"So if I have to join the academy either way,what is the point of me taking an exam?" Lucas asked, striding behind the small convoy of guardsmen lord Eric kept after the incident.

It was a cloudless day, with the sun casting a soothing warmth like a soft silky blanket on them, the endless field of greenery and patches of wild florets with myriads of color further ease his anxiety of venturing into unknown lands.

"And even I thought,you would never ask.Kul,hand me my hard earned gold now."Jade grinned at him ,yes,Lucas never thought he would see the day when the stone faced lady would make that expression at anyone.

"Oh,you gonna be kidding,there is hardly a mile left from the city gate!"Kul groaned as he fished out 5 golden shillings out of his pocket and slab it on her outstretched palm."And kid,as to why we are giving you a exam anyway,the reason is the same as for everyone else.Think about it,the nobles who send their kids with some potential here were never turned back as long as they have the coins,the serf like you on the other hand doesn't even have a choice.…"

Lucas turned to the road and think about it for a moment,the warning from Rodney in regards to the academy elitist nature slowly clued his mind to a obvious conclusion.

"They are trying to grade us?"Lucas asked,uncertain of his answer.Somehow, he already felt like a student being questioned about his education by the burly professor,hoping he somehow landed the answer right.

"There you have it son,each student that went through the exam will be graded for their performance and divided into different patches.Obviosly,it is a attempt to allow the ones with the most obvious potential to show themselve so more resources can be pour on them.A short sighted method if you ask me,but it more often work than fail."Jade explained,her eyes squint and her lips tighten to a thin line.

As Lucas listen to his explanation,he fought to stop the knot from raising in his stomach.He had barely just awaken his power and got hold of his sigil,on top of that he have next to no knowledge on the matter of arcanist,being little more than a tavren cook's assistant for most of his life.It will be a gross understatement to say he was as unprepared as it come.

"What am I suppose to do in the exam?Amaze people with how grey my sigil's light is?That I am as plain as arcanist come?"Lucas grimance as he thanked the professor for answering and turned his attention to the road again,his thoughts racing for a solution.

As the city in which the academy is settled in approaches,Lucas's eyes widen with every steps made towards the raising walls in the horizon.The outer curtain wall of the city is about 50 feet tall and instead of the cheaper alternative of wood,is ludicrously built entirely from massive blocks of stones despite its massive size and length.

There were even some flanking tower built on top and out of the walls,perfectly positioned to lays mayhem on any intruders in mutiple angle at once.At the back of the city were a snow capped mountain,providing a natural impenetrable defense on top of the walls.

A massive city was housed within the immensely powerful defensive measure.He couldn't exactly tell from where he is looking from ,but lucas estimate that the whole city must be 8 times the size of his home town,which was already considerably large compared to others.

As he takes in the view with his mouth hanging slightly open,Lucas and his company swift cleared the outer gatehouse with the court's authorities and walk past the curtain wall.Immediately,the smell of foreign spices,fresh wood work and leather goods assault his senses in the marketplace settled closest to the wall.

The bartering,yelling and chatters between the massives crowds and merchants behind their stall soon followed to flooded his senses.Lucas had been to the market place of his town before on countless occasions in order to buy fresh ingredients for the tavern.But this was on a entirely different level of liveliness.

Thinking of the fact that there are many other massive cities just like this,annexed by the empire through conquest,trade and various other method that he had never seen or heard of before made him realized just how little he has seen of his massive homeland.

"Lord Rodney,I will leave my daughter in your care,and do be careful during your stay in the academy,both of you."The court bid farewell to what lucas imagined will be his future son in law as he stay behind with his convoy before the second curtain wall of the city.

Lucas didn't have time to be shocked by the fact that there was another curtain wall inside the cities before Eric met his eyes.He tensed,unsure of what to do as noble antique was never a part of his very limited education.

"…No matter what,I must say I owned you a favor for saving my daughter from that lowlife,let my daughter know if you need some anything in the academy,I will repaid that debt in folds."Pleasantly surpised by the uncharacteristic change in the noblemen's attitude,Lucas can only nodded in acknowledgement to the powerful noblemen.Despite his hard face,Lucas can almost somehow tells how he care for his daughter more than he would admit.

"Ha!Already earning unpaid favor from a high noble before you even made it to school,I can tell you are going to go far."Kul pat his back and ruffle his hair before he started leading the group of student towards their destination.

"Any favor?…Wait!Does that means?"By the time Lucas realized the potential of his fortune,the noble has already merged into the crowd and disappeared from view."Well…no matter."he mumbled under his breath,he can always ask Allison to convey his message for him once they settled in the academy.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

As his eyes locked onto the noble girl,her soft brown hair running down her back flowing like a dancing river was easy to spot even among the crowd.Before he realized he has been started staring again and tear his eyes away,he caught a glimpse of something unexpected,Rooney was looking back at him,his handsome feature shifting from serious to a soft smiles so fast Lucas barely noticed it.

"…I don't understand nobles at all."He forced his lips to turn upward at the strange young noble men and slowly follow after the group.The thought that he will soon be living with a full academy worth of them made him want to groan out loud,surely not all of them is this confusing to interact with,right?

Lucas was confused until a few moment ago about where is the academy.He doubt it would be so small that it would be towered over by other building of the city since many childrens of important aristocrat live here.

