Suzannah leaves while another teacher takes the lead and says:

"As the rector said, we have already chosen all the students for levels 3, 2 and 1. I will now call out students' names and indicate their assigned level. When your name is called, go to the room belonging to your determined level."

The teacher called out students' names and indicated their classification. Kal and Relon were directed to level 1, while Lilla and Clara to level 2.

"Loser, even without magic talent I still ranked better than you," says Lilla teasing Relon.

"I don't care, I didn't think I'd even get into the Imperial Academy, you know how our father treats us..." replies Relon, seeming proud.

"Hey Morin, which level did you get into? I didn't hear your name called," Kal asks, approaching the two, apparently still not knowing Relon's real name.

"Why if it isn't the cheap charmer again!" says Lilla, her cheeks flushing red.

"I'm in the same level as you, Kal!" says Relon happily to be with Kal.

"That's great, let's work hard to reach the princess' level," says Kal with a determined look.

Kal looks determinedly at Lilla, admiring that she made it to level 2.

"He's looking at me too much, he must want to caress me again," thinks Lilla, blushing and embarrassed.

Then Kal gets closer and says:

"Still be there when I arrive, princess," says Kal.

"H-hmmph!" whispers Lilla, even redder than before as she turns to leave.

In their classroom, Kal and Relon sit close together as a teacher enters. She apparently belonged to the Orcish race, with greenish skin, wearing light armor and carrying a large dagger. Speaking louder than normal, she positions herself and immediately begins saying:

"From now on any action taken within the school will count towards gaining or losing points."

"You will start with 0 points, while level 2 students start with 50 points and level 3 students start with 100 points."

"The value of points earned will vary according to tasks completed."

"Easy tasks will give everyone 1 point, medium tasks 5 points, difficult tasks 10 points and extraordinary tasks 25 points, although no one has ever done anything the teachers have evaluated as extraordinary."

"Losing points is simpler, any task poorly performed will result in a loss of 10 points, so each failure is worth 10 easy tasks, 2 medium tasks and 1 difficult task."

"At the end of every 2 months, you must have more points than your classmates and more points than the worst students in the class above, only then can you move up a level here."

"My name is Terona, I will be your combat teacher and now, we're all going to the combat arena." Terona concludes with a toothy grin.

When they arrived at the Arena, the 10 level 1 students were impressed by the size of the place, it was an enormous arena surrounded by stands. After they all settled in one part of the stands, Terona takes the lead and begins her class:

"Hey boy, here," says Terona, pointing to one boy.

"Yes, ma'am," says the boy coming down to her.

"What's your name, boy?" Terona asks.

"My name is Arphaxad," says the boy with a bold voice.

"You're not from this country, are you boy?" Terona asks, looking closely at Arphaxad.

"I'm from Bahamut," Arphaxad responds.

"I could tell by your appearance," Terona completes.

"Take this sword boy and attack me!" Terona commands loudly.

Arphaxad grabs the sword and just smiles, saying:

"We've been learning to fight since we were small children in Bahamut."

Assuming a different combat stance, Arphaxad fiercely attacks the teacher, catching the attention of the other students. Terona just crosses her arms and closes her eyes as Arphaxad comes in with a fierce strike. He hits her left arm and then her right, and she still remains motionless. Before Arphaxad can hit her in the head, he goes flying back as if struck by a strong blow, but Terona remains with crossed arms. And when Arphaxad falls to the ground, Terona turns to the students and asks:

"Does anyone know what happened here?"

The students remained silent, not knowing what to answer. Relon turns to Kal and asks:

"Did you see what happened?"

"Nothing, I just saw Bahamut flying," says Kal with his eyes fixed on the teacher.

Suddenly a boy raises his hand and says, "Magic?"

"Do you think I have any magical ability?" Terona asks in return.

The boy falls silent, and for a few seconds the entire class falls silent as well, until a voice emerged from among the students saying:

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

"You used a spiritual ability."

The entire class looks towards the source of the voice and it was a girl with red hair tied back, with very pale skin and freckles on her cheeks.

"What's your name, redhead?" Terona asks.

"I'm Gwen, Gwen Redani," the girl responds.

"Excellent answer, redhead," says Terona, congratulating Gwen.

Then Terona turns to the students and says:

"Mana is not only used to cast magic, there are abilities we can use that are far from requiring our magical capabilities."

"You probably heard this in the selection tests, but all living beings are created with 4 unique characteristics."

"Intellectual, Physical, Magical and Spiritual."

"But as we are all part of living beings, we do not always need all of them, but all living beings possess the 4."

"For example: A mountain bear, they have a powerful physical ability and an acceptable Spiritual, but intellect is null and magical abilities are very low, making them irrational animals."

"The humanoid races also have different characteristics, even if we do not always live together, the difference is clear."

"I, for example, am a half-orc, I was born with my physical characteristic more accentuated because my father was a man and my mother an orc, but my magic is very limited."

"Elves, on the other hand, usually have their magical and intellectual characteristics a little more privileged than other humanoids."

"However, having a great magical characteristic does not mean you will be a strong spellcaster."

"Or if you have a great Intellectual ability, it does not mean you will be a great inventor or a legendary discoverer."

"Or even if you have an extreme Physical ability, it still does not mean you will be a legendary warrior or something like that."

"The other 3 characteristics are fundamentally linked to the Spirit."

"And it is in the spirit that the most vital information is engraved."

