"Everyone, assemble!!"
When Darwin and Chris returned to the camp, they happened to hear Precht's voice calling everyone together.
The two didn't dare to delay and hurriedly jogged to merge into the crowd.
Seeing that everyone had mostly gathered, Precht, acting as the gatekeeper for the third stage of the exam, began to guide the crowd toward the fourth stage.
"First, I want to congratulate you all for successfully breaking through my defensive line yesterday and completing the third stage of the examination!"
"Now, I have a very important announcement to make to you all!"
A spontaneous announcement??
Everyone looked at each other, wondering what kind of trick Precht had up his sleeve.
Had something happened?
Precht scanned the expressions on their faces and knew they were overthinking it.
"Rest assured!"
"This isn't a spontaneous announcement due to an accident, but a planned notification."
Hearing this, the crowd felt a bit more at ease.
As long as it wasn't an accident, it was fine!
But if it was planned, why make it so serious? What exactly was the announcement?
"The announcement is this: this examination has now ended!"
Eh??
The examination is over?!
Everyone's eyes widened in bewilderment. After a few seconds of stunned silence, they began to clamor.
"Wait... wait! Didn't you say there were four stages in total? We've only passed three!"
"Yeah!"
"We haven't even taken the fourth exam yet, why suddenly announce it's over?! I haven't even shown my full strength!!"
"Is it already over? You should have said that sooner; if I'd known, I would have headed back last night..."
Clap, clap, clap!
Precht clapped his hands, and the crowd immediately quieted down to listen to him.
"Before the examination began, Weston should have said something like this to you—"
"'This examination is meant to test your abilities in various fields and will be scored; the exam could stop at any time, so you must manage your physical strength and magic power reasonably...'"
The crowd froze.
It seemed...
It seemed he had said something like that?
"Among the abilities being tested, 'responding to unexpected situations' is naturally included."
"Telling you in advance that there are four stages, when in reality there are only three, is certainly a type of 'unexpected situation'!"
"If you're unsatisfied, you can simply understand it this way: the fourth stage was your reaction to the 'sudden announcement of the exam's end'."
You can do that?!
The wizards couldn't help but think: if someone had held back a large amount of physical and magic power to deal with an unknown fourth stage, resulting in low scores for the first three, wouldn't they be completely screwed now that the end was suddenly announced?
This really was quite insidious!
Fortunately, in order to break through the third stage yesterday, they had almost completely drained their physical and magic power; this trap had essentially gone to waste.
Just as everyone was feeling lucky, Precht's next words dealt a sudden blow to their hearts, twisting the situation once again.
"The parts of this examination that required scoring ended with the first three stages."
"However, the so-called 'Fourth Stage' does actually exist, and we will award appropriate points based on your performance in this stage."
Ah... this...
Everyone's faces were covered in black question marks.
"First you say there isn't one, then you say there is. This is getting really troublesome..."
"Is there any difference between this and just doing the fourth stage directly?"
Precht kept his cold expression: "Of course there's a difference!"
"One way is four exams totaling 100 points, with a max of 100. The other way is three exams totaling 100 points, plus one Extra Exam worth 20 points, with a max of 120!"
"Can that be the same?"
It seemed... it really wasn't the same?!
In other words, this final exam had changed from the "grand finale" into an "extra credit question"?
"Of course, this final extra exam is not within the 100-point total, so you can freely decide whether to 'take it' or 'not take it'."
"If you choose 'not to take it,' then from this moment on, you are free to move as you wish. If you choose 'to take it,' those who wish to continue the examination come to me, and I will announce the content of the fourth stage!"
"I will give you ten minutes to think it over carefully!"
After speaking, Precht closed his eyes and leaned against the giant tree, waiting quietly.
The wizards were stunned for a few seconds, then split into small groups of three to five, launching into intense discussions.
"What do you say? Are you continuing?"
"I'm already exhausted. Right now I just want to go back and sleep, so I'm not participating!"
"That fourth stage sounds like it will be very hard. My strength was weak to begin with, so I'll pass..."
"Hehehe, I'm joining! I had a comfortable sleep last night, and I'm full of energy now!"
"Me too! And if I can earn these extra 20 points, maybe I can become the next S-Class in the guild!"
"Hahaha... I don't have such a grand dream as becoming S-Class. I'm already quite satisfied with my current rank..."
Because Precht had gone significantly easy on them during the examination, many members of the guild had passed the third stage yesterday and earned the qualification to participate in the fourth.
However, after the discussion, more than half of the people chose to give up on continuing the exam.
Some were because they had consumed too much magic power, physical strength, and mental energy during yesterday's three exams and could not continue.
Others were because their inherent strength wasn't great to begin with; they hadn't expected a advancement from the start and hadn't even wanted to take this exam. They only came because Weston required the whole guild to participate. Now that they could finally end the "torture," there was naturally no reason to continue.
Ten minutes passed quickly.
Dozens of wizards stood in two separate groups according to "take" or "not take." The numbers were roughly half and half.
"You people are sure you're not participating?"
Precht squinted his eyes, confirming with the group on his left.
"Confirmed!"
"We'll just wait here for the good news from the others!"
Those who chose not to take it all had relaxed smiles on their faces without exception.
They didn't plan on returning to Magnolia immediately either. Instead, they decided to stay here for a day to rest—fishing, hunting, adventuring, and playing—treating it like a camping trip to relax with their guildmates.
Precht nodded and said nothing more.
This situation was exactly what Weston and the others had anticipated.
Weston's original intention in designing this collective examination was for the guild's wizards to experience failure in the process, realize the deficiencies caused by their long-term slackness, and reignite their fighting spirit to become stronger.
And in the first three stages, especially in last night's duel with Precht, everyone had deeply recognized their own weakness while simultaneously deepening their bonds with the guild and their partners.
It could be said that the initial goal of this examination had already been achieved.
Since the guild members had realized this, whether they continued to participate in the exam no longer mattered.
Moreover, the fourth stage Weston designed was never meant for the majority of people anyway.