A boy could be seen walking out of the servants quarters within the Burton mansion.

You could draw two conclusions just by taking a glance at him, he was sick, and he needed some sleep.

His body was unhealthy skinny, not to mention his two glaring panda eyes, evident of sleep deprivation.

The rest of his features were normal. short height, black eyes and hairs, and an appearance typical of a boy his age. If anything he was somewhat ugly, courtesy of his small frame and eyebags.

His name was Emil. he was a servant of the Burton family and he was just done having lunch.

He couldn't afford to relax even within his break though, there was a mountain of work left to do, and he had to get them done before sunset.

"Look who's here."

A boy his age appeared from behind and grabbed him.

Before Emil knew, a punch was flying at his face, but stopped inches away from it.

Emil closed his eyes ready for the impact, which never came.

"Hahahaha."

The boy burst into laughter.

This person's name was Ricard, the young master of the mansion.

He'd made it his pastime to harass Emil and torture him on a daily basis.

"Don't be afraid I'm not gonna hit you.

You're not even worth beating."

The boy retracted his hand with a bratty grin on his face.

"You've heard haven't you? I've awakened my mana core and elements, wind and water.

I'll officially become a student of the royal academy in a few day's time.

I heard you haven't even awakened yet despite turning 14 soon have you?"

Ricard slowly backed away and started talking.

"Anyway, I'm gonna be gone for a while. i hope you miss me, cause when I come back I'm gonna have a lot of fun with you."

After making his announcement, he turned his back and started walking away under Emil's wary eyes.

"Oh..."

He came to a stop for a moment and turned his head.

Before Emil could even tell, Ricard's foot was deeply implanted into his stomach.

He bent down and started puking whatever he had for lunch.

"I lied about not hitting you earlier.

See you loser."

Ricard left for good after making that exclamation.

Emil wiped his mouth and got up after struggling for a while.

He couldn't do anything to Ricard.

He was the young master of the house, that alone was enough to render a servant like him powerless.

But that wasn't even the main reason.

He was too weak, a punch from Ricard could break his bones.

He couldn't even defend himself let alone fight back.

Emil completed his chores and returned to his quarters as the sun set.

When it was time to sleep, the reason behind his panda eyes were revealed.

From midnight to dusk, he was sweating and writhing in pain in his bed, with his pillow in his mouth to prevent him from breaking his own teeth.

Six hours of excruciating non stop pain, every single night, for his entire life.

It was a rare condition he was born with, and there was no cure for it except one.

Cultivation.

Emil was abandoned by his parents at a very young age, he was merely a child.

The only possession they left him was an inconspicuous black ring with the head of an unknown creature carved into it.

Within the ring, was a cultivation manual that helped him both cure his condition and get stronger, or so he was told.

But he could only open it upon awakening.

However, not everyone was able to awaken a mana core and become a magician.

Only 1 out of ten people could do it.

If your mana core didn't awkanen by the age of 14 then there was no chance of it ever awakening.

Emil was gonna turn 14 in less than a couple months and If he didn't awaken by then, he would have to remain a servant for the rest of his life, while enduring the bone piercing pain of his condition every single night.

All his hopes and dreams would be shattered.

He wouldn't even be able to fulfill his promise.

Emil's parents were war heroes. They saved the kingdom from devastation over a decade ago when the largest magical beast horde in the history of Arran kingdom invaded them.

He was raised with love and care by them. he, not for a second believed his parents abandoned him. He knew there must've been a reason behind their disappearance, and a reason they entrusted the ring to him.

Also.

He also made a promise to them.

And only by becoming a magician could he fulfill that promise.

With the way things were though, he could only hope for a miracle to happen, and for himself to awaken.

Such thoughts passed through Emil's head as despair and exhaustion filled his body.

"Damnit."

He furiously punched the wall.

"Dammit Dammit Dammit!"

*Thud*Thud*Thud*

"That son of a gun Ricard awakened as an elemental saint and he's only 12."

*Thud*

"Why am I so useless? I can't even awaken my mana core!"

*Thud*Thud*

The thudding sounds from his room became louder and louder as he punched the wall in frustration.

"At this rate I'll never become a magician."

Tears in his eyes and snot hanging from his nose, he raised his bloody hand for one last punch.

"Goddamit!"

*BOOM*

A sound loud enough to wake up every servant in the servant's quarters resounded through the air as Emil punched a massive hole through his room's thick concrete wall.

Emil was stunned, the hole laying beside his eyes too bizarre to comprehend.

By no means did he have the physical capabilities to punch a hole of that magnitude through the wall.

By no means could any human being do it.

There was only one answer.

"H-Holy shit..."

Emil muttered.

A servant rushed to him and stared at both the wall and Emil in awe.