"For example: A woman with a gigantic magical ability learns a 5th circle magic, but does not have the necessary mana to conjure it. The magic will not be able to be cast by her."

"The amount of mana we have is engraved in our spirit, as is our vitality, our faith, our willpower and many other things."

"The Physical, Intellectual and Magical, we can improve through training, but the Spirit is immutable, we are born with all our information engraved in our spirits, and it will determine who we will be forever."

Gwen suddenly raises one of her hands again:

"Is there any method in this world that allows for increasing spiritual abilities, Professor?"

Looking at Gwen, Terona responds:

"Good question, redhead. As far as we know, the spirit is already set at birth."

"But there are stories that in the mountains between the Kingdom of Leoria and the Sultanate of Nahamut, there is an ancestral spirit that empowers the tribes living in those mountains."

"It is also said that there is an artifact from the time of the ancient Heroes that can significantly increase your Spiritual potential."

"However, I believe they are all legends. No one has proof of the existence of anything."

"Well, after explaining this, I want to conclude by saying that my class will focus on the Physical. Prepare yourselves, it will be very rigorous."

Suddenly Terona turns and leaves the arena, leaving the students there. Kal, who was extremely motivated and upbeat, looks at Relon and notices he seems sad, so he asks:

"Are you alright Morin?" Kal asks, finding Relon's mood strange.

"They say my family descends from one of the great heroes of the past, normally with high magical ability and a strong Spirit," Relon says in a low voice.

"We inherit the blond hair and eye color of that great hero, and certainly we must inherit his magical and spiritual abilities as well."

"Our magic is elemental and we are born under the water element."

"My father was a very powerful warrior in the past because of this. Even my older brothers have these characteristics."

"Lilla was born with little magical ability, but with a stronger spirit than normal for our family."

"However, I did not inherit anything beyond the water element. I do not have a high magical ability and even less a powerful Spirit."

"You may not know, but I am a year older than you. Last year I tried to enter the Imperial Academy, taking the tests here in the capital."

"I came in last, shaming my family."

As he spoke, Relon remembers that due to being the son of the Emperor, he did not have much contact with his father and that his goal had always been to get his father's attention somehow. That test where he came in last made his father distance himself even more, despising and forbidding Relon from trying again. Relon was the Emperor's fourth child, so he did not need to strive to be someone, as he could enjoy the palace privileges for life.

"I wanted to impress him, I wanted to show him I could be our ancestor, the Hero."

"So as not to shame further, my father forbade me from retaking the test."

"That's why I went to the distant village of Suri, where you lived, to retake it there."

Relon remembers that day in the Suri village test, and immediately feels great motivation to continue. Wiping his teary eyes, he looks at Kal and smiles, saying:

"Thank you, friend."

In the late afternoon, after class ended, Kal said goodbye to Relon and Lilla and went to the Academy dormitory. As he walked toward the dorm, he felt the lights around him dimming and people fading. Then, in a blink, Kal was in another place, a completely dark location where he could not see anything in front. Candles began to light up, illuminating the whole place. Apparently Kal was in a damp, dark dungeon, and as the candles lit up they revealed someone sitting on a black, distorted throne. Kal realizes the one sitting on that throne was the new Headmistress Suzannah, so Kal says:

"What is happening here?" Kal asks.

Suzannah rises from the throne, throws her witch's hat to the ground and says:

"So you're the famous Kal."

"Why did you bring me here, is this some kind of test?" Kal says, frightened.

"You know Kal, in my 152 years of life, I've never heard of anyone like you!" says Suzannah walking toward Kal.

"I cannot sense any special power coming from you, but if what they told me about you is true..." she continues.

"What do you mean? What do people say about me?" Kal asks, confused.

"I want to see it with my own eyes," Suzannah approaches with a frightening look.

Kal notices there is a door to his right and suddenly runs toward the door. He opens it and sees a long corridor with candles and another door ahead. He runs toward the other door and realizes Suzannah is not following him. When Kal opens the other door and enters, he finds himself back in the same place with Suzannah. Extremely frightened, he runs back through the corridor and when he opens the door again, he is back in the same place. Kal says fearfully:

"Am I trapped here?"

Suzannah smiles quietly and says, "Did you know Tiberius was my apprentice when he was 16 years old?"

"I taught him to develop a unique magic, which is the Vision of the Spirit!"

"A powerful magic that allows the user to see inside another person's spirit!"

"The big problem with this magic is that you must have a stronger spirit than the person you use it on."

"Otherwise, your spirit is crushed and bad things happen to you."

"Do you know why I personally taught Tiberius..."

"Because he has the greatest Spirit I have ever seen in my 152 years of life!"

"So when I heard Tiberius went blind and almost died looking inside his spirit..."

"I got very excited for the first time in a long time."

"Are you saying you're inside my spirit now?" Kal asks fearfully.

"Who do you think I am? Let me finish my story!" says Suzannah with a little smile.

"I am the creator of this unique magic, but I left it as a gift for Tiberius."

"I don't like using it much. When you use Spirit Vision, it's like entering someone's castle to see things no one else sees."

"And you know, I hate going into other people's homes."

"So I developed the evolution of this magic, the Spirit Sanctuary."

"While in Vision we enter another's spirit, in the Sanctuary others enter our spirits."

"And as I trained this magic for over a century, I built an impenetrable castle inside my spirit."

"Welcome, to the Palace of the Red Queen," Suzannah finishes with open arms.