Extra's Abyss-Chapter 38: Entrance Exam[3]

Noctis strolled through the vibrant streets of Ether City, and while walking through a corner, he spotted Zoe and Ivan ahead, laughing as they walked.

He quickened his pace, catching up to them as he asked suddenly, "Hey, how'd you two do?"

The twins jumped a bit, startled at the sudden voice behind them; turning around, they saw Noctis smiling at them.

Ivan sighed dramatically. "Dude, don't ever do that; you scared us there."

"Hi, we both did well on the exam. What about you?" Zoe shrugged, waving a hand, her lips curling into a smile.

"Quite good, where are you guys heading to?" Noctis asked, walking beside them.

Ivan's gaze flicked towards his head, his hand subtly measuring his height.

"Uh, didn't notice it yesterday. Noctis, you're quite short, ha." He said, surprised, hearing him. Zoe's eyes widened as she compared her height.

Noctis said swiftly, black lines covering his face, "I am just a late bloomer, okay, and it's only temporary." Both twins were around the same height, with barely a few cm between them, and he barely reaches their noses.

Ivan snickered at him. "Yeah, yeah, sure mate, you'll grow." Zoe was giggling to herself while walking behind him.

"Noctis, you're just vertically challenged for now," she teased, playfully patting his back. Noctis rolled his eyes at them.

He spent some time with them before bidding them goodbye and heading to his apartment. After exploring the city's layout and notable places, he decided to visit a familiar spot in the game, leading him to take a detour into a narrow alleyway.

At its end stood a normal-looking store with a sign, Land for sale, in the game, there was a store here where he could buy some rare law shards; the owner had a connection to the black market.

Noctis shook his head, disappointed. "Looks like he's not here."

His watch vibrated as he left the alley, checking the message, he saw Ethan had sent him the details of the practical exam, which would be held in two days.

He closed his screen, planning to read it at his apartment.

The city's glow deepened as evening fell, Arriving at the apartment, he made his way to his room and entered.

Looking at the city's glow filtered through the windows, brightening his room, Noctis sank into the couch and opened the contents of the practical exam.

After reading through the contents of the exam, Noctis gazed up at the ceiling, deep in thought about the upcoming challenge. The practical exam was actually quite simple yet a little tough.

They had to fight a senior who was an illusion formed by the university's database; they either had to survive for a certain period or defeat them entirely.

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The next morning, Noctis's watch buzzed, waking him up, and he made himself a simple breakfast of a few sandwiches.

His doorbell rang; opening it revealed Clara standing at his door.

Noctis welcomed her inside, sat back at the table, and continued to eat his breakfast.

Clara sat on the couch. "Got your date?" she asked, looking at him.

Noctis choked on his food, coughing and trying to compose himself before responding, "Date? Uhh, what do you mean?"

Clara chuckled at his reaction, "The date for your practical exam, of course."

Noctis blinked, realizing he had forgotten all about it.

"They released it?" To which Clara nodded her head.

Pulling out his mobile, he quickly opened the official website and logged in with his ID.

It took a few moments before the screen changed and showed him his assigned date for the exam.

"9th, hmm, it's on the first day, the day after tomorrow," a voice from behind said, surprising him slightly. Clara had unknowingly slipped behind him.

Clara walked past him, adding, "I have mine on the 7th day, along with Trisha, while Ethan and Lena are on the 3rd day, and Rain's on the 10th, the last day." Taking the seat opposite him.

Noctis nodded in response, placing his half-eaten sandwich back on the plate and looking for any other information about the practical exam.

"Did you make these sandwiches?" Clara looked at the two sandwiches on his plate, one of which was missing half, and asked him, to which Noctis responded with a hmm.

She reached out to try one; her hand hesitated over the eaten one before she picked up the untouched one.

Taking a bite, her eyes widened in surprise. "It's actually good."

She pouted and muttered, "Idiot." Glancing at Noctis, who was busy looking at his phone, before returning to finishing the sandwich.

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On the 1st day of the practical exam, Noctis reached Ethereon's campus, heading towards his ivory tower with towering height.

The interior of the tower had a futuristic structure, as the space inside was much larger than the exterior size of the tower, and he noticed the numerous candidates queuing up; there were almost 20 lines.

While waiting for his turn, Noctis saw a few familiar characters from the game; he took note of them and cross-checked their status.

Seeing their identical statuses to their game counterparts, he couldn't help but wonder about the unexpected change in his friends' statuses.

