-Monday Morning, 7th Of the 1st Month, Year 910-

After leaving the Arena, we follow Mrs. Janson through the Academy into a large two-story building. As we go up to the second floor, she explains the Written Test's rules, "No cheating, talking, or leaving your seats. If you get out of your seat or talk, I'll deduct points from your test. Cheating results in an automatic zero, and you'll be disqualified from taking the rest of the Exam."

She leads us down the hall and opens the door to "Exam Room 4." One by one, we go in behind her. As we walk in, she tells us, "Go find the seat with your number on it."

I walk through the rows of desks looking for my number, 'Here it is,' I'm in the fifth desk of the fourth row. 

After everyone sits down, she announces, "I'll start handing out the test now."

She walks down the rows, giving every applicant a test and a pen, "Starting from when the last person gets the test, you have 2 hours to complete as much as you can."

After handing out the last test, she tells us, "You may begin." 

She walks back up to the front of the room and sits down behind the desk, silently watching us. 

'I should get started,' I move my eyes away from the front to the test packet on my desk. 

I write my name down on the top of the first page and start answering questions. I go through each question one by one, and like that time passes by slowly. 

The first section was math, although I'm not the best at that subject, I can do simple single and double-digit addition and subtraction. I had to skip some of the word problems in that section because I couldn't figure them out and didn't have time to sit there trying to.

After math, came biology. I could only answer around ⅓ of the questions in that section using what Dad taught me. While teaching me swordsmanship, he would talk about different parts of the body, telling me which parts to use when striking and where to aim at on my opponent's body. I didn't understand the more complicated things he taught me regarding that, but I did remember most of the simpler things. Eventually, I couldn't answer the questions anymore since I wasn't taught much about biology that didn't involve fighting. 

Next was my favorite subject, History, ever since I learned the truth about those dreams I've been asking my parents to teach me more about the past. With what I learned from them, I was able to answer most of the questions pretty quickly. I skipped the questions that either required long answers or asked about a time period or event I didn't learn about.

My parents only told me small bits about the Civil War of 894, which continued into the year 895 and the Reconstruction Period. I didn't learn much about what happened before the reconstruction period, so I couldn't really answer any questions related to that time.

"You have 20 minutes left," Mrs. Janson warns us as I was writing my response to a question.

Hearing her announcement, I skip to the last section, Literature. There were only three types of questions in this section. The easiest was the one that asked me to write the definition of words. The questions that asked me to finish sentences were pretty easy too. But the hardest questions were the ones that asked me to write a response. I barely finish writing one answer before Ms. Janson announces, "Time's up!"

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

The moment I turn my head up to look at her, she vanishes. Feeling a light wind blow by, I look down, and my test is gone. I look around as a string of gasps sounds throughout the room, realizing that everyone else's tests are gone too.  

Back at the front of the room, Mrs. Janson is waiting for us by the door, making someone's test disappear into thin air. In an instant, she collected all of our tests. Like everyone else, I gasp again, surprised by her speed.

"What are you all looking at?" She asks us, "It's time for your lunch break, we have to meet the other groups at Training Field B."

'I wonder when I'll become that strong, maybe I won't-' I shake my head, '-No, I will become that strong and even stronger.'

I stand up and walk over to her with the other applicants. 

"Let's go," She waves her hand, gesturing for us to follow her. 

We leave the building and start walking to the training field. After a few minutes, I can see another group up ahead of us. 

Feeling a strong gaze on me, I look around, feeling confused, 'Is someone looking at me?' 

After a few seconds, the feeling goes away. I scratch my head, 'I'm probably just nervous, there's no way I know anyone here.'

Shaking my head, I turn my attention back to Mrs. Janson who's explaining something to one of the other applicants. A few minutes later, we reach the training field. It's a wide dirt field with some markings on the ground, big enough to fit all of us. On the north and south side, there are metal spectator seats. In the middle of the field, tables are set up with bag lunches on top of them. 

"You can grab your lunch and take a seat anywhere on the field. We'll gather up in an hour for the next test," Mrs. Janson tells us before walking to the sidelines, where the other examiners are talking.

I go over to one of the tables and grab a lunch bag before finding a place to sit down. As I'm opening my lunch, I hear heavy footsteps approaching me. I look behind me, seeing Johnny run over with his lunch bag shaking around in his hand.

"Let's eat together!" Hearing his request, I nod since he seems like a good guy to get along with, and I don't think he would leave even if I said no.

As we eat our lunches, we talk a little bit about ourselves. Laughing at each other's embarrassing training stories and talking about our Dad's and how they trained us.

"Hey, Kid!" Someone calls out to one of us, so we turn around and look in their direction.

A boy around my height, with wavy black hair and dark blue eyes, points his finger at us with a proud expression. A group of kids is standing behind him, grinning with mocking looks on their faces.

"What?" Johnny asks, looking a little angry.

"Not you the other one, the Kid with the eye patch," He moves his finger in my direction.

"What do you want?" I stare at him calmly, trying to think if I know him from somewhere, but nothing comes to mind.

"What's with that eye patch? Are you a pirate or something?" His comment makes the kids behind him laugh, but I don't respond and turn back around to eat my lunch, losing interest in him.

"Don't turn around when I'm talking to you!" He shouts, drawing other people's attention to us.

I really don't want to talk to him, but I don't like all the eyes looking over here. Sighing to myself, I ask him, "If all you want to do is make jokes, can you go mess with someone else?"

"Who do you think you're talking to, Commoner!?" He grits his teeth and glares at me, "I am The Great Percy Carter, son of Marchioness Elizabeth Carter of the Loreen Province, a noble! A commoner like you has no right to tell me what to do!"

"I don't care who you are or where you're from, just leave me alone." I wave my hand, trying to tell him to go somewhere else.

"You-" 

"Break time is over applicants!" The examiners announce, "Meet up with your examiner and wait your turn for the next test." 

"-Tch, you're lucky this time, Commoner!" He tosses his bang up and turns around. He walks over to his Examiner with some of the kids in his group, 'Wait, he was in my group?'