Two months later..
Cloudy Peach Academy was bustling today. It was their much anticipated grade one students admission examination.
In the whole of Bullsin city, Cloudy Peach academy shared the same status as the City mansion seat. Infact, many top political leaders and warriors were once students of Cloudy Peach academy.
The current City Lord wasn't an exception. Although it was regarded as a second rate power, no other second rate power dared to slight Cloudy Peach Academy.
Currently in a huge field, the size of a stadium, many seats hovered above the air. Atop these floating seats were the hyped up spectators.
Gathered around the huge field was a dense amount of quasi grade one students. Currently, their eyes shone with a certain glint of eagerness.
At that that moment, a short chubby looking man descended from the sky, wind attribute energy swirling around his body.
"It's the vice principal. Vic principal Bekor!"
"Whoa! are all wind mages so amazing? they can fly!"
"Idiot. That's a super rank magic skill"
The entire spectators and participants below exploded into a fury of discussion with the arrival of Vice Principal Bekor.
In Cloudy Peach academy, the Principal was the number one expert. However, he was extremely reclusive as a ghost. Infact, most Instructors didn't even know the gender of their Principal.
Below the Principal were the three Vice Principals. Vice Principal Bekor ranked second in strength.
"I want to thank everyone for making out time to attend this event. On behalf of the Academy, i want to extend my gratitude"
Vice Principal Bekor spoke in a loud voice that vibrated around the massive arena
"We at Cloudy Peach Academy have a single goal.. to rear and cultivate future talents"
"We live in a world where we must overcome tribulations of every sort to survive. Alien races, natural disasters and even ourselves" Vice Principal Bekor had an air of righteousness around him.
"We have the experts holding up the skies for us, but can they live forever? the answer is no! every generation must pass away and a new one must take over"
"These young ones below me are the future of the next generation" he pointed towards the participants.
"They are the future experts of tomorrow. So, enjoy your time as you witness their time of greatness.. begin the first phase!"
The spectators exploded into cheers and applauses. Vice Principal Bekor's speech struck right deep into their hearts, Throwing them into the depths of anticipations.
Heroes were born from the ashes. They anticipated watching their future experts as they rose to greatness.
After Vice Principal Bekor spoke, twelve Instructors approached the participants gathered together in the massive field.
They released multiple wooden desks from their storage watches, numbering exactly a thousand.
Without being told what to do, every participants found their way to their private desks.
"The first phase of the exam is the Test for knowledge" a male instructor with fiery red hair spoke loudly so the spectators above could hear him.
The other remaining instructors started moving around, distributing paper sheets and pens.
"In battle, having good battle strength is required to triumph over your opponent. But being a brawl with no brains is a fatal that could lead you to destruction. A mage mustn't just charge recklessly into battle. Formulating a quick plain is necessary to win a battle" the red haired male instructor continued.
"This exam would test your intellectual capability and scheming powress. On your first sheet, there are a hundred questions. Answering a question correctly gives you a single point. Answering fifty correctly grants you an assurance of passing this phase. Rank placement would depend on the number of points you have"
"You only have fifteen minutes.. good luck"
The participants hurriedly grabbed their pen and began to write. Time was of essence.
Theo grabbed his question sheet, his gaze falling on the first question.
"If a water mage faces off against a fire mage. What is the best course of action the water mage should take?"
Theo bit on his pen as he mused over this question. It was common knowledge that water restrained fire. However, fire mages excelled at explosive long ranged attacks.
"What can the water mage do?" Theo thought hard.
"Water magic is good at defense.. since it's like that, the water mage can just stand there, creating a protective dome around themself and wait for the enemy to waste their mana, while also sending some minor attacks over" Theo recalled those tactics many anime mages usually took.
Without wasting time, he wrote the answer, moving on to the next question.
. . . .
Time ticked so fast that before the participants knew it, fifteen minutes passed. The instructors began to gather the answer sheets and although many participants were unwilling, they had to hand their answers over.
When it got to Theo's turn, he handed his own while smiling bitterly. He only managed to answer sixty two out of the hundred questions.
After all the answers were gathered, the instructors began to sort through them while the participants and spectators watched them with suspense.
Ten minutes later, the instructors finished their appraisal.
"Now, i will start calling out names as well as scores. If by any chance you score below fifty, then just know that you are automatically disqualified" the red haired instructor picked up an answer sheet.
