Irkan, the eldest and tallest of the group, stepped forward and took the initiative to start a conversation with the same-aged desk clerk. If Toby, Danchun and Nardor had not grown younger, they too could have filled this role.

“Good morning, my name is Irkan Qinrie, I serve as chief commander of the royal guard in the Solostar Kingdom. My Lord, Asselin Solostar here has formulated the wish to attend the academy and I am here to fulfill my duty in ensuring everything goes without incident.”

The woman pushed her folder aside and leaned over the desk to see the handsome blond youth. Her eyes were full of doubt, “A Kingdom? Why have I never heard of a kingdom by that name?”

“Cough!” Asselin cleared his throat beet red. “My guard exaggerated. Right now it’s just a small village…”

“Hmm. Well, it makes more sense. You just have to be tested first. After which you can sign the proper documents to enter the academy.” The secretary leaned back and began rummaging through her desk.

“Of course.” Asselin accepted.

“Are the others here for the same reason?” She swept her eyes over Ikaris and the other humans present with a freakishly unsympathetic, almost hostile look.

“Charlotte, Irkan, Toby, Lennart and Stefan are part of my retinue.” Asselin said, pointing to his friends. “The others are with him.”

Following the prompt, Ikaris stepped forward and introduced himself and his companions. The woman was clearly colder to him than to Asselin and he didn’t know why, but that didn’t stop her from doing her job.

Perhaps she recognized one of his Bloodlines. Magnus had warned him more than once that racism and discrimination between races was commonplace in the Forsaken Lands. The Crawling-Thralls were hated everywhere, but depending on the place, Vampires and Werewolves also had a bad reputation. It happened that Ikaris was all three at once.

Or maybe she was jealous of their looks. Yeah… It was more likely.

She gave them all a registration form and they filled it out. Once the forms were signed and returned along with a quick perusal of their contents she nodded and said,

“Follow me then. This won’t take long.”

The secretary pulled out a “BE BACK SOON” sign and hung it from the desk. She led them through a door to the side and through a windowless long black stone corridor. Torches lined the hallway.

Ellie felt nervous, she was going to be tested. She never did well in surprise tests, no matter how much she reviewed. She didn’t even know what the test was about, let alone prepared for it. She tried taking deep breaths to calm down. This place felt alien to her.

She had never been in such a huge and dark stone building before, never walked down a hallway that seemed to go on forever. She had already forgotten the huge portal room through which they had arrived in Tartarus Shade.

Dozens of doors flew past them as they strided by.

‘Deep breaths, Ellie, deep breaths.’ She thought to herself.

While Ellie was wracked with anxiety, Ikaris was wondering how such a hallway could exist. The building they had entered to register had seemed much smaller and they had not gone down any stairs to an underground corridor.

‘Probably some advanced Space or Portal Magic.’ Magnus commented in his head.

The secretary suddenly stopped and opened a door to her left, “Come in. Quickly.”

The room was sparse save for a long table covered in many small crystalline baubles. A tall ogre read a book while leaning against a wall, painting an unlikely picture of serenity in a creature renowned for its brutality. He wore a grey tunic and pants, but not a single weapon.

The ogre glanced at them, “Ah, Miss Kiwi, new applicants?”

“Quite right. Go ahead, Bozig.” The secretary folded her hands and stood in the corner, a deadpan expression on her face as if she would rather be anywhere else than here.

“Right away.” Bozig placed the book down and walked to the table. “If you could come here, please.” He gestured toward the guard commander.

“Oh, I’m not being tested. I’m just here to protect my Lord.” Irkan refused flatly. He didn’t want to reveal his abilities to any prospective enemies.

“I’m sorry, but it’s strictly mandatory to attend this campus.” The ogre snorted, not at all intimidated. “It is protocol, but I can guarantee that this information will remain strictly confidential. The interests of all the Ruling Houses in Tartarus Shade are too closely intertwined for anyone to dare defy this prohibition. In the case of our students, though, it may help guide their training.”

Irkan hesitated and turned to his Lord to sound out his opinion.

