Chapter 10 - The Test

Sam walked the remaining few hundred feet towards the town of Willow as Princess Jemima’s carriage continued it’s journey towards Celestial City.

When he reached near the town gates, he found that there was a long line formed to enter so he joined the line.

He kept his ears open and eventually found out from the conversations there was some form of test in the town for the teenagers of the surrounding area, thus the line was for people to queue up to apply for the test.

He joined the line for several minutes before he finally reached the gate of the town. The city guard looked at him and his ragged clothes and gave him a strange look.

He walked around the town, eavesdropped into people's conversation and found out a bit of what’s going on.

This town was having trials to see if their youths could enter Celestial Academy, in Celestia.

Although similarly sounding, Celestia was a different city than Celestial City, the capital of Eternia.

Celestia was actually a large academy city and was built to house and serve the Celestial Academy and was located several hundred miles away from Celestial City.

Celestial Academy was incredibly large and they were built to teach and train both cultivators and mages. However, they only accepted the best.

Celestial Academy was the official academy of the Kingdom of Eternia of which the capital was the Eternal City.

Loki watched as a long line to one table with an old man behind it, split into two lines that separated. One led to a platform with several instructors on it. They looked like experienced warriors and looked very intimidating.

The teenagers were required to spar with the instructors to see if they have any aptitude for fighting. There were tests for swordsmanship, hand to hand combat and archery. This line was obviously for the cultivators.

The other queue led to an elevated platform where teenagers were asked to touch a crystal ball in front of a seated old man, which lit up different colors for different types of magic.

The crystal looked like a magic ball those carnies use to tell the future. The brighter the light lit, the better the talent of the student in magical ability. Those with low glows, which were the majority of those tested, were rejected for the school of magic.

From what he could ascertain, red was for fire magic, green for wind magic, blue for water magic, yellow for earth magic, and there was one rare teen who had white for white magic. There were probably others, but these were the ones that were seen while he queued in line.

Sam knew he sucked at actual combat, having no combat experience and being easily trashed by Princess Jemima’s guards, so he decided to tryout for the mage test first.

He queued in line and finally reached the old man.

"Name and preference" the old man asked.

"My name is Sam Serra and I want to tryout for the magic school." he answered.

"Samsara eh? Strange name" said the old man as he gestured that it was his turn to go onto the stage and touch the orb.

“Samsara again? Is it my pronounciation that they cannot understand? Anyway, Samsara isn’t a bad name” he thought as he walked towards the stage in front of everybody.

He walked up onto the stage and announced his name “Samsara” and walked towards the crystal ball.

The girls in the crowd couldn't help stare. This boy was handsome to a frightening degree as they all couldn't help but drool when they looked at him.

He wore a torn up shirt with no sleeves, showing off his lean yet muscular arms, and many of the buttons of his shirt were missing, giving the girls in the crowd a glimpse of his 6 pack abs and wonderfully formed pectorals.

As he moved, there was something swaying and moving under his kilt or skirt that he was wearing causing the girls to all try to catch a glimpse of what was under there. It kept moving half a second after he moved, causing the skirt to move unnaturally as if a pendulum was moving between his legs.

All the men in the audience thought that this guy was shamelessly doing something to attract the girls as surely he couldn’t have such a big dick.

He slowly put his hand on the ball and waited. Everyone looked in anticipation, wondering how this strange yet gorgeous teen would do.

Nothing happened. No glow, no color, absolutely no reaction at all.

The examiner was puzzled. Everyone he has ever tested had some magical ability. Even non mages who were cultivators would show some affinity to an element or ability even if it was faint.

Although he had absorbed Jemima’s mental abilities, apparently his abilities still couldn’t be detected by this testing stone.

This kid didn't give any reading at all which was not possible, in his opinion. Even the freshly dead people will have a slight reading on them, as did animals or plants. Heck, even rocks would show a trace of earth magic on them. Yet he produced absolutely no results.

Sam looked at the ball and frowned.

