Danny sat with a couple hundred other boys beside along one of the walls on the path between the inner and outer circles. This wall held the door to access training complex in the middle circle. The boys gathered ranged in ages from a year older than Danny, to early teens. Danny even saw an older fire wizard who was there to test in another element. They all had one thing in common, they looked nervous.

Danny had learned long ago, in his past life, to distract himself before exams or interviews. He usually did this with reading. On this chilly morning, sitting in the sun was actually nice. The second alchemy book was very interesting for Danny, as it went into advanced extraction and mixing methods. Danny could think of a few ways some of the magic utility spells could mitigate a few of the steps required. He also wondered if he could recreate some of the wet chemistry methods from his old life, to aid in extraction and distillation of some of the potions. Unfortunately nothing here pointed to alchemy being able to overcome or even compete with the effectiveness of magic.

By asking the aides who had set up a booth near the entrance, Danny learned that the whole training complex had been closed for the day, and wizards who had already proved mastery in a chosen element were called in to be examiners the participants.

After waiting a few hours Danny was finally called back by another initiate who was working as an aide for the exam. Danny had found out that a lot of punishments doled out by the instructors resulted in a specific number of days of "service" helping the academy. A small group of wizards that worked here in the academy, whose sole purpose was organizing these allotted services.

Danny entered a group training room and three wizards with one or more colored duster sat by the door. They all had one color in common, white. He greeted the examiners and they exchanged quick pleasantries. Looking around the room he noticed a stone wall had been added to well over half the room, blocking out most of the lanes.

"Initiate Creek, I will be the head examiner for your adept exam. Please present all questions to me. We are going to begin the exam by having you show your competency with the initiate level spells. Please cast all spells called out toward the end of the lane," the head examiner said.

As each spell was called out by the head examiner, Danny cast them as quickly as he could. He could tell the judges were not impressed with the speed of his casting. Danny couldn't help but feel sorry for those wizards who were permanently stuck at a low mana regeneration and flow rate.

The head examiner cleared his throat and said, "Alright, next we will present you with your challenge. We will head over to the area on the other side of the partition. When we do you will walk up and down the length of the low stone wall until you have seen all ten of the stickmen designated as targets. To aid in quickly identifying them, their "heads" have been painted red. You will then stand in the red circle drawn on the floor. You may not step out of this circle once the exam begins. When I give the command you will begin attempting to knock over or destroy the stickmen. You can only use air affinity spells. The points you gain will depend on technique and speed. Your lower mana flow rate will be taken into account. Please, also notice there are a number of stickmen with green "heads". You will be deducted points for harming, knocking over, or destroying these. Any questions?"

Danny thought for a second, then asked, "Can I use adept level spells?"

The examiners looked shocked, and one even looked like he thought Danny was lying to try and impress them.

"Yes, you may use any air affinity spells," the head examiner said.

Danny nodded and said, "I have no other questions."

The examiners led Danny to the other side of the partition. The head examiner stood near the red circle in the middle, while the other two examiners took positions on either side of the area. Danny looked across the small wall to see something reminiscent of a wild west shooting gallery. Except, he was sure none of the stickmen would move out behind some of the walls to shoot at him. The stickmen were comprised of groups of sticks tied together on a wooden frame. The head was a flat piece of wood painted red. Some targets were elevated while a few were down in holes. Danny wanted to come up with some way to hit them all at once and impress the examiners, but he didn't have the time or skill yet. He decided to focus on the easiest first then whittle down the rest. There were plenty of green stickmen, he decided to call "friendlies", but not all targets had them in the way. In this room Danny would have to definitely be careful about errant gusts reflecting off the walls and possibly ceiling.

"Begin," called out the head examiner.

Danny began charging wind blades in both hands. He heard the indrawn breath from one of the examiners but didn't let that loose his focus. Wind blades were usually safer created as a range spell and had a few modifiers, like size and angle. Danny chose to target the two targets without friendlies in front of them. Unsure of how strong these stickmen were, Danny upped the power a little. After a minute of charging he unleashed his blades one at a time. The first was the easiest. He was on the edge by himself. Danny split that target in two. The power cut into the back wall and Danny knew he could pull back a little on the power. That should speed up his charge time and reduce cost. Then he moved to the second target. This stickman was in the ground but there was a friendly a meter behind him. At this angle Danny had prepared a smaller wind blade which he targeted at its "neck." Since the targets didn't move, he easily hit his intended spot. Nervous about the power, he helplessly watched as the head didn't go into the hole with the rest of the body as intended. Instead the head hit the floor and knocked into the friendly behind it. The green headed stickman looked like the town drunk for a few seconds before finally settling down.

