“So, to summarize, the goal of the magic test is for you to learn how to mold your mana and then cast a spell. You will be rated on how strong your spell is. There are plenty of magic books around for you to read and get an idea for a spell, so use them well!” John said.

Ahh, yes, magic lessons. How long has it been since Master Kush trained me? … Fuck that, why the hell am I here?!?!?

“Hestia? Are you alright?” the foxia— runalymo girl standing next to me spoke up with curiosity, somehow able to detect the agitation in my heart despite having blindfolds on.

Alysara stood elegantly with long, waist-length, royal blue hair that shifted to gold near the ends. She had large fox-like ears similar to a fennec fox's ears in proportion to her head. A pair of sapphire and gold earrings adorned her ears, atop her head was an intricate Diadem of some unknown metal but [Mana Eyes] shows it was made entirely out of mana much like her dress.

An amulet sat around her neck. It was a dark gem in the shape of a teardrop with swirling colors inside, matching with two bracers. She had a voluptuous figure and three very long tails that were as long as she was tall which flicked gracefully from side to side.

Shit, calm down, Hestia. This is all just a dream.

“O-Oh, nothing, Alysara. Just a bit excited since it's been a while since I had an actual magic testing session.”

“I’d teach you how mana works and all that but… your world probably doesn’t work the same way,” Alysara said while playing with her hair, somehow, with all the grace and elegance in the world.

“Probably not, but my magic master taught me to observe and learn from other mages, even if I couldn’t reproduce the spells. Creating spells is all about creativity and having an open mind.” I showed a thumbs up to Alysara. “So, can’t wait to see how—”

“Hey, ladies.”

My body froze as I heard somebody say those words in the most cringey way possible. My neck slowly snapped around as I forced myself to smile just to be polite. And, just like nearly everybody else in this weird place, the people standing before me were three young men with the most generic hairstyles possible.

No, I lied. I wouldn’t call them generic, but they certainly weren’t really eye-catching. All of them had hair colors ranging from blond to black, a mighty departure from Peolynca’s myriad color palette. I might not be a hairstylist, but even I could probably do something to bring these guys up a notch in the attractive meter.

“We heard from John that you two were already reincarnated before coming here. Well, shame about that, but it’s kinda cool that we get to meet each other now, right?” The dude in the front smiled friendly. “You guys already got a cool makeover, so I kinda want to ask if you guys also came from Earth and from which countries exactly.”

“I have yet to recover all my memories but I’ve been told my soul was adrift in the void for a few… million eternities so my earth is long past its expiration date,” Alysara said matter-of-factly.

“…” The young men stared at Alysara as if they had just seen a ghost, causing the situation to break down dramatically. “U-Uh, well, at least we have a new world that awaits us, right! Who cares about our old home when the one we’re going to is gonna be so much better!”

“My memories are also in shambles and I died, leaving my loving father and mother behind. I’m currently trying to work my way back to my Earth to apologize to them,” I said with a deep sigh.

“…”

Awkwaarrrd.

“W-Well, then how about we help each other learn some proper spells so you guys can—” But before this smooth talker could end his sentence, John waved at us, calling us over to him.

“Hey! You two! Let’s get this over with, already. Get over here and cast whatever spell you want.” It seemed John was quite impatient.

“Do you want to go first or should I?” Alysara asked, ignoring the smooth talker much to his annoyance.

“You can go first, if you want.” And just like that, the both of us simply forgot about that young man’s whole existence, albeit, I could hear him boil silently from behind, but that was not our problem.

Once we met John, he pointed at a lone training dummy standing on an empty field. He told us the dummy was usually closer, but he had a weird feeling, something about his gut hurting, which told him he should do this arrangement for us.

What is he expecting us to do? Nuke the training field?

“You’ll be graded, but nothing bad happens if you fail. So, just shoot something at it and you’re done.”

“I haven't had a chance to use this much,” Alysara said, moving up obediently. “But it is quite strong.”

