Chapter 111 - 111 - Gathering

Lirian soon found himself at the gathering for the expedition.

He stood in the mass hall surrounded, by thousands of students as a group of technicians set up several portals.

Every class of his entire grade was present and so were the grades of all the candidates above him.

Each class held twenty students, with a total of thirty classes for each grade, leaving them with exactly 600 students in every grade, give or take a few depending on those that died during the expeditions every year.

Tobias and Edith were in the same grade, whilst a year separated all the other candidates, after them came Cole, then Wentian, followed by Media and lastly there was him.

With their five grades combined, there was a grand total of 3 000 students.

The candidates all came forward to present themselves before all the other students, while most of them had met each other, it wasn't like they knew each other all that well, after all, everyone spent more time with their own class members, instead of with the other students whom they only met occasionally.

Lirian's countenance was quite different from the rest, he was a good head shorter than Media( 5'11") and she was considered short by most races standards but as someone from a fairy race, it was considered tall.

What was truly odd about his countenance was that despite being so much smaller than the others in stature he stood half a foot in front of them all, with an imposing aura, that even his taller counterparts could not contend with.

His small size and short silver hair gave him a look of ethereal beauty, the only saddening thing about his appearance was the thick black, blind fold, covering those god-like eyes they had all seen on multiple occasions.

The amazing thing was that the candidates didn't even show any resentment towards him for placing himself in front of them, which is what truly held the attention of those around them, including many of the teachers whose classes Lirian did not attend.

They had naturally heard of him of course it was just that none of them got to receive the pleasure or displeasure as many teachers put it, of teaching him.

The headmaster had come forward and gave a short speech to all of the students.

"This is an event used to hone the abilities of our young, and I must warn all of you that while the place you are going to is not very dangerous, it has been a common occurrence for people to die during these expeditions, your lives will completely rest in the hands of your leaders," he rubbed his grey mustache and gestured at the candidates with a gentle smile.

The candidate's classes were unique in the manner that their leaders were pre-determined while all the others had to choose a leader themselves.

Well, that did depend on the type of expedition the new coming candidate chose, in this case, it was Lirian.

Lirian had to commend Telamon on his acting skills, he was acting as if there was nothing wrong and even went so far as to show his concern for the students as well as the candidates including Lirian.

"Now as is custom the newest candidate will draw a lot to determine the type of experience all of you will be receiving," he picked up a blue box and put it in front of Lirian generously.

"The hole is small so try not to miss it," the headmaster said with sincerity as if he didn't realize the double meaning his words could have, more than a few giggles were heard in the audience.

Lirian unintentionally faced Edith as soon as he heard the headmasters' words, wondering if she had said something about their little experience.

Edith felt her face go completely red in a heartbeat as almost everyone turned to look at her, 'By, the gods,' she complained to herself, 'Why did I ever get involved with this mannerless barbarian,' she chided herself.

The image of Lirian's naked body made its way into her head, and she found herself getting heated up, 'What the hell is wrong with me, why am I acting like a little girl with her first crush,' she cried to herself, as her cheeks got dyed a rosy color.

Lirian moved his focus onto the ballet box and carefully picked out a single piece of paper.

Lirian pulled out a folded page and on the side that was visible a +1 was visible for everyone to see, he quickly handed it over to Media who was beside him to read it out.

"United Battle Front," she said with a slightly shaky voice, this was one of the hardest possible modes.

The headmaster nodded his head happy with the outcome, "In this mode, all classes will be grouped together," he began to explain, ", and you will form a united front to search and explore the world, however, you will all be under the command of Lirian, it will be his duty to study the maps and terrain, to form a feasible exploration group."

Most of the students sucked in a breath of cold air as the reality washed over them, a blind person had to study the terrain of an unknown world and lead them through, it already seemed like a difficult task for a normal person to do it and now he had to do it while leading 3000 thousand people.

Many of them felt that it was death waiting to happen for them.

Lirian also frowned slightly, he knew he could do it but this was going to be troublesome, to stand as the leader of an exploration group while being blind, it was like asking for a mutiny to happen.

"The details of the world will be presented to all of you when you arrive in the base on the world until then discuss your plans amongst yourselves and line up," the headmaster told all of them.

"Head master why does Lirian have to be the sole commander, there are several candidates that can also act as commanders?" one of the student's shouted and soon several others joined him, it didn't matter how many great stories there were about Lirian, a blind person leading an expedition sounded like a joke.

"Media would you kindly, show the back of the paper to every one?" the headmaster requested sincerely.

When she turned it over to reveal the +1 that was written on the back, "This means the entire thing is controlled by a single commander, if it was a 2 or 3 on the back you would have received multiple leaders, now go on and line up," he said sternly, warning them that he wanted no more interruptions.