10 This is part of the exam, right?

Ephekt lead all the examinees through a tunnel into a large, circular arena. They all squinted as the sun came into view in the clear, blue sky.

Upon Ephekt's orders, all the male examinees lined up in alphabetical order based on their last names. After the usual confusion associated with lining up in that order they were all prepared for Ephekt's next order.

"My job here is done, your next proctor will be here...now."

Ephekt walked back down the tunnel, stopping briefly to greet the next proctor. Fyren was pleasantly surprised as a familiar face emerged from the shadows.

Lo and behold, it was Lucy Umbrel a.k.a. Miss Lucy.

She smiled and waved daintily to the line of examinees.

All of those who had never seen Lucy reacted as predictably as Fyren expected.

"Alright, examinees, my name is Lucy Umbrel and I'll take over for Ephekt for now. I'll start at the beginning of the line and move down, telling you all where to go depending on various factors, and not just what you put on your forms. Remember, each of your previous exams was carefully looked over and your answers may change what division you'll test for."

Fyren was one of the last in line, something that came with having a last name that started with 'T.' From where he was standing, he observed the four designated areas for each division. The area closest to them on the left side of arena was definitely for those testing for the Enforcement Agency. It was a clearing surrounded by a shimmering ring, designed for one-on-one fights.

The far, left area was where Fyren assumed he would be going. It looked like something he would be more accustomed to, that is, it didn't have any room for fighting. Instead it was a series of booths that no doubt used some sort of illusion to simulate scenarios.

Near right was the Hunter's Guild tests, lines of cages, with no doubt some nasty monsters, were set on a raised stage by a rack of weapons.

Fyren couldn't see any of the far, right area, but he knew it was for the Shah's Army.

While Fyren was somewhat dreading the upcoming test, he could tell the person to his right had no such feelings.

They were hopping up and down and grinning from ear to ear in between deep, audible breaths. They turned suddenly to Fyren, "Hey, what's your name? I'm Raph! What division are you testing for? I'm going to be in the Hunter's Guild. By the way, I'm from Sangunum, don't tell anyone but I'm wanted for theft in twenty cities, but that's all behind me."

The bundle of energy next to Fyren was the weirdest person he had ever seen other than the silver-haired, horned guy. He was about half a foot shorter than Fyren with waist-length, sandy brown hair that was almost blonde. He had white face paint and hazel eyes surrounded by red face paint. On his right ear, he wore a long, rectangular, gold earring and on his left he wore a gold chain with a blue gem shaped like a tear drop at the end.

He handed Fyren a piece of paper with a name scrawled messily across.

"Here's my signature, for posterity, it's going to be valuable in the future when I become the first Supreme Master of magic."

This guy is way too much to handle, did he say he's a criminal?. If I completely ignore him that'll more harm than good, just smile and laugh I guess.

Smile and laugh is just what he did.

Maybe it was because his attention was naturally drawn away from the...energetic individual, but Fyren noticed there were an unusual amount of guards wearing the blue cloak, boots, and vest of the Order of Lance. Although this was just a guess since he had never been to the magic exam preliminaries before.

In a few moments, Ephekt came down the line to them. He stopped in front of Raph and said, "Hunter's guild, area D you're ID is 60A." He gave Raph a slip of paper with his ID on it.

As Raph left to his area, Ephekt stood in front of Fyren, "Fyren Torr... Internal Protocols, that's area B, your ID is 10A," he gave Fyren a similar slip of paper.

After a deep breath, Fyren headed over to area B, as he did, he saw the Shah's Army testing area, surrounded by tall walls. Something in Fyren told him this was a little suspicious.

He arrived at area B, where only a handful of other people were.

"That's weird, Internal Protocols is the biggest division, why are there so few people?" Someone asked.

'Because most of the people in this division transferred from other divisions,' Fyren said internally. He thought it was pretty obvious, but you never know.

"Alright, Rookies!" a familiar voice yelled, "I would say congrats on getting here, but if you don't pass this part it will all be for nothing."

The voice belonged to none other than everyone's favorite thin-bearded, finger pointing, enthusiastic senior Goz.

"If you don't know me, my name is Goz, and I'm a magician in the Order of Lance's junior magician system," he walked over to one of the rectangular booths and slapped it "This baby here.will help all of you for this part, so for now pick one and get in."

Fyren chose the seventh. Not at the front and not at the back but still farther back than the middle.

The interior was about four feet wide and ten feet long of pure white tiles with gold mana glowing in between.

Goz cleared his throat before speaking through the booths and no doubt stretching out five fingers, "Ok, there are five things to remember. First thing to remember is not to panic, if you do, there's a possibility you will all be stuck in the illusion, we'll try to get you out, but there may be nothing we can do. This is a multi-sense illusion, so there's no way to break out of it unless you specifically attempt to do so. In this simulation, you will not have access to your abilities. When you don't have them, it's much easier to see how useful they'll be. You will see people you know and people you've seen recently, since the illusion does use some of your subconscious. Lastly, the situation will be the following: as many of you know, terrorists have been attacking Orders and magic exams throughout the realm, these terrorists have attacked this magic exam and it's your mission to stay out of the way of the experienced magicians present while simultaneously helping all the examinees escape."

The booth started shaking, Fyren braced himself and took a deep breath.

"Good luck!"

Fyren heard a countdown. 5... 4... 3... 2... 1... Simulation initiated,

Suddenly, what felt like an explosion rocked the booth Fyren was in and he fell backwards.

Everything went dark and Fyren stayed on the floor for a moment before picking himself up slowly.

'This must be the illusion, I just can't panic, first things first, I have to see what's going on,' Fyren told himself.

He stepped outside the booth and the reality of the illusion surprised him. The sun felt like the sun, the breeze felt like the breeze and the screams sounded like...screams.

He had no time to think any further. He immediately assessed his surroundings, people were running and Fyren could feel the shock waves of what he assumed was clashing magic.

He hear someone running towards him and saw that it was Raph.

"What's going on?!" he screamed.

Remembering not to panic, Fyren answered, "terrorists are attacking, leave the fighting to the magicians and get out of here."

"How can you be so calm?!" he screeched.

"This is just an illusion, it's part of the exam."

"What are you talking about?!"

"Just get out of here, it's dangerous."

"Not without you!"

'I just met this guy less than an hour ago,' Fyren thought confusedly.

Another explosion rocked the arena, cages from the Hunter's guild fell over and crystal-covered monsters broke free, roaring in glee at their freedom.

Fyren felt the ground underneath him shift and his heart jumped as he felt himself falling. He felt his hand graze Raph's outstretched hand before they both fell one, two, three floors below.

Gradually, Fyren checked to see if he was okay. Nothing felt broken, but he wasn't certain.

Raph stood above him, wide-eyed before falling to his knees, "Thank you! Thank you! I'll never forget this! Even when I'm rich and powerful I'll remember how you saved my life with your magic!"

'Saved... with my... magic. Hold on, I shouldn't be able to use my ability in the illusion.'

"Raph, what happened exactly?"

Raph lifted his head from the ground, "The ground collapsed and you fell, I tried to save you, but I ended up falling down with you. When I thought we were going to die, it looked like you emitted some sort of cloud or steam or something that suspended your fall and you kinda ended up breaking my fall before you fell the remaining, like, couple of feet."

The realization hit Fyren like a truck would if it was going to send someone to another world

This wasn't an illusion, the exam was actually under attack!

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