The Entrance Test
After dazzling performance from Elena Elsgard, there were some of talented applicants that followed her soon after and passed the test. There was a woman who passed the test by using summoning magic, a young man that can control water using magic and created giant water dragon to attack the proctors and there was also a woman that can simultaneously casted one hundred magic arrow in one time.
But the most impressive skill among the passed applicants was from a boy named Vento Aspas. He was the only applicant that passed by climbing the wall. He was not simply climbed the wall as it was impossible to climb it by ordinary mean. Vento used his skill as wind mage and casted 2nd circle wind magic [Wind Blast] from his hand and directed it on the ground below him.
He used the impact of [Wind Blast] to launch himself up into the sky. When Vento was up on the air, he continued to cast a series of wind magic called [Wind Boost] to stop him from falling and also to give him a boost to reach higher on the sky until he reached the top of the wall and passed through it. Then, he used [Air Cushion] to slow the fall and soften his landing.
At the moment, Ren fixed his gaze on a man, who Ren believed has the same age as him. As Ren looked at the man's face, it felt like a familiar face to him but he couldn't remember who it was belong to. The man currently attempted to cast a magic spell. A red magic spell appeared on the man right man as he aimed it towards Professor Siegfried.
[Flame Shot Explosion]
After the man shouted its magic's name, a fire suddenly appeared from the magic circle and went fast towards Professor Siegfried, who tried to block the attack using 1st circle earth magic [Stone Pillar].
The ground in front of Professor Siegfried suddenly shaking as a yellow circle appeared on it and a pillar made out of stone came out from the circle. Upon contact of the two spell made the flame exploded and created five more small flame shot and targeted at Professor Siegfried.
At the sudden attack, Professor Siegfried cannot dodged it on time and forced to receive it head on. The impact of attack caused a small fog around Professor Siegfried. All of the applicants there including Ren could not saw what had happened to Professor Siegfried as the small fog prevented them to do so.
Ren heard a loud laugh that came from the fog and as the fog dissipated little by little, he saw a Professor Siegfried's silhouette standing still in the fog. After the fog fully evaporated, Ren saw Professor Siegfried just standing there - unscathed. There were four floating stone, which having same colour and shape encircled him.
"That was brilliant. It is clever of you to overlap two magic in one attack."
Professor Siegfried began to compliment the man while laughing amusingly. He swept the dirt that stuck on his attire.Then, he continued to spoke.
"So you casted [Flame Shot Explosion] and [Crimson Lotus Flame] on single magic circle. I don't know that one of applicants this year is so talented to use Magic Overlap."
Magic Overlap. It is a technique that combine to magic of the same type and launch it on a single attack. Ren had saw this technique used by mage numerous times in his previous life, so it was not uncommon. However, it was easier said that done. Although, this technique was common, but this technique was difficult to implement, even for a graduate mage students. For a mage, who was not even a student of magic academy can executed this technique perfectly, was already a huge feat.
"What's your name, young mage?" Professor Siegfried asked the man's name.
"Marcus Blaze."
'Marcus Blaze? Marcus Blaze..? Ah..?!!'
Finally, Ren recalled who the man was. During his school days in his previous life, there was a genius mage named Marcus Blaze, who was really good in fire type magic. He was the son of Maximilian Blaze, a member of 'Elsgard's Council' like Firaz and Stella. He was prominent with many fire type magic spell, so much so that he got the title 'Flame Emperor'.
Marcus Blaze, although cannot be compared to his father, was a quite proficient in fire magic. People dubbed him as '100-year prodigy' which means that around 100 years, there was difficult to see a mage as talented as him. However great he was, he was unfortunate to live in the same generation with Princess Elena Elsgard. She was one of the few people that can use ice magic. The only person that can use ice magic was her sister and also her late mother.
If Marcus Blaze was dubbed as '100-year prodigy', Elena Elsgard was known as '1000-year prodigy'. Marcus saw Elena as a rival and a wall that he needed to overcome, so he always challenged Elena on every opportunity he could get. But, it always ended with his defeat.
