“Next!”

In an spacious field inside the institution, a middle-aged man wearing a brown robe ushered the next group of students to stand to the designated testing site. On his left hand, he held an open blue notebook recorded with the students' assessment. Next to him, there stood a similarly dressed woman—watching the test with a scowl.

The students stood in position taking aim at the training dummies situated about 30 meters away from them. These training dummies were firmly secured with a pole skewered vertically inside them and were affixed with a device known as a "damage meter" above the their heads.

“You may begin!” The instructor flipped a page in his notebook and surveyed the students as they each released their spells.

4 of the 5 students used intermediate-class spells to attack the dummies and their scores ranged between 200 and 400. The male instructor spoke briefly to each of them, and then, expressions of relief and joy appeared on the students' faces. 

In the Kingdom of Visterga—one of the leading kingdoms of the Order of the High Kings and Jenyx's home, the people follow a specific system for classifying spells: Basic-class, Beginner-class, Intermediate-class, Advanced-class, Master-class, and the Disaster-class spells. Most of the general populace are capable of using basic-class and certain advanced-class spells. Those capable of constantly using the Advanced and Master-class spells were mostly either the professors, adventurers, and such people who focused on honing their craft. And as for the Disaster-class spells, only the scant few beings who stood at the top of their respective fields were capable of wielding the power to cast spells of mass-destruction and the like.

("Must be nice...")

Jenyx watched on with a blank expression.  

To anyone else, the students' performance was nothing special. One of them could even be described as being below average. But, to Jenyx, the mere fact that they had mana and were capable of conjuring spells was a source of great envy. Watching them felt nothing short of torture.

Just as the other students were returning to the spectator's area, the other student's head tilted to the side, towards the instructors. In response, the female instructor subtly nodded. As Jenyx pondered the meaning behind their actions, he saw the student raise his hand.

!!

Suddenly, the student summoned five levitating flames beside him. The student swiftly outstretched his hand towards the dummy, making the flames rush towards its direction before converging into one big clump. When the flames touched the target, the student clenched his hand into a fist, making the clump explode.

The explosion was strong enough to prompt a hot gust of wind so strong, even the students in the spectator's area could feel the heat. The monitor perched atop the burning dummy displayed the numbers “728” and the field was swarmed with gasps as they turned their gaze towards the student.

“Examinee, Cerdyne Sarthas, pass!” The instructor yelled the student’s name out loud and ripped an azure-colored slip from his notebook. The man then turned towards the woman standing next to him. Sillia nodded and ripped an azure-colored slip from her notebook as well. The student bowed as he took the slips and walked away.

“H-hey… wasn’t that?” 

“Yeah… but it was him after all, can’t say it was unexpected…” Jenyx happened to overhear the conversation of two students behind him. It was only natural that they were surprised.

Exploding FoxFire was an intermediate-class spell that was once regarded as an advanced-class spell. It was only fair to give him a blue-colored slip.

In the special Magi-tech course, a class that combined the students of pure magic and those studying magi-tech, there were currently six sections in their year, classified by letters from A to F. Jenyx is part of the D class while Rose is in A. Every year, students are given the chance to move themselves up from their current sections to a better one in the coming year through the magic ability test event.

For passing students who perform beyond expectations, their proctors award them with colored paper slips that signify as recommendations from the proctor for the student to move sections. These paper slips that vary in color have different meanings: A yellow slip means you get to advance 1 section up, red means 2, and blue means 3, and on very rare occasions, a purple slip lets you advance 4 sections up. However, Jenyx also heard rumors of a fifth slip when students reach the top section.

“...Oan, Mr. Troan!” A gruff voice snapped Jenyx back to reality. In front of him, the male instructor stood with his hands on his waist. He wasn't exactly someone who would be considered handsome by society's standards, but he should consider frowning a lot less in the future, Jenyx thought.

“Come take up your position!” Jenyx then stood up and looked around. A different set of students were already lined up. Jenyx sluggishly got up as he assumed his position. He could hear snickers and muttering from behind him, but paid them no heed.

“Begin!” As soon as the instructor signaled, the first student placed his hand on the sword by his waist, assuming a low stance. In an instant, a crescent-shaped gust of wind emerged as the student as swung his sword. The gust struck the dummy, prompting the monitor's calculation mechanism. Soon, it settled on the number “425”

(“That was… wind blade. A staple of the wind SpellKnights…”) 

Wind blade spell is an intermediate-class spell that sends a sharp blade of wind in one direction and is usually unleashed with a sword. By imbuing the sword with the wind element, their slashes become projectiles, capable of hitting opponents at longer distances.

