Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
The young man’s face flushed, and his hands clenched into fists at his side.
The other four people around them were looking at Sean in disbelief.
It was not because Sean’s words were too shocking or that the pedants had agreed to what Sean said. It was because Sean’s words were too vulgar. The pedants found the vulgar words unelegant, even if they thought that the comparison had provided them with a bit of an image.
“You…Do you know who I am?!” The young man became angry. Sean did not know whether the anger was due to shame or not.
Sean was a little distracted when he heard the young man’s words. He had not heard anyone say those words in a long time. In the game, there had been many people who had said those words to him in the early stages. Those people included enemies, members of his clan, and experts who had been famous for a long time in the world of professions. However, after he became famous and was even the commander of a team from his clan, no one ever said those words to him again.
When Sean’s popularity had reached a certain extent, such regulations where players relied on their identity and background to speak was no longer useful.
For example, if the young man, the examinee in front of Sean, had asked that question to the three pedants in charge of monitoring the examination, they would have scoffed at the young man. Even the Royce family had to be polite when they faced the pedants. Therefore, the pedants did not give ordinary people any more time in their day than they had to. Only people with the same extensive knowledge as they had were worthy of being acknowledged.
However, everyone thought that Sean had become scared when they saw his absent-minded state.
“You are afraid, aren’t you? Let me tell you…” The young man started to speak nonsense again.
The young man liked seeing others display their fear, as it allowed him to feel extremely satisfied with his cockiness. Even though his father was not an aristocrat, his family was wealthy. Even if many people looked down on his family for flaunting their newly acquired wealth, it could not hide the fact that he was indeed rich. His father had allowed him to participate in the scholar’s examination because he wanted to make their family’s reputation a bit better.
As long as he successfully passed the examination, no one would dare to say that his family was just flaunting their newly acquired wealth.
When the young man saw that he was about to answer the last question, even if he had to write one forcefully, he knew that he would be able to receive the scholar’s certificate if he could answer it correctly. However, all of this had been destroyed by Sean’s sudden actions a few minutes ago, so how could the young man not be angry? Sean had ridiculed him, and it had reminded him of the people in the business circle who had laughed at his father.
He was young, so he was ignorant.
He was ignorant, so he was fearless.
He was foolish.
Sean did not know what the young man was thinking. But even if Sean had known, he would not have cared, because they were destined to be two people from different worlds.
Listening to the young man who was still bragging about something, Sean shook his head and laughed. “I was a little absent-minded just now, not because I am afraid, but because I had remembered the people who once said those same words to me.” After a pause, the corners of Sean’s mouth raised gently. “Do you want to know what happened to them in the end?”
The young man suddenly shuddered, but he could not understand why. Sean’s smile had made him feel a little frightened. He might not have been wise, but that did not mean he was not smart. A person’s origin often determined their identity and background. People were often gradually influenced by what they saw and heard in the business circle. They would even gain a bit of insight into some of the things that were happening around them.
The young man wanted to say something else, but he did not know what to say.
Sean, who was too lazy to pay attention to the young man, turned and faced the three pedants. “I’m here to take the Scholar’s Examination. Can I start?” Sean asked.
The three pedants looked at each other. The young man and the cleric woman might not have noticed anything, but the three pedants felt the blood force that was emitted from Sean’s body.
It was impossible to have such a robust murderous aura without having experienced real bloody massacres.
Would a group of muscular guys know what knowledge was, or were they all brawn and no brain? The pedants did not expect Sean to know anything, as he seemed to be someone who had experienced a lot of battle.
Even though they were pedants of the Wisdom Divine Temple, they were human. Therefore, a lot of their views were no different from ordinary people. Also, the older they got, the more stubborn they became. Fundamentally speaking, they were already prejudiced against Sean. However, the Scholar’s Hall at the Wisdom Divine Temple had clear rules that prohibited any favoritism. Since Sean already said he wanted to take the examination, the pedants could only allow him to take it.
However, there were still a few methods that they could use.
“You can.” The oldest pedant among them nodded. “Lena, take him out.”
The young female cleric nodded and then immediately took the young examinee out. After they left, the stone door was closed again.
