NOVEL NEXT Chapter 16 - Entrance Exam (2)
“Personal items that can be taken to the entrance exam are limited to three. You can’t take the rest.”
“Who decided that?”
“Oh, senior. Please.”
Norium glared at Ena while wrinkling his already wrinkled face. Ena met his gaze directly without backing down.
“I’m just trying to make sure my disciple doesn’t get hurt, what’s wrong with that?”
“It’s the Academy principal’s decision.”
“Contact them.”
“This is driving me crazy, really.”
Norium shook his head while downing the hot tea like water.
Asel slowly removed the artifacts he was wearing while watching the two of them. Ena looked at him with a dissatisfied expression, but Asel continued to place the artifacts neatly on the table.
That alone filled half the table. He returned the rest of the potions to Ena, keeping only three in his backpack.
Ena received the bottles with a pout.
“…Even war magicians don’t pack this many magical tools, goodness.”
Norium said with a deep sigh, then smiled at Asel.
“Are you nervous?”
“…A little, but not too much.”
“Don’t worry. There’s no way you’ll fail the exam. If you fail, it would be the same as saying there are no successful candidates.”
“Aren’t you praising me too much?”
“I’m just stating facts.”
Asel chuckled at Norium’s banter.
“When should I depart?”
“In 10 minutes. The exam candidates should be gathering right about now. Since the protagonist should appear last, it would be good to arrive as close to the wire as possible.”
Norium said this while pouring tea into Asel’s cup. A bitter fragrance wafted up with the steam, lingering at the tip of his nose.
“Then I’ll be preparing the magic, so spend these 10 minutes saying your goodbyes. You should comfort your master who’s acting as if you’re going on a long journey.”
I wonder how she’ll act on the day of Academy enrollment.
Norium added this while clicking his tongue, then entered the back door of the reception room. Soon after, magical power swirled inside. As it wasn’t a short-distance movement, even he, an archmage, seemed to need to draw the magic formula directly.
In fact, this was normal for ordinary magicians. They have to draw magic formulas and recite incantations for each magic they use. He had forgotten because most magicians in Wiheim use magic without incantations and by mentally calculating formulas. Perhaps he had become too accustomed to this side.
“Asel.”
As he was lost in thought for a moment, Evelyn, sitting next to him, called out with slightly teary eyes. Asel answered with a bitter smile.
“Why are you crying?”
“Just… because I’m proud. It feels like just yesterday we were picking up bugs to eat together in the slums, when did you grow up so much?”
“We grew up together.”
Asel wiped Evelyn’s tears and pressed his forehead against hers.
“You’re already like this when I haven’t even entered the Academy yet. Save the crying for later. Just cheer me on.”
“Okay… I will.”
Evelyn roughly wiped her face with her hands, then smiled brightly and kissed Asel’s forehead. As she did so, she shouted:
“Fighting! Do well!”
“Do your best, kiddo~”
Hailey waved her hand with a smiling expression while munching on cookies. Asel nodded back with a smile.
There was still one more person to say goodbye to. Asel turned his body to the left and met eyes with Ena, who was looking straight at him. Ena stared intently at Asel’s obsidian-colored eyes and spread her arms wide. Understanding the meaning of this action, Asel gently hugged Ena.
“I’ll believe in you.”
Ena whispered in his ear while patting Asel’s back. Recognizing the trust contained in that one sentence, Asel answered with a smile.
“Yes.”
With that, the goodbyes were finished. Soon after, the promised 10 minutes passed. Norium opened the door and called for Asel, and Asel bowed once to the three people before entering the room where Norium was. In the center of the room floated a round, black rift. The space around it was shattered as if glass had broken, and an enormous amount of magical power could be felt from inside the rift.
“Are you ready?”
Norium grinned and tapped the rift. Asel took a deep breath, hardened his face, and nodded. Then he immediately stepped towards the inside of the rift.
“Have all the participants arrived?”
Ross, the chief supervisor of the Academy entrance exam, asked his colleague. His colleague, Allon, who was wearing glasses and flipping through documents with a cold expression, quickly assessed the people gathered in the forest clearing and shook his head.
“One person still hasn’t arrived.”
“Who is it?”
“The magician from Wiheim.”
Ross clicked his tongue and tapped the sword at his waist with his fingertips. Allon, the bespectacled supervisor, asked while watching this:
“The distance between Wiheim and here is quite far. Should we start anyway? Or wait longer?”
“It’s true that a magician from Wiheim is a valuable talent, but we can’t delay the exam for one person. Moreover, there are some nobles in this exam as well.”
Ross said this while looking down from the platform. Warriors and magicians with various characteristics were preparing for the exam, fine-tuning the items they had brought. Ross confirmed the faces of the key figures among them.
A woman with long red hair and a gloomy impression. Grace Baidel. A genius who recently renewed the title of the Empire’s youngest expert, and the daughter of Duke Baidel. She was sitting on a cleanly cut tree, looking up at the sky and sighing deeply.
Besides her, there was a disciple of an elder from the Aurora Magic Tower who handled constellation magic, a pureblood vampire sucking on blood packs, the daughter of Count Hargelin with a huge double-bladed axe on her shoulder, a warrior from a mercenary background, and others. After confirming the condition of those likely to compete for the top spot, he looked at the watch on his wrist.
