“It’s today!!!” I jolted out of the bed, running to the toilet to prepare myself for the big day.

I looked into the mirror to try to psych myself up. I was an average-looking 12 year old kid with black hair. I was quite tall for my age and someone who was above-average in terms of studies or athletics. Basically a jack of all trades but master of none. I was not exceedingly stellar in any one aspect but I could do many things.

After I washed up, I went to the dining room to have breakfast before heading for school. Because it was a very special day, my mother had prepared a huge, scrumptious breakfast for me.

“I know you’re nervous but it’s okay everyone will be on this day! Mama remembers when it was her turn haha it did not turn out that well but regardless what happens, everyone will be able to do something okay! No one is useless in Zeta!” My mother said soothingly as she ruffled my hair and presented me with the best homemade breakfast I have ever seen in my entire life.

Zeta is the name of the city I belong to. It is one of the biggest cities in Xector which is the name of our world. Zeta is well known for being a resourceful city with people as its main resource. We have a high population and a huge variety of jobs so everyone in Zeta will be able to do something.

Today is the day of the Qualifying Examinations (QE), which is mainly a test you have to do when you leave your basic primary education. This test determines your future education path by classifying your talent, to see if you have the potential to serve as a prestigious Legionnaire or if you are better off learning other ways of livelihood; academics, carpenting, smithing, cooking and the likes. About 20% of the population passes the QE every year. It’s quite small but at least it’s one fifth. The special thing about this test though is that it measures your latent abilities, your potential, so there is basically very little things you can do to prepare for this test. It is not something you can study or train for. Your talent or potential is sadly something that is mainly gifted at birth.

However, all my life I’ve wanted to be a Legionnaire. A Legionnaire is basically a warrior, mage, assassin or archer that pledges itself to the League of Peace (LoP). In Xector, there are monsters that lie beyond the city walls, across every single type of terrain. A Legionnaires’ primary job is to exterminate these monsters to ensure peace. Furthermore, Legionnaires are the only people allowed into dungeons, which are made by a special type of monster that are able to rule its own dungeon. Conquering a dungeon will lead to extravagant rewards and maybe you might even find unique and powerful treasures inside. For me, it was the prestige and way of life that was extremely appealing to me. Pledging yourself to a cause to kill monsters to make the world a better and safer place was a noble cause and something I can definitely see myself doing in future.

After breakfast, I walked to the location of the QE which was separate from the school. On the way there, I met my best friend, Chippy.

“Sup Legionnaire to be, how’re you feeling?” Chippy chirped.

“Quit teasing me. Everyone knows I want to be a Legionnaire but everyone also knows it’s impossible to prepare for the QE.” I replied.

“Haha that’s why if you don’t have any expectations in life, you’ll never be disappointed!” He said.

Chippy’s philosophy of life can basically be seen from that statement. He was someone who never tried too hard to achieve anything. He basically believes that happiness is the most important thing and if you ever expect too much from yourself, you’ll be disappointed one day. He believes in a happy go lucky life and only expects the bare minimum from himself. It will definitely have its flaws, with regards to his ambition, drive and discipline but Chippy had been quite the achiever in school from his grades so it looks like he was doing just fine even if he did not aim high. Whenever someone asks him how he would do for a test, he would just say I think I’ll probably pass. And then he gets one of the highest if not the highest score in class. What an asshole.

When both of us reached the examination grounds, we were quite shocked by the number of applicants. There were easily tens of thousands of people which spoke about our population. But on second thought, it wasn’t very surprising. I mean it was after all a test to enable you to have a prestigious job with little to no preparation needed.

I went in with Chippy and we were already registered by our schools so we had our own registration numbers. My number was 4078 and Chippy was 4332. We saw two separate examination grounds and it was definitely something unique. They were split into magical and physical aspects.

The physical examination ground involved an obstacle course and a timer. You could only see the entrance of the obstacle course from the outside in order to prevent people from strategizing before the course starts. Your score would depend on the time you take to clear the obstacle course I guess. If you cannot even clear the obstacle course I think your chances would be meek if you are aiming for a warrior or assassin class.

The magical examination ground involved a weird array of transparent orbs on a stage. There was a panel of judges sitting in front of the stage looking at the individual testee. When people put their hands over the orbs, they change colour and I believe that is the main way how they gauge your magic potential.

Soon, my number was called by the physical examiner.

“You need to get out of this obstacle course within 3 minutes. Remember, you have 3 minutes max. If you’re not out by then you’ll be teleported out.” He briefed me.

