Since the three classes started their exam, the long hand of the clock has revolved once.
The examiner sat himself on an appropriately-sized boulder and watched the students.
Yes, make no mistake, he was indeed watching over them responsibly like any respectable examiner…
‘Please ready yourselves, Senpais.’
‘What was that!? You think we’d lose to a bunch of first years— What!?’
‘Nooo!! An eight-legged frog is falling from the sky, what!?!?’
‘Is that a tyrannosaurus!? What the hell is going on!?’
‘Why are there so many of them? Wait, is that!?’
‘You’re kidding, right? Isn’t this a C Class area!?’
‘Ahahaha, welcome to Examiner Nakamura’s Bizarre Exam!!’
‘Oh, I’m sure we’re just getting started! Seriously, screw that guy!!’
‘Uh, various raybeasts are tumbling down!’
‘Don’t mind me! I’ll be taking your crystals now!!’
‘Wait, I’ll give you as many as you want, so can you help out— UGYAAH!!’
Although the scouts barely did a satisfactory job, they still managed to complete their job, and 1 – D finally made their move.
Meanwhile, the examiners’ side of the field was also starting to produce results, as noted by the screams resounding from the fields.
For better or for worse, the class of 1 – D had already been baptized yesterday, so they weren’t as surprised, but for the two 2nd year classes that were having their first time with Nakamura today, screams resounded abound.
“Those are some nice screams, huh,” Shinichi remarked.
“Kyukyukyu,” the fox-like creature laughed.
Examiner Shinichi laughed as he watched the monitors floating before him.
That smile plastered on his face was so refreshing that if the people on the receiving end of his mischief were here, they would surely beat him up.
As the students bustled about hectically, Shinichi watched them and graded them accordingly.
“H-How about you pay attention to our screams too? UGA—!!”
“…Your screams aren’t really screams, though. They’re more like the bellows of a beast.”
A desperate cry resounded from below him. Evidently, the source of that cry was not pleased with him.
Unfortunately, Shinichi didn’t think it resembled anything like a scream, so he couldn’t help but throw a teasing remark.
The giant boulder that Shinichi sat on stood vertically like a long pillar. Below him were his two assistants playing bat.
“Screw you! Which part of this is baseball!?” Ryou said.
“You need to apologize to everyone related to baseball right now! And to us too!!” Tomoe said.
The two assistants angrily swung their weapons.
The way Shinichi phrased his question made it seem as though they would be catching balls, so the two assistants couldn’t be blamed for imagining a similar form of special training.
To their surprise, Shinichi asked them to take on the batting role instead.
They couldn’t really complain about that since they didn’t have any balls in the first place, so if they were asked to just hit something similar, then it would still make perfect sense.
Just ignore the fact that they’re using a great sword and a sheathed katana in place of the bats.
The biggest issue they really had was the fact that the balls they were hitting were in fact raybeasts.
“Wow, they fly pretty far, don’t they?” Shinichi said.
The sight of a raybeast drawing a parabola in the air as it flew was surreal.
The same could be said for Shinichi, though, given that he had given the order to send it flying and was watching with such glee.
“You can complain as much as you want when you finish the job,” Shinichi said. “Only 3 to 4 have flown properly out of the 10 so far, you know.”
“They’re too fragile because they’re just C Rank!!” Ryou complained.
With his high Strength stat, even with the dull blade of his sword, the damage he was dishing out was still too great for the stomach of the raybeasts here to endure.
“That’s why you need to swing without relying on your strength!!” Tomoe said.
That swing swung out of frustration caused the raybeasts in a 3 meter area to disperse.
Tomoe was partly taking out her frustrations on him when she said that, but she was right, and Ryou could only frown in frustration.
Not until now did he realize just how bad he was at controlling his strength.
That was despite it actually being noted on his report card.
“In your case, they’re just rolling around, though,” Shinichi said. “Spiritual power might not be allowed, but let me remind you that you’re allowed to use skills.”
“I-I know that! ‘Air Burst’!”
With her low strength, Tomoe couldn’t launch the raybeasts, so she created an explosion-like momentum and used it to send the raybeasts in front of her flying.
In one fell swoop, 20 raybeasts were spectacularly driven into the wall of a cliff and promptly dispersed.
“Idiot! Why would you ever use an advanced skill to send something flying!?” Ryou said.
“This isn’t just an issue of strength, though.” Shinichi said.
If one to were hit something in front of them like that, obviously it would just go into a straight line.
In order to launch something up, you need to hit it from below.
