"Unbelievable, Grey has passed this assessment," Gunther announced with a small smile on his face.
"Wait, what?!" Everybody, including Grey, shouted in unison.
"What do you mean he has passed?" Mada couldn’t help but ask, as everyone could now see the doll twitching back to life instead of shutting down after being hit like it was supposed to.
Gunther didn’t say anything as he carefully strode towards the doll and placed his palm on it, causing it to power down completely.
"I don’t need to give a reason why I pass an applicant, right?" Gunther asked with a furrowed brow.
"But he didn’t hit the red dot, nor did he destroy the doll. So how does he pass?" Rivock asked with a raised eyebrow, his voice full of confusion.
"Look at this," Gunther said as he spun the doll around, revealing its front side. Only then did they understand.
A deep, concentrated hole could be seen on the front of the doll. Its midsection had been burst open as if someone had driven a powerful punch straight through the doll’s abdomen.
"I did that?" Grey muttered to himself, eyes wide with disbelief as he noticed that the spot where he had struck — the doll’s back — was completely unharmed and untouched, yet somehow it had affected the front.
"Do you still want to question me?" Gunther asked as he pointed at the deep hole in the doll’s abdomen.
"But... but the doll had just whirred up just now," Mada muttered in disbelief, clearly struggling to accept what he had just seen.
"That was because it wasn’t fully down yet. I guess there are some things we don’t know about these machines," Gunther replied calmly. "So next time, I would appreciate it if you never question my authority again."
He turned his intense gaze toward Mada, his voice lowering.
"If you were that sensible or that strong, you would be the one assessing students instead of me. Do you understand me?!"
"Ye... yes bro... yes sir!" Mada stuttered in fright as he shrank back under his brother’s gaze.
’Because of that filthy commoner, brother shouted at me. Brother scolded me because of an outsider,’ Mada thought bitterly, hands clenched tightly, eyes burning with fury as he glared at Grey.
"You, Grey, right?" Gunther asked, and Grey nodded. "Good job," he said as he passed by Grey with a small smile on his face, then leaned in and whispered.
"I guess the Cromwells taught you well."
Gunther continued walking with a wide smile after patting Grey’s back once.
’He... he knows?’ Grey thought in shock, his mouth left slightly hanging open as his mind raced.
"Woah! Thought you said your brother was in a bad mood and wasn’t smiling today?" Rivock commented with a chuckle, but this only infuriated Mada more.
’Not only did brother scold me because of the peasant, he also smiled at him? Brother looked at an outsider with love in his eyes?’ Mada thought, teeth grinding, hands so tightly clenched that his nails began to dig painfully into his palms.
’I promise... I swear... I will make that peasant’s life miserable. I will kill him. I will freaking kill him, I say!’
"Now, onto the next applicant," Gunther said as he clapped his hands. Grey stepped away from the assessing ground and returned back to his small group.
"You didn’t, man. Can’t believe we passed the second assessment together," Ray said with a smile on his face.
"Can’t believe he also managed to master Dad’s technique. He tried to teach me several times, but I just wasn’t getting it. And you..." Finral sighed as he stared at Grey, who was completely out of it.
’How does he know? How did he know that I’m part of the Cromwells? What gave it away? Was it that breathing technique?’ Grey thought as he shuddered, palms and face slightly sweaty.
’Is... is he going to kill me? Is he friend or foe? What do I do now? Do I tell the others or not?’
Grey was at a loss as Gunther kept calling out applicants one after the other to fight against their own dolls. Some were failing, some were passing.
But the number of those that failed was quite high. Out of the initial six hundred who came for the assessment, one hundred had left after Gunther threatened to cripple their Dantian.
Now, during the second assessment, two hundred had failed, and three hundred had passed. Those who failed were sent back as Gunther kept calling applicants after applicants.
The last descendant, a female, was also called out, and her performance was both splendid and graceful. She dodged and attacked as if she were dancing through battle.
Her choice of weapon was a long whip, which she carefully and calmly swung around. Each movement was precise, and the tip of the whip struck with deadly accuracy, slicing the limbs off the doll effortlessly.
And finally, in just a minute and a few seconds, she completely decimated the doll, bringing it crumbling down like a pile of brittle wood.
After a few more names were called and their battles concluded, the second assessment came to an end. Applicants could now be seen jubilating with one another, wide smiles spread across their faces at the realization that they had passed two grueling assessments.
"Don’t celebrate yet." Leo’s voice suddenly snapped the applicants back to reality, just as Gunther leapt back onto the balcony.
"And that is because we have only just gotten started. You see, this third and final assessment will truly test your patience and wit," Leo continued, causing the applicants to exchange confused glances and raise their eyebrows in concern.
’I wonder what this last assessment is all about, and if I can actually pass it,’ Finral thought as he clenched his fists tightly, trying to mentally prepare himself.
"See... I don’t know where most of you came from, but for those who know and those who don’t, there are beasts that roam around this continent," Leo announced, and the entire coliseum instantly erupted into countless murmurs.
"Beasts? What are those?" Grey asked under his breath.
"Beasts are like animals, but much more ferocious, different, and deadly," Ray replied quietly, and Grey just sighed, the tension mounting in his chest.
"These beasts," Leo continued, causing the murmuring to die down, "can be found in various places. Forests, ruins, abandoned buildings, even deep beneath the sea. So many places. Now, wherever you find a beast inhabiting a region, we call that place a hunting ground.
And this academy possesses a hunting ground of its own... which you will all be taking for the last assessment."
"What is this last assessment?" Noelle asked, her brow raised in suspicion.
"Isn’t it obvious? You will all be taken to our hunting grounds to hunt ten low-level beasts," Leo announced, his tone unwavering.
"What?!" all the applicants shouted in unison, the sheer weight of the task hitting them like a hammer.