We continue climbing the massive mountain together. The monsters up this high make gaining hundreds of millions of MCP fairly easy for my teammates over the next 24 hours. Their controls rise to the point where they begin needing far less food and rest. In just a few days, I've managed to bring them from barely passing the B-Class exams alone to rivaling the mana control of the Apex Region's elite applicants. At this point, they're all thoroughly convinced that there is something not quite right about us, the two random applicants from the Bedrock Region. While most applicants from this region should have barely made it into the top 30, we're effortlessly carrying them through the exams. Neither of us have eaten, slept, or shown any signs of fatigue in the days we've been together. On top of that, Ember and I absorb all of the red fragments in our possession. He even leaves our group to go up and farm more while I stay in range of the three teammates to keep their absorption skill activated. Occasional questions are asked, but they soon realize whatever is going on here is not something I plan on explaining to them any time soon. Our ascent upward gets faster and faster the more they grow, and they accept the silent partnership and the decades worth of power gifted to them in just a matter of days. I nod and do exactly that, giving Nat enough potions for a small army to store in her item box before we continue upward. Another 12 hours pass before we finally make it to the new zone split I sensed before. I eat another one too as what looks like the top of the mountain comes into my line of sight. Less than an hour passes before it comes into everyone's view, and we pick up the pace even further, flying higher and faster into the sky until we reach it. Once all five of us pass the cliff's final edge, the view on the other side isn't at all what I would have expected... Marcie is the first to say it out loud. "An ocean...? Up here...?" Rolling waves are all we can see. The mountain acts like a dam, holding back an endless pool of water stretching out into the distance again. It doesn't only go out wide, it is deep as well. The mountain's slope is just as steep as it was on the other side. However, there is a slight curve to it. It may not be visible to the naked eye, but with my enhanced vision, especially with the red divine threads coursing through it, I can see this endless sea is sitting inside the top of this stone mass. The mountain is wide, so even this is just an educated guess, in my vision it just curves off to our left and right into the endless void of sky. There's a small bit of land between the endless sky and endless sea, about 50 to 100 meters of it, varying in some places where the waves of the sea crash harder. Small shrubs and trees grow on this long curved piece of land. We all float down onto it to take a break, and Ember speaks through our link once we land. "Our best course of action now is to finish absorbing these stones, then leave your teammates here while we take on the next zone. Without a consolidated red core, it would be nearly impossible to bring their mana control to heights to the point where they could take on monsters that can wield orange cores." I relay the message to my teammates while they set up their base camp. I create another teleport platform here too, covering it with a stealth barrier and earth magic, while handing out teleport crystals and keeping some for myself. During this process, a few fully awakened red core birds find us at the top of the mountain, and I watch them take it out with ease and return. I speak up while crossing my arms and standing with Ember at the edge of the endless sea. "I've given you all enough power to handle anything that comes your way at this altitude. On top of that, you all have quite the head start against any other teams that make their way this far. I can only think of two, the Apex Region's elites, and some of the higher skilled Vice and Veridian applicants. Do as you wish with them when the time comes. If for any reason you can't handle fighting them, use the two teleport platforms I made for you to retreat and come back up here if needed." Marcie nods, looking at me with her arms crossed and a satisfied look on her face. "Sounds good to me. We'll keep anyone from passing this line if they approach." Then, she turns to look back toward the sky, but says one more thing. "Oh- and thanks. I'm glad I trusted you. I haven't trusted anyone in a long time. I'll have to show you around the Talton Region when this is all over. I think I can convince my leader to let you come by." "You're leaving right now? When will you be back? Before the 28-day limit is over, right?" I shrug, and Ember replies before I can get a word in, holding a red fragment in between them. "We'll be leaving once we awaken our red cores. It won't be too much longer at this rate." Ember turns and starts walking over to the water's edge, sits down and sends me a wave of telepathy telling me to join him once I'm done so we can finally finish this up. "We'll meet you all once the trial is done. The hard part is already over. You're strong enough to pass this exam on your own now. That was the whole goal here, right? Make it to the top 12? Make the Silca Region proud?" He pauses, but looks at me with a face full of confidence after thinking over my words. "I'll collect more fragments than anyone else. I'll show you around the Silca Region once this is all over too." I smile and nod back. I turn to Nat, and reach into my item storage to pull out a small blue orb and toss it to her. Inside, an extreme grade fire summoning skill lays dormant. "If you want that fire skill to stay permanent, eat that. You seem to have a much more aggressive fighting style when you have access to the skill. It might come in handy." She catches it, looks at the small orb for a few seconds then nods, placing the orb into her item box. "Thank you. I'll use it if I need it. I thought this would take years, maybe longer, maybe even never. Winning the tournament in stage 4 lets me go back to the Veridian Region right after these exams are finished." "Yes, and I'm very interested in what matters you'll have a say in when you get a place on that B-Class board as well." I smile and turn around to go join Ember, but continue speaking making eye contact with everyone. Each of them nods and scatters off to find more enemies nearby to absorb their MCP while I walk over to Ember and sit down. He looks toward me and eats another red fragment, then closes his eyes as crimson threads fill his body. "Let's finish this and move on. Your journey here has just begun as well." I take a deep breath and do the same, staring off into the endless sea while more threads of ethereal light saturate my core.