Galaxy Online

Only around 200 people were left. The second instructor was walking out, and David flinched. Not just him, the entire group flinched. The instructor started to project his aura blasting everyone without talent in Elms away. Those without it saw nothing, while those that did saw an apparition of a reaper slowly dissipate.

"Those without a single talent for Elms may take the door to the left," the instructor bellowed. The group of thousands had turned into a group of a hundred. The academy had already separated almost everyone from these students who had made it this far. The other students weren't failed, but were sent to other divisions, or schools depending on their intelligence. David knew he had to make it past this infamous stage.

As they walked out the right door, a forest appeared in front of them.

"This is area 5, because it is the 5th most dangerous spot on the planet. Its nicknamed the forest of death," the instructor then finished by saying," get into pairs and follow the trail,". People started to group up, before choosing a random trail. David knew the secret however. The trails each had 2nd year students ready to pounce. However one trail had a hidden path that would lead to the reason why David had yet to upgrade himself to grade 1. Pairs and pairs of people were leaving, yet David stood there alone with 10 other people. Finally as the rest were paired and left, it was David and the other person.

"Hello Ms. BloodHawk," said David breaking the ice

"Greetings, but I don't believe I caught your name," replied Ashley as she had a hint of annoyance in her voice.

"David, now lets go down this trail," David said quickly before running down the path before Ashley could protest.

The forest canopy blocked out the sun leaving only tiny little rays of light. David could see perfectly by making Dragon configure his eyes into night vision form. A green haze clouded his eyes. Ashley had to simply have impaired vision, as fire would highlight their location.

They ran for about a kilometer, before David stopped Ashley with a hand motion and pointed to the tree line.

"What is it," she whispered.

"Snakes, and a lot of them, please be prepared," David nonchalantly said before rushing ahead. His action triggered a swarm of snakes. A literal cloud of sharp teeth was headed his way. David just sorta stood there, while Ashley secretly cursed in her mind as she launched a fireball dispersing the swarm. The remnants were sliced up by David's knives. His humongous back pack had snakes drying on the side. The test would last about three days, so food and water were a must have.

"David you could have said you were running ahead," Ashley said obviously annoyed.

"Well I mean I had you behind me, saves me all the trouble anyways," David replied while wiping the blood off of his knife. The pair ran away as scavengers picked off the last of the meat. They ran, and followed the faint, before they saw a bush covering their trail. It looked out of place, as nothing lived around it.

"Do you know what it is?" David asked.

"No, but you probably do judging from your tone of voice," Ashley said.

David smiled as he replied," No I don't either,". This unassuming plant was his target. Underneath was a trap door leading somewhere, but most people would just walk around it. However David knew you couldn't just simple burn the plant, as it was highly volatile, and would blow away the entrance. David nonchalantly walked in front of the plant and started to heave it out. The tendrils started to grab his arms, and inject their lethal poisons. David felt a little sick at his stomach, but Dragon directed his nano bots to neutralize most of it.

"What are you doing," Ashley said as she looked at the sharp hooks tearing into David's skin. Sparks were coming out of his arm from her perspective.

"I spotted something interesting," David replied before pulling the last of the plant out. As the plant tried to flail its stem, it slowly went into a limp as it lost its source of nutrients from the ground. The weakness of this plant, was that it required a metric boatload of food to survive. It would even eat its own kind, explaining why a ring of death was around it. The patch of ground underneath the plant was full of holes, but a shiny piece of metal was sticking out.

"Is that a handle," Ashley asked surprised. She thought he was being an idiot based on his last action of running into a swarm of snakes while he obviously knew they were there.

"Thank you Admiral Obvious," David teased as he pulled put the door. Underneath a dark hole was seen. Ashley looked at the hole, then at David who jumped in. Then she looked back at the hole.

She looked a bit cautious, but got curious too as she jumped into the hole.

As soon as she did, the dead plant imploded. All the gas inside had finally reached the shallow light causing it to combust.

The entrance caved in, and was covered. The forest went silent again, but with two confused second year students as they waited for the applicants to run into them on the trail.