Leo waited for a little while before there was finally activity from the other side. The mages there were announcing names of a list they had.
He watched as a lot of people left with disappointment while everyone else had a lot of joy on their faces. Even though they only got past the first stage of the screening, they felt that it was worth celebrating.
He looked at the people on his side; most of them seemed enthusiastic while a select few seemed unbothered even though they got past one of the stages. He kept a mental note of all these people because they were also the strongest among everyone. They were very sure that they would pass all the tests.
“Okay, now you will enter the academy. My name is Asher, and I will be one of the examiners for the tests inside. However, you will only encounter me after you pass the initial test. Stay close to me so you don’t get lost.” Asher said. He walked into the large gate that lead into the academy. Till now, they were in an open space outside the academy.
The gates to the academy were huge and showed off the wealth behind the academy. But Leo didn’t need that to convince him. Just by looking at the person in front of him, he knew he was in the right place.
The two groups merged quickly and followed Asher into the academy. The minute they entered, they saw that their path forward was surrounded by fog. Only the path was well-lit and visible.
They walked for five minutes before reaching their destination. It was another training ground, but it was structured very weirdly. They were standing in front of a 100 meters long and 300 meters wide space. The interesting aspect of it was that it had a step that elevated the ground every 10 meters.
The entire space was made out of a white-colored stone and was clearly different from the ground around it. Including the first step to get onto the stone platform, there were a total of ten steps.
“I will leave you to the examiners for this round,” he said. He immediately disappeared in a flash. Everyone thought that he teleported, but Leo knew he had just moved so fast that they couldn’t see him when he left. He looked around and saw their next examiners.
He saw two 4th Circle Aura Knights in front of the entire group. Both of them were ladies. He was surprised that he had already encountered three 4th Circle Aura Knights already. But he knew that Asher was a lot stronger than both the examiners.
“I am Maria. Your examiner for this round. I am with Lisa. Both of us are teachers at the Eldridge Aura Knight Academy. We will be testing how good your body is for training aura today.” She said.
Leo was confused. He looked at the ground and felt a weird sensation from it. He looked closer and saw some faint engravings. He quickly realized that there was a magic formation on it. He was intrigued.
He didn’t know how to use magic formations but had seen a few of them. Most of the ones he encountered were in the academy, but the ones he encountered outside were the ones at Solhaven. One was the formation hiding the tome of the Arcane Emperor, while the other was hiding Valkyr’s Deception.
“We will divide all of you into four groups. Each group will go one by one. You have to walk toward the last step. The further you go, the better it is for you. Based on the steps you cross and how far you got, you will make it to the next test.” She said.
She then pointed to the people at the front. All of them happened to be the people who were not 1st Circle Aura Knights yet because they were enthusiastic and were in front of all the 1st Circle Aura Knights.
“Start walking forward. When I say stop, the rest will wait,” she said.
People started walking to the start of the ground in front of them. As soon as around a quarter of the people walked to the start, she stopped the people from joining them. She then looked at the people in front of her.
“You have ten minutes to walk to the end. Be careful when you take your first step. You will understand what makes this test special.” She said.
They all collectively took their first steps. All of them had the thought that they would make it to the end pretty quickly. The minute they took their first step, they realized that their assumption was false.
When they stepped onto the ground, the magic formation that was engraved onto the platform activated. Leo who was looking at them saw that the formation was gathering a lot of magic toward the platform. He realized that the magic was activating the formation.
The people started experiencing what the platform had to offer. They felt that their bodies were suddenly being weighed down. They felt some sort of external force that pushed them down, making it a hassle to walk up to the next step. But they knew it wasn’t impossible.
While a lot of the candidates were struggling to walk up to the next step, a few of them made it to the second level. But after that, no one was able to move. Only one person walked a little further and was able to walk all the way to the end of the second step. But she wasn’t able to take the final step.
Maria sighed. She shook her head and looked at the next batch. At this point, some of the Aura Knights had mixed into the crowd. The next 250 people who were taking the test were still mostly Apprentice Aura Knights, but around 30 of them were 1st Circle Aura Knights.
She looked at the people trying to walk forward. After ten minutes passed and nothing changed with the first batch, she released some aura and the formation was deactivated. The pressure weighing down on the people disappeared and they immediately felt a wave of relief.
“You can leave the ground now. Only the people on the 2nd Platform can stay.” She said.
This eliminated around 200 people from the first group. Less than 50 people were left. Leo was curious to experience what the others had experienced. But he decided to wait till the end to see what everyone else was doing.
“Now, the second batch can start.” She said. Everyone walked forward.
There was immediately a stark difference between the people who were 1st Circle Aura Knights and the people who weren’t. Almost all of the Aura Knights were able to make it to the 2nd Level immediately and zoomed past the rest of the Apprentice Aura Knights.
The sole 1st Circle Aura Knight who was stuck on the initial level was struggling to walk forward. Other than him and a few other candidates, the rest of the people were able to make it at least 7 meters in.
As for the 1st Circle Aura Knights, most of them got to 8 or 9 meters into the 2nd Level. Four of them were even able to step up to the 3rd Step.