Beads of sweat dripped from my face as I struggled to gain back control of my body.
"Pant… Pant…!"
With the suppression force finally being released, I took deep breaths and turned my gaze to face the source of it all.
It was a tall, tanned, broad-chested and muscular middle-aged man. He had a mustache and a scar running over his right eye.
"Him…?"
Immediately, I recognized him as the same person from the ability test examinations. His presence, however, was much more overwhelming than it was from the other day.
It was not just me; every other student in the center was scrambling to get control of their bodies.
'Damn, instructor! How the hell did you do that?!'
Even though I was dejected about being attacked like that, I was way more curious how anyone could have access to so much power.
Worse of all, his suppression force didn't even seem like an ability…
A minute later, when most of us regained our sense of calm, Smith began to speak once more.
"Okay… Let's see… If you've chosen to sign up with my class, you must know it's hellish. Well, let me tell you, surviving in my class is going to be ten times tougher than you can imagine… So, leave if you don't have the willpower!"
Smith's loud voice echoed throughout the entire combat center. Everyone gulped but chose to stay where they were.
That was excluding me, of course…
With my lips curled upwards, my foot lifted off the ground towards the exit.
Before I could step away though, I observed a dangerous glint in Smith's eyes.
I swear to god I had a vision that taking this step would cause him to unsheathe the katana attached to his belt.
'Fuck! Why give us a choice then?!'
I slowly retraced my step back and stood where I was.
All this did was confirm to me that Smith was either psychotic, or he basically just wanted me to stay here.
Soon Smith nodded and continued, "Good… The only thing I can promise you is that if you choose to stick with me to the end, you will all end up graduating from this academy as true warriors. Hmmm… A few of you may also end up representing our academy in the annual military competition!"
When Smith mentioned the annual competition, many of the students clenched their fists including Sylvia.
It certainly made my eyebrows raise, since I didn't know people cared for something like this.
'Is the annual competition some fun event?'
"Today is only the first day. We'll take it easy and have you all run a simulation test in this combat center. I can get a better gauge on your talents this way…"
Smith let his gaze rest on the each one of us for a moment. It felt like he examined me longer than he did the others, but I could never be sure…
In the next instant, he called out on three students including 2 A-ranks and Sylvia.
They were each asked to enter one of the three training rooms in the combat center with their chosen equipment, while the rest of us had to wait for our turns.
Soon Smith entered into a monitoring room, while we all patiently waited outside for our chance.
I was humming to myself as I waited, when I noticed a particular someone eye me from time to time.
The man was Hector who was the noble talking to Sylvia earlier.
Since I certainly didn't sense any friendly intentions from the man, I snorted and didn't bother getting provoked.
'Sigh… How can someone be so petty?'
Shortly, the first group of combatants exited the rooms.
With a tight-lipped smile, my eyes first fell on the bodies of the two A-rankers.
They were both unconscious and being carried out in stretchers by the infirmary staff, their bodies twitching occasionally.
The sight caused a tense atmosphere to form in the room. After all, it hadn't even taken more than 5 minutes for the two to reach such an injured state.
On the brighter side though, Sylvia had come out of the hall more or less fine.
Even though her hair was disheveled with her combat suit showing wear and tear, at least no one was taking her out in a stretcher.
Ping…! In a moment, a noise came from the screen at the doors as a few numbers were reflected. They seemed to be the scores gained by the participants of the test.
<270 points, 310 points, 420 points…>
The highest scorer, unsurprisingly, was Sylvia. All the remaining students focused their attention on her score, since she was the highest ranked person here.
Despite the academy having more S-ranks amongst the first years, Sylvia was the only S-rank here.
This was either because Smith didn't find the rest too compatible with his lessons or, more likely, they were from the very best noble families which didn't want to be too closely monitored.
"Hector Dunton, Sarah Puz… Zhang Wei. Step inside your room."
Resounding from a speaker, Smith's voice urged the next three combatants to enter the hall.
All of us had to wait for a few more minutes, before these combatants finished their tests too.
