The Royal Academy, Laufiel. Situated in the capital of the Kingdom of Etra, Hermengrod, it housed some of the most promising talents of each generation’s youths. Possessing outstanding knowledge and equipped with magical technology far surpassing that of the neighboring kingdoms and the empire, it boasted a long dynasty, as well as a favorable reputation from students all over the world.

Such an outcome was solely possible with Etra’s long standing neutrality. The lack of wars coupled with the thirst for knowledge and magical advancement allowed everyone to study under one school, regardless of their race or gender.

The academy grounds was the main area in the game. Here, most of the quests as well as the storyline ensued, except for the endgame as well as the later parts of middle acts. It was also the place where a lot of the game’s secrets were to be found.

This place allowed talented students to gain both fame and recognition, as well as represent the place of their birth. Just being a part of the academy, no matter in which house you were, allowed one to easily elevate their status.

Not to mention, for most students, this was the place where they found their lifelong party members and enemies. It was an essential agglomeration of culture of Etra.

Each year, hundreds of students graduated while in their place came the new talents.

Today, a week later after the attempted assassination, Conall stood among a mass of what seemed to be hundreds of people, all tightly congested in a huge arena with a colosseum-esque facade.

Judging by the density and the area of the arena, there should have been roughly more than a thousand participants, yet this wasn’t even the most popular house of the academy.

“Mhm, excuse me.”

A loud voice stretched across the whole arena, reaching every nook and cranny. All attention had been garnered by the man standing on the balcony of the giant arena. Above the stands, it was the place where only the most renowned and revered could sit and watch.

“Welcome! To the Laufiel Academy’s 56th entrance exam!”

The lean man in the red armor raised his arms in excitement, shouting loudly to the students. Their reactions weren’t any less exciting than his own. In response to his welcoming, they shouted and cheered at the top of their lungs.

As the cheers and shouts kept resounding, the man couldn’t help but smile in response. However, of course, what was enough was enough, and they also needed to go through with the exams.

He released his aura, which promptly shut down any incoming noises.

Looking down below, the knight saw as most of the students fell because of the slight pressure exerted on them, however, there were also many that stood on their feet, gaining his attention.

As for Conall? He was lying on the floor, though he already collected himself and got back up. Thankfully, there wasn’t any idiotic requirement of not being allowed to take part in the exam if you failed to resist the pressure.

‘As expected, a true knight professor’s Aura is on a different level. He must be at least level 80.’

While he dwelled on the professor’s strength, the latter explained to the students the process of the exam as well as the different measures of power the academy would be using. Since they registered themselves under the house of knights, they would be put under monster elimination, as well as a parameter check.

If a person admitted themselves to a house of two or more professions, they would of course have to pass the respective exams as well.

Even though it was shamed upon to train on more than one path, the academy still allowed the student to do however they wanted. There were plenty of magical knights as professors, after all.

“Since all of you have heard the rules, let us begin the examination. Please take out the teleportation stones you were assigned before the entrance and pour a tiny bit of mana inside.”

The knight instructed and the majority of the examinees had been teleported to the testing room a few seconds later.

Conall, too, had teleported, though he needed a bit more time. Despite him not being able to use mana, the fix to that issue was quite simple. He just needed to cut himself and pour the blood onto the stone. Since mana was flowing through everything, blood also had it, even if in trace amounts.

“Welcome to the testing room Nr 913. Please state your name.”

“Conall Agael.”

He appeared in a room composed purely out of white, matte tiles filled in with dark blue lines between them.

Upon sensing his presence, an automatic voice welcomed and scanned him.

“Identity confirmed. Your level will now be checked. Please wait a minute.”

Exactly after a minute, the voice started talking again.

“Inspection complete. Level: 21. Height: 162 cm. Weight: 50 kg. Strength, below average. Constitution, below average. Dexterity, below average. Mind, below average. Spirit, below average. Overall evaluation: Grade C. Please, choose your weapon of choice.”

Although the remarks about his stats and the evaluation hurt a bit, he was actually surprised that the machine got his level right. He didn’t know how it would react with his giant’s spirit, however, it seemed that the appearance of the soul was similar for giants and humans.

Also, his level rose by a hefty four after dealing with the assassin. It was a nice reward, even though the experience he got from killing him was minimal because of the sneaky methods he used.

Nonetheless, he had to choose his weapon now. Not pondering over it for too long, he decided to go with something that would help him build up a relationship with Juliette.

“Longsword.”

The automatic voice soon replied.

“Weapon chosen. First opponent: Goblin. Initiating combat in 10 seconds.”

Truthfully to the words of the voice, a green goblin appeared after ten seconds.

