2026-09-02 12:18:00A 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.”
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Chapter 16 - Final Attack
“Two shots...” Ryan repeated quietly as he stared at the Goblin Warlord still standing in front of them. “That means we can’t afford to miss again.”Evelyn didn’t answer. Her face had gone pale, and the hand gripping her wand was trembling slightly, but her eyes remained fixed on the Warlord’s half-destroyed head.Two other candidates who had somehow survived on the far side of the courtyard exchanged glances.They could have taken advantage of the weakened Warlord and escaped toward the Sanctuary Zone.Instead, after seeing how close the monster was to falling, they raised their weapons and charged.“Now! Hold it down!”The fi
Chapter 15 - Shockwave
[Universal Prodigy activated.][Target: Goblin Warlord.][Copyable ability detected.][Shockwave - Rank F.][Copy successful.][Ability duration: 3 minutes.]Ryan read the notifications once before immediately turning to Evelyn. “Three minutes. That’s all the time we have. No matter what happens, aim for its head.”Evelyn frowned slightly, clearly not understanding where Ryan’s confidence was coming from, but she didn’t waste time asking questions. Her wand was already raised as Ryan tightened his grip on the dagger and ran toward the Goblin Warlord.One of the remaining candidates had just failed to escape.The Warlord grabbed him from behind and slammed him into the ground before his body shattered into light. The sight still made Ryan’s stomach turn, even though he knew everything happening here was only part of the exam.The moment Ryan entered its attack range, the Warlord’s red eyes shifted toward him.The creature swung its arm.Ryan had already estimated its reach and stepped
Chapter 14 - Trump Card
Evelyn had already turned toward the Sanctuary Zone, but after only a few steps, the difference in their speed became obvious.The Warlord was much faster.Evelyn, meanwhile, clearly wasn’t built around physical attributes.“Not toward the Sanctuary!” Ryan pointed toward the ruins of the building that had collapsed when the Warlord appeared. “Go toward the candidates who were hiding!”Evelyn glanced over and immediately understood.The fourteen candidates who had refused to fight from the beginning were now gathered near the ruins.They still hadn’t crossed the courtyard toward the Sanctuary Zone because they were too afraid, but the collapsed building had destroyed their hiding place.Evelyn changed direction and ran straight toward them.Several candidates immediately panicked.“Hey! Don’t come over here!”“Take that thing somewhere else!”Evelyn didn’t slow down.The Warlord kept gaining on her, but she still had a lead of roughly twenty meters.The moment she passed the group near
Chapter 13 - Under Pressure
“Don’t fight it head-on! Fall back!”Ryan was already moving away before he even finished shouting.Marcus had just been sent flying with a single blow, and that was more than enough to kill any desire Ryan had to test his strength against the Goblin Warlord.With his attributes, one hit might be enough to end his exam.Not everyone thought the same way.The ten candidates who had been heading toward the Sanctuary Zone immediately turned back when the boss appeared.They had already completed the five-goblin mission, which meant the only major reward left was standing right in front of them.“Attack together!”“Don’t give it a chance to move!”Several swords and axes struck the Goblin Warlord almost at the same time.Two arrows followed from behind.The result was disappointing.Its thick, muscular body suffered only shallow wounds, while the arrows barely managed to penetrate its skin.Ryan chose to observe from a safe distance.All the ordinary Blight Goblins had collapsed the momen
Chapter 12 - Triggering the Warlord
No one laughed this time.Too many coincidences had happened for it to still look like luck.Marcus was the angriest of them all.“You’re doing this on purpose!”Ryan turned toward him.“Doing what?”“Four!”Marcus raised four fingers, his face turning red.“You stole four kills from me!”Ryan was actually a little surprised by the number.He had deliberately targeted Marcus more often because his high attributes allowed him to weaken goblins quickly.But Ryan hadn’t realized he had taken that many.He checked his skill progress.[Power Slash Lv.1: 80/100.]What a shame.A little more and the skill might have leveled up.Then again, if Ryan kept doing the same thing, Marcus might decide to stab him before stabbing another Blight Goblin.“Fine. I’ll stop.”Marcus snorted loudly.The others looked more curious than genuinely angry.They all knew Ryan only had nine total attribute points.That made his ability to time his finishing blows so precisely even stranger.Ryan, of course, had n
Chapter 11 - Kill Steal
Ryan’s satisfaction after getting his first kill lasted only a few seconds.The moment he tried to raise his dagger again, the muscles in his arm felt heavy and sore, as though all the strength he had gathered earlier had been squeezed out in a single attack.Power Slash was strong, but Ryan only had three points in Vitality.If he forced himself to use the skill twice in quick succession, there was no guarantee his arm would still be able to hold a weapon afterward.So Ryan didn’t rush to look for another target.He continued moving with the formation while watching how the others fought.Some needed three strikes to bring down a Blight Goblin.Others needed four or five.Ryan began memorizing how strong each person was and estimating when a goblin had been weakened enough for him to finish it with a single attack.About a minute later, the heaviness in his arm started to fade.A candidate beside him was fighting a Blight Goblin that had already taken three sword strikes.The moment
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