Chapter 65 - The X778 S Rank exam begins! Trials of Mt. Hakobe begin.

(3rd Person POV)

December 15th, the day of the S rank Exam had finally arrived.

This year's contestants were similar to the last, however some new faces had also appeared.

they being:

Laxus, Cana, Ultear, Freed and Jonathan, a random middle-aged guy with a gray balding hairline.

"Hey I'm only Twenty five!" Said the middle-aged man.

"Listen to me!" Yelled the old man.

"YOU MADE IT WORSE!" shouted the corpse.

"I'll just shut up..." Gave up the fossil.

Anyway.

The event wasn't like last year's Tenroujima exam. This year it took place on Mt. Hakobe. A large mountain that was covered in ice and snow all year round no matter what season it was, it has frequent blizzards and is generally inhospitable.

Access is possible only to a certain altitude, at which point it is necessary to move on foot. Its characteristics include the occurrence of numerous caves where the shelters are different representatives of the local fauna and flora.

On a side note, it was also the location where Arthur spent nearly a month preparing for his battle with Madara, luckily he had already fixed all the damages that his training had caused.

The first Trial of the exam was simple, get to the top of the mountain within a certain time frame.

Seems easy right? For potential S rank mages at least.

Well, sadly it never is like that. As the starting point was the front of the guild hall and the time allocated was a mere twelve hours.

Vehicles were not allowed, so the participants of the exam had to reach the mountain on foot and via their magic.

"Do you all understand the rules?" Makarov, the master of fairy tail asked.

"Yes Master." Answered Freed.

"Yeps!" Cana replied.

"I do, let's get this over with." Laxus said.

"I understand." Ultear said.

"Bring it on! I'll be the first to reach the mountain top!" Jonathan yelled to pump himself up, trying to act all cool.

"You go Jon!" A beautiful woman with golden blond hair yelled from the crowd of people that were sending off the participating members.

"Yes! I'll be seeing you soon Veronica!" Jonathan said to his lover, flashing a large shining smile.

Jonathan stood no chance at his current level and quickly fell behind everyone else.

Not even reaching the foot of the mountain by the end of the timer.

Jonathan however survived after many hardships, reaching Bellum, The land of Wars.

There he became a soldier and quickly rose through the ranks with his magic, winning battle after battle until he obtained his own legion.

Such was the tale of Jonathan... The balding old man of age twenty-five.

Anyway.

Once the five participants of the exam readied themselves at the start line, the Master went in front of them and began a short count down.

"Three, two, one... Go you brats!" He yelled and shot a racing gun towards the sky.

Laxus immediately covered his entire frame in lightning, a thunderous sound exploded from the soles of his feet as he kicked off from the ground and rushed forward towards the mountain and its peak.

"Whoa he's fast..." Cana reacted, a sweat dropping down the side of her forehead. "I'm not gonna be left behind though...!" She said, pumping herself up before charging her feet up with Crash magic energy.

She had created this technique during the many months of training she did with Gildarts and Ur, knowing that she needed some form of movement ability.

With long hops and long strides, she quickly turned Magnolia's main central road into one filled with holes, the cube like rubble flying in all directions and breaking through the roofs of the houses.

Within seconds she was out of the town, and the main street was turned into a horrendous sight.

"Oh jeez..." Arthur sighed, walking out of a gate just in time to see the havoc Cana was causing. He had been visiting the Roseyard graveyard where his parents were resting, spending the early morning hours there before finally returning around the time when the exam starts in ten AM.

"Hahaha! I wonder where she takes that from! Her mother was such a sweetheart!" Gildarts laughed as all the citizens of magnolia looked on in shock, before turning to him in annoyance and yelling.

"SHE TAKES AFTER YOU, YOU DOLT!" hundreds of citizens roared, making Gildarts smile wryly as he scratched his cheek.

At the same time, Ultear was running at a leisurely pace through the rubble and decided it wasn't time to be conserving her magic power.

"Cana, you might have gotten fast but..." Ultear whispered to herself, "I'm faster!" she said as her eyes glowed with a powerful dėsɨrė to win!

