And that was what he did. Damien focused his efforts on improving his mastery over the spells he already knew, pushing them to their limit. He pushed as much Ether as he could into gravity sphere, netting some slightly disastrous results in the process.

His efforts resulted in a new, several foot hole in one of the training room walls. In addition, while he spent most of his time simply trying to improve his strength, Henry did have him turn his attention to keeping his magical control at a passable level.

It wasn’t much having incredible power if you couldn’t even direct it. He was a far shot from Sylph’s abilities, but Damien was also pretty sure that there were very few people that were even slightly close to her.

Damien took a few breaks in his training to get dinner in the mess hall with everyone on the plateau. He spent a little more time helping Nolan with his runes as well, although the noble boy was starting to get somewhat passable at them and needed less and less assistance.

Sylph remained secretive with whatever her new spell was. However, judging by her smug mood several days before finals arrived, Damien got the feeling that she’d succeeded. The two of them stopped their practice three days before the tests arrived, opting to relax instead of overwork themselves.

Greg arrived early in the morning on the first day of finals week. Damien was already waiting for the professor when he arrived.

“That’s a first,” Greg said, cocking an eyebrow. “I usually have to wake the students up. Are you that excited for the final? Or are you perhaps nervous?”

“Excited,” Damien said, opting not to tell the man that Sylph had woken him up a few minutes ago. What he didn’t know wouldn’t hurt him. “This is more of a formality than anything, isn’t it?”

“If anyone else had said that, I would have thought they were bragging out of stress,” Greg said, eyeing Damien. “Sometimes I can’t tell if I’m even teaching you anything. One moment you seem completely confused, and then the other you know exactly what I’m talking about. It’s as if there are two people trapped inside your head.”

Damien laughed awkwardly. Greg shook his head and put his hand on his shoulder. The two of them vanished in a spark of gray light. They reappeared in the classroom, amongst the other kids that had made it this far.

Just over half the class was still present, and almost all of them looked stressed. Damien sat down in one of the chairs as Greg walked down to the front of the room. The chalk in the bin beside him levitated itself into his hand.

“Before we begin, I’d like to congratulate all of you on making it this far,” Greg said. “It takes a great deal of perseverance and talent to do well in Magical Theory. So, good job. Now, how many of you have taken a final at Blackmist before?”

Nobody raised their hand.

“Wonderful,” Greg said. The chalk rose into the air behind him and started to draw a smiley face on the board. The professor continued on, either unaware or uninterested in what was happening behind him. “There are only two outcomes: pass or fail. Much like the first exam we took, there will be both a physical and a theory portion of this test. You must pass both in order to pass the class. Are there any questions?”

“How many students usually pass after getting this far?” Reena asked.

“Most,” Greg admitted. “I’m not trying to mislead any of you. This is a difficult class, but if you’ve made it this far, you have at least enough talent for me to pass you. I’m not trying to ensure that you all become researchers. I just want to make sure you can think fast enough on the field so you can protect both yourselves and your friends.”

The chalk started to draw a caricature of Greg on the board beside the smiley face. A few students chuckled and the tension in the room eased a little. The professor grabbed a towel, erasing the drawing with an irritated sigh. Damien caught the hint of a grin on the man’s face.

“Is everyone ready?” Greg asked. “Please give this your all. Just because I believe you should all pass does not mean this will be easy. If you slack off or don’t show sufficient skill, I will fail you. My priority is your safety, not your happiness.”

Everyone nodded. Greg turned back to face them, tossing the chalk into the bin and clapping his hands. A dozen copies of himself flashed into the room. They split off, walking over to the students.

Damien had already gotten used to the process and raised his hand as Greg approached. The professor took it and they both vanished, teleporting for the second time in the last few minutes.

They reappeared in the same grass field that Damien remembered from the previous exams.

“And so we begin the final,” Greg said. “Are you prepared?”

“As ready as I’ll ever be,” Damien replied.

“Very good. We shall begin with the theoretical portion of the exam. Question one: how would you fight an enemy that is resistant to magic?”

Damien cocked an eyebrow. That question sounded somewhat pointed. “I guess it depends on how resistant the enemy is. If overwhelming force can break through its defenses, I’d go for that. It that isn’t feasible, I know that mages with high control can fight monsters with high magical resistance pretty well. And, if I was alone, I’d probably try to use the terrain to my advantage by dropping a boulder on it or something.”

Greg nodded. The next few questions were hard – much like Damien had expected. Thanks to Henry’s tutelage, he was able to answer most of them on his own. For the ones that were beyond him, Henry whispered the answers into his ears. It was a bit cheap, but there was nothing wrong with using all of your resources. As soon as he was starting to get comfortable again, Greg paused and scratched his beard.

“Next question – how many people have you killed?”

Damien blinked. “What?”

“Is that your answer?”

“No,” Damien said. “The answer is zero. How is that relevant to rational theory?”

“It isn’t,” Greg replied. “I was just curious. Tell me, Damien. How do you know all of this?”

“Well, I think most people would know if they killed someone.”

“Not that,” Greg said. “Your knowledge of magical theory. I’m almost entirely certain now. The questions I just asked you weren’t at the level of a Year One student. They were Year Three at the lowest, and you answered them all without an ounce of hesitation. At first I thought that you might be a very dedicated student, but I checked the library records. I’ve read every novel you’ve checked out, and none of them were magical theory.”

Damien swallowed, pushing down the panic that threatened to build up inside his chest. All the professor had done was list off suspicions. There was no need to give him extra information. “I had a great tutor at home.”

