Chapter 202: The Hunter’s Gaze [Entrance Exam 1]
Chapter 202: The Hunter’s Gaze - [Entrance Exam 1]
Two days had passed swiftly.
Cassian arrived at the front of the Academy early in the morning, just as the sun was beginning to show its face.
It was exactly three hours before the exam started. The area was almost entirely empty; only the morning mist and the early morning songs of the birds could be heard.
The professor on duty at the registration checkpoint at the entrance was yawning and rubbing his eyes when he startled at the sight of the white haired, weirdly dressed youth standing before him. He barely managed to catch the ticket control parchment in his hand before dropping it.
"Did you not arrive a bit early, boy?" the professor asked, blinking in astonishment. "The exam will start at 11 o’clock. The sun has not even fully risen yet."
Cassian did not answer; he just continued to stare at the man with his dull and silent gaze. Cassian had a very specific, obsessive reason for arriving here this early.
He had to find the **Child of Dawn**.
What he knew about this figure, who was the main character, was limited to the crumbs left from his past notes.
One of his eyes was yellow, the other blue. He had yellow hair that shone like the sun, and he emitted a strange, pure energy that gave people peace just by being around him. He also had a childhood friend who never left his side: a freckle faced, brown haired girl who was the daughter of a baron.
During those long years condemned to loneliness in that dark castle, Cassian had focused his mind on his notebook, on the story. In his notes, he had planned for the Child of Dawn to take a severe, ruthless beating in this academy exam.
And Cassian was determined to make that happen. He took this desire quite seriously. Therefore, he had to find him before anyone else and keep him under close surveillance.
The professor, disturbed by the youth’s silence, cleared his throat. "Eh... I suppose you must be overly excited since you will be taking the exam for the first time, haha. Ah, youth," he muttered.
He opened a small wooden box on his desk and took out a black, metallic bracelet. He handed it to Cassian. "Here you go. Put this on your left arm. And do not lose it because a replacement is absolutely not provided."
Cassian took the bracelet, silently slipped it onto his arm, and began to walk toward the massive waiting area the professor had pointed out.
### The Duelist and the Waiting Area
The waiting area resembled a colossal, ancient colosseum. When Cassian entered, he noticed that in the seemingly endless expanse of the arena, there was only one other person besides himself.
Right in the middle of the arena sat a young man cross-legged, with his back to the sun.
He was wearing a martial arts outfit made of loose fitting, dark navy fabric belonging to Eastern culture, completely different from the flashy noble clothes the empire was accustomed to.
On his head was a strange straw hat with a wide brim that shaded half of his face. A long, elegant sword rested in its scabbard on his lap.
Lunox vi Olerion.
Cassian recognized him the moment he saw him. He was the genius of the Olerion family, a deeply rooted and highly respected noble clan in the East, renowned for their swordsmanship.
He was an obsessive person described as abnormal, having dedicated his life solely to swords and the desire to fight, completely uninterested in anything social outside of that.
In the original story, Lunox was going to encounter the Child of Dawn during this exam and severely batter him, causing him to receive a very low ranking.
Cassian narrowed his eyes and looked at Lunox. "I must act before him," he thought to himself. The expression on his face had not shifted a millimeter. "I must eliminate him before he eliminates the Child of Dawn. Or..." His eyes narrowed further. "Or I must eliminate this genius before he reaches the Child of Dawn."
Despite the distance, Cassian felt the sharp mana resembling a sword aura swirling around Lunox and engraved it in his mind.
At that moment, as if feeling the weight of Cassian’s thoughts, Lunox suddenly raised his head.
His icy cold eyes burning with the desire to fight from under the straw hat found Cassian directly. The gazes of the two youths clashed in the empty courtyard.
Cassian slowly tilted his head to the side.
"He sensed it..." he muttered to himself, his voice as quiet as the whisper of the wind. "He is one of the main characters after all. His intuition is sharp."
As time progressed, the sun began to rise in the sky, and the empty field slowly began to fill up.
First came groups of ten, then hundreds flooded in. Nobles, mercenaries, merchant children, geniuses... The area was packed within an hour. Yet no matter how much the crowd grew, Cassian’s eyes constantly scanned the surroundings, looking for any sign of the Child of Dawn.
### The Search Outside the Gates
Meanwhile, a different kind of activity was taking place outside the colossal main gate of the Academy.
Iris, wearing her academy uniform, was standing right by the entrance, as if hiding behind a large stone pillar.
She examined the face of every incoming student candidate with great attention, almost holding her breath. Her eyes were searching for a single person, just one single face.
The white haired, red eyed boy Professor Pharsa had mentioned yesterday morning.
"If he is going to take the academy entrance exam, he absolutely has to pass through here," Iris had reasoned.
She had arrived very early in the morning and stood here just to be able to see him, to chase after that slim possibility.
