Teacher Kurokawa led her class to the Initiate Academy’s Duelling Arena. While the Duelling Arena's primary feature was the single, large, competition area in the centre, there were actually several other smaller arenas within the same building which could be used for private duels or practical classes. It was at the entrance to one of these smaller areas that Teacher Kurokawa stopped.

“So as to keep the details of the test a secret, each of you will enter only when the previous person has finished. The order you enter will be the same as your class rank.”

Teacher Kurokawa said curtly. After reaching into the front of her clothes she pulled out a tile on a chain and held it to the panel at the side of the door. There was a sound of a door unlocking and the entrance swung open.

“The lock on the door is disabled now so don’t worry about it closing.”

As the current rank one in the class, Kira went in first and closed the door behind her. When she looked forward again, Teacher Kurokawa had vanished. She looked around and the arena was seemingly empty. However, a barely-audible whistle made her raise her guard and she withdrew her katana from her Storage Crystal and drew it instantaneously.

Shwing!

The sound of metal scraping against metal grinded against her ears as she deflected the metal sphere that was flying towards her face. But the sound almost made her fail to notice the silent dagger that was arcing through the air in her peripheral vision. As she took notice of it and moved to defend herself, the dagger suddenly changed directions. As her eyes followed it, the ground beneath her rumbled as it shook. At the same time, the sound of something large flying through the air behind her caused her to leap as high as she could. As a slab of stone whooshed past below her, her battle sense screamed and she twisted in mid-air to block the dagger that she had lost track of previously. As her katana made contact with the dagger, the dagger broke into pieces and a sudden powerful smell hit Kira’s nostrils giving her an immediate headache.

She blinked repeatedly, trying to concentrate when a cold breeze brushed against her cheek. She had a feeling that it signalled danger but had no idea where it was coming from until she took a tentative step forward, only to have her balance completely usurped as she slipped and landed heavily on her back. Glancing at the ground next to her, Kira saw an almost-invisible layer of ice that had, at some point, formed on the ground around her. As she tried to get up, a familiar red-and-gold folded fan was pointed at her throat.

“Dead.”

Teacher Kurokawa said before moving the fan away.

“This is only your second test and you haven’t disappointed me yet. You got further than I anticipated and should be proud of yourself. Your reaction speed is definitely far above average and you trust all of your senses to a degree that I don’t usually see in cultivators, especially those with a developed Soul Sense.”

On this point, Kira agreed. All of the methods that were used against her, apart from the last one perhaps, were physical dangers that wouldn’t necessarily have been detected with Soul Sense.

“However, you failed when it came to dealing with unfamiliar situations and your Soul Sense is severely under-trained. I could tell you knew that you were in danger but you didn’t know how to approach the situation. Even though this was a broad perception test, if your Soul Sense had been raised the slightest bit, you would have realised the danger was coming from below. The level of your physical senses is praiseworthy but your Soul Sense is pathetic.

Now, come this way.”

Kira listened to everything that Teacher Kurokawa said and took it to heart. Unlike her Uncle's vague advice, Teacher Kurokawa's feedback made sense and seemed to be entirely objective. Also, her analysis of Kira’s abilities was something even she had to agree on.

She led Kira to the centre of the arena and pulled out a small folding table and chair as well as a few other objects from her Storage Crystal and placed them on the table.

“Sit.”

Kira sat and examined the objects. There were several small pieces of metal, vials of unknown liquids, brush pens, paper, sprigs of different plants and shards of crystal.

“I’ve found that to get an idea of one’s affinity for a particular secondary profession, it’s best to test that affinity with the different materials they use. These are some common metals used by smiths, some inks used in paper-based inscriptions and some basic alchemical ingredients. While having some degree of Soul Sense is usually needed, I believe your physical senses and instinct should be sufficient.”

Teacher Kurokawa said bluntly before simply standing behind Kira’s chair and observing, giving no further instruction. Looking at the materials, Kira wasn’t sure what to do. All her life, she’d only trained as a swordswoman. She had no actual experience of any other professions other than when she visited the smiths in Khukuri. Of course, she had read some things, but then didn’t she need a furnace for forging or an alchemical stove for refining?

‘I'm wasting too much time. If these are the only things here then these are the only ones I need.’

