The next day, the History test was easy—and the Math test was even easier… at least for Ethan. The other cssmates didn’t share the same opinion, but that was their own fault for not studying hard enough.
The Monster Biology test, however, would be held outside at the Academy's training ground, and unlike the others, everyone had been warned about what it entailed from the very first day.
When they arrived, the students were met with a sight one didn’t see every day.
In the middle of the field stood a mountain of cages. Not one. Not two. But dozens.
Ethan wasted no time counting them—and reached the exact same number as there were students… plus two.
In each cage, a lively goblin snarled and screeched, baring its fangs as it kicked, bit, and smmed against the bars. The creatures thrashed with wild energy, desperate to break free. Fortunately, the cages were all made of heavy iron, and no matter how much they tried, without the key, escape was impossible.
Beside the goblin cages was a four-meter-deep pit. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that this was the designated arena for the students to fight.
After confirming everyone had arrived, the professor made one final headcount and then began addressing the css.
“There’s nothing new here,” he said with a casual, confident tone. “You’ve all known what this test would be since day one. If you’ve done your physical training and paid attention during lectures, this should be a piece of cake.”
Unfortunately for Ethan, it wasn’t so simple.
Sure, he knew a goblin’s weak points like the back of his hand. But when it came to physical ability… well, his cursed situation made things a little more complicated.
Without wasting any more time, the professor called the first student.
A nervous girl stepped forward, selected a mace from the weapon rack, and climbed down the dder into the pit, trembling from head to toe.
The professor asked if she was ready. She gave a hesitant nod.
He unlocked one of the cages and kicked it down into the pit. The nding was anything but gentle. The cage hit the ground with a heavy thud, the impact causing the door to swing open and the goblin to tumble out, dazed and momentarily stunned.
“Quickly! Finish it off!” Ethan and a few others shouted.
But the girl froze.
Instead of striking, she just stood there, staring at the goblin, paralyzed with fear.
The goblin groaned, then slowly rose to its feet, eyes locking onto the girl like a predator spotting its prey. It licked its lips and stepped forward, preparing to pounce.
“Stay away! No! Stay away!” the girl screamed, filing her mace weakly in front of her in a poor attempt to scare it off.
Her swings were clumsy and slow. Ineffective.
The goblin ughed—a high-pitched, raspy cackle—and continued forward without fear.
The professor, already expecting this, sighed and notched an arrow to his bow.
The goblin leapt—
Thwip!
The arrow pierced its heart mid-air.
The creature froze. Then colpsed.
But the girl didn’t notice. “HELP! Please! Somebody—HELP!”
She kept screaming and sobbing, desperately pushing the lifeless body away. Only once it rolled off her and she saw the arrow in its chest did she realize it was already dead.
She cried harder, overcome with relief, slumping to her knees and shaking.
The professor shook his head. “Next. Eliza Frost!”
Eliza stepped forward, far more composed than the one before her. She selected a dagger, descended into the pit, and calmly told the first girl to leave.
The trembling girl nodded and, with weak legs, slowly climbed out of the pit, where she was met by the comforting embrace of her close friends.
Meanwhile, Eliza waited.
The professor unlocked the next cage and sent it tumbling down.
The goblin rolled out again, momentarily stunned.
This time, there was no hesitation.
Eliza darted forward and sank her dagger into the goblin's back, aiming for it's heart.
The goblin let out a shriek causing Eliza to back down, gaining a bit of distance as she prepared to strike again. But such strike was never necessary. The goblin only writhed in pain for some time before ying still on the ground...
Dead.
The professor nodded approvingly. “Good. Next.”
From there, the test continued.
Some students faltered. Some excelled. A few needed help. But none fared as badly as the first girl.
And then—
Daniel’s name was called.
He smirked and stepped forward, confidently selecting a massive two-handed sword from the rack. The bde was nearly as tall as he was, gleaming faintly in the sunlight.
As he descended into the pit, Ethan let out a quiet sigh and shook his head.
“Show-off,” he muttered, though there was a glint of amusement in his eyes.
