Chapter 35: The Final Stage

Chapter 35: Chapter 35: The Final Stage

For a heartbeat, the entire Grand Auditorium was so quiet that a pin dropping could have been heard from the highest rafters.

?Then, pandemonium erupted.

?"100 points?! Someone actually got a perfect score on the Scholar Council’s test?!"

?"Look at the completion time! Thirty-eight minutes?! That means he didn’t even spend twenty seconds per question!"

?"Even Lady Aria and the Third Imperial Prince couldn’t get a perfect score, yet some kid named Aegon Noiré beat them in half the time?! Who the hell is Aegon Noiré?!"

?Down in the VIP rows near the front, the bookworm girl Evelyn stared up at the screen in utter disbelief, her glasses slipping down the bridge of her nose.

Beside her, Aria Everlight looked at the name sitting one spot above her own, and for the first time that day, a genuine laugh escaped her lips.

?Meanwhile, up on the eastern tier, Marcus, Zane, and Clara slowly turned their stiff necks to stare at their cousin standing calmly beside them.

?"Thirty-eight minutes..You told us the questions were ’straightforward’?" Clara whispered as she looked at Aegon as though he were an ancient monster wearing human skin.

?Aegon merely shrugged his shoulders, adjusting his red scarf as thousands of shocked gazes began searching the eastern sector for Desk 4,812.

?"It’s nothing actually. You all should worry about the next stage."

It was then, the protagonist Veera’s figure was seen on a lonely corner, looking crestfallen.

It is likely he couldn’t belive that there are two people above him in the written exam. In Mana Aptitude Test, he restrained his true talent from seeing, because of the same reason as Aegon.

But he gave his all in this written test, specially asking his forbidden grimoire for all the knowledge to prepare beforehand.

But all gone down the drain.

Two people stolen his limelight.

His eyes turned towarf the number 1, and to his surprise it was the same boy who apprached him with hidden intensions.

"Aegon, is it? We will see how you fare in the mext round. After all, there is small twist in this final test." he muttered, chuckling darkly.

Following the completion of the written examination, the 22,000 eliminated applicants were promptly escorted toward the main gates by columns of academy enforcers.

Meanwhile, the 8,000 participants who had passed the 80% mark were directed out of the rear doors of the Grand Auditorium.

?As they marched down a wide, sunlit colonnade flanked by towering statues of past Emperors, Marcus rolled his stiff shoulders and let out a long breath.

?"Finally, a stage that makes sense. Brother Cardigan told us the Physical Aptitude Test is held in the underground training chambers. All we have to do is hit stationary alchemical dolls to measure our striking force, run the gravity tracks, and endure a few puppet spars. After that nightmare of a written test, smashing a few wooden dummies sounds like heaven."

?"Do not get careless, Marcus," Clara warned, "Even if they are just testing devices, seventy thousand people were cut in the first round and twenty-two thousand in the second. Seven thousand more of us are going to be eliminated before sunset."

?Beside them, Aegon walked in silent contemplation.

?For the past few minutes, a faint, metallic hum had been vibrating through the soles of his boots. If the final stage were truly taking place inside the underground chambers beneath the auditorium, they should have taken the descending spiral staircases three hundred meters back.

However, the proctors were leading all eight thousand examinees straight toward the northern cliffside of the academy grounds.

?Veera was watching me back in the hall and why are the spatial arrays at the northern edge of the mountain fully active?

Aegon thought inwardly, recalling the dark, knowing smirk he had glimpsed on the protagonist’s face from the corner of the auditorium.

?While he was confused, five minutes later, the 8,000 youths stepped out of the gateway and onto a colossal stone platform overlooking a sunken canyon.

?Instantly, an uproar of confusion broke out across the crowd.

?There were no underground testing rooms, no rows of stationary punching dolls, and no measuring crystals in sight. Instead, stretching out across the vast canyon below them was a massive forest enclosed within a shimmering dome of golden runes.

The trees inside the barrier easily towered over 50 meters high.

?"What is going on? Why did they bring us to the Northern Beast Canyon?"

?"My father’s informants in the Ministry of War swore that this year’s physical exam was a standard device measurement! Why is the spatial barrier raised over the forest?"

?High above the canyon’s edge, the air crackled with violet lightning as Chief Proctor Ronin materialized in midair, his arms crossed over his black-and-gold robes.

Looking down at the bewildered faces of the noble heirs, he sneered.

?"Look at your pathetic faces! How many thousands of gold coins did your families pay the capital’s intelligence brokers to buy the blueprint of this year’s examination? Did you brats really think you could prepare for a few stationary punching dolls and stroll into the Imperial Academy?"

?Beside Aegon, Zane and Marcus stiffened, their faces paling as they realized Cardigan’s intelligence had been completely false.

?"Remember: Stationary dolls do not hit back, and measuring crystals cannot tell a soldier from a coward! That’s why 3 months ago, the Dean personally ordered a complete restructure of the final stage. Instead of testing your muscles in a safe room, all eight thousand of you will be thrown directly into the Ironwood Expanse!"

?"Fuck. Do we really have to hunt wild magical beasts?" a noble boy near the front shouted nervously.

?"Beasts?" Ronin laughed cruelly. "Mindless beasts are far too predictable for future Imperial officers. What awaits you inside those woods is something much worse."

?Proctor Ronin snapped his fingers. Instantly, a ten-meter water-mirror materialized in the sky beside him, projecting a live view from inside the shadowed forest below.

?On the screen, a figure stood silently atop a moss-covered boulder.

At first glance, it looked like a lean human warrior clad in dull iron armor, carrying a twin-edged broadsword across its back.

However, where a human face should have been, there was only a smooth mask of polished silver wood etched with glowing crimson runes, and its joints were woven from flexible alchemical steel and monster tendons.

?Suddenly, a stray wind-wolf wandering through the forest lunged at the figure from behind.

?Before the beast’s jaws could even get within two meters, the wooden warrior rose on its heel with terrifying grace.

It did not move with the clunky, robotic stiffness of a normal golem. It parried the wolf’s claws with a flick of its wrist, stepped inside the beast’s guard like a seasoned grandmaster of the sword, and severed the wolf’s head in a single flash.

?Silence!

Utter Terror gripped almost everyone’s heart.

"Is that... a combat automaton?