Vance used up the whole week working on his various practice routines. He saw the most progress in his ambient mana manipulation. It wasn't something he'd ever really focused on training before. It was probably for this reason that he noticed fairly quick results.

Vance measured his progress by monitoring the amount of time it took him to gather enough ambient mana to create the core of an enhancement construct. Initially, this took him several minutes. By the end of the week, he'd knocked that time down to just under one minute. At this stage, his progress began to slow.

In other news, he'd received word from James that the college would be open tomorrow. The two had continued to practice together, but the last few days had seen them each in isolated practice. They had shared all they needed to for now.

The one thing Vance had neglected over the past week was sleep. James or another member of the McKinley family often had to remind Vance that sleeping was, in fact, a positive thing. Their message must have been received because Vance slept soundly on the last night before college resumed.

Vance and James travelled together to the college grounds. Nathaniel had them take a guarded carriage on the way. Evidently, he was still paranoid.

They found their friends waiting for them when they arrived. Naturally, Mariah was attached to Vance and James before they'd even stepped foot on the cobbles.

The group gave Vance a description of the changes they could see on the exterior of the college. Firstly, there was an additional small building to the western side of the grounds. According to Mariah, it was built of sturdy material and lacked windows, boasting only a single entrance.

Secondly, the burned portion of the building had been fully reconstituted. From what the group said, it looked brand new. Vance suspected that they'd used magic in some capacity to repair the damage.

The last addition was an increase in staffing. Specifically, there were people occupying guard positions in the hallways of the college. Vance didn't check the specifics, but his mana sense told him that they were coated head to toe in metal mana, probably armour. Whoever these people were, they were ready for combat at any moment.

The students were in full attendance today. Even without his mana sense, Vance could tell from the volume of footsteps and conversation. The group, along with all of the other students, were ushered towards a gathering point upon arrival.

From the acoustics, Vance could tell they were entering a large open chamber that he couldn't recall having visited before. He cast out his mana sense and took in the scale of the chamber. By his estimations, it could comfortably hold somewhere around one hundred people.

When the group came to stop amongst the crowd, they only had to wait a few minutes before a masculine voice rang out from the far side of the chamber. Vance recognised it as Master Hodson.

"Thank you all for gathering here today. As I'm sure you are all aware, we have been busy investigating an unfortunate magical threat that has recently plagued our fair city. I won't go into the specifics now as it would take far too long. Instead, allow me to assure you that we have taken steps to ensure that the college is safe from the aforementioned threat and, to be further sure of our student's safety, we have enlisted the aid of empire sanctioned battle mages, you will have seen them on your way in. Please do not interfere with them. They are here to protect, not teach or entertain."

Mutterings of the words "Demon" and "Sellanion" made their way through the crowd. Master Hodson allowed a moment for the students to quiet down, then continued.

"In the wake of recent disruption, the time we have spent recovering over the last two weeks has been crucial. Now, we're in a position to get properly started again. That being the case, we've chosen to conduct an immediate evaluation. This information should have been disseminated to all of you over the past fortnight. I shall therefore assume you are all prepared to participate."

Catching a few stray gasps in the crowd, Vance was fairly sure that not everybody had gotten the message.

"No time like the present!" an older female voice sounded out from somewhere in the room. It was Master Noelle. She sounded a little more energetic than usual.

"Today's evaluation will be split into three parts." Vance heard the distinct sounds of glass against wood as she picked up a glass of something from the desk, took a drink and placed it back down.

"First, control. One of the masters will personally test the limits of your control over mana by providing you with an ever-increasing volume of mana which you must keep in a cohesive shape. When you can no longer maintain the shape, your trial is over."

"Second, identification. One of the masters will produce constructs of varying types and purpose. You will identify that purpose, their composition and their creation process as best you can. You will be scored based on the level of complexity of the constructs you're able to accurately identify."

"Third, enactment. You will be given several magical tasks of varying difficulty. You may approach them in any way that you see fit. You will be scored on the effectiveness of the methods you employ as well as your success or failure in each task."

Noelle instructed the students to move to the edges of the room. From there, they observed the ongoing tests.

The masters conducted three tests at once, one per master that was present. Vance recognised Noelle and Hodson but didn't know the third.

Vance kept his mana sense active and observed the tests as carefully as possible. At the moment, the masters were performing the control tests.

The master would gather ambient mana and form it into a shape. Then, they'd relinquish control over that shape to the student, who would have to maintain it. As the test progressed, the master would gather more and more mana, feeding it to the shape. When the student couldn't hold on any longer, the master would reassert control and dismiss the shaped mana safely.

For the most part, first-year students seemed to be able to manage mana in quantities close to the size of one or more closed fists, usually no more than three. Second-year students would often handle ten or twelve times that.

Third-year students, of which there weren't many, could handle quantities vastly, vastly greater. Vance was certain this had everything to do with them having practised compression.

While this gulf in ability fascinated Vance, his attention went to his friends the moment any of them stepped up. Truth be told, Vance was mostly excited to see how he'd measure up to them.

Brad was first to be assessed. He performed at an average level for first-year students. His weakness didn't seem to be in the amount of mana he was controlling, but his shaping skills were shaky.

Thomas was next. As a second-year, he far outperformed any of Vance's other friends. Thomas was excellent even by the standards of second-years.

Mariah went up next. She had a natural talent for handling large quantities of mana, so she performed at a level far beyond what was expected of a first-year. To her dismay, she was nowhere near Thomas' level.

When James was called forward Vance was particularly excited. He wanted to find out exactly how much James had been able to improve his control skills after their work together.

