Completing the theoretical test

Aether had read about arrays in old Herb's library. Ever since he knew of the existence of arrays, he had been interested in them. There existed many different types of arrays but they mainly consisted of four types. Killing arrays meant to attack and kill opponents, defensive arrays meant to protect someone or something, supportive arrays that can strengthen the user or weaken the opponent and lastly, illusion arrays.

Like the name says, illusion arrays put the target into an illusion. This way you can confuse your enemy or force someone to act differently based on the vision the array shows them, influencing their behavior.

Powerful and skilled array masters can even implement multiple arrays into one, giving it more than one effect. This means it is possible for an illusion array to also have an attack array build into it, confusing the enemy while also capable of finishing him off.

Naturally, the array in Aether's test wasn't that sophisticated. It was a simple one layer illusion array, merely meant to temporarily confuse the examinees and hinder them from completing their tests. But even this simple array was quite effective on young students who haven't cultivated for long.

People only started their cultivation around the age of 16. At this time, your body has fully developed but you're still young and easily able to learn knowledge, comprehend what's necessary and change yourself.

As a result of this, most of the examinees had cultivated for only a few months, which is a very short time in the cultivation world. It was only natural they couldn't break free from the illusion array in a short time. Hence, most of them would not be able to break free at all.

Luckily for Aether, he didn't belong in this category. His soul had grown out of proportion because of his blessing, granting him a perception stronger than anyone else in the same cultivation realm. Breaking free from this illusion array wouldn't pose him that great of a challenge.

The loop started again, but this time Aether didn't even bother to answer any of the questions. At the end of the loop they would get erased once again. There was no point in trying.

He calmly looked around, searching for clues on how to release himself and answer the real questions. First, he remembered everything obvious about the loop that was easy to notice.

Every loop lasted for ten minutes. The first five minutes nothing happens and they can answer the questions how they like. Then comes the pressure, disrupting the focus of the examinees and making it difficult to answer. The soul tearing sound also made its appearance at the same time as the pressure. This also lasts for about five minutes until both the pressure and the sound vanish and the female teacher shouts, erasing all the given answers and completing the loop.

Right now the third loop was close to reaching the half way mark, approaching the pressure and sound attacks. Aether was silently contemplating on his discoveries, trying to discover the solution to the riddle.

'The pressure she releases comes from her energy cultivation', Aether thought to himself.

'That ridiculous sound that makes me want to kill myself targets the soul.'

'Could it be that they target every…'

Just when Aether thought he had found the clue needed to find the answer, the pressure and sound struck once again, evaporating his thoughts like the snow before the sun.

Because he wasn't focused on the loop but on the thoughts inside his head instead, the pressure and sound actually hurt much more. It felt like a hammer slammed onto his body and soul. Luckily he had gone through those sensations twice already and succeeded in acclimating rather quickly.

The female teacher had released her pressure slowly the first time, as to not startle or hurt any examinee. She believed all of them should be able to withstand the sudden release now. Unfortunately, Aether wasn't paying attention to the proceeding of the loop at all. He silently endured and waited for the five minutes of torture to end.

When everything subsided once more, he recollected his thoughts and tried to find the answer he believed he was close to finding. Of course, this time he kept an eye out for the timing from the loop.

'I already realized the pressure comes from her energy cultivation, while the sound targets the soul', he silently mused to himself.

'Does this mean they hint at every kind of cultivation? In that case there should be something about body and blood cultivation as well. But to be sure I should try to find the hints first.'

Aether came close to the solution and still had more than three minutes left from the initial five. Breaking free from the illusion array in these three minutes wasn't realistic. Naturally, he knew that as well. All he wanted to do before the next torture session was to actually find the answer.

'The illusion array itself should be the clue for body cultivation. It tricks only the eyes, but the eyes are treated as a part of the body cultivation system.'

'Than lastly the clue for blood cultivation…'

Aether looked down at the unanswered questions as a smile painted his face.

'The ink represents blood as blood is used to write the runes necessary for forming arrays.'

'Now I have the hints to the four cultivation systems. My best guess is that you need to answer four specific questions, each about one of the four systems. But every system has three questions on the test sheet. Should I answer them in the order they appear in the loop?'

Aether looked at the questions and realized that if he wanted to answer the questions this way, he could only answer from question five till eight. The reason for this was simple. The first question was one about the body, but was followed by one about the blood system. This way he could skip the first two directly since blood was the last in the row.

