Baem had always been the hero among his playmates back at Ruik, a village next to the capital of the Silva kingdom. Home of the long-eared ones.
It was not a coincidence that his friends thought of him like that. His mother, a high elf, was the chief of the village. A highly respected one at that. Her lineage fought alongside the now deceased king, Felkam Seig Colm, father of Rue Seig Colm, the current queen.
During the invasion, the young Felkam gallantly kept the demons at bay from reaching the lifeline of their species, the Tree of Sustenance.
His mother had told him tales of their history and the history of many heroes in the days of hardship. Baem liked them a lot. He wanted to become a hero too and save his friends from the demons and monsters threatening their tranquilly.
One day, he and three other of his friends—two girls and a boy—were playing in the forest. When they came to themselves, they noticed that they were quite a distance from their village. This caused them to panic a bit because there was a rumour going around in the village that a bloater was roaming around the border of their village. Baem, living up to his reputation in his friends minds, tried to reassure them. However, if he were to be honest, even he was lost at the moment. A bloater was something not to trivial with.
He gathered his three friends and silently trailed back to where they came from, since bloaters were known for their hearing. Along their path, a squirrel found its way towards the youngest girl in the group and bit her right ankle, causing her to scream and cry.
Baem quickly scurried out the squirrel and began to console his friend before he heard a deep grumble. Instantly, the rumoured Bloater came to his mind. He glanced at his friends and saw that they also heard what he heard.
He didn't remember how, but his hand was already tightly holding the crying girl.
His thoughts buzzed. The chances of them running away fine were slim if they were in a group, so the only option was to separate. He was the oldest and the hero among his friends. Baem looked at the other boy in the group with pleading eyes and told him of his plan.
The other boy persistently refused his plan before reluctantly agreeing, as the grumbling was getting closer. The boy scooped the youngest girl, who had now become quiet, and put her on his back before signalling for the other girl to follow him. Baem gave them an ugly smile before running away from the direction of the village and screaming at the top of his lungs. Not a second later, he felt the earth quaking in intervals. The bloater was on his track.
He ran and ran, not bothering to look back, before hiding behind a hole carved inside a tree. A while later, a grumbling voice overtook the ambience of the forest. Second after second, the voice neared his position before a tremendous force burst through the shaft of the tree he was in.
The impact violently struck Baem and threw him away a distance. His ears ringed, and he couldn't differentiate the sounds he was hearing. His body ached from the pain. He weakly looked up and saw a yellow boulder-sized toad with a huge belly and back full of blisters; pus slid down from some of them. An image that hunted him in his dreams.
Before he could even make a noise, a long, slimy tongue wrapped around him and yanked him into darkness.
When he came to himself, he was in bed. Herbal leaves stuck to his bare skin. Soon after, his mother came into the room and scolded him for his dumb actions before giving him a tight hug.
It was a wild day when the current Baem reminisced about it. If not for his mother and the patrolling hunters, he would not have been here.
He peered at the toad eyeing him with innocence and thought of the riddle his teacher gave. As he was pondering, the corner of his right eye caught sight of Coy reaching for the simple lock on the box in front of him and opening it. What?
The most bizarre thing was that the snake actually climbed Coy and took refuge around his neck. He hurriedly looked at the teacher and saw that he was focused on the board game in front of him with a frown. It appeared that Johan was giving him a tough game.
Yeyl noticed Baem's puzzling action and searched for the source of it. When she saw the snake nestling around Coy's neck, she was speechless. 'That's possible now?'
As though sensing their gazes, Coy gave them a glance and a smug so frustrating, they almost felt like punching him.
***
The test finally ended. Baem and Yeyl eventually surrendered and let the animals out of their box, allowing them to sit on their hands. At first, the little creatures gave them goosebumps, but they eventually got used to them. Yeyl even played around with the salamander.
Beside their group, a few others followed their example. Some didn't even interact with the box, while others carefully shoved it to the side. However, four students killed the animals in their boxes with mana suffection, a technique that saturated mana around someone's body, voiding them of any air.
None of the students thought it was weird, just mildly unsettling.
Zett was currently standing with Johan behind him. A sour smile was plastered on his face. It appeared that defeating Johan before he graduated was a losing bet. He shouldn't have made a bet with that gambler.
He coughed and said, "Well done, everyone. There were only three options to choose from in this test, and I assure you that not one of them was a wrong option—just different answers to your dilemma. The objective of this test was to see if one could shake hands with their fears and perhaps forgo their previous enmity. It was also an experiment to test a certain spell that was recently invented by an elder student of our academy called Aura probe."
Some of the students gasped in surprise when they heard that. One of them raised their hand and asked in worry, "W- what if the experiment had gone wrong?"
Zett smiled at him and said, "Nothing would happen. It's an invasive spell designed to only scan the aura of a person. Auras are impuded with emotions, and fear is an emotion too. Phobias are dormant, as they surface when the object of your phobia is present or is reminded of you. The way this spell works is to scan the dormant fears in one's aura. There are many such dormant fears, so the caster tugs on one of the fears and exploits it to target his enemies.
"But of course, it can also be used for research purposes; however, the main reason is to further advance the research on Aura."
"But teacher, wouldn't that be a violation of one's privacy?" A girl with short black hair inquired in disbelief.
Zett laughed and nodded. "Indeed, it is. As such, a hundred credits would be given to everyone. I believe you all recognise the value of credits."
The students brightened upon hearing that information.
Coy nodded in agreement. Credit was the currency of the magic council used to exchange for many things, such as exclusively invented spells, artefacts, etc. One credit equaled one coin of gold, so a hundred credits was a lot, especially for first-year juniors.
Zett clapped to draw their attention, "Now, about the riddle. To those who solved it, congratulations. For those who didn't, it's alright; I will explain it. The first phrase, 'preyed in the past,' means a traumatic experience that led to a lasting fear upon oneself, the second phrase,'scars attained in the present,' means as the riddle implies, living with the fear to the point of it affecting your daily life; and lastly, 'accepted in the future,' means coming to terms with said fear and moving from it. Although crude as it may be since I randomly thought of it on the spot, I think it has done its purpose. So, did I satiate your curiosities?" He inquired with a benign smile.
The students bobbed their heads, to which Zett chuckled. "Well then, Johan here will be distributing class selection papers to everyone. There are mandatory ones included, like biology, mathematics, and history. As for the non-compulsory ones, you're allowed to choose ten from them, but I wouldn't recommend reaching that number."
Johan brought out multiple papers from thin air and sent them to everyone the same way he did with boxes. The convenient magic-hand spell truly lived up to its name.
Coy held the paper and read through it. Excluding the mandatory ones, the others were divided into two categories: strongly recommended ones and interests. The former was about combat classes like magic 101, rune forging, and CQC 101; the latter literally meant the category it was placed in as it was about everyday interests people occupied themselves with.
"As you may have noticed, all mandatory classes are not combat-related but offer skills you will need when you head out into the big world. We believe that each of you has a different path to focus on, so it's up to you to choose the combat-related classes you want. After all, we are mages or knights, and both are different in many ways. Anyway, you can take your papers and carefully think over what to choose with your family. Class is dismissed for today; you can either head home or walk around the academy if you'd like." Zett concluded before heading out. Johan silently trailed after him.
Coy looked at their disappearing figure behind the closing door and then at his paper. 'It seems that my schedule will be truly busy from now on.'
He wanted to choose many classes because, ultimately, his goal was to keep himself away from boredom.
'I should also advance to the second circle tonight. My mana core is saturated to the limit.'