Admission Test III

Noticing the confusion on Magnus, he continued, "When I say we're selected by destiny. I mean that we are the manifestations of destiny. We are the manifestations of 'Fate'. Now fate is a very abstract term, but you can think of it as we are people born out of necessity, unlike every other person."

"We, well, you, were created by the world itself, in order to fulfill a certain promise or fate. I mean, obviously, you have had parents, but you are a product of the world itself. Kind of like the chosen one, of this world. Now, people selected by fate aren't necessarily good people, they're just the type of person that needs to exist."

He went on, "For example, in the future, you could become a hero who could save the world, or you could become a demon who would terrorize the world, either way, you still have an impact on the world. For things like fate, concepts like Good and Evil, do not exist. There is only 'necessity'."

Seeing that Magnus was getting a faint idea, but was still not clear about it, he decided that it wasn't important for him to understand it now. "Anyways, you don't need to worry about it, just know that you're special. Oh, look, almost everyone's done with the admission test."

Hearing that, Magnus looked at the ranking display up top and saw that only 2% of the people were remaining.

While Jin was conversing with Magnus, the rest of the 7 had all done their tests.

Currently, The dark-skinned boy stood in the first place, with the rainbow-haired girl in second. Meanwhile, the purple-haired young man from earlier was third and the lime-haired girl was in the fourth position. And in fifth place, was a very gloomy centaur, who was practically on the verge of crying, which looked weird considering his lean yet large build.

"Yeah, by the way, what's up with those other 5 people?"

"Oh, you don't know? I'm going to assume you don't know much about the inner workings of the Academy, do you? That's alright. Every year, in the Admission Test, there is at least 1 person who stands out from the rest. They are found using a special aura that is given to the invigilators. Normally there are around 1 or 2 of them. Anyway, these special people that stand out from the rest are decided by the Aura to be the ones with the most potential compared to the rest of the people.

These people are called, 'Stars'. This year, there are seven such 'stars', including you and me, which is way higher than normal. How peculiar, perhaps its fate working its magic around you again."

"Speaking of which, I wanted to inform you of something. Considering you were selected by destiny, although you're currently in a weak state, you probably have your own secrets and tricks that you can use to attack stronger. And you were probably planning on using it here for this admission test."

"Uhh, yeah, I was." Magnus was planning on using his Aether to punch as it seemed to do much more damage compared to a regular punch.

"I doubt you'll be weak when you use it, however, I wanted to advise you not to. You'll just attract unnecessary attention, it's not worth it."

"Oh. Alright, sure."

"Yeah, well look, it's time, almost everyone has completed their test, let's go and do it too. Of course, I'll be holding back quite a bit too."

Saying that, Jin went forward to one of the machines, Magnus went along with him and went to the device beside it.

Magnus decided to watch how Jin did it first, but it wasn't too special. Jin had just gone forward and just did pretended to hit it with all of his strength and the display put him in sixth place. Seeing that he was sixth, everyone else stopped paying any attention to him.

Meanwhile, Magnus was surprised that Jin was able to have enough control to be able to attack with precisely enough strength to put him in sixth place. Magnus went forward too, he saw the stares of the other 5 stars and the thousands of student applicants.

'This is it,' he thought. This was his moment, he was finally going to join the Academy. Although, as Jin said, it wasn't a good idea for him to stand out. 'Alright, I won't use my Aether, nor any of my other skills, not that I know how to.'

Taking a deep breath, and then sighing, Magnus took a step forward. Although he wasn't going to use his Aether, he had no plans of being under the top seven. And as such, he needed to use his physical body to the maximum.

Speaking of which, he had noticed a while ago, that when he had defeated the Ring Leader on the train, he had acquired his trait, which assimilated into his Aether Physique.

He looked at his trait one more time,

-[Aether Physique]: Easy conduction of Aether Element throughout the Host's entire body.

+Able to strengthen Aether attacks significantly.

+Able to harden skin at will.

There it was, he was able to harden his skin at will. He imagined his skin hardening around his fist and Voila! He felt the skin around his fist getting much tougher. Focusing on the machine, and also his body. Magnus closed his eyes and flexed all the muscles in his arm to the maximum of their capacity.

He didn't bother taking a running start. He didn't need it. He just walked forward. And punched. He punched harder than he had ever done before. Even more than when he had punched the ring leader on the train.

However, in the last second, he wondered if he had attacked too hard, what if he had failed to suppress his strength. In the last moment, before his fist had hit the machine, Magnus unflexed half of his muscles and slowed down his fist by a bit. He had done this just before hitting, and so no one had noticed that he weakened himself. He hoped that this much was enough.

He felt his fist collide with the hard material that the device was made out of, and felt his hand pulling back from the recoil. It stung, his entire arm was red, and it hurt pretty badly. Not caring about it though, he looked up, and there it was.

He was in seventh place. Perfect, he thought.

He went back with Jin to the hall.

"Good job reducing your strength. At that rate, you were probably going to take third or fourth place. That would've made a lot more attention get drawn to you. However, now, people probably won't think much of you for the time being, are you alright with that?"

"Yeah, I've never cared much about other people's opinions anyway."

"Great, oh, look, everyone's done. Let's talk later. Oh, right, in case anyone asks. Since we're the bottom 2, we decided to have a little... alliance. Let's go with that."

"Yeah alright."

Magnus took one last look at the rankings,

The seven 'stars' had taken the top seven spots, with Estelle being in 9th place and Remus in 21st.

All of the bottom 70% of the people had left, albeit very dismally. After the top around 3,000 had been brought to another chamber, the invigilator finally started speaking.

"Congratulations. All of the people in this hall have passed the enrollment. You're all officially students of the number one educational institute on Earth. You have a right to be happy. As long as you do not slack off, your future is practically guaranteed."

At hearing this, hundreds of people couldn't contain their happiness as they shouted out with happiness.

Once they were done, the middle-aged man continued,

"I am Instructor Erik. I'm the Head of the Department of Physical and Mental Training. Some of you who have selected said course may have me as their instructor. As you may know, you lot aren't the only ones who have passed. We have held 10 separate admission exams, just for the combat group, to compensate for the large number of people entering this year. This year's new student count tallies up to a little over 33 thousand first-years, for the combat specific classes."

Instructor Erik continued,

"If you go further down, there are offices where each of you will get your boarding room number, along with a map detailing the entire Academy. The map will show you your residence provided by the Academy. All of you may stay in your shared rooms for the next 3 days, to get used to the layout of the institute. In those 3 days, students are required to collect their uniforms, stationaries, books, and other necessary utilities and tools, with the requirements depending on the courses they have taken.

After 3 days, come to the Main Auditorium for the opening ceremony and then you will be guided to your course-specific classrooms.

Also, the Academy has its own currency. It's called 'Crowns'. They're basically the credits of the Academy. That's what you students can use to purchase anything at all. All services and areas like the Library, Dining Areas, Improved Living Areas, Trading Halls, Marketplace, Auctions, and so much more all use the Crowns as the standard currency. All of you will receive 100 Crowns, to begin with, and they're stored inside your digital keys. Of course, you students will need to gain more to sustain your life in the Academy, and the method of doing so will be explained later.

Any questions?"

"Do we have to stay in the Academy-provided rooms?"

"Yes. To prevent any sort of smuggling or other funny business, you are required to stay at the Academy premises at all times. Of course, you may request for permits and the like to leave in case of an emergency, and you are also able to leave in the holiday seasons."

"What about our other professors?"

"Students will be guided to their course-specific classrooms and professors after the opening ceremony."

The question and answer session went on for another 30 minutes before everyone's queries were resolved.

Magnus couldn't find Jin, or Estelle and Remus, so he was practically alone. This was nothing new to him, so didn't feel uncomfortable in the least. He walked down the corridor along with hundreds of students to the administration area responsible for giving the students their lodging keys.

Although they were called keys due to tradition, they were more like personal digital insignia that could be assigned to one person and weren't usable by other people. They also contained the 100 Crowns that all students received. There was an option to trade Crowns to other students. Magnus thought about how he definitely needed to earn more.

Magnus walked towards the part of the living quarters in which his apartment was. There were multiple building complexes that all belonged to the Academy. The only way Magnus was able to navigate throughout the premises was with the help of the map they provided. It showed where you were and how to get to anywhere you wanted to.

"How convenient," thought Magnus.

The way the lodgings worked was that 5 students were assigned to one large apartment with 5 bedrooms. The rooms were quite luxurious, to say the least. Magnus wondered how they afforded this stuff.

Stepping into his room, he noticed there was a pair of shoes outside, which meant that there was at least one person already inside. He walked inside, and into the living room. There he saw a black-haired person sitting down on the couch, with his legs crossed, and arms around the coach.

Magnus approached him from behind, and he was somewhat excited to meet one of his new roommates. He, put down his backpack and said, and wanting to make a good impression, he smiled and said,

"Hey! Nice to meet you, I'm Magn-, oh."

The boy turned his head around which let Magnus look at his face.

"Oh hey, Magnus."

It was Jin.