"Great Marcus. Your ability as a mage was nearly as good as your father. You passed."
Marcus don't react in the slightest. The compliment means nothing to him because he knew however great he was, it would considered small compared to what Elena displayed before. He nodded slightly to Professor Siegfried and went inside the gate where the passed applicants gathered.
After that, other applicants attempted to pass the test. Some of them tried to climb the wall while the others tried to pass through the gate by force. There was also a few applicants tried to show their magic and skill to Professor Siegfried just to 'impress' him.
The number of failed applicants increased significantly for every attempts of the applicants. There were only two more people that succeeded after Marcus.
Suddenly, there was a bell sound coming from inside the gate. After hearing that, Professor Siegfried lifted his hand and announced the end of the test.
"Alright, times up. The test is over. All of you in front of me, are failing this test."
The failing applicants went speechless with the announcement that they heard just now. Some of them wore disappointed looks on their faces while some just sobbed queitly.
After a brief pause, Professor Siegfried continued, "Now, I announced that these eight are the only succeed on this test."
"I.. I am sorry, sir. I think you are mistaken. There are only seven of us," said one the passing applicants as he raised his hand hesitantly.
Professor Siegfried then let out a soft laugh and point his finger to Ren's direction, which was still on the outside of the gate and far from the other failing applicants.
"I believe I am not mistaken. This young man also already passed the test long ago."
All of the people there, including other two proctors were confused with the statement given by Professor Siegfried before. How come this man could passed the test when he was still outside the gate.
Ren felt a bit embarassed with the attention that he get from others as probably right now all of the eyes at there was focused on him. He scratched his head a little.
"It seems I cannot win against you, sir."
After Ren ended his sentence, he wore a smile face and suddenly vanished into thin air. The other people, with confused looks began to search Ren and one of the applicant screamed a little when she found Ren.
"T..T..There!", she yelled while pointing her finger at the direction behind Elena.
Elena, flustered with the sudden appearance of Ren behind her, reacted with an icicle that she conjured on her grip and pointed it at Ren. Ren as he saw the icicle in front of him, step back a little and raised both of his hand to show Elena that he meant no harm.
"Whoa, whoa.. Easy there."
Then, Professor Siegfried began to speak up for clearing the confusion.
"Actually, this young fellow are already there for quite some time. He followed the princess soon after the princess casted her magic and passed through the gate. Am I right?"
Ren nodded awkwardly to confirm the explanation from that professor. Then, one of the other two proctors questioned Professor Siegfried.
"B..But, how did he do it? We had casted a mental magic on ourselves so that any 3rd circle illusion magic and below cannot affect us. It is impossible for him to know any 4th circle magic when just a 1st circle magician."
Professor Siegfried answered the question with a calm voice.
"Even I don't know what magic this man used and it is not my place to explain it, but the man himself. However, if he choose to keep it by himself, I will accept it."
After contemplating for a moment, Ren had chose to not reveal how his magic - at least for now. After hearing Ren's decision, Professor Siegfried just nodded slightly without saying anything. Then, he turned to the people outside the gate.
"For those who are failing this test, don't worry. There is another test for you after this. You can still enter this academy if you pass that test later "
The expression of the 'failed' applicants changed from sorrow to cheerful as they heard after what Professor Siegfried told them. Ren also smiled when he heard the news because he knew the real entrance test for Varion Academy was test that Professor Siegfried mentioned just now.
The test that they did just now actually served another purpose. He knew because he already went through with this test before. But in his previous life, he never passed the test and he had to take the real entrance test.
Suddenly, Ren felt a shiver running down his spine. He felt a bloodlust directed at him. After looking left and right, he found that Elena Elsgard was shooting daggers at him.
'Why she looks at me like he want to kill me?'
Ren then turned away from Elena's stare and distanced himself from her. Elena on the other hand, continued stare at Ren intensely.