Realizing he was wasting time, Danny quickly charged two more spells. The third target was between two friendlies and just required a horizontal slash. The wind from the slash rocked the two friendlies but Danny realized he didn't have time to worry about the friendlies' AA meeting. The fourth target was peering behind a stone wall, and a horizontal slash fixed that.

The next grouping of targets, five through seven, was set up in a crowd of friendlies in what looked like the arena sitting area. After analyzing the situation a minute he understood that whoever staged this area wanted it to be completed a specific way. He began charging another wind slash but at about a 30 degree angle.

While that spell was charging in his left hand, he moved on to target eight. This stickman was behind a wall in the corner. The wall he was behind was facing at an angle towards where Danny stood. Charging wind blast, Danny modified it for ranged attack and staying compressed. The blast could be used two ways, like a floodgate for close range or like an air cannon for long distance. It was all about the radius modifier. The distance needed would increase the power required. He started charging that with his right hand.

Looking over at the cheap seats, Danny aimed in the middle of targets five through seven, and released his spell. With the distance, accurate measurements were difficult. Like raise earth the length of a wind blade had been established. The blade tore into the three stickmen he had targeted. Danny winced, as one of the friendlies on the right side got nicked. The falling pieces of the intended targets jostled the friendlies nearby but nothing else happened.

Danny didn't waste any time firing the saved mana blast at a specific point on the room’s wall near figure eight. The blast ricocheted off the wall and knocked the target out from behind it, on the far side.

Target nine was on a raised platform, two meters in the air. Surrounding him were six friendlies in a perfect ring, with one of the friendlies directly in between number nine and himself. Danny decided to come back to him.

Target ten was behind a wall with three sides, in the middle of the room. The side furthest from Danny and the top, were the only sides open. There was some space between this set up and those on either side. Danny considered his options and started casting something new in his right hand. That's about the time his mana reserves died, and he was stuck with basic mana regeneration. Now charging spells will take twice as long.

Danny knew what he had to do for target nine. He started casting with his right hand. Now he had two choices for target ten. Option one was to admit defeat and not try, which could be the answer. There were always the chance of trick questions in a test. Option two was to use one of his adept spells. He would need a lot of mana and that meant one thing, time. He thought on this while the spell in his right hand finished charging. Since he had next to no mana reserves, dual casting would be pointless. After about five minutes his spell had charged enough and Danny prepared to go for target number nine by squatting down. He had considered leaning as much as he could and trying to take out one of the targets leg while trying to hit as little of the friendlies in front, but that was difficult even when he couldn't see the targets leg that well already. Danny focused on his target and fired. A tiny wind blade tore through the bottom part of the head on the friendly in front, almost at the neck. It exited and entered the middle of the head on the target, then flew over the friendly in the backs head. The front friendly tilted backwards and paused at the precipice of its potential arc backwards. As he watched, Danny could tell that the front friendly was going to finish falling backwards. Looking at target number nine, it too was rocked backwards but at a much lower force. Target nine rocked forwards at the same moment the front friendly fell backwards. The motions didn't cancel each other out but when the two stickmen came to rest, the front friendly was leaning back against target nine.

Taking a deep breath Danny looked over to target number ten. His idea, that might work, would take at least half his maximum mana and he probably didn't have enough time to wait that long. Turning around he saw the head examiner looking at him expectantly. Danny scrunched his lips up and to the side in thought.

"I'm done, I will not be able to hit the last one without more time than I am sure I have left," Danny said in resignation.

The head instructor nodded his head, and said, "Please wait on the other side while we discuss your exam."

Danny nodded his head and walked over to wait on the other side of the wall separating the two sides. He racked his brain for what he could have done differently, but couldn't come up with anything plausible.

