Alex quickly came up with a plan to tackle the test.
To scan it first and answer the questions he knew for sure.
After that, he'd take on the questions he had doubts about and leave the ones he had no idea about unanswered — that way, they wouldn't deduct any points.
There were some simple questions, for example, the order of ascension or the division of elements.
He remembered those quite well, so he quickly marked the correct answers.
Then came more theoretical questions, like "Is it possible to mix conflicting elements in a core?"
They seemed hard, but the answers were still simple. Yes.
Then came the actual hard questions.
"What would happen if a person modified a spell's power node without revising the rest of the magic circle?"
Alex stood thinking for a moment.
He had studied magic circle theory, but he actually couldn't alter Windsplitter as he thought he would, since after studying, he realized that modifying a spell circle wasn't as simple as it looked.
If one wanted to modify a node in the magic circle, then they would need to check if the rest of the nodes could keep up — and he didn't know how to do that.
He then looked at the answers:
A: The spell will work as expected, with increased mana consumption.B: The spell would not work.C: The spell's circle could collapse, creating a backlash.
He immediately discarded answer A since, if creating a spell were that easy, then everyone could spam new spells.
But the next two were complicated, as he hadn't actually tinkered with magic circles before.
Still, after a bit of thought, he selected answer C — since if the spell simply didn't work, that would mean people could endlessly mess around with magic circles until a spell came out, which went against everything the books said about the care one needed when altering circles.
Alex then kept answering the questions he could deduce the answer to, but in the end, he still left five questions unanswered.
He didn't want to randomly guess answers, fearing he'd pick them wrong and reduce his mark.
When the three hours were done, he looked up and saw a few dozen empty seats already — those belonged to people the teacher had caught cheating. Alex hadn't noticed, as his full attention was on the test.
The woman clapped her hands when the time was up, and all the tests floated from the desks toward her hand, landing neatly.
"Okay, time's up. Next, you will head to the backyard, where you will take the practical examination," she explained.
"Then follow me."
As everyone followed the teacher, they all reached a backyard in the training zone.
"Now form a line. You will be given a paper and a quill. You'll need to fill in your level and elements, then list which skill or skills you use," the woman explained again.
After Alex wrote his information, he stood still in the line.
Marc, unfortunately, was several spots behind him, which meant they couldn't talk while waiting.
Luckily, the tests were held five by five, with one examiner watching over each candidate.
Alex watched as people fumbled over simple fireballs or simply threw pebbles at the target. Each time one of those happened, the examiner said nothing, quietly shaking his head while taking notes.
It seemed the academy checked cast speed, damage, and control — basically, the three most important things a mage needed. For martial artists, it was speed, strength, and refinement of their martial arts.
As Alex's turn approached, he started to grow a bit nervous. He didn't know what the standard of comparison was or how many spells a normal mage had.
But finally, his turn came.
As he stood in front of the examiner, who took his paper, he heard him speak.
"Hmm, water and wind. Apprentice mage. Windslicer and Watershield. 100% mastery in both. You don't have many skills, youngster, but having the only two you do mastered is not bad either. I personally prefer few but strong over an arsenal of garbage. Now, show me what you've got."
Alex looked at the target thirty meters away and raised his hand. In one second, five Windslicers were cast, all striking the dummy with great precision — cutting and dismembering it.
He poured more mana than usual into the magic circle, which made the Windslicers stronger, but it also increased his mana drain. In total, he spent almost 500 mana from his pool of 1,010. Normally, after five casts, he would have spent around 200, but that was how much extra mana he used.
He then cast Watershield and made it spin at a thousand RPM — his fastest yet — spending 50 mana per second to maintain it.
After five seconds, he released the skill and looked at the examiner. The man had a slight smile on his face, perhaps approving a little of his performance.
After he finished, Alex joined the onlookers and stopped to watch Marc.
Marc was being tested differently as a martial artist. He first tested his Fire Fist on the dummy, hitting it with all he had — the dummy's torso now had a hole big enough for a child to crawl through.
Then he tested his Stoneskin against the examiner, who hit him with the strength of an apprentice martial artist a few times.
As Marc approached, Alex gave him a thumbs-up and asked:
"How did the writing test go?"
To which Marc replied, "Pretty good, actually. I thought it was going to be harder, but thanks to all the study we did, everything seemed easy."
As they chatted some more, the entrance test was coming to an end.
The woman who had taken them through the tests spoke one last time.
"Tomorrow, the results will be placed at the academy entrance. If you see your name on the list, it means you got in. If not, then you didn't pass.
Also, from the 200 people accepted, you will be placed in a class depending on your result.
Those are:C: from 200 to 161D: from 160 to 121B: from 120 to 81A: from 80 to 41and finally S: from 40 to 1.
That's all. You may leave. Good luck."
The woman finished explaining, turned, and left.