Academy Entrance Exam
A micro bikini and a slingshot bikini.
With those two pieces of heavy armor laid out before her, Freyja sank into deep deliberation.
"Which one should I wear…"
No — before that, was wearing either of them even the right call?
"Even if I pass wearing this… that'd just be gear carrying me…"
A pass earned not by her own skill, but by equipment.
That was not the picture Freyja wanted.
Of course, some people would say that passing was what mattered either way — but Freyja's thinking was different.
"If you only have the skill to pass when you're geared up, then you shouldn't pass in the first place."
To borrow a line from some movie: if you're nothing without the gear, you shouldn't have it.
Lean on equipment alone, and your own ability never grows. The day you find yourself without it, you might not be able to do a thing.
"Yeah… better put these away."
Mm. That felt right.
She stuffed both pieces of heavy armor back into the wardrobe and pulled out something lighter instead.
"Hmm… this should be fine."
Dressed in a modest amount of armor, Freyja turned a full circle and muttered to herself. The figure reflected in the mirror looked less like a sturdy tank and more like a sub-dealer or a rogue.
"Hngh."
Those enormous breasts of hers looked built for tanking no matter how you sliced it… but a tank only really shone in party play. In a practical exam that banned parties, the role didn't seem like a great fit.
"Or… wait? Since it's solo, should I just tank through everything with raw defense…"
Uuuuugh…
"I dunno… ueng…"
Maybe her brain had melted a little. Thinking about it for no good reason only made her head hurt.
Freyja let out a heavy sigh and trudged toward the front door. She opened it, then glanced back over her shoulder.
A house a touch too large for one person. The fact that it was a foreclosure property still bothered her a little, but ever since she'd started training, there hadn't been so much as a ghost or a single paranormal incident.
"Hmm… if I apply for the dorms, maybe I should sell this place."
Hunters were a high-earning profession, after all. Pass the academy, and a future sitting pretty on a pile of money was all but guaranteed. Moving house would be a perfectly reasonable choice at that point.
"I'll have to think about it."
Freyja murmured it under her breath.
"Alright then. I'm heading out!"
She called the words out brightly toward the empty house and stepped outside. Her steps toward the academy were light, and a smile filled her face from ear to ear.
9:40 a.m.
Having crossed through the dimensional gate and arrived at the academy, Freyja sensed something off.
The weather was lovely. The academy floated above the open ocean, with a cool sea breeze and warm sunlight — perfect weather for a stroll, the kind that put you in a good mood.
"Huh."
What felt strange was the people around her.
Judging by the direction they were all headed, they were clearly fellow academy applicants. And yet not a single one of them was wearing armor. Every last person was in everyday clothes.
They said that if a normal person stood among a crowd of weirdos, the normal one became the weirdo. That was exactly the situation she was in.
Surrounded by people who'd practically stripped down, she alone was fully dressed — and somehow that made her the one feeling embarrassed.
"Ugh…"
Everyone else was in ordinary street clothes, and she was the only one in armor — light armor, sure, but armor all the same. The shame was climbing fast.
"Um, excuse me…"
"Hm?"
"Where do I go for the practical exam…?"
Face flushed red with embarrassment, Freyja put the question to a proctor standing at the academy's main gate.
"What are you talking about?"
"Pardon?"
"The practical exam is in the afternoon. After the written test is over."
"Ah…?"
At those words, her mind went blank.
"Don't tell me you mixed them up?"
"Yeees… I thought the practical came first…"
"Haa. If you get hurt in the practical, you might not be able to take the written at all. Normally you sit the written exam first, then move on to the practical."
"Aaaah… I see…?"
Oh. Right…?
Why hadn't she thought of that…?
Freyja fanned her burning face with her hand and forced out an awkward laugh.
No wonder nobody else had shown up in armor.
"So why did you come in armor, then?"
"Huh? Well… because I thought it was the practical exam…"
"No. You come in regular clothes and change into your armor afterward."
"Huh?"
Freyja lifted her head. A whole storm of emotions flickered through her eyes, and the biggest among them by far was pure shock.
"Huh?"
"Were you planning to wear the armor home, too?"
"Th-that's… yeah, I guess…"
Why had she done that…
Freyja flushed scarlet and hung her head. An indescribable wave of shame washed over her, and she wanted nothing more than to crawl into a hole right then and there.
"Ahaha… well, the written exam is about to start, so hurry on in."
