“Maybe we can start an alliance?” Altair whispered to William.

Tension crackled through the air, thick and suffocating. Altair, despite his friendly demeanor, was undeniably a competitor. William, though tempted by the offer, hesitated. Trusting anyone in this cutthroat exam felt like a recipe for disaster.

“We can discuss that near the end of the trial,” Altair proposed, sensing William’s hesitation, “if either of us needs a boost.”

“Alright,” William agreed, a flicker of caution still lingering in his eyes.

The silver rings they had been given pulsed with a faint light, their purpose more sinister than their plain appearance suggested.

Tholfnir explained their function, revealing their connection to one another and their ability to shift color based on the wearer’s ranking.

Those in the top half, with sufficient mana accumulated, would see their rings glow green, a beacon of safety. Those lagging behind would be marked with a glaring red, a target for those desperate to climb the ranks.

As Tholfnir distributed the rings, they remained colorless, dormant until the start of the trial.

“The exam will last twelve hours,” Tholfnir announced, his voice booming through the forest. “Severely injuring your fellow participants is strictly prohibited. If you find yourself outmatched, surrender. I will be observing you all closely.”

His words held a chilling weight, a reminder that while ruthless ambition was encouraged, crossing the line would have severe consequences.

After explaining everything to them, it was time to start the actual test. The first hour was for the participants to scatter through the forest and find a place to hide or find beasts to kill to earn points. Fights between them were prohibited at the start, only allowed after one hour had passed.

Everyone went to a different part of the forest. William observed some of the participants, and apparently, almost no one was forming teams, only a few were.

The chilling wind of the forest hit William like razor blades as he walked through the snowy terrain. The school was on top of a mountain, after all.

‘Where should I hide?’ William pondered, looking at his surroundings.

One of the first things he realized was how the forest had barely any beasts. While most of the students didn’t know how to hunt—especially the nobles—he did, and there were almost no tracks.

It was as if that whole part of the exam was focused on the fights between the students and not the actual fight against beasts.

‘But if I want to absorb the mana from someone else’s ring, it must have mana, right? So they need to kill beasts to get it?’

Considering everyone started at 0 points, they needed to kill beasts first before even trying to steal the points from someone else. So if that was the case, then where were the beasts? William had that doubt in his mind.

After walking for 20 minutes, always looking around him, making sure no one was following him, he saw it: a cave in the middle of the forest. William walked toward it and went inside.

A cave in the forest was not uncommon. It was actually pretty common to find them. William walked toward it slowly. If beasts were in the area, a cave like that one was the perfect spot for them to live.

Once inside, he realized how dark it was. Having no source of light made it very hard to see. William’s caution increased tenfold. He didn’t want to step on the wrong place or get attacked by a beast pouncing at his neck from the pitch-black darkness.

But things changed after he walked a little bit further. He saw a few torches on the wall, glowing with a green light.

‘Magical torches,’ William murmured.

The torches made it possible for him to see clearly, and the deeper he went, the more torches he saw. At one point, he came to a stone door marked with the symbol of a skull. William noticed a letter written next to it and picked it up to read.

“This is a special area for the test. Inside, you will find many skeletons and undead beasts. There are entrances scattered all over the forest, and this is where you will encounter the monsters to earn points.” – Tholfnir.

It was a letter written by the school’s headmaster, the person responsible for watching over the exams. They had built a type of dungeon with the beasts inside, and all the students would go to that underground area to find the monsters.

‘This will make hiding much harder once all the students are down there,’ William thought.

That would force the students into fighting against each other to get the points and secure a spot for the next test!

Anyway, William had no choice but to enter, so he pushed the door open and continued forward.

The first thing he saw was a hallway completely made of stone, with the same torches on the walls. It was easy to see inside—not all participants knew a spell that could light up the area, so they had to use the torches so that everyone had a fair chance.

William had been in this new area for only 10 seconds when a monster came his way. It was a skeleton with a curved sword and a wooden shield. The skeleton wasn’t that strong. William tried to focus to see if he could at least determine what level the creature was, and it worked.

[Skeleton]

[Level: 3]

That was the approximate level of the monster, and the name suggested by the system was basic too.

William couldn’t see the attributes of the monster or anything else related to it. The level itself was not a good thing to focus on too much!

Gorn had warned him that things may have the same level, but their attributes could be vastly different.

So the level 3 skeleton could have similar attributes to another creature that was level 10!

William himself was a testament to that. His level had stayed the same, but his attributes had increased dramatically with the absorption of demonic energy.

He still had his sword—in fact, he had two of them, the ‘normal’ one and the demonic one. William used the ‘normal’ one to fight against the skeleton.

He didn’t wait for the monster to come to him but instead moved toward it with tremendous speed. He was in front of it in seconds.

The recent boosts in his attributes were certainly making a huge difference.

With a clean slash, William cut off the monster’s head, or rather, its skull. The skeleton didn’t resist and died instantly, falling to the ground and shattering into pieces.

[+50 EXP]

William then noticed a blue energy emanating from the skeleton’s bones and flowing straight to his ring, making it shine with a green light.

‘A green light! So I might be among the first ones to actually find this place,’ William realized.

He couldn’t just stand there after killing just one monster. William moved forward, looking for more creatures to kill to earn more points!

Then he saw more skeletons coming his way. It was a group of ten this time, far more than the previous encounter! But that wasn’t scaring him.

‘Let’s kill these bald skeletons!’ William thought as he gripped his sword tightly and charged toward the group.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep