No words needed to be said. The results spoke for themself. For the next few minutes, the room was enveloped in silence as everyone stood in a daze.
Even Damien was surprised. He never bothered to check his status as he leveled up and put all his focus into improving his actual skills. It seemed he’d need to check it soon.
This continued until one of the other examinees lost his cool. “No! It has to be rigged! You all saw how the stone cracked before the number came out! He has to be lying!”
The crazed yelling snapped everyone out of their dazes. The one who yelled was Alex, who had just recently entered 2nd class at 30 years old. He couldn’t believe that someone an entire decade younger than him was so far ahead. Lost in his madness, he brazenly attacked Damien.
Raising his hand, Alex shouted, “Heaven Sundering Palm Strike!”
A large palm composed of ferocious flames charged towards Damien, but it was nothing more than a party trick to him. He was making unfair comparisons though. The last flame attack he had seen was from a genuine 3rd class being. How could someone who was barely 2nd class compare?
But Damien was angry. He wasn’t angry at being attacked nor was he angry at being looked down on. Rather…
“What the hell is up with your cringe ass naming sense! It’s literally in the wrong world type! Also why the hell are you screaming out your attack name like an idiot?! Aren’t you embarrassed?!” Damien roared.
He was raging at the naming sense of this kid. It brought out Damien’s suppressed childhood memories of when he got too into cultivation novels and would attempt to summon attacks by screaming things like “Heaven-Collapsing Strike!” In his backyard for the whole neighborhood to hear.
The unlocking of his black history sent him into a rage and rather than just swatting away the attack as he’d normally do, he made an actual move. He pulled back his fist and let out a ferocious punch in the direction of the oncoming attack.
The punch was so brutal that it caused winds to form and swirl within the private room, as when these swirling winds met the flame palm, they turned into a raging fire tornado.
“Hmph!” With a cold harrumph, Damien flicked his finger, and the flame tornado that was still charging towards him abruptly moved in the opposite direction like it was in a pinball machine.
The sudden turn of events took everyone off guard and before they could move, the flame tornado consumed the terrified Alex. When it subsided, all that was left was a charred and broken body.
Although Alex was still alive, he wasn’t going to be able to function as a living being anymore without the help of something on the same level as Elixir.
Witnessing the scene he had just caused, Damien turned his head away and started whistling. “Oops.” He said as he muttered under his breath, “well if it wasn’t for his stupid naming sense pissing me off he probably would’ve gotten off easier.”
The other examinees were drenched in a cold sweat while the examiner looked at Damien with an interested gaze. Unlike them, he was able to clearly see what happened. ‘This young man is a spatial mage…no, perhaps he has even stepped into the master level!”
The people of Apeiron used a specific system to measure the level of control one had over their affinity.
This system was completely separate from classes, as one’s control only improved with constant practice, insight, and talent. Though, more mana was needed at each stage, leading to class still being important to improve control.
From the beginning, it was Apprentice, Mage, Master, Grandmaster, and Saint.
The apprentice level signifies someone who had just stepped onto the path of understanding their affinity, such as Alex who could only create a simple palm out of fire.
The mage level signifies when one breaks through those figurative shackles and begins to construct various different uses for their affinities, such as Damien’s lightning boost or Katherine’s illusions.
The Master level is where a true change occurs. At this level, one looks past the surface and becomes abstruse in the use of their affinity. Damien’s vector control is an example of this. It isn’t a classic space ability, rather it uses space as a medium to affect laws of physics and whatnot.
The Grandmaster level is more of a title, given to those who have completely mastered the abstruse use of their affinity that they specialized in. When one reaches Grandmaster level control, they can create a domain where they become the sole ruler and king.
As for the Saint level? The information regarding it was strictly kept by those 4th class beings of the world. Nobody knew exactly what being a Saint entailed, but it was rumored that affinities evolve into something completely new when one reaches this level of control.
For Damien to be at the Master level at such a young age, the examiner didn’t even want to think about how much talent he had. Making his decision, he finally spoke.
“Okay. You have already proved your skill to me. Take this token and exit the hall. Someone will be waiting to explain the rest. Also, tell them to come inside once they’re finished. I need help with something.”
He was naturally referring to Alex, who was just a living corpse at this point.
He tossed a circular token to Damien before turning to the other examinees. “As for the rest of you, it’s time to have a short battle with me so you can prove your skill.”
Damien didn’t stay to watch and quickly went to find the person who was waiting outside. It seemed that she wasn’t prepared to have a guest so soon after the examination started, so she fumbled a bit before handing over a pamphlet and a card to Damien.
“This pamphlet outlines everything you need to know about the academy as a new student. As for the card, it is your student identification.”
Seeing the confused look on Damien’s face, she explained further.
“The artifacts you used for testing already scanned your mana signature, so as long as you infuse your mana into the card, your name and rank will appear on it. It’ll also lead you to the specific area you need to go to for lodging and classes.”
Nodding his head, Damien promptly left the examination building as the girl entered the testing room.
When she got inside, everything looked normal besides the charred corpse on the ground. She let out a short yelp before regaining her bearings. Unfortunately, the noise had attracted everyone’s attention.
The examiner then addressed her.
“Good, you’re here. Take that kid away from here and send him wherever he needs to go, that’s not important. It seems we have another candidate for supreme genius entering the academy. Notify the elders so they can keep watch on him. It’s the boy that sent you in here. His name is Damien Void.”
The girl’s face paled slightly when she heard this news. A supreme genius candidate? And she had just waved him off like some average student! As she dragged the breathing corpse of Alex out of the room, she prayed that Damien wasn’t offended by her attitude.
Meanwhile, Damien peacefully walked through Zenith City while enjoying the sights. He had long forgotten about the girl in question. Finding a nice park, Damien sat on a bench and enjoyed the cool spring breeze as he read through the pamphlet he was given.
The academy, at the end of the day, was still a school. Even though he was here because of the Nexus Event, he still had to attend at least one class during his stay. Recalling the mention of a Great War by the broker he had visited, Damien chose history.
If the war was a potential flag as he suspected it to be, he needed to be prepared in case he got swept up in the storm.
Next, he read over the various facilities contained within the academy. There was a myriad of different choices that were based on affinity, and to enter the higher level and more beneficial training environments, he needed premium points.
Premium points were the school’s version of currency, and they could be earned by doing various tasks to benefit the school and by taking missions from the school’s version of an adventurers guild.
However, even this could be avoided. He just needed to find a high-level figure to either sponsor him or take him as a disciple and they could gain him access to these facilities.
The reason this was important to Damien was simple. Unlike what he would have expected, the school had a training environment for spatial affinity users. Once again he saw Kurt’s name. It seemed he was an important figure at the school and had personally built the training ground.
‘If I’m not wrong, that Kurt guy must have left another subspace within that training environment. Knowing his eccentric behavior it’ll be annoying as hell to enter, but it’ll be extremely beneficial to me. I must find a way to enter this space.’
Little did he know, it would be much easier than he thought.