No time was wasted after the president of the academy left the auditorium as, immediately after, fifty people entered.
These people were wearing formal attire and shortly introduced themselves as instructors for the evaluation before guiding all the students to another facility.
After having walked through the campus for a few minutes, they entered a big elevator taking them to an underground facility.
When the elevator door opened, students could be heard chattering amongst themselves, amazed by the view. As students stood in front of Yasuo, he hadn't seen the room yet as he is only 168 centimetres tall.
The instructors quickly and efficiently started guiding the students out of the elevators, which finally allowed Yasuo to see the room.
'Wow, can you even call this a room?' Yasuo was amazed at what he saw. It was an all-white marble hallway that must have been at least two hundred meters long. Every ten meters or so there was a door with a number on top. With number one above the door on the right side of the room and number fifty above the door on the left side of the room.
'Ah, that must mean that there are fifty rooms in this hallway.'
That thought was quickly confirmed as the instructor split the students up in groups of twenty according to their number. Yasuo having number 1000, he could stay at the first door on the left with the other students numbered 981 to 1000.
Each group had one instructor with them, who began explaining things once everyone was in front of the correct room.
"Behind this door is a training simulator with advanced augmented reality made for awakeners. When you enter the room you will need to wear a special tech suit, which will allow you to interact with the augmented environment and allows you to experience every sense just like reality, including pain."
"Wow." Said Yasuo out loud on accident, out of excitement of hearing this. 'This is just like at the awakeners association, but way better!'
The instructor looked at Yasuo, but continued his explanation like nothing happened. "The evaluation will solely be conducted in augmented reality. For combatants it will be a combat test where you have to fight monsters and non-combatants will have a different test based on their class. There are multiple levels in the evaluation and you will be scored based on however many levels you can clear. The test is very intuitive once you enter the room, so this concludes the explanation. Any questions?"
Yasuo had already experienced a similar test in the awakener association and he also listened attentively to the instructor, so everything was clear. But when Yasuo looked around he noticed that no one was holding a weapon, not in his group and not even anybody in the whole academy.
This made Yasuo curious, so he asked: "Why don't the combatants and non-combatants have their equipment with them? How will they be able to properly do the test?"
Having said this made the students in his group whisper amongst each other. Yasuo heard them whisper, speculating that he had a martial art class without weapons, which made him regret asking his question. 'Right, I have the evolution dagger which I can summon at any point, but I am probably one of the few in the world, if not the only one, with something like this.'
The instructor answered in a professional manner. "Equipment will be provided in the room. No personal equipment is allowed in the academy per request of the president to give everyone an equal opportunity."
Hearing the instructor say this made Yasuo glad he asked his question. "Is the equipment provided in the room special for the augmented reality?" Yasuo asked, hoping that he could use his own weapon in the evaluation.
The instructor looked down at his watch and shortly answered Yasuo's question. "No."
'Yes!' Yasuo thought as he could use his own weapon, which would probably give him an advantage in the evaluation making it more likely to get better privileges.
The instructor looked at his clock once again. "There is no more time for questions. Student number 981, enter the room."
At the same time that student number 981 entered room 50, one student from each room also entered at the same time, which showed precise discipline from the instructors.
Seeing everyone enter made Yasuo nervous, but excited at the same time. 'I can't wait for it to be my turn, but seeing as number 981 entered first I will probably be the last in my group to enter.'
While Yasuo was waiting, he was speculating precisely how the evaluation would be done. 'The instructor said there would be multiple rounds and that clearing more would be better, which must mean that there is a standard program which will become increasingly difficult.' Thought Yasuo.
'Oh no, that is going to take so long…'
As Yasuo thought that, student number 981 came out of the room after only five minutes, with a horrified expression on his face.
Yasuo immediately started to think of the worst. 'Is the evaluation so difficult? What standards does the academy have? Will I even be able to pass round one?'
Out of anxiety Yasuo looked around, which immediately calmed his nerves as no students from other rooms had left the room yet.
"Okay, calm down Yasuo. Number 981 is probably really weak." Yasuo quietly whispered to himself, trying to reassure himself.
But apparently he didn't whisper so quietly as student number 981 looked at him with a sad expression, having heard the quiet whisper from being on high alert.
"Student number 981, please leave using the elevator." Said the instructor.
Yasuo was relieved that student 981 had to leave, feeling embarrassed that he had heard Yasuo whispering.
"Next, student 982. Please enter."
As time went by and more students entered and left the room, something became apparent. The groups on the left side of the hall were significantly smaller than on the left side of the hall, meaning that students on the right were lasting longer and probably were clearing more rounds.
Because of this, Yasuo became a little worried and started to doubt his own strength. This made the time fly by quickly and student number 999 was now leaving the room.
