Iron Doors

"Hngh!" Ivan took a deep breath and gathered all the strength he had in his childlike body.

With a shout, the boy pushed his sweaty palms against the black door with all his might.

But even after using all his strength, the door did not even shake, much less budge. 

Calvin saw this but remained quiet.

"Uncle….Hngh! It wouldn't…hngh! Budgeeeee!"

He was merely Ivan's guide here. 

Nothing more, nothing less. 

As his guide, he has already said too much in front of the child he was entrusted with.

The most he could do now was watch over Ivan and prevent him from doing something reckless after meeting a roadblock.

After all, it'd be hard for him to explain himself if Ivan were to suddenly die while taking Jumper Academy's entrance exam.

Moments after giving his all pushing the two black doors, Ivan's eyes became unfocused before gaining a bright new luster to them.

'Who the fuck designed the entrance exam? Did they not take manaless people like me into account when they were in the early stages of planning? Useless sons of Hades, I didn't think the humans of this era would be this brain dead.' Annoyed, Ivan thought to himself.

Placing his hand on the cold, iron surface, his eyes darted around the door as if he was looking for something. And when something caught his eye, he revealed a small smile.

'Bingo!' [Ivan]

Ivan muttered a few words before everyone was blinded by a flash of light. Following that, a short iron rod appeared in the boy's hands.

'This'll do.' Ivan smiled.

Focusing his gaze on a point of the stygian iron door, Ivan took a deep breath as he gripped the base of the iron rod tightly.

The moment the air in his lungs escaped through his nostrils, Ivan lunged forward towards the door like a hunter looking at his prey.

But when he was 4 meters away from the twin doors, Ivan started attacking the door like a madman. He stabbed his iron rod at random points of the twin doors like he was making art.

Calvin became confused.

'Hm? What is the kid doing? He was only supposed to push the door to enter yet he's attacking the twin doors with his iron rod. I don't know whether I should stop him though…Has this little roadblock already become an immovable mountain for the kid to surpass?' [Calvin]

As Calvin watched Ivan longer, he soon noticed something about the door. 

As the first entrance examination of Jumper Academy, the stygian iron doors have always been the easiest trial of the examination.

Since the only unique aspect of the twin stygian iron doors were that they were incredibly heavy to push open.

To counter this, wizard apprentices would cast body enhancement magic on themselves to make up for the lack of physical strength that the test required.

Furthermore, there were very rare cases where normal mortals were able to push open the door with only using raw mana.

Their mana pools were small and therefore could only rely on a crude method like covering their hands and feet in mana to complete the first trial.

Ivan was different. He was born without mana. He has lived a fulfilling 10 years without ever using magic. He grew up reading about people splitting the sky with a wave of their hand. He taught himself martial arts to prove himself to his classmates and teachers.

While bearing all of this in his mind, Calvin looked at Ivan's random stabs and slashes for a while longer before something finally clicked in his mind.

"Incredible…" was all he could mutter at the time.

After raining attacks on the iron doors for 30 minutes, the surface of the stygian iron doors began to show signs of cracking. Ivan, too, knew that the time had come.

Ceasing his barrage of stabs, hacks and slashes, Ivan took 5 steps back to mentally prepare himself. Taking a deep breath to clear his mind, he proceeded to charge forward with his iron rod.

This time however, instead of randomly attacking the iron door in a crazy manner, Ivan had gathered all his remaining strength before pouring it into his arms.

When the iron doors were only a foot away from his face, Ivan thrusted his iron rod at a single point on the right iron door.

"Clang!" A crisp, metallic sound resounded as the iron rod penetrated through the iron surface. Cracks appeared on the iron doors before the doors crumbled into ashes in mere seconds.

"The iron rod…managed to penetrate the stygian iron door? Incredible…" When Calvin understood Ivan's method of clearing the first trial, he became tongue tied.

'Well, that was easy.' Ivan revealed an amused look before proceeding on.

***

Seated in front of multiple arcana screens, Examiner Lucas watched Ivan clear his trials with great interest.

"This child piqued my interest." He quietly thought to himself.

As a sage who was only a level below Wizard Kings, Examiner Lucas thought that he had already seen everything in the world.

Wherever he went, the common people and nobles would treat him with respect and reverence.

Whenever he felt bored, he would always request his servants to fetch him an unsolvable ancient scroll to solve its mysteries.

Whoever he dislikes, that person wouldn't get to live past the age of 40 since they will always be on the run for their lives.

After a while, Examiner Lucas became bored of his lifestyle. He then returned to Jumper Academy to become an examiner.

But even after shedding his old shell, he quickly became bored of his new shell. 

He didn't become an examiner to find talented individuals for his school, but to look for interesting people who could show him an interesting side of the world.

And after 10 years of searching, Examiner Lucas finally found that person.