Entering the core area, reactions from all parties

Jiang City, Wenchang Plaza.

The College Entrance Examination, as a national event, not only has invigilator perspectives but also broadcast perspectives.

Wenchang Plaza is the only plaza in the north of the city where the College Entrance Examination can be watched live.

Unlike the thousands of projection screens in the invigilation rooms, there are only two split screens here.

One shows the Combat Exam score rankings, and the other displays random College Entrance Examination footage.

At this moment, Lin Xuan's aunt's family was watching the live broadcast from a corner of the plaza.

"Mom, they're showing my cousin's screen now."

"It's Lin Xuan? Quickly help me see if he's injured. This child, he's the only male heir left in the Lin family, why did he decide to participate in the Combat Exam?"

"And you two, knowing he signed up for the Combat Exam, why didn't you tell me earlier? Otherwise, I would have taken out all our family's savings to get Lin Xuan some suitable equipment before the exam."

The speaker was a middle-aged woman with some graying hair and a cloth tied around her eyes.

Her words were filled with concern for Lin Xuan.

"Mom, we were just worried about you, having just had surgery, and affecting your recovery. Besides, my cousin is not simple; before the College Entrance Examination, he was ranked first on the Freshman List."

"Even now, my cousin is ranked fifty-first, two places higher than my brother last year. My cousin is completely stress-free in the examination hall; he's currently eating and resting."

"Eating and resting? That's good, that's good. Lin Xuan, he's still so steady..."

While the family was discussing Lin Xuan, many others were also paying attention in other places where the broadcast was available.

At the City Lord's Mansion, three figures were gathered, watching the College Entrance Examination live broadcast.

However, they only saw Lin Xuan's screen.

"This Lin Xuan is very smart. He first leveled up his pet to level ten on the periphery to unlock its skills."

"This allows for better cooperation with the Skeleton Soldierss in surrounding and eliminating magical beasts."

"This Stone Bull Demon has very high attack power. It seems to be a rare or even mutated pet."

"Hmm, not bad. It can be confirmed that his talent is defense-oriented."

"Otherwise, the skill of that One-Eyed Giant just now should have put him into a weakened state in one hit."

"An Necromancer with a defensive talent, City Lord Luo, you really recommended a good prospect."

"It's still a bit short now. If that Jun Bujain is him..."

While the outside world was buzzing with discussion, the examination hall was equally intense.

At 5 PM, with two hours remaining until the end of the College Entrance Examination.

Lin Xuan had finished resting and was now wandering through the leader area.

The leader area, naturally, did not have as dense a concentration of magical beasts as other areas.

However, the combat power here was very high.

Lin Xuan was also cautious along the way.

"According to past years' practice, the examination hall will arrange a guardian BOSS five levels higher than the highest-level freshman."

"When the rankings were locked, I was level fifteen, ranked first."

"That means there's a level twenty BOSS here."

Lin Xuan's gaze was sharp as he looked into the depths, not daring to be careless.

A level twenty BOSS already possesses intelligence.

They won't attack mindlessly.

Facing a summoner like him, who summons Skeleton Soldierss, the opponent will be smart enough to focus fire on the summoner himself.

"If it's an offensive or tank-type BOSS, I wouldn't be too worried. What I'm afraid of now is a control-type BOSS."

Skeleton Soldierss are very fragile; a level fifteen ordinary monster can kill his Skeleton Soldiers in five hits.

Leader-level ones only need two or three hits.

As for a level twenty BOSS, it could probably kill a Skeleton Soldiers in one hit without even releasing a skill.

If the guardian in the examination hall is a control-type BOSS, and it first group-controls both his Skeleton Soldierss and him, then instantly kills the Skeleton Soldierss while ignoring Silly Cow, then he might indeed encounter a bit of danger.

"Movement, crowd control removal, area of effect attacks, after the College Entrance Examination, I must learn new skills or continue upgrading Summon Undead."

