The week after I met Red was pretty smooth, well, almost. There was that one time when he followed me into the female restroom. I was trying to go about my business when I caught him out of the corner of my eye. Imagine his ghostly presence hanging around, quietly blending into the background, completely unseen among the girls.

Luckily, I caught him in time before anyone noticed something was off. I mean, how do you explain that to a group of girls who are just trying to do their thing? Even though Red could make himself invisible, I could still feel his energy like an awkward, hovering cloud. Definitely not the moment you want to have in a public restroom, especially not with the school population nearby.

Meeting Red was something else. I mean, this guy wasn’t just a normal mythical beast. He had all these insane abilities. Invisibility, flight, telepathic communication. It felt like meeting some kind of overpowered creature, but without the muscles and abnormal strength. I remember asking him if he had any other aptitudes, and he just shrugged it off, like either he didn’t know or he wasn’t interested in sharing. To be honest, I couldn’t tell which one it was.

The fact Red could do all these things and still act so chill about it was both impressive and a little intimidating. I guess when you’ve been living alone as long as him, you get used to being mysterious. His spirited nature hid more than he let on, and I sensed a depth I couldn’t yet grasp.

One thing I didn’t expect? Red was a fervent learner. The little guy was always watching the students and observing their routines. And he wasn’t just hanging around for the fun of it. No, he was learning. Like, really learning. He soaked up every bit of information from my classes, paying closer attention than I did. He was way more focused than my classmates, who were half asleep, just waiting for the lessons to end.

Professor Warlock’s Mythical Beasts class? That one was Red’s favorite, and he ate it up like it was the most exciting thing in the world. It was kind of hilarious because, in a weird way, he was perhaps the best student in the room, even though he was, you know, a mythical creature. If they ever gave out grades for being a non-human observer, Red would be at the top of the list.

During Warlock’s class, Red helped me out in ways I hadn’t even imagined. Using his telepathy, he’d point out all the mythical beasts I was reading about in my textbooks. It was like having a cheat sheet from a creature expert, except he wasn’t just giving me the basics. He was portraying these detailed pictures of each beast. He described their behaviors, their aggression levels, and those with magical abilities. It was like having a backstage pass to the world of mythical creatures.

And if I ever had to explore Aegis Island, I knew for sure I’d need all the help I could get. Red made me realize that with his knowledge, I might just have a fighting chance against whatever I might face out there.

Naturally, my curiosity kicked into high gear. I wanted to know more about where Red had been before he ended up with me. That’s when he mentioned Stonevent Cavern. It was up in the island’s northwest, and the training ground for academy students. Seemingly, it had way more creatures than Blume Forest, like rare, arthropod-like beasts that didn’t take kindly to trespassers.

And then there was Beast Canyon, this mountain range about fifty miles to the northeast. Now, that place sounded dangerous. It was a gathering for all kinds of mythical beasts, both land-based and flying ones. When I asked about the flying creatures, Red got a little more serious. These creatures were carnivorous, and they weren’t exactly friendly if you wandered too close to their territory.

I couldn’t help it, though. I had to know more. Their habits and what did they actually eat? Red, with his usual smirk, told me they liked “chatty schoolgirls like me and Lina.” In return for his playful remark, I shot him a glare, which quickly wiped the grin off his face. He knew better than to joke around about something like that.

The inquisitiveness of mine didn’t stop there. I kept pushing, and that’s when Red started talking about the Mystical Forest, this vast, dense woodland filled with all kinds of mythical beasts. Some of them were massive and could grow up to fifty feet tall. I was a little relieved to hear that these giants mostly stayed in the forest and didn’t venture out of its borders. The last thing I wanted was to run into one of them on an adventure trip.

I asked Red if he had ever explored the heart of the forest, given that he could just turn invisible and slip through undetected. To my surprise, he admitted he hadn’t. He stuck to the outskirts. That’s understandable. And I could tell he wasn’t joking or playing it up. He was genuinely scared. It made me realize that, no matter how many abilities Red had, there were places even he wouldn’t go. That made me think, this island? It wasn’t just full of danger. It breathed it.

