After the ray of light performed its function, leaving Nick within the clearing of the academy's southern woodlands that he had been in when the exam started, it dispersed. Nick stood among many students, who like him had survived and passed the exams. Nick couldn't tell how many students died from just looking at the crowd alone so he simply stopped thinking about it.

Rebecca Jones and two other Magicians stood on the same platform above them where they had been when the students had been sent to the realm. Rebecca spoke plainly:

"Congratulations on successfully completing your end of year exam. During the exam, most of you would have been monitored using the space bands that we gave you so those students will receive personalized advice based on what we observed during the exam at a later time. Now, on to the matter of your student ranking. Each student will have to hand in their space band with the wary dog carcasses that they obtained and the ranking will be issued tomorrow at 10 pm. If there are any items that you would like to remove from the space band and declare, do it now."

There weren't many students that took items from their space band to declare them because most of them had already been preoccupied with trying to kill magic beasts rather than procuring items from the realm. Those who did take out items took out pieces of plant material, magic beast carcasses or funny enough, rocks. Nick went to a spot that was a good distance from the other students and also took out a few things. He took out the rest of the ghastly serpent meat that he had, the head of a wary dog, and the mummified corpse of the rank 6 Hero Magician. Before anyone could take notice of the corpse, Nick used his spell, Big, on the wary dog head.

(Big.)

Nick almost bottomed out his magic sea in activating the spell. Most of the other students as well as the Regular Magician instructors noticed the surge in magic power coming from Nick and looked towards his direction.

"What does that guy think he is doing?"

"It looks like he is casting a spell on a wary dog head."

"Look beside him, is that a human corpse?"

"No way, killing each other in the exam is forbidden. It must be the carcass of a strange looking magic beast."

"Oh wait, that wary dog head looks like it's getting bigger."

Nick decided to enlarge the head relatively slowly so as not to deform it. This was his plan since he first got to the realm. The rules stated by Rebecca at the start of the exam said that to get a top score, one had to have the highest mass of wary dog heads. Assuming those words can be taken at face value, him using his magic to enlarge the head should not be against the rules. Nick didn't do this inside the academy's realm because he wanted to observe the Regular Magicians' reactions to his plan; he looked up at the platform and saw no reaction from them so he continued channeling his magic power into the wary dog head and it grew bigger and bigger; Nick had to constantly reposition himself to make room for the growing head. In the next thirty seconds Nick had grown the wary dog head into something of gigantic proportions; it had a height of twenty meters, an width of sixteen meters and a length of twenty eight meters.

Every student present looked on in shock and suspicion.

"Hey, what is this bastard trying to do?"

"Remember the rules man, our score is mainly determined by the mass of the wary dog heads that we obtain from the realm, it was never mentioned that we could not alter the heads with our own magic."

"So you're saying that he is using an oversight in the rules to get a good score."

"Hmph, why do you say that it is an oversight? We all use magic for our own advantage, why should what he is doing be any different?"

The students had varying opinions about what Nick did to the wary dog head. Some were confused, some were enraged but most were jealous of his magic power at this particular moment. Some even said things like:

"Maybe I should ask him to do the same thing for my wary dog carcasses."

Nick didn't care about what others thought or what they would say so he ignored them and stored the giant head within his space band, then he waited for the Regular Magicians to inspect the items that he did not intend to hand over to them. It did not take long before the Regular Magicians made their move and started checking the students' items. Nick stood away from the other students and just watched warily as they moved about, everyone seemingly too nervous, tired and/or suspicious to go anywhere near him.

Soon, Rebecca found her way to Nick's position. First, she looked at the ghastly serpent beast meat and then the corpse on the ground. When her eyes focused on the corpse, her expression became weird and then it seemed as if she became full of shock.

"Answer me truthfully. Is this the corpse of a Regular Magician?"

Nick had no reason to say anything but the truth and the evidence was already right there anyway. Nick replied plainly:

"Yes it is, miss Rebecca."

Rebecca calmed herself, remembering that she had a job to do.

"Where did you find it?"

Nick didn't mind answering a few questions to get rid of some suspicions:

"I found it in a murky pool located in a swamp within the realm."

Rebecca followed up:

"How did you find it?"

Nick replied plainly again:

"Luck."

Rebecca squinted her eyes and spoke with incredulity:

"You must have the strangest luck I have ever seen, just finding the intact corpse of a Regular Magician. What do you intend to do with it? If you are planning to sell it, I might be interested in buying it."

Nick shook his head resolutely and said:

"I have no intention of selling this corpse because I have use for it."

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

Rebecca did not believe Nick.

