The day of the individual examination soon arrived.
After a few days of written papers and practical tests, the students had 3 days of rest and preparation for one of the harder parts of the exam overall.
While the individual examination was made to sound like a scavenger hunt of sort, the school was not so dumb as to give students free points. One thing most students, especially the second year onwards who have experienced the examination before, were excited about was what comes after the examination. In order to understand this, first we need to look at the individual examination itself.
While it was true that the maximum points that one was allowed to gather for the maximum score possible was 500, that didn't mean students were unable to gather beyond that. What that was not directly explained to the students, but allowed for themselves to figure out in the middle of the examination, was what happens after the 500 point mark.
In Tristania, there existed an invisible ranking system other than being the best academically. Since the culture of sword fighting and magic was engrained deep within the system of the school, it was natural to assume that the culture played a big role in establishing the city itself, which would go on to improve the nation in the long run. Students with certain prowess in their fighting abilities were able to compete with each other and gain points, which in turn allowed them to exchange it for certain benefits as well as rise through the ranks of the student body. One way of attaining the said ranks other than through formal events like 1 vs 1 during physical education, was through the individual examination.
Once a student had gathered over 500 points using their bracelet, the extra points would be accumulated and tallied towards the invisible ranking system. At the end of the exam, the rankings of the top 50 students would be made public, based on the student year and the overall students in the school. As such, it was possible for a student in the first year to be ranked higher than students in the second year but that rarely happened due to students in second year onwards having accumulated points since their first year. As such, students would usually compare with people in the same year as they were but also looked up to the top 10 overall strongest students in the school.
Certainly, if one were allowed to gain points through the individual examination, then it wouldn't be surprising for one to abuse the system by focusing on just collecting the jewels to get as high points as possible so they could rise through the ranks. Unfortunately, this method had already been predicted as well as it was not possible to attain anymore jewels once the points have reached 400. This forced students to complete challenges or hunt monsters in order to further propel themselves past the point limit, which meant it was smarter to focus on jewel collection right from the start to not waste much effort. This was also the reason why students were not allowed to form groups, because there wouldn't be any merit to it. Once the points have been collected, it would be recorded individually.
On the day of the individual examination, all students were already gathered at the starting point of the event early on for their briefing. Naturally, Kaze made his way there along with the rest of the students as neither of them knew what to expect as first year students. This was also the first time he was able to see what the students were capable of, from outfits to weapons.
Since this event would involve fighting, students were allowed to bring their original weapons and wear armour for protection. Unsurprisingly, students of higher household ranking and nobles showed up with expensive equipment and vitality potions that would aid them during the examination. Everyone had to have their weapons and items brought processed right before the entered the event gathering site, due to needing to ensure no one cheated or modified their weapons beyond what the school allowed. This included, but were not limited to: harmful potions, wide range attack weapons, ability-sealing scrolls, lethal traps and such.
"Yo Kaze~" Shoko quickly spotted Kaze in the midst of the student crowd, as usual, and waved him over to get his attention.
Kaze noticed Shoko and walked right up to her. This was also the first time he could see their proper fighting gear as well as their performance in battle. Shoko had already gathered with Sera and Rena, but Lunaria wasn't present yet. It was likely that she chose to arrive slightly later in fear of the students surrounding her and gawking before the event even started.
"Hey guys," Kaze gave them a weak wave as he greeted the three. "I see you girls are spotting some fancy equipment."
Shoko, being an assassin-class fighter, wore simple dark-colored clothing that enabled her to move swiftly. She had a small rucksack over her back that likely contained potions and some other items that was necessary for her. Her weapon of choice was a short sword, something that didn't exceed the length of her arm. It was probably modified to suit her style based on the design of the hilt.
"Hm? We don't really stand out like the others you know?" Shoko tilted her head at his sentence, her ponytail swaying behind her. "I don't know how many times I had to turn away from the dazzling armour some people have here. Sheesh, they don't know how to show restrains."
