End of the Entrance Exam

"All contestants! There has been an urgent matter for me to attend, and the exam will be ending in 2 hours! Please make your way to the exit now! I repeat, the exam will be ending in 2 hours!"

William was in the middle of hunting a beast when he suddenly heard this announcement.

"Could it be related to obsidian skull?"

William calculated the time. With the time he had left, he could easily reach the end even while walking and hunting the beasts, since they wouldn't slow him down much.

"We'll, I guess I'll just keep doing what I've been doing."

William glanced at the brand new sword in his hand, a dark brown sword shaped like a gladius.

"I was regretful that I got this earth tier sword, but at least I got to save some SP. Anyway, the rest of the items would've needed more time or more resources to use, so at least this provides an immediate boost to my combat strength."

William trekked further into the forest, cutting down any beasts in his way.

...

Almost two hours later...

"Oh no! I might not make it!"

William desperately ran towards the finish line. A few minutes earlier, he was about to cross the finish line when he saw a beast nearby. He was going to hunt it, thinking it would be quick, but who knew it would take so long!?

Just seconds after he stepped over the finish line, a bell rang, signaling the end of the exam.

"Phew."

William looked around. Across the finish line, there wasn't much to see. There was only a large empty field, with a single building there.

William walked inside, and inspected his surroundings. The inside of the building was plain, without much decoration. The only thing there was several counters where people were getting their cores counted.

"Guess this is where I get my score."

Walking up to one of the desks, he was met with a middle aged man.

"Can I have your token?"

William handed them his token.

The man peeked inside it and wrote something down on a piece of paper.

"Cores, please."

William hesitated. He had nearly 200 cores by now, and they wouldn't all fit on the table. What he was most afraid of was if they rolled off the counter onto the floor.

The middle aged man seemed to mistake his hesitance for embarrassment.

"Don't worry if you don't have that many cores. Due to the exam ending early, I believe many of the schools enrolling will give y'all some slack."

"It's not that."

The man seemed to recall something.

"Oh, right! Speaking of cores, there were some people that came before you with huge backpacks to store their cores in! One person had over 100 cores! There was even this one girl who had an entire spacial ring filled with cores!"

The man looked at him closely.

"Speaking of that, where did you put your cores? You didn't just place them in your pockets, right?"

Exasperated, William already wanted to get this over with.

"Just count my cores already."

William bought a large bin from the shop and placed it on the table. Then, he poured all his cores inside.

"You have a spacial ring?"

The man took one look into the bin and nearly fainted.

"HOW DID Y-"

William quickly covered his mouth, gesturing for him to be quiet.

"Shhhh!!! Don't tell anyone!"

The man quickly nodded. After confirming that he had calmed down, William uncovered his mouth.

"How did you get so many beast cores?" The man whispered to him.

"How else? I hunted beasts like everyone else."

The man took out a device from under the counter.

"Place your hand on this."

William placed his hand on it, and it glowed in a green light a moment later.

"Spirit foundation realm?! I thought you would at least be in the spirit condensation realm!" The man looked at the device in shock.

"Am I done?"

"Just a moment."

The man placed each of the cores on the device, measuring the strength of the beast they were from and writing a bunch of numbers down on a piece of paper. Finally, he wrote some things on another piece of paper before handing that to William.

"Your final score is 638."

"Thank you. And am I allowed to keep the beast cores?"

"Go ahead and take them. And don't forget your token. You'll need that for the school registration.

"Okay."

William stepped out of the building after placing everything in his spacial ring. Then, he noticed one of the boys from his village waving at him.

"William! Over here!"

"Coming!"

William runs over.

"William, what score did you get?"

"Uh... 50... no, 53."

"53? That's really good!"

"I only got 14."

"14? I only got a 7!"

"I don't think it was that hard."

"Be quiet! You only got 12!"

"Oh, you're talking about your scores? Did I tell you that I got 87 points yet? Impressive, right?" Cody suddenly butted into the conversation, clearly so he could brag.

"Yes, yes, you're very impressive. Now get lost."

"Stop bragging already. You're not a kid anymore."

While Cody left to go sulk in a quiet place, William looked around.

