The chattering of the crowd made hearing anything else difficult.
Luckily at this time there wasn't much to hear.
Right now Ash was standing in a rather long line waiting for his turn to finally arrive.
Indeed, this time he felt it appropriate to wait in line rather than skipping out on doing so till the end.
Why? You may ask. What made the oh so lazy Ash stand in line.
It was what awaited him after standing in line.
First, it was waiting in line then the physical assessment and only then did what Ash truly yearn for come.
Fighting.
His every fiber was itching to fight, to get the chance to truly see what the average students level was.
He knew full well that the Special Admission Students were strong, but he had no clue of the strength he should expect from those that were... not that special.
So he stood in line and waited, till finally after an hour of waiting the large space of the exam site entered his vision.
It was a large indoor space, with many different areas. There were small rooms, arenas for fighting and other facilities scattered all around.
Ash could instantly tell that this place was also where much of the training would be taking place during the school year.
Stepping into it he was quickly approached by one of the examiners.
"Applicant number?"
Ash scouraged his pockets before pulling out a small paper note on which his number rested.
"436."
He said with great confidence.
"Okay, Ash Lucchasi applicant number 436."
Then the examiner picked out a small sticker from a pile and placed it on Ash's arm.
Soon as it came in contact with it the sticker burned for a brief moment before it completely disappeared, leaving behind the number 436.
"This sticker will act as both your identification and also as your guide."
Ash nodded, even if he didn't know how it worked, he just wanted to move to the next step as quickly as he could.
"Okay, you can go now."
Leaving behind where he was he headed forward to another stop where he was similarily stopped.
"Show me your arm."
Complying with the command Ash showed his arm, soon his arm was pulled closer and came in contact with a device, resulting in his sticker to light up.
Then came the questions.
"Your rank, core and minor skills."
Hearing what the examiner was saying Ash felt that the questions were weirdly intrusive.
Yeah asking ones rank was fine, but skills and especially one's core skill. That's something people should only tell when they want to.
"Do I have to tell you my skills?"
Trying to see if it was optional or not Ash questioned the examiner.
"Yes, it's in our guidelines."
It was then that Ash felt it, the help he didn't even expect. Truth Seeker was active.
The examiner was lying.
'He's lying, can he really do that. I imagine he's only supposed to ask my rank. Why is he taking the risk of lying to me, when it could cost his job or maybe more?'
Realising this Ash couldn't just let it go, he had to be ballsy here.
"I'm not giving you shit. I wonder how many people you've lied to till now, huh? I wonder what would happen if it got reported."
With every word that left Ash's mouth the examiner became more and more concerned.
"I'm not lying, it's truly something we have to do."
He pleaded, but despite what he was saying his hands were shaking, a clear sign that he was anxious.
"Don't worry, so long as you give me few pointers I'll overlook this mishap of yours."
Ash said with upmost composure.
"Pointers?"
"Yes, like some of that information you've already extracted. Tell me, of those you examined who should I be most aware of."
The examiner could only stand there in cold sweat.
"So what's it gonna be?"
Giving in the examiner walked back a few steps before he looked through his notes.
"I believe number 65 is the most formidable of the ones I've examined so far."
Then he showed the screen with the data to Ash.
Core Skill: Spirit of Ice, controls ice with exceptional skill, is capable of summoning spirits to assist in combat.
Minor skills: Beam, Shield, Aura Contol
Rank 2
Looking at what was written before him Ash couldn't deny that on paper the opponent seemed strong, but was this truly the best the non Special Admission's had to show?
"How many people did you collect data on?"
Ash asked not even trying to act nice before the examiner.
"Ab–out fourty... no sixty."
'Sixty.'
It wasn't a small number, but compared to the thousands of examinees here it seemed small.
'Is this a high enough sample size to draw proper conclusions?'
"You said this person seemed to be the strongest, how much weaker would the average person be compared to them?"
The examiner thought for a moment before answering.
"I'd say around twenty percent weaker, but their stats weren't measured so it's difficult to say for sure."
Hearing the words for the examiner's mouth Ash was now confident.
'Maybe I truly was worthy of that Special Admission Ticket.'
"Thanks for the info, then be seeing you."
Ash just left leaving the examiner behind shaking.
Walking forward Ash arrived to the first of his actual tests.
The endurance test. This entailed trying to stay standing in a high gravity room.
Stepping inside the room the gravity was soon turned up and Ash could instantly feel the changes, but was still able to easily keep standing.
After standing for around five minutes, cracks were starting to show as he could feel his legs slowly giving out.
'Should I use Delusion?'
Despite asking the question just now he was already using it, quickly answering his own question.
Using Delusion allowed him to keep standing for way longer than what was meant to be possible.
Then finally after fifteen minutes he gave in and fell to the ground.
The moment this happened the gravity returned to normal and the door to the room opened.
"You did exceptionally young man, you may move on to the next test."
Then he moved on, next was the physical strength test.
Here he did well, not too much of an outlier, but it was still a good result.
Then it was time for the stamina test which entailed running till he couldn't anymore, here thanks to Delusion he was able once again achieve an exceptional result.
Then an examiner walked up to him.
"The physical examination is over you now may move onto the fighting. Please sit there on the desk and opponent will be matched to you shortly."
Sitting down at the small desk Ash could only wait or maybe look at the other fights that were ongoing.
Deciding to look at one of the matches Ash moved closer to examine what was happening.
There in the arena stood a young girl and before her stood a young boy around Ash's age.
Both were just standing there observing each other.
Of the two the boy seemed to wield a sword, while the girl had nothing with her.
'Is she a mage?'
Then the buzzer sounded, barely heard with the noisy training hall.
Soon as it sounded the two opponents, each began their attacks.
The swordman rushed in while the girl started casting.
Suddenly icicles came crashing towards the boy hitting him head on.
Still it wasn't quite enough to stop him as he just kept on running closer and closer to her.
That was when the girl suddenly erected a small ice wall before a few weirdly shaped pieces of ice appeared floating in the air.
'Wait... is she?'
Coming to a realisation Ash quickly tried to look at the girls arm where the number was indeed ingrained.
'Number 65.'
She was the one he read about from that spying examiner, the one who was supposed to be the strongest.
Suddenly the summoned spirits circled the wall before the boy could smash through it and began attacking him with their own icicles.
Then the wall came down and instead of an icicle a giant beam of condensed energy came crashing at him.
The girl had won.
Among those that were watching the reactions were instant, it seemed the girl was truly talented.
Ash knew that he should have been feeling impressed like the others around him, but what he was feeling wasn't anything like what the others were.
No, what he was feeling was a truly strange feeling. It was a mix of two entirely opposite feelings.
It was both excitement and disappointment.
He was excited since this meant that his position within the academy was most likely secured already.
But he was also disappointed because despite how anxious he had felt about the academy till now, the level of the examinees wasn't nearly as high as he had expected.
'Guess I should just be happy about it, it doesn't really matter.'
While he was thinking his expression of indifference was very visible from the outside looking in.
"What is his problem?"
The ice wielding girl grumbled under her breath.
Then suddenly the numbers on her arm lit up, this meant she had already gotten another match.
"I hope this next fight can be a bit more entertaining."
She then followed the directions given by the sticker, which was displayed to her through her Interface.
It didn't take long for her to arrive at her designated arena.
Stepping into the arena she was surprised to find the very boy who was just looking at her indifferently moments before.
'I'll show you something impressive, so you won't be able to act so indifferent anymore.'