The Unrecorded Extra



"Grr…"

I could hear her growling, something that sounded like a hungry beast.

She stood up and pointed at me angrily. "Why are you dodging?!"

I chuckled softly, enjoying the sight of her growing frustration.

"Dodging is part of the fight, isn't it? Don't blame me if you can't hit me even after I give you a handicap."

Seo Yeong-Ha's eyes blazed with rage as she gritted her teeth.

"I told you to stand still!"

"And you think I'll do it?"

She didn't answer, or precisely, she couldn't answer. She just gave me a stare full of resentment, her face almost red like a tomato out of frustration. "Y-you…!"

At that moment, a clapping sound was echoing in the air, disrupting the heated situation between us.

Lux and the rest of his team members and mine were gathered in a circle. They were looking in our direction.

It seemed that we were too focused on our little fight that we didn't realize the training had ended.

Lux called us out and Seo Yeong-Ha and I joined them, discussing our scrimmage.

"Good work to both teams," Lux said. "Thanks to this joint training, I now know what our teams are lacking."

I nodded approvingly. "Same here," I said, a tone of sarcasm was hanging in my words that made two of my team members smile sheepishly.

Seo Yeong-Ha scoffed and crossed her arms, still visibly annoyed.

"Tch! As far as I see, it seems you're the one that is lacking. You're playing tricks so you can attack me. How are you supposed to improve if that's the only thing you can do?"

I shrugged nonchalantly.

"Rather than a trick, I would call it a tactic. Adapting to unpredictable situations and fooling a strong enemy you can't win by normal means are essential skills in combat. Actually, it's you that needs improvement. If you can't discern and anticipate whether your opponent is tricking you or not, then I'd say you are worse than these two," I said, my hands pointed at Hulio and Niah.

"What did you say?!" She yelled.

Her head seemed to blow up with uncontainable rage to my provoke. Thankfully, Lux and his teammates were quick to hold her down.

"H-hey, calm down, Seo Yeong-Ha!" Lux said, then he glanced at me. "You too, Zio. Can't both of you be civil? You guys always fight every time you meet."

I shrugged in response to Lux's words.

Seo Yeong-Ha sighed, her anger subsiding slightly.

"Fine! But he better not use any trick against me next time!" she demanded, stomping her feet on the poor ground.

Lux smiled. "I'll make sure you get that chance if we encounter Zio's team in the exam. Now, let's gather everyone's feedback on the scrimmage, even though we're competing for the exam later, it won't hurt to discuss what we can improve upon."

As we began sharing our observations and suggestions, I noticed Seo Yeong-Ha stealing glances at me from time to time. 

I grinned mischievously, to which she responded by sticking out her tongue and playfully tugging at the under-eye bags as if mocking me.

That marked the end of today's scrimmage. Though, we did it again tomorrow and everyone seemed to already improve. Especially for my team.

Finally, the day of the practical exam came.

Unlike written exams, the practical exam was basically like a festival, it was open to the public, and this event was called the 'Exam Convention'.

The entire academy ground buzzed with excitement as visitors from various cities gathered to witness this grand quarterly event of Octagram Academy. Among them was often found an agent of the guilds, seeking talented students.

The Exam Convention had transformed the academy into a vibrant carnival, with colorful booths, interactive displays, and stages where students demonstrated their skills. 

Students in each grade or year of school were typically assigned specific locations or venues where they took their exams. 

The freshman year was to take the exam in a battle royale theme, so their designated place was at the Artificial Forest. Dozen of drones would be installed to capture the exam's process, broadcasting it live on various platforms and on the academy's massive display screen placed at the academy's heart.

Meanwhile, the sophomore year was to take the exam in the form of a duel system like Neophyte Nexus. Their designated place was the Octagram's arena. Visitors were free to spectate the ongoing duel between students. It was also being broadcasted live the same as the freshman year's exam.

Because there were 20 classes in each grade year, the practical exam was held for 5 days—four classes each day.

On the first day of the freshman year exams, my class, Lupus, will be participating along with three other classes: Draco, Tigris, and Serpent.

Before entering the Artificial Forest, we had a brief explanation from the four instructors about the practical exam and its rules.

Assessment will be divided just like a Hunting Practice, individual and group. Now that the exam was recorded by the drones and supervised by the supervisors who would give grading to students' performance, they couldn't just win the games but also needed to perform as well as they could.

Winning the games of battle royale didn't guarantee a student got a high rating from the supervisors, they needed to prove what they were made of.

Also the rules, it was simple. 

100 groups consisting of 5 people each would be assigned to a base that they needed to protect from the other's group.

The group needed to protect the flag placed on their base so it wouldn't get stolen. If the flag was stolen, the group would lose their base, and if they couldn't get their flag back in 5 minutes, they were out of the games.

And that would affect their grade because usually, they couldn't get much chance to show off their skills to the supervisors.

Now that everything was set for today's group exam, we began entering the gate and teleported to the Artificial Forest.

As soon as we arrived at the Artificial Forest, each of the groups immediately ran and searched for their base as per the instructors' order.

It needed like twenty minutes before all the 100 groups were settled in their base, each of their members discussed what would be the best approach to the situation, would they get offensive or defensive?

A loud siren sound howled, echoing through the air that would make my ears bleed if it lasted longer than 15 seconds, signaling the exam had begun.

I looked at my team with a wide grin, confidence enveloped me.

"Get ready!"