26 The Nightmare returns

After a few more people came in, the doors to the entrance were tightly shut and sealed in by a sort of barrier. They're probably doing this to prevent any outside help from interfering, but it seems a bit overkill for my taste...

Once everything was secured, the teachers began to roam around to instruct us. Each of us was asked a few more questions, and then we were split based on the mage type that we classify as.

Weapon-class mages, or people who generally use magic to enhance their strength using spells as well as physical weapons as a catalyst, were rounded up at the right side of the building.

While caster-type mages were just as how the name sounds...Mages who don't use weapons, and instead focus on casting full-on spells. And of course, since this was technically my classification, I was brought to the opposite area...

Considering how vastly different the styles and systems of teaching there were for the two classifications of mages, it was inevitable that we'd be separated so as to be analyzed and taught properly...However...

I find it really disappointing that I won't be able to watch my favorite three demonstrate their strength...While I could peek at them using magic, the guards were watching everyone like hawks. And I could tell that they're no pushovers, one wrong move and I could be kicked out...

So for now I could only suppress my desires and play along with this farce...

We were then brought into a room with a lot of ancient artifacts in them. From the way they were built, I'm guessing they're devices used to measure the quality of a person's magical quality...And my hunch proved to be correct once a professor went into a stage and explained as such...

All of us were then lined up into different groups and took turns using the artifacts.

There were about five professors observing each applicant carefully. They were taking notes of the numbers that come out from the artifacts while whispering among each other in a low tone...

I actually find it to be quite a pleasure to watch them do their absolute hardest to hide their emotions from their faces. There was this one applicant that possessed one of the tiniest mana pools that I've ever encountered, and couldn't even emit a lick of magical energy.

The people behind him were practically sneering, while the professor's faces were as stoic as stone. But I could tell that they were also dying inside of laughter. It was already set in stone that he won't pass with the standards this school has...

But upon realizing this I got a bit worried, will the emo guy with the spear be alright?

I know that magical energy isn't everything when it comes to Weapon-type mages, but it is still an important factor...Hmmm, I don't want to see anyone interesting get taken out so early in the game...Should I do something?

But just as I was pondering about that, the professors had already called me for my turn

"Name?"

"Oh erm, it's Dante Lenington"

Some of them looked surprised upon hearing my last name, but the head professor sneakily tapped them on their legs, to which they clear their throats before reverting back to being as professional as ever.

"Alright, please give us a moment"

The head professor said as they quickly attached the artifacts to my body. They felt quite heavy, but I could sense some pure crystals attached to them, as well as some well-crafted magical runes. This was quite impressive. I reckon if I steal it now and give it to Sasha, then she would be creaming in her pants in excitement...

"So...What do I do now?"

"Please just relax. The artifact will tell us all we need to know"

"Hmmm, that's cool. Hey, can you tell me this if it's no trouble, why go through all the hassle of using this instead of just sensing the magical energy of the applicants on your own? I reckon you guys are expert mages so you're more than capable to do that, and it'll save you guys a lot of time"

The professor smiled upon hearing my question

"Good question, Mr. Dante. Make no mistake, we're fully capable of accurately gauging the magical energy of people. But there are such instances in which...troublesome people, would conceal their own strength for their own benefit"

"And you guys don't like that?"

"Of course not, we just want to be in the know about the strengths and weaknesses of our students. And using these ancient artifacts that were created by the first headmaster, would make our jobs way easier .."

"Ah, I see, thanks for that. Are you sure you guys are allowed to tell me this by the way?"

"It's not really a secret of ours, so no. Anyways, we're gonna start now"

The runes engraved on the artifact glowed for a while. And I could feel a sort of foreign energy trying to peer through my body. I then closed my eyes and carefully manipulated my magical energy so that it won't find me out. Needless to say, it was quite hard to do, even for me

If I had to put it some way, It's like planking for ten minutes. It doesn't matter how well-built your body is or how experienced you are at that stuff, it'll still feel like torture by the time you're done...

And after the results were out, the professors walked closely and took note of it...

"Hmm, well this is quite surprising..."

"What is?..."

"It's nothing, please forget what you've heard. Putting that aside, the overall magical energy that you've had gave you a total quality score of 6.5...Not too shabby, Mr. Dante...Please proceed to the line over there for the next test"

"Sure"

I could hear them faintly whispering against each other about their disappointment. I suppose they'd expected more from the brother of a prodigy, so sorry about that folks. No worries though, the day of me showing my true colors will come...

I just don't know if you'll be happy or terrified by then...

But anyways, I guess not even an artifact created by the first headmaster, the one considered the most powerful mage in our country could see through my ruse, huh? Hehe, that's good to know...

After walking toward the line they pointed, I sat down and we waited for the others to finish up. Oddly enough, by the time everyone was done, there were two lines. One was headed to the next room, while the other was headed back to the room we were in before...

And it didn't took no genius to figure out why that was the case...

Luckily though, I was placed in the former. So whatever happens to those bozos that failed was none of my concern...

This little test continued for quite some time, with each and every one of us being tested for our magical capabilities and mana quality. And just like before, I tried to manipulate my score to land at the most insignificant, average one that I could possibly go to

They also gave us a sort of written exam to find out about our general knowledge of spell runes as well as the fundamentals of magic. And they added a bit of well general history stuff

For some reason, most of the applicants seemed to be having a hard time, with almost all of them scratching their heads and sending out their prayers to the gods. As for me, I was suppressing the great urge that was building inside me, telling me to just yawn and go to bed...

This was so elementary that I could solve them all in under a minute while making origami or something...

But I followed the general plan I had in mind, I pretended to be confused and struggling before passing my answer sheet. The test continued for a few more hours until our numbers were down to just a hundred in total. This may still sound many, but for reference, there were about seven hundred of us Caster-type mages when we started this test...

And right now, all of the caster and weapon-type mages were gathered in the same room. Needless to say, these numbers were a surprise to many...

This school was really tough...Though I guess that's to be expected already. Most magical institutions would probably kill to have this many students. Their expenses do not come cheap after all, yet these guys are filtering us out like dirt...

This place does seem to be a different breed...

I mean, look at the place we're in right now, It's a massive dome that has a forest inside of it. The amount of money they'd need to spend to maintain something like this must be crazy. Robby would surely have a field day if he saw something with such complex magical engineering like this...

But that aside, many of us began to whisper among ourselves and wonder why we were sent to a place like this.

And all of those questions were squashed the moment a student steps up into the stage. I was stationed further at the back of the crowd, so I couldn't really see who it was. But I was hearing some whispers about it being a hot girl or something

I pushed through the crowd expecting to see eye candy, but what I felt was something similar to pouring lemon juice directly into my retinas. My heart immediately sank the moment I noticed who the person was, It was a familiar face that I had hoped I'd no longer see...

She wore her gentle smile as she looks at us from atop the podium. Her white hair was fluttering with the breeze, and the gaze in her eyes seemed to be oddly sharp. It was obvious that she was looking for a certain someone, and I happen to guess who that someone was, so I sneakily hid behind the crowd and erased my presence...

But alas, fate is truly a cruel mistress. My sister seems to have a bit of a sixth sense when it comes to finding me, and she was somehow able to spot me out amongst the massive crowd of a hundred people

She wasn't even speaking, yet I could hear the sharp words that she was saying in her mind

She then cleared her throat and adjusted the volume of her voice with the use of a spell

"A pleasure to meet you, participants of this year's admission. My name is Gemma Lenington, a second year of Arcana University, and the current student council president for this year. I hope I'll get to know more about you folks soon..."

She hasn't said much yet, but I already have a bad feeling about this...