Alaric stared down at the small packet, there didn't seem to be many questions, just three per page. But, they must be difficult questions for everyone to have an hour. He aimed the tip of the pencil at the paper and he read the first question.
Question 1
"You're against a strong opponent and you're out of mana. How could you give yourself an advantage and win the battle?"
Alaric looked at the question and thought deeply to himself, he was sorta in that situation when he was ten, going through that dungeon. Though, he had a little bit of mana at that time. He was able to win that battle thanks to his speed, and knowledge of the weak spots of the enemy. Maybe that was viable answer. He began to jot down his answers, before scanning his eyes through the second question.
Question 2
"You're faced with an Alien that can control three different elements, Fire, Wind, And water. How would you go about defeating it."
Alaric frowned, could he even defeat something like that? With his basic skill set, that sounds like a losing battle. He leaned back in his seat as he began thinking.
Realistic, he definitely couldn't overpower it, and would need to rely on his speed with his [Dash] skill. Though, to make the process faster, he could use his [Power Strike] skill while buffed with his [Strength Boost] skill. That way, he does way more damage, though that would probably drain his mana. But, that's the only way he could see him defeating the Alien with his current kit.
So he wrote down that answer and moved on to his third question.
Question 3
"You're the leader of a small group of warriors, and you're on your way to conquer a dungeon. But, one of the members expresses their fear and debates on running away. What do you do?"
Alaric looked a bit confused, wondering how he would handle this situation. 'Of course I can't make anyone not be scared.' He thought as he tapped his pencil on the desk. One way he could handle it, is assure that he will be able to protect them from any harm.
He assumes that would be the job of the leader of the group right? His eyes showed determination. But, a harsher leader would probably abandon that member, telling them to go home and leave them to the wolves. But, of course that isn't something Alaric would do. So he wrote down his answer, and moved on to the next.
Question 4
"Describe a time when you had a major failure or setback. Explain how you overcame it."
Alaric knew just the major failure and setback that still haunted him to this day. The day when he first got his system. When he entered his first dungeon, against that boss. He thought he was going to die, and would've. And he overcame it, by saying he wasn't going to die there. He used his brain and as able to defeat them with his wits and his knowledge of the weak spots of the boss.
But, he couldn't just put that on the test, only because he could get in trouble for going into a dungeon unofficially despite it being in the past. Or, maybe he could say he stumbled upon it by accident. Hopefully they buy it. He wrote it down, and was ready for the fifth question.
Question 5
"You're surrounded by enemies and your ally is down for the count. You only have enough mana for one spell, what spell to you cast to get yourself out of that situation or completely defeat the opponent?"
Alaric nodded and he knew what spell he would use. His [Dash] skill. And for two reasons; it could be used to easily get him and his ally out of that situation. It's an easy way to rush away. And two; he could use to completely blitz his opponents. It had great uses, so that's what he wrote down. He moved on to the next question.
Question 6
"Why do you want to become a student of this academy?"
Alaric read the question and knew what to put down, his motivation was simple. He did it to become stronger, to create a exciting life for himself. He smirked, but it faded. 'Wait, would that be bad motivation?' He thought, it's not like he was doing this to particularly protect people. On the surface, wanting to attend this academy just to get stronger and living on the edge didn't seem bad but not good either.
But, maybe it was a subjective question. So he hesitated, but wrote down his core motivation. And he began to move to the next question.
After a while, he was able to complete all twelve questions within the set time. As he was completing the test, he didn't notice anyone turn in their test, but he did notice people stopped work. So, he assumed he was meant to wait until the hour was up. He laid his pencil down, return the packet back to its front page. He folded his arms and simply waited.
Soon, the headmasters voice rang out announcing that time is up. Suddenly the students were teleported back to the center of the Colosseum. But, they were now in a line.
"Alright, please hand over your tests and stand in a single line." He said as the line began to move smoothly as everyone handed in their tests, finished or not. Once Alaric handed over his test he found his spot next to Arthur. He stood silently with his hand behind his back, and Arthur was uncharacteristically quiet. 'He must really be taking this seriously.' Alaric thought as he focused his attention back ahead.
Once all the tests were turned in, the headmaster stood in front of the horizontal line of students. He looked forward, "Congrats on completing the first stage of the entrance exam. Now, we'll move on to the more exciting stage." He said, a smirk twisting on his lips.
"The next stage, will be a team-based survival stage." He said as Alaric felt his heart beat increase. His palms began to get sweat even before he could explain the rules and overall structure of the stage.
