Ashern City - Reinhart Institute of War, 2nd of Brightforge, year 315 UC

Sarah raised her hand as a blue barrier shimmered to life around her body. Four hexagon sections were all her barrier could manage.

A moment later, her barrier flashed as a light rippled around it from the top as the pressure hit her.

At first, gravity increased gradually. Sarah's barrier held steady for the first ten seconds as light rippled across it like a pulse. Then, the added weight caused the top left section of her barrier to crack.

'Her control is lacking, which makes her barrier weak. She won't last more than thirty seconds.'

Bryan thought as he watched Sarah's test.

At fifteen seconds, her knees began to shake. Sweat beaded on her forehead as she struggled to maintain the barrier's integrity. The pressure continued mounting, like layers of invisible weight stacking upon her shoulders. Twenty seconds in, and her breathing became labored.

"Maintain your form. It hasn't even been thirty seconds."

Gloria said.

Sarah's fingers trembled as she hunched forward under the weight. Her barrier was barely holding, and the pressure was starting to leak through, affecting her more than it should.

At thirty seconds, Sarah's barrier began to fragment, cracks spreading across its surface like spider webs. Her face had lost all color, and her arms shook as she tried to maintain the failing shield. Bryan could see when her concentration shattered—her eyes widened in panic as the barrier crumbled.

The full force of the enhanced gravity slammed into her. Sarah's knees buckled instantly, and she collapsed to the ground with a sharp gasp.

"Thirty-five seconds. Try better next time. Now, clear the ring."

Gloria stated flatly.

Kevin and Julius helped Sarah to her feet. She swayed slightly as she rejoined the group, her face flushed with exhaustion and embarrassment. Bryan caught the slight downturn in Julius's mouth—disapproval, perhaps, or confidence that he could do better.

"Blackwood."

Gloria called out.

"You're next."

Bryan stepped forward, taking his position in the center of the ring. While he could use a barrier, he was still working on augmenting his body with ether to increase his stats that the M.A.G.I.C. ring stated he lacked.

"Ready."

Bryan stated, his voice neutral.

Unlike Sarah, who seemed to use all her ether at the beginning, he would gradually increase the flow through his ether pathways to augment his body. As the pressure tried to weigh him down, he would use more ether to counter it.

Gloria's eyes narrowed slightly. If she had anything to say about his lack of a barrier, she did not say it.

As the gravity began to increase, Bryan felt like someone had their hand on his shoulder trying to push him down.

The next wave of pressure felt like putting on weighted armor. Bryan's enhanced muscles adjusted easily, either flowing through his pathways reinforcing his body. The increase was gradual, not nearly enough to break a sweat.

'She was breaking under this much weight? Tsk, these ranks have to be inflated. I barely feel a thing.'

Thirty seconds in, the pressure more than doubled.

He could feel the pressure trying to crush him. It was like holding two hundred pounds up after running a marathon.

'Okay, I can understand how someone could falter under this pressure if they were physically weak and their shield was unstable.’

Having your shield break under the force of a spell was like having the wind knocked out of your lungs. It left you momentarily weak and susceptible to attacks.

‘It's still not enough. I need more pressure if I want to see how much I can withstand. It'll also give me a general baseline for what other students can withstand. I can adjust the power of my spells to match.'

All he could think about was using this exercise for training and to better understand how much pressure the other kids could take before they collapsed. Bryan did not want to kill them with his spells, and he was worried that doing so would get him into trouble.

If he wanted to do well on this test and give it his all, he would have used his magic barrier instead of augmenting his body.

"Not bad, Blackwood."

Gloria said.

One minute passed. The pressure felt like he was in the palm of a hand being smushed between two hands that wanted to see him go splat. His knees might have buckled if he had not reinforced them along with his spine.

He smirked. This was fun—better than Alan’s laps, at least.

Although, his magic shielding was a lot better than his augmentation. He couldn’t help but wonder how much that could withstand.