“Understood.” I nodded.

I began running through the course. All I could see was a straight path with solid brick walls around me. The path was about 3 meters wide. I did not sprint from the start because of the time limit given to me. If I sprinted from the start I think I would be too tired by the first minute. After all, this is a test of potential and not your true physical strength. I’m pretty sure there will be other aspects and not a test of pure speed.

Sure enough, the first obstacle appeared in front of me after I turned the first corner.

“Catch the real one.” A banner which was placed above a closed red door read. In front of the closed red door was a 10 meter by 10 meter space cordoned off by fences.

Within the fence, there were about 50 cats strewn about. And yes they were quite cute.

What in the world? Aren’t they all real? How the heck do I find the real one?!

I looked at the cats carefully. They were not moving around, all of them had the exact same physical appearance. How was I supposed to find the real cat?? I tried stomping my feet on the ground. Nothing happened. There was no reaction at all from the cats. No reaction? Something was amiss. I was pretty sure if I stomped my feet real hard beside a real cat, the cat would’ve most probably jumped away by instinct. I ran around in the 10 by 10 meter space and stomped around randomly. Sure enough, once I reached a certain portion of the area, all the cats begun to move. At once. Altogether.

So this is what they did!

I was pretty sure that they put one real cat in the pen and 49 other illusions which have a mirror property of sorts. To follow exactly what the one original cat did. From this, I could deduce that the cat was near the area I was standing in now. However, it was still hard to ascertain which cat was the real one because all the cats would move in tandem. I tried stomping my feet again. One cat noticeably moved first before all the others and I made a beeline for that cat. Once I touched it, the banner that read “Catch the real one” disappeared and the door immediatey opened by itself. I was free to move on.

I ran forward, realising that I passed the first test quite easily with my quick thinking but I shouldn’t waste this opportunity! I can clear this shit!! When I went through the door, it was another straight path surrounded by brick walls.

Around the next corner though was an entirely different task.

“One round against the boxer. It scales according to your current strength level. One round is one minute.” The banner on top of another closed door read. In front of the closed door was a boxing ring about 6 by 6 meters. There was a stationary boxer who was standing in one of the corners which was red.

This banner immediately suggested to me two things. The first is that your current strength level really did not matter here because it will scale according to strength level so it really is not a strength of your speed or strength. However, the second more important one was that there was a hint with the wordings used that it didn’t tell us to LAST one round against the boxer. It just told us to have one round against him. This means that either I could choose to last through the one minute, or go for a K.O to shorten the time.

I immediately stepped into the ring and into the blue corner. Sure enough, a gong rang after a second. The boxer immediately charged towards me and since I did not see any referee around me, I figured why not give it a try. Just because he was a boxer doesn’t mean I needed to fight on his terms. I threw a roundhouse kick which was basically one of the most illegal things you could do in boxing. It clearly took the boxer by surprise but he managed to block the hit. However, there was no penalty or anything of the like given to me so I assumed I could do whatever I wanted as long as I could take him down.

I went on the offensive this time. Boxers have a habit of raising their guard so their legs were usually unprotected. Furthermore, they could only “rightfully” use their hands to punch in the ring. Using all this to my advantage, I went into a range where only my feet could hit him and his punches couldn’t land and started to use low kicks. I kicked his front foot about 5 times as hard as I could and he was clearly getting irritated. I knew the timing was about to come and sure enough, when I began the slight motion of moving my feet, he thought I was going to kick him again and he stepped in with full force and threw a right straight at my face. However, it was a feint and I sidestepped the punch, following through with a right straight of my own.

BOOM! Counter. The boxer immediately fell onto the mat and the banner was removed. The red door opened again and I ran through. I couldn’t afford to waste any time. By now, I was already breathing heavily as I was beginning to get tired. It was yet another straight path which turned into a third corner and to my surprise, I saw one last banner.

“Finishing line” With an open door and a silhouette of what I suspected was the examiner waiting at the exit of the door.

However, there was just one catch. It was placed at roughly one kilometre away.

How the fuck did they fit a one kilometre straight path into this examination ground?!

I grit my teeth and ran. However, as I ran and ran, I knew that my usual timing for running one kilometre is about 3 minutes. At best, I would be able to do 3 minutes if I ran like a madman from start to end. Could it be that those with talent could do this entire course within 3 minutes including the previous two segments? I couldn’t take it anymore. At the back of my head, I knew that I wouldn’t be able to do it. However, I just wasn’t willing to accept the fact. I just kept running. I knew that the time limit was 3 minutes for the whole course so I would try my best for the three minutes. The banner clearly said finish line anyway so I decided to try my very best. I forced whatever amount of energy I could muster out of myself and began sprinting towards the finishing line.

