Chapter 7: Grading Test (2)
4akFjm『Monsters will come out in 30 seconds. Deal with them as you wish.』1o7
ozI8Professor Ronan’s indifferent voice reached my ears.73wVAr3
HHMAll of a sudden, we were thrown into a white dimension with nothing but a case full of weapons to abruptly conduct a test.xbxSB
QsCCMost Grade 5 and Grade 6 students would probably pick up a random weapon without even thinking twice, but it was highly likely for that weapon to be a sword. That was the same even for me in last iteration’s grading test, and approximately 70% (?) of the students in the Knight Department tended to choose a sword.hJ4HEi
R55gRS0After all, swords were cool right?HwKdS0F
SdW“Let’s see, let’s see~”NwDKJ
ftUqYI, however, unhesitatingly picked up a spear this time, because that was the weapon I used the most in the previous iteration. Actually, the reason I chose the spear before was quite simple.L6dqUS
IPxThey say 100 days to master a spear, 1,000 days to master a blade, and 10,000 days to master a sword right? I remembered reading from a wuxia novel how 100 days was enough to be proficient at using a spear whereas a sword required 10,000 days.AZe
sWPBWT0It’s not like I didn’t try using a sword, but it was actually quite difficult to use.1MT
9amH『5… 4… 3…』qihB
oRtXDyWhen I took a spear out of the weapon case, a new spear appeared inside.gKT
hqJThis was an element that wasn’t included in the game, but it was Lady Josephine being considerate in case a weapon was to break.ITIvZ
SBq4h『2… 1…!』LuxC
GiV8After a brief pause, monsters began appearing in the distance like a hologram. Showing up were three Grade 5 demonic beasts that appeared like small hunting dogs with large fangs.hlWqD
9OIYEven though I thought three Grade 5 monsters was a bit too much against a novice, a guardian was at least expected to defeat a monster that was right above their designated grade.XsD
in1KgnFor example, a Grade 5 knight should be able to defeat one Grade 4 demonic beast, and should also be able to deal with three monsters of the same grade even if they were to take some time.rWl4
4fs8wEEMy evaluated rank was Grade 6 so according to common sense, it would be great if I could even defeat one of those Grade 5 Short Hounds let alone three but…l7aL
TH1K“Krrrrh…!”OJgtBZ
FvUFI’ve killed those guys way too many times already.RA0
ONX37W“Around 40 meters away? How nice.”7xI5Fkt
WeAwAfter calculating the distance between me and the short hounds, I gently tossed a spear.2xWAP
ckx– Tuung!2aZB
7PMWDrawing a parabola behind its path, the spear accurately pierced through the head of one of the monsters. Thanks to the thousands and tens of thousands of experiences, the javelin precisely pierced through its target.pxZWh
tPk“Krrng?”dizDh5j
OobLNtRThe short hound killed by the sudden spear was vanishing into a mist, and the startled monster next to that guy was the next one to die.cIKctLG
EZVt“Krrr…!”Eb4T
9XJMYHThe remaining beast kicked off the ground and dashed forward. As a proficient master of spears, I immediately calculated our distance, its path and timing.4BE
yDltI“15 meters.”GYh8
iViVAIt would be okay to deal with it with a javelin but I wanted to try out rune magic instead. Gathering mana to my fingertip, I wrote a letter in the air.OfMU2H
ef5Gx〚ᚲ〛- KenazluGL
VJlThe rune letter meaning ‘fire’ was engraved in the air, and was followed by a scorching blaze.4NJaMhU
YJti– Hwaruk!6dt3
2BxGjdu“Krrng?!”6s1
swE2US0The short hound threw its body to the side and avoided the approaching flames as the fire ended up burning nothing but the poor ground.QTFgc
mU9xwJ“Damn…”hy3Te
w2VWas there not enough mana? Speed was also a problem. It was a long-time problem but rune magic was not a good magic to use by itself. Well, things might be different if my mana rank went up though.E7t
qm0“Woof…!”WWJaaAi
o0S2MjAfter running up, the short hound pounced to tear my throat but its movement was way too linear.HdFJ
NYLmrVCalculating the trajectory, I straightened up the spear at where it would land.hPpa
3nu7g7“Woof?”sX3
iQgSThe low scream in the middle of its jump was way too late.eg68PVQ
QamAdpl– Squash!qIFQUt
aYioucLeaving behind the short hound who jumped to the tip of the spear for its own death, I calculated how long it took.3EO6IM3
jQjrkPBIt took me about 12 seconds to deal with the Grade 5 demonic beasts. Even though it was only possible thanks to the spears constantly popping up, it was still relatively fast.QuED6w
