As Arthur sat there waiting for the exam to start, he thought about Yurirl who he has just met in a different identity. Yurirl was as serious as he was, if not more, despite trying his best effort to look unintimidating.
He smiled thinly as Yurirl, despite his strength, was still awkward at social interactions. It hasn't been long since they met and even less since they parted, but he found himself missing this person. There were certain people where you would click the moment that you meet.
The exam was set to start in fifteen minutes and Arthur had to wait there amid the nervous tapping and shaking of the students. This was one of the many testing halls for the written exam and it was enough for a hundred people, with several meters between each student.
With how advanced technology and runes collaboration, Arthur wondered why these people preferred to test them in a handwritten test. It has been so long since he wrote something that his handwriting now looked like a chicken's scratches.
Luckily, as the exam began fifteen minutes later, Arthur realized that the questions were mostly multiple-choice questions. He wrote his name and ID number as the one-hour-long exam began.
The questions were basic and some of them required some calculations. For the ones he didn't know, like certain traits of monsters that he had yet to read in the Monster Theory textbook, Arthur simply left unanswered.
Luckily, he answered some questions that he knew the equations for. Before Arthur could realize it, he was done with the question that had some empty gaps between them.
The last few pages were optional and they were questions about extra topics, one of them being runes. In his time at Avalin Academy, Arthur read some books about runes. Most of the questions about runes were about how some runes worked, which Arthur had a general idea about.
Before he could reach the last question, the time was up and Arthur had to hand out his papers. Some students cried while others sighed in relief. Oliver walked over smugly toward Arthur as if he has just won the Olympics.
"I answered half of them!" Oliver said with a peace sign over his eye and his tongue out. Arthur had no idea where he learned such a demonic gesture but guessed it would work to anger his enemies to death.
Since he had confidence in his strength, Arthur thought of the written exam as a bonus credit only. They were led to another hall where they had to wait until a staff member came.
The woman from earlier made her entrance as she started calling out names to make sure that they were all here.
"From here, the real test begins." She said with a smile. "Follow me." The students began following after her like lost ducklings as she took them to the other side of the building. She threw open a set of double doors as the crowd gasped.
The Chains of Fortune stood there grandly, merging with the ground as if it didn't exist. Thousands of chains circularly surrounded the flying city and Arthur saw endless buildings that were similar to their right beside them.
"You better prepare for you will need to climb them in half an hour." The examiner said before she left them do their bidding.
"Let's pray that we won't fall," Oliver said nervously.
"Don't you see those people on top of the flying boards?" Arthur pointed out in the distance. Oliver squinted his eyes but shook his head.
'How low is your perception?' Arthur wondered but his nose pricked with a foul scent before he could say anything.
Arthur frowned heavily as he looked west. He had felt the presence of an Ender in another building, not sure which. Even if he knew, he could do nothing to them right now.
'I need to keep my identity a secret, I mustn't antagonize them.'
However, this was a testimony that Sier was right. The Enders have arrived at Jerano and they are looking for the artifact that would allow them to birth the new world.
"Stand on the line, everyone!" The woman called out and the students spread on the line evenly. In front of the one hundred students were five giant chains secured into the ground. Each chain had two sides, making them able to carry one person at a time.
'A 10% passing rate.' Arthur realized. No matter how good you were in the written exam, you need to reach Jerano first.
Scholarship students would be tested differently with a different starting point. So, if Arthur was still in his former identity, he would pass this easily.
Even more, if Arthur wanted to, he could simply use his teleport rune to win this. However, most of those with this ability were descendants from the notorious traitor family, so this ability was rarely seen.
"Once the horn is blown, the test will start." The woman told them as they eyed each other warily. "In five minutes, you better move those legs as fast you can."
The tension rose as the clock ticked by. Drones flew over their heads as they recorded everything that was about to take place. The flying boards zoomed past each other as they prepared to help any student in danger.
"Bro, good luck!" Oliver, who stood beside him, gave Arthur a thumbs up. Arthur couldn't help but smile and returned one.
"Ten!" The countdown began. "Nine!" Arthur decided the amount of strength he would show. If he shows too much and brings attention to himself, that would be counterproductive. "Eight! Seven! Six!"
The countdown continued and the moment it reached three, mana surged from everyone's body. Arthur could see the ground cave under their feet. These were evidence of the dreams everyone had to rise.
"Two!"
Most people crouched but Arthur wasn't even using his mana yet.
"One!"
A horn resounded and it shook everything around them. It was like a low beastly growl that came from within the flying city of Jerano. Like cannons being fired, the students sprinted forward toward the Chains of Fortune.
Arthur was the same but he didn't use any mana. With his stats alone, he was already in the lead. With another sprint forward, Arthur was among the top.
At that moment, he felt something approach him from behind. He jumped high and twisted his body mid-air before resuming his sprint. The water splashed on the ground that Arthur was on earlier and froze.
'We can attack each other.' Arthur realized. 'However, do I even need to?' He simply increased his speed and became first place.
Before long, his foot touched the rough metal of the chain as he began running on top of it. He glanced back and saw that five others were close behind him. Unexpectedly, one of them was Oliver who used the wind to propel him forward.
'He looks like a hot air balloon.' Arthur snickered to himself. Just then, another contestant came from behind him.
There were a few people who relied on their bodies rather than their mana. These trained their bodies to make up for their lacking mana. Since Arthur didn't use mana, most of the other students thought he was one of these people.
The structure of the chains made it hard to dodge, but not impossible. Arthur increased his speed and jumped to the other side of the chin to dodge the attack. After the firebolt passed, he returned to his lane.
He didn't wish to compete with one of the strong ones for their lane, as that would be disadvantageous. As they ran across the sky, the air began to be thinner as the strong wind began trying to topple them.
Arthur simply threw a barrier that protected him against the wind for five seconds. The others had to slow down to secure their footing lest they fall. To Arthur's amusement, one character didn't care about the wind.
Huffing with sweat rolling down his face, Oliver's wind pushed him forward as he ran across the chain. As for the wind coming from the east, Oliver simply used his wind to redirect them.
With the wind and how much he was huffing, he looked like a steam train running on its railway. Arthur laughed and dodged another attack from behind.
The marathon of the middle was more tiring than Arthur thought since he had to use his mana to protect him from the wind. It proved to be more mana-efficient than using the barrier.
Arthur's perception made him pick up an attack from the front, but he didn't see what it was. Hastily, he constructed a barrier and it deflected the attack.
'It's…' Arthur looked on with a frown as he realized it wasn't a deliberate attack, but a natural phenomenon. 'A mana disturbance.'
When there was a natural mana-rich area, it would create a contrast with the surroundings. Jerano seemed to be one of these areas and the residue mana tried to diffuse to the surrounding. It was akin to the phenomena of air traveling from high-pressure areas to lower pressure areas.
However, mana was a lot more destructive.