The Three Ranks Of Mage

*Flame Ball*

Fwooshh!

At first first, it took a moment to materialize and then, a weak flame shot out from his palm, so weak and small it looked like a matchstick that was fueled for two seconds then quenched.

"Boring," someone commented.

"I'm already used to that," another commented.

Bl...

"Silence!" Ghost spoke out with a voice carrying intensity, ending the students murmuring.

"That is what a basic mage magic move looks like."

"Next, Intermediate mage, please step forward." With that said, he obeyed.

"This is a level five common ranked mage and he will be casting a random magic move, watch closely." With the brief introduction said, the mage began.

*Flame Blast*

*Vwoooom*

A horizontal pillar of flame blasted away sideways. Quite a huge blast indeed that cast its brightness on the faces of the students.

"Now, that is impressive," a voice spoke.

"Yeah," some others agreed.

"Enough!"

"Now, moving to the last one." Ghost started off with the introduction as usual.

"This mage over here is an advanced tier mage of level five, he will be showing you any random move and medium power of his rank." Ghost then nodded towards the mage.

All students tilted their heads forward, already fascinated before the mages even began.

Stretching his palm towards the wall lazily, he chanted.

*Flame Beam*

A quick, intensive flame shot out of his hand flashing too fast for their eyes to follow.

"Booooooooom!"

At the moment of impact, the flame exploded like a small bomb, making all of the students block their views with their hands.

The ripples of intensive heat traveled through the entire area, blowing away sand as well, pricking their skin.

'This could only mean one thing.' As the attack died down, they slowly dropped their hands to confirm their suspicions, and it was right, the flame wall disappeared from where it was, no trace of the wall was left. Or more appropriately, the wall shattered into particles.

One single attack for an advanced rank mage destroyed the wall. If that attack had been directed to a human, that would have been checkmate.

The two other mages didn't even make a significant damage on the wall!

The advanced rank mage should be capable of handling multiple common rank mages without challenges.

"So, from looking at the strength level of the three mages, you should be able to tell what class you belong to."

"I see you all got fascinated by the moves of the advanced tier mage," Ghost smiled. "But I'll tell you what, this advanced tier mage over here..."

Ghost patted his shoulder playfully before continuing. "He was a student of this school."

"Gasp!" Jaws dropped after hearing this.

"He graduated many years ago here and what's good is that he started this school as a basic rank mage."

"All you need in order to be like him is to focus on your studies and pour your heart into it."

"Set the goal to be like him or even stronger and I assure you, with enough dedication, you'll achieve it."

"Your mage training and combat teacher will guide you through!"

"Now with that taught," Ghost clapped, and the white light flashed through all the students again, teleporting them back to their classroom.

"That will be all for now," Ghost concluded the class before leaving. On her way out, her eyes slipped towards a teenage boy who was smirking at her, it was Zain.

"Mwaa!" Zain blew a kiss to her before winking. "I hope I did this right," he wished.

From one of the last few fantasy books he read, it taught him a psychology on mages.

"If you blow them a kiss from a distance, they'll automatically fall in love with you."

Ghost's soft gaze went cold in an instant. "You are playing with your life, aren't you, young arse."

"Oops!"

Soon after Ghost left the class, the other students followed. Most of them were new students anyway, so they had to explore.

***

"Huff! Huff! Huff! Huff!"

"Come on, is that all you got." Erin tauntingly spoke as she bowed her head slightly towards Kox who was on the ground.

"You are quite strong for a girl, Erin. I wouldn't have been able to win that fight back then in the assessment if I didn't have any secrets up my sleeve."

Erin gave Kox a hand and pulled him to his feet.

"Uh huh, give me more praise." She smirked, causing Kox to chuckle.

"You are supposed to be terrified at this immense strength you have. It is not a girly characteristic, you know," Kox said.

"No one would expect you to be so strong in close quarters combat. Your moves are fancy as well. You are already a really strong martial artist."

"I'll advise you to focus more on your magic now. If you can improve that, you'll climb through ranks and be at the top in no time."

Eric smiled. "Yeah, I know, but my magic is quite complicated. It is nearly as if hand-to-hand combat is where my specialty lies and when it comes to magic... I suck."

"Naaa, don't say that. All you need is time and a good teacher. If you have that, then you'll elevate your magic."

"You are Lowaling academy, aren't you? There are really good teachers here, especially in the intermediate rank mage section." Kox tried to cheer her up.

"Who would believe you have this kind of emotion, Kox," Erin joked. "You look so serious all the time."

"By the way, I don't give up easily. I come from a rising clan of upcoming mages. My father is the leader of the clan and you can guess, he is really powerful."

Kox's eyes widened. "Makes sense why you are so strong."

Erin smiled then continued. "My father has trained me personally since I was five. He personally got me teachers from higher-tier cities, and after the secret technique he taught me, I was only able to get to this level. I couldn't breakthrough this since I was little. What makes you think that I'll be at the Lowaling academy?"

"I've been stuck at this exact level for six years, Kox, six years. I didn't even make the slightest improvement"

Kox was quiet for a while before he eventually spoke. "If that's so, I'll see what I can do to help you."

"I'll try, Erin." Kox then stood up and walked out of the combat room.