10 Entrance Exam [1]

I sat on the flying bus on the way to the academy. It was five stations away from the apartment.

I rested my chin on my hand and looked through the window.

'I still can't get used to this.' I thought as I watched the urban landscape outside.

The past two months have passed really quickly. I can still remember when I woke up confused in an unfamiliar apartment as if it was today.

My status has changed a lot since then.

――――――――「 Status 」――――――――

Name : Michael Bertz

「 Stats 」

Rating : [1.3] +0.20

Vitality : [0.10] -0.04

Mana : [2.90] +0.54

Strength : [0.9] +0.18

Agility : [0.95] +0.32

Intelligence : [1.65]

Luck : [2.80]

Special Point 0.23

「 Skills 」

――――――――――――――――――――――

Even after more than a month, I still couldn't cure myself.

I focused more on increasing my agility stat than strength.

While I trained, I discovered that the higher my agility was, the faster I could dive and move in the shadows.

Unfortunately, <One with the Darkness> was still level one. I could feel that I was close to leveling it up. However, there was a weird barrier that stopped me from doing so.

On the other hand, <Purple Lightning Bolt> reached level 3.

――――――――――――――――――――――

Lvl. 1 - You can shoot weak lighting bolts.

Lvl. 2 - Your lightning bolts are 10% more powerful.

Lvl. 3 - You can make your lightning bolts explode.

Lvl. 10 (MAX) - ?

――――――――――――――――――――――

It was pretty good. At the moment, I could destroy a soda can with 5% of my mana, but it also cost me twice more mana to explode it.

There were a few things that changed in my initial plan.

<One with the Darkness> was powerful. However, most of its strength came from the surprise factor, so I decided to use it only in special cases and not reveal it.

Using it would also put me in the spotlight. I can already imagine all these prideful and jealous students asking me for a duel or villains and evil organizations targetting me.

'Yeah, I'll just let William have the pleasure of dealing with them.' I thought jokingly.

For peace of mind, I'll just lay low.

"What a coincidence." A female voice said beside me.

Hearing that, I snapped back to reality and turned my head to see who it was.

A beautiful red-haired girl was sitting next to me.

"Huh? Olivia?" I reacted.

'Since when? I didn't even notice when she sat beside me.' I wondered.

"No, I think you got the wrong person." She said as she looked away from me with a slight pout.

'Are u a kid?'

"Pfft."

'She must be still angry that I ran away right after we got off the train.'

I gathered a little bit of mana in my right finger and shot it at her neck.

"Hiya!"

She turned around and looked at me with an angry face.

"Pfft." I tried to hold back my laugh.

Seeing my reaction, she punched me in the shoulder.

"Alright, I'm sorry, haha, I couldn't stop myself," I said.

"You were my first friend that I made from the Union City." She murmured.

'A friend? Hmm...'

"I guess you were my first friend too." I thought out loud.

'My first friend I made in this world.'

"You could have at least left your contact info," Olivia said.

"Ah, you see. At that time, I didn't have a NEARWatch or any device like that, sorry," I replied.

"But you have now, right?" She asked rhetorically while looking at my left wrist.

"Here," I said as I lifted my left hand with the NEARWatch on.

She lightly tapped my NEARWatch with her's, and two small holograms appeared.

Without looking at them, we both said.

"Accept."

Another holographic window appeared.

Pony Archer has become your friend.

'The what? has become my friend?' I thought as I looked at Olivia.

Noticing my gaze, she got embarrassed a little and said.

"I was twelve, ok?"

"Yeah, yeah, Miss Pony Archer," I replied teasingly.

She punched me again...

"Do you think you will be able to pass?" Olivia asked and then continued.

"I mean the entrance exams. Your stats were pretty low. if I remember correctly."

"Yeah. I'm pretty confident." I answered.

"Are you sure? I checked the previous average score of students that passed, and it was pretty high. It wasn't that high for me, though."

'Are you worried about me, or are you trying to boast?' I thought as I rolled my eyes.

"There is something like that? Where did you find it?" I asked.

"It's on The Number One Academy's forum."

'Forum?'

"I see. So what was the average score?"

"1.78"

"Does it show the lowest score that got accepted?"

"I think it does. Let me check."

A few seconds passed, and she showed me the holographic window of her NEARWatch.

'The lowest score was 1.42.'

'That's way higher than I expected. Thank god they don't test the Vitality stat.' I thought, relieved.

...

After a few minutes, we got off the flying bus.

The academy was only 600 meters from the bus station.

As we walked, Olivia asked me.

