The students were excited and nervous at the same time. Today they had to go through the test which would decide how far they could go in their future. Today is the day they had to give not their best but everything they got.
"Everyone, the test is about to start. Proceed towards the desks in front of the portal. Provide your school identity card to the person at the desk and they'll start your registration procedure.
They will scan your card and then check your level. After checking they would provide you with a watch to wear, which when turned on will note the number of monsters you killed. Receiving this you can go straight through the portal. Once everyone enters the dungeon, the examination would commence and everyone would have precisely three hours."
Every student present started to move towards the desks. The data entry is done just by scanning the barcode on the card. After the level of the person is checked using a device. The device checking has to be voluntary or the check will fail. It means that if the students don't accept the scan, then others can't see their levels.
The process is simple. So it didn't take more than an hour and everyone entered the dungeon.
Aaron summoned his skeletons as soon as he entered the dungeon. He checked the watch that the school provided them. There is some kind of countdown on the watch. In addition to that, there is a zero number below that countdown.
A few minutes later he heard a voice from the watch the students were wearing, "If you look at your watches, you can see a countdown timer. Your examination starts exactly when the timer turns zero. There is a dome of protection surrounding the area where you stand. This area is called the Rest Area, where no monsters can enter. The dome will disappear when the timer turns to zero".
"After the exam starts, a new countdown timer appears with an eight-hour limit, which is the exam time. You can hunt as many monsters as you can within this time. There should be a Zero below that countdown. It represents the number of points you earned for hunting the monsters".
"If you ever were in danger, there is an emergency button on the watch provided to you. It'll teleport you out of the dungeon but also end your exam. No matter when you exit the dungeon, the count is finalized."
After the voice died down, there was nothing but silence.
Since dungeons are copies, no student overlaps with others. Everyone has entered their own instance of the dungeon copy. Also, this is an experience dungeon, rather than a loot dungeon.
The schools would after all want their students to reach a higher level before joining the academies. They never consider the financial abilities of the students. This was because, once the students enter academies, most, if not all supplies required are provided by the academy.
There is no need to fret about those things by the students. At higher levels, they can easily do more than they could by hunting in these low-level dungeons. So for the schools, students reaching higher levels is more important than them gaining loot.
Aaron sat silently for a while. He thought that the exam would start the minute they entered the dungeon but it looks like it was not.
There was a safety net, that prevented the monsters from approaching the students but it also prevented students from going out and hunting the monsters. Everyone can only start at the same time as others and stop at the same time.
No one would get a second more or a second less than others.
Aaron summoned all twenty skeletons that he had in the undead space. He didn't leave anything for surprises.
From what the school informed the students, this is a low-rank dungeon. The highest monster is at level-15. Aaron is already at level-10, and that means the skeletons are also at level-10.
Moreover, the monsters that are present here are Goblins and Wolves, enemies that he had faced before. At these levels, they won't have any magic to use against him. So, it all comes down to the efficiency of cutting them down for him.
Though he didn't want to be in the spotlight, that doesn't mean that he didn't want to be at the top. Only by being at the top can he get the resources to quickly improve himself.
Though he has a talent that can increase his level faster, he is in dire need of skills, which are very rare for his Class. A top-rated academy is the only choice that he has to get access to skills barely related to his Class.
Well, as top-rated academies, they should have skills related to necromancers, curse mages and other related classes. Even if the skills related to his profession were not available, he could substitute using the skills of related professions.
If he can't find any skills at those top-rated academies, the chances of him finding his related skills by himself would be close to nill.
So no matter what, he has to be at the top.
Though he knew that the academies may not favour his profession because they thought that these professions were weak due to the limited number of skills available, if he was at the top, they couldn't outright ignore him. They would have to give something to him or else they would lose face in public.
Moreover, this a dungeon where he can freely level up without paying anything. Why would he waste such a chance?
The month-free chance of levelling up in dungeons controlled by the Hunter's Guild is over. So, this exam may be the last chance that he has to level up.
Even in academies, he heard that dungeon entries are not free but have to pay some kind of fee, which he has no idea.
So unless he finds a wild dungeon that no one knows, this would be his last chance to level up for free and he wouldn't miss such a chance.