The strength test started with everyone doing what they could to attack the beam. Whenever they did so, their number would appear above in holographic form.
So far, the highest attack was just a little over a hundred.
Finally, Micheal walked to the beam. He drew his sword, engulfing it in flames, and sent a full-powered slash at the beam.
The numbers rose until they stopped at a hundred and eighty. The first to reach that high, the candidates burst into talks about his strength; it was simply amazing.
His action seemed to be the start of the competition, as Oliver went up next with his sword as well. He stabbed while it was engulfed in flames, and his score rose to a hundred and seventy.
Now, this number was crazy high, and the other candidates were amazed. But to Oliver, this was pathetic; he could not best a commoner.
Even his sister, Sage, gave him a frown, and that broke him more. Sage was a girl, and she couldn’t really inherit her father’s properties.
But their father had told Oliver that if she continued to be better than him, she would take over, and he would make sure of it.
After Oliver, the jet-black-haired girl also attacked the beam with her black flames. The explosion caused was very powerful, and her numbers rose to 185, making her the highest as of now.
Soon, Racheal, the blue-haired girl, also walked up and attacked the beam. She got 184, making her the second.
Fay also had her turn, but she got a hundred and fifty. Though that was high, she couldn’t reach the geniuses.
Finally, Sage took the stage and went to attack the beam. Using her metal magic, she formed a spear and struck the beam.
Her number rose madly, creating the newest high score that the academy had seen in a while. She got a hundred and ninety-five.
The number caused a shock through the entire field, and even the instructors could not believe this.
Her brother, Oliver, balled his fist tightly to try and control his rage. Sage looked at Lia in a provocative way as she left the center.
For some reason, she had chosen Lia to be her opponent.
Lia decided that it was time for her test. She walked to the beam and pointed her staff at it.
“Ice Serpent!” She used her most advanced spell, which caused an ice snake to form, over twenty feet long and half a meter wide.
It shot through the air and slammed into the beam, freezing the spot and causing an explosion-like sound.
Her numbers began rising and quickly passed a hundred, and then a hundred and fifty. It went all the way up and stopped at exactly two hundred, making her the new high scorer.
The entire field went into an uproar. How was this possible? How could there be such a power gap between them all?
The person who was hurt the most by this was Sage. She felt like she had lost—not just the competition but her pride. She couldn’t take this; she was the proud daughter of the Duke.
After the place calmed down, the others started taking their exams as well, but few came close to a hundred and fifty, and many stopped at less than a hundred.
Finally, the last person took his test and got just a hundred, but before their minds could calm down, Silva walked up.
When everyone saw him, they realized that he was yet to test, he who had shown crazy power. It was now his time to test.
All eyes were drawn to him as he walked up to be the last person.
‘Sigh, I don’t know why the goddess would want me to be a showoff, but alright, I’ll keep it easy and still keep it amazing,’ Silva thought. He was aiming for three hundred, as that would be amazing enough, but the system had other plans.
[Mission Update: Score not less than five hundred in your test. A dragon can’t be seen on the same platform as humans. Show it to them.
Rewards: Full dragon wings transformation. Dark flame breath. Abyssal flame breath.
Penalty: Deduction of all stats by ninety percent for six months.]
‘The fuck, you’ve got to be kidding me.’
Silva didn’t expect the system to play such a move against him, showing him irresistible rewards and yet a terrible penalty.
The rewards were too good for the mission, and the penalties were too heavy for the mission.
It seemed that the system wanted to force him into the showoff plan right off the bat.
Silva took a deep breath; he didn’t have a choice in this. He drew his sword and swung at the beam without any special technique or anything.
He wasn’t sure how to gauge his strength to ensure that he got five hundred, but he felt using thirty or so percent would do the trick.
His sword cut through the beam, the first attack to actually damage the beam here. The numbers rose until they stopped at six hundred.
The entire field fell into silence. What the hell had they just witnessed?
[Mission Complete, congratulations.] Silva got his rewards, but that was not important now.
“Oh, this must be broken. Can I try again?” Silva asked. He didn’t wait though; he swung, and this time he got four hundred.
“Yeah, I was right, it was broken,” he said before walking away, but nobody was really buying that at all. It didn’t matter to him.
Elias finally broke out of his confusion after seeing Silva’s strength, which was more than his own.
He managed to gather some composure and finally walked up to the center to talk.
“Now to announce the two hundred and fifty people that have passed the exams,” Elias said.
“Two hundred and fifty?” all the candidates shouted. They hadn’t even recovered from the shock Silva gave them, yet they were hit with another one.
“Like we said, this academy registers five hundred people, but we never told all of you how it would be this year.
Two hundred and fifty come from the tests, fifty come from the scouts, a hundred come from recommendations of the mercenary and adventurer guilds, their young potential students.
And the remaining hundred are in combat, taken from recommendations by other guilds. The method changes yearly though,” Elias said with a slight smile.