18th Nonus 1329, Morning
After saving Cale from the bandits and after a few hours of travel, as they were already close to the capital, the two finally arrived. As Eleonora got off the carriage, he stopped her before she left.
"Wait, Eleonora"
"What is it? I don't have much time" said Eleonora as she stopped to look back
"I know, you are heading for the academy's entry exam. And I know you will pass, but before you are ready to enter the dorms you will need a place to stay. Here, take this" said Cale as he passed a paper to Eleonora.
"Hmm? Is this your address?"
"Yes, pass by me. I will have a place for you to stay, and I will provide you with some living necessities. I can't let my savior lack anything not provided by the academy"
Eleonora looked at the paper for a moment and looked back to Cale to ask.
"Why would you do that?"
"I already told you; you are my savior. If not for you, I would be dead by now, so what is some support for you compared to my life?"
"Is that so? Thank you then" said Eleonora as she tore the paper apart, turned around, and walked away before stopping and going back to Cale to continue "I'm sorry, I just realized this probably looks rude, but I just memorized the address. I will pass by tonight, thank you" said Eleonora before she ran towards the academy.
Cale laughed a bit about his cold but clumsy savior.
As soon as Eleonora parted with Cale, she started asking around and followed instructions to rush to the academy to catch up to the entry exams.
As Eleonora arrived at the office for applying, it was somewhat empty. She looked at the clock to notice she arrived barely at the time limit as she moved to the counter.
"Excuse me, is it still possible to apply?" asked Eleonora.
"You are barely in time, but regardless, still in time" said the clerk.
"Since you are short on time, let's rush this. What exactly can you show as proof of your talent so we can further consider testing you?" said another clerk.
If the academy were to test every single young student coming each year, they wouldn't be done going through all of them before even more students came for the new year's test. So, to be accepted for the test, you have to show a special or great ability to be even considered for testing by the academy's professors or use the universal problem solver: money.
Eleonora then answered the clerk with the fastest way to prove herself.
"Here you go"
As Eleonora spoke, she formed a blood-red circle over her hand as blood started flowing from her hand, dancing around to her thoughts.
Proof of unique magic: magic that does not abide by the normal rules of magic that can only be used by humans born with special mana circles.
Usually, a human takes in mana from the environment; based mostly on luck, such mana may come to form a mana circle. This is the requirement a human needs to use magic, as mana circles are what extract mana from whatever a human consumes, varying from food to air, so that such mana can be refined and used for magic.
But in some cases, the mana may be affected by a human's genes, bloodline, or random mutation, forming a unique mana circle that refines mana into a special kind that can only use one specific magic; normal mana can't activate it. Though, that comes at the cost of not being able to use any other type of magic.
But even still, the unique blood magic, Eleonora showed was more than enough to grant her a chance to take the academy's entrance test.
"Would that be enough?" asked Eleonora confidently.
"Sure, such unique magic is good enough, here you go" said the clerk as he handed her an application.
The application required Eleonora to fill in her personal information, along with the courses she wanted to apply for.
"Would it be okay to apply for all courses?" asked Eleonora.
"There is no reason not to, but make sure only to apply for courses you are sure of passing since you are only allowed one failure before undertaking disciplinary punishment or being entirely rejected from entrance" said one clerk.
"Yes, for example, you shouldn't apply for swordsmanship" said another clerk.
Usually, mages capable of using unique magic were incapable of using different kinds of magic which kills that person's chance at becoming a swordsman for their incapability of using enhancement magic used by all swordsmen, forcing them down the road of magic. So, it was common knowledge that wielders of unique magic specialized in magic and never tried swordsmanship.
"Then here" said Eleonora as she handed her application.
As soon as the auditioner read her application, he was surprised to see she had applied for all courses in the academy ranging from swordsmanship, magic, alchemy, tactical, political and even general studies.
"Are you sure about this? As I said, you are only allowed one failure"
"Yes, I'm sure" said Eleonora with a smile.
"What a country bumpkin!" said a passing student.
"She probably thinks she is the talent of the century because everyone from where she came praised her for some average talent" said another student.
Even as more applicants mocked her for seemingly overestimating herself, Eleonora didn't seem to bother. She received a paper specifying her courses and information and moved confidently to each test.
Eleonora started with the magic test, which consisted of a simple one-step test: to confirm having a magic circle, learn a couple of simple but not easy spells, and use them successfully. As the test needed to confirm the students' capability to learn spells, not simply use ones they spent a long-time learning and mastering.
There stood several professors, each tending to a student, though among the professors were some outstanding senior students helping with the testing process, Eleonora approached one of the free professors as she handed him her paper.
"Unique blood magic?" read the professor in surprise as he continued, "Unique magic gets a free pass as it cannot be tested and is highly evaluated. Though, you simply need to show me that magic"
Eleonora nodded as she again formed a magic circle over her hand as blood started flowing out of her hand and back as it healed the skin it had cut open.
"Amazing, to think I would witness such lost magic that hasn't been witnessed in ages. You pass, though you will be later summoned for further evaluation and testing of your capabilities and limits once you settle in, welc–"
The professor who was about to congratulate her stopped mid-sentence as he realized she had applied for all other courses, which could lead to her still failing the entrance exam.
"Young girl, did the clerks not notify you? You could end up failing for choosing this many courses?"
