The day of the exam arrived, and we were all gathered in the Class A training ground. We were all waiting for Mr. Alan to arrive.

  "Are you nervous, Rid?" Noa asked.

  "No, you're probably the one who's nervous," I said.

  "Neither am I. Besides, Mr. Alan said this exam is similar to the second stage of the entrance exam. So it's probably about destroying dolls again. I wouldn't be nervous if I had to do that again," Noa said.

  "If the exam was a battle between students, would you be nervous?" I asked.

  "Not really," Noa said.

  "But what if you had to fight Lillian in the exam?" I asked.

  "Uh-huh, that's enough," Noa said.

  "So you'd be nervous about a test like that," I said.

  "What about you, Rid? If you were facing a test where you had to fight the Ice Princess, what would you do?" Noa asked.

  "Well, just face the exam normally. Whether it's against Irene or someone else is fine," I said.

  "Did you become cold after dating the Ice Princess?" Noa asked.

  After our conversation, Mr. Alan arrived, accompanied by four staff members.

  "Good morning, everyone. It seems you're very excited to face your first exam at this academy," Mr. Alan said.

  "This time, I'm accompanied by four of my friends who will help me prepare and grade your exams," Mr. Alan said.

  The four staff members bowed their heads briefly in greeting.

  "It seems there weren't any introductions from each of the staff members, but oh well," I thought.

  "Then let's get started. I'll explain the exam first. This first exam will be divided into four sessions over four days. Today is Monday, the first day of the exam, and it will conclude on Thursday. The academy will have the day off, and you will return to study on Monday," Mr. Alan said.

  The students were delighted to hear this.

  "Friday off? That means we'll have three days off this week," said Noa, also delighted.

  "The first exam of each day won't last long, and I think it'll be over before lunch break. So, after the exam, you're allowed to go home straight away," said Mr. Alan.

  The students were delighted again.

  "Going home early? In fact, this week we get to go home early," said Noa, delighted again.

  "But, because you're leaving early before lunch break, you won't get the free lunch from the academy," said Mr. Alan.

  The students, who were initially happy to hear this, became gloomy, as did Noa.

  "And remember, daily matches are also canceled while exams are in progress. So, this week, you won't have any daily matches. They will resume next Monday," said Mr. Alan.

  We nodded in agreement with Mr. Alan's explanation.

  "Back to the exam explanation, as I said earlier, this exam is divided into four sections. As I mentioned before, the first exam will be worth 2,000 points. But these 2,000 points are the total points you'll earn if you complete all four exams. The point distribution is 200 points if you complete the exam on the first day, 300 points on the second day, 500 points on the third day, and 1,000 points on the fourth day. If you successfully complete the exam on the first day, you'll immediately receive 200 points and gain access to the second day's exam. However, if you fail the first day's exam, you won't receive any points and won't be able to take the second day's exam, and so on. The same goes for the other days' exams," said Mr. Alan.

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  The students, who heard this explanation, began to feel anxious because there was a knockout system for this first exam.

  "Since I've already explained the exam, how about we get started with the first day's exam?" asked Mr. Alan.

  -

  "Okay, then please go ahead, Rid," said Mr. Alan.

  "Wait a minute, sir. I don't even know what to do with the explanation of this exam, why am I suddenly being asked to go first?" I said.

  "I'll explain it later. You go first," said Mr. Alan.

  "Okay," I said.

  I then walked to the center of the training ground.

  "Okay, the explanation for this exam is that you must destroy the wooden dummies that the five of us have created within two minutes. You will be considered a failure if you fail to destroy all the wooden dummies we have created within two minutes," said Mr. Alan.

  "So it turns out, the exam is the same as the second stage of the entrance exam, which is destroying wooden dummies."

  "Then this exam will be easy," said the students who were chatting with me.

  "But the dummies you will destroy are different from those in the entrance exam. Let's make the dummies appear," said Mr. Alan.

  Mr. Alan and the four other staff members took an object from their pockets, and it turned out to be an Artifact.

  - Wood Creation Magic, Fighting Wooden Puppets -

  Mr. Alan and four other staff members created numerous wooden puppets before me. But there was something different about the previous ones. The puppets in front of me held different weapons, each imbued with one of the five basic elements: electricity, water, fire, earth, and wind.

  "Fighting puppets, huh?" I thought.

  The students, who had previously thought this test easy because they only had to fight wooden puppets, suddenly became restless.

  "You have to destroy all these wooden puppets within two minutes. Hmm, why are you reacting like that? Didn't you say this would be easy?" asked Mr. Alan.

  The students remained silent.

  "Well, it's a good thing I chose you to go first, Rid. At least they can study the puppets' attack patterns when they fight you. You have no problem going first, right? After all, you were number one in the entrance exam, and now you're also number one in the first-year student with the most points. So you shouldn't complain, right?" asked Mr. Alan.

  "Okay, I have no problem with that," I said.

  "Then, let the first day of the exam begin!" said Mr. Alan.

  The wooden puppets began to attack me. Most of the ones that attacked me were those using melee weapons like swords and spears, while the puppets using ranged weapons stayed behind.

  "I'll finish this quickly," I said.

  - Flame Sword Art, Great Flame Slash -

  I launched a large flaming slash at the puppets, and they were incinerated. There were no wooden puppets left in front of me.

  "What the heck? He finished off all the wooden dummies in one attack?" the students exclaimed, shocked to see me.

  "Good job, Rid. You successfully completed the first day's exam. But... because you destroyed the dummies in one attack before they started attacking you, the other students couldn't see their movement patterns. That's why I gave you first turn," Mr. Alan said.

  "Too bad, sir. You can't use me for your own purposes," I said.

  "Well, whatever, you passed and can take the second day's exam. You can step down, Rid. Then, next, Irene, please step up," Mr. Alan said.

  I stepped back and returned to the side of the training ground, while Irene stepped up to the center of the training ground. I passed Irene.

  "Good luck, Irene," I said.

  "Yeah, Rid," Irene said.

  "Hey, Rid, Irene, don't get all affectionate during the exam," Mr. Alan said.

  "I'm not being affectionate, sir. I was just encouraging her," I said.

  The students on the sidelines of the training ground laughed.

  Then Irene also successfully completed the first day's exam, as did Charles, Chloe, Enzo, and Noa. Kotaro also successfully completed the exam. And finally, all the students in Class A successfully completed the exam, even though some of them were exhausted or injured from the attacks from the wooden dolls.

  "No wonder the next exam will be held tomorrow. It seems the academy knows not all students will be able to continue if the exam is continued today. The academy seems quite understanding," I thought.

  "Congratulations on all of you successfully passing the first day's exam. If you're tired or want to continue training, please go home immediately to recover. The training ground is free for those of you who wish to continue training. If you're injured, please go directly to the center building on the second floor to seek recovery," said Mr. Alan.

  We all prepared to disperse. Then Mr. Alan continued his speech.

  "See you on the second day of the exam tomorrow. Please note, the difficulty level for the second day's exam will be higher than the first day's. It looks like some of you will fail the second day's exam tomorrow," said Mr. Alan.

  -To be continued