The journey to the Star City was quite uneventful. Sure travelling through the Ravine forest was unnerving due to the many beasts that treated it as their home, but Noah's strength was not so low that he couldn't handle the occasional beasts he met and his ability to sense Essence because of his Silver Dragon Eyes allowed him to avoid all troublesome beasts that were beyond his level.
Thanks to this they hadn't experienced much before reaching the city. Of course they would have been ahead of schedule if they had rushed all the way so Noah had them proceed slowly, taking the time to train. In that time, the relationship between the three had improved but it was more of a teacher-student relationship that bordered on real friendship but never actually touched upon it.
Noah was stunned looking at the magnificent gates that welcomed all the contestants for the Academic Exam. But it wasn't for long as he moved his attention off the gates and dragged the still stunned Damien and Mona into the Academy. The transmigrator was once more stunned as he looked at the endless line that was created within the Academy, but he didn't mention anything and just obediently joined the line. Luckily the line moved very fast so it didn't take long for the trio's turn.
"Place your hand on the sphere before you. It will be used to determine your bone age." The man at the counter had a bored expression as he spoke. He breathed out, letting a stream of air blow his bangs upwards and revealing a young man's face and his oddly looking amethyst colored eyes.
Looking at the dual amethyst and white hair that covered the guy's eyes all the way to the bridge of his nose, Noah wondered how he could even see. "Sure." Still, he paid no more attention to it and placed his hand on the sphere situated on the table before the man. Upon his touch a white glow was released by the sphere for a while before the number 12 was displayed on it. 'Oh, I'm already 12?' He honestly couldn't even keep track of his age with all that was going on around him.
The young man, on the other hand, was surprised to see such a low age. With a glance he could tell that the boy before him was at the Intermediate Stage but he had been misled by Noah's tall height for his age. In his mind, only a genius could make it to the Intermediate Stage at the age of 12. Thinking of this, his eyes brightened as he thought of ways to bring this genius to his faction.
"Which way next?" Seeing as the guy before him was unresponsive, Noah stopped waiting and directly asked.
As the guy was deep in thought, he merely waved his hand and pointed towards the path that appeared behind his reception. "Just follow the path."
"Hmm." The transmigrator nodded and walked forward, following the path. It was only a few seconds after he left that the man recovered from his reverie.
Staring dumbly at Damien that now stood before him, the man resisted the urge to slap himself and could only sigh regretfully. 'I hope I meet this genius again, hopefully he's not been snatched by other factions.'
Noah didn't have to walk for long before seeing a large building, made head to toe with glass but it seemed it prevented one from seeing what was inside. "You guys nervous?"
He had walked slowly so the siblings had been able to catch up with him. Hearing his words, Damien gave a weak smile. "That's a given, some of the monsters over there are probably at your level."
"There could be some that surpass me even." Noah responded with a chuckle. "You're simply overestimating me."
"Yeah and I'm an Overlord Stage Battlesoul master." Mona's sarcasm was almost tangible as she spoke, her brother nodded as if agreeing to what she implied. One couldn't blame them, after spending that much time with Noah they had fully acknowledged how much of a monster he was. After all they didn't know people that could jump several levels to fight.
The monster in question chose to stay quiet as he led them into the building. The place was really marvelous, it looked like a normal large building on the outside but was like a stadium on the inside. He looked around and noticed about a thousand children around his age, and more would arrive soon.
But Noah didn't care much about that, his attention was on the Essence signatures released by the children around him. This was basically something like a fingerprint of DNA, the Essence signature was something unique to different people, and he was trying to use this to locate Leonel. Unfortunately the stadium was quite large and his Silver Dragon Eyes couldn't cover that kind of distance yet.
Sighing he could only give up and analyze the people around him while waiting for the Exam registration to finish.
Finally after waiting for what seemed like hours, the doors to the building finally closed. Immediately it did, a pedestal arose from the ground and attracted the attention of everyone around.
A man soon appeared in the space above the pedestal, a holographic image created by Essence. His figure, despite not actually being before them, radiated power and grace that were further enhanced by his dark hair, blue colored eyes and a fair skin that made most of the girls present jealous. "Good morning all. My name is Oliver Wright, the current Principal of the Soaring Star Academy. I welcome you all to its annual examination. The examination that grants admission into my academy is simple. All of you will be teleported into a maze like dungeon filled with Essence Beasts, your goal is to kill as much beasts as you can while finding your way to the center of the maze. The exam will last seven days, anyone who has not reached the center by then will be eliminated."
Hearing these words, Noah let out a little smile "This should be interesting."