Lady Rollara got us all back on task with a magically enforced clap. “Prince James, your achievement is impressive to say the least. Reginald, I take it you are satisfied with the prince’s combat techniques?”

“Absolutely! He passes with full marks. Though I might have to become his swordsmanship instructor. I am not sure anyone else would do.” Duke Spears answered.

“You would come out of retirement?! Are you willing to train more than just the young prince?” Lady Rollara asked.

“As long as I can keep my seat on the Royal Academy council, I am willing to help train another generation of warriors. Though, I will still want to ensure that my prince gets private tutoring.” Duke Spears replied.

“That would be a great boon to our newer generation.” Uncle Marcus stated.

“No way I’m going to pass that up!” I chimed in.

“Very well. I will support your bid to retain your seat on the Royal Academy Advisory council. We can discuss later the details of your instructor duties.”

Duke Spears just gave a slight head nod to Lady Rollara in acknowledgment.

Turning back to me, Lady Rollara said, “Sadly, as Headmaster I must insist, we continue your testing my prince. Are you ready to continue? I know you have just spent a great deal of mana and have been through much but once we start this exam, we must finish it.”

I freed myself from my mother’s death grip and replied. “Of course, headmaster. What is next?”

“After proving your expertise in the sword to such an extent, we can forgo any other Melee testing. Let us move on to ranged attacks with archery. Please head to the archery area.” Lady Rollara said while pointing towards an area that clearly looked like an archery range.

A slender man in leathers with a bow and quiver strapped to his back was waiting by the range. I introduced myself, “Hello. I’m Prince James.”

“I’m Illyrian and I will be testing your skills with a bow.”

I realized the man was an elf when I saw his pointy ears. ‘My first elf! Cool!’

“First test will be to hit the varying distance and size targets. After that, you will be expected to hit moving targets. We will switch-off between archery and axe throwing. Any questions?” Illyrian explained the fundamentals of the archery test.

“No, sir.” I answered as the test seemed straightforward enough.

The archery and axe throwing test was a rather non-event after my duel with Duke Spears. I was able to hit every target, no matter the size, or distance, or how fast they moved. I expected as much as I wasn’t about to pass up picking up archery and axe throwing skills when I first came to this world. I mean who doesn’t get a kick out of throwing an axe?

Illyrian seemed thoroughly impressed, but I just thanked him for the test and returned to Lady Rollara.

“Headmaster where to next?”

“We shall now test your crafting skills. Please first head over to the alchemy station over there.” Lady Rollara answered as she pointed towards a table with several beakers and tubes. The station looked to be something out of a medieval science lab.

The alchemy station was manned by a very short lady in purple robes standing on top of a large stool. Her eyes looked a bit larger than normal. She had purple hair to match her robes.

‘Is she a gnome or some kind of halfling?’ I thought as I approached.

The gnomish lady introduced herself after she made a slight bow. “It is a pleasure to meet you, Prince James. I am Saffron and I am the head alchemy instructor at the academy.”

Her accent sounded French to me and almost melodic if a bit high pitched.

“For this test, I want you to make a minor health potion using the instructions from this book.” Saffron pointed to the open book on the table. “And use these ingredients. Any questions?”

“No ma’am.”” I said before turning to read the instructions.

The process was pretty simple in making a minor healing potion, I would distill the essences from the provided ingredients in cucurbits, collect the essences in an alembic, and finally pour them into a cauldron while infusing the mixture with mana. I was very careful to infuse the tiniest trickly of mana I could before handing the resulting health potion to Saffron.

“I hope you will find this acceptable professor.”

Saffron looked surprised when she took the vial. “That is far faster than should be expected. Let me see how potent it is. Appraise Item!”

A glow surrounded the vial and Saffron’s eyes grew a bit glassy and unfocused. Typical look of someone looking at a screen or information window. Her eyes grew wide. “You… you made… a Moderate Healing Potion instead! Such a thing is very rare an outcome but not unheard-of with the ingredients provided.”

“Is that good?” I asked.

Saffron turned away from her staring at the vial. “Is that good he asks. Of course, it is good my prince. It is beyond the requirements of the test. You could be a fine alchemist one day!”

