Knowledge Trial

The candidates were soon led down a long hallway, the tension thick in the air. Yuno, still mentally spiraling over the thought of a paper exam, barely noticed the shift in atmosphere until he realized something far worse was happening.

The instructors were separating the candidates into different rooms.

One by one, students were pulled away from the people they had bonded with, forced into different testing chambers.

When an instructor stepped between Hugo, Shine, and Yuno, blocking them from staying together, Yuno's stomach dropped. "W-wait, what's going on? We're being separated?!"

Hugo glanced at the stern-faced instructors before nodding. "Looks like it."

Shine sighed, already expecting this. "They probably doing this, so nobody would cheat."

Yuno, however, looked like his soul had just left his body. His last hope of salvation to copy off his smarter friends was being ripped away from him.

"No, no, no, you don't understand!" Yuno grabbed onto Hugo's sleeve like a drowning man. "I can't do this alone! What if I forget how to read?! What if my brain just stops working?!"

"That's assuming it worked in the first place." Hugo muttered under his breath, prying Yuno's fingers off him.

Before Yuno could throw another dramatic fit, an instructor forcefully guided him toward another door.

"Noooo! Don't separate me from my last remaining brain cells!" Yuno wailed as he was pushed inside.

Shine watched the door shut behind him and chuckled. "I give bet he'll starts banging on the walls."

Hugo sighed, adjusting his sleeves. "Let's just focus on getting through this. Whatever kind of 'paper exam' this is, it's not going to be normal."

With that, the instructors led them to their respective rooms, and the Knowledge Trial officially began...

Hugo enter a room and sat down at his assigned seat, his eyes scanning the unfamiliar faces around him.

Unlike the previous trials, where he had at least Yuno and Shine by his side, this time he was surrounded by strangers. Some looked calm, others tense, and a few had the same confused expression that Hugo wore.

At the front of the room stood the instructor in charge of overseeing the exam—a towering, scarred man with a bald head and arms thick enough to crush boulders.

He exuded an intimidating presence, his sharp gaze sweeping over the candidates like a predator sizing up its prey.

The room fell into silence the moment he stepped forward. Then, with a deep, gravelly voice, he spoke.

"You have one hour to complete the written exam." he announced, his tone carrying no warmth. "There are no second chances. You either pass or you fail. If you fail, you're out."

Hugo's brows furrowed. That was normal for an exam… but something about the way the instructor phrased it made him uneasy.

"Your test begins the moment the papers are in front of you." the instructor continued, pulling out a thick stack of exam sheets.

He handed them off to assistants, who quickly began placing them on each candidate's desk.

When the paper landed in front of Hugo, he instinctively looked down at the question and his entire body tensed up.

The questions weren't just about general knowledge or Hunter-related studies.

Some of them were oddly specific, asking about things like monster weaknesses, dungeon anomalies, mana flow disruptions, and even strategic formations during a raid.

But what stood out the most was the last section of the exam.

It was completely blank.

Instead of questions, there was only a single line of instructions written in bold letters:

Answer accordingly to what is required.

Hugo's grip tightened on his pen with many thoughts. That was it? No explanation? No context? Just a vague sentence?

He glanced around and noticed that others were also hesitating, their confusion evident.

The scarred instructor watched them like a hawk, his arms crossed. He wasn't going to offer any clarification.

Hugo exhaled slowly.

This wasn't just a test of knowledge. There was something else hidden here and he had to figure it out before time ran out.

As Hugo started writing down what he thought was correct, the letters on the paper suddenly began to shift.

The questions morphed and changed, becoming increasingly complex, as if they were adapting specifically to his level of knowledge.

His eyes widened.

Across the room, other candidates were having similar reactions. Some glanced at their neighbor's papers, only to realize with growing horror that the questions were completely different.

The realization rippled through the room like a wave.

"What the hell…?" one student muttered, gripping his pen tightly. "I swear my last question wasn't this hard."

Another candidate let out a small, nervous laugh. "Wait—yours changed too? I thought I was just seeing things."

A few desks away, a girl with fox-like ears hesitated, then tried to sneak a look at the paper of the guy sitting next to her. Her eyes widened. "Yours is easy! How is this fair?!"

The guy she was looking at scoffed. "Easy? Are you crazy? This is impossible!"

Their quiet complaints were interrupted by the sound of a low chuckle.

At the front of the room, the towering, scar-faced instructor stood with his arms crossed, his expression one of pure amusement.

"So, you finally noticed something is wrong, huh?" he said, his deep voice carrying easily through the tense atmosphere.

The candidates turned to him, some of them looking desperate for an explanation. Hugo remained silent, already suspecting what was going on but waiting to hear it confirmed.

The instructor took his time, glancing at the struggling students before continuing.