She had been here for almost two hours and had checked every single one of the thousands of people who entered. But no matter how long she waited, no one matching Pharsa’s description had passed through the gate. Despair began to slowly squeeze her heart.
"Iris!" a cheerful girl’s voice interrupted Iris’s thoughts. "What are you doing standing here at the gate?"
Iris startled, jumping in place, and turned around. "Anna!" she said in surprise, feeling as if she had been caught. "Um... I... uh... Alicia! Yes, I was waiting for Alicia!"
The girl named Anna giggled at Iris’s panicked state. "Were you waiting for the saintess candidate, the holy daughter of the church, Alicia? Did you come all the way out here because you were curious about what kind of person she is?"
"Y-yes," Iris stuttered. "I was very curious about her. She is very famous after all."
Anna giggled again, reached out, and gently pinched Iris’s cheeks. "Oh, Iris, sometimes you are too cute. She is not going to participate in the exam, did you forget? She has already been accepted into the academy without an exam through a special recommendation from the Holy Church. She is probably sipping her tea in the inner gardens right now."
Iris’s face fell, her shoulders slumped. "Ahaha... Was that so? It completely slipped my mind," she murmured, averting her eyes.
Anna linked arms with Iris. "Come on, do not stand here anymore. Let’s go to the bakery on campus. We can watch together from the magic screen when the exam starts, hm?"
Iris cast one last, desperate glance at the gate. Even though she did not want to, she had to go. Besides, there was only half an hour left until the exam started, and it was obvious that person was not coming. Either Professor Pharsa had seen wrong, or that boy had already gone inside. With a sigh, she dragged herself after Anna.
### The Misunderstanding
There were only 15 minutes left until the exam time.
The waiting arena now looked like a place of judgment. Over two thousand youths had gathered in groups, whispering among themselves with excitement and a bit of fear.
There were many different types of kids with all sorts of equipment. The mana core level of the majority was average, between 3 and 4 stars.
Cassian was sitting alone on a stone step in the corner of the field. He completely ignored the chaotic noise around him and those showing off to one another. His eyes were locked onto a single pair in the middle of the crowd.
The Child of Dawn and the freckled girl next to him.
Cassian’s eyes did not leave him for even a second. He was examining the boy’s mana core.
His core had not fully matured yet; he was at the peak of the 3-star level. However, Cassian’s enhanced senses could clearly see the traces of holy mana hidden deep within the boy’s body that had not yet been awakened. On the other hand, the strange, pure type of energy leaking from his body was practically screaming his identity.
No matter how emotionless Cassian’s fixed, intense gaze was, it had started to disturb the other party after a while. The pair were casting evasive, uneasy glances at Cassian. They could not make sense of why this strange, cloaked, and creepy boy was constantly staring at them.
The blonde boy, unable to endure it any longer, returned Cassian’s gaze. He smiled in a forced, tense manner, raised his hand, and gave a slight wave. The brown haired girl next to him, however, was not nearly as polite. She turned toward Cassian, stuck her tongue out, and raised her middle finger into the air without any hesitation.
"Hey, Felix," the girl whispered, rubbing her arm against her friend. "Has that boy been staring at us this whole time, or have I become paranoid?"
Felix ruffled his yellow hair. "Ahaha... So you noticed it too? Yes, he has been looking at us without blinking for about twenty minutes."
"Why would someone stare like that? Look at those red eyes... Do you not think it is a bit too creepy? It is as if he wants to suck our souls out."
To calm the girl down, Felix turned toward Cassian and waved with a forced smile. "Do not worry, Layla. Perhaps he is just captivated by your beauty. Maybe he likes you, hm?"
Layla’s face instantly turned as red as a tomato at Felix’s remark. Panicking, she pulled back. "Huh?! What?! W-who?! That weird thing likes me?! Never!"
Layla turned angrily toward Cassian, this time sticking her tongue out more vigorously and showing her middle finger.
### The Exam Rules
Right at that moment, in the massive empty space in the middle of the arena, a powerful magic circle that rippled the air appeared.
From within the circle rose a massive, translucent hologram. This was the image of a clean shaven, exceptionally well dressed man with a gentle face, whose black hair had streaks of gray.
The man’s voice echoed magically throughout the entire arena, cutting off the massive hum.
"I am Professor Isaac Norton," the man said, his voice calm but authoritative. "I am the Vice Dean of the Luminara Royal Academy. Welcome, all of you, to this great day."
The crowd instantly fell silent. Everyone focused their utmost attention on the man in the hologram.
Professor Norton slowly clasped his hands in front of him. "I will not drag my words out unnecessarily. You have all come here for a single purpose: to secure a place in the empire’s greatest educational institution, to be the best. However..." That gentle smile on his face slowly vanished, replaced by seriousness. "The Academy is a place solely and exclusively for the best, the elites. There are exactly 2,000 people in this arena right now. But when the sun sets, only 120 among you will earn the right to walk through those great doors."
