"What?" Professor Zacram blurted out, a confused look on his face.
"Hahahaha, Zacram, you're getting old. You didn't even notice this young man's trick," The Third Professor laughed as he observed him.
Instead of asking them, Zacram looked at the spot where the Medallion was placed, situated above a Runic Formation that prohibited spatial magic or other spells from passing through it.
It was designed in such a way that the Medallion could only be taken by physical touch.
Zacram's eyes widened as he noticed a black sword embedded in the ground where the Runic Formation was present.
"Blink," Asher recited the spatial spell, and the sword disappeared from the ground, reappearing in his hand.
Arman noticed Asher's usage of the spell, but Blink was a basic space element spell that was deemed safe to use, so he didn't speak out against it.
"Let's go," Asher declared, turning back to his companions.
Alyssa tossed the Medallion towards Asher, who caught it effortlessly.
"Well, it seems like I've been outsmarted by him," Zacram muttered, confusion still present in his voice.
"But how did a normal sword manage to destroy the runic formation?" Zacram asked Arman.
To destroy a runic formation, unless it was made of highly complicated runes, one would need aura or destructive spells. Such formations would then break easily.
Neyman hadn't used any such runes, as they weren't necessary for such a task.
"I sensed a faint hint of aura on that sword when I saw it land on the Runic Formation," The Third Professor mentioned.
As the sword landed on the Runic Formation, it shattered it, and immediately Alyssa used the Blink spell to retrieve the Medallion.
That was when Arman halted the test, as they had successfully acquired the Medallion.
"Aura?" Zacram echoed.
"Yes, I don't know how though," The Third Professor replied.
Using aura outside the body was fine, and even the stones that Asher had coated with aura were understandable if he had trained his aura enough to sustain it.
However, with the sword, he needed to maintain that aura to the tip, to destroy the Runic Formation.
It was precisely this controlled aura placement that baffled everyone.
"Did his grandfather teach him that technique?" Zacram questioned.
"Well, we can't really ask him that," The Third Professor replied.
"Anyway, I'll just blame Neyman for this," Zacram decided, shaking his head.
It wasn't as if he didn't know where Asher's sword was headed. What he hadn't expected was that it would result in breaking the Runic Formation.
"Why not accept that an SS Rank Hunter got outsmarted by a D Rank Hunter?" The Third Professor joked.
Both of them were professors who only taught the Senior Year students. Zacram specifically taught Fourth Year students, and occasionally, he would instruct the Third Year students as well.
In the Fourth Year, Zacram was well-known among students for one thing - his strategies to clear the Dungeons.
The first three years at World Academy were dedicated to teaching students various aspects about mana, instilling knowledge needed as a hunter.
The Fourth Year, however, was strictly for implementing what they had learned over the past three years and improving it before graduating from World Academy.
This was why he was assigned to grade the two teams.
"Well, we have judged their capabilities enough," Zacram stated, letting go of the issue.
"The real race will begin now," Zacram declared with a smile.
The exam was never meant to be fair for both teams.
At that moment, Kevin and his team were retracing the lengthy path they had previously taken.
The only difference was that some of the monsters from the other path had arrived, lured by the smell of monster's blood, and they had to fight their way through.
"We should hurry up," Elena suggested, creating a small spiral of flame that obliterated many monsters.
Currently, Kevin's team were a full minute ahead of Asher's team. They hadn't expected Asher's team to seize the Medallion so quickly.
But even so, none of them were taking any chances.
"Kevin, you conserve your mana, we'll clear the dungeon for you," Elena reminded them of the strategy they had planned outside the Dungeon when they learned of the test they were to undergo.
"Okay," He agreed, watching Matthew take the lead.
Meanwhile, outside the Dungeon, Xander awaited the teams' emergence. His eyes scanned the course they had prepared for the race.
As night fell, he floated in the air, eagerly waiting for the teams to surface.