"Yeees… thank you…"
Freyja trudged through the main gate. The stares and whispers that had been gathering around her finally made complete sense.
The strange one wasn't everyone else — it was her. That was a rather hard fact to swallow…
"Hweh…"
Ah.
I want to go home…
10:00 a.m. sharp.
The first portion of the academy entrance exam — the written test — began.
After receiving the usual rundown of rules about no cheating, time limits, and so on, Freyja took her exam packet and started reading the questions, spinning a ballpoint pen between her fingers.
"Hm?"
Something was strange.
The moment she finished reading a question, the answer simply appeared. Watching the correct responses flow from her pen without the slightest hesitation, a single doubt took shape.
What is this?
The exam was hard. There were passages she couldn't make sense of no matter how carefully she read them. The wording was twisted into knots, and the traps were everywhere. Exactly what you'd expect from an academy exam, she thought.
What the hell.
And yet it was strange. It was clearly difficult — of course it was difficult — and still her hand kept writing down the answers of its own accord. Her mind spun on its own, filling in the correct responses as if it had always known them.
Like something she had once learned. Fragmented memories snapped into their original shape in an instant and produced the answer.
I don't get it.
Click.
Her pen stopped.
The final question on the final page. After writing out a sprawling mana formula that ran more than ten lines long, Freyja finished every problem and turned her head slightly toward the window — though the curtains were drawn, so she couldn't really see outside.
"Time's up! Back row, collect the papers!"
The scrape of chairs being pushed back filled the room. From the seat directly behind Freyja, a blonde woman approached.
"I am collecting the exam papers."
"Ah, here."
"Hngh… wait…? Did you… actually solve these…?"
"Hm? Yeah, I solved them."
Freyja handed over the packet as she answered. For some reason, the blonde woman's face began to fill with pure astonishment.
"Th-that can't be…!"
"Hey, you there! What are you doing not turning those in!"
"Ah — uugh…! I am going!"
Muttering something under her breath, the woman gathered the papers and headed up to submit them. Freyja watched her for a moment, then stood and left her seat first. Something about the situation felt like it would get annoying if she stuck around.
"Huh? H-hey, where did you go!!!"
A shriek rose up not long after Freyja stepped out of the classroom. She breathed a sigh of relief and broke into a run toward the nearest convenience store.
The practical was coming up soon. Better fill her stomach first.
These breasts of hers had maintenance costs that were no joke…
When people hear "academy practical exam," what comes to mind first?
Most picture sparring between applicants, dummy measurements, or a match against the faculty.
But Venus Academy existed solely to train hunters for combat against magical beasts — that is, monsters. Human-versus-human combat was taught only at a foundational level. The vast majority of the curriculum covered aura and mana control, how to wield them, and anti-monster combat doctrine.
In other words—
"Ugh…!"
—the practical exam was pure, brutal live combat.
"Dammit!"
A metallic clang rang out. What had collided was clearly skin, and yet the sound was like striking iron.
"Tch…!"
An ambush from her blind spot. The punch she threw on pure reflex was loaded with more mana than necessary, and it landed cleanly — dead center.
And yet the one that hurt was her own fist. The monster that had taken a mana-reinforced punch didn't look so much as scratched.
"Kigik."
"What are you laughing at…"
A massive frame that looked well over 180 centimeters. Little visible muscle, but an enormous pair of breasts and a cock. The chest was G-cup at minimum. The cock easily cleared twenty centimeters in length.
"A goblin… huh?"
A monster she'd only ever seen in videos was standing right in front of her. Fear, wonder, excitement — every emotion swirled together and set her heart hammering hard.
The tendons in its arms are severed.
The goblin's long arms hung limp at its sides. No strength in them at all — even the fingers drooped. Faint scars at the wrists and elbows made it clear the creature's tendons had been cut.
"Hoo."
But—
"Urgh…!"
—that didn't mean it had no way to attack.
Whoooosh—!
A great rush of wind. A kick skimmed past the tip of her nose. If she'd been even a fraction slower dropping her body, it would have meant a serious injury.
"Hup!"
She back-tumbled clear of a second kick and put distance between them. Freyja clicked her tongue softly and gathered mana into her hand.
"Give me a second to pull out my staff!"
Blue light gathered, and a wooden staff took shape. A staff whose form shifted according to a mage's personal mental image. Freyja leveled the smooth wooden staff at the goblin and set her mana in motion.
"Lightning Spear!!"
Yellow lightning twisted into the shape of a spear and began to pour down upon the goblin.