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..."

are forced to make a move, you will either have

because your life isn't in danger you shouldn't put the effort in the raid. If you're negligent, that's your score

-Gulp!

say, the professor noticed a lot of students swallowing a mouthful of saliva. It was evident that

a transparent orb from his dimensional space, the professor

will measure your current rank, so once I call your name please put your hand on

a couple of meters away from the professor, my eyes were drawn towards the orb the

'The orb of identification'

artifact that

of an old dried-up monster core and essentially measured

into detail with 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

were the respective colors that represented a person's rank. Anything above rank required a different measuring tool, as the orb of

a black tablet, the professor's stern voice resounded across

Kevin

up, Kevin slowly walked in the direction of the professor. Arriving before the orb, Kevin

put my hand

"Yes"

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

-Vuuuuuam!

hand on the orb, a tremendous red hue enveloped the

D rank.

what the red color

ever come close to. At least not until the end of the first

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

pleasantly surprised by

glaring at Kevin like there was no tomorrow...but it seems like he really did

"Done"

silence prevailed in the surroundings. Everyone was looking at him in utter

couple of seconds, recovering from the shock, the

to the D rank section of the

Kevin nodded towards the professor and headed back

seconds, snapping out of

Rank 2, Melissa Hall,

.

.

.

3, Jin Horton, please

.

.

.

that, everyone's

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