30. A high score.

The reverse step was one of Julius' strongest skill yet. It allows him to basically reverse his movement to dodge attacks. However, it is more deep than that, to be able to learn it, he had to step through the gates of understanding Mana.

'Only by understanding the nature of Mana, and aura, was I able to learn this.' He thought as he moved forward at the dummies, cleaning the three of their beards with one smooth and fluid motion.

The chief only stared at him in awe.

'The element of time is one of the most difficult to train, however if he is diligent, we might produce yet another world level gladiator from our school.' Chief Wintor smiled to himself as his gaze studied the boy.

Julius held on for another twenty minutes, the dummies seemed to become faster and stronger which was a problem for him.

Before him, a dummy swung an axe towards his head and he wouldn't be able to dodge this time.

All the dummies stopped moving and the chief walked towards Julius who fell on the floor, his breathing ragged.

"50 minutes. You did well boy." The chief complimented him and Julius sighed.

'The main character went straight for an hour and twenty minutes. The mind test was described with bigger magic puppets and he actually survived that long before getting eliminated.'

Julius thoughts couldn't help but race.

To achieve the rest of his goals, he would need to be able to catch up to the main character.

"I would still need to work harder in the future," Julius said and the man nodded.

"Don't worry, Midgard academy holds a lot of opportunities for one to grow stronger. Now, come with me," He said and Julius stood up and went to drop the sword.

*"You were amazing brother! Aria too would become strong!"* Julius smiled as he took Aria into his arms and petted her head.

He stood next to the man and he could tell what was coming after, the metallic ground suddenly swallowed them and Julius wanted to really shout.

Julius couldn't get used to this, he felt like he was being moved by the ground itself, if this man was to leave him halfway into the ground he would die for real.

The man and Julius emerged from the ground and the prince looked forward to see a very tall building which seemed, at a glance, to be more than 500 metres tall.

"This building is where the students of their first year would be staying. Tomorrow, everything would be explained to the studnts, the rules and a guide and also a school map to move around," The chief said and then he turned to Julius.

"I hope to see your improvements in the semi-annual exams," He said before the entered into the ground again.

"Haha, his control of the earth element is really impressive." Julius laughed and then he walked towards the door of the building.

For now the students would have to choose random rooms and they'll all be arranged the next day.

"Hm?" As Julius entered the doors, he saw a beautiful black haired woman.

Hey yellowish eyes gazed at him as he came through the doors and her brows raised.

"Are you part of the new students?" She asked him and he only nodded.

"Did you get lost from the group? You students should really be more careful," She said and Julius smiled at her.

"Come with me, there are still a few rooms which are vacant." She said and she lead Julius to a platform at the end of the large hallway on this bottom floor. The platform suddenly has a layer of glass covered around it and it shot upwards with great speed.

Julius was fascinated by the mechanism of the platform as it worked just like an elevator would.

They soon arrived on a floor and the both of them stepped out. After Julius was assigned a room, the lady left.

The hallways too were as exquisite, the walls wershen and there were people walking around.

He looked at the reddish door and he opened it and stepped inside.

'Wow.' Julius couldn't help but be stunned for a bit, Aria jumped off of his shoulder and began to explore the place. The room was huge!

There was a whole twenty meters distance from one side of the room to the other side. The beds were ordinary with white bedspreads and Julius took the one that was closer to the window.

He looked down from the window and looked around the premises of the academy, it was like a magical paradise from above with the crystals lighting the place up.

He looked up to the sky this time.

Because the island was even closer to the dark clouds, just by looking at them, he could feel chills down his spine.

He pulled out a book which was titled, [My personal knowledge]. It was here that the events of this world was written down by him.

...

The next day, all the students were gathered in front of the building which they will be staying, but now they were going to be arranged.

Chief Wintor and the beautiful lady from yesterday stood on a magical alter in front of all the students.

"In this year's batch of students, there are really exceptional people who have come to our academy. But first and foremost, the test scores would be released now." The chief said and then with a wave of his hand, everyone saw a brown sheet of paper with words on them.

Julius looked at his own.

_____

Name: Julius Augustine

Time lasted: 50 minutes

Speciality: Aura control, time element, light element

Overall performance score: 312

Rank: 0009

_____

'Haha, nice. Seems like I was regarded a time element user. I only have a slight understanding of it, even light too I don't understand it at all.' He smiled to himself as he saw his scores.

"Now, you will be guided to a room assigned to you. Note that the rooms on the upper floors are much better and have a high concentration of Mana which will be beneficial for you all. I wish you all good luck, and once again, welcome to Midgard academy."