The classroom was quiet, no single sound couldn't escape everyone's mouth as they were focusing on the exam.
The examiner this time was only one person. It should be a good chance to cheat, but why won't anyone do that?
It was because the examiner wasn't an ordinary person. He was a skilled wizard from the Circle.
Any suspicious move would be immediately detected by him because this class was under his AoE spell, surveillance spell.
I looked at one of the questions in the exam.
[Who are the wizards and what is the difference between Enhanced and Wizard?]
These types of general knowledge questions were what made my life easier.
Wizard was a term for a superhuman who was gifted with magic. While there were some Enhanceds that excel in magic, they were not as good as wizards. The way they use and maintain mana was also different. Enhanced just know that they have mana inside their body to use a skill, their control of mana was lacking. It was different with the wizard who occasionally circulated the mana inside their body so their control over mana was superior to the Enhanced.
[Magician Enhanced is the term for an Enhanced who excels in magic, they can use the wizard's spell too as their skill. What makes them different from a wizard?]
The Magician Enhanced was just a normal Enhanced with magic-related skills. They used an intermediary, the skill system as the basis for releasing magic spells. Meanwhile, the wizard was purely magic based. They had blood and body suited for magic, they didn't rely on the system and their potentials were boundless, unlike Enhanced.
The wizard learned spells by studying them. While Enhanced just needed to use a scroll containing a magic spell and boom, they had it as a skill. Although, those scrolls itself was created by the Wizard Circle.
I filled out the other question about the Enhanced and Wizard and continued to the next exam topic. It was about history now. This topic made me a bit nervous because I didn't do background details in my novel so I had to learn world history from books and the internet.
[When did the first catastrophe occur?]
This one was easy. The first catastrophe occurred at the year 1988.
The first catastrophe was an event when cracks appeared in the sky. Following that, a gigantic dimensional rift, or what they called at that time Abyss Gate, emerged from the cracks. Coming out from the gate were monsters, ranging from small monsters like goblins to gigantic monsters like dragons.
In the first 5 years since the appearance of monsters on earth, humanity suffered defeat and lost 40% of its population. In 1993, the first superman appeared among humans, his name was Garuda. Following that, tens or even hundreds of other superhumans were born.
[How did humanity win the war against the monster in the first catastrophe?]
According to the actual history book I read. It was because of the eight heroes' influence.
Garuda as their leader was standing at the pinnacle of humanity. He was the strongest among the heroes at that time so they made him leader. Under his leadership and the other eight strongest heroes which nowadays was called The Octagram, they succeeded defeated the monsters on Earth. There was some remarkable monster that fled and was unseen until today.
I yawned due to how boring the exam was. It was actually about all the things I remembered.
Flexing my finger, I filled out the other question at a quick pace. I was a bit disappointed there was no question about dungeons and villain organizations, even though I was ready to give them a spoiler, or should I call it divination?
In the end, I was the first person who finished the exam.
Taking notice, the examiner looked in my direction and said "Candidate 403, have you finished your work?"
When he said that, everyone's attention was on me. It was to be expected because I was the fastest, not even 30 minutes had passed while the exam time limit was 90 minutes. So, there were more or less 70 minutes left before the written exam was supposed to end.
There was a problem with the questions too. Other than historical and Enhanced-wizard questions were a topic that they probably never heard of or things that were hard to understand such as the system theory and other theory-related questions, magic molecules, and questions asking for opinions—this particular question actually a just-tell-them-what-we-think but people were not sure about their opinions. They were afraid that their opinions were the wrong answer and one that didn't satisfy the academy.
What a BS, just do it!
That was what I'd say but, let them be.
"Yes, sir."
"We still have plenty of time left. In the meantime, you can double-check your answers. Or do you want to submit it now?"
I didn't see any reason to double-check my answers, I was quite sure I'd at least come out with B or even a perfect score.
"I'd like to finish it now, sir."
"Very well."
Moving his finger, there was a blue light emitting from his forefinger and my tablet device. The device floated as it flew slowly until it landed gently on his palm.
After checking it for a while, he looked back at me.
"I already checked it. All the questions have been answered. You can leave the classroom if you'd like."
Standing up from my seat, I nodded slightly as I bid my thanks and then leave the room while everyone was looking at me left the class.
The large corridor was empty, there was no one except me. And the most important thing was where the hell was the exit door?
Standing still for a moment, I tried to remember the earlier morning when I came here.
"From the entrance to the building, walk straight until I find the great staircase and take the right stairs, after that… where?"
Eventually, I started walking around the building, trying to find the exit door. I just need to find a stair lead to the lower floor, it won't be that hard, right?
Yes. It was not that hard. It only took me like 15 minutes to finally find the stair. I was proud of myself for not getting lost like a fool!
Walking down the stair, I found myself in the great hall. The exit door was just at the end of this hall, across from where I stood.
Honestly, I wanted to tour this building before I left. But, as much as I wanted it, it would take a lot of time. There was a thing about getting lost too, not that I'd get lost. Anyway, it was just that this wasn't the time to tour, I'd just do it later when I get enrolled here.
