Wolf spent the night much the same way he spent his every other night for the past couple of years, namely carving the sixth column of his Mind Hall. At least now he didn’t have to suppress his bodily reaction while carving and just covered his lower half with a blanket.

*Knock Knock*

Gentle rasps came from the door about half an hour before the sun rose.

“I hope you had enough time to sleep,” the young man that escorted them last night said as he opened the door. “Come on, get ready for breakfast.”

Wolf got up and walked towards the door. Wayde on the other hand chanted the Clean spell, tidying up his crumpled clothes.

Hubris, Wolf thought as Wayde caught up with him.

The youth was more than a head taller than Wolf and his gait was long. For every three steps of Wolf’s Wayde only needed to make two.

Wolf once again grumbled inwardly about the inconvenience of his body while noticing that Wayde made a conscious effort not to get ahead of him.

Wolf was surprised that they kept going up, instead of going down and leaving the building. Finally they reached the third floor, which only contained a huge mess hall.

Even though the chamber was mostly empty, Wolf still counted nearly two hundred youths about his age. All of them were eating, and all of them were bigger than Wolf. Even the girls.

There were three different groups of people in the room. The first was composed of twenty-odd youths in old, tattered clothes, with sunken pale cheeks and obvious signs of being malnourished. These were the youths gathered from the slums.

The second group was slightly more numerous. There were thirty-five of them, miss chandelier included, and they wore an assortment of neat and new clothes. Some of their apparel was gaudy, some humble, but all of it was presentable. These youths were much plumper, their cheeks rosy.

Unlike the beggars, who had the looks of drowning men desperately clinging to a straw, the offspring of wealthier families mostly had fake, fawning smiles plastered on their faces.

For them this was a chance to get ahead in life. They could socialize with nobles, and by becoming real Mages, they might even become nobles themselves, instantly increasing their family’s social standing.

Of course almost nobody managed to accomplish this. The Mage society was a pyramid, just like any other. People with some talent could easily learn how to cast spells of First through Fourth Order by putting in enough effort.

However, as one’s Mage Order increased, the effect that could be achieved with sheer effort became more and more negligible. To expand their Mind Hall many Mages went through various life threatening situations, took psychoactive drugs and elixirs and did many other, considerably more bizarre things.

The list of odd things humans resorted to to improve their Mage Order included drilling holes in their skulls to increase the brain’s connection with the world and even introducing lethal parasites into their bodies. But, no matter how weird, unpleasant or downright insane the method was, people still tried it. Why? Because expanding your Mind Palace by one column meant casting spells of a higher Order, which in turn meant instantaneous rise in power and prestige.

Many people died in these misguided attempts to expand their soul and consciousness. Some however survived and shared their experiences, resulting in countless deaths of those that tried to follow in their footsteps.

Archibald had mentioned these things in passing years ago, calling them utter nonsense. There were three valid ways of expanding one’s mind other than relying on natural aptitude. Drugs, elixirs and new experiences that stimulated the mind to a shocking degree.

Maniacs indulging in perversions and mutilating their bodies were just as likely to experience enlightenment living ordinary lives, assuming they had an encounter that left a profound enough impact on them.

Unlike other people, Wolf had the remains of Lone Eagle’s shattered Mind Palace which slowly decomposed and fueled the rapid expansion of his own Mind Palace. Expanding his soul was a lot easier for him, at least until those remnants were used up. Wolf was aware of this, and had no idea about his real future potential.

Wolf took in the two groups, one hopeful and the other desperate, before shifting his gaze towards the last remaining group.

The third and largest group were the nobles. All of them were smaller than the commoner youths, which made sense. There were only twelve-year-olds amongst the candidates from noble houses, while all of the commoners were fourteen years old.

Any noble with a modicum of talent in arcane arts was enrolled at the age of twelve. If anyone were to wait and enroll their child at the age of fourteen they would become the butt of the jokes in noble social circles for years to come. Neither the parent nor the child would make such a socially suicidal move.

Even though this cafeteria could house nine hundred people, the food was only served at the tables people sat at. Beggars had a table, commoners had a table, while nobles had six tables all to themselves.

Wolf didn’t hesitate for a moment and went towards the table with the urchins. Not because he thought he belonged there and ate with beggars on a regular basis, but because it was the emptiest.

Surprisingly, after thinking for a moment, Wayde followed suit.

