The Entrance Exam (1)
Morning sunlight filtered through the curtains. I sat up in bed.
'So the day has finally come.'
From outside my door, a bustling clamor had been echoing since early morning. It was the crowd of hopefuls who had gathered to enter the Hero Academy.
'Quite a crowd.'
To be fair, I had expected this to some extent when I registered as a hero candidate for the entrance exam last week. Even then, a massive crowd had gathered.
But that was likely just the tip of the iceberg. As long as they met the age requirement, some people returned to take the exam year after year.
'Well, graduation guarantees you'll become an official hero, so it's only natural.'
For any hero candidate, there was no reason not to take the exam. Of course, the vast majority of those who came solely for that guarantee would fail.
This was entirely different from the interview to register as a hero candidate. The Hero Academy only admitted sixty-four students a year. And out of those, once you excluded the sixteen slots in the Magic Department reserved for students from the Magic Tower, only forty-eight remained for the Martial Arts Department.
This was due to the academy's strict policy of training only a select elite. To break it down further, the Swordsmanship Department had thirty-two slots—eight students across four classes. The Archery and Spearmanship Departments had only eight slots each.
This distribution existed because most high-grade holy relics took the form of swords. Out of the hundred or so relics of 4-star grade or higher registered with the Holy Church, fewer than twenty were weapons other than swords.
'So normally, people would just learn swordsmanship first and figure out the rest later, but...'
I pulled a bow and a quiver from my inventory and began to maintain them.
After much deliberation, I had decided to take the entrance exam using archery instead of swordsmanship. Using swordsmanship too carelessly might arouse suspicion about my true identity.
'Especially Libero's swordsmanship. It's far too eye-catching.'
Even if a situation arose where I absolutely had to use a sword, it would be better to use the Lidval family's swordsmanship. As Libero had mentioned, the Lidval style was still highly advanced.
And though I could no longer perfectly replicate Gwen's swordsmanship like I did when relying on Absolute Obedience, I had become capable of adapting and applying it in my own way.
'Though, of course, the best-case scenario is not having to use it at all.'
I gave the bowstring a test pull. It felt sufficiently taut. You might wonder why I was suddenly picking up a bow. Admittedly, my current proficiency in archery was laughably meager compared to my mastery of the sword.
If I had possessed any innate talent for archery in the first place, I would have used a bow instead of a sword from the start—even taking into account the difficulty of obtaining high-grade archery relics.
But a lack of talent didn't mean it was incompatible with my build. For starters, I possessed the Wind Authority. While it had been a helpful skill when swinging a sword, its fundamental limitation lay in weight, meaning it was actually far more efficient when applied to projectiles.
Furthermore, the Wind Authority was incredibly useful for seizing high ground or maintaining distance.
And above all else... my third inherited Stigma. The inherited trait of this particular Stigma synergized exceptionally well with archery. Though I had originally inherited it for an entirely different purpose, it happened to fit my current situation perfectly.
Of course, even with all of that combined, my archery was still vastly inferior to my swordsmanship. But that wouldn't hinder my objective. My goal was simply to graduate from the Hero Academy quietly and secure my official hero status as quickly and easily as possible.
"Well, shall we head out before it's too late?"
I secured the maintained bow and quiver with a leather strap, slung them over my shoulder, and left the room.
"There really are so many people," Elsie remarked.
She stared at the massive crowd of hero candidates. Hundreds of applicants had swarmed the venue for an exam that would select a mere forty-eight. She had never seen so many people gathered in one place outside of royal events.
"Most of them are just trying their luck," Gwen said, scanning the crowd.
"Most of those people have probably never even fought a Chaos Beast. They're just taking the exam because they happen to meet the loose requirements for a hero candidate."
Just then, the applicants at the front began entering the building one by one. Watching them, Elsie lowered her voice and asked Gwen,
"Come to think of it, you said the exam involves fighting Chaos Beasts, right? Does that mean there are actual Chaos Beasts inside that building?"
"Of course not. The barrier here in Hailyen is so powerful that ordinary Chaos Beasts wouldn't even be able to move. The exam doesn't take place in physical reality."
"Pardon?"
"Do you remember the Lake where you faced your Trial back in Basil?"
Quite some time had passed since then, but there was no way she could forget it. The contents of that Trial had been incredibly harsh for her.
"You mean that strange, mist-shrouded lake?"
"Yes, that one. A similar lake exists inside that building. The only difference is that the Magic Tower struck a contract with the god who rules it, allowing them to manipulate the internal environment from the outside."
"A contract between a god and humans..."
To Elsie, who had only recently encountered the existence of a god for the first time during her Trial, the concept felt foreign. But to Gwen, who had already studied history at the Hero Academy, it was common knowledge.
"There's nothing strange about it. Even your ability to use light magic is a lingering remnant of a contract your ancestors once forged with the God of Light. Before the advent of Chaos, contracts between gods and humans were quite common."
"I see."
As they conversed, applicants began trickling out of the building. For some reason, their faces were completely drained of color.
"That's the natural reaction for anyone seeing a Chaos Beast for the first time."
