The second test took longer than the first test. Unlike the first test, where 50% of the examinees spent less than 5 minutes in the test hall, in the second test, 50% of the examinees spent more than 5 minutes in the test hall.
The first test was based on cultivation, so it favored the few examinees from rich and powerful homes who had reached the tenth transformation of the first mortal coil.
The second test tested endurance, so it favored the examinees who had suffered in life. There were many people who had suffered all of their lives compared to those who have experienced little suffering.
So there were more examinees staying longer in the test hall for the second test than in the first test. These examinees occupied the limited test rooms and delayed the testing progress.
Because of this, the delay stopped being the time it took to assign examinees to a particular teleportation platform and the time it took the examinees to walk over to the teleportation platform. The delay became the average time the examinees spent in the test hall.
This average time was 15 minutes. So the delay increased from 5 minutes to 15 minutes.
Most times, the examinees would be at the teleportation platform waiting for ten minutes before they were teleported for the exam. This delay increased the time it took for the second test to be concluded from 20 days to 60 days.
It was a three times increase. During the two months the test was being held, the names on the ranking list changed many times.
The person who performed the best in the second test changed many times as many people broke the record over the days. The person in the second rank of the overall evaluation also changed many times.
The score of the second rank increased many times, but it didn't cross 700 points. Arthur's rank in the second test also fell many times, but his position as the number 1 overall remained unchallenged.
He was not worried that someone would overtake his position as the number 1 at all because anyone who wants to do that will have to earn about 5,000 performance points.
5,000 performance points from the second test would require 100 minutes of endurance. In comparison, the best examinees peaked around 31 minutes.
Even though this record was broken many times, the increase in endurance was just by an extra minute. The best performance didn't surpass 35 minutes.
35 minutes is a very long way from 100 minutes. He doesn't think it is possible for anyone to endure that long. Because even he that held on for 26 minutes already had his heart crushed before he became unconscious.
Anyone who can ensure for 100 minutes would need to remain conscious without a heart for 74 minutes more than he did. He doesn't think that is possible even with the cultivation available here on Ethera.
Without the heart and the oxygenated blood that it provides, brain cells would start to die in 2 minutes tops. Cultivation and determination helped some of the examinees widen the time before they became unconscious to 10 minutes. But that is still a far cry from the 74 minutes needed to dethrone him.
He had made all of these calculations in his mind, and he was confident in the conclusion he came to, so his mind was at peace during the two months of the test. He was carefree enough to sleep.
Not many people had that luxury. Most of the examinees were too anxious to sleep. It is because there are too many unknowns concerning the examination.
No one knows how many tests there would be in each examination. No one knew what those tests would be. No one knows if these two tests will be everything for this round of examination.
If the supervisors come to make the announcement that the examination will end after the second test, there is nothing anyone can do to change that. People can only hope that is not going to be the case. It made a lot of people anxious.
Fortunately, an announcement came that there was going to be a third test after the second test. This announcement was made after the second test was concluded.
Some people felt regretful because of the announcement since another test meant that they were likely to lose their ranking. But most of the examinees were glad to have another chance to prove themselves.
Ironically, Arthur was among the many people who were happy about the third chance. He wasn't worried that he would lose his first rank. He, in fact, felt that he could do better.
A week after the second test ended, the first test began. This test was different from the previous two for many reasons.
The first difference was that this test was going to be the first joint test. Every examinee was teleported to the same arena.
Not all of them were teleported at once. The test began with a few tens of thousands of examinees. Then more examinees were sent into the arena as the ones in the arena were eliminated.
The second difference was that this test involved aquatic battle. The area was a large sea. Examinees were teleported onto surface islands on the large sea with the goal of killing aquatic beasts.
The examinees had to jump into the sea, find sea beasts, fight those sea beasts in the water, and kill the sea beasts for performance points without being killed themselves.
The examinees can work together in this test. It was allowed. They could also steal kills from each other. In fact, they could attack each other too for points.
As Arthur read the rules written in the sky with glowing letters, he couldn't help but chuckle and say, "This is going to be so chaotic."
He looked around at the people around him and asked himself, "Are we here to hunt fishes or other examinees?"
He had to ask that question because both the fishes and the other examinees are valid prey.