"Alright, is everyone present here?" Elsa looked around and counted the students.
Having confirmed that everyone was present, she signalled to a staff member, and a big crystal orb twice the size of an average adult's palm appeared, along with various machines.
Above, a huge screen on the front wall displayed real-time rankings for the other classes, as the test was happening at the same time.
"The criteria we are testing are first, physical," Elsa pointed at the machine that measured the strength behind one's punches.
"Second is mana," she then pointed at the big crystal orb.
"Third is your best strike, or in simple words, your best attack you can perform," Elsa said, looking at her students.
"We will measure the strength behind your strength and rank you against the 1000 first-year students who joined this year. Is everything clear?" She asked, but as no one asked any questions, she started calling out names.
"Venessa Baker," she called out.
Venessa came forward confidently, and Elsa made her wear the mana cuffs, which blocked her mana.
"Go do your best punch," she smiled and told Venessa.
"Let's see," Venessa stood behind the machine.
She stretched her arms a bit, and most of the class was waiting to see her results.
The current leaderboard, which was the total of three tests, was showing:
-----------------------------------
Rank 1 - Jamey - 549
Rank 2.....
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Many knew this was not much, as the practical test had only started a few minutes ago.
Venessa took a deep breath and concentrated on the object in front of her, repeating the motion of straightening her arm a few times. She soon got the hang of the timing and after five seconds, she finally punched the object.
*bam*
A loud noise was heard, but all of them could tell that her punch packed a lot of strength behind it.
"Nice," Venessa smiled, feeling good about her punch.
She took off the mana cuffs and put them on the tray next to the machine.
"Now test your mana," Elsa said, and Venessa walked over to the orb, putting her hands on it.
Venessa closed her eyes and tried to channel her mana into the orb, and soon, the orb lit up.
"You can remove your hand," Elsa instructed.
"You have your weapon, right?" Elsa asked, and Venessa nodded.
"This is the Dummy which can handle even a B Rank Hunter's attack, so attack it, and your final score will appear there," Elsa said.
Venessa took out her sword and started to swing it around. Her mastery of swords even amazed some students, but most of them had seen Venessa's fight in the tournament.
"Aura!" a student exclaimed, as Venessa could coat her aura on her blade.
Although very thin, her sword had a bit of blue glow on it.
*Slash*
Without wasting any time, Venessa struck the dummy, and her speed amazed many students. They thought Venessa was somewhere in the top 100, but they didn't expect her to be this strong.
"How did I do?" Venessa enthusiastically asked Elsa, who pointed at the screen.
The rankings had changed, and Venessa was at the top.
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Rank 1 - Venesssa Baker - 1980
Rank 2 - Jamey - 549
Rank 3....
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"Yay," she cheered for herself.
After her, many students came, but nobody had broken her record. However, after the 49th student, the rankings finally changed, and another person took over Venessa.
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Rank 1 - Lishia Halcyon - 3420
Rank 2 - Venessa Baker - 1980
Rank 3 - Carmin Joseph - 840
Rank 4...
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"Woah, the Princess of Halcyon has taken the first spot!" many students exclaimed, surprised by the large gap between Rank 1 and Rank 2.
Venessa was annoyed, as she had thought she had performed well, but it seemed that Lishia was better than her.
The rankings kept changing, and after the 150th student, Rank 1 was again overturned, but it was a name everyone had thought would be in the top names.
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Rank 1 - Kevin Whiteheart - 4230
Rank 2 - Lishia Halcyon - 3420
Rank 3 - Matthew - 2970
Rank 4 - Damian Seymour - 2860
Rank 5 - Sam Allister - 2800
Rank 6 - Amelia Von Greville - 2790
Rank 7 - Elena Rothschild - 2700
Rank 8 - Eva Williams - 2657
Rank 9 - Venessa Baker - 1980
Rank 10 - Alan Astaria - 1950
Rank 11 - Ria Adler - 1670
Rank 12 - Gavin Neville - 1660
Rank 13....
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"Alyssa Astaria," Elsa called, and everyone turned to face the girl sitting in a wheelchair.
Her skin was pale, as usual, and she was still wearing her mask. Everyone's face turned sour, thinking that Alyssa would obviously score higher.
Due to the mana cuffs, she had to take the physical test sitting in her wheelchair, which made the crowd of students giggle and make fun of her. Insults were thrown, but Alyssa gave her best physical punch she could do currently.
After removing those cuffs, she could finally stand, and seeing her hover, the crowd that was laughing went silent. The orb glowed white like the others, and Alyssa floated towards the dummy.
"Give it your best shot," Elsa said as Alyssa summoned an ice lance, but unlike her usual Ice Lance, it was a bit thinner.
Only Elsa could notice this difference, but she thought that it was Alyssa's illness that was influencing her.
*Shatter*
The ice lance shattered as it attacked the dummy. None of the attacks, including Alyssa's, made even a scratch on the dummy.
