Chapter 18
The Ranking
The goal was simple, survive using magic. At least that was my original instructions were for this examination. An examination that I learned was anything but an examination.
I had no food, no weapons, not that I had any to begin with. My backpack and gear was taken from me, leaving me with only my soul bound gear and basic clothing. I was wearing my black clothes, at least according to the mental tags I had on every piece of gear I wore.
My shoes were also basic black boots meant to provide minimal water resistance. I never liked the ones that were fully water resistant as those tended to not only keep moisture out, but foot sweat in. Yeah, foot sweat is a thing, and it is disgusting. Of course, this is to be expected from a game that has bathing as a basic skill that improves all of you social attributes.
That said right now, I was in a room that was quickly flooding with mana. Despite my best efforts the runes around the room began to fill faster and faster, meaning that regardless of how fast I moved I could not get rid of every rune present.
I took to the point of standing in the middle of the room and using my Telekinesis to create little arms that would then be used to wipe out the various runes. Then when that wasn’t enough, I began focusing on only wiping out the bright red runes that I knew for a fact signified the elements and likely basic defenses.
With my focus solely on taking out the most dangerous runes, the mana flooding the room began to form and congeal into light blue constructs. Constructs that were purely illusionary from my understanding of the way I viewed magic. Of course, I had six years of experience, using my Angel’s Sight to perceive the world around me and avoid magical disasters. Disasters like being stuck in an inescapable room that is constantly being flooded with violent forms of mana.
Whoosh.
Despite Phantasmal magic being purely ethereal and only having an effect if you believed in the magic, there was still a slight physical component to the magic. Wind could blow thanks largely to the fact that sound would be created by these ghostly apparitions. Of course, the ghostly apparitions being seen were what I would consider a joke compared to the true horrors of the deep void, but that is a different story.
In the moment my primary concern was focusing on taking down the violent runes that could give these Phantasmal energies power, and help improve the illusionary effects. While they would not work on me, as I would know the damage to only come from the elemental runes of the room and not the illusionary forces being generated I did not want to take damage here. Especially not when my ranking at this University was at stake.
I decided to focus my mind, so I sat down, and began working as quickly as possible destroying dangerous runes over and over, while avoiding the screaming presences behind me. Everything was a distraction, as time went by I felt my mind getting slower, I felt a strange fog take over letting me know that I was nearing the limits of my body. I was going to ask why, when I realized that this was caused from my own lack of food. Realizing that, I quickly focused on using my two Passive spells. Well in particular I focused on Spirit Mana Control, at least mildly focusing on using this power to convert my natural mana into spiritual mana. From there it was an automatic process for my spirit mana to be absorbed by my second passive power Spirit Sustenance. With Spirit Sustenance now able to work and convert my spirit mana into food that my body could use, I could focus on completing this test.
I don’t know what was supposed to happen with this test. In fact, by all measures I was likely failing. Probably by now I was supposed to be able to read the runes and create a flow diagram that countered the processes. Unfortunately I didn’t know runic theory, at least not well enough to try to counteract the processes that were currently active in the room around me. As such all I could do was sit down and focus.
This was a memory game.
Right wall.
Left wall.
Ceiling top right.
Ceiling top left.
Over and over, I would find the new dangerous runes and erase them with Telekinetic limbs, before they could do anything truly dangerous to me. It was a pattern and one that I could see almost before they appeared. I don’t know if this was an effect of my high level of Danger Sense, or if this was something I just could understand from my understanding of the way mana was flowing around the room. Regardless, I felt calm and in control.
To help stimulate my body and mind, I used Mana Circulation, to provide sustained energy to my body. Fortunately I never seemed to run out of mana as my body naturally consumed the mana of the room. Then my body took the mana and converted it into energy to improve my body, in addition to spiritual mana that I would then use to feed off of. It was clear that I was at a stalemate with this test as we were at a pace that seemed nearly impossible for mana to sustain naturally and I was still able to keep ahead. It was with this that finally after a number of hours, a voice called out.
“Enough!”
How did I know it was hours? I didn’t know. My HUD, or heads up display, was disabled while in the room. Actually, come to think of it, it might have been disabled as soon as I entered the university grounds. Still, I didn’t care about how long I had already been here. My only concern was surviving. Well surviving and hopefully getting a good enough grade to stay on here at the University.
“For this next test, we will test your combat prowess. Your task is to kill as many apparitions as possible.” The voice called out.
Taking a sigh, I should have realized there would be a test like this. This world was after all developed for murder hobos, and people that were meant to be sociopaths. Still, I couldn’t help but feel an air of defiance. Sure these were just apparitions, meaning they were likely spell constructs that I would be pitted against. Also I did have combat skills, I did make sure to get both my Daggers skill, and my Dual Wielding skills maxed out, if only for the bonuses to my attributes. But I never really liked the idea of killing. In fact, most of the time I found that I only used weapons as a way to defend, rather than to strike. If anything that was the one thing I liked about Dual Wielding, the fact that one weapon was almost always used for defense.
That said, I had a few tricks up my sleeve when it came to combat.