"{Ice Make: Shrine of Frozen Path}!" Ultear spoke and did the hand gestures for her magic, then aimed both her hands behind herself and created a large chunk of ice that propelled her forward!

Ultear may not be as physically gifted or destructive as Erza and Cana, however her magic power was in a league of its own! And she used that advantage to create a movement spell that easily allowed her to travel quickly across all terrain.

That was why it was called Shrine of frozen path.

"Ultear honey... Couldn't you leave the town before using that spell..." Ur facepalmed, feeling rather embarrassed at what her daughter had done to the town.

The poor citizens could only look on in despair, it was one thing to fix ruined houses and roads... But now that it's all been frozen solid the repairs would be beyond difficult and would cost a fortune...

Arthur sighed, "Don't worry everyone, I'll fix it... {Restore}" he said while aiming his hand forward, fixing the entire town from any damages and even up to the horizon's edges, however he decided to fix the damage to the actual roads later on.

-"Ugh... And here I thought I wouldn't need to fix anymore damages... They'll never be able to fix it with Mystogan's item damn it!"- Arthur thought to himself, rather irritated at the revelation that he had more work to do after the exam finished.

"Whoa! Thanks Arthur you're the best!" The citizens praised.

"Thank you! You saved us a lot of work there!" Others praised more.

"Haha, you're too kind. I simply fixed our own mess, in fact I'm sorry you had to go through the stress of witnessing that..." Arthur apologized... still rather irritated and wondering how to exact his revenge on the two destroyers.

Freed on the other hand used his dark literature magic to create a pair of wings for himself, flying above both the flying cube chunks of land made by Cana and the freezing chunk of ice that moved by itself while impowered by Ultear's huge reservoir of magic power.

Finally, Jonathan was dead last and was struggling not to slip on the ice created by Ultear's magic...

You can see why he failed to reach even the foot of the mountain...

"Arthur my boy," Makarov spoke while walking up to Arthur, "Could you take us up to the Hakobe mountain?" He asked.

"Haaa, yes Gramps. {Gate}" Arthur sighed over the damages along the path towards the mountain.

"It's fine my boy, you can take your time in repairing the roads later! Hahaha!" Makarov laughed heartily while patting Arthur on the back with his extended hand.

"You're not helping..." Arthur grumbled.

The pain of fixing all damages had been on Arthur's hands for many years now, Makarov could rest easy with him around.

The original timeline's stress of dealing with the backlash of the Fairy Tail member's habit of destruction was passed down from the Master to our dear Word Soul magic user... So you could say Makarov was rather pleased.

Erza walked up to Arthur and also pat him on the back, "Don't worry, with those bracelets you've been distributing you won't have as much work to do anymore. So finish this one up and rest up alright?" She spoke with a confident smile.

"That's not the problem though..." Arthur murmured quietly as Makarov walked through the gate along with Gildarts and Ur.

"Hm? Did you say something?" Erza asked, not being able to hear what Arthur said.

"Nothing..." He replied and walked himself into the gate, Erza simply shrugged and walked through as well.

What Arthur had just realized is that even though the guildmembers can fix large patches of what they destroy now, there's still some absolute idiots like Natsu and Cana who will destroy way more than just thirty square meters of land...

And potentially even forget to fix it afterwards...

While he may have reduced the burden, the burden was still there and would grow alongside Natsu, Cana and all the other real trouble makers...

…

At the top of Mount Hakobe, Master Makarov and the S class wizards awaited for nearly four hours. Sitting inside of a special area that Arthur made with his magic to keep them warm and cozy, they even had a hut with nice furnishing and couches.

"Hahaha Arthy I love ya! You can make any place we go to comfortable to be in!" Ur said while eating a chicken sandwich that Arthur had prepared.

"You flatter me, it's really nothing Ur." Arthur replied, as gloomy as before.

"Haha still! The sandwiches are delicious!" Ur commented after gulping down a bite, then turned to Gildarts and spoke. "Gildarts, you should learn to cook too! It's a useful skill that our little friend has picked up you know?"

"Heh, have you seen me in a kitchen?" Gildarts smirked proudly.

"No? Why are you all high and mighty all of a sudden? Ohh! Could it be that you're secretly really good?" Ur asked, a little excited.

