Faul had no idea what to expect for the first test. It seemed that there were a large amount of tents laying around, and applicants were expected to go into them. However, the amount of tents were definitely not enough to accomodate for the thousands of attendees, so they were all forced go form a proper line and wait for their turn.

Due to him not rushing immediately, he had been near the end of his line, so he felt quite annoyed by that fact. At best, he'd have to be here for at least another hour or so. He looked around for his friends, Varus and Iona. It seemed that they were already both at the front of their tents.

He decided that it wasn't worth it to stay in line for such a long time, so he searched for a neaby bench to sleep on, in order to kill time before looking for a shorter line.

As he was getting comfortable sleeping under his trusty pillow, someone immediately snatched it from under his head.

Faul looked at the person in shock. His pillow!

Above him stood what seemed to be a boy, wearing extremely fancy clothing. Was he a noble? His hair was short, but in the style of a girl. What was his barber doing? Faul felt bad for him.

"Why is a commoner like you sleeping here? Have you no respect!? Filthy trash, leave immediately." [Noble]

This guy was starting to piss him off. All he wanted to do was sleep, and now this extremely stereotypical noble came out of nowhere to bother him! He had heard bad news about their attidudes before, but he never took them to heart.

The noble looked at his pillow in disgust.

"You sleep with this thing? It's absolutely gros-" [Noble]

However, he was quickly met with a punch to the face.

"Argh!" [Noble]

Faul was now standing up, looming over the person he had just punched.

"Give it back, please." [Faul]

He was holding his hands out in expectance. He just wanted some peace!

The noble was on the floor, with his hand to his face. No one had ever hurt him before! Not even his parents! Who was this commoner that would dare to do so!

At this point, Faul and the noble had stirred up quite the crowd. They had all seen Faul punch him, but no one felt bad. Previously, this was the same noble who was making fun of the others as well due to their birthright. Instead, they all took joy in his suffering, though they didn't say anything since he was still a noble, after all.

Faul walked up to the noble and stood in front of his face. He grabbed his shirt by the collar and stared at him straight in the eye.

The noble was blushing at his actions. What was he going to do to him?

But from Faul's perspective, he had no idea what was going on. Why was he blushing? It was probably because he had embarassed him in front of a large crowd. Or could it be...

"Don't worry, I'm not into guys." [Faul]

The noble stared at him in disbelief. This commoner had no idea what was going on! Feeling immensely shamed, the noble dropped Faul's pillow, got up, and left as fast as he could.

"What's that kid's problem?" [Faul]

He took back his pillow and walked away to a nearby tent whose line was almost done. Everyone around them who had seen what happened was confused. They couldn't hear what he said.

-Inside the Tent (Five Minutes Later)-

It was finally Faul's turn. He had waited in line for quite a while already. Remembering the incident a couple of minutes ago with the noble, he clenched his fists. There were still people who acted that way in this day and age. Hopefully he would never have to come across him again.

In front of him was a middle aged man in a magician's robe, sitting in front of a crystal ball.

"Please, take a seat." [Man]

Faul took a seat and looked around. This placed was very mysterious. What seemed to be drawings of magic circles littered the room, all glowing slightly.

"Now, are you ready? I shall explain. This crystal will determine whether or not you are able to use magic. The brighter it glows, the stronger your affinity, and the color will tell us what element you are suited to using. Place your hands on it and it should work." [Man]

Slowly lifting his hands, he approached the crystal ball carefully.

Once he got close, Faul could see a small glimmer of light within the ball. So he had passed! That was a relief. He took a breath to relax himself and put his both his hands on the crystal ball.

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It was a grayish and green light, shining so bright that it blinded their eyes.

"Urgh!" [Man]

The man had never seen anything like this before. He had been an examiner for several years, but he had never seen someone with this much potential. This kid was on par with the S-ranks! No, maybe even better! He definitely had to report this to the king.

Faul let go of the ball. Due to the bright light, he had his eyes closed, so he couldn't see exactly what had happened during that moment.

"So, um... Did I pass?" [Faul]

The man was still in shock at the display that had just occured.

"Oh, uh, yeah." [Man]

He was still trying to recover from witnessing it, and took a short pause to get back on track.

"Ahem. So it seems that you possess the power of wind. Since you qualify, I shall give you a crash course on how to use it properly. You'll learn more about it at the academy that each explorer is admitted in, so if you have any questions, hold them for now." [Man]

"Why didn't you guys just explain this to all of us when we were listening to Larci?" [Faul]

"That's something we considered. However, if someone who didn't qualify learned how to use magic and spread the information outside of Remedi, that could be problematic." [Man]

It was true. Although most countries had treaties, there were still malicious people who wanted to bring trouble due to personal grudges.

