It’s so big! Really deserving of being called the most flourishing of all the places in the empire, the capital! Even from afar, Claud can already see the towering steel gates of empire capital Ea, 60-feet wide and 150 feet tall. Marks and scars of war can be seen on its limestone-colored walls, old yet majestic. Vicissitudes of time left by thousands of historical wars and triumph of an empire reigning for many millennia. At last! After being on the road for almost one month, he’s finally here!

Being admitted to the largest and most famous school in the empire, the Varis Academe of Arcane and Military Arts was everyone’s dream. Becoming a student is an arduous competition and not everyone is capable of being selected. One needs to pass a lot of assessments and exams to gain the position of being an apprentice. Every applicant is being tested in the field of magic, combat and archery, and other related topics. Most of them, being versed in combat but lacks magic affinity becomes martial apprentice. Those who has an affinity or can control and use magic are accepted as sorcerer apprentice. The talented ones who can wield weapons in line with magic are referred to as knight mage apprentice. Due to rareness of knight mages, everyone is trying their best to become one but it is not really that easy. Magic needs mana to be used and it is determined by one’s talent and physique. If you’re not talented and don’t have the compatible physique, then you can just try for other departments.

Because it’s the month of June, many people are flowing from the four gates. Each carrying their families’ hopes and dreams. Claud is already at the front of the gate. So tall! Seeing it from afar, he thought that it is big but right now, he can just gasp at this sight. One of the guards was looking on the crowd, checking every comers’ detail. Claud was stopped at the gate because of how he looks. Wearing a black coat where even his facial features cannot be seen, anyone can’t help but be suspicious.

“What’s your name and where are you from?”

“My name’s Claud…… Claud Ashwell. I came from Belanore and wants to be an apprentice.”

“Ok, you can go.”

Seeing the guard’s smug look of disdain, Claud didn’t linger anymore and continued entering. Passing the streets, he walked all the way to the venue of the exams. While passing, he noticed the different views of buildings on the street. He has a certain knowledge about the capital. The capital is divided into different sections. In the outermost region lives the common folks. Wealthy merchants and businessmen lives at the middle sector and in the inner are those of noble birth or officials of the empire. This is also the sector where we can find the academy sponsored by the royal empire. Claud can see the royal palace from where he is.

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The testing venue is situated at the academy’s open trial grounds. Myriads of people can be seen. On one side, you can see pairs of applicants fighting each other. This is the test for combats strength. Next, you will see tables laden with magic orbs called affinity stone. These are used to determine which element one has affinity to. Red for fire, blue for water, green for wind, yellow for earth, violet for lightning, black for darkness and white for light magic affinity. There are some cases that two or more colors were mixed meaning dual or multi-element affinity. In magic, elemental magic is called primary magic. There also that secondary magic like the spatial, illusion, enchantment and enhancement magic which has a color of gray. Most of these magics are being learned by artisans and blacksmiths that can be considered on the same level as the warrior classes. But secondary magic is not limited to them. There’s a lot of magic that can be also used to enhance one’s body during combat and some powerful individual can use teleportation magic, one of the highest orders of spatial magic. As for other sorts of uncommon types of magic, we’ll find out later.

After determining one’s affinity, one needs to pour out their mana to a magic tablet while being observed by the examiner to gauge one’s mana quantity and quality. There are ten beads in the tablet. To pass, one must at least be able lit up three beads and above. Mana quality will be measured based on the brightness of the lit-up beads.   

“Claud Ashwell!”

The examiner, calling his name, seems to be annoyed. Who can blame him. There’s a lot of participants that it seems endless and here’s Claud, lost in thought, staring at the magic training field. He immediately went to the center of the field to face his opponent. Looking at him, this oozing-with-confidence opponent talked to the examiner.

“Hey, this is unbearable! Are there other decent opponents? Look at him. He seems so weak! How will I be able to show any of my skills? A peasant like him, and one so young, is not worthy of facing a noble such as me! He still reeks from the smell of milk.”

Such arrogance! But who can blame him. Claud came from a mountain village and looks like a peasant, or so he thought! Growing in a mountain village for the past ten years, he learned a lot through real-life combat facing different sorts of hybrids, mutated wild beast caused by different magical phenomena. They are stronger than common animals found in the wild.

Later, he will realize that sometimes, someone is much more than what meets the eyes!