"Ready, Begin!"
*Boom*Slash*
The knights attacked the dummies on Mr Pewterschmidt's signal.
Emil raised his sword and hacked down at the dummy.
*Ding*
Vibration ran through his body as his numb left arm let go of the sword and his right arm sent pain through his body.
"Ughh."
A muffled grunt escaped his mouth as he bent down to pick his sword again.
Every examinee had three tries.
Most examinees stopped at one try since they'd have already spent their strength but if they wished to, they could attack again for up to three times.
The other knights beside Emil had finished their attacks and stepped off the stage, it was only Emil remaining now.
"Watch him make a fool of himself."
"I bet ten mana crystals he's gonna cry."
"Do i look like a beggar? If you're gonna bet do it like a real man.
I bet 100."
The nobles down there joked among themselves.
"Hmph, useless."
The bearded burly teacher snorted.
"Boy, why did you bother coming all the way here if you can't even do this much?
You'll be eaten up in the academy in no time."
The teachers next to him glanced at him and silenced him. But they didn't rebuke him.
The academy was a competetive ground. With Emil's talents, he wasn't gonna last very long there.
Maybe it was for the best for him to drop out here and now instead of going through unnecessary suffering.
"Mr Osric here is a bit hot headed, please don't mind him."
One of the teachers declared with a gentle smile.
"Why don't you try augmenting your left arm first? I'm sure you'd see significantly better results."
For the first time ever, the teachers were giving advice.
The teacher with the gentle smile, his name was Piers. He was a first year combat teacher and he felt responsible for his student.
Up until now all the examinees were doing fine, but he couldn't sit by and watch when one of them needed help and encouragement.
"Haha, my buddy here is right.
Here's a simple trick, just visualize your mana moving towards your arm and hardening. It's not that difficult, give it a try."
The alleged porcupine, the teacher with red spiky hair who was sitting next to Piers declared.
His name was Arne and he was also a first year combat teacher.
Arne was a Knight and Piers was a mage, they taught the same class together because Knights and Mages had to be taught combat by other Knights and Mages despite their classes being mixed.
Emil who wasn't expecting the teachers' opposition, and encouragement, too, was surprised and quickly bowed down.
"Thanks for your advice, I'll try my best."
One more time, he picked up his sword, and after trying the method Arne taught him, slashed down at the dummy.
The same process repeated itself again, with the sword being flung away from Emil's hand and him grunting in pain.
The bearded teacher, Osric, grinned while Arne and Piers remained tense and anticipating.
The fourth teacher, the expressionless man, still remained expressionless and had no encouragement to give.
Without any pause this time, Emil picked up his sword again and stood next to the dummy.
'Huuu, concentrate. Imagine your mana flowing to your arm...'
With a deep breath, he closed his eyes and raised his sword.
'and hardening!'
*Swoosh*
This time around, the sound of the sword travelling through the air and slicing the metal dummy in two clean halves was the only thing that rang out.
All the examinees, and even the teachers were stunned, as the number 100 appeared above the training dummy.
Even the expressionless teacher couldn't hide his surprise as he squinted his eyes while looking at the dummy.
Within the pin drop silence, the only sound that could be heard was Emil sheathing his sword and putting it back on the weapon rack.
The examinees looked at him like a rare animal as he stepped off the platform.
Emil looked around as if nothing happened and ignored everyone's gazes.
Frankly speaking...
'what the hell just happened?'
Even he himself had no idea what he'd done.
One thing was for sure, that was no augmentation. He still didn't know how to do it.
...
With the IQ test and combat test out of the way, only two more tests remained.
The physical test and comprehension test.
All examinees were put within a formation for the physical test.
There, they started experiencing g forces. The longer they withstood it, the higher their score.
Unsurprisngly, Emil was the first person to collapse, followed by mages and then the knights.
He couldn't perform any more miraculous feats like he did in the combat test, so he could only settle for being the bottom feeder of this test.
Last but not the least was the comprehension test.
All examinees were gathered around each other with a large portrait of a man holding a wand in one hand a sword in the other.
"A spell is hidden within this portrait.
The spell differs for each individual depending on their class, element, and level of comprehension.
You have thirty minutes to find and perform the spell. Good luck."
Mr Pewterschmidt retreated to the back after giving instructions, leaving the examinees on their own.
Everyone started intensely staring at the portrait, some getting close, some further, some viewing it from different angles and some looking for clues by touching it.
Emil on the other hand, didn't move an inch.
Since he was able to see a giant darkness spell written all over portrait from the moment he laid eyes on it.
This more or less confirmed one of his doubts.
He really was an Elemental Saint and possessed the darkness element, Somehow, through some way.
He wanted nothing more than to cast the spell and show his talents to everyone right there and then.
He'd been humbled, much more than he would've liked, ever since the special admission test started.
But he still chose not to.
Emil wasn't particualrly a careful character, he was still just a child like everyone else, and had urges and impulses a child would.
Right there and then, all he wanted to do was to prove to everyone that he wasn't trash, that they were all wrong.
But he had a gut feeling that wasn't the right thing to do.
Too many strange things have been happening today.
Too many of them.
He awakened as an elemental saint but nobody could tell, and it was fire and darkness of all elements.
Not to mention the event at the combat test.
Everyone thought he used augmentation and landed a lucky hit, but he knew fully well what he did there was no augmentation, nor a lucky hit.
He pulled off an attack beyond his physical capabilities, from an unknown power source.
It wasn't difficult to connect the dots and figure out it had something to do with his darkness element.
And all of this, all of it could possibly have something to do with his strange physical condition.
It didn't even have a name, no doctor knew what it was, it was unprecedented and unique to him.
Revealing his abilities here would be a naive decision, one that could possibly put him at risk.
He finally awakened his mana core and even had dual elements by the looks of it, not to mention he was gonna get to study in the Royal Academy.
All these were things he wouldn't even dream of. He wasn't gonna risk losing it for a momentary impulse.
His best course of action would be opening the ring his parents left him and see if he could find any answers. Even if he didn't, he could still figure things out slowly.
All he needed to do now was to figure out how to open the damn thing.