After waiting for a few minutes among the crowd, a few people went up on stage. In front of them stood an elderly elf. He looked to be around 60 years old and carried himself with energy and confidence in his demeanour. Of course, being an elf, he must be much older than that.

"That's the Headmaster of Kaishi Academy, Taegen Zylstina" said Mr. Arnold pointing towards the man on stage.

I nodded in response.

Mr Taegen, then came up to the front of the stage and announced "Ladies and gentlemen, I welcome you all today on behalf of our Academy for our entrance examination. We are quite honored to have you here as many have travelled far and wide in this land of Effluomus to enroll into our Academy. I shall now announce the procedure to be followed for this examination.

Each candidate must go through a total of 3 round of tests, each testing them on differing areas.

The first test will test the candidate on their mental fortitude. This test is the most important as those whose mental fortitude are not up to mark will immediately be failed from this examination." At this point, there were many who started protesting against this decision.

Mr. Taegen continued with a louder voice, "Before any one of you ask, the reason why we are doing this is because being an Adventurer, you will be in many situations where you will put your life on the line. At that time, no matter how skilled you are, if you are unable to cope up to the situation mentally, YOU WILL MOST CERTAINLY DIE."

The crowd fell silent. There were many children including me who began to shake in fear as well.

Continuing in a softer voice, he said "The second test will test your affinities. Although most people only have one affinity, there are those who have more than one. With each additional affinity, the number of people becomes rarer with no body having ever had more than 4 affinities. Each person will have a different level of affinity as well even on the same element. So don't get disheartened if you have only one affinity or get too excited if you have more than one.

The final test will test will be on your mana capacity.

The second test and the final test are less stringent as there will be no failing criteria. Those who pass the first test will go through both these tests. This is because we believe that the mana capacity and affinities are secondary for any adventurer. Through training, one is able to improve their physique, increase their mana capacity and use elements that are not of their affinity. However, it would be less efficient to use them.

The results will be based on your overall performance in the 3 tests, with the weights given 50:25:25. The top 500 scores will get to enter the academy.

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We will now call out numbers. Those candidates who have the number on their tokens shall come up to the stage."

I got scared when the Headmaster announced the part regarding the first test. However, as time moved on with my turn approaching, I started to steel myself. I moved closer to the stage to get ready.

"Number 1468" The Master of Ceremony announced. I raised my hand and replied "Yes!" as I walked on the stage. There were 3 rows of 10 examinees to make things move faster. I stood in front of the one who had just finished with the one before.

"Ready?" she asked.

As soon as I replied with a "Yes", I felt an intense pressure pushing me down to the ground. The pressure was very intense as I found myself on the verge of collapse. However, I remembered the desire I had for the past 10 years to go adventuring and with all my might, I stood completely straight, not willing to yield to the pressure. The pressure gradually increased until I couldn't handle it anymore, leaving me no choice but to say "I give up" through gritted teeth.

"Very good, you pass" I heard the examiner say when the pressure on me was released. I took some time to catch my breath before I headed to the next test. I could see the examiner had an impressed look on her face as I walked through.

I walked up to the second examiner. When I approached, he said "Place your hand on this crystal ball. It will determine which affinities you have."

I carefully placed my hand on it. The ball started glowing bright green in color.

"Wow, little girl, although you only have one affinity, that is in wind magic, it is very pure. It's should be 85% if I'm not mistaken." The examiner said.

"Thank You" I bowed a little before the examiner and went to the last one to test my mana capacity.

As soon as I reached him, he said "Place you hand on this scale. It will absorb a few strands of mana from you. The denser those strands are, the higher is your mana capacity."

I placed my hand on top of it. After 1 second, I felt something inside of me get absorbed by the scale. "So this is mana" I thought. The number on the scale started increasing and it stopped at 200.

"Your mana capacity is quite good, however, for an elf, it is average. You need to work hard in order to increase it" the examiner encouraged.

"I will" i replied softly to the examiner. I was a bit disheartened at hearing that.

I went down from the stage and went to where Mr. Arnold and Elwin were standing and told them my results. Elwin said that his examiner told him he did great in his mental fortitude test. He also got 60% and 40% affinities in both fire and light, and mana capacity at 240. His mental fortitude test was also great according to the examiner. I was quite jealous that he got 2 affinities and higher mana capacity than me by 20%! To make myself feel better, I just stamped heavily on his foot.

"Ouch! What did you do that for?" He yelled while feeling wronged.

"Hmph! You deserve it! Who told you to get two affinities and more mana capacity than me!" I retorted.

"You're just jealous, na na na na na" he teased after sensing my jealousy.

"Am not!" I shouted.

"Yes you are!" he shouted back.

"Am not!" I shouted angrily.

Our argument quickly escalated into a fight between us. Mr. Arnold just stood at the side with a wry smile on his face. In the end, he had to separate the two of us from our fight.

"Calm down now little ones, let's go get some drinks to cool your heads down." he said, trying to placate us.

"Fiiiiinnnee" we both replied still glaring daggers at each other.

He took us to a nearby stall selling drinks. I ordered apple juice as usual and Elwin ordered Mango juice. Both of us were in bliss as we started drinking the drinks and soon forgot our fight. Mr. Arnold who bought us the drinks couldn't help but give a wry smile upon seeing how quick our mood changed upon receiving the drinks.