His turned arrived, as he entered through the elevator, which took him to the floor where the exam was going to be conducted.

Noctis entered a huge space of white expanse stretching forever as he came to a stop after walking a few steps.

A simple translucent black interface appeared above him.

Candidate: Noctis Nightryn

Rank: E

Resonance: Zephyr and Umbra

Finding the optimal match.

Noctis waited for exactly a minute while another screen appeared in front of him, showing him various outlines of weapons with a search bar at the top.

He instantly chose the sword as his weapon, as a normal steel sword manifested in his right hand.

He gripped the sword, swinging it around, feeling its weight, and getting familiar with his weapon as a minute passed and the text on the black screen changed.

Match Found

Initiating practical exam

Objective: Survive for 10 minutes or kill your opponent.

A human figure began to take form around 50 meters away from his position. The figure had no features, only a blank appearance of a puppet, and a long spear appeared in its hand.

Noctis's eyes twitched. "A spear user, really!"

Taking a sword stance, Noctis used his mana to strengthen himself, getting ready to attack.

'Status,' he thought.

[Status]

Name: ----

Rank: D

Resonance Element: Aether (A)

Unique skills: None

He grumbled on the inside, seeing the aether resonance; his umbra will be, for the most part, ineffective.

10:00

A timer appeared above them the second the puppet ran towards him with the spear in thrust position; a golden-colored mana surrounded its body as a faint magic circle began to form beside it slowly.

Noctis tightened his grip on his sword, eyes locked on to the charging puppet, and he shifted into a defensive stance.

He had to use his zephyr spells to counter the puppet's spells as he began to construct a wind burst spell in his mind.

The puppet's spear thrust forward with precision, aiming for his chest. Noctis dodged, swinging his sword towards the puppet's shoulder.

Before his sword could land, a light arrow shot out, deflecting it. Backing off instantly, Noctis quickly finished conjuring his magic circle.

The puppet launched a few more light arrows while heading towards him, aiming another thrust as Noctis sent them all aside using wind burst.

He tried to dodge the thrust again when its trajectory changed midway into a swing, as the spear grazed his sleeve, leaving a small cut on his hand.

He quickly used this chance to counter back with a quick slash at the puppet's side, only to meet the spear's shaft in a jarring block.

Noctis took a few steps backward, creating distance between them. "This is much harder than I thought, and I take back my word about it being a little tough." He murmured while he created two circles behind him, one purple and one azure.

9:21

Glancing at the timer for a moment before, Noctis took the charge this time, dashing towards the puppet as it advanced too.

Both of them clashed midway; the puppet's attacks were a relentless barrage of thrusts and slashes. He parried each attack while taking a few hits.

His E rank mana was being draining fast against a puppet of D Rank, which had double the amount of his mana.

'Survive ten minutes? Yeah, more like death in a few minutes!'.

He needed an opening, glancing at the already formed magic circles.

Noctis went for another reckless swing; as it got blocked, he sent a lightning slash, which clashed with a light slash. The puppet went for a pierce attack.

Noctis let go of his sword and ducked under the spear strike as he sent a few wind blades toward the puppet, changing the strength to lower potency and increasing its numbers formed.

The puppet parried them all, while Noctis caught his sword and went for a vertical slash from below, catching the puppet off guard as it defended against the multiple wind blades.

The sword sliced through from the stomach to the shoulder, leaving a deep gash, as no blood flowed, just a flicker of mana dispersed into the air as the wound stayed on its body.

The puppet retaliated, sweeping its spear in a wide arc and a combo thrust and slicing attack.

Noctis barely dodged, making distance between them again, the air whistling past his ear.

Noctis once again glanced at the timer and his mana.

7:45

[Mana: 1700/2200]

He grimaced as he continued to clash with the puppet; he had several cuts all over his body, while the puppet had a huge gash running from stomach to shoulder.

'I need to end this soon,' Noctis thought, maneuvering through the spear strikes as he deflected the last one, sending out a large wind burst along with a lightning arrow disguised inside it.

The puppet was thrown out as it crashed and rolled across the floor due to the wind burst spell; just as it got up, a small lightning arrow flew through rapidly and stuck on its chest, sending lightning across its body.

Noctis quickly dashed in, taking the opportunity to finish it off.

He quickly swung his sword enchanted with a wind spell; it sliced through the air, heading straight for its neck.