Darrick fell on the floor and hit his head lightly. He was clutching the magic torch in his hand or what was meant to be a magic torch, it was ruined now. Before he disappeared to that space with magic doors he was almost finished with his first artifact but now it was in his hand in pieces.

At the time of artifact creation, he saw the process of it being made clearly, all of the individual magic patterns were coming together to make something greater. The spherical bulb was connected to the wires in such a fashion that they were not touching, the connection between them was held up by the pattern itself rather than them welded to each other, the bulb was receiving the mana from the wires but mana was not flowing through the wires. It was an interesting mechanism but Darrick was just speed thinking things so he did not focus on any peculiar parts.

The energy supply from the non-mithril battery was too wild and uneven in a sense so wires were the heavy lifters of the whole system. The batteries only stored magic, even with those patterns on all of its surfaces it was still not the best battery because of its material.

At the centre of the process, there was a magical core forming, it was the one assigning the particular tasks and patterns to each piece and with system assistance, most things were falling in perfect places for everything to work in parallel to the core. Everything would have worked out at the end only if not for the blob of light that appeared.

That light was tempting me a lot to touch it and I couldn't even resist the temptations. Just today I encountered temptation thrice and I did not even bother to oppose it, I just went with the flow. That's just embarrassing.

Everything after appearing in that dark place was utter insanity. There appeared doors with different styles and designs, on top of them they were made out of intents and they were trying to make a connection by forcing their emotions on Darrick but it was not unpleasant.

With every door I saw I could understand what they were, so many new things just appeared in my head and I clearly understood everything, even the ones that brought out negative emotions were also not unpleasant, they just existed like nothing was their business. I remember the voices of them all vividly even now.

The six doors that emerged there out of nothing were definitely magical, they all showed what they were to Darrick, unlike normal doors that don't really talk. They tried to tell stories to him but he only heard whispers from most of them. All doors symbolized different aspects they rule, he knew all of them now.

Death, life, space, time, creation, destruction. My connection with creation was a lot better than everything else but I had a connection with them all. I can understand my situation with creation but what does connecting with other things mean?

The conversation with the creation was enlightening, it not only gave an idea about the creation of the world but also deepened the understanding of aspect creation. The creativity to do things with the power of creation was infinite, there were infinite things you could do, and creation was such a large concept.

I was stupidly going to do something with destruction when I'm a fucking emissary of the creation. That sounds so wrong. And rivalry between creation and destruction was something I did not know I needed in my life. If I have creation then someone else must have destruction. That's definitely my rival whom I must face one day. All of this became so much more exciting.

But it looks like there were many puzzling things like the chain that bound both creation and destruction periodically or the destruction calling for me. Shouldn't I be like its rival's kid who is going compete with their kid? And in that vision, the world was a lot more than just a single universe, there were so many more universes out there. This definitely became a hundredfold more exciting.

As he was thinking about the world myth he thought about what came for him there and the doors helping him survive the attacks from the attacker.

That attack was really something. I would have been obliterated, disintegrated and erased from the world if that hand ever touched me. Why would anyone want to kill me like that? Their power seemed like a combination of life and destruction. What would they gain from killing when they already have that kind of power? This shit is ass. I don't want to play these games if those monster-like beings are going to be my opponent.

But the gate of life and destruction helped me. Life stopped the attack and destruction struck back. If that someone has life and destruction powers shouldn't the life and destruction doors help him? Was there a mistake in saving me or was that genuine? Hah, I can't put too many worries in my head for now, I'll think about it later.

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

With just that Darrick somehow dismissed everything crazy that happened a few moments ago.

Whelp, everything is good and gold now.

The desire to make another magic torch was strong but his body was not cooperating, he was flailing like a zombie now. There was barely any energy left to move around and he wanted to utilize that to reach back his room and rest for the day. He cleaned up pieces of metal and other mess he had made, put them in his bag and left while dragging his foot across the floor, the doors of the labs closed behind him as he left the room.