Without any more hesitation, she lifted up one of the metal pieces. When nothing happened, she took the next logical step and tried to infuse Soul Energy into it. Very rapidly, the metal grew warm in her hands. Although Teacher Kurokawa said that they were common metals, ordinary metals wouldn’t have such large response to Soul Energy. The metal continued to get hotter in Kira’s hand until she eventually let it go before it could leave lasting burns. Throughout this time, she focused on trying to feel anything from the metal but she couldn’t.

‘Wait, forging isn’t simply about heating metals.’

She thought and quickly withdrew her katana before striking the orange, glowing metal piece with the hilt of her sword. A sharp ringing sound filled the air which echoed as she repeatedly struck the metal piece. She wasn’t trying to create anything and was simply striking the heated metal while trying to sense how it changed. When she struck it at a certain point, the pitch of the ringing changed and Kira opened her eyes which she hadn’t realised she’d closed.

‘That was?’

When she tried again, the same pitch as before rang out. After striking the metal a few more times, she stopped, realising that she wasn’t going to understand more in such a short space of time. However, she did gain some understanding of the nature of forging.

Teacher Kurokawa maintained a straight face while feeling mildly surprised.

‘She actually didn’t continue knocking away at it. Anyone else her age would have kept going out of eagerness and renewed hope for some dramatic conclusion.’

At this point she actually smiled.

‘However, that sound for that particular metal indicates that a higher level of technique and understanding is needed for it to reach the next stage. Could it be that she was aware of that? No, otherwise she wouldn’t have struck it further after the first sound.’

While Teacher Kurokawa was silently impressed, Kira proceeded to examine the various plants and pieces of crystal. Similar to not knowing anything important about blacksmithing, while she had read about some theory behind refining specific ingredients, she hadn’t found any alchemical recipes as these were the closely-guarded secrets of those in the profession.

‘This must be part of the test. If I can successful refine any of these without knowing what they are or their specific refining conditions in advance, my perception could be considered reasonable.’

With this in mind, she took the piece of metal which was cooling down and infused her energy into it once again until it became red-hot. Then, taking a shard of blue crystal from the side, she placed it on top of the metal. Almost immediately, the crystal bubbled before liquifying into a black, sticky substance and a foul odour was released causing Kira to avoid breathing in as she tried to disperse the fumes.

‘Well, that was definitely a failure. Let’s try again.’

Taking another shard of the same type of crystal, she first held the metal in her hand to absorb some of the heat before carefully touching the crystal to the metal. When it didn’t immediately melt, she laid the entire crystal on the metal and allowed just a thread of Soul Energy to leave her hand and wind its way into the metal, slowly raising its temperature.

The moment the crystal began to show a change, she cut off the energy flow and observed. Instead of the black substance from earlier, the part of the crystal in contact with the metal was slowly dripping to the table as a blue liquid that glowed with a bright luminescence. Kira had no idea what to do with it and simply let the crystal completely liquify before removing the metal.

Of course, Teacher Kurokawa wouldn’t have provided them with materials that were too complex to refine. After all, with their backgrounds, apart from blacksmithing, her students would have little to no knowledge of these profession-specific processes. Alchemy, especially, was a particularly expensive profession as the better alchemical recipes required rarer ingredients whose prices were far beyond what common people could afford.

Having experimented with both forging and alchemical ingredients, Kira proceeded to place the paper, ink and brush pen in front her while avoiding the puddle of blue liquified crystal. Opening the stopper on a vial of ink, she glanced inside and saw that it glistened with a metallic sheen while its colour was similar to that of the deep sea. When she dipped her pen into the ink, she was surprised to find that it was very thin despite its metallic appearance.

Learning from her previous experiment, she set the brush to the paper and slowly drew it across its surface, looking for any changes in the colour of the ink, the sensation of the brush as it moved or any vague hint of what she needed to do. After half a minute of not noticing anything, she remembered what Teacher Kurokawa had mentioned earlier.

‘She said that Soul Energy is used to activate inscription arrays but what about before then?’

Taking a new sheet of paper, Kira dipped the brush into the ink and channelled Soul Energy into it as she set it down the paper. Almost immediately, the ink at the end of the brush started to shine brightly and as she dragged the brush across the paper, there were certain inked parts that continued to shine while others rapidly lost their brightness.

Excited and curious, she tried to follow the trails which stayed bright until, eventually, although messy, there was a distinct, blue, shining pattern on the paper. However, the moment she completed the pattern and tried activating it with Soul Energy, all the ink shone brightly before the page went up in blue flames and burned into ashes in under three seconds.

