Even though the questions were not easy to answer, the question paper was designed in such a way that it was hard for the students to avoid the more difficult questions that would require several minutes to even think of the possible right answer.

As such, Shane hadn't answered the questions that would take longer in the beginning and skipped them to answer the simple questions in a matter of a few hours.

During the remaining time, he'd returned to the tricky ones and had answered the rest in a calm, yet steady manner.

To nobody's surprise, he had skipped the extremely difficult questions, but that was only obvious.

Why wasting time on something that would bring the same amount of points despite taking several times longer to answer?

Thus, Shane was able to become one of the 40 prodigies who had passed the first exam.

His score wasn't even bad, rather, his rank was in the late 10s.

There were many prodigies who didn't find Commander Nuyra's evaluation to be fair or correct, however, what were they supposed to do?

Act like children and start complaining about the unfairness that a 17 years old young man was able to answer more questions than they did in their 20s?

If Shane were to hear this, he would lose his belief in mankind because one's age had hardly anything to do with being wise or knowledgeable.

Acquiring wisdom with time is logical if one is not completely oblivious to their surroundings, but Shane doubted that someone who was only a few years older would necessarily be wiser than him.

His childhood had been too unique for that to have happened!

Nevertheless, it was astonishing how quickly and quietly the prodigies who'd failed the knowledge trials left.

In only five minutes, the large crowd had been reduced to a group of only 40 young men and women. As they waited patiently for the next announcement, Commander Nuyra got up from his seat to stand in front of all of them.

He had been baffled for a second that Shane had passed the knowledge trails because he thought that someone as young as him, with all three possible perfect body refining techniques at that, should have been busy with missions all day long!

However, he was not someone to be distracted for a long time so he announced,

"The system will create a tournament sheet and tell us in a minute who will be sparring against who!

"

A minute passed and as told, the system had created a small tournament with all 40 young men and women who had passed the knowledge exam in it.

When Shane searched for his name, he heard someone trying to suppress the excitement in his voice,

"Yes! I will fight against the loser!

"

Turning his head, Shane followed the gaze of the young man with brown hair and saw a large screen that displayed the tournament schedule and found his name against what could only be the name of the youth who had just exclaimed.

This caused him to frown, yet, he controlled himself and looked at the name of the second opponent he would have to fight.

After he had seen both names, Shane sighed in relief, thinking that he was fortunate because he wouldn't have to fight against Miriam, Aisha, or Frer.

He was hoping for their fortune to be the same because it would be more interesting to enter the basic race gathering with all four of them together.

Afterward, he opened the system and PrimWeb where he searched for two names.

Dirk Dark- Human prodigy, mana purity at around 90%, Shadow Assassin!

Likes: Girls

Dislikes: Weak guys

…

..

.

Ivan Ser- Human prodigy, mana purity at around 93%, Hunter of the Wind

Likes: Sparring

Dislikes: unsatisfactory fights

…

..

.

Shane's first opponent was likely to underestimate him despite only having a mana purity of 90% which meant that the fight would become quite interesting.

He had seen Dirk's smile and joy after all.

This was probably owing to the young man's arrogance and due to him hearing what Commander Nuyra had said earlier.

Despite that, Shane decided that it was stupid to underestimate his opponent as he might want to finish him with one move.

Other than that, Ivan Ser was the most likely to become his second opponent.

He seemed to be an archer, which was a type of opponent Shane had yet to face!

It would definitely be interesting, but Shane could tell that the second opponent would be more dangerous to face.

Based on the pictures loyal fans had uploaded of Ivan on the PrimWeb, he could easily tell who the person he would be facing in the second round was.

Thus, he was also aware of the intimidating aura he was releasing. The other possible second opponent of Shane was not interesting enough to him.

He seemed to be intimidated by the fact that he would have to face Ivan Ser in the next round after 'easily' defeating Shane in the first one.

As such, Shane simply ignored him.

"Let's not waste too much time and initiate the spars to determine the 10 seats who would attend the basic race gathering!

You guys have to increase your strength during the next three weeks after all!

"

Everyone nodded their heads, thinking that it was feasible to start the spars immediately.