As I ran and ran, every single second felt like I was overstraining my muscles. My muscles felt like a butthole which just went through 12 hours of explosive diarrhoea. The weird part though was that the finishing line didn’t seem to appear any closer. Even though I was running so hard, the finishing line looked to be running further and further away from me as well! I felt so tired but I just decided to run until my three minutes were up anyway. However, just when I felt like fainting because of over-exertion, I suddenly found myself at a different place.

I must have been teleported out of the obstacle course already.. Ahh well I tried my best…

“Congratulations!” A banner read as I looked behind me. There was also numbers that were floating in mid air. “2:13:51”. I was at the entrance of the physical examination. I was indeed teleported.

The examiner that greeted me in the beginning looked at me and smiled.

“Congratulations candidate 4078. A panel of judges was monitoring your every move and have decided on your scores. A detailed report card will be available for you once you finish both tests. However, take comfort in knowing that once you have passed this physical examination course, you would have fulfilled the prerequisite of becoming a Legionnaire. You can study to become a warrior for sure. However, your aptitude for magic will help you determine if you are additionally able to become a magician, assassin or archer so do your best in that test too!” The examiner said as he casted a healing spell onto my body. I immediately felt less fatigued and thanked him.

I then proceeded to the magic examination. which was the lone stage with the orb placed on the top of a small pillar. A panel of judges were seated at a stone table facing the orb. There was a basin on the stone table. I wonder what that was for.

“Candidate 4078 please place your hand on the magic crystal orb in front of you and try to picture your strength, flowing out of your body and into the orb.” The examiner said clearly with a pleasant ringing to his voice.

I listened to his instructions and closed my eyes. I tried to imagine my strength leaving me as I channelled my energy through my body into my hand and into the crystal orb. It felt weird. It was like I was trying to exert force onto an object which I knew nothing should happen to the crystal orb. However, I suddenly felt a very weird feeling, like I had a bank of energy somewhere within my body and I quickly tried to move that energy through my hand into the orb. I could feel it flowing from the middle of my chest to my right shoulder, down my elbow into my palm and finally into the orb.

I opened my eyes. The orb was glowing purple and it was quite a deep purple. It looked good and I looked at the examiner’s face for confirmation if what I did was supposed to be good. I had no idea because it was the first time I felt like I had an energy bank somewhere inside of me. Now, I could not even sense it anymore.

“Good job candidate 4078. You have displayed signs of magic which you are able to wield. For those who are successful at wielding magic, we have another test for you to determine your aptitude towards the different elements. Please proceed to the basin on the table in front of the panel of judges.” He said.

I walked to the basin standing alone in front of all the judges and looked inside. It was sponge floating on water. Strangely enough, the sponge was only slightly damp and not soaked.

“Welcome young one. This test involves you doing the same thing just now. I know it’s harder without the orb to detect your mana pool but its fine. This sponge is highly sensitive to even the tiniest bit of mana so just do the same thing with the orb with your hands around the basin. This is called the basin test. The results from this test will tell you which element you have an affinity with.” One of the judges calmly called out to me.

I nodded and proceeded to do exactly the same thing I did with the crystal orb. I concentrated hard but this time I kept my eyes open. I too was curious to what would be the element I had the most affinity with.

The basin suddenly showed some changes. The sponge became smaller, the sponge also became slightly odd. Half of it was soakingly wet, the other half was completely dry. It also looked a lot more hard and solid. The water level in the basin dropped and now the water was murky. However, there was a pleasant smell in the air. All the judges in front of the basin stood up.

“WHAT THE HELL?!” One of them shouted.

“Wha- What did I do wrong????” I asked, flabbergasted at their reaction.

All the judges looked at each other and were totally oblivious to me. They were discussing the results of my test.

“This test is supposed to show the highest one right? I have two affinities but only one of them will be shown from the basin test.” One said.

“Yes. There is no doubt. I trained three and only my highest one shown as well.”

“Does this mean… He is equally talented in all the elements?”

“Let’s go take a look at the basin. Be careful not to leak any mana or the results of the test will be changed.”

“To hell with that if it changed we can ask him to do it again this is the first time in the entire history of the QE that someone like that has appeared!”

Erm.. What’s going on???