"This stage is called, 'Capture the Flag'." He started and he held up a red and blue flag like you would see in a video game Capture the Flag game mode. "Two teams will be pitted against each other, both teams with have a total of three flags, A, B, and C. You goal is to protect your flag while also trying steal the opposing teams flags. When time runs out, if the opposite team has more flags, they pass." He said, as he pointed to the group, "I'll be selecting the groups. You'll be in groups of four. You'll all go at the same time since there is so many of you." He turned to the window with the seats, as a large screen would dip in front of it, glowing with life.
On the screen were a bunch of teams, and due to it's small size, no one could see who was in what team. "First, we start with Team A." As he said that, the screen zoomed in, now showing Team A. Alaric immediately noticed his name there, along with students he didn't recognized.
"If you see your name, step up immediately." Alaric, along with three other students stepped up. The headmaster walked up, "Once everyone is in their groups, the second exam will begin."
He turned towards the screen. "You'll all be teleported to a designated area for your part of exam." He snapped his fingers as Alaric and his group were teleported, to what looked like a large rain forest. Alaric glanced around, his eyes landing on his group. He felt his anxiety spike. But, he knew he had to get over this, that wouldn't fly in this world. He was ready to speak, but someone cut through his words.
"Alright! If we're going to be a team, we should get to know one another before the exam starts!" Someone exclaimed as his eyes traced the voice to a boy.
His hair was blonde and tied into a loose ponytail, his eyes were a bright sky blue. His features were less defined and more child like. But his tall height and obvious participation proved his age.
He held up a hand, "Hey, names Aluxio." He said with a bright smile. Alaric blinked, and stepped up. The other two stepped up as well. There was a much large man, muscles and face defined. He held a large battle axe in his grip, slumped over his shoulder. "I'm Faxon," he said, his voice boomed.
The other was a woman. Her hair was warm blonde and cascading down her back, and her eyes was a shining emerald green. Her features were soft and beautiful. She gave a bright smile that matched with Aluxio's. "I'm Clorissa!"
Alaric was all that was left. "I'm...Alaric." He said, his voice low.
Aluxio held out his hand, "Great to meet you all, now we have to know what skills we have." Aluxio looked at his status window before looking over, "Of course I have the basic five skills, but I have two sword based skills." He said, with a flick of his wrist, a gold light illuminated in his hand, and a large sword appeared in his hand.. "This is Excalibur." He said, pride laced in his voice as he showed off the power he possessed
Alaric frowned, 'King Arthur's Sword...So he even exists in the subspace.' He thought as Aluxio gave a smile. 'He's packing some heat,'
His attention turned to Faxon. He held his axe out, "I have one skill, its a weapon skill." He said, his voice hard and horse. He swung his axe, the sheer power creating a harsh gust of wind that blew through the leaves of the trees and the hair of his allies. "It'll be easy to cut through any obstacle."
Next was Clorissa as she gave a a smile, "I have three skills, since I'm a mage." She made her staff appear, "I have a more advanced defense skill, a long range skill, and a healing skill." She explained the green orb in her staff glowing with power. A small bubble was created from the orb, it flying into her palm. "Like this! This is an small example of my bubble barrier skill."
Alaric frowned his expression laced with admiration and a bit of envy, 'So she has the most skills of us all...She's probably our biggest assets.' He looked down at his hand, 'And I'm just stuck with a staff and one skill...' He thought, as all the eyes flew onto him.
He jumped and made his staff appear. "I, um, have this staff that I can make bigger and longer," He began to explain as Sky flew around him.
"And this is my cloud ride, Skydancer. It has it's own skills as well." He said as it began to float around the group, and Clorissa began petting the soft cloud with a big grin. "It can generate lightning strikes, and it can grow in size when needed." He explained as he looked down, "And my only skill is weapon mastery..." There was a loud silence, and Alaric silently braced himself for judgment. But, Aluxio gave him a thumbs up, "Awesome! With your cloud, Mobility won't be an issue! Who knows, it could be a game-changer." Aluxio gave a smile.
Alaric blinked, he wasn't expecting praise. While it gave him a bit of confidence when in the presence of such stronger allies, he couldn't help but feel weak in comparison.
"Alright! Now we know about each other's skills and abilities. Now, while we wait, we can formulate a plan to capture the enemies' flags while protecting our own." He said as he walked towards a nearby tree, motioning the others to follow. The other three began to cloud around the tree.
"Alright, here's the plan, we can split each other into categories due to our respective skills,"
As Aluxio explained the plan, Alaric was in his own thoughts, while listening. He wondered if he was even needed, what could he do? Sky was more useful for the team than him. Aluxio with his confident strength and planning, Faxon's overwhelming strength, and Clorissa's versatile move set and skills made them all great allies. But, Alaric wasn't going to let them take the spot. He was going to contribute as much as he could.