He wanted to find out, but switching between augmentation to a barrier would be a terrible idea. The moment he stopped reinforcing his body, he'd fail this test. The time between dropping the reinforcement and conjuring a barrier was just too long.

"Ninety seconds."

Gloria announced.

The pressure became crushing, like being at the bottom of an ocean trench. Although his body was more durable due to the ether flowing through it, his lungs had trouble expanding. Sweat dripped down his forehead for the first time as he maintained concentration.

At one hundred and ten seconds, the pressure reached new heights. Bryan's vision began to narrow, and his body fought against forces that wanted to flatten him into the ground. He tried to raise his toe in his black shoes to see if they still worked, but the force put a strain on them, and if he continued to try, he might pop a vessel.

Under the crushing force, his legs started shaking, and he could feel himself slowing lower. Gritting his teeth, he held on.

‘I will not fall.’

The ether in his pathways burned, his muscles screaming in protest. He could feel himself sinking, his body betraying him—but he refused to give in.

"Two minutes."

Gloria’s voice cut through the haze.

The pressure surged one final time. Despite his reinforcement, his legs buckled, and he dropped to one knee. The test ended immediately, and crushing gravity released its hold.

Bryan stood, his face betraying nothing of the strain he'd just endured. His body ached, but he kept his expression as neutral as possible as he returned to his position.

Gloria made a note on her academic card.

"Good job, Blackwood; I expect nothing less from the rank one."

Coming from her, it almost sounded like praise.

Bryan used the opportunity to regulate his breathing and analyze his performance. Two minutes was respectable but far from what he expected by the end of the semester. Staying upright for five, maybe ten minutes, was a good goal to set.

Kevin shifted nervously beside him, clearly unsettled by what he'd witnessed.

‘Is he not confident in his abilities? Or shocked by the disparity between my and Sarah’s scores?’

Whatever the case, it did not matter. Gloria called his name, and he was up.

Kevin stepped into the ring with visible trepidation, his barrier materializing with a slight flicker. His barrier only had six hexagons to support it. Better than Sarah’s, but not by much.

The test began, and Kevin's barrier held steady for the first forty seconds. Either his ether control was better than Sarah's, or he had more to work with. Either way, he lasted longer than Bryan gave him credit for.

"Fifty seconds."

Gloria stated.

Kevin's face reddened with effort as he struggled to reinforce his failing barrier. At one minute, tiny cracks appeared along its surface, spreading like frost across glass. Ten seconds later, the barrier shattered completely, and Kevin dropped to his knees.

"One minute, ten seconds. A decent start, Chen."

Gloria announced, making another note on her academic card.

‘Decent durability and ether control. The difference in force between thirty seconds and one minute was like the earth and sky. Better pay attention to his combat abilities later on to see if he’s worth keeping an eye on as the camp progresses.’

Bryan could hear Sarah mumble something under her breath, but he had not caught her words.

"Hayes."

Gloria called.

Alessia exhaled as she bawled her gloved hand into a fist before stepping forward. Once inside the ringed area, she raised her hand as a green barrier with twenty-four sections appeared.

Unlike Sarah’s or Kevin’s, which had more edges than a smooth circle, Alessia’s had an actual curve to the shield. Her control over her ether outstripped that of the other two students by a mile, and they were impressed.

Sarah gasped when she saw it, and Kevin nodded his head once.

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Gloria was not the least bit impressed, and if she was, she did not show it.

The first minute passed with only minimal signs of strain. Her gloved fingers began to tremble slightly at ninety seconds, but her barrier remained intact.

"Ninety seconds; keep it up, Hayes."

Gloria said.

She did not look like she was going down yet, as no cracks appeared on the surface of her barrier. Bryan took this moment to look around the gym and see how the other groups were doing.

He spotted Sabrina, who was surrounded by a dark red shield with cracks running down it like shattered glass. Her entire body trembled, and not even a second later, she collapsed.

Out of all his team members, she was the only one taking the test. As for the others, he figured they either went already or had yet to go.

