Lars’s exam began. First, he was giveion to decide which csses to ban during the drafting phase. It was a great opportunity to earn himself some points before the actual match, but he didn’t care all.

  “Nah, I don’t like banning, dude.” Lars shrugged. “Just ban whatever, I’mma beat anything they pick. The strohey are, the harder they fall, yo!”

  “I see you’re quite fident.” Aron frowned. “You know you’re about to py against members from our club, right?”

  “Yeah, no biggie.” Lars grinned and raised three fingers. “I’m Ptinum III, yo,. Let ‘em at me and I’mma knock ‘em out!”

  “You said Ptinum?” Gilbert’s blinked.

  “That’s sure rare.” Aron nodded in agreement, but he was far from impressed. Lars wasn’t their first Ptinum didate this exam. And, more than anything, he couldn't stomach Lars’s attitude. “Just so you know, Ptinum III is currently the lowest rank among our members. Most of us are at least in Diamond.”

  “Oh! Cool!” Lars wasn’t fazed at all. Rather, his eyes lit up and his grin only grew bigger. “Finally some real challeo tell ya the truth, the grind in Ptinum have been kinda stale tely, so this is awesome! Let me at ‘em already!”

  “Alright, I got it. I’ll hahe banning.” Aron sighed. This kid resembled a certain idiot in the club a bit too much to his liking. Based on his experience, words didn’t work mu these simpletons, they had to experience everything on their flesh. There’s no doubt Lars was going to sing a very different song after fag his ne oppo, who happeo be the very idiot Aron had in mind.

  After the first banning phase came to an end, it was time to pick csses. The eeam got to ban first, so Lars’s team got to pick a css first. During su important exam, it was the smartest to wait until your ne oppo picked their css first, so you could ter-

  “Okay, gimme Trickshooter please.” Lars requested right away.

  “You want to pick first?” Aron frowned. “Don’t tell me Trickshooter is the only css you py?”

  “Nah, ya think I could make it to Ptinum pying just one css? But Trickshooter is still my number one dude, yo.”

  “Alright, so you’re sure you want to pick first?”

  “Yep, lemme grab dat Trickshooter.”

  “If their Carry ters your pick, you’ll have a very hard time showing us your full strength. Of course, we’ll have to factor in the fact it was a bad matchup for you, but you’ll most likely leave a ive impression.”

  “Heh, w about me? And I thought you were some stuck up jerk.”

  “Whoa, he went and called his examiner a jerk.” Gilbert cealed a muffled ugh.

  “W? No, I...” Aroed his eyes. Right, what was he doing? It’s his policy to be ruthless with newbies. It’s just that the resembnce was s, that he mistook Lars for that other idiot for a moment. “Anyway, what were you saying about a ‘stuck up jerk’?” Aron wore the usual stoic expression, but his eyes emitted death rays.

  “A-Ahaha, I just heard some nasty stuff from others.” Lars rolled his eyes and scratched his head. “Like, how you’re a ruthless mastermind examiner who maniputes newbies and stuff.”

  “And, I take it you heard it from Yuel?”

  “Yeah, he- GAH!” Lars spped his own mouth. Gah! GAAAAAAH! He wasn’t supposed to reveal that! He silently stared at Aron for a few seds, then gave up. “... how did you figure?”

  “It’s hard to believe two Ptinum newbies would pop out of thin air like that. I take it you’re been grinding ranks together?”

  “Yeah...” Lars kept staring at Aron, awaiting judgment. Acc to the rules, Yuel wasn’t supposed to discuss his exam with others.

  “Well, I suppose it’s fine.” Aron said. “Knowing him, he was selective about what he told you. He didn’t strike me as the type to unnecessary take risks.”

  “Yeah, he just told me to behave myself around ya, because there’s like 120% ce you gonna hate my guts or something, haha.”

  “And, it seems like that advice was pletely wasted on you.”

  “Yeah. I mean, we’re totally best buds already, right? There was no reason to worry at all.”