He could tell what happened... He understood what happened.

"You did it Emil..."

"Yeah, i did it."

The man and Emil looked at each other.

Emil did it, he'd finally awakened just months before his 14th birthday.

"I did it! Wooooooooh!."

That night, the cheerful yells of a boy could be heard throughout the servants quarters.

It didn't last long as the reality of the situation dawned upon Emil.

He blasted a huge hole through his room, and he was gonna pay for that.

It didn't dampen his excitement though.

What did a hole like that matter? He'd finally awakened!

And from the looks of it, he was a Knight.

Knight, Mage, it didn't matter. All that mattered to him was that he awakened. He finally had a chance to fight for his dreams.

As he was about to raise his hands and cheer again, intense pain that assaulted his right arm turned his cry of joy into pain.

He'd broken his arm.

....

The next day, Emil was awakened to unbelievable knews.

He pinched himself a few times to make sure he was awake.

"Ummm, sir, are you sure you got the right person? I'm a servant here, I'm sure you've seen me a few times. I just awakened last night, so there's no way."

Emil said to the man in front of him.

"There's certainly no mistake.

The order was issued to you."

The man announced.

"However, if you don't find the offer appealing then... You have every right to refuse."

A grin formed on his lips, evident that he was teasing him.

"Oh no no no, I'm fine I Uhhh, I'm gonna go pack my stuff. I'm just, thank you."

Emil took off towards his quarters absent-mindedly.

He must've been in a dream.

Cause otherwise, he was headed for the Royal Academy right now.

The best magic academy within the entire kingdom.

Schools in Arran kingdom were divided into two categories, normal schools for inepts, those who weren't gifted with magic, and magic schools, for magicians.

Arran kingdom was a middle sized kingdom, its territories spanned for thousands of miles and across it laid hundreds of different magic schools.

Among all of them, the Royal Academy was, without a shadow of doubt, the best one.

It was run by the royal family itself and received much support from both them and other power factions within the kingdom.

You could receive the best education possible, have access to numerus resources and facilities, and enjoy many other benefits in terms of both power and status by studying and graduating from there.

There was a catch here though.

Anyone who graduated from the academy was guaranteed a successful future.

But not everyone could study there.

Only the brightest talents of each generation were eligible to become students.

To do so, they had to pass an entrance exam.

Anyone could participate in the exam, noble, commoner, male, female, it didn't matter as long as they were below the age of 14.

So, thousands upon thousands of people participated every year for a chance to get into the kingdom's most prestigious academy.

But only 250 of them passed each year.

Out of thousands of people, only 250.

125 knights, and 125 mages.

The Academy could only accept a limited number of students every year so it wouldn't come as a surprise for their test to be strict to filter out the untalented and recruit the most talented magicians of the generation, those with the highest potential.

The entrance exam was broken into two parts.

The first part was where the examiners graded your talent.

The grade of your talent represented your potential, and it was made up of numerous factors.

Your age, cultivation, element, class, level of affinity with your element, grade of your mana channels/pathways, quality and quantity of your mana, and numerous other miscellaneous factors that could determine your potential as a magician.

Talents were divided into four grades, from lowest to highest, 4th grade, 3rd grade, 2nd grade and 1st grade.

You had to be at least a first grade talent to pass the test, with the exception of some people.

So where do the exceptions come from?

It comes in the later parts of the test.

In the second part, you have your abilities tested depending on your class.

Both knights and mages will have their physical abilities, combat abilities, comprehension level and intelligence quotient tested.

Each person however will be graded differently based on their class.

For example, physical abilities didn't matter as much for mages as they did for knights.

Or the IQ bar, which is less important for knights but more important for mages.

The third part is where where you showcase any special talent you might possess, or mastery in a specific field of magic. anything to score you extra points and increase your chances of acceptance.

However, normal exams weren't the only way of getting in.

Emil was in a hall with a series of other kids his age.

49 of them to be exact.

They were all wearing specially tailored clothes, probably not something a commoner could buy even after working their entire lives.

Special badges were adorning those clothes.

Those badges each represented a noble family or a powerful faction.

There was not a single commoner in that room beside Emil.

And probably, no one else who was nearly as anxious as him either.

The situation still felt surreal to him.

Right now, he was in the academy's special admission test.

Special admission was just a figure of speech.

Everyone was aware that it was nothing but a backdoor.

Emil, having only awakened a few days ago, with no apparent special talent in magic, as well as a broken arm, had subzero chances of passing the normal entrance exam.

The only way a person like him could get into the academy was through the special admission test.

But even that should've been impossible for someone like him.

Like previously mentioned, the special admission was a backdoor.

There were 50 spots, divided by mages and knights equally, made specifically for those who didn't meet the criteria for passing normal admissions.

