The words that were left behind caused everyone who was enraged to be silenced.
A pedagog was an important aspect of the society of the Floating Continent and the Continent Above the Sky. It was easier to be a three-star expert at any path than a pedagog since the latter needed advanced knowledge on numerous paths and a focus.
Only then could a cultivator become a teacher and earn the title of Pedagog. Because of this high demand, there were only several thousand Pedagogs among the billions who resided on the Continent Above the Sky.
And now, a Pedagog who was expected to reach Two-Star had died.
The shield that Dermion summoned to protect Emeros remained erect and protected him.
Those who wanted to protect Emeors even crashed on this shield.
But with Dermion's announcement, the attacks stopped as the allies of the enraged ones began to prevent them from attacking.
"Enough!"
Magic and Force were drained once more as the one controlling the artifact had an enraged expression.
"Before us all, Pedagog Barmivus had shown intent to harm Emeros, a student of the Floating Continents. He even issued a challenge to Emeros in his mocking words. His death is easily ruled as Death By Challenge. None of you can refute this! Barmivus held on to Emeros and mocked him even though my powers drained magic and force from him!"
The room was silent.
"Whatever political changes the Floating Continents have, or whatever rage the family of Werembus may throw, it is irrelevant. All of you may bear your fangs at Emeros later. But now, unless you want to draw out the rage of Dermion, keep silent! He concludes the first test! I will communicate with all who have the authority to represent their families and work with Principal Xilar to prepare for the teachers' final exam! Xilar. Preserve the corpse of Varmivus. I'm sure the kingdom where he hails as king will want to retrieve the body."
Xilar bowed as the light shield vanished, rushed to take the body, and gave orders to officiate the procedures. He handed Emeros several pills, but Emeros fed half to Vivindel.
Both began to recover from their severe wounds.
"You, brat! War will be upon these lands because of you!" The man with the draining artifact cursed at Emeros.
"And my death was the other choice? An arrogant Pedagog who isn't even an Expert in Combat tried to kill me, and I challenged him with the strongest attack that I was gifted with!" Emeros hatefully answered.
The man watched Emeros and could tell the severe injuries that he had.
"Hmp! Then you better hope the King will be merciful and heal you from those wounds. The tests will continue. That is if your class has proven worthy of it!" The man answered as he flew out and passed through the large open windows now revealed as the magic field covering the second floor began to vanish.
Emeros collapsed, and Xilar held him. Then, she began to cast special healing magic and fed Emeros more pills. n-)o--v-/E)-l..b-(1--n
"That was... too... awesome!" Xilar spoke under his breath.
Emeros was surprised.
"I was originally going to play things neutrally. But that Pedagog you just killed has been a thorn in the side of many. He is constantly growing in power, and he has political backing. We could never reach him or kill him. But now, his death has happened, and the many powers trying to get a footing not just in this kingdom but in the other kingdom will surely break into chaos! Prince Alistair will most likely be the strongest one within this kingdom now. I believe the words are now spreading even as we talk. War will surely happen." Xilar smiled.
"You seem... excited that war is going to happen."
"We all are. The terrible curse of the Floating Continents is that you have a whole land of people and a great population constantly boasting of power and falling into their selfish schemes. In our school, I have seen how politics, wealth, and power have twisted the next generation's minds with trendy and apparently righteous beliefs. They are a self-centered generation full of delusions that put them high on a pedestal. But war will be the equalizer."
"The most dangerous type of war will be the Crashing Continent Battle. That usually marks a full-scale invasion against both sides. Obviously, the goal is to prevent that. As was revealed by Valler, we don't want that to happen. And now, rumors of this dark plan to open the Star Unsealing Path thanks to Prince Alistair's recordings."
"But do not underestimate the words that Dermion left. He spoke of opening that Path... Which means they will be more involved in this and will surely hasten to push for a Crashing Continent Battle."
"The man's words are indeed terrifying. But nevertheless, this will still take time. Just like this continent, the death of Pedagog Barmivus will create an immense political battle. Prince Alistair also spoke to me before this about another plan he has. He wanted me to pass on this message. I laughed at his plans as they were insane. But now... seeing what you've done..." Xilar turned to the dead body of a Pedagog.
"You defeated Three Pedagog-level individuals in this exam! That crazy might work!"
"What plan?" Emeros frowned.
"We'll talk about it later. What matters now is to recover you for the test. After all, your students will likely fail, and we must find a way to resolve this. I'm sure you already have your plans."
"Do my students need to pass now?"
"For our plan to work, yes. They have to."
"I originally planned to have them challenge a high-ranking class once they fail."
"That would have been possible before. But you've killed a Pedagog! You have more enemies now who will go out of their way to make your life harder. The Crown Prince's allies will be enraged, and while they will lose the race for the throne, you will be their primary target. I think most of them would even go to great death-defying lengths just to harm you. And so, your students will probably fail this exam. I will argue that you've only been a teacher for two weeks and push for a study on the rate of improvement your students have."
"Hmm... I'm not sure. I have seen my students' eyes, and they have been pushing themselves to pass this exam as a class. While certain individuals may fail, some will likely succeed. Several competent and gifted students could get very high grades. And I did teach them numerous foundational teachings. But as to how effective the new foundations are, I do not know. My only issue is that the testers and checkers assigned will mistreat them. " Emeros frowned.
Meanwhile, the students taking the tests were generally unaware of everything happening.
Mackerel walked out of the seventh room, where he had received perfect scores, leaving the students and testers in shock.
"Too easy... I can't believe Teacher Emeros was right. Most of these tests, forcibly destroying the formation results in our win..." Mackerel sighed as he saw other students leaving the rooms he had just done.
"Well?" Macekel asked one of the students. He had told them to try his methods as he passed by them.
The energy conversion circle test was a true current identifying test. They were to find the first current that the circle was made.
"It worked! The foundations of these formations are weird. It was advanced but lacked many of the things Teacher Emeros showed. We could destroy it by simply moving our energies backward!"
"Yeah! I was skeptical, but we both took this test and used the energy crystals to overload the circle wall, make a backflow, and shoot directly toward the finish line! We completed the test within ten seconds!" Another student reported with glee.
"Quiet, you idiot!" Mackerel silenced the two.
"Remember, we must hide the Soul Merging that hides these crystals within us... Now go and tell everyone you find of this trick. And for those taking the cultivation classroom, the students can be overpowered. The juggling and dexterity training that Teacher Emeros and Teacher Serena gave us made them look as slow as snails. Don't be intimidated and hit them in their private parts when they attack! They all use the movement technique, Shadows of the Void, so with our training, we all have a thirty percent chance of winning if we hit that part on the first flight." Mackerel reminded.
The students nodded and went ahead to report the findings.
BOOM!
A classroom broke down as the flames forced everyone to leave.
Quinn left the room and shook her head.
"What an idiot. His flames had no foundation. He wanted to battle who could cast the magic faster, and he lost..." Quinn chuckled.
"Hm... This method works. Instead of casting a spell, we'll shoot out more mana using that basic magic throw training that we received and cause the opponent's magic fireball to explode as the energies grow chaotic... I should tell others about this..." Quinn decided and went on her way to find classmates.