“Thank you, Professor Saffron. If you will excuse me, I have a few more tests to complete.”

“Of course, of course. Go, go! I hope you will end up in my class this semester.” Saffron replied.

Turning back to Lady Rollara, she just pointed to a makeshift forge in the corner. “Your blacksmithing test will be to see if you can infuse your magic into an ingot without blowing it up.” Giving me a stern look, “You know like when you used too much magic on the training dummy.”

“Understood, headmaster.” I replied before heading over to the small forge.

The makeshift forge was manned by a short, stout man with a long reddish-orange beard. He was muscular and wearing a traditional blacksmithing apron made from tough, thick leather.

‘OH sweet, my first dwarf!’ I thought as I approached.

“Me name is Krag. It is time to further test your magical capabilities when it comes to craftin’. Before we start the real work, I want to finish out your physical tests.”

Krag pointed to a station right next to the forge with several targets made of wood or simple stone. “We shall have you test your physical enhancement when not fightin’. Attempt to destroy those blocks and wood targets with your hands and feet.”

I obliterated each target I struck.

Once again, I seemed to impress the burly dwarf test administrator. “Ye be hitting harder than me worst hangover lad. Ye got a real skill in physical enhancement. Now, that was just to make sure yer body can withstand the strain of smelting and infusing your mana into the metal.” Krag said as he guided me back to the forge.

“Do you know anything about melting metal? You use your mana to help remove impurities. Not all the impurities can be removed but this test is to see how well you can do. The skilled can infuse the ore with mana to create magesteel?” Krag explained.

“I am familiar with the process if you will allow me to try.” I answered.

The only reply I got from Krag was a hand gesture to begin.

I walked over and put on a blacksmithing apron and special gloves that were set off to the side of the forge. Checking the temperature of the fire, I added some fuel and once it was hot enough, I added the ore into the crucible. It did not take long to melt the ore down. Using my True Sight, I could reach out with my mana and separate the impurities.

After separating the impurities, I decided to go for extra credit. Slowly and as subtly as I could I began to push mana into the liquid metal. With my True Sight on I could see the point at which the metal could take on no more mana. At this point I poured the liquid into the cast and began the process of cooling the metal.

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Using my tongs, I opened the cast and withdrew the partially glowing metal bar. Krag rushed over and got super close to the metal bar. I knew it was cooled but that did not mean it wasn’t hot to the touch, but the dwarf ignored the heat as he exclaimed. “This is a bar of magesteel! As far as I can see, this is the purest bar I have ever seen!”

Krag stopped staring at the bar and turned to me. “This is impressive even for a dwarf. If ye were good at crafting’, I might think ye got dwarf in ya.”

“I have done some crafting and rather enjoy it.” I replied. Krag’s eyes bulged a bit, “Come by me smithy and I’ll show ye some real craftin.”

I chuckled, “As soon as I can, I would love to swing by and have you show me some crafting. I find crafting to help center me in a way I have a hard time describing.”

“Aye lad. It sounds like crafting be in yer soul. I would welcome a chance to talk further.” Krag said as we shook hands, and I turned back to Lady Rollara.

‘I wonder what he means my crafting is in my soul. Oh well, yet another thing to figure out later.’ I thought as I turned my attention back to the headmaster.

Lady Rollara directed me to my next test. “We will now test your magical affinities, capacity, and intensity.”

She led me to an area with three pedestals, each with an orb on top of it. My parents, Uncle Marcus, Duke Spears, and Captain Spears all made a point of crowding around this new testing area.

“I cannot wait to see what our son’s affinities are. I know he is strong in fire like his dad and uncle.” My father boasted in anticipation.

Lady Rollara ignored my father’s comment and continued to explain the next phase of tests. “It is simple, start with the orb on the left. Place your hands on it and attempt to push your energy into the orb. The orb will assess the intensity and density of your energy. This allows us to understand how well you can empower your spells and body with mana.”

I placed my hands on the orb and attempted to push my energy in. The orb started to glow brighter and brighter, and brighter, several people had to avert their eyes from the intensity of the light. It continued to grow brighter as it emitted a humming sound, until the orb exploded. Luckily, I raised a magical shield as it grew brighter & started to hum.

