"This is a completely new type of exam! All you have to do is answer a hundred questions... But!"
The instructor pulled out a remote and pressed a button that activated all of their screens.
"Using our vast databases and years of on-field experience from heroes, we've constructed an AI to generate the questions for this exam. And also—
The instructor held his breath, as if dying to say something important.
—we created another AI to rate your answers. Yes! There are no right or wrong answers, as you'll be rated using a percentage system, a 75% is the passing score!"
Before the room could erupt into rebellion and chaos, the instructor pressed another button on his remote.
"Exam begins. You have 2 hours. Any form of cheating will result in immediate expulsion."
Ferris turned his attention to the screen in front of him.
Hero Exam – Question 1:A trolley is heading down a track where it will kill five people tied up on the main track. You are standing next to a lever. If you pull the lever, the trolley will switch to a side track, where it will kill one person instead. What will you do?
What kind of philosophical question is this?! Ferris gawked at the presented challenge.
He then looked down at the bottom of the question, where an empty box awaited.
It's not a multiple choice exam... Ferris panicked a little, but immediately focused his mind on the keyboard in front of him.
Before he could place his fingers on the keys, a voice suddenly interrupted his focus.
It was the same tall figure that had cut in front of him that morning.
"What kind of bullshit exam is this?! I want to take the actual written exam damnit—
In a flash, the instructor dashed toward the unruly examinee and placed his palm on the man's mouth.
Zzzz...
"Hush now. Since this is the first demo test, we need as many people to take the exam as possible. So I'll only let you off with a warning." The instructor removed his hand from the man's mouth.
The tall figure crumbled down, but did not utter a single word. He could only make muffled noises as he desperately tried to speak.
"You'll be wearing that for the remainder of the exam. Now get back in your seat."
"Mmpf! Mmmp!" The man touched his mouth, but he didn't feel flesh. Instead, he felt the cold surface of metal.
His mouth turned into a zipper! Ferris stared at the helpless man trying to claw it open.
A-Class Hero – Rank 45
Zipperman
Blessing: Sticky Fingers
"Chop chop, You only have 2 hours!" the instructor shouted, making it clear that anyone who tried to act out would be zipped shut.
"A hero must be able to handle all situations. If you falter under a mere exam, then you might as well leave. But keep in mind—once you step outside this room, we will also consider your physical exam a failure."
"Um, sir? You said that if we step outside, it's an automatic fail," a person near Ferris said with their arm raised. "Can I still go to the bathroom?"
"Can you?" Zipperman asked.
. . .
"M-may I go to the bathroom?"
"No."
Ferris subconsciously slapped himself. It was not the time to be watching other people.
He repeated the question in his mind.
It's definitely a trick question. There's no way a hero would even consider letting a civilian die.
I'll assume it's only looking for a straight answer.
Ferris began typing his answer, confidence behind each keystroke.
I'll stop the trolley.
Satisfied, Ferris pressed enter and moved on to the next question.
I can do it. I'm a knight that follows his creed to the end!
Hero Exam – Question 2:You are surrounded by 300 flaming raccoons in a shopping mall food court. You only have a half-eaten burrito, a spoon, and your sidekick who's currently unconscious because she tried to eat the food court sushi. There is also a child is crying on top of a malfunctioning vending machine that only dispenses hot sauce.
What do you do to maintain your heroic image, save the child, and prevent the raccoons from unionizing?
Good god...
***
Felix – 2nd Layer Knight.
A few months before the arrival of Jörmungandr.
At the peak of the World Mountain, where the surrounding essence was most dense, he watched as Yaromech quietly sat on a cliff, meditating and gathering vast amounts of energy into his core.
Felix could feel the essence flowing through Yaromech. But after a while, there was a sudden burst of essence that echoed across the mountain range.
"Another failure?" Felix slightly mocked, sitting under the lone tree that stood at the peak.
"What does it look like?" Yaromech replied, breaking from his lotus position. But he quickly returned to focus. "I'll attempt another breakthrough. If I fail, you'll be the next to try."
