Chapter 2: Royal Academy Entrance Test I
Next day early morning. Inside a hall filled with old antiques and paintings.
"Hurry up we are going to be late."
Neon's loud voice resonated within the hall. He was wearing a dark blue jacket with matching pants and because of his black hair, he looked fairly handsome.
Last night, he was given the task of accompanying Kyle to the testing Arena because both Baron Ohan and Ray were busy with some work-related stuff.
While Neon was waiting with an impatient expression, a reluctant voice replied from upstairs.
"Coming."
After a minute, Neon heard the sound of footsteps on the stairs. He looked up, only to become angry because Kyle was walking leisurely while wearing a nonchalant expression.
"Why do you look like you are on a walk? Hurry the hell up!"
Neon shouted with anger and within a second Kyle was standing next to him because, unlike Ray, Neon had a bad temper and liked to beat him up whenever he was being lazy.
Neon was a (D)-Rank warrior, that's why Kyle who didn't even advance a single sub-rank after awakening his talent never stood a chance against him. In the end, he would always get purple eyes from all the beating.
'Tsk, he is always bullying a weak (F-)-Rank like me.'
Kyle thought inwardly and gazed at Neon with hidden resentment.
'I will take revenge one day in the future!'
Neon looked at Kyle. He was wearing a long-sleeved purple shirt with black pants. Afterward, both of them left the house.
As usual, the entire city was abuzz with activity. The narrow roads were surrounded by buildings made of square-shaped bricks. Many shopkeepers were selling their goods to the customers who entered their shops.
While walking, Kyle subconsciously gazed at the empty house present in the distance.
'I wonder what's he doing after leaving the Kingdom?'
There was a cold glint present within Kyle's eyes when he gazed at the house but it disappeared within a second.
He looked around and just like him a large crowd was heading in the direction of the only Teleportation Array present in the city.
'Well, today the most influential Academy in the kingdom is holding an entrance test. Even if they are unable to participate they can watch others perform inside the testing Arena.'
Kyle thought inwardly with a bitter expression.
'Unlike them, I am going there to break my body parts.'
An hour later, Kyle and Neon arrived at the western part of the city where the Teleportation Array was present. It was drawn on a platform like a circle, engraved with various kinds of runes.
The Teleportation Array was used for long-distance traveling from one place to another in an instant.
A large crowd was gathered in two long lines in front of the Array. That's why it took a while before it was Kyle and Neon's turn.
Soon, a muscular black-haired old man who was wearing formal attire approached the duo.
"Where would you like to go."
Neon looked at the familiar old man. He had seen the man a few times before whenever he left the city.
"The Capital City."
After stating his destination, he took out a pouch of mana stones from the storage ring present on one of his fingers and gave it to the old man.
After gold coins 'mana stones' is the second currency used in every Kingdom. They are formed by pure mana that is trapped within stones naturally.
Mana stones can be used in the enhancement of weapons, making artifacts, and lastly, they can be used to activate Teleportation Arrays.
On the other hand, 'Storage rings' were magical accessories used to store large amounts of non-living things within a separate space without actually increasing the original weight of the ring.
The old man took the pouch and after counting the mana stones with his heightened senses, he gestured for the duo to stand on the platform.
"Alright, go and stand with that batch of people."
Neon nodded and with Kyle, he hurriedly stepped on the Teleportation Array that was already filled with people.
The old man approached a stand that was only a few meters away from the Array, he placed a few mana stones on top of the stand.
Within a second, the Array started shining and Kyle felt like someone was shaking his internal organs before he disappeared along with everyone else present beside him. The next moment they arrived at another place filled with people.
As Kyle rarely left the house, it was his first time using a Teleportation Array. At the moment, he felt like throwing up all the breakfast but Neon seemed to be fine because he was already used to the sensation.
Neon looked at Kyle's face which seemed to be losing colors.
"Just remember, it's your first time using a Teleportation device but your condition looks better than mine. At least you are not throwing up."
Kyle glanced at Neon with hatred.
'In the first place, you are the one who suggested coming here. Now you are mocking me?'
He wanted to throw some punches at Neon's face, but he knew he stood no chance against him.
'Instead of getting beaten up, it is better for me to stay quiet.'
Noticing Kyle's angry eyes, Neon's smile widened. He tightly grabbed Kyle's shoulder.
"You are thinking something bad again?"
"N..o definitely not."