HE0CPzh‘How far can I go this time?’JvD9k1H
S5wa786Although I failed in the last iteration because I couldn’t kill the short hounds, this time it was different.78UP
dZJFsTWThe grading test should have demonic beasts and demonic spirits showing up in the ascending order of their grades, and there should be up to Grade 3 prepared.Juspy1
BaDBaC3I was waiting for the next wave to hurry up and appear but for some reason, it was taking a very long time, even though it used to be very quick in the game.03nYwN
kqM4a3“…Is it broken?”qLt
4zL94WrEven after waiting for a few minutes, the Grade 4 monsters didn’t show up. Instead—798zM
WarPi“Krrng!”KpHd2v
Ibh“Krrrrrnnng….!”j934F1
P1pH2Y“Woof woof!”Jm6iGG
wSs1Grade 5 monsters appeared again.mkDsk
F7hlRWas this seriously broken?UdVIy7q
WLgd****Bu9TO
s3aFVNProfessor Ronan didn’t have high expectations of his allocated portion of students.Q5qOTo
fSqnupDHe absent-mindedly followed Lady Josephine’s settings to summon monsters and let them fight. While looking at the students struggling against the monsters, he clicked his tongue.S74F9b
3iZ“Tch tch. What can they do if they can’t even kill that?”FIe4m
Za75Seeing those kids that couldn’t even readily deal with three Grade 5 monsters made him heave a deep sigh.FFDG
3hQ3z6W‘Back in my~~ days…’ he reminisced in his memories of how he had dealt with those Grade 5 monsters in just 1 minute and 22 seconds. Even though he was a Grade 3 mage back then, this batch of students was still just horrendous.nu7E70
vFFxY1F『Kuaakk…!』zDnjCS1
iWIz『Help me…!』1WYhE1
L8n0JWAlthough some of the students should be easily able to deal with Grade 5 monsters, they were still failing to do so time after time. Even the ones that could fight them were taking their sweet time to defeat all three of them.fi79
7buc‘Grade 5s are like that, so there’s no need to even look at Grade 6.’dROo
MTJQWWhile thinking that, Professor Ronan turned to the Grade 6 students that were at the very end of the crystal balls. Judging from how all the screens were off, it seemed that they had all been defeated already.iauEQ
Wza2DXE“Pathetic… Nn?”hud1w
uh2BGAWThat was when he saw a student sitting on a weapon case in a white room.VSNy
MgtR9j『Korin Lork: Grade 6』pdTl
7ffwx8gAn ungifted pebble which would not even be able to serve as a stepping stone for the gems of the academy was yawning while leaning on a spear.ymRJCWW
A15yn“What? How’s he not dead yet?”1gkC
aygnLet alone the other Grade 6 students, 30% of the Grade 5 students had already been defeated by the short hounds. Why did that one student look so normal?41xP
77P3GcDid he get rid of all three short hounds already?MsI4qB
C1c“There’s no way.”uTZZi
sWy2wItEven the Grade 5 students weren’t able to deal with it so how would a Grade 6 student have defeated those monsters already? More than anything, it was way too fast compared to the Grade 5 students.2f6
ZgHr0Fc“Must be an error.”5ylLn8T
pLeUkBThinking that there must have been a problem with summoning the monsters, he assumed it was because of a bug.D8ZlRmd
4mpvAfter summoning the Grade 5 demonic beasts in his room, Professor Ronan turned to the screens of other students. He mindlessly glanced across the crystals and finally came across one person who succeeded at defeating the monsters.fdG
imeeyC“7 minutes and 20 seconds huh…”5eQ8bC
Kv8O5xIt was a pathetic record. Even though all the students he was in charge of were Grade 5 and Grade 6, 7 minutes was still quite horrible.jlAmk8p
PaTf8kLooking at Professor Fermack who was in charge of Grade 3 students next to him, they all appeared to be defeating the monsters in 2~3 minutes.GZlA2Ap
2tEMSlowly but surely… a few of them were successfully dealing with the Grade 5 monsters but that was when Professor Ronan turned to the side and doubted his eyes again.Qh9W9NX
gOAy8F“Nnnn?”mEIqcx
0zgCjBPInside the screen, Korin was still sitting on the weapon case. There were a few spears taken out of the case that were rolling on the floor but that was it.TwgdYE3
NGw“What’s going on?”ky1xQ
PTsdzv“What is it?”W1id
BWNuQKHProfessor Haman Welsch walked closer with his typical obstinate voice. He was sometimes called Instructor rather than Professor and was respected by other professors so even Professor Ronan had to be careful in front of him.QRzDno