"Well, the rules never stated that we aren't allowed to overequip ourselves, so maybe they are just taking precaution," Sera sweatdropped, even though that was obviously not the case.
Sera was a Trapping Ranger, a class of elven archers that specialized in using their bows as well as traps to gain the advantage over their opponents. The main way that Trapping Rangers fought was focused on the coordination between their traps and bow shots. While they weren't as accurate with their shots, they were ridiculously hard to deal with due to how well they can time their shots. As such, Sera was dressed in a manner that made camouflaging between the tree leaves a much easier job along with space for movement.
"You are dressed rather lightly yourself too Kaze. Don't you fight with the sword?" Rena asked, shifting her attention over to him. "The close-range fighters like you all prefer to wear some form of full body armour unless they are martial arts practitioner."
Rena, the last of the trio, was a Sniping Ranger. As the name suggested, this specific class of elven archers also used bows. The only difference was that they imbued magic with each shot in order to make it more accurate. One of the two ways of attacking were either using arrows already infused with magic or infusing magic on the spot. They have been trained in the art of the bow extensively, especially when their attacks were deadly instead of powerful. Rena also wore a necklace as a catalyst for her magic casting, something that didn't require as much focus under intense pressure for her to be able to quickly imbue her arrows with magic. In the case that she was forced to close-range combat, Kaze noticed that Rena had a blade hidden close to her too. As for her outfit, she was dressed just like Sera but with slight differences such as the bow type.
"Yes. I usually train like this, so it's comfortable," Kaze smiled wryly and looked down to examine his outfit. "Do you think I look weird? This is the best I can afford with my current expenses."
Contrary to the three, Kaze's appearance could only be described as 'basic' at best. Wearing a metal breastplate over his shirt and long pants made from simple monster hide, his only source of protection was either magic or the breastplate. Other than that, Kaze had a pouch containing small drinkable potion bottles and his trusty sword.
"Ehh… I believe there is a fine line between 'safe' and 'poor'," Sera sweatdropped. "At any rate, I won't judge you for your choice of outfit if you really can't help it."
"I-I will be fine, I promise," Kaze laughed nervously, knowing that his appearance was pathetic compared to everyone else present. "It's not like we are up against a vampire or anything."
"Vampires? You must be dreaming if you think one will even be present in the woods," Shoko smirked. "A bear would probably be more likely, or even an orc. We are nowhere near vampire territory, nor would there be a reason for vampires to be present. Heck, I rather deal with devils instead, they are a lunatic bunch so the chances of them showing up is much higher."
"Be careful what you wish for, because I certainly don't want to have any problems in our examination."
Turning around at the voice, Yuuji showed up next to Kaze. The appearance of the first prince caused quite a commotion around them, though the main reason was due to his outfit.
Like Kaze, Yuuji was also using a sword as his weapon. The only difference between the two was that Yuuji was a 'knight' class, meaning he had a shield with him too. Knight classes were common since using a sword and shield was the favourable choice for most, though the sword styles may differ.
Wearing a silver armour made of refined metal that properly protected his body, Yuuji had the overall appearance of a knight commander due to his refined aura as a royalty. His armour was designed to stay closer to his body instead of the usual larger sized body armour most guards wear, something that was used to ensure more flexibility when wearing said armour. With a shield, made of even tougher metal similar to the lightweight metal orichalcum, on his back, Yuuji had a longsword on his hilt. Overall, a solid appearance befitting a knight-class swordsman.
"Hmm, Lunaria's not here yet," Yuuji looked around and pushed his fringe backwards. "Strange, I assumed she would be with you guys."
"Looking good Yuuji," Rena smiled, greeting the prince politely. "I see even you are fired up."
"Honestly, I had to convince father and mother to not make me wear something even more dramatic," Yuuji sighed. "It's such a pain sometimes to have so many wearable armour choices."
