Entrance Test.

"Harry, you came back."

"I felt something was wrong because whenever I talked about you to them, they seemed gloomy. But now, seeing you here in perfect shape, I am happy I was wrong," Samantha said, taking him in her arms.

"Of course, I am perfectly fine," Harry said with a nervous smile, giving her a warm hug.

"Did you find anything about your father?" Samantha asked.

"Hmmm... Nothing," Harry said after pondering for a moment. He was sure his father was alive because he had received a quest to find him, but he didn't want to give her false hope.

"Hmm, what's your plan?" she asked, placing a bowl of soup on the table in front of Harry.

"Tomorrow is the test for a big academy. I plan to give it a try and become an student there," Harry said, sitting at the table.

"I would like you to stay here for the time being. Once I become strong enough or get any clues about Father, I will inform you," Harry said, taking a sip of the soup.

"It's okay if you don't find your father. Just don't put yourself in danger," Samantha said, maintaining eye contact with Harry.

Harry felt as if Samantha was looking deep into his soul, understanding what he had been through over the last few days.

'There's no way she knows,' Harry reassured himself, maintaining eye contact.

She didn't say anything, just smiled.

'Moms are really scary,' Harry thought, eating the soup.

Liam tried to convince Harry to stay, but Harry didn't want to create more problems for Liam, who was already letting his mom stay there.

Harry was heading to the Star Association. His other two friends had already received the news about his safety.

Harry pushed the door of his room open.

"Harry," Tyler and Meru both exclaimed monotonously when they saw him enter.

Harry saw Tyler cleaning a new pair of daggers while Meru was cultivating her Qi.

"I thought you would stay there," Tyler said with a smirk.

'This is not going as I thought. I imagined my friends would start crying and hugging me tightly, with liquid coming from their noses,' Harry thought and shook his head because his imagination had gone too far.

"How could I stay there when my friends are here?" Harry replied with a gentle smile.

"Did you get any information about what the test will be?" Harry asked them, knowing that having some news would benefit him.

"According to Liam, they mostly see if you have enough talent to keep going, and there is no specific criteria for how you will be selected or how many people can go from one city," Meru answered.

"Isn't it suspicious that they choose as many as they can from a small city?" Harry asked.

"Now that you mention it, what could we do?" Tyler replied.

"Can you tell us what happened to you?" Meru asked Harry to put other matters aside.

Harry knew he needed to tell them something at some point, so he repeated the same story he had told Liam.

"I ran deep into the forest, and at some point, the beast stopped chasing me.

But I was too deep in the forest and didn't know where to go, so I took shelter in a cave. I started looking for an exit, and today was my lucky day," Harry concluded.

"Didn't you encounter other beasts?" Meru asked, showing she didn't completely trust Harry's story.

He remembered when Liam believed his story.

'Men are really simple creatures,' Harry thought, shaking his head, and then started talking.

"Of course, I encountered some beasts, but they were all basic and intermediate level."

Meru nodded, not because she fully trusted Harry, but because she didn't want to pursue it any further if Harry didn't want to tell her.

---

Early in the morning, Harry, Tyler, Meru, Liam, Blake, and some other people stood in a line on a training ground in the city.

An instructor came forward with four people following him.

"It seems this year's recruits are interesting everywhere," the instructor said to his colleagues.

The other four nodded in agreement.

"Come forward one by one and punch that wall as hard as you can. It doesn't matter what technique you use."

Following the instructions, the first person stepped forward and threw his fist as hard as he could. Bang! Numbers started to appear on the surface and stopped at 643.

No one knew if that number was good or bad. Harry tried to read the instructor's reaction, but his face showed no emotion.

"Inspect," Harry used his inspect skill on the person who punched the wall.

[Foundation Building Level 7]

The next person stepped forward, and Harry used his inspect skill to find he was at Foundation Building Level 6. The numbers on the wall stopped at 580.

'Could it be that each level of Foundation Building is equivalent to 100kg, and those who exceed their level have high potential?' Harry thought to himself.

Next,

Next,

Next.

People kept coming, and Harry verified his previous thoughts. He saw the instructor focusing on every test.

'I wonder at what level he is,' Harry was about to use his inspect skill when he saw two black eyes staring at him.

'Oh f*ck, this man is super sensitive,' Harry turned his head to the other side.

A smile appeared on the instructor's face.

"It seems like someone caught your attention," the lady standing just behind the instructor said, seeing Harry.

The man didn't say anything and just smiled.

Finally, it was Blake's turn. Harry could see Blake was also at Foundation Building Level 9 like Liam.

Blake used his fist and performed some strange movements before punching the wall. The numbers started rising: 1100... 1200... 1300... 1327. The numbers stopped at 1327.

Harry was surprised by Blake's performance. He was sure Blake used some sort of special technique in his punch. Harry had found a punching technique among the books in the ring, but it was mostly useful for soul attacks, and he hadn't had time to learn it.

Next, Liam came forward. He also performed some strange movements, different from Blake's, and then punched the wall. Bang! The numbers started rising and stopped at 1298.

Liam returned to his place.

"What was that?" Harry asked Liam.

"That was a low-level punching technique. Once we enter the academy, techniques like this are nothing more than trash. There, we can get many high-level combat techniques," Liam replied.

Next, it was Meru's turn. She punched the wall outright. The numbers stopped at 1420.

"What? She achieved 1420 while being at Level 8 without using any technique?" Liam said, his mouth agape. "She's a total beast," he added.

By then, Meru had returned to her place and heard what Liam said. She gave him a death stare, as if saying, 'Wait until we get back. I'll show you who's a beast.'

Finally, Tyler came forward. He wasn't confident in his raw power because he had been training to develop his senses, since he once felt intuition guiding him in a fight.

He punched the wall without doing anything fancy. The numbers stopped at 823.

"It seems he wasn't that bad. He scored 823 while being at Level 7," Liam said.

"When did we say he was bad?" Harry and Meru looked at Liam.

'Why are you all targeting me? What did I do?' Liam took a deep breath, making a nervous laugh.

Finally, it was Harry's turn. Harry didn't have any punching technique. He used everything he had. Bang!