‘Hiii, wow you’re soo cute! This must be my lucky day getting to check ou-… I mean test out someone so handsome!’ the woman in green squealed as she skipped closer to me, her personality quite the opposite of her poised appearance.

‘Uh-huh yes, hello. My name is Park Minjun, and I’m testing as an E-rank fire elemental,’ I managed to squeeze out before quickly composing myself.

‘Aww, don’t be so formal, I’m a super chill examiner so you don’t have to worry okay!’ she said assuringly, although I didn’t really buy the cutesy act. After all, this woman was at least an A-ranked mage, there’s no way she’d make the test easy.

Acknowledging my silence as agreement, she quickly proceeded, ‘So this room is the first stage of the test, and if you pass, a hidden doorway to the next room, or stage, will appear. So, you don’t have to worry about anything other than getting to the next room every time. Once you pass the test in the final room, you’ll be taken to the central arena for the final stage of the practical test where you’ll face off against another candidate in a magic battle! Isn’t that exciting?!’ she concluded, as if assuming I’d never been in a magic battle before.

‘Yes, understood. So, what’s the test for this room?’ I asked matter-of-factly.

‘Ahh yes, well this room is a test of your mana sense. All you have to do is, find the door to the next room! You see I’ve coated the door with-…’ she trailed off as she saw me dash across the room towards the north-east side, touching a ‘hidden’ panel on the wall with my palm.

‘Found it…’ I declared, before she could even finish her sentence. If she had been momentarily surprised, she did a great job hiding her expression, as the door to the next stage opened up from within the wall near my palm.

‘Sorry, I’ve always been good at using mana sense,’ I said cheekily as she made her way towards me, her expression now showing a tinge of curiosity.

‘Oh no no, well done, well done! I was just a little surprised that’s all. Maybe let me finish explaining next time,’ she shot back rhetorically, before continuing, ‘…you always have to account for exceptional circumstances after all.’

Nodding, I followed her quietly into the next room. This room looked exactly like the previous one, with the exception of a single floating orb in the middle of the room, about the size of a human head, displaying all sorts of rainbow-colored hues.

‘This one is super simple Jun! Just shoot out your strongest mid-range spell at the target, and if it turns green, you’re strong enough to pass. If it turns red though, better luck next year!’ she explained, still using her annoyingly cheerful tone. I wasn’t sure which was more irritating; the fact that a powerful archwizard had the personality of a teenage girl, or that she had just called me Jun, which only my close friends were allowed to do.

Without wasting any time, I held out my right arm, my open palm pointing directly at the orb as the red tinted mana particles started congregating around me. With a silent chant that lasted about ten seconds, a sphere of red flames formed in front of my open palm, growing more intense as I encircled it in a ring of flame resembling a fiery rope. One, two, and then three rings slowly formed around the flame sphere, increasing it’s strength ten-fold; my mana capacity now a hundred times more than what it was just a month ago, this was one of the three C-rank fire spells I had managed to make my own; Flaming Meteorite. With a single thrust, my spell shot straight towards the glowing orb, enveloping it in a blanket of flames, which slowly dispersed, leaving the orb shining bright green.

‘Woww, well done! It’s a good thing I made that thing strong enough to withstand B-rank spells, pshew,’ the examiner spoke as she congratulated me with a nearly unending clapping of her hands.

‘It’s not a big deal,’ I replied, as I started walking up to the entrance of the next stage which had just opened up. A month ago, casting this spell once would have probably depleted around half of my internal mana at once. However, with my mana capacity increased, I felt just as fine right now as when I had started the test.

‘Wait for me!’ the examiner shouted as she caught up behind me, further declaring, ‘…so this next test won’t be as easy as the ones before little one!’ letting out a small wink, which I ignored.

I was surprised to see the layout of this room was exactly the same as the previous one, with the same shining orb hovering in the center of this room as well.

‘To pass this stage of the test, all you have to do is hit this orb once with a strong melee attack, enhanced by your elemental affinity. But…,’ she trailed off as she waved her magical staff once to make a small invisible circle, the orb in front of me coming to life as it started zigzagging around the room with incredible speed, ‘…you’ll have to catch up to it first!’ she ended her instructions.