"Ha. Ha. What a pain indeed," Kaze nodded with a deadpanned face as he cried internally.
The four of them laughed at Kaze reacting to Yuuji's complaints, further proving of the differences between the two. While Kaze wasn't on the poorer end of the spectrum, he certainly was the poorest within his group of friends.
"Oh, Yuuji, so this is where you were," a guy with slightly masculine built came up to them.
"I came to meet some of my friends," Yuuji nodded at him. "Having the other classmates swarming me was really annoying. Want me to introduce you?"
"No need for that, Yuuji," the guy smiled. "First time meeting everyone here. I'm Chris Jorn Seysmore. You can call me Chris. I met Yuuji a while back when we were still in middle school."
"He is also a noble, but you probably haven't heard of the Seysmore family before," Yuuji nodded at Chris's introduction. "Their family is one of the palace's weapon trader, kind of like a mix between a business and an armourer."
"Nice to meet you Chris," Kaze shook his hand. "My name is Kaze. This is Sera, Rena and Shoko. Currently, we are all waiting for Lunaria to turn up."
"Sera, Rena, Shoko, alright," Chris mumbled their names to himself as a reminder. "So, I heard from Yuuji about you Kaze. Are you dating Lunaria-sama?"
"…. Please forget everything the idiot told you about me," Kaze looked at Yuuji with the same deadpanned eyes at the mention of Lunaria's relationship with him. "Lunaria and I are just friends."
"Closer friends than you might think~"
"Not you too Shoko… Lunaria isn't going to be happy when she finds out about this."
Shoko joined in with the teasing, causing Sera to sigh at her friend. They knew that Lunaria didn't like to be shipped together with Kaze just because she was close with him, but she couldn't deny that she was happy to have Kaze as a close friend.
"So, Chris, what will you be fighting with?" Rena asked. "I see a giant sword you are holding."
"I'm also a knight class, much like Yuuji, but I chose to abandon the shield and pick up the broadsword instead," Chris lightly swung the sword to show off its size. "It is a little uncommon, but not unheard of. Also, you must be very skilled with magic to be able to not use a staff, Rena-sama."
"Rena is fine, just as is with Sera and Shoko," Rena smiled at him. "Your muscles tell me you are quite used to the giant sword since its huge size requires a lot of strength to wield it."
A giant sword, as the name suggests, was a sword that was much larger than its other types. There were various sizes of giant swords with their own categories but minor differences. The one Chris wielded was an ordinary giant sword with a few modifications, its size being no larger than the width of an average teenager's body and its length about two thirds his body height. In short, it was considered normal for a giant sword.
"Oh, I had practices with it, but not enough to consider good at using it yet," Chris accepted the praise with ease. "Yuuji is my sparring partner from time to time since he likes to train too."
"Kaze here uses a sword too, but I don't think it has a class to it since Kaze himself was given the sword," Yuuji explained to Chris. "Even I can't tell what it is, so it's most likely a personal crafted sword."
"Can I see it?" Chris asked Kaze, who handed over his sword with a nod. "Hm, it goes along the line of a curved sword and a long sword, but it is made quite well."
"Thanks. My grandfather gave it to me so it must have belonged to him," Kaze received it from Chris with a smile. "It has been with me for a bit."
"Speaking of which, where is Irene?" Yuuji asked Chris. "She promised to meet up with us too."
"Um, hello? I have been here this whole time."
A blonde-haired girl walked up from behind Chris and jabbed Yuuji's side.
"Sheesh, you were all so caught up in your own conversation that you forgot about me," Irene pouted. "Well, I suppose I would need to introduce myself. From the noble family of Ein, the name's Irene Tres Ein. I'm also Yuuji and Chris' friends from middle school."
"Oh, so you have been here that long," Yuuji sweatdropped at this. "So sorry about that. Yes everyone, this is Irene. She is…"
"I'm Chris' girlfriend," Irene blatantly admitted, followed by a loud laugh from Chris.
