After seeing the enrobing and elevating to the master rank of the person whom they challenged, a number of the students felt the need to leave the line. As was the custom, they passed their numbered ball to the challenger behind them who passed their original number to the person behind them continuing to the end of the line where the final person brought the unnecessary ones to Monica to be placed into their container.
The number of challengers dwindled by such and amount, she held up the bottom of her shirt to carry the balls as they were moved backwards. In spite of her additional carrying capacity, the girl made four trips due to the number of students who no longer wished to challenge a master of any school of magic, let alone one who performed so amazingly in his first three challenges.
Nearly a third of the queue left leaving Von wondering how many days it would take to complete these challenges causing him to lose time he could be studying. Given the number of challengers remaining, before the fourth stepped forward, he looked to the tortoise preparing to introduce the next challenger. "Archmage Alden, would it be permissible if I were to face several challengers at once?"
Alden raised his left clawed hand to his chin for a moment before replying. "If Hildeth here is willing to allow it, so shall I. Does anyone with to disagree?" Looking around, no one disagreed with Von's plan so far, so the archmage nodded to Von. Go ahead, make your announcement.
Von looked at the long line before stating loudly. I know several of you have an affinity for spacial magic or choromancy, thus, I would like to challenge all who have such affinity who wish to step forward and admit this affinity." Before he could continue his words, he watched as a good number of students stepped forward and began approaching the front of the line including his fourth challenger Hildeth.
Alden seeing the number moving forward motioned for Von to continue his pause until those in line stopped moving. Once this occurred, he glanced at the remaining line. "Does anyone wish to not allow those assembled to move to the front of the line?" Seeing no objections, he looked back to Von. "Continue, hatchling."
Seeing all of the students were larger than he, Von drew in a deep breath before continuing. "Those with strong choromancy affinities, I would like to choose the golden platforms as our challenge. The only rule I would like to pose it one cannot attack another individual during this challenge."
Alden opened his eyes wide while turning his head to the side to look at the boy before looking to those gathered. "If you accept, please step forward past the edge of the nexus."
Several students raised their hands and looked to Von in order to get his attention. Alden looked to Von who pointed to the first one. "Yes?"
This girl with long black hair and sparkling grey eyes looked puzzled. "First, I want to introduce myself. My name is Taki. Second, Von, are you certain you mean the golden platforms and not the silver?" After she said these words, nine other students lowered their hands.
As he watched the golden platforms began appearing around the academy's prime nexus in preparation for the next contest, Von felt confused. He looked to Alden, then to Alendoria who was directing the platforms into their places. "Why would I want the silver platforms. Are they different?" He had teleported through both sets and while the silver didn't have the quirks and strange orientations of the gold ones, neither was truly difficult once he got the hang of them.
Taki started to speak before Alendoria appeared to explain the differences. "Von, there is a significant difference between the two. The silver platforms are stable, have no orientation differences, have no chronomantic differences, no gravity differences, no elemental differences, and one only has to land on top of them. With the gold, all of these differences are present, plus, one may have to land on the right side of an upright one, or left, or even the bottom. The gold platforms can also be spun by magic unlike the steady silver ones."
The reason the archmage stopped Taki from talking was she didn't want Von to know the silver ones belonged to the journeyman test while the gold was affiliated with the adept test. There was an enormous gulf between the skill and affinity needed to navigate the latter versus the former as testing for apprentice to journeyman was much easier than expert to adept. He had already triumphed over the gold platforms without the knowledge of what he accomplished.
Taki nodded to Archmage Alendoria's words then bowed in front of her then again to the you boy in the oversized mathematical robe. "Master Von, I must concede this challenge. Regardless of the fact that spatial magic is my primary affinity, I am not skilled enough in choromancy to challenge the golden platforms." She then handed her number to Monica.
The others who had put down their hands earlier did the same but not before bowing to him and giving their names. Zara, Ella, Ambrose, Eira, Lefwinus, Ivar, Col, Samuel, and Grace all conceded to him due to their disbelief in themselves.
