Bab 51: Library of Mages (11)

When my opponent saw me walking out nonchalantly from the sea of fire that he created, he was shocked. With each meter I was closer to him, he took a step back. He kept sending fireballs, but none of them were strong enough to entirely destroy my soul image. Even if it was denting a bit from the impact, I repaired it with a slightly larger amount of soul essence immediately.

When he reached the edge of the ring, and his back touched the barrier panic filled him. He could only watch as I came near him. My fist was ready to strike at any time, I pulled it back. "I surrender!" and hit the barrier sending ripples across its surface.

The fist that his beside his head slowly backed up as he followed it with his eyes. Seeing him lose strength in his legs I garbed him, so he wouldn't fall and helped him up. "I hope that gave you a wake-up call." I helped him out of the stage and looked at the audience.

No one was talking, moving, or breathing. Everyone stopped at the sight of my complete dominance. The two of where the same age, but the disparity between us is just too big.

When I got back from the changing room the room was mostly back to normal, some people were shooting gazes at me, but it wasn't something I cared about. After twenty minutes the auction began.

Artifacts both defensive and offensive, some antique items and pieces of art, and one piece of awakening stone, just enough for one person. The price for it was mindboggling. Neither Emily or I bought anything but watching so much money move was fun to watch.

We left the villa at around midnight. I was tired, not physically, but mentally, and so when I got back to my room I immediately fell asleep.

The next day started, as usual, 27 lazy as usual, Emily tried her best to avoid training, and Ike couldn't stop taking. It was only during lunchtime that I noticed something was wrong. I could feel the stares on my back piercing right through me.

"You got popular, Huh?" Ike said. It was quite obvious that there was a lot of people aiming at me only looking for a moment to strike. "What did you do?"

"Nothing. It's just my good looks." We ignored the stares and talked.

"Right. Have you heard about the trials yet? For the tournament?"

"A tournament? Really?" It was old-fashioned to hold them. In the old days, they were common. Organized test the artist's strength, but as there were a lot of accidents, deaths even. So they stopped it. Well, it only became less popular.

"Yup, some international tournament between the top universities. The trials will select the best for it. But the important thing is the rewards for passing the trials. One of them is rewarding Instaurare Cores for the first place. You are now using the ones that the school provided sooner or later you will need to give them back."

He was right. All the Instaurare Cores I'm using now were borrowed. It was good enough for now, but when I leave this school, I will need to give them back. I could buy some If I had enough money… but even someone that was working for a few years as an artist only had one.

So I asked. "When are they?"

"In two weeks. But if you want to take part, you need to sign up now. What about you Emily?"

"I will pass. I would rather focus on something else." She said.

"Ok then."

The next week went by rather quickly, there were no major events, but now it was time for our Second-Year exam. From what I found out, up to year three exam they are all individual based, only the year four and the final exam for the S-class are team based.

Emily and I met at the campus entrance and waited for a while as the teacher that was supervising our exam came. She looked young, but I could feel the power in her. Like a blazing fire.

Recently I realized that I started to sense something about people. It was like a sixth sense. Emotions, Power, State of mind, I could 'feel' them more or less. It helped me judge their strength and intentions.

Ike was like a mountain, calm and filled with life. Emily reminded me of the golden raven I met previously. The teacher, Rose, was like a blazing fire wanting to fight and burn everything.

This sixth sense only got stronger the more condensations I did. I was now on my 26'th, and the feeling was only getting stronger with each cycle.

"Are you two ready to go?" the teacher asked.

"Yes!"

We went to a car and sat inside, Rose started driving definitely way over the limit. The second-year exam is a solo monster hunt, we are obligated to kill a monster, the stronger the monster, the higher the grade we get. Usually, this is organized in the Algonquin hunting grounds, but ever since the monster's disaster a few months ago… It had to be changed.

Our destination was the North Quebec Hunting grounds. It was the biggest hunting ground in Canada, the edge of it is safe only deep inside are monsters that could bring destruction to cities. Most of the MCA forces were stationed there, now only the bare minimum was left there making sure that no monsters would leave the hunting grounds.