Walter checked to see that all the first year Paladins had arrived earlier than the set exam time of 10am. So he explained,
"Now that all the Paladins are here I will explain the rules and details about the first monthly evaluation. This exam is targeted to find the true ranking among the students in their year which dictated the further guidelines the teachers would take to better polish the student into a fine player."
"Monthly evaluation will be done in two formats for combat classes. First format is individual evaluation and then party evaluation. As the name suggests, the individual evaluation would pit the student against a rank lower than them and a rank higher than them. The deciding order would be left to a coin toss. The party evaluation would put your party in a similar manner."
"The second format is monster invasion defense and then a Gate raiding offense. All of you had learned much from general knowledge and history lessons so I won't say anything redundant. The monster invasion defense would test your party's coordination, appropriate skill usage in certain situations and total time taken for the defense to be successful. On the other hand, Gate raiding offense would test your party's offensive capability, clearing efficiency against the randomly selected type and similarly total time taken for the offense to be successful."
One of the Paladin raised his hand to ask a question. Walter nodded at him and the young Paladin asked,
"Teacher, you have mentioned the player party. However we haven't formed a party before and neither trained around it. What should be done about this matter?"
"A good question. That's why those who had taken the voluntary subjects which involved the player party would excel here. Fret not though as the students would get to choose their own party before they start. As long as you perform your role as the Paladin within the party then you wouldn't be much disadvantaged here. I am sure the general knowledge lessons had already taught you about player parties and the roles of the player class. Be sure not to make an embarrassing blunder here."
"Alright, any other questions? It seems there's none so we shall wait till the vice principal arrives to start the exam."
Walter concluded as he checked the time which was five minutes from ten o'clock.
°°°°
Blue was chosen to first perform a rank lower than him and then a rank higher during his coin toss.
He naturally couldn't care less but he still expressed his humbleness to others present as he acted a bit unsure yet not quite shy from a challenge.
He would thus duel with the tenth rank and then the eighth rank. All skills and tactics were allowed but the inventory couldn't be accessed to ensure fairness as a pure duel based on raw prowess.
Naturally any fatal attack was prohibited and the teachers would stop any accident from happening. Those who broke the rules would get their points deducted and promptly kicked from the exam center as their ranking would be placed at the last automatically. Or so the Walter guy warned.
The vice principal arrived at sharp ten.
She was in her early twenties, a beauty from a human's perspective. He heard from Nicole that the vice principal was actually the granddaughter of the principal who was a Baron, a noble part of the lower strata of major nobility ranks in the union.
Obviously, the players real age from their skin wasn't the deciding factor as the natural lifespan increases the further one's class level was. The middle aged principal thus having a granddaughter in early twenties was a perfectly normal occurrence.
After arriving at the exam center she introduced herself,
"Hello, new students. It is a pleasure to meet all of you who carry the future of our domain. I am the academy's vice principal, Julia Auburn. A noblewoman of the Auburn House who governs the Barony this academy is part of."
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"Today, the first monthly evaluation will be conducted and I wish for all of you to give it your all. The more one shows off their potential in the exams the better they will be able to progress in their graduation progress. So hold nothing back and make the teachers proud of themselves to have taught all of you brilliant students."
"I now announce the beginning of this exam."
All those present in the exam center bowed politely to her when she finished her speech. As a noblewoman she was naturally entitled to commoners' respective gestures and subservience. The teachers and the students were all the same in front of her social status as a noble.
One might wonder why nobody bowed when she arrived but contrary to the usual patterns noticed in the Outer Area worlds the nobility here however consisted of players whose primary motto were discipline, efficiency and productivity. Nitpicking on behavior which wasted time was not their style thus the unawakened's norm never applied to them.
Blue naturally was among the crowd of subservient commoners however his mind was jotting down numerous schemes directed at her. She was the true solution to the matter of setting his initial foundation in the Inner Area. If Nicole was the key to penetrating into the academy's core circles then Julia was his end goal.
He had been subtly but consistently gathering any available information about her from Nicole and other Paladin teachers. They however never suspected the model student to be crafting devious schemes from their words.
Back to the present, the more than 300,000 students were divided into three groups that equally divided the number and then sent into three enormous domes that had the power to speed the flow of time's river inside it. Outside the dome were three big screens that displayed the key highlights of the students' performance thus saving a lot of time.
Blue watched the individual duels as within just an hour all the rankings below a thousand had concluded.
He then got to watch Karla's performance who was ranked 891.
She had the class of Restrictor, a mid range combat class that wielded the crossbow as the main weapon. This class as the name suggested had skills centered around restricting the opponents while downing them with crossbow bolts from a distance. It was of common grade among the player society.
However thanks to Karla's extraordinary attribute of Frozen Water and her natural talent in range combat coupled with many teachings from himself she had performed excellently thus causing many teachers to widen their eyes as they pondered how they missed such a young prodigy earlier.
In her duel, she went against the higher rank of 890 first.
The opponent was a female who was surprisingly an ardent fan of Blue. When she saw that her opponent was Karla who was apparently the 891 in rank she almost jumped in joy as her hostility reached the peak. She wanted to thoroughly thrash her in front of Blue so her incompetence as a player would repulse him from her.
She was a Swordsman, a close range combat class. She didn't worry as against a mid range, who were typically done for when the opponent closed the gap, her victory was more than assured. So she instead crafted plans on how to slowly torture her here without being reprimanded by the teachers.
The reality however proved otherwise.
Just as the countdown finished Karla instantly activated a skill that conjured mist around her and then disappeared behind it. The female fan frowned but wasn't deterred as she closed the distance while being careful of any sudden bolts. When she finally neared the mist and was about to activate a skill to slice a way forward she found herself feeling sluggish in her arms.
She looked and was dumbfounded to see her entire body soaked from the mist that was still a distance away from her which then started freezing her arms and other joints rapidly. She hurriedly tried to retreat but was bombarded with bolts. She dodged most of them but some managed to graze her.
The wound that dripped blood turned into thin shards of ice as it dropped to the ground and when it finally touched the ground it transformed into blood red frozen chains that linked to the wounds it dripped from earlier while the chain was firmly stuck to the ground affecting her mobility significantly.
Another salvo of bolts rained down from the mist that had now circled the battleground which centered around her. She used her class skill focused on offense to coat the sword in aura to cut down the chains swiftly but the delay was enough for a few bolts to penetrate her left arm and lower abdomen.
She then used a skill to expel the bolts lodged in her as sword rays engulfed her body. The bolts were cut into pieces from her defensive skill and just as she was about to use the movement skill to get away from the mist the previous wounds then turned into frozen vines that engulfed her entire body while linking with other wounds in a seamless manner. The vines had thorns on it which further wounded her while the frost was numbing her senses.
A crossbow bolt disarmed her promptly thus the duel ended in Karla's victory.
"It was worth it to teach her. It seems I have one capable party member for now. The mid range is covered while I can switch from close range to mid range whenever I want. Hopefully the other targets wouldn't deviate from my earlier estimation about them or the party selection will be messy."
Blue pondered as he watched Karla finishing the next opponent more easily.