Chapter 19 - Pass

"|Examinee: 'Jennifer' has failed the exam|"

The examinees went in and out. Fighting the varieties of beasts. The number of applicants who failed, surprisingly, was low compared to the previous examination. It was to be expected as the only sort of threat that was posed were the type of monsters they'd need to face. Having to fight a goblin of the same tier instead of a troll would be much easier.

"|Examinee: 'Olivia' has defeated their beast opponent and passed the second test|"

"|Examinee: 'Aldrich' has defeated their beast opponent and passed the second test|"

The examinees continued to fight, win or lose in the second test. Next, a green-haired boy, who was garnering attention from many, went into a box. When he went in, the monster that appeared was a Nope Dear. It was a rare creature which was different to the many other beasts that the applicants had fought.

Snort-Wheeze-Grunt!-

The deer started moving in a single spot as it spun its head, trying to assert its dominance. It looked just like a normal deer, other than the fact that it had teeth just like humans which was quite disturbing to look at. Its white circles patched all around its body and the horn shined blue from the infused mana.

"Oh my god. I've never seen that monster before! How is he going to fight against that?!?", a random boy called out as he spectated the battle that was about to start.

Tu-tut-tut!-

The deer charged at the green haired boy, aiming its shiny-blue horn at him. But before it could reach him, he jumped high in the air and incantated.

"Spirit energy.. Wind spirit! Make me fly!", Petyr shouted out as the green particles surrounded himself as he floated in the air.

The deer watched him and tried to jump as he fled in the air then charged downwards.

"Wind Jab!"

He sent green, blade-shaped wind energies towards the deer, hitting its eyes, horn and body. Damaging it all.

Boooom!-

The blades of wind caused an explosion which later made smoke rise in the air. When the smoke cleared up, the deer on the ground vanished into blue particles as Petyr walked away with a serious expression.

"|Examinee: 'Petyr' has defeated their beast opponent and passed the second test|"

But it didn't end there.

"Examiner. I'd like to attempt fighting a Rank 4 beast.", he asked politely.

"Okay, Get ready..", John said as Petyr stood in position.

"Woah! As expected of a genius.", one person from the crowd praised him in astonishment.

The blue particles, again, united and summoned a beast. Fifteen skeletons appeared. All of them wore ragged and dirty clothes, hooded like an assassin and equipped with an iron sword on their sides like a swordsman. The whole group of skeletons charged.

Slice!-

They all attacked in unison with an attack that was difficult to avoid. Petyr again flew to the air but another skeleton leaped up but Petyr unleashed his fury of wind blades.

Swooosh!-

The zephyr travelled all around the arena, pushing away a lot of the skeletons.

"Spiritual energy, gather.. Wind tornado!"

Boom!-Boo-Swish!-

The whirlwind of energy suffocated the skeletons and broke them into pieces of dust. Only five remained and he brought out a bow made out of the energy and launched it at the last skeletons that were in one place.

Ka-Boom!-

The wind blew everyone's hair back to the point where they had to shield it.

"|Examinee: 'Petyr' has defeated a Rank 4 opponent. The examinee will receive special privileges at the academy|"

"Wow! That was amazing!", another applicant gasped at what he witnessed.

'Hm? He's.. a genius? Did the world go weaker while I was gone? I have to admit, calling a Wind spirit as your companion is very rare and difficult to do. This may have changed but, there are only fifty wind spirits in the entire world and that is an incredible feat. But isn't it a stretch to call that genius? Oh well, It's probably because of the rarity.', Archehon thought.

"Next!", John called for the next applicant.

Xavier walked forward and was prepared inside the box. He looked at the other side with a serious face but that was ruined by a certain someone.

"Robert! Go Robert! You can do this! I'm cheering for you~", Archehon smiled as he jumped up and down, trying to embarrass him, acting innocently.

Pfft!-

Some of the examinees from behind held in their laughs when witnessing what Archehon did. Xavier held in his urge to snap Archehon's neck as stood there, embarrassed. His embarrassment, sadly, didn't last long as the beast appeared in front of him. It was a horde of goblins which were agile but meant nothing to Xavier as he sliced through their necks, due to his boiling rage.

Slice-Sli-Slice!-

In just a matter of a couple of seconds, all ten of the goblins were defeated.

"Woaah! He's so good! Who is that??", a person from the crowd shouted.

"I've never seen him before.", another person said.

'Damn it. I attracted too much attention to myself because I was so pissed off. That bastard.. Archehon.', Xavier thought as he looked at Archehon, trying to suppress his anger.

"Haha..", Archehon looked back and whistled like nothing happened.

"Next!", John shouted.

The next in line was Archehon and he walked into the arena with both his spear and dagger.

"Hey! Isn't that the person who cheered for that strong guy just now?", one person whispered to another.

"Yeah! I think it is.", the other person whispered back.

The crowd of people were full of murmurs, expecting Archehon to be really strong.

"He's carrying two weapons! Is he a dual welder?"

In front of Archehon, the beast that had appeared was a two meter tall black spider. Its eyes were dark red and it was ready to devour him.

