Burp.
Settling his utensils down, he leaned forward till his face was mushed up against the table that he was now acquainted with for the last half of the month.
That's the last cheap and expired food I'll ever buy... Ferris thought as he quietly rested after devouring the last expired meal. Needless to say, he felt accomplished after saving the remote town from the illegal acts of the convenience store he know frequently visited.
It was now the last day of the month, and the last day before the upcoming hero examination arrives.
Taking out his phone, he opened his messaging app and stared at the empty conversation between him and Prodigy Prince. The hero did say he left his contact info.
Ever since their encounter, it had become part of Ferris's post-workout routine to check if the S-class hero had finally sent him a message.
That profile picture depicting a pixelated rainbow cat has been a thorn on the back of his head ever since.
[XxMechaUnicornxX is waving at you!]
[Tap this to wave back!]
. . .
It's been half a month since he sent that...
Since his hero exam was coming tomorrow, he decided to press the wave back button.
Tap.
A gif of a waving cartoonish animal appeared on his end.
Seen.
?! Already? Ferris was shocked that Prodigy Prince had already seen his message.
However, nothing happened after a minute, which led to his frustration.
This one was speaking nonsense to me back then, now he'll leave me on seen? Ferris hurriedly closed the app and went to the hero examination written exam training website.
Compared to before, he finished the exam in a blink of an eye.
[96% correct! Pass!]
[94% correct! Pass!]
[98% correct! Pass!]
[92% correct! Pass!]
As of now, he was consistently getting the high marks he was satisfied with having. With this, he no longer had any worries for the written exam portion.
And with his 1-month training regimen, he was confident that he had surpassed both of his physiques during the 2 previous exams combined.
But that wasn't enough. Since he has constantly improved his physical abilities, something happened at around the 3/4 portion of the month.
Ferris found himself arriving at the convenience store that was 50km away much earlier than expected.
This gave him extra time to meditate and train his essence more.
At this stage, he was now halfway to maximizing his 9th layer.
He had the body needed for the proper foundation of a good knight. His main focus would now be his essence level and control which is also the other half that is needed to become a maximized 9th layer, but it was significantly harder to train compared to his muscle.
His improvement in one month for his physical body would equal almost a year of training his essence.
But that only applied to when he was still a newbie knight back then!
Ding!
XxMechaUnicornxX:[Good luck with the hero exam tmr ^_^]
. . .
Ferris felt the weight behind that message. He's practically stalking me.
He began questioning Prodigy Prince's last words before they parted ways.
'Ferris, whoever you are.'
As an S-class hero, their access to certain information was something to note. Ferris simply assumed that Prodigy Prince already knew every bit of digital information about him.
That was expected from the S-class hero known for technology.
But it was strange for him to ask exactly who Ferris was.
Does Prodigy Prince know that I'm a transmigrator?
After all, the dreamer—or the flaming bush that visits him from time to time—does know. But such a being might be on a different level compared to the S-classes.
Let's not get too hasty...
This guy doesn't treat me as an ally or an enemy, he said it himself.
But who would send emoticons to their enemies?
***
Ferris stood in front of City XIII's Hero Association building.
It wasn't tall compared to the city's central skyscrapers, but its height was still nothing to scoff at.
What truly made it impressive, though, was its sheer land area—sprawling wide to accommodate an array of specialized training facilities.
It was less of a building and more of a self-contained military-grade campus.
There was even an academy that allowed people to become heroes without the need to take the hero exam.
But it cost a fortune, and that was something Ferris didn't have.
As expected, there's a ton of people. Ferris observed the hundreds of exam takers that were standing in the open areas around the building.
He also immediately noticed that most of them were unblessed, meaning they had to rely on their physical bodies.
As such, a lot of them went in shirtless, to showcase their bulging muscle to compensate for something.
But even with years of honing their bodies, they would never be able to beat blessing users, who could use essence to augment their physical strength.
However, some did make their way through.
Since heroes are grouped from D-class to S-class, D-class had the most people without blessings.
C-class had some dozens.
But for B-class, you could only count the heroes without blessings with only two hands.
After entering inside, Ferris lined himself up on the long queue that extended all the way outside.
Since he was a returning exam taker, he did not need to go through the hefty process of even applying for the exam. He only needed to attend his name.
It's 6:30... This'll take till it's noon, Ferris quietly exclaimed, but standing for hours couldn't compare to running 100 km every day.
Shrug.
Huh? Ferris stepped back as a tall figure cut the line in front of him, causing him to almost fall.
Seriously? Ferris was too astonished to even react.
And...
This smell! Covering his nose, he was reminded of the smell of that landfill he visited before.
The only thing his eyes were seeing was a wall of glistening back muscles that exuded a foul odor that could even knock villains out.
Maybe this guy's blessing is being stinky as hell... Ferris thought harshly behind his back—literally.
It seemed as if large figures were the bane of Ferris's existence.
He was definitely annoyed at the man in front of him, but if he caused a scene, there was a chance that he might get kicked out on the spot.
That morning, he endured a pain much harsher than his training regimen.
But thankfully for him, the line went faster than expected, and he got out of there as soon as possible.
After waiting for the last exam taker to finish attending, he was directed towards a group of a hundred people and was then further directed to the exam area.
His first hurdle: the written exam.
The one he was sure to pass with flying colors!
Ferris was sitting inside a cold and dim room, along with other wannabe heroes.
But there was something that bothered him.
What am I looking at? Ferris stared at the unfamiliar station in front of him.
They were all nestled in their own tiny compartments, each with a screen in front that was accompanied by a keyboard.
Looking around, he also noticed that the other people were just as confused as him.
Slam!
The door that led to the dark room burst open, revealing a suited man holding a grinning smile.
"Congratulations, test group 13. You'll be the first to experience a new kind of written exam!"
. . .
Ah. That's not good...