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“Wonderful, that makes my job alot easier.” Albert to Royal Invigilator said, “In about an hour’s time, the batch of scholarship test-takers that arrived yesterday will be taking their test, you can join them in the room to take your written exam. From what I heard from Earl Beaufort, you will also be taking the combat and magic tests?”

I nodded and he clapped his hands, “Wonderful, may I borrow your training ground for this test, Earl Beaufort?”

After the Earl agreed, we sat around for small talk. Well, it was mainly the grownups that were doing the small talk, I zoned out until everything was brought to an end by Albert saying he needed to make his way to the test that was about to start soon.

From there, I was told to follow Albert to take my exam. When I arrived where I would be taking my exam, I entered a room that had tables and chairs lined up in straight rows like one would see in a classroom.

There I saw the familiar faces of commoner kids that traveled here with me. And they were all giving me a confused look, which is understandable. I am a noble kid, who could not get a scholarship nor needed it due to my social status, but I just kept quiet and went to the seat I was appointed.

A few minutes before the exam was to start, test papers were handed out to all the test takers in the room, all except me. I was given 2 big envelopes that had a wax seal stamped with the Royal Academy’s logo.

When the time came to start, I broke the seals, and inside 1 of the big envelopes were 2 test papers, 1 was for language, the other was for math. The other big envelope contained a much thinner stack of papers that made up my magic basic theory test paper. And it seems I am given more than double the time the others in the room are to complete these 3 papers.

After browsing through the questions on the papers, I almost chuckled at them… this was not going to take long.

***

Close to the end of the time allotted for scholarship test takers, I raised my hand to signal for an invigilator to come to me, when 1 of the assistant invigilators came to me, I handed him back the envelope with my exam papers inside.

“I am done.” I said in a low voice to not disturb the others.

The assistant invigilator raised an eyebrow at me and asked, “Are you sure? You were given more than twice the amount of time to complete the 3 papers, have you checked your work?”

I just smiled and replied, “Yes and yes.”

The assistant invigilator just sighed as he took my envelope and brought it to Albert who started looking through my answers.

After a few minutes of flipping through my answers, Albert stood up, whispered something to 1 of the assistant invigilators, and then pointed and gestured for me to follow him.

From there, we walked in silence until we reached the training grounds where a few practice dummies stood.

Albert instructed me to stand in a circle that was drawn on the floor and said, “Now that the written exam is over, we will be testing your practical skill at magic. Manifest all the elements that you know, make sure to demonstrate your hand gestures clearly, and articulate your chants clearly.”

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I did as instructed and cast the 6 2nd circle elemental spells 1 by 1, holding them in position around me with my mana manipulation. All the while, Albert was stone-faced as he continued writing something on a clipboard.

He then pointed at the dummies that were about 50m away and asked me to use the 6 spells I was holding to shoot the dummies.

Easy stuff, I do this for fun in my backyard. I sent all 6 spells down range at the same time to different dummies each, all of the spells scoring headshots. Albert goes back to jotting down on his clipboard.

After he was done writing, Albert asked me to cast and hold the 6 spells again, when they were formed, I felt him exude his mana to touch the 6 spells I was holding around me. At first, it was like he was just feeling out my mana, then it felt like he was prodding at my spells, then at my hold on the spells. From there, it escalated to him trying to break my spell constructs and my hold on them.

I tensed and gritted my teeth as I poured more of my concentration into my mana manipulation to keep my hold on my spells. It was obvious that he was testing my skill at mana manipulation, and I was not going to give in so easily.

The seconds turned into more than a minute, and sweat poured down my face in concentration as I tried to fend off the ever-escalating attacks on my spell constructs, but this was a losing battle and I knew it. While I was obviously tired, Albert’s face did not even twitch, it was like he was not even trying, and maybe he wasn’t.

A few seconds later, my concentration broke and he snuffed my spells 1 by 1 until none was left, and I was left panting. All Albert did was start to jot down something on his clipboard again, then said, “30 minute break, and we will resume the test.”

As I was resting, I was served tea and some sweet pastry by a maid on standby. It was then that I saw a stout-looking man in leather armor, with the Royal Academy’s crest on it, enter the training ground and meet up with Albert.

When my break was over, I went back to see Albert who was now with the man in leather armor.

“This is Mr Walt, one of my escorts from the Royal Academy, he will be assessing your performance and your basic combat abilities. In this part of your test, you will perform the basic sword forms, followed by a sparring match with Mr Walt. Any questions?”

After saying that I had none, I was led to grab a practice sword and then to a sparring circle. “Perform the sword forms.” Mr Walt said, and I complied.

As I was performing, Mr Walt circled around me while observing my movement. When I ended my forms with a last stroke and settled back into an at-ease pose, Mr Walt said, “Good. Before we move on to sparring, do you need a break?”

To which I replied, “Not needed.”

“Good.” he said as he picked up a practice sword and got into a ready stance a few paces away from me. “Then come at me.”

I brought up my sword to a ready position as I studied Mr Walt’s stance, and even though it looked like he had a properly guarded stance, I could tell from his size and poise that he was more used to a more… shall we say… hefty weapon.

But even if I can observe that, I don’t think it means much. I can tell from the bunch of scars and a split right ear, that he has either been in a bunch of life-and-death situations… or 1 super fucked up life-and-death situation that gave him those injuries, my money is on the former, which means he is very experienced and like Dad, and may not fall for my tricks so easily, but there is only 1 way to find out.

I start inching toward Mr Walt with the tip of my sword pointing at his neck, when we were close enough that our swords started touching (No Homo), I did a flick to tap the side of his sword and see how he reacted.

Besides recovering to the center and flicking back at my blade, he did not do anything, so I decided to make my first move.

This time, I gave a more powerful flick to the side of his sword, making it tilt to the side, then brought a chop down toward his now exposed forearm.

Before my sword could hit his forearm, the hand that was about to get hit released its grip from the sword to avoid getting hit as Mr Walt hopped a step back.

He then looked at me with a grin and said, “That is the only free attack you are getting for this test.”

Well, I tried. Looks like I will have to do this the hard way.