"Mario Lin scores fifty two"
"Boris Xina scores sixty"
"Baba Bula scores seventy four"
"Sedi Sylo scores thirty two"
The red haired continuously called out names of participants and their scores in the written exams. Some screamed in happiness when they heard they passed. As for those who failed, they could only sigh helplessly as they left the stage.
"Theo scores fifty" the red haired instructor read Theo's score.
"Wheew. What a close call" Theo breathed out in relief when he heard he passed.
Actually, he didn't harbour much hope in passing. Thankfully, those animes he would usually watch when bored surprisingly came in quite handy.
"You ever said animes were useless is an idiot" he snickered to himself.
Minutes later, the red haired instructor finished calling out the scores. Of the thousand or so participants, four hundred got eliminated.
"Alright, we will quickly move on to the next phase of the exam. Battle" the red haired instructor clapped his hands.
He and the other instructors began to weave various multiple handseals.
"Unleash!" they roared in chorus, sending out a palm strike towards the sky.
A runic symbol shot out from each of their palms, merging to form into a massive runic symbol which shot into the sky, disappearing from view.
BOOM!
A wave of a strange powerful energy swept towards the six hundred remaining participants. It was visible and golden in color.
Right before the audiences, all the participants swept over by the burst of energy disappeared from view.
"What just happened?"
"Why did they suddenly disappear?"
"Is it teleportation? how come i don't see any portal nearby?"
The audience began to whisper among themselves. However, they did it quietly because of the presence of Vice Principal Bekor.
"Do not fret. The participants got transported into the location for their next exam phase" the red haired instructor laughed.
"However, unlike portal teleportation, they got transported via a teleportation formation which i and my colleagues triggered when we did those hand seals" he explained slowly.
"If they got teleported to a new location, how do we view their progress?" one of the spectators, a man wearing straw hat asked.
Just then, a huge mirror began to descend from the sky. It was as huge as the field and had many boxes like a chessboard.
Each of these boxes portrayed images of the various participants..
. . . .
Theo stared around. He was in a mountain range. Strangely, his new environment lacked sun although it was brightly lit.
Just as he was wondering his next course of action, he heard the voice of the red haired instructor boom.
"The next phase of the exam. You must battle and kill dire beasts and gain a beast mark. The minimum number of beast marks you have to accumulate to pass is fifty. You have a nine hours deadline. Do your best, for the audience"
As if it was planned, an hyena dire beast suddenly pounced towards Theo.
"Shit!" out of reflexes, a threw a punch towards it's way.
BANG!
The head of the dire beast got blasted off. Strangely, the corpse transformed into a stream of golden energy that shot into his wrist.
A strange runic mark suddenly appeared on his wrist.
At the large stadium, the group of audience watched with fervor as the candidates battled against various dire beasts. Thanks to the huge floating screen, they could all see what the candidates were experiencing. "Look! that Nick has killed his twenty third dire beast!" a man among the audiences cried out. Instantly, everyone's attention fell on a particular section of the huge screen portraying a burly teen as he bashed his meaty palms on a panther dire beast. This young man was Nick and was extremely popular in this examination segment. He wore barbaric fur clothes and was stocky. He was part of those who had brilliant performances. Killing more than twenty dire beasts under one hour. He was a genius alright. "That's nothing. I still strongly believe that the kid named Theo would take the winner spot" another man among the audiences wearing a bamboo hat, laughed merrily. "That is a given alright. But the first runner up isn't quite clear" his companion stroked his beard while
Under the constant bombardment of the participants, the huge boulder at the mouth of the cave couldn't take it any longer.Boom! It exploded into bits, causing dust to fly about. When the dust cleared, a glowing vortex could be seen swirling at the mouth of the cave, occupying the whole space. It was like as if the mouth of the cave was the spinning vortex. "A portal" many participants who recongnized what the vortex was, couldn't help but gasp. "It's an inheritance cave alright" smacking his lips, Nick's eyes shone brilliantly. "Everyone. The barrier has been broken. What lies ahed of us are a vast amount of fortunes. From here on out every man should depend on their self" after adressing the crowd, Nick directly leaped towards the portal. Like a drop of water in an ocean, he sank into it, disappearing from sight. Nethercold snorted coldly and followed suite. With the two top dogs gone, the crowd was thrown into a frenzy."Quick! Enter the cave!" "Damnit! Stop blocking me!" "
