Rays of sunlight Shone on Tim's face as he was greeted by the morning breeze which blew around his room.
He immediately arised from his bed as he began to reminisce on the occurrences of the other day.
The Memory remained fresh in his brain.
Barely been ten minutes had passed when the mammith which he engaged in combat summoned it's peers.
Immediately, a large number of mammiths had begun to advance to their location and soon, ten beasts were seen in the location that Tim stood.
It was already a miracle that he could last that long against a single beast. He could hardly imagine how he would fare against an additional beast not to talk of ten.
He had lost all hope when he noticed a purple soul-like figure head to his location and pierce through his body.
He felt an unknown power surge through his body like fire but this energy burned even harder.
He couldn't remember anything else apart from that.
He quickly highlighted from his bed and headed to the bathroom to perform his usual morning bath.
In the bathroom, he gazed at the mirror while he brushed his teeth, then he noticed a strange mark on his neck.
It was a black mark consisting of about 15 concentric circles with a rune written in between each circle.
The mark covered the entirety of the left side of the neck sticking out like a sore thumb.
He couldn't possibly fathom the origin of the mark as he barely remembered anything that happened the other night.
Everything just felt like a never ending dream which he desperately wanted to escape.
He finished his bath and put on his clothes.
He couldn't think of a way to hide the mark on his neck as the mark was simply too large to cover with his robe's collar.
He then retrieved a red scarf and tied it around his neck before putting on his red robes.
"That should do it"
He then proceeded to the class to attend his classes for the day.
Normally, Tim would rather choose to avoid class as he never excelled in any of the lessons he attended. As mages, their classes would usually consist of lessons on magical spells and prowess.
Since Tim excelled in neither he would choose to stay away from those classes and would rather attend classes on mage history or bury himself with the books in the library.
Tim decided to make a change this time.
The mage test was coming up in a few weeks and he needed all the knowledge he could get as he was very determined to pass the test this time at all cost.
The test usually comprised of three things.
First, the magical prowess is accessed. A test on basic spells such as transformation spells or potion making. Every step was recorded and any slight mistake could affect the whole test. This was not only to ensure the mage's magical prowess but also to ensure that the mage's mental acuity is well refined.
When performing spells, mages are required to maintain total concentration as any little mistake could greatly hinder the spell's effects.
Hence, when choosing mages, the judges are focused on how well the mage's mental activity and concentration is.
Secondly, the elemental strength is tested.
Most apprehetice mages were mostly dormant and paid less attention to their elemental magic. They always forgot the importance of the elements when carrying out complex spells. Due to the complexity of spells involved with elemets apprentice mages tend to completely ignore it.
It was mostly at this stage of the test where Tim failed. To call his elemental magic considerably weak would be an understatement.
Throughout his stay in the academy, he had only been able to come up with small tricks such as the flame thrust which he used to scale the academy wall the previous night but he had never been able to carry out spells with the elements.
Thirdly, a test on battle abilities are tested.
A mage must be able to defend his or herself with their various magical abilities so each mage is required to learn at least one battle spell.
In this test, each mage is tested on how well the mage can defend himself with spells or by simply using their elements.
After the test is completed successfully, the mage is promoted by a single rank and the tier which the mage falls to would depend entirely on the performance of the mage during the test.
There are a total of seven rank which a mage can be promoted to with each rank possessing a number of tiers.
When apprentice mages pass their mage test, they get promoted by a single rank.
No matter how weak that mage performs, the mage cannot be promoted to a higher rank beyond the next rank. The highest the mage could be promoted to was at most two tiers below the next rank.
The mage is required to take the next test if he wishes to be promoted to the next rank.
Apart from the prime rank which would be awarded to apprentice mages, there is a total of seven ranks that a mage can possibly be promoted to.
They included
Senior mage rank
Archmage rank
High mage rank
Grand mage rank
Wizard rank
Each rank being highly recognized than the last.
If Tim wanted a chance to pass the test this time he would require to gather all the knowledge that he could and he couldn't possibly do that by skipping class.
Today's lessons had been based on a basic duplication spell of a rock. They were required to duplicate the rock into two.
Tim was very familiar with this test as he had carried it out a large number of times.
Every time he carried out the spell he would always end up in either failure or he would duplicate a smaller version or lesser quality of the object he was given.
"Here we go again"
He said as he stretched his arm towards the rock. As he did, the rock began to levitate and his eyes suddenly turned orange.
This was what mages knew as the mage state. Mages were required to enter the mage state before carrying out any type of spell. This mage state would be shown by the sudden colouration of their eyes.
Suddenly he felt a strange power surge through him as he recited the spell
Andropicus floren
Suddenly the rock caught fire and the entire class' attention was attracted.
"Cool!"
"How'd he do that"
"I wonder if mine could also do that"
....
Many passed different comments as they too were aware that this feat was unusual. Even when the teacher had performed the spell, the rock hadn't caught fire, why was Tim an exception.
Inwardly, Tim wondered the same thing.
Tim suddenly felt a burning feeling in the part of his neck where the mark was.
Without notice, his eyes changed colour to purple and his scarf left his neck that it revealed the mark it was meant to hide.
Everyone gazed in awe as they stared at the glowing mark on Tim's neck. Like his eyes, Tim's neck glowed a bright purple colour as it illuminated the room.
The Fire on the rock grew larger and the rock grew with it. Soon a large ball of flame floated I'm front of Tim.
When the flames dissipated, a rock, much larger than the previous one revealed itself.
All this while, the rock had yet to duplicate itself.
Suddenly, the rock exploded and several tiny particles filled the air. Just when the pieces had reached a certain distance away from the point of explosion, they suddenly came to a halt. Soon the brown particles began to duplicate itself and they reassembled at their previous location. The duplicated particles headed to a point just beside the original copy as it began to reassemble.
Behold a new rock was formed.
The teacher revealed a look of surprise as he gazed at the new rock.
Ghost rock!
Tim passed out as soon as the spell was finished.
Everyone gazed in endless awe and amusement as some students went to pick Tim up, all had the same question in their minds.
"How did he do it?"