Knowing what the future was like was not pleasant. Especially if that very future you knew was the destruction of the world.
You'd be thinking about it every time and then, what you should do so that future would not happen. Would you be able to bear such a big burden? For I couldn't.
But, I would still try my best to prevent it. If I failed to do so then so be it. But if I succeed, then it'd be a new whole story. The end of the world was not this world's destiny, it was just a mere writing of a person's. There were no predictions about the future that was accurate, even if it was a fate decided by myself as the author.
As I could decide the fate of the world being destructed as an author. I, too, could change it so that such a future won't be happening.
Only time would tell how the future would unfold. As the one who held the knowledge of the future event, I could only try my best.
Let's leave this afterthought for later.
Before I could think more about that, what I need to do was to get stronger. Not that it could prevent the end of the world unless I was as strong as a cheat character like the protagonist. But by doing so I could at least fulfill my desire.
The monolith crystal was half-filled with blue color.
The examiners whispered to each other as they saw the result and then nodded.
The half-filled monolith crystal meant that my potentials were only 50%. It was a good number, but for those two examiners, which I noticed by their expressions that they had no slight interest in me.
The highest possibility was probably I was categorized as an ordinary student here. Because what professors were looking for was people with a potential above 75%. And the blue color indicated the Magic stats; which meant my potential was inclined toward the Magic stats more than the other stats.
Not that I mind it, but it was weird. If my potential was on Magic stats, why did it only be an F-rank?
But, in their eyes, those numbers and colors were just ordinary if no lower than trash. I could understand their views since the professors were mostly A-rank or above.
"Zio Varrez. The report told me that your overall stats were around E-rank, with Intelligence as the highest value, C-rank. And, it seems there is an error regarding your stats potential… Anyway, we'll send the report to the higher-up and see if they can solve the problem…"
I nodded.
"Then, we've adjusted the test level to the minimum. You'll start off fighting low-level puppet monsters we created and gradually increase in difficulty until you reach your limit."
Clapping their hands, a chisel-looking object floated and motioned around a point. From that motion, small blue particles were created which then assimilated and formed a small transparent blue humanoid figure. From that figure emerged a small green monster with bulging yellow eyes, a large sharp nose flanked by two fangs protruding from its mouth, and ears sharp shaped like daggers.
A goblin.
A common monster appeared in the dungeon.
"You can't use a personal weapon. So, just choose any weapon from the weapon box."
Jillian clapped her hand again and another flying object flew toward me. It was a box this time, not just an ordinary box of course.
Storage Cube. It was a man-made artifact manufactured by the Omega and distributed across the world. The storage cube had different storage capacities even though the size was the same, as big as a human's adult palm. The cheapest had fewer capacities than the expensive one.
This box definitely has a larger capacity. Because, why would the most prestigious academy with top-end facilities use a Storage Cube with smaller capacities?
It functioned like an inventory in RPGs, there was a screen displayed when I put a voiced command [Cube: List].
"Two training daggers."
Without wasting time I immediately picked two daggers out from the Storage Cube.
"A dual-dagger? Is that your weapon of choice?"
"Yes, it is."
"Very well, then…" she said.
The Storage Cube flew toward Jillian's palm and gently rested there. "Start!"
As soon as the exam started, I rushed forward quickly and slashed the goblin. The first monster was down in 5 seconds. The bearded professor was shocked and in awe upon seeing my performance. I bet he didn't expect that. Meanwhile, Jillian was still with her uninterested expression. Not that I care about their reaction, I just wanted to get placed in the higher ranking.
The second puppet monster was a furry, four-legged animal. A wild wolf. Another common monster dungeon.
All this time, my practice partner was Shannon so I've never had a chance to fight a non-humanoid monster. But, thanks to my experience in the flash dungeon, I had that chance, to fight against wild beast monsters such as wolves.
With that experience, fighting this wolf would be easy. And so I rushed again and killed it easily.
As the examiners said, the difficulty did increase as I passed each level. I fought against a lizardman at stage 3, an orc at stage 4, and this time a minotaur.
Lizardmen and orcs were humanoid monsters so killing them was possible for me, though it required more effort to take them down, especially the orc.
The lizardman was easier to fight because they were only strong in their territory, the swamp. The orc though, was a formidable foe. Besides being twice the size of an adult human, orcs possessed great toughness and strength
Killing them was a bit tricky, especially when using E-rank quality daggers. Piercing through its skin was extremely difficult so I repeatedly used the momentum from the orc's movements and managed to stick a dagger in its eye. Next was to bury the dagger so deep that it penetrated into his brain.
It was a victory with a sense of accomplishment, but it wasn't over yet.
My enemy this time was a minotaur. The creature stood very sturdy, its body was even bigger than an orc. His bull head snorted. From his nose came white smoke like a steam engine.
"We'll stop the test immediately if things go south. Don't push yourself," said the examiners.
"Thank you! But, I'll be fine," I said while giving them a reassuring nod. "Perhaps…" This line was spoken in a whisper.
I rushed at the minotaur at once and gave it a fresh slice in the leg and immediately backed up. Although, it didn't do much damage because its skin was tough just like the orc.
A hit-and-run strategy was effective against the minotaur as its movement was slow, but its strength, endurance, and size compensated for its slower speed. As long as I kept moving I won't get hit, but I also couldn't damage it. The only way was to aim for its eyes just like the orc, but it would be hard as I need to climb onto its shoulder or head first because of how tall the creature was.