"I haven't even maximized my 2nd layer. What makes you think I'm ready to become a 1st layer knight?"
Yaromech's face twitched. Hearing Felix's words made him decide to give up on attempting a breakthrough today.
"Stop being so dramatic and gloomy. Do you even have any idea what this place is?"
. . .
Felix remained still on top of the branch. It looked as if he was daydreaming, but knowing him, Yaromech was sure that he was hearing every word he said.
"This is the highest peak of our world. Back then, only elves were allowed to come to this sacred place and cultivate. But thanks to the prophecy, they opened it to every race.
. . .
But they only opened it a year ago. If they opened it sooner, we would've been much stronger than we are today."
"And a lot of us would still be alive."
"Gosh..." Yaromech stood up and walked towards the tree and leaned against it. "It's your turn. Go."
. . .
"Hey." Felix suddenly sat straight up. "Why are we knights again?"
Yaromech was flabbergasted at such a stupid question. "Felix... it seems I've let you leave the nest too early."
. . .
After finding that his old student was genuinely asking a serious question, he sighed before trying to churn his brain into coming up with an answer.
"You know how terrible I am at teaching..."
Tapping his forehead, he looked at his old student. "Try to remember why you came to the knight academy."
Felix shrugged and went silent for a few minutes before answering. "To join the coalition against the world-ending serpent Jörmungandr—
"Wrong!"
"...I thought being a knight was cool and a quick way to get the ladies."
"Correct!" Yaromech curled his mouth. "And there's nothing wrong with that... A knight must always be full of conviction, so chase those ladies!"
. . .
Felix smiled and changed his sitting position to face his former teacher. "Hey, where did the knight's creed come from?"
His old teacher froze for a moment.
"Ah... I forgot to teach you that."
Since Felix was already used to his former teacher's antics, he remained silent and waited for him to answer.
"It was just something that the academy kids came up with, and it eventually spread to other schools. So think of it as the unofficial official rule that every graduate knight must know."
Yaromech rubbed his chin in thought.
"I know only about 69 rules from that creed, but since no one has ever written it down, no one knows how many rules there exactly are."
"...Right. Thank you." Felix stepped down from the branch and walked towards the cliff.
"Wait," Yaromech stopped him.
"Let me tell you something. Instead of a knight being full of conviction, I'll add another rule to the knight's creed."
Yaromech reached towards one of the smaller branches of the tree and snapped a twig off.
"A knight must swing their sword with their dreams on the line! Get what I'm saying?" Yaromech handed out the twig he took from the lonely tree on top of the world mountain. "Swing this stick and use only your dreams."
. . .
Felix remained silent toward his former teacher.
"Um... isn't that something that they used to teach in my social studies subject? Everyone knows that." He then placed his eyes on the stick Yaromech was holding.
"And, isn't that tree supposed to be, like, super sacred to the elves? I heard it's been standing for more than fifty millenniums. It's way older than our human civilization—
"Grab the damn stick before I start whacking you with it."
. . .
Felix quietly chuckled and eventually grabbed the stick before walking to the edge of the cliff.
"Think of it like screaming at the top of your lungs to vent your stress of" Yaromech confidently said, knowing well that the line he said has already been repeated a thousand times by other people.
A sword without essence, and only dreams...
At the 2nd layer, a person wouldn't have just been good at essence control and storage. They would've actually been one with the world's essence themselves.
So attuned that they didn't even need to focus on the essence, as all of their actions were now at the instinctive level.
But this time, Felix closed his eyes and chose to focus on the essence inside him and around him.
And ignored them!
A swing backed up by a dream.
Closing his eyes, he readied his stance to simply swing his blade without much thought on the technique. The only thoughts that occupied him were his dreams—
of becoming a cool knight that gets all the ladies' attention.
But of course, he included all the dreams of his dead comrades.
Swoosh!
The world split.
. . .
. . .
. . .
"Felix... how'd you do that?"
"Do what?" Felix retreated from his finished stance and slowly opened his eyes.
To his surprise,
the vast starry sky began to greet his eyes as heaven itself parted before him like a single massive curtain.