Baron Mopart turned around to look at the man who said this. He seemed slightly bothered by the comment.
“They should learn to judge their strength is all I’m saying. If they only barely sensed any aura, why would they think they would get into one of the most prestigious academies in the empire?” He asked.
The man smiled. “You say that with such confidence, but how many of the world’s best Aura Knights did this academy produce? And how much did the academy itself contribute to that process?”
“Please, Baron. Call me Asher. You have the authority to do so,” Asher said with a smile on his face. He felt pleased that he talked down the academy in front of the people in the line who were listening in.
The Baron looked forward. “Put your hands on the crystal ball and wait.” He said.
The first applicant, a girl, did that. She put her hands on the ball and waited. The ball shined and turned green.
“Good, you pass.” He said. He handed the girl a piece of paper out of thin air. “Fill out this form and give it to the person behind me. Next.”
The girl went to another desk beside her and quickly filled out the form with one of the pens there. The only thing she had to fill was her name and age. She did that and handed it to the man.
He pointed behind him. “You just have to stand here and wait till everyone is done.”
The girl obediently did as she was told.
An hour passed by, and half the line went by. The next candidate was a girl with silver hair. She was wearing expensive clothes and had purple eyes. She stood with arrogance in front of the mage. Asher opened his eyes immediately when it was her turn to be tested.
“Put your hands on the ball.” He said. She did and the ball turned green. He looked up.
“You pass-” The Baron’s eyes widened. “You are a 2nd Circle Aura Knight? Commendable!” He praised an applicant for the first time. Fill out this form and hand it to the man behind me.”
She took the form and moved gracefully out of the line. She was accompanied by a well-dressed man who looked like he was 20 years old. She handed the form to him and waited as he filled the form out for her. Meanwhile, she joined the rest of the line.
After filling out the form and handing it to Asher, the man quickly ran to the side of the girl. He pulled out a seat and an umbrella to give her shade from the sun. After doing that, he left. Asher looked at this with a frown but didn’t say anything.
The line slowly moved. As time passed, Leo and Marcus finally came to the front. Leo put his hands on the crystal ball.
“You pass. Fill out the form and hand it to the person behind me.” The old man said. The same happened with Marcus.
As they were filling out the form in front of the man, the man asked them a question.
“Boy, I have a question.” He asked Leo.
Leo looked at him. “Yes?” He asked. His eyes widened the minute he saw the person.
Out of everyone Leo knew, no one had a higher amount of aura than him. The only people who would ever have more aura than him were 3rd Circle Aura Knights. For the first time, he was sensing so much aura from a person that it made the amount of mana he had to seem minuscule.
Leo knew immediately that the person in front of him was a 4th Circle Aura Knight at the very least.
“Well, out of everyone here, you seem to have the most interesting aura. How often do you use your aura in battle?” He asked.
Leo was confused. “Sorry? What do you mean?” He asked.
Asher explained. “Well, you can train in aura and aura techniques in your house and master them. That is one way to go about things. But unless you use your aura techniques in battle, your aura won’t start to become an elemental aura.”
He pointed to the people standing in line and said, “Generally, these kids will only get to that stage after learning about this here at the academy. They start going into the forest and hunting Magical Beasts. But you seem like you have been doing that regularly.”
Leo nodded. “I’m a mercenary too. I go to the forest to complete missions.” He said.
Asher was surprised. He looked behind Leo and saw Marcus. “Is that your friend?” He asked. Leo nodded.
“Then I assume he is also a Mercenary.” He said.
Leo nodded in response. Asher waved his hands. “Thanks for giving me that answer. You both are pretty talented too, to reach the Late-Stage of the 1st Circle without too much guidance.” He said. “You can go stand in line.”
Leo waited for Marcus and walked to the end of the long line. On the way, they saw the anomaly which was the silver-haired girl. Marcus was confused when he saw this. He leaned to Leo and whispered, “Why does she get that treatment?”
Leo whispered back, “She’s a 2nd Circle Aura Knight. Probably a noble or something.” He said.
The girl who was resting opened her eyes and looked at Leo, the person who was able to see through her rank instantly. Leo noticed her stare and looked away. He dragged Marcus with him to the end of the line.
Leo and Marcus were among the last people in the line. So after they finished, it only took 15 more minutes before all the candidates were done with their process. Out of the entire line, only 3 people turned out to be unqualified.
Two of them had lied about their age, while the other person had lied about how she was a 1st Circle Aura Knight. She didn’t know that mages could check the power level of people with a single glance. She only saw how he looked at the candidates once and thought she could fool him.
After having all of the candidates lined up, the baron stood up. He talked while walking to the center.
“So, all 359 of you have moved on to the next level. But be careful. Just because you are stronger than the people on the other side, it doesn’t mean you have an advantage for the next few tests.” He said. His voice reached the candidates without any problem even though it was pretty windy.
Asher stood up at this time. “So, you made it past the first step. Congratulations. I think all of you should be fine for the next round. There will be another set of examiners who will test you inside. It will take the mages on the other side around 30 minutes to get the candidates from there and all of you will take the tests together.” He said.
