Cain finally came over to him. His name was Louis, wasn't it? He was strong and he was brave, so Cain was offering to join forces with him, if he did not mind.
Cain held out his hand — and at that moment two girls came up and asked whether he happened to be looking for people to join his team.
Cain did not have time to finish speaking. He stood there dumbfounded as a whole crowd of students gathered around him, shouting that they were inviting him to join forces, introducing their names and their families. They were saying to one another that the young lord was only thirteen. Was he really that incredible? He was the young master of a sage's house, and if they joined forces with him they would definitely pass this exam.
Louis frowned at what he was hearing. Then a bright magical light appeared in the arena, and the light turned out to be Aronian, who congratulated them all on passing the test of will. Next would come the test of strength.
"Whoa — what is that?" the candidates exclaimed.
Bright symbols appeared on their chests, and Cain asked whether that was the sigil of the earth attribute. He was frightened himself, and at that moment the ground began to shake violently.
His body suddenly became heavy, and everything around him was lit by a bright magical light. Aronian announced that during the second test, under the influence of earth magic, they would fight in this arena.
The candidates winced with pain and fear as they realised that this was the earth magic of a grandmaster, and that it was simply incredible. They were supposed to fight in a state like this.
Then they all turned their attention to Louis, who was the only one still standing and holding steady. That boy was walking as if nothing had happened at all. Cain, although he was shaking, held on — and then he turned and saw that Louis had already climbed into the arena, and people were shouting that this could not be happening.
Aronian declared that he was first again.
The candidates shouted that he had been the first through the first test as well. He had passed it again.
Louis reflected on the enormous pressure in here. It was just right for him.
Cain thought that even he, who had trained at master level for three years, could barely stand upright. So how could such a thing even be possible?
Aronian declared that only those who remained standing would be admitted to the next test, and that if they wanted to use a weapon they could choose from what was available. He pointed toward the racks and suggested they take their favourites.
A moment later Louis had selected his sword, and Aronian announced that anyone found outside the marked area would be disqualified. The others picked up swords but could barely hold them, because the weapons were incredibly heavy under the earth magic.
"Is everything ready?" Aronian asked. "Now the test begins."
He was releasing jumping slimes.
A moment later he disappeared, and the candidates did not understand what a jumping slime even was. How were they supposed to know that? Louis realised that it was moving toward them from above. Another student noticed something falling, and they all began to scream in confusion.
When the slime landed it started to jump, and the students shouted the rules to one another. Block a slime's attack, that was one point. Dodge one, two points. If they defeated these slimes they would receive five points. Their ranking depended on the points they earned, and only the top hundred would advance to the third test.
Louis paused, thinking about that number, a hundred people — and meanwhile the slimes continued their work.
One of the students remarked that they did not look particularly clever. Slimes were low-level monsters, so they should be easy to deal with. The boy swung his arm and shouted, "Yeah, they're just slimes. Easy. Five points."
He swung at the nearest slime and ran sharply at the creature, which frowned and also began accelerating, with incredible force. When the boy noticed this he was stunned by the horror he felt. A moment later the slime hit him full in the face, sending his teeth flying and breaking his nose.
After that the slime lunged at another attacking student, and so a vicious free-for-all began. The students were afraid and unsure what to do, and one of them shouted at the others to watch out, because they were still falling.
The students tried to escape, and fought where they had to, and the director's assistant began announcing scores. Number 27935 had one point. Number 71638 had two points. They were recording the results this way when the assistant suddenly turned to the director and announced that this year's examination included the young masters of the seven sage houses, and the record might well be broken.
A girl with long red hair was standing not far from Louis. She, too, was from a noble family.
The man said that this year there were several outstanding children among the commoners as well — including the child the director himself had helped up out of the common people. That was right, wasn't it?
Aronian said that the boy was quite interesting, and might be able to show them something exciting.
The man replied that, however, he had not yet taken a single step.
Louis simply stood there motionless, and the students around him watching did not understand what was happening. The slimes were too fast for him. After all, a commoner was a commoner, and soon he would be out of here.
When a slime came at his back, Louis noticed it, sensing the creature's aura, and smiled. A moment later he shifted slightly aside, and the slime struck a completely different person.
"Did he really dodge that? We didn't think it would miss him."
The slime went on with its work, attacking the other students, while Louis stood motionless. Then suddenly several slimes were aimed at him at once, and one of the boys smiled and shouted that he definitely could not dodge them all.
Louis, confident in his own abilities, simply closed his eyes.
He remembered a day in the snowy mountains with his friends, who had asked whether he seriously wanted them to throw rocks at him, and warned him that if they hit him it would be dangerous. Louis asked them to do it, for practice. It was fine. He just wanted to test something.
They started throwing rocks at him, shouting for him to dodge, and they kept throwing. And when they warned him, Louis used his special ability.
In his past life he had formed a hypothesis. He had trained himself to transmit information quickly from the cerebrum to the cerebellum. If he could react quickly after calculating the trajectory of an attack — and if it worked — he could handle any attack at all.
He gathered his strength and made his calculation, and after that he dodged every one of the blows. His friends were stunned by this and shouted that it was simply incredible. How had he done it? Was this a new technique? It was unbelievably cool.
Louis replied that he called it a combat algorithm.
And they asked what that was. He smiled and thought about the outcome of the fight. This technique was capable of predicting everything.
Magical lightning flickered around him, and the slimes turned to their attack again while he counted formulas in his head. He really did think through every angle of attack, and he said that jumping slimes had both speed and strength, but that they could only attack in a straight line. Calculating the angle of the jump and predicting the trajectory of the attack was entirely possible.
In that case he could answer them, and it would be no problem at all.
He dodged four times and took eight points, and now he took hold of his sword and swung it, saying that now it was his turn.
He used a martial art. A sword strike.