4ZRF1oU“It, it’s nothing much but… This seems broken.”ENM8
CAk“Broken? That can’t be. Lady Josephine’s testing magic has never created an error in the last 20 years.”uLc
bftl“You see, the demonic beasts aren’t being summoned into this one specific room.”1Ev
ZB6MUJP“That can’t be…”wuTlF
RrCOld Man Haman observed the crystals.mH60hF
jbrugQAfter immediately scanning across the screen with his refined vision, he found Korin in the corner of the screen who was nonchalantly sitting down by himself.rPTkLV
q3x8Agf“Rank 6 in mana. Korin Lork. Surprised he’s not out yet.”JNttXn
wA1x9“Right? This guy who should have dropped out already is still sitting here. I’m sure the demonic beasts aren’t being summoned.”bYD9Aat
6xj“Did you see it?”dCJ
9D2pG“Hnn?”0oPtyzL
bok“Did you see the monsters not being summoned, Professor?”4bZ
oZz“No, but… There’s no need to, is there…”NNWwZDB
sJBHe was Grade 6. Grade 6 in mana would probably have a hard time to even be employed as a city guard.wcWT3uf
x22It didn’t even make sense for a student like that to deal with Grade 5 demonic beasts, and besides, defeating them in around ten seconds while Professor Ronan was looking elsewhere was impossible.HpZ1xmR
vDBZm4Y“…”FUR9
iswBut that meant he didn’t see it. Old Man Haman immediately glared at him with a sharp gaze so Professor Ronan quickly took a step back.reJA
fWIn“A, alright. I’ll have a clear look at it this time. It must be a bug so I’ll summon it again…”cBvk
r2k3dLike that, Korin had to do a third test against a group of short hounds.ShG
qvNj『……What is this? Is this on purpose?』yAjdZ8h
K4eQBKorin muttered inside the screen before raising three spears and tossing them one by one to pierce through each of the short hounds.dkV
UuZEr7.3 seconds.g8qlqhC
ZGqOpDProfessor Ronan doubted his eyes.TR1MfLK
Bvw“…”IXRJ
nGFIn a fluster, he walked up to Professor Fermack who was next to him checking his own batch of twenty Grade 3 students.uEOCrqE
BbRP6“H, hey. Professor Fermack.”88xqYtQ
8zB“Wassup? Anything wrong?”xMVXAW
ezPugw“Your students… are already at Grade 3 demonic beasts.”Z4MHRX
1G6tW“Well, pretty much.”Vq28k0
j1jwYProfessor Ronan asked him after slight hesitation.xKS
2iT“Who was the fastest in your group of students?”mOexee
mIe“Hmm… I didn’t count but this student here called Jaeger took around 3 and a half minutes.”TPYUJ3H
p9k4pQ“Ah… I, I see.”RhgL
EJf“Why did you ask that?”514ae
PJnP0“N, nothing much.”bHG
QpaVnProfessor Ronan blankly went back to observing his crystals.hJbzzUM
1XORK‘W, what am I doing. I need to summon the Grade 4 demonic beast.’ghF
2SZKorin Lork appeared to be decent at javelin. He disregarded it by thinking that he must be from a family of hunters or something but he nonetheless concentrated on Korin Lork’s screen.7xItHie
aAWD06The next demonic beast was a Mat Boar. It was an annoying beast to deal with, that curled its body and rolled around at max speed.QxaSv0z
iAmJaThis time, only one monster was summoned unlike the Grade 5 monsters, and that in turn showed how exponentially dangerous this monster was.siY
2t64– Quakk!vFJYTh
ICWanhE3.7 seconds.KJC4B
qO93sy8Ronan rubbed his eyes multiple times. He even used the spell, Return of Memories, to recall how Korin Lork killed the mat boar in an instant.ETWL
8EvHe had avoided the mat boar, which was rolling at full speed, like a bullfighter and tripped it by pointing out the spear at a timely manner to fling the boar into the air. And as soon as the boar’s body straightened up in mid-air, it received a spear to its stomach and crashed into the ground.zNQ
Y3WIt was a remarkable hunt done with only technique and a little bit of power. Although Professor Ronan tended to look down on those who fought with their own bodies, even he couldn’t help but admire how exquisitely that was done.4yt4
tmqbq7L『Uaaaahk!』s3Ey4IA
LLL8XZX『This is unfair!』ilRQDSa
TUERQjrHe also couldn’t help but compare that to the other students who couldn’t overcome the tough monster.2KPVMr
2rgvTp1So far, there were only 4 students who had passed the Grade 4 demonic beast test.cxI1aj
UUPUNext up was the Grade 3 monster, Owlbear. It was a medium-ranked demonic beast who was widely considered a big threat because of its large body and a tough grip.780
