The silence that had overtaken the room was dispelled when master Hodson spoke up to greet the four new arrivals.

"Thank you all for coming, honoured guests. If it pleases you, I will introduce you to those amongst our students who may not recognise you."

There we no objections, so he began. Hodson's voice was suddenly mystically projected through the room. Vance was momentarily distracted as he started to detect faint ripples moving through the ambient mana in time with Hodson's voice.

"Firstly, I'd like to introduce Leanne Corella. Leanne is the head of an expeditionary force operating out of Narscene, to the far east. Largely, her team consists of exceptional Arcanists whom she has personally selected to assist her in the cataloguing of the various pseudo-natural creatures that live in that region. Her personal renown comes mostly from her contributions to the research surrounding dangerous magical creatures. She has personally created several useful methods for dispatching some of the more deadly creatures her team has catalogued over the years. I believe your visit is for recruitment purposes, am I correct?"

Leanne had a harsh, shattered voice. It was breathy enough that Vance knew she was trying to speak softly but before the sound could escape her throat it was heavily distorted. He idly wondered what sort of damage she'd sustained to cause that. Clearly speaking pained her, so she didn't speak for very long. Vance felt sympathetic immediately.

"Yes. I'm looking for people with a strong stomach, good prospects in the magical arts and good survival skills. It's not a pretty job, but it's an important one."

Being the son of a merchant had its perks. Vance had a fairly good grasp on the layout of the empire and so knew that Narscene was a fortress. He'd never heard anyone mention a particular purpose for the place, but he decided it'd be pretty unlikely for regular folk to have a reason to know about ongoing magical research in the first place.

Before Vance could get deeper into the thought, Hodson carried on.

"Second, Augustus Caspascius. Lord Caspascius is the distinguished son of William Caspascius, Duke of Horaldia. For those of you unfamiliar, Horaldia is a vassal state of the empire and lies to our west, across the sea. Augustus is responsible for a large portion of his families military force and personally heads up their magical retinue. If I am not mistaken, your visit brings us good tidings this year, my lord?"

"Yes, Reece. We're announcing a large scale expansion of our territory. With this expansion, so too expands our need for magical talent. The Emperor is eager for our success, so we shall reach for every opportunity that presents itself. Hence, my presence here."

There was something about how relaxed Augustus sounded in front of a crowd like this that gave away his upbringing. No doubt he's been delivering speeches since the day he took his first steps.

Normally, when Vance heard this particular tone of voice, he'd attribute it to someone who wouldn't lift a finger if they didn't have to. Contrariwise, he was becoming very aware of the sort of hard work that went into a mantle like that.

Vance didn't really expect anyone to respond to Augustus, but a few people in the room deemed it reasonable to start clapping at this news. Vance wasn't politically minded enough to really know what this expansion really meant, so he felt no particular excitement over the subject. Nevertheless, he absentmindedly clapped along as one tended to when in a crowd. Once the clapping died down, Hodson continued immediately, lest Augustus began a real speech.

"Third, I present Veronica Chelham. Ms Chelham is part of a sanctioned magical research organisation stationed in North Light that goes by the name of the 'Apotheosis agenda'. Their purpose is to further the knowledge of magical practice through discovery, testing and innovation. They are a relatively new organisation and are looking for young, bright minds who agree with their mission statement. Do you have any words for our students, Ms Chelham?"

A diminutive voice came from the third of the guests. She spoke quickly, in the manner someone might speak to you if you'd just interrupted an important thought. "You've pretty much nailed it. In short, we're looking for academic talent over magical prowess."

Master Noelle took over for the final introduction.

"Finally, I'd like to present Aaron Olstater. Formerly a teacher at this very institution, Aaron is an immensely gifted Arcanist who now works as part of the Emperor's personal magical enforcement team. Aaron, I think I can let you handle the rest yourself?"

A boyish voice rolled out of the final guest. The high, excited tone of the man didn't mesh properly with the level of magical power he seemed to be exuding.

