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Name: Ian
Title: Regressor
Strength: 22
Stamina: 24
Speed: 21
Agility: 25
Intelligence: 39
Magic: 34
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Authority:
[Time Perception Lv. 9 (Evolved)] — Allows manipulation of how the user or targeted individuals can perceive time.
[Time Lv. 1] — Allows the user mastery over all time-related magic.
Special Skills:
[Status Lv. 5] — Allows the user to view the status of everything in universal numeric metrics.
Unique Skills:
[Object Perception Lv. 9] — Allows the user to directly manipulate how objects perceive time through acceleration or deceleration.
[Regress Lv. 1] — Allows the user to revive after death. [Restriction] — memories of the past life are completely erased.
[Recall Lv. 1] — Allows the user to perfectly recall everything they have seen, heard, or experienced at least once in the past.
[Future Sight Lv. 1] — Allows the user to see 0.5 seconds into the future.
[??? Lv. ??] - ???
[??? Lv.??] - ???
[??? Lv. ??] - ???
[??? Lv. ??] - ???
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A pleasant surprise was all I could think of. Though I was regrettably back to being an F-rank knight, I started to analyze the new information I’d never seen on my status. One complaint I had was that all of my special skills except [Status] had disappeared completely.
What a huge waste of money.
The most noticeable change was at the top of the status window: my title had changed from “Vice Commander of the Human Alliance” to “Regressor.” Such a title would naturally have brought up multiple questions, but thankfully, the status window had all the information I needed. It seemed regression was possible because of the [Regress] skill, but I didn't like the restriction placed on it.
‘Memories of the past life are completely erased.’
That on its own would be an unpleasant problem to deal with, but fortunately or unfortunately, another unique skill directly countered this:
[Recall Lv. 1] — Allows the user to perfectly recall everything they have seen, heard, or experienced at least once in the past.
Instead of ‘counter,’ it felt like this skill and the [Regress] restriction directly contradicted each other. Everything I experienced in my past life was something I had ‘experienced at least once,’ so that meant I should be able to remember it with [Recall]. It's probably best not to overthink it. Hopefully, I would never find myself in a situation that would lead to my death again. There were only a few more minutes before we would arrive at the venue, so I decided to look at my last unfamiliar skill. It was more practical than the other new ones I’d received because I could apply it to battle at any time I wanted.
[Future Sight Lv. 1] — Allows the user to see 0.5 seconds into the future.
Combining that with [Time Perception] and [Object Perception] filled my head with some interesting applications. As for the question marks, I had no idea what they meant. There wasn't anything about it in the manual when I was given the skill.
I'll research it later.
I decided to catch a quick power nap before arriving at the academy.
***
“We're here.” The calm voice of a man reached my ears, and I looked up to the front of the limousine. The small window revealed a suited man with glasses as he stared at us. Lily and I awkwardly left the car; he had dropped us directly at the academy entrance gates despite Lily's request earlier. I didn't mind it too much, though. Since the academy would officially start operating two days from now, the number of students who saw us wasn't that intimidating.
The familiar sight of Rezen was burned into my vision as I once again marveled at its huge size, which exceeded even that of multiple universities across the empire. We walked through the large gates and made our way to the exam site. It didn't take long for us to reach it. As we entered the spacious gymnasium, multiple students - all clad in academy uniforms - greeted us on the other side.
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“Wow~, you are pretty good with directions, huh?” Lily muttered, but I simply shrugged. It wasn't my first time navigating the grounds of the academy. In the gymnasium (or hall), 900 students easily filled the space, and each one of them had already passed the entrance exams. However, even in such a chaotic environment, a few students still stood out from the rest.
Future leaders of powerful clans or large conglomerates, who had been featured on TV since a very young age, caught the eyes of everyone present. Most of them were already social media celebrities at this point, so everyone recognized them. Only someone who wasn't exposed to the internet at all wouldn't know them. It was painful to admit that I knew one such person standing in this room.