Daniel might’ve been a clown, but his athletic ability was no joke. In terms of pure strength, he could probably go toe-to-toe with some of the best students in the Warrior css. So, while Ethan would never admit it aloud, he was actually looking forward to the show.
The cage hit the ground with a cng, the iron door snapping open as the goblin tumbled out. It groaned, twitched—and then slowly stood, fangs bared and eyes wild.
Daniel stood tall, raising his bde dramatically with both hands.
“Come, monster!” he decred, voice loud and clear, almost theatrical. “I challenge you to a duel!”
The goblin screeched and charged.
Daniel remained perfectly still until the st second. Then, with a fluid motion, he sidestepped and swung.
Shlick.
The bde sliced clean through.
The goblin’s head separated from its body, flying a short distance before hitting the ground with a thump.
Blood sprayed in a crimson arc from the now-headless corpse, and a few of the girls in the crowd screamed in shock.
“Kyaaaa!!”
Ethan and Oliver, meanwhile, cpped appreciatively.
“Damn,” Oliver muttered. “Didn’t expect him to go that hard.”
“Not bad,” Ethan agreed, nodding.
Up above, the professor also gave a nod of approval.
“Excellent strike. Precise and effective.” Then his tone hardened. “But points will be deducted.”
Daniel blinked in surprise. “Huh? What? Why?”
“You allowed your opponent to regain its bance,” the professor said firmly. “You had a clear window when it was stunned. A true warrior wouldn’t waste such an opportunity.”
Daniel’s heroic posture wilted a little, like a balloon losing air. “That’s not fair…”
“That’s for me to decide,” the professor replied, already turning away to call the next student.
Daniel trudged up the dder with a sheepish grin. Ethan offered him a subtle thumbs-up as he passed by.
“Nice decapitation, oh mighty duelist.”
“Shut up,” Daniel grumbled, though he couldn’t hide the proud grin tugging at his lips.
Finally.
“Ethan Cross,” the professor called.
Ethan took a deep breath. It was his turn.
Ethan stood frozen for a moment as his name was called.
A chill ran down his spine—not from fear, but from tension. Everyone had seen what happened with the first girl, and although most of the other students managed their part decently, he knew very well that his biggest enemy in this test wasn’t the goblin... it was his own body.
He walked toward the weapon stand, grabbed a short sword—light enough for his arms to handle without trembling—and forced a deep breath to calm himself. Daniel gave him a thumbs-up from the side. Oliver looked worried but nodded in encouragement.
“Ethan Cross,” the professor called again. “To the pit.”
Ethan descended the dder, one step at a time. Each rung felt like a final step into a battle he was far from prepared for. When his feet finally touched the floor, he looked across the pit.
The professor unlocked one of the goblin cages and with practiced ease, shoved it off the ptform.
CLANG!
The iron cage hit the ground across from him, and the door flung open with a rusty screech. The goblin inside groaned, dazed from the fall. Ethan knew what that meant.
Now’s my chance... I have to end this before it starts.
He surged forward with all his might as his heart beat accelerated.
Two steps.
Three steps.
And then his knee buckled.
Shit!
He stumbled on his own foot, falling to the ground.
I'm too tense! My legs are trembling! No! I can't waste time!
He quickly moved to get up again but it was too te.
The goblin blinked twice and shook off its dizziness. With a hiss, it locked eyes with Ethan and let out a screech of excitement.
Damn it!
It was small, barely over a meter tall, with pale green skin and beady yellow eyes full of malice. It didn’t waste a second.
It's coming!
Ethan gritted his teeth and raised his sword. His grip was firm, but his arms were trembling.
Just wait for it. The neck. The side. Anywhere soft!
The goblin lunged, cws outstretched.
Ethan sidestepped, barely avoiding the swipe, and swung his sword in return.
I missed.
The bde only grazed its shoulder, doing little more than irritating the creature.
It spun around, ughing, and attacked again.
The next few seconds were a blur. Ethan blocked with the ft of his bde, ducked under a cw, and tried to counter—but every movement felt like he was dragging weights behind him. He could see the weak spots. He knew where to hit. He just couldn’t get his body to follow through.
