Hey guys! I hope you guys liked that last chapter. And just as a heads-up this chapter is mostly gonna be us training, but I might add the actual exam at the end.

Disclaimer ~ I do not own Fairy Tail


This exam is going to be interesting.

It's been a week since the master announced the news, and so we have 1 week left to train.

Me and the Unknown have been practicing together. It reminds me of the training we did before. He made me do hundreds of push-ups, and sit-ups a day, he made me climb mountains, and put me through such rough training that made no sense, but looking back at it now, I realize that it's actually made me stronger.

I actually might have time to perfect a self regeneration technique I've been working on.

Me and The Unknown have been doing hand to hand combat training, and even though he almost never uses his hands, he's still better than me. I actually made him have to use his hands once. He only moves slightly, though, and uses the space around him efficiently.

He had to use his hands only when I aim for his face directly after swinging my leg underneath him, making him fall.

We are still training and we made a bet that the loser has to do 40 push-ups, and I've lost all the bets up to now, so I'm praying that I win. I've had to do nearly 300 push-ups because of this.

And now, the world feels like trolling me, so once I aim for his face and he blocks with one hand, my other leg slips, and I fall, nearly breaking my leg. The Unknown uses my confusion to punch me, but it isn't like any other punch. I feel so scared, that my heart is jumping out of my rib cage right now. I close my eye's and brace for it, my heart beating rapidly, but the blow never comes. I open my eyes and see that his fist has stopped right before my face.

I smile. "Looks like I've lost, again," I say.

The Unknown offers me his hand and I take it. I get up and brush myself off. "Your fighting style is too reckless."

"So, what are you saying. I need to fix my attacks?" I ask, starting my 40 push-ups.

"Yes and no, your attacks are strong but you leave yourself open if you miss. You need to work more on your speed and defense," The Unknown explains.

"So, you're saying that I need to be able to move around easier and faster, while being able to defend in case I miss," I sum up.

"Precisely," The Unknown states.

I finish doing my push-ups and stand up. "Can I train by myself for a while?" I ask

"Sure," The Unknown says, and walks off to complete his own training.

I sit down in the middle of our battle field, and close my eyes.

I can hear everything, from the others training, to each individual leaf ruffling.

I need to concentrate. If I can concentrate maybe this technique will work. I think. Malthus, you in there?

Yah, I'm here. Do you need anything? Malthus asks.

I need your help concentrating. I say.

How am I supposed to do that? Malthus asks.

Just concentrate. I plead.

Ok. Malthus says and goes silent.

Suddenly I can hear everything clearly. I know where everyone is, I know every leaf that is ruffling.

It worked! I think excitedly. My concentration breaks.

Is that it? Malthus asks.

What do you mean? I ask.

Was the whole purpose of this just to be able to sense everything? He asks.

Ya. I say.

You made it sound so important, that's why I wanted to help you. Malthus says.

Wow. I say.

You even tricked all the readers into thinking that you were actually gonna do something. Malthus says.

But I did do something. I reply.

It wasn't as cool as you made it sound. He says sarcastically.

Anyways, I gotta go. I'll talk later. I say and leave that conversation.

Why is he always so mean to me?

I close my eyes and try to regain concentration. I can do it with ease now, I can sense everything.

I guess I'll go check up on the others. I walk over to the nearest person training, which just so happens to be Mai.

I walk out from the trees, right behind.

"Boo," I say normally, which somehow manages to scare her.

"AH!" She yells, turning around her sword almost at my neck. I know she won't hit me, but I can see something on the sword that makes me jump back.

I know that it should be visible to the naked eye, but the concentration from before made it visible.

"Oh, it's just you," she says pointing her sword away from me, and seeing the look on my face says. "I see that you've met my sword, Murasame,"

"Yes, I have," I reply, being wary of the sword. "What's on it?"

"You'll find out, if you're lucky enough to face me," Mai says.

"Don't worry, I will," I say.

"What are you doing here, anyways?" Mai asks.

"I was just watching everyone train," I say.

"Ok.." Mai says suspiciously, as if I'm going to steal their magic.

"Anyway, I got to go," I say and walk into the trees.

I jump up into a tall on, concealed by other trees, to continue watching Mai.

What is on that sword? I silently ask.

I wait until she has hit a living animal, or even a tree so as to collect a sample of whatever's on that sword. After about 10 minutes, she accidentally hits a small bug. I guess she hasn't noticed, because it isn't bleeding, but it's dead. Luckily, it's near the edge of the woods. I hurry down and pick it up.

I carefully put into a small plastic bag and spend the rest of the day analyzing it.

I know that I have good analyzation skills, so it's pretty easy to see where the poison is and how it looks.

I check the bugs heart and see that it has completely stopped, in fact it died the second it touched the sword.