  “Huh.” Best buds? Aro like throwing up from disgust. “Anyway, what else Yuel told you? Was there anything ing the skills or pystyles of our members?”

  “Hmm.” Lars geried recalling Yuel’s words, he gave up on hiding anything from Aron. “ht! He also said there’s some guy with a shield.”

  “A guy with a shield?”

  “Yeah, something like that. Or, maybe the guy himself is the shield? I don’t really remember, but he said if I py well, I may awaken the final form of this shield boss dude a some serious fight going.”

  “A ‘shield boss dude’, heh.” Even Aron failed to maintain his painst this ohe rest of the team ughed out loud, as everybody uood who Lars was talking about.

  “Okay, from now on we gonna call Howard the Shield Boss Dude.” Gilbert annouhen turo Lars. “Sorry to disappoint, but he’s not pying today. So, no ‘final form boss’ a for you, pft. Though, if you draw too much attention to yourself, you may awaken the goddess-”

  “That’s enough.”

  “Ah, my bad.” Gilbert nodded and quit his bbbing.

  “What goddess?” Lars looked at Gilbert, then at Aron, then at Gilbert, then at Aron, but they preteo not hear him. “Hey, I asked what goddess? What god-”

  “Trickshooter, here you go.” Aroed the Trickshooter on Lars’s s. “Let’s move on.”.

  “Hmph, so that’s how you gonna py it.” Lars smirked. “Okey dokey, then I’mma trash yo boys one by one, until I awaken that goddess dude of yours.”

  “Heh, I don’t reend it, but good luck.” Gilbert said. “I’m going to be your Support, so anything you’d like me to pick? I’m more of a Mid pyer, so I prefer mages if possible.”

  “Anything’s fine as long as yood with it.” Lars shrugged. “If you don’t care which mage, then maybe go for Cryo so ull some wall bounbos.”

  “You really think ull that off without any practice?”

  “Yeah, no problem. Just set up a wall when I ask and I’mma figure out the rest from there.”

  “Huh.” Gilbert wore a plicated look. This kid was sure eaining, but his baseless fidence bordered on stupidity at this point.

  Landing a boung Trickshot with the help of Ice Wall was by no means an easy feat. The burden id not only with the Trickshooter, but with the ancer as well. It’s true it’s the Trickshooter’s job to make the bullet ect. However, the ancer was equally responsible, as he had to pce the wall at the right pce at the right time to make the py even possible in the first pce. It was mandatory for both pyers to be coordinated, so there’s no ce Lars and Gilbert would smoothly pull this off the first time they py together.

  “It’s his exam, so let’s eain his request” Aron said. “Pick ancer and do what you .”

  “Alright, but I’m not promising anything.” Gilbert shrugged aed ancer. Shortly afterwards, the rest of the team position was decided and the match began.

  Lars, Gilbert and Aron started off in the juo clear camps together, then split ways as Lars and Gilbert headed to Bot Laheir ne oppos were Pirate and Druid, a nasty duo. On top of that, they were trolled by veteran members from the club, who both passed this exam before. These dudes might actually be kinda strong, this was gonna be fun!

  Okay, first I’mma take out this Pirate. Lars o himself. Their “goddess” is probably that Ranger chick, but sounds like I hafta put on a show to make her take me seriously.

  After exging a couple of blows with the Pirate between minion waves, Lars went for the kill. He dashed toward the Pirate and activated Trickslide, sliding forward to quickly close the distance. While still in the middle of sliding, he fired Trickshot at a nearby wall.

  By hitting the Pirate with this sliding Trickshot, Lars was going to gain two stacks of his Attention Grabber passive, granting him extra power and speed for a short time. With these buffs, he was going to finish the job after getting closer to the Pirate. No matter how many times he executed this before, he never grew tired of it. It was one of the sickest Trickshooter pys, yo!

