Chris walked with his escort up the stone stairs into the academy reception building. True to the stonewall name it was all grey stone. High polished and mirror-smooth. A large hall expanded up to a row of desks behind a counter. Chris picked a young and pretty brown haired girls counter and walked up to it. She greeted him with a dimpled smile. “Greetings how may I help you?”

“I would like to register for a magic examination, and subsequent enrolment at an appropriate level in the Academy.”

“Very well, have you been tested for rank before?” She was polite if a bit skeptical. He was a few years too early to be enrolled, but his wealth bridged the gap along with the professional attitude she displayed.

“No, I have not been tested for my rank.”

“When would you like to be tested for your rank?”

“As soon as possible”

“The tuition fee will be 20 gold for most basic courses and this does not include any materials used for lessons or training. These will be costed as required. Do you accept this?”

“yes that is acceptable”

“Excellent, then I will take your payment here and inform the testers that they have a new student to test. One second please.” She took the offered sack of coin from Velona, counted it, nodded and wend out back to fetch the testers presumably.

When she came back she gestured to a side corridor and told them to walk down it until they met two mages in robes. Then present them with this card. She games them a black stiff card. From it Chris could feel faint traces of mana, imbuing such a thin shape would have been hard and showed the magical prowess of the academy to be using such items as tokens.

Chris left his entourage at the entry point to the testing grounds, there was a waiting area for family members to sit while their progeny was tested.

Chris was led by the junior mage and the older mage onto the testing grounds. They observed his card, authenticating it.

“Welcome Mr. Christopher Collins, we will put you to some simple test to gauge your level of ability. For safety reasons we ask you only to cast magic when we give you permission and do cast what magic or approximation of the magic we ask you too. For starters, lets measure you CCO (Capacity, Control, Output).”

Chris was lead toward the same as when he had done his blooding. It stirred some unpleasant memory’s but as he had done now hundreds of times before he pushed those thoughts to the side and focused on the task at hand. B- Control B Output and C+ for capacity. It had not changed except for the capacity, that had risen to about average for a common mage.

“Hmmmm, reading seem okay let's begin with the practical test.” The older mage said. Chris did not ask his name. But he was obviously a powerful mage and the younger perhaps a rising talent. Their black robes leaving not much except their heads free from cloth.

Both were male with generic short brown hair, perhaps a clothing regulation. The younger one was lithe while the older moved with surprising grace considering his perhaps age of 70 or more. H He probably used physical enhancement magic.

“Now Chris, I will raise a shield around myself and you are to blast it with your most powerful spell, I will be using a 5th Tier shielding spell so anything below that grade will be fine to cast. This spell [Full Aegis Hard Shield] will allow me to gauge how much power and control your spells have. First, can you use a physical type attack.”

Now they were getting somewhere, Chris watched as the mage raised his shield and prepared himself. He was not underestimating Chris and took him seriously despite his appearance.

What spell should he use though? He could simply pick up some dust from the arena floor and hurl it at the mage, but something with more finesse would better display his ability. Or perhaps something with sheer destructive capabilities. But he couldn’t use too much mana. Simple but sweet it was.

Chris reached out with his power and began to list some dirt from the ground compressing it rapidity into a two-kilogram fist-sized ball of smooth rock-like substance. He dimpled the surface to make it more aerodynamic and began to spin it above his palm. He gripped the ball and surrounding air and send a blast of power to push the ball forward towards his opponent. It traveled at a few hundred miles an hour, like a baseball, but heavier and deadlier.

The projectile took less than a second in-flight and smashed into the mages barrier with a sickening thump. It didn’t even make the barrier shake. Chris was disappointed, the spell had not been two costly at around 10 units of mana, but for so little and effect… his railgun would have outperformed it by a mile. After the next test was over he would inquire about using his tool to retake this section of the exam.

“Hmm, reasonable. No chant, if you were to assign one the spell would gain a reasonable boost. Anyway on to the next test. Sent an invisible attack against my shield, something that would take me by surprise.”

Chris thought, what should he attack with. So far the test had not been performing to his specialty’s. Fire and lightning. Air, he could form a blade of some sort, no very inefficient. Ohhhh yes…. That could work.

Chris reached out to around the mage and pushed back all of the air around him creating a meter-wide gap of void between the mages shield and the surrounding air. He gave a mental grunt at the effort needed to keep the air back. In a gasp of satisfaction, he realized all control and the massive weight of the atmosphere crashed down upon the mage. There was a huge defining thunderclap and the rush of air blew dust in all directions like a huge explosion. Atmospheric pressure should not be underestimated.

The dust cleared with a sudden magical wind to reveal a grinning mage, completely unruffled.

“A creative use of magic to be sure and invisible as it was to naked vision, I could see you gathering mana and working the air around me. I could have fought you for control therefor nice try but not very subtle. Next hit me with your best heat or elemental based attack.”

This was Chris’s second specialty. He was not as good with fire as he was with lightning but he would use that for the next special category.

Chris gathered a few liters of water from the air in the area making it dry around him and split it down to hydrogen and oxygen. He willed the concoction to stay in two separate sections of his will and began to heat and spin the mixture. It looked like a blue-tinted air sphere above his palm. He mage looked confused but unfazed. Chris heated them to well over four thousand degrees but did not allow the now very volatile mixture to combine. He flung the ball fats at the mage's shield as it collided with the shield he released his control over the separated liquids.

With the two gases being so hot they reacted even more violently than they would normally and a huge explosion ripped through the training grounds. Chris standing more than 100 meters awake was blasted back of his feet by the shockwave and felt a massive blast of heat flow into the surroundings.

AS Chris got to his feet grinning, that would have at least phased the mage. He looked up to the clearing dust and saw the older mage standing they're unruffled and unscathed. Well damn, a tough cookie to crack.

“Well that was certainly something. That spell was also chanted less and working up towards Tier 4 or 5, a very impressive young man, very impressive indeed. Now hit me with your best specialty spell, give it you're all to breach my defenses.”

“Very well”

Chris grinned and reached for the surrounding air. This if this didn’t wipe the grin off his face then it was beyond him. Chris gripped discs of air larger than any he had before, each with a diameter of over 6 meters. He began to spin them in opposite directions, at first slower. There was a hum as the invisible discs abraded each other. He spun them faster, the energy began to build, static electricity. Chris reached out to create a path for his bolt of lightning ionizing the air between him and the mage. He revved the discs faster, spinning them at over 700 RPM this was costing him 5 units of mana per second to charge the spell. He channeled the spell for a full 10 seconds letting the power build.

The smell of ozone and tingle of static could be felt in the entire arena. Everybody presents hair was standing bolt upright. When the time was right he reached out toward his target and dipped the charge of the air. The difference in charge was great enough to release the lightning.

“[Channel Empowered Magic ‘Verum Fulgur’]”

A huge bolt of white shot an instantly tore across the distance to the mage. The thunderclap and jolt of light blinded everyone present and the crackle of arcing lightning sounded across the thunder peal.

As the lightning met the shield the previously complacent look on the face of the mage vanished replaced by a faint trace of strain and a hint of admiration. The lightning arced onto the shield and flowed over it crackling and zapping, but the mage remained safe. Had anybody been able to see, or for that matter hear they may have inferred the huge toll on the mage's mana this took and the ‘blimey mate’ that escaped his mouth.

As the light and sound faded the mage was revealed fully intact but with a massive grin on his face.

“Very impressive, a unique spell. I have not heard that chant before, perhaps we could trade for some knowledge”