Chapter 275: Both seem more determined (2)
As Matt started walking, he frowned and looked ahead.
'Is someone about to finish their tests already?' he thought after seeing a silhouette out of the corner of his eye.
Then he was stunned when he looked at who it was.
'Alice? I don't think she's out of the tests... Did she do it all in a row? How long has it been going on?' he thought in shock.
He didn't know Alice had gotten so good at the drop of a hat.
But she stopped suddenly.
Still, she was so far away that it would take Matt about 15 minutes to catch up with her, so that meant she was facing a big problem right now.
When Matt saw this, he felt more determined, so he started walking without looking to the side.
Because they were the only two in this place, they would both meet up as long as Alice held on long enough.
She soon resumed her walk, which was slow this time. She hesitated in many trials until three and a half minutes had passed since Matt started walking; she stopped and was sent out of this place.
'Almost...' Matt thought and sighed.
He started walking too, but suddenly he noticed someone had come back inside, so he looked back.
'She recovered that fast?' It was Alice, naturally.
She noticed him, too, so she started walking faster to see if they were meeting somewhere.
While Matt kept up his normal walk.
And 15 minutes later, they were both standing side by side.
One was waiting for the other, while the other was walking fast to catch up.
"Matt, you seem to be feeling better." She said she was a little happy about this.
"Well, I can't stay with a dark fog in my mind all the time." He replied.
Alice nodded and looked straight ahead. "I hope we can get through it this time. Twenty minutes will be enough time to summon."
"Did you pass the other tests already?"
"Yes, thanks to you, I completed the first one in 30 minutes. I only have this one to go."
Matt was surprised by that. 'This girl... She looks a lot better today than yesterday. She seems to be in good shape.'
Matt nodded. "If we make it through this one to 20 minutes, don't mention it. I'll help you get through all of them with 30 minutes while we try to hit 30 minutes on this one." He replied and resumed walking.
Although Matt couldn't see her, he could somehow tell that Alice was happy about what he had said.
"All right, Matt. I'll wait for your teachings then."
They both continued to walk through as the seconds ticked by.
The test that had sent Matt out of this place after the 15 minutes didn't hit as hard this time. He made it through and was soon within one step of the 20 minutes.
He gave it determination and even made it beyond 20 minutes, hitting the 21-minute mark, but unable to advance.
'...I don't have too far to go.' Matt thought to himself, realizing that he couldn't reach any further than that. It wasn't because he wasn't determined.
He had already understood what it meant to have a realized personality. At this point, he didn't care about his mistakes; this time, he failed because of a lack of mental fortitude rather than anything else.
A few minutes later, he came out, and Alice came out. She even managed a better mark than him, reaching 22 minutes, but she failed for the same reason as Matt.
When they both came out, Professor Robert looked at his spirit, and it relayed the information to him.
Robert looked quite happy today. His favorite students seemed to have regained their self-confidence.
The dark countenance that characterized them yesterday was no longer there, and they even managed to move up quite a bit in the tests, completing all of them in no time. Somehow, the one who seemed to be doing better today was Alice, but they were doing quite well. For that, he was happy.
Matt and Alice started talking to each other about the tests so that they could learn from each other's mistakes, and the day passed.
The afternoon soon arrived, and Professor Robert dismissed the class after explaining several main topics regarding what they should do to pass each test—things to keep in mind that even Alice and Matt found helpful.
Then, they both went back to the room to rest. There, Matt explained how to reach the 30 minutes in each test, teaching her some important things for each test.
The following day, they went there again. They still took it patiently, without rushing. They learned a few topics from Robert and then studied them further during the night, thus completing the third day of testing.
Then, finally came the fourth day of testing, which was also the day of the Welcoming Ceremony.
According to what they heard regarding this welcome ceremony, it is a big ceremony where they invite all the new students to eat. Academy leaders like the Great Summoner and the Founder will gather to give them motivational words. But the most important thing is that all the new students will be there, so many of them choose that moment to form groups or to join some interesting student faction.
Even so, before the Welcome Ceremony, they would still have 2 hours of class that were not mandatory. But Matt and Alice arrived early that day and went into testing very early, as they didn't have too much time.
Matt was already 1 minute away from completing the 30 minutes today, and Alice still had two tests to catch up with him.
This time, Matt had trained his mentality during the night.
He noticed that the mental attacks of the fourth test were much stronger than the rest of the tests, and after 20 minutes, this was more evident. They were attacking his weakness, but more so, they were directly attacking the brain to make him falter.
Still, this was not a problem for him today, as he quickly reached his limit from the previous day.
'Heh, you seem to have run out of ideas, little spirit. Look at you throwing mental attacks that have nothing to do with my weakness at this point...' Matt scoffed a bit at this and kept walking until he hit the 30-minute and 1-second gap.
It was then that an embodiment of the central spirit appeared in front of him.
"That's the first time I've seen a Half-Elf from that world so talented."
Matt smiled. "There's a lot you don't know, even if you are a spirit."
"Aren't you surprised to see me like this?" The spirit was surprised at the nature with which Matt spoke, and he shrugged.
"It's not the first time I've seen a spirit and talked to it. There's nothing to surprise me." He replied.
The spirit nodded, though surprised.
"You've done well. Honestly, in this entire Human Academy, there are only about three or four who have managed to complete the 30 minutes in all the tests. Despite that, most of them were totally exhausted when they finished it, and it took them 1 month to complete it. So you and that girl can feel proud. You are among the top of this academy, around these tests.
So I look forward to seeing what kind of spirit you guys will be able to summon later on." After saying that, the spirit disappeared, and Matt returned to his body.