“Intriguing, a purple hue so dark, there must be superb circle control to produce such a fascinating result.”

The headmaster mumbled to himself as he observed the young lad partaking in the exam.

“Applicant number three hundred and forty seven… pass.”

The headmaster pulled from his dazed expression, returning to his usual mellow voice.

“Hey that was black! that’s worse than the noble from before! how could you pass him!”

The crowd of failures which had slowly built up began to riot in protest.

They were hoping to have found another compatriot. Instead of answering, the headmaster pointed to the edges of the dark light that was shimmering in a purple hue. The crowd gulped realizing how sharp the headmaster's vision and senses were to see such a thin hue.

The youth, despite his dress as a commoner, made a bow so graceful one would misinterpret him as a noble. His humbled demeanor almost overshadowed the faint dark aura he emitted.

The headmaster felt something odd about this lad but he wasn't quite able to put his finger on what exactly it was. The headmaster watched him step down from the podium until the next student came to the crystal.

The next examinee was a tall fellow. His hair gleamed in a silver hue as he stretched out his palm and touched the crystal. When it made contact, instead of flashing as wildly as it did in the other hundred odd cases, it instantly filled the entire room in a lush golden hue.

The hall fell silent at such a spectacle.

“Applicant number three hundred and forty eight, pass.”

The principal continued as though it was equally irrelevant.

The second phase of the exam ended late into the night. A total of two hundred and seventy of the examinees had passed so far.

The headmaster announced that the next phase of testing would commence sometime before day break.

Majority of the last few to testees were still exhausted and mana deprived. The majority of the nobles knew of this and specifically chose to go first within the second round of testing to gain more time to recuperate.

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The examinees carried nothing more than a pouch which contained basic carry on items. however a few of the more finely dressed ones had their personal dimensional items.

Although these items could only carry as much as a paper bag or large purse, they showed a clear division between the nobles and peasants.

-

Only about four hours had passed when I was yanked out of deep sleep.

My kludde’s mark irritating non-stop, I awoke and looked around into the darkness of the room. My eyes that were enhanced by the kludde contract could see clearly into the darkness.

The applicants laid about loosely inside the hall as they all slept. A few of the examinees were still up there alertness obviously a notch above average.

In that moment, from the shadows, a series of deep yellow eyes could be seen. The pairs opened one after the other until the entire hall was surrounded.

The growling of wild animals surrounded the students.

The first scream broke the silence of the night. A high pitched scream woke the entire hall.

The body of students turned around to see a grey wolf with its fangs buried deep into a student’s neck.

A few students still sleeping awoke to find wolves gnawing at their limbs. Other students who were already alert drew weapons and chanted spells.

The hall lit up, colors exploded as spells crashed into the pack of wolves.

Alric drew his Terrier Blade from his dimensional ring amidst the chaos. For someone like himself who had spent the last few years fighting wild magical beasts, a few shadow wolves felt like child's play.

Alric gracefully stepped away and slashed as the wolves jumped to attack him.

The wolves realizing the futility eventually scattered and started surrounding the more vulnerable students.

The wolves were cunning with their attacks, as soon as a student turned their backs to attack a wolf another would jump at the exposed back.

The more the students fought, the more wolves would surround them waiting patiently for the point of exhaustion. Meanwhile the nobles, or those that were prepared for the attack, laughed at the flailing of exhausted students.

They had already teamed up to cover each other's backs.

It was a smart move, however looking closely these wolves were not so ordinary.

When one was slashed or blasted, instead of blood and guts, they faded into a thin shadow that separated among the remaining wolves. This cycle of death and dispersal continued.

At this point the hacking and blasting had slowed down and the number of wolves had diminished considerably. However, seemingly to make up for the lack of numbers, the wolves that remained were growing larger in size with the more of them that fell.

Before long all the circles of students that had teamed up now had a giant wolf or two to fend off.

The situation got more and more bleak. The examinees were already exhausted and their foe the shadow wolf was only getting stronger and stronger with each passing minute.

The shadow wolves let out a loud howl in unison and simultaneously a majority of students fell to the ground after feeling a weakness in their knees.

Only the more talented of the students could resist. But now half of the circles had collapsed. The stronger students that survived backed up slightly as they looked at the slowly approaching up shadow wolf.

The students were petrified looking at the wolf as it was about to pounce.