There seemed to be around fifty applicants in line from what Felix could see. In front of him was a strange looking person who kept muttering to himself.

“Just do your best, just do your best, just do your best,” he said, repeatedly.

Felix felt sympathy for the guy. After joining the line, his own nervousness had grown, and his interior state was not much better than his counterpart. Once he accessed the flame however, his emotions were all fed to it, and he was left determined. He could still feel some nervousness rise up in his awareness, but that nervousness was not him nor did it control him, it passed through him, he observed it and then the flame ate it up.

As time passed, more people joined the line and there were now more than two hundred applicants. Felix did not try to start up a conversation and neither did anyone. When he was accessing the flame, his face would look determined and serious, stopping anyone from approaching him. Furthermore, in this state he did not care much for anything other than his current goal, which was to pass this examination.

Finally, there was some commotion at the front of the line and the examiners started letting people into the examination grounds in batches of ten.

Felix could not hear what the examiners were saying, but he could see each applicant place their hand on the artifacts one after the other. Those that passed would sometimes jump in joy or simply proceed forward to an empty waiting area near the examiner’s tents. Those that wouldn’t simply came back towards the crowd with deflated shoulders. Most would simply walk away, face downcast, some even sobbing openly. There was one rather hot-tempered applicant that shouted insults at the examiners but was promptly evacuated by a particularly large guard in a heavy-handed fashion.

From the first few batches, it seemed to Felix that the passing rate for the first screening was around thirty percent. Felix looked back and saw that the line had grown to around five hundred, though not many more seemed to be arriving. This meant that an estimated one hundred and fifty applicants would make it through the initial screening. Due to the imbalance in open spots, Felix guessed around half the martial arts applicants that made it through the initial screening would make the final cut but only around fifteen percent of the alchemy students would do the same.

The time for the sixth batch came and Felix was the ninth student in it. A spike of adrenaline mixed with fear arose in his inner state, but the flame devoured those emotions as he made his way forward. Their group came to a halt near the two artifacts, in front of an older examiner, who commanded an air of respect.

“Simply step forward, announce your name, your age, and the branch you’re applying to. You may then place your hands on the red artifact. We will tell you when to switch to the blue artifact and then we will tell you when to remove your hands from it. At that point, your result will be announced, and that result will be final,” he said in a measured pace, with a heavy emphasis on correct diction.

A student was about to ask a question, but he was interrupted by the examiner that said, “there will be no questions. The first applicant may step forward.”

A rather small, thin bespectacled young man went up.

“My name is Aaron, 15 years old and I am applying to the martial arts branch,” he said, prompting a murmur of surprise from the applicants behind him. It seemed everyone had thought he would be applying to the alchemy branch because of his physical stature. Disregarding the murmurs, Aaron stepped forward and placed his hands on the red artifact.

At first, nothing happened but then the artifact slowly lit up, seemingly coming to life. Felix thought he saw a pattern resembling a constellation inside the artifact, spinning in circles. The light grew stronger, and the constellation started spinning faster until one could not tell what was going on inside the artifact. Only a strong light could be seen by the end.

At that point, the examiner noted something down and then said, “Proceed to the next artifact.”

Felix then saw Aaron’s body relax as he removed his hands from the red artifact and proceeded to place them on the blue one.

A very similar process occurred to what had happened before, yet once the faint spinning constellation appeared, the light did not appear, and the test ended.

The examiner once more noted something down and then said, “You may remove your hands from the artifact. Your martial talent is great, your mental cultivation talent is passable, you pass the initial screening. Please join the other applicants near the tent.”

Aaron smiled and raised his fist in celebration before heading off towards the next waiting area.

The process repeated for the seven students that stood between Aaron and Felix. The most common result was ‘passable’ in both areas, a score that was neither sufficient for either branch. It seemed like the martial branch required a grade of ‘good’ for martial arts talent and did not care for mental arts talent, whereas alchemy required a grade of ‘good’ for mental arts talent and ‘passable’ for martial arts talent.

Of those seven, two more made it through, a tall broad-shouldered guy also named Aaron made it through with good martial talent and good mental talent, whereas a girl named Coraline made it to the second part of the alchemy exams with an impressive grade of ‘great’ for martial arts and ‘great’ for mental arts, which seemed to have impressed some of the examiners. The person who seemed to be in charge remained unemotional.

“Next.”

Felix stepped up to the plate, calm and focused thanks to the flame. He put both his hands on the red artifact and waited. He could have sworn he felt a sort of tug, as if the artifact was sapping some of his energy, but it was so faint that he might have imagined it.

At first nothing happened and then the artifact lit up and a small constellation could be seen inside of it. Felix wondered if the constellation represented anything and if it was different from one person to the next. The constellation was slowly moving, and the artifact was lighting up stronger until a certain point at which it stagnated. Felix was not sure, but he thought it was quite bright but not as bright as when Aaron had passed his test.

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“Proceed to the next artifact,” said the examiner.

Felix removed his hands from the artifact and felt a small relief, as if a weight had been on his shoulders. It seemed like the artifact did in fact sap a bit of energy though it was quite faint. He moved over to the blue Artifact, a mix of apprehension and excitement passing him by before being eaten by the flame. A part of him was looking forward to this test, he was confident in his mental arts talent.

He placed his hands on the blue artifact and felt a similar tug to the previous one. There was something different, something very subtle, but both this feeling and the previous had been too faint for Felix to quite grasp them.

