I looked over to Dana who looked like she was going to have a panic attack. It was not uncommon to have a weak person die in the Ranking Ceremony. As far as the rules went it was a pretty simple task, a person must either kill or survive for one minute against an E rank monster.
My head was reeling, with a lack of offensive abilities, the possibility of death was favorable. The hopeful ones lined up first while the rest were eager to drag it out for as long as possible.
There were a total of almost four-thousand enrollment students gathered inside the arena and each one of us were about to step into a dungeon and face a monster for the first time.
As we all stood around, a large group of professional hunters walked out into the arena. Then the booming voice from earlier returned.
"All students are to remain silent and listen for their names to be called out by one of these hunters before you. They will be responsible for taking you into a controlled dungeon where you will be tested," announced the voice.
It took almost an hour but we all were sorted into groups of ten, meaning that there were four hundred hunters gathered here. The resources of the academy must have been in abundance for them to employ that many hunters.
The group I was in consisted of four girls and six boys. By some stroke of luck, Dana and I were placed in the same group, and to my utter dismay Aldin was too.
"Alright Greenies, I am going to be your proctor for the duration of this test. You may refer to me as Wilson. You will follow every order that I give you, do this and you will live, ignore them and you will die. You are all mere fledgling hunters as of today, but some of you may possess more natural talent than the rest and today we will find out who those are," Wilson said, closing his speech.
Wilson handed all of us watches. I inspected mine for a moment, it had a black wristband and a screen with buttons from zero to nine on the bottom of it. This had to be a teleportation watch that every hunter was issued.
Wilson spoke again, "Everyone place your watch on the wrist of your choosing and press the exact numbers that I tell you to."
We all did as he instructed, only once we were all ready did he tell us to press the green button on our watch screens.
In an instant I was surrounded by a bright white flash so bright that I had to shit my eyes. When I opened them again, I found that I was in an entirely new place, I was now standing in the middle of a forest.
In addition to the new surroundings, there was also a twelve foot tall orange dungeon portal standing directly in front of us. Wilson took a moment to pace up and down the length of the group before talking again.
"When we get inside, each of you greenies will be given one minute to either kill or survive against a level one E rank goblin. As a proctor I cannot interfere with your battles until after the one minute time frame has concluded." He then looked around at all of us with a serious expression. "You are going to be fighting for the right to live in there, so go all out".
With that, Wilson turned and entered the dungeon portal.
Stepping in after him, I was greeted with a caramel colored sky that had three moons looming over head. There were no trees around, only rubble from ancient looking structures scattered all around.
I saw Wilson wave for us to come over to him. Next to him was a large cage holding hideous looking creatures. They had grey scaled skin, tusks coming from their mouths and they were at least seven feet tall.
Wilson lead us to a large dirt pit where the test would take place. He told us that there was no specific order to proceed in, just that one of us needed to go down into the pit.
There were a few confident glances around the group, as well as more than a few unsure ones.
"Well if you losers are all scared stiff, I guess I will go first," Aldin said, jumping down into the pit.
"Yes, thats what I like to see, a bit of backbone," Wilson exclaimed.
As soon as Aldin reached the bottom of the pit, Wilson walked to the cage and opened it. He grabbed the first goblin that he could by the throat as it tried scratch and bite him. Nothing seemed to work though as Wilson calmly shut the gate and tossed the goblin down into the pit.
"BEGIN," Wilson shouted.
The goblin roared as it charged forward, ready to end the boy in front of him and enjoy a feast.
But Aldin was not going to just stand idle. His arms took on a dark black color as they were covered in a metallic like material. He also lunged forward, bringing one arm in front of him and outstretching two of his fingers.
In an instant it was over. Aldin's two fingers turned into spikes that rapidly stretched across the pit and plunged themselves into the goblins eye sockets and out the back of it's head.
The goblin fell back slowly as it died on the spot.
"Well done young man, and in under ten seconds as well. An ability such as yours is deserving of an S ranking," Wilson declared, showing signs of being more than a little impressed.
The Ranking Ceremony always seemed pretty biased to me, as the one to decide your rank is the proctor who oversees your test. In all reality, ranks were just valuable someones ability was, not how powerful they were.
After Aldin made it look so easy, more of the group started to gain confidence. Six more people stepped into the pit one by one, all of them achieving various ranks.
Soon it would be my turn, and somehow I could tell that Dana was more of a nervous wreck than I was.
The third to last kid stepped into the pit, a boy with dark brown hair and slim build. He looked like he was going to fall over any second with all the sweat pouring from his face and the look of extreme unease in his eyes.
The next goblin was released and tossed into the pit.
"BEGIN," Wilson shouted once again.
The nervous looking boy clenched his fist as he activated his ability. Suddenly a few small tufts of grass appeared out of the ground where the goblin was standing. The grass wrapped around the goblins foot, tugging it and pulling it towards the ground.
Unfortunately, it was not strong enough as the goblin easily lifted his foot out of the grass. The goblin let out a roar as it sprinted towards the boy who was frantically trying to delay its arrival.
It was over in an instant.
This time, instead of the goblin laying dead on the ground, it was the boy. The goblin had wrapped its hand around the boy's throat in a similar fashion as Wilson had with it. Once it had the boy in it's grasp, it snapped his neck as if it was as easy as crumpling a piece of paper.
This was real, and these creatures were strong. Wilson looked on in disappointment. He jumped into the pit and in one swift motion, crushed the goblin's head before it could eat the boy that now lie still on the ground.
I looked to Dana as I wondered how the two of us would get through this. I could tell she needed a few moments to steel her nerves after what we had just witnessed.
Wilson emerged from the pit with the boy in his arms and returned to his former position as he laid him gently on the ground and proceeded to bring out the next goblin.
It was now my turn and after witnessing the real power of a goblin, I was not eager to step into that pit. But despite what I felt, I knew that I had no choice but to go anyway.
I stepped into the pit and waited for Wilson to throw in the next goblin.
The goblin crashed to the ground and when it stood up I realized just how alone I felt in the pit.
"BEGIN," Wilson shouted once more.
I immediately activated Mist Blanket and covered my surrounding area with a thick fog. The Goblin charged forward and I side stepped around it as it ran past me, stopping to look around as if searching for me. An idea struck me at that moment. Why was I able to see everything so clearly in the fog with it being so thick?
I realized that the goblin most likely could not see me but I could see it. All I had to do was hide from it for the remainder of the minute. From what I knew from testing the ability earlier, I could only hold the ability for a few seconds. Even so, the mist took a while to completely dissipate.
I watched the goblin angrily swatting at the mist with its claws, no doubt searching for me. I kept a close eye on it, evading it when it got close and keeping a distance between us.
Eventually the mist started to become thinner and thinner. The goblin would not be fool for much longer as I tried to come up with a new strategy. Seconds passed as I felt like this had been the longest minute of my life.
All at once the mist had become little more than a thin sheet. The goblin immediately found me and began to rush forward.
I had no more options as I tried to shoot Mist Balls at the goblin. They did nothing to halt the goblins advance. Right as the goblin was about to rip into me, a hand gripped its neck and crushed it instantly.
Wilson looked at me with surprise as he threw the goblin corpse aside. I looked up at him and sighed, thankful that I had survived.
"Although I commend your strategic efforts in this battle, you would have been killed if there were no time limit here. With that in mind, you have achieved H rank.