Ethan withdrew his gaze and walked out of the teaching building.
The Examination Hall was located in the deepest part of the Teaching Area.
After crossing the main road of the Teaching Area and rounding a massive stone tablet, a cluster of low-rise buildings appeared ahead.
Unlike the towering structures in the Teaching Area, the buildings here were at most two stories high. They were constructed entirely from grayish-black stone, with no decorations on their surfaces. The only identifiers were the signs hanging at each entrance and the runic light flowing above the lintels.
Ethan slowed his pace, his eyes scanning the signs.
"Certification Hall"
"Assessment Room"
"Score Registration Office"
"Archives"
...
His gaze landed on the sign for the "Certification Hall."
It was a single-story building with a door much wider than the others, broad enough for four or five people to walk through abreast.
The door was half-open, and a faint light could be seen emanating from within.
Ethan pushed the door and entered.
The space inside was much larger than it appeared from the outside.
The vaulted ceiling was high, at least three stories up.
Crystal stones embedded in the surrounding walls emitted a soft white light, illuminating the entire hall as brightly as day.
Directly facing the entrance was a wide corridor, with over a dozen service windows lined up on either side.
Each window was enclosed, leaving only a waist-high arched opening where runic light shimmered.
There weren't many people in the hall at the moment.
A few figures in gray robes were scattered in front of various windows. Some were looking down, filling out forms; some were handing their identity plaques into the windows; and others were turning to leave after receiving items from the clerks.
Ethan's gaze swept across the signs above the windows.
"Wizard Tongue Certification"
"Runic Basics Certification"
"Material Identification Certification"
...
He walked up to the "Wizard Tongue Certification" window.
Behind the window sat a middle-aged woman in a deep gray robe. She had an ordinary face and an indifferent expression, holding a quill as she scribbled in a ledger.
Hearing footsteps, the woman looked up, her gaze sweeping over Ethan.
"Certification?"
"Yes." Ethan nodded, took his identity plaque from his robe, and handed it through the window.
The woman took the plaque and pressed it into a groove on the desk.
The desktop lit up with a pale blue light. After a few breaths, the light dissipated.
The woman looked down, then raised an eyebrow.
"You've finished all chapters of the Wizard Tongue?"
"Yes."
The woman scrutinized Ethan again, her gaze containing a hint of inspection and something else that was hard to define.
"A freshman?"
"Yes."
"How long has it been since you enrolled?"
"Thirty-seven days."
The woman fell silent.
"Fine then. I hope you're not boasting."
She raised her hand and pointed toward a corridor on one side of the hall. "Third room on that side. Go in and wait; the exam will start automatically. Remember, the exam duration is five hours. You are not allowed to leave midway. Leaving without permission will be considered a forfeit. A score of 20 is passing."
Ethan nodded and stepped through the door.
Behind the door was a narrow, short corridor ending at a closed wooden door. A small sign hung on the door: Exam Room 3.
He pushed the door open.
The space inside wasn't large, about twenty square meters.
The four walls were made of grayish-black stone without any decoration. A single crystal stone on the ceiling emitted a soft white light, brightly illuminating the entire room.
In the center of the room stood a wide stone table. A thick stack of parchment lay on the table, alongside two sharpened quills and a small bottle of ink.
Opposite the stone table, a smooth, mirror-like black stone slab stood against the wall, with faint runic patterns flowing across its surface.
Ethan sat down at the stone table, his gaze falling on the stack of parchment.
There were more than ten pages.
The questions were densely packed.
He flipped through them casually. The exam covered everything: letter spelling, word definitions, rune identification, sentence translation, grammatical structures, and etymological analysis. Every type of question was present.
"...Five hours might be the time limit, but this is a lot of content."
Ethan murmured to himself, then picked up a quill, dipped it in ink, and began to answer.
Question One: Write the Wizard Tongue pronunciation and corresponding meaning for the following fifty-six basic letters.
...
Ethan's pen hardly stopped moving.
Every letter, every word, every grammatical rule, and every runic analysis came to him effortlessly, requiring almost no thought.
Time passed, minute by minute.
After an unknown amount of time.
Ethan made the final stroke and set down the quill.
He looked up, his gaze sweeping over the thick stack of parchment covered in answers. A slight smile touched his lips.
Two hours.
More than ten pages of examination paper, all finished in two hours.
He stood up, picked up the stack of papers, and walked out of the exam room.
The small door at the end of the short corridor was still half-open, and he could see the silhouette of the middle-aged woman behind the window.
Ethan walked to the window and handed the papers inside.
The middle-aged woman looked up, her gaze passing over Ethan's face before landing on the thick stack of parchment. She raised an eyebrow and took the papers, flipping through them casually.
"Hmm? Giving up?" Her voice carried a hint of 'as expected.' "It's normal. The Wizard Tongue is indeed not that easy..."
"No, I'm finished," Ethan interrupted her.
The middle-aged woman's hand froze.
"Finished?" she repeated. "Everything?"
"Everything."
The woman was silent for a moment, then lowered her head and began to flip through the stack of papers.
One page.
Two pages.
Three pages.
The time her gaze lingered on each page grew longer and longer. Her brow gradually furrowed, then slowly relaxed, finally freezing into a complex expression.
After finishing all dozen or so pages, she looked up, staring intently at Ethan.
"Wait here."
She said only that one phrase before taking the stack of papers, standing up, and disappearing through a door behind her.
Ethan stood where he was, his expression calm.
About five minutes later, the door opened again.
The middle-aged woman walked out, followed by an old man dressed in a deep black robe.
The old man was lean and withered, with sparse white hair and a face covered in deep wrinkles. However, his eyes were exceptionally bright, and when his gaze fell on Ethan, it carried the sharp intensity of a predator inspecting its prey.
"This is the one?" the old man's voice was raspy and low.
"Yes." The middle-aged woman bowed slightly and handed over the papers. "He finished everything in two hours. And..."
She paused, seemingly weighing her words.
"And what?" The old man took the papers.
"And there isn't a single correction," the middle-aged woman's voice held a complex tone. "He penned the answers directly. From beginning to end, not a single word was changed."
The old man didn't respond. He simply lowered his head and began to read through the stack of papers.
His movements were much slower than the woman's.
He spent a long time on each page, sometimes stopping to lightly tap a certain answer with his withered finger, his lips moving slightly as if he were whispering something to himself.
About fifteen minutes later, the old man finished the last page.
He looked up at Ethan, his sharp eyes now filled with something undefinable.
"Your name is Ethan Leo?"
"Yes."
"A freshman?"
"Yes."
"How long has it been since you enrolled?"
"Thirty-seven days."
The old man was silent for a few breaths, then nodded.
He turned around, walked to the smooth, mirror-like black stone slab opposite them, and pressed his hand against its surface.
The runic patterns on the slab suddenly flared to life, emitting a ghostly green light.
Rate on N.U.