“I’m sure,” Greg said, snorting. “You’ll have to excuse my disrespect, but country bumpkins are not known for their talent in magic theory. No, I think your teacher is your companion. They can speak to you, can’t they?”

Henry? Little help please.

“He doesn’t know yet,” Henry said. “He suspects, but I don’t believe he’s on the right track. Stick with your plan of claiming I’m from the Plane of Darkness.”

Damien slowly nodded. “He does.”

“Brilliant,” Greg breathed. “And intelligent as well – your companion has given themselves a gender, even though most monsters are sexless.”

“What does this have to do with my exam?” Damien asked.

“Nothing, actually,” Greg said. “I was simply curious. Tell me honestly – how many of your answers were from your own knowledge as opposed to your companion’s?”

“Most of them,” Damien replied. “He’s taught me a lot.”

“I can tell,” Greg said. “I can’t say I’m not disappointed that you didn’t somehow magically pick all of this up from my class, but knowledge is knowledge. I can’t very well fault you for that. Something tells me you don’t want to share the identity of your companion, though.”

Damien gave him a terse smile. The professor chuckled.

“Unsurprising. Such secrets are more common than you think, although I’m afraid you’ll find that they won’t last you much past Year Two. Either way, it’s none of my business. You’ve completed the theoretical portion of the exam. Are you prepared for the physical?”

Damien’s heart was still racing, but it looked as if Greg was willing to drop the subject. He swallowed and nodded.

“Good,” Greg said. “This physical will be a bit more interactive than the previous one.”

He gestured to his side. The air shimmered as a hulking black monster formed in the air beside him. It was considerably shorter than the one he’d fought with Sylph, but the monster’s spiked back and jagged fangs were unmistakable. Damien bit back a choke as he realized it was a Devourer Beast.

“This is a Devourer Beast,” Greg said, oblivious to the boy’s surprise. “A juvenile one. It’s considerably weaker than the real deal, but it’ll serve for the purposes of this exam. This monster is resistant to magic. Please pretend that it has broken off from a monster horde and you are in its way. Defeat it as quickly as possible so that you can rejoin with your fellow mages and fend off the rest of the horde.”

The monster let out a roar and pounded its hands on his chest, sending spittle flying everywhere. To most people, it probably would have been terrifying. However, after seeing the actual monster in action just a short while ago, Damien recovered from his surprise quickly.

He cast out his mental net, drawing Ether out from his core and into his hands. He grabbed multiple times the normal amount as he forced it all into a gravity drill, overloading the spell to the point where it crackled with faint purple light.

Damien thrust his hand forward. The spell flashed silently across the clearing and burrowed deep into the monster’s open mouth, tearing clean through it. It detonated a moment later, the miniature gravity spheres within it collapsing and crushing the Devourer Beast’s head like a watermelon.

Greg blinked as his creation shattered into shards of gray light and faded away. “Oh.”

“Sorry,” Damien said. “Was I supposed to wait until it attacked me?”

“No… that’s okay,” Greg muttered, sending a disappointed glance at where his construct had been standing. “I just didn’t expect it to die so easily. Most people are at least a little scared when they first see a Devourer Beast.”

“Do you always choose it for this exam?” Damien asked, a sneaking suspicion rising up within him.

“No. It was a suggestion from another professor, actually,” Greg said, his brow furrowing. “My other clones are reporting that the other students are reacting appropriately to it, though – wait. Delph is your instructor, isn’t he?”

Damien nodded.

“That annoying – gah. Never mind,” Greg said, pouting like the worlds hairiest baby. “Congratulations, Damien. You pass the class. Tell Delph that he’s an evil little bugger. I should have known he wouldn’t have tried to be helpful if he didn’t have some stake in the game.”

Before Damien could even respond, Greg shattered apart, transforming into a glowing gray portal.

“That was… almost anticlimactic, actually,” Damien said. After one last glance around, he stepped through the portal.

It dropped him off in front of his room. He walked inside and sat down on his bed with a yawn. Sylph wasn’t there – she was probably taking her own final in Magical Control. Damien went back over Greg’s exam in his head, trying to make sure he hadn’t given anything too important away.

“Wait,” Damien said, his eyes widening. “Greg said he’s read every book I checked out. Does that mean–”

“Don’t ask questions you don’t want to know the answer to,” Henry said, chuckling. “Let sleeping monsters lie. Greg doesn’t seem to be interested in working against you, so you might as well be happy that you passed the class and leave it at that.”

Damien nodded, mentally scrubbing his thoughts free of what Greg might have been implying. He laid back on his bed, propping his pillow against the wall and making himself comfortable.

A little under an hour later, Sylph pulled the door open and walked inside. She sat down across from Damien.

“I take it you passed?” Sylph asked.

“I did,” Damien said. “And learned some unwanted things about my professor in the process. How did your exam go?”

“It was honestly a little easy,” Sylph said. “But that wasn’t a big surprise. There wasn’t much that he could teach me. My instructor from when I was still living in the forest taught me so much that I’m not sure if there’s anything else in the form of theory to learn about magical control.”

“Well, just be happy that you got the class over with, I suppose,” Damien said. “And, unless Delph decides to show up and have us do the final for his class today, we’re pretty much set until tomorrow.”

“I think I’d rather he did it today,” Sylph said with a shrug. “I don’t like having to wait for things. I didn’t really expend very much energy doing the control final.”

“Nor did I with mine,” Damien admitted. “I guess we’ll just have to wait and see if Delph shows up, then.”