Von then acknowledged a much older teen with short purple hair from the challengers with his hand held high. "Do you have a question...?"
The teenager bowed. "Yes, Master Von. My name is Tobias. I took note that you only mentioned not attacking other people on the platforms, not the platforms themselves. Was this an oversight, or did you mean to leave this as a possibility during this contest?"
Von thought back on his words. He did leave the possibility open. "It was an oversight because I had never thought anyone might attack the platforms themselves. Since you have made the suggestion, I shall keep it in mind once the challenge starts."
Hearing this, several people turned to scowl at Tobias since he gave the boy a new avenue of winning the challenge. It was already bad enough the boy might actually be an adept, but if he was, they didn't need to point out another thing he could do to win.
A half-elven woman stood with an air of ethereal grace, her elven lineage evident in the delicate features of her face and the slender contours of her figure. Cascading waves of chestnut hair framed her alabaster skin, and her eyes, a mesmerizing blend of elven silver and human warmth, sparkled with a hint of mischief. The fabric of her blouse clung to her curves, emphasizing the alluring blend of elven elegance, human allure and something more. Her breeches, a seamless fusion of deep forest green and midnight blue, whispered with each step, drawing attention to the gentle sway of her hips. The woman's figure and overall appearance would cause nearly any being to stutter before they could properly flirt with her. She was the next to catch Von's attention. "Do you uh, have a question?"
Her movements were deliberate, every gesture calculated to captivate and enthrall. She fluttered her eyes and smiled enticingly at the boy bending slightly to reveal a flirty hint of the top of her bosoms. With a soft seductive voice which gathered the attention of the majority of the boys near her and quite a few women as well she responded, "yes, Master Von. I am Yavanna Woodlash. Will you be using a choromancy focus for this challenge, and if so, what tier?"
Looking at her, Von furled his brows. He thought she was trying to convey something, but as yet, Von was not interested in the types of things her suggestiveness was hinting at. He shrugged before responding.
Von shook his head. "No, as of yet, I have not yet acquired a choromancy focus. Does this make a difference?"
Looking to the golden platforms above with so many different orientations and hearing the boy was challenging them with no focus whatsoever was unnerving. Even expert candidates would go out of their way to locate at the minimum an apprentice level focus, more likely than not, they would acquire a journeyman tier focus before attempting a practice run. This boy in front of them feels he can compete with no focus?
Suddenly the rumors of a new choromancy prodigy whispered through the crowd the person who had, upon his first day surpassed the full one hundred and two platform adept test with such speed it caused even Alendoria to be surprised. It was rumored the following days, she had been making rounds of the platforms herself trying to best this newcomer's times at the single order, skip order, and skip two tests. Then she went about them in reverse. Could this be the prodigy?
Hearing these whispers, several of the student waiting for the platforms to finish being placed became apprehensive. Only a few of those present were actual adepts, the others were journeymen and experts. As Alendoria placed the rings in their locations with the numbered order to soon be scrambled, one of the students still in line stepped out to get closer to Von. Recognizing the boy as the one who surpassed the entire adept exam with every randomizer in place both forward, backwards, and with additional barriers added he pointed and breathed in sharply before exclaiming, "That's him! He's the one whose time Archmage Alendoria has been trying to beat!"
People from the crowd drew closer with a number of the choromancy students using their distance perception to see Von more clearly. A murmur tore through the crowd creating more anxiety among the challengers. A master arithmancer and he's at least an adept choromancer capable of besting the archmage's time?
Many of the students in line who had seen his skills during the first test decided they were biting off more than they could chew and passed their numbers to those behind them slinking away before they would face an embarrassing defeat at the hands of such a young prodigy. Seeing this all those who were not already adepts chose to remove themselves from the challenge leaving barely a handful of the most confident remaining for this particular challenge. This was what Von had been hoping for. Now, if he could only guarantee his success against five competitors of which he only knew one talent.