Chapter 18 - The second test
Once she was done speaking Andra started to walk towards the western hallway of the main building with which the main gymnasium was connected to.
“Holy shit” one of the cadets at the back of the line exclaimed, upon which Andra stopped walking.
After turning around she briefly looked at us before she started to speak with an annoyed expression, “When I said walk in silence I meant no talking, is it that hard for you idiots to understand that?”
“No ma’am” all of us replied instantly.
“It is good if you understand, but if this happens again well just know it will not be good for any of you, now keep walking we are almost there.” she said as she looked at us and then followed with a nod.
“Yes ma’am” all of us replied as we started to walk right behind Andra.
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Inside a massive dome like structure which was called a gymnasium, away from her group Andra stood talking with a man who was sitting on a desk in the center of the structure.
Looking at the man who was half asleep Andra said with nerves popping on her forehead, “hey Felix, what training room is my batch assigned to?”
Waking up from his nap he looked at his colleague and started to speak as he took out a file from under his desk, “Huh Andra, I believe it is room number 9, but give me a moment to check”
“Sure” She said as she clenched the desk almost crushing a part of the desk.
“Yep it's room number 9 here is the pass and once your group is done with its aptitude test,you can inform them that, they will be taking their physical test outside in the field.” he said not paying attention to Andra’s anger or antics.
“Yeah I will make sure to do that.” she said as she nodded and moved towards her group.
“Great.” he said as he folded his hands and started to doze off once more.
Appearing before her group of applicants Andra started to speak, “Applicants follow me, your aptitude tests will be held in training room number 9, oh, and before we start moving I just want to confirm if any of you have already done your aptitude test, and if you have, you may raise your hand.”
Slowly as the students started to raise their hands Andra started to count and said, “1,2,3….. 13, okay so 13 of you have done an aptitude test, well doesn't matter, as you will be taking the test anyway as it is compulsory for all aspiring applicants to get one here withing the academy itself.”
After walking with her group to the door that said training room 9, she stopped walking and said, “We will now be entering the 9 training room number 9, and I want all of you to behave properly as all of this is going to be broadcasted straight to a meeting room where the principal along with a lot of executives and guild leaders will be observing every single one of your movements.”
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Meanwhile, in a brightly lit room in an unknown location, a man wearing, a black suit ,and a mask that covered his entire face,sat at a table with a few other people, some of which were present via a hologram of themselves.
“General Cornelius, how is the invasion going so far?” he said as she looked at the third person from his left, who was an old man with scars that covered his body and two horns that were clearly his most prominent features.
With a serious expression the old man spoke, “Your majesty it is going okay for the most part, and while we are experiencing some protest from conquered regions, most of them are currently in a dilemma if they wish to truly become part of our empire.”
With a nod, the man he referred to as his majesty said, “That is understandable, give them another 5 days to consider our offer and if they refuse then raze the city to the ground, leave the women and children alone, but massacre everyone else.”
“Yes your highness.” the man said as he nodded his head.
Nodding his head he looked at the man 2 seats away from him on his right and said, “Good, now august have our spies informed us on how the humans have responded to our messages.”
The white haired, and white skinned, man said,“Yes your Highness we have received 3 reports from the Ararin empire, the martial republic, and the holy empire in total, while our spies in the duchy of Rostovich, and the Mariana Kingdom have been found out, and have decided to kill themselves.”
“That is quite unfortunate, did the spies have any family?” the emperor said as he nodded his head and looked at his clasped hands.
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“No your majesty they did not, I had them trained after I adopted them from an orphanage.” the red eyed gentleman said as he waived his head.
The masked man spoke as he nodded his head, “I see well you have my condolences.”
“Thank you for your wishes your majesty.” August said as he looked down at the masked man.
“Now what of the reports from the other spies?” the masked man said as he diverted the topic.
After a nod the red eyed man’s expression turned from sorrowful to serious as he started to speak, “I have sent a copy of the reports to each one of the people present here in this meeting, so if you wish for a detailed rundown of the reports please go through them however for now I will give you a brief rundown of what is said in the reports.”
“Go on.” the masked man said.
After getting approval from the masked man, August started to speak, “Great, now our spies in the Ararin empire have reported that the emperor has called for a meeting with the nobles and minister of the empire, and said meeting is currently in session but no one is allowed to even get close to the meeting building so getting more reports on this is quite difficult, but for now they have not yet decided where they stand on the issue. As for the holy empire, they have decided to denounce us but aren't going to take any military action for the time being as the pope feels like the empire is not ready for another war with us. Lastly for the martial republic well, they have decided to remain neutral as usual, a messenger will soon be arriving here declaring their neutrality at any moment.”