Theo dived to the left, missing an axe that a stone warrior swung at his direction. "Dragon. Can't you do something? I'm about to get beaten to death!" Theo cried. That prideful dragon always boasted of his strength right? Well now's the time for him to be useful. However he was met with disappointment because his words struck empty air. Izreel outright ignored him.BAAM! One of the stone warriors arrived before Theo before he could react, sending him crashing against the wall with a kick.-[-25 HP] 'Shit! so powerful?!" Theo hurriedly popped an health replenishing pill into his mouth. Luckily he was stingy with Cosmos power cores and sold some portion. Using the money, he bought health and mana replinishing pills incase of emergencies like this. "Judging from their attacks, they must be level one primary rank" Theo calmed down and began reasoning straight. His current raw damage output far outstripped a level nine primary rank.Infact he was only a tad bit weaker than someone
"Let us in!" "We need to investigate what that heavenly manifestation was" "It could be a bad omen!" At the entrance gate of Cloudy Peach Academy, a massive crowd of journalists and news reporters tried their best to force their way in. As for the Instructors, they did their best to calm the crowd while enduring the endless cam flashes. "What is this madness?!" an enraged voice roared, drenching the nose. "It's the vice principal!" "What a relief!" Vice Principal Bekor furiously marched towards the gate and pointed at the crowd of journalist busy bodies. "You do know your noise is disturbing the peace of my school practical exam right?" "We didn't mean to sir. It's your subordinates who brought this on themselves" from the crowd, a thin male journalist with bushy hair, bravely responded. "Oh? what do you mean?" Vice Principal Bekor did his utmost to calm the rage in his heart as he waited for whatever crap the daring journalist would say."Everybody is aware of the heavenly
Just as the voice spoke, Theo saw a figure materialized a few feets away from him, holding a staff imbued with intricate runic symbols. The figure was surrounded by an eye blinding golden light that concealed it's facial appearance. Heck, Theo had to even squint. "I will ask you the three riddles now. You have a limit of thirty seconds to answer. Failurd to do so means certain death!" Diego's voice boomed. 'What a heartless man!' Theo became stern. He tried emptying his mind off stray thoughts. He wanted to be in his best mental shape. "First Riddle. I am something. Within me there are cities but no house. Forest but no trees. Rivers but no water. What am i?" Theo sucked in a deep breath. Damn! what kind of silly question was that?! how could rivers exist without water and cities without houses. That was just.. stupid! "You have twenty five seconds more" Theo panicked. He had to fork out an answer real quick! and it had to be correct. He couldn't risk dying here."Great dragon,
Vice Principal Bekor sighed helplessly as he glanced at the two Vice principals seated besides him at the high table. "So, when is the ruinr opening up?" Vice Principal Luke was an impatient man by nature. Not to mention that he currently had his eyes on an artificial ruins that housed an expert's inheritance cave. "In a couple of hours. Be patient alright. It's not like the ruins will run away" Vice Principal Bekor sneered contempously. After a long arguement, the three of them reached an agreement of exploring the artificial ruins after the participants emerged. Unknown to them, Theo was currently taking an ardous test within the inheritance cave. He was currently taking the fourth test. He was standing at the peak of a mountain, screaming like a pig in slaughter as an endless array of lightning bolts lashed him mercilessly. His whole body was battered, with dried blood and charred pieces of flesh. Even his bones were extremely exposed too,'Why did i even join those people to
Theo waited for the barrage of claw attacks to land on him, but nothing happened. Confused, he opened his eyes. He was currently at a mountain peak. How was this possible?! "Congratulations! you have passed the sixth test. Test of Mind" Diego's voice boomed. However this time, there was no reward for passing the test. But, Theo still had a lingering fear in his heart. He passed? and it was all thanks to Izreel. "Uh, how did you do it?" he still felt puzzled. [Brat! you were really careless!] Izreel berated harshly. [Do i have to spell it out to you? those Curpsieys you were fighting were the product of a powerful illusion!] "Illusion?" Theo refused to believe it. He comprehended Illusion principles. If there was an illusion attack, he would've sensed it right? Izreel snorted, as if reading his mind. [That illusion was a powerful one brat. Worst of all, it wasn't even showing one thousendth of it's might. Whoever owns this inheritance cave must have been a big shot at his pe
