Entrance Exams: Beyond the Rankings
"169 is in," said Forman Stonehammer, an examiner.
"He looks relaxed, does he have experience of this?" said Amara Whisperwind, speaking her thoughts.
"Well, let's see how he does, shall we?" said Forman as he looked at the screen.
A goblin came up to Sukuna, who stood there waiting for it while having Goblin Slayer flashbacks.
The goblin ran, jumping onto him without a plan, in response to which Sukuna punched him... quite weakly.
"Nothing happened" said Amara, disappointed by the underwhelming performance.
But, after about a second...
*Boom*
*Splurt*
The goblin exploded.
The examiners were quite shocked, such a lethal attack was uncommon among the examinees.
"You got blood on my clothes you blob"
"Well he seems more annoyed than nervous" said Kai Tanaka, another examiner who had rolled his chair over to see Sukuna.
On the screen, a few monsters charged at him at once, 2 of them were D-rank.
"There are 2 D-Ranks, huh? That move is not suitable for groups of monsters, as it targets just one," said Forman, slightly excited for Sukuna's next move.
"Dismantle"
*Cut*
*Splat*
The monsters fell, each divided into cubes
The three examiners had gotten up from their seats, their eyes glued to the screen.
"I knew I could one shot D-Ranks"
Sukuna then looked around for a bit before finding the camera and waving at it.
"Hey that was good, right? Now pass me"
After that, he ran around the dungeon slicing monsters all around.
He was the last to go in, and the first to come out.
"That's a new record isn't it?" Amara asked, a smile on her face as if she were the one who cleared the dungeon.
"Yeah, he's first for sure" said Kai, looking at the receding figure of the boy.
.
.
.
'Killing monsters still gives me EXP, but according to the system, I can't level up, we'll have to see what this means'
'I'll rest while I wait for the others to come, I think Ryogaku got 4 minutes 49 seconds, while the other three got 5 minutes and something seconds'
.
.
.
A Few Hours Later
Entrance Ceremony
I was dozing off at the corner of the room.
We all know how boring entrance ceremonies are, but for some reason everyone was listening attentively to the principal speaking about some stuff which I didn't bother to listen to.
Well the speech ended and he started to call up the top scorers.
Well, I wonder what time I got, I didn't count, I was just too focused on slicing those monsters like fruits.
You know goblins are like watermelons.
They are green from the outside, but when you cut them in half they're red.
Anyhow, I guess I'll wait for him to call me up.
.
.
.
POV: Principal of the Academy
I can see many talents this time around, some of these will become the pillars of the fights between humans, monsters, and those beings.
"Please welcome the principal of ITAAS Hunter Academy, the S-Rank Hunter, Blaze, to the stage"
As I went to the stage, I saw many people talking and dozing off, so I exuded a little mana pressure on them, which made everyone start to listen attentively.
Well, except for one, a boy in the corner of the room was still dozing off and yawning.
He could be so relaxed under my pressure, I'm impressed, I hope he does well, but I can feel the laziness radiating off him, he'll have to work on that.
"Welcome new students! Today marks the start of your journey in this esteemed Academy.
Look around you! These people are your future colleagues, your friends, your rivals, and most importantly, sacrifice material!"
The cheers died down into confused murmurs.
"Now, I'm sure you've all heard the usual drivel about 'saving the world' and 'protecting the innocent.' Noble aspirations, definitely.
But let's be honest – most of you are just here for the glory, the riches, maybe even the chance to snag a powerful artifact to sell on the black market."
There was a nervous laughter in the crowd.
"Now before you follow your noble aspirations, remember! This is no walk in the park.
You will face monstrous creatures with names longer than their attention span, traps so hard that they'll melt your brain.
So, forget about 'making a difference.' This Academy is about the survival of the fittest. The strongest, most ruthless ones come out at top.
Well at least you will have a good story to tell... if you survive"
There was a silence in the hall, everyone was contemplating the words of the principal.
"Seems like I scared you, don't worry, just have fun when you're not dying.
Anyways, for the top scorers of this year... "
I took out a piece of paper from and started reading its contents.
"Fifth place, Alexia Hadrion, 6 minutes 03 seconds, please come up on stage"
"Fourth place, Johan Wolff, 5 minutes 55 seconds, please come up on the stage"
"Third place, Anny Leonheart, 5 minutes 35 seconds, please come up on stage"
"Second place, Ryogaku, 5 minutes 09 seconds, please come up on stage"
"and finally, first place... "
"Ryomen Sukuna, 3 minutes 13 seconds, please come up on stage"
The eyes of rank 2 to 5 darted to the corner of the room, towards the boy who was leaning on a chair looking at the ceiling.
I was interested, I knew that he was special because he didn't even flinch under my mana pressure, but he was first place, and by a huge margin too.
