Three days passed quickly.
The live combat assessment finally came to an end. The marine's assembly signal echoed across the island, and the recruits stopped what they were doing and began moving out of the forest.
In fact, by the second day, the number of ferocious beasts in the forest had already dropped sharply. By the final day, hardly any beasts could be found at all— even level 1 beasts had been taken down by large groups of recruits working together.
As they left the forest, many recruits passed through a scorched, pitch-black area that looked like a scene from hell. Just looking at it made their hearts pound with lingering fear.
"Good thing we stayed far away earlier. Otherwise, we'd have been dragged into that mess."
"Everything here was burned to ashes. That forest fire was terrifying… but how did it even start?"
"Who knows?"
The recruits walked past in small groups, all casting strange looks at the area and whispering among themselves.
In reality, although no one had been directly caught in the sea of fire on the first day, the blaze had affected all the beasts in the forest. They fell into panic and frenzy, nearly forming a beast tide, which greatly increased the difficulty of the assessment.
At this moment, outside the forest—
Roya was the first to walk out.
If on the second day he had still occasionally hunted a few beasts, then by the third day—when beasts were almost nowhere to be seen—Roya had simply waited at the forest's edge.
Hina was not with Roya. After the forest fire had been extinguished, she had gone off on her own. Her personality was strong-willed, and she did not like relying on others.
Outside the forest, Garp had also been waiting for a long time.
Seeing Roya emerge, Garp strode over and slapped him hard on the shoulder, grinning widely as he said, "Brat, you really know how to make a scene. But… well done!"
Although Roya's actions had caused enormous disturbance and even affected the entire assessment, Garp himself was a maverick who disliked being constrained by rules. Roya's chaos suited his tastes perfectly and even reminded him of his younger days.
Several marine officers nearby also looked at Roya with unusual expressions.
Born with sword aura—and a flame-type aura at that. As long as Roya didn't die prematurely, surpassing them was only a matter of time. At the very least, he would become a marine vice admiral.
Because of this, their attitude toward Roya was completely different. The way they looked at him was no longer the gaze reserved for an ordinary recruit.
However—
Garp's slap made Roya bare his teeth internally.
This damned old man really didn't hold back at all. If Roya's physique hadn't improved so much recently, he might actually have been slapped apart.
The corner of Roya's mouth twitched as he shot Garp an annoyed look.
"Does your hand hurt?"
"Uh…bwahahaha."
Garp looked awkward for a moment, but he was already used to Roya's way of speaking. He lifted the large hand resting on Roya's shoulder, scratched the back of his head, and laughed dryly a couple more times.
Roya sighed helplessly, rubbing his shoulder with a gloomy expression as he walked off to the side.
Gradually, the recruits began emerging from the forest one after another. Most of them looked rather battered, with more or less signs of combat on their bodies.
In addition to the recruits, rescue teams specially assigned to this assessment continued moving back and forth through the forest.
After all, it was a forest—getting lost was normal, and not everyone could make it back on their own. Fortunately, surveillance covered the entire area, and within half a day the forest was completely cleared.
There were casualties in the end, but most were injuries. Only two deaths occurred.
Compared to actual battles against pirates, this was far better. If fighting pirates had been used directly as the assessment, casualties would have been at least ten times higher.
Aside from those with severe injuries, recruits with light injuries or none at all were given half a day to rest. This time was also used by the assessment team to compile results, as well as for the warship's return to Marineford.
Soon, half a day passed, and the warship finally arrived back at the Marine Headquarters.
At a plaza within Marineford, all recruits—except Roya, who was with Garp, and a few severely injured ones who could not attend—had finished tidying themselves up and gathered together.
Since the officer announcing the results had not yet appeared, the assembled recruits began whispering among themselves, many of them animated.
"How many did you kill?"
"Heh, I took down at least three level 3 beasts. As for level 4 and level 5 ones, there were too many to count," one recruit said smugly.
"Tch. I killed a level.2 beast."
Another recruit spoke disdainfully. The difficulty between each beast level differed by several times, and the points awarded differed by at least the same margin.
This immediately drew shocked looks from those nearby. Some even showed envy. It wasn't that they hadn't encountered level 2 beasts—it was that they simply couldn't kill them and had only managed to flee.
"By the way, who do you think got first place this time?"
"Definitely Drake. I heard he killed a level 1 beast all by himself."
At those words, the surrounding recruits sucked in cold breaths.
They had already heard how powerful level 1 beasts were before the assessment. Even elite-camp recruits couldn't be sure of victory in a one-on-one fight.
Yet Drake had killed one alone. That level of strength clearly placed him far above everyone else.
That alone qualified him for the elite camp.
Many people couldn't help but look toward Drake in the crowd, their eyes filled with awe.
Just then, footsteps sounded from the front of the plaza. All the recruits immediately stopped talking, straightened their backs, and looked forward.
"At ease. Attention!"
"The scores have been tallied. These are your results from the live combat assessment. They will now be announced."
The marine rear admiral at the front spoke solemnly. Several officers beside him pulled up screens and used projection Den Den Mushi to display a ranking list.
All the recruits stared fixedly at the screen, first searching for their own names. Upon seeing their results, some sighed in relief, some showed unwillingness, and others beamed with excitement.
After finding their own rankings, many recruits began looking upward—yet they could not find the names they were expecting.
As confusion spread, a voice rang out.
"The results for the top ten are not shown here. I will announce them personally."
The rear admiral spoke seriously, gesturing for the officers to put away the screens and projection Den Den Mushi, then took out a list.
Only then did the recruits realize what was happening. They listened intently as the rear admiral began reading out familiar names.
"Tenth place: Sol!"
"Ninth place: Hugh!"
"…"
As several names were read out in succession, the recruits below showed little surprise. The results were mostly as expected, with only slight shifts in ranking.
"Fourth place: Hughes!"
As the rankings climbed higher, the rear admiral's tone slowed. From fifth place onward, he paused briefly after each announcement.
When Hughes' name was called, many recruits could no longer contain themselves and began whispering with strange expressions.
"Hughes is really strong. He should've made the top three. I didn't expect him to be pushed down to fourth."
"That's pretty odd."
The rear admiral ignored the murmurs, swept his gaze across the recruits, and continued.
"Third place: Drake!"
The moment the name was spoken, the entire plaza fell into dead silence.
Not only Drake himself, but all the recruits present were stunned, their faces filled with disbelief.
Drake… was only third?!