While carefully making my way through the forest, I spotted 3 [G-] ranked goblins in a clearing. According to the rules for this test, every [G-] ranked monster was equivalent to 1 point, [G] ranked as 2 points, [G+] as 3 points, [F-] as 6, [F] as 9, [F+] as 12 and finally the highest ranked monsters in this test were of [E-], [E] and [E+] rank each which were worth 20, 30 and 40 points respectively.
Simply put, all I had to do was get approximately 20-25 points and I'd be in the top 100 out of the 500 people who'd pass. One had to take note that over 99% of the examinees were still in the G ranks and the rest 1% were in the F ranks. Those who were actually in the [E-] rank were probably less than 10 out of 10000 which equated to almost 0.1% of the examinees. Although the Theory examination didn't have much of a weightage in the main results, I had still written enough to get a really good grade at it which meant I wouldn't need as many points to get in the top 100. Still, the difference wasn't really that big as a normal individual would at most need 25-30 points to get in the Top 100. The competition would really start to get harsh from the top 20 as everyone seemed to have gone graze to amass points.
One would also get 10% of the points another examinee had if they eliminated them. Though to eliminate another examinee, they had to kill them as simply surrendering wouldn't work. While people weren't informed of the fact that this was a secret realm where even if you died, you'd simply be thrown outside, as long as one had a few brain cells, they could reach the conclusion that death was impossible in here. Of course, it's not like the world was lacking in people with no brain cells at all!
You'd definitely find people who thought this was all real and try to kill other participants whom they had a grudge with. This test was supposed to last for the next 6 hours though again, the participants were informed that the actual duration was 3 hours. This was to test the participants based on how they would react in a foreign situation.
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"Goblins in a clearing huh..?"
You see, Goblins were monsters that usually roamed around in groups. They'd also make their predators let their guards down by appearing to be in a vulnerable situation in a small group. Goblins individually weren't really that strong. But they'd utilize tons of tricks such as traps, ambushes, etc to gang up on stronger people/monsters and kill them. I used my [Divine Eyes] and found out that there actually were almost 30 goblins lying nearby in an ambush and even several traps were present too.
So what was I going to do now? I had said it before but there was no monster in the current test that could be a threat to me. Even if [E+] ranked monsters might be a threat, I could use the [Zone] to fight them or even casually run away. The only thing I could have been worried about was professor Evelyn getting interested in me but luckily only the principal monitored this test alone. She was a [SS+] rank, if she couldn't even monitor a simple test with weak kids in it, she might as well just give up on being an awakened.
I casually walked towards the clearing in a slow and steady manner. Stepping into a trap made by the goblins that utilized mana, I noticed an arrow coming at me from behind. I didn't even look at it as I casually swatted it away with my hand. One of the main reasons I was confident about charging into a horde of goblins was not only because of my rank but also because of the memories I had as Asher. You see, Asher was a training and battle maniac, which was one of the reasons he was already at the [F] rank months ago.
I had said it before but while Talent did matter in getting to higher ranks, as long as one worked hard enough, nothing was impossible. Even if I didn't transmigrate to this world, Asher would still probably have become a [S+] rank or if he got lucky, then even a [SS-] rank in the future. Someone who trained 16 hours a day and even tried to raid several dungeons had combat experience far beyond others of the same age.
The 3 little goblins ran towards me with little daggers in their hands and another hidden weapon as the other goblins around me waited for the right moment to ambush me. I couldn't be bothered to deal with all of them together so I acted like I was only around 20-30% stronger than those 3 goblins combined as that would make all the goblins lying in ambush to charge at me. Parrying the dagger with my sword, I grabbed the hands of another goblin who was charging behind and threw him aside.
At this moment, almost 32 goblins charged at me from all surroundings.
"Hmm, 35 points might put me in the top 50 but that's still fine as long as I don't get in the top 20. Now.. how should I deal with them?"
'The principal is still watching so I can't use [Destruction], besides that element just drains too much mana out of me. Using [Earth] should be fine I guess.'
Relying on the experience I had gained from raiding several dungeons, I drew out the power of my Earth element as I carefully manipulated the ground around me at the max distance of a few meters.
I formed spikes formed from the [Earth] element that jutted out from the ground itself successfully impaling 35 goblins out there.
"35 points are enough for me, though I should probably leave this area as the smell of the blood from these goblins might attract other monsters in here."
I ran in a random direction for a few miles and climbed up a tree as I prepared to lie down for a bit. On the way, I had spotted several other examinees struggling to fight monsters but I didn't intervene.
'Come to think of it, I'm hungry so I should get something to eat for myself.'
I knew there wouldn't be any food in here and those who wanted to eat had to cook the monster's meat itself. It was one of the basic lessons for surviving in the wild. Before the exam started, the principal had safely stored away each examinee's storage ring as if they were allowed to bring one here, then they could easily cheat given the fact that the participants with a decent background were probably carrying potions, high-grade weapons, and other useful stuff in it thus making this competition unfair.
The principal in fact wasn't actively looking over the test. She had simply extended her senses and would be immediately informed if something went wrong or something out of her expectations occurred. She wasn't actually tracking each student's individual progress. The bands we were wearing, given to us by the Academy before the test started served the purpose of tracking our points.
This brought us to the main point where, with the help of the [Divine Weapon], I could actually store something really small in my soul too. So I usually brought along 2 storage rings at all times, one in my hand and the other in my soul. The one in my soul couldn't be detected by the Principal either.
Satisfied with this fact, I took out a pizza and a fantasy novel from this world from the storage ring in my soul and tried to pass some time for the next 6 hours.
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[6 hours Later]
A young man with black hair and deep blue eyes was sleeping on top of a tree while there was a book lying on his face. Meanwhile, the rest of the examinees were freaking out about how something had gone wrong and it had already been 3 hours long ago. At this moment, the young man felt weird sensations around his body as he abruptly woke up.
There was a blinding flash as he then found himself back in his seat in the Spatial room with the other participants.
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