"Sure, Noelle. Nice to see you again."

He took a few steps forward, his footsteps the only thing filling the silence for a short moment. Then, he spoke out to the whole room. The voice wasn't magically amplified, he was just yelling.

"Hi, Everyone! Don't pay any attention to me, I'm just here to inspect the current state of affairs here at the college on behalf of the empire. It's a simple formality, I assure you. This particular examination is going to be a wonderful way for me to see what sort of students this place is pumping out. I'm quite excited. I wish you all luck!"

Vance picked up that perhaps his message wasn't necessarily one filled with flowers and hope, though it was certainly delivered like it was. Vance was more than a little thrown off by this. More specifically, he wondered how somebody with an attitude like this found themselves in the service of the Emperor. It didn't mesh properly in his head.

Before he knew it, the room was full of applause again. This time, it seemed aimed towards the whole set of guests rather than just for Augustus' benefit.

Moments later, the guests made their way through the room, joining the masters. After a brief exchange of conversation between the masters and the new arrivals, the third exam began in earnest.

"A reminder," Hodson announced. "This examination is on the subject of magical enactment. Put simply, we wish to test your ability to use your access to mana, willpower and the sharpness of your mind to achieve a result. We do not care how you approach the tasks you are given, just that you succeed in them. Naturally, a more efficient method will receive a better mark. You will probably be asked several questions by your assessor before they begin giving you tasks, this is to ensure they actually provide you with tasks that are possible for you. Don't lie, it'll just slow us all down."

After his warning, Hodson delivered another piece of news.

"We have offered Master Olstater the chance to assist us in administering the tests. He has graciously agreed. It will give him a chance to see some of our students in action first-hand and will allow us to complete our assessments quicker. Naturally, he has performed these tests many times in the past, so do not fear that your results will be skewed if he is the one administer your test."

Vance would be lying if he said he didn't want a chance to interact with this Olstater fellow. In Vance's experience, odd people could often be some of the most interesting.

The first of the tests began. A young man from the first-year students was the first that went up.

Vance observed his peer's tests using his mana sense. The first of the tests given to this student was to use wind mana to cause an object to levitate. Vance could tell that his control was sloppy and the small metal rod wobbled about unsteadily in the air. This, however, was considered a pass. The object did levitate, after all.

Secondly, he was asked to light a candle. The boy took a bit longer to perform a fire shift, but he succeeded. Then, he was asked to put the candle out. He did so by using transference to bring the mana inside himself, then shifting and expelling it as ambient mana.

He was asked to perform a few other seemingly mundane tasks. He brought a pot of water to boil, put out a larger fire created by the master and create a small, controlled breeze.

The test that defeated the young man was when he was asked to break an apple into two usable parts. He attempted to do so with wind mana, but he didn't have a wind core. He seemed entirely unable to muster enough concentrated wind mana to break through the skin of the apple. All in all, he did fairly well.

Vance observed many similar tests take place. Eventually, the student would come up against a task that proved to be too tricky for them to perform either due to limited control, mana capacity, experience or all of the above.

Naturally, the second-year students could perform to a much higher standard. He watched them perform similar tasks to the first-years but on larger scales. For example, they might be asked to levitate a much heavier object like a bench or an unbalanced object like a rake or spade. One student who had managed to achieve an earth shift was asked to use his earth mana to push through the stone of the floor below him. After getting approval three times over from the masters, he did so.

Vance took an involuntary step back as a large chunk of stone was violently torn from the ground beneath the examinee. Fortunately, this student had pretty good control over the scattered debris, so things didn't get too messy. As more of the second-years took their tests, sudden loud sounds and larger expenditures of mana became more commonplace inside the testing hall. Some of the more advanced first-year students who had already managed to produce a mana core were also producing similarly flashy effects, but they lacked the control that came with the experience of age and practice.

