The 1st Exam

Kyaaaaah!

Far in the distance, so faint it might have been imagined, Tiss's scream rang out—a cry steeped in the colors of the cosmos—as Lionel arrived before the grounds of the 1st Exam.

"Well met. Those faces thick with killing intent tell me that, at last, only the ones worth watching remain."

Baba Yaga's trial had been brutal, but the results were unmistakable. The examinees' expressions were grimly serious now—only those who truly understood what an Academy entrance exam meant had lasted this far. Lionel himself believed that anyone whose heart wavered at a critical moment had no business becoming a hunter or a hero, and the caliber of those who remained pleased him.

"For the record, an escape route stands ready at any hour."

Lionel glanced sidelong at the emergency exit beside him, as if to say that anyone who knew the worth of their own life ought to run now. But among the elite examinees who had come through Baba Yaga's merciless 0th Exam, not one trembled. Not one fled.

A satisfied smile crossed Lionel's face as he began to explain the exam.

"I shall explain the 1st Exam. Instructors—distribute the bracelets to the examinees."

When Lionel raised a hand, the waiting instructors handed a bracelet to each examinee.

"The 1st Exam shall proceed as a survival trial. The time limit runs from this moment until two o'clock tomorrow afternoon—twenty-four hours in all."

At the mention of a twenty-four-hour survival trial with assigned objectives, the examinees' faces hardened.

"If this is a competition among participants, wouldn't the hero track have the advantage?"

One examinee raised a hand to ask. Lionel nodded.

"A fair point. Heroes receive training specialized for combat against villains, so in single combat it is true that hero candidates hold the advantage."

A chilly smile touched Lionel's lips.

"Which is why I have arranged a situation in which such worries shall not arise."

Kieeeeeek!

No sooner had he finished speaking than a monster's roar tore out of the forest.

"Th-that can't be…"

"Yes. Precisely those. The monsters you know. Living monsters dwell within that forest."

As the examinees stirred, Lionel continued in a grave voice.

"I shall now explain the scenario."

With everyone holding their breath, Lionel projected a panoramic view of the entire forest and went on.

"This forest lies on the outskirts of Area 3. Within it is a nest of monsters known as Alpharan. At present, a villain organization has infiltrated this place, intending to capture Alpharan for use in a terrorist attack. For your information, Alpharan are living bombs of a sort—when they sense a threat, they release a potent sleeping gas."

Lionel watched the examinees' expressions as he laid out each mission.

"There are three missions from which examinees may choose."

"Before I go into further detail, I shall address the bracelets. All of ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠you, put them on."

The examinees began fastening the bracelets around their wrists.

Click.

Each bracelet adjusted automatically to the size of its wearer's hand. Once Lionel had confirmed that every examinee was wearing one, he continued.

"From this moment, the bracelet you have received is as good as your life. There are functions that operate only while you possess it, so do not lose it. We will be monitoring your condition through the bracelet; damage it or discard it of your own accord, and you will be disqualified at once."

Leaving the designated area, he added, would likewise result in disqualification, and the bracelet would sound a warning the moment one strayed from the bounds.

He regarded the examinees for a moment, then added one last point.

"Protect your bracelet until tomorrow, and you will receive five points. Seize another examinee's bracelet, and you will receive two. For the record, the other examinees are the villains. Understood?"

Lionel's gaze turned toward the forest beyond.

"Harvest a Magic Stone from an Alpharan—the monsters the villains are after—and you will be awarded two points ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠per stone. Other wild monsters inhabiting the forest will be treated as one point each."

As if to mark the most important passage of all, Lionel's voice dropped lower.

"Lastly… I shall speak of the queen, the matter you will be most curious about. Alpharan form a rigidly caste-based society, and the entire chain of command is concentrated in the queen monster."

The queen monster hidden somewhere in the forest was a Mid-grade Monster—the sort of opponent an active hunter ought to face. If it came to a fight, it would be a fight they would have to stake their lives on. They were to steel themselves accordingly.

Once he had confirmed that the examinees' faces had gone taut, he spoke again.

"Where the risk is great, so too is the return. Capture the Queen Alpharan, and I shall regard the entire Alpharan colony as subjugated. The instant the queen is taken, the exam will end at once, and every person who contributed to her defeat will be marked as having passed."

Lionel folded his arms and smiled, as if he had been waiting for this.

"For the record, there are conditions when forming a team."

The examinees focused on him once more.

"A solo player may pass upon reaching ten points. Form a team, however, and the target score increases by five points for each additional member."

In other words, two people together would need fifteen points in total; three would need twenty; four would need twenty-five.

"Furthermore, to prevent prior collusion and conspiracy, every examinee will be placed at a random location. Any other questions?"

The rules were simple enough that no one needed to ask; every examinee understood Lionel's words at once.

Solo, or a team. Cooperate with the person in front of you—or make them an enemy. Each of them began weighing which judgment to make.

"Very well. Then we begin at once. Those who are ready, board the trucks."

One by one, the examinees climbed onto the trucks bound for the 1st Exam grounds.

"Examinee. Your turn."

Still wearing a blindfold, Sia followed the instructor's guidance down from the truck. She pulled the blindfold off and looked around, but no particular presence registered nearby. The examinees seemed to have been scattered at intervals.

"Now then… what should I do?"

She remembered what she and her brother Siu had discussed before the exam began—the hidden purpose of the trial.

"This exam isn't really about beating down monsters and the other examinees."

"Then what's it supposed to mean?"

"It's about making a team."

"A team? Isn't that a loss?"

