Chapter 21 : Exam Rules

The girl's eyes were screaming for help, but only cold and scary crimson eyes met her. After a second, those cold eyes disappeared and became warm, and his frightening face turned gentle, then she felt two strong and warm hands pressing her little hand.

"Everything will be fine, fight and rip the strings that bind you."

*exhale*

The stifled breath in her chest finally came out, the anxiety and tension subsided from her face. After her breathing returned to normal, she noticed that the boy who was supposed to apologize to her was holding her hand now.

Everyone's eyes almost popped out with shock from the quick change in events. Her face, which had been pale a moment ago, turned red, then she pulled out her hand screaming.

"How dare you to hold my hand for the second time?"

"The first time doesn't count, the first time we met, you were in the middle of the road flooded with bags that flew from the ring, and you were screaming for help. So how was I supposed to fix the ring without holding your hand" Jin said while shaking his head.

"You didn't just hold my hand. You also took my herbs bag," said the girl, gritting her teeth angrily.

"Don't you know that when someone helps another person, they should thank him or reward him? I didn't even hear a word of thanks from you, and all I heard was your condescending tone. You told me to take the bag, and I assumed it was my reward for helping you. If I knew that helping someone who did lock a bird inside..."

"I'm sorry."

The girl screamed at the top of her voice to interrupt him. On top of all the embarrassment she had today, the last thing she wanted was to let people hear the story of her imprisoning a living being inside her storage ring. No one is stupid enough to make a mistake like this.

"I'm sorry for everything that happened today. It was my misjudgment of the situation. Let's forget about it, guard; I take back my complaint."

The beauty left the place, leaving everyone confused. Jin turned to the guard, who was more embarrassed than the girl; it was like a fight between lovers, making him lose face. But, of course, Jin would not pity him.

"You have heard the apology you asked for, so stop wasting my time and leave. I have other things to do." Jin pointed to the guard to leave, returned to his seat, and continued his work.

The guard's anger reached the point of madness when he saw a child talking to him in this way, not only did this kid spoil his chance to get some money, but he insulted him in front of everyone. Even worse, he could not touch him, especially after Han Seol apologized and withdrew her complaint. He had no choice but to retreat in silence, but his eyes confirmed that today's matter was not over yet.

Jin finished breaking the seals of all the scrolls. He was feeling exhausted. He remembered the simple room that he rented and felt some regret. 'Maybe I should have chosen a more comfortable room.'

"You are amazing. You are indeed my hero. I have never seen anyone as good as you before." Du Bai, who was silent, burst into a torrent of praise. His eyes shone fiercely when he saw Jin finish breaking the last scroll seal.

"Don't overreact. It's just an elemental magic circle. I'm sure any magic student in the academy would have been able to finish it in half the time," Jin said, shaking his head at his friend's ignorance.

"I'm talking about the beautiful girl from the Han family. You held her hand twice in front of everyone and made her apologize to you. Not to mention your cute argument with her; it was definitely a lover's fight. Great master, please teach me how to pick up girls," Du Bai said as he looked at Jin, begging.

"Stop your nonsense, and let's rest a little. Tomorrow will be a long day." Jin said while sighing.

As the two young men were leaving, two people were watching them from afar, one of them was the huge guard in a white robe, and the other was a short height one who covered his face with a black cloak.

"That bastard has earned at least two thousand silver, make sure you take it from him before finishing him off." The guard said to the person in the black cloak. The person in the black cloak smiled, revealing his teeth, and licked his lips.

---------------------

The night before the exam day, Each participant was given a scroll and a small box with a gold-colored hexagonal badge inside. Each scroll specifies the place, time, and mission of its owner. There were more than twenty different missions, such as hunting different types of monsters or collecting badges from the other participants. The participants were divided into five places at four different times. Du Bai opened the scroll in the rented room and read it aloud.

"Nine in the morning, in the first area; the task is to reach the gate while keeping the badge color golden."

Du Bai wrapped the first scroll and opened the second scroll.

"At 1 pm, in the third area, reach the gate with two gold badges."

