Chapter 50 The test

Juhya, the top student among the fourth year students, stepped forward. "I am Juhya Wayner, first in rank," she said, her voice calm and commanding. "I'll be leading the training today."

Elfa followed suit. "I am Elfa Wayner, second in rank. I'll assist Juhya with today's session."

Murmur! Murmur!

"Whoa, two powerful students from the same family."

"They are Wayners; of course they will be strong." Hearing the students say Wayners this and that, somehow the Wayner name irked me.

Their introductions were brief and formal. They glanced over at us with a detached demeanor. And do not spare me a second look.

"I will leave the rest to you guys; take care of my students well."

"Yes, Ms." After hearing her response, Ms. Elisa nodded in satisfaction and started to leave the training ground.

"Attention students," Juhya said with an authoritative voice, and instantly all the students became quiet and focused on her. "I'm sure Ms. Elisa explained the reason for this training, right?"

""Yes""

"So, as you guys know, this is for our assignment. The reason we have fourth year students train first year students is to benefit both groups. For the fourth year students, it helps them develop leadership and mentorship skills, preparing them for future roles. They reinforce their own knowledge by teaching, which deepens their understanding. For first year students, it provides personalized attention and support from experienced peers, making their learning more effective.

And the team battle is to test whether the fourth year students are competent enough to protect humans and their team members. The monster mainly focuses on hunting down the weaker ones—not only monsters but humans and other races too. So in the VR battle, we target you first years, and the fourth years job is to protect you guys from harm. The fight will be big, and all the fourth year students will participate in the battle, meaning 2500 students will be participating, so it's easy to hunt you guys down and eliminate the team quickly. And we don't want that, so you guys get intensely trained by your partner so they won't lose, so that means learning opportunities are vast for you guys. And this is a selection for that. We will be taking your videos and sending them to other students, and they will evaluate you and decide who to pick. So you guys need to perform well in this test so you get picked by a strong upperclassman and learn under them. Now you guys get it."

""Yes""

"Any doubts"

""No""

"Good"

The training ground became heated as she confirmed they would be teaching us so many things, and if we performed well, we would get picked by a strong upperclassman. 'So what the students need to do now is absorb the knowledge like a sponge in one month'

"Well then, start the introduction from the bottom."

The students started with the introduction, and while the introduction was going on, only a few upperclassmen showed interest in students while others didn't, and most of them didn't even try to hide their disinterest and disappointment.

"Excuse me," I called Juhya.

"You have any questions?" she asked, her eyes squinting at me.

"Ywan—I'm not interested in this. Can I not participate in this test?"

"What's your name?"

""Ehh"" some of her classmates looked at her with questioning eyes.

"It's Jadel Atlanta. Now can you explain?" Her presence gave me a mix of feelings, and amidst these, I'm feeling really irritated by her presence. Even though I don't want to, I can't control myself; it's like I want to pick a fight with her.

"Unfortunately for you, you can't; we need to evaluate you."

"Unfortunate, really… unfortunate," I looked at and said in a way that it was unfortunate to stand in this place with someone like you.

"Well, nothing can't be done about that." She said it nonchalantly, and I felt like I was a kid for acting like this.

Clap!

As she clapped her hands, 50 wierd small puppets with a length of 6 inches, made out of shadows, emerged from her shadows.

"First, I'm going to evaluate speed and strength; second, combat skills; and third, willpower. For the first test, you guys only have to catch one of the shadow puppets. So let's begin. You guys have ten minutes."

Swoosh!

As her words ended, the shadows vanished from their spots, their speed matching almost D rank.

"Catch them"

""Yes""

The students rushed at the fleeing figures of shadow puppets. The training ground was massive, so it had a lot of space to chase after the dummies, but ten minutes is kind of low considering the big space in the training ground.

Ywan!

'Speed and strength, huh, so the puppets must be quite heavy'

"Hey kid, you're not going to catch the puppets," an upperclassman with green spiked hair asked, seeing me nonchalantly staying there and watching my classmates.

"Mmm, me? I will. It's just that I don't have much drive to catch the puppets," I replied to his question.

"Why is that? You think learning from the fourth year students is not good enough?" he asked in slight irritation yet genuine curiosity.

