"Welcome to the magic division promotion test!"
"If you pass the promotion test, you will be an official student of the Royal Arcanum Academy and will be able to enter the main classes."
"Even if you fail to, worry not. As this is the fourth test in the preliminary course, you still have eight more chances to pass the test."
Professor Elowen stood before the candidates, giving a brief speech before starting the test. Most of the candidates were disinterested and did not pay attention to his speech, as they seemed to have heard it before. After all, for most participants, this was not the first time they had taken the test.
"The promotion test is simple. It is divided into three parts. In the first part, you are required to sense the presence of Aether. In the second part, you are required to gather Aether, and in the last part, you must prove your ability at utilizing Aether by casting a spell, any spell of your choice."
"It should be noted that the promotion test is a pass/fail test, and there are no grades."
"After you pass the test. Your magical power and elemental affinity will be evaluated, and you will be assigned to the appropriate classes."
"Without further ado, let's start the promotion test!"
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"Aether is everywhere around us; it is present in every creature and object in the world itself. The difference between Aether practitioners and normal people is their ability to sense and utilize Aether."
"Whereas when we talk about mages in particular, they must have a higher sensitivity to feel the presence of Aether and more control in utilizing it when compared to warriors, for example."
"That being said, let's start the first part."
Several guards carried boxes full of necklaces, a simple silver necklace with a blue gemstone. They handed each person a necklace.
"Please wear this necklace. It is a magical tool used to assess your ability to sense mana. When the test starts, you have to use your mind to sense mana. If you are able to do it, the gemstone in the necklace will shine, and you will be considered to have passed the first part."
"You have up to one hour; if the time is up and you still have not lit up the gemstone, you fail the test."
Artus held the necklace in his hand, inspecting it carefully before wearing it around his neck.
"Please wait a moment. I will activate the necklaces."
Professor Elowen put his hand over the magic circle on the podium, infusing it with magic power. All gemstones on necklaces flashed briefly before turning dull again.
"Ok, you can start now."
As soon as Professor Elowen finished speaking his words, gemstones started to light up one after another rapidly in the hall. In just a few minutes, around a quarter of all the participants present had already passed the test.
Artus kept his eyes closed even though he had already passed this part of the test. He used NuroFusion to analyze how this necklace worked, hoping to learn something new.
After a while, he opened his eyes slowly. The one-hour time was almost up, and the majority of the participants had lit up their necklaces. It was expected since everyone knew the components of the promotion test beforehand. It would be stupid of someone to participate knowing that the first part of the test is sensing the presence of mana while he can't do that yet.
"Time is up."
"All those who did not manage to light up their necklaces, please leave the hall."
"Don't worry. There are still many chances to retake the test in the future. Good luck in your neck time."
"As for those who passed the test, please don't remove your necklaces yet."
"The second part of the promotion test will start shortly and require you to keep wearing the necklaces."
The participants waited a while for people who had failed the test to leave the hall, and then Professor Elowen explained the second part.
"In the second part of the promotion test, you are required to gather Aether in the center of your body."
"Mages gather Aether from the surroundings and collect it in the center of their bodies, which is usually located around the upper abdomen and lower chest level."
"Please adjust the length of the necklace so that the gemstone is at the level of your mana center."
"Gathering Aether is not a one-time task; rather, it is a continuous process."
"As a mage, you should be able to gather and collect Aether all the time to recover the mana you use to cast spells. Mages at mid-levels can gather Aether spontaneously all the time."
"As you see, gathering Aether is very important to mages. In the second part of the promotion test, we will evaluate your ability to gather Aether ."
"You have to gather Aether for ten minutes. When you have done that, the gemstone in the necklace will shine with green light."
"You don't have to do it continuously in one go. You can do it in stages of your choice. For example, you can gather Aether for five minutes, take a break, and then continue for another five minutes. The important thing is to gather Aether for a total of ten minutes."
"You have a time limit of one hour, so plan things carefully."
"Please note that the speed of the process and the amount of Aether collected are not important in this test. The total duration of the process is the only important thing; we want to test your ability to gather Aether continuously, regardless of the amount. We want to test the process itself."
"That does not mean that the speed and the amount of Aether gathered are not important; they are not part of the evaluation at this level."
Professor Elowen touched the magic circle on the podium again, activating another magical sequence. This time, the gemstones on the necklaces flashed briefly green before turning dull again.
"Start."
Artus closed his eyes and started gathering Aether from the surroundings. He continued the process until he reached nine minutes when he stopped gathering Aether. Then, he stopped gathering Aether but did not open his eyes; he kept his eyes closed until around twenty minutes into the test.
He opened his eyes slowly and looked around; only a handful of people had their gemstones lit up in green color, ten percent of the total participants at most.
He then closed his eyes again, waiting until around forty minutes had passed. He then resumed gathering mana. After another minute, his necklace lit up green, and he opened his eyes.
He did that to avoid drawing unnecessary attention. His performance seemed excellent but not too outstanding.
"Time is up."
By the end of the one-hour mark, thirty percent of the participants had their necklaces lit up and had passed the second part of the promotion.
"Those who did not manage to light up the gemstone, please hand the necklace to one of the guests and leave the hall. Good luck next time."
After a short break, the remaining participants gathered in the hall before Professor Elowen.
"We will start the third and the last part of the promotion test. You have to cast a spell of your choice successfully. You have three attempts; if you still can't cast a spell successfully after three attempts, you are considered to have failed the test. Otherwise, you pass."
Artus watched as the participants attempted to cast various spells. Most of them succeeded, particularly because they had chosen easy and simple spells for this part of the test.
He wanted to use the NuroFusion system to analyze the various spells, but they were all Ineffective and worthless. Their only practical use is to pass this test.
He decided not to waste any more time and stood up to take the last part of the test.
He stood before Professor Elowen and cast perhaps the slowest and smallest fireball since he started his magic path.
"Congratulations!".