Spening a whole day with studying was bound to be tiring, but Ash had no real choice in the matter as the exam was already breathing down his neck.
Tomorrow Ash would have to do the written exams before he will have the chance to use his combat skills the following day.
So for now he had to give his hardest to trying to make it through this exam in one piece.
He didn't hope for any outstanding results, he just needed to be... good enough.
So without much choice he found himself sitting in one of the giant libraries of the Golden Town.
Before him were laid bare the books he'd have to go through.
He had done some studying before coming here, but in the end he still needed to go through all the needed subjects to be safe. Especially since his current knowledge was still lacking in many areas.
Be it history, math, sciences or even language he was not exceptional in either.
Much work was to be done, so without wasting another second Ash dove head first into studying.
Words upon words piled up in the books.
Sentences he barely understood, but eventually he was able to close the first of his many books.
Skimming through is all he did, but he felt his knowledge was already enough to hit that low ceiling.
Then it was time for the next book and then the one after it.
Finally looking up from the pages Ash could see the scenery outside was now shrouded in the darkness of night.
It was already late, he had actually spent the whole day studying with sheer focus he didn't think possible.
Picking up the books, he slowly put them back to their places and left the library before it closed.
*growl*
A sound came from somewhere, trying to search for its source Ash soon came to find his own stomach to be the culprit.
'I'm hungry.'
...
The rest of yesterday was spent with nothing other than eating and sleeping, but now it was time.
The exam has arrived.
Ash could only anxiously walk down the streets of the morning.
People of all sorts were heading to different places.
Work or the very exams he himself was going to, there were many people going to all sorts of places.
Yet the closer he got to the academy's doors the clearer it got who was here for the exams and who was going to work.
I mean it was a simple deduction, yet seeing just how many of the people really were going to take these entrace exams surprised even Ash.
It wasn't just a few as large part of the crowd was indeed heading in the same direction he was.
Soon the modern architecture of the academy became fully realised and was shinning clearly in Ash's vision.
He was here now at the academy.
...
Getting seated at an unassuming desk, one maybe a bit more "smart" than what he was used to.
The desk itself was a large screen, on which Ash would eventually get presented with the exam.
The exams here were grueling, not easy by any means.
No breaks were allowed, you'd go through all the subjects in one sitting.
It was a grueling four hours of sitting and doing the tests.
Of course if you finished early, then you could by all means leave early, but not many were so confident as to finish early.
So Ash just sat there waiting for the exam to finally start when the screen finally lit up.
The first set of exam papers have finally appeared.
"You may begin the exam now."
One of the professors shouted.
Ash quickly jumped into answering the large list of questions.
Looking through them, many were ones he barely understood, while others were the ones he covered during his prior studying.
For those time that he wasn't sure of the answer, he left it to intuition.
But then a potential stroke of genius came to him, one which even he himself wasn't sure would work.
He wanted to use his abilites to cheat.
So long as he didn't move large amounts of aura around he'd go unnoticed.
There were no such things as aura detectors after all, and even if there were the amount of aura he wanted to use would never be associated with cheating.
So which of his abilites would he use?
Delusion? No, he couldn't manipulate the answers since they were mostly covering factual information rather than opinion pieces.
Like there was no way he could make a wrong math answer into the right one.
No, he wanted to try using his other ability. The one he has mostly overlooked till now, but was certainly still very valuable.
Truth Seeker.
He wasn't certain if it would work, but he knew that his skill allowed himself to discern lies from the truth.
The first time he truly felt it working was when the guards lied about Caesar's presence when he wanted to meet him.
Back then he felt an odd tickling feeling. It took a bit of time for him to connect the dots, but he eventually figured that that was how the skill told him it was a lie.
So his current plan was to use this skill on the multiple choice questions as on the clear ended ones there was no way for it to help him, but if it worked on the multiple choice ones that was already more than enough.
But would his skill really work? That was his present question.
As far as he could tell false information wasn't necessarily flagged by the skill so long as the one saying it believed the information to be true.
So what he was trying to do was not verifying if the information was true or not. No, he wanted to know if the one that created the questions lied, that's how he'd find the truth among the list of potential answers.
Subtly switching to his Truth Seeker skill his aura barely showing changes Ash looked at the question before him.
As he tried selecting each of the possible questions Ash could feel it.
The tickling, it was there, the skill was working.
Then he finally stopped at one of the answers, there was no tickling. This was the right answer.
Ash's face was overcome with an instant bout of happiness. He had succeeded.
Then Ash continued on with his exam, answering the questions he already knew, writting what he thought correct at times and cheating whenever possible.
Then a bell rang throughout the whole building.
"Exams are over everyone."
The screens before them instantly went black.
Ash was lucky to have barely finished it a few minutes prior, since when the bell rang he was only going through his prior answers checking to see if they were correct.
The sound of the bell surprised Ash regardless, as despite how much time was given and even despite the fact that he cheated it went by quickly, it felt short.
Standing up from his seat Ash could only hope for good results now.
Looking around he could see that the faces of those around him painted a similar picture as they were equally anxious of their results.
Now all everyone could do was wait for the results to get announced, but that wouldn't happen for another few days.
Leaving the academy Ash moved with the masses, all heading towards the inner parts of the Golden Town.
Some would diverge while others would stick around, and a few even arrived at the very same hotel Ash was staying at.
Still, no words were exchanged. For now they were nothing more than rivals, pointless friendliness wouldn't do either of them any good.
So they all just headed to their rooms, some only for a bit, while other would stay there for the remainder of the day.
What did Ash do? He stopped by briefly before heading out to eat and then he went to the underground waterpark.
He wasn't too worried. He knew pointless worrying about the past would do him no good.
The past was the past, the results were already set in stone. For now he would celebrate the fact that he even got through it.
And then nightfall came and eventually the next day.
Waking up, Ash felt better than ever, but he knew that wouldn't last.
Today the real exam would begin.
The physical exams were in order.
And if the level of the examinees were anywhere near to those of the Special Admission Students than Ash knew he wouldn't stay in one piece for long.
Still he was determined to win, to do well and to not let his guard down ever again.
Injuries were fine, no they were expected, but losing?
Now that is something he wouldn't allow and he would make sure of it.
Grabbing his swords and necessary gear Ash headed for the academy once more, just as he had yesterday.
The scenery was very familiar.
Some people walking some to work while others to the site of the exams, but know looking upon the crowd Ash knew.
He knew just who his rivals were.