“Aren’t you going to eat with the nobles?” Wolf asked offhandedly.

“Do you think any of them would make room for me unless I introduced myself?” Wayde replied matter of factly.

The youth had a point. The way he was dressed, he’d fit in with the commoner children rather than the nobles. Not just that, the nobles were openly looking at the two of them with hostility. They were obviously not nobles, yet they were twelve-year-old applicants.

“Why not the commoner kids then?” Wolf asked.

“Around nobles they are bigger beggars than the real beggars. They are the kind of people that value everything through loss and gain,” Wayde’s voice was brimming with disdain and Wolf even thought he’d sensed a hint of hatred.

“Isn’t that a proper way for a Mage to act? Being rational about everything?” Wolf asked with a chuckle. Surprisingly, Wayde seriously replied to Wolf’s mocking remark.

“In a sense being rational is the essence of being a Mage, that much is true. But my mother told me that I should never forget the humane side of things. We are human beings, not just our roles in society. What do you think about that?” Wayde asked, giving Wolf a quizzical look as they sat down.

“I think you can do whatever you want as long as you can do it and it makes you happy,” Wolf said honestly while picking up a warm, crispy bun.

I knew you weren’t a beggar. Wayde thought to himself. Which is fairly natural, few beggars could say such words with a straight face and probably none of them were nearly as young as Wolf.

Who are you and why dress up like that? Wayde wondered.

Wolf and Wayde had bread and butter for breakfast. There were also some fruits at the other tables, but the beggar children had already pocketed all of the fruits from this table. Wolf even noticed that their pockets were bulging with buns.

Oddly enough, Wolf felt like eating a pear after seeing one at the adjacent table.

“If any of you has a pear I’ll buy it for a silver piece.” As soon as Wolf said those words Wayde’s eyes widened and he gave Wolf a startled look.

The beggars were just as surprised, but the two quickest youths took out a pear each and offered them to Wolf. They were about to start fighting, but Wolf simply paid a silver coin to each of them.

“Want one?” Wolf asked Wayde as he bit into a pear.

Wayde took a moment before hesitantly nodding and stretching out his hand. Wolf gave him the pear all the while listening to the noble children gossiping about how beggars had already started extorting money from one another.

Wolf found their words funny. He was already used to giving charity to others and this had become a habit of his. It’s not like two silver pieces would ruin him.

Apparently, Wayde had heard their words as well, but remained silent and took a big bite of the pear. Wolf could have just as easily walked over to another table and taken a pear. Not just that, there was absolutely no reason for him to buy two. The fact that he bought both spoke volumes about Wolf’s character.

Right as the accidental roommates were finishing their pears, a proctor entered the room.

“All right everyone, gather round!” the middle aged man wearing a Mage’s robe said, imbuing his voice with Soul Force. This parlor trick allowed his words to be heard above the chatter and background noise.

In the ensuing silence the man once again read the information from the pamphlet, just in case people were unaware of it. He also covered the rest of the procedure for the entrance exam.

The examination was fairly simple and had two parts. The first part was to cast a spell. This was a mandatory step for everyone under the age of fourteen, and based on the Order of the spell that person would be assigned to novice, intermediate or elite classes.

The second step was testing the candidate’s affinity by allowing them to enter the Hall of Names. This step was mandatory for everyone because Mage Academies needed to know which students had greater affinity towards True Naming.

Of course, this was only affinity and potential. Only descendants of True-Namers above the First Order had an inborn affinity towards a True Name. So, it wasn’t all too surprising not to have a single candidate with the potential to become a True-Namer.

Later, some people that had the potential died before fully developing, others simply didn’t have enough resources to advance their Order to Archmage, which was a necessary step to become a True-Namer. As if to balance things out, some Mages accidentally stumbled upon lucky chances and became True-Namers.

Statistics said that every batch of new students should at least have one Archmage. Every generation would at most have one True-Namer, if any. As far as Edict-Makers were concerned, they were mythical existences and none had appeared in the written history.

Unfortunately for this batch of test-takers, Wolf was just a step away from becoming that one Archmage. Unfortunately for this generation, Wolf was a shoe-in for the position of the True-Namer. As for the position of Edict-Maker, so far he was the greatest candidate of this era.

For the second test the group was brought to a proving grounds. There they were divided into those that were free to skip the first test and those that had to take it, meaning into nobles and commoners. Then they were quickly sorted alphabetically by their last name.

