Stage 2

The Examiner started to speak, but was completely drowned out by the group of people talking to each other.

"E - excuse me. W- we will now move on to the n - next stage."

The blonde haired kid from earlier spoke for the examiner, "The examiner is speaking!"

"Thank you, a - as I mentioned before, w - we will now move onto the next stage now!"

"Everyone, f - follow me." This examiner's attitude seemed to be the exact opposite of Quintus Redflag, instead of being fierce and powerful. She seemed weak and timid.

Ell followed the group of kids anyway, even though he didn't need to take part in this test, he thought that maybe he could reach a breakthrough if he followed this group, and saw their skills. Maybe he could develop his own skill.

Skills are a big part of a person's fighting power, if an advanced (high) fought an advanced (low), and the advanced (high) had no skills and the advanced (low) had advanced tier skills, they would have almost equal fighting power.

Having a large arsenal of skills could allow a person to beat people a power level above them, however an intermediate and below can almost never beat an advanced, this is because at advanced level, a person starts to develop ki.

While Ell was thinking, they had already arrived at their location. It was a large forest, with an unpleasant atmosphere hanging around it.

"T - This is the f - forest behind the academy, you will be t - training in it, d - don't go too deep into the f - forest, the d - deeper you go, the stronger t - the beasts get, m - most of you will have t - trouble with the beasts at the e - entrance." The examiner stammered once again.

"T - This f - forest is f - full of m - magical beasts! Your g - goal is to collect up ten magical b - beast cores by the end of this w - week."

"Wait so we only get 3 days?" A kid asked.

"Y - yes."

Just as the participants started to run into the woods, the examiner hurriedly said a few last words.

"R - Remember, d - don't go past a few metres deep, t - there will be s - staff there to make s - sure you don't!"

The group of kids scattered into the trees.

Ell thought for a while and decided he would want to stay in this forest, so he could get stronger, but if he wanted to stay in this forest for so long he would have to ask Quintus if he could. Ell ran to the academy, when he got there he went straight to Quintus's room, and started to knock on the door.

"Come in." Quintus said.

Ell entered the room, "Oh it's you Ell!" Quintus's bored face immediately became full of smiles.

"Why did you sound and look so bored?" Ell asked Quintus.

"You'd be bored too, if all you had to do is look over papers all day long. When I accepted this job as the Vice Principal, I thought the Principal would do all the work, not give all of it to me."

"Anyway, why're you here?" Quintus asked.

"I want to stay in the forest behind the academy for as long as possible."

Quintus's seemed hesitant to respond to Ell's request, he was biting his lip not sure how to respond to that request.

"I mean, you are technically 3rd year so you would have access to that." Quintus mumbled to himself.

"Come with me kid, we need to go see the Principal."

They exited Quintus's room, and walked up the carpet up to the stairs, the staircase seemed as if it were never ending, the staircase spiralled up forever. As the two walked up the staircase, Ell was puzzled, "How can this academy fit something so big inside it?"

Quintus smiled, "Magic."

Seeing Ell's still confused gaze, he continued.

"You see this staircase was said to be made by an acquaintance of the Master Swordswoman who founded this academy. She created a powerful pocket dimension, which is what we are standing in currently."

They finally reached the Principal's room, the door was powerful and oppressing. It felt as if it were looming over you.

"Hey Principal! Come out! I need to talk to you about something!" Quintus shouted.

The Quintus opened the door and behind it, Ell could see the Principal.