The axe was swinging horizontally at a low angle. That had given me a chance to climb onto the creature's shoulder.
When the blade touched the floor and ransacked it, I jumped and stood on it. Didn't want to lose my chance, I ran on top of the axe toward its shoulder.
Thinking I'd reached the spot to jump, I succeed in sticking one of my daggers in its eye, but it was too shallow that it immediately dropped to the ground at the same time I landed.
"Tch!"
***
"What do you think?" said Jillian breaking up the silence of her fellow professor, Gilbert Drian.
"He's good."
Jillian nodded and was still silent. Giving Gilbert a look for him to continue.
"Stats potential-wise, he's trash. But his fighting ability cannot be underestimated, he is the second best after the headmaster's favorite girl in terms of fighting ability. I could see that he was keeping a close eye on his foe even as he was running around waiting for an opportunity to attack just like before when he was climbing up and running the minotaur's ax into its shoulder. He didn't hesitate either…"
Jillian sighed as she leaned on her chair.
"Why is it that always the trash who work hard."
"Don't say that. You also know that the Flame Fist was someone with trash potential, but look at him now. He could even fight the Thunder Emperor on equal terms."
"Pfft. Equal? How could you tell that when they never fought each other?"
Gilbert shrugged at her question and changed the topic back to the student's test.
"Anyway, what about you?"
Jillian tilted her head.
"What do you think about him?" Gilbert continued.
The room was shaking as the big axe smashed the ground. Thanks to an artifact, the area around the examiner's desk wasn't affected by the shock.
Just like earlier, Zio climbed onto the minotaur's shoulder by running on the axe.
This time he didn't do the jump attack to the eyes but instead slide behind the minotaur's neck and then plunged his daggers as deep as possible into the soft part of the creature's neck.
It was impossible to penetrate the minotaur's skin, even the softest part using only an E-rank dagger. But…
"Hmm?" Jillian eyes narrowed. "Isn't that mana coating technique?"
Upon hearing that, Gilbert also noticed the blue aura that enveloped the tip of the daggers.
"You're right, that is definitely the mana-coating technique. Where did he learn that?"
"That's what I want to know…"
Seeing Jillian's expression showing interest in the candidate, Gilbert brought up the previous topic again.
"So, any word for him?"
Jillian let out a short sigh and dispersed her expression.
"Well, he's just fine."
Enveloping his daggers with mana, Zio stabbed the minotaur in the neck and the daggers dug deep enough thanks to being covered in mana making the blade sharper.
"GRAAAAAAA" The minotaur growled loudly as its neck was being penetrated.
The creature moved wildly to pull Zio off his back.
In that chaotic situation, Zio was hanging there. Releasing momentum as his body lifted and then pulled himself down. He coated his feet with mana so that the weight was concentrated there and made him heavier so that the fall would be faster and also helped cut through the minotaur's hard skin more easily.
"Is that even possible?!"
Gilbert was so shocked that he even got up from his chair.
"It's just a double mana coating, even D-rank heroes can do that."
"I know. But, he's not yet a hero and he's still young. Tell me, at what age did you able to use and master double mana coating at the same time?!"
"W-what?! Why are you asking me that out of the blue?!" said Jillian as she pouted her mouth. "B-but, well… I admit that he's better than when I was still a student…"
She observed the battle a bit more.
The intensity of the mana around Zio's feet was increased and his fall fastened.
"Could it be because his highest potential is magic? I don't know why his Magic stat is only an F-rank when it's the highest potential, but if that value isn't an error, then what could he do if it reached the limit?"
"B-rank limit, huh? Then, if he goes through an awakening, he could also match the Thunder Emperor in terms of magic. I also wonder who has been teaching him…"
Jillian looked at Gilbert with raised eyebrows. "Did you have a grudge against the Thunder Emperor or something?"
"Do you want to know?"
Gilbert looked at Jillian with a full smirk expression. Meanwhile, Jillian rolled her eyes as she noticed Gilbert's smirk.
The room's floor shattered instantly the moment Zio hit the ground and managed to rip the minotaur's back from top to bottom. The creature groaned in agony as it was swinging its axe like a madman. The axe blade sliced through the examiners but they were magically unharmed by the attack, it was as if they were invincible and that was just a mere illusion trick standing there.
"This artifact is very useful and convenient, I wish I have one in my pocket."
"Me too, Jill. Me too."
By doing a chaotic and wild move, the minotaur had accidentally disrupted Zio's focus as he stayed away from the axe's range of attack with an exhausted face.
As the axe blade was flying toward him, a clapping sound was echoing in the air and stopped the axe as well as the minotaur's movement.
Seeing the sharp blade stop before his eyes–only a few inches away, Zio dropped his body down to the ground.
"Haaaaaaa…" He exhaled a long heavy breath. "That was close!"
"I think it'd be best to stop the test here."
Looking at the two examiners, Zio nodded gratefully. In fact, he was already exhausted, and even if the test was continued, it was still impossible for him to defeat a monster of that caliber. It was a good thing that those monsters were only puppet monsters created by the Academy, if it was a real one, he might be already dead.
Walking out of the room, Zio checked the time on the display board hanging on the top center of the room.
"Huh? I'm sure I was inside for almost an half hour, but it was actually only a minute has passed?"
Zio looked back over his shoulder and waited for whoever had just entered the room a minute to confirm his assumption.
Just as he assumed, no matter how long someone was taking the test inside the room, it'd be a minute–exactly 60 seconds when they came out of the room.
'It's interesting but I don't remember such detail as this…'