And judging by the way it got in, it doesn't need a big opening to get in, all it needs in a scratch.

I slowly extract the poison, making sure that the poison doesn't touch my hands or skin, and put it into another container.

I get rid of the bug, and examine the poison.

It's the type of "kill on contact" poison. Which means, if I fight Mai, I'll have to administer the antidote before we fight. But on the other hand, she can't kill a participant. She'll have to tone down the poison, and make it so that the poison can only knock out the opposer.

Knowing this, if we're in a big battle and she hits me by accident, then it's all over for me.

I quickly get the materials I need and get to work making the antidote.

Normally, looking at the poison, it should be possible to make an antidote, but I was taught by one of the best healers in the world. She could heal anything after even a look at the poison.

So, needless to say, I'm pretty confident in my ability to figure this out.

I close my eyes and concentrate. When I open them again, I can see what the poison consists of.

I pick a few herbs and other things, and I have a few antidotes made within a few hours.

I make another few antidotes in case she replaces the poison on her sword with a knock-out drug and make sure that I have a few on me. It is a little pointless to make another antidote, because the one from before is suitable for any type of poison or drug.

They each last for at least 15 minutes so I should be good.

I leave after that, and judging by the position of the sun, it's about 7. I'm about to meet up with everyone else, but I'm stopped by Natsu.

"Yo Crystal! Fight me!" Natsu yells as he runs to catch up to me.

I turn around. Should I? "Eh, sure why not,"

"Really?" Natsu says, his eyes lighting up.

"I need more training, anyway," I say.

We walk to where I trained with the Unknown.

"So, do you need a warm up, or are you ready to go," I tease.

"I'm good," Natsu says and lunges at me with his fist.

I easily dodge, and move behind him.

"Never let your opponent get behind you," I call.

He turns around and yells "Fire Dragon's Iron Fist!"

I dodge again. I haven't attacked Natsu yet and I'm already winning.

He gets up. "Damn it! Why do you keep dodging?"

"Because I don't want to get hit," I say as though it's obvious, although it is.

"Fire Dragon's Roar!" He yells.

I duck, and he misses.

"Dammit!" He yells.

"Ok, since you're obviously having trouble, let's do this-" I say getting interrupted.

"I'm not having trouble at all," He says getting up and dusting off his shoulders.

I put my hands in my pockets. "I was gonna propose that you somehow have to make me take my hands out of my pockets."

"I don't care! Let's go!" He yells and runs towards me.

I swing my leg underneath him, he falls and doesn't get up.

"I guess you still can't face me," I say and turn to walk away.

"W-wait," He says weakly and starts to get up.

Is he still gonna try? I think.

"Are you sure about this?" I ask. He looks too weak to fight. I don't wanna hurt him.

"I'm a Fairy Tail wizard. I don't give up that easily," He says and gets to his feet.

I should have known.

I'm considering taking my hands out of my pockets and letting him win. I'm not so prideful as to let him die because of a small fight.

He walks towards me slowly. "Lightning Fire Dragon Slayer Mode!"

He is suddenly covered in flames and lightning.

He jumps into the air and tries to land an attack on my head.

Instinctively I pull my hands out of my pockets and block.

"Looks like I win" Natsu smirks.

In truth, I let him win so he wouldn't kill himself, but pretend that he won.

"I guess you won," I say.

He helps me up and I go to find the others.

I find Alex soon.

"Crystal!" She yells

"Hey Alex," I say.

"How's training going?" I ask.

"It's good, I can aim really, really precisely, and I haven't missed one target!" Alex says excitedly.

"Really? That's cool," I say.

"Rin's been helping me too," Alex says pointing over to an area surrounded by bushes.

"Really," I say.

"Ya," Alex replies.

"I guess I'll meet up with her," I say and leave to go see Rin.

"Ice Dragon's Roar!" Rin yells and the area she attacked freezes.

"Rin!" I say and she runs over to me. She hugs me.

"Hey, how's your training been going?" I ask.

"It's good," She says gesturing to area i which she's been practicing.

"Wow," I say. "I can see,"

"What about you?" She asks.

"Good," I say.

We have a small conversation before I meet up with the others.

I have a small conversation with each of the other participants.

Before long it's night and I'm in bed.

I can't wait for the exams….

~One week time skip~

We've all arrived back at the guild, and the master is going to tell us the first competition.

"Now that we've all gathered here, I will tell you the first competition. It's going to be the same as all the previous years. The exam starts now! First person to get to the island wins!" He yells and we're all off.

Most of them are just running, but Mai, Alex, and The Unknown are going off into different directions.

I'm not gonna fall behind either!


Hey guys! I hope you guys liked that chapter! It took a really long time, and I have a lot of projects to finish, so I'm going do that now. Bye guys! See you next week