Lance stood in the waiting area of the Sage Institute’s courtyard, still thinking about the Holy Kingdom-style desserts.
“They say the food in the Shadow Realm is as real as in the physical world, but in an artificial Shadow Realm, it’s just an illusion. I spent all that time baking, and the dessert ended up tasteless…”
As he pondered, he unintentionally overheard other examinees discussing their clearance times.
It turned out that most successful candidates needed forty to fifty minutes just to barely meet the passing requirements.
Looks like their legal awareness still isn’t strong enough.
Just as Lance’s thoughts drifted off into space—
“How long did it take you?”
A light, clear voice rang out nearby.
Lance turned his head and saw a tall young woman about his age looking at him.
Her amber eyes were cold and proud, as if with just one glance, she could overlook the entire world.Judging by her expensive attire and jewelry, she was clearly a noble from a prestigious lineage in this kingdom.
She must have noticed another examinee who appeared unusually at ease.
Someone who seemed completely indifferent to their exam results was rare in this test hall.
“……”
Lance remained silent, roughly estimating in his mind.
In truth, he had finished the entire process in about ten minutes.
“Less than fifty minutes.”
Lance replied amicably.
He had a feeling that this impressive young lady was probably a prideful and troublesome character.
If his actual clearance speed was faster than hers and he said it outright, she would surely be unhappy.
So, to play it safe, he simply said "less than fifty minutes."
That’s what you call social finesse.
“I see.”
The young lady nodded expressionlessly and no longer paid him any attention.
So, just another person who doesn’t care about their score.
Huberian felt reassured.
Earlier, she had been misled by his overly composed demeanor.
That meant he was unlikely to be her teammate for the third round of exams.
As the daughter of Duke Aransal, Huberian had long known about the structure of the Sage Institute’s third round of exams—
Students of different specializations would be grouped together to battle against the faculty.
Typically, in such exams—
Each team would have a support mage or a healer.
Sometimes, depending on the number of examinees, the team might be composed entirely of damage dealers.
A good support could significantly lower the difficulty of the third round, while a weak one would put immense pressure on the rest of the team.
The grouping rules were said to be based on the rankings from the second round.
In other words, the top-performing examinees in the Sage Institute would likely end up as teammates and face stronger instructors.
Huberian, who was bound to rank among the top in the second round, was a damage dealer. Naturally, she didn’t want to be assigned a useless support when facing a high-difficulty challenge.
Moreover, there were people in the kingdom who didn’t want her to enroll successfully.
Being grouped with her would undoubtedly make the practical exam far more challenging.
The only way to increase her chances of passing was to get a good support.
Of course—
Those powerful figures who didn’t want her to pass would also manipulate their lackeys within the academy to assign her the worst possible teammate—maybe even a deliberate saboteur.
Just the thought of it stirred an uncontrollable wave of killing intent in Huberian, spreading like ripples across her mind.
“Give me a few more years… and I’ll make you all pay… inch by inch…”
She thought viciously, but her expression remained as calm as ever.
……
As the waiting time in the exam hall grew noisier—
At the courtyard’s edge, a young man with cold, silvery-white messy hair leaned against the wall with his arms crossed. He had now put on a pair of small round sunglasses, looking lazy yet somewhat arrogant.
He could clearly hear the conversations of the other examinees.
Most were discussing the details of the second-round exam and their completion times.
Finally—
He closed his eyes in disdain.
He didn’t understand.
Why were all these people measuring their clearance times…
By minutes?
Frey furrowed his brows, pondering this question.
Clearly, this exam tested the candidates' borrowing and lending skills.
Just pawn your belongings for money, and you’re done. Why would it take so long?
……
The chief examiner, Sage Institute’s Dean Loren, was waiting for the terminal to finish calculating the final scores for the second round.
Hearing the students’ discussions, he knew that some examinees who were still proud of their thirty-minute clearance time would soon be questioning their entire existence.
