Scissors

At the same time.

Just as Han Dong and Pasha formed a team and left the forest together.

If one lifted their gaze into the skies and looked down upon the entire Dark Moon Forest... Han Dong and Pasha were merely two tiny dots moving within a small section of the vast forest.

Looking over the entire Dark Moon Forest.

There were as many as forty such "cabins," each containing bizarre accessories or props corresponding to different Demons and Monsters, all intended for testing new students.

That was right.

More than thirty-two thousand people had participated in this year's Holy City festival.

The Festival Plaza where Han Dong was located was merely a gathering area for participants from the southern part of the Holy City.

Yet only around four hundred new students had emerged alive from Destiny Space and been granted the title of Knight-Errant... The Crusaders and the Library were the most popular majors.

Around two hundred people chose those two primary professions.

Mechanics came next, with around eighty choosing it.

Control ranked second from last, with around seventy choosing it.

Mysticism came dead last. It was like this every year. This year, eight more people chose it than last year, bringing the total to around forty.

Most students who went to register with their departments at different times underwent relevant pre-enrollment tests in the department buildings or their attached facilities.

The Crusaders' test was simple. First, they completed basic tests of strength, speed, reaction time, and so on using various instruments.

Afterward, they only needed to receive a mentor's approval in the use of weapons such as swords, boxing, shields, or battle axes to pass.

Knight-Errants majoring in the Library had to complete two procedures. First, a "magic detector" was used to determine their magical affinity and inclination.

Then, they needed to learn the most basic magic of their primary school and successfully cast it within three days.

The Mechanics Department.

Students who already possessed manufacturing skills and had achieved a certain degree of success received exemption from testing.

Other students could either analyze the structure of precision machinery and draw it on the spot, or choose to perform accurate shooting with a firearm. Meeting the standard was enough.

Students majoring in Control were required to command ordinary creatures raised on the academy's internal farm—non-magical creatures. As long as they could control one ordinary creature within thirty minutes, they passed. There was no danger at all.

Only Mysticism was different.

Only a small number of students underwent standardized, risk-free tests inside the Mysticism Department building.

Any student who was even slightly "special" would be assigned to Dark Moon Forest for a dangerous horror test.

This was also why young people from middle- and upper-income families who knew the inside story did not choose Mysticism.

There was no need to risk the title of Knight-Errant.

They were about to enroll and receive systematic, proper training to develop their potential. Dying on the way to school was far too not worth it... Thus, Mysticism became the least popular department.

This admissions test had been demanded by the Mysticism Department's highest-ranking administrator.

The reason for establishing such a perilous horror test was to make newly arrived Knight-Errants understand that once they embarked on the path of Mysticism, their futures would be filled with endless unknowns and terror.

They had to prepare themselves mentally in advance.

Click, clack~

The eerie sound of scissors made Han Dong tense up.

It felt just like being targeted by an evil spirit in The Hex... enough to make his hair stand on end.

Han Dong abruptly turned around and looked at the withered tree behind him.

But the scissor sounds swiftly changed direction, coming from elsewhere.

Whenever Han Dong followed the sound to look, the scissors would instantly shift again.

Unable to lock onto the target, Han Dong felt uneasy... If he were ambushed, things would become truly troublesome.

"Han Dong, do you want me to come out and help... The thing targeting you is a little strange," Chen Li's voice echoed in his mind.

"You can't come out yet. This is an academy test, and I have to resolve it myself. Right now, I don't have a legitimate reason to explain your existence..."

"What if your life is in danger?" Chen Li's words carried a trace of concern.

"You decide for yourself."

Once their communication ended.

Han Dong immediately looked at Pasha Buhart, who possessed the ability of "divination."

Though frightened by the strange scissor sounds, she did her best to remain calm as she looked around.

"Didn't you say you knew divination? Can you find its location?"

"I... I can. As long as I use a 'medium' for divination, I can continually determine its direction."

"Why didn't you say so earlier?"

"Because... once I perform divination, the target will lock onto me..."

"If we can't determine the target's location, we might both die here... Is the medium the thing in the iron box?"

"Yes."

Han Dong immediately opened the iron box, picked up a piece of dry eyelid with a frosted texture, and handed it to Pasha. "Lock onto its position. I'll figure out what to do."

"O-Okay..."

Pasha took out an old metal compass.

She brought the "medium" close to the compass and muttered something. A grayish-white energy flowed from between Pasha's palms, linking the medium and the compass together.

The simple ritual was complete.

From then on, the needle would point toward the Scissor Monster hiding in the darkness.

However, the needle was not currently pointing in any particular direction. It was spinning rapidly in circles!

It was as though the target were moving around them at incredible speed.

"That's impossible... The test can't be this difficult. If its Movement Speed is really that fast, we're no match for it at all! The needle can only indicate the target's position along the horizontal plane.

"The only possibility is... the target is at the same vertical coordinate as us.

"Watch out!!"

Han Dong abruptly raised his head, but there was nothing among the branches overhead.

There was only one possibility—the underground.

Click, clack!

The monster seemed to realize that its location had been exposed and no longer hid!

A pair of silver scissors emerged from the soil...

Just as Pasha Buhart had said.

Because of her directional divination, the monster had locked onto her as its target.

Click! The scissors opened and closed.

Gray petroleum splashed across the ground.

The sharp scissors instantly severed the tendon at Pasha's ankle... She cried out in pain and fell backward.

Danger!

After cutting her tendon, the scissors immediately withdrew... Once Pasha fell like that, the back of her head would land on the sharp blades.

A green beam shot out, pointing toward the soil where the scissors had emerged.

The plague ignored the obstruction of the earth and directly affected the grotesque creature hidden beneath it.

A series of strange, muffled cries rang out as the scissors withdrew.

Pasha Buhart had therefore escaped death.

The green beam was plague energy Han Dong had fired through the Destiny Weapon...

"Is this test arranged by the Mysticism Department actually for real!? If I hadn't acted in time just now... this girl would already be dead, wouldn't she? They finally selected talented people who survived Destiny Space, and now they're just throwing them away!?"

For a moment, Han Dong gathered every ounce of his attention and entered the state of focus he possessed when facing death head-on.