The Protagonist Already Knows

Chapter 36: Day 1 [3]

Raising my palm at a nearby tree, I took a deep breath, feeling the natural mana pass through my skin barrier and losing sight of the particles once they entered my body.

In the next moment, as a sharp pain struck my right arm, the mechanical armband created the intent loop, drawing my blood and splitting my bloodstream.

My right arm, now surrounded with a deathly-black hue even through the bodysuit, began uncontrollably trembling.

Black mana particles emerged from my palm, accumulating and forming a night-black sphere the size of a baseball.

Unfortunately, I could only create basic shapes like spheres and rectangles even with the armband, due to my lack of mana control, and my mana capacity stat was terrible.

*WHOOSH*

The sphere flew forward from my palm and struck the tree trunk, imploding instantly upon contact and causing the entire tree to topple over before me.

Of course, the alliance of other classes had sent students to immediatly scout out our advisory’s location.

*BANG*

"AHHHHH"

As a pained scream resounded through the entire forest, I glanced forward and saw a boy with short white hair lying on the remains of the tree.

Raising his head, while his entire body trembled, the boy pointed at me and managed to mutter after a few seconds.

"y-you c-can cast spells..."

Nodding my head as the boy scrambled to unsheath his sword, I answered.

"I can."

Just as the boy managed to stand up with his sword, I simply...raised my palm again.

Instantly, the boy deliberately dropped to the ground, hoping to avoid an incoming mana sphere.

Without skipping a beat, I sprinted forward, clearing the distance between us in less than a second.

Before he could even realize that there were no mana spheres coming, I stood over his trembling body, seeing the boy’s closed eyes, and raised my Dao.

*WHOOSH*

In a clean motion, I stabbed my Dao straight down, impaling the boy’s chest.

*BANG*

However, as I continued looking down, a bright flash suddenly blinded me, and when I reopened my eyes, the boy’s body was gone, leaving my sword impaled in the dirt.

A light-blue screen suddenly appeared in front of me.

[Leaderboard]

[Han / Eliminations 3]

[Leon / Eliminations 3]

[Ken / Elemintations 2]

[Zero / Eliminations 2]

[Eren / Elemintations 2]

[...]

[...]

[Ash / Eliminations 1]

Clicking my tongue, I walked deeper into the dense forest and sheathed my Dao.

It wasn’t much longer...until I could reach that level.

Now that I finally had a basic understanding of sword fundamentals and my personal weapon art, I could go find an overpowered martial art after this exam and put my future knowledge to use.

Martial Arts contain a set of highly specific movements that can be used with mana or Intent, whereas a weapon art encompasses your style of fighting.

Your weapon art is the train of thought that leads your decision-making in fights, whether you counter-attack, parry, or retreat.

The decision-making behind choosing to jab or slash in a fight. Slash at a faster speed or a slower speed?

Absorbing enough mana to activate Anubis’s Ferry, I phased through the trees above me and flew straight up into the air.

Floating in the sky, I easily spotted a massive fortress simply sitting in the middle of the forest and flew toward it.

Re-materializing atop a tree near the fortress, I once again paused.

The fortress’s golden ball was placed in a random place for each fortress, so I had no idea where to look.

Thankfully, I had another way.

After waiting a few minutes, I once again turned incorporeal and flew upward, levitating atop the fortress unnoticed

Now floating in the middle of enemy ground, I anxiously glanced down, seeing multiple students walking in the courtyard and on the skybridges below me.

However...as I continued scanning the fortress, I finally found some faint golden particles leaking out of the rightmost watchtower.

Each golden ball was infused with mana particles to prevent members of that fortress from touching it.

Re-materializing atop the roof of the castle’s central keep, I sighed, considering moving onto another fortress.

It seemed this team had already found the location of their fortress’s golden ball, as there were countless students already standing on the right watch tower.

However, after a moment, I decided to simply wait.

There were only ten minutes left until students realized that they weren’t going to be transported back to the real world, but were stuck here for five days.

I could just use that chaos.

Sitting atop the ceiling of the seven-floor castle keep and directly under the blazing sun, I stood still and listened.

"Alright, anything else we want to do?"

"Let’s scout out the area tomorrow and set up defenses."

"We can grab breakfast after this and talk as a team?"

"That works!"

I wasn’t planning on staying in this virtual reality world for 5 days straight, and there was only one way to leave.

Get eliminated.

So, I needed to balance out my individual grade somehow, and getting rid of one out of the over 25 advisories, hopefully, wouldn’t change anything.

...

...

...

"Uhhh, how are we supposed to leave?"

"Did you guys get a notification?"

As the students below me in the courtyard glanced at each other in confusion, I finally stood up.

Glancing at the right watch tower, where some students were gathered, I waited and waited until...a voice resounded from the sky

"Attention, all students! There has been a slight shift in the exam rules due to some unforeseen circumstances back at the Sunken Pearl."

"Instead of spending an hour each day this week in this virtual reality world...you will be spending the entire week here!"

"Rest assured, though, all your quizzes and homework assignments have simply been moved to next week!"

"Best of luck, all! We hope thi-"

"WHAT THE FUCK!?"

As the announcement blasted through the sky, all the students in the fortress began angrily screaming at the sky like lunatics.

"LET US OUT!"

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN, ALL WEEK!? THERE’S NO FOOD OR SHOWER!?"

"HOW CAN WE LIVE HERE!?"