Turning his attention back to what was going on with Alessia, he noticed the first cracks starting to appear. She had her eyes closed and flexed her fingers as she kept up the barrier.

Now that the cracks had emerged on her shield, it was apparent that she would collapse soon. The cracks, which were spreading, were like small amounts of damage piling up in the same spot. Enough of them, and even the mightiest warrior would fall.

The barrier finally shattered at one minute fifty-five seconds, and Alessia dropped to her knees, her gloved hands pressed against the ground for support.

"One minute, fifty-five seconds. A good start, Hayes; get back in position and keep up that effort for the next test."

Gloria said before turning her attention to Julius.

"Reinhart, you’re up."

Alessia rejoined the group, maintaining a distance from the others. She kept looking down at her gloves, clenching her hands and opening them again. Those gloves should have helped her control her power, but instead, she looked irritated.

It was almost like the gloves were something she was not used to.

Bryan saw her grimace as she hid her hands behind her back and looked up. His gaze caught her eye, and she seemed startled for a second before she turned away from him and looked at Julius, who just stepped into the center of the ring.

‘What’s up with her?’

So far, her performance has been good, better than the others, and she currently has the second-highest score. He knew her gloves suppressed her ether to make her control easier. They were a type of protection for herself, and he figured they were also for anyone else.

However, her current control seemed fine.

‘But, she’s ranked nineteen for a reason, and the Inquisition has some reason to make sure she graduates.’

He considered what he knew about her from their short conversation and what he saw, but nothing has come to mind yet.

Bryan wondered if the Inquisition had enough influence to take members of the Hayes family and use them as weapons. Alessia Hayes's magical element was erosion, a rare and powerful element capable of large-scale destruction.

Would a mage that powerful be left unchecked? Nope.

Would an organization or family want to give up a mage that powerful? Also no.

There were a ton of questions he could think of, but he needed to obtain more information. As for how he would help her graduate, he still needed to find out how that would work.

Julius was already in the center of the ring with his barrier formed. It was red, with a tint similar to Gloria’s, but lacked the numerous sections she had. His barrier was stronger than Alessia’s, given that he had four more sections to his than she had.

For the first minute of the exercise, he seemed pretty calm. Light ripples occasionally spread across his barrier, but he did not seem affected by the pressure in the least.

When the pressure hit him at ninety seconds, his facial expression changed. He no longer looked like he was bored taking a walk through the park.

‘Did he think the force would not be that much for him? Surely, that wouldn’t have been the case if he had seen how much Alessia struggled around that time. Unless he thinks he’s a lot better than her.’

Bryan thought to himself as he observed Julius’ performance.

“Two minutes! Don’t fold under the pressure. Hold it and keep going.”

Gloria told him.

Julius’ barrier was holding until it cracked so fast that fractures spread all around it before it completely shattered. He dropped with both knees on the ground and seemed to barely support himself as he was breathing heavily.

"Two minutes, five seconds. You could have held on for five more seconds."

Gloria stated, her tone unchanged despite Julius's superior performance.

Bryan knew that tone all too well. Although her tone might not have changed, he could feel the disappointment.

Sarah received barely any acknowledgment from Gloria, while Kevin, Alessia, and he received something that could resemble praise. Julius, however, was told he could have done better.

Bryan couldn’t help but smirk thinking about that and realized he was not the only one people had ‘higher’ standards for.

The others seemed to realize something similar to him as they looked away slightly from his fallen figure.

As Julius returned to his position, he flashed a smile at Bryan.

‘Get a load of this guy. Smiling after disappointing a member of his family. My score was what, two minutes? So he’s happy he did better than me, the rank one?’

"Your current performances are below standard."

Gloria announced, addressing the group.

"By semester's end, those in support roles should maintain standing for three minutes minimum. Specialists and fighters—"

Her eyes swept them over from Sarah to Julius.

"—five minutes is your baseline target."

Five minutes.

She wanted them to be able to withstand that pressure for more than double the time any of them managed—all by the end of the semester, which meant five months after the school term officially started.

