Hierarchy

Two months had passed since Niana's adjuvant made their way to the labyrinth. Right now, the team is already in the 54th floor, and it was recorded as the fastest clear in the history of that labyrinth.

It is also added that they only enter on weekends. This is the power of the Five Heads.

However, on the outside world, it is the start of the enrolment period.

Monday, on a busy street, at the capital of this kingdom: Alain.

A group of three is walking down a path towards a place where people are gathering. This is a tall watchtower, and an old one at that.

Inside the tower, is a circular podium, and the place was packed with people with the age of nineteen up to twenty-four years old.

This is the Sorting Tower : Professional.

This is where people take courses to make their lives smooth sailing and become known in this world.

There are four sorting towers in this world. The Elementary, Middle, General and Professional.

Each sorting tower is attended by School Masters under the said categories, and choose promising students that they can take in as disciples.

The fourth sorting tower is the center of attention today.

Not because of the School Masters, but because of the six youths that came in.

They are the ones who had managed to clear half of the labyrinth inside two months:  Niana, Keith, Jovanna, France, Louis and Celestine; also known as the Hexagram.

Today was the day that the long debate will be over: will Hexagram stay in one school, or they will choose the path which they excel?

There are seven big schools in the country. In addition to them, there are also schools that focus on herbs, magic circles and others. There are also small schools that only focus on general knowledge and magic.

The seven schools are ranked as follows starting from the lowest: Pentagon City Academy, Divine Heart University, Mechanical Spade Institute, Clover Academy, True Shot Diamond Institute, Martial Sphere University, and the highest one, Glorious Star College.

Pentagon City Academy, is like what they say "jack of all trades, master of none" type of school. It has instructors and professors that are on the low end of the world of teaching, but they managed to still get into the seventh place due to being able to teach all kinds of knowledge. Also, it is near the Void Labyrinth, so it is the first line of defense against it. The School Master is Edwina Shiv, a genius of magical fusion and one of the people that helped Louis in developing the engine.

Divine Heart Academy, which is located in Heart Region, is a school of beast taming, hex training and things about using glyphs. It is located near the Crystal Forest. This forest is a normal one before, but due to the portal of Crystal Beasts being near it, some of the trees also crystallized. Mr. Lloyd Enu is the school master, which has tamed a crystal wyvern from inside the Crystal Forest.

Mechanical Spade Institute, located in the Spade Region, is an academy of science, research, technology, engineering and metals. This place is where the Abyss portal is near. This portal is the calmest of all the other portals. The School Master is Alan Musk, Louis' father. He is a researcher that made a lot of contributions such as watches that replenishes mana, the portable cryochamber and the first to send a rocket in the space. It was hit by an asteroid though.

Clover Academy is the school of mana, magic, magic circles, tools and incantations, which is located at the Clover Region, directly in front of the Venom Sloth Swamp. They use magic to filter the air and do things that may help them when the sloths come around. Emma Whittlelore is the School Master. She is a genius that can multicast six spells, weaving incantations, and instilling fear to the Venom Sloths.

True Shot Diamond Institute is the school of aether, weapons and ammunition. They are located near the Nether Portal, which is a bit easy for them to deal with because the ones in nether are not affected by magic but only physical attacks. Netherians also are weak against aether. Samantha Tendo is the School Master. She mastered iaido, the art of drawing sword, and she cut almost anything that she isn't pleased at.

Martial Sphere University, is a school of fist fighting, kicking, tackling and all sorts of using martial arts, located in the Sphere Region. The one thing they differ from True Shot is that they cannot use energies, but what they call "Flow". They can perceive the flow of energies, but they can't use it themselves. They are against the portal of demons, because this demons are riotous, and they are the only one who can see the invisible ones due to "flow". The School Master is Hao Lin, a woman who is too vicious in a fight, and can one punch a demon captain to death. She is someone that can easily win if it is a fist fight.

And lastly, the Glorious Star College, located in the Star Region, directly under the Human Portal, and are scumbags and douche bags, airheads and arrogant royalties and nobles of the society. Although they manage to get on top because of their bloodline supremacy, they are just weights that pull down a team. There are also some of them that are good, but the most of them are worse than demons. Simon Ramsay is the Head Master. He is extremely arrogant, wants things to go his way, selfish and cannot appreciate people around him. He look at them as tools, and the Five Heads are his lackeys.

The First Calamity, which opened up seven more portals in this world, is barely out of their jurisdiction, but is basically a threat they need to look after.

The seven school masters are one of a kind, and are geniuses in their own fields, but they also have things they can't do. And so, harmony is needed for them to exist, because if one of them falls, their forces will become weak, and they all can get extinct. Also, if something happens in the human portal, their hopes are like candle wicks being blown off, total despair will ensue.