“It’s okay, Irkan. In Tartarus Shades, let’s do like the Shadans do.” Asselin gave his endorsement.

“We prefer to call ourselves the Shaders here. It sounds better.” Miss Kiwi sardonically quipped.

Ellie swallowed as she stepped forward, “What do we need to do?”

Bozig frowned and looked at the secretary. She nodded in silence from the corner. He sighed, “Ok, then. The test is easy, even for a young female human like you.”

Ikaris scowled, what was that supposed to mean? Did they think they were dumb? He wanted to say something, but he needed to behave. He didn’t want to mess up his chances while being this close to learning magic.

Bozig opened a drawer and carefully removed a silver device resembling the planet Saturn. Ikaris found the device oddly familiar. Especially those thousands of concentric metallic rings…

‘That looks like the Soul-Probe I used to evaluate your Soul Strength.’ Magnus reminded him.

It only looked like it. Because there wasn’t just one set of rings, but dozens, each composed of thousands of concentric rings.

“This is an enchanted tool we call a Talent-Probe,” Bozig began to recite. “The clear stone in the middle is called a Sparkstone. It is a mineral with the unique ability to store the Neia, the Origin Mana forming your Sparks that all Sorcerers possess. The Talent-Probe is enchanted to naturally absorb the Neia of whoever touches it. I don’t expect you to understand much of what I said, it’s just protocol. Now, all you need to do is place your hand on the metal orb.”

Ellie understood perfectly, but let the slight be. She nervously placed her right hand on the metal sphere. It was cold to the touch.

The device suddenly began to glow about a second later and several concentric rings of several separate large rings lit up.

On the largest horizontal ring, three, four, five concentric rings! After a short delay the sixth ring also started to flicker dimly. In comparison, the other two large rings lit up only one sub-ring, while a third one activated only two.

Nevertheless, it was enough to blow away Miss Kiwi and Bozig.

“5.09 of Soul Strength! A-A first rate genius!” Bozig exclaimed with delight as he inspected the results. “It’s, it’s a pass! With her and the other rookies this year we may have a chance of not finishing last in the Confederation Tournament three years from now.”

Miss Kiwi pushed her glasses up, “Bozig, in the future try not to lose your cool. Maybe this girl didn’t mean to share this information…”

Realizing his mistake, the ogre scratched his head sheepishly and apologized with a low bow to Ellie.

“Please forgive me, I failed in my duty.

“No-no worries, we’re all friends here…” The blonde stammered as she hurried to lift him up.

“We still have to do a few more tests if you’re feeling alright,” Bozig grabbed another Talent-Probe.

“That won’t be necessary,” Miss Kiwi straightened her skirt. “The girl has proven she was qualified.”

Bozig bowed his head, “Yes, Miss Kiwi.”

He then placed a blank sheet of parchment on the first Talent-Probe and as if by magic a detailed report wrote itself on it, which he then gave to the lucky girl. Glancing over Ellie’s shoulder, Ikaris saw that the information displayed was almost as detailed as his System’s but was reorganized in an intuitive way with an overall talent rating.

[Body Spark lvl1: 1.1 points]

[Soul Spark lvl1 : 5.08 points]

[Divine Spark lvl1: 0.07 points]

[Number of lvl 1 Secondary Sparks : 3]

[Number of lvl 2 Secondary Sparks: 0]

[Number of …]

[Bloodline…]

[Arcana…]

[Other Energy Types…]

[Final Rating : C-Talent Prenovice Sorcerer]

From the reactions of Miss Kiwi and Bozig, C-Talent was not as poor as Ikaris thought and it matched the evaluation system used by his Elsisn Stele. Based on this detailed report, the Stele did not rely solely on the three Primary Sparks to evaluate an individual’s potential.

Ellie, who was inwardly relieved and even a little proud, immediately lost her smile when she read the result of her test. She was just plain ordinary… As usual.

It was then the turn of the others to be tested, but this time Bozig did his job and was careful not to accidentally reveal the results out loud, although the temptation was great.