—————————————————————–
Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Mod7
—————————————————————–
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
“Good morning, everyone.”
Arthur greeted his classmates with his usual cheerful grin.
But something felt off.
They mumbled their greetings and quickly looked away.
‘What’s going on? They seem to be avoiding Ethan’s gaze…’
Arthur was oblivious.
They were communicating silently through their eyes.
As if urging someone to ask Ethan if anything happened the previous night.
But they remained silent, refusing to break the tension.
Ethan remained quiet as well.
It was impossible to know what had happened.
Just then, Professor Laf stepped onto the podium.
He gave a brief explanation of the day’s events. The Hero Candidates were participating in a defense-type practical exam.
Each pair took their turn on the summoning circle on the stage.
It was a state-of-the-art virtual reality device powered by vast amounts of mana.
It allowed the Hero Candidates to gain real-world experience safely, in a virtual environment.
“Alright, one pair at a time.”
The pairs stepped onto the magic circle one by one. When one pair disappeared in a flash of light, it was the next pair’s turn.
Tia and Ethan’s turn came.
Tia kept glancing at Ethan.
‘This is awkward… I’m going crazy.’
Tia fidgeted, twisting her hair nervously.
She pushed up her horn-rimmed glasses.
They were the glasses she always wore when she was tired, to hide the dark circles under her eyes.
“Good luck, Ethan, Tia.”
Ethan and Tia stepped onto the magic circle.
A sensation of weightlessness washed over them.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
They found themselves standing under a dark sky.
A horde of skeletons and zombies approached them slowly.
Their movements were slow, but their sheer numbers made them a formidable threat.
[Heroes! Buy time for the people of Arvis Island to escape!]
Buy time.
The practical exam wasn’t designed to be cleared.
They could see a small village and a ship in the distance.
300 years ago, the islanders would have been boarding those ships, desperately trying to escape.
Protect the villagers from the undead horde.
Help as many people as possible escape the island.
That was the goal of this practical exam.
The longer they held out, the higher their score.
“Get ready, Tia.”
Ethan picked up a large shield from the ground.
He walked towards the bridge.
Tia followed him.
As soon as they stepped onto the bridge,
Fwoosh!
A rain of arrows descended upon them.
Ethan lowered his stance and raised his shield.
Tia quickly took cover behind her own shield.
Clang!
The arrows clattered against the ground.
The barrage subsided, and an eerie silence fell over the area.
An army of undead stood on the bridge.
There were at least a hundred of them.
The novel had stated that there were 300 of them.
The enemies were incredibly realistic.
The pressure they exerted was palpable.
“What were the professors thinking…? Did they really expect us to clear this stage?”
“No.”
“Then what’s the point?”
“Die heroically while saving as many people as possible. That’s the goal of this exam.”
Everything was unfolding as it had in the novel.
300 years ago, a knight named Lien and his squire had died defending the bridge, protecting the villagers from an undead army.
He had single-handedly fought hundreds of undead.
And we’re supposed to reenact that?
That’s what the academy expected of us.
It was an impossible task for first-year students.
‘But Arthur, Reus, and Sepia cleared this impossible stage.’
There had to be a way to clear it.
According to the novel,
Reus had teamed up with Anya and eradicated the entire undead horde.
Sepia had used explosion magic to collapse the stone bridge.
Arthur had infiltrated the necromancer’s lair while Tesha held off the undead with her fire magic.
Facing an army of 300 undead,
Ethan realized just how absurd their feats were.
He slowly focused his mana.
A blue aura enveloped him.
“Ethan… you’re not actually thinking we can defeat them, are you?”
Tia asked, her voice filled with concern.
“300 years ago, Knight Lien sacrificed his life to protect the villagers from an even larger horde.”
“That’s because Lien was an exceptional knight.”
“Why did you become a Hero Candidate?”
“Well…”
Tia hadn’t become a Hero Candidate because she wanted to be a hero.
She just wanted the status and the power that came with it.
Tia was one of the most hated characters in the novel.
She was selfish, cunning, and manipulative.
She used her ravens to gather information, invading people’s privacy. She recruited students and used them as her pawns.
Selfish characters were always criticized.
But Tia was also one of the most defended characters.
Because she was realistic.
“You know, if this were real, we’d be dead.”
Tia said, her voice filled with resignation.
Ethan took a step forward.
It was a virtual reality.
He wouldn’t die, even if he was stabbed.
He charged towards the approaching undead horde.
He unleashed his mana, swung his sword, and pushed them off the bridge.
After defeating about 30 of them, something slashed his side.
It wasn’t a deep wound, but blood trickled down his leg.
“What the…?”
“Wait… a minute…”
Normally, his HP would be displayed in front of him.
And he would be able to continue fighting until his HP reached zero.
But there was no HP bar, not even a status indicator.
Thwack!
He decapitated the zombie that had stabbed him.
The other undead hesitated.
But they were undead. They didn’t feel fear.