Even so, Vance observed several students with better control over wind mana fail to perform the task of slicing the apple in half. Vance reasoned that you'd probably need compressed wind mana to pull that off. That raised the question of why they were bothering with that test for first and second years, they didn't know about compression yet.

Thomas' test was of particular interest to Vance, he wanted to know what his friend really had to offer in terms of practical magical skills. This was the first time he'd had a chance to experience such free use of magic for such a vast array of tasks.

"Good luck, you've got this," James said to Thomas as he made his way out to the centre of the hall.

"Thanks,"

Thomas was due to be tested by Hodson. Vance focused his mana sense on the two of them so that he could take in as much as possible.

It seemed that Hodson had no intention of taking Thomas through all of the easy, routine stuff. Evidently, it'd be pointless. Instead, Hodson jumped straight into a more advanced problem. Hodson produced a large piece of wood cut into a flat plane and placed it on the ground. The slab of wood was about the size of a door.

Then, he told Thomas to light the entire thing on fire all at once. Instead of using his mana core, Thomas opted to control the nearby ambient mana and use it to coat the plank with mana under his control. Then, all of that gathered mana shifted to fire instantly, setting the plank ablaze very quickly thereafter.

It wasn't particularly efficient, ordinarily, you'd just set it on fire a little and let it spread. This sort of instant immolation required much more precise control.

"Good." Hodson snapped his fingers, putting the fire out. He pushed the plank aside and took a moment to consider. Hodson went back to gather more materials and placed a dozen small metal cylinders on the ground, stacked in a pyramid.

"I want you to rearrange these into a cube. You may not touch them."

Thomas began using wind mana to lift the cylinders off of the ground. Vance could tell Thomas found this one much harder. The task itself was relatively simple but he had to make small adjustments to his wind mana all the time to avoid dropping them. Thomas didn't have a wind core, so this was relying entirely on his control over shifted, external mana.

Eventually, the task was completed. Vance carefully studied the flow of the wind mana as Thomas rearranged each of the cylinders without letting any of them fall to the ground. The part that took the longest was apparently lowering them in such a way that they wouldn't fall after Thomas relinquished his control over the wind.

Like this, Thomas' test continued to focus mostly on his control. Evidently, Hodson already knew full well what Thomas could do with his fire core, so he opted to test him on other subjects.

The test in which Thomas gave his most impressive performance was when he was asked to open a crate. He used his control over metallic mana to pry the nails from the sides of the crate, then released a burst of wind mana inside. It fell apart instantly, resulting in several satisfying crashing sounds of wood against stone.

Thomas knew many of the basic shifts, so it took a while before he was stumped by one of the tests.

"Get to the ceiling, you have two minutes." Hodson decreed.

To his credit, Thomas gave it a try. He attempted to levitate himself. Unfortunately, this was much easier said than done. He managed to briefly lift himself from the ground, but he found himself out of mana and sprawled on the floor a moment later.

Vance had known that'd be the outcome the moment he saw the wind mana gather around Thomas' feet. The concentration of mana Thomas could muster was child's play compared to what Nathaniel had conjured the other night, it was nowhere near enough.

Thomas returned to the team with a sigh and a shrug.

"Well, if I could fly, I'd probably be administering the test, not taking it." He said. He was a little out of breath, that attempt had evidently been quite taxing.

"Nice try though, I think you're on the right track," Vance replied. "I've seen it done, you had the basic idea right. You just needed more mana. A lot more."

"Thanks for the tip, V." Thomas said through a big smile.

"Not you as well..."

"Nope. Still doesn't feel right," James joined in and laughed.

From across the room, Vance heard his name called.

"Mr Vance...Kallia? Kallay? Kalliea. That's the one. Kalliea?"

A boyish man's voice rang out, messing up Vance's name several times. Vance was immediately delighted and a little nervous. Even if this guy was going to be a bit weird, it could be interesting. Plus, a chance to meet one of these powerful people was precisely what Vance wanted.

Mariah, who was standing nearby, whispered to him "Looks like you get what you wanted, good luck!"