“I miss the registration by two days?” It was unbelievable!

Well, just like a typical school, there was a registration date or something like that. However, I missed it just by two days. And today was the examination date. Seriously, I was really unlucky. If only I came two days earlier… It was that silly Goddess' fault. If only we used the Slime Vehicle since the beginning...

“Can you do something about it? I mean, alright, I miss it, but can I just take the exam now?” I tried to negotiate with the teacher (well, she seemed to be a teacher, with her strict face).

“You can take the exam…” She paused. I knew she was going to say something ridiculous to break my hope, so I didn’t hope too much. But still, I waited for her to continue. “…but you will be admitted to this school only if you are one of the top three in the test. Also, you still have to pay the registration fee, which is fifteen gold.”

Fifteen gold? That was half of all the gold that I accumulated all this time! It was definitely a robbery! Also, that was only for the registration fee! Still, I would do anything just to go to this school, or else I would be kicked out of this city!

“Alright! I’ll do it! I will definitely do it! So, what am I supposed to do now?” I asked.

I could see a glint on the iron lady, cough, the strict teacher’s glasses just now. “You can go to the examination room after you pay fifteen gold. Before going to the examination room, you can take this medallion.”

I gritted my teeth and took out fifteen gold from my pocket. Fifteen gold! A gold coin was a hundred silver. And a silver coin was a hundred copper! It was really a robbery!

“Here’s your medallion, you can go to the examination room now. The test will be conducted in fifteen minutes.” She said as she walked away.

Oh well, since I paid so much, I had to make sure that I would pass this test! No matter what, I had to pass this test in one try!

…or so I thought. When the test began, I was already in desperation. The first test was a written test. History and Geography… I couldn’t answer them at all. I only knew the Newbie Village and Acropolis. And none of them were asked in the test. Magic Theory, however, I could answer easily. Well, Magic Theory felt like science from Earth. For example, the question asked me to explain the reason why [Stonebal]l would fall after a certain distance while Fireball would keep flying until it hit its target. Well, it was because of gravity. Yep, easy, right?

Anyway, except for the Magic Theory, I didn’t know the common knowledge of this world. Who would know the third Emperor of the Acrodia Empire? Who would know the relationship between Acrodia Empire and the East Mountain Alliance? Who would know the answer to why the Orcs attacked us every Winter? Oh, the last one I could guess. It must be because of hunger, right? Seriously, I didn’t know anything at all, so I could only leave them blank.

I was so sad… It seemed my goal to be the top three was deemed to fail since the beginning. Now, all I needed to do was following the exam to the end to see what kind of tests they would use for this exam.

After that, the next test was the Physical Examination. Well, it tested basic physical abilities, such as strength, grip strength, stamina, speed, accuracy, and several others. Why did they test things like this in a Magic Academy I wonder?

Anyway, I wouldn’t be able to pass this test as well. I should give up now. Well, but I was curious as to what kind of test they would test next. It seemed they tested our basic Magic ability next. So, I didn't give up and continued with the Physical Examination. Surprisingly, I was just a little below average amongst the girls. Well, they were all nobles, I assumed, so it was not surprising that they didn't have good physical abilities as well.

Anyway, the next test was the Magic Test. They were using a Crystal Ball that would glow when Mana was inserted into it. Well, I casually put my Mana into it and the light was not too bright. At least, I saw a lot of people before me had a brighter light than me. As for the color, it was colorful, just like a rainbow. I wondered what that meant…

The final test was the Practical Application. The first they tested was the Magic. There were five targets, approximately ten meters away. All we needed to do was to hit the target with our Magic. Speaking of which, the target was stationary. It should be easy, not to mention the distance was only ten meters. We had ten tries and one hit meant one point. So, the maximum amount we could get was ten points from this test alone.

The people before me… well, several people before me could only hit at most eight targets. The average, however, only five. It meant, I could get enough points here. Thinking like that, I used one [Firebolt], one [Stonebolt], one [Waterbolt], one [Windbolt], one [Lightbolt], one [Darkbolt], one [Lightningbolt], one [Metalbolt], one [Woodbolt] and one [Voidbolt]. Yep, it was my stage to show off after all. Not to mention that all my Spells hit the target, so I should get ten points from this alone.

…let’s forget the examiner’s face while I did that though. The next part was a real combat test. The test was against an examiner using a wooden sword. Fortunately, it was using a wooden sword, not a metal sword. If it were using a metal sword, I wasn’t sure that I could lift it up. Not to mention swinging it. 

“Are you ready?” The examiner was a middle-aged man with a thick beard. He looked fierce, just like your typical veteran Adventurers. I raised my wooden sword and nodded. Yep, whether I was ready or not, I was deemed to fail this test, so I didn’t really care.

And after I nodded, the examiner dashed forward. His speed should be around fifteen or sixteen. He was as fast as the silly Goddess and Zero. Well, it was not a speed that I couldn’t react to, so I parried his first attack by letting his power directed to the ground.