"Hehehe... I'm quite proud to say that any kitchen I enter ends up becoming a ruin! Gahaahahaha!" Gildarts laughed heartily.

"That's not something to be proud of!" Ur scolded, "Sheesh, I'll teach you later. Numbskull..." Ur said, a tad disappointed after the unneeded excitement.

"Ohh will I get to see Ur with an apron I wonder? That'd be a sight for sore eyes surely! Hahaha!" Gildarts laughed heartily.

"No, you'll see yourself in a pink apron." Ur retorted in a tone of all seriousness.

"Eh?!" Gildarts exclaimed. "Why does it need to be a pink Apron-" he got cut off.

"Shut up you two! The first one has arrived." Makarov spoke up.

"What?!" Erza exclaimed. "It's only been three hours! Mount Hakobe is over a hundred kilometers away from Magnolia! Not to mention the time it's needed to climb to the top..."

"Laxus has gotten really quick, huh?" Arthur commented.

The man in question had rushed up the mountain in long strides, zooming past any monsters and or difficult to traverse terrain. No slopes or hills could stop his advance to the top.

Laxus walked up to the front door of the hut and opened it up, walking inside while being completely dry of any snow thanks to his magic that made a lighting coating for him till now.

"I'm the first as expected." He said with a smirk and sat down on one of the couches.

"Good job Laxus, you make this old man proud!" Makarov said with a grin.

Erza sighed, "Good work out there." She smiled honestly, yet still frustrated.

Her frustration lied in the quick progress Laxus had made, she wished to obtain a similar level of speed in her own training.

'Maybe I should travel too?' She thought.

-"No, stay with Arthur. You'll be able to improve quicker with him as your sparring partner."- Lazarus chimed in. -"Once you're able to wield me, even for a short span of time, you'll see an increase in battle prowess of an order in magnitude."- He ȧssured.

-"Mmm... I'll trust your judgment Lazarus."- Erza replied and thought of it no more.

…

It took another two hours for Freed to arrive, having the ability to fly had helped him tremendously in moving up the mountain.

Ultear arrived next, having passed Cana long before this, with a speed of six hours to reaching the summit.

Being in her own element had made the challenge rather easy, yet the road was still long so she couldn't pass Freed who had no obstacles other than blizzards.

Cana was the last to arrive with a speed of eight and a half hours.

The terrain up the mountain had been rather tricky for her to pass through, so obviously it took the longest even with her new movement spell.

"Damn it I'm last!" Cana pouted whilst entering the hut, she was disappointed that she arrived in last and irritated from all the snow covering her body frame.

"Hey you forgot about Jonath-" Gildarts began to speak.

"I'm last damn it! After all the training too! Ugh!" Cana face palmed, being very displeased of herself.

She removed the snow from her shoulders and walked up to one of the couches, sitting down with crossed arms.

'I gotta work harder! Else my dad will lose face...' she thought silently to herself, thinking of ways to do better.

Three and a half hours later the timer had reached zero and Jonathan was disqualified.

Then, with a soft cough, Makarov walked in front of everyone and spoke up. "Now that the time has come, we can continue on with the second trial."

"So, what's the next trial old man?" Laxus asked with crossed arms, standing up from his couch.

"Mmm, listen closely. Hakobe mountain is riddled with numerous caves, one of which is said to be alive. A cursed cave that once entered cannot be left. Your trial is to find this cave, enter it and then find a way out on your own." Makarov explained with a grim expression.

"Didn't you just say it cannot be left?" Ultear asked in curiosity.

"Precisely." He replied in a serious tone.

"Then how are we supposed to leave it??" Cana asked, still a little irritated.

"That would be for you to find out, and for us to watch and see how you fare." The old master said and turned around, walking up to the door. "Now then, get going! You have a day to do it. Good luck, you brats!" He shouted whilst opening the door.

Laxus nodded and immediately rushed forward without any questions, shortly after being followed by the rest of the group.

The living cave was dangerous, its curse made it attack all who entered with its walls themselves. Exit was impossible without a specific natural magic item found deep within that cave named the "Hakobe Ice", whether the examinees could find it and solve the riddle would determine if they were ready to take on the mantle of S rank!

...