To humans born and raised entirely within the safety of the barriers, the Chaos Zone was an uncharted abyss. And the Chaos Beasts were the bizarre, unknown creatures that inhabited it. The terror of facing those grotesque monstrosities for the first time was beyond imagination.
"It was the same for you, and the same for me."
Gwen and Elsie had been no exception. However, the moment one realized those creatures could be cut down, they ceased to be an incomprehensible threat. Even so, Gwen offered Elsie a piece of advice.
"But don't let your guard down, Elsie. Sometimes, an opponent you think you understand has more to them than meets the eye."
It wasn't a particularly difficult concept, but it didn't quite click with her either. In the end, she would just have to experience the exam for herself.
Inside the exam space. A mangled Chaos Beast dissolved into particles and vanished. Elsie let out a ragged breath.
"Whew..."
The first creature to appear had been a weak-looking Chaos Beast. It was a type Elsie was already familiar with, so she had cut it down without much thought.
However, the Chaos Beasts that followed grew progressively stronger. Still, they were creatures that could be cut down with a sword. Even if her blade didn't bite deep at first, swinging rapidly and striking repeatedly eventually brought them down.
Naturally, there was a limit to that approach. The eighth Chaos Beast was that limit. Clad in thick, heavy armor from head to toe, the creature was completely impervious to her sword. She couldn't find a single gap to thrust her blade into.
Conversely, every single one of its attacks carried devastating weight.
'If only I had Gwen's sword, I could have cut through this.'
If she had Ignis, she could have melted right through the beast's armor. But she possessed no such high-grade relic. The 2-star relic she held, Breeze Bringer, was only capable of conjuring a gentle draft.
'But still...'
Gwen had told her that while wielding a powerful relic was a skill in itself, the evaluating instructors would easily recognize an individual's raw potential even without one.
In truth, Elsie didn't know what her own potential was either. But she knew what she had to do.
'I just have to show them the absolute limit of what I can do.'
The light in her eyes shifted. This entrance exam was a trial she absolutely had to pass if she wanted to gain the strength she sought.
Gwen had assured her she would pass with ease, but she couldn't afford to be complacent.
'I will bring this thing down.'
In any case, this wasn't reality. It didn't matter if her sword shattered, or if her own body broke. She decided to use that to her advantage.
She slashed, and slashed again. She doubted if "slashing" was even the right word, considering her blade failed to leave so much as a scratch on its armor.
Her bones and muscles screamed from the sheer impact of repeatedly striking the solid surface. Yet, she relentlessly drove her sword forward.
Her frenzied strikes looked utterly reckless, as if she were trying to cleave a boulder with a kitchen knife.
But eventually, even a boulder would crumble. Though her wild swings seemed chaotic, she had actually been concentrating every single blow on one precise spot.
The moment a hairline fracture appeared, Elsie thrust her sword forward with blinding speed.
'Please!'
With that, the Chaos Beast froze. A moment later, it dissolved into particles and vanished.
"I just... have to cut down everything in my way..."
As she caught her breath, a new Chaos Beast began to materialize before her.
"No matter what it is..."
Its scale was on an entirely different level from the previous beasts. As the towering silhouette of the Chaos Beast loomed larger and larger, Elsie finally understood the meaning behind Gwen's words.
'I understand now, Gwen.'
She couldn't see any path to victory. For the first time, she wasn't sure if she could cut this one down.
'It really is terrifying.'
But she refused to back down. She gripped her sword tightly.
"Elsie. No family name, origin Basil."
Looking up from the documents, Instructor Setia watched Elsie battle the Chaos Beast on the screen.
"Not bad," she remarked.
Setia was the instructor of Swordsmanship Class 2. In the Swordsmanship Department, the instructors of each class selected the students they wished to teach. This meant she held eight cards to draft her roster.
"Does 'not bad' mean you have no intention of picking her?"
Huff, the instructor of Swordsmanship Class 3 sitting beside her, asked. He already had little interest in Elsie. There were plenty of candidates from prestigious noble families with renowned Stigmas, so he had no reason to care about some nobody from Basil. He was simply keeping tabs on his rival, Setia.
"I'm just a bit conflicted," Setia replied. "Her swordsmanship is excellent, and her tenacity is remarkable. Her potential is clear. However, her style is far too emotional. Someone like her would only disrupt teamwork."
A hero did not fight alone. For that reason, team evaluations held significant weight among the academy's various assessments. Setia was taking that into account.
"What do you think?"
Setia turned to Sigrid, the instructor of Class 1. He was studying Elsie's movements with a solemn expression.
"Well, I'm inclined to agree with you. Her talent is exceptional, but she seems a bit too much for me to handle."
Sigrid shifted his gaze to the woman sitting at the far right. She had her feet propped up on the desk, watching Elsie with an amused expression.
"What about you, Freira?"
At his question, Freira, the instructor of Swordsmanship Class 4, replied as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
"Looks fun. I'll take her."
"So this is a lake too."
I looked down at the mist-shrouded lake inside the building. At this rate, I was going to develop trauma just from looking at lakes.
"I really don't want to go in..."
But since they said it wasn't functioning as a Trial right now, it should be fine. I dipped my foot into the water.