Alysara held a hand out and a glowing cat-sized wispy fairy materialized above her hand, however. the fairy did nothing other than glow slightly brighter and shrink down. Alysara continued to charge her spell until a humming sound started to emanate from the fairy, which was rapidly losing its wispiness. A few seconds later the fairy had turned completely solid and looked metallic, but Alysara didn't stop there.

It was at this point John began backing away, looking paler and paler.

“Umm, Alysara, That’s good enough, you can use the spell now,” he said, almost begging her to.

“I’m being graded right?” Alysara said with a mischievous smile “I need to show my best.”

It was then that the fairy started losing its metallic look and ripples formed on its flapping wings. Several flashes of light jumped from Alysara’s hand to the Fairy before she lowered her hand and the fairy darted to the dummy, seemingly sinking into the dummy before a loud roar and wind rushed past the group. A wave of mana washes over the field but safely parts around everyone. Dirt and earth rained down as a gust of wind blew the dust cloud away, revealing the aftermath — a huge crater.

“…?!” John’s mouth was agape, prompting me to nod vigorously. He must have been impressed.

“I see, I see! So that is what you should be doing, huh? I thought nuking the field was a joke, but you actually want us to do that!” I stated with amazement. No wonder this place was responsible for sending reincarnators to worlds!

“W-Wha—?! Wait, no, that’s—” John tried to say something, but I didn’t register it as I noticed the ground of the training field was regenerating by itself. The crater Alysara created disappeared and the dummy returned, almost untouched.

“Interesting, it’s like a Dungeon” Alysara said with academic interest.

So her dungeons work in the same way ours does, huh? Dungeons are universal.

With the ground repaired, I took this as my cue. I flapped my wings and flew over to the training dummy in a few seconds. I thought of using a draconic ability, like solar beam, but I guessed it wasn’t really a spell. It was a draconic ability. I shouldn’t cheat, right?

Instead, I channeled my mana through my hand and held it up. In the next moment, this mana created a huge red magic circle above in the sky as I quickly recited the chant for it. I haven’t done it in a long time since the Divine System did it for me, but not like I would forget my first custom spell, right?

Symphonie des Feuergottess!

A waterfall of dragon fire shot out from the magic circle directly onto me and the area around me, bathing a baseball stadium’s area in an ocean of inferno. I had to use my pyrokinesis ability to prevent it from harming John and the reincarnators, but that was about it. Otherwise, the flames had full liberty to consume grass and earth.

Once the flame dissipated, I could feel the buffing effects of my spell inside me, even in effect without my system. I canceled it, since it would just make controlling my body temperature harder.

Good! This should be plenty enough. I smiled at my handiwork. The whole area was dyed in gray ash.

I waved my arm at Alysara and returned to her and John.

“Sooooo… did we pass?”

“… Haaaa,” John sighed deeply. “Yes. SSS rank, far better than anybody we ever got. Next trial, come on. Let us please get this over with— urgh! My stomach ache is coming back…”

I offered to treat him but I didn’t, so I turned to Alysara instead. “That was a cool spell. How did you do that?”

“I compressed mana into a solid state then into a liquid one, this increases the energy density of my spell and makes it more powerful. Since liquid mana is like a superfluid it can leak through matter which increases the efficiency of explosions since it’s happening inside a target rather than outside. I use my Bond to make the mana unstable as well as to enhance its power by a few over a thousand percent,” Alysara continued into a short lesson about the workings of ‘mana physics’

“So.” Alysara changed the subject. “Do you have a high fire resistance or something? You were not damaged by your own spell.”

I shrugged. “I mean, I did mention I was a dragon, right? A sunfang dragon to be exact, like, I can absorb sunlight. My own flames won’t damage me, really. Besides, for some reason, I think I still have the blessing from the fire god of my world.”

I guess they did bless my soul…

In any case, after leaving everybody slack-jawed, we left the magic training area and went to the martial test. John informed us the idea of this whole place was to prepare reincarnators for their new lives and to prevent them from dying randomly. As such, they needed to better themselves outside of just magic.

In other words, their bodies need to become fit.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

“Look at them.” He pointed at a group of slim generic hairstyle boys running laps. “Newcomers. Technically, you two would have gone there, too. Then, you would go over to the martial training camp, where our instructors taught you how to fight and wield weapons.”

