It wasn't even Raymond's fault that Thomas had died! Yet his readers all cursed at him, even leaving several bad reviews!
The fallout from Thomas's death was so large he had to literally apologize to his readers by doing a mass release of several free chapters just to slightly appease them.
That mass release probably cost Raymond several years of his life. Having to pull constant all nighters and even having to write during his lunch breaks.
He had sealed the system on Earth to the point he didn't even have the stats, so each all nighter made him feel like shedding tears of blood.
Seeing him alive and well again. Raymond was reminded of his life on Earth again.
How he missed his comfortable life on Earth!
Although looking back on it...
Was his life on Earth really that comfortable?
Constantly being scolded by his boss, constantly staying up late into the night, having no friends or family...
He shook his head, bad thoughts like this were what caused one to fall down into a rabbit hole of self doubt.
Focusing back on Thomas, he could see he got a score of 95. Three points higher then Rayez.
The small crowd of 50 or so seemed excited at his score reveal. Scores above 90 were literally one in a billion or maybe even rarer.
A score of 95 basically guaranteed that they would be able to reach the S rank. SS rank was a bit more of a gamble, typically requiring a score of 95 minimum and a lot of resources and hardwork.
Naturally, these scores were just educated guesses. Resources and hard work were also important factors in determining someone's future.
Some people with scores of 90+ never reached the S rank in their lives and many with scores less then 90 managed to reach the S rank.
Silently returning from the stage, several people in the crowd approached Thomas.
Considering he was someone who had a really good chance of becoming an S rank. They might as well shoot their shot bow and try to become friends with this powerhouse in advance!
As several more people were called out in a row, Raymond slowly tuned everyone out.
All of these people were basically extras anyways. They had no importance to Raymond.
Even though the lowest score so far was a 57, enough to be considered a genius in other schools. Here in the Academy for Heroes, it was just below average.
Finally Ellen was called up, standing there quietly with her arm on the machine.
"The teacher just said Grace didn't she?"
"She must be from the Grace family. She's definitely got a high potential score! "
"I'm gonna try to approach her after this, Maybe she'll fall for my good looks!"
Mentally memorizing the appearance of the last guy, he added him onto his list of enemies which so far only included him.
"97! "
97? Ellen's score was only supposed to be 96! This made her equal with Noelle now!
As Ellen descended from the stage, a swarm of people immediately approached her.
"Hey Ellen! Do you remember me? Our families are really close!"
"Hey Ellen can I have your number!"
"Miss please step on me!"
Mentally memorizing the appearance of everyone who approached her as well especially the last guy. He got ready to try and get the crowd off her back.
He still needed to play his part as a shadow after all!
"Raymond Vance. "
Nevermind then, good luck Ellen.
Ignoring Ellen who gave him the meanest glare yet, he went up the stage and put his arm on the machine.
Channeling his mana into the machine, he cautiously adjusted the quantity he put in.
'This should be enough for a 96 right?'
The exact requirements to get into the special class were u known but doing very well on the written exam and getting a high score definitely put him near the list.
After calculating it in his head, he turned to the academy employee.
Her face went pale as she looked at the score.
"Excuse me miss? Am I finished now?"
"I'm sorry, I need to call the principal. Please wait here. "
Uh oh, Raymond couldn't see what score he had gotten from where he was standing but with her expression Raymond could tell he messed up somewhere.
Silently casting a spell which let him see from a point he specified, he chose a small corner on the wall behind her.
Closing his eyes, he could see as if his eyes were on the wall he had chosen.
Focusing his gaze onto the small screen in front of the employee who was frantically calling someone. He found his score.
[100]
...
"... Shit."
Bang!
The door to the room they were in bust open. In came the principal, looking as if he had run the whole way.
"Where is he!"
Pointing at Raymond, Lucius stormed up onto the stage. Each step thundering loudly and grabbed Raymond's hand.
Raymond instantly felt a foreign mana enter his body slightly. He was testing Raymond's mana, similar to what Rayez had done when he first met Raymond.
"It's wrong."
The employee sighed in relief at what Lucius said.
Of course, a score of 100 was impossible after all! It literally broke half of what the world kn
"The machines wrong, it's not 100."
The crowd which had went quiet at the principals arrival, slowly got louder at hearing that.
The principals face darkened as he stared at Raymond, his arm still tightly gripped around Raymond's wrist.
"Boy, your score is over 100. Our machines literally cannot measure anything above 100. Even i can't measure your score exactly. I can only roughly estimate that its somewhere in the high one hundreds, maybe around 180."
