In their classroom, Kal and Relon sit close together as a teacher enters the room. She appeared to be of orc descent, with greenish skin, wearing light armor and carrying a large dagger. Speaking louder than normal, she positions herself and immediately begins:
"From this moment on, any action taken within the school will count towards gaining or losing points.
"You will start with 0 points, while level 2 students start with 50 points and level 3 with 100 points.
"The value of points received will vary according to the tasks performed. Easy tasks will give everyone 1 point, medium tasks 5 points, Hard tasks 10 points and extraordinary tasks 25 points, although no one has ever done something the teachers evaluated as extraordinary."
"It is simpler to lose points - any poorly performed task will result in a loss of 10 points. In other words, each failure is worth 10 easy tasks, 2 medium tasks and 1 hard task."
"At the end of each 2 months, you must have more points than your classmates and more points than the lowest students in the higher class to move up a level here."
"My name is Terona, I will be your combat teacher and now, we're all going to the combat arena." Terona finishes with a toothy grin.
When they arrived at the Arena, the 10 level 1 students were impressed by the size of the place - it was an enormous arena surrounded by stands. After everyone had settled in one part of the stands, Terona takes over and begins her lesson:
"Hey boy, over here," - Terona says, pointing to one boy.
"Yes ma'am," - the boy says, coming down to her.
"What's your name, boy?" - Terona asks.
"My name is Arphaxad!" - the boy says bravely.
"You're not from this country, are you boy?" - Terona asks, looking closely at Arphaxad.
"I'm from Bahamut," - Arphaxad responds.
"I could tell by your appearance," - Terona completes.
"Take this sword boy and attack me!" - Terona orders loudly.
Arphaxad grasps the sword, smiling and saying, "We've been learning to fight since we were small children in Bahamut."
Assuming a different combat stance, Arphaxad fiercely attacks the teacher, catching the attention of the other students. Terona merely crosses her arms and closes her eyes as Arphaxad comes at her ferociously. He lands a blow on her left arm and it remains motionless, then her right arm and still she does not move. Before Arphaxad can strike her head, he flies backward as if receiving a powerful blow, yet Terona remains with crossed arms. And when Arphaxad falls to the ground, Terona turns to the students and asks:
"Does anyone know what happened here?"
The students remained silent, not knowing how to respond. Relon turns to Kal and asks:
"Did you see what happened?"
"Nothing, I just saw Bahamut flying," says Kal with his eyes fixed on the teacher.
Suddenly, a boy raises his hand and says: "Magic?"
"Do you think I have any magical ability?" Terona asks in return.
The boy falls silent, and for a few seconds the whole class was silent until a voice emerged among the students saying:
"You used a spiritual ability."
The whole class looks to the source of the voice, a girl with tied back red hair, very fair skin and freckles on her cheeks.
"What's your name, redhead?" Terona asks.
"My name is Gwen Redani," the girl responds.
"Excellent answer, redhead," Terona says, congratulating Gwen.
Then Terona turns to the students and says:
"Mana is not only used to cast magic, there are abilities we can use that are far from requiring our magic capabilities."
"You've probably heard this in the selection tests, but all living beings are created with 4 unique characteristics - intellectual, physical, magic and spiritual."
"But as we are all part of living beings, we do not always need all of them, but all living beings possess the 4."
"For example: A mountain bear has a powerful physical trait and an acceptable spiritual one, but its intellect is null and magic abilities very low, making them irrational animals."
"The humanoid races also have different characteristics, even if we do not always live together, the difference is clear."
"I, for example, am a half-orc, the daughter of a human man and an orc woman, so I was born with a more accentuated physical trait, but my magic is quite limited."
"Elves, on the other hand, tend to have more privileged magic and intellectual traits compared to other humanoids."
"However, having a great magical trait does not mean you will be a strong magic caster."
"Or if you have a great intellectual capacity, it does not mean you will be a great inventor or legendary discoverer."
"Or even if you have an extreme physical ability, it still does not mean you will be a legendary warrior or something like that."
"The other 3 traits are fundamentally linked to the spirit."
"It is in the spirit that the most vital information is engraved."
"For example: A woman with a gigantic magical capacity learns a 5th circle magic, but does not have the necessary mana to conjure it. She will not be able to cast the spell."
"The amount of mana we have is engraved in our spirit, as is our vitality, our faith, our willpower and many other things."
"The physical, intellectual and magic we can improve through training, but the spirit is immutable - we are born with all our information engraved in our spirits, and it will determine who we are forever."
Gwen suddenly raises one of her hands again:
"Professor, is there any method in this world that allows increasing spiritual capabilities?"
Looking at Gwen, Terona responds:
"Good question, Redhead."
"As far as we know, the spirit is born ready-made."
"But there are stories that in the mountains between the Kingdom of Leoria and the Sultanate of Bahamut, there is an ancestral spirit that enables the tribes living in those mountains."
"It is also heard that there is an artifact from the time of the ancient Heroes that can significantly increase your spiritual potential."
"However, I believe they are all legends. No one has proof of the existence of anything."
