Chapter 5 – The Third Test
Wayne and the other examinees were led to another place. They passed through a long corridor and were brought to another massive hall. This hall was empty and it was not as massive as the previous hall but it was still big.
"There are a lot of people who pass the first and second test," Wayne thought while he looked around him. "There are about 20 thousand people that pass the written test. I don't think there will be that many that fail the second test," Wayne continued walking and stopped when people in front of him stopped walking.
Suddenly, many drones flew above their head and they lined up to form a few massive rectangle shapes. All the drones suddenly transformed and combined to form a massive floating screen.
Many people gasped at what they saw including Wayne. They thought that the drone was responsible for security but little did they expect that they had this function too. "Our technology is awesome!" Wayne exclaimed because he was shocked and impressed with what had happened.
A few seconds later, the screen switched on and an old man appeared on the screen. Everyone recognized him as the chairman of the Hunter Association, also the strongest hunter in the world. He was also the third strongest human in the world.
The strongest human in the world was the emperor, the second was another explorer, and third was the Hunter Association chairman. All three of them were an old man with a grandpa level feature. They had white hair and a long beard.
All three of them… no, the top 100 humans in the world were all the first generation who got the system. They were the leading figure of humanity in fighting the monsters since the beginning of the age of magic. They were the survivors fighting the monsters flooding the world 500 years ago. They were the living legend figure of the world.
They might look as old as a 100 years old human before the age of magic but they have the might of destroying a B grade city with a flick of their finger. No one wanted to mess with them because they feared that 'flick'.
"Greetings future hunters. Congratulations on passing the first two tests. There are 18 thousand of you that pass the first two tests but the third test is harder than this. Everyone should have known that the third test is the hardest and dangerous," said the chairman.
"The mortality rate for the third test is high. Last month, 20% of examinees lost their lives. During the summer examination, 43% of examinees lost their lives. During spring, 35% lost their lives. Last year, the overall mortality rate for the four exams was 33%," said the chairman and he was not smiling.
Everyone shivered when they heard that. They knew that it was dangerous and they knew that some people lost their lives but they did not know that the rates were that high. The summer examinations were the worst. Almost 50% of them lost their lives. That was almost half of the examinees.
If by chance the number of examinees was as much as the total number of examinees at the moment, 50% meant about nine thousand examinees lost their lives. That was a huge number.
"We give you a chance to give up now. Think properly if you want to continue or not. Your life's on the line. We do not have anyone who can use resurrection skills and there has been no such skill ever found since the age of magic. Think properly. I give you five minutes to think," said the chairman, and the screen switched off.
Everyone in the hall clamored and many of them started to rethink their decision. There was no age limit to get the license and there was also no limit to how many a person could take the test. They could use more time to become stronger and came back once they were stronger.
Many examinees decided to give up. Their lives were important. They could take the test again but they could not get their lives back.
Wayne, however, did not think much about this. He had decided to become stronger and did not mind the danger. Also, he did not know why but what was currently happening sounded fishy. He did not know why but he had a feeling.
Five minutes later, the massive floating screen switched on again and the chairman appeared on the screen again. "Have you made your decision? Those who want to give up can raise your hand and the drones will take your details and lead you to the exit," said the chairman.
Once the chairman said that many examinees raised their hands and the drone came to them, took their details, and led them to the exit. Wayne was shocked to see many people gave up the exam. Once all of them were escorted by the drones, the chairman smirked.
"70% of you give up…" the chairman said and he smirked, "Psst, what a pussy," said the chairman, and everyone was stunned and then, the chairman laughed, "Hahaha! Congratulations to everyone that doesn't give up. You pass the hidden test."
Everyone was shocked. A hidden test?! "A hunter needs a strong resolution and courage. Hmph! Giving up before you even take the test. We don't need a pussy and coward," the chairman snorted.
"I lied to you to see your resolution. There was no casualty during the test. It is dangerous but no one has ever died. At most they are crippled which can be treated nowadays with our technology," said the chairman.
"You are our future generations. You guys will lead humans in the future. Do you think we will let you die easily? Preposterous! We are hunters! We hunt monsters to protect humans!" said the chairman and he released an aura of authority. Everyone shivered.
"You think if you give up now you can train to become stronger and come to take the test later? Dream on! Without the hunter license, none of you can enter the dungeon and none of you can advance your power unless you are rich," said the chairman.
"I knew it. I knew something was wrong. Luckily, I am resolute to do this," Wayne thought but he felt pity for those that were convinced by it. Wayne had a feeling that everything he saw online might not be all true and the official hunters might have posted that to delude everyone's mind.