Thus, they dispersed in several groups that walked towards the few combat arenas they were assigned to.

The arenas were nothing special and simple clay fields that were monitored by an AI.

Shane was assigned to arena 1 and there were 7 more students next to him.

Every single one of them radiated a unique aura and strong mana fluctuations, and Shane seemed to be the weakest among them.

That was at least at the first glance, and it was more like an advantage than a disadvantage.

Who would think that a young man with a mana purity of 60% would be as strong as someone with a mana purity of 90%?

Probably nobody would, and this was exactly what Shane could use against Dirk Dark, the Shadow assassin!

He was the first to spar, and as he already had his combat clothes on, he was all set to fight.

Thus, Shane simply walked inside the arena as he summoned the Sword of Blood, Mydra, and a scabbard which he attached to his belt.

After that he sheathed Mydra, before three arrows and the bow of destruction, Alaran manifested in his hand.

When Dirk saw this, he snorted, thinking that Shane was a little bit over the top.

"How will you even be able to unsheath your sword after shooting three arrows at me? Will there even be enough time to shoot the arrows in the first place?

"

Dirk smiled craftily, releasing more of his shadow transmuted mana in order to intimidate Shane, who was simply looking at him without revealing any emotions.

This enraged Dirk, who was labeled an attention-seeker by his own fans!

It was only the moment, when the AI initiated the start of their spar, that Shane utilized the Mana membrane skill before a thick layer of mana enveloped him.

At the exact same time, he released a thick membrane of bloodlust-killing-intent, enveloping his body, intertwining with the mana membrane that was tightly enshrouding Shane.

A second later, Shane transferred a huge stream of mana towards his mana pool which he directly utilized by shooting the three arrows in rapid succession.

His speed was slightly slower than he had expected, but it had been a long time since Shane had learned an ungraded archer technique called 'rapid shooting'.

Nevertheless, everything Shane did was enough to astonish Dirk Dark, who had only activated three of his occupation skills.

He had already emerged in front of Shane, only to notice that the shot arrows didn't target the location Dirk had been standing earlier, but where he had shifted to!

Due to Shane's perception, he had been able to calculate Dirk's rough position after he had activated the Shadow traveling skill that allowed him to jump between shadows in a close radius.

There had been no shadows behind Shane, thus he had been able to forecast his opponent's position.

The arrows that had been enchanted by the Double Impact effect of Alaran, the bow of destruction had already arrived in front of Dirk, who slashed at them with his Tier-2 (Extraordinary) Daggers using all his might.

He was forced to retreat while deflecting the first arrow, and then the second one arrived a moment later. That left Dirk with no other choice but to utilize one of his unique occupational skills, called Shadow-Lord that he'd wanted to save for later.

To the spectators, it was clear that Dirk had overestimated his own strength while underestimating his opponent, which caused the current situation.

When the third arrow with the double impact effect shot towards Dirk, he had barely enough time to evade it due to the short opening his unique skill had created for him.

Under normal circumstances, the Shadow-Lord skill was utilized as a means to attack the opponent by changing a life threatening situation into a state in which the prey turned into the predator.

Unfortunately, this was only the case provided both opponents were in close combat.

It was only at the exact moment, the Shadow-Lord skill had elapsed that Dirk was about to gather his senses.

However, when he noticed that Shane had already appeared in front of him, with his sword unsheathed, ready to slash at him, Dirk couldn't help but exert every skill he had.

Right now, it didn't matter whether he would win or lose because Shane's entire demeanor of a calm youth had transformed into that of a bloodthirsty, ferocious beast that wanted to tear him apart.

His mana fluctuations were even stronger than that of most beasts Dirk had ever seen.

Thus, he didn't even notice that goosebumps had erupted all over his body as Shane slashed at him.

After every skill Dirk possessed had been utilized, he couldn't help but feel that his aura barely reached that of Shane.

Nevertheless, Dirk's legs were already trembling and he couldn't move properly as Mydra, the Sword of blood that had been supplied with an enormous amount of mana and the bloodlust-killing-intent, pierced through Dirk's first layer of protection.

Victory, Shane Suro! Opponent's will to fight disappeared!

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