Child of Destiny

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The air inside the academy gymnasium was still competitive as ever since all of the examinees were taking this physical assessment as another form of competition. It was even more true that the current point rankings were being displayed on a huge virtual screen on the stage.

Their points were quite close with each other which was why each of them was showing their real capabilities in this physical assessment exam. Moreover, they were also informed that whoever got the highest score on each of the training equipment would get 50 extra points. And if ever there was a draw in their scores, then those guys would divide the extra points among them.

There were 5 types of training equipment in total which were testing different capabilities. They needed to take each of the tests twice since the first round needed to be based on their pure physical abilities without any assistance of their Internal Qi and Mental Energy while the second round needed to be with the help of their respective disciplines.

The training equipments were the Strength Testing Machine, Body Toughness Machine, Explosive Speed Meter, Agility Testing Tools, and Reflex Testing Field.

The first 2 training equipments were taken by Leonard and Simone which earned them 50 points each. But the Explosive Speed Meter was taken by Leonard which earned him another 50 points which also upset both Ezio and Thomas who were supposedly the fastest among all of them.

Moreover, those two young assassins became even more upset when it came to 'Agility Testing Tools' since Shin took the 50 points for that training equipment. And as if rubbing some salt on their wounds, they were not even in second place since it was taken by Arthur.

In the meantime, the Reflex Testing Field was dominated by Shin. That result was to be expected since he and the Immediate Response talent, so it was natural for him to outclass everyone in terms of reflexes.

Aside from those tests, there was another set of physical assessment exams which tested their arms and leg strengths such as pull-ups, arm wrestling, sidesteps, long jumps, and many others. But unlike the first set of exams, these assessments were only meant for record purposes which didn't earn them any points.

With all those, the current Point Rankings were as follows.

1.  Shin Kinghand -          4152

2.  Diel Hendrickson -      4109

3.  Jean Camus -              4095

4.  Dylan White -              4082

5.  Leonard Fireheart -    4070

6.  Simone Bartolomeo - 4068

7.  Arthur Springfield -    4050

8.  Thomas Brook -          4030

9.  Ezio Williams -            4025

10.  Falcon Hawkins -      4020

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Shin managed to secure first place because he earned the extra points from the previous physical assessment exams. It was the same for Leonard and Simone who overtook the others due to the same reason.

After that, Shin and the others were given a full hour of rest to recover their peak states before Professor Valor appeared at the stage while ordering the instructors to clear the floor. And not long after, all of the training equipments were removed leaving nothing but an empty floor.

"Looks like it is finally time for the main event!" said Arthur excitedly when he was all of those, especially when he spotted some Mentalists sending up a barrier to protect the walls and the ceiling of the gymnasium.

Meanwhile, Professor Valor quickly started explaining what was going to happen next right after the Mentalists were done with their jobs. "Alright! Listen up, Unpossessed Gems! From here on out, we are going to test your real fighting capabilities in battle."

"First of all, I want all of you to take a proper look at the current Point Rankings behind me," he added while pointing his thumb at the huge virtual screen behind him.

He waited for everyone to have a clear look at it before continuing. "Those points are not only for you to brag about your standings, but it is also your means of currency when you enter the inner court of the academy where you are going to study."

"Every resource that you can get from the inner court is needed to be exchanged with points. The higher the quality of resources you want will naturally be more expensive. And aside from your points, you can use any other currency to buy them."

"You also can't buy points from other students, and doing so is a crime. If you get caught, not only will you lose all of your points, but you can also be expelled depending on how many points you tried to buy or sell."

After that, he snapped his fingers and sent out some booklets towards all of the examinees before continuing. "If you have more questions about points and other things, then you can just read this book since everything you need to know is written on it."

He then paused for a few moments before quickly proceeding to the next topic. "Now that you know the importance of your point when you enter the academy, then let me give you a chance to earn more of it before you finally enter the inner court."

"And that method that we are going to use is the same as how you will normally earn your points in the inner court in the easiest way possible, which is obviously through 'Duels'."

Reaching this point, Professor Valor couldn't help but smirk and took a quick glance at Shin before thinking to himself. 'It is a surprise that this kid manages to seize the first place, but it shouldn't be a problem since he is now paired with Diel Hendrickson instead of Dylan White.'

Naturally, Shin was able to notice those slight actions given his sharp senses, "Did that old man just glance at me? And why do I have a bad feeling about this?"

After that, he started frowning quite deeply before muttering to himself. "Tsk! It looks like this is going to be a drag. Tch! This is why I don't want to stand out too much."

Meanwhile, Professor Valor continued to discuss the rules of the duels. "First of all, each of you needs to only have a single battle since me and the other professors were only going to test your full capabilities.

"But if you want to challenge another person after that, then it is also fine with us. But that duel is going to be a different one and will not be included in this part of the exam."

"Meaning, you can only challenge them when we are done with all of the scheduled battles for today. And those battles can't take place here, so you have to find your own battleground."

He took another pause and moved his eyes once again. But this time, it was meant to warn the other people who came from rival counties and the guys who had already been rivals since they were young like Diel Hendrickson and Jean Campus.

He then quickly continued when he saw that everyone understood what he was telling them. "But at the very least, you can make a gamble with each other on who was going to win each battle."

"Though, I have to remind you to choose your side properly since we are also going to test your judgments here. We want to know if you guys can properly judge a battle based on the information that you got about the contenders or you are just blindly believing with your comrades."

"And if you can give us a logical reason why you choose that person, then we are going to give you some extra points even if you lose the gamble or not."

Hearing that, Shin couldn't help but smile before muttering to himself. "Heh! So, they want us to also be engaged in 'battle' despite not being in the arena ourselves? Interesting!"

At the same time, Professor Valor pointed at the virtual screen behind him once again before continuing. "As for the matchups, we are going to make it as fair as possible and follow the point rankings that we currently have."

"The first placer will battle the second placer while the third ranker is going to face the fourth-ranked. This pattern will continue all the way to the last person in the rankings."

"But arrangements of the battles need to be decided by a random machine. After all, we can't have all of the battles of the top rankers be held first."

"I'm sorry to offend the others but honestly it is going to be boring later on if we proceed according to our original order, so we need to shuffle the order a little bit."

Then he clapped his hands before quickly announcing. "And with all of that, how about we start the first match already?"

Right after those words left his mouth, the Point Rankings behind him suddenly disappeared and was immediately swapped with another screen where all of the participants' names were displayed alongside their opponents.

After that, the paired names were shuffled with each other and rolled for a few seconds, eliminating the other names one by one and leaving just a pair of names behind.

– Leonard Fireheart vs Simone Bartolomeo –

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