A day without laughter, a day wasted.

The exoskeleton of Josh's pincer was especially tough, but cracks still appeared upon meeting Flynn's fist. Flynn's fist wasn't doing any better, he could feel his knuckles shatter upon contact, twisting his hands in an abnormal angle. Flynn and Josh were both sent tumbling back, skidding across the sandy arena. Mana instantly flowed to his wounded hand, restoring his broken knuckles. His hand healed while he tried to catch his breath. Josh's hand returned back to normal, since the change was unstable and temporary. His hand was also bleeding, but were in much better condition than Flynn. "Invigorate," he chanted, as his bleeding hand slowly healed.

Clenching his fists, Flynn prepared for round two. This time, he won't allow Josh to prepare for his assault. Flynn's power amplified as he reinforced himself with mana. Rushing fowards, he chanted, "Scalpel!" The thin fragment of compressed mana appeared in his hand again, as he brandished it at Josh. Before Josh could react in time, he saw Flynn right in front of him, pointing the deadly spell at his throat. "I surrender," Josh said, putting up his arms. He was already out of mana. "That was a close fight," Flynn said, putting his hand foward. Shaking his hand, Josh replied, "Thanks, but I bet you still have more than half of your mana reserves full." Actually, the fight only costed Flynn about a quarter of his mana, which was already more than Josh's maximum capacity. Although Scalpel was a spell that required loads of mana to cast, Flynn only activated it when needed, and for only short periods of time.

The membrane of mana disappeared, marking the end of the battle. Josh and Flynn's stomach both growled in hunger, due to the increased metabolism that Invigorate caused one to become hungry easily. "Cafeteria?" Flynn asked. "Count me in," Kevin said, also hungry after his arm healed. "Food is on me," Flynn said. "If that's the case, I'm also going to join," said Brian, ears perking up instantly when he heard that Flynn was going to pay for the meal. "You barefaced brat," Flynn criticized. "Who doesn't like a free meal?" Brian said audaciously. The food sold in the cafeteria was priced for Earthlings, so it was basically free for rich mages. There were poor mages whose parents saved money their entire lives to pay for Mana Adaption for a better chance of a better life.

The food served in the cafeteria was mediocre, but Flynn wasn't really that picky of an eater. Slurping up the noodles that were drowned in kimchi broth, the four teens were chatting about their tests. "You are all over the forum," Kevin said, showing the post that Flynn had already replied to. Shrugging, Flynn replied, "It's no use trying to convince these people." Just before Flynn could continue speaking, he heard a voice behind him. "Whoops," Flynn heard, as steaming hot soup poured all over him. The student pretended to fall down with lame acting skills. A small group of students were giggling in the corner of the cafeteria, definitely the ones who came up with the plan. "I'm really sorry," the student on the ground said, not having even the slightest sliver of genuineness. "It's OK," said Flynn, helping the teen up with a warm smile. The teen ran way, barely containing his laughter.

"Are you alright?" Brian asked, with a look of concern on his face. The other two people also looked at Flynn with care, as if he had received a fatal wound. "I don't think hot soup could harm a mage in the slightest bit," Flynn replied, confused. "No, we mean like did you hit your head hard when you were sparring Josh?" Brian asked. Recalling the fight, Flynn didn't remember any injuries other than the lobster pincer. "You helped the guy up!" Brian said, not believing Flynn was someone who would do something like this. "Oh, you mean that," Flynn said, finally realizing what Brian meant. "I helped him up because I want to give him a small gift. It should happen anytime now," Flynn said, counting down from three. 3...2...1 as Flynn finished counting, he snapped his fingers.

The person who spilt the soup on Flynn suddenly fell to the ground, writhing in pain. His friends, who he was chatting with, all come close, trying to check if he was alright. Suddenly, the teen ripped out the largest fart ever known to mankind. The putrid smell of rotten eggs instantly assaulted his friends, who were all crouching next to him. They gagged as they backed off from the kid, who still couldn't control his bowels. "You! You did this," said the teen, pointing at Flynn. Clapping and laughing wildly, Flynn said, "Like my gift?" "How did you do that?" asked Kevin, pushing his meal foward, as he lost all appetite. "Invigorate has some very special interactions with the gut microbiome. The small stimulation makes the bacteria go haywire, making it a harmless but humiliating prank. All I had to do was to cast a miniature version of Invigorate on his gut," said Flynn, tears rolling down his eyes as he laughed.

The kid quickly crawled to the restrooms as he felt another sensation brewing, something much more "explosive" than passing gas. "Good luck! It'll be good for your guts, I swear," Flynn said, laughing. "Great, you've ruined our appetite," Brian complained. "It's fine, we should be heading back to class," Josh said, checking the time. Lunch break was over, and they had classes in the afternoon. On the way back, they were talking about the first round of tests. Flynn's test results were already well known due to the incident. "Our test was very easy, did not even need to use the catalyst," Kevin said, explaining the test to the others. They were asked to convert mana into energy, which was the main source for energy in the modern world. Conversion mages would work at power plants, converting the mana crystals into electricity, easily powering the whole world. Kevin easily passed the test since he'd been practicing for quite a while.

Brian's test was much harder, they had to successfully retrieve a code that had several failsafes. Luckily, the systems that were used to prevent Tech mages were quite outdated, so Brian bypassed them quite easily. "How did Drew do?" asked Flynn, curious about their class's top student. "A perfect score. He already qualified even before taking the test, but he still took it, getting a perfect score," Brian replied, shrugging. Talented and also incredibly hardworking, Drew was not a force they could possibly compete with. Perhaps only the elite class could clash against Drew. The elite class was a special classroom full of gifted mages, some of the top mages in the country. They had to pass several tests that definitely exceeded normal highschool mage's prowess. Flynn didn't even pass the first stage, which was just a written exam. He had asked Drew once about why he didn't join the elite class, Drew's reply being he didn't see the point in joining a special class.

Getting back to class, the homeroom teacher was already scribbling something on the blackboard. Noticing that almost everyone was present, the teacher turned on the projector. The presentation that the teacher opened had only two large words right on the center of the slide, Sports Day. "Not this again," Flynn groaned. Sports day was the time where classes would compete against each other to win a prize, usually just some sort of trophy and some extra credits. But the major events were always so lackluster for Flynn, such as 100 meter dash, a relay race, and tug of war. With most of his interest lost, Flynn was going to take a short nap. But just before he could rest his head on the table, the teacher said, "I know that most of you are bored by the thought of this event, but this year it's different. Due to the rising threats of other organizations and rogue mages, Eternity has sponsored us to hold another event. Battles, both one on one and team battles would be the main event for this year."

This definitely piqued Flynn's interest. Which hot-blooded teenager would refuse the chance of testing their spells on others. Forcefully calming himself down, Flynn felt like something was off. The first round of Element Registration had already begun, what's the point of sponsoring this event if they couldn't recruit the students anymore? "This year's event will also be accompanied by other highschools, including the new Eternal Mage school," the teacher continued. As the teacher explained the event, everything Flynn slowly had an idea of what was going on. "Are you excited for the event?" whispered Kevin, sitting behind Flynn. "Stepping stones," Flynn said. "What do you mean by that?" Josh asked, eavesdropping on the conversation. "If I had to guess, Eternity probably came up with some kind of new breakthrough, and they want a stage to advertise their new product. Well, it's just my speculation, " Flynn said, shrugging.