Rank Test Battle Royale (1)

The cheers were so loud that they can shaken the main building of Varion Academy. People started gathered and sat around on the spectator seats like a coliseum. The interior of the building was made to resemble an arena.

A gigantic platform where four large screen embedded on it was installed in the middle of the building. Hundreds of people already gathered in the audience, including professors and students. There were also visitors from all over the kingdom to watch the Rank Test for the top 7 of first year.

Rank Test - It is a special test for top students in first year to take, specifically, S class students. They would be evaluated and ranked based on their performances and ranking during the test. It was specially conducted for S class students as the other students had already took their Rank Test before during the entrance test.

The Rank Test for S class students always different every year. Last year was a one-on-one battle tournament between students where the champion of the tournament had been ranked as 'Rank 1' for their respective year. While the ptevios year, the top students on that year were having a race where 'Rank 1' was chosen by finishing first on the race.

It had became a tradition for Varion Academy to hold Rank Test publicly for their first year top students as Varion were expecting them to display a high-level battle worthy of their name as the students of the greatest school in the kingdom, if not in the world.

In the corner of the building, a group of students gathered in the waiting room. They were ordered to wait there as the professor in charge for the test would came and gave further instructions and also the 'theme' of this year test.

As the Rank Test was conducted differently every year, people did not know what was the test for this year. Varion never told what was test until a few minutes before it started as they believed that their students to be prepared for any situations. That's the reason why they kept it a secret.

"Harghh!!" Vesto slumped his back on a chair, unable to prevent the sigh of boredom from his mouth. He was tired waiting for the professor that was supposed to be there, giving instructions for the test. He was at the room since one hour ago, no wonder he was bored.

Beside him, Ren was sitting comfortably on a chair and focusing intensely on the book on his hand. Vesto looked at Ren with a weird look. 'How come this man still can read book at the times like this?'

"Hey Ren, why are you reading book at times like this? What are you reading?" asked Vesto.

When Ren heard the question from Vesto, he glimpsed at Vesto before focused back on his book. Then, he spoke. "I'm not reading, I'm preparing for the test."

"Huh? What are you talking about?" Vesto looked at him quizzically.

"I'm calming my nerves right now." Ren spoke while his eyes still glued on the book on his lap.

Vesto narrowed his eyes before amusingly laughed at Ren. He never expected that Ren was feeling nervous as he looked kinda calm currently.

Ren looked at Vesto. "Why? Every sane person should be feel nervous in this situation."

"Y..yeah. You are right." Vesto wiped the tears that came out from his eyes because of his laughing.

Then, Ren felt a presence was getting closer on him while he was talking with Vesto. He looked at the direction of person that approaching him. Ren was surprised as the one standing before him was a beauty goddess with eyes as cold as ice. Her silver hair swayed beautifully by her waist.

"Elena... Elsgard." Ren muttered the name softly, almost like he was whispering. He asked Elena with indifferent tone. "Do you have any business with me?"

"I just want to remind you for what I had said last week." She said, emotionless as usual.

"Yeah, I remember. You said you will beat me on this test."

Elena nodded as her response. Ren continued to speak. "But I don't quite understand, why would you need to beat me? Perhaps.. are you still mad because of what happened during entrance test?"

After saying that, Ren noticed there was a slight change on Elena's face in a moment before she turned back to being emotionless. She responded coldly. "That was the first time someone creeping on me without me realizing. And for not know how you do that, it greatly hurts my pride. To redeem my pride back, I would need to beat you."

Before Ren could respond to her, the room's door was suddenly opened from outside and Professor Arun entered the room, followed by seven other person with masks.

"I don't want to waste any more time, so I would explain briefly about your Rank Test." Professor Arun started the briefing.

"As you probably know, we would conduct different test every year for Rank Test. For this year, we decided to have a "Last Man Standing Battle Royale" as your test. You will be sent to a virtual world later. Other details you can check it here."

A mechanised orb was hovering in front of them. It emitted a light and displayed the test's details on the air.

| Rank Test : Last Man Standing Battle Royale |

This test would be conducted in Battle Royale format. The test will not ended until there is one person left. The use of artifacts is permitted; however it is limited to one artifact per person. The Safety System will be activated during the test, and pain will be suppressed by 75%. If any participants want to forfeit voluntarily, they just have to announce their resignation verbally. They would expelled from the virtual world after they announced their resignation. In any case participants receive fatal damge or injury, they will be automatically expelled from the test. Rankings will be assessed at the end of the test.