The test was for sure dangerous but just like the chairman said, their safety was guaranteed. How much damage they needed to take before they were saved was not guaranteed but they would be fine.
"Those that give up will not get the privilege like those who failed the first and second test. You are banned from the exam for ten years. Unless you can enter the special dimension and become an explorer, don't even think of becoming stronger," said the chairman and he looked scary.
"We will not let cowards enter the battlefield. You might end up running away to save your lives leaving your comrade in danger alone," the chairman said sternly. The screen turned off and those that failed were led out of the building. They were banned from the hunter exam for the next ten years.
Wayne looked around him and there were not many people left. 70% of them gave up and there were less than 6000 people left in the hall. Wayne could see that everyone had a look of determination on their face and he thought that this was what the Hunter Association sought after.
After all those 'deserters' left. The screen turned on again and it was not the chairman. A middle-aged man who looked like he was in his mid-30s appeared on the screen.
"Hello everyone, I am Hugo, the leader for the third exam. Congratulations on passing the previous two tests and the hidden test. We can see that you have the potential to lead humanity to greatness," said Hugo.
"Moving on, I will explain to you the rules for the third test. All of you should have known by now that the test will be a combat survival test," said Hugo and he scanned everyone in the hall for a few seconds and he continued.
"You will be separated in many groups of 100 and each group will be sent to different dungeons. This test will have two parts. First is the individual test and the second is the teamwork test. Both tests will be done in the same dungeon," said Hugo.
"Both tests are the same. We will send you to the dungeons for 10 days and survive until the tenth day. For the first part, you will be alone and the second part, you will form a group of five and survive in the dungeon for 10 days," said Hugo.
"Wherever you go, an examiner will follow you in secret to help you when your life is in danger. If there is no help coming to you, that means the examiner deems you capable of going through the danger. They will only help if you are really in danger. You will rely on yourself most of the time," said Hugo.
"You will now be grouped by the drones and we will give you an hour to prepare yourself before we depart for the dungeon," said Hugo and the screen switched off.
The drones flew around the hall and led all the examinees into groups. Wayne followed the drones and joined a group of 100 examinees. There was nothing Wayne could prepare and thus, he just stood there in the group for an hour.
The other examinees were busy checking their equipment and other important things to survive in the dungeon. An hour passed and a group of experienced hunters came into the hall. They spread and one of them came towards Wayne's group.
"I am Monica and I will be leading this group to the exam site," said a beautiful but serious hunter, Monica. She exuded a strong aura but was not comparable to the aura released by the chairman earlier. Even so, they knew that she was strong.
Wayne looked around and saw the other groups started moving out of the hall through many of the doors available around the hall. "Follow me," said Monica and she led everyone out of the hall. They passed through another corridor and arrived at another massive hall.
"How big is the space inside this building?" Wayne thought. First was the super huge examination hall. The second was the previous hall and the hall he entered at the moment was another massive hall. All of them on the same floor of the building.
"Are other floors the same as this floor?" Wayne wondered. He looked around to see the other groups were in that hall too and they were queuing to enter the teleportation portal. The journey to the dungeon would be through the teleportation portal.
Fifteen minutes of waiting, it was finally Wayne's group to depart. They entered the massive portal and the magic runes on the floor shone. Wayne looked in front of him when suddenly, the hall disappeared and was replaced with a forest.
Wayne suddenly felt dizzy. Not only him, but most examinees in the group were the same too. Some of them even vomited due to the dizziness. "You will get used to this once you use the portal more in the future," said Monica. She looked serious but she was nice enough to wait for them to feel better.
Wayne rubbed his forehead to alleviate the dizziness and he looked around the forest and saw the massive gate 300 meters from him. Outside the gate were two hunters guarding the gate and the area was filled with hunters, possibly the hunter that would be following them in the dungeon.
Once everyone felt better, Monica announced, "This is the normal rank dungeon, Blue Python. This is the lowest rank dungeon suitable for a beginner like you but don't look down on the monsters inside because they can easily kill you."
Monica continued, "As Hugo mentioned before, there will be two parts of the test. The first is individual and the second is team test. We will do the individual test first for ten days. After that, we will conduct the second part for another 10 days. All in all, you will be here for 20 days."
"If you give up or cannot continue with the test, you are disqualified. Not doing anything during the 10 days? You fail the test too," said Monica and she scanned all the examinees in front of her. She could see that they took the exam seriously and would not be worried about them not doing anything.
