Chapter 31: The First Test (2)

Chapter 31: Chapter 31: The First Test (2)

BOOM!

?The top of the ten-meter obelisk erupted with a blinding column of pure golden light, piercing straight into the morning clouds and bathing the entire plaza in a warm celestial radiance.

The spiritual resonance of her mana was so dense and immaculate that the 99 nearest crystal pillars began to hum and vibrate in unison, as if bowing to a sovereign.

?For ten full seconds, the golden beam did not waver by a single millimeter.

?Dead silence gripped the plaza before an uproar of shock and admiration exploded from the crowd.

?"Gold tier! She reached Supreme aptitude in less than a second!"

?"Did you see how smooth the mana flow was? Not a single ripple of impurity! Even the pillar itself is resonating with her Grimoire!"

?"What kind of monster is she? She is only eleven years old, yet her mana control already rivals a veteran palace mage!"

?Beside Aegon, Zane’s jaw dropped, while Clara stared at the towering beam of golden light with envious eyes.

"So that is the difference between a rural noble house and the pinnacle of the Empire..." Clara murmured under her breath.

?High above the plaza, even Chief Proctor Ronin’s cruel sneer transformed into a rare nod of approval as he looked down at the glowing runes on Pillar One.

?"Number One, Aria Everlight. Mana Purity: Supreme. Reserve Capacity: Supreme. Output Control: Supreme. Overall evaluation: Gold Tier, Rank One! Advance to the waiting pavilion!"

?As the golden light slowly faded back into the crystal, Aria lowered her hand without a single drop of sweat on her brow. Before turning to walk toward the winners’ pavilion alongside her three friends, who had all comfortably achieved the Red tier on the adjacent pillars, she cast one brief, subtle glance back toward the center of the crowd where a boy in a red scarf stood watching.

?Aegon met her gaze calmly, though his dark eyes narrowing in thought.

?Her mana capacity is easily above 35, and her control is practically flawless. I should be able to achieve one tenth of her radiance, right?

He thought in uncertainty.

?Just as the first batch cleared the square, Proctor Ronin flicked his wrist once more, and the registration badges pinned to the chests of Aegon, Clara, Zane, and Marcus lit up in unison.

"Second batch of one thousand applicants, step forward!" Chief Proctor Ronin boomed from the sky. "You have sixty seconds to approach your assigned obelisks and complete your ten-second channeling!"

?Zane let out a shaky breath and slapped his own cheeks to wake himself up.

"This is it. Let’s not embarrass the Noiré name."

?Moving together through the parting crowd, the four cousins quickly located their assigned section near the center of the formation, numbered from Pillar 412 to Pillar 415.

?Anxious to get the nerve-wracking ordeal over with, Marcus did not wait. Stepping straight up to Pillar 412, he slammed both palms against the cold crystal surface and summoned his B-Rank Earthen Bastion Grimoire.

?Hum!

?Marcus’s body radiated a yellow aura which flowed into the ten-meter obelisk.

Following that, the silver runes along the base immediately lit White, then climbed steadily into Green. However, halfway up the pillar, the light suddenly slowed to a crawl.

?Marcus gritted his teeth, veins bulging along his neck and forehead as sweat poured down his temples. His mana capacity was decent for a ten-year-old, but his output control was rough, causing nearly a third of his energy to scatter harmlessly against the crystal surface.

?"Come on, damn it!"

Marcus growled, pushing every last drop of stamina from his core during the final three seconds, he forced a lot of earth mana into the obelisk.

Just before his ten-second timer expired, the murky green light broke through the threshold and flared into a steady Blue glow.

?Beep.

?"Pillar 412, Blue Tier! Passable!"

?Only after hearing the announcement, Marcus slumped backward onto his knees, gasping for air as if he had just run ten miles, though a grin of pure relief broke across his exhausted face.

?Beside him at Pillars 413 and 414, Zane and Clara stepped forward at the exact same time.

?Since he watched Marcus struggle with brute force, Zane took a intelligent approach. As his B-Rank Gale Blade Grimoire hovered open behind his shoulder, he focused on channeling a thin, concentrated stream of wind mana into the core.

His pillar flashed past White and Green within four seconds, settling comfortably into the middle of the Blue tier and holding firm until the ten seconds ended.

"Good job, Zane. You did better than me," Marcus admitted proudly.

?Meanwhile, all three boys turned their eyes toward Clara at Pillar 414. As the proud owner of an A-Rank Frost Lotus Grimoire, she was expected to achieve the highest result among them.

?When Clara pressed her small hands against the obelisk, a wave of chilling frost mist spread across the obsidian tiles beneath her boots.

The crystal pillar lit up immediately, going past White and Green in two seconds flat before flooding the entire ten-meter spire with a brilliant Blue light.

?By the eighth second, the top of her pillar began to flicker with faint sparks of crimson, hovering right on the edge of the Red tier. Clara bit her lower lip, pouring everything she had into the crystal, yet her ten-year-old mana channels were simply too narrow to force the final breakthrough in time.

When the second chime rang out, the crimson sparks faded back into a deep, radiant Blue.

?"Pillar 413 — Zane Noiré Astrid: Blue Tier! Pillar 414 — Clara Noiré Garfield: High Blue Tier!"

?Clara pulled her hands back and frowned slightly at her palms.

"This is so difficult. Even with my A-Rank Grimoire, reaching the Red tier was too hard... The purity requirements here are on a completely different level from our kingdom’s standards."

?Still, all three of them had safely cleared the minimum threshold. Wiping the sweat from their brows, Clara, Zane, and Marcus immediately turned their heads toward Pillar 415.

?Only twenty seconds remained before the second batch window closed.

?While 99,000 other applicants across the plaza had already finished their tests, Aegon was the last one standing before an unlit obelisk.

Up on the marble terrace of the winners’ pavilion, Aria Everlight also turned her crystal-blue gaze toward Pillar 415, her fingers pausing gently over the railing.

?Calm and unhurried, Aegon stepped forward.

?With a thought, he called forth his publicly registered A-Rank Blood Berserker Grimoire, allowing the crimson book to hover openly behind his back while keeping ATUM buried deep within his soul.