Chapter4: Entrance Exam

Elenora's Academy of Magicka

"About time let's do this," I said as I stood up

Ian placed his hand on my shoulder and in an instant, I appeared in a huge hall with 99 other people standing in front of a huge crystal orb, which had a flat-screen mana hologram floating above it, on the screen were three zeros.

Everyone was as confused as me, but at the same time, I was kinda curious as to what they were going to get us to do. Ian walked up to the crystal and took a glance at everyone before giving off a sigh like he didn't want to be here at all, he then took another glance at us.

"Alright welcome to the first stage of the exam. My name is Ian, and I'm one of your three examiners for today. None of the exams are long excruciating test, they are all simple, short test that will have your display, what you're capable of. If for any reason you aren't able to give satisfactory results, then you will fail" Explained Ian, after his short introduction

"It's a very simple stage, this here is a type of crystal ball known as a Measuring Orb. One at a time you guys will come and place your hand on this orb and release your mana, and if your magic level is under 1000 then you automatically fail and will be taken back to the front of the yard. Step up, whenever your ready" Ian continued to explain

A magic level of 1000? That seems easy enough to do, I'm sure everyone here should be able to hit 1000 easily. I'll hang back a little and see what the others are made of, but by the looks of some people, they are already doubting themselves.

"This should be a breeze," A blond-haired student said as he walked out of the crowd, with a snarky look

The blond student made his way up to the crystal orb and placed his right hand onto the orb. Upon releasing his mana, the orb lit up bright blue and the triple zeros on the mana screen started changing rapidly. Once the boy had stopped releasing his mana, the orb stopped shining and soon the number stopped at -0458-.

His snarky look quickly turned into a puzzled look, quickly turned into a puzzled and confused look. But before he could say anything, Ian snapped his fingers and the blond hair student disappeared into thin air.

"Did I forget to mention, this is an expert orb, so if you thought you can pass just because you can reach two thousand on an adept orb then you thought wrong, the equivalent of one thousand on an expert orb is ten thousand on an adept orb" As Ian explained how the orb worked, a lot of people started to have doubtful looks

Ian then called out next, soon 30 people had tried and only 3 actually made it, so I decided I'll get it over and done with. I walked up to the orb and placed my hand on the orb, now I got to remember to hold back. The highest magical level so far is 2000, so I'll go for 2,100. I place my hand on the orb and release my mana, as soon as I do the orb starts to warm up and blue aura fills up the orb-like water.

After a few seconds, I stopped releasing my Mana but it looks like I had gone a little overboard since I hit 2,200 instead of just 2,100 but I passed either way so I'm not worried after the rest had gone only 20 had passed, the rest got sent back crying.

"I'm guessing a congratulation is in order?.... Good job I guess, now move on to the next test" Ian sighed

All the students that passed, made their way through a nearby door into the next stage where we were met by a female examiner. On the examiners far right, was a giant magic cube that looked like it could fit all of us inside of it.

"My name is Sophia and i'll be your second examiner….looks like only a small amount made it here" Sophia said as she looked at all of us.

"Right...now you whippersnappers listen up. This stage is going to test your defence/durability, so one at a time you kids will stand inside this cube, and I'll cast a destructive spell at you. All you have to do is just put up a barrier strong enough to defend against or find a way to survive it, but don't worry I'll go easy well I'll try to, oh and the cube is made so that only what's outside can get in and what's inside the cube can't get out. So once you're in the cube you can't get out until I allow it but the spell I cast will be able to enter the cube and once it explodes within the cube all the explosion will be kept inside there with you" Sophia explained

This time I wanted to go first but I was beaten to it by a blue-haired boy who made his way up to the cube, and by the way he was carrying himself I could tell he was confident. If I remember correctly he's name is Tai, and he scored a magic level of 2,900 on the previous test, so this should be fun to see.

Tai stood inside the cube and faced Sophia. Sophia raised her right hand towards Tai, and three giant magic circles formed in front of her. The first circle was light green the second was red and the third was yellow. She is going to cast a fusion spell of three different elements, and by looking at the magic circle I can tell it's a fusion of wind, fire, and lightning.