Screech~! The jarring noise of a mic's feedback dragged everyone's attention. On the elevated stage - visible to everyone - a neat-looking man in a grey suit and a black overcoat stared down at us with sharp eyes while holding a mic. He wasn't someone most of the students would know, but behind him, eight other individuals wearing similar clothes with different colored suits stood in a single row. They were the professors of Rezen Academy. One of them stood out from the rest, particularly because she looked like the youngest there (she was).
“A good morning to everyone present. I am Senior Professor Edward Pierce. I will go straight to the point. We will divide each of you into groups of 100 students, and you will undergo the placement exam with one of the professors behind me.” He pointed his thumb behind him as some of the professors gave small winks or waving gestures to the distressed students. But the senior professor didn't waste any time. In the next moment, a blinding white light emerged from the floor and engulfed every student present. There wasn't even enough time to scream as everyone was forcefully teleported instantaneously.
The familiar floating feeling engulfed my body as the scenery in front of me changed. We were currently standing on a stage, and surrounding us were elevated seats in a circular pattern. It was a small stadium built to mimic a coliseum. Though a bit smaller than the main one, it still had over 500 seats.
“Wow~”
“What's going on?”
Surprised gasps and amazed sounds came from the students around me as they looked around the coliseum. I was more amazed by something else — the senior professor's powers.
Despite being a B-rank knight, Edward's authority was given 10/10 points for its massive war potential. It was the highest rating an individual could get from the strategic table, one which even some A-ranks failed to achieve. By the way, my war potential was also 10/10, mostly because I was more or less in charge of that system.
“Hey everyone.” The soft voice of a woman seemed to surprise everyone as they frantically looked around. It took a bit of time for everyone's attention to focus on a single person. She wasn't as tall as most of the students here, so the only thing that set her apart was the red suit she wore with a black overcoat.
“W-woah. It's the Scarlet Arsenal!?”
“Ah, she's so pretty.”
“Hehe, I wonder if she would stab me if I asked.”
As with the comments, she was indeed pretty. Her pale skin and long red hair highlighted her attire even more. One of the youngest and arguably the strongest D-rank knight in the entire empire, with her magic stat being in the C-rank range, paired with her authority, she truly earned the title of ‘Scarlet Arsenal.’ She was smiling from ear to ear, listening to the students praising her and likely getting a big head from it.
A few minutes of this went on and it seemed to have turned into some kind of celebrity meet-up event. It was understandable, though; all one hundred of the students here were ‘commoners,’ simple nobodies that came from simple towns. The kind-hearted Scarlet Arsenal had voluntarily chosen to assess such a group because of her similar upbringing. Almost all the students had gotten a handshake from her, and if it wasn't for someone asking about the exam, I feared she wouldn't have stopped. (I was that someone.)
“Ah, right! OK, everyone. For those who might amazingly not know me, I am Professor Eliana Bloodthorn. I will now explain the rules of the placement exam. It's simple really: all you need to do is demonstrate your authority against me, and then I will decide if you go to the low, middle, or high classes.” She gave a cheerful explanation, but the students weren't all that happy; they were pretty much confused.
“Against… Eliana?”
“Fight… you?”
They muttered words as if they wanted to convince themselves of something. It was only natural; the minimum rank required to enter the academy was just an F-rank, so telling us to fight a D-rank with double our stat points was a bit unfair. Even the broken talents of the incoming freshers were still borderline E-rank.
“Now now, don't worry about that. I’ll hold back as much as I can, so please try your best.” Eliana gave an enthusiastic smile which seemed to have easily worked as the students clenched their fists and voiced some words of agreement.
The students then occupied a single side of the makeshift coliseum, and as we did, a huge holographic screen appeared at the top of the center stage. It showed a zoomed-in version of what was happening on the stage with much clearer detail.
“Alright! Let's start from the first row on the left.” Eliana's amplified voice reached us as a heavy silence floated in the air right afterward, signaling the start of the exam.