Chapter 157: Testing Arrays

George glanced at the projections with a frown. He was holding a thin register where he wrote down some names.

"I can see a lot of students are well versed in combat, especially the third and second year but some of the first-year student's movements are stiff while fighting."

Elder Han gazed at the Projections while drinking water.

"It's because they are not experienced yet. They all have the potential to become strong in the future. With time they will surely become better in combat."

The names on the three higher square-shaped projections were changing repeatedly. Even though it's only been ten minutes since the practical exam started, from each year the top students have already secured their place.

After the top ten students from each year took their spots, their projections crossed the other projections and stood in the front.

From the first-year students, Alec was already in first place with 200 points, Carcel second, Mia and Lara's names were also present within the top ten, and Nine name was in the eleventh spot.

Principal Ratric gaze was fixed on Alec. He saw his fighting style. As the various monsters emerged from the fog surrounding the stage Alec stood unfazed.

"What an elegant yet ruthless way to use a sword. His sword looked a little old but for some reason, it seemed special."

His gaze landed at some third and second-year students before he saw Carcel. The latter was using his spear to repel and kill the incoming monsters.

Bia who had been watching the projections for a while frowned.

'Where is Kyle?'

Just like Bia Elder Han also frowned while searching for the name of his one and only student. He wanted to brag a little but his student was nowhere to be seen.

'He is not weak so why is he not present on the first-year ranking? It's been more than ten minutes don't tell me he didn't even kill a single monster!'

There were a total of 200 numbers in each ranking projection. So the moment anyone killed a monster within the dungeon their name would appear on the list.

His eyes narrowed as he looked at the other Projection. Principal Ratric noticed Han agitated.

He chuckled because he knew Han took a kid as his disciple and the said student was none other than Kyle. The one who had bonded with a legendary beast and because of him a lot of unnecessary attention was drawn to the Academy.

Ratric looked at Han with a grin. He cleared his throat and moved closer to the latter.

"Who are you finding? Let me help you."

Everyone else present inside the room also looked at Han and his facial expression darkened a little. After a few seconds, they all chuckled as they knew about Kyle because Elder Han was boasting about him everywhere he went!

Han snorted coldly at the laughing individuals and waved his hand to look through the many projections while cursing Kyle inwardly.

'Dam you, Kyle! Just what the hell are you doing?'

As he shuffled through the projections for a minute the familiar face finally entered everyone's eyes. The smile on their faces vanished as they stared at the projection with surprise. Ratric left eyelid twitched as he gazed at Kyle.

'How did he learn it?'

Amidst the quiet atmosphere, Bia's eyes sparkled. Elder Han's eyes widened for a second but then he chuckled at himself.

'How can I forget about that! This rascal learned it so easily and after learning he is even able to make a bigger version of it?'

On a white stage, Kyle was standing while surrounded by at least twenty (F)-Rank Wolves monsters.

The monsters growled loudly with anger and frustration. They wanted to attack Kyle but a thin blue shield was present around him protecting him from their attacks.

The shield would crack from time to time but Kyle would throw out some more mana stone and the cracks would disappear within a second.

There was a curious smile on his face indicating he was enjoying the process.

Elder Han laughed a little and gazed at the other in a taunting manner.

"So anyone was saying something?"

Ratric clicked his tongue. Now after seeing Elder Han's proud expression, he was thinking of taking a disciple as well. It was too sour to see others brag about their students.

...

Meanwhile, inside the dungeon while everyone was fighting with the monsters, Kyle was testing the Array he learned last week.

After he arrived inside the dungeon. Instead of getting ready to fight, he took out the low-grade mana brush he bought from the Academy store with Nine in the morning. It cost him 500 mana stones but it was worth it.

He could have bought it with the Academy currency called points but after the first mission where he found Bia, he didn't take another mission so he didn't have any points.

He gazed at the brush and injected some mana inside it. The tip of the brush shone brightly with black color.

With a chuckle, Kyle instantly drew a familiar beginner Array around himself. It was a little hard to draw the same symbols in a bigger version but he was done within half a minute because he practiced this array a few times before.

After the first minute ended, two (F)-Rank wolves monsters came out from the fog, they instantly attacked Kyle but the latter took out many mana stones and scattered them inside the Array. The mana stones energy was drained but a thin shield appeared around him.

For the next few minutes, Kyle tested the Array in many ways. Now twenty (F)-Rank monsters were banging at the shield but as long as he supplied enough mana stones the Array would recover instantly.

"I am done testing the beginner defensive Array. Now let's test the second one."

If he wanted to he could easily kill the (F)-Rank monster around him as he was already (D)-Rank but he wanted to test what he learned because he knew he wouldn't be able to leave the Academy to fight any time soon.

He instantly bent down and after supplying mana inside the brush he drew some symbols inside the defensive Array. The previous symbols shone brightly and started moving. They merged with the new symbols creating a familiar yet different Array.

Kyle took out more mana stones and threw them inside the array while gazing at the monsters.

The shield around him trembled a little. The energy from the mana stones was sucked dry instantly and a thin beam formed out of nowhere. The beam instantly attacked the wolves and two wolves died on the spot but then the Array also lost its energy to attack.

"It's effective but I think defensive is better because the offensive Array used too many mana stones."

With a sigh, Kyle placed the brush back inside his storage ring and took out his sword.

"Let's fight now!"