The oldest pedant nodded at Sean and said, “Let’s get started.”
With that, he took Sean to the leftmost table in the hall. Sean followed leisurely, giving off an air of being confident. He looked down at the table that he was brought to.
On the table was a sun-dried flower. On the surface, it looked like the flower had been processed because its root was light yellow. It was noticeably different from the black that was on ordinary flowers after being sun-dried. The part above the flower’s root was dark yellow with a bit of black. The water inside had evaporated entirely. It had even created a scorching effect on the inside of the flower.
However, even though it was a flower, its bud had been removed. It made it difficult for participants to distinguish the sun-dried plants.
“Judging from the depth of the color and the place where the bud was removed, it is probably a Fiery Flower.” Sean glanced at it and then said softly, “This is a widespread plant that tastes sweet and slightly spicy. It has a wide range of uses. The most common usage is for seasonings. Even though it is an ordinary plant, the section between the sun-dried root and the stem of the Fiery Flowers is one of the raw materials that alchemists need to make neutralizing elixirs. Therefore, they are commonly grown.”
From the analysis of the appearance to the taste, medicine, and use, Sean’s words were rational and reasonable. It was apparent that he was clear-headed. Also, the most impressive thing was that Sean was able to say the correct answer by only glancing at the flower. He did not even need to touch it or carefully examine it. It surprised the three old pedants. If it were not for the fact that Sean had never appeared at the temple before, and that the layout of the Scholar’s Hall was changed every day, the old pedants would have thought that Sean was the one who had arranged the flower.
Seeing the state that the old pedants were in, Sean naturally knew what they were thinking.
The Scholar’s Examination was the most simple examination trial back in the game for [Spellcasting]. The pain-in-the-neck research players had listed thousands of detailed facts about the contents of the examination in the Scholar’s Hall. Sean, who was one of the enthusiastic pain-in-the-neck players in the game, had also read the material. Although he was not able to remember everything, he had a deep memory of the things he came into contact with during the later stages of the game.
Also, he now had [Narrow Escape] and [Eye of Truth], two special abilities.
However, Sean did not need to use his Eye of Truth to find out the details of this Fiery Flower. Back when he was part of a team in the game, there was a cleric who liked to grow flowers and plants.
Of course, Sean did not perform overly amazingly well. He made sure to leave out an important fact.
There are still some defects in the sun-dried Fiery Flower. The stem of that kind of Fiery Flower could only be used in normal neutralizing elixirs. The stem of the Fiery Flower could not be damaged if the goal was to refine the elixir. In other words, at least a little bit of water had to be retained, and the sun was not allowed to produce a scorching effect on the stem of the Fiery Flower.
There was no need for Sean to say those words out loud. He did not want to appear too talented, or it would seem like he had found a way to cheat.
The three old pedants looked at each other. They were shocked and did not want to admit it, so they brought Sean to the second table silently.
“This is just some iron slag.” Sean glanced at the small black stones on the table. They had apparent signs of refinement. “Of course, if I have to say what my observations are, then I can only say that they are just condensed stone fragments leftover from refining ordinary iron ore. The function of the iron slag was to fool or deceive other examinees,” Sean said faintly.
The colors on the three old pedant’s faces had turned slightly red. Their expressions were visibly ugly—especially the one in the middle, who had come up with this idea.
“This is a Black Three-leaved Clover. Although it is very similar to the Three-leaved Clover, the center of the Black Three-leaved Clover has a few black spots. It is challenging to notice without looking at it carefully.”
“This is a Colorful Poison Lizard. It is a rank-four demonic beast and usually lives in a toxic jungle.”
“This is the Red Copper Iron Stone. It is the ore of the Red Copper Vein.”
“These are Ice Crystal Teardrop Flowers…”
“This is…”
There were hundreds of tables in the Scholar’s Hall that had items on them, none of which were difficult for Sean to distinguish. Of course, there were some things that Sean had to use his [Eye of Truth] to determine. Whenever he was about to use the [Eye of Truth], he would lean over and pretend to be observing the item. Sometimes, Sean would even pick up the item and smell it. But even so, that still surprised the three old pedants. The three old pedants gained a new understanding of the warriors, who they had seen as simple-minded with well-developed arms and legs.
