I stood in front of the golden Mage and a group of S-Class mages that formed the jury for the exam.
"Thorus Maxima, please demonstrate the strongest spell you have learned since you arrived at the academy."
So after the golden Mage stopped speaking I nodded and started to arrange the array of the experimental Rank 4 spell 'Convergence'.
I wasn't paying attention to the jury but I can guess how their face went from anticipation to complete horror. The law surrounding the exam was air tight, interrupting a student while he was casting his exam spell was only allowed if it was a matter of life or death for the student.
By the time I had casted the Rank 4 experimental Version of 'Convergence' I opened my eyes and released the spell at the practice target. I repeated it often enough but again it was an experimental version of the spell not the finished one.
A bright golden light and an all devouring black light illuminated the target before the spell collapsed in itself and created an explosion that would have pulverized the building if not for the battalion of defensive spells that the jury had casted in advance. The target had been obliterated, but the building was still standing.
The golden Mage stood beside me protecting me from the after effects of my own spell. The first words he said to me after the surroundings had calmed down, were: "Who, in god's name, thought you a defective Rank 4 Spell?"
"I did!" was my sophisticated answer.
"Don't joke with me. This is serious. Rank 4 spells are no childsplay as you have seen. This one is defective on top. Whoever taught you this trick, has committed a serious crime!" The golden Mage was rarely this serious, it was to be honest his most serious moment I ever witnessed.
"I am serious, I created it myself. I wasn't aware that the spell is defective. I thought it was ingenious."
"Kid, the next time you come up with something like this you come to me. Understood! The first thing we will do is fix the mess you created with this Rank 4 spell, before you swear not to use it outside of any life threatening situation until you are capable of understanding its true might."
I promised him and he helped me lay the foundation of the 'Convergence' that is known to the world.
In the end I got 150 Points from 100 possible points for my demonstration. To get that I had to explain to them how I came up with the spell and how exactly I arranged the runes in all 4 circles. I was surprised how easy it was to explain to them what I did. They understood where I went right and where I went wrong instantly.
Unsurprisingly everyone in the class of dominating affinity mages got at least 95 Points. Esy who was studying with me most of the time got 100 Points for a self created multielement Rank 3 Spell.
After that the school continued with some personal side lessons from the golden Mage. Before you asked, he didn't grant me access to higher Rank knowledge. It was more of learning by myself while he watched, type of lessons. Whenever I made a mistake he would ask me where the mistake came from, why I did it and how I could fix it.
The most frustrating thing was that he never gave me any kind of tips or tricks he just watched while containing the devastating explosions my spells produced.
Today it was painfully obvious that he did that to make me use my brain for every nuance of spellcrafting. The famous words he repeated again and again were: "If the goal was to kill everyone including yourself you succeed."
I can't thank him enough for his lessons, or more for the supervision of my studies.
Because the golden Mage wasn't always available I continued my quest to learn everything the library had to offer me. It took me 2 Months to study every book the library gave me access to. You might say that is ridiculous because the library is so massive. The fact that 1st year students barely have access to 1% of the books on the first floor should be enough explanation. Even the 2nd year students only have access to 50% of the first floor. While 3rd years have unlimited access to the 1st floor. The Second floor is only accessible for 4th to 6th year students while every floor above is restricted to teachers and academy staff only.
In the time I was at the academy the visions in my dreams never stopped. But the more I learned about magic and the more I forged my mind into a deathly weapon the speed in which I experienced the memories increased.
In the 7 months since my awakening 5 Years had passed in my sleep, the memories of Jerermy Florescu. The first year he just wandered around getting used to his powers. Or getting me used to my powers. He hunted by manifesting the Chaos element, in combination with the flexible application of the titan physiques natural Armor. He consumed the souls of all his victims gaining strength and second hand experience in many things. He tamed stronger and weaker beasts and so on and so forth.
This was one of the reasons I was able to defeat Gerak.
He learned how to fly flawlessly, which improved my own flight technique that I wasn't able to practice ever since I left home.
While the apocalypse changed the world for the first time, the Awakening that happened to everyone changed the world yet again. Those with stronger powers soon made those with weaker powers subservient to them.
The camps that were built with the intention of helping people and survive transformed into hotpots of chaos. From the chaos emerged kingdoms.
These Kingdoms started to fight each other and Empires emerged.
A universal ranking for power was established.
Ordered into 3 categories: physical, mental and special.
Physical and mental abilities are Ranked from common [C] over uncommon [B] to rare [A] up to super rare [S].
Physical abilities are easy to explain. Things like wings, extra limbs, extra muscles and so on and so forth. Also Elemental abilities such as poison fangs, burning claws etc.
Mental abilities are a lot harder to organize. The most common mental ability was Elemental Manifestation. The power to manifest an element out of thin air. There were other abilities as well but they do not have as much of an impact.
Special abilities are the most powerful ones. Ranked into General, King, Emperor and God rank. Normally a General Rank ability could go head to head with any S-Rank ability. Some Special abilities like my soul contract or my soul eater power are obvious. Some people with less luck got a race change as a special ability. Among these were Vampires, Werewolves and other mythical beasts.
Obviously the ability alone said nothing about how strong the person was, that depended on your Potential and Talent. Two people could have the same ability, maybe elemental manifestation of fire. Where one was a natural Genius, who could lay waste to a City on his own, the other one was barely able to start a campfire.
Potential could only be guessed and not measured. It was different for every individual.
The ranking, despite being officially recognized by most of the rising Nations, wasn't really perfect. The best example was Elemental Manifestation, despite it being the most common ability among humanity it was classified as an A-Rank mental ability.
In fact very few mental abilities were classified as B-Rank and none as C-Rank. C- and B-Rank had been established for the physical abilities because most of them were weak at first sight. Physical abilities were only able to shine if the Person that awoke them had the necessary potential.
Important to notice was that people instinctively knew the basics of their abilities after awakening. There was no recognizable pattern on what ability one got.
The most obvious example is a pair of triplets. The 1st one awakened the B- Rank physical ability Elastic body, which enabled him to transform his body semi-permanent into a rubber like material. The 2nd brother awakened the A-Rank mental ability elemental manifestation of fire. While the last brother became a giant silver black Dragon. Which was later classified as King Rank special ability.
On the other hand a patchwork family of 6 awakened collectively the S-Rank Mental ability Sword Domain. The crazy constellation was Father, his daughter with another woman, the mother, her son with another man, and a pair of male and female dizygotic twins that they got together.
This was the Hardak family, later they recognizably got the moniker Sword Clan. I met them at the end of the 1st year after awakening. At that time they were just a small group of survivors. The six members of the Hardak family and four people they were able to befriend.