"Yawn…"

I rubbed my sleepy eyes as I tried to stay awake.

CHATTER-! CHATTER-!

The Entrance Examination ended seven days ago.

Right now I was sitting in a gigantic hall waiting for the Entrance Ceremony to start.

The hall was filled with students. Everyone was busy talking to the next person.

"I wouldn't have come here if it wasn't mandatory."

CLOMP-! CLOMP-!

Sounds of footsteps echoed in the hall as a person walked to the stage. Even though the hall was clamorous, everyone distinctly heard the footsteps.

Silence suddenly descended.

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The man who stood on stage was almost 8 feet tall with so much hair that one could mistake him for a bear.

"Congratulations on entering Ward."

A voice loud enough to make me reflexly cover my ears boomed.

Even though I was sitting at the end of the hall, I felt like I was next to the speaker during a concert.

"I am John Ashdown. Most of you might know me as the Archer of End, a Gamma-ranked awakener and your Vice headmaster."

He was an important figure in the novel, but I had no time to think about it.

Every time he spoke, it felt like a nail was being hammered into my head. I was beginning to have trouble forming thoughts.

"Urghh.."

From the groans all around me, it was easy to tell that I was not the only one affected. The loud voice was rattling everybody's brains.

I didn't doubt that I would permanently lose my hearing if he didn't stop soon.

"You guys have persisted through even the special exam we prepared for. You have the talent and potential to one day become a pillar for humanity, the Golden generation. And I have only one word…"

The faces of students around me were twisted in pain, but they were still smiling. Their pride swelled at being called the golden generation.

However, the next words made their expressions drastically change.

"…pathectic"

For a moment, everyone doubted their ears.

'Wasn't he praising us?' This was what their faces were saying.

The Archer of End chastised us without remorse.

"Talent? Potential? Skill? Everything is wasted on you cretins. Can you imbeciles protect Earth when you can't even work together? Tell me, did any single one of you team up during the special exam?"

'I did.'

I would have raised my hand and answered him if not for the fact I might lose my hand.

Blatant harsh abusive words were being used in the world's most prestigious academy, by its vice headmaster at that. But no one spoke up.

The pressure behind his words, his aura, was pressing us down. He wasn't here to praise us or ask us a question.

At this point, it didn't matter if what he said was truth or lie. We simply have to accept everything and nod our heads.

His eyes swiped the hall, and he left without speaking another word.

'Ah, the irony.'

CLOMP-! CLOMP-!

This was just the start of what we were going to face because of what happened in the exam.

Although the speech was short, it left an impact on everybody, literally and figuratively.

"Sigh…"

This was why I didn't want to join the ceremony. My head hurt like hell.

TAP-! TAP-!

Two students walked onto the empty stage.

Standing at the podium was a pair of male and female students.

Both of them had comparable looks-no, even better than any model I had seen in my previous life.

On the left was standing a girl with waist-length silver hair and blue eyes. She looked like an angel who descended from the heavens.

On the right was a youth with blonde hair and crystal blue eyes. His perfectly chiseled face and warm smile had already captured the hearts of many girls in the hall.

Seeing him, I felt a sense of incongruity. Something felt missing.

"With immense pleasure on behalf of Ward, we welcome everyone." The youth started speaking a pleasing greeting.

They were Rank 1, Susan Warner, and Rank 2, Cadmus Martel, the members of the main cast.

As the speech continued, the faces of students relaxed. Cadmus' friendly nature and way of talking put everyone at ease.

Staring at him, I finally found what was missing.

'A white horse!'

Wouldn't this guy look like a prince from the fairy tales with a white horse?

Cadmus was the heir of the Martel family, one of the big three families. He was going to be the best friend and rival of the protagonist. And the future 10th seat of Round Table.

When a few minutes passed, my face started turning strange.

'She really won't say a word, huh?'

Rank 1, Susan, even though it should have been her to lead the speech, she was standing there with an aloof expression.

With her unchanging face, she looked more like a doll than a human.

-CLAP -CLAP –CLAP

After a 30 minutes long speech, the ceremony ended, and I went back straight to the dorms.

I wanted to avoid meeting anybody from the main cast for as long as possible.

Nothing worth mentioning happened in the ceremony if you ignore my eardrums, which needed a replacement.

***

POOF-!

I landed on my bed face first. The soft mattress hugged my body, and I felt like I was on cloud nine.

Everything still felt unbelievable.

I died. But not only did I reincarnate, but I also did so inside 'Hero as returned'.

Then I went through a shitty five days of hell to get the manuals.

After waking up, unlike what I had expected, the test hadn't ended. Thinking about it more for the past two days, I concluded:

"That room was a Stage 1 pocket dimension."

Earth was already Stage 2 at this point. This would dilute the time in a 1:5 ratio.

Thankfully, I didn't have to answer why my bracelet's timer was up. The Byzander island had a special property that would disable any electronics.

Otherwise, students would have been contacting each other or learning survival tips during the exam. This would have defeated the whole purpose of the exam.

This saved me from the trouble of thinking of an excuse.

Immediately after the test ended, the students who had passed were escorted to the Ward.

A wry smile appeared on my face as I remembered the look everybody gave me.

Ether manual upgraded my talent. For that, it modified the structure of my body on a fundamental level.

My muscles were torn, bones shattered and restructured, and blood redirected. After the process was done, I was soaked in blood.

It would have been weirder if anybody would have ignored me.

The whole process of the upgrade had left me extremely drained. The moment I stepped into my room, I dropped onto the bed and slept straight for two days.

After waking up, the first thing I did was to try 'Armory of Eridu', my art.

The reason I knew about the ether manual and art was because these were supposed to belong to the protagonist.

In the mid-part of the novel, the protagonist is ambushed by spies of Elves and Barbarians and the villain organization. The protagonist's mana core is destroyed by the spies.

After the barely escaping the ambush, he reaches Byzander Island and get these two things. This was the second time Byzander Island was shown in the novel.

The first time was in the entrance examination but it was only for a short period with barely any details about the island. The second time it was after the protagonist escapes the ambush. But at that time the island was partially destroyed. This was why I didn't know properly about the island's geography.

As for the manuals themselves. The protagonist was only able to use the ether manual not the Legacy art. This was because of the 'Law'.

Nobody can learn two arts of same function. A person can have a magic art and a movement art but not two magic arts or two movement arts. It was one of the 'Law' of universe.

The protagonist already had a combat art. He couldn't learn the Legacy art and so I didn't know what the art was.

The only reason I was sure that the Legacy art wasn't a dud was because it was stored with ether manual.

Surely if it was stored with something as important as Ether manual the art must also be important.

"I knew it was a legacy art, but this is above and beyond what I was expecting."

'Legacy' was a grade that didn't apply to something specific, like potion, weapon, or even skills. These were legacies passed from the Dark age. Anything that was from the Dark age would be Legacy-grade.

Anyway, my art could allow me to scan weapons and make copies of them.

Remembering the memory I saw when I learned the art, chills went down my spine.

A lone man was standing on a desolate land while hundreds of enemies charged toward him. Yet the man stood unperturbed.

He merely raised his hand.

Before his enemies could react, uncountable numbers of weapons started appearing in the sky, and a massacre began.

Do I need to say what happened next?

Wasn't this something that everyone dreamed of doing at least once?

And I could do this! Hooray fantasy!

Thinking of my art, I called my status. Every time I looked at it, I still felt shocked, in more ways than one.

"Status"

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