'Not bad. We never had these virtual beasts when he used to fight. It used to just be us fighting the real thing.', Archehon thought.

Vwoop!-

'Since I don't want to Garner attention, I'll use 'his' style of fighting. Who would've thought that I would've ever listened to him?', Archehon grinned.

Archehon had flashbacks to his previous life as Lucifer. There was a man whose face was blurred above his smile.

"Lord Lucifer! Why don't you try out one of my most powerful techniques?", the man asked him as he ran behind him.

"Haa.. it's because your way of fighting is useless to me in a battle as I am someone who doesn't hide my strength when I fight.", Lucifer replied.

"But please learn it, my lord! It will be helpful and it's fun to use!"

"Haa.. fine. If you were weaker than you are now, I would've done something else just now.", Lucifer showed his thumb moving to the side of his neck, displaying a killing action.

"Thank you, my lord!"

'Wow, that little persistent bastard. I hope his descendants are still here.', Archehon thought as he looked at a web.

The web came flying at Archehon but he dodged. Not in the way you'd expect.

Thump!-

He fell to the ground, barely dodging the web.

"Huh?", the crowd looked shocked.

"Haha.. it looks like I got pretty lucky.", Archehon scratched the back of his head.

But it didn't end there.

Dodge-dodge-do-dodge!-

He dodged it all making it look like an 'accident'. And, finally..

Slice!-

"|Examinee: 'Archehon' has defeated their beast opponent and passed the second test|"

The spider disappeared after it fell to the ground.

"?????", Xavier looked at Archehon, flabbergasted.

Not just from the way he fought but out of confusion on why he would fight like that when he's way stronger than him.

A lot of the examinees who were watching, lost their expectations.

"W-what was that?", one person stuttered.

"Wow! My luck is amazing! Thank God, my trump card worked!", Archehon pretended to wipe off his sweat as he walked back from the box.

"T-trump card??", another examinee stammered after he heard the two words which led his face to disappointment.

"Yeah, maybe we expected too much of him.."

The examinees ignored him after witnessing his poor performance which looked completely like an 'amateurs', in their eyes.

After Archehon passed his test by his so-called 'luck', the rest attempted the test. The second test had finally come to an end and only seventy-five remaining.

"Alright! We won't waste anymore time and head to the third test. Before we go, I'll give a short explanation. The last test is the most relevant as you'll be fighting each other. You may use whatever is at your disposal but your weapons must be only wooden since we can't afford any losses.", John finished his explanation.

The examinees and John arrived at the arena. It was massive, enough to hold more than ten one-versus-ones at a time. The ginormous circle was like a colosseum where spectators sat on the seats, watching. The spectators were teens and young adults—or to be more precise, second, third and fourth years, also including a good amount of teachers.

"Oh- I forgot to tell you this but the current students and teachers in the academy are spectating these battles. So, do make sure to do your best to impress them—who knows? Maybe, you might get close to them—for a couple of benefits.", John grinned at the examinees, certainly hinting at something.

At the place where spectators sat, the seats, a familiar face could be seen. There were three teens who wore the academy's uniform and had a number 'two' symbol on their clothes, indicating that they were second years. Two girls and a boy. One girl, who had jasmine hair and eyes, sat watching the students enter while the other girl didn't pay much attention, out of disinterest.

The other girl had blonde hair and blue eyes. She pretended to look slightly interested but in reality, didn't care in the slightest.

'Haaa.. how boring. I could've gone out instead of this since we still have a holiday today. Why did I have to be dragged along here?', the blonde-haired girl looked around and glanced down at the arena for a slight second-

"Huh?", her eyes widened when she looked down. There was a boy with blue hair and eyes who she didn't expect to be here.

"Hm? Is there something wrong, Linda?", the green-haired girl next to her asked.

"Uh- eh, no. I'm fine, Vera.", she regained her composure.

"Hm?", the boy next to her looked at her.

It was her brother, no, step-brother. He had red-hair and eyes, who also was not biologically related. He looked at her with a slight bit of curiosity when she saw her reaction.

'Why is she acting like this?', he thought, with his arrogant manner. The way he sat was quite arrogant and he had a small frown as well.

'She normally isn't the type to get flustered this easily. What could've caused her to act this way?', the step-brother looked around until he found something.

'Ah- so it's him.', he looked at where his sisters eyes were looking and found a boy. None other than, Archehon.

'Tsk. Why is he getting all the attention?? No matter how I look at it, the way he looks and acts is just like a pushover. I spent the past year getting her to look at my eyes while this piece of shit gets her flustered after only a couple of seconds?!? No, that won't do. I'll kill that pushover if he's going to get in my way.', the brother complained, holding in his anger.

At the bottom of the arena, was a man standing, who wore a suit and held a microphone.

"Welcome! I thank all the seniors and teachers for joining this event where we'll be doing the last part of the entrance examination! This time around, we'll hold a first, second and third place prize for whoever performs the best in this part of the test!", the man's voice echoed from the reverb of the microphone.

"That's all I have to say and let the last part of the examination.. Begin!"