After taking a moment to think the masked man spoke, “Hmmm while the actions of the martial republic are concerning as always, and I can't really say what goes on in the brain of their leader. the pope deciding to not instantly declare war on us is quite the shock to me, I mean under usual circumstance the guy would have already started a crusade to help the orcs on this.”
Another man who was on the furthest seat away from the masked man's left spoke, “I agree as well, but what I find the most concerning here is the Ararin empire still being stuck in a meeting, it is honestly causing me quite a bit of concern as to what they must be discussing for it to take so long.”
General Cornelius looked at the black haired man and spoke with a nod, “I agree with Russel’s opinion on this as well, and while their military is only a fraction of its strength compared to when the last continental war happened, due to their inexperienced troops, they still have the resources and raw force to be enough of a threat to our plans if they gather all their veterans that I fought against to train their soldiers.”
“I agree with the general on this.” said August as he looked at the masked man urging an answer.
After a slight deliberation, he started to speak, “Both of your words are correct, but we will not take any unnecessary action unless we have further insights on this, as if we were to react prematurely the Ararin’s may consider it a sign of aggression and start a war earlier than planned”
“Yes your highness.” understanding their sovereigns words the men at the table spoke as they nodded.
Waiving his head he looked at a black skinned woman with long ears, and red eyes, “Now enough of that give me the reports on the elven and dwarvern countries.”
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“Huuu, that was quite time consuming wasn’t it your imperial Highness.” august said as he stretched himself as he looked at the masked man.
The emperor got up from his seat and looked at out the glass wall to look at his surrounding as he said, “That it was, but what can we do this is quintessential, if we wish to survive the forces of the dragon race, our troops must be stronger than ever, and the continent must be unified at all costs.”
“If only we could spread this information.” august said as he pulled out a wine glass and two glasses from his bracelet.
“But as both of us know that isn’t possible as their puppets have already likely infiltrated into every major power on the continent, so the moment word gets out that we know of their plans for invasion, all hell would break loose.” the emperor said as he took one of the glasses that August had poured the wine into.
“Haaaah, the circumstances have drained all pleasure from war haven't they.” august said as he took a sip of his wine.
“That they have old friend.” the emperor said as he drank his wine,
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Now back at the academy.
Inside a large white room, that was floored with padded tiles to cushion the falls of whoever fell on them, the entirety of Andra’s group stood as they looked at the instructor who was about to start explaining the rules.
Once all the applicants were settles in the room Andra started to speak, “Now before we start with your physical test as was previously announced, we will be checking your aptitude for mana absorption, this will be a major factor for determining if you can get into the academy or not. Unfortunately if you are born with a shitty aptitude for mana then we can do nothing for you, and unless you have done insanely well or do well in the remaining tests you likely don't have a chance to get in, for which you can blame only the strings of fate to have decided to not bless you with a great physique.”
After a brief pause to Andra continued speaking as she pointed at the device behind her.“With that being said, I will now explain how we will judge your mana aptitude. You see the crystal ball at the center of the room, that is connected to a monitor right there” moving her hand from the crystal ball towards the screen beside it, she started to speak once more, “now that monitor will display the grade of aptitude that you have, and yes the ball will glow different colors for different aptitudes, but we don't really consider that to be perfectly accurate as previous occasions have proven it to be fairly inaccurate. But I will still give you a basic run down of it.”
After taking a brief pause to drink a bit of water, she started to speak once more, “Basically the aptitude of a person is greater the lighter the color that comes out is, for example a white light means that you have somewhere between a -S grade aptitude to a +S grade aptitude, where as a black light means you have a -F to +F grade aptitude, and so on and so forth. Some rare exceptions however are the multicolor lights and the gold light, both of which are cases where the crystal either is too low of a grade to measure their aptitude or the individual has no limit. There have only been 5 such cases of these exceptions happening ever, so I don't believe it will happen anytime soon here, but since academy law regulates I had to mention it here anyway.” with that she ended her explanation
*CLAP*
With a clap Andra once more started to speak, “Now one by one I will call your name and applicant number, then you will place your hand onto the crystal ball. Now be aware that once you do that there will be a lot of mana flowing in and out of you for a while, so you might feel slightly dizzy”
Taking out her phone from her pocket she started to call cadets one by one, “Now Anton Freud, applicant number 100389”
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