When the Summon Undead skill reached level five, it gained a special effect: before level ten, each level-up would unlock a new Undead troop type.

This meant that before level six, he could only summon warriors wielding skeleton blades.

From level six onwards, each skill cast would randomly summon a few skeleton blademasters along with a few other troop types.

According to the knowledge learned in textbooks, at level six, this skill would mostly summon Skeleton Archers, which is equivalent to having a ranged attack skill.

This is a significant increase in combat power.

However, leveling from five to six not only requires skill points but also a breakthrough quest.

Lin Xuan had checked before.

The breakthrough quest refreshed by the skill requires killing ten death-elemental BOSSes.

Most of the magical beasts near Jiang City are nature-elemental.

"It seems this breakthrough will have to wait until the city where my university is located, or I'll have to check nearby cities after the College Entrance Examination."

Mulling it over, Lin Xuan directed his Skeleton Soldierss to delve deeper.

[Killed Leader-level Frost Giant Wolf, Silly Cow gains +1000 experience]

[Killed Elite One-Eyed Giant, Silly Cow gains +200 experience]

Kill notifications kept popping up on the panel, and Lin Xuan's ranking on the score-counting wristband was rapidly changing.

Ever since he started venturing into the core area, his ranking had been soaring.

In just one hour, he had risen from his original fifty-seventh place to thirtieth.

This process was quickly noticed by those monitoring the rankings.

Geland Forest examination hall.

Beside the corpse of a Shaman Tauren Leader, Shen Hongying scrolled through the rankings and exclaimed in surprise, "Qinghan, Lin Xuan has started to make his move! His ranking is rising rapidly. It seems just as you predicted, he has entered the core area."

Upon hearing this, Lu Qinghan's face showed no change.

However, not far away, a silver-armored man squatting on the ground and eating mumbled, "Ugh... Lin Xuan, is that the Necromancer you mentioned, Hong Ying? Can a common profession like his really catch up to the three of us?"

The man chewed as he ate, his mouth full of food scraps.

Shen Hongying frowned when she saw this.

"Stop mumbling! Hurry and eat. We need to enter the core area too after you're done."

"Ah, can't we rest for a bit? I'm a Storm Knight, not a Paladin, which can both tank and deal damage!"

"Less nonsense, eat quickly."

Similar scenes were not only happening with Lu Qinghan, who had interactions with Lin Xuan.

Giant City Ruins.

A man in ancient attire, holding a long sword, split open the body of a Frost Giant Wolf with one strike, then looked at the Combat Exam rankings and frowned.

Their team was a classic warrior-mage-priest three-profession combination.

They almost never had to worry about mistakes when killing magical beasts.

Because of this, even though they had two rare professions and one common, their ranking was not low.

He was currently the captain, ranked fourth.

However, from beginning to end, he had not relaxed.

He had been constantly watching Lin Xuan, who was also a common profession and rumored to have leveled his Summon Undead skill to five.

"We need to speed up. Someone has started to break into the core area."

After saying this, the man in ancient attire and his teammates began to walk towards the core area.

And not far from them, a warrior with dual blades twirled his blades and looked at the rankings.

"Huh, Lin Xuan's ranking is rising so fast!"

"Zhai Bing, is he really as you said, with his skill leveled to five?"

"How could it be fake? I personally saw thirty-two Skeleton Soldierss crawl out of the magic circle."

The one who replied to the dual-blade warrior was a man in overalls with two pistols tucked into his waistband.

After saying this, his expression changed, and he whispered, "I really don't know why that kid has such good luck. Leveling up to five requires fourteen skill points!"

"I only got five skill points from grinding dungeons for a week!"

The dual-blade man shook his head after hearing this.

He glanced sideways at the woman who was recovering from her injuries nearby.

He suddenly felt a bit regretful for teaming up with the two of them.

"I just want to get a good score. I hope I haven't provoked Lin Xuan."