Swiftly looking around its vicinity, the monster tried to look out for any danger in this completely different environment.

Conall grabbed his longsword with both of his hands before running at the goblin. Startled by the sudden movement of the human, the goblin started to run away. Its agility, however, was much weaker than Conall’s.

Carefully, with a precise swing, he cut off the goblin’s head. Immediately, a weird sensation appeared in the depths of his soul as the light in the monster’s eyes faded away.

The monsters weren’t artificially recreated with mana, but instead, teleported here just like the examinees. So, if a potential student managed to kill the beast, they would naturally gain some experience.

And if they got into a lethal situation, the runes inscribed below the tiles would send the monster back to its cage.

It was a simple, yet profound technology. For a world similar to that of Earth’s medieval ages in appearances, it was ages beyond the technology his previous home garnered.

“Undetected the need for rest. Next opponent: Gray wolf”

Just like with the goblin, the wolf appeared after a ten-second wait. It wasn’t the normal wolf back on Earth, however.

Larger in its size and perilous in its behavior, it was the kind of wolf parents would scare their kids with.

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The monster growled after seeing the human in front of it. Its ears stood up while baring the long, sharp teeth. Judging from the blue streaks on its fur, it seemed to be on the path to becoming an ice wolf, though it lacked a couple of levels to fully transform.

Suddenly, the wolf pounced, however, with a quick strike in response, the monster whimpered as blood spilled from its neck.

Not letting it go back, his movement quickly followed the beast. Their agility was similar, but Conall’s was still at least one point above. Even though it didn’t seem significant, it truly was with an experienced body.

Closing in on the beast, a lethal strike was delivered and experience flowed.

‘Well, it’s easy for now. After two or so monsters, the levels and stats will show the disparity in strength.’

In this testing room, the monsters appeared in increments of five levels. The goblin was level 5, and the gray wolf was level 10.

Though Conall had no problem dealing with them, the next monster would cause slight struggles. The enemy would finally surpass his stats, though that wasn’t that big of an achievement in itself.

Because of his cursed blood, he had to keep his stats relatively low and couldn’t use any of his free stat points right now, as they decreased daily. By keeping them low, he could always quickly gain them back with daily training.

That’s why, when he summoned his status board that the goddess had granted him, this was the result.

Level: 21

Strength: 10

Constitution: 10

Dexterity: 10

Mind: 10

Spirit: 10

He looked at the purple screen. The gift was incredibly welcome from his side since it bypassed the need to pay the church every time he wanted to see his status and its changes.

Anyhow, he stopped thinking about the goddess since the next monster had already appeared.

In front of him, a slightly smaller than himself creature manifested. Dark green in color, with well-defined muscles. A creature similar to that of a goblin readied itself after sensing potential danger.

Conall glanced at the hobgoblin once before steadying the longsword in his palms.

The monster also readied its weapon, which was a simple, but girthy wooden club.

Without a care in the world, the hobgoblin rushed towards the enemy as if in a frenzy. Its club was being dragged on the white tiles, clearly too heavy for it to easily move around.

Looking at the ugly tongue that flopped around out of its opened mouth, Conall wanted nothing less than to shut up this loud creature. All it did was shout and bare its crooked teeth while running around like a monkey.

“Kikiki”

The hobgoblin laughed sneeringly as he raised the club in his right hand. Instead of using his body to control the weapon, he amateurly raised it, with pure strength coming from his arms.

Yet, surprisingly, although the hobgoblin struggled at first, once the club was up, he could swing it as if it wasn’t a nuisance.

Well, it wasn’t like it made any difference. The additional weight deferred its movements. The monster swung with all the vigor it could find.

All it took to outplay the goblin was a simple duck. With a swift thrust, the sword got stuck in the monster’s neck.

As the monster fell to the side, Conall tightened the grip on his sword. Just now, he felt much more resistance than with the wolf. After the voice confirmed the next target, he waited yet again.

He didn’t encounter any issues during the fights against the next two monsters. Although the monster at the 25th level, the goblin shaman, managed to make him bleed, it still fell to his sword.

It was now that he would feel the real struggle.

At level 30, all of the monsters’ stats exceeded the wall of 25 points. With Conall’s stats, it would be impossible to kill such a monster with technique alone.

After a minute of allowed rest, another monster spawned in.

Standing taller than its enemy, the warg that appeared in the room looked down on the human. Its mouth didn’t even need a second to start salivating at the thought of a delicious snack.

As soon as the warg moved, it immediately appeared before Conall.

‘Damn it!’

