'So many questions, so few answers…' Theo thought, taking a deep breath even though doing so came with the risk of screwing up his breathing rhythm—an integral part of his current running effort. 'At the very least, if anything, I have all the time in the world to think things through!'
This run was more of a marathon than a sprint. Or, to be more precise, a marathon mixed with elements of an obstacle course, endurance trial, and performance assessment.
'I recall reading somewhere that originally, it was intended not to test people's stamina but the cadets' ability to pace themselves while being tempted by the importance of the exam's results, but…'
As strange as it felt, Theo could still remember his past life. Even though it was a weird mix of his actual memories and just… images his imagination produced back when he was reading the novel of this world, he still had access to it.
That's why, beyond any doubt, he could tell the original purpose of this exam was long lost, turning the whole exercise into its most crude form.
'It's a pity I don't really remember the grading scheme for it, though,' Theo thought, smirking a little as he realized just how much his perception of this marathon had changed.
Back in his original life, when he still wasn't aware of the true nature of what this world or he himself was, he had spent absolutely every last bit of his energy to finish the race in a respectable seventh spot. A spot that gave him just enough credit points to ensure his enrollment in the royal academy and, along with the score from the written exams later on, got him into the academy dorms.
Right now, however, despite having the clear path right ahead of him… Theo decided to change things a bit.
'What's the use of going back to the past if I'm just going to relive everything as I did before? That's the easiest way to just remain a damned extra throughout my entire accursed life!'
As great as that plunder ability of his sounded… it had way too many conditions, most of which Theo couldn't even guess, to rely on it. Right now, rather than depending on something as unreliable and outright foreign, it was best to focus on the opportunities that lay ahead.
'Wait, if I recall correctly…' Theo squinted his eyes, only to suddenly stop, nearly causing several cadets who were running behind him to crash into his back.
"What the fuck, man?!"
"Huh?"
"Idioooot…"
In the end, only a few of the cadets even bothered to comment on his strange behavior. Those who were ahead didn't even glance back to see what had happened. Those who saw it, however, didn't dare to risk losing the balance of their breaths for something as trivial as commenting on Theo's apparent idiocy.
'Isn't that bastard going to come down to the dueling area to bully whoever is insane enough to still go there after this exam?' Theo thought, stunned by the realization while mindlessly watching his fellow groupmates overtake him and quickly run up the path.
The cadets ahead had already taken the corner leading them across the inner gate of the cadet's camp and into the hunting grounds rife with uneven ground, hills, obstacles, and even small-fry monsters—monsters incapable of seriously harming the cadets but more than capable of slowing them down.
'Isn't this a good opportunity to kill that bastard before he ascends?' Theo gritted his teeth.
Even though his memories of his past life were weird… the feelings of watching his friends get slaughtered were still too fresh to be dulled by the change. Theo could still see the burned-out eyes of the saintess, the decapitated head of the swashbuckler, the upper half of the huntress's cleaved body…
'No, that's stupid,' Theo thought, taking a deep breath as he finally afforded himself a moment to look down at his body. 'I'm in no shape to fight him, even if he's still a mere seventh-rank swordsman.'
Closing his eyes, Theo took another breath, chasing all his thoughts aside. He held his breath for a short while before slowly pushing the exhausted air out, relaxing his body despite just how much his lungs craved fresh air.
'First, I need to get a good score in this run. And for that end…'
Running was a simple exercise. One that was rather hard to do wrong.
But just like many other seemingly basic abilities, it too could be mastered.
'Relax,' Theo thought, taking a fresh breath, allowing the refreshing breeze to refill his lungs and, in turn, replenish the momentary strength in his muscles. 'Tense up the right muscles,' guiding himself through the process, Theo flexed just the right parts of his body necessary to execute the motion of running. 'And now, let it guide you.'
Amateurs ran just as nature intended, using all sorts of muscles that weren't necessary for the process. Proper runners, however, simply went through the motions and allowed their bodies to carry them ahead.
'Now.'
Theo started with a slow walk, no faster than a crawl.
Even if he knew what to do, he had yet to ingrain this knowledge into his body.
Taking just the first step took him about twenty seconds. His second step wasn't any faster. The third one, however, only took him a quarter of a minute.
By the tenth step, the right muscles started to warm up, allowing him to cut the process to just three seconds. By the hundredth step, he reached the speed of a casual walk.
'Don't let the time pressure you. The time you are losing now, you will easily win back later. This run is long enough for that!'
Step by step, Theo started to speed up.
By the time he reached the corner of the camp's fence—the same corner his fellow cadets had taken several minutes ago—he was already jogging. By the time he finally reached the line of trees, he was no slower than he had been when the sprint began.
'Now we're talking!'
Rather than running like mad, Theo was seemingly gliding through the air, using just a minuscule amount of energy to keep going—a fraction of what he had used before. There was still one more step that he could take to both raise his speed and decrease the strain on his body.
To slowly infuse his mana into the few muscles he used to run.
'Yeah, I better forget about it,' Theo thought as he breezed through the relatively easier part of the marathon, catching up to the slowest of the cadets right as he entered the infamous obstacle course part of the run. 'Getting a better time isn't worth the risk of someone potentially noticing me doing so. I wouldn't hear the end of it if a teacher came to question me about how in all that's holy I've managed to do it.'
For others, the obstacle course was hell incarnate. An uneven path rife with protruding stones and tree roots, with random bushes growing directly on the poorly maintained road. A path that forced others to slow down and carefully measure their steps lest they wanted to risk straining their ankles on a random obstacle.
Theo, however, had no time nor intention to slow down. Instead of running in a relatively straight line, he opted to keep altering his direction, maneuvering between the obstacles rather than conquering them the easier way.
It was a process that inevitably put a much bigger strain on both his body and his brain, forcing him to endlessly calculate just the right path that allowed him to both avoid the obstacles while also keeping the turns as shallow as possible to preserve as much of his momentum as he could…
But even when this strain reached its greatest point, the total energy Theo used was still less than what he had spent back when the exam began!
By the time Theo emerged on the other end of the obstacle course and entered the hill area, he had already regained his position roughly in the middle of the group, to the shock, amazement, and amusement of his colleagues.
They had seen him stop and then stand in place as they ran. Logically thinking, for Theo to catch up, he had to have greatly overexerted himself! That meant he had failed to preserve his energy for later, when the weight of all the miles they had left behind would be the greatest!
For them, Theo had given in to his pride and pretty much eliminated himself from the race, decreasing the competition for all the other cadets.
Much to their chagrin, Theo continued to press forth, soon matching and then overtaking the rest of the middling group, further reinforcing their most reasonable belief as he left them in the dust, chasing after the most athletic eight of the group.
'Yeah, fifth spot in this run should give me enough credit points to get what I want at the exchange office,' Theo thought, paying absolutely no mind to the cadets he passed through, with his sights already set not on getting the best score possible but on getting just high enough on the ranking to gain access to all the opportunities he had failed to grasp in his previous life. 'I could try to go for a fourth or third, but…'
Theo sighed.
He had long since reached the optimal pace for the run. Still, while his effort was much more efficient than before… this exam was called a marathon for a reason. And no matter how well he ran, it would still take most of what he had to offer to complete it, proper running form or not.
'Yeah, fifth spot it is,' he thought, slowing down just a tiny little bit below his optimal running speed. 'This way, I should have just enough energy left to learn all I need to learn from that bully of an ascender!'