“Hoo?” The examiner exclaimed in astonishment and he increased the power and speed of his next attack. Also, perhaps it was only my imagination, but he seemed to become more skilled... If previously I could direct his power easily, after that I had to struggle a little bit. Still, I could react to it. When I was using the Smokeless Slime, I could even react to Zero’s fierce attack and countless arrows shot at me. My perception should be quite good, though it was not written in the Status Window. However, my body could only barely follow it. There was nothing I could do about it, my body was too weak. 

And that was why, after parrying ten attacks or so, I felt my arms were numb. It was not because of the attack though. It was because I really lacked strength. And even though I limited my movement to the basics, it was not enough to exchange more than ten rounds with the examiner. In the end, I let go of my wooden sword and the examiner shook his head in disappointment. Yeah, sorry for disappointing you.

“Alright. Next!” He said after writing something.

I went outside dejectedly. It was not because I failed. It was because I lost fifteen gold coins… alright, not really. If I failed this test, I couldn’t stay in this city anymore. I didn’t want to take a long journey again, so I didn’t want to be kicked out of this city.  Not to mention that I didn't know any cities with a barrier protecting it all the time. Perhaps I should look for another method of staying in this city?

Thinking like that, I returned to the inn. Like a typical inn in a fantasy world, the first floor was a tavern. The owner was a pair of husband and wife with their daughter and son. The daughter had married and her husband was the son of the owner of the Blacksmith a few blocks away. However, she was still living here in the inn and helping with the inn.

It was late afternoon. At this time, the tavern was empty. There were only two people talking inside. I sat down on the empty chair and ordered some food.

“Ah, you have returned? So, how is it? Did you pass?” Rita, the daughter, asked while casually putting a glass of water on my table.

“I’m not sure. Rita, do you have other ideas on how to get permanent ID besides becoming an Adventurer or going to a school?” I asked Rita. The day before, I heard about it from the gatekeeper, so I asked Rita for the detail. But she didn’t tell me other ways to get the permanent ID, so I asked her now.

“Come to think of it, I have one idea. Do you have any useful skills?” Rita tapped her chin while thinking.

“Skills? What kind of skills?” I asked. I believed it was not Skills for fighting.

“Well, there is another way that I know of. You can get a permanent ID if you have a job in this city. If you can get permission from your boss, you can get a permanent ID. Ah, but speaking of which, this method has a low chance of success. You see, people usually don’t want to make a guarantee for someone who they don’t really know, right? And you only have less than a week too, so it is almost impossible.” She explained.

"Or you can try going to Commerce Guild. But looking at you... I don't think it is possible. The registration fee for the Commerce Guild is too expensive!" Rita offered another suggestion, but she shot down this suggestion herself.

Having a job, huh? It would be impossible for me to get a job too. Perhaps, I was destined not to live in this city?

“Speaking of jobs, lately, there are people from another world coming to this city, right? I wonder where they live… I never see them in any inns around here.” Rita spoke absentmindedly.

Should I tell her that the Players could log off so they didn’t need a place to stay in this world? After all, for them, this world was just a game world, so no one would want to sleep in this world. Well, a few weirdos would want to sleep here though, but it was only a handful of people.

“Oh, right, Fey, when will the announcement for the school be posted?” Rita abruptly asked.

“I think it is tomorrow. I don’t think that I can be accepted though, so perhaps I won’t come.” I replied casually.

“You shouldn’t give up early like that! I heard the admission fee for going to school is really high! What if you are accepted, but because you think you are not accepted you miss it? You will lose a lot of money!” She scolded me. Well, that was true. Speaking of which, yesterday was only the registration fee and it cost me half of my wealth. I should start thinking about how to get more money to live in this city, huh?

Rita went to the kitchen and returned here soon with the food that I ordered. After putting the food on my table, she sat in front of me again and she seemed to want to talk with me a little more. Meanwhile, I started eating while listening to her. Well, she gave me a lot of information, so I didn’t mind chatting like this. However, most of her information seemed like gossips to me. For example…

“Oh, you know, I heard that Miss Fiona from the Duloc Inn was proposed three days ago!”

“The Players, that is what we call the otherworlders, right? I heard they have a fight with our Adventurers and they were punished for it!”

“Also, I heard that the Players are killed often when they go outside. They sure are reckless since they can be resurrected, huh?”

“Oh, right, do you know that the Gods and Goddesses are living amongst us now? I heard a rumor that they are accumulating their power after losing it! I can’t believe that the Gods and Goddesses that we worship so much can actually live with us!”

…actually, in this inn alone, you already had one God, one Goddess, and one Evil Goddess. Naturally, I wouldn’t tell her about it. After all, I was the Evil Goddess there.

“Oh, right, I heard that a lot of Players are killed when they go to the Dungeon in this city too! Even though the Dungeon is supposed to be a low-level Dungeon for newbies Adventurers, a lot of Players fall victim there!”