This time there was only one person leaving in a stretcher, while the other two just looked exhausted.
Hector's chin elevated high after he gained a score of 370. His performance was impressive compared to the average of 300 points gained by the rest of the students so far.
Hector also knew he didn't need to compare with someone like Sylvia who was a S-rank monster.
Another group then went in, after which, it was time for me to enter with the final group.
I entered one of the rooms in the combat center, where I immediately saw a rack of weapons on the corner.
The weapons ranged from swords, spears, chain knuckles, and many other varieties; however, all of them were low-quality and didn't even qualify as beast artifacts.
I chose to take none of them, as a dark-ice sword began to form in my hand.
"You have 5 minutes for the exam… Defeat a red enemy for 10 points and a green enemy for 100 points."
After the announcement, suddenly, a timer started in the room. Along with it, there came out a humanoid robot that was tinted with a red color.
It was carrying with it a metal baton that looked like it would hurt.
Swoosh…! Almost immediately, I summoned a few ice spears and sent it towards my enemy.
The red robot was fairly robust, since it was almost able to close in on me before finally falling to its knees. When its damage threshold had reached a certain degree, it had automatically disabled itself and left the combat room.
When it left, the robot was immediately replaced with another two robots tinted in red color.
They both charged at me together, and I decided to engage these two in a melee instead. Using my high strength and agility status, I was able to engage them head on without much problem.
It also wasn't wrong to say that I had developed some sort of combat instinct after having my body modified with the system.
The robots were soon overpowered, yet three more had quickly come in to replace them.
I kept fighting with them and scoring points for another three minutes, mainly engaging them head on.
This allowed me to directly use my strong stats rather than relying heavily on my abilities which I had intentionally nerfed. Additionally, the darkness attribute also seemed ineffective against these lifeless organisms.
Boom…!
As soon as the clock hit the 3-minute mark, a gigantic green robot was sent out. It also had two gigantic arms that were heavily sparkling with electricity.
The first thing it did was ram itself on the ice barrier I had set up on my rear, instantly shattering it.
'What a monster…'
I could already tell that no attack I was willing to perform currently could possibly hurt this gigantic robot.
I understood the premise of this test was to harvest points from the remaining red robots while avoiding getting knocked out by the green robot.
Zap…!
Only after having eliminated a couple of red robots, the giant had already caught up to me and sent a ranged taser attack.
Although I would have probably dodged it with my Vanishing Steps, I chose to get hit instead like the rest of the students who had left the room on stretchers.
I was trying to save the Geno skill as a trump card for my other identity, Zero. In addition, I hoped that Smith would forget about me owning this skill from my performance in the ability exam.
Soon electricity buzzed through my body. Yet…
'What? That was too weak…'
I tugged on my earlobe as the agony I had expected never came. There was only a slight numbing feeling which barely hindered my movements.
I couldn't be sure, but I figured that my high constitution was the reason for this.
With this conjecture in my mind, I freely hunted the remaining red robots while just avoiding being rammed by the giant robot.
…
In the monitoring room, Smith sipped on his tea slowly. His eyes were flashing as he intently watched Soren's performance.
'Like I thought, great strength and speed… even a strangely strong constitution.'
Smith wondered for a second why he had not seen that great Geno skill, but he didn't ponder on the subject for too long.
Ping…!
When Soren's test results were finally displayed, Smith's lips curled upwards into a wide grin.
'A few good beast artifacts accompanied by your darkness ability… I can surely make you into a killing machine!'
…
Upon exiting the combat room, I was immediately treated with expressions of shock.
These were from the same people who watched me enter the combat room with mocking expressions; however, reality hit them hard.
My screen showed 380 points which were higher than everyone else's barring Sylvia.
If I was a C-rank loser, what were they?
Sylvia also had her eyes squinted at me, wanting to peer through my secrets.
Hector frowned deeply as his cautiousness towards me raised a few degrees. 'Is his C-rank ability a mutant one?'
Soon he gritted his teeth as he thought, 'We don't need to be enemies… Just don't be in my way in the future!'