The student silently sheathed his sword as the proctor gave him a yellow slip. However, as the proctor turned to his colleague, his face twisted in surprise as he noticed that she ripped a crimson-colored slip from her notebook.

“I-I don’t understand, Professor Sillia. Wind blade is but an intermediate-level spell. Not to mention the output was simply average!”

“...Wind blade by itself may indeed be nothing special in terms of its destructive capabilities, but did you see how much damage he dealt to the dummy despite the distance? Not many can attain that level of mastery over both their swords and magic at such a young age, Professor Fuldam.” 

The middle-aged man let out an unintelligible sound as he attempted to retort. Sillia ignored him and gave the student a crimson-colored slip.

“Yes!!” The student suddenly yelled. “Oh.. oops.” the student awkwardly laughed and apologized to Sillia who dismissively waved her hand.

Afterwards, Jenyx silently watched as the rest of his classmates performed. Compared to earlier, there was almost no tension in the air whatsoever. To them, no matter how badly they do, there will always be one person to bear the brunt of it all.

“Jenyx Troan! Are you ready?” Hearing the instructor yell out his name, Jenyx casually walked onto the field and picked up a rock. After inspecting it for a few seconds, he walked up to the dummy and threw it. The stone weakly bounced on the dummy's face and fell to the ground, not even registering on the damage meter. 

“There, Stone strike.”

 Stone strike is a beginner-class earth spell that involves levitating a rock and guiding it into becoming a projectile that strikes its target. As Jenyx announced his attack, the crowd burst into laughter.

“AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA, did you see that!? Stone strike he says, HAHAHAHAHA.”

“Oh man… that was precious! You’re better off as a comedian!”

Amidst the rain of mockery and laughter, Jenyx remained quiet.

The male instructor sneered as he repeatedly clicked his tongue and wrote in his notebook. As Jenyx was on his way back to the spectators, a group of students approached him. Ear to ear smiles on their faces as they openly looked down on him.

“What do you want? Brad?”

“I told you, that’s Mr. Brad to you, commoner!” Brad stood with his arms crossed on his chest. Jenyx tiredly sighed as he realized his day was yet to end. If he could, he would’ve just walked away and slept somewhere in the school.

Sillia stood in between them and spoke.

“Is something the matter here, students?” 

“N-nothing, ma’am, we were just here to congratulate him on his performance.” Brad nervously replied to Sillia. Despite her not doing anything, Brad noticed the frigidness in her voice and instantly tensed up.

“Oh? Didn’t seem like it to me. No matter, go back to the spectator’s area and await the end of the test. You can congratulate each other once it concludes.” Sillia then turned back and walked towards the male instructor who timidly welcomed her back. 

“You’re always so lucky, aren’t you? Always getting protected by girls. Pathetic.” Brad shook his head sidewards and urged for his cronies to follow him.

(“Can’t say he’s wrong...”) 

Jenyx remembered all the times he got protected by Rose. In fact, he can’t remember a time when Rose hasn’t protected him since the day they learned that he was manaless.

Anger and frustration built up in his heart. He wanted to scream, he wanted to fight back. How far could he go if he decided enough was enough? But just as quickly, they faded into nothing. Because regardless of how frustrated or angry he was at his situation, there was nothing he could do to change it. All he can do is walk away.

**

“I’ll take two grilled cheese sandwiches and two bacon and egg sandwiches.” Jenyx raised up two fingers as he spoke to the elderly woman tending the store. In response, the woman took four sandwiches from inside a box-like object and handed them to Jenyx. The sandwiches were quite warm, like always, which is why he loved eating at their cafeteria. As he opened one of the sandwiches, he put the three inside his bag.

(“Gotta keep the bacon and egg sandwiches for Rose…”)

 After stashing them away in his bag, he thanked the woman and went outside. The weather was quite nice. The sun was partially hidden by the clouds and it wasn’t too hot nor too cold. Perfect for taking a stroll and taking his mind off things. However, as he enjoyed his sandwich, a voice emerged from behind him.

“Found you! Today is the day I’m gonna teach you a lesson, you damn reject!” Brad and his goons (again) found him as he was about to go to Rose’s testing field.

“Look, Brad, I don’t want any trouble, so why don’t you just leave me alone? If you can’t stand me, then don’t look at me. How hard is that?” As he spoke, Jenyx took another bite of his sandwich and turned away.

“Wait!” As Brad yelled, Jenyx was restrained by his goons. “Bring him to the back. I told you, didn't I? Today, I’m going to teach you a lesson!"