Exam

Nero had spent a long time imagining this day. He had visualised how satisfying it would feel to declare himself as a Neophyte finally, and to begin his various training sessions. His teachers knew him well, so he imagined that for many of his additional classes he would see their familiar faces, since as a high performer in school he would get preferential treatment.

What he had not visualised in all his daydreams, plans and general perception of how this day would go was sitting in an empty class taking an exam!

Registering as a Neophyte was a very easy process in school. He could have just shown his flame, but the proper procedure was handing over his ID which proved that he had synchronised and had registered with the AAB.

The person on the counter had then informed him that before he could go through with selecting his new classes, he needed to take an exam so that the school could determine his knowledge level before deciding on which mandatory classes he had to attend.

Nero tried to explain that he was near the top of his class in academics, and that he knew all the basics. But it did not matter. They had to follow procedure.

At least the lady at the counter was nice enough to have a fresh uniform brought for him while his exam sheet was prepared. All schools in Kolar had uniforms, but for convenience students could directly buy the uniform from the school.

After getting changed, Nero was escorted by a random teacher to an empty class room where he had to take the exam. There was no time limit so he could take as long as he wanted. It was not as exciting a start as he imagined, but Nero immediately reigned in his disappointment and focused. He had no time to waste.

The first question was a pretty basic one, yet a lengthy one at the same time. It asked for the origin of the Eldrim cards, what they were, and what the path of the Eldrim cards was.

A lot about the origin of the path of the Eldrim cards was a mystery, but approximately one thousand years ago, when the human civilisation was supposedly on the brink of extinction, Iskunder Macedon coined the term of Eldrim cards for a method of self enhancement, or cultivation, he discovered in the ruins of an ancient race known as the Eldrim.

Little to nothing is actually known about the Eldrim, at least to the public, but what is known is that their understanding of aether is beyond anything that the human race has managed to achieve so far. Even though all of modern human civilisation is built on the foundation of Eldrim cards, they still do not know how exactly the cards work. They've just thoroughly studied the steps of card creation, and replicated it, discovering new recipes along the way.

The path of the Eldrim cards refers to the various levels on the progression of power a card master experiences. They are very systematically designed to promote strength while building a foundation for the subsequent levels and professions.

The next question asked for the first three levels of the path of the Eldrim cards and their defining traits.

The first was Neophyte, and it was the very first level as a card master. Other than gaining access to aether and gaining an innate ability, it allowed one to use 0 star cards, which were the lowest levelled cards.

The second was Initiate. It gave the card master an overall boost, but one thing that most people misunderstood was that the boost was not the same for everyone. The foundation of the body was what determined the level of the boost received, which was one of the reasons Nero focused on training his body so much. He expected to get a better boost than his peers at his level. It brought about a slight upgrade to the innate ability as well, and also allowed card masters to finally start using starred cards. 

The division of cards was slightly complicated, but basically each card could be anywhere between a 1 star to a 3 star card. Cards were also divided among levels themselves, such as Neophyte and Initiate etc. not to mention unique cards, but none of that was relevant to the Initiate level specifically so Nero did not elaborate.

The third level was Arcanist. This level brought about another boost in the body, finally bringing card masters to a level that began to feel inhuman. The innate ability would also experience a mild mutation, gaining a new attribute. The most important trait of Arcanists, however, was that it allowed the card master to fuse with their innate ability to enter what was called the arcanist form for a short period of time.

In this form, they would experience a massive upgrade in every aspect, and would become extremely lethal. It put a massive strain on aether consumption, but besides that it seemed to have no drawbacks at all!

The third question was an annoying one. It asked for a very popular and widely supported theory called the Golden evolution theory by Stauss Belkin. Nero groaned.

He was not really qualified to comment on the validity of this theory, but to him personally it seemed more like wishful thinking than anything else.

Research of various Eldrim ruins suggested that this was a very powerful and highly intelligent race. The Golden Evolution theory suggested that since they designed this system of strength progression that perfectly fit humans alone, since the whole premise of the path was dependent on innate abilities and cards, was that the Eldrim were just an evolved form of humans. Or perhaps if humans could achieve a breakthrough in those mythical realms no one had ever reached, then they would turn into Eldrim from humans.

There was a lot of coincidental evidence to support this theory, and it fed everyone's egos nicely, which is why it was very popular. But over the past year Nero had started doing his own research into the history of the human race and he had some doubts. But this was not the place to mention them.

