After Theo's grand reveal, everyone that heard him stood still at awe.
And the ones that were affected the most were surprisingly Liam Grace and Liana Starborne.
They have never heard or encountered abyone more talented than themselves.
Liam, who trained as an adventurer roamed the world with his master, discovering multitudes of cultures and people and he has not seen a single person who was as strong as him around his age.
Selene who basically lived in the Union Academy for years has never seen or heard of a first year who was stronger than her.
Theo smile widened as he observed the dazed protagonists.
Theo ignored Selene's snarky comment and pat himself in the back.
Theo deliberately made a mess and carved the maze walls and floors to showcase his prowess in an exaggerated manner.
If Theo wanted he could have made his strikes cleaner, but his objective on planting a seed on both Liam and Liana's mind was an essential part of his plan.
And the plan was to ignite a fire that would burn brighter their rivalry against Theo, hoping to make both of Liana and Liam far stronger than in the game.
At this point in the story, Selene, Liam and Theo were supposed to be at the same level of the Astute tier, at the middle of Astute tier to be more specific, while Selene would be at the level of a slightly above average student at the Adept tier.
<.... D*ckhead> Selene
Theo scoffed at the last comment Selene made and waited for the students to arrive.
familiar places that also arrived at the exit with a relatively fast pace started to pop up.
One such people was Violet who was interestingly enough paired with Abigail who was chatting up Violet, who was visibly uncomfortable.
Violet was warned in advance by Selene to try and avoid communicating with Abigail to avoid trouble.
Violet took her advice seriously and tried to only talk with Abigail as neutral as possible and finish the task at hand without making significant connection with Abigail, but Abigail was more persistent than Violet anticipated.
Abigail is a persistent gal after all. The second most persistent girl I know.....
Theo thought as he glanced at the lady who was busy talking with Liana.
Theo visibly jolted at Selene's words.
She wasn't even looking at me??? How???
Theo went silent and was taken aback.
Yup she's psycho. How the hell???
After telling Selene she was wrong in with telephaty, Theo continued observing the arrving people.
Theo also saw two familiar companions of his arguing with each other and confirmed that they were Fia and Patrick.
They were paired up with each other like in the game.
Theo didn't have the energy to diffuse the fight between Fia and Patrick and left it to the other people from Virtus handle the situation.
I'm sure they'll manage.
Slowly but surely the area started to fill up with students and the time also slowly started to tick as the assigned time by Instructo Olivia Montague was approaching it's end.
******
Three hours passed by and six hundred out of the thousand teens finished the first test.
The exit of the maze slammed shut and denied any hope for those that still hoped to pass the exam.
More than a hundred flashes appeared from the maze, indicating the number of teens that failed to push through the maze.
It seemed like a breeze for Theo and Selene, but that's because they memorized and knew the exact method to go through the maze without getting lost.
One was to have a good sense of mana or keen sense of observation to find scattered clues in the maze.
And the Second was to have a good relationship and synergy with your assigned teammates. Pushing through dozens of kobolds alone was normally seen as suicide, showing just how big of a gap Theo and Selene had compared to the other competitors. Their powers were just that broken.
Sadly, if you had an uncooperative or weak ally, you were bound to fail this exam.
Many complained how much this exam relied on luck, but it was simple ignored by the staff, commenting that luck played a part in everything and adapting to any situation is something a student of the Union academy should be able to do.
"Hmmmm more people survived than I thought. As much as you guys want to pat yourselves in the back for doing a good job, there's still two more test till you guys can take a breather so chin up and pay attention."
Another announcement echoed towards the six hundred students, waiting for the next test.
Many of them nervous as most of the students that arrived extremely struggled against the first test.
The next test is where most people would drop out and it determined the elites that deserve the chance to be a Union student.
"The next test is simple. Fight if you can't answer the question"
A gigantic magic circle glowed from below and swallowed all the aspiring students once more, teleporting them to another test that they need to tackle.
Those were the last three words Theo head before getting teleported out of the area
******
Theo blinked another second and found himself in a torched lit hallway with a goblin motionlessly standing in his way.
It was ten meters away from him and the end of the hallway was right behind the goblin
It's eyes were foggy and expressionless.
Theo knew that it was just one of the controlled monsters that appear
An annoucement was suddenly broadcasted.
"There are 21 questions that will be given to each one of you and each question will be asked by a different monster. The monsters get stronger as will the questions get harder the more questions or monsters you defeated. You have an hour to finish the test. 3..... 2 ...-"
Theo took a stance and readied himself for the test.
"... 1"
The Goblin suddenly twitched in place and its mouth started moving.
"What was-"
"Demon's Invasion"
The goblin only managed to mutter two words before Theo answered the question with no hesitation whatsover as well.
I already know all 21 questions. This is real life so I hope it actually works.
Theo didn't need to wait long for his question to be answered as the Goblin turned into ashes and the wall behind it disappeared like smoke.
"Nice!"
Theo Dashed forward and started speedrunning all twenty one questions.
Theo knwe that people were observing him but didn't care because, to him, the competition between him and Selene was more important than the suspicion that the staff would have on him.
In the game you were stuck in animation and forced to listen to the question in full before you can answer and you can even ask the monster that asks you the question to repeat themselves as much as you want.
Theo simply thought that he didn't need to wait like in the game, so he simply answered the question before the monster finished.
Sorry Selene, sadly for you, I have this one in the bag.
******
"Demon Invasion"
After Selene answered the question she felt uneasy, despite getting the answer correct.
"Tsk, don't tell me that bastard's cheating as well..."
******
Theo felt a shiver run down his spine.
"What was that???"