"No, they did" answered Eleonora with a straight face.
"It's bad to be so arrogant, you may end up losing everything for coveting this much; it's against the rules, but I can help you drop those other courses, especially the swordsmanship"
"No, it's fine, it isn't arrogance if I know I can pass them, I can manage through"
"But you won't be able to use strengthening magic"
"It will still be fine; can I move on?"
The professor looked at her angrily before sighing and giving her the paper back, and she left before she came back again.
"I'm sorry, I just realized I was rude just now, thank you for your kindness, but I will really be fine" said Eleonora with a smile before leaving again.
"It won't be too late to get her in once she learns a lesson in humility after failing" thought the professor.
After the magic test, Eleonora was heading for the swordsmanship test when she noticed there were too many students undergoing it.
After all, it was the test with the most applicants that many people could undertake as long as they could use the unrefined mana in their bodies for simple strengthening magic that didn't necessarily need magic circles.
As such, the tests were also more complicated to better filter the gems among the applicants, but even then, the test professors were still swamped with applicants.
Eleonora then decided to take the other four tests first as there didn't seem to be as many applicants taking them.
The alchemy test was as simple as doing a bit of an intermediate experiment under a professor's guidance.
Even though the alchemy test was known to be simple considering the applicant takes guidance from the professor for it.
Even considering its simplicity, Eleonora still abnormally breezed through as she barely even needed any guidance from the professor and relied only on the written instructions, finishing the fastest among all other applicants who even received guidance from supervising professors.
In a similar manner, Eleonora also breezed through the remaining three tests for tactical, political and general studies, as each test simply consisted of a written test which Eleonora again finished the fastest with the highest grades in each of them.
At this point, Eleonora was already considered a very rare talent that only comes once in forever. After succeeding in all of those tests, she could now fail the swordsmanship test and still be admitted into the academy, which made the professors understand the source of her arrogance – no, confidence.
But even after the miracles she had shown so far, most still expected her to fail the last test as it was still absurd for a unique magic user to pass the swordsmanship test.
The first stage was simple but was the strongest filter of numbers; the applicants only needed to use strengthening magic and use their power to punch a measuring doll that could quantify a person's strength.
As soon as Eleonora handed her paper to the professor, he looked at it before throwing it away for her to catch.
"You fail" said the professor.
"Why?" asked Eleonora as she calmly watched her paper fall to the ground without flinching to pick it up.
"What do you mean 'Why'? Don't waste my time, there are many applicants to test for me to play around with an arrogant brat"
"I'm not arrogant nor am I a brat, so I ask for my right to take the test"
"Is that so? Then I will test you, but if you fail, I will be making sure you don't enter the academy no matter how many other tests you have passed, you good with that?"
"Sure"
"Thought so, now scram – wait, what?"
"I said sure, I want to take the test"
"You damn brat. Fine, take your shot"
Along with the professor's permission, Eleonora took a step forward as she made another circle of blood magic over her hand that didn't seem to do anything.
"HEY, the use of magic is prohibited, you are disqualified"
"What do you mean by 'the use of magic is prohibited'? Everyone here uses magic before taking their punch, no?"
"Yeah, element-less strengthening magic, not whatever you just did"
"Whatever did I just do? I didn't affect the doll with my magic but myself"
As the two continued arguing, a magic professor came running.
"What is happening here?" asked the professor.
"What business do you have asking? I'm failing this student for using magic"
"I was sent here by Professor Aron. What magic did the girl use?" said the magic professor as he pointed in a direction.
The swordsmanship professor looked at the direction the other professor was pointing at, only to notice an old professor called Aron waving at him.
"The magic she just used doesn't seem to have affected the doll, so there shouldn't be a problem with her continuing. What she just used is unique magic that seems to have affected only her own body"
"Alright fine, take your punch already"
Eleonora then moved forward as she prepared her left hand for a punch.
"Do you really think you can hold back?"
"What now? I'm left-handed, you have a problem with that too?" said Eleonora in an annoyed tone.
"Fine, knock yourself out"
Eleonora then took in a breath before using her left hand for a punch that shocked the bystanding applicants, senior students, and even professors. As the doll didn't evaluate Eleonora's punch by number but instead was torn apart by her punch as even Eleonora looked in shock.
"Ah, maybe – I should have held back?" thought Eleonora before gathering her composure.
She looked at the professor with a smug expression.
"So, do I pass?"
"You, uh – yeah but the doll, it costs –" said the professor as he thought, "Even though it's near impossible, it's my responsibility to stop the applicant if it feels like they would damage the doll, but then again, she didn't just damage it, oh this months' pay is out of the window"
As Eleonora looked at him, he stopped his thoughts and continued.
"Ehm, yeah, you pass, just pass me your paper I will give you a passing degree"
Upon his request, Eleonora's face shifted, expressionless yet scary, as she answered.
"I don't remember dropping my paper, so why do you think I would pick it up?"
"You–" The professor could feel the stare of the old professor Aron at his back as he swallowed his pride and picked the paper off the ground and gave it back to Eleonora
As professor Aron watched the scene, he seemed amused as he talked to the assistant next to him.
"I have had enough for the day; I will be heading back to my office. Call that girl to my office once she passes her exam but give her some time to rest"