"So you got an early apprenticeship to Kensei? Congratulations!"
Hiroshi nonchalantly sat on his bunk, giving what seemed to Haruto as a lukewarm congrats.
Sigh..."Final year exams are tough, we better study hard"
Hiroshi buried his nose into his textbook again, and Haruto let out a long-suffering sigh. He didn't want to think about exams.
After all, back in his old world, exams had been a thing of stress, countless late nights and constant worrying.
However, here he was a skilled and talented individual, and for once he appreciated that simply being born strong was a very big advantage.
For him, he barely needed to practice mana control, he had a natural hold over it already and could now even do advanced mana circulation and maintain a 'mana realm' for a solid 5 minutes.
He should easily breeze through the exams.
...
"Haruto Ichika, student number 127, I repeat, student 127, Haruto Ichika!"
Haruto stood up from the waiting room, going into the large auditorium where the judges waited.
The exams here were a little different from exams back home. There were less emphasis on written tests and only papers for arithmetic and basic history were given.
All other skills were tested as practicals, with a board of examiners from the government deciding your score.
In a way, it was entertaining, much more fun than the boring study halls back on earth.
"Student 127, you may proceed with your mana circulation and control demonstration."
A board of 5 old men, with graying beards and hair, set atop a pedestal at the end of the auditorium. They held paper and pens, ready to mark down the slightest mistake.
He started with basic mana circulation, allowing his mana to circulate from the very tips of his toes to the top of his head.
He cleared the set obstacle course easily, even using a few mana enhanced jumps to impress the judges.
This was clearly stuff they had seen before, so he decided to bring things up a notch.
He recently had been practicing trying to manifest an 'Arcane Realm', the completed version of the mana realm, and while the mana realm served some use, the arcane realm's unique effect was something special.
While he had not fully suceeded before, he had managed to manifest it for about 2 seconds before it had collapsed.
Why not try again? If it failed, he could always go back to mana realm, that was still sure to impress the examiners.
Concentrating his mana into a dense ball around his heart, like Tsubasa had taught him, he gathered it as tightly as he could, even drawing on the traces of atmospheric mana that drifted around.
The examiners murmured in disbelief and a little intrigue. Haruto smirked.
He cast the mana ball as far as it could, envisioning each thread of mana joining, interweaving, forming a large, perfect hemisphere.
A bright light filled the room, much brighter than the torches hanging on the wall.
The judges and everyone else in the room were instantly transported to a massive, gold and ivory cathedral, with luxurious crystal chandeliers dropping from the ceiling.
An pure white altar was at the far end of the open space, and the judges stood in astonishment.
A regular sized golden scale flashed into existence on top of the altar and Haruto stared at it. This was new to him as well.
After all, he had never formed a full arcane realm before and the brief glimpses he had caught was merely a blur of white and gold.
[Shidane Hatsuki.]
A resonating voice echoed across the cathedral, and one of the judges looked up suddenly, frantically glancing around.
[Accused of petty theft as a minor. Escaped law enforcement. Defiance of the law. Your stats will be cut by 15% and the executioner's stats will be raised by 50%]
This must be my realm's unique effect! It must be based on the trapped person's past crimes or misdeeds! Not a powerful attack like Tsubasa's, but still great!
The judge purpled in anger, gesturing wildly.
"Goodness me! Get this realm down right this instant!"
Haruto instantly dissolved the realm, and honestly, he was exhausted. The realm had taken up all his strength to maintain, and he didn't think he could have even blocked a basic attack in the realm.
But still, it was major progress.
After the minor upset, the judge calmed down, andhe proceeded on to other areas, such as swordsmanship, where they brought in an external assessor to test him.
Barely a minute into the bout, the examiner was on his knees, sword disarmed and kicked into a corner.
"You pass! Student 127, you have obtained an overall grade of 92.7%! That is a wonderful score, though I have to admit, it was mostly from your Arcane realm and swordsmanship. Truly spectacular showing. You should be very proud of yourself."
Haruto walked out of the examining hall with a knowing grin on his face, and he was instantly swarmed by fellow schoolmates, all wanting to know his score.
Haruto dismissed them with a wave, and he saw Kensei leaning by the doorway, waving casually.
"I see you did good, m'boy, I'll look forward to your apprenticeship next year..."