Entrance Exam(4)

The Inside of the Gate was an open field of about 4-5 Km following which was a dense forest, many instructors were waiting inside, and each instructor was assigned about 100 students.

The instructor assigned to the group I was in was a woman in his 30s with blond slightly wavy hair,

she spoke in a cold indifferent tone,

"The test entails bringing 25 killer rabbit ears, keep in mind that bringing both left and right year will count as one killer rabbit, the academy provides you with a safety band that activates if your life is in danger, transporting you back here, don't worry as we have healers that can bring you back even if your heads get nearly detached..."

she paused for a moment, smiled coldly, and continued

"The test timing is till 5 p.m tomorrow, the first fifty participants to bring 25 sets of ears will qualify, as for the rest, well...you know"

*smirk*

She said smirking,

"you can form a group or hunt solo, there are no rules in this exam, the test starts in 30 minutes, so prepare during the meantime...That's all !!"

After she finished, she turned around and went to sit back in the instructor's tent, 

Following this, uneasiness began to spread in the crowd,

"what.....only 30 minutes?"

"I thought the test would be duels like last year..."

"This is unfair..."

I could hear various dissatisfied whispers around me, but to be honest, this was what this academy was like, this academy was a facility made in order to produce the best hunters around the world,

there was no such thing as regular routine, surprises were common inside the academy, 

'Although I already knew this would be the test'

now, the question is, whether to go solo or to form a team, I was not particularly repulsed by the idea of forming a team, but I was afraid of clashing between the members of the team due to their personal interests as most people were basically strangers before today,

At the same time, it was not a good idea to go solo as this was an exam with no rules, things like ganging up on solo players to get their hunt would be the first thing in the minds of people.

With this thought in mind, I started moving towards a person, and that was a girl in sports clothes, with sky blue hair and eyes,

"Hi, may I have some of your time?"

I asked her politely to get a good first impression,

"Ah yes, please speak, what is it?"

She also replied in a positive tone,

"As you can see, in this exam, going solo is not exactly an ideal thing, neither is forming a big team, hence I wanted to ask if you would perhaps be interested in forming a team with me?"

"hmm... what you are saying is correct, but that does not make it necessary for me to form a team with you-"

"Of course, what you are saying is correct, we do not know anything about each other and could also potentially stab each other in the back during the exam to increase our own hunt...so I would like to make a proposition"

"hmm...please continue"

"Why don't we do it like this, of all the rabbits we hunt, you keep the right ears and I will keep the left ears, this would help us both keep each other in check, and even if one of us thinks of betraying other, the other can just destroy the ears making both fail the exam"

"hmm...Alright let's do as you say"

'Why was I going so far just to make a team with this girl you ask ?'

Well, this girl here was Alana Miller, one of the antagonists in the later part of the story, and also one of the most powerful people on the continent in the future, if it had not been for 'that' incident humanity would not have lost such a powerful hunter to the Vampires.

Well, let's leave that matter aside, I basically wanted to make a connection with this girl for my future plans,

"Alright, so I take it as you agree to form a team, by the way, my name is Lucian Covert, nice to meet you"

I moved my hand forward and made a gesture of a handshake, which she reciprocated,

"yeah, my name is Alana Miller, nice to meet you too"

As we were exchanging pleasantries, our instructor came forward again and shouted,

"Alright, attention everyone, the exam starts now, GOOD LUCK!!"

with her voice, people started moving, or should I say running in the forest, we were no exception as we also started running extremely fast toward the forest,

While running, I noticed that except for some people, everyone was moving in a 4-5 person group, well that was to be expected,

After reaching the forest and separating from everyone, we found a secluded spot to discuss our strategy,

Alana was the first to speak,

"From what I can see this exam will be evaluated based upon two factors, first being the time taken for the hunt, second being the number of rabbits we hunted, its better to be fast and hunt about 35 rabbits each before tomorrow morning"

"you're right, let's decide our formation for the hunt while we're at it, I am a sword wielder and hence would like to stay as a vanguard"

"well, that goes well with me, I am a summoner and an archer so I would like to stay in the back and help"

"Then since the formation is decided, let's start the hunt"

What was decided was that I would stay in the front and tank the killer rabbits while Alana would stay in the back and kill the ones I missed,

As the formation was decided, we started to venture deeper in the forest to look for killer rabbits, This was an artificial dungeon hence, the rabbits spawned at random places, very rarely could we find a killer rabbit habitat, helping us boost our kills,

As we moved, I asked Alana about the type of summons she had and the range till which they could be maintained,

What I learned about Alana's ability was,

1. The type of summons were, a bird, a wolf, and a bear

2. She could maintain her summons for about 20 minutes and at a range of 3 km

3. the summons were like remote control machines, controlled by her subconscious mind and did not have a mind of their own

4. she could also hit her targets with pinpoint accuracy by letting wind magic guide her arrows(she currently had 60 arrows)

5. She needed a break of 2 hours before summoning another summon.

After getting a brief about her abilities it was my turn next, what I could currently do was,

1. I could control magic inside my body making specific parts of my body 2 to 3 times stronger by concentrating the mana there

2. I could cast a fireball spell for emergency purposes with a scroll I had(Range:250m)

3. I could eject my sword ultra-sharp by making it vibrate at supersonic speed

4. My sword could also be used as a range weapon with the help of a detachable blade with a range of 100 m

5. I could cast temporal freeze about 4 times before taking a break of 4-5 hours,

After getting a review of each of our abilities,

we decided to let Alana summon her bird to do scouting in the air to spot the rabbits we would hunt, preferably a group of 2-3 killer rabbits together,

in about 2-3 minutes we found our first group as we moved towards it,

it took about 10-15 minutes to reach the spot where the group was located,

As we spotted the group of killer rabbits, we hid in the bushes to first assess the situation,

*fuu...* 

taking a deep breath, I signaled Alana and rushed out of the bushes toward the killer rabbits,

Before they noticed me I ran as close as I could get to them, and as soon as they noticed me, I used temporal freeze and gathered my mana in my arms at the same time, 

Time came to a halt,

0.

I supplied a small amount of mana in my sword to make it vibrate,

1.

I stopped just before the rabbits and got in stance to perform a horizontal slash.

2.

As the time resumed, before giving them time to react, I slashed toward their necks, separating their heads from their bodies.

I had killed 3 out of four killer rabbits and one was getting ready to attack me with his horn, however, before he could jump, 

*fweeeeee*

An arrow came out of nowhere and pierced its head, directly killing him in the process,

As I stared at the rabbits, I was in a daze, I had thought that killing a being would be difficult for me who had never killed before, even if it was an artificial life, but surprisingly, apart from slight numbness in my arms, I did not feel any emotions except slight delight over my first hunt being successful.

As I was in a daze, I felt a slight pat on my shoulders, when I turned around, I found Alana staring at me in confusion,

"What are you standing in a daze for ?"

I smiled bitterly at that question and replied,

"Nothing let's collect the ears and move towards the next target"

Whatever it may be, it seems like my first hunt went without any difficulty.