Thank you pyro5379 for the ideas and I will be using some.

Chapter 17: Plots

Ban happily sat near the entrance of Variant Flame Academy, as today was the admittance day for new students. About a year ago he had started working in the school by disguising himself as a level tree intermediate rank assassin of the grand stage.

Today Aion would walk through the gates and become an assassin to enter the department in which he worked. The Variant Flame Academy's enrollment for warriors was different from the Royal Flame Academy’s whereas the Royal Academy let any child decide for themselves what they wanted to do as most of the children came from families of long standing traditions.

The Variant Academy would have the children participate in a mock battle and instructors would pick out the children and take them to their most suitable profession. This was done because most of the children that enrolled came from common families and wouldn’t know what profession suited them most.

For instance if a child who dreamed of being a formidable swordsman showed talent to be a spearman it would be wasted if no one noticed. So the teachers were the ones to determine who would join a specific group.

As for mages, they were a minority and where allowed to do as they pleased, most of them never reached the grand stage because of lack of teaching material.

Each department was as large as it’s popularity, most aimed to be a knight, a close second was swordsman, at third was being an archer, fourth being a spearman, fifth was berserker, sixth being a mage, and the smallest group were the assassins.

This year Ban was to assist the head assassin who had reached the peak of intermediate rank in the grand stage. All departments would send out their head in order to watch the new arrivals in case someone extraordinary appeared, or in the more likely event, to convince a chile to change his or her mind about wanting to be in a certain department.

Some children would be forced to reluctantly accept their fate in joining a certain department. Looking out the gate Ban saw at least five hundred children waiting to join the academy. Seeing them he thought that most of these children wouldn’t graduate or accomplish much in the way of cultivating elemental energy.

But regardless of that he smiled thinking of Aion’s progress, the boy had reached the equivalent of the fifth level four months ago putting him close to those recognized geniuses.

Although getting Aion in without him actually forming a core was somewhat complicated the academy had agreed to it as long as he did well in the small tournament that the school held in order to determine where a students talents lie.

The tournament was considered small because of the participants’ strength and it’s significance, but all the children would participate in at least five matches whether they won or not.

The winners would naturally have to continue participating, Ban thought that Aion’s chances of winning where fairly high as long as he didn’t consistently go against equal or stronger opponents.

But the likely hood of there being more than a couple of kids that reached the sixth level was low, these kids would be the third sons or daughters of large clans or nobles sent to show their superiority to the commoners.

While he was thinking all of this the gates were open and the children welcomed by the vice principal who also happened to be the head of the archery department, Ricren Sparrow. He was a man who went against the norm and became an archer who relied solely on his bow and reached the peak of the grand stage, as he fought off anyone with his superior archery skills.

“New students welcome, today you will all face a tough test but here we accept all who come trough our gates. I am your Vice-principal and head of the archery department. You will now have to follow an instructor and choose a wooden weapon. Following that you will be guided and given a badge, the badge will have two numbers the red one will tell you what area to go to and the blue will be your number, when that number is called that means it's your turn to fight. To all students good look.”

Ban laughed taking notice at how short the speech and explanation were, remembering the length of the speech his son had to prepare. Among the crowd Ban was easily able to spot Aion by following the unique feel of his dagger.

To this day he would still sigh in admiration of this weapon as he could not fathom how he had come up with the idea, and to replicate would be near impossible as it only seemed possible through the modified contracting beast array and that could only be used once in a persons life.

Selecting a wooden weapon was a good way to show what department you would like to be in, as it showed preference to a certain fighting style.

Ban smiled watching as Aion was kindly lead to the weapons rack by an older assassin student his nearing the age of twenty, but what happened next was beyond his expectations.

The older student handed Aion a wooden claymore a weapon almost exclusively for a knight on a mount, and although Aion received it with a calm face and began to walk towards the area his badge indicated, Ban had not missed the confused look in the boy’s eyes when looking at the sword.

Ban laughed after thinking about it , he knew what had caused this and resolved himself to have to bare with the pain of giving one of his students a “tough” lesson.

Meanwhile in the noble district inside a grand mansion an innocent looking girl with deep black hair and eyes looked out the window with a satisfied face.

This girl was Iris, she had asked a favor of an older student in the assassin department of the Variant Flame Academy and by now Aion would be on his way to becoming a knight that would join her in glorious battles once they joined the Knights order in the future.

The only thing she regretted was not being able to convince her grandpa to get Aion to contract with a chimera or other beast that could be his mount. The dagger that Aion had was truly good but didn’t quite fit a knight, but she thought that he could still use the servant beast contract array for a mount so it wouldn’t be to much of a problem.

This however was not her only plan as she had adequate time to set up multiple plots. Aion was staring at the weapon that the older assassin had given him, telling him that this weapon and wining head on would make him a perfect choice for an assassin.

