Noah remained where he was and pulled out a small compass from his storage ring.

"Good thing I bought some necessary things."

Noah knew there were no restrictions on what students could bring for the exam.

However, there were a few things everyone needed to keep in mind, even though the instructors had not explicitly mentioned them.

The first was artifacts. They were strictly prohibited. If an exam ever allowed artifacts, the academy would clearly state it in the rules beforehand.

The second was weapon ranking.

All students were required to use academy-issued weapons. If they wished to bring their own weapons, those weapons had to be of a low rank.

Weapons were generally ranked from G to SS.

Low Tier: G, F, E

Mid Tier: D, C, B

High Tier: A, S, SS

All first-year students currently possessed E-Rank weapons.

Even Noah’s blue-and-silver spear was only E-Rank.

The same applied to every other first-year student.

These weapons were decent, but far from magnificent.

Noah summoned his spear and held it tightly.

Even his spear was considered low-tier.

"Once I break through to the Condensed Core Rank, I’ll try to buy a mid-tier weapon."

He performed a few stretches before dashing into the forest.

It was going to be a long race after all.

Soon, he ventured deeper into the forest.

’How can I top this exam?’

His footsteps crunched against the dry leaves scattered across the ground.

Stomp.

Stomp.

Stomp.

Tens of kilometers away from Noah was Damien.

He stood atop a thick tree branch overlooking the vast forest below.

His hazel eyes calmly observed the endless sea of dark-green wilderness.

"Where is Noah? I need to defeat him before he does something out of nowhere."

Damien was determined to secure first place in this exam.

He had no intention of taking it easy on anyone.

Anyone who stood in his way would be defeated.

The young man leaped from the branch and dashed toward the north.

After running for quite some time, Noah encountered his first monster.

It was a Scavenger Scuttler.

Roughly the size of a large dog, the creature resembled a grotesque combination of a hairless rat and a giant beetle.

Its oily black skin stretched tightly over its frame, revealing faint gray veins beneath the surface. Long clawed limbs supported its body while a segmented tail dragged behind it.

It was alone.

The moment it sensed Noah’s presence, it turned around and attempted to flee.

Noah didn’t allow it the chance.

Mana surged through his body as he dashed forward.

A layer of sharp blue ice coated the blade of his spear.

Swung!

The spear flashed.

Splash!

Dark blood sprayed through the air.

The monster collapsed lifelessly onto the ground.

"That was easy."

Noah shook the spear, flicking the blood from its blade.

"F-Rank."

He glanced at the dead creature.

"F-Rank Beast. Five points... it’s nothing special. I need to find stronger monsters and accumulate as many points as possible."

’Knowing Damien, he must already be killing plenty of monsters. I need to keep up.’

Without wasting time, Noah dashed deeper into the forest.

However, before he could go much farther, a strange scratching noise reached his ears.

Skkkrrr...

Skkkrrr...

Skrrr...

Chitter-chitter-chitter...

Noah immediately stopped.

His eyes narrowed as he searched for the source of the sound.

Soon he found it.

A large group of Scavenger Scuttlers emerged from the undergrowth.

There were over twenty of them.

The moment they sensed Noah’s presence, multiple pairs of glowing red eyes locked onto him.

The entire group became silent.

They simply stared.

Noah smirked.

Around him, ice rapidly condensed in the air.

One sword.

Five swords.

Ten swords.

Twenty-five swords.

A total of twenty-five ice swords floated around him.

Seeing only a single human standing before them, the monsters decided to attack.

To them, he looked like easy prey.

SCCCRREEEEECCCHHHHH!!

The entire pack screamed in unison before charging toward him.

Noah’s blue eyes remained calm.

With a simple gesture, all twenty-five ice swords shot forward.

Whistle!

Whistle!

Whistle!

The weapons tore through the air with incredible speed.

Shckk!

Shckk!

Shckk!

One after another, the swords pierced through skulls.

Dark blood splattered across the forest floor.

Most of the monsters died before they could even reach him.

The few that managed to get close were met with another attack.

Noah stomped on the ground.

Sharp ice spikes erupted upward.

Piercing.

Impaling.

Killing.

Within moments, the entire pack was dead.

"One... two... three..."

Noah counted the corpses.

"Twenty-three... twenty-four including the last one."

A grin appeared on his face.

"At this rate, reaching five thousand points in a single day doesn’t sound difficult."

His confidence rose for a moment.

Then he frowned.

"Fuck. That means other people can do this too. Reaching the finish line only gives bonus points. Dammit."

Without wasting another second, he resumed running.

He didn’t even bother collecting the mana cores.

F-Rank cores were practically worthless to him.

ROOOAAARRRRRR!!

Suddenly, a thunderous roar erupted from the side.

A gigantic figure lunged toward him.

"What the—?!"

Noah’s eyes widened.

He immediately jumped forward.

BOOOOM!!

A massive stone club smashed into the ground where he had been standing moments earlier.

The impact shattered the earth and sent dirt flying everywhere.

"Dammit!"

Noah rolled across the ground before quickly regaining his footing.

The dust slowly settled.

A towering figure emerged from the cloud.

The monster stood well over three meters tall.

Its body was a mountain of muscle wrapped in dark crimson skin.

Bulging veins crawled across its massive arms while thick black fur covered portions of its shoulders and legs.

Its head belonged to a bull.

Two enormous curved horns extended from either side of its skull, sharp enough to impale a person with ease.

Its yellow eyes burned with savage intelligence.

Heavy breaths escaped its nostrils like steam from a furnace.

Every exhale produced visible bursts of hot air.

In one hand, it wielded an enormous stone club nearly as large as Noah himself.

The crude weapon was covered in cracks and dried blood.

A Minotaur.