Sylvester did as he was told and pressed the number 10 first but the elevator didn’t move nor make a sound. A small part of him wanted to see what would happen if he pressed the wrong set of numbers but remembering how Nitri told him so adamantly to follow directions, he simply pushed the thought to the back of his head.

Continuing on Sylvester then pressed -10 and still, nothing happened. Finally when he pressed the number 0 a loud ping rang inside the elevator that usually indicates that the elevator has arrived at the right floor.

Sylvester was a little taken aback by this since the elevator from his perspective didn’t move at all, he didn’t sense any mana fluctuations around him! He knows that this is magic but it is at a level far beyond his current abilities and it made him a little bit more excited but a also a little bit weary.

After a few short seconds the elevator doors opened normally revealing a single brown door on the opposite end of a small room. The door itself isn’t anything special but that in itself is what made it suspicious, At least to Sylvester’s eyes.

He then slowly walked out of the elevator and went inside the little room and saw that there were two more doors; one his left and one on his right. He paused for a little and inspected the area when he suddenly had the urge to turn around to which he realized that the elevator that he just came out of had disappeared and all that was left in its place was another brown door!

“Huh? very interesting.” He thought to himself.

After thinking about what he should do next, he decided to open the door in front of him only to find the exact same room as the one he is in right now.

“Okay, now THIS is pretty cool. Finally!” Sylvester exclaimed in glee, relishing his little predicament, realizing that this was most likely a secret surprise test by the academy to screen the hopeful students.

Before going in any further he decided it would be best to perform a small inspection and what better to do that than by using magic? Closing his eyes he then gathered mana into them for a few seconds, after gathering the adequate he said the words “Far sight” before slowly opening his eyes.

The spell caused his pupils to dilate and give off an eerie blue glow, giving Sylvester the ability to see through walls and other obstacles, at least that’s how this spell is supposed to go. Unfortunately all he saw was interfering static, similar to a TV screen with no signal.

“Interference huh? I should have expected that.” Sylvester said, not really bothered by his discovery, and then at that moment an idea popped into his head.

He took off his cap and inserted his hand, reaching inwards with his arm now disappearing inside of it. After a little while he pulled out a blue marker and walked towards the door to his left and drew a crude smiley face on it. He then went inside the door he first opened and closed it behind him. He waited for a few seconds and went back to take a peek back inside the previous room and found the blue smiley face still looking back at him.

“Well that was easy enough, let’s try this then.” Saying this he returned the marker back into the cap and he started to rummage his hand inside it looking for something. “Now where is that stupid thing?” his arm was now fully inside the cap, still failing to find whatever it is he was looking for until “AHA!” he finally found it a few seconds later.

He pulled back his arm and took out a small round object attached to a small chain. It had a rusted golden color and handcrafted engravings on the outside depicting a man looking through a telescope.

With a little flick from his thumb the object opened revealing it to be a compass, a broken compass. The needle that is supposed to be pointing at the magnetic north was just pointing to the letter N unmoving. Sylvester smiled, closed the compass, and began to channel mana into it. He then grabbed the end of the chain attached to the compass, letting it dangle towards the ground. Afterwards he raised it above him and said the words “Compass scan!” and began to spin it around over and over for a few seconds.

Compass scan is an original spell developed by Sylvester’s father that is used to remotely map out an exit inside a labyrinth.

After a few moments the compass dropped down from the spinning motion indicating that it had located the exit. Sylvester flicked it open and saw the needle spinning around really fast and then suddenly coming to an abrupt halt pointing to the letter N.

After a few seconds the needle then pointed to the letter W, then to the letter E, then back to W. It then climbed halfway towards N but quickly pointed back to back to W and finally back to N. The needle spun wildly once more and returned to its original position.

“So, left right left left and then forward. Got it. Seems like this labyrinth is really just a bunch of rooms.” Sylvester said as he placed the compass back inside the cap.

Following the directions he got thanks to the compass spell he went through the correct sequence of doors and reached the room.

“This is it! Oh boy! I can feel it in my bones!” Sylvester said to himself eagerly, opening the final door.

As if to mock his enthusiasm, he was greeted by a pitch black void with only a long hanging bridge that looks to be made from chiseled stone, even the ropes, illuminated by floating green flames, The bridge stretches far into the distance. Sylvester could see the end but couldn't make out what was on the other side since it’s a little too far away.

“OH COME ON!” Sylvester groaned in disappointment.

He begrudgingly walked towards the other side when all of a sudden impossibly large number of eyes popped out from the once empty void, appearing out of nothing and staring directly at him.

They ranged from a variety of sizes; from what looks to be about the size of a fist, while some larger than a bus. The eyes weren’t limited to just being distant objects that you can think of as 2D objects plastered on a wall, they surrounded Sylvester in every direction on a 3D space, top to bottom, left and right, and everywhere in between.

The smaller ones, you could say, were a little too close for comfort. He could see them twitch and blink, the red veins running down the whites pulsing with blood, feeling the intensity of the stair piercing through his very core.

Sylvester stopped in front of an eye that lay directly on his path, floating in the air. He smiled at it, clicked his tongue and did a finger gun motion cheekily at the eye and continued forward. Then as abruptly as they appeared, the eyes closed and vanished immediately after.

With a little bit of walking he finally saw what was at the end of the hanging stone bridge. There was a large door and two familiar figures; the twins at the front desk, Nitri and Tinri.

“Okay, finally. I’m here!” Sylvester thought in his heart as he walked towards the familiar twins.

The two were standing in front of a large metallic door that looked like it was made for giants rather than men. It was a two part door that was split in the middle and had intricate engravings etched into it that resembled a smiling woman, her arms crossed and placed on top of what looks like a chair or table. Sylvester felt like he’s seen the woman somewhere before but didn’t think much about it. As he approached he was finally greeted by the twins.

“Congratulations on passing the test!” The two of them said with one being noticeably monotone juxtaposed to the cheerful exuberance of the other.

“Thank you very much ladies!” Sylvester replied with a matching grin and two thumbs up. “So, uh what now?” He asked as he pointed at the gigantic door in front of him, the woman’s identity still escaping him.

“We’re getting to that.” Nitri hurriedly replied. “Now please show us the card we gave you earlier.” Tinri followed after.

Sylvester complied and took out the silver card he kept in his pocket. The covered eyes of the twins once again shone a brilliant blue, the light now concentrated and beam like aimed at the card. Within a few seconds, images and words were now printed on the once blank silver card.

Sylvester flipped it over exactly what was changed and saw it had turned into an ID card. It featured a rather well detailed picture of him and a bit personal information like his name, age and sex. Underneath those however was something warranting of interest.

Sylvester Clearsight

Age: 18 Sex: Male

Rank: Apprentice

“Apprentice huh?” Sylvester thought to himself as his attention was caught by the twins once more.

“Now henceforth you shall be known as Apprentice Sylvester within these great learning grounds!. Please enjoy your stay at the academy!” Tinri and Nitri said in unison, their figures suddenly vanishing and the large door slowly opened, light breaking through the ever growing gap as if signaling the start of a new chapter in Sylvester's life.

With a huge smile on his face he ran forward not even waiting for the door to completely open, eager to jump into the next page.