"Well, after explaining this, I want to finish by saying that my class will be about the physical. Prepare yourselves because they will be very rigorous."
Suddenly Terona turns and leaves the arena, leaving the students there. Kal, who was extremely motivated and excited, looks at Relon and notices he seems sad, so he asks:
"Are you alright Morin?" Kal asks, finding Relon's attitude strange.
"They say my family descends from one of the great heroes of the past. He had high magical ability and a strong spirit." says Relon in a low voice.
"We inherit the blond hair and eye color of that great hero, and we must certainly inherit his magical and spiritual abilities too."
"Our magic is elemental and we are born under the water element."
"My father was a very powerful warrior in the past because of this. Even my older brothers have these characteristics."
"Lilla was born with little magical ability but with a stronger spirit than usual for our family."
"However, I did not inherit anything beyond the water element. I do not have high magical ability, neither a powerful spirit."
"You may not know, but I am one year older than you. Last year I tried to enter the Imperial Academy, taking the tests here in the capital."
"I came last, shaming my family."
As he spoke, Relon remembered that due to being the Emperor's son, he did not have much contact with his father, and his goal had always been to get his father's attention in some way. That test where he came last made his father distance himself even more from him, despising and forbidding him to try again. Relon was the Emperor's fourth son, so he would not need to strive to be someone, as he could enjoy the privileges of the palace for his whole life.
"I wanted to impress him, I wanted to show I could be like our ancestor, the Hero."
"To avoid further shame, my father forbade me to retake the test."
"That's why I went to the distant village of Suri, where you lived, to retake the test there."
Relon remembers that when he succeeded this time, he tried to get an audience with his father to show him the result of his work and effort. However, the Emperor did not want to receive him and ignored any attempt by Relon to tell him the news, sending a servant to tell Relon to be careful not to shame his family at the Imperial School.
"I actually don't know if I should be here," Relon says with tear-filled eyes.
Kal, who was already excited, places his hands on one of Relon's shoulders and says:
"This is the time to evolve together, our journey began today to become the best and most famous in the whole world," Kal says with a smile.
"And remember: Heroes fear no terror!" Kal says, not really understanding what Relon felt.
Relon remembers that day of the test in the village of Suri, and immediately feels a great motivation to continue. Wiping his teary eyes, he looks at Kal, smiles and says:
"Thank you, friend."
In the late afternoon, after class ended, Kal said goodbye to Relon and Lilla and headed to the Academy dormitory. As he walked towards the dormitory, he felt the lights around him fading and people becoming distorted. Then, in the blink of an eye, Kal was somewhere else, a totally dark place. The boy could not see anything ahead and then candles began to light up the whole place. Apparently Kal was in a damp, dark dungeon, and as the candles lit up, they revealed someone sitting on a black and distorted throne. Kal realizes it is the new Headmistress Suzannah sitting there. Then Kal says:
"What's happening here?"
Suzannah rises from the throne, tosses her witch's hat to the ground and says:
"So you're the famous Kal."
"Why did you bring me here, is this some kind of test?" says Kal, frightened.
"You know Kal, in my 152 years of life, I've never heard of anyone like you!" says Suzannah, walking toward Kal.
"I can't feel any kind of special power coming from you, but if what they told me about you is true..." she continues.
"What do you mean? What do people say about me?" Kal moves away, not understanding anything.
"I want to see it with my own eyes," Suzannah approaches with a threatening look.
Kal notes there is a door to his right and suddenly runs toward the door. Kal opens it and sees a long corridor with candles and another door ahead. So he runs toward the other door and realizes Suzannah is not following him. When Kal opens the other door and enters, he realizes he's back in the same place he was before with Suzannah. Extremely frightened, he runs again toward the same door and passes through the corridor. When he opens it again and enters, he's again in the same place with Suzannah. Kal then says fearfully:
"Am I trapped here?"
Suzannah, with a contained smile on her face, merely says:
"Did you know Tiberius was my apprentice when he was 16? I taught him to develop a unique magic, the Vision of the Spirit! A powerful magic that allows the user to see inside another person's spirit! The great problem with this magic is that you must have a stronger spirit than the person you use it on. Otherwise, your spirit will be crushed and bad things will happen to you."
"Do you know why I agreed to teach Tiberius directly?"
"Its because he has the greatest Spirit I've ever seen in my whole life."
"So when I heard that Tiberius became blind and almost died looking inside your spirit..."
"I got really excited for the first time in a long time."
"Are you saying you're inside my spirit now?" - Kal asks, still frightened.
"Who do you think I am? Let me finish my little story!" - says Suzannah with a sly smile.
"I'm the creator of that unique magic, but I left it as a gift for Tiberius."
"I don't really like using it. When you use the Spirit Vision, it's like entering someone else's castle to see things that no one else sees."
"And you know what, I hate going into other people's place."
"So I developed the evolution of this magic, the Spirit Sanctuary."
"While in Vision we enter another's spirit, in Sanctuary we bring others to enter our spirits."
"And as I've trained this magic for over a century, I've built an impregnable castle within my spirit."
"Welcome, to the Palace of the Red Queen" Suzannah finishes with outstretched arms.