“Ahem. We are surprised by your performance.” The one who spoke was the oldest pedant of the three. “You are the best examinee we have seen in the last few years, so we have prepared another question for you. You can choose whether you want to accept it or not. Of course, it doesn’t matter if you don’t accept it, but if you do accept it and answer it correctly, we will give you a small gift. It is a gift from the God of Wisdom to the extraordinary people.”
It was the critical part!
Sean’s dull mood had finally become excited. That was his real goal! He naturally agreed to answer the new question.
The oldest pedant nodded and triggered a mechanism inside the hall. The ground suddenly opened towards the two sides. An iron cage around two meters tall and eight meters in diameter rose from the ground, the black cloth that was covering it fluttering a bit in the slight wind. It seemed that due to the earthquake brought by the mechanism, a low roaring sound was heard from the iron cage. The sound emitted from the imprisoned creature inside the iron cage was a little weak, but it still had a powerful aura.
Even though the iron cage had been specially strengthened with an added special magic formation, Sean guessed that the creature imprisoned inside the cage was at least a rank-seven demonic beast. A demonic beast at that level was powerful enough to destroy an entire territory. Even though the weaker and smaller kingdoms would not be killed by one demonic beast, they would still lose a lot of lives and the place’s vitality.
Unexpectedly, the Wisdom Divine Temple was so bold that they dared to capture a demonic beast to study.
However, Sean’s mind had still not yet recovered from the shock, and what the three old pedants did next had made Sean want to spit out blood. He was glad that he was not drinking any water.
Sean saw an old pedant reach out and pull a bit of the black cloth upwards. It revealed a four-legged demonic beast imprisoned inside.
Judging from what was revealed of the demonic beast, it was probably a mammal. It also had beautiful black fur. Sean could tell that the fur would have been smooth and bright if it had been raised well. But it was evident that its living standard was abysmal because the fur had utterly lost its shine. It had even looked a bit messy.
However, Sean had the Eye of Truth, which he could use alongside the [Narrow Escape] special ability. After observing the demonic beast, Sean knew what kind of creature it was.
Like he had guessed, the creature was indeed a rank seven demonic beast called the Dark Shadow Demon-eyed Leopard. It was a very rare demonic beast. Even though its speed was a rank-seven demonic beast, its power was only as strong as an ordinary rank-five demonic beast. As a rank-seven demonic beast, apart from its natural powerful and superior aura, it also had a powerful spirit. The Crystal Core in the demonic beasts were mostly used by magicians who specialized in learning and training their spiritual energy.
Sean already knew the answer to the question, but he couldn’t say it. Right when Sean was waiting for the old pedant to continue to pull the black cloth back and reveal what was inside, he heard the old pedant suddenly say, “Okay. Guess what the name of this beast is.”
The words were the reason why Sean wanted to spit out blood. He remembered a joke that was very popular on the internet back when he was playing the game.
Therefore, Sean turned towards the old pedant in the middle of the three pedants and asked, “If I don’t pass the exam, I can still get the scholar’s status, right?”
The three old pedants were stunned. All three of them believed that Sean had found the question too complicated and was ready to give up. They would not have treated Sean like that if it had not been for his abnormal performance earlier. After all, even though the old pedants were a little dissatisfied with Sean’s performance, in the beginning, reality proved that Sean was educated. If these old pedants were to compete against such a young Sean in knowledge, then they would not be able to win. Therefore, these old pedants were a little dissatisfied.
As long as Sean held back his strong attitude a little bit, they definitely would not be too harsh towards Sean.
Therefore, the old pedant who stood in the middle of the three pedants nodded and said, “Yes, you are already a scholar.”
Sean nodded and continued to ask, “Do you have to register my identity, and then issue a magic certificate to the Wisdom Divine Temple as backup?”
“Of course.”
Sean nodded. He then turned to face the old pedant who had pulled the cloth on the cage. Sean rolled up his pants to his thigh and said, “Okay. Guess what my name is.”