The Retired Hero is an Extra

"This guy... he just wants to get it over with..."

The resonant words only seemed to stab the Professor's heart as if they were thorns instead.

Still, the scene of being scolded was fresh in his mind as he regained his composure and coughed to clear the awkwardness.

"Ahem, ahem. Now then, without wasting much of our time, it's time to begin the second round of the test," he said without any formalities.

Even his expression remained stern as if nothing affected him but that was his exterior facade.

"The requirements are quite simple, really." Leonard Tremayne continued, looking at Jash who responded with a slight nod.

Despite his reservations about the professor in front of him, Jash chose to listen and follow the instructions.

'There's no way she stopped paying attention, especially after our reactions,' he mused, waiting for the real instructions.

It wasn't just him who thought so, even Leonard was of the same mind as he knew that Jash was the first one to appear for the second test.

"The purpose for this second round is to test your physical ability," the professor began, catching Jash's attention.

"As prospective students of Solarnelle Academy, it's important that you're capable of utilizing your powers to their fullest," he explained.

Jash didn't respond, just looking straight at Leonard, awaiting the test itself instead of meaningless conversation.

'He's no doubt one of the senior professors, although weaker than even some younger ones,' Jash reiterated, focusing on the details

Opposite him, having confirmed that Jash was indeed paying attention, Leonard tapped his cane on the ground, producing a sharp sound.

—Thwack!

One of the walls of the room gave away, revealing complicated machinery beyond as a platform arose from the ground.

It wasn't too high, just a few centimeters above the ground, more like an elevated platform. A training dummy without any features materialized on it.

Above, a huge screen hung from the ceiling displayed real-time scores of the examinee undergoing the test.

Although there was another miniature hologram in front of Leonard, displaying the scores and ranking of everyone.

Currently it was empty as Jash would be the first one to take this test.

"The first criteria," Leonard began and pointed at the training dummy. "Physical," he said as if that were enough.

The training dummy along with the platform worked in tandem to evaluate the strength behind one's punches.

"Come," Leonard called out to Jash who turned to the training dummy with a disappointed expression on his face.

'I think he's gonna call me...' he thought, anticipating the call from the annoyed professor and that's exactly what happened.

"Where are you going? I meant, come here!" Leonard exclaimed in disbelief.

Considering Jash's status, Leonard believed that he would know the drill for such basic tests.

Alas, it was Jash who didn't do things as they were expected to be done.

He walked towards Leonard in a leisurely manner and looked him straight in the face with an expression that said, "What?"

Though Leonard did his best to reel in his emotions, his eyes twitched at the sight as he roughly put cuffs on Jash's hands.

"Mana cuffs," Leonard mentioned before Jash did something even more unsavory than last time.

A small smile plastered on Jash's face as he lamented inwardly, 'He is being overly cautious. I am not that scary, though.'

Despite his contradicting thoughts, he really did plan to blame Leonard for putting on the cuffs on him.

It didn't matter that he recognized them or was already aware of the entire procedure of the second test.

'Or at least until it also has some hidden agenda,' he thought, recalling the complex first test which many failed.

After all, it didn't matter if they deciphered the hidden intent or not, the next test would continue without any problems.

"Now, go do your best," Leonard told Jash after seeing the latter admire the mana cuffs instead of moving.

As their name suggested, mana cuffs blocked the mana of a hunter depending on their rank and were mainly used to isolate hunter criminals.

However, they also eased the process of testing the body and making it stronger without mana itself.

Of course, some may consider it inhumane or brutal, but it didn't matter to the Solarnelle Academy, or anyone for that matter.

'At least it's regulated and few can get their hands on it,' Jash sighed as he caressed the black cuffs flowing with a strange network of runes.

'Literally everything works with runes, maybe I should learn them,' he thought as he reached the training dummy and felt his connection to mana being cut off.

"Hmm," Jash hummed and closed his eyes, put his right foot forward, and turned his body a bit.

He stretched his arms a bit, relaxing his legs to get rid of any tension built up previously as Leonard closely observed him.

He tapped a few places on the hologram, nodding to himself at Jash's preparations instead of randomly throwing a punch.

The thought that Jash wasn't just trying to get this over crossed his mind but he immediately dimmed it.

Oblivious to the complex mood of his proctor, Jash took a deep breath and concentrated on the dummy opposite him.

With that single deep breath, Jash opened his eyes and punched the machine,

—Bam!

A loud noise echoed in the silent room as Jash moved away, straightening his arm by jerking it randomly in order to not feel the sting on his knuckles.

He soon got the hang of it after five seconds and turned around to look at the dummy—its chest where he had punched, to be precise.

"So, not even the slightest mark, huh?" Jash muttered as a frown marred his face before he turned around to the proctoring professor.

Meanwhile, Leonard doubted his eyes and the machine itself as the resultant value was not something an early E-Rank hunter could achieve.

Of course, Jash couldn't see it as he would only be able to see the total results from this round and he was aware of it.

"Professor! Professor!" Jash called out repeatedly a few times but got no response and just as he was about to punch...

"Yeah, what?" Leonard blurted out as he felt a punch closing in on his face, but it stopped as soon as his voice leaked.

It turned out Jash felt annoyed for wasting his time and was about to punch Leonard in the face to get his attention.

In the end, he just smiled awkwardly and put his hands behind his back, but abruptly brought them forward.

"What now?" Leonard asked, his expression dark as he noticed Jash's clenched hands..

"The mana cuffs," Jash replied, pointing at them with his eyes and fingers both.

With a not-so-good expression, Leonard took off the mana cuffs and put them away.

"The next is testing your mana," Leonard mentioned and pointed to an empty wall adjacent to the one the first test was held on.

Wasting no time, Jash followed Leonard's sight while rubbing his wrists a bit as he proceeded to ready himself for the next test.

A crystal, thrice the size of an adult's palm appeared lodged on a strange black platform that had many runes on its surface.

Without wasting any time, Jash walked over to the orb and put his palm on the crystal orb.

As soon as a light yellow light glowed out of the crystal orb, Leonard stopped him, "That's enough. You can remove your hand."

'I didn't even have to channel my mana into the orb? It just checked on its own... Amazing!' Jash thought, impressed by the testing orb.