At the start of the next week Gabriel got up early and quickly grabbed his seven pre-prepared letters for each of the now seven teachers he wanted to battle throughout this week. These teachers found their cards in curious spots as Gabriel wanted to catch their attention.

In the end he decided to go only for teachers that taught introductory courses, even if this didn’t mean that they would be weaker than others, but they were some of the most beaten ones. Gabriel thought that he could defeat them because of that as well.

But he also considered the possibility that students that had previous knowledge, having learned through their families or other schools of magicians, wanted to quickly gain the approval of teachers went directly to the introductory teachers not only because they thought they would be easier targets but also because some of their approvals were prerequisites to attend to other classes.

At the house of the teacher for the class “introduction to light magic” the dawn of Monday let a particular message pass through the windows. “I, Gabriel Mill, challenge you today in the arena for your approval” – it said. There was also a letter left on the balcony with more details such as the time of the battle, which Gabriel had already checked, details of himself and other information that could interest the teacher.

Around the same time a paper-made stickman carrying a letter was following another teacher on their morning run. This instructor taught the basics of movement magic and Gabriel’s way of delivering the challenge was sure to rouse his interest.

Before I describe every way, I sent my letters I believe it makes more sense if I also describe the fights I had. Yes, I am able to tell you how they went because I managed to find and clear their spell on my mind on my own. Although it took me years to trace and cancel their spells effectively.

This meant that some of the spells controlling my memories of that situation had grasped firm terrain in my brain, so I’ll be unable to retell some parts of the test that I had to go through, which turns into an unintelligible mess when I try to express it in any form.

On the first day, right before lunch, I had prepared my fight against the light magic teacher due to him being quite a glutton and Gabriel believed that if they fought right before one of the times, he would feed himself he might make mistakes.

It was also Monday and this teacher usually taught worse during this day of the week, implying, for Gabriel at least, that he was still tired and started his week slowly. And at midday I was called to the arena through my student card, the teacher would meet me soon.

There, a _______ was set up. There was also a table with a letter including my instructions for the test, which surprisingly didn’t require any fighting at all. Instead, the teacher had quickly prepared some ­­­______ which I had to resolve using light magic only, while he watched me from a room behind the one-way see-through glass that covered the walls of the testing area.

I decided to take a look to the whole area with my magic and luckily realized that this puzzle had multiple similarities to different puzzles recorded in some books he had read in the room with Arabelle. It was in a new format, and he had to control the ­_______ with light magic instead move them inside his mind.

Although there were some things he hadn’t seen before, like the ______ which now were of the same color and size. There was also a new kind of thing which he didn’t know what it did, but he realized that it was important due to its _____ and _____.

Observing the room once again, already with a plan in mind, Gabriel realized that he could progress quite far like that, but at some point, he wouldn’t be able to progress further due to a _____ blocking his advancement by _______.

He now started from this problem and worked his way back and then forwards again and so on and forth for a while until suddenly he was told that there were only fifteen minutes left for him to solve the puzzles by a light firework which blew up to form this information.

Gabriel had mostly solved the puzzles in the room in his head but there were two parts in which he wasn’t sure so he would most likely have to wing it at those situations. So, he started pushing, pulling, twisting and energizing different objects throughout the room to ______ a ______ to the _____.

When he got to the crossroad of winging it or spending more time to understand the problem at hand, Gabriel realized that the _______ seen beforehand was actually a big help and with that he got through the first situation.

The second one was almost at the end and his internal clock told him that he had about four minutes left, so he analyzed it a bit more and also managed to solve it by _______ the _____ and then turning it to ______ and a congratulatory message was beamed from the box where the trials ended.

He had managed to gain the approval of the first teacher with his body quite well rested, but Gabriel’s mind was screaming at him to rest so after checking the changes of his student card in approval, he immediately wandered towards his abode and laid on the bed, falling asleep before his sister could even greet him.

The next day Gabriel was going to battle the movement magic teacher and it was divided into two parts, one where he couldn’t use mana consciously in any way and another where he could only use spells to advance.

Both sections followed a similar pattern, requiring precise movements, careful balances and a significant speed to get through in time. The test was a parkour course that went both ways, one way with his body and the other with mana, with nothing but the perspective having changed.

There were some ropes, balance beams and slopes in a pattern with two _____, one on each side of the course. When Gabriel pressed one of them a sign with a timer started counting down and when he pressed it again, the count started from the beginning once more.

But there was also some liquid, probably ______ slowly flooding the room, it was quite viscous and ______. Luckily, the course was at a certain altitude above the pits which would first fill up with the liquid, but if he fell or took too long, he would certainly get dirty and probably stuck.

He would probably be saved before anything too bad happened to him but at the same time he would most likely fail to get the approval of this second teacher. So, he prayed that falling down wouldn’t affect him too much on his run and he started with his body. His mind was rested from yesterday, but it was still not rested enough to willingly tire it out first. He would need his mind to do the normal run as well, after all.

The first few times he was confused as to how some ______ worked but after falling a few times in still dry areas he managed to understand it and so pass this obstacle. The rest of the course wasn’t that hard, especially because there were some areas where he could rest, even if it wasn’t very comfortable.

So, he managed to get to the other side of the course… but the time was already over by a few minutes. So, he had to move back to the starting place. He would’ve fallen down on purpose if it wasn’t for the liquid that had already spread over most of the pits.

Gabriel would either need to try this side of the course or tire his body even more before trying to gain these extra minutes he had missed. He decided that it was a better idea to get an idea on how difficult this side would be, so he attempted a run using mana only.

Yet he realized that even if the course was only mildly more difficult from this side, it was much harder to control his body than his mind as he instinctively stretched his arms and legs as supports. He could close his eyes to improve his concentration, but he wouldn’t be able to see what he was doing…

Gabriel decided it was best to leave it for later as he moved through the liquid towards the physical start of the exam. And he did. He felt multiple times, too but before the liquid got to his upper calf and hindered his movement too much, he managed to make it through fast enough, but he had already wasted about a third of the total allotted time.

He hadn’t wasted it, as he had familiarized himself with the course but now came the more difficult part. Not only was this going to be harder, but Gabriel also realized that the liquid was now pouring even faster than before, so he probably had less than the time shown on the sign.

Now I could tell you many details about this part of the test, because I cut some unimportant memories together with the spell blocking this test but it’s rather boring. At first, I tried concentrating very hard and moving myself at the same time, but I kept instinctively moving my body to hang on.

Therefore, I ended up closing my eyes to prevent my body from knowing where and how it could help me balance it and although I got quite sticky from falling so many times, I managed to get through the total course a bit after the course itself was starting to get dirty with the liquid.