They all hear the roar of a Lion.
'Looks like someone is having fight with a lion nearby.' Kalp said.
'What should we do?' Kevin asked.
'First, find the location.' Kalp said and he climbs the tree, he sees a few people are fighting with a lion. He gets down from the tree.
'Around 100 meters ahead, some people are fighting with a lion.' Kalp said.
'So, we should help them?' Kevin asked.
'Alice, what should we do?' Kalp asked.
'Are you asking me? I know you want to go and help them.' Alice said.
'HEHE..,' Kalp laughs.
'But remember one thing, one day you will get into the trouble because of your helping nature.' Alice said.
'Okay, let's go.' Kalp said and they move ahead.
After reaching there, they see two men lying dead on the ground and three girls tied to a tree with a rope, the lion is red and on the tree, there is a boy (looks like a noble) who is sitting with a sword and on another tree, Ralph, Aveline and two more nobles are sitting and watching. Kalp tries to save them, but Alice stops him by holding his hand.
'What are you doing?' Kalp said.
'Look at the different trees, they are all nobles and they have planned this trap so that they can kill that lion and take core.' Alice said.
'The son of a….., they are killing people just for a core. I am going, I have to save them.' Kalp said angrily.
'Stop, if you try to save them, then those people will start targeting you.' Alice said.
'But I can't sit here and let them die.' Kalp said.
Kalp picks up a rock and throws it towards the lion. The rock hits lion's head. Kalp, Alice and Kevin start running in the forest, the lion sees Kalp and the angry lion runs towards him.
'Alice, Kevin, run in the different directions. We will meet here after an hour and if possible, get those girls out of the tree.' Kalp said.
'Okay.' Alice and Kevin said and they start running in different directions.
The lion is running after Kalp. Ralph, Aveline and three other nobles start chasing the lion and then they see Kalp.
'Because of that bastard, we could get the lion's core.' Aveline said angrily.
'If he comes back alive, he will have to pay for it.' Ralph said angrily.
'Let's go, we've already wasted a lot of time, we only have twelve hours left.' Ralph said and they all start moving.
After a while, Kalp gets tired and he stumbles and falls. He takes his sword in his hand when the lion tries to attack him. He somehow defends himself for a while, but after a while, Kalp gets hurt by the lion's fang and he crashes into a tree. Then lion runs towards Kalp. Then he raises his sword and points towards the lion but back of the sword gets stuck on tree. The lion jumps on Kalp and the sword pierces the body of the lion.
'I thought, I'm going to die.' After saying this Kalp lays down there.
He takes off his shirt, tears out one sleeve of it and with it he covers the wound on his left hand. After forty minutes he gets up, wears that shirt and starts moving towards the place where they all parted ways. He reaches there and sees Alice and Kevin.
'Kalp, are you okay?' Kevin asked.
'Yes, luckily, I survived and somehow I killed that lion.' Kalp said
'Really? You have killed 2nd stage lion.' Kevin said.
'By the way, what is your Mana stage?' Kevin asks.
'He doesn't have Mana, he can't use magic.' Alice said.
'What? Really? And you killed that lion by only using sword.' Kevin said in shock.
'Come on, we're getting late and we haven't found any sign of academy yet.' Kalp said.
'Did you take out core of that lion?' Kevin asked.
'No.' Kalp said.
'How could you leave that core like that' Kevin said in astonishment.
'Sorry, I forgot' Kalp said;
'Come on, we are getting late.' Alice said.
'Seriously man, I could sell that core in a hefty price' Kevin said disappointedly.
'Sorry brother' Kalp said.
After that, they start moving.
After walking for a while, they see wall of fog. Because of it they cannot see anything even ten centimeters away and standing near the fog, they feel the wind presser which is coming from the fog.
'How should we move forward? We can't even see anything.' Kevin said.
'The wind presser is too high. It could be a cliff near.' Alice said.
'Yes, but we can't see the end of the fog and we don't have much time.' Kalp said.
'So, what should we do?' Kevin said.
Kalp remembers Prof. Ava's clues.
'Prof. Ava's second clue, conquer your fear. I think she was talking about this fog.' Kalp said.
'So, you mean we have to go through this fog?' Alice said.
'Yes.' Kalp said.
'No, no, have you gone mad? We may die.' Kevin says fearfully.
