Chapter 25: Who is in First Place?

After a night of fighting, more than half of the thousand apprentice magisters had died.

The remaining magisters were glad that they had survived the night.

At the same time, they had experienced what the night in the hunting area would be like in advance.

“I’m alive?”

An apprentice magister crawled out from under the carpet of an underground warehouse.

He was something else as he hid under the carpet in the underground warehouse instead of in the open.

“I’ll become the first place for this exam!”

A man with spiky hair and upturned eyes, his back leaning against a tree trunk, opened his sleepy eyes.

He opened his tactical backpack to reveal five bronze tracking devices.

Although he did not have any silver tracking device, it was good enough for an apprentice magister to kill five low-level beasts.

In fact, before the exam, the man had followed his father to the hunting area to train and gain combat experience.

Otherwise, it would be difficult for an apprentice magister to obtain such good results on his first exam.

It was a dilapidated house and an ordinary master bedroom.

Catherine yawned and woke up to the alluring aroma of grilled meat.

“Austin?”

She looked outside. Austin was indeed grilling meat.

Another unfortunate vicious beast became the siblings’ breakfast.

“Silverback Wolf King, a mid-level vicious beast. It ran up our roof last night and howled.”

Austin rotated the brown-gold legs and explained the origin of the breakfast.

“Mid-level vicious beast…”

Catherine was somewhat numb.

Another one!

There were a total of four intermediate-level beasts in the exam, and half of them had fallen into Austin’s “clutches”.

After Austin killed the Silverback Wolf King, his cells evolved to obtain an ability—Howl of the Wolf.

With this ability, there was a probability that Austin could summon a wolf pack that had a lower level than him!

“Could you check how many tracking devices we have in total, sister?”

Austin took a pinch of salt with his fingers and sprinkled it on the grilled leg.

“Well, let me see.”

Katherine dug her backpack to check on yesterday’s results.

“There are a total of 38 bronze and two silver tracking devices.”

Catherine answered.

Most of the tracking devices were, of course, Austin’s doing.

Austin sprinkled another handful of cumin powder. “Not a lot,” he mused. “I don’t know if anyone has hunted more beasts than we did.”

“There’s still some time left before the end of the exam. We should take this opportunity to gain more combat experience.”

“Catherine, we’ll carry on with the hunt after breakfast.”

“Sure, brother.”

Catherine nodded in agreement.

Other apprentice magisters would have been eager to return to the city as soon as possible, but this pair of siblings continued their hunt after breakfast.

The exam was coming to an end.

More and more apprentice magisters gathered at the transportation station of Vicious Beast Town.

Most of the apprentice magisters looked battered and exhausted. Their bodies were tattered and covered in wounds.

Elder Chuan, Cass, Ankti, and the other examiners stood in front of the transportation station.

The assistant examiners began to tabulate the results.

The surviving apprentice magisters lined up and took out their tracking devices.

Cass said in a low voice, “After the test of life and death, these recruits will be more composed.”

Ankti frowned. “But there were also many casualties this time. More than a thousand apprentices took the exam, but only two hundred survived.”

More than half of them had died!

Elder Chuan leaned on his walking stick and answered, “We added mid-level vicious beasts and one injured high-level vicious beast. It did increase the difficulty of the exam greatly.”

“To be able to survive the exam this time, they are decent enough.”

“If they could kill one or two low-level beasts, that’ll make an excellent magister!”

Considering the difficulty of the exam, the chief examiners had long since come up with new standards.

Killing a low-level vicious beast would be considered qualified.

Killing two to three low-level vicious beasts showed that the magister had great potential.

If anyone were to kill five low-level beasts, there was no doubt that he was a prodigy sought after by all the major factions in Faye City.

As for hunting mid-level vicious beasts, even if it was just one, it was enough for him to enter the Thunder Magister Guild.

“Bauer. Killed zero low-level beasts.”

“Zeitel. Killed one low-level vicious beast.”

“Silver. Killed one low-level vicious beast.”

…

The assistant examiners recorded the results and announced the number of beasts that every apprentice magister had killed.

There were a few zeros, which meant that they were unable to hunt any.

Everyone here had survived in the Vicious Beast Town for one day and one night.

A kill count of one was the norm for the surviving apprentice magisters.

Those who could kill two to three low-level vicious beasts were rare.

For example, when Cass had hunted three low-level beasts, many apprentices exclaimed in admiration.

It was the upturned-eyed man’s turn to step forward. With a grim, cocky expression, he pulled out five bronze tracking devices from his backpack.

The assistant examiner looked at the man in surprise and announced loudly, “Mo. Killed five low-level vicious beasts!”

The man named Mo had his hands in his pockets. He walked to the side coldly and accepted everyone’s admiring gazes.

“Gasp, how did he manage to kill five low-level beasts?”

“Wow, he’s too strong, isn’t he? We’re both apprentice magisters, but he can kill vicious beasts while I almost died!”

“Comparisons are odious.”

“Without a doubt, he is the first place in this official magister exam.”

Mo snorted, clearly acknowledging the fact that he was the top performer among everyone.

Ankti, the Martian hunter, whispered to Cass.

“Mo is a good prospect, as expected of Wu’s son.”

“It’s a pity that he’s Wu’s son. He’ll join his father’s hunting team in the future. We can’t recruit him.”

“It doesn’t matter. There are still many decent apprentice magisters.”

The chief examiners had already begun to determine which magisters to recruit.

Elder Chuan remained unmoved and continued to lean on his walking stick.

Even on Mo’s performance, the elder only nodded slightly.

Time passed bit by bit.

There were fewer and fewer apprentices who came forth.

Those apprentice magisters who had done well did not take out more than five tracking devices.

Hika looked down from a height, frowning delicately.

Why aren’t the Austin siblings back yet?

She thought worriedly.