CHAPTER 3: ENTRANCE EXAM

Here I am. At the start of my future, the first step and I slipped and landed on my face. I can hear some people giggling at me, but I stood up a bit embarrassed, but I still went in with a smile on my face. I make my way into the front desk to register my name and get the room number for the written test, "That'll be Room 111 Mr. Sasagawa, Good luck with the exam and may the Gods look upon you with favor." The girl at the front desk said as she waved at me, I gave a smile then went inside the room. The room was full of people, but none of them said a word, making the atmosphere in the room so intense.

The door opened and a muscular guy with a hammer swinging from his belt came in with a bunch of test papers, "alright there, seems like everyone is here." He sets the papers down on the table then looked at us then says "Hello there young warriors, my name is Thor, and I'll be the one to look after you guys while you take the written entrance exams." As I was sitting there, containing my nervousness, I stood silent as the other examinees are fangirling and fanboying over Thor. Thor took his hammer the summoned lightning as he said "SILENCE!" the examinees became silent and started sweating "moving on this exam is 100 Items consisting of General Knowledge, Mathematics, Science, Warfare Studies, and Gods and Goddesses. This exam last for an hour, after you're done you can go to the practical exam area. You may start now."

I started with mathematics, science, general knowledge, warfare studies, then gods and goddesses. I double-checked to see if I have any questions missed or have any miscalculated answers. "Alright!" I thought before handing it over to Thor then said "Well off you go to Training Ground 0, your examiner will greet you" I bowed then went out of the room to go to the training ground, as I went inside the room a familiar face greeted me "Hey kid." Artemis said, "Why are you here?!?!" I ask her "Well I'm a teacher here, and don't worry I'm not the examiner, this dude is" She points to someone wielding a bow decorated with glowing feathers, going towards us "The name's Hou Yi, I certainly hope that you will do well in this exam" He said then Artemis bumps his chest with her elbow "The kid'll be fine Yi, I'll leave to let you guys be." She exited the room, then Hou Yi said, "Now on to the practical exam".

The First exam is Target practice, followed by accuracy test, and basic Hand-to-hand combat sparring, then the "FUN" part a no holds barred 1-on-1 with Hou Yi, but we had to use blunt arrows, "You did well child, you're pretty skilled with the bow" He summons his bow then says "Now use all of them to survive this fight." I close my eyes to focus on one objective… Win, Hou Yi then fires his bow, I hear an annoying buzz in my head telling me to dodge when I open my eyes I only have a small amount of time to dodge but managed to. His eyes widen as he loads more arrows in his bow and started firing, this time his arrows is faster and have a lot more power to them. I did my best to avoid his arrows, but Hou Yi wasn't pulling any punches, and 2 landed on my right shoulder, 3 on my legs, 1 on my right knee, then tried rushing him… he came prepared for it and landed a solid punch to my face, causing me to spit out blood. "Armor!" the armor manifested, I felt a sting in my gut and saw that an arrow has pierced my armor, although in pain I pulled the arrow, and then I started my counter-attack by using "Fire Piercing Arrow" and managing to hit him hard in his chest, I started firing a barrage of arrows almost all of them were either blocked or dodged. As I come in closer to him than unsummoned my bow to punch him in the guts, and kick him in the temple and was knocked back and fall down. He stood up then started punching, I managed to dodge his punches, although I was being pushed back into a corner. I kept dodging until he was getting tired then pushed him back then jumped on his chest like a trampoline then summoned the bow and attacked him with an arrow, he dodged then he summoned the bow then used a blunt arrow to hit me in the head. Causing me to lose any control over my body to land on my face, he then pinned me down with an improvised rear naked choke using his bow. I couldn't breathe, and my eyesight begin to darken, I had to tap to surrender.

