Only 80 steps remained to the peak of the mountain.

By now, there were less than 20 people left.

​​

Leading the pack was a red-haired youth dressed in black.

Fike had already noticed him when they had first started climbing up the mountain.

He was the fastest among them, and hadn't stopped at all the entire way.

Judging from his appearance, he should be quite strong.

Following closely behind him was a blue-haired girl with twin ponytails.

She wore a dignified appearance, and had not said a word throughout the entire journey. She simply concentrated on following the red-haired youth's footsteps without pause.

With Fike's support, Seigne was gradually approaching the peak as well.

As for the others, they trailed closely behind the group, not daring to relax for even a moment.

Seigne currently had his left hand draped around Fike's shoulder, his speed slowing to a crawl.

"Fike, it seems like what you said was true. You really managed to climb up this... this Sealing Mountain without any effort."

The blonde youth beside him was sweating profusely. Even so, Fike continued to support him.

"We're almost at the top, you must hold on!"

At this moment, Fike was essentially half-carrying Seigne.

"Fike, don't worry about me. With your strength, you could easily be the first to reach the top of the mountain. Why would you give up that honor for someone you just met?"

Fike looked at Seigne, who appeared to be slowly losing his mind. He did not respond as he continued to silently drag him along.

"There are still ten more steps to go. We're almost there. Hold on!"

As soon as Fike was done speaking, the red-haired youth and the blue-haired, twin-ponytailed girl reached the summit.

In a short while, three others had joined them.

At this moment, there were only nine people, including Fike and Seigne, who were still giving their all to reach the summit.

"Five more steps to go. We can already see the stone tablet, Seigne!"

Fike looked at Seigne. The youth had already lost the strength to speak.

Suddenly, his legs gave way, and he fell heavily onto the steps.

His forehead was left with a gash that was not too deep, but not shallow either.

Blood started flowing down from the gash to his cheek.

Seigne struggled to get up.

He was now only one step away from the top.

Fike had already bent down, reaching out to help him, but Seigne waved his hand weakly.

He signaled that he wanted to climb the last step on his own.

Realizing it, Fike effortlessly took his own last step.

Seigne gritted his teeth and heaved himself up with all his might, completing the last step with tremendous difficulty.

"I've… finally... reached the top?"

With that, Seigne fell heavily to the ground.

Fike hurriedly rushed forward to help him up.

Suddenly, a clear voice from behind sounded.

"I've been watching you drag along this trash for almost the entire second half of the journey. You're really carrying a heavy load, hahahaha!"

Fike turned his head. The person who spoke was the blue-haired girl with twin ponytails.

He only glanced at her briefly before turning back to help Seigne up.

Seeing that he had ignored her, the blue-haired girl did not continue asking for trouble.

"Alright, Zelle, stop talking!"

The red-haired youth spoke.

"Jesper, I know you wanted to reach the top more than anyone else! Now that you've achieved your wish, stop pretending to be a good person!"

Jesper ignored Zelle as they quietly waited for the last few others to reach the top.

Finally, the last person arrived.

There were only 12 people here.

The initial 100 aspiring students had been whittled down to a mere 12.

The harsh elimination rate only made Fike even more curious about Yogmo Academy.

At this time, a person who appeared to be a teacher walked out from the ancient building behind the stone tablet.

"Congratulations on passing the first round of testing for Yogmo Academy. I will be your examiner for the second round. You should have noticed this huge stone tablet when you were at the foot of the mountain!"

Everyone turned their gazes toward the stone tablet.

Fike scrutinized it carefully, finding that its size was actually a few heads taller than the previous Demon Prince-tier Exotic Beast.

"Don't worry, everyone. The second round of tests is very simple.

"This round is called the aptitude test. Those who pass may follow me to the new student services office of Yogmo Academy and go through the enrollment procedures.

"Now, everyone, line up according to the order you've reached the top and place your hands on the stone tablet."

Jesper was the first to try.

As he placed his hands on the stone tablet, a yellow burst of light ignited from it.

The previously unintelligible words on the stone tablet twisted and moved, finally stopping after a while.

Fike read the words that had arranged themselves on the tablet.

"Jesper, gold-rank assassin, upper-tier high-rank, enrolled in the physical melee assassin class!"

Then, it was Zelle's turn.

"Zelle, gold-rank mage, upper-tier high-rank, enrolled in the long-range mage class!"

...

After a short wait, it was finally Fike's turn.

He was a little nervous by now. He reached out his right hand and placed it cautiously on the stone tablet.

The moment his palm made contact, an extremely blinding purple light exploded from the tablet.

The speed at which the words were arranging themselves was much faster than before.

Only this time, the words did not seem to have any intention of stopping.

After a few minutes, the people behind Fike were getting impatient, and started to urge Fike to hurry up.

Finally, the words stopped.

"Fike, master-rank priest, quality unknown, enrolled in the long-range mage class!"

Looking at the result before his eyes, a bead of sweat rolled down his face.

'Is this it?

'Am I exposed?'

Seeing Fike's result, Zelle complained to the examiner unhappily.

"Teacher, why is this guy, a priest, assigned to our mage class? And why can't it detect his quality?"

The examiner was indifferent as he simply responded to the question.

"Everything is decided by the school. There's a reason for every result."

Fike put down his hand and shuffled to the side quietly.

It was now Seigne's turn to take the stone tablet test.

He raised his hands, closing his eyes.

Predicting his own results, his body was trembling.

A white light flashed.

"Seigne, Muggle, low-level, enrolled in the political class of the culture department!"

Seigne had mixed feelings when he saw the results. It was what he wanted, but everyone had seen his Muggle attributes.

Zelle even held back a slight smile before turning around.

"It's okay, Seigne. Don't bother about what others think. At least the result is good, right?"

Fike comforted him.

Seigne simply nodded as he looked off into the distance.