[Instructions]

Atticus gazed at the holographic interface in front of him, his mind racing.

'Is it the system?' Atticus pondered. The first thing that had come to his mind when he first saw the interface was that this was the system.

'It can't be.'

This was the first time he had ever seen the system display anything apart from his stats before.

But then, he suddenly remembered something, and he quickly turned his gaze to his wrist and saw that the artifact he had just been given was glowing subtly.

Seeing this, Atticus immediately came to the conclusion that it was all the artifact's doing. He couldn't help but marvel at how advanced this artifact was compared to the one they used at the Raven camp.

Choosing not to waste any time, Atticus immediately focused on the words, and the display swiftly changed, showcasing the instructions.

-Instructions

-You cannot die.

-Depending on how powerful the beasts you kill are, you get points accordingly.

-Defeating other youths gets you half of the points they had accumulated.

-No use of magical artifacts apart from your main weapons is allowed.

-You have 3 hours, accumulate as many points as possible.

Gazing at the instructions, there was only one thing Atticus could use to describe it, simple. It was completely simple and straightforward.

He gazed at the screen on the artifact on his wrist and saw a timer actively counting down,

[02:57:34]

'I wasted 3 minutes,' Atticus admonished himself.

Deciding not to waste any more time, he quickly attempted to feel if he could use his bloodline and mana and was glad to see that he could.

He remembered the artifact back at the camp had the ability to block their mana, so he wanted to be sure. He still couldn't forget all the training he did without mana at the camp.

Atticus also tried to access his space storage and saw that it wasn't responding to his mana. 'The ring probably counts as an artifact,' Atticus surmised. But he didn't dwell on the matter for too long.

Choosing to leave all the useless thoughts aside, Atticus stretched his arms and legs for a few seconds. The fact that there was mana running through his veins, passively healing his body makes stretching useless, but Atticus simply wanted to do it because it felt good.

After warming up for a bit, Atticus swiftly dashed through the forest searching for his first prey.

Atticus had every single intention of winning this test. Apart from the fact that it was Magnus's request, it had always been in Atticus's nature; he hated losing.

Not even a second had passed, and Atticus caught some sounds coming from a few meters ahead of him. He kept moving, and after a few seconds, he saw a bear-like magical beast a few meters in front of him.

It was a more powerful version of the obsidian claw Atticus had fought at camp; it was an evolved beast.

A lot of the beasts in Eldoralth stopped progressing at the intermediate+ rank, especially if their starting rank was very low.

The only way for a beast to break through past the intermediate+ rank and enter the advanced- rank was by evolving, a thing only a select few could do.

Despite knowing that the obsidian claw had evolved and was currently an Advanced- rank magical beast, Atticus's steps didn't pause. He kept moving towards the beast at fast speed.

The beast noticed him as he got closer, and it immediately stood up and let out a roar in warning. ROAR!!

The simple roaring of the beast made the ground tremble, but even then, Atticus ignored the roar and kept moving; his eyes weren't even focused on the beast.

Seeing that its warning hadn't worked, the beast immediately stood on its hind legs and raised its claws in the air.

Unlike the obsidian claw he had faced before, there were some changes in this beast; its claws emitted a faint steam, gradually turning white as they radiated intense heat.

With a swift motion, the beast swiped its incandescent claw downward, conjuring a blazing arc of fire aimed at the advancing Atticus.

Just as it seemed like the attack was about to hit, Atticus's form, quite literally, suddenly flickered; his body disappeared and appeared instantaneously a few meters in front, leaving only residual heat in its wake.

Seeing this, the beast acted immediately and tried to throw out another attack, but before it could even move, a sharp and pointy earth spike jutted out from under it.

At a fast speed, Atticus manipulated fire, increasing the temperature to unimaginable heights and making the tip of the spike scorching white.

The pointed tip, glowing white with intense heat, punctured through the creature, leaving a pool of blood gushing out, spraying through the air.

Throughout the 'fight,' Atticus didn't even stop for one second. He completely ignored the lifeless form of the beast and simply kept moving.

***

"Haaa, that's my baby!" Anastasia clapped excitedly as she jumped up from her seat.

She, Freya, and Avalon just saw Atticus's fight with the obsidian claw. Freya let out a peaceful smile while Avalon's mouth couldn't help but twitch looking at how Anastasia was acting.

He had the urge to shout, "it's just one beast!" But he had lived long enough to have better judgment. He simply kept silent while looking at the screen of Atticus running through the forest.

***

As soon as Atticus killed the beast, he immediately consulted his artifact to find out how many points an Advanced- rank beast was worth. But Instead, he found out something better.

He was able to monitor the rankings directly from his artifact.

Atticus completely welcomed this function. It would help him know how many beasts he had to kill and how many points he had to gather to be the first.

It was way better than him just blindly killing as many beasts as he could as fast as he could without knowing anything.

And from what Atticus had just seen, he was currently very far from the top,

Rank: 20,323

Name: Atticus Ravenstein

Points: 1,050