Chapter 6
"An entrance exam that needs killing? Show me the page where you saw that."
Even though Ralth believed Charlotte, he still felt a bit doubtful that this might be a joke she was playing on them. What kind of school would want a bunch of killers as students?
Charlotte's tears kept falling as she handed the rule book to Ralth. Right at that moment, the magic light in the room flickered on.
Ralth had already learned to read the Magus language from the Felsan Cube earlier, so he took advantage of the light to open the page that Charlotte had folded down.
The page said:
Before joining the academy, students who want to become Magus apprentices must take an entrance test called "Life and Death Race," which works like this:
At the start of the test, each Magus apprentice will get a crystal ball and seven bottles of special potions that can replace one day's food. The Magus apprentice must reach the academy's location within fourteen days and must carry at least two crystal balls.
Anyone who doesn't have enough crystal balls or doesn't arrive within fourteen days will lose their chance to join the academy.
Note: The Academy does not help students return home. Apprentices must find their own way back to where they came from if they fail the test.
---
After reading these rules, Ralth tossed the book back to Charlotte. He then climbed onto his bed, pulled out his own rule book, and turned to the same page.
The words were exactly the same.
This was not a joke after all.
"This feels really wrong," Ralth said, closing the book with a frown.
He couldn't understand why the academy would go through so much trouble to find apprentices like them and bring them all the way here, only to use a test that would fail half of them.
But one thing was clear: wondering about it now was pointless, since he was already on the airship.
Now he had to figure out how to pass this entrance test as quickly as possible.
Among all these Magus apprentices, there were poor farmers from lower classes and rich nobles from upper classes. Most of the common folk were skinny and underfed like Ralth, while the nobles had strong bodies and fighting skills they'd learned since they were little kids.
"Every nobleman has the power of a knight." This saying was known by everyone in the Relves Kingdom and was seen as the reason nobles stayed in power.
In the Relves Kingdom, being a knight wasn't just a title—it showed how strong you were.
Each knight was a powerful person who wore metal armor and could hold a huge two-handed sword in each hand while moving very fast.
Also, in the Relves Kingdom, noble titles could only be passed down to knights.
So even though these noble children might have bad personalities or not be very smart, their bodies had been trained since childhood. Even the lazy ones were much stronger than regular people.
When competing against such people, Ralth and the other common folk basically had no hope of surviving.
"That can't be right," Ralth said to himself. "Since the academy lets in common students, they must give them some way to fight back."
A thought flashed in Ralth's mind, and he quickly took out the three books the academy had given everyone.
A Magus academy would never waste time making a test that common people couldn't pass. They must have left something that could help close the gap between students.
Ralth spread the three books on his bed. One was a Magus dictionary, one was the rule book, and the last one had a very clear name. It was called:
How to Become a Magus's Apprentice
["How to Become a Magus Apprentice"]
[Information: Basic Meditation Method, Mana Reflux Method, Four Basic Zero Ring Spells]
[ Cost: 7 Spiritual Power]
[Learn?]
"Yes, learn it," Ralth whispered.
...
At one end of the airship was a special cabin just for full Magi.
"Ariel, how many of these apprentices do you think will make it this time?" asked Trakk as he looked out at the sea of clouds. The airship was flying about two thousand meters high. From this height, the clouds below looked like land.
"About 4,000 or so," replied the muscular woman leaning against the wall. She had been carrying a door-sized sword earlier. "This year, they canceled the rule about trading crystal balls for magic stones, so nobody should be hunting others on purpose."
"I heard the dean lost a lot of people in the Plane War and needs to fill up the number of Magi as much as possible. These students are lucky!" Trakk said with a sigh.
Once upon a time, he too had been a tough fighter who stood out among the apprentices.
But then he failed to move up to the next level one day and never became a full Magus.
Now he could only work for the academy to make a living.
Looking at these new apprentices now, Trakk, who was over a hundred years old, couldn't help but think of himself when he was young.
"By the way, where's that guy Malvo?" Trakk asked.
"There are some smart kids in this group. A few of them pooled their magic stones together and asked him to come explain the meditation method to them."
"Oh?" Trakk was surprised. "Isn't that against the rules?"
Ariel shrugged. "If you don't tell and I don't tell, how will the big shots at the academy ever know? Besides, those kids paid with magic stones, which follows the rule of equal exchange. Even if the academy found out, they'd probably just praise those kids for being clever."
But Trakk shook his head.
"The teaching books written by the dean are simple enough already. If they still can't learn from such basic materials, then even if they make it in, they're just waiting to die later. The path to truth is one you have to walk yourself. They might succeed by taking shortcuts for a while, but can they take shortcuts their whole life?"
...
Room 225.
Ralth sat cross-legged on the bed, trying to calm his mind.
After studying "How to Become a Magus's Apprentice," Ralth had fully learned the theory of meditation.
The meditation method was how Magi practiced their skills.
Its main purpose was to help Magi increase their mental strength and recover it when needed.
"There are three main things needed to become a Magus apprentice," Ralth thought to himself. "Connecting to the Soul Sea, building a Reflux, and carving spell marks. The hardest part is connecting to the Soul Sea."
Ralth tried to adjust his state of mind according to what the book taught.
According to the book, the stronger a person's mental power, the easier it was to connect to the Soul Sea.
Once connected to the Soul Sea, his meditation would be halfway done.
As Ralth's heart grew calmer, he began to carve special symbols called runes in his spiritual world.
The basic meditation method had three runes. When Ralth finished carving them, he suddenly felt like his spirit left his body and fell into a bottomless pit.
The pit was silent and empty, as if time and space didn't exist there.
Ralth's spirit stayed in this pit for what felt like forever. Feelings of boredom, loneliness, and fear flooded into his heart like waves.
But he held on through it all.
Because this was the only way to connect to the Soul Sea. Finally, after falling for what seemed like an eternity, Ralth's spirit touched the Soul Sea.
In that instant, Ralth saw an endless field of stars.
"The Soul Sea reflects the physical world," he remembered from the book. "Every plane of the physical world is a star in the Soul Sea. This amazing view has affected every Magus who has seen it, which is why Magi later called the physical world the Astral World."
The words from the book flashed through Ralth's mind. At this moment, his thoughts seemed to join with those of countless Magi from the past tens of millions of years.
"This is truly beautiful," Ralth whispered in awe.
Then he began to leave his mark in the Soul Sea. With this mark, he would be able to connect to the Soul Sea more easily in the future.
"What kind of mark should I leave?" Ralth wondered as he looked at the endless stars. Suddenly, a feeling of loneliness washed over him.
Being a stranger in a foreign world made him miss his family even more when looking at the stars.
Ralth used his mental power to create something like a pen, and then drew a five-pointed beautiful star in the Soul Sea.
After finishing this, Ralth began to feel dizzy.
The basic meditation method only allowed him to stay in the Soul Sea for a short time. If he wanted to stay longer, he would need to find a more advanced method.
Within seconds, his spirit returned to his physical body. At this moment, he had completed the most difficult and important step in becoming a Magus apprentice.