"Testing time!" The instructor looked far too pleased as he announced it, like he'd been holding onto the words all morning.
A collective groan rolled through the classroom. Testing period was easily the worst time of any semester.
It was stressful.
Long.
Inconvenient.
And all-round miserable.
Everyone except me.
Erhart didn't react. Selene straightened in her seat, pen already still. Figures.
I needed this. Badly.
My results had been slipping, not enough for anyone else to notice yet—but enough that I could feel it. Every mistake stacked on the last, every passable score dragging the average down.
And if I didn't turn it around soon, I'd be stuck in those dorms.
The smell never really left. Neither did the noise. And my roommates were the kind of people who made you tired just by being in the same room as them.
What was the test going to be about?
I had a vague, fading memory from doing this in my last life.
It was a good time to test out how exactly memory worked so I went for it.
"Memory." I whispered to myself.
[Skill: Memory (B) Activated]
Oh.
That wasn't as difficult as I thought.
Only the relevant pieces of information surfaced. Nothing else.
Yeah alright, the tests this time round wouldn't be that bad.
Basic combat test, basic mana testing.
I definitely couldn't take on Erhart, Selene, or any of the top 30-40ish at this time, but I could comfortably get top 50.
That should be enough to pull my total scores up into the top 100? Most of the year blurred together once you looked past the top few.
It shouldn't be difficult to move in rankings at this point in time yet.
Nothing eventful had happened so nobody had really solidly cemented themselves.
Although the rankings of the top 10 would barely change throughout the next few years at the academy, the rankings outside of that group would change significantly from semester to semester.
"It'll be basic combat training, your opponents will be assigned randomly." The instructor called out in an attempt to silence the loud chattering that had erupted at the sound of tests. We had been anticipating this announcement for days now, so it hadn't been a surprise. Instead, people broke out into discussion, divulging combat strategies and weaknesses to potential opponents.
I look at Selene, and to nobody's surprise, she was staring daggers into Erhart, as if she could stare long enough to make him suddenly weaker than her, so she could finally claim first place.
She was undoubtedly a prodigy. A prodigy among prodigies. But talent paled in comparison to Erhart, who was basically the main character.
Had she been born in a generation where Erhart hadn't existed, she might have been called the greatest genius in history. But due to Erhart, she would always be second, and that would continue into adult life past the academy.
The rankings didn't change much at all in school. It was always:
First - Erhart.
Second - Selene.
Third - Julian.
Fourth - Victor.
Fifth - Jonah.
Victor and Julian were from wealthy families, so it had been a shock to them that in school, class meant nothing.
Selene was also from a wealthy family, but she never let it affect her dedication to both learning and training.
Erhart was Erhart.
We didn't really know where he came from, nor was he ever willing to talk about it.
It didn't matter to him, and since he was Erhart, we couldn't push much further than that.
"We have a basic combat session today — A mock assessment if you will." The instructor butted in, silencing the entire class with his mere presence.
He had a tendency to do that. Allow the class to speak for 2 or so minutes, then silence us in the most excessive way he could manage.
[Immersion Rate - 4%]
What?
I thought the system had either gone silent, or had been disabled.
It had been awkwardly silent over the last few days.
And what was an immersion rate?
I had a few assumptions, but of fear of speaking it into existence I stayed silent.
In the midst of my voice, the familiar voice of the instructor intruded.
"Line up, we're going out." The class sorted themselves out into the line. There were a few stragglers that turned the line into more of a snake for a moment before that was abruptly ended by the instructor.
I wasn't actually sure just how strong I was, so this was more than perfect to test it out.
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We had been assigned into our fights.
Selene against Erhart was definitely the most anticipated.
I had been assigned to fight Deon, the 21st ranked.
I didn't really think I could win, especially with my questionable stat balance. But I could definitely put up a good fight.
[Skill: Memory Activated]
[Skill: Memory Failed: Due to insufficient data. Collecting all available data]
He was prone to throwing punches that left too many openings.
But aside from that, I couldn't remember any stats or specific abilities.
I knew the main weakness of everybody 1-45, but I didn't really try remembering strengths or weaknesses from anybody that low.
Low's probably not the word to use, going off the fact I was ranked 123rd, but my point stands.
"The first fight will be Deon and Aren, to your posts." The instructor announced, dragging me out of my thoughts.
"You ready?" I asked, trying to see if I could taunt him a little.
It was a good strategy, and viable on a lot of opponents.
Although I didn't really remember the main stat of most opponents.
"Born ready." The taunt had failed spectacularly, seemingly having given him a little more confidence than before.
"BEGIN!" The instructor boomed, and before we could even move, he had stepped back off the stage in a flash of light.
I dashed towards Deon. My agility was my strong suit so I would make the most of it.
His face contorted in shock, his body lagging just a moment behind.
He was a physical type mage, so I knew he couldn't use any magic like barriers.
Although at his age, he wouldn't be able to use barriers anyway.
I was well versed in physical combat, having been a mix of both, leaning more towards physical combat.
He threw his hands up, shielding his face, and taking advantage of the brief moment he couldn't see, I threw a strong punch towards his stomach.
I expected it not to do anything, but to my surprise, he coughed slightly.
