"Only this written exam is keeping me from enrolling in the school, the problem is, i hate tests"

Konrad and Andrej have managed to arrive in front of the Grand school on time, and two professors lead them to two different classrooms, so they wouldn't be in the same one.

"Good luck my friend, hahaha" Komrad shouted while his irritating laugh quietly faded into the background.

"What? No, no i don't want to do this all alone, i would prefer that annoying laugh all day then this!" Andrej thought nervously while shaking and sweating, he tried slapping himself in order to focus, but that didn't help, then he was seated inside of a giant classroom, with five rows of fourty desks, all of them made from pristine wood with chairs of the same material, and all the walls were in perfect condition, with windows all along the wall in a line.

"Wow, this reminds me of the school back in my world, except the desks were barely whole, and most of the walls had no color and were crumbling apart, and looks like these windows can actually be opened"

"Here are your tests, you have exactly 150 minutes to do them, your papers must be in perfect conditions, only non-question related writing will be your number and name, if i catch any other scribbles you will be disqualified, remember, do not even think about cheating, i will see you before you even begin"

"Wow, these are some strict rules" thought Andrej while he looked at the first question of the exam.

"Question one: 'Who was the first mage of the Beodor Kingdom?' how am i supposed to know that? Fuck, there must be some questions i know, let's do these ones first" he thought and looked at the other questions, he looked at three questions before finding the one he knew.

"Let's see, Question five: 'What are the six magical attributes that a person can be born with?' This is easy, it's Water, Wind, Earth, Light, Dark and Fire" he said before continuing to look for the questions he knew the answer to, from the twenty-five questions there were on the test, he only knew five of them, and the other four were some easy mathematical problems and trick questions.

"Shit, what to do, at this rate i will not even pass! I need to cheat somehow, but how will i do that? That professor said he will see any and all kinds of cheating!" he said to himself and silently looked around the classroom to calm himself down, then he saw another girl attempting to cheat by using, what he assumed was some basic mana control, to enhance the glass on her glasses, so that she could see the test behind her, maybe the mana expanded was so low that the teacher paid no mind, and thought it was natural among two hundred students, then he saw another boy, enhancing his hearing to hear what the others were writing, both of these were creative, yet simple methods, but Andrej couldn't do that on the whim.

"So, all i can try to do is use some kind of illusion, but how do i use one without expending so much mana in the process?" he thought while tapping his pencil lightly on the table, then an idea dawned upon him "What if, i just make a stationary 'clone' here, and i turn myself invisible and look at other people's tests, but that is too risky, unless i use extra mana to make my footsteps silent too, but that will still be too much, ah what to do?!?" he continued thinking in slight panic, then his opportunity finally appeared, as he heard the pencil on the desk behind him getting put back, he panned a quick look and found out that the boy behind him finished the entire test, this was his chance.

"I must quickly get to work, i need to use this opportunity to the fullest" he thought and began casting his illusion, he made a stationary 'clone' to sit on his desk, before turning around and making himself invisible, which allowed him to see the entire test without getting caught, he had cheated but purposefully answered one question wrong and one with 'I don't know', so it wouldn't be clear who he cheated from.

"Thank god that went well!" he mentally sighed "I feel kinda bad for cheating, but i had to do what i had to do!"

So he waited in boredom until the teacher finally called.

"The written exam has finished! All participants are to submit their tests at my desk at once!" so Andrej did what he was told with a confident smile, and then proceeded to walk out of the classroom with the rest of the candidates, before he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"Boy, please stay here for a minute, i need to ask you a question" the teached told Andrej with a cold aura which made him fear for his life.

"Yes mister"

"Let me get straight to the point, i know that you cheated"

At that moment, Andrej's world collapsed.

"But" the teacher continued "I won't disqualify you, after all this test was made for cheating"

"What?????" Andrej's jaw dropped and broke the floor.

"Do you know why the practical exam was placed before the written one? Normally that would be impractical, but here, we only want people who are both strong and smart, so the practical fights were to weed out the physically weak ones, and the practical exam was to weed out the ones who were strong physically but weak mentally"

"So the entire test was made so that the smart ones could do it, and the cunning ones could cheat without it being obvious?" Andrej asked.

"Exactly, as i said before, the association only seeks the best of the best"

Andrej couldn't help but sigh a deep sigh of relief, before quickly leaving the classroom, but not before thanking the teacher.

After about one hour of waiting, the final results were ready to be announced, Andrej spent that hour talking with Anya and Konrad.

"It is now time to announce the final results of the Magic school entrance exam" a female teacher spoke.

"Firstly we will go by the school which you yourself chose, then we will announce the candidates who can attend the Grand school itself, firstly let's start with the South school, going in numerical order.... Number 121 Vera Andrejevska, Number 146 Konrad Selinski..."

"So Konrad is going to the south, that's a shame, he seemed line a cool guy, through, that means no more irritating laughs"

"That concludes the South school results, moving on to the North school results.... Number 76 Anya Gavilova, Number 96 Nina Selimovich, Number 129 Andrej Antonov..."

"Yes!!" Andrej jumped in excitement.

"Now, we are going to the same school, just you wait for me, Katarina!"

"Stop it you idiot, you are embarrasing yourself!" said Anya as she slapped him lightly on the back of his head, but she was equally excited too.

"It has been a while since i said this to myself, but i can't wait to see how my life developes for me in the future! I am looking forwards to moving on and starting again, this time, i am not going to be alone"