Zeres’ eyelashes fluttered open as the sunlight hit his face "So the entrance exam’s today" stretching out, he looked at the calendar pasted on the farside polished wall.

[Year : 2685. Month : Leo. Date : 1]

"What was the contents of the exam again? " he said groggily, picking up some clothes he bought last week. A simple linen shirt and a light trouser for movements and lastly, the longsword he bought at some renowned blacksmith, it’s sleek black blade gleamed with concentrated mana as Zeres swung it.

"This should be enough for the entrance exam" Looking at the black longsword, he put it back in it’s sheath, carefully strapping it beside him.

The sound of the customer murmurs buzzed within the ground floor as Zeres went down, he held a wooden tablet on his left, and a long expensive coat hung loosely on his right arm, the furs stitched into it gave it a cozy look despite the hanging golden chains on its chest.

Heading straight into the counter, he slid the wooden tablet towards the skinny man wiping the wooden mugs with a clean cloth. "Thank you for staying here for the past week" the man smiled as he took the wooden tablet then slid it back in the divider behind him.

Zeres nodded, then walked towards the door, stepping out; the scent of roasted meats and parched newspaper drifted in the wind, giving it a dreamy and comfortable feeling.

Walking quietly amidst the lively capital, Zeres stood before a towering gate, it’s white in color, mixed with faint gold at every edges, two guards stood before the massive gate; their expressions stern as they surveyed every young ones in line before them.

’So this is the commoner area registration’ Zeres thought as he went on the furthest line.

The two guards wearing silver armor glanced at the people in line, then their gazes stopped at Zeres, the two guards looked at each other—then one of them approached him "Are you also here to register? " the knight smiled, putting of his helmet, he extended his hands "come with me, I’ll register you quickly"

Zeres tilted his head, when he glanced at the people in line, they were glaring daggers at him, some even snickered before him "Tsk, must be a noble of different empire" they murmured as Zeres followed the knight quietly.

The knight scratched his temple "Don’t mind them young master, that’s just the attitude of the commoners here in human empire"

’Young master? ’ Zeres felt his lips twitched at the foolishness of the guard before him, looking down, he covered his lips to prevent himself from laughing.

It seems like the two rookie knights have mistaken him as a noble of other Empires, hence they showed such goodwill—or for their own benefits ’This place is really rotten’ Zeres shook his head as he entered a separate room.

"Here’s the paper young master, sign them up carefully" passing him some quills, ink and a yellow parchment, the knight bowed, his silver armor glowed faintly as he left the room.

’Hmm, let’s see’ Zeres picked up the quil, dipped it into the ink bottle then began signing the things he deemed necessary.

After signing, he paused for a moment ’This is tricky’ he doesn’t know which empire he’ll put on the parchment, the forest of Lilith was the borders between the empire of Humans and Elvens. "Should I just write Erithia Empire? " he nodded to himself, then picked up the parchment he’d finished signing.

"You’ll just have to wait for one hour on the Hall, then they’ll give you your schedule on the entrance exam" a staff stated as she collect the parchments the kids have submitted.

Zeres went outside for a moment, the atmosphere inside were tense, walking on a park—he went inside the secluded part, there was a lake there, he stared at it. Just now did he realize that the cloak he was wearing was too much for a commoner to wear, it’s white fabric looks like it came from the skin of a strong monster, golden chains hanging on his chest and a red embroidery looking like a crest.

"Line up, take your parchments here!" The woman behind the counter announced, sliding the parchments to every student that approached her.

After the registration, the competition for entry in the Lunaire Magic academy will be decided by this very competition, they called it the ’Right for Entry’ but that’s utter bullshit. While commoners work their asses off just to be qualified, the nobles can just enroll freely without participating on the contest.

"The students whose assigned to take the test, come here! We’ll guide you through the forest"

"The contents of the test is survival, so do your best to survive in three days, you can hide if you don’t want to enter the academy, or you can eliminate your competitors and kill some Forsakens. Remember, any deaths and casualties that happened inside the test won’t be the academy’s responsibilities—it is your decisions to enter the academy with sheer will••••"

Zeres scratched his ear, the professor with a greatsword behind his back was so noisy, his loud and deep voice was unpleasant to hear. However, it seems he’s the only one who thinks of that as every students nodded their head in the professor’s advises.

"The strongest Forsaken we’ve put in there is Ghouls, after killing the Forsakens, you have to bring their essence orbs here to prove you hunted them, but other participants can also steal it. Now go and show us the power of ’Gifted’"

"Yes sir! " the commoner participants all nodded in unison as they all entered the the forest.

Stepping inside the forest, Zeres immediately sensed the presence of someone tailing him "What could be their problem? " he murmured, then he went deeper inside of the forest.

’Three days surviving, I should aim for the top spot’ Zeres smiled while running, hoping to find a place where he can comforably rest without the risks for ambushes.

After a minute or so of searching, he finally found a place, it was a cave covered by tall grass—it would be hard to find using the naked eye. A perfect hide-out for him.

Stepping inside, his ear twitched, he could hear a muffled scream and a guttural sound of something, following the soundwave, he arrived at a massive open space—and he saw it, a forsaken devouring the severed limbs of one participant, the more the forsaken bit on the human flesh, his aura seems to be being more stable.

"Gaining sentience? " Zeres voice echoed, standing at a high place, he stared down at the Forsaken who stopped eating, then it raised it’s head—it’s head was like that of a flower, multiple sharp teeths appeated as it growled.

"D-do you w-want s-some sh-hare, vampire? " the Forsaken of the Ghoul rank stood up, one of its legs was longer than the other, two sprouting vines serving as it’s hands.

Zeres’ face twisted in digust as he pulled the longsword at his side "I don’t want it, much less if I shared it with a Forsaken" he said casually, the dark longsword on his hand became even more darker as he jumped down on the ground.

"W-why g-go a-ag-gainst u-us? " the ghoul-ranked forsaken screeched, and multiple ghoul-ranked Forsakens appeared, some looked like an animal—other’s just a mixture of human flesh.

Zeres adjusted his grip on his sword, then he moved—slicing through one ghoul’s head as the black blood splattered, dying the ground black as a foul stench drifted around the cave. Zeres had no time to cover his nose as two ghouls lunged at him with terrifying speed, one managed to graze his neck as blood seeped out from his neck.

"Did they ate all the monsters and participants? This strength’s nearly the same as a Ravager" wiping the blood on his neck, Zeres let his mana out, carefully sensing the level of the Forsakens before him. They were all near the Ravager-rank.

A forsaken at the rank of Ghouls wasn’t that hard to kill, it’s just that they have an absurd regeneration that if you didn’t manage to deal a single-powerful movement, it will drag on and they’ll soon be able to adapt to your movements as they also have sentience.

Zeres moved again, but his sword was intercepted by a tentacle, then a massive head floated above, it opened it’s maw—then devoured Zeres head, or atleast tried to.

Retreating quicy Zeres laughed "Damn, I really need to learn some sword art, I’m just swinging my sword to where I think it’s right" Zeres then let his wind affinity— albeit not mastered guide his feet for efficient movements.

Then he lunged forward, his sword moved quickly, aiming straight at their necks or immibilizing them by severing their limbs, it was a tip her sister the author of this damned world told him.

"Thanks for your advise I guess" Zeres laughed at himself as he swung his sword horizontally, then all the ghoul’s head were severed. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

"Phew, finally done, it’s really exhausting using two affinities at the same time" breathing heavily, Zeres approached the Forsakens corpse, he have to take their essence orbs.

Staring at the black corpses, he can’t stand it anymore, just then—he vommited