Chapter 16: Observation

You know what I realized just now? If Albert is like your cliché naïve protagonist, he's going to have a harem isn't he? His sponsor is a goddess, he only needs 2 more for it to consider a proper harem. I dwelled on this and already guessed 3 potential candidates. A princess, A daughter of a power hungry duke/duchess who is engaged to a prince and a friendly female commoner who he'll befriend during our time at the academy, I'm so jealous.

He'll have 4 women on his side, DAMN YOU AUTHOR for not putting any romance tag or harem tag on 'That time I got struck by lightning and got reincarnated into a fantasy world alongside a self-proclaimed best and most beautiful goddess of death'.

| Sorry bro, but if it makes you feel any better, I'm also hopeless when it comes to interacting with women in general |

Henry then introduced himself and the academy's representatives.

"The best magic academies are Artia's Phoenix Academy of the east, Gloria's Drakon Academy of the south, Acira's Fairy Academy of the North and Modia's Griffon Academy of the West" My dad whispered "Aim for those 4, the other 6 are fine too, but you should aim high"

"I understand"

The 10 representatives sat just below Henry and Albert.

"Day 1 to day 5 are for people who wish to participate in the 10 battles and the other 2 days are for the people who chose to do 1 battle, participants may leave now if they would want to change their minds to participate in the 1 battle. For the one battle, if you defeat the student representative, you can go to the academy the student representative is from or you can also choose to accept the offers of the other academies if you wish to do so, you will have only one week to make the decision" Henry announced

"Any kind of plays are allowed, insults and dirty plays are allowed, but killing is prohibited" Henry continued" We have healers on stand by to make sure any kind of injuries is healed. A lost is determined when a participant surrenders or if the referee deemed them no longer able to fight. You will have 10 scouts, one from each academy to score you"

"Let the test commence"

There were 10 small stages for 10 fights happening at once.

The representatives sent out some scouts with some amulets, which I presume to be communication amulets and relay in information about the contestants. 10 scouts and 1 referee per stage. Each school sends out 1 representative and 10 scouts to each venue, since 4 takes place in a kingdom, that's 44 people dispatched per kingdom. 10 academies is 10 kingdom on the continent, 4 major ones and 6 minor ones. But I doubt they have enough human resources to send out 440 people out at the same time, so I can guess each kingdom holds test at a different time.

-I plan on participating in the one battle-

-Are you crazy?!- Dabria freaked out

-Don't worry, I'll get healed if I get fatal injuries-

-Should I join as your accessory? It sounds fun- Ace said

-I want to join too, it's a chance to fight someone strong- Siege joined in

-We'll see-

After all the 10 battle end battle, 1 guy got an offer to of the 6 minor academy and was asked to whether he want to accept the offer or wait till he get his rankings in case he get more offers which he chose the latter.

During the 5 days, it was the same, I was getting bored, after a round finish, they wait for offers, some get offers and some don't. Most wait till the get the rankings in case they get more offers, before each match, they announced the contestant names and the amount of match they won in a row. It seems that you can lose only 2 times or be eliminated, when you lose, your streak goes back to 0, but I wasn't really interested since I want to fight the 1 battle test.

The 6th day finally arrived. There are lesser people, 150 people at most, the rules were clarified before it start, the student representative can only get 1 equipment, armor, a weapon or an accessory, D-rank at best. The match usually ends quickly, but only a few lasted and got offers on the spot, but most still wait to get their rankings. On the 7th day, at the end of the day, the result were given out, 3 spots of the top 5 were occupied by the people who chose to do the 1 battle test, the top score was 89, it belongs to some noble kid from the kingdom of Gloria. The list showed contestant number, their names, their scores and their type of test.

-Seems like picking the 1 battle test will give us the top spot easier-

-What's your plan?- Dabria asked

-To beat them up-

-I like it- Ace agreed

-That's insane, the weakest ones had a dark red core and the strongest was a Dark purple, it'll be super hard to beat them- Dabria exclaimed

-Remember what you said, sometimes it's about the equipments, we get 3 and besides, the amount of mana I have in my mana capacity is bound to make up for the difference-

-What if they deem you a threat if you do win and tried to eliminate you?- Dabria asked

-Don't worry, if we win, we can easily get into the top 10 and pick our own academy, even if we go to one of the 6 minor academies, they'll have enough power to protect us, besides if they kill us, the ones we didn't choose will have a bad reputation, since they'll easily be the prime suspects-

-If we show strong power, they'll probably offer us even more prizes on top of the top 5 prizes just to attract us into their academy- Siege added

-Then we have to train till you drop- Ace chimed in

During us chatting, Albert approached me

"I knew you'll still be here even if it's late" Albert said as he greeted us

"Of course, I want to see the results"

"Well, which test do you plan on doing?"

"The 1 battle one"

My parents, John and Olivia was shocked at what I said.

"It'll be super hard, I know you're talented but you saw what happened today, out of the 150, only about 10 people got offers" My dad said still wide eyed

"And 3 of the are in the top 5" I argued

"He may have a point Axel, he just have to last at least a minute or so, and do a super powerful spell that will impress the judges" Mom chimed in as she supported me

"Well I plan on doing it too if you're doing it" Albert agreed

"Go big or go home" I replied

After the talk, we went home the next day.

"I do know a guaranteed way of getting a spot even if you get a low score" John said

"What is it?" Olivia asked

"Show them your spatial magic, it's super rare, the academies would want to tie Perseus down with their respective kingdoms as their spatial mage since he isn't a citizen of any of their kingdom" John suggested

"Well it's up to Perseus at the time of the test whether he want to show it or not, I will support him either way" mom said as she then kissed my forehead

-I have really good parents-

-Yes, they also make great steak- Siege added

-The porkchops and fish are also good as well- Ace chimed in

<I plan on doing a one hit spell that will beat the 3rd year student representative or at least make it strong enough to push them off the stage to secure a win, I will get points for my brains as well>

<I would need a cool name for it, I want to scream out the name of the spell and make it sound even more terrifying>

-Dabria- I called

-Yes?- Dabria replied

-Since original spells are created through your imagination, can I instead of having regular colored flames, use magic to make it a different color?-

-I never thought about it before but yes, but it's nothing more than a cosmetic, since it'll only change the color-

I then imagine a new color for my flames, since I'll need my spell to look both cool and terrifying, a different colored flame will be unique and wow the scouts to give me a higher score. I open my palms and a small ball of blue flames danced in my palms.

-Wow it's more beautiful in person, your blue flames is more beautiful than the ones in those shows you watched - Ace complimented

-It'll definitely be unique- Siege nodded

The rest of my family was looking at my palms in amazement.

"Well let's keep this a secret between us" I winked "I at least now know how to make myself stand out"

"I would've never thought about that" mom shook her head

"What a crazy boy" my dad smiled