Chapter 662: Chapter 662 - Taming the Fifth Year: 1st Exams

The entire academy buzzed with anticipation.

The hallways had been filled for weeks with nervous conversations, fifth-year students exchanging rumors and speculations about what was coming. Some with excitement. Others with terror.

The end-of-semester exams for fifth year...

You wouldn’t just compete against your classmates. You wouldn’t just demonstrate your competence before neutral evaluators judging by established standards.

No.

This semester, you’d compete against the other main academies of the kingdom.

It would be the first time students from the three great educational institutions would meet in a formal competitive setting. A preview of what would come at year’s end, when the interscholastic competitions would become even more intense and complex.

This was their first taste.

The first real test against their peers from other institutions.

And everyone knew the results would matter.

Matter a lot.

"The traditional exams will continue as always," Wei explained to Ren. "Mathematics, crystallization theory, kingdom history, etcetera. But for everything, they’ll add a competitive element."

He drew a diagram, showing rankings and scores. Numbers and brackets spreading across the page like a tournament tree.

"The results won’t just determine your position within your own academy, but will be directly compared with students from the other institutions. The top three places in each subject will receive special recognition and additional rewards..."

"...However," Wei continued, his expression becoming more serious, "the three main exams will be completely different. These are what really matter for future noble assignments."

He held up one finger.

"First: The Resource Gathering Exam. Beast handling, performance under pressure. Duration: three days."

Ren felt something tighten in his chest. Three days in the forest with students he didn’t know, some of whom would probably see this as an opportunity to sabotage the "geniuses" from other academies.

Three days where anything could happen. Where accidents could be arranged. Where competition could turn deadly if someone was desperate enough.

Wei held up a second finger.

"Second: The War Exam. Large-scale conflict simulations. Strategy, tactics, leadership under battle conditions. Specific details will remain classified until exam day to prevent excessive preparation."

"And third: The Noble Exams. These will be similar to what you already completed in the first trimester, but with greater emphasis on competition. The evaluators will be high-ranking members of the Consortium, representatives from multiple noble houses, observers from the royal palace..."

Wei paused, and something in his expression suggested he was saving the most important part for last.

"And this time even the general public who can pay an expensive entrance fee."

That made Ren blink. "Public? They’re making these public?"

"Selphira insisted that many more needed to see you in action," Wei explained. "And Julius agreed. Creating the first public interscholastic exams in academy history."

The implications settled over Ren like a heavy cloak.

Not just nobles watching.

Everyone. Anyone with enough money to buy a ticket. The masses who whispered about the "Messiah" in market squares. The skeptics who called his achievements theater.

All watching. All judging. All forming opinions that would follow him for years.

No pressure...

These exams would determine the opportunities that opened or closed for you. The level of noble title you could eventually obtain.

For someone like Ren, who already had a fairly high title and the possibility of an even greater one depending on his performance, this was critical.

Winning here would put Ren in a very good position to make next trimester’s exams almost irrelevant.

If he dominated these exams, if he demonstrated not just competence but outstanding excellence, he could secure the second-highest title. Maybe even the highest if the end-of-year results were also spectacular enough.

His parents would be safer. His territory would be enormous. His future solidified.

And most importantly:

Fewer idiots would show up at his door challenging him after this.

Because the reach of these exams in noble circles was going to be enormous.

Ren was tired of that.

So tired.

The constant challenges. The endless tests. The never-ending stream of nobles who thought defeating him would elevate their own status.

But a crushing performance here, against the best minds from the other academies, on a stage where the entire noble circle would be watching...

That would send a message.

A clear, undeniable message.

Not worth trying.

So he had to win.

No, not just win. Crush.

He had to destroy the competition so completely, so indisputably, that even the most delusional would think twice before bothering him.

Simple.

In theory.

The problem was that his friends, the people who should have been his greatest support, were also competition.

Liu, Min, Taro...

Liora, Larissa, even Luna who was avoiding him.

The three girls were double tamers. All three were at ridiculously high levels for their age. All three had been trained by the best, had access to resources most could only dream of, had developed abilities that put them far above the average student.

They weren’t just competition.

They were the competition. The ones most likely to actually challenge him for top positions.

And that made everything complicated also in ways that had nothing to do with academics.

♢♢♢♢

Ren stood in the great assembly hall where all fifth-year students from the three academies had congregated.

The space was enormous. Proud work of earth elementals, massive columns carved with scenes of the kingdom’s historical battles. Victories and defeats immortalized in stone, lessons from centuries past watching over the next generation.

And it was filled with students from the three best academies.

Hundreds of them.

Many voices and competitive energy that pressed against Ren’s senses.

Some Ren recognized from previous events. Faces he’d seen at his ceremonial occasions. Others were completely new faces, students from remote territories who rarely visited the city center.

All wore the colors of their respective academies.

Black and white for the Central Academy, where Ren studied.

Red and gold for the Eastern Academy.

Blue and silver for the Western Academy.

The division was clear. Sharp as a blade drawn across the floor. Students clustering naturally with their institutional peers, invisible lines separating them as surely as physical walls.

Ren noticed the exchanges of glances across those lines. Eyes meeting, measuring, weighing.

Evaluation. Calculation. The predatory assessment of future competitors.

Some looking at him specifically.

Because of course they were.

Ren Patinder, the "commoner genius" whose stories had spread far beyond his own academy. The boy who supposedly could manipulate multiple elements, who’d survived encounters that should have killed him, who’d repaired an ancient artifact with pure mana.

The stories had been exaggerated with each retelling, of course. Some barely recognizable from reality. Growing in the telling like all legends did, fact and fiction blending.

But the core remained: he was someone to beat.

A target painted on his back in invisible ink that everyone could somehow see.