CRACK!
The sigil shattered under the weight of Ronan's foot.
A sharp burst of light flared from the broken disk, and a rune activated on it. It was the examiner retrieval rune, and it allowed the examiners to know who to remove from the battlefield.
In a blur, the noble was removed from Ronan's sight.
Silence fell across the battlefield.
Not actual silence. Spells were still being thrown and students were still battling over the nodes.
With only 5 minutes left, people were getting desperate.
Ronan picked up the node in front of him. It was still glowing, still active.
The instant Ronan's fingers touched the orb, he applied a small stream of mana into it.
The orb started glowing even brighter.
4 minutes.
If his hypothesis was right, this would be enough.
Ronan's pupils narrowed as he instantly activated his [Stealth] skill.
His mana still wasn't full, but he had enough to rely on [Stealth] to hide for the rest of the four minutes.
It wasn't safe yet, not even close. Ronan had fully expected someone to interfere after he had swooped in and stolen the node, and he had an escape route mapped out.
Thankfully no one seemed to notice the insignificant fight, and it was something he was grateful for.
With stealth active, Ronan gazed at the battlefield. The rank 2 students were all getting tired by now, but since most of them formed groups, they held their ground. Ronan doubted they would be defeated in the next four minutes.
So Ronan turned around and ran.
Towards the ruins, where his original hiding spot had been.
He arrived at his hiding spot with no trouble, and he slipped under the runes, never letting go of his mana node.
03:00.
Shouts intensified, and a large tremor ran through the earth.
02:00.
A pair of footsteps ran past the ruined shrine he was hiding under.
"Let's check here! There has to be someone hiding here!"
"Why would anyone do that! We don't have time, let's look for someone!"
Ronan remained motionless and they ran off.
01:00.
Then, something unexpected happened.
Like it was natural – like it was nothing at all – another student sat beside him.
Ronan didn't notice it at first.
His eyes were directed to the battlefield, observing the situation.
It was only when the boy spoke that Ronan realized there was someone next to him.
"Yo."
Ronan's body froze.
Did someone sneak up on me? Ronan thought in fear. How?
Ronan slowly turned to the student sitting next to him. He had brown hair and brown eyes. He had a handsome face, but it looked more feminine than manly. His hair was long and brown and it reached his hips.
Ronan recognized him instantly, and his guard dropped.
Kazuma Monozono.
An assassin.
Ronan felt his racing heart start to slow down as his logical thinking came back to him.
The person in front of him wasn't a threat, but despite that, Ronan still felt alarm bells through his body, like the person in front of him could end his life at any given moment.
"Your guard dropped that fast?" Kazuma said with an expressionless face.
"Someone like you wouldn't need my node," Ronan said, then he pointed to Kazuma's left hand.
Kazuma already had a node in his hand, which was floating slightly through the usage of wind magic.
"I could want more.
"Then you would have taken it from me already."
"You're right… interesting hiding spot."
Suddenly, Kazuma got up and left the fallen debris.
"I found you because you left a trail of footprints. They were subtle due to that stealth ability, but not unnoticeable."
With a nod, Ronan replied. "Thanks for the advice."
Kazuma nodded curtly, turning his heel and disappearing.
It took a few seconds, but Ronan finally let out a sigh of relief after Kazuma left.
To think Kazuma was in his batch of participants. He hadn't noticed him earlier, but there was no way he could notice a whole 2500 students.
He knew for certain Iris could have been present as well, as she was a mage.
Thankfully it was Kazuma that found him. He was like a cat, if he saw something that interested him, he would go and look for it.
Maybe the fact that Ronan had left the battlefield and gone to hide had interested him somehow.
Suddenly, the sky turned red as the timer ticked.
00:00.
Instantly, the background changed.
The world distorted.
➜➜➜➜➜
Ronan found himself back in the circular testing chamber.
The ruined battlefield, the temple debris he had used as cover, the vast forest where the fighting took place – all gone.
Students reappeared all around him.
However, there were far more than before.
Instead of just the mage students, all of the students who survived the first exam appeared in the new circular testing chamber.
Now that Ronan thought about it, it was a lot bigger than the first one.
More and more students started appearing.
Ronan's eyes scanned the room.
There weren't many familiar faces, but he could tell that students from the combat division, the support division, the mage division, and the runic division were present.
Ronan then spotted Aura in the crowd, who was also scanning the room.
Their eyes met for a brief second, before they both looked away and kept looking around.
Good.
The red harried instructor from before started floating above all the students once again, and it seemed like every student in the chamber recognized him.
Had he been there for every division? Clone magic perhaps?
"Congratulations, you have survived the Academies entrance exam! However, that does not mean you have passed. In a second, a large board will appear behind me, and on that board you will find out if you have passed this exam or not."
Students instantly started talking amongst themselves.
The red haired instructor clapped, and silence followed.
Then the board appeared.
And the results started showing.
They were divided into four sections, and the top 400 out of all the divisions were the ones who would be accepted into the Academy.
Ronan's eyes instantly went to the mage rankings, and he saw the top 5.
Iris Lockhart. Freya LockhartJason RavencrestIrene AshbourneAegon Stormveil
Everyone in the top 5 were from three of the four noble families.
It was a sight to see, but it wasn't unnatural.
The students in the crowd seemed to accept it quickly as they moved on.
Ronan's eyes quickly scanned down the list to find his name.
Then he saw it.
Ronan Ashbourne.
I passed.