"In this dungeon, you will only encounter normal rank blue python species. Some of them will not be the common blue python but they are still part of the blue python family," Monica explained the dungeon to everyone.
"This dungeon is as big as this planet," said Monica, and everyone was shocked including Wayne. They knew that the dungeon was similar to a different world but they did not know that the dungeon in front of them was as massive as Planet Hugint No 1.
"All normal rank dungeons are as big as this planet. The higher the rank of the dungeon, the bigger the dungeon will be," said Monica and everyone was shocked again.
"How in the world did the hunters close the dungeon in a year or two? There will be a lot of resources and it might take more than ten years to deplete the resources of the dungeon… No, even a hundred years might not be enough time," thought Wayne.
"I know what is in your mind. More and more dungeons appeared every day and we do not have enough manpower to guard all of them. We need to close many of them since we cannot manage them. If the Hunter Association decides to keep all of the dungeons, the monsters will probably pour out of the dungeon-like a flood," said Monica and everyone gave an understanding nod.
They remembered what the chairman said earlier, 'Hunters hunt monsters to protect humans' and the association would have to decide for the safety of humanity. There was a reason why there were not enough hunters.
It was because many hunters were also explorers in which explorers mainly operated inside the special dimension. Sometime the explorers would enter the dungeon but 90% of the time, they focused on the special dimension.
Monica explained a bit more about the dungeon and then, she decided to start the test. It was evening and one by one, the examinees entered the dungeon. Wayne passed through the dungeon and he stepped on muddy water once he got inside.
He looked around him and everywhere was water or more specifically, swamp. "Everyone, follow me. We will first head to the main camp before we send you randomly around the dungeon," said Monica and she gestured to everyone to follow her.
They saw a small land and on it were buildings which they assumed to be the camp. Once they got on the land, they were surprised to see that the place was similar to a small town in the past before the beginning of the age of magic.
Wayne looked around and could see restaurants, clothing shops, weapon shops, and many more things there. "Everyone will stay here for the night and we will start the test tomorrow morning," said Monica and she continued, "If you have anything you want to buy, you can visit the shops in this camp."
"I thought we would start the test now?" One of the examinees raised his hand and asked the question. Monica did say they would start the test earlier.
"Yes, the test has started. We will send you randomly tomorrow," said Monica and she added, "Tomorrow, 6 am. Make sure all of you are here or your marks will be deducted," Monica left and everyone was speechless. The examinees looked at each other and decided to tour the camp.
Even so, Wayne could see what was happening. If they wanted to survive in the dungeon, they would need information and ample preparation. Monica did not once mention anything about the swamp or specific details about the blue python.
They would need to gather the information by themselves if they wanted to survive the dungeon. The best place for them to get the information was from the camp. "This is for information gathering marks. Also, possibly preparation marks," thought Wayne.
He looked around and could see some of the examinees had the same idea too but most of the examinees in the group had no idea at all. Wayne decided to walk around the camp and collect information as well as preparing some items or equipment for safety.
Wayne did not prepare much for the test and he thought that it might be a good time for him to prepare. Wayne visited all the shops available there and collected information about the dungeon. Weirdly, most of them gave the same info.
Wayne deduced that they were only allowed to give the information by the Hunter Association for the test. Everyone in the dungeon was hunters including the merchant, cook, and tailor. It was impossible for them to not know much when they stay in a dangerous place like the dungeon.
"I guess they want to see if we care to ask for information. As for more details about the dungeon, we will have to experience it ourselves," thought Wayne and he decided to eat his dinner at one of the restaurants available there.
Since the ingredients used by the restaurant came from the dungeon, the food contained mana and it was beneficial to their body. Due to that, they were slightly expensive compared to the same type of food outside the dungeon.
"Let's see here, the blue python is a big snake. The smallest is around 5 meters with a body thickness of 20 to 30 cm. Their color is blue and their affinity to water elements is 40%. Due to their massive body, they are strong physically and can use water skills thanks to their water affinity," Wayne read the information he gathered.
"This one is a basic and common species that can be found in this dungeon. There are mutated blue python like the wing blue python and horn blue python. It looks like there are more mutated species but they cannot tell me. I need to figure that out by myself," thought Wayne.
He continued eating and perked up his ears to listen to the surrounding talk. Who knows, he might get some new information from their talk. As he listened to them, he did gain some small information. Wayne was happy that he ate there.
Wayne booked a room and spent the night there. Early in the morning, he woke up and prepared to head to the place Monica wanted them to gather.