Sophia then shouted, "are you ready!!". Tai nodded yes, and with that Sophia blasted a spiralling vortex that had all three of the elements combined into a destructive spell.

I'm actually pretty impressed that she was able to cast such a powerful spell with only one hand, and no incantation or resistance, I guess that shows that the examiners are no joke.

Tai took a steady stance and raised both of his hands towards the incoming spell, once the spell came into contact with the Tai, the heavy impact pushed him back a few inches but he fought back and held his own against such a spell. I was even more impressed now, Tai then spread his hand apart from a little more which caused the spell to disappear completely.

Tai was panting a little as smoke flew off of his hands it seemed like he nullified the spell. "What's your name kid?" Sophia asked

"Its Tai" Tai replied as he walked out of the cube

"Impressive that you were able to nullify such a destructive spell with little effort" Sophia replied

That Tai kid was pretty impressive indeed nullifying such a spell but now it's my turn. I make my way into the cube and face Sophia, she gets the spell ready then she asks if I'm ready. I nodded yes. Sophia then cast the spell straight at me. Now that I'm at the receiving end of this spell it's actually pretty intense, but I stood firm and placed my hands on the left wall of the cube. The vortex then hit the cube causing a huge explosion that engulfed the entire cube.

"Interesting" Sophia smirked to herself

After a few seconds everything cleared out and I was standing in the cube without a scratch on me, by the looks on everyone's face I could tell they were surprised to see me conscious.

"care to explain what you did kid," Sophia asked

"Sure, once I entered the cube I realized that it was made out of artificial magic, so I was able to modify the original rules that were put on the cube when I touched it. I reversed the rules, so now that what's outside can't get inside the cube making it into a type of barrier" I explained

"That's a pretty impressive kid," Sophia said, praising me "What's your name?" Sophia asked

"It's Ken" I replied, as I re-modify the cube back to normal before returning.

"Fascinating"

Soon the rest of the contestants had their turn, but only 7 in total actually passed, as usual, those that didn't were sent back. Sophia then sent us to the next stage which was outside in a courtyard where we were met by the final examiner who stood in front of a huge crystal orb, although not as big as the first stage's crystal orb. This Orb was just floating in the air, unlike the first one which was sitting on some kind of stand.

"let's make this quick. My name is Zelore and this is the last stage of this exam, for the exam all you have to do is destroy this crystal orb and you pass, it's that simple if you can't destroy it you know the drill you will be kicked out, now one at the time come up and destroy this orb and please be quick about it" Zelore explained in a hurry before moving to the side of the orb

I don't know why, but it seems like none of these examiners wanted to be here apart from Sophia, both Ian and Zelore seemed like they were forced here or something. I decided to go first. I walked up and stood 10 meters in front of the orb thinking about what sort of spell I should cast. Oh, I got it, I'll cast a spell known as 'Exploding Flare', which is an extremely powerful spell if I was to cast it with its full incantation which is 'Xertex Obliterate My Target With Your Mighty Flames Exploding Flare'. But since I'm not using full incantation it should be enough to destroy that orb with ease.

I stand sideways and point my left hand towards the orb I visualize my spell and create a blazing ball of fire in front of my hand, the ball of fire was as big as 40 meters in diameter, and slowly circling around the ball of fire like a ring was 3 sparks of fireballs as big as 2 inches. I smirked before throwing the ball of fire straight towards the orb at great speed.

In no time the ball of fire hit the orb causing an explosion that engulfed the whole orb like it was nothing, this explosion triggered one of the sparks to also explode and when it did it was as big as the first explosion, then the second spark exploded causing a second explosion then the third spark exploded causing a third explosion, all explosions happened consecutively as one explosion triggered another, it was like fireworks.

After the explosion and all the smoke cleared out the orb was completely shattered into a million pieces, like broken glass and there was a crater in the ground as deep as 50meters due to the multiple explosions.

"Exploding Flare? that's impressive..now head that way to where you will meet others that have completed the exam," Zelore said before pointing to a building nearby

Zelore then waved his right hand and the crystal orb I destroyed got rematerialized back to perfect condition as if it wasn't destroyed a few seconds ago, if I had to guess I'd say either that was time magic or creation magic.

