Jobless Transmigration: I'm the only one who loves monsters.-Chapter 122

Chapter 122:

"Regarding those individuals who decided not to wait for me at the beginning of this process, whose disappearances you all witnessed, I should clarify that their elimination had nothing whatsoever to do with the examination itself. They were simply removed due to their own ignorance. Their actions will not affect your own chances of success."

He paused, letting that information settle, and then continued in a tone that had shifted into something far more serious than before.

"Although, I feel it is only fair to warn you that if any of you feel as though you have already done your best, if any of you sense that you do not have what it takes to continue further, now is the time to back out before things become truly serious. I will think no less of you for making that choice, and neither should you think less of yourselves. Knowing one’s limits is its own form of wisdom."

His eyes swept across the assembled examinees, making contact with as many of them as possible in that brief scan.

"Unlike the first stage of this examination, I am afraid I must warn you that there is a very high possibility that some of you might not make it past this stage. Not because of monsters or traps or any external threat, but simply because the challenge itself may prove beyond your abilities."

He paused again, letting the weight of his words settle upon them.

"Of course, if you still wish to partake in the examination despite this warning, I cannot do anything to stop you. The choice is yours and yours alone to make. So I ask you now, is there anyone here who wishes to forfeit their chance to partake in this examination before it truly begins? Anyone who would prefer to return home safely rather than risk what comes next?"

The entire area suddenly fell into absolute silence at his question, a silence that felt heavier than any noise could possibly be. While no one had made any effort to voice their doubts up until this moment, though they had maintained their composure and pretended to possess confidence they might not have felt, there were certainly those among the crowd who had been harboring skepticism about everything that had happened so far.

Now, hearing directly from the examiner himself that this stage of the examination was filled with unknown dangers they could not quite imagine, that confirmation of their worst fears only served to fuel the doubts that had been growing within them since the moment they arrived at this place.

Sure they had already been prepared even after hearing the harsh truth of how the exams would be, but after seeing those few from earlier being obliterated without a single chance to fight back, their courage and bravery couldn’t help but falter.

A few moments passed in that heavy silence, moments during which countless internal battles were fought and resolved within the hearts and minds of those present.

Then, slowly at first, one of the participants raised their hand high above their head, signaling their decision to accept the examiner’s offer and remove themselves from this process.

As if that single action was the start of some inevitable chain reaction, which had broken some dam that had been holding back a flood of similar decisions, several other hands rose immediately after.

One after another they appeared, hands raised by examinees whose faces showed varying combinations of relief and shame and simple acceptance of their own limitations. The numbers grew and grew until the count of those choosing to withdraw far exceeded anything anyone present would have expected when the examiner first posed his question.

"Very well." The examiner’s voice held no judgment, disappointment, nor approval.

He flicked his sleeve dismissively, and the next moment, every single individual who had shown their willingness to forfeit vanished into thin air without a sound.

As for where they had vanished to, none of those who remained had any idea, except of course for the examiner himself, whose expression revealed absolutely nothing about their fate.

After the departure of all those who had wished to end their examinations early, the number of people still standing in that clearing, preparing to face the challenge of the mountain, had dropped significantly.

Once there had been several hundred hopeful candidates gathered in this space, their numbers representing the best of those who had survived the first test. Now, instantly, they had dropped to perhaps two hundred individuals, two hundred applicants who still wished to continue their journey, people who hoped to be accepted into the academy, who still believed that they had what it took to overcome whatever obstacles lay ahead.

"You may now commence with the examination." The examiner gave the signal with a simple nod of his head, and then, as quickly as he had appeared, he vanished from sight, leaving the examinees alone with the mountain.

Not a single second went by after his disappearance before several of the more eager examinees bolted off into the forest, their eyes blazing with determination as they plunged into the dense vegetation that separated them from the mountain’s base.

Some moved with a burning eagerness that came from absolute confidence in their own abilities, while others proceeded with the careful caution of those who had learned from the mistakes of the overconfident.

All of them, whatever their pace or their attitude, were driven by the same fundamental desire to reach that summit before the sun completed its journey across the sky.

Gunter stood trembling at the edge of the clearing as several of these individuals rushed past him, their bodies brushing against his shoulders as they plunged into the tree line, some coming so close that they nearly toppled him over in their haste to begin. 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

He flinched at each near collision, his nerves already frayed by everything that had happened so far, but once the initial surge had passed and the crowd around him had thinned somewhat, he glanced around and let out a visible sigh of relief when he noticed that Lucuis and his group were still present, just like himself.