Upon finishing the first appraisal, Professor Arthur's assistant, Assistant Professor Paul, the person who blocked the gate on the first day instantly appeared after a sign from Professor Arthur. This time however, he didn't give off any eerie vibes, instead he looked like a compassionate dad watching over his kids on their first day of school, which helped the students who were previously scared of him lighten up.
Assistant Professor Paul is indeed a compassionate person with a soft heart for kids. On the first day, he was ordered by Professor Arthur to put on such a scene. For one, it would show that the Academy is a serious place with serious goals, and also demonstrate their power for nearby forces who were spying on them.
Paul had a list of names of the students present mixed in a bowl and gave it to Professor Arthur, which made the students guess that this was previously planned as the two didn't exchange a single word. Professor Arthur picked two small-cut papers from the bowl, each containing a student's name.
Although it was designed to be random both Professor Arthur and Assistant Professor Paul could easily see through them had they willed it, which they didn't. He then called out to the two students that got picked, "Philip and Raul, come up and fight," the students not having last names made everyone else there sure that they were commoners.
"Fight? where?" asked both students at the same time, clearly confused considering that the training grounds were not designed for 1v1 fights.
"Hoh, You don't need to worry about that, kids!" replied Assistant Professor Paul with a half-sarcastic laugh. Just as he finished his sentence, a mini arena instantly rose from the ground, behind the group of students by none other than Professor Arthur.
The area of the arena was 150 square meters, and it kind of resembled Ancient Rome's colosseums' structure albeit much smaller.
Although the students were completely shocked by what just unfolded in front of their eyes, they regained composure after realizing that it was only natural for Professor Arthur to be able to do at least that much as he was not only a master of the earth element but also a member of the Dukedom of Gi.
Philip and Raul both went up to the arena to fight as ordered by their Professor.
Both students were at the low tier of the 2nd circle meaning that they were extremely talented among the commoners. They imbued their bodies with mana which made their physical bodies multiple times stronger.
There are two ways for battle mages to fight, if they're fighting a long-ranged battle they would simply use spells. However, if they fight a close-ranged battle then they are forced to reduce the use of spells and imbue their body with mana to make it several times stronger and fight with martial arts like the two students were currently doing.
They then got into their fighting stances, and the audience was excited to see people their age fight in a real duel, yet almost everyone there including Kyle could tell that they were amateurs.
"3,2,1... GO!" announced Assistant Professor Paul.
Philip first launched himself at Raul with a flying kick with a speed 3x faster than the average athlete, Raul immediately blocked it and counterattacked by holding Philip's leg and spun with him two times before throwing him, sliding on the floor. Philip realized he couldn't get back up in time and block Raul's incoming attack, so he decided to use a fire missile spell without chanting, which caught Raul off guard and resulted in Philip's quick victory.
Most of the audience was impressed by such a duel even though it was done by mere 2nd circle mages, it was still pretty good.
Mages can use spells that belong to a lower circle without chanting. For example, Philip, a 2nd circle apprentice mage used a fire missile, a 1st circle magic spell without chanting. If he had used a 2nd circle magic spell, then he would've had to chant to activate it.
"Very good, very impressive!" cheered Professor Arthur, "But you have some things you can improve on. Philip! The quick thinking of using a fire missile in that situation was impressive for your age, however, you could've used that flying kick at the beginning as a feint and surprised Raul with another attack, Raul! You did well blocking and counterattacking that fast, however, you could've used the 1st circle spell, Metal wall to block that considering that you possess an earth element.
"Thank you, sir we'll properly use your advice," Philip and Raul were not the least bit embarrassed or mad by the criticism they just received, they were instead happy by the slight compliment, after all, advice from a 7th circle experienced battle mage like Professor Arthur was nothing short of an opportunity for growth.
"This advice is not only for those two, everyone! You might find yourselves in similar situations in the future and could use such advice" added Assistant Professor Paul.
Philip and Raul went back to their seats and Professor Arthur picked two more names. The same thing repeated a couple of times until Kyle was picked with Cole Warner, the son of Marquis Warner as his opponent. Cole Warner was a mid-tier 2nd circle mage but although he was a tier lower than Kyle, he still couldn't underestimate him, after all being the son of a higher nobility meant that he received better training which could make up for the 1 tier difference between the two easily.
Kyle was a bit nervous but his nervousness was masked by his excitement, Kyle and Cole made their way to the arena and took their fighting stances. "Hmph, Don't get cocky just because you ranked third on the previous exam, you're still the son of a mere viscount!" said Cole fuming with anger that Kyle got higher results than him previously, Kyle was confused as to when he offended such a person as they didn't interact much, "Wha-", "3,2,1...GO!" but was cut by Professor Arthur's announcement to start the match.