So the correct approach would be to lift it via an Earth-Type skill, and then launch it via a Wind-Type skill.
But Tomoe, despite her high Mind stat, was actually really bad with Garesto’s skills since she was more used to techniques that utilized Spiritual power.
“Ugh, stop babbling and get off my case, will you!? If you annoy me I’ll slip a spider into your back and make you wet yourself!” Tomoe threatened.
“Y-You can’t just dig up an old wound like that!!” Ryou complained.
“You’ve really been relying too much on those convenient charm spells of yours,” Shinichi pointed out. “…Though I gotta say, it’s pretty crazy you were able to make
Who would’ve thought she would be such a bully, though, Shinichi thought as he looked at Tomoe.
Shinichi conveniently forgot about his own mischiefs and sympathized with Ryou.
Ah, but of course, he was merely sympathizing, and didn’t actually have any intention of lending a hand or giving advice.
“Damn it! Which part of this is supposed to be ‘the next step’!?”
“If it turns out you were just working us hard, you can kiss your head goodbye!!”
By this point, the two assistants were already swinging their bats purely to vent.
Beast-Types, Insect-Types, Intangible-Types, Inorganic-Types… Through the frustrated efforts of the two assistants, raybeasts of all kinds were sent flying.
It sounded easy, but it was much harder in practice, as the only thing similar between the raybeasts were their rank, while their hardness, weight, and shape all differed.
Without holding back just right and using the appropriate method, it wouldn’t even be possible to send the raybeasts rolling, much less send them flying.
With the ever increasing horde of raybeasts around them and the incomprehensible but difficult task they had to perform, their minds were gradually pushed into a corner.
Hence, it was only normal for them to become frustrated and lose their calm.
“Ahaha, kids these days sure are lively.”
Despite that Shinichi intentionally acted like an old man and drank his tea while watching from the sidelines.
He was, however, paying attention to them and the students shown on the floating monitors.
‘…Umm, those two are older than you, though.’
“…Ah.”
Shinichi let out a breath in response to the voice coming from the new monitor that just appeared.
On that monitor could be seen a wryly smiling noble lady with a magnificent ringlet curls.
‘Icchi always forgets his own age, doesn’t he?’
Another monitor appeared beside that monitor, but this time a girl with fox ears was shown on it.
This girl wore a look of amusement on her as she watched Shinichi with interest.
“Leave it. Besides, what happened to your own exams?”
‘I’m in the middle of it right now, actually. 3 – A has been divided into two classes and made to compete with each other.
We’re officially competing on the number of raybeasts defeated and recovery rate of crystals, but the heart of the exam lies in one’s ability to command his forces and ability to understand the movement of the enemy forces.
It’s a big responsibility as someone who’s been put in charge of the two teams. As for the opposing team, it’s being led by…’
Aristel spoke calmly, but yells and thunderous sounds could be heard from the backdrop.
Her hesitation at the end of her speech suggests that the opposing team has failed to offer much of a challenge.
‘Ahaha, if you’ve been made the commander, then there must be a world of difference in morale.
Our class of 2 – A is ranking its students according to the number of raybeasts hunted individually.
But the test area has been made even smaller, so it’s really a free-for-all where we’re all fighting for scraps. Ah! I’ll be taking that, thank you!’
The sound of a weapon being swung and flesh being cut resounded from the monitor.
That was quickly followed by the fervent scream of a student who’d been robbed.
“As expected of the Special Class. Communicating with someone while in the middle of an exam must be a piece of cake to you two.”
‘Coming from someone who can look at so many monitors simultaneously, that just comes off as sarcasm to my ears. Besides, in a real battle, you have to move around in an exoskeleton while receiving orders. It’s really reckless,’ Myuhi said.
They had to listen to orders while dealing with whatever was in front of them.
So it wouldn’t be wrong to say that being able to communicate while fighting was an indispensable skill to them.
The production of equipment that made that easier was similarly important.
‘Well, it’s only really possible because there’s a Fake Face Screen and a Communication-by-Thought Function,’ Aristel said.
The image Shinichi was seeing didn’t actually match the sounds he was hearing.
There was a white backdrop, and on top of that were the faces of the girls with appropriate expressions.
Moreover, while it might still be possible for Myuhi, in Aristel’s case, having to give orders to orders, while talking to Shinichi wasn’t something that could be done.
After all, no matter how impressive she may be, she still had only one mouth.
Hence, their communication was only possible by taking advantage of this technology that took advantage of the photons’ ability to respond to thought.
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