-Monday Morning, 7th Of the 1st Month, Year 910-

Feeling my body being shaken back and forth, I open my eyes and sit up, "Haan...Morning Gramps."

"Good Morning, Ryner." Gramps lets go of my shoulders and tells me, "It's time to get up; otherwise, you'll miss the Entrance Exam."

"Mm," I rub my eyes and get out of bed.

As usual, I circulate my Qi a couple of times, filling my body with energy.

"How are you feeling?" Gramps asks as he hands me a rag to wash my face.

"A little nervous," I wash my face, before handing the rag back to him, "...I don't know what's on the exam or if I'm strong enough to get through it. But I'll try my best and use everything I learned to pass."

"That's good, so long as you give it your all, I'm sure you'll pass," Gramps pats my head.

"Mm," I nod and clench my fist, 'I need to pass. Not just for myself but for my parents and Gramps who believes in me.'

My body starts to heat up, feeling the anger rising inside. I take a deep breath and circulate my Qi trying to calm down, 'Right, I also need to pass to fulfill my goal. To get revenge for everyone who died and for my parents who have to live in hiding.'

●●●

After Gramps goes downstairs to order breakfast, I start getting ready. Getting out of the shower, I put on a plain red shirt and black jeans. For a moment, I think about bringing my sword, but shake my head, "I should be fine without it."

Ready, I leave the room and join Gramps downstairs for breakfast. Unlike yesterday, there are only a few people down here quietly eating their breakfast.

While we're waiting for our food to come, Gramps starts a conversation, "I never asked you about this before, but I'm curious what else is motivating you? Besides your parents, I feel like there's something else driving you to take the Entrance Exam."

"I-" I hesitate, I've never told anyone about my goal before.

Seeing my hesitation, Gramps waves his hand, "It's fine if you don't want to talk about it. I was just curious."

Even though I didn't want to talk about it, something inside me pushes out the word, "Strength."

"Strength is it?" The Gramps rubs his hand against his bare chin, "So, you want strength?"

"Mm," I nod my head, keeping the rest to myself.

"Many people hope to join the Mystic Arts Academies for that reason, but the desire for strength can only push you so far," Saying that Gramps sighs, looking kind of tired.

'What do you mean?' I want to ask, but at the same time, I feel like I already know.

"The desire for strength comes from the desire for something else. People don't simply desire strength without a cause, there is always a reason that people come to desire it. In a situation like this, everyone is taking part in the Entrance Exam for a reason. No matter what that reason is, during the exam, you're all obstacles blocking each other from achieving your goals. The only way to overcome an obstacle, in this case, is to topple it and put a stop to someone else's goal. Between people with similar strength, the one who wants it more will be able to overcome their opponent. Remember this, Ryner. The more you desire it, the greater your body will respond, giving you the strength to overcome any obstacle." Gramps stops stroking his chin and stares deep into my eyes.

"I-" Gramps shakes his head and cuts me off before I could say anything else, "Don't think about my words too deeply, just remember what I said and do your best in your Exam."

I clench my fist, feeling Gramp's faith in me, 'I'll take the exam with everything I have so that I don't disappoint any of you. Whatever obstacles I'm faced with, I'll overcome all of them, I promise!'

●●●

After we finish eating breakfast, I go upstairs and grab Dad's letter. I fold it a couple times so that it can fit in my back pocket before heading off to the Academy without Gramps.

I jog down the route we took yesterday, 'It's going to take a bit longer to get there since I'm going on foot.'

After a few minutes, I can finally see the Academy's walls and the other applicants going to the Academy like me. I join the crowd of kids and make my way to the Academy with them.

The same guy as yesterday is standing in front of the gate, waiting for us with a lot of other applicants. Since I got here a little early, there's still some time left until 9. After going up to him and showing him my plate, he told me to wait with the other applicants.

'I guess I'll circulate my Qi until it's time to go,' Thinking that, I start circulating the Qi in my body.

●●●

"Follow me, applicants." Saying that he turns around and leads us into the Academy.

He guides us through the gates to a large circular building without a roof. Dozens of inscriptions are embedded into the walls. High above each door is an ancient-looking engraving of the Sun. In the middle, a Sun larger than the others is drawn.

As we enter through the middle door, the guide explains, "This is the largest arena in the Academy, known as the Brilliant Sun Arena. Named by its designer Balt Fritz, 67 years ago. It's said that each engraving of the Sun represents his profound love for it. Every year since its creation, someone who steps into it is said to be blessed by the Sun, destined to shine brighter than any other member of their generation. At least that's the legend behind it, some say the principal himself was blessed by the Sun, while others think that it's just a myth. In the end, it's unknown whether this legend is true or not. But every year, the Entrance Exam starts in this arena instead of the auditorium, in hopes that one of the applicants will receive the blessing."

"Wow!" Someone beside me shouts.

Crossing through the hallway, we enter the center of the arena. My eyes are immediately drawn to the large circular white platform filling up the empty space. We follow the guide up the steps leading onto it. On the other side, I can see another set of stairs and a hallway like the one we came in.

Looking around, there are rows and rows of seats all around us. The seats wrap around the arena, divided into sections by isles.

"This platform is where students of the past and future fight to overcome one another, and all around us are the spectator seats where people sit to witness these fights, and-" The guide points to the spectator seats, "-You'll be sitting up there as the Vice-Principal announces the start of the Entrance Exam."

We all nod our heads looking around for a way to get up to the spectator seats, 'There's no stairs or anything, so I guess we have to jump up into the seats? But that wouldn't make any sense, so there should be another way?'