After about five minutes the three men walked through the archway.

The head examiner said, "Before we give you your score, we have two questions."

Danny nodded and said, "Yes, wizard?"

"First, on the second to last red stickman, did you intend to hit the green stickman in the front," asked the head examiner.

"Yes, my first thought was to try and lean over, so I could sever part of a leg on the front green stickman, and the whole leg on the red stickman. This would likely have resulted in the front green stickman and the red stickman nocking the others over. Plus, the angle would have probably had the rear green stickman getting hit too. So I went with the only other viable option I came up with. I already had the angle to avoid the rear green stickman. So I sacrificed one green stickman to get my target and essentially save the other five green stickmen."

The head examiner made no reaction to this reply and asked, "On the remaining stickman, if you had more time what would you have done?"

Danny replied, "I will admit it would have been risky gamble. If I had quite a bit more time, I could have generated enough mana to use the adept air spell "Air Lift" near the top edge of the walls. I believe this would create enough upward force to lift the stickman out of there. I would also have another wind blade spell ready to cast and cut it in half once it rises above the top of the wall."

The head examiner stood there a moment before turning to one and then the other examiners beside him. They both gave nods of their heads.

The head examiner turned to Danny with a smile and said, "Congratulations on a job well done air adept!"

Danny smiled and bowed saying, "Thank you wizards."

With that he turned and left.

As Danny sat in a room with the rest of the finished examinees, he wasn't sure but he was starting to realize the effect his increased intelligence was having on his actions. He doubted he could have analyzed those situations as quickly. Nor could he have guessed, as closely as he had, the amounts of power, angle, length, and trajectory needed, after just a couple of initial spells cast. Once the last examinee was finished they were released.

Walking to his next destination he guessed he had enough time to regenerate the rest of his mana before getting to his next exam. Major pathways went in each of the four compass directions radiating from the center of the tower to the outer walls. The gaps in the training complex between these paths was set up as the waiting areas for the different affinities.

Danny had been on the north side, near the arena, for his air exam and now he had to get to the south side near the main entrance for his earth exam. He made sure to stop by the dining hall for a quick lunch. The dining hall was also serving lunch all day, even though it was still packed as everyone stayed to talk about the events that day.

Right around noon Danny arrived at the training complex's south entrances and checked in at the booth set up nearby. Danny pulled out his Alchemy book and started reading where he left off. Other examinees started showing up and one by one they were called into the training complex. Danny had finished his alchemy book, but wasn't feeling particularly reflective upon what he read. Thinking back on the air adept exam earlier he was surprised how hard it was. They really wanted him to think about his actions.

"Initiate Creek!"

Danny got up and followed the initiate thinking, *That is until the ceremony tomorrow, and then I will be and adept... Well, of air at least.*

He was lead into a chamber, by the echo of their feet he could tell the space inside was huge. There was a lit pathway walking to a platform in the middle of what felt like nothingness. Danny walked to the center and looked around, but it was just as pitch black here as it was by the door. Turning around he realized the lights for the door and walkway to the center had been turned off when he wasn't looking.

Wind began to swirl around Danny and a voice boomed from the nothingness, "Greetings, Initiate Creek!"

Trying to get his eyes to see something out in the vast darkness, Danny guessed, "Hello... wizard?"

"Good, I am Wizard Basalt, head examiner of your earth adept exam. There are others here with me for this exam, but something came up and they are a little tied up at the moment," the voice replied.

Another spotlight shown down from the ceiling in front of him. Looking up Danny could make out the cone shaped cover on what he expects is a light crystal. The illuminated area looks like another platform, without anything on it. This new platform is a ways away from him and up higher. He could just barely make out the top of it.

"Cast raise earth on the platform and make me a cube, one meter by one meter," Wizard Basalt's disembodied voice commanded.

Earth magic was expensive but this was a simple request. Danny created the requested cube after a few long moments of charging.

"Good, now create an earth spike that points towards you from the side of the cube," Wizard Basalt said.

Casting earth spike on the side pointing him, Danny thought, *Better not send this thing after me...*

"Excellent! Now cast earth rumble right below it," the head examiner said in a most dramatic voice.

Danny looked into the darkness as if to say, you got to be kidding me. Then cast earth rumble where requested.