Lady Rollara rushed forward, “My Prince are you ok?! Let me heal you!”

“My baby!!!” I heard my mother scream, and I was hit with a bear hug and a rush of healing magic. “Do not move my baby, mommy will heal you up!”

I waved my hands, tapping my mother to get her to release me. “I’m fine. No need to worry. I raised a shield as it started to hum.”

My mother reluctantly released me. “Quick, thinking my son. Barrier magic is one of your mother’s specialties too.” The last part she said with a smile, seeing that my barrier affinity must’ve been strong enough to handle that magical explosion.

Turning to the Lady Rollara who was doing her own magical investigation of my status I said, “I’m sorry, but I broke your orb Headmaster.”

“You overloaded the orb my prince. It would seem your magic intensity is higher than the orb can read. Most Impressive.” Lady Rollara stated.

“As to be expected from My Prince! Yet further proof of his strength and why I follow him!” Duke Spears said almost boasting. His son just shook his head at his father’s shameless antics.

Lady Rollara clapped her hands once and spoke up to get things back on track, “If you are ready my prince to continue. The next orb will measure your magic capacity. With this orb you just touch the orb as you open your energy pathways, no need to push the energy into the orb. This allows the orb to measure how much mana you have within your core without having to absorb it. In other words, less chance of this one blowing up.”

She then leaned in so only I could hear her whisper. “Do not worry, I felt your core before, this process will not be as explosive.”

Rather than delay things further I approached and touched the second orb. I did as I was instructed, and opened up my energy pathways, I could feel a subtle energy draw, more like something invasive was lightly touching the mana as it flowed through my energy pathways.

We waited awhile, after 15 minutes the duke spoke up, “Is the thing broken too Lady Rollara?”

“No, it is still calculating.” She replied without looking at the duke, her eyes fixed on the orb.

Another 15 minutes passed and one of the instructors spoke up. “Are we sure it is not defective or that the pool is too small for detection?”

“No, I can sense the magic, the orb is still reading his energy pathways.” Lady Rollara stated.

“Has it ever taken this long with anyone?” Captain Spears asked.

His father was the one to answer. “In all my time as both an instructor and on the advisory council, I have never heard of this taking longer than 5 to 10 minutes, 15 max and that was Lady Rollara’s test if I recall. I agree with Lady Rollara, the orb is working it is taking a long time to measure to reduce the chance it too explodes and can properly calculate everything.”

That seemed to quiet everyone down for a while as everyone settled in and waited.

After an hour it finished and Lady Rollara read the results out loud in complete shock, “A energy pool of 130,000?!! How?! I knew it was large, but this is even more massive that I thought!”

“Lady Rollara are you sure?! Dragons do not even possess such a capacity!” Uncle Marcus asked.

‘Technically that is not true Uncle as I am a dragon.’ Thought as I listened to the various exclamations.

“Headmaster, are you sure it’s not broken too?” A different robed man asked.

I replied in the hopes to cut off any further comments, “If what I’m seeing on the readout then Lady Rollara’s calculations are correct.”

“You know advanced computations Prince James?” Lady Rollara asked.

“Of course, it’s simple math, Lady Rollara.” I said.

“Simple? How are six digits simple calculations? I would say the computation tests are no longer required for you as this can count as your test.”

Turning to the rest of the audience that had gathered around the orbs, Lady Rollara spoke. “Yes, the calculations are correct. The prince has an energy pool beyond any being on record ever in our history, even dragons do not possess such an energy pool! If this does not prove the prophecy, I do not know what would!” Lady Rollara said the last part with firm conviction.

“Haha! That’s my son!” My father joyfully stated as he gave his brother an elbow to the side.

Some present mumbled, “Prophecy? What prophecy?”

Lady Rollara raised her hand, making the room fall silent once more. “With these two tests alone, we have much to consider. Still there is one last test. Touch the final orb and open your energy pathways again and it will scan what magic types you have an affinity for and how close to 100 percent it is.”

All eyes moved to the orb in rapt attention to see what affinities I possessed.

