After arriving at an inn called Mori’s Inn, I took my things and said my farewells to the driver. The tests for entering the academy were still a month away. As I entered, I heard a bell ring and I was greeted by a giant lady, she had to be 2,4 meters tall! She had short red hair, and a huge scar was covering the right side of her face.
After booking a room on the second floor I took my stuff and walked up the stairs. As I entered the room, I observed it. There was a wooden bed with green covers in the right corner of the room, in the middle of the wall furthest away from the door there was a window.
To my left there was a wooden table with a unlit candle on top of it, in front of the table was a wooden chair. Except for the fact that there was no toilet, this was a pretty good room.
After putting all of my stuff in the room I left and went to explore the city. After exiting the inn, I went to different food stalls and tried the food, it reminded me quite a bit of my past when I was in China and India.
After getting a full stomach I walked around until I saw a rundown store. There was a sign with a hammer slamming into an anvil, indicating a blacksmith. Intrigued, I entered.
…
As I entered, I saw an old man snoring at the counter, so I quietly walked past him and looked at the wares, I suddenly started being able to feel the ambient mana around me get pulled towards a small box on the ground.
After opening the box, I observed the item inside. It was a thick black ring that had dense inscriptions and just by looking at them I felt lightheaded. The amount of mana flowing through the inscriptions was simply that high.
After a little hesitation, I slowly grabbed the ring and observed it even closer. There were hundreds of lines, all of which seemed to serve their own purpose. I had to have been standing and observing the inscriptions for a long time, because when I came to, the shopkeeper was telling me that closing time was approaching.
After giving the ring one last look, I put it back in the box and went towards the counter. After I put the box on the counter, the old man gave me a strange look before ringing up the item. The price was basically everything I had, but I couldn’t resist buying it.
…
Arriving in my room I collapsed on the bed with a smile. I quickly looted the ring from the box and quickly put it on the middle finger on my left hand, the size of the ring somehow changed in order to fit me.
Surprised, I put the ring on another finger, and it did the same, it changed size in order to fit the finger. “This is amazing… There’s no way that’s all that the ring could do, based on the amount of mana it contained and the hundreds of inscriptions, there had to be more uses..” I quickly put it back on my middle finger and started infusing my mana into it.
I slowly moved a mana thread towards the ring and as the ring and my mana thread made contact, I could feel a connection. I tried pushing more of my mana into the ring and as I did, I could sense something akin to a room inside the ring.
Pushing threads inside the room I concluded that the size of it was 20 square meters. I picked up the pillow next to me and covered it with my mana filled with the intent of putting it inside the ring, and poof! Just like that the pillow disappeared from my hand.
I once again observed the inside of the room with a thread of mana and lo and behold, the pillow was within the ring! What a treasure!
After experimenting a little more, I went to sleep.
…
I went back to the store where I had bought the ring in order to see if the old man sold any items similar to the ring. But even after an hour of searching, I could not find anything of note. So, I left and went towards the towers that were located in the center of the capital.
After an hour of walking, and looking at stalls, I finally arrived at my destination, and the towers felt even bigger up close. The reason I came here was because one of the towers was a library that was open to the public. There would ofcourse not be any expensive books, those resided within the other towers.
No, I was here for the books that contained history of the world, books that contained theories of magic, and to fill my curiosity, books that were fictional, I wanted to see what kind of stories they came up with in this world, and if they would write anything similar to what we wrote back on earth.
But the biggest and main reason was to find out if there had been other people who were also brought here from other worlds.
Upon entering the library, I was taken aback by the number of books, there had to be thousands, if not tens of thousands of books. Shelves were stacked upon each other, in fact, the shelves reached all the way up, even reaching the roof.
Just as I was wondering how they would reach the books, I was answered. A book located high up suddenly started glowing light blue and flew towards the receptionist. She caught it and handed it to a young woman with fluffy fox ears.
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I slowly walked around the library, after a while I just grabbed ten random books that looked interesting and sat down at a table located close to the entrance.
Looking at the books in front of me, I read the labels and decided to read a book that was dark blue and decorated with golden stars, the book was called King’s Might. Turning the book over I read the synopsis.
“In a world filled with war and death, a young man hailing from a ruined orphanage decided he’d had enough. After joining and becoming a recruit in the military, he had fought in battles and slowly risen through the ranks. In this world that respected and worshipped strength, he knew he needed strength, as such, the young man trained every day. Years passed and after reaching the age of thirty he became enlightened and founded a cultivation technique that would later be hailed as a saint level technique. After founding the technique, his strength exploded and he rose even higher in the ranks, eventually becoming the deciding factor in the war between the Biran kingdom and the Gajra Kingdom. However, the man was not done yet. After winning the war for the Biran Kingdom, and becoming hailed a hero, resulting in him being worshipped by all the soldiers he had fought with, he started a coup against the royals and nobles. After ten days of bloodshed, he came out victorious and was hailed the king. The kingdom of Biran was no more. In its place, the Roxian kingdom and its new king Gwyn Styrka was born.”
