AN: Yo, your lazy author present you chapter 35 :D, enjoy!

PR by Zenla, the royal proofreader

*******************************

The next day, we met the real estate agent again, and he took us to the house for a visit. The house was a 2 stories building, with the living room, bathroom and crafting area on the groundfloor, and 2 rooms on the upper floor right above the living room and bath room. There was a small cooking area on a corner of the living room. There was a door near leading to the crafting area, which had a little smithing area on one side while the other side could be customised for other kinds of crafts requiering less space than a smithy or a backery.

The house was a little narrow, but still better than some of the others I came across while we were traveling to the capital, and it could handle 5 people. Since we were 3 there wouldn't be any troubles. Like most buildings from the city it had a pump connected to the water distribution system of the city. However, the house was lacking in furnitures, and it was dusty. It would take a few days to make it comfortable enough for living. And I would need to buy some tools, and likely use the smithy from the academy to make some.

After sealing the deal, we spent the following days cleaning the house and looking for furnitures. Kerrina did the most of cleaning since she didn't want to spend too much time in the crowded streets of the capital. Muriem and I would spend half of the days cleaning with Kerrina, and the other half in the city looking for things at decent prices. Of course, for the bed I was looking for one big enough for the 3 of us. But bringing it into the room would be to troublesome, so I had to order it in parts to assemble in the room later.

-------

The day of the entrance exams came and we went to the academy. The girls were both nervous and excited on the way, but I was not worried. Reading and writing would not be a problem for any of us, and we would probably get the best grades in mathematics. As for magic, at first I wanted to show of a bit for preferential treatment and other bonuses, but I decided against it. Since the highest number of afinities recorded was seven, I choose to display only seven of them. But that also meant I wouldn't be able to learn about those elements at the academy, unless I could make a really trustworthy friend there with the right knowledge.

Once we reached the academy, the outside was packed with commoners and nobles alike, though there was a line for each of them. The children looked to be between 12 and 15, some accompanied by adults. As we got in line and reached one of the assistants for the exams, I asked why there were nobles present. Turns out there are 2 good reasons for them being there. Entrance exams aren't mandatory for nobles since it's expected from them to receive a decent amount of education prior to getting into the academy, however there are rankings in the academy, and a good score during the entrance exams give bonus points to your ranking. It's also means a lot for nobles to show off to others.

Concerning magic, the magic ability isn't completly dependant on blood. It raises the chance of having a child with decent ability by about 30%. But it's enough for nobles to want to have decent magic users in their family. If a commoner is born with enough power, he can be adopted into a noble family. And even if the commoner isn't adopted, nobles are still after people of talent, especially magic. So some nobles come with their children to look at the commoners taking the magic exams to look for some potential future servants.

-------

After passing the entrance, we were all led to a large building after taking a detour through the edge of the academy. For the written exams, the nobles and the commoners were taken to differents rooms. The test would last 3 hours, 1 hour for a test of reading and writing proficiency, 1 hour for arythmetics, and 1 hour for general knowledge. The test would be over shortly before noon, and after a short break there would be the magic test.

The girls and I were in the same classroom for the test. From what I could see, just like I expected they didn't seem to have any trouble, and when it came to arythmetics we were the firsts to finish. Though it was boring to wait until the end. That reminded me of the end year exams in my previous life, with the possibility to leave the room as soon as you were done after 1 hour. Once we were done there was a 20 min break, mostly so that those taking the magic test could be taken to the place where it would take place.

We were led to another building, clearly the magic classes buildings, in a large room on the ground floor. We were told to seat according to the number on our exam pass. Naturally the nobles were sitting at the front and would go first, while I was near the rear. There were around 900 chairs and they were all taken, standing around against the walls were the parents of the noble children or servants tasked to look after them for the exams. Then 9 teachers and another old man of higher status came on the stage at the front of the room with 9 devices in front of the teacher.

Old man: «Good day to you all! My name is William Sunderset, and I am the head of the magic department of this academy. You are all gathered here to test your suitability in learning the magic arts in our great academy. The test is done in 3 parts. The first part was done when you were allowed into the room.»

He looked briefly around the room.

