"Boy, you can stop staring at yourself now, we're going to be late. Don't tell me you're going to become a self-obsessed narcissist overnight." Blossom pinched her boyfriend, who had been checking himself out for the past few days.
She had to admit that he was right to admire himself, as she could barely keep her eyes off of him herself. From his 6'4ft stature to his bright blue eyes and chiseled jawline. He was the most beautiful boy she had ever seen. Seeing all the girls and even a few guys throwing glances his way made her feel pretty good.
Whenever they stared for too long, she would immediately pull him close and steal a kiss. Marking her territory and letting the others know who he belonged to.
"Pssh, like you haven't been checking yourself out, just as much as I am," Xeik said as he took a palm-full of her full bottom. He wasn't the only one who had come into their mature bodies. Blossom turned into a curvaceous beauty with everything in the right place.
The couple had been basking in each other's newfound sex appeal for days. Only taking a break because today was the day of their second assessment.
All of a sudden, two people appeared on stage from the shadows. Everyone on the assessment platform was taken aback. No one sensed the presence of these two coming and even with the standing before them, their auras were nonexistent. This meant these two were so powerful that they surpassed their senses, which seemed impossible, seeing as they had never seen these two before. Everyone that powerful was famous, even if it was only inside Stardust Province.
The only exception was if they were part of an elite squad of the army or a member of someone's personal strike team. This realization brought both fear and astonishment on the youngster's faces. For some, it was their first time meeting mages this powerful.
In a shuffle. Everyone quickly got into formation and gave a powerful and resounding greeting to the two ladies, along with a sincere mage salute. Of the two ladies, one was tall and fat and looked intimidating. The other was short and skinny, looking like a little girl not much past puberty.
The short girl stepped forth, "I am Krisan Marcel, I am the leader of the Falling Stardust Shadow Corp, this lady to my right is Miss Lee, grand mage and second platoon leader of the Shadow Corp and we will be your instructors for the day."
The mention of the Shadow Corp led to shocked gasps. Everyone knew of the Shadow Corp and the work they do. It was the most powerful and advanced scouting organization on the continent. Every Shadow Mage among the crowd wished to join their ranks.
"The purpose of this assessment is to both test and strengthen your perception. In the shadow world behind me, it's pitch black and unless you are a flame or light mage, no light you produce will be able to pierce the darkness. Even for those mages, the amount of mana they would need to light a one-meter radius will drain them of mana within three days," Krisan continued.
The crowd hung onto her every word, especially those who were challenging this stage for the first time. Their first instructor, Choir, was famously light on the details, so this was their first real information about what was expected of them.
"So, basically, for the next ten days, forget about using any of your five senses and rely solely on your 6th sense, Perception. You will rely solely on your perception skills to find your way through the shadow world and bring back a black flame fox from the center of the biome. Fail to do so and, you know, but unlike the first assessment, you can try taking this trail again next month." With this, Krisan disappeared and the forcefield to the shadow world opened up.
Thousands of mages flitted off at once, charging endlessly inside the shadow world. The crowd was oozing with fervor and determination as they fearlessly charged towards this milestone on the way to their ambitions.
An enormous crowd gathered inside a massive and extravagant plaza decorated with mana pillars. Which were pillars made from bricks that, instead of absorbing mana, expel concentrated mana absorbed by the mana towers it connected them to. These were created for the outdoors so the mana outside would be just as potent as inside, and also to bleed off the excess mana, making the pools overflow.
Because of this long stretch of peace, the mana absorbed by the mana towers became so much that they could not build mana pools large enough or fast enough to store all of it. Thus, these mana pillars were erected all over the Stardust Province for everyone to enjoy and to keep the excess mana in circulation rather than let it go to waste. This increased the speed of cultivation. Not only that, the quality of mana improved, as this mana was several times more concentrated than the mana outside the forcefield.
Other provinces came up with creative ways to ease this problem and others simply gave up and released it back outside the forcefield. A merchant guild actually created mini mana pools in the form of barrels and bottles. Bought the excess mana from provinces and sold them to households and guilds as training resources.