We eventually arrive at our destination. Inside the room are about a dozen other students emitting fire from their hands.

A bald old man walks toward us with robes similar to Moria. “What’re you two doing here? We don’t rotate sessions until at least another three months.”

“We haven’t been to any other sessions yet,” I say.

“Oh! You’re one of those failures?”

“Umm…yeah.”

He laughs and then says, “I’m just messing with you, boy! I know who you are. You were the cause of the rumble last week, right? Moria told me to be expecting one, possibly two of you today.”

Really? He predicted that Hiro would pass the test and that I would come back.

“Go ahead and take this,” he says and then hands me a piece of parchment. That symbol again.

He continues, “This is called a Magic Scroll. This one, in particular, contains a keyword for a Basic Fire spell. You can instantaneously learn the keyword to this magic, and then you can get a feel for how to bond the Fire element to your Mana. Truthfully, you can learn this without the Magic Scroll if you have any Fire Affinity, but it greatly decreases the steep learning curve.”

That’s what the first group meant when they said that it’s like a cheat.

“And that’s why Moria has authorized me to give you this Magic Scroll. It’s not something we’ve ever given to a student, but he praises you with no end, and I’m not surprised. Rich Mana Manipulation at your age is incredible. Normal students will be using a Scrap Mana version made solely for training purposes. Yours has the same purpose, though it has been custom made for your low Mana capacity and utilizes Rich Mana.”

I widen my eyes.

“It may be for training purposes, but please exercise caution because Rich Mana magic is very powerful. Don’t hurt yourself or anyone around you.”

“I got it,” I say, put my palm over the symbol and then release Rich Mana. The scroll disappears, and the keyword appears in my mind.

“Everyone get back! He’s going to blow up the room!” someone yells, followed by some screaming. All the students scurry to the opposite corner of the room.

“Don’t worry. The Magic Scroll is not like a Glim, and as long as you’re not standing right in front of his finger, you have nothing to fear,” the old man says and then hands a scroll to Luna. “Here’s the Scrap Mana version I spoke about.”

“Thank you,” Luna says.

Hmm… I guess I’ll try it out. As he said, the exit is on my right index finger. I move some Rich Mana to that location and then point only my right index finger toward a wall. “Scorch!”

A minuscule amount of fire shoots out of the tip of my finger that goes forward an inch before it disappears into thin air. It’s such a tiny amount with a smaller width than a pencil, but the instructions were much easier to understand than the other one I learned.

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

Fire Affinity was bonded with the Rich Mana in my finger, and at the same time, they were instructed to leave in a straight direction at some speed uniformly. I think there was some other stuff too because my finger didn’t feel hot at all. I slowly move my other hand toward the fire until it’s too hot to withstand. It’s definitely hot.

“Excellent! You got it on your first try! Like I’ve said, please be careful.”

The flames coming out of my appendage disappears about ten seconds after activation.

“Scorch!” Luna exclaims. Fire shoots out of her right palm, similar to my finger, except it’s thicker and goes forward about a foot.

“Oh, and this young lady did it too! We have some talented students this year.”

Luna’s magic only lasts about five seconds. We spend the remainder of class trying to bond our Mana with the Fire without the keyword. It’s harder than I thought, as I have no idea how to do it or where to start. I know it’s just a matter of time. I had a similar experience with releasing my Mana for the first time.

Eventually, the class ends. We obtain our red tickets for the day and then go to our agreed team meeting spot outside for endurance training. Hiro, unsurprisingly, is the only one there right now.

“Y’all are so slow,” Hiro says.

I force a smile and say, “Sure.”

Hiro laughs. “It’s alright. I know Luna’s slowin’ ya down. You’re still number one.”

“Number five does not need to lecture others about sluggishness,” Sitos says, walking up to us.

“Hey, last time I checked, I got a higher score than ya on the test. Ya said that it had more weight than the duel, right?”

“You only beat me by a sliver. You are not anywhere near me in physical skill.”

“Ya hear that, guys? Sitos is a sore loser.”

“Fine. I will race you today, and if I am five minutes slower than you, I will concede fourth place to you.”

