Chapter 4 – The Written Test
Most of the skills were the same skill but they had more power. Wayne wanted to upgrade all of them to SSS+ grade but he found out that there was a limit to how strong they could get. For example, jab could only be upgraded to rank B+. Higher than that was impossible.
Even so, the lock upgrade was fine. Wayne found out that 25 might be the limit of the lock because he could not get more than 25 locks. However, from his observation, all the skills he upgraded could have the 25 locks. Wayne did not know if there would be a skill with a limited lock but he might find it in the future.
Out of eight of the skills Wayne upgraded, five remained the same skill but with the best possible status. They were jab, palm strike, water flowing step, monkey jump, and focus energy. As for iron skin, mana skin, and dash, Wayne found an opportunity to make a new skill out of them without breaking the tier 1 limit.
Wayne succeeded in creating a new skill by combining the iron skin and mana skin and gave birth to a new skill called Magical Iron Skin. Nothing special about the skill other than its ability to block both physical and magical attacks at the same time and a stronger version of defensive skill.
Wayne was half sure that the magical iron skin could be the best tier 1 defensive skill. From his knowledge, he could not find any other tier 1 defensive skill that was as good as the new skill.
Dash was upgraded and formed a new skill called Dash Plus. Similar to dash, dash plus would give an explosive speed upon use but it was much more powerful than the dash. Wayne got dash plus after he used Multiplication on five dash skills. If he used six dashes, the skill tier would increase to 2 which Wayne did not want to have.
Other than the two new skills, Wayne created another new offensive skill by using Addition to 10 palm strike skills giving birth to 10 Palm Strike skills. The skill would launch a 10 palm strike in one attack. If Wayne used it 10 times, his enemy would be hit by 100 palm strikes.
10 Palm Strike was not a combo skill because Wayne used Addition without the stacking function. He did create a palm strike combo skill using the stacking but the skill was tier 2 which Wayne refused to have at his current power. So, he ended up creating the 10 Palm Strike which was his best and most powerful skill.
Wayne decided to use the skill as his ultimate skill. With SSS+ grade, it could inflict a lot of damage and no tier 1 defensive skill could block the attack. Even tier 2 defensive skills might have a problem blocking the skill.
Wayne learned all the skills he had created and he felt a warm feeling passing through his body. The system notified him about successfully learning the skill. It was night and Wayne decided to end the day.
He planned to start training with his skill in the morning and at night, he would study for the written test.
45th Winter Year 2500.
Five days had passed since Wayne finished building his cultivation map and learned many skills. He had been preparing himself for the hunter exam for the past five days. Wayne managed to master most of the skills he had learned except the 10 Palm Strike.
Wayne found out that the skill was too strong at his current power that he could barely use it once and he would faint once he used it. The skill that he planned as his ultimate ended up truly being ultimate.
Not only the 10 palm strikes, but all the skills above grade A+ also were hard for him to use. The palm strike, dash plus, and magical iron skin skill were all difficult for him to use. Even the jab skill which was his weakest skill was hard to use. He got tired easily if he used a jab more than 15 times.
He did consider learning a weaker skill but decided not to. He would have the difficulty in the beginning but once his status increased, the skill would not be that difficult to use.
It was early morning and Wayne wore simple clothing for this hunter exam. He did not equip himself with any equipment. It was a stupid move but he wanted to see how far he could go without any outside help for example equipment.
Besides, Wayne focused on physical combat without any weapon due to his talent and skills and thus opted to use a weapon. He could easily create powerful equipment but relying on them would not be good for his development and thus, he did not prepare any equipment.
Wayne walked out of his home in normal clothes and a thick winter jacket. It was snowy outside and cold. Even if his status had increased, he still could not endure the cold from the snow. Wayne walked towards the train station to take the train to the capital city, Fleore.
The hunter exam was done every month at the 45th. So, the government would hold the exam four times a year. Those that passed would get their hunting license and could enter any dungeon available in the world while those that failed could retake the exam the next time.
Wayne did not stay idle on the train. While on the train, he used his smartphone to study for the written exam. He had studied a lot but there was nothing wrong if he wanted to study more.
Wayne was not a genius in academics but he was not average either. He could be considered a smart guy but not overly smart and far from genius. Even so, he was hardworking and that resulted in him being a smart student in his middle school.
The train would take an hour or two at the most to reach Fleore City. Wayne had once gone to the capital city before seeing his real parents which he decided to wait after knowing their identity. So, he was slightly familiar with the city.
