Mystery Tales Under the Moonlight

Chapter 31: Category Determination Exams at the Academy (8).

ــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــ

One minute.

A familiar feeling came to Fernando now.

The students' reactions were naturally similar to his when he first experienced it.

Some were not very surprised.

Why didn't they know about the exam from the beginning? It was because the talent reveal did not resemble the secret and the public.

When Fernando performed the rituals, it was under the supervision of the teachers, and thus, he did it blindfolded and with his senses muted.

All he remembers is the overwhelming pressure.

He thought it came from someone, but it didn't seem that way.

That didn't mean he knew the source.

From this perspective, many offered their own guesses.

But who would have thought it was this difficult!

The boy next to his teacher and his trainee colleague resisted the uncomfortable feeling of pressure.

5 minutes.

"Resist... resist! I will become a trainee no matter the cost!"

"Don't give up! There's a lot at stake!"

Now there were many who struggled with willpower.

Some had lost consciousness.

Naturally, they were mercilessly disqualified, and their bodies disappeared as if the space was changing.

10 minutes.

Many lost consciousness, while others resisted, either by reminding themselves or using methods like regular breathing or magical tools.

Unfortunately, everyone who used external tools increased the pressure on themselves!

The point of the test was self-reliance!

Thus, many who used magical tools and lost consciousness before the ten minutes carried feelings of regret.

If only they hadn't used them... they would have had a chance.

The real test starts from here.

Those who passed the threshold of failure sighed in relief, but no one let their guard down.

Some remembered what was said before the test.

All means are allowed except cheating or killing.

Some eyes glinted coldly.

Pressure or time can be reduced by reducing competitors, and perhaps some extra points could be gained!

The first test was not only to determine talent, but also to distribute points.

It may not compare to the second and third tests, but it will certainly help!

"Yang Dogo! Today, we will erase our old and new grudges!"

"You scoundrel! I have no grudge against you! The girl herself confessed to me and I rejected her, why do you still hold grudges?!"

"I'm sure you deceived her! Don't dare talk to me, let our fists do the talking!"

"Say that from the start and don't make excuses!"

As they endured the pressure, many began to fight.

It was better to quickly reduce the competitors!

"Get rid of the fools..." Leon snorted in disdain when he saw their foolish actions.

The academy's intentions were truly malicious.

When you are in a desperate situation, and suddenly remember that there are many permissible means to get out of it, what will you do?

Naturally, it was clear!

Why did they mention before the start of the test that all means are permissible?

To increase the pressure on the minds of the examinees!

The purer the magical energy of the body, the easier it is for a person to withstand pressure.

For those desperate about this fact, what will they do?

Whatever it takes, they would do anything!

They had already crossed the threshold of failure, so there was nothing to lose.

Some had been waiting for this opportunity even before the ten minutes had passed.

From Leon's perspective, such foolish actions were merely a way to diminish potential, not to mention that it would lead to chaos.

No one dared to approach Leon.

After he had easily knocked someone out, it would be foolish to think of doing something malicious to him.

Some were somewhat disappointed; they wanted to tire themselves out until Leon was exhausted, but that unfortunately did not happen.

Leon was not the only one; Dio had already knocked some out while appearing fine.

The two behind him competed with each other to see who would remain conscious as much as possible.

The other three were observing the environment.

Princess Lucia Hadrian could be seen, while Edward Harvey stood beside her like a guard.

There were those who stood around her, as if they were human shields.

That group did not show any signs of fatigue or exhaustion.

Lilith Kronos was peering from a distance, smiling gently as she greeted Leon, seemingly doing it intentionally.

She did not appear tired.

It was no secret that she had undergone the talent determination ceremony before, but her talent had never been revealed.

She seemed to have chosen to reveal it here.

Some held their own thoughts while guarding Lilith, just as some did with Lucia.

Time passed slowly.

Fifteen minutes.

Leon was still standing alone, while others were fighting among themselves.

Some of those who could use magic attacked each other frantically.

They had already lost their rationality.

The pressure was not on the body, so they could move freely, but it was on the spirit.

The desire to give up and be drawn into sleep.

Unreasonable thoughts, repressed emotions.

The pressure stirred them all.

There was one person who approached Leon fearlessly.

A wicked laugh appeared on Leon's face as he said, "Do you want to sleep this badly?"

"You commoner, I challenge you!" The boy's voice showed no fear.

