-Tuesday Morning, 8th Of the 1st Month, Year 910-

After leaving the Inn, I head for the Academy. Johnny and Jasmine are already there, waiting for me at the front gate next to the gatekeeper. So I greet them, and we go in together after showing him our plates. Passing some of the other applicants, we head to the spot that Mrs. Janson told us to meet up at yesterday. Mrs. Janson and most of our group is already there, so we go over and join up with them.

"Good Morning, Mrs. Janson!" We greet her before taking a seat like the others.

A couple minutes later, Mrs. Janson announces, "We'll wait a bit longer for the last person to come before going to Arena D for your final test."

"Arena D?" I mutter along with some of the other applicants, hearing about a new place.

Noticing our confusion, she explains, "Our Academy has multiple arenas which we use to hold competitions and classes. Students are also allowed to use them as training fields so long as they get permission from a teacher, and it's not already being used. Since we have so many applicants this year, the Vice-Principal decided that each group will use a different arena for the test."

I nod with everyone else, feeling that her explanation makes sense. Not wanting to waste any time, I decide to meditate until the last applicant comes.

●●●

"Good Morning, Mrs. Janson." The last applicant, a tall boy with light tan skin and short gray hair, finally shows up after a few minutes.

"A minute later, and you would have been disqualified!" Mrs. Janson tells him with a frown.

"Ahhn," He lets out a small yawn and scratches his head, "Sorry, I overslept."

"I don't want to hear your excuses, it's time to go, the other groups are already leaving." Looking around, I realize that a couple of groups are already gone, and the other two are walking off to their arenas.

"Follow me!" We all get up and follow her to Arena D.

●●●

After walking for a while, I can see the arena up ahead. It doesn't give off the same feeling as the Brilliant Sun Arena, but the designs are similar. Inscriptions are engraved on the walls, and there are three entrances, one for fighters and the other two are for spectators. I think they're made of a similar material, but this arena is a little smaller than the Brilliant Sun Arena.

Mrs. Janson leads us into the fighter's entrance, but we don't go straight to the platform; instead, we go into one of the rooms on the left side of the hallway. Inside of the room, there's a variety of weapons hanging on the racks on the walls. Mrs. Janson tells us, "Before you enter the platform, you can take a weapon from the rack if you need it. Pay attention when choosing because there are slight differences between each type. Some swords are longer or heavier than others, while some are shorter or lighter, the same goes for the other weapons, but they're all made of the normal iron to keep things fair."

"U-Um," An applicant raises his hand to ask, "A-Are we really using re-real weapons?"

"Of course. In a real battle, no one's going to be using fake weapons, so the sooner you get used to it, the better."

"Bu-But, what if we really get hu-hurt!?" The applicant shouts with a pale face.

"It's impossible for no one to get hurt when fighting with real weapons, in fact, you should be prepared to get hurt." Understanding that they may get hurt, some applicants start shaking like the first guy.

Seeing their reactions, Mrs. Janson sighs, "I know that fighting with weapons can be scary at first, but now is a good time for you all to start getting over that fear. You're all applicants right now participating in our Academy's Entrance Exam, so I won't let any of you die. Not only that, but those combat uniforms are durable. They can protect you against attacks at a certain level, though it is still possible that some of you may break through that defense. In case that does happen, we have nurses on standby that will heal whoever gets hurt. These conditions don't come by often, so take this opportunity and overcome your fear. Show me your real strength."

Hearing her words, everyone starts to calm down. Some people who looked scared a moment ago are clenching their fist, looking determined.

'It's good that everyone calmed down. Although I think their reaction was kind of weird, I can understand being nervous about using an actual weapon to fight, but after fighting those bandits the other day, I can understand her words. Because of Dad's training, I'm used to using real weapons, but I might have lost against those bandits if I wasn't,' Thinking of that fight still makes me angry, but I understand that I'm still really weak, 'That's why I have to pass this exam and join the Academy, so I can get even stronger.'

"Let's go up to the spectator seats, so I can announce the start of the test."

We all nod, and Mrs. Janson takes us out of the room and back outside of the arena.

●●●

After coming up to the spectator seats, Mrs. Janson points to the sections on the right and left of her, "You can sit anywhere in these two sections."

I walk over to the section on the right and take a seat in the third row with Johnny and Jasmine. After everyone is seated, Mrs. Janson starts explaining how the test works, "The Combat Test is divided into three rounds, there are normally 100 fights in each round. Every fight can go on for a maximum of 5 minutes. The purpose of these fights isn't to win, but to show off your skills to the Examiners. So even if you lose, it won't negatively impact your evaluation depending on how well you fought back."

"Um," An applicant in front of me raises his hand nervously, and asks, "Mrs. Janson, you're the only examiner here, so how are the other Examiners going to see our fights?"

Right, she did say "Examiners," but there's no other examiner around.

"Good observation," Mrs. Janson praises him and points upwards, "Your fights will be recorded with that device."