The fourth question… Nero trembled with excitement and anticipation. The fourth question was about professions, what they were, and how a card master achieved them.

For a card master to move from the Arcanist to the next level, which was Mystic, they would first need to choose a profession and try to gain it. How that happened was not exactly public information, but everyone vaguely knew that it had something to do with a profession card.

There were nine professions in total, but only five of them were easily accessible in Kolar. The professions were: the Monarch, the Orchardist, the Ayurvedist, the Eldermyst and the Agha. But, through trade with Saint Codale, Kolar also gained access to the Oathwarden and Spectre professions.

That meant that seven out of the nine professions could, to varying degrees of frequency, be found in Kolar. There were only two remaining professions that were hard to come by, for various reasons.

The first was the Virtuoso. This was one of the most bizarre professions, at least according to rumours and gossip Nero had heard. Although Kolar could probably gain access to it through trade, the way it had done with others, the country refrained from doing so because they had come to the conclusion that it was by far the most difficult profession to progress in. To prevent the wastage of talents, they completely cut off access to this profession.

The final profession was actually forbidden everywhere except New Valeriya. It was a profession monopolised solely by the Barakus family, the royal family of New Valeriya, and if by any chance someone did get the profession, the family would not hesitate to even declare outright war to kill that person. It was called Polymath.

Many believed that the Polymath profession was by far the strongest profession, and not just because Emperor Iskunder had been a Polymath. History supported this belief, because the Barakus family was the only force in the past near 1000 years to not face destruction.

This was not an argument that had a clear winner. After all, many would then argue that if they were the best, they would have long reclaimed the empire after which their country was named. Others claimed that their attention was turned towards the fog clearings. Others yet argued there was too much pressure due to the strength of the other countries as well as the endless curses.

Nero himself, despite yearning for the Polymath profession, thought it was pointless to argue over such things. If Polymath was so invincible, the emperor would never have died - or be killed, depending on who you ask.

The next question was about the fog. Of all the questions, this was perhaps the one everyone could answer regardless of their age or academic performance.

The fog surrounded the six countries, forming an ethereal boundary wall. Whether the walls it formed were prison walls or protective walls was yet another age old question that had no answer.

If anyone tried to go through the fog, they could only go so far safely. It was a very measured distance. After exactly 100 metres (328 feet) of wading into the fog, even a single step beyond would cause you to disappear. There had been no exception to this rule to date, at least to public knowledge.

There were only three, small gaps within the fog wall, and each of those gaps radiated cursed energy so grave it had killed the earth all around it. Fortunately, all three openings were on the opposite side of Kolar, and so were not a part of Nero's concerns.

The gaps had been explored multiple times, and the only specific news that had been shared about any such incursion was that there were unimaginable horrors outside the fog, which is why none of the countries had managed to extend outwards.

Kolari researchers believed that the fog diluted any cursed energy, so that the nearly civilisation ending horrors they dealt with on a regular basis contained only 10% of the potency of the cursed energy on the other side of the fog. Of course, this research was strongly contested, as the researchers from some other countries suggested the energy was diluted down to 1%.

The next question on the exam was not an academic one, but a legal one. It asked the consequences of using innate abilities, cards or any form of aether to harm civilians or break the law.

Nero answered in only one word: death. Then he moved on.

It took him nearly two hours to finish the exam, since the questions were long and varied, ranging from recent history, geopolitics, the philosophy of power, aether related theories and more.

Some questions did not directly seem related to aether, but upon deeper thought one would realise that the question itself was a hint to direct the train of the students' thoughts. For example, the benefits of living in Kolar, which had countless resources, plentiful aether, a strong military and relative security, versus the benefits of living in Nova, the technological leader of the age, which was also inundated by the fog opening, two hostile countries on its borders, limited resources and limited growth potential.

It was naught but basic propaganda. Nero had a very simple answer for such irrelevant questions, which he did not hesitate to write on the exam paper: do not waste my time!

Once he was done, Nero handed in the paper and waited for it to be graded right there and then. His blunt answers to some questions got him a couple or raised eyebrows, but fortunately the person checking his paper was one of his regular teachers. She knew him well, and knew his academic standard. That was also why she sighed.

The reason Nero never reached the top in his class when it came to academics was exactly because of stunts like this.