The first-year trial was finally upon us. It was a big deal for the students and the academy. This wasn’t a practice run. The results would count for a lot come finals. No pressure, right? As if we weren’t already swamped with assignments and classes. The instructors took charge right away, splitting us into teams of three, and it felt like the clock was ticking down, tick, tick, tick, before we could even wrap our heads around it.

My classmates and I drew lots, and when I found out that Lina and I were going to be on the same team, I was honestly stoked. We made a great pair. We knew how to work together, had each other’s backs, and could read each other like an open book. It was going to be smooth sailing. But then the third person for our group turned out to be Seraphus.

Let me be real. I wasn’t exactly thrilled about it. Sure, he was the most talented student in our class, and he kept his neutral face on when he knew I was on his team, but there was this silent tension between us that was hard to ignore. It wasn’t overt, but I could sense it. It felt like he still had that competitiveness aimed straight at me since I had beaten him to the top spot in the first-year swordplay contest.

Maybe it was just in my head, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that Seraphus was still sizing me up like I was some kind of rival. I really hoped he could just let go of whatever weird thing he had going on in his mind and focus on the task at hand. We were supposed to be a team, after all.

The instructors kicked off the briefing with all the details, rules, safety, and things you’d expect. Our trial would be held at Stonevent Cavern. It was a massive, naturally formed training ground. Its cavern walls and ceilings were lined with glowing moss, casting an almost magical light across everything. No need for torches or light spells, just these soft, ambient glows from the secretions of glowing bugs that flitted around like fireflies.

It had this otherworldly vibe to it, but I couldn’t let myself get distracted by the atmosphere. We were there for a reason. Each team would be assigned their own path, navigate a maze of traps, and face challenges that would test our strength, wit, and ability to work together. It sounded simple enough, but I had a feeling nothing was going to go as smoothly as we hoped.

There were three levels of challenges that awaited the students. As for the first and second levels, the instructors were pretty vague. They gave us some details, but not enough to make us feel completely confident. They told us it would be tough, but nothing too crazy that we students couldn’t manage. No large mythical creatures. That was supposed to be a relief, but it didn’t ease my nerves that much. If anything, the lack of detail just made me wonder what they weren’t telling us. Even though the instructor would inspect the tunnels beforehand to ensure nothing had been unleashed, that could really put us at risk, I was still on edge. Things had a way of going sideways in these kinds of trials.

But it was the third level, the last challenge, that had everyone’s attention. That’s where all the team’s paths converged, and we’d face the stone golem. And this was no ordinary creature. A fifteen-foot-tall stone behemoth, created by the academy’s own arcane professors. The goal was to defeat it, and if we succeeded, we’d earn a perfect score. But no team had achieved that feat for the last twenty years. Not even Victhor.

During his first-year trial, Victhor had to face the golem alone when his teammates got taken out early, and during his battle with the golem, it ended in a stalemate. The clock ran out, and that was it. So yeah, if Victhor, the most gifted and strongest student in the academy, couldn’t do it, what chance did we have?

To make sure we didn’t end up as mythical beast or golem fodder, the instructors gave us each a magical wrist device called a Magicelet, which was specifically designed for use within the cavern and its function doesn’t work anywhere else. It was supposed to be our safety net, our last line of defense. If things got too dangerous, like if we got impaled by spikes, crushed by falling boulders, or severely injured by mythical beasts, this little device would activate and teleport us back outside the cavern. We’d still get judged on how far we made it through the cavern, but at least we’d be alive to hear our results. That, in itself, was a huge relief.

Still, there was a feeling that something was off about the whole setup. And if it really got too intense, you could always break your Magicelet and bail out of the trial. Not ideal, obviously, but it was a backup option. Additionally, there would be healers from the Arcane House on standby, ready to patch anyone up. It seemed solid. The trial seemed to have all the safety procedures in place.

But I had this unsettling doubt in my heart. The real test wasn’t about how things were planned. It was how we handled things when it all started to fall apart. And something in me told me it would. Because that’s what trials do. They break you, one way or another.