Blake Stone

"Follow me!" The man turned around and called the seven behind him to follow him. He was wearing a formal, all-black, suit along with black glasses. His back was as stiff and straight as a rod, not bending by a millimeter even when he was walking. The seven behind him had not thought just once whether he was a robot. He swayed his arms and walked just like one.

Under his lead, they entered the gates. The other teams, however, were still outside in the fields.

"Eh... Sir? Where are we going?" One of the kids felt that something was wrong. Why were they were the only ones brought inside?

"To the dormitories", he answered, his voice and tone were as sharp and serious as his stature.

"Dormitories?" The kid who spoke earlier asked again, confused.

"Dormitories", the man confirmed.

"What about the exams?" The kid asked again.

"You all pass", the man was surprisingly patient as he answered all the questions.

"What?!" This time, more kids displayed their astonishment.

"You kids can start cultivation at your ages, that is proof enough for you to enter the Academy. No questions now, you will know more after you attend your first lecture."

The seven maintained silence, switching to look around and take in the surroundings.

The Academy was huge. The path was open and studded with round river rocks. On the sides were fresh green trees and plants planted at regular distances. The tall buildings around them were made of sturdy materials and were very eye catching. Everything showed the height of the skills of today's architects.

Every intersection and turn had stone statues depicting the various legendary monsters, beasts, demons and devils. A few showed the few ancient heroes among the human, dwarves and elves.

They were led further in where they entered one of the few 'normal-sized' three story house.

"You have an hour until I come back to pick you up", the man left them with these words. The kids started exploring the house.

There were three bedrooms for the seven of them to share. All had three beds inside each but one of the rooms was significantly larger than the other two, which automatically went to the three girls of the group. Blake randomly chose a room and threw his stuff on one bed to mark his territory, a picture-less inch-thick book filled with profound text and numbers. Nobody will dare get close to him. The rest of his stuff was inside the bracelet.

Sproule chose the bed next to his. The first thing he did after seeing the mattress was lunge at it. His snores were not loud but neither soft.

The other two boys did not want to be cramped so they stayed in the other room.

After this, everyone, except Sproule, gathered in the lounge to introduce themselves. They would be living under the same roof for the next few years.

"Lucy!" One of the girls was the first to introduce herself. She was a bright and energetic girl who nobody could come to hate.

"Ivory", followed Ivory who was sitting next to her.

"Blake", he was next in line, sitting in the farthest corner of the place.

"Sajjad", he was rather tall for his age, reaching to almost one eighty centimeters at the age of eleven.

"Awiergan" Okay, his parents must have hated him to the bones.

"Orbona-A-achu!" The way she sneezed was rather cute.

"What now?" Lucy asked. Her lips were curved in a sweet smile.

"Food", it was Blake.

Everyone turned their heads towards him. He seemed very distant and his eyes were extremely cold.

"He means he's hungry. He doesn't usually like to talk much", Ivory explained in his stead. She had come to understand him more the past few days.

Meanwhile, Blake had already gotten up and strode towards the kitchen.

The remaining five exchanged gazes and followed him, curious at what he was up to. They saw him open the refrigerator and pull out a chunk of frozen meat. He fiddled with it for a while, then threw it at Ivory. Ivory caught the frozen chunk and saw Blake pointing at the stove.

He was not planning to cook himself!

"I'm not your cook!" She protested but in response, he only took out a slip of paper and handed it to her while going back to the lounge. On the paper were two words and under them were two numbers.

Ivory- Blake

0- 4.37

It was the results from all the matches they had of SBz. Her hundred losses were equivalent to a single loss. So, for every win, Blake was to get 0.01 points while she would be getting a whole 1 but... that big flat zero...

According to the rules, 1 point could be used to make the opponent do one task.

Lucy happily volunteered to helped her cook.

...

The food was delicious. Ivory had to learn cooking early on because of her good for nothing father had not yet created a formation which cooks food by itself.

Everyone ate the meat except Sajjad who said that he would not eat it unless he was sure it was 'Halal'. He was one of the 'religious' kind. He instead 'seized' the boiled rice, only leaving a mouthful for others.

Sproule had arrived at some unknown point of time when the scent of meat reached his nose...

The 'suspected robot' arrived precisely an hour later, not late neither early even by a second. He told them that they were going to their welcome ceremony where they will be given their uniforms, student identities and other formalities to officially register them as part of the Academy.

They had not gotten far when...

Boom!

The path behind them suddenly exploded. Awiergan, who was in the rear, was scared shitless as he felt the heat from the explosion on his back. Somehow, he was safe.

"Terrorist attack? How were they able to sneak in, much less get so deep into here?!" The robotic man warned the kids and commanded them to take cover but before they could move a step, the ground below them opened up, letting them fall inside the earth. The robotic man screamed from above as the seven fell into darkness.