On the face of it, the idea was hard to swallow. Lionel, the proctor, had clearly said that adding teammates came with a penalty. The more members you had, the harder it became to avoid clashes with more monsters and more examinees. More fighting meant more stamina lost, and there would always be scavengers waiting to snatch the spoils.

At Sia's confusion, Siu patiently walked her back through Lionel's own words.

"There's a hint in the exam scenario. What's the villain organization's goal?"

"Capturing the monsters called Alpharan."

"Right. And Alpharan are monsters that only move at the queen's word."

In other words, the goal of the villain organization—which was to say, of every examinee in this trial—was itself a hint: take down the Queen Alpharan.

"If every last examinee teamed up and took the queen monster, it would even be possible for everyone to pass without a single dropout."

"Huh? What? Then we don't need to fight each other at all?"

"Unfortunately, that's a bit much to hope for."

Siu shrugged, as if to say things were never going to unravel that easily. Beyond the rules explained aloud, among the additional details they had been given, there was a stipulation that becoming teammates required their bracelets to remain in contact for at least ten seconds. Those ten seconds could be the most vulnerable moment for both parties, so how far you could trust a stranger and actually cooperate was anyone's guess.

Persuasion, trust, and cooperation. In Siu's view, that was the hidden key to this exam.

"So the whole field becoming one team is impossible, then."

Sia sensed at once that it was possible only in theory, and difficult in practice. Whether you were a hero candidate or a hunter candidate, your specialty was distinctly different. Almost no one would be able to survive twenty-four hours alone in a forest against monsters and other examinees and still make it out, which meant the exam had been designed so that the examinees themselves would choose to form teams and find a way to live. Rather than go after a Queen Alpharan that would be hard for the others to find, most would likely band together and hunt monsters or examinees instead.

In the end, Siu's read was that this exam was meant to evaluate the examinees on far more than raw combat power—teamwork, crisis response, and a dozen other things besides simply slaying the queen.

"Then who should we team up with?"

"We don't have abilities specialized for finding the queen monster, so the first priority should be someone with a detection ability, or someone who knows monsters well."

By then, Sia understood Siu's plan completely.

"So if we gather people and go after the queen… the two of us will run into each other naturally, won't ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠we?"

"Exactly."

Different starting points didn't matter. If they gathered people and headed for where the queen was, they were bound to meet—and if they could persuade the ones they had chosen to move as a single team, passing would be all but guaranteed.

"Then let's go find them."

From Siu and Sia's perspective, this was just another field they had walked more times than they could count, so it wasn't that daunting. Sia closed her eyes, calling Chris's teaching to mind.

Sia closed her eyes and stirred the mana within her body. She had never awakened an ability, but in its place she had endured hellish training to forge a powerful physique. The hours others poured into ability training, she had poured many times over into mana control.

The result was already something close to an ability in its own right: rock-hard abs, sculpted muscle, and finely governed, formidable mana. The power that spread through her reinforced her entire body. Enhancing physical ability and imbuing a weapon with mana were the fundamentals of mana operation. Take one step further, and even the finest details of the body could be controlled to perfection.

She sharpened her five senses and sent her awareness outward, like ripples from a droplet striking a pool. Used this way, she could grasp her surroundings faster and more completely than with her eyes alone.

"Someone who knows the forest and monsters well would be nice."

A tingle ran through her. At the far edge of her spreading sense, a faint presence registered in the distance.

"Found you."

Sia closed the distance in a rush, but her target was nowhere to be seen. Only after she had fully opened her sensory organs could she tell that someone had melted naturally into the forest, holding their breath, watching her every move.

A pair of eyes blinked.

Cute.

The small girl with light brown hair tied back already seemed to have made this forest her base of operations.

From the outskirts, huh. A Poacher?

The simple traps hidden here and there made it obvious this child was not from a city Area, but from the outer wilds. Perhaps because she had seen Tiss in the 0th Exam, Sia's heart softened of its own accord.

"Hi there."

Sia gave a light little wave, but the small girl did not so much as twitch. Sia could feel herself being scanned—calm, swift, assessing ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠how she would act.

Figures. Even a little kid who made it as an Academy examinee knows how to use mana.

"I'm Sia. I'm an Academy examinee, and I came here with my brother."

"Please don't come any closer. Stay right where you are."

"Okay. I won't take a single step from here."

The girl watched her without a flicker of emotion.

Lots of wariness. Well, that's only natural.

Sia chose her next words with care, hoping to ease the girl's guard.

"You heard what the lion-headed mister said, right? I think the real goal of this exam is to find teammates."

She ran the situation quickly. The way the girl melted into the forest, the traps she had set, and her skill with mana—none of it belonged to an ordinary child. Weighing the information she had, the girl was most likely a Poacher.

I have to get her on our side.

A Poacher from Area 7 would know forests and monsters better than anyone. If the girl handled tracking and hunting monsters, and Sia handled clashes with people, the penalty of an extra teammate would be more than worth it.

"Want to team up with Unnie? Unnie's pretty strong, so I can protect you while we fight."

The child's answer came only after a moment's hesitation.

"There's someone I'm waiting for."

"Someone you're waiting for?"

So she already had a companion. In that case, that companion was likely a Poacher as well. If it was possible, Sia would have liked to bring that person onto the team too.

"Can you tell me who you're waiting for?"

"Um…"

A repeating crossbow was still in the child's hands, its aim leveled at Sia. Even so, Sia waited calmly, and the girl decided that a name, at least, would be all right to give.

After a brief silence, she finally opened her mouth.

"Tiss Unnie."

In that instant, Sia's breath stopped.