Chapter 102: Master Alchemist Examination Begins
After hearing the old man speak, Albert, Marie, and Charles walked closer to the stage to listen to what the old man was saying.
Their confidence undoubtedly took a bit of a hit after being humiliated by the apprentices of the grandmaster alchemists but still, they will not let themselves fail after travelling so far.
In addition, they didn't want their kind city lord to be disappointed. A good performance starts with listening to the rules so they walked closer and listened carefully to the old man.
"To all of you alchemists who are here to take the examination, I welcome you to Hellinsvale City, the headquarters of the alchemist association."
"I would like to congratulate all of you for reaching this far."
The old man paused and scanned the crowd before continuing.
"I see that there are even young men and women here who are trying to become master alchemists at such a young age. Truly talented individuals!"
"Without further ado, I shall explain the rules of the examination."
After hearing that the old man will finally begin to explain everything about the examination, all alchemists' expressions including Albert, Marie, and Charles turned serious.
Seeing that everyone was carefully listening to him, the old man was satisfied.
"The first phase of the examination will be a written exam which will have questions ranging from basic alchemy techniques all the way to master alchemy techniques."
"In addition to this, there will also be questions about flame control and ingredient properties."
"To sum it all up, everything that you are expected to know as a master alchemist is included in the written exam."
"There will be no passing marks. However, only the top 500 on the scoreboard will be able to proceed to the second exam so do your best.
Some alchemists who just came to try their luck gulped upon hearing the rules of the first phase, the written exam.
It seems that luck will not get them very far.
Albert, Marie, and Charles were also nervous but not too much.
They've buried themselves in books ever since they started their journey in alchemy and they've been training in alchemy for at least 14 hours a day so they've got some confidence that they will at least be in the top 500.
However, getting a high rank in the examination is an entirely different thing. Not only do they have to pass, but they also have to get high marks on every phase of the examination.
Earlier, they learned that master alchemists not only have different tiers, they also have different ranked badges.
These badges show a master alchemist's rank during the master alchemist examination.
The badges had five ranks, with Diamond being the highest, followed by platinum, then gold, then silver, and the lowest was bronze.
For example, after the exam, there would be a tier 1 bronze master alchemist and a tier 1 diamond master alchemist.
These badge ranks shall determine their statuses when faced with another master alchemist in the future.
After a few more moments, the old man got down from the stage.
The staff members also assisted the examinees and led them toward their respective examination rooms.
Unfortunately, Albert, Marie, and Charles were not assigned to the same room.
An examination room has 100 people each and there are around twelve examination rooms so there should be more than 1,100 people who are taking the exam.
Since only 500 can pass the first phase, there would be more than 600 examinees who will be eliminated just from the first phase.
A truly brutal elimination rate.
After everyone had been assigned to their respective seats in their respective rooms, a proctor was assigned to each room.
The proctors will watch the examinees while they're taking the exam to prevent cheaters.
After a few more moments, the proctor started handing out the examination papers.
All of the examinees were shocked upon seeing that there were 15 pages back to back. It seems that this would be a long examination.
"You have 4 hours to complete the examination. Your completion times will be recorded, In case there is someone with the same score as you, your rankings will be decided by the completion time."
"That's all from me, you may begin!"
Albert took his pen out and started skimming through the questions. A few minutes later, his knitted eyebrows slowly rose.
"A-are these the questions? Aren't these…too easy?"
Albert thought to himself. Marie and Charles also thought that the questions here were too easy for them so they just started answering everything.
Finally, after only 2 hours, Albert stood up
The proctor and the other examinees were puzzled by his actions.
"Hey, you, standing is not allowed during th–"
The proctor was shocked after Albert handed his exam papers to him.
"O-Oh, sorry for standing up, I'm done with my exam so I'm just here to turn in my papers…"
Albert replied respectfully
"W-What? You're already done? Then you may leave the room and wait for the results later in the scoreboard."
After Albert left the room, the other examinees scoffed.
"He probably didn't know the answers to the exam so he just guessed everything. What a bozo!"
"That's what you get for attempting the master examination too early!"
Hearing that the room was getting a little bit too noisy, the proctor stopped them from talking to each other.
"Silence, please, focus on your exams. Speaking to each other is not allowed."
The other examinees went silent after the warning from the proctor. However, in their minds, they were excited to see the dejected face of that young man after the results were out.
Once the room was quiet, the proctor skimmed through Albert's answers and his annoyed expression was slowly replaced with shock.
"T-This young man!"
Similar reactions were garnered by Marie and Charles upon submitting their examination papers. Due to this, the proctors remembered their names.
After the examination, they shall inform their superiors about these unknown talented young men and women.
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