A desperate cry escaped his lips as the goblin lunged again, this time managing to knock him backward. His back smmed against the pit wall, and the sword slipped from his hand.
The goblin sneered.
Ethan’s hand scrambled across the dirt.
Where’s the sword?! Where—
The goblin raised its cws—
THWIP!
An arrow whistled down from above and buried itself in the goblin’s chest.
The creature let out a confused grunt before slumping forward, lifeless.
Ethan sat there, panting. His heart was pounding in his ears. His arms were numb.
“Cross. That’s enough,” the professor’s voice echoed, not unkindly. “Up the dder.”
Ethan didn’t speak. He nodded and dragged himself toward the dder, grabbing each rung as if it were made of lead.
When he reached the top, he avoided everyone’s gaze. Daniel patted his shoulder quietly as he passed by. Oliver looked like he wanted to say something, but couldn’t find the words.
As Ethan sat back down on the bench, he clenched his fists.
I knew it… I knew this would happen.
He wasn’t angry at the goblin. He wasn’t even angry at the test. He wasn't angry at himself.
He was just...
Disappointed.
He had failed.
He had the knowledge. He had studied every weak point, memorized every lesson...
But he still failed.
His curse didn't matter, he just needed to nd one solid strike and finished the goblin off.
But in the end he failed.
He panicked! He tripped on his own foot! When engaged in combat he failed to nd a single effective strike! And he had even lost his weapon at the end of the fight.
He had utterly failed.
And that was so frustrating he wanted to cry.
Oliver’s turn arrived.
He stood up, trying to hide his nerves behind a forced grin. "Wish me luck!" he called out, his voice shaky but loud enough to be heard by the nearby students.
Ethan offered him a weak thumbs-up, still somewhat out of it.
Oliver made his way to the weapons rack and, after a moment of hesitation, picked two light hand axes, one for each hand.
“Seriously?” Ethan muttered under his breath.
With an awkward smile, Oliver carried the axes down the dder and into the pit.
The professor didn’t waste time. Without so much as a warning, he unlocked a cage and shoved it forward.
The iron crate tumbled down into the pit with a loud crash, but instead of the goblin flying out like usual, it remained curled inside, dazed but uninjured.
Oliver approached cautiously, eyes wide, hands sweating on the axe handle. The goblin twitched. He flinched.
It began to crawl out of the cage.
That’s when Oliver panicked.
With a primal scream that startled even the students on the bench, Oliver charged like a berserker, raising the axes high over his head.
The goblin, confused and slightly terrified by the sudden roar, didn’t even fight back. Instead, it shrieked in panic and backed into the cage—
SLAM.
It pulled the cage door shut behind it, locking itself inside, out of the axes' reach.
"Eh?"
Looking at the scene Oliver slowed down his steps up to a full stop and just stared at the trembling goblin now hidden inside the cage.
There was a stunned silence.
Even the professor blinked twice, unsure how to process what he just saw.
Finally, with a tired sigh, he pinched the bridge of his nose and facepalmed.
“…Oliver, you pass. Come back up.”
Oliver blinked. “Wait, really?”
“Next! Misha Florentia!”
Still in shock, Oliver climbed out of the pit as Misha descended the dder with shaky but determined steps.
No sooner had her boots touched the ground than the goblin that had locked itself inside—perhaps emboldened by Misha’s smaller frame—leapt out of the cage with a furious screech.
The students gasped. It all happened too fast.
But Misha’s reflexes kicked in.
“Kyyyyyyy—!”
The goblin charged.
Misha sidestepped with a sharp intake of breath and, whether by pure instinct or a lucky move, her bde sliced through the air in a clean arc—
SHNK!
A single stroke. The goblin’s left arm was severed cleanly at the shoulder.
It colpsed to the ground with a howl, filing and writhing, clutching at the stump as dark blood pooled around it.
Misha trembled, breath heaving, but she didn’t hesitate this time.
She stepped forward, raised her sword, and plunged it down into the creature’s chest with both hands.