«When you gave your pass to the assistants at the entrance of the room, they briefly pressed a coin against your chest before letting you in. They were mesuring the general amount of mana within you, meaning that your magic ability was tested there.»

From the reaction of the people, the majority were surprised while the rest guessed what it was about. The lady who tested me at the entrance was clearly surprised, but quickly regained her composure. She gave me a bright smile while allowing me in, and I answered with a grin and a wink, hinting that I understood.

«Now for the second part, each of you will come forward and pour raw mana onto this device. That is to ascertain your ability to manipulate your mana. The third part can be considered an extension of the second part.»

He looked at all the people present once more

«Instead of pouring raw mana in the device, you will pour elemental mana into the device. That is to ascertain how many of your elements you can manipulate. Do keep this in mind though: because you can only manipulate 1 element doesn't mean it's the only element for which you have affinity. Depending on the element, the crystal on top of the device will change color. Now we will proceed with the mana manipulation testing.»

The potential students were called by their pass number. Since there were 9 teachers with the devices, they were called by group of 9. Most of them didn't have much trouble channeling raw mana in the crystal but when it came to elemental mana they got more trouble. The crystal on top of the device would light up when receiving raw mana, and the intensity and the stability of the glow would change, I guess depending on the level of control of the individuals.

For elemental mana, it would turn red for fire, deep blue for water, light cyan for air, brown for earth, orange for body, purple for mind, green for nature, gold for holy and black for darkness. Most of the time they had affinity for an element of the material sphere, some had affinity with an element from the spirit sphere, but holy or darkness mana were indeed rare.

2 hours passed passed until it was finally my turn. For raw mana, I channeled my mana at a gradual pace, and when the crystal reached a high enough level of brightness, I maintained the flow, keeping the glow of the crystal constant. For most people passing the test the glow would be irregular, but not for me. That impressed the people present a lot, and internally, I was grinning thinking about the faces they would make for the next part.

For the last part, I first poured fire mana, after 5 seconds I stoped and poured water mana, then wind mana, then earth mana. Some people where leaking comments of admiration and appreciation. Then I poured body mana, holy mana and darkness, and removed my hand from the device, indicating I was done. I didn't pour mind and nature mana because I wouldn't use it much for the time being, and they weren't as valued as the other elements, but I had no intention to underestimate them. At that point it caused an uproar in the room.

«WHA- S-SEVEN ELEMENTS???»

«And all the elements of the material and divine spheres??»

«Is this really happening right now?»

«I-INCREDIBLE!!»

On the stage...

William Sanderset: «... The first 7 elements mage since archmage Yao Setzun 500 years ago... and he is in our academy...»

female teacher: «Ah!! S-sir, the testing isn't over!»

William: «You are right, thank you.»

The old mage quickly cast a spell to enhance the sound of his voice.

William: «IF YOU COULD CALM DOWN PLEASE!! I understand that you are surprised by what we just saw, but the exam is not over and other are waiting for their turn. So I ask you to keep quiet until we are done!! Thank you for your understanding.»

He turned toward me and spoke in a small voice so just the people on the stage could hear.

William: «Stay here when the exam is done. One of the teacher will get you so we can have a little talk. That wouldn't be a problem for you right?»

Aenthar: «Not at all sir, I will see you later then.»

And I went back to my place, under the piercing gazes of all the people present.

*******************************

AN: … What? I said when they are done moving in, I never said in which chapter it would be :P!!

With the music festival last week end, I decided to take a break to enjoy music (especially all those songs I didn't listen for a long, long time), catch up on some novels and web novels I didn't read in a while (especially Spectral regalia, I had only read the prologues several months ago, and Ark, several volumes), and play video games again (less than 3 hours of play during the last 2 weeks, that's too little for me), I was missing killing zombies, covenants, mutants, soldiers, monsters and dragons...

However I didn't miss rage-quiting because of some guys with no consideration for the teammates (Left 4 Dead 2, some guy would hide behind the others, using them as shields, and run-grab-keep the stuff for themselves when they don't need it and the other need it), or that time when 2 trolls playing on the same console did nothing but attack the other teammates (well, they didn't manage to kill us and we dealt with them by using the special infected against them, divine retribution :D)