  “Wha- Wait, don’t just charge in like that!” Nobody saw this reckless attaing, not even Gilbert who was supposed to be Lars’s Support. To fool your enemy, you first had to fool your allies... or something, yo!

  Of course, the enemy didn’t expect this aggressioher. The Druid was low on MP and the Pirate’s Backfire on was on cooldown, so he had no way to dodge or flee. It was 120% over for him! That is, if he were alone on the ne.

  “Gah!” Lars cried out. A moment before his perfect Trickshot ected, the Druid cast Gaia’s Prote to grant the Pirate a shield. The Trickshot did nd on the Pirate, but over half of its damage was wasted oroying the shield. That’s not how it was supposed to go!

  Even though things didn’t go Lars’s way, that hit still granted him two stacks of Attention Grabber. His attack power and attack speed were boosted by 20%, enough to turn him into an immediate threat and make the Pirate retreat.

  “Gah, he got away!” Lars growled.

  “I’m still in shock he actually hat one.” Gilbert blinked as he turo Aron. “That would’ve been a kill If not for the shield, right?”

  “Hard to say...” Aron squinted his eyes as he stared at Lars’s s. It was unbelievable, this rookie fired a Trickshot out of Trickslide with pitch-perfect speed and accuracy, even Trever was caught off guard against that absurd py. It must had been a fluke, there was no other way to expin it. “Anyway, regardless of what it could or couldn’t have been, it didn’t vert into a kill in the end. It ended up as nothing more than a reckless mispy.”

  “Yeah, I got it, I got it.” Lars grumped. “Just you watch, I’mma get him ime!”

  “You know,” Gilbert said. “I really wouldn’t mind if you informed me ime before charging in. I ’t support you when you’re oher side of the ne.”

  “Oh, sorry, dude.” Lars scratched his head. “I’m so used to pying with Yuel that I fot people ’t read minds, haha. I swear dude is a telepath, yo!”

  “As long as you uand.”

  With this, Lars’s first assault ended in failure. By Aron’s harsh standards, it ted as nothing more than an uncoordinated reckless mispy. However, another examiner didn’t share that opinion at all.

  “Wow, I... I just died, right? Ha. Haha.” Trever produced a hollow ugh after retreating to safety. As a fellow Carry main, he uood the sequences of the Trickshooter’s py better than anybody.

  It all happened in an instant. As soon as the Trickshooter started sliding, the Trickshot was also already locked on Trever, there was no escape. In the split sed he found himself fazed by the Trickshooter’s py - he doomed himself to death. The timing erfect too, since Backfire on was on cooldown.

  “Bro, you really saved me there.” Trever thanked Allen, the Druid. “Good job reading that one, I’d be totally screwed without that shield.”

  “I... didn’t read it.” Allen’s grimaced.

  “Huh? What are you on about? You totally saved my ass there.”

  “Yeah, but I was already going to cast Gaia anyway.” Allen expined he was low on MP, so po cast Gaia’s Prote o time before returning to base. He barely even had the necessary MP for casting Gaia’s Prote, so the Trickshht had assumed he was out of juice at that point.

  “Heh, so you think he rushed in because he miscalcuted your MP and thought you were out of gas?”

  “Yeah, probably. Holy, I only had enough MP because I didn’t level Gaia yet. Casual pyers usually level it up right away, but thing is: Gaia’s cost goes up with each level, so I kept it at Lv.1 to not burn MP too fast. If not for that, I really wouldn’t have been able to cast it in that situation with suP.”

  And then I would have died. Trever added silently. That rookie sure pulled a fast one on them. His attack came off as a reckless charge at first gnce, but apparently he thought things through.

  o go easy on our Carry. Rather, crush him with all you’ve got. Don’t you dare holding back.

  “Heh, so that’s what he meant.” Trever grinned as he went over Aron’s instrus again. He received this private message as soon as the match began, but he didn’t take it seriously. Bullying rookies wasn’t among his hobbies so he wao py nice. However, now it was clear: against an oppo of this caliber, Trever had to get serious for real!