"You will have 10 minutes for your final preparation. After that, these seniors would guide you the test ground one by one." Professor Arun said while introduced the people behind him as the members of Student Council.

"One more thing, for Ren Milford, the faculty has decided that you will demote from S class if you are not placed on the top 3 in this exam."

Ren didn't reacted to it even in the slightest and continued with his usual calm demeanor. He knew Varion would do this. But what he was not expected that he would given a chance to stay in the S class although the condition given was nearly impossible with his current strength. If he was an ordinary student.

"Any questions?" Professor Arun continued. As he saw there were no one raised their hands, he assumed that the students didn't have any question, so he excused himself from the room soon.

All of the participants started making a preparation for the upcoming test. However, Ren was the only one that had do nothing. He just sitting there on his chair while observing other participants.

Senior that was assigned to as Ren's guide looked at him curiously. "It seems there is a confident fella this year."

Ren upon hearing that looked at his guide. Then, he looked at his left and right as if he was searching something before pointed his finger on himself. "Who? Me?"

"You are the only one here did not do anything. I bet you are confident on this test." The masked guide spoke. I think you should be more nervous as you need to achieve top 3 to stay in this class."

Ren looked at the guide. Based on the physical and the voice, he already guessed identity of the person behind that mask. Ren then spoke calmly. " I already finished my preparation as the test is within my expectation. Furthermore, how can I feel confident when one of my opponents is a genius mage like your sister."

As Ren noticed the masked guide felt surprised upon hearing the word 'sister', it confirmed his guess about the identity of the masked guide.

"What..what are you talking about?" stuttered the masked guide.

"I am talking about Elena your dear sister, Princess Ryna Elsgard." Ren spoke nonchalantly.

The masked guide felt more shocked upon hearing her own name from Ren. After a moment, she calmed her down before asking Ren how did he knew her identity.

Princess Ryna Elsgard -- The second child of the current monarch of Elsgard Kingdom and also the older sister of Elena Elsgard by two years. She was on her third year in Varion Academy and was the president of Student Council, which were given to her as the strongest student in the entire school.

"I'm just guessing it."

It was far from the truth. Ren was already knew her identity upon hearing her voice. That's because Princess Ryna was one of his closest comrades during his past life. So, he absolutely knew who she was by hearing her voice only. However, for Ryna, she was not acquainted with Ren, so she was shocked with Ren knowing her.

The 10 minutes given for final preparation was over and all of the participants needed to follow their own guide to the testing ground. One by one S class students started exiting from the room and Ren was the last one that exited from the room.

Ren noticed that each participants were guided to the different places. He asked Ryna regarding this matter. She answered him without hesitation. "All of you will be guided to different room as you will be enter the testing ground at different place. We don't want you to know other participants' starting place until all of you entered the test."

Ren nodded his head, agreeing with Ryna's explanation. If participants knew other's starting point beforehand, it would gave a huge advantage for participating students that created alliance beforehand.

On the way to their assigned destination, Ryna suddenly spoke to Ren with a serious tone. "Regarding Elena, you should avoid fighting her."

Ren lifted his eyebrow. "Why?"

"Even I, as a 5th circle mage cannot beat her easily, I think it is impossible for you to beat her. Her control in ice magic already surpassed mine. Her battle sense quite high and she fights like a veteran. If you want to make in top 3, you better avoid her until the later part of the test."

"Is it okay to reveal this much information of your sister to me?" Ren tilted his head on the right.

Ryna chuckled upon hearing Ren's question. She answered him with confident tone. "It doesn't matter. You can't do much about it."

Ren smiled. He knew Ryna didn't said that to put him down as she genuinely believed that nobody in S class could beat her sister currently.

"Okay. I will take your advice and try to avoid her." Ren said that to reassure her although he knew he cannot avoid Elena for long because Elena already declared war to him and for sure would find him as soon as possible.

Ren and Ryna continued their way until they arrived at their destination. Ren looked at the door in front of him upon their arriving. It was the door to the place that would decided the demise or glory of his future in Varion Academy.

With a deep breath, Ren opened the door.