"Look up."A grin along with these two words was all he got from kul when he approached him to voice his question.Then he saw it,in the middle riff of the mountain, towers,dozens of halls and different structures were built around and on the immense summit.

This time,he try and stop himself from acting like a country bumkin and budging his eyes out in shock at everything.But he certainly won't denied how much capitals,craftsmanship and labor that have to go into building something like this were probably far beyond his imagination.

They reached the bottom of the mountain,where a archway and its platform were built just below it.Lucas has seen some smaller ones built in some towns he visited with Percy before,but never one so detailed and large.

Two guardsmen fully fitted with plates mail armor and each took hold of a long,lethal and must be very,very expensive halberd,it's blade were marked with runes,no doubt worked expertly from master enchanter.

They each gave a nod and a short bow at the two professors as they stood aside for them to use the archway.With a simple flick of his wrist,kul's bright green sigil flared to life and connected itself to the teleporter.And immediately,a tear in space swiftly wrapped into being ,contained within the circular stone structure.

Lucas swallowed his hesitation and took a deep breath as he entered the dark void along with his future school mate and would be tutors.The world shifted and wobble as the void give way to the myriad colours of reality.

He felt his boot landed on hard ground and open his eyes fully to see what would become his home for the next 3 years of life.Even if he had seen it at a distance,it was still a marvelous sight to behold the academy ground in its entirety.

The platform they were standing on were high enough that a constant slow wind bellow on them,but it is far from an uncomfortable feeling,his anxiousness and fatigued were washed away,leaving only excitement and enticipation in their place.

"Welcome back to the central academy,sir kul and lady Jade….I see you have brought with you quite a few potential candidates."An old lady with a short statue stood just infront of them,a leather bound tome almost one-third her size were clinched in her right arm.

"Gate keeper Valera,It has been a while indeed.I hope you have enjoy your vocation."Kul beamed at her"Oh yes,the spring pool from house Wallace deserves its reputation.Might I suggest you may bring lady Jade alon_"

"Please Valera,we have students that need to go take their exam here."Jade's sharp tone cut an end to the small talk,Lucas watched the exchange in amusement.The gate keeper grin at jade and guide them on their way,Lucas noticed a pale redness seems to plaster on jade's cheek,curious.

"Alrite kids,I guess this is where we will part for now.Take care of yourself and don't stress out too much,we will be here when you come back and lucas come here for a moment."With the fair words of warning,kul gave lucas a pat on the back and nodded at the nobles,motioning for them to go ahead first,the young man frown in confusion but come towards kul anyway.

"I know what you are worried about,and I can only suggested that you abandon the grading exam as soon as it was mentioned,you will still be accepted into the school but at the lowest grade…jade and I will talk with the dean to see about your situation later,so don't worry too much."Lucas nod in understanding,feeling a bit more relieved that he doesn't have to humiliate himself infront of the whole school on the first day.

The place they have been moving towards were situated in the back of the large opening on the academy ground,past all of the towers and different white stoned structure,it ends up being a two stories tall hall the sized of a large mansion which cover most of the available space in that area.

"The exam will be held in the grand hall,there will be two parts to the exam in which our instructors will avaluate your potential and grade you at the end of each section."The gate keeper explained to them as they moved towards what lucas assumed were the grand hall.

Lucas wondered briefly how would they be able to fully avaluate each student with only two part to the entrance exam,but it seems that the exam were meant to function more as a filter for high profile student than to bar anyone from entering the academy anyway,anxiousness and anticipation wreck his mind as he entered into the hall.

The inside seem nearly deserted even with hundreds of figures in prehaps a large house worth of space and this was only the first room of the hall.A man dressed in midnight black robe stood on a high platform in the back of the room,he spotted them as soon as they came into the hall,seemingly waiting for their arrival.

"Are you alrite?"A soft whisper brought him back from his deep thoughts and worries.And he stared at the young noble girl who had slow her pace to wait for him,partly shocked that she actually acknowledged his existence considering how little she talked to him.But mostly,it was his racing heart beats that kept his words stuck in his mouth.

"I…I am fine,thank you lady allison."Finally he opt to kept a polite smile and give her a curt nod,it seems to him that's the proper way to greet nobility from his short experience with them.

"…There is no need to be so tense,you will do just fine I believe.Oh and you should just refer to me as Allison,my father and the professors is gone now anyway."She smiles at him,it was almost painful to tear his eyes away as he mumbled a thank you.

"Way to go lucas,when there is finally a noble that act sensibly, you have to act like a dork infront of her."He grimace at his incompetence as the black robed man look them over from his position.His pale brown gaze sweep over all three candidates,settling just a little longer on lucas than the others.

Once the professor saw there were no more candidates coming through the entrance,he claps his hand and a pitch black sigil flickered to being for a short second but the heavy entrance door slammed shut behind them,startling nearly all of the exam taker present.

"Welcome to the academy,young prospects.I am professor Winston and I will be the one hosting the exam for all of those present.This year the exam will be split into two parts,the first of which will be a test for magical potential.Each of you will be tasked with defeating a summoned D rank creature with your best effort.The second part will be announced as soon as you have completed the first part.We will expect the best effort from all of you,goodluck."