Bryan should have been worried, concerned even. Instead, he was looking forward to it.

“Collect yourself, Reinhart; the speed test will start after the demonstration.”

Gloria said as she shot a look at Julius.

“What you’ve just experienced was the endurance test you’ll be subjected to throughout the school year to monitor your progress. The next test is speed.”

She paused as she looked them over.

“Magic is a powerful tool, but overreliance can be fatal. There will be situations where you cannot—or should not—use your magical abilities."

The testing area transformed around them, holographic obstacles materializing to create a complex course. Walls of varying heights, tight corners, and uneven terrain filled the space. A shimmering fence enclosed the area, marking clear boundaries.

"Your target."

Gloria continued a holographic imp appearing beside her.

"Is one of the fastest sub-races of goblins. Native to Al-Thar, these creatures can outpace most humans."

The imp flickered, its form stabilizing into a small, grey-skinned figure with purple eyes. Its tail flicked side to side as the imp tilted its head.

"You have three minutes to tag as many as possible. Each successful tag spawns a faster imp."

Bryan studied the hologram; he’d never seen an imp in person, but he had seen it in images. They were ugly little things but a lot better looking than an actual goblin with razor-sharp teeth, long droopy ears, and short stature that made them the same size as a five-year-old boy.

"No spells or body augmentation allowed."

Gloria stated firmly.

"Pure physical ability only. This tests your base speed and agility without magical enhancement. In real combat, you may find yourself magically drained or in areas where magic use would be catastrophic."

Gloria explained as she stepped into the area surrounded by the fence. A moment later, an imp appeared on top of a pillar and jumped down to the next one. It was not extremely fast, and when she reached it and touched it with the tip of her finger, it vanished. A new one spawned on the other side of the area and started running along the fence.

Gloria reached it and touched it with her foot.

“How you tag it does not matter, as long as you do. And no, you can’t throw your uniform at it.”

She touched a few more holographic imps, some spawning beside her and others far away. Reacting to each one, she stopped the demonstration after twenty seconds.

“Reinhart, you’re up.”

Julius seemed to have recovered enough of his energy. He walked into the fenced area and gazed back at Gloria. No imps spawned as of yet.

“Begin.”

As soon as she said that, an imp appeared two feet before Julius. He kicked it, and another one spawned three feet above him on a pillar.

There did not seem to be a set path for the imps' movement. Sure, they ran away from the person chasing them, but they were not thinking of what direction they were taking. If they were, their thought process went beyond what Bryan pictured as the optimal paths.

Each new imp Julius tagged came with a new one that was a bit faster. The gradual increase in speed was not much, but so was the gravity test—until specific benchmarks were reached and the difficulty increased significantly.

Bryan tracked Julius's performance, watching how quickly he reacted to each imp that materialized. How fast he found it and caught it. How soon he arrived at one part of the course to the other.

He was pushing himself hard; his uniform was damped with sweat, and his pace started to falter.

"Thirty tags."

Gloria announced at the halfway mark.

The next imp that spawned was remarkably faster than the previous one. Going twice the speed of the prior one and seemed to think about its own path, unlike before.

Julius got used to the paths he could predict the imps would take, but he was caught off guard when the new one suddenly shifted from going straight to ducking under a log and sliding away.

Bryan made a mental note of the change in imp behavior for his own run.

"Time."

Gloria called at three minutes as the imp Julius was trying to catch suddenly disappeared in thin air.

"Forty-three tags."

Julius rejoined the group, his chest heaving. Bryan noted that he started well, but his performance declined in the latter half. Bryan attributed this to not having enough recovery time between the endurance test and the current one. Not to mention, the sudden increase in the imps' abilities took him by surprise.

That would not have happened if he knew what to expect, but it was better that it was him than Bryan.

Alessia was up next, and after her first performance, Bryan thought she would do well on this test. He was wrong. Her speed was poor, and her stamina was worse. She merely tagged nineteen imps before the last one ran circles around her, and time ran out.