'That must mean that it is my turn now.' Yasuo thought as he looked around once again. On the left side of the room it was pretty empty with most students already having finished the evaluation while there were still plenty of students on the other side of the hall.
"Next, student 1000. Please enter."
The time had come for Yasuo to enter the room. Not being able to prepare anymore, Yasuo enters with a positive mindset trying to just do the best he can.
Having this mindset, Yasuo calmed down and looked around the room for the first time. It was a room completely made out of white forged metal. On the left side of the room was the suit the instructor was talking about.
When Yasuo put the suit on, a hologram appeared before him asking him what type of class he was [Combatant] or [Non-combatant].
Yasuo was a special case, even though he has a rune drawing class, he is more of a combatant. Because of this he could pick [Non-combatant] and get an evaluation in rune drawing, but Yasuo was determined to become a hunter and thus selected [Combatant] for the evaluation.
Having selected the [combatant] type evaluation, a new hologram appeared asking Yasuo to pick a weapon on the left side of the room. Yasuo nonchalantly looked at the weapons, which all were of a good quality, but still decided use his own dagger. Being confident in his choice, Yasuo pressed [OK], and at that moment the evaluation started.
~Level one, starting in 60 seconds~
Yasuo was startled, as the whole environment changed. He was suddenly in an open field, being able to see mountains in the far distance and even feeling the breeze of the wind. Yasuo knew that this wasn't real and that he was still in the training room, but everything felt and looked real, so much so that Yasuo couldn't distinguish this from reality.
But there was no more time to be amazed as level one was starting in only a few seconds.
Waiting for the monster to spawn Yasuo became a little nervous again, because a lot of students left the room early. 'I hope it won't be a strong monster.'
Luckily Yasuo's nerves calmed down completely as the monster spawned. 'Haha, did I get nervous over this?'
In front of him spawned one measly unarmed goblin, shaking its legs from the title Yasuo obtained, [Goblin Slaughterer], which makes goblins instinctively fear him. 'Does that mean that some people had difficulties fighting just one goblin…?'
His prior thoughts of dread, thinking the evaluation was going to be difficult from the start, turned into disappointment towards the people that didn't last long in the evaluation. 'Maybe the front rows were right to laugh at the back rows, if this is all they amount to.'
Being disappointed, Yasuo started the evaluation, defeating the measly unarmed goblin without wasting a second, not even giving the goblin time to react.
~Level one clear. Level two, starting in 60 seconds~
As the second round begun, the difficulty didn't increase much, with now two unarmed goblins in front of him. Seeing as the difficulty didn't spike, Yasuo also didn't hesitate and defeated the goblins as fast as he could, not taking him longer than a few seconds.
~Level two clear. Level three, starting in 60 seconds~
The levels continued to be pretty easy and Yasuo noticed that the only monsters that were appearing were goblins. In the first round there was one unarmed goblin, then in round two there were two unarmed goblins and in round three there were three unarmed goblins. Only in round four a different type of goblin appeared, an armed goblin.
The two levels continued to follow the same pattern as the first three levels, increasing the monster count by one each level and then introducing a new monster. Eventually the pattern changed a little bit. The amount of monsters stayed the same, but unlike before, the goblins types were now mixed.
As the levels kept increasing, Yasuo encountered all types of goblins. First it were unarmed goblins, then armed goblins, goblins archers, and eventually goblins warriors and goblins mages.
But even this didn't pose a threat to Yasuo as he was used to fighting strong goblins, even in bigger groups than in the levels now. Without even using any mana or wasting much stamina, Yasuo had quickly cleared 29 levels.
~Level 29 clear. Level 30, starting in 60 seconds~
When level thirty started, Yasuo smiled as he saw a Goblin Champion and two goblin warriors spawning. Monsters that he was previously afraid of, he could now laugh at. Once the level commenced, Yasuo immediately dashed towards the monsters.
Unlike before, Yasuo could now clearly be seen as the hunter and the Goblin Champion even seemed to tremble as Yasuo approached. Seeing this made Yasuo smirk 'Ha, the [Goblin Slaughterer] is now even taking effect on a Goblin Champion.'
How Yasuo was fighting couldn't even be considered a fight, it was a straight up execution. Without the use of any skills, Yasuo had immediately been able to decapitate the two goblin warriors standing besides the Goblin Champion frozen in fear.
Seeing this made the Goblin Champion instinctively take a step back, feeling the immense killing intent coming from Yasuo. With Yasuo slowly walking towards the Goblin Champion, one step at a time, it didn't fight back, not even running away. As if it knew that it wasn't going to change anything.
Now face to face with the Goblin Champion, Yasuo made a simple but fierce attack at the Goblin Champion's neck, cutting it clean of. Without the use of skills or even any effort, Yasuo had defeated the boss monster.
~Level thirty clear: Congratulations on clearing stage one: F-rank portal. Level 31 starting in 300 seconds~