Originally—
That kind of result would be considered excellent.
Since he had been monitoring the exam hall and observing the examinees’ progress on the screens, Loren had a rough idea of their clearance times.
Among all the candidates from the Knight Institute and the Sage Institute, aside from two individuals, even the fastest took 25 minutes and 3 seconds.
Meanwhile, Lance had completed the task in approximately 9 minutes and 53 seconds.
While other candidates were still investigating, he had already arrested the entire target family.
Frey, on the other hand, took 7 seconds.
He solved everything right at the start.
In this kind of structured Shadow Realm, where the mechanics weren’t particularly complex, clearance time was the highest-weighted scoring factor.
Frey had undoubtedly earned an absurdly high base score for his speed.
However, since he hadn’t actually engaged in any investigative process, he wouldn’t receive many additional score bonuses.
As for Lance’s score, even Loren wasn’t sure how the terminal would calculate it.
If they successfully passed the second and third rounds, their scores from both rounds would be weighted accordingly and contribute to their final ranking.
The final ranking from the entrance exam would impact class assignments, priority for official challenger exemptions, and even first-year student representation in academy exchange programs.
As the artificial Shadow Realm terminal continued its usual operations and approached the final calculation—
Suddenly—
Arcs of electricity flashed across the mithril and magic crystals of the terminal, and electric cocoons erupted around it!
As the images on the magic screen connected to the terminal suddenly froze, all visuals and indicators stopped moving.
In the next instant, chaotic pixelation began to appear, making the screen blurry and repetitive.
This sudden anomaly immediately drew the attention of all the examinees, and a wave of nervous chatter spread throughout the seventh-floor exam hall.
Loren furrowed his brows tightly. Without much hesitation, he forced a shutdown of the terminal, his expression grim.
Although doing so might damage the valuable magical apparatus, ensuring the safety of all students and faculty present took absolute priority.
At the same time, the chaotic arcs of electricity on the terminal also disappeared.
Many examinees breathed a sigh of relief, their hearts still pounding.
However—
When Loren attempted to restart the terminal using the key—
He found that it wouldn’t budge.
It seemed that last shutdown had completely broken it.
“…No.”
Loren shook his head in frustration, pinching the bridge of his nose.
Today’s exam had already left him utterly drained, and now, on top of everything, he was dreading the inevitable scolding from Professor Polao at the Magic Engineering Institute.
Even without calling in Polao and the other experts for repairs, Loren already had a rough idea of what had gone wrong.
An artificial Shadow Realm, no matter how advanced, was still not a divine construct like a real Shadow Realm.
The evaluation of an artificial Shadow Realm’s results relied entirely on a preset algorithm model.
Frey’s clearance method, while unconventional, was at least straightforward and crude.
Even if a few parameters were missing, the system could still generate a score for him.
However, the creators of the system had never accounted for someone like Lance—who had completely overturned the algorithm model.
Instead of fitting within the parameters, his actions had fed the system a massive amount of abnormal inputs!
As a result, the terminal had crashed.
Judging purely by clearance speed, Frey from the Knight Institute should have ranked first in this round, with Lance from the Sage Institute right behind him.
But because of Lance’s utterly bizarre approach, in the end, the system couldn’t evaluate any of the examinees' scores!
Just thinking about the upcoming rush repair requests he’d have to submit to the Magic Engineering Institute made Loren’s headache intensify.
Finally—
Loren let out a long sigh and, as if choosing to completely ignore Lance’s existence, turned to the examinees and announced:
“We will manually evaluate the results of the second round based on the exam records. The third-round practical assessment will take place the day after tomorrow. All examinees will receive their detailed exam schedules before the end of today.”
Out of sight, out of mind.
This was all a test from the Goddess. As a cleric, he must not lose his temper so easily…
After making the announcement—
Dean Loren, like a host eager to send off his guests, promptly dismissed all the examinees from the courtyard.