Ch.4 - Before the Test

In a big hall in the center of the Academy were gathered all the first-year students. Like one might expect from an Academy in a fantasy setting people were defined by their rank within the year, and treated as numbers, 1000 was the lowest, and 1 was the highest.

As you might expect from such a system fights were a regular occurrence, the school which had the goal of training every student to become a general or an official heavily invested in training facilities, fighting arenas, fights, and competitive dungeon expeditions.

Yes dungeons exist, this is a Japanese novel after all. Dungeons were explained as dimensional rifts, created because of magical instability, they are their own enclosed space (or ecosystem) with their own population and "bosses" called leaders by the locals.

The reason people ventured into dungeons was that the materials, plants, weapons, or simply ores found there were rare enough to be worth the risk of dying.

The same dimensional rift could appear in different places, yes even in the demon realm (physically located on this planet, they are basically another race created by another god, I will not bore you with this), that is why different adventurers of different nations could find themselves inside, guaranteeing a fight to the death. The reason why I don't believe that rifts are that much of a natural phenomenon is that said rift can either close randomly, yeeting everyone inside out (happens mostly when someone has been too many weeks inside) or close when everyone that entered inside that particular rift dies. Sus af.

This nation was small yes, but do not be fooled into thinking of them being minuscule because of the low number of nobles being 452 (plus 1500 landowners, that don't really count as nobility but act as mayors)

the system was very well-oiled and worked extremely smoothly, the country was the size of France!

Nobles felt special, they were separated from the commoners who lived their life earnestly by just paying taxes, there were close to no interactions between nobles and commoners except in this very same Avalon Academy where the best commoners were recruited into noble cliques knowing fully well that the commoners invited here could be an exceptional ally as shown by the fourth last king, his best friend (a commoner) was the key to repeal invasions from neighboring countries while the main bulk of the army was on the western front fighting against demons; said commoner later launched a counterattack conquering a good part of the eastern lands now part of our kingdom, the King directly gave him the title of Duke (something never happened before) and made it law for the commoners in Avalon Academy to be treated with respect. That Duke was called Regoi and his family name later became Regiens, the Regiens Duchy is probably the second wealthiest duchy after ours.

This world has a very complex history but is very cool nonetheless.

How do they sort each individual rank? They use a runic Crystal Ball. The runes are there to assess the Element and strength giving out numerical values for both. Additionally, a golden hue surrounding the ball meant you were a hero, and that meant as you might have guessed that the moment someone is a hero everyone knows, it is not a proper Japanese novel if every single character isn't either impressed or jealous of the main character after all.

"Christopher Arden?" hearing my name I stood up from my seat and reached the speaker

"Good, please stand in front of that Crystal Ball and touch it while slowly letting out your mana"

"Got it"

It was impossible to cheat the ball, letting more mana or less out changed nothing, it was a foolproof system.

"I see ice magic" the examiner turned to his colleague "Please give him the badge" After a few seconds on my uniform appeared a badge symbolizing my affinity with ice magic; this would help both teachers with their lessons and students in recognizing one another.

After a few more seconds I was escorted to the sparring field, rank was not only about your magic capabilities but also your fighting prowess. Nobles were trained with the basics before coming here, most were taught with swords others were taught with other weapons. Initially, I also was trained with a sword but I was never a fan, while admittedly cool to watch, it also meant getting too close to the enemy, and considering that I did not have a system that would speed up my training regarding the combination of magic and cold weapons like the main character and that our first encounter with a horde of demons was due in two years I decided to switch to a spear.

There is a need to note that while important, and considering that mages will later abandon their weapons in the course of their years in this Academy, this test is meant to evaluate a student's combat sense more than prowess, that is why going in this fight I decided to hold no weapon, ice for me was enough.

Tens of examiners were evaluating students in this big field, smaller barriers were erected around each individual arena to ward off from strays, inside one of these arenas there was a free examiner intently looking at me so I decided to go there Alfred in tow, I saw the two men giving each other a nod but I didn't make much of it, Alfred was apparently part of the army, maybe they met there.

"Name is Geralth Proudmore, darkness mage and I will be your professor of the "Mana Construct Formation Theory" class, given that you will be placed in Class A that is." he looked at me with a challenging grin

"Christopher Arden sir, please take care of me" Noting that the taunt didn't work and that his collaborator started taking notes (I guess the bit was part of the test) Geralth took out a dark cube that turned into a sword.

"No weapon?" he asks

"No, sir"

Nodding he answers "Understandable, not that it would make any difference" After a pause he continues

"The test starts: NOW!" the moment he said those words I immediately took a step back and launched an ice shard at my opponent's figure.