3 Exam I
"Woah," I stared in awe at the description before closing out the screen and running over to my mirror to look at my reflection. I had grown standing at a respectable 5'7, but everything else about me had also changed. The biggest difference was my dark purple skin, curly goat horns, and the dexterous tail that extended from my spine. But the most important change in my mind was to my face; my jawline and cheekbones were so defined that they looked like they were carved out of marble. My hair had also switched from a bunch of grapes to a messy but appealing mop of short purple hair.
Holding up my hand, I activated my quirk and watched as my arm elongated and stretched like rubber. It felt as natural as breathing and like flexing a muscle. My hand transformed into a hardened spike, the color and texture of obsidian.
My arm snapped back in place as my mind filled with the limitless possibilities of my quirk. 'I doubt I'm at the level of someone like Luffy or Plastic Man, but with enough time and a few stat upgrades, I could become even stronger.'
A massive grin crossed my face as I considered the near future, 'This might be much more fun than I originally thought.'
Shaking my head, I snapped back to reality. I opened the system and checked out the new quest I had been given.
[Quest: Exam Arc I]
Task(s):
1. Pass UA's Written Exam
2. Pass UA's Practical Exam
3. Get Accepted in UA High
Reward(s):
1. 2000 EP
2. Variable Based on Performance
3. Variable Based on Performance
'Well, that works out perfectly,' Closing out the quest window, I considered for a moment what to do with my 1000 EP, 'There's no reason to save this early on, and upgrading my base stats could give me a much-needed boost.'
After a brief pause I chose to upgrade my mind stat, with my intrinsic knowledge of what each stat I knew that having a higher mind stat would not only increase my intelligence, but improve my processing speed, reaction time, and my ability to multitask.
A tingling sensation passed up from the base of my spine before permeating through my brain. My ears popped, and I worked my jaw side to side as the stat change took effect. There wasn't a noticeable change, but that was because I hadn't gone up a rank. Every letter repeated from F to S three times, with F being the baseline, as most humans could achieve FFF without a quirk augmenting their mind or body.
'I'd bet my left nut that someone like All Might has at least three SSS stats. Though it's only a matter of time before I reach his level, I would be even more powerful with quirks scaling with stats. At that point, I could probably take over the world.'
I paused as that thought crossed my mind, but after a second, I shrugged, "Nah, that would be too much work."
Pulling out my phone I looked up the UA entrance exam and I frowned when I saw it was only in a month, 'So not only do I have to learn how to use my quirk but I have to study for standardized testing as well.'
I let out a long sigh before signing up for the test, 'It'll all be worth it in the end.'
—
Stepping off a public bus a month later, I joined the crowd of teenagers standing outside the gates of UA High, the best Pro Hero academy in Japan and possibly the world.
The weeks had gone by in the blink of an eye. My early mornings and afternoons were spent studying, and the nights were dedicated to physical training and quirk familiarization.
Staring at the golden gates and massive state-of-the-art facilities, I realized that the anime and manga hadn't done UA justice. It was truly massive, occupying a small mountain range and the surrounding forest.
Eventually, I managed to overcome my awe and walked onto campus. After asking a few proctors and following the instructions UA had sent the day before, I found the practical exam's staging area.
Looking around the room, I tried to see if I could spot anyone from the cannon, but unfortunately, it seemed I was surrounded by forgettable background characters. 'At least I won't have to compete for kills,' I thought.
A blaring siren echoed through the bunker. The large reinforced doors swung open, and light flooded into the room, nearly blinding everybody. Still, that wasn't enough to discourage people from activating their quirks as they tried to rush and forge their way through the narrow doors.
With a smirk, my body liquified into a dark purple puddle that slid across the ground and easily navigated the stampeding crowd. The doors let out into the middle of a deserted city street surrounded by skyscrapers and billboard signs.
Already, the few people who had managed to make it out of the building were fighting groups of armed robots equipped with machine guns that fired non-lethal rubber pellets and foam rockets.
Turning my head as another group of robots came rolling around the corner, I watched as their guns spat out a hail of bullets, covering the entire street. I turned into a puddle again, letting the bullets pass over me as everyone else cried out in pain.
Slithering across the ground, I moved underneath the group before erupting from the ground in a geyser of dark purple slime that completely covered the robots. I smothered the machines with ease, feeling around for the cracks in their armor, reaching their delicate wires and internal components.
Before the robots could free themselves, I covered myself in tiny spikes and spun, tearing through their insides. Collapsing back into a puddle, I slipped away from the pile of smoking scrap metal before reforming my body, 'Ten down, about a hundred more to go.'
—-
Seated in the command center, Nezu, the Principal of UA High, watched the various camera feeds from the practical exams. Already, he could spot a few potential seeds worth nurturing. One was a boy with a powerful explosion quirk, while another was a pink-skinned girl who could secrete acid from her skin.
Reaching for his steaming cup of tea, Nezu's hand paused as an alert went off on one of the monitors. Nezu's eyes widened as he glanced at the screen and watched an amorphous purple blob swallow his robot whole before spitting out a smoking pile of scrap metal.
The blob then reformed into a teenage boy with goat horns, a tail, and dark purple skin. Steeping his furry paws, Nezu stared at the monitor with a frown. "Interesting."
