Ray, back in the room he started in, looks at the dummy.
"Here goes nothing."
Ray walks towards the dummy and gets into a stance. Despite his family's disappointment in him not having any abilities throughout his childhood, he was still taught their lineage's martial arts in case he got a strong power later in life.
He puts both hands on the hilt of the sword as he performs a few practice swings, the swings so graceful as though perfected through thousands and thousands of repetitions.
'Clear your mind'
He grits his teeth as if ready to strike, and then he steps forward. Ray dashes forward at a speed so fast you could almost call it superhuman, almost. He slices across the neck of the dummy, leaving a scratch across its neck which in a very quick fashion it repairs itself.
Ray looks up at the screen above the dummy as it displays the number 12.
'What does that mean'
Confused at what the number represents, he looks at the proctor.
She looks back at him.
"I'll explain the number outside with the rest of the applicants."
They both walk outside the room where the rest of the applicants have been waiting.
The proctor looks towards them.
"This test is scored on a scale of 1-20, most applicants score between 10 and 14 which means the score this gentleman just got would be average, a completely acceptable score he should be proud. Less than 5 applicants each year score any higher than 16 with the record being 17 until two years ago when a applicant with generational talent scored an 18."
Curious, one applicant raises her hand.
The proctor looks towards her.
"Yes?"
Who broke the former record.
The proctor grins.
"A student still at the academy as a third year named Raven Valric."
She looks back at Ray.
"This boy's older sister."
Ray becomes pale.
'I knew she was strong, but I had no idea she was that strong'
The proctor claps her hands.
"Listen up, none of you seem to understand what that means so i'll make it clear to you, a score of 12 which this boy just got would be expected to be a average hero or if they're really lucky a one-star hero, there's nothing wrong with that of course that person could go on to do amazing things throughout their life, that being said an applicant who scores a 14 would be expected to at least become a one or two-star hero which would put them in the top 10% of heroes on the planet."
She pauses for a moment.
"Are you children starting to get it?"
She sighs.
"Now an applicant who scores a 16 or higher is expected to become a three-star hero and if they are lucky and do great things after graduating they could in fact become a four-star hero, now you should all know what that means, four-star heroes are the top 1% of heroes, they possess abilities that could very well change the world, they are about as good as you can get."
Realizing her explanation took a lot more time than it should have, she stopped.
"Any questions before we get to the rest of you."
The girl from earlier raised her hand.
Ray rolls his eyes.
'I guess we found our first teacher's pet'
The proctor once again looks over to her.
"What is it?"
The girl fixes her glasses which were seemingly falling off of her face.
"What about that boy's sister, the one who scored 18, what is she expected to become?"
The proctor laughs and then looks at the girl.
"Honestly I have no idea, someone like that is a monster, they aren't supposed to exist, to be quite frank the current no.1 hero with all his strength could probably break the machine itself, but he's been a hero for years his strength makes sense, on the other hand that girl is not much older than you, and she's the reason the current model is as durable as it is. She left nothing but ashes. But anyway, that's enough chitchat, it's time for the rest of you to see how you stack up against those monsters."
Some time passes as all the other applicants take turns striking the dummy. Most of them scoring between 10-12 I mean it's called average for a reason, a few of them scored higher than a 14 with only one applicant scoring a 16, a remarkable score. They all had some impressive abilities, it makes sense if you think about it despite being young most of them have had these abilities for almost a decade but the ones that stood out the most were those elemental manipulation powers, and of course one in particular, the boy who scored the 16, it was the boy Ray saw earlier, who he described as sophisticated, despite being no older than 15 the boy was quite tall he had a nice expensive looking designer outfit with a gold and blue hilt attached to the scabbard on his waist. The most remarkable thing about him though was his power; in a split second the glass of the testing room froze, and a giant icicle formed from the ground as though meaning to eviscerate the training dummy, although despite sending it flying across the room it was still in one piece.
After completing the preliminary exam, the applicants were given a black tracksuit with a number on its collar, representing their rank according to the text. Out of around 400 applicants, Ray's rank was 280th, not a bad rank at all.
They were then gathered back near the entrance of the school, where the headmaster had been standing.
"You all seem ready to begin."
He looked around observing the numbers on each of their outfits, until he found the boy whose collar had the number 1 and then stopped.
"You."
He called out to the boy.
The boy looked up at him.
"Yes sir?"
The old man chuckles.
"Tell me, boy, what was your score?"
He smiles at the headmaster.
"16."
The headmaster laughs once more.
"I thought so. Anyways, we should begin. The exam is separated into three tests: the solo hunting exam, the written test and the tournament. This year we are short on time, so we will be starting with the written exam."
Ray sighs.
'Oh jeez'
You see, Ray didn't sleep much and was hoping he could have a chance to rest before the written exam, but it doesn't seem like that is going to happen.
The headmaster shifts his gaze to Ray.
"I see you found your grandfather's sword, well specifically the sword your great-grandfather left here."
Ray looks at him with an intense gaze.
"Why would something like that be here."
The old man shrugged.
"Your guess is as good as mine, as to why the sword chose you, that is probably just a matter of it wanted to find someone similar to the previous wielder, I will say you do favor him quite a bit."
Ray looks confused.
"You knew my great-grandfather?"
The old man looks off into the distance as if reminiscing on old memories.
"I did; in fact, we graduated together from this very school."
'Interesting.'
Ray did not know very much about his great-grandfather, other than that he was very strong.
The old man smiled, noticing Ray deep in thought.
"We can finish this conversation later, assuming you make it the whole way."
Ray nods.
With that, the written portion of the exam began. They were taken to a large lecture hall, with small desks protruding out from the seats.
Ray finishes rather quickly; this test wasn't as hard as he thought.
He walks to the front of the hall.
"I'm done."
The man looks up and takes the paper from him.
"Wait outside."
About two hours pass before everyone else is finished with the exam. Ray spent most of his time at home studying, so something like this wasn't too difficult for him.
The man then walks out of the hall.
"With that, all the tests have been graded, follow me to see the scores."
The man leads them through the school to an auditorium with a large screen in the middle, the screen displayed the rank of every applicant's test score and all the way at the top with the only perfect score, it said,
Ray Valric.