“Haha, you’re on! I’ll show ya my full speed.”

“Kai, do you want to race too?” Sitos asks.

“Sure,” I answer, knowing that I’ll lose. I don’t care either way. Last week, I really wanted first place, and now, I don’t care. I chuckle. I’ll use this opportunity to try to beat my previous record, though I’m still pretty tired from running laps this morning with Astrid.

We meet Instructor Fulharm at the entrance of the Academy after Marin and Drugo arrive. We give him our red tickets before starting our laps. As time passes, the distance between us changes so drastically that I don’t see anyone from my group.

I finish my last lap, panting. “In-instructor Fulhar-harm. What’s my time?”

“Thirty-five minutes. You were about five minutes slower than Sitos and twelve minutes slower than the other boy,” he says and hands me a yellow ticket.

As expected. I fall to my bottom as sweat burns my eye. I wipe my face with my shirt.

Sitos grunts and crosses his arms. “I will have my revenge next year.”

Hiro laughs. “Kai, ya finally made it. Don’t worry, you’re number one either way. No one will argue that.”

“It is as Hiro the Great says.”

I force a smile. The past week, I experienced what it’s like when everyone knows you’re the best. It was nice at first, but to a certain point, it becomes awkward and weird. I don’t like it. I almost wish I could go back to how things were. I don’t need all the constant extra attention people have been giving me. I want to be a typical student and enjoy school life.

“Actually…let’s forget about the rankings,” I suggest. “We should be competing against other teams and not ourselves. Else we’ll be too focused on training our weaknesses instead of improving our strengths. A team isn’t the sum of our abilities.”

“Sounds good. Let us do that,” Sitos says and nods.

“Aw, c’mon! Ya wouldn’t have readily agreed if I didn’t beatcha…but I’m cool with that.

Drugo arrives five minutes later, Marin and Luna over an hour later.

“So-sorry. Did you wait long?” Luna asks, leaning forward with her arms on her knees while trying to catch her breath.

“A while,” I say and turn my head to the Drugo, Hiro, and Sitos taking a nap on the grass. “Marin finished not too long ago.”

“I see,” Luna says and collapses. “Who won the race?”

“Hiro, as you would expect…but we’re not doing the rankings anymore. They don’t matter.”

Luna grins. “Took you boys a year to learn that.”

“Yeah. ‘Rankings don’t matter. We’re a team,’ right?”

“You got it!” Luna exclaims.

We rest for five more minutes before waking everyone up. Our next destination is the pantry for supplies.

“Guys, I’m gonna head home to take a nap. Do you mind?” I ask, holding my yellow ticket in front of me.

“No problem, Kaister,” Drugo says and takes the slip of paper from me.

I run on ahead to the living quarters and arrive in room 146. Finally, time alone to try out Void magic!

I lock myself in my room and gather Mana into my right palm. I straighten out my right arm and exclaim, “Gate!”

A dark-purple gooey thing appears in front of me. What the hell? I move around it, realizing that it’s completely flat in the vertical direction. I hesitantly move my hand toward it. I don’t want to touch it because it might be dangerous. It takes a few seconds to muster up to courage to finally touch it with my finger. Nothing happens, so I reach through with my entire arm. Still nothing.

What does this even do? I can’t see through it, I can’t feel it, it doesn’t smell like anything.

I take out Emdos’s book and flip to the last page I read. I’ll find out more about this Void magic if I turn the page, but there’s something inside me that doesn’t want to read more. I bite my lip.

I can manipulate a fourth grade of Mana that no one else can, and I’ve proven to be the most capable student of all time. If all I want to be is normal, I shouldn’t read any more of this book. I’m already well ahead of everyone else, and it’s hard to be ordinary as it is.

Emdos would understand, right? I can wait a few more years to let everyone catch up first before reading more. I open the closet and take out my backpack. I’ll store the book in here for safekeeping until then. This purple thing is problematic. Hopefully, it’ll be gone by the time I finish my nap. If not, I’ll read more of the book to find out what to do with it.

I flop onto my bed and sleep.