***

Today was the day Darrick had to take his magical aptitude test. The 3 days Professor Zelkrat told him to wait passed in no time and now he was getting ready to head there for the exam, Professor Zelkrat did not specify any time or place to visit her for the exam so he was heading to her office in the staff building.

When he reached where he could see the doors of her office, Professor Zelkrat was already standing outside the door. She gave him a smile when he looked at her, it looked like she just came out of her office rather than waiting for him here at the door for some time.

She is a magic professor so it's not that crazy to assume she sensed me with some magical oonga-boonga. It also helped me save some time by not going inside her office and having some small talk.

"Well hello Darrick, I just left my office and here you come, what a coincidence!" She exclaimed with unknown intentions. There was no real reason to act surprised but she did and convincingly so, Darrick would have believed her if not for his instincts.

"I did not remember hearing any timing for me to be present for the exam so I came here as early as I possibly could, I apologize if I was late."

"You don't need to worry about it, all of the test mechanisms can be controlled by me alone so I don't need to adjust the timings with test conductors' schedules."

"That's really convenient for me, thank you."

"Don't be, it is our duty to show you young ones the way for life so you can walk on it."

"Hmm. Is it okay if I ask about the magic test? I don't have any real idea about it"

"Yes, of course. I'd love to explain it to you but there's not much to say, it's not a complicated process, you just have to place your hand on a magic stone then it checks your aptitude for learning mana manipulation. There are some more subcategories in the test but it comes after you pass the first test."

Professor Zelkrat explained in a tone that sounded like 'You should pass the first test and then only can you think about something else.' But Darrick retorted with an implication that he would pass the test.

"So what are subcategories? I need to know them before I pass the test so I can analyze my results accurately."

"Of course, you should definitely know about the things coming for you and be prepared for it, right?" There hung a slight smile on her face.

Huh? That came out of nowhere. I don't think that's related to our current discussion but it looks like she is hinting at something, should I try digging deeper?

With a few seconds of contemplation, he eventually concluded not to dig further. If you don't hear too much, only then can you hope to be away from unnecessary stray shots that were not even meant to be near you but always come for you.

Professor Zelkrat sensing the silence put in a few words to break the silence. "There are four categories. The categories are judged based on the state of your soul." She took a small breath and continued.

"For the spellcraft, the soul needs to be sturdier and moderately rigid. After taking a few sigils it should not bend and change its intended shape. It will be a disaster if you try to do spellcraft on an already occupied part of the soul." With a brief explanation, she moved on to spirit arts.

"Whereas spirit arts are the complete opposite, you have to have a soft and flexible soul because of how the connection with different planes interact with the mortal world." And she continued the explanation by describing the last two types.

"Alchemy and magic engineering are hybrids, they need both types of soul to coexist in the same body with differences in their ratio. But having one of these two decreases the efficiency of spell craft or spirit arts."

"What is the state of soul in magic engineering and alchemy? Do they have both rigid and flexible souls? Does the soul only become half rigid and the other half stay flexible?" Darrick asked the question that popped up in his mind.

"Yes, the soul becomes both rigid and flexible but the ratio is not 50:50. It can be but it's unlikely to maintain the perfect balance without any special aids."

"Then is there any specific ratio to be a magic engineer or alchemist? And what is that special aid?"

"If your soul's ratio of rigid : flexible is 25:75 to 49:51 then you can be an alchemist and if it's the opposite with the ratios then you can be a magic engineer. The best ratio to be magic engineer and alchemist are 68:32 and 34:66 respectively." She completely disregarded the second question.

"These numbers are really specific. Looks like a lot of people with this ratio succeeded more."

"You guessed it correctly so what do you want to be? An alchemist or a magic engineer. Think about it while drinking that blue liquid on the fourth shelf. Drink 2 mL and sit somewhere in the corner. I will arrange these things in just about five minutes." Professor Zelkrat said when they entered the testing room.

Am I overthinking or does she know that I have a chance to become one of those? It sounded like she knew I have an aptitude for production ability, she is really suspicious and I can't do shit about it. Fuck my life.

Darrick thought about his life as he drank the liquid recommended by the professor and sat quietly waiting for what was about to come.