The preparation took quite a long time and it was already time for the Exam.
Similar to the Midterm the Exam was split into two parts, one was the theory and the other one was the practical test.
Although the exam was not important for me, the one who is inevitably leaving school, I did study a little and did everything I can to score higher.
Anyway, the overall total of theory was just 30 % and as long as one did great in the practical exam, even if one failed the theory exam, they could pass by doing well in practice.
Unlike the midterm practical where we had to hunt monsters in the dungeon, the practical exam this time was to fight with professors.
They explain that more than monsters one needs to be more cautious of humans and that in real life, the conflict between the Explorers is common.
Therefore, we need to not only know how to fight monsters but also humans.
That is why to check the fighting abilities of students, this type of exam was kept.
Normally, Rank-B professors would handle this type of exam.
However, this time, Rank-A professors as well as Professor Mia came to handle the exam.
Though Professor Mia might have only come to watch the performance of the student. Even the other professors present here combined might be enough to defeat Professor Mia.
Previously, first-year students lacked the power to fight properly with Professors. However, this year, they had Hiro and Zero plus some other students that might give some trouble to Rank-B professors.
So to avoid shaming the professors, Rank-A professors were sent to evaluate their strengths.
The practical started and it was according to the roll number which was the same as the rank from the Entrance exam.
Rules for the practical exam were simple: fight with the professor. The points will be given based on how long one survives, how much damage a student has given to the professor, and if the student ends up defeating the professor then he| or she will obtain full marks.
Well, defeating the professor was impossible when your opponent is Rank-A but they would not use their real power or so I hope.
If they did give you their real power, even Hiro might not last for 10 seconds.
First to go was Hiro. His opponent was Professor Theo who is Rank-A +. He was the strongest next to Professor Mia.
He might be specifically prepared for evaluating Hiro.
The referee of this match was Professor Mia. She looked at Hiro and then at Professor Theo.
After seeing that both of them were ready, she initiated the battle.
“Begin!”
The battle started. Same as Hiro, Professor Theo also used a sword.
Hiro had a high-ranking artifact but Professor Theo despite having a good weapon was using an ordinary sword with good quality.
Well, those who are experienced in controlling mana could easily strengthen their weapon and maintain it throughout the fight.
In their hand, even a toy sword could display the power of a Rank-B weapon.
-CLANK! -CLANG!
Right after the start, the two of them engaged in a fierce fight. Hiro seemed to be using his all without the System skill.
Despite being only at Rank-C -, the power displayed by Hiro was close to Rank-C +.
In the last two months, Hiro’s rank didn’t increase but it looks like his strength had a drastic increase compared to the tournament.
Professor Theo was smiling even when he was getting pushed around by Hiro. From his smile, anyone could tell that he was satisfied with Hiros’ performance.
As previously mentioned, Professor Theo didn’t use his full power. He was mainly focusing on defending and would occasionally attack which could be blocked or dodged by Hiro.
If he really attacked, even if Hiro used everything in his arsenal, he would not escape nor block Professor Theo’s attack.
The battle dragged on for five minutes and with each passing time, it seemed like Professor Theo was increasing his power.
After five minutes, Professor Theo turned the table and started pressurizing Hiro and after another three minutes, Hiro was defeated.
Professors had already given the marks to Hiro. Not only was Professor Theo responsible for giving points it seems that Professor Mia and one other Professor were also responsible for marking the students.
Professor Theo also expressed his opinion on Hiro’s fighting style and pointed out his mistakes and weaknesses.
Though in the end, he praised Hiro and that he was a rare genius who was able to reach this stage so quickly.
The Exam continued with students going up and getting beaten by Professor Theo. The time that a participant survived decreased as time went on.
Hiro had survived approximately 8 minutes, Zion about 7 minutes, and Lisa survived 7:30 minutes.
It seemed that Professor Theo didn’t spend much stamina or mana as he continued to fight with students one by one.
After the roll number( Previous Rank) reached around 300 with most being in Rank-E +, the students could barely survive for one minute.
Because most students started to fail after one minute, the practical exam seemed to be progressing at a very high pace.
And finally, Zeros’ turn came. Zero was ranked around 970 and in that class, he was at the bottom.
At the start, there were some people below him in the same class but after the midterm, most ended up failing and had been expelled.
Anyway, the practical exam was coming to an end and Zero was one of the last participants but also the one that many were looking forward to.
Even Professor Theo became a little tense when Zeros’ turn came up. It was not that Professor Theo thought that he was weaker than Zero.
However, with the format of this exam, he had to restrict his strength to a certain extent and in that period, Zero might be able to overwhelm him.
Zero came up on the ground and took out his sword. There was no nervousness nor any excitement on his face.
Just the old same face that he always has. Anyway, even when they had been together for one year, not many students had seen any other emotion other than an aloof face.
“Fight!”
The battle began as soon as Professor Mia signaled.
-WHOOSH!
Zero didn’t use Dual Art and was just using his Shadow Sword style for the first minutes.
Anyway, to defeat Professor Theo was impossible even if he used Dual Art and it was not his objective.
Zero was planning to obtain points by surviving for as long as he can and therefore, he matched the strength of Professor Theo purposefully.
It was no use using more power and pushing Professor Theo around. There was no chance of defeating him and that would only cause one to spend more mana.
Therefore, Zero planned to keep the fight at a stalemate and increase his strength according to Professor Theo’s strength.
After a few more minutes, too much student disappointment, Zero didn’t overwhelm or give him a hard time.
It seems that Zero was not capable of defeating Professor Theo. And many even thought that Zero was not that powerful.
But after a few more minutes, even when Professor Theo’s strength was at Rank-B, Zero seemed to be equally matched. This dispelled the thought that Zero was weak from many students’ minds.
Not only that, Zero had managed to exceed Hiros’ time and fought with Professor Theo. Obviously, Zero started using Cryomancy Art and then Dual Art when Professor Theo started displaying Rank-B strength.
-CLANG! -CLANK! -CLANK!
The fight had turned from a boring to an extremely powerful one. Professor Theo was still not using his full power but he was facing pressure under Zeros’ strong attack and his impenetrable defense.
However, Professor Theo knows that Zero was using his full power and would only last for a few more rounds.
-BOOOOOOOM!
!!!
When Zero and Professor Theo were fighting fiercely and all the students’ attention was on them, suddenly a sound of a big explosion was heard throughout the school.
Immediately, all the students shifted their attention from the Zeros’ battle to the sound of the explosion.
Above the battlefield of Zero, a portal suddenly emerged. Many at first thought that it was the appearance of the Gate, however, there was no suction force.
After a while, a figure appeared out of the Gate and started laughing. His face and body were similar to a human but there was a horn and tail and their body gave out a hideous mana aura.
“Keke… What do we have here? The most famous person on Edolas Ice Enchantress. It must be my lucky day to get this area. Hahaha…”
( Devils!!!)