The cube and spike shook and the whole platform began to crumble and fall. The light had been blocked by the platform and it now revealed the collection of earth falling and hit a tube. The tube must have been made of glass, ceramic, or something else breakable. Water began to pour forth and flow down a channel into the dark.

Wizard Basalts angrily shouted at Danny, "What you have done!"

Lights all over the room came on, Danny had to squint in order to see. On a platform next to the pipe, that was now a round hole in the wall, stood a large man in a grey robe. Water from the hole in the wall fell into a large pool that contained the rubble from the platform Danny previous destroyed. The pool had already started to overflow and quickly filled three channels leading down from it. On a wall sloping towards him, those three channels fed three separate pools.

From there, the three pools fed two channels each that in turn flowed into four pools. Splitting and merging and splitting, the last row of pools equaled seven before they split again where they would flood the floor below Danny.

Danny squinted down at the newly lit floor below and saw something else. Two wizards, who appeared to be blindfolded and hog tied, wriggled on the floor below. If the water reached the floor it would easily drown the two men who couldn’t raise their heads very high off the floor.

Danny immediately saw what this puzzle was going to have him doing, nervously he looked around for an answer while charging raise earth wall. He kept his other hand free in case earth spike might be a hidden solution and he needed a quick response. Already the first two of the seven rows were filled with water.

"Initiate Creek, can you stop enough of the channels to prevent my fellow examiners from getting wet! Major points off if even one drop touches their heads! As you can guess you can only cast from earth affinity spells! Cast anywhere in the room that doesn't hurt me or my fellow examiners, but you better hurry...," Wizard Basalt was cut short by a noise next to him.

An earthen wall came up right in front of the hole in the wall stopping the flow of water into the pools.

Wizard Basalt looked next to him like someone had eaten the last piece of cake, "Well, rocks in my socks! You figured it out!"

Wizard Basalt held out both hands and began dual casting as he walked forward over the empty air. Blocks of stone rose high to stop right where his foot would land if he was walking normally down a flight of stairs. This continued until he was in front of Danny. The amount of mana and flow rate required to do this would have taken Danny half a day to replicate.

"Good job adept Creek! Your one of the few that has figured out that little trick of mine. Most people start casting walls along every channel they can, only to fail in the end. Well one initiate actually managed to block enough channels fast enough, but they immediately overfilled. Oh, that was hilarious. The boy was laughing so much at my joke he started crying uncontrollably. Of course he didn't make adept, I felt bad abo..."

Danny was half listening to the man as he looked over the edge of his platform.

"Are they alright," asked Danny cutting in.

Wizard Basalt stopped short, confused at Danny's interruption.

Looking over the side, Wizard Basalts face turned sour and he said, "Yes, they will be fine. Just a bunch of stuck up noble begotten..."

The rest trailed off with the grinding of stone. Wizard Basalt's hand raised up and a platform holding the bound examiners rose to stop next to Danny's. Not waiting for Wizard Basalt's approval, Danny set about freeing them. Once loose they yelled obscenities at Wizard Basalt, threatening everything under the moon at him. Basalt stood there staring at them, well, more like staring at the wall behind them. They finally got tired of ranting without any reaction from him and just stormed out of the room.

Wizard Basalt shook his head like a wet dog and said, "What, where were we? Oh yes! Congratulations newest earth adept! I will submit everything right now, welcome brother!"

With that, the strange wizard gave Danny a sideways hug, while walking him to the door.

At the door, Danny quickly untangled himself, turned, and bowed to him, "Thank you Wizard Basalt."

Looking out of sorts for the first time the wizard looked lost saying, "Well, yes get on with you now, I need to report your success and get this room fixed up for the next examinee. I hope the replacement examiners they send are more agreeable than the last two. Guys couldn't take a joke if it was gift wrapped and shoved up ther... Oh yes, goodbye!"

Danny walked away quickly down the hallway to the finished trainee waiting room. He wasn't sure what had just happened. He felt kind of cheated after the difficulty of the last exam. Walking into the waiting room and seeing the faces of the other examinees changed his mind. Apparently Basalt hadn't been exaggerating when he said he was one of the few to figure it out.