"Now I'll explain. In our heart, we have something called an Mana Exert Line, otherwise abbreviated as a 'MEL'. It is believed that this is part of our body is what has direct control over our mana flow." [Man]

Faul tried to feel the MEL in his heart. As expected, he didn't feel anything. The man looked at Faul humorously. Every applicant who had done the test tried to do the same thing, however it wasn't that easy.

"It takes time to get used to it, you'll know much more about it soon." [Man]

Faul nodded. It seemed that magic was much more complicated than he originally thought.

"To use magic, you must feel that line inside and direct to wherever you release your magic. It is also possible for your magic to maintain a physical form like a sword for a very brief moment, although it requires large amounts of mana. If you excessively use up all your magic, you could suffer serious injuries!" [Man]

So that's what it was. Thinking back on the incident with the Winged Flamebeast, he recalled something similar to what was being explained here.

"That's about it. The second test already started so go on ahead! We're in a bit of a rush for tomorrow." [Man]

Faul walked out of the tent. It seemed that everyone had finished their first test, and about a quarter of the people here this morning had already left. That's right! What about Varus and Iona?

As he was walking around, he heard shouts and screams. It was coming from the people fighting the double horned orcs in the second test.

He walked towards the sounds and wound up in a large field. He saw both Varus and Iona finishing up their fights. That noble from earlier had also just finished their test. They were all very beat-up, but it seems that they made it pass this round. The both of his friends saw Faul and walked up to him.

"So, did you pass the first one?" [Varus]

"You better not have failed! We've already had six people that went home already." [Iona]

Faul was shocked. Six people? That was half of them from Olyres!

"Kuh... Yeah I passed the first test. How about this one? Is it hard?" [Faul]

"Hard? I almost died!" [Iona]

Even though they were pretty beat-up, Faul still knew they were strong. There was no way that a qualifying test would have given them that much trouble. Was a double horned orc really that powerful?

"Faul, just make sure to not get touched by him, and try to use your magic power. That's the only possible way to fight them. We were careless and got scratched, which led us to this. Some others were killed. It wasn't a good sight. These orcs are pretty slow in the first place, so it shouldn't be too difficult for you. We have to go back to the healing area. We'll come back to watch you later." [Varus]

"All right, thanks." [Faul]

"Good luck!" [Iona]

They both left to get treatment from the staff. Meanwhile, Faul waited for a chance to fight. A difficult path was ahead of him.

Curious, he looked at the previous fighters who had attempted to fight. Plenty of them were full of injuries, and some in critical condition. Were the qualifications to enter the dungeon really that high?

"Hey, you!" [???]

Faul turned towards the voice.

It was one of the examiners, pointing at him.

"Yes?" [Faul]

"We have an open spot here. Are you ready to go?" [Examiner]

He decided that he might as well. Varus and Iona wouldn't be able to come back in time to watch him, but someone else might take that spot soon.

"All right. Are there any rules?" [Faul]

"You just have to kill the orc while not leaving the lines. Any method is allowed. You are not allowed to receive help from anyone outside the lines." [Examiner]

Faul examined the area. It was approximately a ten by ten meter square. In the middle was a sleeping orc, seemingly unable to move. Apparently the examiners did something to the orcs beforehand. You could tell that the person who was here before him had a rough time, as there were blood patches all over the place.

He was nervous.

"... I'm ready." [Faul]

"Okay, get in. Once you're inside, we'll wake up the orc. Prepare yourself, you don't want to end up teared to shreds, like the others." [Staff]

As Faul walked in the square, he waited for the orc to wake up. It took a while, as the examiner was being extremely careful. Once it looked as if the orc was about to wake up, he immediately ran away.

By now, the orc was fully awake. They were simple creatures, who would attack the person closest to them. Because of that trait, they're used as guinea pigs for testing.

The double horned orc noticed Faul immediately, and started rushing towards him.

Faul quickly put up his right hand in front of him. In an instant, he tried to sense his MEL and form a ball of magic in his palm. Although he had tried this before in the tent and failed, he could always dodge and try again, since the orc was slow. But if he took too long, he might die. It was worth the risk, he thought to himself.

He felt the sensation from his heart spread to his hand and a small bolt was forming.

This was it!

He fired the bolt, and in the span of the next few seconds, a large beam shot from his palm and exploded a nearby building.

The only thing remaining on the stage was him, and a headless orc.