The goblin let out a final shriek before falling still.
A heavy silence hung in the air.
Then—
“…Well. That was unexpected,” the professor said, scribbling a note. “Sloppy stance, poor footwork, borderline panic—but lethal instinct. Pass. Return to your seat, Florentia.”
Still pale, Misha climbed out of the pit. As soon as she was up, Celica and Anya were at her sides in an instant.
“Oh my gods, Misha! Are you okay!?”
“That was amazing—but terrifying!”
Misha looked dazed. “I—I don’t even remember doing it… I think my body just moved.”
Celica hugged her tightly. “Doesn’t matter. You did it. You won.”
From the benches, Ethan watched, wiping away the st traces of his frustration.
He had failed this time, but there would be other chances… he just had to keep going.
The fights continued. Student after student stepped down into the pit, and one by one, the goblins were either dispatched cleanly or taken down with clumsy, desperate blows. Ethan forced himself to observe each one, analyzing their footwork, their timing, their choices—what went right, and especially what went wrong.
Finally, the professor cpped his hands.
"Good job, everyone. Those who passed are free to go. Those who didn't, stay for a bit longer."
Daniel and Oliver both gave Ethan supportive pats on the shoulder before heading out. Misha waved shyly, her expression caught somewhere between sympathy and quiet pride as she left with her two friends.
One by one, the remaining students filed out, leaving only six behind—Ethan among them.
The professor's tone turned sharper now, more serious.
"All right, those of you who are still here—listen carefully. This is your final chance. We're going to do things differently now."
He gestured to the st two cages and pointed at the pit.
"All six of you will go down together. Both cages will be thrown in at once. You have two minutes to kill both goblins. Work together—or don’t, I don’t care. If both goblins are dead when time’s up, everyone who nded a live hit on them passes. If even one goblin is still alive, you all fail."
His expression darkened.
"If you fail this time… or if you’d rather not risk it, you’re free to walk out right now. Head to the dorms, pack your things, and leave."
Nobody moved.
The tension in the air was thick, like something pressing down on their shoulders.
Ethan gnced at the other students. A couple of them looked terrified, but determined. One girl was whispering a prayer under her breath. Another girl was gripping the handle of her short sword so tightly her knuckles had gone white.
They lined up one after another and descended the dder.
Ethan followed, his legs tense, his heart pounding.
As his feet hit the dirt, the memories of his earlier failure came rushing back. The panic. The hesitation. The shame.
But not this time.
Not again.
It even escaped his mind that this was the perfect time to be kicked out of this school. If he escaped now, his friends in the vilge wouldn't be able to say anything. He's just a mob after all, it would sound perfectly normal if he said he failed to kill a monster.
But then he would continue to live his cursed life. He wouldn't be able to break out of his shell and explore the world. He would forever be bounded by the vilge walls, never to go out. Was this really the way of life that he wanted to have?
His fingers curled tighter around the hilt of his bde, and he took a steadying breath.
Above them, the professor stood ready at the edge with the two cages.
Without ceremony, he shoved them over.
The heavy cng of metal hitting earth echoed as the cages crashed open, flinging the goblins out in opposite directions.
"BEGIN!" the professor shouted.
The pit erupted into chaos.
One goblin lunged immediately at a student near the center, forcing her to stumble back. The other took a slower approach, its yellow eyes flicking between the students with eerie intelligence—more cautious than the mindless rage they’d been taught to expect.
Ethan didn’t hesitate this time.
He moved.
Targeting the cautious one, he darted in at an angle, forcing the goblin to shift focus. Another student approached from the opposite side with a spear, splitting the goblin’s attention.
Perfect.
Ethan feinted left, then pivoted sharply and sshed at its knee. The bde struck true—shallow, but clean. The goblin shrieked and dropped onto one leg.
The spear-wielding student lunged forward, pinning its shoulder to the ground.
Another dashed in, mace raised—and brought it down on the goblin’s skull.
"Avoid the head! Break the limbs!" Ethan warned.
But the student with the mace wasn’t listening. She kept swinging, over and over.