476JZ7It won’t be easy this time. Owlbears had a thick skin that was hard to penetrate, and getting hit by its thick claws would fling off knights regardless of their barrier of aura.oVNlKl
1DUjF2I『Kiyaa…!』ZybtO5
fDaU『Kuaak…!』aCMHd
QdWIn fact, one of the students had already been insta-killed by the owlbear.xzNwpN
TGWGHe tried to block the attack with his shield but the shield ended up breaking, and the impact that was carried over was so strong that he was deemed unable to continue.xQ7nC
ucbgHowever, Korin was different.OyZph
ErT『Kuwaah!』RpDPt
2f8MWithout trying to parry the frontal paw swing of the bear, he lowered his head to dodge the attack and stabbed his spear into the armpit.Sn8AMC5
pqeAnd without getting greedy for more, Korin immediately started to retreat and swung the spear out wide to strike the head of the owlbear while immediately falling back.P4U
CdeW〚ᚲ〛- Kenazyzoq4L
etMBAHis fingers left a trace behind in the air. The letter created with mana rapidly turned into a ball of ether that pounced at the owlbear.qDQn6GD
nDuM“R, rune magic?!”gT0T3n
drVY“???”9mJi4H
Lyv5YMhProfessor Ronan’s shout gathered the eyes of the surrounding professors and Professor Fermack showed an especially bigger reaction by sharply glistening his eyes.2uTng
Jmh3u3Rune magic was one that had a clear limit and weakness. It was such an ancient system of magic which only scholars would take a look at while becoming a professor so it was understandable for Professor Ronan to be surprised.6Cy0
K6HIgnoring its own body that was caught in flames, the owlbear jumped at its prey. Due to the dreadfully low amount of mana, the magic that was cast in an instant was unable to show an astonishing outcome.POfLur
kLMHowever, the smoke created by its blazing fur was enough to cover its sight.BywA5v
bdBIn the end, the owlbear couldn’t differentiate between the black smoke and the spearhead that was coming in like a small dot and…ieqoJj
Ow3NYQ– Kwaakk!4yIS2D
kxGGfThat was what decided the victor.iig
lgNkKorin was the only survivor of the Grade 3 test among Professor Ronan’s students.9iNP
kdZu“…”huvvxES
ShdAt this point, he couldn’t help but admit that this student was definitely not someone who should stay at the likes of Grade 6.JuUrdF
xdG‘Unlucky there’s only up to Grade 3 for the demonic beast test.’xW8
C31DO4OWould he be able to defeat a Grade 2 demonic beast as well? Even though Professor Ronan was skeptical, he couldn’t disregard the possibility.XH5Rxy6
5bS‘As long as he doesn’t make any big mistakes in the demonic spirit test, he would easily go up to Grade 4.’GuJggzB
SlJcIn the start of the semester grading test, the lowest record was used as the estimated rank.CEUNfH
mBaHvmZIf he couldn’t defeat a Grade 4 demonic spirit, then he would be estimated to be a Grade 4 even if he defeated a Grade 3 demonic beast,x6PK0j
7j0YYtxWondering how proficient this student called Korin would be in a fight against a demonic spirit, Ronan summoned a Grade 5 demonic spirit.smN
496That rune magic alone should be enough to easily defeat a Grade 5 demonic spirit.cMhr
ZEBh7UHe assumed it would be easy for him to reach Grade 4 at least and focused on Korin’s screen but…3BzNf
fp6Ymx“???”usFCm
hzg7Korin Lork didn’t do anything. And after a little while…YjYy
awaK5c『I give up.』W2l6L
d5fx5“?????”JwFAl
NiV6zVr『The grading test has ended. The estimation of ranks and the organization of data has been completed. The records will now be put together.』SpzUWS
nGJXWQP……….gWM
hgpE『Student Number 7. Roco Roco』KQNKU
ppVD……….e2zO
bhY0……….fimkmY
4U1『Student Number 14. Verdic Rumlow』acW
voAz2Lr……….rtPOn
V556……….hYT2WD
ZW0O4……….tqqpKH
6hKoRbS『Student Number 19. Korin Lork』
Aura Rank: Low (680)5WLn
5zMznC0Mana Rank: Very Low (120)4hQFX3
y6treSpecialties: Nothing (0)q5guX
h6GTOverall Grade: Grade 6ucMv
7P6Q0n6『Demonic Spirit Test』
Grade 5 Demonic Spirit, Ghost: ForfeitgaVkar9
nTA0XGrade 4 Demonic Spirit, Hex Wraith: DisqualifiedbkNzYlM
dfUbaeGrade 3 Demonic Spirit, Banshee: DisqualifiedJqTrjo
cVO5lgb『Demonic Beast Test』
Grade 5 Demonic Beast, Short Hound: 7.3 seconds (New Record)K4Y
ItnGrade 4 Demonic Beast, Mat Boar: 3.7 seconds (New Record)GwlRrX
U8XxRWGrade 3 Demonic Beast, Owlbear: 11 seconds (New Record)ygy
xXg3Ia『Final Overall Grade: Grade 5 Knight – Submission Complete』zWZNDq
fYYbgo『The test records will now be scrapped for privacy and information protection.』RtRbYb
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