With a scoff, Neon started walking along the busy streets. He glanced at Kyle and increased his speed.
"Whatever, I wanted to give you some time to rest, but now I don't want to. Anyway, we are getting late. So let's go."
Kyle cursed inwardly but followed behind him. After a while, both of them arrived at an open area where the registration for the entry test was held.
Various tables and chairs were arranged in a straight line, sitting on top of them were many young males and females wearing Royal Academy blue uniforms, indicating their identity as students.
Due to a large number of young people coming to try their luck at the entrance test, the Royal Academy assigned the students with different tasks to lower the burden on teachers.
After standing in a line for almost twenty minutes, It was finally Kyle's turn.
He looked at the black-haired youth sitting behind the table with curious eyes. The man was wearing a blue long-sleeve uniform. The uniform was simple but three straight white lines were present on his chest.
"Hello sir, I am here for registration."
The young man gazed at Kyle but within a single glance, he lost interest.
"What's your name and exact age."
"My name is Kyle and I am 16 years old."
The young man took out a crystal and asked Kyle to place his hand on the crystal.
With a serious expression, Kyle placed his hand on the crystal that confirmed his age.
With a nod, the young man threw a token with the number 1055 at Kyle.
"You are in the second batch, here's your token."
After grabbing the token Kyle left. He and Neon arrived at the big Arena set up behind the registration area.
The moment they entered the huge Arena, Kyle was startled to see the Audience seats filled to the brim with thousands of people.
Everyone was talking about what test the Royal Academy would conduct this time because every year Royal Academy changed the pattern of their entrance test.
Neon found an empty seat in the crowd and gestured for Kyle to go toward the big stage, where thousands of participants were seen standing.
Kyle stepped on the stage and looked at the thousands of participants with a rather nervous look. It was his first time seeing so many people.
'If like last year the Royal Academy held a 1vs1 battle to select the top participants. Just how many times do I need to get beaten up?'
Kyle shivered with fear and hurriedly shook his head.
'If it's 1vs1 battles I will instantly admit defeat. There's no point preserving my dignity if I broke my arms and legs!'
After a while, an old man called George from the Royal Academy opened the event with a boring speech. The old man was wearing a white shirt with black pants. He had black hair and deep grey eyes.
He was the Vice Principal of the famous Royal Academy.
The speech was so boring that Kyle almost forgot about his previous remarks and barely stopped himself from yawning.
While Kyle struggled to stay awake, all the other participants as well as the audience were excited. It was not every day that they got to meet someone who held the title of (SS)-Rank warrior! Not to mention Vice Principal George was the 4th strongest human in the East Continent.
In the East continent, only 6 humans had reached the (SS)-Rank. That's why Vice Principal George was very famous.
".... I am fortunate to be able to witness the talent of our future generation. This year marked the 57th Entrance test of the Royal Academy and I sincerely expect that the participants will not disappoint me"
The speech began with Vice Principal George sharing his worries about the future of the human Kingdoms because, for the past thirty years, not even a single human successfully reached Rank-(SS).
Then he started talking about the 'Dark Forest'. A place filled with dangerous monsters. All the races living on the Blue Planet have to fight these monsters living inside the 'Dark Forest' which monopolizes almost thirty-five percent of the land on the 'Blue Planet'.
Monsters were stronger than other races which made them superior in terms of power. Just like humans monsters were divided into different ranks. Usually, other races need to be a rank higher than the monster before they can finally defeat them.
As the Rank of the monster increased, they attained the ability to command lower-rank monster hordes.
Hundreds of years ago, the first (SSS)-Rank 'Monster Lord' emerged from the Dark Forest. Commanding millions of monsters, the 'Monster Lord' was a walking catastrophe bringing only destruction to the civilization of 'Blue Planet'.
Many Ancient Kingdoms faced complete annihilation in front of the 'Monster Lord' and his army.
In the end to stop the massacre of thousands, even millions, all the different races put aside their prejudice and joined hands. They send their elite armies with (SS)-Rank warriors to defeat the 'Monster Lord'.
After years of fighting and sacrificing thousands of lives the 'Monster Lord' was finally defeated, bringing once again peace to the 'Blue Planet' civilization.
But the danger of monsters still exists inside the Dark Forest. The civilized races unable to explore the deeper parts of the Dark Forest could do nothing but slowly cut down the monster's numbers. In the end, they established various Academies to nurture young talents to fight against the monsters present in the Dark Forest.