Stopping me at the entrance was one of those academy's professors or securities, probably?
"Candidate 403. Why are you outside? Aren't you taking the exam?"
He said, his eyes scrutinizing me.
"Actually, sir. I've finished mine."
"Really? It has been only 30 minutes since the exam started, though. Which class did you partake in the exam from?"
"I'm not sure… But, the examiner is a blonde wizard, has a small build, and is using round glasses…"
"Alex?" He said, more like talking to himself rather than asking me. "Wait a second."
I nodded as he walked away from me.
The security guy was talking with someone on the communication device, a Nova Smartwatch that was. His face constantly changed. Confused, shocked, and disbelieving. His expression alternately changed between that.
Turning off the smartwatch, he looked at me from far away for a moment before he walked toward me.
"Kuhum. Sorry for doubting you."
"It's fine, sir."
Straightening his body straight, he placed his arms crossed behind his back. With a serious expression and a slight smile, he said "I've confirmed it with your examiner. It seems you're not lying."
He took a few steps back and stepped aside, his hand holding the large open door.
"This way, if you'd like."
"Oh? Thank you, sir."
As I stepped outside the building and passed by him. He told me that the result of the exam would be distributed after one week to the candidate's address. There would be a letter received by the candidates informing them whether they were accepted or not.
I thanked him as I keep walking and found myself a few meters away in front of the building. It was really an amazing campus building.
"Haa… If only I have a cake to celebrate."
Once I reach the south entrance gate, which was the entrance where I came from on the first day, I saw a familiar figure running across the bridge toward me.
My cousin, Shannon Oliver.
Her long silver hair moved like waves as she ran. The casual outfit she was wearing today looked a bit different than usual, what should I say, it was a bit more flashy, I guess.
"What is that?" I murmured.
Standing in front of me was now a smiling girl fixing her silver hair. After that running, she didn't even look tired and she wasn't even out of breath. As expected of a 7h-ranked third-year student.
Looking behind me with narrowed eyes, she probably wondered where was the other candidate.
"You didn't cause trouble, did you?"
"Why did you even ask that?"
"Then, where are the others?"
Looking over my shoulder for a while, I smiled smugly when I faced her again.
"I don't know. They are still taking the exam. Fortunately, your dearest cousin is a smart-ass genius, so he is surely the first to finish his exam."
Shannon rolled her eyes at me.
"Anyway, why are you here? And what is with that clothes? Are you going somewhere?"
Her smile widened as if she was expecting me to ask her that.
"Are you hungry?"
"Sorry?"
…
We ended up at a cafe, an ice cream cafe.
A spoonful of vanilla ice cream entered her mouth. Remnants of white cream splattered around her lips.
"Umm. Yummy," she said, licking the remaining ice cream around her lips.
In my hand, there was a cup of untouched chocolate ice cream. I only ate it after seeing Shannon's reaction, as my fuel.
As I filled my mouth with a spoonful of chocolate ice cream, I thought about Shannon.
I tried to ignore her identity until now. But, it seemed like she had caught my interest, in a curious way. She was a completely unknown character, an alien entity to me. I had no memories of her. In other words, I never wrote about her in the novel.
She was just an extra character just like me, Zio Varrez. But, I couldn't help but to feel there was something more behind her character. Maybe, she was actually a named character whose backstory I'd never created yet.
In the past week when I trained with her too, I used my free time to research her. But the information I got on the internet was limited to her being an Octagram student who had started being active as part of the Enhanced world two years ago when she was first accepted into the academy. More than that, there was no information about her before she became an Octagram student.
The site 'Ascension' that I frequently visited for data-gathering had no further information about her.
"What are you thinking?"
Taking notice of my mind's absence, she tapped the table a few times.
Shaking my head, I put another spoonful of ice cream into my mouth.
"Nothing. Just thinking about life."
She chuckled as I said that.
"Pfft… What is that? It's not something young people like us should be saying. Our future is still long."
I didn't know what happened to her while I was not around. But, I genuinely felt happy seeing her like this.
"You're right, the future is still long…"
She was right. Six years was a long enough time to fulfill life with happy memories. Because after that, I doubted there would be happiness left in this world when the third catastrophe befell the Earth.
The heroes and the researchers said not to worry about future catastrophes but then decided to take it easy as it had been decades since the last catastrophe happened and there was no sign of another catastrophe. But, as the one who held the knowledge of the future. The third catastrophe was on another level, Earth wouldn't be the same as before if it was to happen and left untended.
But, just as Shannon said. Our future is still long. Because of that, I'd try my best to prevent the worst from happening.
One cannot stop what is set to happen, but one can still change things related to it so the result would be altered.
If I couldn't stop the catastrophe, then I'd just make people aware of it. At least by doing that, some factions would be ready at the time the catastrophe come.
That was when Ian Crow's existence become essential. But, as he was in an unfortunate state, I needed to fix him first.
Finishing my ice cream quickly I asked Shannon
"By the way. Do you know anyone who has good healing skills and can keep secrets?"