Well... if she keeps hitting like that, maybe it'll work?
The answer came sooner than expected.
The goblin lurched up with a final scream and bit into the girl’s hand.
"Ahh!!!" she cried, jerking back—but not before it tore off two of her fingers.
"Shit!" Ethan swore, stabbing the goblin through the chest and twisting until it stopped moving.
"My hand! My hand!" the girl sobbed, cradling the bloody mess.
Ethan winced but forced himself to turn away. There was no time to panic.
The second goblin was five—maybe six—steps away, locked in a fight with the remaining three students. None had managed a clean hit.
"Surround it! Attack from the sides!" Ethan shouted, rushing to help.
The goblin locked eyes with one girl—Ethan recognized her as the first to fail the test earlier. It licked its lips and lunged, tackling her to the ground.
The other two panicked. Instead of striking, they grabbed its arms, trying to pry it off their friend.
Ethan charged in. With a single powerful swing, he severed one of the goblin’s arms.
"Kyaaa!!" the girl screamed, realizing she was still holding the dismembered limb. She shrieked and flung it away.
The goblin rolled in pain.
"Now! Finish it!" Ethan barked, giving them a chance to act.
"I-I-I can’t!" the pinned girl sobbed, paralyzed with fear.
"Stop acting spoiled! Take this!" Ethan growled, shoving his sword into her hand. He grabbed her wrist and forced the bde downward, stabbing the goblin in its side.
"Yuck! This is disgusting!" she wailed.
"I completely agree!" added one of the others, voice trembling.
Ethan turned to them. "What about you two? Done pretending!?"
"N-no, I'm still—"
"Then do it!"
With a scowl, Ethan yanked the second girl forward, pcing her hand over the hilt and helping drive the sword in deeper.
The goblin spasmed—and then went still.
"TIME!" the professor’s voice rang out above.
Silence fell.
The students stared at the bodies, panting, wide-eyed.
Two goblins dead.
Six students still standing.
"Both targets down," the professor called. "Anyone who helped kill them… passes."
The girl with the mace dropped to her knees, sobbing in relief.
Another let out a breathless, disbelieving ugh.
Ethan remained standing, chest heaving, blood-slick sword still in hand.
It wasn’t pretty. It wasn’t graceful.
But he hadn’t frozen.
He hadn’t backed down.
He had fought.
He had passed.
And for now… that was enough.
The test had ended.
Two of the girls—one cradling her bandaged hand, the other nursing a twisted ankle—headed off toward the infirmary under the professor’s watchful eye. Another girl lingered for a moment, then left quietly, still shaken from the ordeal.
Ethan remained by the pit, cooling off and collecting his thoughts when he noticed two girls approaching. He recognized them as the ones who’d panicked during the second goblin fight. Now, however, their steps were steadier, their expressions filled with gratitude.
"Um… Ethan, right?" one asked.
He nodded. "Yeah."
The taller girl stepped forward first. She had short, auburn hair and a freckled nose. "I’m Nora. And this is my friend Li," she said, gesturing to the shorter girl beside her—who had dark blonde hair tied in a side ponytail and slightly flushed cheeks.
"We just… wanted to thank you," Li said softly. "If you hadn’t stepped in back there, we probably wouldn’t be standing here."
He shrugged modestly. "I just did what anyone else would’ve—"
"No," Nora cut in with a smile. "You didn’t. That’s exactly why it mattered."
Li nodded. "So… this is a token of our thanks."
Before Ethan could even ask what she meant, both girls leaned in from either side and—mwah! mwah!—pnted quick kisses on each of his cheeks.
Then, stifling their ughter, they spun around and hurried off, leaving him frozen in pce.
Ethan blinked. Then blinked again.
He reached up, touched both cheeks, and muttered, "...Okay, that just happened."
He quickly looked around—thankfully, Daniel and Oliver were nowhere in sight.
"Thank the gods," he muttered with a grin. "If they’d seen that, I’d be toast."
Still smiling, Ethan turned to head back toward the dorms—his cheeks a little red, and his mood a whole lot lighter.