Vance was not disappointed. James was a first-year, and so hadn't practised compression. He couldn't match up to the third-year students at all but, to the surprise of the crowd, he was nearly keeping up with Thomas.

Then, Vance was called up.

Vance was absolutely terrified. It dawned on him that he'd never really performed in front of a crowd like this before.

"Vance Kalliea. Step forward," Noelle was the one to call him up. That small fact did give him a little relief.

Ignoring his slightly shaky knees, he put on his bravest face and used his mana sense as a guide. He approached Master Noelle and gave her a slight bow.

"It's been a while, Vance. Are you confident?"

"Honestly? No. I'm ready to try, though."

"That'll do." Noelle laughed and ushered Vance to stand opposite her.

Vance felt the mana rushing inwards towards Noelle as she gathered a fist-sized ball of mana. She shaped it into an icosahedron.

Vance was a little surprised. An icosahedron was a slightly more complex shape than a lot of the other first-years had been given, but he didn't mind. Compared to the fire lattice he'd worked on for the enhancement construct, this was still relatively simple.

He extended his will towards the mana and took control once Noelle allowed it. He found it easy enough to maintain the shape and held it in place. Patiently, he waited for a few seconds until Noelle was satisfied. Then, she began to place more mana under Vance's control.

Evidently, she was confident in him. She wasted no time in tripling the amount of mana he was holding. Already, Vance was performing at the high end of first-year students. He held on easily, this amount of mana was firmly in his comfort zone.

Strangely, Vance found that once his will was focused, his nervousness faded away.

Then, she tripled it again without warning. It took Vance a moment to properly get control this time as the quantity of mana approached the lower end of the second-year students. He let out a long, whistling breath after he managed to get it under control. In terms of size, he was currently controlling a chunk of mana roughly the size of a torso.

"How's that, Vance? Can you handle more?" Noelle asked. The students were required to maintain control for a handful of seconds after each increase, but the masters often liked to try and distract them with conversation.

"It's a lot, but I can probably handle a little more."

"A little? If my estimates are correct, I think you can handle a lot more than this. Are you sure you're not distracted?"

"Distracted? No, I don't think so. Well, aside from talking to you."

He could hear a hint of annoyance in Noelle's voice. It seemed he hadn't picked up on whatever angle she was working.

"Are you sure you've really examined the core of the problem?"

"What problem? What are you talking abo-" Vance began to say, then he caught her meaning. He cast his senses inwards. He'd been keeping his fire core at full capacity ever since he'd been able to do so. This meant he was constantly using a piece of his willpower to combat the perpetuation of the feather construct tucked away in his left hand. Truth be told, he had no idea exactly how much willpower he'd invested in the task.

Vance was struck by a realisation. Since he'd let the feather construct constantly increase its level of activity, he'd had to slowly dedicate more and more willpower to combating it.

He did this at all hours of the day, even while asleep.

For the first time in a long time, Vance pushed the feather construct back. He started converting and expelling all of the fire mana in his core out as ambient mana. He beat it back until it was barely outputting any fire mana at all and clamped his will down on it.

Without all of that fire mana to fuel the construct's endless output, it was beyond simple for him to keep it in check.

Then, he turned his attention back to the icosahedron. It was now so easy to hold together, he felt like the biggest risk to its stability was that he'd forget about it. Vance felt that he had a surplus of willpower to work with now. Evidently, his constant investment in battling that feather construct had done wonders for him.

"Better?" Noelle asked.

She had an undertone that said "I told you so" hidden in her voice.

"Yes. I can't believe I never thought of that reserved willpower as a resource before."

"You've effectively been multitasking with mana control ever since you got that thing. It's no wonder your control is superb. I suspect it's better than even you know. Ready to test it?"

"Yes, Master."

"Good."

An instant later, the mana Noelle placed in Vance's control tripled once more. For a moment, Vance was worried he'd lose control. This was more mana than he'd ever tried to control externally.

To his surprise, it only took him a few moments to get it all into a stable shape. At this point, Vance was toe to toe with Thomas' performance. Then, it tripled again.

Vance physically reacted to this change. His body bunched inwards a little as he focused his will on the task. Suddenly, things weren't so easy. The amount of mana he was controlling was well beyond the upper end of the second-year students.

He managed to wrestle control for a few seconds. This was an impressive feat in itself. For just a brief moment, he outperformed even the best of the second-years.

Then, suddenly, his will gave out under the pressure. He staggered back a step, nearly losing balance. He righted himself and moved back into position.

He noticed the shape was still intact. Noelle had seized control the moment he'd lost it. Vance spared a thought to be impressed by the level of control the masters must have to handle this much mana with ease.

"Very good, Vance. Please return for now."

Vance couldn't quite read her emotions from her voice, but she was certainly smiling.

"Yes, Master." He gave her another bow and headed back over to his friends, guided by Mariah's voice.

"Not bad!" She repeated, gleefully. She patted Vance on the back as he entered the danger zone between James and Thomas with a huge smile plastered on his face.

"Son of a bitch!" Thomas and James said at the same time. Both boys grabbed Vance and started rustling him about a bit.

"You've been holding out on us!" Thomas said playfully.

"I didn't mean to! Apparently, I've been holding out on myself, too."

"Then you should help us beat you up, too," James said, gently administering an extended knuckle to Vance's back and giving it a little twist. Vance laughed and gave as good as he got, delivering a devastatingly weak elbow to James' gut.

A few seconds later, other nearby students watching the tests quickly told them to "shut the hell up."

They did as they were told, slightly embarrassed.