“… How does that help your body after you get reincarnated?” I asked.

The benefit of magic training was obvious, but you won’t inherit your fitness or physique once reincarnated.

“You learn discipline here,” he answered. “Once in your new world, you will understand how to better your body, making it more efficient to transform yourself there. Since we teach martial training, also, you can familiarize yourself with your fighting style here. It’s all about knowledge and then turning that into muscle training for the future. Trust me, it works.”

I guess?

“So, what is the test for this area?” Alysara asked.

“There is a simple animated armor that you need to defeat using purely martial prowess. It will register how much damage you do to it with your hits and it will regenerate so feel free to go all out. Its own weapons can’t hurt you but will leave a glowing red mark to indicate that you have been hit. You will be rated based on your performance.”

“Can we summon weapons and armor?” Alysara asked. “What about making our own, or using a spell in the shape of a weapon? Can we use support spells like clones? What about strength, speed, etc, enhancements.” Alysara rapidly fired several questions before John could answer.

“Whoa! Slow down there.” John thought about it for a few moments before answering. “Yes for making or summoning weapons, no for the rest. However, in the sparring test you can do them all since it’s a test of both martial and magical prowess.”

“Got it~” I raised my hand before moving up. “My turn to go first. Hope you won’t mind, Alysara.”

Gesturing it was okay, I returned her a thumbs up and readied myself with a few stretches, only for some random boys to come up and begin talking.

“Hey, are you two the new arriv—” He tried to make small talk, but I waved my hand in rejection.

“Sorry, but I really want to get this over with.”

I immediately stopped warming up and used [Storage Magic] to pull out my glaive from my storage. I tensed up my legs before jumping up into the sky with [Dragoon Jump] in conjunction with [Wind Blast] to shoot me to the sky like a rocket.

Hmm? I can’t feel any barrier around. How high is the ‘sky’ or is there even one? I wondered if I made it as high as I wanted, floating in the sky using my wings to test if this was a dungeon or not.

However, I quickly lost interest in it, thinking it really didn’t matter in the grand scheme of things. If these people were telling the truth, they would send us back after we passed the trials. As such, the faster we could do them, the earlier I could return before Mother or Saori scolded me about suddenly leaving.

Dragoon Dive!

Snapping my attention back to the target dummy, I stomped the air and ignited the scale dust inside my scales. Bursting up in fire, the stream of flames emitted from my wings appeared like rocket boosters as I flew back to the ground like a meteor. Twirling my glaive, I then slammed the spear part of my halberd into the animated armor, followed by an explosion engulfing the area.

Once the dust lifted again, I pulled my glaive up, noticing the whole thing had melted into liquid metal. After a few seconds, the armor regenerated back to full, but was still stuck on my weapon like a meat skewer. I pulled the thing off and threw it back on the ground, where it projected an ‘S’ with a few other numbers and letters, but I was already standing before John before I could inspect the rest.

“… I said you should only use martial abilities. Not cause another explosion! Why do you like explosions so much?!” John shouted at me with a red face, so I simply pointed at my glaive.

“I did. I didn’t cheat on that part. Have you ever heard of dragoons or flying spearmen? That’s what I did, and I clearly hit the armor with that attack. Since it came from my weapon, it should count, right? Go check.”

“…” John looked at the projection the animated armor was showing, grimacing as he nodded reluctantly. “Then why did you have to use that explosion?! You didn’t hurt anybody but this is bad for my heart!”

“…” I blinked excessively, letting John wait in anticipation for my answer. “Alysara, your turn! Go, girl!”

“Okay.”

“HEY! Answer me! Do you have an explosion fetish or something?!”

… It was an accident. I activated the fire bullet part of my glaive at the last second. But I kept this thought to myself. I’ll let this be a reminder to myself that I still needed more training with the spear urgently.

Alysara’s belt flashed for a second and a blue-metal armor accented with green-metal and decorated like a king’s suit of armor materialized around her along with a fang-tipped spear and dagger. She was covered from head to toe, tails included, in armor. There weren’t any breathing holes in her armor nor did she have eye holes. Naturally, since she was blind.