Theo opened his eyes. After a long sleep, he finally woke up. He was currently in the main area of the inheritance cave. Dried tears could be spotted stream lined on his cheeks. What he experienced in the illusion was so devastating. Not only did he have to survive a chaotic world without the aid of the system, he tasted death ninety nine times. Although it was all an illusion, Theo felt deep fear. What if the system suddenly abandoned him? how would he cope? At that moment, the environment began to warp. Theo found himself in a room that looked like a lab facility. There were various sophisticated looking control panels. Six huge transparent tanks containing a golden liquid were connected to a single test tube. Within it was a Dragon. Yep, a real life dragon in the flesh. The dragon had a pair of mighty horn, thick scales, powerful wings and a long tail. 'Yikes!' The invisible aura the Dragon emitted caused Theo to take a step back in fright. Luckily, the dragon seemed to b
After going through a long winding path, the trio finally arrived at a sky reaching castle. Currently, the trio were a stark different to their previous selves. After battling several undead creatures, they were extremely wreary and battered. "What is that castle? is it the last check point in this damn place?" Theo gasped in exasperation as he peered at the tall tower. The tower was pitch black in color, excluding a ghotic air around it. Surrounding the tower was a large wall made out of broken bones and skulls. The gate was extremely antique and left wide ajar. "Be careful. I sense a powerful source of necromancy mana from that tower" Scarlet warned solemnly, taking cautious steps towards the ghotic looking tower, while Theo and Lorraine followed from behind her. When they were a short distance away from the tower, Scarlet fingers weaved through a series of handseals. A black miasma shot out of her nostril, materializing into an Undead Orc.Unlike regular Orc, this one had oil
Rattle. Rattle. The two fearsome Undead swordsmen unsheathed their blades, swinging a sharp blade arc towards Lorraine. "Hmph!" the latter snorted. A white light flashed before her, materializing into the form of a large serpentine creature. Long thin threads shot out of Lorraine's finger tips, boring their way into the neck of the large serpent. "Go!" Lorrain gave a soft flick, causing the puppet Serpent to lash out at the aproaching Undead swordsmen with it's mighty tail. If it's attack landed, the two undead swordsmen would definitely be smashed into meat pauy. "Return!" Scarlet did some swift hand signs, causing the undead swordsmen to vanish into a pue of black miasma. "Girl. You hid yourself quite well" Scarlet forced out a smile. Like Necromancy, there existed another similiar principle.. Puppetery! Puppet Masters were extremely feared due to their ability to control refined puppets. Even the weakest Puppet master could control two puppets simultaneously.They were li
Passing through the bridge made of bones, Theo couldn't help recalling a popular saying in his former world. 'Courting Death!' Yep! he knew this. However, just like Lorraine said, there was no rewards without some risk. Since it was a relic ruins, there was bound to be many good stuffs. "Can you see through the mist?" Lorraine squinted her eyes after they reached the other side, which was shrouded by a dark mist that reeked of death. Activating the Eye of Illusions, Theo was able to see the dark mist clearly. "Careful! there are matrix tags lying around" he cautioned. Matrix tags were special items. Since Runesmasters were extremely rare, that was where matrix tags came into play. It was common knowledge that only runesmasters could draw out runic matrix formations. Matrix tags were special items with a runic matrix formation sealed within. Although it was a one-time use, it was extremely expensive. Counting the number of matrix tags, Theo sucked in a mouthful.Twenty! "Just
The underground cave was unnaturally large, like it was a world of it's own. Along the way, the duo didn't encounter any dangers, causing the previous vigilance they had adopted, to dampen a bit.After two hours of non stop walking, they had to come to a stop. Because ahead of them laid a wide chasm."Now what do we do. It's a dead end!" Theo slapped his forehead in persipation."Strange. Have you noticed an oddity?" Lorraine said as she gravely stared down at the wide chasm."Nope. Did you discover something?" Theo turned towards Her."While we we were covering the distance, i managed to glean out some information from my close observations. The underground cave wasn't formed naturally. It was artificially created"Theo sucked in a mouthful."Artificially created? i can't even begin to imagine what sort of existence would be capable of achieving such a feat"However, Lorraine shook her head."It was collectively created by a group of experts""If my guess is on point, this must be a