There are gasps and Wows from all of the audience, I mean I don't blame them, I had to double check the time to see if I was seeing wrong.
I looked at the Ranks 2-5 on the stage and they all had varied reactions.
Rank 2, Ryogaku, was looking at the boy with rivalry in his eyes, but showed not too much of a reaction.
Rank 3, Anny, was... expressionless, I mean, she's a princess, what would you expect?
Rank 5, Alexia, she was showing quite a big of a reaction, fiddling with her fingers. I think I could see admiration in her eyes.
Rank 4, Johan, was losing his mind, he had his teeth grit and fists clenched, a sense of extreme rivalry, I must say.
The boy, Sukuna, came up to the stage, after which I continued...
"blah
blah
blah
Congratulations, now go to your respective classes"
The students started walking out of the auditorium.
I wished the top scorers and went down the stage.
'Ryomen Sukuna is definitely someone to keep an eye out for, but there is another one who I feel should be given attention.'
'Johan Wolff, I feel something... different from him, I would have missed it if he didn't stand so close to me.'
'But I cannot figure out what that was. Whatever is was, it gave me a feeling of unease.'
.
.
.
POV: Ryomen Sukuna
This academy is divided into sectors, well only the combat sector is important is the storyline so screw everything else I guess. There are 5 class 1A, 1B, . . . , 1E.
Everyone is divided into classes according to ranks, which refresh every year.
There's not too much of a divide in classes as these are literally the top students of the world, there's also not much hate between nobles and commoners for the same reason.
Now I'm sitting in the corner of my class thinking if naps are considered a preview of death.
The teacher enters. She looked like a strict tutor, a huge book in her hands which she slammed on the table.
"Welcome dreamers," she said with a sharp look at everyone in the class.
"Welcome to the most challenging course in the Academy, Monster Anatomy and Dissection."
She continued, pointing at the book on the table...
"This book is your lifeline, learn each monster inside out, their attacks, their weaknesses... and let's say you'll get very familiar with their insides."
She crossed her arms, taking a look at everyone again, before grinning maliciously.
"And for those who faint at the sight of blood, or those who believe they are some glorified hero, be ready to become Monster Snacks."
She said with a chilling voice.
Then she went on to introduce everyone to the basic idea of that subject.
But I have to say, everyone in this academy is a savage, just look how the students pissed their pants already.
Well, nothing interesting happened, so I guess the author will just ski–
.
.
.
In this period we get to choose the weapons.
As expected of the top academy, almost all weapons are at least C-Rank, with a few A-Ranks and B-Ranks. Our main characters all get A-Rank weapons, obviously.
I'm unsure what weapon I should take though, can I even pick up a sword with my strength? Eh, who cares we'll cross the bridge when we get to it.
.
.
.
POV: The Combat Instructor
The students this year seem strong, well, the Rank 1 looks . . . fragile, honestly.
As I was thinking of all this, I saw the Rank 2 . . . Ryogaku pick up a golden sword, which was A-Rank, the sword shone, as if accepting the boy as its owner.
Higher rank weapons have their own 'minds,' so they cannot be chosen by people, people are chosen by them.
We are not sure why this happens, though, it's still a mystery.
There were cheers from students as well as looks of admiration and jealousy.
Same happened as the Ranks 3, 4, and 5 chose other A-Rank weapons and went to practice with them in the field.
Students slowly started going out of the room after choosing their weapons and started to test them.
My eyes caught a figure standing idle in the room.
He still hasn't chosen one, huh?
I walked to him, seeing him staring at something.
Turning my head, I saw him staring at a rusted sword-like thing, no, it wasn't a sword, but more like a knife.
I frowned seeing him interested in such a thing
That thing had been there for many years, and is expected to be an E-Rank item.
After a few seconds, Sukuna smirked and going towards the knife, picked it up.
I was quite confused by this, but still followed him to the training ground. He stood in front of a dummy and casually swung the sword.
*CLANG*
And then he cut clean through the dummy and put a huge slash mark on the wall.
aaaand now I feel stupid.
The students looked at him in awe and fear as he grinned and played with the sword in his hand, which seemed... less rusted.
He quieted down and exclaimed, "I didn't expect to find one like this here, I guess this will truly be interesting"
.
.
.
POV: Ryomen Sukuna
'My composure was almost broken seeing a cursed tool here, but what even is this random knife, I don't think I saw this in canon.
You put cursed energy into it and it amplifies it and uses it to slash, also the slash becomes weaker the longer distance it travels.'
'Slashing the wall was unintentional, I hope I didn't scare students too much.'
As I was thinking of this, the instructor said...
"Alright everyone has chosen their weapons, so now let's start something interesting..."
.
.
.
.
.
.
"...you all will spar with each other"