“I will warn you, that you can only use your magic to kill your opponents.” The proctor said.
With that I smile, as my form of combat I created would use magic. Well to be more specific it would use my Telekinesis in a fighting form I liked to refer to as Telekinetic Aikido.
Rising to my feet, I did a few quick stretches, before the first apparition appeared.
Swish, woosh.
The movements of the Apparition were slow and methodical. Looking at it, I figured this was likely based on Attributes that were comparable to where the standard level 1 mage would be.
“You will have to push yourself. These apparitions all will have a base 30 in every physical attribute.”
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
Hearing that, I almost laugh. My lowest Attribute overall was Appearance which was a 32. My lowest physical attribute was strength, which sat at a comfortable 46. By comparison my Dexterity which was at 73 put me so far beyond these apparitions that I could side step and avoid each strike with ease.
Of course, I maintained my non-combat stance.
“You took too long, now more will spawn every minute.” The proctor said.
With that, a second apparition appeared in the room and also started swinging at me.
Even having to split my attention, the apparitions moved so slowly that I could easily sidestep and avoid their thrusts. This is where Telekinetic Aikido came in. As I ducked and dove under strikes, I would mentally grab the swinging arms of the apparitions, pushing them forward, exposing their sides. Then most importantly I would have them strike each other with slight exertions of force at the right time.
Of course, this wasn’t a skill. Well it was a combination of skills working in unison. It was a measure of my Unarmed Combat, and my Telekinesis skills working in unison with each other. With both skills active I was able to dance and dodge my way until the apparitions killed each other, with Telekinetically aided strikes.
As after a few rounds of this, casters came.
Now normally casters were death for attackers who needed to get in close to an attacker. Unfortunately for the casters, I was able to zip about the battlefield at ease with Teleportation, which I used to extreme effectiveness. I would Teleport away at the last second letting an apparition take the brunt of a Fireball, or a Lightning strike.
Then when the casters began to adapt to my Teleporting, I would just Telekinetically move their hands at the last minute. In doing so, I would either cause the spells to go wide from their mark, or inadvertently strike at an apparition that got too close.
The entire time I did exactly as instructed, only using Magic to kill the apparitions. Though to be fair, I was not the one performing the killing blow, rather I was just the one who orchestrated the deaths of the others.
Finally as time went on people wearing mechanoid suits came out. These were particularly easy to disable, as most just required the removal of a power core. The twisting of an internal wire. Now twisting a wire might not seem like much, but when most suits operated under the pretense of hydraulics, there was a certain need for water pressure to cause the suits to move. Meaning if you twist the correct wire, you stop the movement of liquid and thus cause the machine to break down before it even got anywhere.
Of course the mechanoid drivers weren’t done after their suits were disabled, as they would immediately jump down and engage in hand to hand, or combat with rifles. But even these were easy to deal with. Again, it was just a matter of moving away from an enemy, and causing a firing weapon to jerk away from its intended target, namely me, at the last second.
Honestly, before I even realized it, I was smiling and having all sorts of fun.
“Enough!” The voice of the person I was mentally calling proctor called out. Immediately the apparitions that were in the room disappeared and slowly the excess mana that had been flooding the room slowly faded away. Then finally the room I was in connected to another dimension and I was once again in the University. At least that is what my senses told me happened. Who knows, from a visual standpoint this chamber might have just been able to seclude itself from the rest of the world and thus force me to focus on the room I was in.
“For this last test, you will be given a series of more and more complicated spell designs. You will be forced to first fix any spell design flaws observed, and then perform the mana constructs in silence. Any questions?”
I pause, then realize this is likely a part of the test. They tell me to do the entire test in silence, then ask me for the first time if I have questions. It wouldn’t have been so jarring if this wasn’t the first time that I was asked if there were any questions. I just stand there not even wanting to acknowledge the baited question.
“Hmph.” There is an audible huff, as mana once again forms in the room.
First I see a mana construct of myself, then I see ways that I am to channel mana through my body.
I am momentarily stunned by the shocking realism of the image before me, but then catch myself as I focus on replicating the tasks shown.
The first is a basic flow, with a slightly improper twist of mana at the end. I fix the twist and circulate my mana as shown.
With that the figure changes. This time not only do I see the flow, but numbers seem to appear representing different loops and processes that should be done and when. I look at the process and this time fix two loops that have been reversed. Looking at the flow, the mana could have worked in both, but the way the energy moved would have been stopped.
My last job involved a lot of math, that might or might not have been directly related to the mathematical arcs of missiles, which needed to take into account meteorological influences that could impact trajectory, decent angles, and impact points. For me, this form of circuitry was just a simple warm up for the day.
I flowed from one task to the next, each time noticing how more and more components were wrong with each ascending tests. Then finally I got to one where there was nothing wrong. Well there was clearly something wrong as just looking at it, my Danger Sense all but caused my teeth to vibrate with warning. Yet, I couldn’t for the life of me understand why or how this was a trap.
