...

For the next two days, Shin and the others did nothing but rest properly to recover their peak strengths.

Even though they played «Destiny's Fate» during their free time, they didn't do anything special since they didn't want to stress themselves for the time being. They only grind experience points by doing some minor quests and hunting some monsters.

Aside from doing those, Shin who had a town to manage was slightly busy compared to the rest. He rarely had the time to manage his town, so he took this opportunity to properly run the businesses that he had in there.

The state of Calderock Town was no longer the same as how it used to be. The mainstream players were slowly surpassing the level-100 mark while leading experts were already reaching the level-150 mark and were about to undergo their Tier 3 Promotion Quest.

Fortunately, the environment within the town was still good for training purposes especially that it had a first-class Battle Arena which was slightly worse compared to the Divine Coliseum of the NCP Cities.

There was also a branch of Hand of Midas Trading Firm where they could get quite a lot of high-class resources alongside top-quality weapons and items.

But Shin also knew that the current state of the town was still not good, which was why needed to speed up his plans of promoting the town into a city and relocating it to a different location. The only problem was he still couldn't find the perfect locations that fit his taste. And without it, he knew that he still couldn't get the full upper hand if he raised a negotiation with Shiella right now.

Regardless, Shin didn't have the leisure time to put too much concern about that matter since their current priority at this point in time was the exam to be accepted for the special program of the Magical Ace Academy.

Meanwhile, the Magical Ace Academy had given all of the examinees a full three days of rest to make sure that all of them got a proper rest before partaking at the next part of the exam.

The academy would naturally like to witness a good show for the next part of the exam since the participants were all talented individuals who would also lead their generation in the future.

The fourth day finally came and the academy summoned all of the examinees once again for the next part of the exam. And the place where they were summoned was the same gymnasium where they gathered on the first day.

"Alright! I'm pretty pumped up right now. I wonder who is going to be my opponent," said Arthur excitedly as he pounded his fists with each other.

In the meantime, Leonard was casually sitting on a nearby bench while waiting for the exam to start. And not right beside him sat Shin who was currently in deep meditation to focus his mind and relax his body.

The girls on the other hand seemed to be taking this matter a little too lightly as they were busily chatting with each other. Even Alice who was usually silent seemed to have gotten close with the two as she was now laughing with Cloe and Lorraine. It looked like what happened on the previous parts of the exam made them quite close with each other.

Not long after, Molton and Jillian finally arrived and joined them a little later. Molton walked over to Arthur to greet him before sitting on the bench alongside Shin and Leonard while Jillian joined the girls; but from the expression that she had on her face, she seemed to be in a bad mood right now.

"Looks like your sis really got an earful from your father. Is she going to be good for a duel later?" asked Arthur, whispering in Molton's ears.

Hearing that, Molton shook his head a little before saying. "That shouldn't be the case since she is not going to be in here if it is our father who scolded her. She probably got an earful from Mom and the others which is why she is making that face."

He then paused for a moment to take a look at his twin sister before continuing. "But since she didn't hear anything from Dad, then I guess she is going to be fine for today."

"So, you don't have to worry now, Senior Brother!" he quickly added while looking at Arthur cheekily.

Not long after, they saw the other guys started to arrive one by one. And the ones who really got their interest were the trio of Jean, Simone, and Thomas.

It was even true for Arthur since he was quite competitive when it came to these kinds of things, especially when he was seeing some rumors about the comparison between the Three Kings and the Monster Trio circulating in the academy's freedom wall. It was an online site that was available to all of the students of the Magical Ace Academy; it was an online forum in a sense but all of the topics posted on it were only about the news within the academy.

Arthur got access to it since they were already acknowledged as official students by the academy. That also meant that they had already been admitted to the school successfully and this particular exam that they were going to take would not affect them too much aside from the point standings that they currently had.

Not long after, Professor Jennifer arrived and stood at the stage before sweeping her gaze at all of them, making sure that everyone was present.

After that, she took out a pile of papers from her dimensional device before saying. "Okay, since everyone is already present, let me explain what we are going to do today."

"Just like what you already know, you guys are practically an official student of the academy after passing the previous parts of the exam. So, what's only left for now is determining which class you guys are going to."

"But since we are planning to make a special class that was specifically made to train such talented individuals like yourselves, the academy decided to have a very competitive curriculum just for all of you."

"Given all of that, we are hoping that all of you are going to properly show us your full capacities during your time here so that we can see what are the things that you need to develop."

"We are not telling you to show us all of your secrets since we all know that our countries are going to be rivals for the upcoming 'Empire Wars'. But at least tell us what we need to work on to improve yourselves so that your attendance here will not go to waste."

"And we also don't want to be a laughingstock when our school rivals around the world see you guys get beaten up by the representatives that they personally train," she added while checking the papers that she was holding.

After that, she distributed all of them to everyone before continuing. "Going on, we are planning to give you a special curriculum that is meant for students who are learning a higher form of education."

"So, for now, fill all of these forms up while you are waiting for your turn to take your test. You can leave a few of them blank but at least make sure to fill up the spaces that are meant for the Department that you want to join in and the courses that you want to take. That way, we can plan what path we are going to give you."

"That's all I need to say. The instructors for your physical tests are going to take over," she added before leaving that stage.

After that, Shin and the others suddenly felt that the floor of the gymnasium suddenly shook for a moment, causing everyone to be on high alert. They were already caught off-guard by the academy principal during their first day in his place so it was natural for them to be pretty much prepared right now.

They quickly jumped in the air and stood at the edge of the gymnasium with their backs facing the wall.

But those actions made Professor Jennifer laugh even though they responded pretty well. "Look at these little kids, it looks like our principal really scares them the last time he greets them."

Not long after, Shin and the others saw the floor suddenly split open and moved to the side as another floor rose from the ground. But instead of an empty floor, another floor replaced the previous one along with different training equipment on it.

Looking at each of those machines, Shin and the others could already guess what they were going to do first before the duel that they were expecting.

"These things are on par with the equipment that are being used by the special forces. I guess this is what we can expect from a top-class school," said Arthur the moment he saw the training equipment.

Meanwhile, Shin took a quick look at the thin pile of papers that he had and saw that there were some logs to fill among them. "Looks like they are going to monitor our progress regularly, huh?"

After that, he swept the other groups before mumbling to himself with a huge grin. "And it looks like they want us to have a proper warm-up before the main event."

...