Rebirth: The Shadow Of Greed

... He looked at the gate, the light still hadn't turned green, so where did this monster come from to deal him damage?

Looking at his HP Vero Realized, one of the monsters he had punted away earlier had soared through the air and got stuck near the gate, when the boss monster had been released the invisible monster had tagged along too, it had all been coincidental, finally reaching there and delivering a final blow.  

His Hp dropped to 0, as the simulation ended, Odrunn and Vero both walked side by side as they left the stadium, with Vero putting his arm around Odrunn's shoulder, the crowd stood up cheering! It was a standing ovation, everyone there had their blood boiling as they went into a fervor. 

Odrunn and Vero stopped close to the exit of the gate as Vero grabbed hold of Odrunn's hand and raised it up in the air before asking him to take a bow to the audience. 

The deafening cheers exploded, even louder than before as the crowd got more and more excited. As they exited the arena the scoreboards changed as it started to display a new set of numbers 

Vero wave 10 

Odrunn wave 10 

David wave 9 

'

'

'

'

-----

In the control room, a certain examiner was wiping his head with a handkerchief soaking up all the cold sweat he had for the entirety of the day. 

"Boss… do you think there'll be more cases like this? I didn't expect there to be so many powerhouses in this academy."

"Take this as your lesson! In the next few trials, you better work overtime to get it working properly! No more shortcuts this time around!"

The chief examiner scolded the examiner as he left the room. The examiner could only get to work preparing for the next round as well as preparing for his overtime the next few days. 

---

In the arena, the trials continued smoothly, there wasn't anyone who stood out too much nor anyone who was far below the bell curve making the matches smooth, but of course, this meant that the average amount of wins racked up to about wave 6 or 7. Which is a far cry from Odrunn and Vero's 10. 

The subsequent matches were dull and slow, with none having the ferocity of Vero, Odrunn, and David. In fact, during this spectacular trials the three of them had earned the title of juggernauts given to them by the audience members turned fans. Even Odrunn who was pretty much a loser before has fans now. 

Post-match, they announced the scores, it was an easy decision to make, since they just drew a line at the 60th percentile, eliminating close to 60% of the students. The remaining 40% actually made it through to participate in the actual exams, although the exam topics have yet to be released. 

Z reunited with Odrunn after the trials and pat him on the back, it was a rare compliment from Z and Odrunn was happy to receive it. 

Bidding farewell to Vero and David, the two of them left the arena and walked towards the Aquos mansion. Along the way, Z held an AAR of his own. 

"Do you know why you managed to get the 10th wave score?"

Z asked Odrunn who was dragging his feet as he was walking back, the adrenaline had run out and now he was crashing. 

"Boss… was it because I had experience in actual combat? That's why I got propelled forwards?"

"No! It's because you were lucky! If the poison had dealt a little more damage to you, you would have failed and immediately ended with a 9th wave score."

"But boss… if it was a normal setting I wouldn't have gotten hurt by that amount of poison! I would have healed up and continued fighting."

Odrunn rubbed the back of his head as he answered Z, he was confident that he didn't do too badly and was wondering what was the point to Z's nagging. 

"Listen Odrunn, you have the strength, you have the experience now, heck you even have a strong manifest. But the key issue here is you lack adaptability! You are not using your brains to think through the situation and use everything to your advantage.

For example, when you were taking down the boss monster, you seem like you were quite happy to put on a show, why didn't you take it down immediately and end it quickly?"

"This… I…"

"Also, at the point, you sensed the changing of the wind behind you, why did you not block it using the shield from the gauntlet instead of just dodging with your body?

And the damn tail snake thing was stuck on your arm for the entirety of the match, did you want all its poison?"

Odrunn looked on the ground and stuck out his tongue. 

"Boss, I understand… I'll do well for the main exams. I won't let you down."

"Look Odrunn, from what I've seen you are a genius when it comes to Artefacts, you are totally different than the buffoon character you put on all the time. So why not bring that Odrunn into battle, fight smart and leverage on your advantages to win."

Odrunn could only silently nod his head as he took in what Z had said in its entirety. 

---

The next couple of days went by really quickly, with Z and Odrunn training non-stop in the Aquos family compound. The trials for the scouts and support were held on different days, the scouts focused more on speed and evasion, having run an entire obstacle course on their own earning as many points as possible. 

The supports were a tricky bunch, their abilities and manifests were diversified, so they competed with what was called assistance points. The scenario was a large scale war where two sides are fighting a huge battle and there are casualties on both sides, batches of support students were sent in to see if they can help turn the tide or better the situation of the soldiers.