"S-Sir, this isn't right no? we clearly helped you beat that Scorpion-Man" Amira smiled, tossing a mana replenishing pill into her mouth without any hesistation. It was obvious she was taking counter measures incase of a conflict erupting. "How do we know if you are not members of the alien race adopting human form?" the second Spartan questioned suspiciously. "We can prove it. Here! i am a member of the Silver Moon Knight guild" Amiqa brought out an identity token. "Telekinesis" the first Spartan who happened to be the leader made a grabbing motion, causing the identitity token to fly into his grip. "Psi magic!" Amira and her group looked at the first Spartan with trepidation. Psi magic principle was an esoteric and rare magic principle. Like RuneMasters and Illusionists they made use of arcane energy. With Psi magic, one could inflict damage on opponent using their mind to deal either physical or mental damage. They were extremely formiddable and were not people to be trifle
When the intermediate rank mages heard these words, their heart sank to rock bottom. Finished! They were finished! "I and Jamaal will try and stall for a bit. Lead the intermediate rankers away to a safe place. We will meet up if fate so wills it" Amira solemnly instructed Nicola who nodded. "Stay safe!" after saying these words, she began leading Theo and the other intermediate rank mages away. Scriii! The Scorpion-Man was displeased when it saw some of it's meal jumping out of the plate. He swung it's sharp tail at the fleeing group. "Your opponent is me!" a bright light flashed as a whip type magic armament appeared in Amira's grip. She flung the whip towards the tail smashing towards Nicola's group. Like a snake on a tree, the whip elongated with bizarre elasticity, wrapping around the tail. Amira gave it a powerful tug, making the tail miss the fleeing group by a few metres. "Scorching Bones!" Amira casted a skill with a stern face.The whip wrapped around the Scorpion-
Theo clicked his tongue in annoyance. Following Izreel's attention, he attempted to bond with the black sword using primal points.-[To proceed recquires 20,000 primal points to bond with item] "Twenty thousand?!" Theo's eye lid twitched. Indeed! there was nothing perfect in this life! He only had a little over hundred primal points. He needed 8000 primal points to experience another level up. Such a large sum was far stretched for the current him. Helpless, he could only stow the black inheritance sword away as he brought out the super grade sachet of pills. He had previously consumed one pill, causing him to level up twice! doing the maths, he managed to amass 10,000 primal points! Staring at the six purple colored pills, he resolutely threw me into his mouth and sat down cross legged. He could feel a powerful wave of energy slam against him. He released a low grunt and bore through the pain. If an outsider saw this, they would be left questioning the essence of life!Just
Nicola continued calling out names. The mages who came out would battle amongst themselves, revealing their skills and techniques. Finally, it was the last round. "Theo an Zeil!" Theo leapt onto the fighting area, sizing up his opponet. Zeil had a fat build with a somewhat naive expression. However, this wasn't enough to make Theo go eary on him. Nicola slammed her mace down, signalling for them to clash. Tap! Tap! Theo struck first, relying on his base speed, he threw a heavy punch towards Zeil. "Iron Skin!" Ding! Theo felt a sting in his knuckles. Relying on the rebound force, he distanced himself from Zeil, whose body was coated with a skin layer of magic iron. Theo face twitched. He was confident in bagging a victory since Zeil was merely at the third level of the intermediate rank. Who would've expected that he would be an earth attribute mage. After having learnt his lesson, Zeil didn't remain passive. He bounded towards Theo, sending an hammer strike towards his bel
"First round. Please if you hear your name, step out. Zaik and Bull" Nicola read from a long paper slip containing about forty something names divided in a meticulous sequence.Beside her were Jamaal and Amira who sat at the judges desk, acting as the judges for the duel.Shortly after her announcement, two mages walked out onto the middle region of the hall. The rest of the mages who came to try out the recruitment watched from the viewers platform from above."Who do you think is going to win?" Jamaal casually asked his colleagues."I'll go for Bull" both women chorused.The two mages stared at each other intensely, their eyes releasing sparks. Bull had a stocky build, wielding a spear with intricate glowing patterns on it's surface.It was obviously a magic armament.As for Zaik, he had a slender figure, reaching just Bull's chest level. Behind his back was a sheathed blade and a clown mask concealed his face."Start!" Nicola pounded a mace on the desk.Fwoosh!Zaik drew out his bl