"So that's the point of the badges, and it seems the participants can exchange scrolls among themselves. Luckily I got the easiest task when you have to fight for the second badge and fighting to keep it."

Du Bai stared at Jin, waiting for Jin to ask him to exchange tasks with him. He began to imagine Jin begging and pleading for his help so that he would take the role of a brave hero and save his friend from his test. As usual, Du Bai let out his imagination with a ridiculous expression on his face.

"Du Bai, the gold badge will slowly fade its color as soon as you take it out of the box. So why don't you try to give its golden color back? This will be good practice for tomorrow." Jin said as he rolled his eyes at his friend.

Du Bai strutted about and took the badge out of its box, confident in his success. However, after a few minutes, all his confidence disappeared, no matter how hard he tried to focus his powers inside the badge; it barely lighted for a second before losing its color again.

"What's going on? Why am I unable to make it turn back golden?" Du Bai said while looking at the badge in his hand desperately.

On the mission scroll, it was stated that if the badge lost its gold color for more than ten minutes, it would turn white, and its owner would lose automatically. Du Bai discovered that he was in trouble.

"Dear Du Bai, the exam has already begun, and the first step is to find a suitable task for your abilities. Unfortunately, this is the worst task you can get with your poor energy control. By the way, this task was not for me at first. I had previously traded my task with a girl who was skilled at using a bow. My task was to hunt ten blue-feathered birds.

Jin took the badge from Du Bai's hand, and in a second, it was shining with a golden light.

"When I noticed that you didn't pay attention to it, I swapped your original mission for this mission. Your original mission was to collect ten gold badges. Du Bai, I don't mind helping you, but you should use your brain more. Remember that the key to success in our world is not just talent and strength; Luck and intelligence are two important factors." Jin said while looking at Du Bai seriously.

For the first time, Du Bai felt terrible. How is it possible that he did not notice this? Without Jin's help, he would have to keep ten gold badges instead of just one. Today he learned a new lesson, a lesson he will never forget for the rest of his life.

"You have said that luck is the key to success, and I am the luckiest person in this world. Since the day I met you, my life has changed. I will make sure to improve myself to be worthy of staying by your side."

Jin looked away and started to speak with a fake shyness, then he imitated a girl's voice and said.

"Aww... Du Bai, your confession surprised me. Your sweet words moved my feelings, but I'm a man like you, so I can't accept your confession, sorry, Oppa."

Du Bai froze, realizing his words seemed like a confession and started screaming.

"I take my words back. My first confession can't be to a man, do something, remove it from my head, aren't you a magician? Make an elixir to help me forget what I said, recite a spell, draw a magic circle, do something."

From the next room, someone interrupted him, shouting angrily."Stop screaming. My exam is at six in the morning."

When their neighbor shouted about his exam date, he made Du Bai pay attention to the different exam times. Then something came to his mind as he looked at the scroll in his hand.

"Jin, since you broke all the seals, you read all the existing tasks. Could it be that you didn't alert me in advance to ensure that you would get me a task that was at the same time as the lunchtime?"

"Damn it, I did ask him to use his head, but I didn't expect him to find out my intention so quickly. "Jin's face turned pale, but he made a fake smile saying.

"It has nothing to do with the deer meal the housewife will serve tomorrow. It has nothing to do with it."

Du Bai gritted his teeth and started screaming again.

"You bastard, you say this while your saliva has filled the floor, you are the one who eats more than me, you wretch!"

*bam bam bam*

The person in the next room was hitting the wall hard and shouting.

"You bastards, stop screaming, please understand my pain, my exam will be at dawn, and I'll have to hunt giant, foul-smelling slugs. Do you know how disgusting this is? Please at least let me sleep."

Jin and Du looked at each other and realized that their fight was meaningless.

"Good night Jin." Du Bai said as he got ready to go to bed to sleep.

"Good night, and apart from what we were talking about before, you are the most person who knows that my advice is invaluable, so remember this saying. If you don't ask the question, you will never know the answer."