I touched the final orb and felt the now familiar feeling of something probing my pathways. Rather than resisting I let it happen. The readout on the pedestal started to populate. Luckily, for Lady Rollara and I there was enough of a distance from the orb and us from the rest of the people that we could whisper to one another.

Lady Rollara leaned in and spoke quietly in a voice only I could hear. “You can see it right, the readings?”

I whispered back, “Yes, I can read what the orb is saying.”

Lady Rollara cast a Zone of Silence to prevent anyone but her and I from overhearing what she said next. “There are magic types I have never even heard of before! That alone is an astonishing discovery! Let us also not ignore the fact that every type of magic I have heard of happens to also be showing up on the display! All of them at 100% affinity!! My prince, I would say we keep most of these a secret and we can discuss them later. I cannot keep this Zone of Silence up much longer without drawing suspicion.”

I quickly replied knowing she had to take down the spell soon. “I agree. I would rather not anyone know but you and I for now.”

She nodded and said, “I cannot hide your affinity in all schools of magic, it will come out either way, and we must design a curriculum around your magic types. I can however keep secret these magic types I have never seen before; those we agree must remain secret.”

I nodded to Lady Rollara, and she dropped her spell.

Lady Rollara spoke loudly for everyone to hear. “It would appear Prince James has once again proven to be exceptional. The prince has 100% affinity!”

One of the robbed figures asked, “In what school of magic should I record the 100% affinity?”

“All of them!” Lady Rollara yelled.

The area fell silent once again.

The same robbed man raised his hand and asked when Lady Rollara nodded at him. “Um… Excuse me Lady Rollara, did I hear you correctly? Prince James has 100% affinity in all the schools of magic?!”

“Yes, Roger you heard correctly.” Lady Rollora said plainly.

“Is that even possible?!” Another robbed figure asked.

“I’ve only ever heard of one or two affinities at 100% for one person, some may have other affinities but rarely such a high percentage!” General Marcus stated.

Lady Rollara once again raised her hand and spoke clearly, her voice carrying across the whole testing area. “General Marcus is correct. We have never before seen someone with more than two affinities at 100%. Individuals can of course have access to multiple schools of magic, but those always vary in terms of affinity percentage. Once again, let me say this has never happened in our recorded history!”

She turned to Roger. “Make note of this unprecedented event, Roger.”

Lady Rollara turned to my parents. “Your majesties, I highly recommend we keep this as quiet as we can for now. There is no way we can keep this a secret for long but for the kingdom and the Royal Academy I implore you to agree with me on this matter.”

Both my parents took each other in their arms, looked at my uncle, Duke Spears, and Captain Spears, then LT Simmons and my personal royal knights, before turning back to Lady Rollara and nodding.

Lady Rollara nodded back. “All of you are bound by an oath of secrecy on what you have witnessed here today. This is just as much for your protection as the kingdom. Our prince is young and though he shows amazing potential, he is untrained in magic. We must help him learn as quickly as possible how to master his magic before the world learns what he could be capable of. Such knowledge discovered too early could lead to war or assassination to prevent our kingdom from gaining such a powerhouse.”

Making a point of looking at everyone to ensure they acknowledged the risks before Lady Rollara brought the entrance exam to a close. “Let all here be witness, Prince James has received the highest possible score in all tests, exceeding expectations with a perfect score! It is my pleasure, as Headmaster, to accept Prince James into the Royal Academy!”

Lady Rollara then turned to the King and Queen, yet she spoke loud enough once again for all to hear. “My King and Queen, based on these results, I think it best the kingdom learns about the prophecy my sister gave all those years ago!”

My father looked at my mother, then at Uncle Marcus, and Captain Spears. They all nodded. My father clearly decided based on their input. “Very well. We agree with Lady Rollara’s recommendation. Spread the word through the church and town criers. Let all know why we exiled our son, and his return has begun to prove the prophecy true!”

Lady Rollara smiled, and it was easy to see she had a look of vindication, not for herself but for her sister. ‘Finally, my sister’s gift to the world shall be known.’ She bowed to my parents, “Thank you your majesties!”

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