"Both of them are in different classes, so I don't suppose it is funny that you haven't met them before," Yuuji told Kaze. "I'm not sure about the others here though."
"Oh, we met," Shoko smiled at this. "We are in the same club after all."
"Yep, I already know Shoko," Irene grinned cheekily. "You are Kaze right? Is it true that you are dating-"
"Please stop, I have had enough," Kaze pleaded her, getting to his knees. "I'm going to kill Yuuji later."
"Woah there, grieving is not allowed so please don't try to go against the rules," Yuuji chuckled and jumped back a little. "But… we can't say the same for the 3rd hour of the examination."
"The third hour? What do you mean?" Kaze blinked at this.
"Didn't you hear? They decided to lift the protection barrier so that students will be able to snatch points from each other in the third hour," Irene lifted an eyebrow. "It was just announced though, so you probably didn't notice."
"Ah, you're right," Rena lifted her head towards the huge magic signboard in the sky and gulped. "I wonder what effect this will have on everyone else."
"Well, it's not like snatching points would immediately dwindle one of all points," Sera read the rules while saying so. "Instead, a percentage loss of points will occur based on how many points one already has."
"Oh man, this just made things a little harder," Chris sighed and turned to Irene. "Any change in plans?"
"Not really. We can just stick together," Irene shrugged. "I don't understand why they don't allow teaming in the first place if people can just choose to cooperate."
"Well, the anti-teaming thing really is just a formality due to the way our points are calculated," Yuuji shrugged at Irene's statement. "If you two plan to work together from the start, then I don't see why we can't form teams of our own."
Irene's fighting kit was somewhat similar to Shoko. As she was a petite girl whose height barely registered over 155cm, she had a mixture of different classes that made use of magic and swiftness. It was a cross between a thief and a spellcaster. The difference between thieves and assassins were that thieves dished out less fighting power than assassins do, but have better scouting abilities. Meanwhile, spellcasters were a subclass of the mage class as they were weaker than mages since people who had the said class would have other subclasses as well.
Brandishing her curved knife in hand, Irene had several other equipment hanging from her belt and various parts of her outfit. This was also a trait of the thief class, being versatile with different handheld weapons excluding the sword. Assassins were versatile all round though, except not as great in spellcasting.
"Everyone looks really good. How do you think Lunaria will show up?" Yuuji asked the others. "I don't think I have ever heard of her fighting style before."
"Lunaria is good with both the sword and magic, but I think she prefers to use the sword better," Sera guessed. "She seemed a little reluctant when I left the dorms earlier too."
At the mention of Lunaria, a sudden flash of shadow passed by them overhead. Some parts of the crowd began looking up in the sky as a result of the shadow flying over them. This applied to Kaze and the others, all of them looking up to find out what the shadow was.
"W-What is that?! Is it a behemoth?!" One student shouted.
"It looks like a person!"
"Wait no, white colour… it can't be?!"
Kaze's eyes widened when the figure began descending towards them. Everyone else had managed to figure out who it was by this point, but they had no idea that she would choose such a dramatic entrance.
"Speak of the dragon," Yuuji chuckled as Lunaria landed in front of them.
With her wings spread apart, it showed just how huge dragonkin wings were when they weren't folded inwards. No wonder some of the students were a little worried and mistook it for a behemoth from above. Lunaria made a few rough flaps as she got closer to the ground to slow down her descend. What that came before the surrounding crowd's eyes next was nothing short of speechless.
Lunaria wore a type of clothing that was never seen before within the lands of Czech. It was like a one-piece clothing, connecting all the way from the top to the bottom. Her clothing also had the property of a bodysuit, for certain parts stuck closely to her body and accentuated her sexual appeal. From the back where her wings showed, certain parts of her skin all the way from her neck to her lower back was showing, up to the point where the base of her tail started.
