

There was no dripping water, no fungus or any presence of life, even the dust lay thin and orderly.

The entrance narrowed into a corridor of pale stone with walls smooth in some places while it was fluted in others.

The deeper compartment had the ceiling arched into a vaulted chamber, the space was pristine, not sterile but preserved nevertheless.

Along the walls, murals unfurled in dark pigments which time couldn’t erase.

The first mural stretched wide, painted in ash black and alabaster white.

It displayed a raven descending from the sky, above it, the old gods watched and below, the earth stretched in dark forests and mountains painted with a darker pigment.

After that, the scene changed.

It displayed the same raven however it perched upon a cliff that overlooked a vast valley below.

Before it, a human knelt in reverence, hands outstretched in acceptance. Between them lay two large eggs, cradled in a woven nest of thorned branches.

The mural ended there.

Azazel took a moment to digest the contents although it wasn’t that hard to draw a deduction that arrived at a single undeniable conclusion.

The corridor curved once again, this time leading straight to the heart of the cave.

There in a circular hollow carved to perfection, the woven nest lay and within it were two eggs belonging to the legendary grade creatures...

Huginn and Muninn.