"Hey, isn't that Xander Demarcus?" Two masked men passing through the forest paused as they noticed a man levitating in the air.
"Why are the people from World Academy here?" One of them grumbled, annoyance etched onto his face.
"Ignore them, I'll maintain my invisibility for now. We need to move 500 KM from here," The other advised.
"Haah, we got lucky on the first mission," The other replied.
Their appearance was rough, and their bodies bore several healed injuries, with only a few scars left.
"We have eight more destinations left," A voice in their ear communicated.
"But really, are you sure about this?" One of them questioned.
"Even though I consider myself a psychopath, I wouldn't do this," He remarked,
"Don't waste time. If you miss the timings by even two seconds, the next destination might be your grave," The voice in their ear reminded them.
They resumed their journey, and Xander didn't notice them as they were already 10 KM away from where Xander was hovering.
The only reason they spotted him in the air was because of the overwhelming mana presence they felt from Xander, an SS Rank Hunter.
He wasn't suppressing his mana, ensuring no monster would dare approach this territory by sensing his imposing presence.
Five hours went by, and the sun rose.
Xander observed the first team exiting the Dungeon - it was Kevin Whiteheart's team.
"So they came out first," Xander noted as he suppressed his presence.
"Let's see who will win," He mused, disappearing from his spot.
Outside the Dungeon,
"Did we arrive first?" Ria asked, gasping for breath.
Not only her, everyone except Kevin, had exhausted a lot of mana to quickly traverse the Dungeon.
"Where is the Medallion pointing?" Eva asked Kevin.
"It's pointing towards the north," He answered.
They were taking a 2-minute break because everyone on the team was recovering their mana.
"Take out the mana recovery artifact. It's time to use them," Eva instructed, and everyone produced a ring.
These rings were given to Kevin by Raelyn, and he had distributed them among his teammates.
A staff member appeared soon after they activated the rings to boost their mana recovery.
"Congratulations, you're the first team to arrive here," He announced.
His words ignited hope in their eyes, indicating that they had a head start in the race.
"Follow the direction of the Medallion to reach the finish line," He guided them.
"How far is the finish line?" Elena inquired, but the staff member shook his head.
"We can't tell you that," He responded.
"We should start moving in that direction," Kevin proposed, and everyone nodded in agreement.
They began traversing the forest, and seven minutes after they embarked, Asher's team arrived at the Dungeon's exit.
"Haah, haah," Damian was panting heavily, using his shield as support to stand.
"Why did we encounter so many monsters?" He complained, visibly annoyed.
Everyone on the team, except Alyssa and Asher, were in a similar condition.
Asher emerged, his armor drenched in blood, just like the rest of his team.
"And why the hell did they put Early C Rank Monsters in the Dungeon for?" He protested.
Asher looked at Damian but didn't reveal that he had deliberately chosen the path and activated all the rune traps to attract all the monsters.
'This number of monsters should be enough,' Asher thought about Rifir.
Since acquiring Rifir, he had decided to use this opportunity to hunt as many monsters as possible. However, even in this dungeon, he and Alyssa could only hunt down five early C Rank monsters, which they killed effortlessly.
"Your team has arrived second, so I advise you guys to follow the direction shown on the Medallion," the staff member said, looking at Asher.
"So, they arrived before us," Damian kicked the ground, looking annoyed.
Damian stored his shield back into his spatial ring.
"I don't think we can keep up with you guys at full speed to catch up with them," Damian admitted, glancing at Sam who was just as exhausted as he was.
"You guys can proceed at your own pace, I'll go ahead," Asher replied, flaring his mana.
His objective in the Dungeon was already complete, and he was confident that their grading was finished already due to the number of monsters he had forced them to confront while exiting the dungeon.
"I will go after them," Asher said, vanishing from his spot as he used his movement technique.
"Wait, he has the Medallion!" Amelia shouted.
"Don't worry, he already gave me a tracking device," Damian reassured, tossing a device to Amelia that displayed Asher's location.