Before any of us could try jumping, the guide tells us, "I just wanted to show all of you the view from down here. We'll have to exit and go through one of the side entrances to reach the spectator seats. Although you could jump, it would be rude to make our guests do that."

Scratching my head, I think, 'Why didn't you say that earlier?'

He leads us back through the hallway. This time we go into one of the side entrances and enter the spectator area.

●●●

The guide tells us to sit anywhere while we wait. I pick a random row and sit down on the stone bench. A boy with casual clothes comes over and sits down next to me. He's a little taller than me, and his body is bulkier.

He reaches out his hand and introduces himself, "I'm Johnny!"

I stretch out my hand and shake his, "Ryner."

"Nice to meet you, Ryner!" He tightens his grip on my hand and shakes it up and down roughly.

'So strong.' I shake his hand off and glare at him.

"Sorry, sorry, I just wanted to see how strong you are. I wasn't tryna to pick a fight!" He waves his hands in front of his chest, signaling that he doesn't want to fight.

I sigh and wave my hand, telling him that it's fine. Turning my head to the stage, 'I wonder if I'll ever be able to fight on it one day?'

"Wanna talk for a bit?" Johnny asks me, scratching his spiky black hair roughly.

'It doesn't look like she's going to come out for a bit, so I might as well talk to him,' I sigh to myself internally, "What do you want to talk about?"

"Uhh..." My response must have surprised him because it takes him a bit to think of something, "Where are you from?"

"Cara Village," Technically, I'm from Forest next to Cara Village, but the forest can be considered part of the village, I think, so it's not really a lie, "What about you?"

"Risana City, My dad, is stationed there," Johnny tells me with a big smile on his face.

"Your Dad?"

"Yeah, he's a member of the Royal Knight Corps," He slams his fist against his chest proudly, "And one day, I'm gonna be a member just like him and protect everyone on the Continent!"

"That's cool," His goal is similar to David's except his is on a larger scale.

"Thanks," He smiles at me, "How about you, what's your goal?"

"It's-" I hesitate for a moment before saying, "-It's to become stronger."

Even if I wanted to say my goal, I can't announce it proudly like him. I can't just tell someone that I want to kill the Divine King. Even if I explain myself, I don't think that it will ever be accepted by anyone.

"That's cool, I want to become stronger too!" Johnny puts his hand on my shoulder and gives me a thumbs-up, "Let's do our best!"

"Yeah." I try to smile back at him, but I could feel the corner of my mouth shaking.

"What's-" Before he could ask anything, his voice was cut off by the sounds of gasping coming from the other applicants.

A beautiful woman in a tight black suit walks onto the platform, with her long brown hair tied back into a ponytail. Everyone goes quiet as her sharp amber eyes glaze over us.

Feeling her eyes on me, it's like I'm carrying a mountain on my shoulders. Although she only looked at me for a moment, it felt like a few minutes went by. I couldn't even circulate my Qi properly under her gaze.

Free of her gaze as she moves her eyes through the rest of the crowd. I breathe in and out slowly, regaining control over my Qi, 'She's so strong...'

Someone walks onto the stage and hands her a black rod with a metal ball attached to it. She raises the ball close to her mouth and speaks, "Good Morning, Applicants."

Her smooth voice echoes throughout the arena, reaching all of us, "I am the Vice-Principal of the Academy, Madeline Dyer, but you can all refer to me as Miss Dyer."

We all raise our voices and return her greeting, "Good Morning, Miss Dyer!"

"I assume you're all here because you want to become Students of the Academy?" Again her eyes scan over us.

"Yes!" We all reply at the same time.

"Then you must first pass the Entrance Exam. The exam is divided into three parts. The Written Exam which will assess your basic knowledge," She continues, "Then after that, you will all gather on one of the fields for lunch and wait for your group to be called so you can take the second test, The Mystic Arts Aptitude Test. The point of that test is to gauge your potential to practice Mystic Arts and see whether it's worth it to teach you here at the Academy or not. Then the last test, The Combat Test, will allow you to demonstrate your fighting skills to the Examiners. You will each participate in at most three fights. Based on your results in the three tests, we will determine whether or not to accept you. But be warned, we only accept 100 students, and there are 1000 applicants this time around, so everyone will have to try their best if they want to be accepted."

"What!?" My eyes widen, shocked by the small number of students being accepted, 'Gramps said that it'd be tough, but this is just crazy.'

"I will now tell you your groups. Examiners, please come onto the stage," Five adults walk onto the stage, three men and two women.

"Applicants 0-200, please come down to the stage and meet with your Examiner, Mr. Carlos." A lot of applicants stand up and leave the spectator area and go down to the platform.

"Hey, what number are you?" Johnny asks me as the first group leaves.

"764," I read the number on my plate.

"So we should be in the same group. I'm number 703," Johnny smiles and puts his arm around my shoulder.

"Applicants 201-401, please come down…" She calls the next group right after the first one leaves.

After calling down another group, she finally says, "Applicants 603-803, please come down to the stage and meet with your Examiner, Mrs. Janson."

I walk down with Johnny, and when we reach the stage, our Examiner, Mrs. Janson, a woman with fiery red hair and eyes, calls out to us, "My name is Fenna Janson, but you can call me Mrs. Janson!"

"Good Morning, Mrs. Janson!" Together we greet her.

"Good! Now let's go so you guys can take the Written Exam." We all follow her out of the arena.