Alysara assumed an odd stance, but considering her three tails shifted her center of balance that was understandable. She dashed forward at a decent speed and struck the animated knight square in the chest, denting it a little.

The knights retaliated, but Alysara barely managed to dodge with a graceful twirl before counterattacking. They traded blows, and again Alysara barely dodged with an elegant flip. It seemed her ability to dodge was far better than her martial ability, however, the longer I watched her, the more it seemed like something was guiding her to not only hit and dodge but to do it beautifully.

It was a captivating battle style, but I couldn’t help but think she could do it more efficiently. Fewer movements.

Guess I’m not the only one who needs more training with weapons.

“Oh, thank goodness she isn’t blowing it up.” John exhaled a relieved sigh. “Ok, that’s enough!”

The animated armor stopped attacking and projects an image ‘B+’ along with several other stats.

“How’d I do?” Alysara asked, storing her armor and weapons.

“Can’t you see? The armor is displaying it.” John said.

“No, I can’t see.” Alysara pointed to her eye wraps.

“Oh…” An awkward silence fell over them before I clapped my hands, causing John to cough lightly with a blush. “B plus. You missed some opportunities and could have aimed for weak spots but overall proficient. And…” He then turned to me. “Whatever you do, please, don’t do the same thing you just did in the next test, Miss S.”

At the sound of our announcement, the crowd behind us became too loud for me to ignore. All those guys were gossiping behind our backs like a bunch of valley girls.

“Oi, did you just hear that? S rank! That girl over there.”

“Jeez, how the hell did she manage to create such an explosion?! She’s just shy of two ranks before SSS. If the armor had taken the explosion into account, she probably would have hit SS, at least.”

“Yo! Aren’t they supposed to be a bunch of noobs?! They just arrived! How the hell did one of them nuke the field and the other fight better than me despite how long I’ve been training here! This is fucking unfair!”

Unfair? A bit too self-absorbed, maybe?

I looked over at Alysara, noticing how neutral her expression was despite all we were hearing. I wondered what she was thinking, but I simply shrugged it off when she noticed me looking at her. “Nothing, let’s go,” I told her. Unlike Alysara, I glared at the guys quite intently as we left, leaving them figuratively frozen in place.

For our last test in this section of this place, we had a final sparring session with a humanoid golem inside an anti-death field, as John called it. The golem would attack us with both magic and martial abilities, and unlike the animated armor from the last trial, any damage we took would hurt.

“Not too much, of course, but you will feel the impact of the hits you take,” John warned us before pointing at somebody fighting the golem, only for him to get knocked out unceremoniously. “Pain is dulled slightly in this world, so you don’t go into shock, but that doesn’t mean you should take them. Bones breaking can happen here. You win by defeating the golem and are graded by how fast and how skillfully you did it.”

“And you lose when you get knocked out?” I asked, which John confirmed with a nod. “So, if you actually can take damage, does that mean you can die here?”

“Hestia, aside from the both of us, all the other soon-to-be-reincarnated are already dead,” Alysara astutely pointed out. “If they die, they probably just wake up in a bed or in the room where we were all summoned.”

The both of us then turned back to the training field, intently watching the “corpse” of the guy who just lost his match, probably both wondering if he would disappear into light. However, disappointedly, after a few seconds, he simply stood back up, laughing as if nothing happened.

“… You can’t die here. This place doesn’t work under mortal laws.” John sighed at our morbid curiosity. “Anyways, I already know what you two can do. I’ve seen too many people clear this test already, so get it over with. Just, Hestia, don’t. Cause. Another. Explosion!”

“So does that mean I can make it go boom?” Alysara said with a mischievous smile and started walking toward the golem as John started protesting.

“Alysara, no! Don’t blow it up!”

However, it was too late.

Dozens of fairies manifested around her, building up an army of hundreds in a few seconds. Five of those liquid-mana fairies were already forming in front of her. The golem readied itself and charged at Alysara, swinging a sword down on her. However, she didn’t even bother dodging. The sword cut her in half to John’s shock, but she then became fuzzy and reformed. It was another of her illusions. The real Alysara was never standing there in the first place, since she retreated to a safe spot before the fight began.