“Surely something is wrong here. Why don't I have any magical aptitude? Wasn’t I supposed to be a magician?” he thought to himself.

The examiner stared at the orb for a long time and then at Loki. It was as if Loki was some sort of freak.

"Samsara. No affinity to magic" said the examiner as he shook his head. Although having no reading was incredibly strange, the parameters of the test were simple. He had failed.

"Heracles Hellstorm" stated a red headed teen of 16 loudly as he walked past Sam and pushed him aside.

He had bright red hair, and his clothes were all in a flame motif. He was jealous after finding out that the girls all swooned after Loki.

But now, everyone could see that Sam was simply trash, he wanted to show what a real hero looks like, not that pretty boy.

He placed his hands on the crystal ball and immediately it glowed a bright red color. "Fire affinity strong. Pass" announced the examiner.

As Heracles turned to walk off stage, he saw Loki with his face hung in disappointment slowly walking off stage.

Loki was actually communicating internally with the Nexus.

"Aria of the Storm" stated a pretty girl of 14 years of age as she walked on stage. She was an incredibly pretty brunette, with clear green eyes and a graceful body with surprisingly ample breasts. It seemed as if time stood still as the crowd gazed upon her beauty.

Although she wore a modest dress that covered her up, the dress seemed to accentuate every curve on her body, hiding nothing to the imagination.

The crowd whispered her name in awe. She was a famous beauty, daughter of the Lord of the Storm. They were a family famous for their air and water elemental abilities, who have been renown for summoning storms in battle, hence their name.

She looked at the handsome face of Sam who didn’t see her and was communicating with the Nexus while walking off the stage. As she didn’t see his test, she didn’t know what happened, but she couldn’t help but look at his handsome face and graceful body, admiring his abs and pectorals poking out of his torn shirt, and muscular arms.

Heracles stopped to stare at the beauty as she approached and touched the crystal ball.

It shone a bright green color. "Wind affinity, very strong. Pass" announced the examiner who was clearly impressed.

Heracles was too busy watching Aria, he bumped into Sam who was getting off the platform.

"Get out of here trash. Don't block the way of real mages" Heracles yelled as he shoved Sam offstage

Heracles was a much larger boy when compared to Sam, and his aggressive shove caused him to stumble forwards onto the archery field before falling down.

“What the fuck?” Sam got up angrily and looked at Heracles, who was still standing on stage.

“Trash shouldn’t talk back” said Heracles smugly as he leaped off the stage, a burst of fire shot from his fee propelling him like a jet towards Sam and delivering a impressive flying kick.

As the kick was augmented by Heracles’ jet propulsion from his feet, Sam flew about a hundred feet through the air into a field, his ribs shattered and blood was spraying from his nose and mouth.

Sam landed and rolled several meters. Just as he stopped rolling a spear was so happen in mid flight as it pierced his throat, while another pierced his chest.

Screams filled the air as Sam lay still in the middle of the field that they were testing the warriors, as a spear was through his neck and another through his chest.

"Halt all activity!" commanded an elderly person as he used his magical abilities to instantly float towards him.

Sam lay on the ground with his eyes open. His throat was cut right open and the other spear went directly through his heart. Blood was spurting out of his chest where the spear hit, clearly showing that his heart was pumping blood out of his chest.

Aria, together with the other female admirers of Sam, stood by in tears looking at the tragic scene.

Sam could see his health dropping on his health meter. He watched in horror as the meter started counting down from 10 to 0. Finally at zero, he lost consciousness.

By the time the healing mages arrived, it was too late. The head medical mage was a female instructor named Orchid who shook her head in sorrow. "He was only 16. That’s too young to die" she said as she sighed looking at how good looking he was, even in death.

As she examined him, she rested her hand on his thigh before reacting in shock, finally noticing that she wasn’t touching his thigh, rather something nearly as thick.

 “That cannot be. How can it be so big?” she thought as she dismissed the thought and brought the body to the medical tent