29 Entrance ~ 2!

The applicants who came in the morning were more than a thousand and now around 2 o'clock in the noon, only 200ish are left , of course Subaru was also among them. The written test , was easier than he expected as he was done in only 20 minutes , even they were given 90 minutes in total. The number of applicants who left the hall was so high that it felt that the venue suddenly became abandoned.

All those who passed the written exam were gathered in a huge hall where all the students were directed to seat in the side bleacher surrounding , a huge stage approx 500 m sq ft in area at the centre. Subaru glanced at the students and he seemed to recognise none. There were 6 officials discussing something on the stage while the students were discussing among themselves.

Since no students were allowed to bring smartphone , Subaru sneakily took out his phone from dimensional storage texted Sasha about him passing the exam .

"Good afternoon . My name is Kisaragi Mizu , the test conductor of the second preliminary exam." A man in his early thirties said in a tone which was hearable by all even he wasn't using any device. He was wearing formal white shirt and black pank like the other officials, who were now nowhere to be seen. Every offical present here had concealed their mana so well that Subaru felt the students mana were overwhelming them but he knew that all the officials present here were high rank hunters.

"First, congratulations for passing on your first exam and stepping toward a better future...." The congratulatory speech went for a full minute before the main topic was brought up.

"The second test, will be focused on your perception and presence of mind". Subaru already had a gist about the test so he wasn't surprised and listened calmly while leaning back on the uncomfortable chair.

"A student has to use their perception and reflexes to dodge the invasion on them without the use of advance technology or gadgets. Of course , you can use magic and physical moves however... " The announcer paused for a second making the students nervous all of a sudden.

Each year, a new twist was added in the test which makes every test different from each year . Soon the examiner opened his mouth again and spoke in the same tone as before .

"... you will be blindfolded".

________________________

A lot of people murmured and questioned the examiner , which he answered patiently before moving to the first practical exam of the day. Since the first student always feels pressure being the test subject of others , the official memeber gave a quick demo how the test would go.

The first student was a nerd looking boy similar to Theo. The boy nervously moved to the stage with his legs visibly shaky.

The examiner told him something before tying a black piece of clothes around his eye, and a knot on the back of head .

The blindfold was mana embuded in order to avoid cheating or trickery. Suabru was watching the test intently to figure what sort of another challenge might could be added during the test, but he didn't knew that he would be disappointed.

The test began, with a timer of one minute on the screen. The examinee had to keep himself out of the reach of anything approaching them, a slight single touch would be counted as failure.

As they showed before,colured wax balls in the shape of a soccer were thrown from every corner of the stage which the nerd boy dodged by creating a barrier around him, however...

"His barrier is crumbling already. What the heck are those balls anyway?" A girl mumbled as she saw the scene infront .

The nerd boy was trying to remain calm and keep his barrier up but the barrier was torn from various places and its not been even 10 second since the test started.

Soon the whole barrier got crushed and the nerd was thrown on the other side of the ring as soon a wax ball hit him.

[#UC 66478]

[FAILED]

The screen showed these graphics and the badge on the nerd's chest went dark showing that it was no more valid . The other candidate's badges had green light still alive but soon enough various of them started fading away as soon the test proceeded further.

Various dreams got crushed very soon. Some students used agility , some used their athletic physique to try and dodge the attacks but failed at the end . The number of wax ball and its speed of shooting increased every second making it simply impossible for the students to pass even 10 seconds.

No one was able to withstand more than 10 second and always failed the test miserably. Subaru turn came not so long after. His UC was on the screen when he jumped from the bleachers directly on the centre stage.

Everyone including the officials were baffled on this daring stunt . Subaru glanced at the examiner and soon the examiner moved forward to bind Subaru's eyes with the blindfold and after saying "Good Luck" left his side immediately . Subaru sighed and waited for the test to begin.

Everyone knew that something different would happen this time, so they started watching in anticipation and excitement filled eyes. Every gaze in the whole hall was fixated on the tall boy who was now standing carelessly , without making even a steady stance or chanting spell .

[3.. 2.. 1]

The test soon started as the first wax ball was thrown directly at Subaru's face. Subaru was well aware of the incoming attack but he didn't flinch and took the attack head on.

*BURST*. The wax ball was bursted into small pieces as soon it reached half an inch apart from Subaru. Subaru didn't touched it otherwise his body would have been wounded or the wax would have left Mark on his body but he was clean and unfazed .

The examiners were astonished as they didn't even saw him chanting barrier nor they were feeling mana around him. Soon the number of wax balls increased to 2 per second to 20 per second.

After 10 second was crossed , the wax ball were swapped by small lava balls in the size of tennis balls . More harder to concentrate and dodge those balls if one was to use their perception only. Subaru was able to keep up with the attacks that even without his <Limitless> he could have dodged them easily.

The students were questioning and murmuring among themselves about how it was happening and soon the murmurs transformed into loud taunts and complaints.

"He is cheating it's obvious".

"Hey teach... he is clearly cheating . "

"Yeah, you should check him".

"YEAHH... RIP HIS CLOTHES FIRST". That was a girl who shouted in the last with her own different motive .

The examiners frowned as half a minute was about to pass. They also had their doubts on Subaru so they eventually stopped the test and walked toward Subaru.

Subaru smirked as he was able to listen every talk about him since the start and was waiting for something like this to happen.

"Can you come with me for a second". Subaru heard the man who announced the test in the start, beside him before his blindfolds were taken off.

Subaru nodded and walked with him toward the corner of the stage where the other examiners were standing.

"Now can you explain how were you doing that?" A woman wearing glasses, in her late twenties with a serious expression on her face asked . It seemed she was the head among them as they all were standing side by side and the woman in the centre.

"I can but my test was interrupted . If I wasn't cheating then how the board would compensate me? " Subaru raised his brows in questioning.

" Kid you don't know the conduct. If you are caught cheating then it could hamper your whole career as a hunter .."

"And what if I am not ?" Subaru asked again making the woman slightly irritated with his tone.

" Then I will abuse my powers and give you a direct entry to the hunter's school and you don't have to face this test or the advance test after this one". Subaru grinned happily and nodded to get checked.

" Now stand still . If any of us find you regulating mana then it will counted as trickery ". Subaru nodded again before opening his arm and standing back motionlessly.

He was restricted to use mana even the rest allowed usage of mana as the examiner wanted to check how he was dodging all this time without the use of mana .

The woman came forward to check for any artificial enchantment but when she was about to touch him her hand were blocked with an invisible forcefield like it was barrier or something. She enchancted herself with mana and used her brute strenght as much she could but the result were same.

Other examiners had their eyes wide open as they didn't saw any mana fluctuations from Subaru and still their chief was unable to penetrate his barrier.

"How are you doing this?" The woman stood up and asked in a stern voice , completely defeated to crack through his defences.

"This is the condensed mana which is enveloping my body continuously . Nothing could touch me until..." He lifted his hand and moved toward the chief's cheek .

"...i don't want them to touch". And started caressing her cheek gently making her face flushed .

"*Ahem* I see then it's not cheating. You passed Mr. Subaru. And from the side of the whole board members present here, i ask your forgiveness". Subaru stopped caressing her cheek and nodded happily before dashing back to the bleachers.

The screen on his badge changed from his UC to the text written 'special case ' in golden colour.

Everyone who saw him , had various reaction but no one was daring enough to question him .

'Now here i come'.

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A/N: From now on school arc will start . Those who were asking what would be learn in the school then don't worry you will find it

shortly .