As expected, nothing happened for a while and then the artifact lit up, a spinning constellation visible. The artifact grew more luminescent, and the constellation started spinning faster and faster until it grew as bright as Coraline’s had when she passed her test. Felix thought it would calm down soon, but the light instead grew more intense and the constellation span faster and faster until Felix could feel heat coming from the artifact.

At this point, the energy sap was no longer faint but quite noticeable. It was really unlike anything Felix had felt before, something akin to lifting weights with his spirit and mind rather than body. The artifact grew so bright that Felix had to turn his gaze away from it. He looked at the head examiner who was as impassive as before.

Suddenly the drain stopped, the artifact grew cooler, and the light dimmed. Felix turned to the examiner, wondering what had just happened.

The examiner had seemed to be surprised for a fleeting moment but it had passed so quickly that Felix wondered if he imagined it.

“Your martial talent is good; your mental cultivation talent is… unable to be evaluated with a low-grade artifact. You pass the initial screening. Please join the other applicants near the tent," he said without a hint of emotion.

Felix had a hundred and one questions, but he knew the examiner was of no mind to entertain him, and so he made his way towards the other applicants. Sooner or later, he would have answers, assuredly.

There around a dozen applicants that had passed, and they were all looking at him. He let go of the flame, met their gaze and took a seat next Coraline.

“Well?” she asked.

“Well, what?” he replied.

“You heard my results, what about yours? The light produced from your artifact was quite strong, did you get an even better result than great?”

Felix hesitated for a moment, but then figured there was no reason to hide his results. “I have no clue actually; he said my mental arts talent was unable to be evaluated with this artifact. I got ‘good’ for martial arts,” he answered.

“Huh, never heard of that. I’m guessing you’re applying to the Alchemy branch?” she said, smiling. Coraline seemed quite easy-going and sociable.

“Yep.”

“Well, I’m Coraline as you already know, and I hope we both make it in.”

“Felix Green, I also hope we both make,” he replied with a smile.

While they watched the remaining examinations, they kept making small talk and even discussed alchemy, at which other students which had applied for the alchemy branch joined into their conversation. By the end of the exams, their resting area felt more like a symposium than a chit-chat.

Felix was quite happy to meet so many like-minded people. He had always been somewhat of a loner back in his village, despite getting along with Reese and others, his passion had always been alchemy and he had only ever shared this passion with his father. Now however he had already met dozens of kindred souls.

He learned a lot, though most of the things discussed were rather simple for him. When it came to medicinal alchemy, he did not meet anyone who was his match, although Coraline knew a lot about using alchemy to enhance the strength of warriors, which was an area Felix did not know as well.

The last of the examinees finally passed in front of the examiner and he headed towards the crowd of youngsters that had passed the first exam. As he made his way towards them, the crowd of more than a hundred applicants started quieting down.

“Martial applicants head closer to the hill; examiners will be waiting for you there. Alchemy applicants come with me back to the clearing,” said the examiner.

The students stood up and quickly headed where they were instructed to. Felix followed his group back to the center of the examination ground. Tables had been set up in the clearing. As they got closer Felix could see that each seat had a small built-in alchemy station. It consisted of a small hole holding a cauldron up, as well as a few different types of knives, pistons, mortars, and other basic tools. It seemed like the tables were simple artifacts that had built-in heating for the cauldron containers. This set-up would allow only the most basic of pills to be made. On the other hand, a more advanced set-up would not give any advantage when it came to making the most basic pills, other than perhaps allowing for multiple pills to be made at once. This meant that even with the most basic of setups, a person with sufficient talent could make basic pills of the highest quality. It was indeed a perfect method to test the foundations of the applicants.

Each station also had a wooden tray containing some ingredients. Various leaves, fungus, and powders, as well as some water.

‘Mind clearing pill,’ thought Felix.

Once they were all seated at their individual station, the examiner cleared his throat and captured everyone’s attention.

“This year’s examination consists in concocting a mind clearing pill. You have slightly more ingredients than is necessary for three pills. Concoct three pills and choose the highest quality pill to present to us. You may begin,” said the examiner.

The mind clearing pill was a staple of alchemy as well as one of the first pills to be taught to students. It had common ingredients and required a good foundation in all the basic techniques of alchemy. For this reason, even though various schools of alchemy throughout the continent had differing philosophies, they all used this pill as their introduction. Furthermore, while simple, the better an alchemist’s foundation was, the better grade this simple pill would have. An apprentice was expected to produce a common grade pill, whereas a talented apprentice or a one-star alchemist would usually produce an uncommon grade pill. A two-star alchemist would not necessarily have been able to produce a pill of rare quality. There were levels beyond that but for a three-star alchemist to consistently produce rare quality pills was already considered good. To go beyond that and reach the perfect realm was almost unheard of. The transcendental level pill was considered to be a bit of myth. There were certainly records indicating that level existed, but it had never been seen in recent memory, at least in the country of Astra and its surroundings.

Some of the more nervous candidates started to move about and set up their stations but a couple of them, including Felix and Coraline, closed their eyes and concentrated first.

‘Concentrate on the breath, thoughts are passing but are not taking hold of my attention. The mind calms down and the flame appears. My nervousness, anxiety and trepidation are fed to the flame, all that remains is purpose’, thought Felix.

The flame stabilized, Felix opened his eyes and began making the pill. Unbeknownst to him, two old men were secretly observing the proceedings, paying special attention to both Felix and Coraline ever since their spectacular results in the first screening.

“Looks like this year will be interesting”, said the older of the two with a hint of a smile.