"A challenge? Do you dare to fight me?"

"Do you underestimate my noble mind? I am not a fool! Clearly, that will destroy my valuable endurance, it is of no use."

"It seems your mind is working, what will you challenge me on?"

"Will! Who will remain conscious between us longer? You, commoner, or I, the esteemed noble, that's it!"

The young boy had a bold voice and a strangely arrogant tone.

But Leon did not feel bad; he liked this boy.

His answer was correct.

This challenge could be used as a means to make a person more aware.

It was not just the purity of magical energy that determined talent; there were other factors: physical condition, mental state, and willpower.

There is more, but it can be said that the main trio lies within these three categories.

If you face someone in a challenge, it will ignite your willpower, and you won't want to lose.

Naturally, what this boy did was one of the right things to do in this test.

Leon smiled dismissively as he replied, "Hmph! Since my lord is bored, I will reluctantly accept your challenge!"

"Don't misunderstand, I am the one who graciously challenges you!"

"Hehehe, I will win!"

"No, my esteemed self will win!"

The two laughed arrogantly at each other while sweating.

Time had indeed passed; the fools who fought had undoubtedly tired themselves out now.

So there was no need to pay attention to them.

"Yang Dogo, you scoundrel! You have deceived me!"

The boy who started this series of battles as the first challenger was surrounded by people.

He looked at Yang Dogo with hateful eyes and cursed angrily.

"I did not deceive you; you only faced the evil of your own actions! And you dare blame me? You hypocritical scoundrel!"

"Don't listen to him; he is the reason for what is happening, let's at least eliminate him to vent our anger!"

Instead of fighting him, Yang Dogo lured the boy who tried to provoke a fight with him towards others and spread words around him.

What strengthened his position was that he did not fight and emphasized the ridiculous reason for fighting him.

The girl that boy loved confessed her feelings to Yang Dogo, and he politely rejected her; what caused his anger? His logic was nonsense!

With such a situation, how could the examinees not be angry?

Naturally, that anger was directed at the boy.

Yang Dogo left the place and went to an environment with a group he had left before.

"I did what you ordered me, young master!"

He was standing with difficulty and enduring the pressure while greeting the young man in front of him.

The young man smiled lightly and replied, "Well done, you have suitable sound judgment; I will never treat you poorly under my banner."

Yang Dogo raised his fists together respectfully: "Thank you for your kindness, young master!"

Shin Su from the Shin clan was the main instigator of the matter.

Controlling information was his strong point; how could he not plan against others?

It was correct that competitors should be reduced, but it was foolish to fight recklessly.

Therefore, he used fighting as a means to gather talents and eliminate the weak.

And that is also called a correct answer.

"Don't give up! Remember that we are strong as long as our convictions are strong! Keep in mind that a clear mind is what leads a person!"

"Yes, young master!"

"Your words are golden, young master!"

A handsome boy with long brown hair stood with a group, while they encouraged each other.

If anyone approached an individual among them, they would all resist.

This is how they maintained team unity.

Mao Li Qiu, the youngest son of the Mao Li clan, was a kind-hearted boy by nature and gentle with others.

Was his kindness a weakness? No, on the contrary, because of his kind heart, he had an iron will.

Don't be fooled by appearances; there is a difference between being kind and being foolish.

He knew the boundaries between them well, so schemes did not work against him.

This boy used his intelligence and his sincere and bold nature to gather a group to extract their maximum potential as much as possible.

And this was the answer he arrived at.

The girl from the alchemist family, Lina Claudius, used magical tools in a unique way.

The girl planted mines around her area.

As soon as someone approached, the mines would react with the person immediately, and that would have some effect.

Freezing or burning, feeling dizzy, and so on.

That would weaken the enemies; if they did not lose the ability to fight, that was fine, there was more.

She had her own doubts.

The unspoken rule.

As soon as tools are used, the pressure on the person increases.

What does it mean to use tools? Does it mean she is the owner of the tool, or is there something contrary to that?

What if the pressure was not on her, but on others?

This means that what is called "using" magical tools does not necessarily mean they belong to the person.

As long as it interacts with the magical energy in a person's body, the pressure and burden will fall on them!

It was somewhat of a gamble, but as she expected, it turned out that her guess was correct!

Lina used her wit to deal with her enemies while conserving her energy as much as possible.

And that was another correct answer.