The day of the exam arrived, I was rested and ready to take the written test and the practical part, which involved a duel, as well as some magic tests to evaluate abilities outside of combat.
The Academy was far from the inn, so we woke up earlier and walked to the place. The entrance was crowded with people, some wearing very expensive clothes and some with servants, others looked like commoners. The Academy accepted everyone, as long as they were capable of passing the tests.
Although it was expected that most of the people who entered would be from the nobility, commoners were at a disadvantage for not having expensive tutors who could help them.
Besides the castle, the Academy had large walls and could be considered as a second city within the capital. I hadn't realized that before, since the castle was in the center and the Academy was in the eastern region, its walls were as large as the castle walls, and there were also guards protecting the gates.
After a while, the gate was opened, we started to enter and formed four lines. This was the first stage of the exam, the magic capacity test. The Academy was divided into two major branches, the first was magic and the second was swordsmanship, so if a person had no magical capacity at all, they would be analyzed for their sword skills, although it was possible to apply to both. As well as study both areas. But it was always expected that the student would specialize in only one area, which is why it was rare to find mages who used other weapons besides a wand or a staff.
When it was my turn, an examiner asked me to place my hand on a crystal. When I did, a red light and a brown one appeared. She wrote it down, then asked me to place my hand on another crystal, a white light appeared and the examiner once again took note.
"You don't seem to have much mana, even with affinity for fire and dark magic, you are unable to use magic. So I'll enroll you in swordsmanship..."
"You are wrong," I said, while using fire magic and gradually increasing the magic, the flame flickered as if it were dancing, it was nice, but useless in combat.
"I apologize, the measuring equipment must be broken. I'll bring another one," she said as she left. Then she returned with two people, one removed the crystal and the other placed a new crystal. "Place your hand."
I placed my hand and, once again, the same result came out.
Another person appeared, it was a woman with some wrinkles. She wore a hat and round glasses, she stared at the crystal and then placed her hand on it, a strong light appeared.
"It's not broken," she said, looking at me. "Can you still use magic?"
Her voice came out very loud, I didn't know if she always spoke like that or if she had just said it that way to ridicule me. The others were laughing, especially the nobles. The woman was serious, so I didn't know what she really meant with those words.
"As I demonstrated earlier, yes, I can use magic," I said, while using fire magic and increasing the use of mana to change the color to blue.
The woman kept watching and told the examiner to just write down any value on the form. That really sounded like it was meant to belittle me, but I pretended not to care. The examiner wrote down some value and then I left the line.
I started off on the wrong foot, but there was nothing I could do.
It was Jasly's turn, she placed her hand on the crystal and a very strong light burst out. The examiner was speechless and the other examiners left the other applicants unattended and went to observe Jasly. The light was really strong and could be seen throughout the entire area, even though it was daytime, the crystal's light seemed to compete with the sunlight. The light was as strong as the one the wrinkled woman had emitted.
The examiner started explaining, but I didn't really understand very well. In short, the greater the intensity, the more mana the person had. Indeed, Jasly had a lot of mana, much more than I did, but I should still have a considerable amount of mana. That didn't explain why the crystal couldn't properly measure my mana. From what I understood, the amount the equipment registered was so small that I would be considered an ordinary child incapable of using magic, or a child who hadn't awakened yet.
Something was wrong with the measurement. My hypothesis was my ability to use spiritual energy, which, somehow, could make the analysis harder. Or not. It could also be the ring I was wearing, it concealed two elements, but I didn't know if it also, somehow, hid my magical capacity. That was both bad and good, the good side was that I could stay out of trouble if people didn't know my true power, but on the other hand I was under pressure. Maybe I drew even more attention by being able to use magic with almost zero mana.
Then we went to a large room. There were several chairs and desks, it was time for the written test. We would have two hours to answer all the questions, but they were very easy and, in less than half an hour, I had already finished answering everything. But I still sat there waiting for the test to end, since no one was allowed to leave before the two hours.
I kept waiting, boredom came, but I had to endure it, maybe that was the real test, since something so easy to answer seemed like just a way to make everyone finish quickly and then face the greatest enemy, boredom.
Then we were taken to the cafeteria. We ate there and some took the chance to talk and maybe form bonds of friendship. I stayed with Jasly and two girls who were sitting at the table, Clara and Elayra. We talked a bit about magic, Clara used water magic and Elayra had affinity with earth magic.
The conversation didn't last long, soon we entered an arena. A strong examiner appeared, he was muscular and wore clothes that highlighted his muscles, which was a little inconvenient, but in a way, he knew how to draw attention.
I was complaining, but, if I had such a muscular body, I would definitely make a point of showing it off.
He started explaining the rules. To sum it up, we could choose who we would fight against, we could fight with weapons, with magic, or both. The only prohibition was killing the opponent, but injuries were allowed, even mutilation or leaving someone gravely hurt, which seemed to contrast with the first rule, but no one said anything about it.
Making children fight each other was something interesting, but at the same time frightening. In my world the army tests were lighter and only evaluated learning capacity and combat skills, everything was done safely, but here it was the opposite.
Besides, losing didn't mean elimination, it all depended on how we fought and how we handled everything. They were more interested in the way we could attack and defend in an unpredictable combat.
At least that's what it seemed, since it was allowed for mages to fight against swordsmen, so they weren't evaluating the same combat skills.
The first duel was between Jasly and an arrogant noble. The noble chose a sword and used magic to increase his strength and speed. The examiner warned him, since he had used magic before the combat started, therefore he would suffer a penalty on his score. The noble ignored it.
When the fight started, the noble was already lying on the ground, spitting blood and looking like all his bones were broken. Jasly had used wind magic and made the noble be thrown against the wall before he could even make his first move, Jasly's attack was very fast, maybe even I would have taken some damage.
The examiner called some mages to use healing magic.
"There's nothing I can evaluate," he said to the noble, "so you are eliminated, better luck next year."
The examiner was enjoying it, he tried to hide it, but you could see on his face that he liked seeing the noble lying on the ground.
Failing the exam was relatively common, but a noble failing was considered a great shame for the family.
"You could have gone easy on him, let him show something and, when he thought he was going to win, you would go there and defeat him in the most humiliating way possible," I laughed.
"I went easy, I didn't think he would have no physical resistance at all, it's sad."
After a few duels, it was finally my turn. A noble in armor invited me to duel him. Actually, he threw a handkerchief at me and I was forced to duel with him.
I hated that custom, but from what I understood, duels were common and considered sacred, so conflicts could be settled through sword skills, which greatly simplified certain disagreements.