Everyone looked at the leaderboard, but they didn't see any change in the top 5, which was surprising, even for Elsa.
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Rank 1 - Kevin Whiteheart - 4230
Rank 2 - Lishia Halcyon - 3420
Rank 3 - Matthew - 2970
Rank 4 - Damian Seymour - 2860
Rank 5 - Sam Allister - 2800
Rank 6 - Amelia Von Greville - 2790
Rank 7 - Elena Rothschild - 2700
Rank 8 - Eva Williams - 2657
Rank 9 - Venessa Baker - 1980
Rank 10 - Alan Astaria - 1950
Rank 11 - Ria Adler - 1670
Rank 12 - Gavin Neville - 1660
Rank 13 - Alyssa Astaria - 1600
Rank 14....
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"What the hell?" The class was confused because they had expected her to place a bit higher.
"Did she get weaker?"
"I mean, look at her, she looks barely alive to me," a girl made a face full of disgust while looking at Alyssa's pale skin.
But Alyssa just sat in her wheelchair and went back to her spot. Venessa's face looked like she wanted to say something, but she didn't say anything.
"Useless ugly b*tch," the same people who couldn't even appear in the Top 20 were cursing Alyssa. Although not much, this leaderboard showed that Class 1 didn't have many talented people other than Asher, Alyssa, and Venessa.
Elsa kept calling names, and one by one, students would come up, but the rankings were not changing for the top 20 people.
"Next is Asher Greville."
At the end when Elsa called out Asher's name, and the whole crowd went silent.
Although previously they were disappointed to know that their class ranked among the weakest, Asher was the only person who could change it all.
In other classes, especially in Class 4, where Kevin, Elena, and Eva were waiting for the leaderboard to change.
"Well, knowing you, if you beat the best record of the first-year practical test, you can win 10,000 GP," Elsa told Asher, who glanced at her and kept walking.
Asher wore the mana cuffs and walked up to the machine. He closed his eyes, put his right foot forward, and turned his body a bit. Everyone was looking at him; some girls were even silently cheering for him.
With one deep breath, Asher punched the machine, and the loudest noise was heard amid the total silence.
*BAM*
Wasting no time, Asher removed his mana cuffs. He rubbed his wrists a bit as he proceeded to put his palm on the crystal orb. White light glowed out of the crystal orb, and Elsa told him it was enough.
When Asher took out his sword, some of the students present here remembered the duel and stepped back subconsciously. Asher's presence was intimidating for others, as his indifferent face and cold gaze were one of the reasons.
Asher looked at the training dummy in front of him, focused, and he could see a few nodes on it. Nodes were the representation of the weakness Asher was able to perceive from the dummy in front of him.
Asher was standing with his blade pointed at the ground. Suddenly, a faint blue glow enveloped the whole blade. Asher's aura was a lot denser than what Venessa could muster on her sword.
'Node Art, Swift Strike,' Asher said, and in an instant, the sword that was pointing at the ground could be seen pointing at the ceiling.
"What was that?" Others could not understand what happened.
In a month, Asher had not stepped into the next realm of mastery, but he formed a sword attack that he was mastering to the fullest. A soft-looking strike, but it was the sharpest strike Asher could perform right now, and the most lethal one.
A very small cut had formed on the dummy due to Asher's strike, but due to the difference in their composition, there were multiple cracks on Asher's sword.
Everybody looked at the leaderboard to see what the score was, but not only the students, even Elsa was surprised.
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Rank 1 - Asher Von Greville - 9530
Rank 2 - Kevin Whiteheart - 4230
Rank 3 - Lishia Halcyon - 3420
Rank 4 - Matthew - 2970
Rank 5 - Damian Seymour - 2860
Rank 6 - Sam Allister - 2800
Rank 7 - Amelia Von Greville - 2790
Rank 8 - Elena Rothschild - 2700
Rank 9 - Eva Williams - 2657
Rank 10 - Venessa Baker - 1980
Rank 11 - Alan Astaria - 1950
Rank 12 - Ria Adler - 1670
Rank 13 - Gavin Neville - 1660
Rank 14 - Alyssa Astaria - 1600
Rank 15....
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"Congratulations on breaking your uncle's record," Elsa said as she smiled at Asher.
"The previous record of 7300 is now broken by you," she said, but the whole class was stunned.
"Monster," a single thought came into everyone's mind.
"Dammit," Kevin muttered to himself, seeing the huge gap between him and Asher.
He had practiced a lot these days, even borrowing GP from his sister to use the training rooms in the Duel Hall. But the result was in front of his eyes.
"Well, now that we have the results, all of you can go back and rest. You have your exams from tomorrow, so I hope you all perform well," Elsa said as she dispersed the rest of the students.
"And for your reward, you will get it by this evening," Elsa told Asher.
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