Passed

Ch 17

POV Krauss

"Grease~ Condense~ Shock~"

A smell of burnt hair and skin instantly permeated the surroundings.

"You..." A small shocked exclamation came from my right.

"Congratulations. You managed to save yourself in time, but does it matter now?"

Before he could reply a knife blade punctured a hole in his neck from behind.

I had thought that after yesterday's fighting all we had to do now was wait it out till the time limit. But here we were facing another group of examinees desperate for some tokens. The problem was not that they were greedy, it was their lack of preparation.

They attacked an Expert Magician without thinking about it properly at all. All they did was a sloppy ambush that was easily debunked by my detection spells and when that failed instead of at least trying to retreat to reduce their losses they came at me with full force.

"Is that it?" Charlotte asked as she wiped off the blood on her blades with a dead person's shirt.

"Yes. Nobody else is in the detection range. I'll clean this place up." I said as I cast spells to move the bodies.

In just a few minutes I had dumped all the bodies in the river along with their bracelets. They were of no use to us since we had already maxed out our bracelets and also quite frankly the smell was not anything I wanted more of. If someone found them then that would be their good luck.

As I walked back to our cave in my mind I once again ran over the spell combo I had cast today.

I realized something after yesterday's fight with the assassins. I was weaker than expected in a group battle. If I hadn't met Charlotte and had to fight alone I would have never managed to annihilate them this cleanly. Maybe using guerrilla tactics while escaping could have reduced their numbers slowly, but ultimately I would have had to keep being on the run while hoping to find a weakness.

Of course, it was also because that Charlotte was really a Weapon specialist that I was seeing the drastic difference between our strengths. Even if she didn't use higher level combat arts her body's raw values of speed, vitality and strength far surpassed those of a High Warrior. But even after that I felt like I was lacking an important piece.

I went over all the spells I knew. Healing spells, buffing and debuffing spells, attacking spells, ritualistic spells, all of them, one by one. I saw the glaringly large hole — There were few spells that dealt fatal damage, no AOE spells at all. In fact even the attack I commonly used was a combo made with Ice Splinter~ and Accelerate~.

And this was talking about me who had learnt more spells than 10 Expert Magicians combined. To a normal Expert Magician just having a single fatal attacking method would be an accomplishment. That was when I had thought of the combo I used today. Casting Grease~ to make them lose balance and then following it up with Condense~ and Shock~ to fry the whole party. And it had worked splendidly as well.

This made me realize why magicians never fought alone in group combat. Until you become a sorcerer a spell caster is seen as a burden to protect in front-line combat.

Just then my thoughts were interrupted by the signal from my force detection spell.

"Someone– no. Another group is coming this way."

"Numbers?"

"14. But none are rank 3 and they don't seem to be aiming at us."

We were still in the same cave as before. The group that I had detected was moving in a haphazardous way instead of coming straight here, as if searching for something.

In the end neither of us moved from our spots and let the group approach. After observing them for some more time I was more or less sure that they were searching for something. I was hoping they would turn back after finding whatever they were searching for. But unfortunately, that didn't happen.

<"Did you find any traces of those bastards.">

<"Yes young master. There seem to be traces of battle here and there is a cave over there. They might be hiding there.">

I was using an Extend Hearing spell to eavesdrop in on their conversation. I recognized this voice. It was Pedro. The one who was trying to recruit Charlotte into his team.

Soon enough there were footsteps of people coming closer to the entrance.

"Mental Terror~" An invisible oppression from my mind spread out causing those people to stop in their steps.

"Young Master an Expert Magician is there well. Do you still want to search?"

"Heh. So what? We have 14 people here."

As expected they didn't stop.

"Charlotte can you handle them?" I asked Charlotte.

I wanted to display that there were not one but two rank 3s to deter them from even thinking of fighting. She didn't object and walked out of the cave. According to my estimates, the test was going to be over anytime now, so it didn't even matter if Pedro tried anything.

I didn't stop my Mental Terror spell and kept listening to what was going on outside with my Extend Hearing.

"It's you!" Pedro's said in a surprised voice. "You let me search this cave now."

"Did you not feel the Expert Magician inside?

"Why do you want to enter the cave?"

"I'm searching for some people."

Ah. These guys might have been following the previous group we killed.

"There is no one else here. It would be better for you to turn around from here."

"Otherwise what? You will kill all of us? There are 14 of us and two of you. In fact it would be better for you to give your tokens and maybe I will think of letting you leave safely."

His tone suddenly switched into a very aggressive one. He must have started having ideas about mine and Charlotte's tokens. But still, if really thinks that 6 Adept Warriors and 8 Apprentice Warriors are enough for 2 rank 3, then his head truly was in the clouds. Maybe that's why he wasn't trusted by Helen. Incompetence.

The tension only worsened as no one spoke. Just as I was going to take the initiative by casting the first spell a white spell circle appeared beneath my feet. At first I thought that an opponent spell caster had cast a spell without me realizing, but when I saw the familiar runes on the circle I realized what was happening. In the next second there was a flash of light just like before and my surroundings were warped again.

The test had finally ended.

This time I didn't take as much time adjusting myself. We were teleported back to the field we were in before. It was probably the bracelet that was inscribed with runic engravings for all this magic. Around me, many people had blank looks in their eyes. Some had parts of their bodies missing. Some were crying and some others like me who were uninjured just looked on. It was a stark difference from the determined faces I saw before the test.

In the crowd of students, a particular thin figure caught my eye. It was the zero cultivation girl with the physique.

I thought she had left, but not only did she participate in the test, but she also managed to survive.

I didn't have to wait long before the familiar voice in my head arrived.

"[696 survivors, of which 420 passed.]"

I wasn't surprised by the number of people who had passed. Every year the number was more or less same, what I was taken aback by was the low number of survivors. Around 3000 young talented people had gone to take the test, but only 700 survived? Those people weren't the commonfolk you'd find on the streets. Each of them was talented enough to reach at least the middle ranks.

What a massive waste of talent. If such people went to any empire, they could easily become part of a knight order and live a comfortable life. But through these actions it was not hard to see the Institute's ideology. Those people were sacrificed for the sake of polishing the true geniuses. And this number would only go up from here on out. A powerhouse was built upon a mountain of sacrifices.

"[Those who have failed, please leave.]"

About more than a third of the people were suddenly lifted up into the air with a motion of the mage's hands. The powerless bodies were pushed out of the institute as the gates slowly swung shut.

Although there was no danger right outside the institute if they ever wanted to go back they would have to face the forest full of monsters once again. With their current, tired and injured condition majority were fated to end up as fertilizers and food for the beings in the forest.

The rest 420 of us stood there in silence.

"Magelight of Healing~"

A huge torrent of mana flowed in the sky and I felt a comfortable, warm light on my skin. A mage-level area healing spell.

After the spell had healed all of us were each given a key to separate rooms and shown the way to our residences.

We were split into multiple groups and were given a brief tour and explanation of the layout of the academy by a staff member.

This was it. I had all the resources in my reach. All I needed to do was to train to become stronger. And the first step would be becoming advancing to a 4th Circle Great Sorcerer.

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