I focused, then finally after a minute, I realized my mistake. The circuitry was correct, but the flow was wrong. Everything was connected in the exact sequences that were needed, but the energy was being told to go backwards. Effectively trying to get mana to flow in my body counter-clockwise, when I had already gotten my body spinning clockwise. Had I started off going the opposite direction this would have been fine. But seeing as everything I had been doing to this point was backwards, or flowing in the opposite direction as this one, I would have caused serious problems. Sort of like being on an elliptical going forward as fast as possible, only to reverse direction without slowing down or being ready for the change.
Realizing the trap, I figured I could do this in one of two ways; either I could first flip the rotational pattern shown. Or I could stop everything, including my two passive spells for a moment and then circulate my energy the alternate direction.
Realizing I wanted to try the reverse direction at least once, I stopped my passive spells, paused for a second. Then began circulating my energy backwards and casting the Passive spells backwards. After which, I then took the spell formula before me and channeled it directly as seen.
There were a few more tests like that, ones that caused me to have to stop and think for a moment about the direction of energy. Oddly enough, I couldn’t help but think that there was a lot of circuitry and robotics in the way Magic was being taught here. But then again that sort of made sense, this was the world of steampunk, where magic and machinery were married in an amazing unison of harmony and balance.
I like to think that I did well on all three portions of the exam. But I would be lying if I didn’t think I did my best on the third portion, though the second portion of getting the enemies to strike each other down was pretty fun.
Just as I was coming to this conclusion, the same proctor voice called out and said. “Enough!”
With that the image of myself faded away. Of course, there were no other images that appeared. I had either gone through all of the possible tests, or failed one and they wouldn’t let me go on past that point. While I doubted the latter, I couldn’t help but feel that might be the case. There were a few nuances that seemed like they could go either way, sort of like those problems that can be solved multiple ways, but each way you take leads to a slightly different answer. I know, math can only be solved one way, but that is not always the case with things in the physical world. As a result, I could only hope for the best.
“That should be more than enough.” A second female voice calls out. This one doesn’t sound nearly as hostile as the proctor seemed.
“The results of your examination are as follows. In the case of surviving the test of horrors you rate a B. For while you did show ingenuity for avoiding the true dangers, you failed to adequately deal with the horrors in time.”
I wanted to protest, as the instructions I was given were to survive, nothing about dealing with the horrors. Though now that I think about it, horrors would likely describe the screaming sounds I heard coming from the illusions that I avoided. Again, if that was a test to show how much I knew about Runes, then that was a fair assessment, as I admit to knowing very little about runes. Instead it was only because of my special sight that I was able to negate the worst aspects of the ritual.
“For the second examination, a test of your martial skill with magic, you rate at a C. While you did show cunning and ingenuity in making the enemy strike down themselves you took too long to get through the allotted number of opponents.”
Well, that was a generous score, especially as Combat was not my strong suit, so I couldn’t really fault that claim. Especially as I mainly had kills due to friendly fire incidents. Though other than crushing everyone with Telekinesis, I didn’t see what more I could do? Maybe open a rift to the spirit realm and push the enemies inside and let the ethereal storms that rage about rip the apparitions to shreds? Still, it was better than failing, so I would take it.
“Finally, for your last examination, a test of mana circulatory theory, you rate at an A.” The proctor said, a bit of reluctance in their voice.
Hearing that, I let out a mental sigh of relief as I realize I didn’t mess up, but rather I had actually gone through every test possible before my allotted time ran out.
“Your cumulative score is a B, not great, but good enough to show that you have promise and could benefit from being accepted here.” By this point the proctor took on a dull monotone as if they were reading from a cue card and not actually trying to sound encouraging in the slightest.
“With this rating we accept you into our ranks as a three-star student. Congratulations.” By the end the proctor sounded so disinterested that I could instantly tell he would not be one of my biggest supporters here.
Quest Complete: Arcanarus Acceptance: You have been accepted into the prestigious Arcanarus University as a three-star student. Congratulations. Reward: Temporary Title, Class experience.
Temporary Title: Three-Star Arcanarus Student. You have three chances before you fail out of Arcanarus.
Experience Gained: 500.
Ding.
Level up. You have increased to Level 2. You have increased to Level 3.
Yes, the first few levels were by far the easiest to gain, as they were current level times 100. Meaning to go from level 1 to two was 100 experience. To go from level 2 to 3 was 200. In case you were wondering, going from level 3 to 4 would be 300 experience points, meaning I was just 100 experience points away from reaching level 4. These levels of course came with a lot of free Attribute points, but that was a minor thing to consider right now.
Still, I was too preoccupied with trying to figure out what would happen next as the proctors were already moving and I apparently was supposed to just know where to go.
I figured this would be one of those training scenarios. You know the one where you are supposed to ask for advice on what to do, only to lose further reputation with the proctor.
Realizing the trap, I focus on the school and find a spot that looks like it focuses on spirit energy and Teleport there.
Poof.
With that, I officially began my life as a student at Arcanarus University. No fanfare, no celebrations, just a hard and fast mentality that I either need to apply myself and succeed or fail out entirely. Honestly I wouldn't want this any other way. Smiling to myself I realized, this was going to be fun.