She received no words from Gloria and took her spot in line with the others with her head down.

Kevin had a better showing but still lacked the numbers Julius showcased. He managed to tag twenty-three imps.

Bryan could tell he gave it his all from the sweat dripping off his chin.

‘Did they not do physical conditioning?’

Bryan furrowed his brow slightly at the lack of performance from each of them. He could see why, since they were mages with spells to use they thought they wouldn’t need the phsycical excerise. That idea may have even been planted in their head by their parents or lesser-skilled mages.

Whatever the case may be, they would have a lot of running in the future.

“Blackwood, you’re up.”

Bryan moved the instant the first imp appeared. The first twenty tags came rapidly as he breezed by the scores Alessia and Kevin managed.

"Thirty tags."

Gloria announced, and he already knew what that meant from Julius’ run.

He kept his speed to a minimum before this, making sure not to tire himself out. He’d gotten lucky a few times as an imp spawned within reaching distance after he managed to tag one.

He managed a burst of speed and quickly tagged the next few that spawned. With each new imp, he found himself working to reach them. He kept a steady breath but felt his mouth going dry.

"Forty tags."

Their speed increased once more, and keeping up the constant pace of a full sprint was starting to take a toll. With Alan’s ‘punishment’ of running laps, he had to keep a steady pace without rushing.

If he slowed down even slightly, the imp would blow right past him. Now that he was more than forty tags in, he noticed that there seemed to be a pattern. He wasn’t paying attention to it because of the slow speed they were spawning and running, but now that he was doing it himself, he could tell they didn’t appear randomly.

They appeared within a specific area, and there were eight spawning locations: above on a platform, below, to the left, or to the right of the area.

"Fifty tags."

His muscles burned, but Bryan maintained his pace.

‘Come on, just need a few more.’

He pushed himself harder as he chased an imp. He noticed it was headed for a hole that split into two different paths, left and right.

It was a fifty-fifty chance he’d get it right trying to predict the path and intercept. Either he predicted and got it right or somehow gained speed to catch the imp, which was impossible in his current state.

The area was actually good for his score. The next imp would appear somewhere over here, and if he reacted fast enough, he could tag it.

‘Wait… how much time do I have left?’

He was so caught up in his thoughts and the exercise that he forgot to track the time he spent on the test.

Bryan noticed the imp drifting left toward the hole. He stayed on it, but it was going to be a feint. The imp tricked him into following it in this direction before it changed gears and dived to the right. It would slow slightly when that happened, allowing him to catch up and tag it.

He was ready for it, and just like that, he tagged it. The next imp that materialized emerged right before him, one foot away. It looked, seemed to blink before it realized he was already upon it.

“Time, fifty-two tags. Well done, Blackwood.”

Gloria said, and she gave him a nod as he moved past her to return to his position. He was tired, a lot more than he figured he would be.

Alessia gazed at him, and when she noticed him looking back, she shifted her focus to looking at Gloria.

Julius didn’t look away, however, and just stared at Bryan. He was not smiling like before, and Bryan was not sure what to make of him. He was not frowning, showing dismay, or showing any emotion. He was looking at him. Just looking.

Sarah was the last one to go, and she barely did better than Alessia. She managed twenty tags before time ran out.

“By semester's end, a minimum of fifty tags is expected for each of your roles. If by the time your role has changed between then, your expected numbers can increase or decrease."

Gloria stated as she stood in front of their group.

“Blackwood here exceeded expectations, but don’t get complacent. A better score will be expected of you.”

She said as she looked at him.

“For those of you who scored below fifty, work hard to improve. Here is a piece of advice for those of you who think this is stupid. When your magic fails, your physical abilities are all that stand between you and death.”

Gloria turned her head, and Bryan followed her where she was looking. The other instructors and their groups had already moved on to combat.

It seemed that they were the last ones to finish the speed test.

“Your next test is combat. As before, I’ll give you a demonstration, and Sarah will start us off.”

Sarah let out a groan.