There was no country or empires or kingdoms in Hugint. It used to have that until the appearance of monsters where humans united under one government where they simply named it the Hugint Government.
Since then, there were no borders between places in the world. As long as someone had money, they could travel everywhere in the world. It was a complete freedom in traveling. As long as people followed the laws, nothing could restrict them.
However, the cities located all around the world were given grades based on the size of the city. Fleore City was one of the nine cities with Grade S. Grade S city was a massive city that houses at least 10 billion people.
There were nine continents in Hugint No 1 and on each continent, there would be one Grade S city. These cities would usually house many noble families and only Rank S and Rank A noble family could operate in the Grade S city.
Fleore was chosen as the capital city because it housed the only Rank SS family which was also the Royal Family of Hugint. They used to be a normal noble family but rose to become a royal family because of their ability.
Though freedom was everywhere in Hugint, the strong ruled the world. After the appearance of the system and monsters, the world became a place where the strong rules. Even so, the citizens were fine with that because the government had made sure that there would be no dictatorship that happened in Hugint.
Be that as it may, strong people were respected in the world and this was the reason Wayne wanted to be strong because if he had some respect from the people, his family might accept him once he decided to confront them.
'Ting! Fleore City! Fleore City! Fleore City!' The train announced that he had arrived at Fleore City. Wayne got out of the train and headed towards the Hunter Association Building. The examination would be done there.
Wayne took a bus and went straight to the Hunter Association building. With the advancement of technology and magic, public transports operated 30 hours per day meaning it never stopped unless there was some rare technical problem.
It was early in the morning and the sky was as dark as night but Wayne could see that there were still many people walking around the city. The sight was normal everywhere in the world since humans got the system. With their energy increased, everyone hardly felt tired and thus, humans had irregular sleeping time.
The world became a sleepless world where there would always be people who woke up in the night no matter the time. Even on the bus that Wayne took, it was packed with people. It was a normal sight especially in a massive city like Fleore.
When Wayne glanced at the passengers on the bus, he smiled lightly. Most of them looked nervous and he had a feeling that those that look nervous must be the same as him. They were headed to the Hunter Association building to take the hunter exam.
Wayne continued reading his materials and fifteen minutes later, the train stopped in front of the Hunter Association building. To Wayne's surprise, it was bustling with people or better term, future hunters. Wayne got excited.
He walked energetically towards the massive skyscraper which was the Hunter Association building. It was one of the 10 tallest buildings on Hugint No 1. In Fleore City, it was the second-tallest building. The first belonged to the royal family.
Once Wayne stepped inside the building, he was surprised to see that space inside was massive. "Space magic!" Wayne was surprised, amazed, and curious. "This must be the work of the royal family!" exclaimed Wayne.
It was not a secret that the royal family excelled in time and space skills. Due to that, the used-to-be-normal noble family skyrocketed to the top and was crowned the royal family of Hugint. Also, the explorer that had the technique and skill with 13 locks was the no 1 person in the family and the world, the emperor of Hugint.
"If only I have time and space talent or perhaps even a magic talent, I can learn a lot of time and space skills," thought Wayne as he was still amazed by the sight he met. Once he glanced around for a few minutes, he searched for the registration counter.
There were a hundred counters opened and there was a long line in each counter. "Whoa~ How many people are taking the exam this month?" Wayne lined up in one of the long lines and when he looked around, he could see that most of the people there were around his age.
"They must be the same as me. Awaken recently," thought Wayne and he could see his peers wore casual clothes too, similar to him but he was sure that they have their equipment in their storage. Since the first test was the written test, there was no need for them to wear their equipment.
Some people were fully equipped from head to toe and people were looking at them weirdly. Why would they need the equipment for the written exam?
It took Wayne an hour lined up to register and after that, he was led to a massive hall with many tables and chairs lined up properly and he knew that they took the exam seriously.
Drones were flying around above the hall and the drones were not normal because they carried stun guns to punish those that cheated in the exam.
The Hunter Association could easily confiscate examinee's items that could help them cheat but they did not do that because punishment like this was better. They needed to know that they carried the burden of their action.
Wayne looked at his number and went to a table with his number on it. He was the 15 745 candidate. When he got the number, he was shocked. Wayne thought he came early but 15 744 people came earlier than him.
After he sat on the chairs, he looked around but he could not see the end of the hall. The hall was stupidly massive. It might be as massive as the city itself. "I wonder which elder in the royal family that did this?" thought Wayne.