I walked into the building that Zelore pointed to and once I got inside I saw about 20 people. It was a total of 20 that have passed so far. Everyone was socializing with each other and eating since there were tables of food everywhere. Right now I was more sleepy than hungry so I looked for a quiet spot and took a nap.

4 hours Later.

"Hey wake up kid, it's time for you to go introduce yourself," a woman said as she tapped me on the shoulder

"Hm...what's happening?" I asked as I slowly got up while rubbing my eyes

"It's the welcoming assembly so get up and get ready to introduce yourself, all the other people that passed the exam already introduced themselves, since you were sleeping when that happened you have to wait until Headmaster Zelfora gives his speech before you can introduce yourself" the lady explained

"Oh, okay that sounds fair I'll wait" I replied as I slowly walked near the stage while rubbing my eyes

In front of the stage, there were a large number of students who were already enrolled in the academy and the ones that passed the exam were standing behind me on stage. Most of them were whispering among each other all waiting for the so-called grandmaster to arrive and give his speech, and it wasn't long before he did, the Headmaster was an old man that was about 6'7 feet tall and had an incredibly toned and muscly physics. He had yellow hair and wore a mage's robe.

The grandmaster stood in front of a stand and faced everyone with a microphone in front of him, and everyone went dead silent ready to listen some of them were even scared of him. I don't blame them looking at him gives me an intense feeling.

"Welcome First Year's, to your first year in Elenora's Academy of Magicka, I'm glad to see so many new faces as well as old faces, all of you are here because you want to reach your limit and then break that limit and go beyond and to do that you will have to be ready to give it your all and when you can't go on anymore, that's when you really need to get up and keep going. Last year 300 candidates went for graduation but only 45 actually graduated now I'm sure to a lot of you are going to want to graduate this year so I'll be straightforward with you there is a very slim chance that you will be able to graduate, but you have the power to change that with your own magic and hard work. I look around and I see potential in all of you to be great wizards if you truly just believe in yourself and cast away all doubt in your heart, I believe you will make it! I can't wait to see what this year brings for our Academy!!" The Headmaster announced with pride and joy before everyone started cheering as loud as they could.

The Headmaster then walked off stage, and the girl that had woken me up walked on stage then asked everyone to be quiet and settle down, but everyone was too hyped to listen so she kept repeating herself until everyone eventually settled down and went quiet, she then announced, "everyone here is the final student that passed this year's exams but couldn't introduce himself earlier cause he was asleep...and those people that pass the exam this year please meet me backstage after the assembly"

She really didn't need to tell everyone that I was sleeping she could have said I was using the bathroom. She walked off the stage and told me to go on stage, so I made my way up to the stage and stood in front of thousands of students all just looking at me, looking in the crowd I see Hanako looking at me with a smile, seeing her put a smile on my face, but I have absolutely no idea what to say to the crowd, so I'll just wing it.

"Umm...my name is Ken Granfold. I'm honoured to be a part of this academy, but I will not lose to any of you cannon fodders" As I say this I can start to see some people get irritated and angry. With a smirk, I continue to say "So if you think you're more than cannon fodder, come and show me the true essence of your magic! Or I will leave you behind".

Almost everyone started shouting at me, they were shouting stuff like "who do you think you are!!", "cocky bastard", "the only person that's gonna be left in the dust is you", "you jackass" and other insults. Now I know grandma told me to hold back, but I might have to ignore her just this once.

I looked at everyone before taking a deep breath, as I exhaled I released an intense wave of my mana. My mana release had so much pressure that it rendered every student unconscious, a handful of them was just barely able to stay conscious and another hand full of students were un-phased and of course, the teachers were un-phased. All of a sudden all the insults had stopped, seems like the insults came from those that fell unconscious. I looked over at Hanako, and I was glad to see she was conscious, I knew she was strong.