Without Mana Eyes, I don’t think I would have found her. This is some advanced illusion magic.

While I stared at Alysara’s real body, the dozens of fairies swarmed around the golem, attacking it with spears and causing tiny explosions where they hit, blowing off pieces of the golem. Eventually, it lost too much of its body, crumbling under its own weight in the process.

That’s when the super-fairies charged. All five rushed toward the golem, their bodies sinking into it before a blinding light flashed over the training grounds, knocking most of the trainees down with a powerful gale. Some were even outright blown away! A deafening roar silenced the world, soon accompanied by a ringing as the dust revealed an enormous crater, far larger than the last time she did this spell.

I tilted my head around to John. Since I was expecting something of this effect, I had preemptively cast [Air Shield] around us to protect us from the shockwave. Seeing him fall onto the ground with his jaw wide open, I could only imagine what was going on in his head.

As Alysara returned to our side, multiple adults in the same outfit John was wearing ran towards us. Poor John received the full brunt of the scoldings from his colleagues, telling him he should have controlled us better. They even noted that some of the reincarnators were even traumatized by what Alysara just did.

After those people left, a crestfallen John turned around, looking at me with eyes that told me he would die soon if I messed up. I gave him a thumbs-up, acknowledging the two of us might have gone a bit too far with our display.

While I moved up for my turn, I showed Alysara a peace sign with a wink, before telling her she probably will have a higher score for this round. She showed me a playful grin, understanding I couldn’t go all out since it would make John sadder. John was nice to us. We shouldn’t tease him… too much.

Like the field from the last two tests, Alysara’s masterwork quickly regenerated back to its former state. I twirled my glaive around as I challenged the golem. Acknowledging me as its opponent, it charged at me, readying its sword for a powerful slash! And it cut me!!!

… I would have mentioned, if I wasn’t keeping the thing away from me by shooting it with the rifle mode of my glaive.

“Hestia?!” John cried out, but I couldn’t help but be confused at his outcry.

“What? I’m not blowing it up. This is a totally normal strategy and it's part of my weapon.”

Made by my party’s personal blacksmith, Grimnir, my glaive wasn’t only an incredibly sturdy weapon made from my dragon form’s shed scales and claws, it also had a mechanism to shoot out my scale-dust like bullets. It was a glaive-gun, in other words.

And with this weapon, the golem was quickly shot down like a gangster. John didn’t want me to be flashy and explody, right? Well, this probably was the least scenic ending I could have given the golem. Anything else would have involved flames, infernos, and explos—

Boom!

“…”

“…”

I turned back to John and Alysara, both dumbstruck at what just happened. You see, the scale-dust exploded, taking the golem to the netherworld.

“Hey, I didn’t destroy the ground or anything else. That was the fastest way I could think of defeating it without, you know, causing some environmental damage.”

“…” John didn’t seem convinced. Maybe I could have turned the golem into a donut, but that would have been too boring.

Hmm, maybe the glaive isn’t working properly in this dimension? It shouldn’t have ignited the scale-dust there. I should let Grimnir check on it later on.

Regardless, what was done, was done. John did receive some glares from his fellow instructors, but none of them complained directly to him. With shadows under his eyes, he announced our scores, telling us we aced all three tests and established new records.

Alysara set the high score for the magic and sparring tests, while I reigned supreme over the martial arts one. One for me, two for Alysara. I was losing right now, but there were still a ton of other tests before us.

“Good luck with the next one, Alysara. It’s been kinda fun, right?” I showed her a warm grin.

“Well, I suppose it’s a nice change of pace from my studies and experiments and let loose once in a while,” Alysara said, turning toward John for the last part. “We can get the scouting and survival tests done easy so let's get that out of the way next.”

“Yeah, got it. You two go there first. Here, these are the directions.” John handed us a sheet of paper. “I need to warn my superiors there will be more explosions.”

And he fast-walked away.

“… I guess we scared him a bit.”

Alysara nodded.