Chapter 6:

Arena Academy (1)

Author's Note: Hello, readers. If you had read Chapter 5 and did not previously see an "Author's Note" at the top of the page, please go back & re-read some of the parts as I have went back and edited it. I took out some elements that were detrimental and unnecessary for the story line, so please check back as you will feel more updated to the current plot. If you read Chapter 5 and saw an "Author's Note", then please disregard this notice. Thank you! :)

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“Ho-oh~...it seems we have quite the number of talents this year. Good, good...”

As the evening sunlight shone through the window carved behind a large marble desk, an elderly lady with shimmering emerald eyes can be seen sitting behind the table wearing a smile as she shifted through the papers before her. Although the passing years have taken away much of her once youthful appearance, with her overflowing silver hair and an air of indomitable elegance, her charm was still evident even now despite the few wrinkles that were barely noticeable on her face. As she was reviewing the regular enrollment applications, knocking came from the wooden grand door at the end of the room that faced the elder.

*knock knock*

“...Come in.”

A lady clad in a business dress who seems to be in her late twenties entered the room. With her crystal blue eyes hidden behind her round spectacles, her long brown hair, her silky skin, and her slender proportion, she was without a doubt whom people would label as a “first class beauty.”

She wore a splendid poker face as she monotonously spoke to the elder in front of her.

“Good evening, Headmaster. Here are the documents confirming the late enrollment for the rest of students this year. There is only a male student who passed the School test, and given the test results, so the committee decided to accept his late enrollment application.”

“Ho?”

The headmaster slightly raised an eyebrow when she heard that. It has been nearly decades since the School had actually accepted a student’s late enrollment application. After all, the process becomes much more difficult for those who apply late to Arena Academy.

One’ll either have to be stupid or absurdly confident if they dared to apply after the regular School admittance deadline.

Normally for regular admittance, the students only had to place their hands on a crystal ball to measure their Soul Power, and if the word “Novice Rank” appears on the face of the ball, then their registration is complete. This was the minimum rank one must attain in order to be enrolled in the academy and to begin cultivating their potential.

But for late enrollment students, not only do they have to possess the required “Novice Rank”, but they also have to take an additional written test called SAT; Soul Aptitude Trial.

The exam consists of as much as 200 questions, which each problem tests one’s knowledge of current world, such as magic, historical events, technology types, and much more. The test must be answered within 4 hours, and the scores are scaled from 200 to 2400. Apparently, the test was so difficult due to the enormous knowledge and memorization required that the creators decided to award the test-takers a free 200 points just for daring to take it.

The School only accepts students who score at least 2000 or above. Though, the highest recorded score in all of World United was only a mere 1910, so this requirement was clearly to prevent anyone from getting accepted in late enrollment.

Though if the students had connections with any of the seven major clans, the School is willing to turn a blind eye to this extra test if they did bad. They are even willing to admit the student even if they do not meet the required "Novice Rank" as long as they have the connections or an amazing SAT score, though they are therefore then labeled as "No Rank." For the record, there are no one identified as "No Rank" in Arena Academy so far.

But other than that, late enrollment was simply “not” possible for the common aspirers.

“Hmm, so which clan is this child from, Sina?”

The headmaster looked at her faithful secretary.

“None, Ma’am.”

“...excuse me?”

“The student is not affiliated with any of the seven great Clans. According to his background, he is a regular human with quite a regular background. Nothing of the extraordinary.”

“....”

The headmaster became silent and closed her eyes as she thought for a moment. “If this child was accepted without any backgrounds supporting him, then that means…”

The elder swiftly opened her twin emerald jews as she fastened them onto Sina. In a quiet voice, she questioned,

“What is his test score?”

“....”

“? What’s wrong? Please answer my question.”

The headmaster was briefly perplexed when her secretary failed to quickly respond back. This has never happened before, especially with Sina who was almost like a machine that instantly responded to any inquiries.

“...He scored a 2400 on the written exam, Ma’am.”

“....”

The elder once again became silent.

“A perfect score? How is that possible...perhaps the child cheated? ...No, no, that’s impossible. With the test itself taking nearly a 360 degrees change in format and questions each year, there is practically no way to practice nor prepare any hidden cheats for it. Moreover, since the SAT is administered by three Heavenly Ranked professors, any magical deceptions are rendered useless. Perhaps we have a genius? No...even the top one only scored 1910 at best, so......"