With a curse in mind, he jumped to the side at the very last moment. However, the beast naturally followed him. Before he could do anything, the beast jumped at him again. This time, the enemy hit him.

Using the blade as an impromptu shield, he reinforced his ribs, which were attacked.

Nonetheless, the impact was so powerful that he couldn’t breathe for the next couple of seconds. He felt a few cracks appear on his ribs, but what he was more worried about was the huge dark warg charging at him once again.

Although his following action would be idiotic, he needed to win against this monster if he wanted to guarantee himself a spot in the academy.

The next thing he saw was the sharp fangs flying at him. The open maw of the beast charged at him, ready to devour the human flesh.

Tautening the muscles on his left forearm, the boy let the oversized dog bite on it.

The warg tried to rip the arm apart, however, the aura around it made it hard enough so it would struggle a bit. The bones weren’t so easy to break with a jaw, even for this level of a monster.

The opponent wasn’t a joke anymore, and the sword in his hands started to change.

Comparable to what heat distortion did, a clear coating appeared around his longsword, changing the air around it.

With a clean sweep of his right arm, a severed head fell to the ground, blood slowly flowing out of the body before it was transported back where it came from.

The unstable aura that was on Conall’s blade and arm also disappeared as he fell to the ground, grasping the floor. He had used far too much for the beast.

“AHHHHHH!”

His scream reverberated across the entire room. He felt as though his soul and body were simultaneously being split in half by a saw.

This was the sole reason he essentially couldn’t use his aura. Because his soul was fragmented into two pieces, using aura caused countless disruptions in the already sensitive soul to appear.

After a few minutes of agony, he finally felt at peace. Spiritual injuries and damages weren’t a joke, as he got to understand. Since the soul, body, and mind were all directly connected, even a wound to the soul could inflict physical pain, though it didn’t show.

Yet, that pain was hellishly more painful than physical pain, even when his curses increased the physical one by roughly five times.

It was as though his very essence was being attacked.

‘Your body follows your soul’s death, so there is no surprise there.’

Conall mused before slowly standing up and announcing to the room.

“I will forfeit the next enemy.”

Immediately, the voice started replying, alongside his ranking on the student leaderboards. Also, as the test ended, the room glowed with advanced runes of healing, quickly mending the bloody holes and ruptures left on his forearm. Although he still lost a good amount of blood, he would just get a nice meal after the academy exams.

“Examination completed. Speculated Grade: C. Overall Grade: C. Aura quality: Exceptionally Low. Rank on the leaderboards: 200. You are being transported back to the arena.”

“WOOOO!”

“Yes! I got in!”

“I… didn’t.”

Immediately, he heard countless cheers of happiness as well as countless more sorrows of failure.

He looked at the big leaderboards revealing the ranking which indicated all of the examinees ending their test, however, only one thing remained on his mind.

‘Exceptionally Low? Wasn’t Very Low the lowest possible score?’

The thought clouded his mind, but the loud voice of the knight professor thankfully snapped him back to reality.

“With this, the exam for the house of knights has officially ended. Only the top two hundred examinees on the leaderboards will be admitted as students. For the rest of the participants, we wish you good luck next year. Once you’re done checking, please vacate the building.”

Having said his part, the knight in the shining red armor turned back and slowly left the sunny arena.

Finally, Conall took a look at the leaderboards. The end of the rankings, to be precise.

[197. Steven Numer]

[198. Zuzanne Almiet]

[199. Garry Whyes]

[200. Conall Agael]

Though he wanted to reach a bit higher than the very last place, what mattered was the fact he had officially been accepted to Laufiel.

Satisfied with the outcome, there was no need for him to remain in that cramped place. He needed to gain back some of that lost blood from the earlier fight.

…

‘How can that small boy eat so much?’

Although she had her thoughts, the innkeeper brought in the third tray of food with a smile on her face. The customer paid and wasn’t being conflictual, so nothing else mattered.

Conall munched on the desired turkey drumstick, with a side of what seemed to be deeply fried potatoes. Finishing his last meal with sweet tea filled with ice, he couldn’t help but lay down for a bit.

But, he got up almost instantly. The curse helped him with that. While he needed more food to stay full, he didn’t really have any problems with overeating as it made him practically always have room for more.

Suddenly, he glanced to the side, his eyes squinted.

“When did you get here?”

He looked at the white owl, a curled up, sealed paper in its talons.

Its cute round, black eyes blinked a couple of times and sometimes tapped with the sharp talons, as if to show him to take the letter.

“Yes, yes, I’ll take it.”

Gently grabbing it from the owl’s talons, he unsealed the letter and read the contents. The sides of his lips unknowingly rose up.