The judges stood up and crowded around the basin, scrutinizing the sponge and basin. All of them came to a consensus and finally informed me what my affinity was.

“Young boy. This affinity test is called the basin test. It shows your element you have the highest affinity with. This can be ascertained from the change you can observe in the basin. If you have affinity to fire, the sponge will completely dry up because you heated it up. If you have affinity to water, the sponge will become completely soaked. If you have affinity to wind, the sponge will shrink as you have absorbed the air out of the sponge. If you have affinity to earth, the sponge will turn hard which is the property of earth. If you have affinity to lightning, the water level will reduce because of electrolysis which is the breaking down of water to hydrogen and oxygen. If you have affinity to dark, the water will turn murky and dark because of the properties of darkness. If you have affinity to light, the water will turn sweet smelling because of healing properties of the holy element.” He explained.

“Occasionally, twin elements can be seen in mages which shows that he has 2 elements he is equally affiliated to. The highest record that ever existed was the legendary mage Xantos who had three affinities, light, wind and fire. However, from the result of your test… We can only conclude that you have an equal affinity to all 7 elements. This basically means you can choose any element you would like to learn and your talent for understanding that element will all be the same. However, this is just a test to show your highest element affinity. Each element affinity is deeper classified into levels between 1-10. From this test, you can conclude that all your elements have the same level. However, the exact number from 1-10 will be unable to be told from this test. If you’re lucky maybe all of your elements have levels of 7-10. However, if you’re unlucky they might all be 1-4. For short, you can use all the elements of magic equally well but how well can you use it can only be known at a later date, when you enrol into a magic institute.” The judge explained to me.

I understood what they meant. All the judges were looking at me in awe. However, what if I have a level 1 affinity for all the elements? I frowned.

One judge seemed to read my mind and he said “Don’t worry. It is highly unlikely that all the elements will be low. Wait for the exact test you will do in the different academies!”

I thanked all the judges and I left for the collection of my examination results. It was available at the collection counter, which was outside of the stadium. The results were being released as they were calculated and once your number was called up, you could go and receive your result slip. After a few minutes of waiting, my number was called out. I quickly went to open up my result slip to have a look.

‘Candidate Name: Jinx

Candidate Number: 4078

Physical Examination Results:

Agility – 7/10 (Accessed throughout the exam)

Ability to think on feet – 7/10 (Accessed throughout the exam)

Reaction time – 7/10 (Accessed in the cat stage)

Fighting ability – 7/10 (Accessed in the boxing stage)

Perseverance – 7/10 (Accessed in the finishing stage)

Finishing Time – 7/10 (Final result)

Total Physical Grade: 42/60

Last Year Attempted Average: 20/60

Last Year Cleared Average: 40/60

Magic Examination Results:

Mana Comprehension – 7/10

Time Taken – 7/10

Quality of Mana – 7/10

Quantity of Mana – 7/10

Total Magic Grade: 28/40

Last Year Attempted Average: 10/40

Last Year Cleared Average: 24/40

Highest Elemental Affinitie(s): Fire, Water, Wind, Earth, Lightning, Darkness, Light

Aggregated Total Grade: 70/100

Last Year Attempted Average: 30/100

Last Year Cleared Average: 64/100’

I looked at my result slip. Sigh. It was something I really couldn’t escape from I guess. I was doomed to be ‘just above average’ all my life. I did not get a single 8, 9 or 10. I did not get anything average from 4-6. My god and I only see 7’s. But who cares I can finally, finally take pride in taking my first steps to be a Legionnaire!

I received a brochure from the report stand as well to see what schools I can apply to. There are 3 major schools for Legionnaires in Zeta. All of them can train you to become Legionnaires but like any other schools, there are rankings for them. In first place is Kirin Academy which is known for producing top tier geniuses. However, second placed is Overlord Academy which is well known for producing extremely capable Warriors. If you compare Warriors alone, the Warriors in Overlord Academy is usually on par or maybe even slightly better than those in Kirin Academy. In third place is Merlin Academy. For Merlin Academy, they specialise more in mages. The distinctions between the schools are noticeable but not so much as for one school to completely overshadow the other 2. As long as you are in one of the three academies, you will be treated with respect simply because you are on your way to becoming a noble Legionnaire.

I was still trying to decide which of the three academies I should apply to when I heard Chippy’s number being called out at the report stand. I saw Chippy going to collect his examination report. I also saw him receive a brochure from the stand which meant that he passed at least one of the examinations. I ran behind him and peeked at his report card.

“WHAT THE FUCK?!” I exclaimed.