"So when do we get to choose our schools?"

"Should be any second now."

At that moment, the bell rang again, and Terrence appeared.

"All contestants who successfully passed the test may now head into the building to choose their school. Do remember that there are only a limited number of slots for every school. As for those who failed, do not fret. This exam is held every year, and there will always be another opportunity for you."

After the announcement, everyone clamored to get into the building, trying to pick the best school.

"Hurry up!"

"Let me in!"

"Get out of the way!"

William navigated through the crowd, being one of the first ones to get inside the building.

Inside the building, there were now boards pasted on the walls, each with the name of a school on it. They also each had a bunch of information about the school. Each of the boards had a tray with slots where you would place your jade token. Some schools had many slots, while others had very few.

"Let's see... What kind of school should I go to? Probably some kind of sword school. And I have to choose a good school, not just one in a tier 1 city."

William looked around the room, which was quickly becoming crowded.

"There aren't any schools in tier 5 cities. I'll have to go for a tier 4 city."

William quickly noticed a sword school in a tier 4 city named Spirit Sword Academy. Seeing that it only had two slots and one was already taken, he quickly ran over and skimmed over the description.

"This'll do. And I meet the 400 point requirement."

William quickly placed his token in the slot and made his way out of the building.

After a while, everyone had finally made their choices. Some people weren't too happy with the school they chose, and others felt lucky to go to their school.

Terrence appeared again and spoke to the contestants.

"You have now selected the school you wish to go to. Three days from now, return here. There will be carriages that will bring you to your designated school. That is all. You are free to leave."

William left with the people from his village, returning to the hotel. After a good night's rest, he woke up the following morning, feeling refreshed.

"Man, it feels good to wake up without a rooster screaming in my ear."

William petted Lucky's head, rewarding it with some sunflower seeds for being so quiet.

"Good job."

William got out of bed.

"What do I do now?"

He would be leaving for the school in 3 days but there was still some time before then.

"I should probably get some swords that can be copied. I'd rather not constantly buy them from the shop."

Walking outside, William went around the city, looking at the map he had bought when he first arrived here.

"This way."

William quickly found the most popular weapon seller in the city.

"Zenith Armory, huh?"

William went inside and looked around. The building had a total of three floors, and he was currently on the first floor.

He noticed a sign nearby and walked up to read it.

"'Zenith Armory has a total of three floors. The first contains mortal tier weapons. The next floor has spirit tier weapons, and the last floor has earth tier weapons. Please note that we do not sell armor.'

Guess I should go to the third floor then."

William walked up two flights of stairs before reaching the third floor.

"Not bad."

While it wasn't was grandiose as modern buildings in his old world, it was quite fancy.

Looking around, he could see many shining weapons placed inside glass displays.

Walking to one of the displays, he read the price.

"32 gold and 45 silver. That's not too expensive."

William looked inside his spacial ring.

"I should have enough to pay for that... oh."

William looked at the measly few gold coins he had and the stack of silver coins.

"I forgot I haven't been gathering money recently. I guess I'll have to come back another day."

William walked back outside, sighing.

"I need more money."

He was currently selling the gold coins and the spirit stone for SP whenever he collected them, so he couldn't change that. He could copy another valuable object, but that would need him to sell it to transfer it to actual money.

"Guess I can only buy more slots."

William opened up the system.

"Purchase 2 more slots. And remove the water and bread from their slots."

"1502 SP has been deducted."

William looked at the map for the nearest bank.

"There."

Quickly travelling to the bank, he changed 400 of his silver coins to gold coins. Immediately, he put those coins in their slots, and told the system to collect them automatically.

"With this amount of coins, it's only gonna take a little more than a day to get enough to buy a sword. I should be able to get two swords, maybe three."

Deciding to come back to the store on the last day, he sat on a nearby bench and quickly checked the map.

"Where should I go next?"

William looked at the map closely.

"Maybe I should pay a visit to the blacksmith guild again? If I can learn how to make weapons, I won't have to keep buying them. With a few ultra comprehension boosts, it shouldn't be too hard."

William stood up.

"Well, it's settled then. Next stop, the blacksmith guild."