About 15 seconds left until the exam starts. One person still hadn’t arrived, but they couldn’t wait for him. Regrettably, they would have to disqualify him. Ross thought this and prepared to imbue his voice with magical power.
That’s when it happened.
Crack!!
The intact space split in a round shape. Fragments of broken space fell downwards, and a black rift suddenly appeared. At this sudden anomaly, as the supervisors including Ross sharpened their eyes, a young man fell from the rift. He landed on the ground with light movements and cleared away the spatial fragments scattering around.
“Have I arrived?”
He muttered this while quickly looking around. Then he tightly closed his mouth. It was because everyone gathered at the exam site was staring at him.
“……”
“…What’s that?”
“Quite a flashy entrance.”
Whispers spread secretly. The young man scratched his cheek in embarrassment and threw himself into a suitable crowd. Allon, who spotted him, cleared his throat and said:
“Asel? Is that correct?”
“Yes, yes. That’s right.”
“Confirmed. I’ll inspect your belongings once.”
“Okay.”
Asel was released after having all the contents of his backpack and the items he had packed in his clothes checked by the supervisor.
“Three potions. Confirmed. No problem.”
Allon pushed up his glasses once, tidied up the documents he was holding, and stood behind Ross.
-…Asel?
At that moment, a low voice was heard from somewhere. But it disappeared, drowned out by Ross’s subsequent words.
“Everyone, be quiet. I will explain the content of the exam.”
The mana contained in his voice roughly surged through the air. The chatter of those who had been whispering stopped abruptly, and everyone’s attention focused on Ross.
There was no need to continue the introduction. Ross immediately informed everyone about the exam matters.
“The condition for passing the exam is simple. Deal with the golems released in the forest, recover a specified amount of their cores, and place them in the center of the forest. The exam is scheduled to last for a total of one week, and it’s okay to form alliances with other participants.”
“……”
As Ross finished speaking, the supervisors lined up around him came down and handed black bracelets to the participants.
“If you want to give up the exam midway, inject mana into the bracelet. Then you can escape to a safe place through the built-in teleportation magic. In case of severe injury, it will operate automatically, so there’s no need to worry.”
“……”
“Does anyone have any questions?”
Someone raised their hand. Ross nodded at her.
“How should we distribute the cores if we form an alliance?”
“Figure it out yourselves.”
“…Pardon?”
“Just because you formed a group doesn’t mean the number of cores each individual needs to submit decreases. So you’ll have to deal with more golems than people moving alone. Decide carefully how to distribute this.”
“……”
Hearing Ross’s words, a girl with ash-gray hair moved her gaze downwards as if in deep thought.
After finishing speaking, Ross asked the participants once more if they had any questions. But this time, no one raised their hand. Ross nodded with satisfaction and clapped twice with a smile.
“Then let’s begin. I wish you good luck.”
The next moment, the bracelets they were wearing lit up. Asel realized that this was because the teleportation magic built into the bracelets had activated.
A teleportation formula that randomly selects and drops you within a designated area of the forest. It was similar to spatial formulas, but the overall framework was different magic. Spatial magic has a strong character of ‘jumping over’, while teleportation formulas have a strong character of ‘omitting the process of moving’.
This magic was the same. Asel examined the formula inside the bracelet with interested eyes.
At that moment, he heard someone shouting from behind.
“Asel! Aseeeel!!”
“…?”
Asel turned his head at that voice calling his name. A woman with a fancy sword at her waist and long red hair fluttering was running urgently towards him. Despite calling his name familiarly, she was a complete stranger.
‘Ah geez, who is it?’
He rummaged through his memories thinking he might have met her in the past, but he had never seen a face like hers before. She was a complete stranger.
Perhaps reading the thoughts contained in that gaze. The woman shouted while pounding her large chest with her hand.
“It’s me! Grace! Grace Baidel!”
Hearing the name made him even more confused. Asel frowned and took a step back. At this action, Grace’s face was tinged with despair.
“Why, why are you running away? Don’t you know me? Your wi-”
Whoosh!!
Her words disappeared with the activation of the teleportation formula. Asel looked at the place where she had been for a moment, then lost interest. Why was some crazy person clinging to him even before the exam started? He sighed deeply and lightly stretched his body.
“…Excuse me.”
As he was doing this, one of the supervisors cautiously spoke to him. Asel looked at her and asked.
“Yes?”
“Why didn’t you teleport……”
“Ah. It’s because I rejected it.”
“…Pardon?”
Her face twisted grotesquely. The rest of the supervisors were the same.
“…What do you mean?”
“It seems to be a method of activating magic using the magical power built into the bracelet. I forcibly braked the magical power in the bracelet at the same time as the formula activated. That’s why I didn’t teleport.”
“…Is that possible?”
“Yes.”
Asel answered nonchalantly, then looked around briefly and nodded.
“This seems to be the center of the forest. That device on the platform. Is that where we put the cores?”
“Huh? Ah, yes… that’s right……”
She answered in a dazed voice, still not having regained her senses.
Asel thanked her for informing him, then slowly moved his steps to enter the forest.
And so the exam began.