(Amina POV)

"You're already in my trap."

"–!"

Strings constructed of mana surround me. I tried to find out how I was trapped so I could escape. But, I didn't have enough time

Veronica lifted one of her fingers and the strings collapsed onto me.

"Fuck!"

I was tied up, held midair like a pinata. Jules was on the side snickering.

"I wouldn't laugh Julius, you're next."

Veronica faced Jules and stared at him. He paled and stopped laughing immediately. He held his head down waiting for his turn to be punished.

Being held up with Veronica's mana strings was painful. Not because they were cutting or physically hurting me. It was because Veronica also applied the contamination property to the strings.

Her mana was attacking my mind and it was excruciatingly painful. I always ended up with a massive headache afterwards, though it was getting less painful after every training session.

This was her main way of fighting others. Either cut them with mana strings or slowly weaken their mental defences before using her telepathic attribute to cause a mental shutdown.

"You have to enhance your senses more efficiently so you can see how mana is flowing from the strings. Don't focus on the strings themselves, focus on the movement of mana."

I knew what she was trying to say. But it was difficult to understand the flow of mana while in the middle of the fighting. You have to think about many different things in parallel and it took a lot of effort.

Even though my soul attribute allowed me to have a more intrinsic understanding of mana, I still had to learn everything.

"Ok, that's enough Amina. Sit down and take a break, I'll train with Julius now."

She destroyed her mana strings and I jumped down. I traded places with Jules, leaning on the wall while he was taught by Nica.

Though Jules didn't have the {Hawk Eyes} like me, he did process his own advantages. He was hyper-sensitive to changes in mana and had extremely fast reaction times. That made him more suited for this exercise since he could sense the movement of mana quicker than me.

The {Hawk Eyes} were simultaneously a boon and a crutch for me in exercise. On one hand, the tunnel vision allowed me to focus on Nica's movements. However, I could barely see the arrangements of her mana strings.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

My inherited ability was difficult to master. When I first activated it a couple of years ago, I could only see my target. Everything else was blackened out. I had to train so I could have some awareness of my surroundings.

I watched Jules as he avoided all strings moving around strategically to avoid the strings optimally. After some time he was caught similarly to me, though he lasted twice as long as me.

After receiving some advice, we rested for a while before training again.

***

2 hours of torture later, Veronica finally let us go. We went to our rooms a took a shower. After spending some time together, Jules took a spare guest bedroom we had in our mansion that was near mine as his second bedroom.

He rarely sleeps in that room, mainly using it as extra storage. He prefers to sleep in SUITE Headquarters if he's not on a mission already.

After taking a shower and changing into casual clothes a maid gave me a letter. I read the logo posted on it.

"It's from Central High."

"Oh, your acceptance letter. Good job"

Jules called out from the sofa. He was also in the living room with me drinking tea.

"It's not necessarily that."

"It is. They'd be idiots to reject your acceptance."

Though he was being sarcastic, I knew he had absolute confidence in me. Coming from a handsome and sublime man, I was flattered.

'What am I thinking?'

I took a quick peek at him again.

'I get he's handsome, but he's definitely not sublime.'

I shook my head and got rid of those thoughts. I then noticed the pillow he was resting his head was moist.

"Oh come on, you haven't dried your hair again?"

"Yeah... so what?"

"You're getting our sofa wet. Uhh... never mind. You're not going to change."

'What sublime? He's just an idiot.'

I sat down next to him and opened the letter.

"Can you read it out loud?"

"Sure."

"Congratulations on getting accepted into Central High School Amina Moria."

(AN: I'm not writing an entire acceptance letter)

I continued reading the letter. As expected, I got into Section A, class 1, or Class 1A for short. This was the best class possible. Out of 1 000 000 applicants, I was one of the 28 in Class 1A.

Though most of the class is dropped after the first month, so keeping your class was extremely difficult.

"... out of all the applicants, you were 3rd."

"3RD!?"

Jules nearly spat out his tea. I was equally surprised.

"H-How? There must be a mistake."

"I agree."

Julius wholeheartedly agreed with me. Even though 3rd out of over 275 000 people who got accepted was impressive. I was considered to be a once in a millennia anomaly. Yet someone surpassed me that wasn't Julius.

"Read the results."

I took out the other document that showed my scores. My practical exam was perfect while I scored above 80% in all my written exams. I expected these results, yet two people beat me?

"It must be the written exams. They somehow must've gotten the same score in the practical yet gotten higher in the written. There were no more marks to be given in the practical."

Jules gave a reasonable explanation. I took a deep breath and calmed down. It didn't mean they were stronger than me, they just got better in the written exams.

For the mage course, the score on the practical exam mattered more than the written exam, but when they are equal, the decider was the written exam.

"Still I'm surprised. Somebody got higher than me on the written exams while getting perfect on the practical."

I wasn't arrogant enough to believe that I got the highest on the written exam. Though with my high written exams combined with my perfect practical, I was sure I was ranked 1.

Even after the explanation, it was still notoriously hard to get a perfect mark in the practical. Those who did were usually future S ranks. Even my grandfather didn't get a perfect mark on the practical exam when he applied to go to that school years ago.

"I'm intrigued to meet them."

"Me too Jules."

We both had devilish smiles on our faces. We hoped they could be another rival to us. After all, we were the strongest of our age.