Two hours later, a floating screen appeared on the table and there was a countdown on the screen. "The test is starting soon," said Wayne and he took a deep breath.
[3… 2… 1… You can start. Good Luck to all] said the floating screen and the screen changed to the first question. Wayne was looking at the top of the screen where it wrote 1/5000. That meant there were 5000 questions he needed to answer. Wayne already knew this but he was still surprised to see it.
The test would go on for five hours and the passing mark was 100/5000. As long as they got 100 questions correct, they passed the written test. It sounded easy but the passing rate was less than 60%. 40% of them would fail in the written test.
They test covered all areas of subjects. From mathematics to language. From science to politics. From economics to magic. From history to myth. Many more were covered in the 5000 questions. There were even cooking questions in the test.
Although the test was named the 'written' test, there was no need to write anything because it was a multiple-choice question. It might sound easy but the answer was almost similar to each other that it made many people confused. Wayne was the same too.
He had answered 13 questions and he was not sure if he got them right because the answers were confusing. Now he knew why the passing mark was 100 when there were 5000 questions. So, the examinees only need to get 2% of the questions right.
Wayne realized he was not as smart as he thought he would be because he was at the 37th question and he only knew the exact answers for only seven questions. As for the other 30 questions, he just guessed it. As he answered more and more questions, he found more and more questions he had no clue what it was saying.
The first hour passed, the second hour passed, the third hour passed, the fourth hour passed. It was the last hour and Wayne was far from completing the questions. He was at the 3589th questions. He knew that it was impossible to answer all the questions and when he found a question he had no clue at all, he immediately chose and answered and hoped that it was correct.
Wayne was stressed. He never thought the written test was this hard. He thought he could breeze through it. He made ample preparations for the test but realized how shallow his knowledge was.
An hour later, the test ended. All the examinees looked listless. Some of them had their soul out of their mouth. They all faced similar situations with Wayne and Wayne looked listless too. He failed to answer all the questions. He managed to answer only 4244 questions.
It was not bad if he knew the answers but he felt worse when he guessed 99% of his answers but he still failed to finish the questions. Now, all the examinees needed to wait at their table as the AI marked their test. In half an hour, they would get their results.
Wayne looked around and saw many people looked worried but he could see some looked fine. "Those guys must have aced the test," thought Wayne and he felt jealous. He wished that he was as smart as them.
With nothing else to do, Wayne played with his phone. They were not allowed to communicate with each other in the test hall and he could not have an empty talk with people around him. A few minutes later, the results were out.
The floating screen appeared again on the table and it showed the marks of the examinees on that table and below it wrote either that person passed or failed. Scrolling more below, they could see everyone's marks but there was no name mentioned other than the marks.
Wayne looked at his marks and he heaved a sigh of relief. "134/5000… Barely passing the test," Wayne clicked on the marks and it showed him which questions he got right. Most of them were something he knew the answer and about 20 questions were the one he guessed and luckily got them right.
Wayne glanced around him and he saw many people passing but then, he glanced at those people who looked confident. They were shocked because they failed. "…" Wayne was speechless. They looked so confident earlier but they flunked the test.
Above the heads of those failures, were drones charging the electrical rods on its body. "It looks like those that fail the test might riot and the drones ready themselves," thought Wayne and it looked like this occurrence happened every time.
One of the examinees stood up immediately and wanted to cause trouble. They had yet to leave their table and thus, the drone immediately launched towards that person and shocked that guy. Not only him, many more seemed dissatisfied with their exam but was knocked out immediately by the drones.
"Impressive! The security of the Hunter Association is good," thought Wayne while he looked calmly at those fainted examinees. After that, Wayne focused back on the screen and checked the highest mark and his mouth gaped when he saw the score.
"3259? For real?" Wayne was shocked. The top 10 all got above 3000 marks. The top 100 all have 2500+ marks. The top 1000 all have 2000+ marks. Wayne checked his score and he was at the bottom. Many people had the same marks as him.
"… Am I that stupid?" Wayne questioned himself. He already considered those at the top 1000 were monsters in knowledge because they were too clever… or maybe they were all geniuses. "With this mark, my family will never admit I am one of them…" Wayne felt he made the right choice not rushing to meet his family.
Half an hour later, the screen changed and told the examinees that the second test started immediately. A scanner came out of the table. All of them put their hands on the scanner and it scanned their average ability. Wayne passed the second test without a problem.
He looked around and no one had a problem with the second test. After that, they were immediately led to another venue for the combat test.
"Here we go," thought Wayne and he was nervous.