Exam (5)

The exam went rather smoothly after that, with everyone finishing despite the added difficulty. It still remains to be seen whether they met the minimum requirement for passing it, but at least they finished it. Cyrus, on the other hand, was one of the first to finish unsurprisingly. He had long gone above and beyond in his various unending studies, with only a few specific questions about what he assumed was modern technology and practices that he simply did not know anything about; thus, he just skipped them entirely unless he was confident he could reason them out.

Once everyone had obviously finished their tests, the pressure on them was released at once allowing them to breathe easily once again. Then, with a snap of his fingers, Calligo said

"Now that you are done the next logical step is, of course, for it to be graded."

As he said this a large group of people came flooding in from the doorway, all wearing various colored robes but none having any symbol other than that of a book with an icicle on it. They went up to each and every student, took the test sheet from them, and began to grade it on the spot.

"These are your seniors. Well, they will be assuming you pass. You will find that there are many… opportunities for you when you enter the academy. Becoming the personal lackey of one of the professors is one of them and for the low price of most of your time, pride and self esteem you will be allowed to continue studying despite your utter lack of any positive traits, how nice!" said Caligo, icily with obvious sarcasm.

"Hmm, now what shall we do while we wait for them to finish grading." Said Caligo in a bored tone while stretching. "Maybe I could start removing lackeys from my service, thus dooming them to immediately being dropped from the academy. Honestly they are pretty slow, what with making me wait so long."

With that said the 'seniors' who were currently grading all flinched and began to grade even faster with even better accuracy. Cyrus noted that more than one of them were burning through their will to use their sense to grade even faster, a rather impressive use of it he thought. Within moments the thinly veiled threat from the professor turned out to be rather effective as they all finished grading in just a few more minutes. They then simultaneously bowed towards the professor and left without another word, seemingly afraid of doing something on accident that would spoil his mood.

"The total score possible is 150 while the minimum score to pass is 85. Those that failed, scram the way my lackeys left: quickly and quietly."

The examinees all looked at their papers in unison, with more than just a few looking down in dismay. Who knows what was going through the minds of those that failed despite overcoming all the trials before them? Perhaps they blamed their fatigue, the added pressure when taking the test or perhaps some even had the rare thought that they were merely lacking in the amount of effort they put into preparing for this.

Cyrus looked down at the test, having passed, but not too pleased with his overall score.

"130… that's around 86% correct. I had calculated that I would have scored at least a 90 but it seems I could not properly reason all the questions on newly discovered knowledge and the like. What a pity." Thought Cyrus sulkily as he looked up from his paper. To his surprise the room that was nearly full just a few moments ago was now mostly empty.

"What the… only 1/4th of the examinees passed the written exam? I suppose this means the test was harder than I thought" mused a baffled Cyrus.

"Those that are still here, I am supposed to read a short congratulations speech but the paper the speech was written on has seem to have torn itself into shreds, what a mystery" began Caligo in his usual dry tone. "Whatever, not like its needed anyways. Most of you who passed will likely end up just like those lackeys of mine, the study of magic is not something just anyone can do. Take your passed exam sheet and hand it to the person who led you to the first waiting room, they will walk you through the last step. Now go."

With those word said everyone began to leave the room with a heart far lighter than before, regardless of the ominous warnings of Caligo. As Cyrus passed his table to head out, however, he was stopped by Caligo.

"Not you bed head" derided Caligo, pointing at Cyrus. "Nor you merchant boy" continued Caligo, this time referring to the finely dressed man from before who had been the other to pass Caligo's little pre-test. Regardless of the professors less than polite tone, the two obeyed without complaints and waited until the rest and left the room thus leaving only the two of them alone with the cold mage.

"Most, if not all of them, will turn out to be trash. Fit to be no more than the stepping stones for actual mages like you. While they will remain in the academy for a year, maybe two if they are lucky as lackeys… ultimately they will leave and join other sectors to contribute to the Empire in other ways, but, not as a fully-fledged mage" monologued Caligo, causing the two who were waiting to wonder where this was going.

"You two, however, are the only ones out of this batch with the possibility of making it in this academy. Now, I have one last series of trials available for you. These are only available to those who have the chance at making it on Glacies' internal rankings of the top 50 students. The ranking will start with this examination, giving the academy a basic idea of where you stand. Any questions?" asked Caligo, his tone slightly softer than before.

"How will being on the board benefit us?" asked the son of a merchant, assuming what Caligo said was accurate.

"As expected of the merchant boy, asking about benefits. The benefits are clear as day, the higher the ranking you have the more resources will be available to you. Glacius makes use of an internal credit system, basically our own made up currency. Using this currency will allow you to buy you almost anything you want in the academy, anything. From special lessons, to accessing knowledge locked behind various restrictions, to even hiring seniors as protection when venturing outside… the things to choose from are endless."

Seeing that Caligo had finished his explanation, Cyrus asked his question.

"Sir, what are the drawbacks to being on this ranking board?"

"Hmm, interesting you ask that. As expected of…" Caligo then looked closely at Cyrus for the first time, even examining him with his powerful sense that belonged only to a mage of his caliber.

"As expected of a wastelander, always the cautious type I see." Cyrus was somewhat surprised at how easily his identity was discovered, but after thinking of who he was dealing with he soon realized it only made sense. While Cyrus did not look too different from normal citizens of the Empire, the features that were common in the wasteland were there if one looked closely enough. His skin was slightly darker than them, which tanned quite quickly as well. He also had a few sun marks on him, as they were called, which were essentially small brown dots on his arms and legs that were common to the wasteland but unless one were next to Cyrus examining him closely such things could easily go unnoticed.

"To answer your question…" Caligo started after thinking for a few moments " is that there is indeed a few drawbacks. The higher your position on the leaderboard, the more vulnerable a target you are. The more you have the more you stand to lose, this rings true indeed. Not only that, but those below you on the ranking board will actively seek to undermine your position either out of spite or to take the spot for themselves. This can range from passive aggressive treatment, to varying levels of bullying, or to an outright challenge for a duel."

Cyrus nodded in affirmation while thinking to himself,

"As I expected. From the very beginning when Gabriel referred to the academy as a game, I had my suspicions. It seems I was correct after all, this academy is no mere place to study but a method of creating the best and most elite mages possible. In retrospect, this conclusion makes even more sense as why else would Cato teach me such a wide variety of things… even making it imperative that I become accustomed to such extreme things like fighting to the death and slaughter."

"So, I assume that you two will accept the extra tests or rather the true tests" asked Caligo.

Both of them nodded. Seeing the two agree, he stood up and beckoned the two to follow him.

"Well then. Cyrus, Imran time to begin your true test" he then walked towards the other end of the room, once more revealing another passage that they were led down.

"Mages and secret passages, hah. I wonder who is paying for all the medeis crystals that are probably powering them" laughed Cyrus in his mind as he followed along.