I Entered Magic Academy With F-Rank Stats

Chapter 6 - Entrance Examination

A vast courtyard stretched outside.

Hundreds of short creatures with grayish-green skin wandered across it.

Their bodies were thin and hunched, with some wearing strips of rotting leather as makeshift armor.

Dull red eyes and rows of sharp teeth made them far more disturbing than the goblins Ryan remembered from storybooks.

At the far side of the courtyard, golden light formed a massive gateway.

The Sanctuary Zone.

Several candidates were already running toward it.

Their mistake became obvious almost immediately.

The moment the first group entered the courtyard, dozens of Blight Goblins that had been wandering aimlessly turned at the same time.

The creatures were slow.

But there were so many of them that the first group was surrounded within moments.

A candidate screamed as his arm was torn open.

Another fell after something bit into his leg.

Seconds later, a swarm of goblins piled onto him.

His body disappeared into fragments of light.

Ryan knew they couldn’t truly die during this examination.

The pain, however, was obviously real.

Those screams coming from the courtyard were not fake.

A second group tried to take advantage of the chaos by rushing through from another side.

It didn’t work.

Several Blight Goblins surrounding the first group immediately broke away and charged toward them instead.

Ryan stayed where he was.

He stood behind the doorway and watched.

The creatures were slow.

Their attacks were crude and easy to read.

But their numbers meant that anyone who lost their footing would immediately be in trouble.

The candidates were making things worse too.

Most of them were too busy running in panic to make proper use of their weapons.

'This exam isn’t just about reaching the gate.'

Blackthorn clearly wanted to see how they reacted to fear.

Ryan stepped back inside.

With a total of nine attribute points, following everyone else into that courtyard would probably make him the first person to get eaten by goblins.

He had a better option.

Use the advantage he had just discovered.

Ryan entered one of the empty rooms and began practicing with the dagger.

His first swing was too weak and earned nothing.

On the second attempt, he used all his strength, but the movement was still clumsy.

Only when Ryan raised the dagger and slashed downward hard enough for the tip to scrape against the floor did a notification appear.

[Basic Dagger Mastery Lv.1: 2/100.]

Ryan immediately did it again.

Straight slash.

Diagonal slash.

Overhead strike.

Not every attempt counted, but every movement the system considered correct gave him two experience points.

Fifteen minutes later, his shirt was soaked with sweat and his arm felt heavy.

[Basic Dagger Mastery Lv.1: 90/100.]

Ryan leaned back against the wall and tried to steady his breathing.

Only ten more points.

“Pointless.”

Ryan turned his head.

Evelyn was standing near the window, holding the wand they had traded earlier.

Apparently, she had been in the same room for the past few minutes, though she had spent more time watching the courtyard than practicing.

“What’s pointless?” Ryan asked.

“Trying to raise your Mastery to Level 2 before going outside.”

Evelyn looked at him calmly.

“I calculated the training speed, energy consumption, and recovery rate. Under normal conditions, it should take about an hour. The examination only lasts an hour as well.”

She glanced toward the courtyard.

“Blackthorn deliberately set the time limit so we can’t hide in here until we become strong enough.”

Ryan held back a smile.

Her calculations were correct.

For a normal candidate.

The problem was, Ryan didn’t learn at the speed of a normal candidate.

He spun the dagger once in his hand.

“If you’ve spent all this time watching from the window, I’m guessing you figured something out about those Blight Goblins.”

Evelyn stared at him for several seconds.

It was as though she had only just realized Ryan had been paying attention to what she was doing too.

Ryan gave her a faint smile.

“We still have time. Before we walk into that courtyard, we should figure out what Blackthorn actually wants to kill.”

He glanced toward the chaos outside.

“The goblins, or our panic.”