The weeks turned into months, and Cain just kept getting better and better. His skill was improving at a phenomenal speed. He was completing missions like they were nothing and kept buying new formulas to expand his knowledge. The end of the year exam was coming up soon, and this would be extremely important to a student’s future. Students were split into 4 years, Cain was currently a year one student who was new to the school.

Each year was also split into the ranks D, C, B, and A. Cain was currently in a D rank class since he came from a public school and wasn’t considered anything special. A rank students were considered the prodigies, the best of the best, the end of the year exam was the only chance to jump ranks, if Cain did well enough he could get put into C, B, or even an A ranked class for year two.

Cain wanted to increase his genetic research skill, and the easiest way to get access to higher grade lessons was to join a higher ranked class, naturally this exam was of great importance to him. The exam was unified regardless of rank, your result determined your placement for the next year. 20% would be D rank, 40% C rank, 60% B rank and 80% would be A rank.

20% might sound extremely subpar, but these questions were all of the highest difficulty so even a 20% was considered a rather good grade, anything below that would fail you, and then you’d have the risk of repeating a year. Fail to many times and you’ll get expelled.

The bell rang and all the students were rounded up into the first floor lobby. Some were still looking through their notebooks, trying to get their last moments of studying in. Cain was huddled up among the many students as he squeezed his way into the exam room. Their were teachers with sharp eyes scanning the entire place, trying to find any possible cheaters trying to smuggle in cheating tools.

“Hmph, I hope you do well on this test Cain. Hopefully your brain works as well as your body does”

Cain was surprised by this sudden insult, he turned around and saw a young woman looking at him with dagger eyes. She was surrounded by a few lackies who continued to fan her on. Graxi was an A rank student whose grandfather was a well known Genetic Researcher. She seemed bitter over the fact that Cain took her spotlight when he took part in the NSCE, so now she was here to insult him.

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Cain ignored her and walked towards his exam booth, he couldn’t be bothered with these kind of small minded people. He was at somewhat of a disadvantage at exams since his gene was combat oriented, and couldn’t help him during an exam at all, but with all the studying he’s done he wasn’t worried about getting a bad grade.

The teacher handed out the exam papers, and the bell rang, signaling the start of the exam. Cain started looking through some of the questions.

“List 5 common problems that may come up while creating the sharp nail gene”

“What happens when you incorrectly combine a green vine with a sharp ore?”

“Why does a fire stone cause an imbalance when combined with a lava leaf, despite their elemental affinities?”

The first few questions were rather simple, however as they went on they got harder and harder. Cain still found no problems, and was shooting through the exam like it was nothing. He started sweating a little bit near the end however, some of these questions were above his grade, and even students in year two or three may not be able to answer them correctly.

Cain eventually managed to finish the last of the questions before handing it. He was the first one to finish the exam, however the teachers weren’t happy with him, in fact they shook their hands in disappointment. Usually when a student hands in their exam so early, it means they were simply incapable of answering the questions and decided to give up, hence this was never a good sign.

Cain didn’t care about their reactions though, his final grade would be the only thing that mattered. Soon after Graxi finished as well, however she got a different reaction. She was well known as a genius so her finishing early was no surprise. Cain was only known for his combat ability, so no one held his genetic research skills in high regard.

“Looks like you gave up early Cain, at least you can do physical labour in the future to support yourself”

Cain ignored her and kept waiting, he promised George he would wait for him to finish his exam before he left. Eventually George came out, but his once optimistic face was somewhat gloomy.

“What's wrong George?”

“Why are those questions so damn difficult, the beginning wasn’t to bad, but those final questions nearly made my head burst. I was hoping to get into A rank next year, but I think I’ve only done well enough to reach B rank”

Cain felt somewhat annoyed at George’s reaction. Most students would dance with joy if they got into B rank, but George wasn’t satisfied at all.

“How well do you think you did, Cain?”

“Who knows. We’ll just have to wait and see, but I think I did pretty good…”