"But before the ranking will be revealed, there’s something that you all must know. The purpose of this squad assessment was to prepare you and see how you’ll approach new dangers.

The academy never intended for any squad to destroy an orc village. The real assessment was how many orcs each squad could kill by cooperating." The teacher announced.

"Ah, now it makes sense!"

"Those orcs were too strong and could move fast, I was wondering if the academy was trying to kill us. Turns out we were only supposed to kill a few orcs."

"Now I feel much better, my squad killed half of the orcs in the village we went to before getting saved."

Right after hearing the announcement, the relieved voices of students buzzed around the platform. In their opinion, it now made sense that they couldn’t destroy the orc villages, the orcs were just too strong.

Some had even lost to the patrolling orc teams!

In the corner, Ivan and his squad members glanced at each other after hearing this. Realising that they had surpassed the academy’s expectations for the assessment.

This should help boost their score, right? Unless other squads also managed to clear an orc village or even two.

"Now, the ranking will be revealed. First, the individual assessment ranking!" The teacher’s voice rang out.

The platform instantly fell into silence as in that moment, a gigantic, semi-transparent screen appeared in the air above the platform. On the screen were hundreds of names, and the students immediately moved their eyes towards the screen and started searching for their names.

Hundreds of eyes filled with anticipation and nervousness scanned the screen.

Since only the top ten on the ranking would receive rewards, the majority of the students started their search from the top.

Ivan and his group weren’t an exception as their eyes flew to the name at the top of the ranking.

A glint flashed through Ivan’s eyes upon seeing the name in first place and a small grin formed on his lips.

.....

1/ IVAN CASTELLAN. SCORE: 200.

...

"What? Ivan is in first place? How’s that possible?"

"Isn’t he just a paladin? How did he get first place on the ranking? And his score is ahead of second place by 50!"

"Shhh, the individual assessment only included answering questions and the physical assessment. His Paladin-class has nothing to do with it."

Students started to discuss after realising that Ivan had ranked first on the ranking and had surpassed the name in second place by a whole fifty marks!

Each of them had different opinions about this but the majority of them felt that it wasn’t strange that Ivan had come in first place. After all, it could have been any of the other students from other big families.

After seeing his name in first place, Lena and the other three congratulated him. This meant that Ivan was going to receive five mana cores from the academy!

Ivan smiled and didn’t say anything else, continuing to look at the rest of the names on the ranking.

In second place was Kelvin Ledin who had scored 150. Ivan knew the Ledin family, they were another first-rate noble family on this continent but Ivan didn’t know this kid.

Moving on, third place was actually Aiden Belmont with 148 marks.

In fourth place, Lena’s name appeared and she had scored 147 points. Being only two marks away from surpassing Aiden.

Just like when Ivan’s name appeared in first place, the members of the group congratulated Lena and they saw that she made it into the top ten.

They turned their focus back to the screen.

As he looked, Ivan started to notice that the names he had come across so far were members of big families. Could the academy be playing tricks and purposely placing students from noble families on the ranking?

But this thought ended after Ivan arrived at the name in 8th place.

8/ JULIET DEVARUS. SCORE: 140.

Juliet, who was from an ordinary family, had managed to make it into the top ten of the ranking!

She wasn’t the only one, the following two names were students from ordinary families as well.

Seems like the ranking was based on the actual performance of the students.

After realising that their names weren’t amongst the top ten, voices of dissatisfaction and disbelief filled the platform.

Some had missed the top ten by just one point while others couldn’t accept what they were seeing.

The teacher gave them a moment to react before telling everyone to calm down as the ranking for the squad assessment was about to appear.

The students immediately stopped talking. Although some were still grumbling, they turned their attention back to the giant screen in the air.

Under the gaze of hundreds of students, the names on the screen disappeared and new names appeared. This time, there were five names after each rank number.

The eyes of all the students immediately flew to the names in first place.

The next moment, gasps resounded through the platform as the students stared at the five names in disbelief.

"H-how is this possible?!"

"There has to be something wrong, something is definitely wrong with the ranking!"

"One hundred points? What’s the full mark for the squad assessment?"

"If that’s really the case, then Lena and Juliet must have done all the work; no way that was a team effort!"

"I can’t accept this, how did a squad of random abilities get first place?!"

The students argued. Meanwhile, Ivan, Lena, Aaron, Juliet, and Lucas stared at the screen in silence from the corner of the platform.

They could already feel dozens of eyes gazing at them intently but didn’t react. They were still confirming that what they were seeing was right.

After some time.

"Yes! We did it, we actually got first place!" Lena voiced out, pumping her fists into the air with a bright smile on her face.

She ignored the expressions of the students looking at them as she celebrated, she didn’t care about them!

Lena grabbed Juliet’s shoulders and shook her back and forth while repeating that they got first place.

"Stop stop! I’m feeling dizzy!!" Juliet called out but Lena wasn’t listening.

Aaron and Lucas laughed at this while Ivan just smiled, he was thinking of something else.

Since their squad had come in first place, could it be that they were the only ones who managed to destroy an orc village?

"Quiet,"

A powerful pressure suddenly descended on the platform, startling the students so much that they instantly stopped talking. Looking at the source, it was the teacher who was standing in front of the dungeon gate.

The other party looked at the students after making them shut up and let out a sigh. He couldn’t blame them for how they reacted because he had also been surprised when he learned of this a few moments ago.

He was still in disbelief after the Vice Dean told him why Ivan’s squad had such a high.

Clearing his throat, he opened his mouth and said.

"You all must be wondering why their squad came in first place. The reason is that their squad was able to destroy an orc village."

Gasps were heard after the teacher said this, but it looks like he wasn’t done yet.

"While they weren’t the only squad that destroyed an orc village, the village they destroyed had two orc wizards!" The teacher announced again, shocking the students even more.

This time however, Ivan and his group were also shocked to hear that they weren’t the only ones who defeated an orc village.

Ivan stared at the squad in second place.

...

Aiden Belmont. Kelvin Ledin. Josh Westwood. Annie Whitestone. Alex Gragit.

.....

’Three from first-rated noble families and two from second-rated noble families, must be them.’ Ivan thought after realising that the second squad on the ranking were made up of the students from big families that were known for their talents as beastmen.

After the teacher informed everyone why Ivan’s squad had come in first place, he said that except for those in the top ten individual ranking and the squad members in the top five of the squad ranking, everyone else could return to their lodge.

Still murmuring in disbelief and dissatisfaction, the students left; leaving only a small number of students on the platform. They were the winners of this assessment and were now going to receive their rewards.

Ivan stood with his squad members. Other students like Aiden were also standing with their squads while a few others stood alone.

Ivan glanced around but couldn’t find Mrs Avalor. At this moment, he didn’t know why he remembered the old man who had told Mrs Avalor to follow them into the dungeon.

To be able to order the Vice Dean like that, that old man definitely had to be the Dean, right?

’But why were they here in the first place? The Dean and Vice Dean shouldn’t come out because of some first years’ assessment’ Ivan thought to himself.

"Ivan Castellan,"