I follow her finger and look into the sky. A mirror-like object is floating above the arena. Ir reminds me of the mirror I saw in one of the inns that I stayed in on my way here, except it's almost double the size, and the edge is lined with a thick whitish-gray material.

"What's that!?" Johnny and a few other applicants shout out.

Feeling surprised and confused like the others, I look at Mrs. Janson for an explanation. She tells us, "That's an Intermediate-Grade Mystic Artifact, the Crystal Mirror. It's part of a High-Grade Mystic Artifact known as the Crystal Records. It records the scene reflected through it and sends it back to the Artifact's main body, where it is stored for the other Examiners to go over later. There's also a Mystic Artifact built into the borders of the walls that transmits sound up to the spectator seats."

I don't understand how any of that is possible. But, I understand that the artifacts are helpful, especially that Crytal Mirror since it will record our fights for the other examiners to see.

Mrs. Janson holds her hand in front of her seeing a couple applicants raise their hands, "I know you guys have more questions about it, but we need to start the test because there are a lot of fights that we have to get through and not a lot of time."

I nod my head, wanting to start the test already.

"Alright, I'll explain the rest of the test rules, then we can start the first round. As I said before, every fight is timed, so if you just want to show off your abilities, you can aim for a draw, but I don't recommend that. You should all try to overcome your opponents rather than just fighting until time's up," She scans over all of us with her fiery red eyes, "There are three ways you can win. The first way is by knocking your opponent off of the platform. Second, you can try to force them to surrender. Lastly, I judge them to be unable to continue. Don't overdo it and badly injure your opponent. If I judge that you're overdoing it, I will disqualify you."

I gulp feeling weak in front of her eyes, although it's not as bad as the Vice-Principal's, Mrs. Janson's gaze still scares me. I feel like if I look at her for too long, I'll get burned.

"I hope that I don't have to disqualify anyone this time. Now, let's start the first round. Number 701 and Number 756, you're up first. Go down to the stage and wait for my command to start."

The two applicants stand up and leave the spectator area. A few minutes later, they come out from the fighter's entrance. They both have weapons, but the girl has two. One from the room, and her own, 'Now that I think about, didn't she have that weapon yesterday too?'

I didn't think too much about it before, but she had that katana yesterday too, didn't she? She stood out because she was the only one in my group with a weapon.

"Ryner, don't you think that Katana is weird?" Hearing Jasmine speak up, I was surprised at first, but I still take a closer look at her katana.

'Aren't those inscriptions?' On the sheath of her katana, there are a few inscriptions, not only that, but the hilt is chained to the sheath, 'Can she even take it out?'

Taking a closer look at the chains, they have inscriptions too. They're giving off an oppressive aura like the Vice-Principals gaze. But I think that feeling coming from the inscriptions is even stronger than her gaze.

"Yeah," I nod at Jasmine, taking my eyes off the katana, and take another look at the girl carrying it.

She's kinda tall, and her long blonde hair dances in the wind with every step she takes. With one hand on the practice katana's sheath and another on its handle, it looks like she's ready to draw it at any moment. I don't know how she's doing it, but her footsteps don't even make a sound. It's like she's walking on air. With slow steps, she takes the first step onto the platform. She walks to the center of it and closes her eyes, waiting for the signal to begin.

'Pretty,' Seeing her figure standing alone on the platform, I can only think that she's one of the prettiest girls I've ever seen.

The moment her opponent walks in front of her, she opens her eyes halfway, revealing her bright blue eyes. She isn't showing a single sign of nervousness, it's as if it's all-natural to her. On the other hand, her opponent is fidgeting all over with his sword in hand.

"This might be his first actual fight," Johnny comments while scratching his head.

"I don't think he can win." Honestly, I'm not even sure if I can win against her, as for the boy down there, I don't think he stands a chance.

"Mm," Both Johnny and Jasmine nod agreeing with me.

"BEGIN!" I guess Mrs. Janson doesn't care about the girl's katana since she started the match without commenting on it.

"Wait! How is this fa-" Without giving him a chance to talk, the girl kicks at him, forcing him to block.

She whispers something into his ear before backing off and drawing the training katana. The boy charges at her recklessly with his sword, but she easily parries it and cuts at him. But he somehow manages to fix his stance and jumps back.

"Enchant!" The boy shouts, and his blade gives off a light blue aura.

He tries to charge at her again, but before he can take the third step, she flashes in front of him with her katana back in its sheath.

"So fast!" I could barely catch her movements when she dashed towards him.

"Enchant." Her sheath and katana shine with a light blue aura as she draws it once again.

Before he can raise his sword to defend, her katana is already pressing against his neck.

"I- I surrender!" The boy drops his sword, and puts his hands up, admitting defeat.

The fight didn't even last a minute before the boy was forced to surrender.

"Number 701 wins, good job, girl!" Mrs. Janson announces the results and praises her with a smile.