"This exam isn't just a written test, it's a personal challenge. The questions change based on your own knowledge. If you're smart, your questions get harder. If you're clueless, you get basic ones."

Several candidates stiffened at the revelation.

"So that means…" one of them began, his voice trailing off in realization.

"That's right." the instructor smirked. "Even if you were to compare your answers, you'd gain nothing from it. What's easy for one person is nearly impossible for another. No one gets the same test. No one gets the same difficulty. It's all tailored to you."

The room filled with uneasy silence.

One candidate let out a frustrated groan, running his hands through his hair. "That's insane! This isn't fair!"

The instructor raised an eyebrow. "You think life is fair?" He let out a short laugh. "Grow up."

Before anyone could protest further, he added. "Oh, and one more thing…"

He let the words hang in the air, waiting for their full attention.

"If any of you think about cheating, don't even try it." His smirk widened into something almost sinister.

Some of the candidates shifted uncomfortably, but one student probably panicking too much to think straight still tried his luck.

He subtly angled his head to peek at his neighbor's sheet with the intent to copy the answer. The moment his gaze landed on another paper—

RIP!

His test paper instantly shredded itself into tiny scraps, the sound echoing through the silent room. The student froze in horror as the remains of his exam drifted onto his desk like confetti.

A few gasps filled the room. Others instinctively clutched their own papers tighter, as if afraid theirs would spontaneously combust too.

The instructor merely shrugged. "And just like that, you fail instantly."

The unlucky candidate looked like he wanted to scream but held it in. He slowly lowered his head, his hands trembling.

"Now.." the instructor continued, as if nothing had happened. "If you don't want to end up like him, I suggest you focus and do your best. You've only got one shot at this."

The atmosphere in the room became even more suffocating. The pressure was real.

Hugo exhaled slowly, steadying himself. His mind was already working at full speed, analyzing the new rules of the test.

No teamwork. No second chances. No mercy.

This was a battle of intellect and if he wanted to pass, he had to rely on himself alone...

____________________

20 minutes passed, and the tense atmosphere in the room only grew heavier. The scratching of pens against paper filled the air, occasionally broken by quiet sighs or the nervous shifting of candidates struggling with the seemingly endless barrage of questions.

Hugo remained focused, his eyes scanning the paper as he carefully wrote down his answers.

Each question felt like it was pulling knowledge straight from his mind, adjusting itself to push him to his limit.

He could hear quiet groans from other candidates, some tapping their pens anxiously against their desks, clearly struggling just as much.

Then, amidst the quiet tension, the sound of a chair scraping against the floor made everyone's heads snap up.

A single hand was raised in the air, slender and composed.

"I've finished." a calm, cool voice stated.

The entire room froze.

Hugo turned his head toward the source, his eyes widening slightly. The speaker was a girl with long, silvery-green hair and piercing emerald eyes. Her expression was unreadable calmness, focused, and completely unshaken.

A murmur spread through the room.

"Already?" one boy whispered in disbelief, his eyes darting between the girl and his still half-finished paper.

"No way..." another girl muttered, gripping her pen tightly. "Is she joking?"

"That's impossible…" a beast race candidate whispered, his tail flicking with agitation.

Even Hugo was caught off guard. The test wasn't something that could be rushed. If she finished this quickly, then… just how intelligent was she?

The only person in the room who didn't seem surprised was the instructor. The scarred, bald man simply crossed his arms and looked at her with mild interest.

"So, you're Sylas Everglade, from the elven clan, correct?" he asked, his deep voice cutting through the whispers.

Sylas turned her gaze to him and gave a single nod. "Correct."

More murmurs erupted.

"Wait, did he say Everglade?" a boy muttered.

"You mean that Everglade? The elf clan that somehow negated the birth phenomenon?" a girl whispered, her eyes wide.

"No wonder she finished so fast, since elf are rumor to be the smartest.." another candidate groaned, slumping in his chair. "She's the number one ranked in intelligence."

Even Hugo had heard of her before. The Everglade clan was well known in elven society, but what truly set them apart was their claim to have overcome the race-selection phenomenon.

It was a secret no other race had been able to solve.

And now, standing before them was the living proof of that success.

The instructor smirked slightly. "I expected nothing less. Leave your paper here and you may go."

Without a word, Sylas stood up, walked toward the front of the room, and placed her completed exam neatly on the instructor's desk. She then turned and walked out, her every movement refined and precise.

The door shut behind her, leaving a stunned silence in her wake.

A beast race student groaned, rubbing his face. "Man, now I feel stupid…"

"I was already struggling before, but now…" another muttered, slumping forward onto their desk.

Hugo, however, took a deep breath and shook his head. She might have finished first, but that didn't change the fact that he still had to pass this test.

Setting aside his thoughts, he refocused on his paper, determined to finish as best as he could.

Continue...