‘No problem,’ I stated, as I coated my entire body in a fiery blaze, using the D-rank spell, Flame Coat. Supplementing it with the D-rank spell Flame Jet, I dashed towards the glowing orb as a burst of flames shot out of the soles of my feet. Annoyingly though, the orb changed direction as soon as it was within range of my D-rank Flame Fist, retreating upwards into the air. It took me a second to plant my feet and change direction, another burst of flames propelling me upwards towards the orb now suspended in mid-air. Once again however, just as I was about to strike it with my Flame Fist, the orb changed direction, heading further away. Landing back down, I shot a quick stare at the examiner.

‘Hey, isn’t this a little too much for a mere E-rank fire elemental,’ I complained, although I didn’t get a response back, other than another cutesy wink.

Rolling my eyes, I analyzed the situation. I had definitely mentioned at the beginning to the practical portion that I was an E-rank fire elemental, and it was also in my official records. But this test seemed too difficult for an E-ranked mage to be able to pass. I mean I had just used a series of ideal D-rank fire spells for this sort of a situation, but hadn’t been able to catch up to that buzzing orb. Had she made the test harder after seeing me cast a C-rank spell in the previous stage? If that was the case, I had made a miscalculation, although I had needed to go with a strong spell since I hadn’t known what the threshold of the orb turning green would be. Still, this stage was definitely overkill. At least the mana sense I had been using this entire time indicated that the orb was moving on its own, and not with the help of Miss Giggles over there. So there had to be a way to beat it.

For a second, I thought about using Lightning Coat, enhancing my body with tendrils of electricity wrapped all around me. With the speed boost I received in that form, I would definitely be fast enough to catch up to the orb before it changed direction. But even if I simultaneously used Flame Coat to hide the lightning spell, I was dealing with an archwizard for an examiner. She would figure it out right away in these close quarters, and my secret would be out. In this scenario, there was only one thing I could do.

Moving up to the center of the room, I stretched my arms out to the left and right as I channeled around half of my internal mana towards my hands. Since this spell was too complex for me to silent cast, the examiner quickly caught on to what I was doing and quickly surrounded herself with a spherical barrier, made out of what seemed like pure white mana. As my spell casting neared its end, the red tinted mana particles in the room swirled up into a torrent of flames as large as the room itself. From the floor to the walls to the ceiling, the entire room was filled with a torrent of bright red flames which slowly started manifesting inward, towards me. This was a mid-range area-of-effect spell for burning enemies to ash; the B-rank fire spell, Funeral of Flames. I had only ever used it once, a few days ago, while training out in the open, and it had resembled a kind of river of flames swirling all around me, burning anything that approached. However, in this small room, this spell would act more like water in a container, slowly filling the room up with flames from all sides, forcing the orb to move towards the center where I was waiting for it; perhaps a more fitting title would be; Flame Coffin.

Thankfully, the spell worked exactly as I’d hoped. As the orb dashed towards the center of the room to avoid the flames swirling all around it, I quickly dispersed Fire Coffin, once again applying the trio of D-rank fire spells that I had previously applied to my body. Using Flame Jet to catch the orb mid-flight as it dashed towards the center, I hit it right in the middle with the D-rank Flame Fist, the orb turning green before it even had a chance to react and change direction. I fell back down to the floor with a thud, the fatigue from Fire Coffin now evident in my body. Still, I was relieved; I only had one chance to implement my strategy, and I had made it work. I couldn’t help but smile at my progress as a mage.

‘Oh. My. God. Who are you?!’ the examiner finally emerged from her protective spell, running towards me, adding, ‘This… this is crazy. I’m speechless. How can a Magiharu candidate use a B-rank fire spell?!’ she questioned relentlessly, seeming genuinely surprised.

‘And your strategy was super smart, are you a genius? Also, are you single?’ she asked with a curiosity that made her face blush.

‘So, where’s the next stage?’ I enquired, giving her a smile in response to her flurry of questions as I got up of the floor, padding the tiny bits of dust off my clothes.

‘Hmm, well there were going to be three more stages after this, but I don’t see the point of them now anyway, since you’re strong enough to use a B-rank fire spell and still be standing…’ she concluded out loud.

She waved her staff once again as another door opened up, adding, ‘…this will take you to the arena’s center stage for your final test, a mock battle with another candidate. I should have you know, this is the most important part of the entire evaluation process, so don’t lose okay!’ her eyes tinkling with an excitement that almost reminded me of Yoonah.

As I gave her a knowing nod and made my way towards the center of the arena, I heard her shout from the back one last time, ‘By the way, my name is Tiana in case you were curious!’