The third and fourth question were both about the energy system, but Aether had already deduced that the energy question needed either a body system question or soul system question directly in front of it. As for the reason the energy and soul system question order didn't matter, this was because the pressure and sound in the loop started at exactly the same moment.

This brought him to question five, where he encountered the second question about the body system. Directly after that question was the third about the energy system, the last one possible. The seventh and eight question were about the soul and blood system respectively, completing the order in which the necessary questions needed to be answered.

This left a question about the body system, two about the soul system and one about the blood system as last. The order here was also wrong, making question five till eight the only possible solution.

Aether had a smile filled with confidence on his face. Unfortunately, he would need to wait until the next loop to actually break free. The current one was only around ten seconds away from the torturous sensations.

Aether closed his eye and calmly waited until the end of the loop. He answered the questions and as expected, the illusion array released him, allowing him to see reality once again. It had taken him a bit more than forty minutes to escape.

"Oh, you succeeded at the start of the fifth loop? That is quite the achievement.", said the female teacher. She had a gentle smile on her face before continuing, "take the plate with your registration number on it and press it on the test sheet. It will record your answers and send them to a central array used to record information."

Aether's eye flashed. Didn't he just hear about a truly special array? It seemed like this academy's roots were deeper than he thought. An array that stores information is actually much more difficult to make than any other type of array because it is a little similar to how the soul works. And everything that has something to do with research to souls is rather dangerous and much harder than anything else.

Aether did as the teacher told him to and pressed his plate on his test sheet. The plate shone a white light for a few seconds before turning back to normal. He looked to the teacher for confirmation upon which she slightly nodded, confirming his answers to be recorded on the central array.

"Leave the classroom and move to the inner courtyard by following the blue arrows on the floor. There you will be able to take the practical exam, meant to test your cultivation talent" the teacher spoke.

Aether smiled wryly while the teacher showed an apologetic smile after realizing what she had said. Even though no one had said anything about it, both Aether and every teacher understood that passing the practical test was impossible for him. Someone as crippled as him couldn't possibly have any talent in their body left.

Aether stepped through the door into the hallway, took a second or two to spot the blue arrows the teacher spoke of, and started to walk in the direction of the inner courtyard. He contemplated the answers he had given on his test while he was walking.

'I hope I haven't gone overboard with my answers. The knowledge I possess is much higher than most beginning cultivators, let alone someone who has yet to start', Aether mused silently.

'I really have to thank Old Herb for the amazing head start he has given me.'

Aether kept walking calmy towards the inner courtyard to take the practical test, uncaring about the fact that he undoubtingly was going to fail.

...….

In a room somewhere located in the center of the academy, multiple people were watching the proceedings of the test on projections in the air. There was also a white orb with some array placed upon in the middle of the room.

"Headmistress, don't you think the theoretical test this year is a bit too difficult for new students?" an old man, who was clearly an experienced teacher, asked.

"Those who shut down under pressure will never be able to walk far on the road that is called cultivation. Since that is the case, they better not start at all. That way they can at least live a relatively peaceful life." a women who appeared to be in her mid-twenties, and unexpectedly seemed to be the headmistress, replied.

"Even if you say that, I don't see many new students enter the academy at this ra…" a young male teacher was speaking when he suddenly stopped and looked at a projection with his eyes wide open.

There had only passed a bit more than 40 minutes yet someone had already found the correct solution? He was going to say something about how this was supposed to be impossible until he saw who it was.

"As expected of the little princes, she truly is a talented girl. Naturally she is the first one to break free from the illusion array." He couldn't help but praise her as a small smile crept upon his face.

"No, you're wrong." Someone suddenly said.

Everyone in the room turned to look at the person who commented and realized it was the headmistress who had spoken.

"Take a look at projection 150."

Everyone looked at the projection and were surprised to see a girl walk out of the room, prepared to walk towards the practical test.

"That boy broke free from the array around thirty seconds faster."

Upon hearing these words, the other teacher were shocked. Breaking free from that array and finishing the test in itself were already difficult enough, but doing it in only forty minutes and faster than the biggest prodigy the kingdom had seen since its establishment was simply ridiculous.

There was something else they were surprised to hear. The headmistress had clearly said that that youth is a boy and not a girl like all of them thought. But no one questioned her as the headmistress, despite being the youngest person in the room, was the strongest person present.

"Unluckily for that boy, he is never going to pass and become a student at this academy." The young teacher said sharply.

Suddenly, the white orb in the middle of the room flashed upon which the headmistress walked towards it. She placed her hand on the orb an a few seconds later she suddenly revealed an excited smile.

'There is no way I will let a treasure like this fail the entrance exam.'