The seven of them are sitting in the highest seats, below them is the five family heads, which is actually four because Alan is seated with the other School Masters.

They are looking at piles of papers, looking at some names that can possibly be under their tutelage. What caught their attention are three names that appeared at the end of the list.

And so, the test has started.

The first screening is bloodline purity. They will punch a small hole to their fingers, and then they will drop it in a ball, and they will be tested through magic. A drop of blood was already drawn from the head of the family, so the comparison will be made by magic. Also, it will be proven by a scientific DNA Test.

The next test is to build a weapon. The weapon must be useful towards fighting the threats of the world. It can be mid-ranged or short-ranged. They are given some paper to let them explain what they did.

The third test is aether test. They will be asked to hold a ball, and a number will appear, and it will test their affinity with aether.

The fourth and fifth test are also like that, but it tests mana and hex.

The sixth and final test, is to watch a practitioner do something, and they have to make see if what is the flow that the practitioner did.

And so, the first examinee went on. There are a hundred rooms, and all of them has those tests, in order for them to finish fast.

Five minutes had gone, and all the first hundred examinees exited. There are some numbers that they hold, and magically, the paper they are holding created six rows of data.

The scale was 0 to infinity, depending on how the magic will rate it. It is not biased for an AI is also watching over the exam. It gives its own grade, and basically, it is just around the one that was given by the magical balls.

Only Alan and Simon were given a holographic tablet, and they can see more data because the AI also inputs its data there.

The tablet is one of Alan's new technologies. Simon got it first because of the connection, and because Alan is his lackey.

Beside Simon is a woman, who wears a three way belt above her seemingly nice dress. Her smug face is too fierce, and a hint of obsession can be seen in there.

She is Imelda, the owner of the bakery where Zion was battered. She looked down on the peons that wants to show-off. She is yet another woman who clung to a rich man so she will be famous. She shamed her mother in front of many people, and kicked her father out of Simon's house when Simon took her in. She is one hell of a character, but people can't say anything, because Simon is all powerful, and he can pulverise them all at once. Though he won't use it against the creatures that threaten this world.

"Examinee number 1. Overall points: 246. Did not even met the minimum standard of 1000. Those who wants to get her can raise their hands if you want."

This is the format of their enrolment.

If they are not accepted, they can try next semester, or the next one. Fortunately, they can can be accepted when they reach the age of twenty-three.

The Head Masters also let the medium and small schools to choose first. That way, they can meet they can choose prodigies in the later parts more.

Because they are given only a hundred slots each year, so fifty now, and fifty next semester.

Zion, Cedric and Melrose are part of the last hundred people. Zion is 1125, Cedric is 1127 and Melrose is 1126. After them are only three people, and they are all arrogant young masters, and Zion managed to meet a familiar face.

Four months ago, he is thin and ragged. Now, he have some muscles, so the others won't realize it is him, but he knows the faces of all those who pushed him down that labyrinth.

Tony Router, a son of a viscount. He is one of the few "geniuses" that is said to be on par with Jovanna, but Jovanna has a sword and bow, he only has daggers, so the comparison is just for show.

The Hexagram is just in front of them, so Cedric and Melrose knows that they will be outshined, but they believe in their self. The only problem is Zion.

Two months ago, Solas discovered that this boy was sent from the Human Portal. Being a person that only came into this world few months ago, he does not know how this world works, nor how advanced is the technology here.

He is not even in tuned with the surrounding, so aether, mana and hex are out of his league. Also, he does not know the concept of flow, so he do not know it. Weapon creation is also not what he is good at. He can't even make a single magic circle, can't say the incantations well because he is new to the language, and he forgot his own language.

He is a complete fool in front of these people. So Cedric and Melrose are worried about him.

"Kevin Grand?" A woman came to them. At first, Melrose, who is mellow, became fierce. Cedric also glared at her.

Why?

She knows their surname. A surname that is only heard at the Clover region, but is exiled.

The lineage of Grand.

Celestine was shocked by the expressions of the two, but the ash-haired boy did not even flinch. He looked at the two, confused, and he looked at Celestine.

Zion then pointed at himself and have a questioning look.

"Yes? Are you Kevin?" Celestine asked.

"His name is Zion." Melrose said. She then stepped towards Celestine.

Keith sensed the flow of intent, and then, the five from Hexagram moved, and in a blink of an eye, there are five versus two match-up.

Although there are no weapons or others, they glared at each other.

"Hey Cedric, Melrose, stop it. She must have mistook me for someone else." Zion said and he bowed apologetically towards the five.

He then pulled the two back to their line, and positioned in front of them, in case they run amok.

He sighed. He remembered what Solas had said before. This two, are like short fuses. They explode fast. Well, now he knows that this two will fight for his sake.

He misunderstood. The two acted because of the delicateness of the topic of their surname.

Grand.