It was as though they were giving us time to process what was happening.
Tia rushed over to Ethan and examined his wound.
Blood stained his white uniform.
“This… This is real blood.”
“Um… It seems so.”
The pain was real.
Something felt wrong.
“This… something’s wrong.”
“I know.”
“Your wound… does it hurt?”
“Yeah… It feels like a real wound.”
Tia’s expression darkened.
She pulled out her communication crystal and tried to contact the professors.
But there was no signal.
“Stop the exam! We have an injury!”
Tia shouted.
It felt like someone was watching them.
But there was no response.
“This isn’t a virtual exam anymore.”
The exam should have been stopped.
According to the rules, if a student gave up, they would be forcefully returned to their original location.
Tia examined the summoning circle.
Her eyes widened in fear.
“Oh my god… we can’t even return… Something’s wrong.”
They had reached an unsettling conclusion.
Someone had interfered with the practical exam.
Ethan drank a potion from his pocket.
The bleeding stopped.
Using potions was prohibited during the exam.
It would result in an automatic fail.
“Grrr…”
The zombies attacked again.
“This is not a virtual exam! We could die here!”
“Dying in battle with the daughter of the Erze Trading Company… wouldn’t be so bad, right?”
“Are you kidding?!”
Ethan knew what was going on.
Someone had trapped them.
They had been summoned to this place through a tampered magic circle.
‘It has to be a demon.’
The demons had used similar tactics to trap Arthur in the novel.
The situation was clear.
“We eliminate the enemies.”
It didn’t matter how.
“W-what are you going to do?”
Ethan picked up a rock and crushed it with his mana.
“What are you doing? Why are you crushing rocks?”
“Go pick up some rocks. ”
“What…? I don’t understand…”
“You’ll see. I have a secret weapon.”
He positioned himself like a baseball pitcher.
And threw the rock fragments with all his might.
He knew his mana control wasn’t great.
But he had an abundance of mana.
And…
The rock fragments shot through the air like bullets.
“Ah…”
Crash!
Zombies collapsed, struck by the projectiles.
Dozens of them fell at once.
It was like a grenade had exploded in their midst.
He felt like he had transformed into a monstrous beast from a popular manga.
“I… I didn’t know you could do that…”
Tia gathered the rock fragments and placed them beside Ethan.
“You gotta have a secret weapon, right?”
It was easier to take down the enemies if they were grouped together.
Ethan continued to throw the rocks.
It was the same power that had sent a pen flying into the ceiling.
Fwoosh! Fwoosh!
The rock fragments rained down upon the undead horde, piercing their limbs and heads.
“Nice shot!”
Tia muttered in admiration.
The bridge was littered with the corpses of zombies and skeletons.
“Bring me more rocks! Bring them all!”
“O-okay!”
Throwing rocks was more efficient than channeling his mana into his sword.
It was the perfect strategy for someone with terrible mana control.
He had to conserve his mana.
Fwoosh! Fwoosh!
Ethan continued his assault, mowing down the undead like a machine gun.
The number of undead on the bridge had dwindled.
“Thirty… thirty left.”
It was time to use his sword.
It would be more efficient to defeat the remaining enemies in close combat.
“Where are you going?”
“I’m going to take care of the rest.”
“What? O-okay!”
Ethan sprinted towards the remaining skeletons, his sword drawn.
He swung his sword, cutting a skeleton in half.
But he wasn’t looking for the skeletons.
He extended his mana, searching.
Something felt… off.
Demoniac energy.
As he had suspected,
There was a necromancer hiding nearby.
Ethan followed the trail of demonic energy.
He spotted a man hiding behind a tree.
He was wearing a gray hood. Suspicious.
“Found you…!”
The man started chanting a spell, his expression panicked.
But Ethan’s mana was faster.
He swung his sword vertically, unleashing a wave of blue mana.
Crash!
The tree splintered, unable to withstand the force of the attack.
The man’s right arm flew off.
A long, agonizing scream echoed through the forest.
The man stared at his severed arm in horror, his eyes wide with fear.
“Y-you… who are you?!”
Crack!
A spiderweb of cracks appeared in the air.
Space itself was shattering.
Ah.
Was he getting away?
At least he had managed to land a blow…
The barrier was disappearing.
The demon had gotten lucky.
Their vision blurred as they were forcefully summoned back.
They should have returned to the auditorium.
But they found themselves in a forest. The sky was still dark, the sun seemingly absent.
“W-what’s going on…?”
A thick fog surrounded them, disorienting them.
“We’ve been transported to a forest.”
“It’s like we’ve been thrown into a survival training exercise right after the defense exam.”
Ethan sighed, looking around.
They could easily get separated in this dense forest.
“Tia, stay close.”
Tia reluctantly nodded and stepped closer to Ethan.
Arvis Island was as large as Jeju Island.
They had been stranded somewhere on this vast island.
Alone.
Vulnerable to attack.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
Aot reference, very nice
bruh this tia girl is really useless in fights