From there, her outfit had split tails that stretched all the way to the floor and dragged behind her. The only thing weird about it was that her outfit looked like it was touching the ground from how long the two tails were, but when looking closer it was barely hovering from the ground, making it such that it wouldn't get dirty. The outfit was also pure white, something even lighter than the colour of her long hair. A sheath with a sword could be seen by her side, answering Rena's doubts about Lunaria's weapon of choice.
"Kaze, how do I look?" Lunaria asked with a charming smile once she was in front of him, the others also too speechless by her appearance.
"… You look like a bride," Kaze answered, his words barely registering as a whisper. "I'm… s-stunned."
"Thank you," Lunaria giggled. "This is the official dress that I wear back in Aravel. While it does look a little inconvenient, it is actually very easy to move around in and does not tear easily."
"B-But, it looks… a little…" Kaze gulped, unsure of how to respond when he can't even find a proper way to look at her. "Isn't it a little lewd in design?"
"Ahh, you mean the bottom part," Lunaria looked downwards at the lower half of her outfit, which was designed to be a deep cut inward into her inner thighs. "Well, I can change it if you really think so, but it's fine as of now."
"I-I see… as long as you are happy…" Kaze mumbled with a light blush appearing on his cheeks.
"Wow, I totally did not expect you to show up with formal Aravel royalty dress," Rena finally managed to address her friend. "Did you have to go out of the way to wear something as important as this?"
"It is the first major event, so I wanted to see how I can perform," Lunaria smiled at her concerned friend.
"Lunaria-sama," both Chris and Irene quickly bowed when they realized they were in Lunaria's presence.
The three then did some quick introduction, considering that everyone already knew each other. All of a sudden, Chris and Irene regretted making fun of Kaze. Since they had not seen Lunaria upclose, they didn't know that she was this charming nor beautiful. It would make perfect sense if he had fallen in love with her, but it also confounded them as to how someone could be so perfect and elegant at the same time. Irene couldn't even rebut when her own boyfriend had a blush on his face, for she was also captivated by someone of the same gender.
Before anything else could happen, the sound of a high pitch winding brought everyone to attention. The student body all turned their sights to the front of the gathering area, where the principal made his appearance known.
"Um… can everyone hear me?" The principal spoke, using wind magic to amplify his voice. "Alright. Welcome everyone, this is your principal. Before we allow you to start, we shall go through the event rules once more. Please pay attention to avoid there being a penalty and resulting in your forfeit. All the teachers present will be in charge of monitoring the event and helping students who have trouble…"
"Kaze," Lunaria whispered softly to him while the principal gave his speech. "Are you confident?"
"W-What do you mean?" Kaze timidly whispered back. "The moment you showed up you blew my confidence away."
"Mm, you should have more faith in yourself. I don't believe my appearance will affect your performance," Lunaria giggled silently. "I will see you after the event end, unless we somehow meet each other in the forest. Don't disappoint me."
"… Mm, see you soon," the worried look on Kaze's face was slowly replaced with a confident smile at Lunaria's challenge. "May fortune be in your favour."
"… and with that said, let the individual examination begin!"
At the declaration of the principal, the mages in charge around the area all began firing up the planned spell simultaneously. The ground where the students were in began to light up, a mass teleportation spell being charged to send the students to the ground of the examination in a random order.
Watching the magic symbols beneath his feet forming at a rapid pace, Kaze exchanged one more smile with Lunaria before all the students present disappeared at the same time. What was once a dense student crowd was now empty, the surroundings becoming quiet all of a sudden.
The individual examinations had begun.
A/N: The link below is a reference to Lunaria's outfit. Other than the appearance and the said details, it looks the way it is. Also, Lunaria does not have sleeves on her outfit nor does she have the huge floating ring behind her.
https://elwiki.net/wiki/images/thumb/6/61/CEsPortrait.png/789px-CEsPortrait.png