The aptitude tests part II

"So, what does this mean then?" asked Eskaria, she was getting more anxious. Well, even she herself was quite surprised. She didn't think she had magic, and now this large, funny looking crystal had proved she had it. However, it seemed as if her magic was not normal, considering the silver-haired professor was hesitating to explain what her affinity was.

"Don't worry about it. Anyway, you're next", she spoke to Reeve.

He walked to the crystal with excitement. He could barely hold it together, as he was being overtaken by his excitement. After the journey which almost got him killed … actually, scratch that. He was undead, and not only did he find out he could fight using martial arts, now he was about to find out if he could use magic as well. Who wouldn't be excited in this scenario?

After taking a couple of deep breaths, he placed his hand on the crystal. Initially, there was no reaction, and when the professor was about to call him, the milky white substance in the crystal started changing color. Unlike Eskaria's case, there was no flash of light. Instead, a black color spread from the center of the crystal, until it completely dyed the once white substance black.

Unfortunately, it didn't end there. A small black vine grew from the black substance, and then it suddenly grew bigger and bigger. It broke from the crystal, and then surrounded the crystal. This kept on going, until the entire crystal was covered in black vines!

CRACK! CRACK!

Sounds of something cracking echoed in the hall, causing the middle-aged man and lady Kyrra's expressions to turn gloomy. Their eyes widened in shock, as this had never happened before. Minutes later, the entire crystal exploded into countless smaller shards. The vine withered before cracking, and then finally exploding into countless wooden shards.

"Oh no! This cannot be happening!" lady Kyrra pressed her right hand on her forehead. She muttered something, which wasn't audible to Reeve, as he turned with a wry smile.

Everyone now had surprise filled on their faces. Now, to Reeve, there was good news. He could use magic, the now destroyed crystal had confirmed that.

The bad news was that whatever magic he had, probably wasn't something the school could deal with. And this was his own speculation, since he noticed the silver-haired professor had a pale face … it was much paler than his…

She looked like she had seen a ghost. Never mind the fact that Reeve was a zombie, what she had witnessed was ridiculous, much like seeing a ghost!

"Now, moving on. We'll start with you", as she said this, she pointed at Soren.

Soren looked sideways, before pointing at himself. Lady Kyrra nodded. Soren looked absent-minded as he walked over to the second crystal.

"Just like the first crystal, all you need to do is place your hand on the crystal. It will absorb mana from you and then gauge how potent your magic is. The crystal will flash into different colors depending on your potential. There are five colors that show your potential.

"Just like how there are ranks between people who do magic, the same principle applies here. Yellow color means the furthest you can reach is the D rank, Red means C rank, Blue means B rank, and Black means you can graduate from this college as an A rank. Grey means you have the potential to return and study magic further as an S ranked mage.

"However, all the S-ranked mages are guild masters. If your potential reaches the A rank, then that means you can study here", Lady Kyrra explained, even though her heart bled because of the shattered crystal.

"Wait a minute, how long are the students supposed to spend learning magic?" asked Reeve, curiously. Just because someone had potential didn't mean they would be able to grasp all the concepts taught in class in such a short period of time!

The colleges back in his world knew this! That's why there were such things as tutorials and whatnot.

"Two years. In other words, you're supposed to reach the A rank in two years. Failure means expulsion!"

"What? So, even if one has enough money, they can't just start learning magic?" Reeve asked.

"Ha! I wonder where you heard that nonsense from", Lady Kyrra chuckled.

Soren was still standing by the crystal, and his eyes were red, with his yawns getting more annoying by the second. As the lady professor nodded at him, he placed his hand on the giant crystal in front of him. There was a bright flash of light, which started as green, before switching to yellow.

It didn't take a second before the color switched from yellow to red. From there, it switched from red to blue, and from blue to black. However, Soren remained motionless, with his hand placed on the glowing crystal.

"You can ta--"

Before lady Kyrra finished her statement, the black color changed to a bright grey, and then remained like that. The glow finally dissipated, and the white color returned to the crystal.

"Hmm, you have the potential to be an S-ranked mage. Interesting", lady Kyrra's voice echoed in the hall. It seemed as if her voice contained a hint of disappointment, which Reeve thought was weird. Didn't this lady say that S-ranked mages could start their own guilds?

Then again, Reeve didn't know what a guild was. He realized that thinking about it wasn't going to help his case. Also, he realized that Karim had lied to him. He had said anyone could learn magic, as long as they had the coin. However, from all these tests, it seemed as if there had to be special characteristics that allowed you to study magic.

"You go next My-- … eh … what did you say your name was again?" asked lady Kyrra, while looking at Eskaria, who was in a daze of sorts.

"Eskaria!"

"Right, you're next."

Eskaria walked towards the large spherical crystal that was in front of them. He passed by Soren, who was still yawning. As she arrived, she placed her hand on the crystal, with a soft sigh. The crystal glowed from green, to yellow, and then from yellow to red. It stopped at red color, for a full five minutes, before it changed again to blue, and then from blue to black, and finally it changed to grey.

Before Eskaria could remove her hand, however, the light changed color from grey to purple, and then as its intensity increased, cracks began showing on the crystal.