A fat young man looking in his early twenties, walked towards the stone.
Arriving there, he looked at Cloud Warrior Harga. "Can we have two chances or just one?"
"Just one."
Taking a deep breath, Don Zekir pointed his palm towards the stone as wind gathered visibly in a glowing cyan color before his palm and soon turned into an orb.
A second later, the orb shot towards the stone like a bullet and hit it.
The orb dispersed with a low bang.
The stone… unharmed.
"Failed!" Cloud Warrior Harga announced. "Next, Daniel Cartez!"
"Failed!"
"Next, Rhogin Linx!"
A slim and handsome man with shoulder-length brown hair and a thin beard arrived, wearing black trousers and a casual white linen shirt.
Arriving before the stone, his eyes glinted as he stretched his hand and touched the stone with his index finger.
Cloud Warrior Harga's eyebrows raised for the first time.
A second later… crack!
Pulling back his finger, Rhogin smiled as he looked at the small web of cracks where his finger was placed.
"Pass!"
"Next…"
Rudrean was startled at Rhogin's performance and asked, "Aeli, how did he do that?"
Aelira rubbed her chin, thinking. "I can't say for sure, but it did look like he used only mana, and no talent. There are three options. First, he has a powerful Magic stat, likely at A-rank or higher. Second, he has learned a spell that is efficient in breaking earth. Third, he has a mystic talent like yours."
She quickly added, "Mystic talents mean talents that are specialized and have their unique properties and the way they work. Then there are elemental talents like the one I have."
Rudrean nodded. "I see."
The people went by one by one.
The winners stayed, and those who failed went down.
Rudrean and Aelira were the last two to register for this exam, so their turn came at last.
"Next. Aelira."
The 13 people who had passed so far looked back at the duo.
Aelira strode forward calmly and confidently.
Arriving before the stone, she pointed her finger at it.
Flames wisped out and formed into a spear.
Everyone was unimpressed so far.
But a second later, the flame spear began spinning.
And it spun faster and faster, turning into a drilling spear.
Cloud Warrior Harga's eyes glinted. 'Impressive power is packed in that spear. Despite infusing 80% of her mana, her control is still dominant for a spell of this level.'
Swoosh!
The Flame Drilling Spear shot forward and drilled through the stone halfway before losing its power.
"Pass."
"Next, Rudrean Zen!"
Rudrean began walking, a bit nervous, and a bit excited.
'Show them what you got, darling.' Aelira winked as she passed by him.
'Yes.'
Arriving before the stone, Rudrean took a calm breath before pointing his index finger towards the stone.
He could feel it already. His own magic was telling him that he could easily break this stone.
His S+ Magic granted him mana that had a qualitative difference from ranks below it.
He had a pond of mana in pure liquid form in his Life Nexus.
But Aelira had mana in gaseous form in her Life Nexus since her Magic was at B+.
'Ok, this should do it.'
In front of Rudrean's fingertip, a wisp of flame manifested and flew towards the stone at a steady but slow pace.
"Pff… you came here with that attack?" A young man, looking in his late teens with spiky blue hair, snickered in a low voice.
Some people agreed with his words.
Some frowned.
Cloud Warrior Harga's eyes had widened like never before.
'Am I sensing it correctly?!' Rubbing his eyes, he looked at the wisp again as it was about to hit the stone, or rather, touch the stone.
And the moment it touched, the part where it touched melted and turned into magma as it slid down.
"W-What?!"
"How is that possible?"
"Melting that stone is infinitely harder than breaking it, and his flame wisp did that?"
"A tiny part of it, but that's still insane. His Magic must be crazy high."
Cloud Warrior Harga saw Rudrean looking at him and snapped out of his daze. "Pass!"
"Kid, what's your Magic stat's grade?"
"It's S plus," Rudrean answered with a polite smile.
"I see…" Cloud Warrior Harga nodded and then looked at the rest of the people. "Alright. The entrance exam is over. All of you are officially students of Asterisk Arcane Academy!"
The people looked at each other, surprised and then overjoyed.
"Only one round to decide the students? I wasn't expecting that."
"Yeah, every examiner does different types of exams that are up to their liking. But one-round exams are rare. We are lucky."
"Don't be happy so soon, folks." Cloud Warrior Harga laughed. "Entering Asterisk Arcane Academy is the easy part. The hard part is managing to survive inside and competing for resources."
"There are ten ranks of students in this Academy. Tier-10 to Tier-1. All of you are at Tier-10 currently. Students at Tier-10 receive no weekly mission quota or weekly resources."
"If a student remains at Tier-10 rank for one week, they are expelled. So your main goal is to become a Tier-9 student within a week."
Cloud Warrior Harga pointed his finger upward. "If you want to become a Tier-9 student, climb up and enter the Tier-9 Student Ground. You will see 100 wooden houses there, spread in different locations past a river stream."
"Those 100 houses are occupied by Tier-9 students. As long as you challenge them in a duel and win, you can take their place and become a Tier-9 student. The size of houses varies, but the general rule is that if you are two people, you must challenge the layer 2 houses, which are bigger and are occupied by two people. If you want to form a group of three, you must challenge layer 3 houses for a three-versus-three battle. And you may challenge layer 4 houses if you are four or five people. You can have up to five people in one group, no more than that."
"If you fail to win a house and attain Tier-9 student rank, you can live in the Tier-10 Student Ground or pay with Mana Stones to stay at the inns in the town below."
Cloud Warrior Harga smiled. "If you want to get more benefits, access to magical facilities, and resources, you have to increase your rank. You can find out what you get at each rank by reaching that rank."
"That's all. Welcome to Asterisk Arcane Academy, and all the best in your endeavors."
After he finished speaking, Cloud Warrior Harga looked at Rudrean briefly and then flew away.
…
The fifteen people began walking the steps upward at different paces.
Rudrean and Aelira were at the very back.
Tier-10 Student Ground was on the way, so some of them made a left turn to check it out.
There were hundreds of people there.
All people had taken spots randomly and created makeshift borders around them.
It was just an open, uneven ground with thin forest-like scenery.
"So that's why he suggested the inn." Aelira chuckled. "Well, we don't have to worry. Let's go and win a house."
Then she magic-whispered, 'So we can make love comfortably.'
'Yes…'
Rudrean's ear tips turned red, but he was looking forward to it nonetheless.