I looked at those that were still conscious before cancelling my mana release. "Apart from joining this Academy to make lots of friends, I joined this Academy to test my magic, I want to know how strong I can become and how far my magic can go! So for all those that are still conscious, let this be my way of challenging all of you! show me what your magic is capable of!" I announced out loud to everyone that could hear me. "See you all at graduation," I said with a straight face before leaving

"This years, first-year students sure are gonna be a noisy bunch" The Headmaster chuckled to himself as he stroked his beard

I Walked backstage, where all of the students that passed the exam were waiting. Some of the new students that were in the room with me were giving me dirty looks. If I had to guess I'd say they are salty about my speech, but I didn't pay any attention to them. I just stood by myself waiting for further instructions.

"Yoh!" An elf called out, as he approached me.

By the looks of this elf he was a High Elf around my age, I could tell he was a High Elf by his long pointy ears and golden like skin tone. I've never actually seen a High Elf or any type of Elf at that, I've only heard stories about them by Big Bro Alister. According to him, High Elves are the original elves. They are where all other types of elves spawned from, all the elf in the world can have their lineage traced back to a High Elf, even those mystical Space Elves. Alister also said that High Elves were created out of magic so they are all naturally born with high mana and all High Elf are loved by it.

"Yoh!" I replied

"That was one hell of a speech you gave Ken Granfold," The elf said with a smirk

"And who are you?" I asked. Now that I got a closer look at him, his one of the students that were not phased by my display of mana

"My name is Eldrin Aldaval. I like your attitude, if you can back it up then I'll see you at graduation" the High Elf said with a smirk, as he held out his hand going for a handshake

"That sounds like a deal" I replied with a smirk

I grabbed Eldrin's hand and returned the kind gesture. As I grabbed his hand, he tightened his grip around my hand, then suddenly I felt a heavy force pressure fall upon me, it was as if gravity was trying to bring me down. This was Eldrins mana release, he was trying to intimidate me. I smirked before tightening my grip and once again returning his kind gesture by releasing my mana, making sure the pressure only affected him and no one else.

Eldrin finally released his grip and let go of my hand before letting out a small chuckle "You better not lose to anyone" and with that Eldrin walked off

As he walked off, a big grin appeared on my face without me realising it. It looks like I'm getting more and more excited about this academy.

"Alright now that everyone is here my name is Jess and you all will be receiving your Student portal, which you will carry with you, throughout your entire time at this academy," Jess said speaking into a microphone. Jess pulled out a little cell phone like device, with an ultra-thin design. The device was around 5-6 inches in size, being mostly a see-through screen, with a metal exterior protecting its sides.

"One at a time I will call up students, and give you your portal which will have a map to your dormitory where you will be living, with a few other students. You will come up once I've called your name and I'll tell you how to function your map" Jess said as she stood in front of a stack of Student Portals.

Jess started to call out names one by one and soon everyone was leaving even that Eldrin got his way before me. It seemed like it was in the order of those that gave the speech which means I'm gonna be dead last sadly. After about half an hour everyone had been giving their student portal and dorm information, leaving me last as I guessed.

A holographic screen popped out of Jess's portal, on the screen was a picture of myself including some information about me, like my name, height, age, race, and some other information.

"So your Ken Granfold? That was one hell of an introduction, let's hope your bite is worse than your bark" Said, Jess

Jess grabbed a student portal on the desk beside her and handed it to Me. She then instructed me to place either my right or left thumb on the screen of my portal, I used my right thumb and once I did, the screen lit up and scanned my thumbprint. Once I removed my thumb, the screen of my portal lit up before multiple icons appeared on the screen.

"Okay now click the icon with the map symbol, it's already been preset to your dorm, so just follow the map and you will reach your new dorm" Jess explained as she showed a demonstration on her own portal

"Alright, I think I understand"

I followed the map which led me into a forest that took me almost an hour to reach. This academy is really big like it's the size of an entire island on its own. It's most likely bigger than Zen Island. I walked into the forest following the map and in a few minutes, I reached a big old dorm that looked like it was abandoned and outside the front of the dorm was a big pillar of rock that had weird symbols carved in it, if I had to guess they look like wood elf letters.

"I couldn't have gotten myself lost. I followed the map exactly" I thought to myself, looking at my portal

I took a few steps towards the dorm then the pillar of rock next to it started to crack, I stopped and looked at it as it cracked completely and revealed to be a rock Golem.

Next Time: Risingsun Dorm