A few weeks have passed since Leon's transformation, and he is more or a less used to life as a were lion. Now we are buckling in for our trip to the local branch of the adventurers academy. The drive is a little over four hours, and Sprig does the driving for most of it, only switching to leon after the third hour. We arrive at the academy, and where I thought Sprig's house was huge, well the academy's entrance dwarfs the hell out of it, we are told by the guard manning the station to find a spot to park and join the line forming in front of the registration hall to take the entrance exams. It takes almost an hour to find a parking spot and if we pass our car will be taken into the academy proper to be kept either in one of the school's garages or if we make a name for ourselves it will be made available to us at the private lodging of whomever owns the car. We run for almost the whole time back to the registration building, because I figured this parking issue might have been a part of the test as I noticed some of the cars had had their license plates removed and unless it was gang cars, those were probably student cars placed to see how we'd react to having to find a parking spot then get from there to the entrance as the entrance exam closes after nightfall on the third day and even though we made it pretty early in the first day there was already a long line.
As we approach the line after almost 2 hours of running with Chelsea and Leo dragging a bit because neither had as many dex points as Sprig and I even though they had decent endurance. we find ourselves facing a rather long line it looks like it could take hours so we move to the end of the line and set ourselves up to wait, Chelsea and I both brought backpacks with snacks and water for us and maybe others, if they were good to us and maybe let us cut in line a bit, I also prepare for a long day of using my scouting sense. hours pass and we have moved up a bit in the natural flow of the line and with some chit chat and snack or drink offerings. My scouting senses only reveal a handful of the hundreds of people in the line as decently high chances of normal turning success and no rare variants, the only one I actively think of recruiting though for the time is a big guy named Joe, as he has a base survival chance of 80% and a flame ability he picked up cooking as a chef for some awakeners. We spend until nightfall in line before we are able to enter the registration hall, I turn my scout senses on to see if any of the staff could be recruited and my eyes take on a subtle yellow glow behind my sunglasses, none of the 130 staff inside have more than a 45% chance of base survival and they only seem to have non-combat abilities, there's a janitor working on a water fountain in the corner though and he actually has a 78% chance of survival and a water ability, so I note him down. We finally make our way to the front of the line, and I go first taking off my sunglasses: the receptionist looks up at me; "Name, age, and ability status?"
"Ethan Ray, 24, awakened" I reply
"Do you have a current criminal record or any outstanding warrants or bounties on your head, that you are aware of?" She asks
"No current record, possible law enforcement commendations though, No warrants, and as far as I am aware no current bounties either."
"pay your entrance fee and grab your assigned exam room number the proctor will guide you from there" she says after checking my information on her device, I pay the entrance fee and move to the next person handing out exam room numbers, he hands me a key card with a number on it, and I thank him then enter the next room after checking which room I'll be in 'A24'. then I move further into the building past the door the man was standing in front of. there's a small map and I look at it [ding ding host has acquired academy entrance exam hall map complete, does the host wish to use map features and auto guidance to selected room?] 'yes' I think and then a minimap appears in the top of my view, I did take a moment to study it, but with the system helping me to pinpoint where I'd have to go it should make the trip easier and quicker. After about 15 minutes of walking and looking around I find the room I'm supposed to go to, and scan my keycard, the door opens sliding into the wall and I find a room with 6 other people sitting in the chairs and the proctor who greets me and ushers me to a seat, I look down at the desk to see a stack of papers, likely the test, and four pencils. then I look up and see the board behind the proctor; do not start your test, wait for the others to arrive: slots open-5. So I then give every one in the room a cursory scan and see none have above a 30% chance of survival and decide to calmly wait for the others to arrive whomever they are.