Hou Yi lets me go then helped me up "Sorry, I took the fight too seriously and forgot to hold back" he chuckled then shook my hand "You fight well child, Hope to see you here in the next upcoming semester. Now go to Asclepius to get healed." I bowed then collected my things then said "Thank you" before going to Asclepius to get healed and head out to see Artemis in the forest. After the treatment I went to the forest to look for Artemis, "Hey! Are you there?" I sat down then waited for her while eating a sandwich. "Well, that was tiring…" I yawned, then dozed off while waiting. After a few hours of napping I woke up to see Artemis poking me with a stick again "Good you're awake" I sat up feeling refreshed "the exam was tiring" I said then looked at Artemis "Well glad to see you're still alive and kicking kid" she said as she pats my shoulders. "What do you mean?" I questioned her, "Well, let's just say the Hou Yi used more than 40% of his strength." She replies, "Looks like you took my lessons to heart and made significant progress. I'm proud of you, kid. I'm sure Harchiman is as well. We believe in your kid." As she said that tears suddenly drops from my eyes, then I hugged Artemis, "Thank you for believing in me!" No words can explain how happy I was when she told me that. Most of my life I was bullied for having no blessing, no one believed in me and labeled me as powerless. Worthless. A Waste of space. Forsaken. My life was full of darkness, only my mom was the light and what pushed me to keep going, and now my dream is about to become a reality.

When I calmed down I questioned Artemis whether she was a Goddess and what type of relationship she and Hachiman had she told me "Well Hachiman was a good friend to me, despite his title as the God of War he was a kind-hearted God always helping anyone in need and always try to rescue everyone…his name used to echo hope, but he was taken to the high heavens after the war and people forgot his name, but now you're here and knowing Hachiman, you're going to be a great warrior kid." She looks at me then smiled, I blush a bit then said "Thanks Artemis, and Thanks Hachiman" I stood up then bowed "well I have to get going, I'll see you in a week to show you the results Artemis" I said as I pick my stuff up then waved goodbye "See ya kid, I'm still going to train you once were inside the school, I'll just give you a break for now" She replied then smiled evilly, Those words sent chills down my spine. Looks like hell isn't over yet, "O-okay" I replied then ran back home.

"How was the exam, sweetie?" My mom asked me as soon as I got inside the house "well I'm confident in the written exam, in the practical kind of okay because I managed to hold my own against a God" as I said that I felt a pinch in my cheeks then mom says "Great job then sweetie, go take a shower, I made your favorite. Lasagna." my eyes widen, and my stomach growled, I rushed to the bathroom to take a shower then put on my casual clothes then rushed down to eat to see my mom waiting for me. "Let's eat" she said then smiled. "Okay!" I said, then started eating.

Today is the day I'm going to receive the letter from Senjo Academy, I pace around my room trying to calm myself down until, "YAGI THERE'S A LETTER FOR YOU!" my mom shouts. I can hear my heart pumping, "this is it." I went down to get the letter my hands was shaking while open the letter, I took the letter out then a hologram of Zeus appeared "Hello Young Yagi, thank you for participating in this year's entrance academy. It gives me the greatest pleasure to give you the greatest news of achieving the highest written exam score as well as Hou Yi's personal recommendation. Well done, young one! Your books and uniforms will be delivered later. I see a bright future ahead of you. Surpass your limits young one and reach for the heavens!!" the hologram disappeared, then I looked behind and see my mom tearing up. "Mom, I did it… I DID IT!!" my mom rushed in to hug me "I'm so proud of you" she said holding me tight and crying "thanks mom, for everything" I reply then smiled at her then said "I got to tell Artemis about this, I'll be back mom" my mom smiled then said "don't be too late, I'll make some barbecue" she waved me off "I look forward to dinner" I said then ran to the forest as fast as I can.

"Artemis, I got in!" I shouted that it caused the birds to get startled and fly away I look around and saw Artemis sitting on a branch "Nice job kid, See you in class, you're in my class S, normally we don't say what class you're in until the start of school, but I made an exception" She smiled then laughed. I felt sudden fear when she said that because it means the start of hell all over again.