Test (1)

"Woah!" Chrys was mesmerized.

The arena was huge but it was filled with people.

'It is 20 times bigger than our palace.' Yadeth family palace was not that big for noble standards but it was not small either, Chrys had never left his estate before. When he arrived at the capital it was his first time seeing big and well-built infrastructure. He saw the Royal Castle from a far, it felt big but he could not comprehend how big it was but this arena, which he saw in person felt huge to him.

'If I become a mage, will I be able to live at a place as big as this?' he let his innocent mind go wild.

'I will become the best mage there ever will be, I will become the best healer of the empire, no the continent, no I WILL BE THE BEST HEALER IN THIS ENTIRE WORLD. Then I will find a cure for father and we all will happily.'

His eyes which were shinning suddenly got teary. He was only 9 years old, when his father collapsed while playing with him and his younger sister. Soldiers were called to carry his father to his room where he lied down like a corpse, it was a memory that haunted him since that day.

Healing magic was said to be the most difficult to master and the hardest to perform, The Delirium Empire had numerous mages, numbering in thousands, but among them healer were only a couple of hundred. Healer mages said to have high IQ and astounding concentrating skills, which made them respected and admired by everyone in the world of mages, their healing magic does not have restrictions, they can heal people of any race be it humans, elves, vampires, demi-humans, fairies, and demons. They were cherished by everyone.

Chrys wanted to achieve such a status and make his family proud.

Lost in his thoughts he wandered with no sense of people surrounding him, he tipped on his own foot and instinctively try to grab anything or anybody near him. All thanks to his bad luck he grabbed a robe of Athena, a royal.

*screech*

Her robe stretched and torn a bit.

Athena, was training to be a warrior, her body was stronger than an average 13-year-old so she did not lose her balance and stood firmly looking down on Chrys, to her, he looked like a bug. Angered with what had just happened she punched him, as if trying to smash a bug.

"Y-You!" Chrys yelled with tears in his eyes.

"How dare you lowly peasant touch this robe." Athena yelled back at him.

"Do you even have any idea how much this cost? Even if it is torn you can sell this and buy a mansion for your filthy self." Athena said in disgust, she removed her robe and threw it at his face. "Take that and hide your ugly disgusting face with that."

"…." Chrys remained silent, he did not know what to do.

"Lady Athena! What are you doing?" A boy similar in age with Chrys came and tried to calm down Athena.

"This bug bothered me, so I smashed him." Athena said with disgust. "Roman, take this guy away from me right now, I cannot control myself from beating this piece of trash, I do not want to look bad in front of my brother right now."

Roman picked up Chrys and took him away from the crowd that gathered around them after seeing this incident.

"Do not do anything to anger Lady Athena. Try to not come in front of her for this test, take these, they are some refreshments I brought for Lady Athena, I will bring more for her later. Remember, do not come in front of her." Roman hurriedly spoke and left running to get more refreshments for Athena.

"…" Chrys was left with a swollen cheek, tears in his eyes, dirt on his clothes, refreshments on his left hand and robe on his right.

He felt humiliated, although nobody here knew who he was but he still could not stand the fact that he was powerless to protect his dignity.

He pondered for a while, but gulp down all the anger and sadness he felt down his throat. He wanted to throw away the refreshments in anger a while ago but he thought of eating them now.

"The food is innocent and mumma always says to not waste anything." He put the refreshments down, wrapped the rob around his waist to hide the dirt on his pants, cleaned his shirt, folded his sleeves and wipe away the tears.

'Roman, he was a good guy. I will pay him back for his goodwill, I will pay her back for her deed as well' he though while picking up the refreshments from the ground.

"Test will start in 5 minutes; participants are advised to stand and be still at the place where they are." Announcer announced the details of the test. "Test will be divided in three parts, first is the body test, second is mana test and third is soul test"

Chrys's excitement started to build up again, he kept making castles in the sky, daydreaming was something he specialized at. At the very least his dreams were the only place where he had control and where he was not as big of a disappointment to everybody as he was in real life.

All the participants, hundreds in number, stood at their place calmly. 5 minutes passed and the announcer announced the beginning of the test.

Body Test, as the name suggest the test was simply to measure the body strength of a person. Which means, both physical and mental strength will be tested. Brain too was a part of a human's body and how much they can use it to their advantage should be equally as important as how much strength they have in their muscles.

"I hope most of you pass the tests with flying colours and those who fail shall not take it to their heart and try once again after 6 months from now." After encouraging the participants announcer started the examination.

"3….. 2.…. 1….. let the test BEGIN"

As soon as he said begin 100s of small stones shot up in the sky and trace the shape of a cube.

"This test will be conducted for 20 minutes, it will challenge your physical and mental strength, both of which is needed for mages and warriors alike." Announcer said it with a smirk and thought to himself.

'Now show this old man whether you will grow up to be chickens or dragons.'

"Hey are the stones shaking?"

"I feel the ground rumbling."

"Oi! Oi! Oi!"

*baam*

"My body feel heavy and I -"

*wham*

One by one participants collapsed to the ground unable to stand again.

"This is gravity magic, I have increased the gravity of the region you are in by 10 times that of normal, your body will not explode thanks to the fact that you all have the band in your hands. Do you best to stand erect at your place for next 10 minutes."

*uggaahh*

"Blood splattered out of Chrys's mouth."