Chapter 48: No Time to Rest (2)

Kain decided to spend his unanticipated downtime studying for the academic exam in only 11 days.

Although, he often performs at the top of his school and even the top 1% in the nation, the test to enter the Planner major may be even more difficult than the beast-taming major.

All students not entering a beast-taming major, including those without an affinity and those with an affinity too low-rated to enter a college program, will take the academic exam.

Meaning that over 90% of high school seniors out of nearly a million graduates will be taking this test.

Being in the top 1% of a million is really not that high when you broke down the numbers, being in the top 10,000.

To be confident of entering the most selective academic major at a top 5 college, he would need to at least be in the top 500. Assuming that 100 Planners are admitted to each school per year.

However, to have his pick of which college he could go to, he would at least need to be in the top 100, anything lower is risky.

Based on previous years' exam results, to get a ranking that high he would be allowed at most one wrong question.

Currently, during his best performance, he gave 2 wrong answers, and on average he gives 4-5.

Which would land him within the top 500 during his best performance, and the top 5,000 to 10,000 on average.

However, Kain had an advantage compared to most applicants who have no affinity or are not focusing on increasing their spiritual power to become a professional beast-tamer.

In addition to the benefits to his constitution, a higher spiritual power also has benefits on his mental strength—improving such aspects as memory, concentration, and calculation speed.

After all, at very high levels, where dozens of moves may be exchanged in a single second, the importance of greater mental strength is great.

He also felt the difference when he was studying. Textbook pages that would previously have taken him a whole day to memorize, were now memorized in an hour or less.

His arithmetic and problem-solving ability also greatly improved.

Suddenly full of confidence, Kain took out one of the practice exams Mr. Evergreen had given to him before he was excused from classes.

This was the exam given 2 years ago.

The questions started off easy:

If given the choice among these 4 spiritual creatures, which would be the most optimal choice for defeating an opponent with a Burning Scarab Beetle?

A. Vapor Gator

B. Magmite

C. Mistoad

D. Glacedeer

"Well despite its name, the Burning Scarab beetle is an ice-attribute, bug-type spiritual creature, meaning that it has a double weakness to fire. The reason for its name is due to its bites that cause a frostbite so severe it feels as though your skin is scalding off. A bit of a trick question, but anyone who's studied should be able to answer it correctly."

…

Who of the 5 founders did not have a known gift?

A. Calista Eyera

B. Leopold Storm

C. Evan Blackheart

D. Casimir Lysander

E. Amos Sans

"E. His last name practically gives it away"

….

Given that t is a real number, and that f(x) is as shown in the equation below, then please calculate for k.

"Hmmm…Even math, which was previously my weakness, isn't giving me much trouble now…"

After answering a variety of questions about spiritual creatures, history, math, geography, and science, Kain used the answer key to tally up his score.

"498 out of 500. Even without intensive studying and spending most of my time focusing on increasing my strength, I've already managed to match my previous best score.

Kain was suddenly filled with confidence. 'Forget aiming for the top 100, I want to be one of the few with a perfect score'

Kain picked up a geography textbook, the source of his two incorrect answers, and was about to continue studying when…

*Ding. System update completed. *