(Use for it? This is Nick Capitol. This young man has no magical background before coming to this academy and has only been here for a year. He shouldn't have any idea of how to use this corpse unless...)

"Did you perhaps receive a Magician's inheritance when you found this corpse?"

Nick could hear the gasps from the students when Rebecca asked that question and Nick could only sigh knowing full well that Rebecca was probably trying to use the attention from the other students to pressure him into handing over the corpse. Nick however answered resolutely, even at the risk of offending Rebecca:

"Miss Rebecca, I believe that your question is inappropriate and has nothing to do with the inspection. Please do not ask me that again."

Nick wasn't going to lie, not that he wasn't inclined to do so but who knows if she had some way to magically determine whether he was speaking the truth or not. His reply would ensure that she remained uncertain of the answer and there should be nothing that she can do about it if he didn't want to give an answer.

Rebecca pursed her lips in frustration:

(This boy is a hard stone, not softening a little in my presence. Fine, there is nothing that I can do If he doesn't want to divulge anymore details about the corpse. I'll pay special attention to the information that we get from his space band though.)

"You are free to leave with the corpse and the meat. Would you like to borrow a space band to carry them away."

Nick smiled.

"Yes I would, please."

Rebecca thought that although this kid was smelly and covered in muck, at the very least he knew how to be polite.

Nick handed over his space band with all of his wary dog carcasses to Rebecca and Rebecca handed Nick an empty space band. After telling Nick to return the space band to the magical tools office in a few days, Rebecca moved on to the next student who needed an inspection and Nick stored the corpse and the beast meat within his empty space band and prepared to go somewhere else.

As he was about to leave the clearing with many students watching his movements, a woman with short blonde hair walked into his path.

"Well, it has been a long time since me last met Cindy Reece, how have you been?"

Cindy Reece stood in front of Nick with a friendly smile but Nick wasn't fooled.

(I've seen that smile plenty of times in my life. That's a hater's smile.)

Cindy spoke genially:

"Hello Nick, it has been a long time. I saw your display earlier and was wondering if you had anything to do with cutting a very large Wary dog in three pieces with two large blades during the exam while my group was battling its pack?"

Nick pretended to think about it then answered:

"Now that you mention it, I did kill such a wary dog in that way. That was your group? Well, sorry for butting in like that but having that wary dog living in the same area that I was exploring made me uncomfortable so I killed it. That's all there is to it."

Cindy was visibly shook for a moment but spoke calmly:

"So that's it, no need for an apology because your actions actually helped us, the leader of my group, Daryl Smith figured it was you and wants to have a talk with you. Do you have free time?"

Nick was filthy and exhausted, he did not want to converse with strangers for no reason so he replied:

"Maybe next time, I've got somewhere to be."

Cindy seemed disappointed by Nick's reply but decided to try something else. She took out her phone and asked:

"Is it possible that I could have your phone number in order to meet up later?"

Nick was puzzled by her request.

"Meet up for what?"

Cindy seemed a little shifty when Nick asked that question but a moment later, her eyes shone with determination. She moved closer to Nick's front so that with Nick's back turned to the students, they could not see her clearly. Cindy grabbed Nick's right hand to his surprise and displeasure and placed it on her left breast.

"Meet up for this."

Nick's eyes opened wide in shock.

(What the hell is happening right now? I'm smelly and covered in filth and she is actually trying to tempt me. Hmph, she dares? I've got a will of steel.)

Nick's mind said one thing but his body did another. Nick lightly squeezed her left breast and took out his phone for them to exchange numbers. With a flushed face, Cindy gave Nick her number and Nick gave Cindy his and then she took Nick's hand off of her breast and ran back to the group of students behind him.

(Okay, that was weird.)

Slade chimed in at this moment:

[kid, I have no problem with you wanting to make use of women, god knows I did in the past but you have to be careful as to their intentions. Not all that glitters is gold, especially when it comes to women.]

(Sigh, You don't have to remind me, Slade? I just had a moment of weakness just now, I'm still a virgin after all. It probably won't happen again, at least not until I'm in complete control of the situation.)

[Good.]

Nick walked away from the academy woodlands and headed towards the academy's magical anatomy office. He took the elevator to the second floor after greeting the receptionist in the lobby and entered an unoccupied affinity testing room.

Nick put his student ID into a slot on the machine and placed his palms on the semi-glass panel, waiting for the results of the test. Three minutes later, Nick obtained the results.

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Unknown magical affinity: 59%

Soul magic affinity: 22%

Space magic affinity: 19%

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Nick smiled from ear to ear.

"That exam was truly worth every bit of the discomfort."