Child of Destiny

...

As Shin and the other candidates were defending themselves against the powerful pressure crushing on them, a middle-aged man suddenly appeared at the center of the stage of the gymnasium.

He observed the current state of each candidate before waving his hand to remove the pressure that he was releasing while sending all of the unconscious candidates out of the gymnasium using the formation that was suddenly beneath their feet.

"A Teleportation Formation right under us? I have a bad feeling about this," muttered Shin and the other sharp Mentalists among the candidates.

In the meantime, the middle-aged man didn't wait for them to recover as he quickly said with a mocking tone. "Alright, young'uns! That's enough of chaos right now as we are going to proceed with your next test. And since all of you still look so energetic, how about we proceed to the main event off the bat?"

"B*st*rd!" cursed a few candidates as he could clearly feel that the middle-aged man was mocking them given the tone that he had while saying those words.

But despite the hateful looks that the candidates were sent to him, the middle-aged man still continued making a mocking look at them before waving his hand to summon a huge curtain of light that basked each of the candidates.

A moment later, Shin and the others discovered a glowing emblem at the right side of their chest. And when they compared it with each other, they immediately realized that each of them had different emblems.

The middle-aged man didn't wait for them to raise any questions as he quickly explained the purpose of those emblems. "As you can see, you have different emblems and each of them stands for the roles that you are going to do for the next part of the exam."

"The shield stands for the 'Vanguards', a fist for 'Strikers', a goblet for 'Auxiliaries', a crossbow for 'Marksmen', a pair of eyes for 'Scouts', a compass for 'Tracers', an inverted sword for 'Specialists', and a crown for 'Controllers' – these roles are going to be your jobs when you form your teams later."

He then paused for a moment and snapped with his fingers, distributing a black watch on each of the candidates. "I'm not going to waste our time explaining what exactly those roles are for. After all, it is pretty obvious given the names that they had."

"But if you want to know more about them, then you can read their descriptions on the files recorded on those watches – everything that you need to know are all in there."

And just like earlier, the middle-aged man didn't wait for the candidates to keep with him and immediately added. "Later, you are going to form teams with each other which don't concern me at all. It's up to you how you guys are going to form your teams."

"Heck! I don't even care if you want to form a team composed of vanguards alone. But each team needs to at least have a single member with 'Crown Emblem' since they are going to be the leaders of each team."

"On the other hand, each team can't exceed 10 members but also can't be less than 5 members. The team composition is all for all of you to decide but keep in mind that you also need them to be people who you can put your trust in."

"After all, you need to entrust them with your lives later," he added with a mystifying tone.

After that, the middle-aged man took a brief pause before continuing. "And as you can see, there are some numbers displayed on your watches."

Hearing that, Shin and the others quickly looked at the black watch that they got earlier. And just like what the middle-aged man had said, there were some digital numbers displayed. Though, they vary from each other; all of the candidates had different amounts on their black watches; some of them even had zero on display while there were a few people who had negative numbers.

And before anyone could ask what those numbers were for, the middle-aged man immediately explained it to them. "Those numbers stand for the points that you gained previously."

"And as you can guess, you need to reach a certain number of points to pass this entrance exam. But you guys also don't have to worry about not having enough, since the people who are going to survive until the end but don't have enough points can still enter the academy. Though, you can also no longer be part of the special program that you guys are aiming for."

"In the meantime, gaining more points is very simple. rob them from the others," added the middle-aged man while wearing a huge grin.

Hearing that, the faces of the other candidates immediately turned solemn as they knew that there were some people among them that they couldn't beat just like the so-called 'Three Kings' of the East who were also famous among the first-year students of the academy.

There were also the rumored 'Monster Trio' who hailed from the Capital City of the Main Region, and many other candidates with the same popularity. And if these 'freak of natures' formed a team and hunted the others, these weaker candidates knew that it was impossible for them to survive the next part of the exam if they were going to face them head-on.

Fortunately, the middle-aged man immediately saved them from that bad news and quickly added. "But there is also another way to earn more points."

"The venue for the next part of the exam will have a lot of monsters roaming around. And killing them will give some points that correspond with their ranks."

Though, this new piece of information didn't help the weaker candidates to increase their odds of surviving for the next part of the exam.

At the same time, the middle-aged man finally finished his job and said. "And~…! That is all I have to say. I'll leave the other secret information for you to figure out."

He then paused for a couple of moments, thinking what he was going to do next, before continuing. "And since I'm in a good mood right now, I will give you 5 extra minutes to form your teams right now before I send all of you to the place where the third test is going to be held."

Right after he said those words, each of the candidates immediately became busy forming their teams.

In the meantime, Shin and his friends were exemptions in this since they already had a team of their own.

"So, the earlier test is also used to determine which role fits us the best," muttered Shin while looking at the emblems that each of them had.

In their team, Arthur was a vanguard while Leonard was a striker which didn't surprise them that much. But the Potter Twins were quite confused that they got different roles despite them doing the same thing earlier; Jillian got the auxiliary role while Molton was assigned as a scout.

On the other hand, Lorraine obviously got the marksman role which she liked pretty much. And at the same time, both Cloe and Alice were surprisingly assigned with the same role which was the specialist.

And obviously, Shin got the crown emblem which indicated that he was a controller and the leader of the group.

"So, what we only lacked is a 'Tracer' which is not that important since we already have these two with us," said Lorraine while pointing at Shin and Arthur. "Both of them had a Military background, so we don't need to worry ourselves of losing our way later."

Hearing those words, Molton couldn't help but ask a little. "What is the difference between a scout and a tracer?"

When the others heard him, Shin quickly explained. "They didn't have much difference with each other aside from their main role. A tracer is responsible for finding our way out from certain places and circumstances. They are also the ones who will point us where we need to go and which path is the fastest way to take."

"On the other hand, scouts are the ones who need to be ahead of the team to check if the direction that the tracer picked is a good choice. They are also responsible for clearing the path of the team while also gathering some information along the way."

"In a sense, a scout and a tracer need to work together so that their team can advance smoothly while traveling," he added while patting Molton's shoulder.

On the other hand, the young mentalist immediately became flustered as he was not used to having such an important role.

Seeing that, Arthur quickly put his arm around Molton's shoulder, reassuring his so-called junior brother. "Don't worry! Since we currently don't have a tracer, then I can be your partner for the time being. And you can also rely on me anytime you want."

Hearing that, Molton immediately became thankful and nodded his head.

After that, Shin immediately instructed the others to set their black watches and added each of them to his team. He had the crown emblem which also indicated that he was the leader, so he had the right to put others under him, using the special features that his black watch had.

Not long after, the five-minute mark finally arrived, signaling the middle-aged man that it was finally the time to proceed to the next part of the exam.

"Alright, young'uns! It is finally time, so wish for your success," he said while clapping his hands a couple of times before the whole gymnasium suddenly shone with a blinding light.

And a few moments later, all of the candidates disappeared without a trace, leaving the middle-aged alone. "I wonder how many unpolish gems will survive this exam."

...