"What course are you going to take?"

"The one for Mages," I replied.

"I see- Huh? Mages?"

She then continued.

"Weren't you using a sword?"

"How do you know?"

"I saw the goblin's corpse. That cut was pretty clean."

"I see. Well, I was, but my mana stat is pretty high, and I got myself a spell," I replied.

'I will try to take sword classes too, though.'

"I see."

...

As we neared the academy, we could see thousands of people enter it.

It was huge. I barely entered, and I could already see many buildings from afar.

It was like a separate city inside a city.

"By any chance, do you know how big is this academy's area?" I asked out of curiosity.

"Yeah, it should be a square, and its sides are 20 kilometers long," Olivia replied.

"Wow, that's really big," I said as we walked up to the noticeboard.

There was a list of examinees. Next to their names was a place where their exam takes place.

"Mine is in the building H. What about you?" I asked.

"I have my exam in building C," Olivia answered.

"I see, that's a shame," I said and then continued.

"I wish you good luck, then."

"Good luck," she replied as we separated and went to our allocated buildings.

After I entered it, I saw a big and spacious hall. It was almost the size of the shopping center.

Many teenagers were already inside. There were also six examiners, each standing next to a different testing device.

When the clock hit 8:00, one more person entered. It seemed like he was someone important in the academy as all the examiners lightly bowed towards him.

Then he said.

"Welcome! The entrance exams will begin now. After you hear your name called out, please step up. We will start with testing your stats. Then we will test your offensive and defensive capabilities."

...

Around 20 minutes passed.

"Michael Bertz."

When I heard my name being called out, I stepped up.

Then I was led to the first device, which tested mana stat.

You just had to place your hand on it and gather as much mana as you could in the same hand.

'Alright, focus.' I thought as I placed my hand on the device.

I gathered mana in my hand, but I held back a little.

All my stats, in reality, were 20% higher, but it didn't show on the status. I tried to score similar stats to those that were visible on it.

*ding*

When I heard the sound, I opened my eyes and looked at the screen on the testing machine.

'2.89, almost perfect,' I thought after I saw my score.

Next was strength. All I had to do was push the testing device with all my might.

'0.85'

The agility test was sprinting at your max speed.

'0.86'

The intelligence test was, in my opinion, the most enjoyable. For a minute, numbers, words, and pictures appeared on the screen. Then you had to choose which appeared, before and which didn't.

'1.45'

The offensive capability test was also fun. You just had hit a block made from a very durable material. You were allowed to use your skills and weapons.

'Should I use Sharpness [G] and just slash at it or attack it with the lightning bolt?' I wondered.

'If I think about it. I don't need to use mana to increase the lightning bolt's speed. That way, I can use the saved mana to make the explosion more powerful.'

'I haven't tried that yet, but I guess there has to be a first time.'

I gathered 55% of my whole mana pool in my right finger and a purple toothpick started to form. After a few seconds, I shot it at the block.

I waited for the explosion, but it never happened.

Silence.

On the contact with the block, my attack got absorbed into it. And then it disappeared.

'Huh?'

"Pffft, what was that?" I heard a few people behind me make fun of my attack.

'Why? Why didn't it work?' I thought.

'Hmm. Did I make a mistake while casting it?'

I could hear more and more people start to laugh.

'Is it really that funny to see other's misfortune?' I thought as I looked behind me then rolled my eyes.

Then the sound rang.

*ding*

I quickly turned around and looked at the screen that displayed my score.

'5.39'

'Huh?' My brain froze after I saw my result.

"..." It suddenly became quiet in the hall.

When I realized what happened-

'Hehehe, take this fuckers.' I thought while laughing in my head.

'Hahaha, who's laughing now.' I thought as I looked behind me again.

Examinees who made fun of me earlier were either shocked or embarrassed.

I know. It was a bit childish of me to have thoughts like that. But somehow, it felt so satisfying to see their expressions after they made fun of me.

Then the defensive capabilities test came...

I would rather not talk about it.

You had to receive the attacks from the device. In the beginning, they were weak, and slowly the power rose with each strike.

But well, I was pushed back after the second attack...

'0.26'

'I'm a perfect example of a glass cannon.' I thought as I waited for my final score to be announced. Well, it was just an arithmetic mean of all the scores I got.

'Final score - 1.95,' It was way higher than in my calculations.

'I wonder what my ranking will be.' I thought as I was about to leave the building, but then I heard-

"William Nate"

'Huh? William?'

'So the main character also has the entrance exam here.'

'That means. There is going to be a pretty interesting show coming up soon...'

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