I'm not sure if I had winded him or something else, but I wasn't going to wait around to find out.
I threw another punch, then another, and another, and again, until my hands had turned into a flurry of punches, moving and unimaginably fast speeds. My punches would probably be what you call 'pillow punches' but enough ants could cause damage, so I assumed my punches would work the same.
I looked up at his face, expecting a little more reaction that before, but instead, he just looked bored.
He then threw a haymaker, seemingly having felt nothing from my physical bombardment.
It was incredibly fast, moreso than I thought he would be capable of.
I tried to step back, but I didn't react in time, leaving his fist to partially connect with my jaw.
It felt like the world was spinning, and I wasn't sure if he had knocked my jaw off.
But wow, it hurt like hell.
[Emergency Quest Dispatched▾
Beat the adversary you're fighting and gain acknowledgement from your peers.] - Reward: 1100 points.
Alright then.
I realised this wasn't going to work, so I tried another method that usually worked on tanky mages.
Tire him out.
I let him throw as many punches as his heart could possibly desire, and when he's tired, my barrage would be a bit more effective.
One, two, three, four, five.
Five punches I was able to evade before I decided to go in for another attack.
I wasn't the most mana capable person like Selene or Erhart, but I had more than the average person my age.
I formed a vaguely spherical ball of mana.
Spheres were one of the easiest shapes to make out of mana, and since this body would likely have horrible control, I didn't want to start testing things out now.
I compressed it a little bit. The form of the sphere was bad so condensing it should fill in a few of those gaps.
I turned my body towards Deon, pointing my index and middle finger forward, the mana in a small blue ball at the tip of my two fingers.
I blasted it as fast as I could.
Mana had insane potential of movement speed that scaled up exponentially with mana control.
Instead of thinking about that right now, I should be more worried about the brute Infront of me.
The ball flew towards him, knocking him slightly of his feet for a moment before he regained both his composure and his standing.
"Woah there, chill out with that." Deon declared. His taunt was working a little, but I endeavoured not to show it.
"Nah." I embedded mana into my legs, pushed my foot into the ground as hard as I could, pushing off with the max speed my body would allow me to.
I had tried learning this from when the instructor did it to me. The invisible kind of thing that he did caused by his speed.
My legs felt like they weren't even touching the floor.
I was running circles around Deon.
"What the..." Deon trailed off, obviously impressed.
I looked towards Erhart.
For once Erhart looked bored, his head struggling to stay up like it was made of steel.
And Selene. She looked slightly more interested than Erhart, but her interest was negligible.
I ran behind Deon as he struggled to keep track of me, still thinking I was Infront of him.
I charged crude mana into my fist, and thrust it into his back.
He collapsed to the ground, showing no signs of moving.
At point blank mana had horrific destructive potential.
Although I hadn't used enough mana to cause any real damage.
The fight should be over.
"Ten." The instructor started.
It was a pleasant surprise to know I could beat rank 21st.
"Nine."
"Eight."
"Seven.
"Six."
"Five."
Instead of staying on the ground like everybody had expected him to, Deon started rising.
His mana started flaring unpredictably, in any and every directions.
The mana seemed to have exuded an aura of dread.
Was he going berserk?
How could I have forgotten.
Deon had a very fragile ego, meaning any small loss would cause him to lose his cool.
If it had been Erhart in my place, he would've just beat Deon anyway and moved on.
But this hadn't been a 'small' loss, and I wasn't Erhart.
I threw my hands into the air and declared.
"I resign." I wasn't going to fight a berserk 21st ranked.
"Nope. Combat training only ends after incapacitation. We have healing mages on site." The instructor called back.
Shit.
Alright then, if I'm going to go out, might as well go outside swinging.
I dashed towards him, only for him to react faster, and pull out his fist in an attempt to smash me into the ground.
I barely stopped in time. A quarter of a second more and I would be paste.
I formed another mana ball.
There was one thing I could really do here.
I compressed it.
Deon ran towards me sluggishly, as if he was a juggernaut.
I dodged and compressed the ball further.
He tried to throw his own mana ball.
I ducked under, barely evading it and compressed the mana further.
After about three minutes of that loop continuing consistently, I had achieved it.
The ball had a hint of purple, the tell-tale colour of a B rank spell. Although it was too weak to be considered as a full B Rank spell.
I condensed it the little bit more I could, the signs of exhaustion on my face quite obvious now.
I blasted it at him, the last bit of my mana along with it.
It was now a challenge, who would pass out first.
Me from mana exhaustion.
Or him, who had just been hit with a B rank spell.
I resolved myself to win.
It had been an incredible fight going on for over 35 minutes, ridiculously long for a mage battle.
My knees buckled, but I stayed standing.
My hands went numb, the cold feeling creeping up the rest of my arms, but I ignored it.
Deon's berserk state started calming down.
His face contorted in exhaustion.
My knees crumbled beneath my weight.
The world faded in and out of black.
I had lost?
I looked up at Deon.
He was also on the floor.
So had I won?
I wouldn't be able to check in my current state.
My vision faded to darkness, and my adrenaline started to wear off.
This was going to hurt.
[Days Left: 4]