The Author's POV

-Beep! -Beep!

In a remote area of the academy, standing in front of a large portal, a group of students nervously stared at the professor before them.

"Students please form a single line"

As the professor spoke, a thick wave of residual magical energy emanated from the blue portal that was a few meters behind him. Though it wasn't overbearing, it still caused every student present to feel some form of pressure.

[Cave of Everbloom]

That was the name of the dungeon in front of us.

It was a multilayered dungeon, meaning that it had different levels of difficulty, with the highest being rank, and the lowest being rank.

Because of how the dungeon had different levels—the Lock desperately fought for the ownership of the dungeon.

It was the perfect place to train students.

With the dungeon having the same layout regardless of the level of difficulty, it was a perfect dungeon to assess students' performance.

Moreover, it was also capable of fairly assessing students regardless of their rank. If you were ranked, you would have to enter the dungeon in difficulty, and so on with higher ranks...

This way, there was no element of unfairness as the monsters and layout were the same with each dungeon difficulty.

Thus, in reality, this test was used to assess a student's combat ability rather than talent.

"Alright, everyone please pay close attention to what I'm saying as safety always comes first."

Standing by the side of the portal, gathering everyone's attention back to himself, the professor spoke.

"Standing behind me is the dungeon that will be used for your practical exam for the midterms. The dungeon as most of you know is called Cave of Everbloom, and it's our academy's own dungeon..."

Pausing and staring at the students before him, the professor continued

"For your practical assessment, in order for you to pass, all you have to do is get to the other side of the dungeon. Simple as that...Just crossing over is considered a pass."

"However, for your grade, you will be assessed on two things."

Raising two of his fingers, the professor tone became stern

"Time taken for you to reach the end of the dungeon, and how many monsters you kill throughout the raid. For each extra monster you kill, you will be given an extra point and so on."

Pausing once again to make sure that everyone understood, after a couple of seconds, the professor continued.

"There will be third and second years hidden inside of the dungeon. This is so that in case you find yourself in trouble, they can quickly come to your aid. This is a safety precaution that the school has done to make sure none of you die."

Looking at the students before him, the professor's voice turned grave

"However, be warned..."

you will either have points deducted from your overall score or

because your life isn't in danger you shouldn't put the effort

-Gulp!

a lot of students swallowing a

such situations, taking out a transparent orb from his

your current rank, so once I call your name please put your hand on the sphere. Soon after the sphere measures your rank you

the professor, my eyes

'The orb of identification'

artifact that measured someone's

old dried-up monster core and essentially

regards to how it measures the stats of a person, but in short, depending on rank, the orb will shine

— G : Blue

— F : Yellow

— E : Green

— D : Red

— C : Pink

tool, as the orb of identification was merely a tool that measured an approximate rank of a person. It wasn't actually

the professor's stern voice resounded across the

Kevin Voss,

of the professor. Arriving before the orb, Kevin looked

I put my hand on

"Yes"

head, under every student's anticipated gaze, Kevin placed his hand

-Vuuuuuam!

as Kevin placed his hand on the orb, a tremendous red

D rank.

the

rank that no first year should ever come close to. At least not until

could see every student present staring at Kevin's back in shock. Surprisingly, the calmest person was actually

honestly pleasantly

clenching his jaw and glaring at Kevin like there was no tomorrow...but it seems like

"Done"

silence prevailed in the surroundings. Everyone was looking at

of seconds, recovering from the

Kevin Voss will go to the

attention he was getting, Kevin nodded towards the professor and headed back to

figure for a couple of seconds, snapping out of his daze, the professor looked at his

Melissa Hall, please step

.

.

.

3, Jin Horton, please step

.

.

.

like that, everyone's rank was

Melissa whose rank was F, Jin, Amanda, and Emma, were respectively assigned towards the graded difficulty of the