Divine Heritage: Only I Can Judge The gods-Chapter 39: Selection Exams (1)

"Registration is already over!"

The man who Ark recognized as one of their instructors, reached for the book to pull it close.

The man at the desk held onto his hand just before he could, a curious expression on his face.

"Not quite, Mr Christopher. I haven’t officially closed the registration yet." He said, taking out his pen to put down Ark’s name.

Christopher was furious, he nudged the man slightly to get his attention but he instead focused on writing Ark’s name.

Noticing the uncomfortable environment that was brewing, Ark decided to calm things down a little.

"I’m sorry for my tardiness, there was an issue back in the—"

"Silence!"

Christopher’s voice was so loud that some of the people around turned their attention to him trying to figure out the cause of the drama.

This only seemed to infuriate Christopher the more because he hissed before walking away from the desk.

’What’s his problem?’

Throughout the time he had huge instructions alongside the processor, Ark had not known him to be such a highly irritable person.

But for whatever reason he seemed to have problems with him.

After registering his name down, Ark glanced around, spotting Kiera laying her back leisurely on a large tree.

Kiera was dressed far differently than normal today, she wore black leather armour that appeared to have some steel plates attached to it.

There were blue patterns highlighting the armour and a couple of runic drawings as well.

Ark walked over to where she stood and joined her in relaxing his back on the tree.

She nodded in greeting, the most she ever did.

The entire foot of the mountain was littered with curse bearers, as expected most of them wore flashy armour while the poorer ones got more affordable variants.

They also had their artifacts summoned, those with Swords had them in their sheaths while the more conspicuous weapons like spears were peaking above their wielder’s head.

Very soon, the students began to notice Ark.

A subdued voice reached his ears from one of them:

"He can’t even afford armour." The boy said, laughing to himself. This caused other students to direct their gazes to him, giving Ark an unnecessary amount of attention.

There were laughs, there were jeers, but Ark ignored all of them. He simply waited for the exams to start.

Shortly after, the briefing began.

The innate potential of a curse bearer was based on two major factors amongst others...

The capacity of your spirit core as well as the potency of your spirit essence, the fuel that drove the curses.

Without having a potent spirit essence, the curse bearer would end up squandering far too much essence to fuel their curse.

Just the way low quality candles burnt out faster.

By observing them, the goal of the test today was to determine these two factors as well as their fitness and IQ.

Using these four parameters, the squadrons would then decide on who they would pick, and the guilds would offer contracts for future work.

"The goal of the exam is simple." The professor said while adjusting his glasses. "Make it to the top of the mountain before sunrise."

He then lifted a round ball that had and then the staff began to hand them to the students.

"This is your panic button. Multiple low rank Apocalypse beasts have been scattered around the mountain to obstruct your path. If you are to meet something you can’t handle, make sure you crush it as hard as you can."

"Once you do this, an examiner will be there to pick you but know that this results in a failure."

Ark observed the panic button, it was a small black elastic ball with no special traits. He stuffed it in his pocket and went over what the professor had said.

’Sounds easy enough.’

If all they had to do was get to the top of the mountain then he would get there with ease, the main problem would be the beasts...

Ark had not practiced his swordsmanship or rather, ’axemanship’ in his case. According to Silver, he was not yet strong enough to use it and basic hacking and slamming would be more than enough to get him through low ranked beasts.

Because of this, throughout the week, he had been focusing solely on his strength and agility.

The professor then gave way for a man about his age to walk ahead of him.

The man stared at them, with a small smile that crinkled his eyebrows before speaking.

"On behalf of the first Squadron, whoever comes in first place in today’s examinations will be given a reward."

Light blue sparks suddenly appeared around him, swirling around until they coalesced on his hands to reveal a beautiful sword.

The sword was the colour of the night, midnight black with a golden ornate handle. The dark blade seemed to steal the light, an ominous sword that could strike fear into the hearts of anyone unlucky enough to be at the wrong edge.

The sheath was even darker, pitch black with a few archaic writings from a long forgotten language.

The young course bearers stared at the artifact with awe, just from where they stood they could all tell that it was a rare, high quality artifact.

Suddenly, their motivation was boosted. Each one of them was raring to go, hoping to claim the beautiful weapon for themselves.

The knights were particularly turbulent, screaming at the top of their lungs in celebration, the mages were less enthusiastic, probably feeling left out of the entire thing.

"Alright settle down, settle down." The professor chuckled as he walked forward. "Let the fifth curse bearer exams begin now!"

"Good luck." Ark heard Kiera mutter just before she walked forward to join the rest of the students.

The young curse bearers were then taken to different parts of the forest, where they would start their ascent.

Ark observed the area around him, there was nothing but trees as far as the eye could see— trees, dead leaves and shrubs.

He was currently warming up, stretching his body while waiting for the exams to actually start.

A few seconds later, the unmistakable sound of the flare gun resonated around the area, the projectile flew up high into the air, above the height of the trees where everyone could see it.

And then...

Boom!

It exploded in a bright white light that glowed in the sky like a beacon.

Ark sprinted forward, pushing his strength into his legs as he ran over the forest floors. He was rushing past trees in a flash, covering the distance with ease.

Although he had already worn himself out a little before the exams he was still full of energy since he had jogged far more kilometers in previous days.

The forest floor was covered in trees and had a few wet areas that almost made him slip, but Ark caught himself every time.

He wasn’t exactly interested in the sword, but what was a better way to show off those who mocked him than taking what they desired?

Suddenly, Ark halted his dash, sliding low on the first floor as a large tree trunk came flying at his head.

The golden sparks were already surrounding him and shortly after his axe was fully formed.

Ark pivoted, dashing to the right as a large branch cut right past him.

In front of him was what appeared to be a walking tree, its body was robust with multiple vines wrapped around it.

Its branches were twisted and horrid, and blood was dripping out of the dark wood of its trunk.

The beast let out a bone chilling shrill just before lunged at Ark.

Ark jumped backward to evade the strike and dodged a few others, his eyes filled with razor sharp concentration. Just then, his opening arrived.

His jacket billowed backward as he dashed, Ark appeared besides the tree with speed he never knew he had.

Whoosh!

He brought his axe down on the tree beast’s bark— it was a foregone conclusion of what happens when an axe meets bark.

The wood splintered with ease, dark green blood spewing out of the beast as it collapsed forward.

[You have a Slain Immoral Forest Crawler]

Just then, he heard another shrill, this time from behind him.