“There is another thing regarding his application, Ma’am.”

Sin’s voice suddenly interrupted her thought.

“Hm? What is it?”

The elder’s interest was piqued when Sina had interrupted her. This was another usual behavior her secretary had exhibited since the start of her job...

“It’s the crystal ball examination...it shattered when we tried to measure his Soul Power rank. But because of his SAT score, we decided to still admit him, though we had to brand him as No Rank for now...”

“?!”

This has never happened before in the history of the United World.

The crystal ball was an object of almost indestructibility and it has the capacity to measure anyone’s Soul Power from Novice Rank up to Spiritual Rank. This is because in the United World although there are numerous practitioners from Novice Rank up to Monarch Rank, there are only a few hundred beings who’ve reached the Overlord Rank, less than 10 in Heavenly Rank, 4 in the Spiritual Rank, and so far, none were recorded to ever reach the True Rank. As the difficulty increases to reach each rank, the amount of power gained once the rank is achieved is staggering.

Therefore, as no one has been recorded to reach the True Rank, there are no items available yet to be able to perceive such immense power. If one is said to have the ability to change the geographic of the world upon reaching the Spiritual Rank, then the mere thought of the immeasurable strength one could wield if one were to actually enter True Rank is indeed frightening...

With a subtle movement, the headmaster turned to face the window behind her. Although her green eyes remained serene, faint sparks of excitement can be seen deep within them.

As the elder carefully thought for a while, finally, she spoke once again, with a barely noticeable hint of awe in her voice.

“...What is the child’s name?”

This time, as if to make up for her previous failure to respond, the secretary Sina immediately replied,

“Vinci Noburo.”

***

As Vinci glanced at his surrounding, he was appalled. Right now, he was situated between a noisy mass of about 100 students in a large hall-room called an “auditorium.” Everyone was chattering away and, although there were seats for each student, most of them were either walking around or standing up and again, chattering away. While still there were those who were using slim rectangular blocks called “cellphones” to exchange contact codes called “phone numbers” with one another. It seems that many traditional human behaviors were still prevalent even in year 2500.

If it’s right now...maybe I can annihilate everyone here before their talents bud, so that my job will be easier in the future... Vinci quietly thought about this as he surveyed the gathered powers.

Although Vinci was normally a quiet and gentle boy on the outside, due to his many near death experiences on various dimensional worlds, he would once in a while conjure up cruel, if not irrational, thoughts abruptly…

But before Vinci could dwell on this rash plan any further, a voice boomed right near his left ear.

“WELCOME, STUDENTS OF ARENA ACADEMY!”

He immediately turned around due to the voice, only to find an empty seat beside him. Huh? This is...Mental Projection?

It was one of the many magical spells Vinci learned when he absorbed all the information stored in the domain called “Internet.” It was quite amazing the number of skills that were actually taught and revealed in the cyber world, though the higher Ranked spells can only be obtained through the real world. But even so, due to Vinci’s many journeys across several magical dimensional worlds, there are very very few spells and techniques he do know of or how to use them.

Anyways, the skill «Mental Projection» allows the user to project their voice to whoever’s mind they desired. It was ranked as a Mid-tier magic, but if one were to cultivate it to a higher level one would be able to shatter other’s mental capacity or place them under one’s direct control. At that time, the spell’s ability would be on par with those on the High-tier rank.

Vinci looked towards the rectangular, wooden stage at the front of the large room. On the platform, the culprit who used the Mental Projection turned out to be an ancient lady dressed in a long, white robe with golden lines at the edge of the clothe. Although her appearance was that of an elderly, her glistening emerald eyes and previous strong voice refused to submit to such naive assumption. Moreover, there were only few barely visible linings on her face, and the only clues that indicated her to be one of the ancients were her withering gray hair and the rectangular, golden tag she wore. On the badge, it revealed:

{Elder Ember, Headmaster}

After the sudden greeting from the headmaster, all the students quickly scrambled to their respective seats. Once everything calmed down, headmaster Ember observed the crowd as she briefly glanced around.

Suddenly, her eyes hardened and stopped once it found Vinci...