Those words made no sense to him but he didn’t know the young man and had no reason to doubt him. After following the red number on the badge Aion arrived at the fourth area, and began waiting for his number to be called.

After a while Aion’s number was called and he stood on a ten meter round platform with his claymore resting on his shoulder. Aion's opponent was an eight year old child who had chosen a regular sword and seemed nervous while looking at Aion. The older student monitoring the fights looked at the two then simple said.

“Begin.” Aion took a defensive stance and after waiting ten seconds launched a quick strike to the boys side stoping right before his sword hit. The entire time the boy had not reacted so the monitoring student declared Aion the victor and moved on with the next fight.

Aion went back to his position and stood waiting for his next fight. Most of the kids here were at the third or fourth level and not his match but that would most likely change as being in the academy they could now focus entirely on gathering elemental energy.

As real talent would begin showing at the intermediate rank and continue showing the difference between individuals in the later stages. Aion continued to win his matches quickly and without causing any real harm to anyone.

In comparison some of the fifth level nobles would use their full strength against a third level opponent. From the side Lisa Carnation watched Aion closely, she was the head of the knight department and had reached the eighth level of the Intermediate rank in the grand stage.

Not long ago she had received word that a very strong child with the aptitude to be a great knight would enroll into her academy, but because of circumstances desired to be an assassin. In the letter were very accurate measures of the boy’s strength and his appearance.

At first she doubted the letter as the sender was anonymous and couldn’t be traced, but seeing the boy fight she had to agree. He would fight all his opponents in an appropriate manner and never use excessive force when facing someone weaker.

The only thing that puzzled her was whether or not this child had come from a noble’s house or a large clan. But regardless Lisa made up her mind to take this boy to the knight’s department even if she had to go talk to some parents in order to have them convince the child to stop his thoughts on becoming an assassin.

Aion’s next opponent was a tall boy carrying a long sword.

“I am of the House of the Silver Fox and have reached the fifth level give up if you know what’s good for you.” Looking at the tall boy Aion decided to respond.

“Aion, I have written fifteen runes.” The tall boy looked confused for a second but realized that Aion had no intention to back down. In truth the boy had seen Aion fight and was hoping to get him to surrender as it would be unfitting for him as the second son of the House of the Silver Fox to lose to a commoner.

Seeing the exchange between the two the monitor smiled at the noble child.

“Begin.” Aion dashed towards the tall boy and quickly disarmed him with an upward strike to the pommel of his opponents sword sending it flying. Placing the wooden blade on his shoulder in a resting position Aion began to walk away, the monitor smiled once more and called Aion the victor.

The noble boy on the other hand was furious but could do nothing as social statice was largely ignored in this academy, all he could hope for was a small bit of influence while using his house’s name.

Seeing this Lisa changed her mind, she had just seen Aion defeat a boy at the fifth level without a problem, she wouldn't stop at seeing the child's parents even if she had to she would drag the boy to the knight department.

Aion was now in the final thirty two and everyone was watching as all the other matches had finished. The other children were all at the fifth level while three were at the sixth level.

Stepping up once more Aion faced a spearman, this was no the first he faced throughout the day but most certainly the best as he kept his distance while circling to avoid leaving the arena. Finally Aion was able to get inside the range of the spear and fight at his preferred distance, face to face, at this distance Aion quickly threw punches and made his opponent drop his spear.

After being declared the winner some people began to cheer. As the matches continued every one grew tired and Aion was no exception as he now felt both hunger and fatigue. In this condition he made it to the semifinals and won after a long match of trying to catch his opponent who decided that he was an archer for just the semifinals.

This was done as a collaboration with the other semifinalist as they were all nobles who wanted to get rid of arrogant looking Aion in the top spots. What they had mistaken for arrogance was Aion's lack of words and attention to them as they lost one after another to him.

Now fighting the final round Aion was starving and tired while his opponent looked oddly refreshed, regardless Aion stood in his defensive stance and prepared to fight his new opponent.

“I am Rom of the House of the Blue Wolf, sixth level of the primary rank in the human stage. I suggest you surrender if you know what's good for you.”

“Aion, I have written fifteen runes.” This was the same response he had given everyone and the only thing anyone heard him say throughout the entire day. Rom started his attack with his wooden long sword, but couldn’t get past Aion’s defenses.

Luckily for him his opponent had agreed to give up so the commoner wouldn’t be able to win and he could rest while Aion was although not showing it, obviously exhausted. Rom continued his strikes one after another in ever direction he thought possible, trying to look for gaps in aion’s defense, finally he was able to get a quick stab through and was declared the victor but only after almost thoroughly exhausting himself. The monitor declared rom the winner while looking somewhat disappointed.