A hum filled with fear and astonishment rose from the crowd. Only 120 people? That was slightly more than 5%. This was not just an exam; it was a brutal elimination.
"The format of our exam is..." said Norton, raising his right hand into the air. "A Survival Battle."
On the massive hologram screen behind Norton, a gigantic, artificial map filled with mountains, deep forests, rivers, and abandoned structures appeared.
"We will teleport you to this massive, specially designed artificial forest area. The area will shrink inward from its borders at regular intervals. Anyone left outside will be eliminated instantly. To survive, you must constantly move toward the center, and eventually, you will have to encounter one another."
"However," Norton added, narrowing his eyes. "What we want from you is not just to hide in the corners and try to survive. You must collect points."
Next to the map, a scoreboard appeared in glowing letters in the air:
*F Rank Monster:1 Point
* E Rank Monster:2 Points
* D Rank Monster: 3 Points
* C Rank Monster: 5 Points
* B Rank Monster:10 Points
* A Rank Monster:50 Points
* S Rank Monster: 200 Points
* Defeating a Rival Student (Eliminating them): 3 Points
"As you can see," Norton said, pointing to the points on the board. "You can hunt the monsters released in the forest. Or... You can hunt your rivals taking the same exam with you. The choice is entirely up to your strategy."
Norton’s expression grew even more serious. "There are a total of 5 A-Rank monsters in the area. And only 1 S-Rank monster. I strongly warn you: The S-Rank monster alone is at a disaster level. Even if you are a fully equipped team of 7 people, defeating it is near impossible."
The professor raised his own left wrist into the air, showing the black bracelet there.
"Now, regarding your safety. The bracelets on your arms are your life insurance. The moment you take a fatal, life threatening blow, or even if you lose consciousness, the bracelet will automatically activate, instantly removing you from the exam area and teleporting you to the academy infirmary. This reduces the risk of death in the exam to a minimum. But I underline this; ’minimum’ does not mean ’zero’. Unexpected accidents can always happen."
The cold seriousness in his final sentence sent chills down the spines of the hundreds of youths in the area.
"The bracelets also instantly calculate the points you have collected and transmit them to us."
Norton put on his gentle smile again.
"And our final rule... Teaming up. In this exam, you are free to form teams of between 1 and 7 people. Whether you form them now in the arena, or in the forest after the exam begins, or even if you betray and break up your own team at the last moment. Any kind of tactic is within the rules of the academy."
"But a piece of advice from me to you: Wandering the forest alone is strictly not recommended. Lone wolves are usually the first to be hunted by large packs."
"That is all for the rules. In 30 minutes, all of you will be randomly teleported to different corners of the exam area. Until then... Find yourselves a team you can trust, one that will have your back. I wish you all the best of luck!"
### An Unexpected Invitation
The moment the hologram disappeared and Norton’s speech ended, a deafening noise erupted in the arena. Everyone was frantically approaching each other, shouting out their classes and abilities, trying to form teams.
"I am a three-star shield master!"
"Looking for a healer!"
"I am a fire mage, looking for a high-damage team!"
Within minutes, dozens of groups were formed, alliances had already been made. The weak were gathering around the strong, the strong were sizing each other up.
Cassian, however, in the midst of this massive chaos and frenzy, did not move a muscle from the stone step where he sat. He just continued to sit there.
And no one approached him.
The other students would glance at his tattered, creepy black cloak, his pure white hair, and his blood red, death-like eyes for a moment, then change their path.
His appearance was more than enough to keep people away from him. Furthermore, Cassian concealed his mana so flawlessly that it was completely impossible for others to discern the level of his mana core. They merely viewed him as a weak, bizarre freak.
Cassian was perfectly content being alone; it was exactly according to his plans. However, suddenly, the crowd in front of him parted, and a group of 6 students, who looked quite well-equipped, approached him directly.
At the very front of the group was a burly blond boy with a bright, overly confident smile on his face. He held a long, silver-inlaid spear in his hand.
The boy stopped in front of Cassian and extended his hand. "Hello! I am Arthur. I am a 4-star spear user," he introduced himself, his voice full of confidence.
Then he pointed over his shoulder with his thumb to the group behind him. "And this is my team. We have a heavy-armored tank, two fire mages, a magic archer, and an ax user. We are a pretty solid crew. You do not look too bad yourself, huh? You are all alone. Would you like to join us? You could be our 7th member."
Cassian slowly raised his head. His eyes lingered on the boy’s bright, fake smile, then slowly looked into his eyes.
Cassian could see the insidious intent lying in the depths of the boy’s eyes.
Cassian slowly pulled his hand out from under his cloak and firmly grasped the hand the boy had extended to him.
"Sure," he said in a cold voice.
And just like that, they became a team.
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