‘Dammit.’

Kira took a new piece of paper and tried again. Curiously, the pattern was the same as the previous one. However, this time, after finishing, she left the messy, completed one as is and took a new page. Using the previous page as a guide, she painstakingly only inked in the areas where the ink was shining brightly.

‘Her patience, perseverance, intuition and body control is very good. Even though that inscription is only a template, she quickly figured it out and is actually able to execute it. No, not just that, her affinity for all of the base professions is enough that she could choose any path. The only problem is…’

Teacher Kurokawa thought as Kira applied the last few brushstrokes. Although the constant focus and use of her Soul Energy had made her somewhat fatigued, Kira still looked at the inscription she’d finished with a sense of pride.

‘It seems that, apart from fighting, I’m actually capable of things like this too!’

After blowing the ink dry, she placed a finger on the array and gently touched it with her Soul Energy. The inscription, which was beginning to dim, immediately brightened once again and a force rushed out of the page up her arm and into her head. Words and shapes filled her head and she came to understand certain things.

‘That was…’

The only other time she’d experienced something similar was when her mother imparted the cultivation route, Flame Blossom Trail, to her all those years ago.

“You might not understand what just happened but it’s a reward from me for those who successfully figure out the Inscription part of the test. It will make sense later if you decide to follow the path of an Inscriptor.”

Teacher Kurokawa said plainly.

“Overall your perception is the best I’ve ever seen for a new student. Most of this comes from your highly tuned senses but your other internal qualities are also of a high standard. Your glaring issue of non-existent Soul Sense aside, you should be able to progress smoothly in any of the base professions. Now, call the next person in.”

Kira bowed to her politely before calling in the wild girl named Sora and taking a seat somewhere hidden from view. She watched in fascination as Sora moved her lithe body smoothly in response to the various dangers. Compared to herself, Sora reacted even faster than she did.

‘Is it possible that her instincts are even sharper than mine?’

Kira watched intently as Sora faced the ice trial which had overcome her. A flutter of Sora’s eyelashes indicated that she felt the same warning signal as Kira did. Unlike Kira, she immediately leapt off the ground, only to face several floating blades which emitted a frosty aura. The blades fell silently towards her as she rose to meet them.

Noticing the imminent threat, Sora’s right arm glowed red as she swung her arm with the odd baton in front of her. An explosive blast shook the air as the floating blades were deflected. However, the other blades that fell past her stopped before inverting and flying back upwards towards her exposed back. As if she had eyes in the back of her head, Sora pivoted, her left arm holding the shortsword slashing out below her, leaving a blue line hovering in the air for a moment. When the floating blades met the blue line, they split in half, passing by her harmlessly as gravity took hold on her once again and she landed on the ground.

As Teacher Kurokawa walked Sora to the table, Kira couldn’t help but be impressed.

‘Her reactions are exceptional. Perhaps the fact that I managed to end our fight in a draw really was just luck. It seems that those accepted into this academy definitely deserve to be here.’

Her positive impression was dulled somewhat as Sora appeared to struggle with the small-scale perception component of the test, in the end only managing to figure out the forging segment through a rather brute force approach.

After calling the next student in, Sora dumped herself on the seat next to Kira’s with a ‘hmph’, folding her arms and closing her eyes, clearly dissatisfied with her performance. Kira found her reaction slightly amusing.

As the second part of the test wasn’t time-restricted, it took varying amounts of time per person and it was late afternoon before all the tests were finally finished and Teacher Kurokawa gathered her class together. Apart from a few who looked close to despair, everyone else was breathing a sigh of relief.

“Other than those whose broad-scale perception was simply too poor and lost twenty prestige points for it, the rest of you can be considered to have some base level of perception and a natural aptitude for at least one of the three base professions.

With a bit of effort, all of you should be able to reach D-rank in that profession which should secure you financially for the rest of your life. But…”

Teacher Kurokawa paused for a moment and a chill washed over the class.

“I don’t teach students who only aim for ‘good enough’. First and foremost, you are weapon cultivators which means that you have an obligation to strive for the peak of power and ability. If you follow my teachings, I will make sure that you become the most feared class in the entire continent.”

Despite the ever-increasing chill in the air, the blood of Class 1-C was running hotter than it had ever been. While each of them had dreams, being told that your dreams are achievable is something that will stir up the fighting spirit of any person.

“Yes, Teacher!”