“What an interesting man, rising from a lowly commoner to a royal, truly a man of his time.” I couldn’t help but mutter. The man Gwyn Styrka was truly a strong man, it is unfortunate that since the Roxian Kingdom was thousands of years old, the man was long gone, leaving only his past glory behind. I couldn’t help but respect him.
I quickly opened the first page and started to read.
…
After reading for hours, I finally finished the book, and it was truly great. The book explained everything in further detail, the technique for example, was called the Styrka Technique, and it was only available to those who had accomplished a great number of heroic deeds.
Also, the reason he toppled the previous kingdom of Biran was because of how poorly the commoners were treated. Apparently commoners had basically no rights, and during the time he was in the military, the nobles that had been given their high ranks just because of their nobility had no respect for commoners, even those that were of the same rank.
There had even been instances of nobles purposefully ordering soldiers that were of commoner background to missions that were basically suicide. Thousands if not tens of thousands of soldiers had died that way, and Gwyn Styrka had seen it happen, but due to his low rank at the time, he could only watch as his fellow soldiers and friends be sent to their own deaths.
The book was full of tragedy and sorrow. But there were also stories describing Gwyn Styrka’s heroic deeds and shows of strength. Overall, the book was amazing. During the read, my respect for Gwyn was high, and I respect the decisions he made.
Hell, I could even understand why the soldiers back then worshipped him, he was basically a god of war. Gwyn Styrka’s death was a peaceful one, he had apparently died while surrounded by his family and old friends.
After closing the book, I stood up and stretched. I was too tired to keep reading, so I put the other books back to their original location and went back home.
…
That was how I spent my time all the way until the entrance exam. The day of the exam had finally arrived, the exam would be held at the Rodina tower. It was one of the four biggest towers and the academy for mages.
After arriving at the entrance to the Rodina tower, I handed my papers to the guard standing there. After reading through my papers, I was led in and shown to a classroom. In the classroom were hundreds of other students who were seated. After quickly finding a place to sit, I waited for a good twenty minutes and finally, the teacher arrived.
After he put his things down, the teacher started talking.
“Welcome to the Rodina entrance exam! In a few moments the exams will be handed out. But before then, I would like to explain what this academy is about.” The teacher looked around the room and sighed. “Many of you will fail this exam, but don’t be discouraged. There is no age limit, and you can always come back next time.”
“The Rodina academy offers many fields to study in, such as the basic elemental fields where you can learn about Fire Magic, Lightning Magic, Water Magic, Wind Magic, and Ice Magic. There is also the advanced elemental fields where you can learn about Dark Magic, Light Magic, Space Magic, Holy Magic and Nature Magic. There are also fields that pertain more theory and research, such as-”
..
After two hours of talking, we were finally handed the exams and after quickly looking over the test, I quickly started.
...
The teacher suddenly clapped his hands “Exams over, after leaving your papers here with me, I want you to sit back down.” We all did as we were told and sat down. There were of course those who looked to be in despair, probably the result of them either failing to finish in time or them not knowing the answers to the questions.
The test was indeed quite hard, but I’m confident that I will pass. After everyone left their papers at the front and sat back down, the teacher once again started talking. “In a minute or two, a teacher will come and bring out one of you at a time. They will bring you to a room where they will give you an interview.” Right as he finished, a teacher came in. “Sarah Olsson please stand up and follow me.” A girl suddenly stood up and left with the teacher.
..
“Ynval Cenkin please stand up and follow me.” Standing up, I was led through a couple hallways until I arrived at a door. The teacher opened the door, and inside the room was a table, there were three chairs. Two chairs were facing the door while one was facing away from it. One of the chairs was occupied by an old man that was half balding and was wearing thick black glasses.
The teacher sat on the other side of the table next to the other teacher, while I sat on the chair facing away from the door. The old man was handed some papers by the female teacher and after a minute of reading he looked towards me.
“Welcome Ynval Cenkin, my name is Cain, and this is Moreen. We will be the ones to interview you, do you have any questions?” After I shook my head, Cain pulled out a glass orb that was faintly emitting a white light. “Alright, let’s begin. When did you start to learn magic?” This question was something I had kind of anticipated, but now that he asked it, I wasn’t sure how to answer it. “I started learning when I turned 10.” I decided to lie. But just as I finished my sentence, the glass orb suddenly started to emit red light. Cain suddenly sighed. “Sir Cenkin, lies are not tolerated, if you lie again you will be disqualified from this year’s exam.” I let out a small sigh. “I started learning when I was three.” When the glass orb emitted a green light, shock could be seen on both their faces. But they quickly hid it, and Cain continued his questioning.
…