Naturally, the privileged youths went first. Only a couple of them cast First Order spells, over ninety percent of them cast a Second Order spell, while two of them managed to cast a Third Order spell.

Wolf noticed that all of the candidates that cast Second Order spells had cast the same spell, Mage Armor. The few that cast a First Order spell cast Light, while the pair that cast Third Order spells both cast Haze.

Looking at them clowning around, waving their hands like crazy and shouting ridiculously long chants Wolf realized something. Their actions were extremely similar, and they all used the same spells. There had to be a specially designed curriculum for noble children for learning magic. Most likely they had all taken the same course, with varying degrees of success.

About two hours later it was the turn for the fifty or so commoners that had made it this far. Wolf was already bored silly as he looked at the huge mirrored wall off to the side. He could sense a number of people observing him from beyond that wall, but he acted naturally, as if he was unaware of it. The people doing the evaluation were probably sitting behind that huge pane of glass.

Meanwhile a bunch of commoner youths either said that they couldn’t cast magic, or in case their families had enough money to pay for the magic course nobles took, they cast Light and even a Mage Armor or two happened from time to time.

“Wayde Northshield!” the proctor called out, causing a murmur among nobles.

Northshield? Wolf turned towards Wayde with a surprised expression and saw that the boy with whom he’d shared a room last night was now walking towards the proctor.

Wayde cast Deflect Arrows, a Third Order spell and passed the exam easily. Questions swarmed Wolf’s mind, but this wasn’t the place to talk about such things.

A long line of people took turns before proctor called out “Wolf, no last name,” to which most nobles snickered.

Wolf ignored them as he walked out of the crowd.

“Anytime you’re ready,” the proctor said without much interest.

Wolf looked around before turning to the proctor.

“Are those targets for people that want to cast offensive magic?” he asked, pointing at dummies at the far end of the hall.

“That is correct. Just let us know which one you are targeting,” the proctor said while trying not to yawn.

Five targets were spread in a neat line with about a meter between the adjacent ones. They were made from straw and seemed fairly cheap.

“It’s not a problem if I destroy them, right?” Wolf asked another question.

“Not a problem, those get blown up all the time. Just designate your target please,” the proctor replied in a bored manner.

While Wolf was talking to the proctor, two dozen men of various ages stood behind the mirrored glass. The men were chatting while observing the exam and, unlike the proctor, they were free to yawn.

“Why is that urchin taking so long?” a well dressed elderly man asked another old man dressed in a Mage robe.

“My guess is that he can’t cast any spells and is buying time,” the Mage replied. “He’s just a beggar after all. I’ve seen them trying to fast talk their way through the exam…”

A handsome man in his early twenties stood at the center of the room, barely a meter away from the window. He wore odd robes that weren’t quite the robes of a Mage, but were comfier from what Sword-Sages wore. The oddness of his robe came from the fact that it looked like constantly flowing liquid metal that rippled gently in the wind, which most certainly wasn’t blowing inside a building.

The man shook his head when he heard those words.

The class struggle is becoming fiercer and fiercer, he thought. That child has such a strong presence, but all of them are ignoring it, paying attention to nothing but his clothes... Even though he’s trying to hide it, that boy is at least a Mage of the Fifth Order.

The man with a youthful appearance sighed, but said nothing. Talking would probably just cause more trouble for the child. In the entire room he was the only one looking at the boy with expectation.

Then Wolf started chanting the words for the Fireball spell.

“You didn’t declare which dummy is your target!” proctor shouted. His job was to make sure the examination protocol was followed. He really didn’t want to reexamine a candidate the next day if they were to appeal on a technicality, but if he interrupted Wolf now the spell would fail, which was even worse.

The man behind the looking glass rolled his eyes at this. You thought he was casting Inferno Ray, weren’t you? Well, both chants speak of heat and throwing…

Just as the proctor was done speaking Wolf lobbed a Fireball straight into the head of the central target. The fiery ball exploded and the heat set the very air on fire. For a moment flames engulfed the dummies and then disappeared. The dummies had disappeared along with the conflagration.

Everyone, regardless of which side of the looking glass they were on was stunned into silence. Only the man wearing the robe of liquid metal curled his lips into a very satisfied smile.

Correction. He’s at least of the Sixth Order.