'Kevin, trust me. We have no other option. So, it's up to you. Are you coming with me or not?' Kalp said.
'When it comes to brain, you are very good at it. So, I am coming with you.' Alice said and then both looked towards Kevin.
'You both are lunatics. Oh, God, please save me.' Kevin said. Kalp and Alice laugh at Kevin and then they enter into the fog holding each other's hand.
After twenty minutes, they emerge out of the fog and Alice feels a bit strange. She took out her compass.
'We are going in the wrong direction.' Alice said.
'What!' Kevin said.
'We are heading south.' Alice said.
'Looks like, we've changed the direction by mistake. let's go fast.' Kalp said.
They again start moving towards the north, but again, they reach in the other direction.
'Not again, man.' Kevin said irritably.
'This fog is affecting our senses and confusing us as to which direction we are moving and the compass is also not working properly in the fog.' Alice said.
'Alice, always watch your compass. Whenever it starts changing direction, then tell me.' Kalp said.
'Okay.' Alice said and then they start moving again.
After a while, Alice observes that compass needle slowly turning in a different direction.
'Stop! The direction of the compass is changing from here.' Alice says.
'Okay, Alice you keep looking at the compass and guides us to the north. Kevin and I will follow you and walk close to you. We will keep an eye on the front. Just keep your focus on the compass.' Kalp said.
'Okay.' Kevin and Alice said and then start walking.
After 50 minutes they come out of the fog and see grasses, plants, trees, river water, butterfly wings, fireflies and many other bugs and insects all are glowing. There is a massive island floating in the sky and there is a beanstalk connecting island on the ground, they can see under the island on the ground. They can see a huge waterfall below the island. It seems that there is a hole in the ground and water is flowing from all the three directions.
'So… beautiful.' Kevin said subconsciously, while Kalp and Alice are speechless.
Only about fifty to seventy candidates reach there and they are all moving towards the shining light in a huge circular wall. Most of them have suffered minor injuries and some are seriously injured. There is a timer clock projecting on the lighting wall.
'Look, there's a huge glowing circular wall, looks like, we'll have to go there to finish our first exam.' Kevin says.
'Yeah… and a lot of people have already reached there, we should hurry too.' Klap said.
They start running and after some time they enter in the circle of light.
'Finally, we reached on time. Only twenty-eight minutes are left.' Kevin said and took a deep breath and prostrated on the ground.
After twenty-eight minutes, Ava Lewis, along with four final year students, arrives and descends from the floating island on a large bird named 'Quetzal'. It has a green body, a red belly and a long green tail.
'Many congratulation to all of you candidates for clearing the first stage and before starting the second stage, I would like to tell all of you that if you do not clear the second stage then you are very likely to die during the examination. Most likely it will happen. It will be ten times more difficult than the first task. So, if any of you doesn't want to go ahead and try next year, you have five minutes to think. If you don't want to go further, let's get out of the circle.' Ava Lewis said loudly.
Everyone starts looking at each other. After a minute one person moves out the circle and seeing him, many more people also move out of the circle. Kevin looks at Kalp and Alice's face, both are smiling very determinedly. Seeing both, Kevin heaves a sigh of relief and decides that he too will appear for the second test.
In the end, only thirty-two candidates are left out of eighty people.
'Okay, those who moved out of the circle, please enter this Teleportation gate. All of you will reach the capital through this.' Ava Lewis said.
There is a door frame made of stone in which the door is not fitted and in that frame, a circle of blue light is rotating, that is the Teleportation gate. Everyone starts entering in the Teleportation gate and one by one everyone leaves.
'Now out of eighty, thirty-two candidates are left. I would like to congratulate all of you for being successful in the second test.' Ava Lewis said.
'What! What just happened here? What do you mean by we have passed? Where is the second exam?' A commoner girl asked loudly.
'There is not going to be another exam here, in fact your decision to stay here is the answer to your second exam.' Ava Lewis said smiling.
'Wow, thank God! I didn't give up.' Kevin said with a big smile.
'Okay, listen up everyone, you all have a ride coming.' Ava Lewis looked up saying this.
Everyone looks up and sees many different types of birds descending from island which are very large.
'Now everyone get on your ride and hold tightly.' Tamers said to the candidates.
Then, all the birds fly towards the island.