"Ah, no, I know exactly how to capture these things."

"How?"

"Trade secret"

"Huh"

I looked at the students, struggling to catch the shadow puppets. From what I know, most of the students are E ranks while some of them are under D rank and D. The new students didn't take the rank assessment, probably thinking to do it when they become second years.

'But' I looked at Juhya, sensing my gaze, she looked at me. 'She increased the puppets' power; maybe she underestimated the students' being at the bottom of the E class, but that doesn't mean they are weak. In fact, they are really more talented than most C class students, while some of them can match B class and A class students.

I watched my classmates struggle. Some of them caught the puppets, but being caught off guard by the weight of the puppets, they dislocated their hands, but they quickly got healed by the healer.

As time passed, I started to walk towards Juhya.

"Why are you coming here and not catching the puppets?" a fourth year student asked, but I completely ignored that person. Tapping my watch, I took out the dagger and stood in front of her.

"What do you think you're doing… Jadel?"

"Trying to catch the puppets," as I said, a flicker of surprise showed her face, but she composed herself as soon as that showed. She squinted her eyes and released a slight killing intent that only a directed person can detect.

'Hhe, you call that a killing intent'

「Core Release: 60 percent」

「Bloodlust」

The air suddenly turned red as it got filled with a red hue emanating from my body. Because it was so sudden, she stiffened a little, and taking the opportunity, I attacked her.

Swoosh! Clank!

Smirk!

Shadow puppets. It's a skill derived from her innate skill, Queen of Shadows. With this skill, she can create however many puppets she wants and freely control them. But this skill's main factor is that it's created with her shadows, meaning it's highly focused on her defense. So when she is in danger, the shadow puppets will automatically protect her.

In the novel, she was a supporting character that helped MC a lot. so I know most of her skills until the envision happens. With her talent for freely manipulating shadows, she got the nickname Shadow Queen. And with how charming the protagonist was—she was kind of in his harem—well, that's what the fans wanted them to be.

'Truly disgusting' I thought as my dagger was blocked by a shadow puppet who was holding a tiny sword in hand. Looking back, I saw all the puppets in mid air descending at me.

'.... Shit, I'm dead'

I withdrew my bloodlust and activated my skills.

「Dash」

「Gravity Modulation」

「Shit」

「Lost Gem」

Seeing the trajectory of the approaching monsters, I skillfully dodged it.

Swoosh! Swoosh! Bam! Bam!

Loud banging sound that resonated in the training ground As the puppets fell to the ground.

'Fuck, I forgot they group up on the attacker and attack them.' They didn't stop, and continued to attack me relentlessly.

"What the heck are you guys waiting for? Can't you see all the puppets are here? Take the opportunity, you idiots!" I shouted at the classmates who just stood there and watched.

Without any delay, Lui rushed to my side, followed by others. Since the puppets were in groups, it became easy to catch them. Seeing that, the upperclassmen looked at me with a surprised face, probably not expecting this turn of events.

Seeing she was about to command the shadow puppets, I instantly approached her while dodging the puppets and tried to stab her.

Grab! Crack!

She grabbed my hand so hard that I heard a cracking sound. With a cold expression, she looked at me and asked, her voice above whispering, which sent chills through my body. "How do you know my skill?" she asked, tightening the grip even more.

"Don't be an idiot, senior." I forced a smile. "Even an idiot knows the puppets made out of their own shadow tend to protect their users even without the commands, and with the innate skill of yours, I would be a complete idiot not knowing this." I felt a growing rage in my body. And become irritated by the looks she gives me, as I'm a bug in front of her. "....And if you use any more strength.

"I will kill you." 'I will kill you' 'I will kill you' The words unknowingly came out of my mouth, but I felt like I heard multiple sounds.

She looked at me for a few seconds and let go of my hands. "Try if you can, useless prodigy."

"Here, catch this. I threw the puppet I caught when I approached her. So I passed the first test, right?"

"… You did."

"Good." I walked out of the testing place and took out a healing potion. My body was hurting like hell as I unleashed core release with bloodlust. Even though I became proficient in using core release and have good control over the berserk mana, it still hurts my body.

'I don't have any problems with using active skill with core release, but passive skill, it hurts like hell'