His words confirmed Raymond's darkest fear. He messed up when controlling his mana. Closing his eyes, he gave himself a silent prayer.
'Goodbye my quiet comfortable life.'
The crowd practically exploded, ignoring Ellen whom they had been fawning over and rushing as close as they could get towards Raymond.
Looking back and forth between the principal's serious expression and the eyes of the crowd which seemed like they wanted to devour Raymond whole. He briefly made eye contact with Ellen.
Her face was blank, but her eyes told him everything he needed to know.
...
Sitting next to Ellen, the awkward silence between them was so unbelievably tangible. Raymond was pretty sure he could touch it.
They were lead into a break room now since they had a few minutes now before they announced the next exam which they were supposed to use to rest.
Raymond himself was tired as hell. After promising to meet with the principal again after the entrance exams concluded. Raymond had to battle through a crowd of people hungry for even the smallest chance to lick his boots.
After locating Ellen sitting quietly in a corner. Raymond used an excuse of wanting some quiet to buy himself some peace.
Taking a sip from his soda can, Raymond could barely even taste the fizzy sweet liquid.
Choosing to break the silence, he acted as nonchalant as possible.
"I think...i may have slightly miscalculated how much purer my mana was."
Raymond's should have realized. He was so caught up in his calculations to get a 96 that he had forgot something very crucial.
He had recently gotten his full race bonuses back!
Such a thing was supposed to be celebrated yet right now Raymond couldn't help but curse at it.
His precious comfortable school life was gone now!
Granted even if was only a 96 and how he was going to join the special class. It wasn't really that comfortable to begin with but still!
Raymond felt seriously wronged with how Ellen looked at him.
"It's not my fault okay! I guess i ended up recovering more of my strength recently then i thought and i didn't account for how much of a difference it could make!"
Honestly Raymond couldn't even blame her that much. Quite a lot of their plans required Raymond being relatively lowkey while Ellen was the one who would be in the spotlights. Now, years of their planning had essentially become smoke.
"After this, we'll need to run through all our plans again."
She sighed, her face suddenly looked a lot more tired.
"And don't stand out too much in the next exam as well, although its probably too late for that."
He nodded again, the upcoming battle royale was the most crucial part of the entrance exams. Raymond and Ellen both had to get a high rank there in order to join the special class and get access to certain special goodies.
Ellen in particular wanted first place for one of the rewards. Raymond didn't really care for any of the rewards and only planned on following Ellen.
This exam was a massive turning point for them. With how important the academy rankings were, Ellen wanted to make full use of the system for the next 5 years they were in this academy.
Raymond just wanted to live a quiet life in the academy until he recovered enough of his strength to leave.
Something he estimated would take him another decade or so.
That still left him several years of being weakened. Luckily he wasn't planning on fighting anything or anyone.
Although maybe he should level up a bit so he could fight the punishment monsters a little easier.
He also definitely needed to improve his magic engraving skills. His current engravings on his ring were decent enough but Raymond would have to replace it soon.
Hopefully more of his strength would have recovered to the point that he could make a much better disguise ring.
Fiddling around with the ring on his pinky, he felt a presence approach him.
"Excuse me Raymond, I just thought that you looked very cool! Can I have your number?"
A girl, with long black hair and glasses approached him. Handing him a small slip of paper. Considering Raymond didn't remember her she was probably just another NPC
'It feels kind of mean to call living people NPCs actually...'
He could clearly see a group of girls watching them right now. Although they tried to pretend they weren't looking, the occasional glances at his face gave it away.
Not very occasional actually, the group of four girls practically turned every few seconds or so to see Raymond's reaction.
"Uhmmm, did you hear me or...?"
Right, she was still waiting for his response.
"I'm sorry but as the shadow of my master Ellen, I am forbidden from having any romantic relationships. However, if you would like to be friends I would be more then happy to accept. "
Putting on his best customer service smile, he politely replied.
Naturally, there were no rules about Raymond not being allowed to have a relationship. But it was a convenient excuse for a lot of things.
He didn't even understand they were literally just turning 15 why was there such an obsession for romance or dating?
Seeing her disappointed face after he rejected her advances, he added the last part mainly because he felt bad.
"Sure! Here's my number, my name is Eleanor Gavinal!"
As she scribbled her name and number on the paper, Raymond mentally remarked at how her name was quite similar to Ellen's.
"Here you go!"
Handing him the note, she quickly scurried off back to her friends.
"What should I do with this?" Turning to Ellen, he flashed the note in his fingers at her and asked.
"Throw it away. "