Duels

The battles went by fairly quickly since nobody had much mage battle experience. Generally the talented group won, since at this low level the apprentices only had one spell and the talented group was usually the group with stronger families which could provide better spells. For example one apprentice from the talented group had a 'fireball', which is all around a good attacking spell; Large radius, high damage. The only downside is the large energy cost. Meanwhile the untalented apprentice had 'infuse melee weapon', which infused energy into a weapon to give it temporary boosted attack power. It is certainly useful, and had its times to shine, but what was an apprentice mage who had no defense and a regular physique going to do with this skill against someone who could instantly melt him with a fireball?

Soon enough it was Ray's turn to step stage. His opponent was an angry man who immediately started venting to Ray. "You may have more talent than me, but there is no way you can beat my skill." He said with a proud expression. Ray was ready for the worst, so he planned to finish the battle before it could go on for long. Right after one of the guards started the battle, Ray cast his zap aiming for his head. The bolt made a dinging noise as it reflected off a blue sphere that circled around the opponent. The shield immediately cracked and disappeared, but not before soaking the bolt, making it disappear before hitting him. Sweat beads appeared on the opponent's face as he thought, 'That was close'. On the outside however he boldly exclaimed,"You think you can beat me with just that? I'll just use another shield!"

Another transparent blue sphere appeared around his body as he regained his confidence. He charged towards Ray hoping to beat him with his melee skills, but unluckily for him Ray also knew how to use a sword.

'He's good at using a sword, even slightly better than me.' The swords kept clashing back and forth, but Ray was slowly being pushed back. He couldn't cast zap because he had to put all his focus into defending the opponent's sword without getting decapitated. It also didn't help that the opponent had a shield that could suck up any attacks he did. He had to quickly get out of this close range combat or he would be pummeled to death before even being able to show his might as a mage!

Ray did a risky move where he switched his attacking style that had remained constant the entire match. During the time where the opponent was startled, Ray threw his sword at the opponent's face. The opponent dodged instinctively which gave Ray time to run away. "Come back here and fight me like a man." The opponent started shouting as soon as he saw what Ray was doing. Ray ignored his taunting and channeled the zap. Now that he was level 2 it only took 1.5 seconds to use a zap rather than the 2 seconds it took before. He turned around and used a zap to break his shield. While he channeled another zap the opponent also used another shield. "Looks like you miscalculated. It's over for you." The opponent confidently said.

Ray didn't say anything and used another zap to break his shield. This time the opponent was out of energy since he was still only level 1. He could cast a small spell like the shield only 3 times. Seeing Ray run away even quicker the opponent laughed, thinking he had the victory. When Ray turned around for the last time, he swung his sword in excitement, ready to take his head off. But he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his chest.

"Huh?"

He touched his chest with his hand and felt something wet. He looked down and saw the red blood all over his hands.

"AHHH." He let out a frightened scream.

A few seconds later his body plopped to the floor.

The body and blood disappeared without a trace and the guard announced, "The winner is Ray Dyant."

Ray picked up his sword and left the arena. There were no cheers, only silence was in the air as the next two apprentices got ready for their fight. Only 12% of the people here would survive to the end of the day, and nobody wanted to be part of that majority. Although the talented group was bright and happy at the beginning, the mood was dimming. They would have to fight many times to enter the school. Luckily there was a healer who healed any injuries anybody had during the battle.

The battles passed by quickly, and within a couple hours there was nobody left except a line of 65 students. The mood was dim, but they all felt relieved. Ray had no challenging battles after that, nobody else had a shield. From there it was simply using a zap to instantly kill the opponent before they could attack him. It was obvious this strategy wouldn't work later on when people learnt a full set of skills, but it was perfect for now.

"Congratulations, you are all now officially students of the renowned Mythri magic school. You probably all know this but Mythri is the most powerful school in our kingdom of Valier. As long as you don't die, your future is bright."

"Now we just have one last step before you officially enter the school. Every student has to have a teacher, and every teacher has to have students. So now the official mages will choose who they will take as disciples. They were watching your performance and taking who they think suits them best. They will teach you and impart skills, while you have to do what they tell you to do."

Ten figures appeared in unison in front of the line of students right after the administrator (old man) said that.

"First student, Jordan Harway."

"I'll take him." One of the instructors said.

"Next student, Urs Porters."

4 teachers immediately tried to have Urs as their student. Not because he did a lot better than anyone else, but because he had already trained to be a level 2 apprentice. His potential was a notch higher than all the level 1 apprentices.

"We have our first dispute, only 2 apprentices at this time. Now you, Urs, have the privilege to choose who you want to be under."

"I'll give you personal training sessions." One teacher called out.

"I'll give you preferential mission treatment if you join me." Another one said.

"I'll give you an eighth of a soul if you join me."

"..."

The room turned silent. Having high potential mages was good, but not worth using souls after. Souls were the currency of high class mages. Low class mages like low level apprentices typically didn't transact with souls as they were too weak to acquire them. But higher leveled mages all had methods to capture or acquire souls.

Seeing as how nobody said anything, Urs chose the teacher who offered the soul as his teacher. A similar thing happened throughout the line of apprentices. Usually a level 1 mage would have one teacher call out for them, and a level 2 mage would have multiple. Sometimes a level 2 mage would receive a partial soul, sometimes it was simply a verbal agreement like personal training. When it came to Ray, he was one of the lucky ones who received a partial soul. He didn't know why it was so valuable, but he would know soon enough.

"Now that you're all ready, I'll leave it to your teachers. They will explain everything to you." With that, the old man disappeared.