Why did such system exist? The academy could use those 50 spots for more talented people, wouldn't it be a waste of resources to nurture untalented people like them?

There were two reasons.

The first reason that came to mind was funds.

You had to 'donate' insane amounts of funds to get in through special admissions.

This system lessened the financial burden on the royal family and allowed them to put more resources into nurturing their students.

Indeed, the number was high enough to relieve even the royal family.

Only the wealthiest factions in the entire kingdom could afford the donation fee.

But money wasn't all.

If money was the case, there were plenty of wealthy individuals who'd bid to enroll their children into the academy each year.

You also needed a special recommendation letter to be eligible for the position.

Special recommendation letters could only come from figures of authority, governors and rulers of the land.

The real reason behind special admissions wasn't money no, it was to help powerful people stay in power.

Children of powerful figures weren't always born talented.

An untalented successor or offspring could be the downfall of an entire power faction.

If their children aren't talented enough to grow powerful and inherit their positions, the factions' power would fall through the generations and they'd get replaced by others.

If powerful figures' offsprings weren't talented, the best way to nurture them would be through the number one school in the kingdom, the royal academy.

No matter how low their talent, they were bound to become successful figures in the future as long as they graduated from the academy.

The royal family was aware of this fact, hence why it instated rules that fovor those in authority.

To control the kingdom's powers, they needed balance. But balance couldn't be achieved if the powers were to rise and fall each generation.

All participants present right now hailed from powerful and wealthy families or were the offspring of some figure of authority, that was the only way for them to get through the backdoor.

The question was, what was Emil doing here?

He was but a servant of the Burton mansion, with no talent, riches or background.

The other examinees took notice of this too as he was wearing commoner clothes and didn't have a badge to showcase his origins, not to mention his broken arm, panda eyes and sickly figure.

Murmurs sounded out as the other examinees conversed with each other and occasionally threw glances towards Emil.

Before the conversations got too heated though, footsteps approcahded the hall.

Five men approached from behind, shutting up any sound emanating from the examinees as they went by.

They didn't need to speak, just their presence was enough to make everyone's hairs stand on ends.

The examiners were here!

Four of them took seat behind a table not too far from the test instruments while another one stood in front of the students.

He cleared his voice and started speaking, his voice not loud but clearly ringing like a bell in everyone's ears.

"The Special Entrance Exam will officially begin now."

Emil

"My name is mister pewterschmidt and I'll be your examiner for today.

The people behind me are your teachers who'll be judging you today.

You'll be coming up one at a time when your number is called.

Give it your all, good luck."

Mr pewterschmidt announced to the students.

pewterschmidt, it was a funny name and me and probably every other examinee here would be laughing it off if it was said by anyone else, but nobody dared make fun of the examiner.

Even if he was the weakest among the teachers, he was still strong enough to suffocate us all using his pressure alone.

Not to mention the four men behind him.

One of the basic criterias for becoming a teacher here was having a blue stage cultivation. Each of them were enough to level a town by themselves.

Not much passed before the first person was called to the test instruments, under my and everyone else's scrunutizing eyes.

The first testing instrument looked like an ordinary human sized mirror, nothing conspicuous about it.

The examiner didn't bother explaining its use to us so we were oblivious of its effects.

"Place your hand on it."

One simple instruction.

The boy upstage followed.

A blinding white light flashed through the mirror for a split second.

Strange squiggly text appeared above the mirror a few seconds later.

"Examinee number 1, name, Finnian Rofle, gender, male, age, 13, time of awakening, 4 months ago, cultivation level, peak of the first stage."

The examiner announced.

A few murmurs sounded out but nobody was too shocked.

Mr pewterschmidt ignored our murmurs and continued on with the test.

The next instrument was a strange contraption.

It was a vertical rectangle with transparent walls and the same strange and squiggly texts as earlier carved onto it, just about large enough to accommodate a person.

"Step into the device and circulate your mana.

Nothing harmful takes place, just close your eyes when the light hits you.

Remember to keep circulating your mana from start to finish."

Mr pewterschmidt instructed once again, further piquing our curiosity.

Finnian hesitated for only a second before walking in.

The contraption's door closed behind him and as he started circulating his mana, yet another light, even more blinding than the previous one, this time green, enveloped his entire body.

This must've been why the he was told to close his eyes.

Anyone inside would be blinded.

A few seconds passed before the light stopped and the door opened.

Following Finian's exit, another stream of texts appeared on top of the contraption.

"Knight class, second grade mana pathways and second grade mana level."

The four teachers, alleged judges, behind mr pewterschmidt scribbled down on their tablets as they received the information.

Frankly speaking, none of them looked glad to be there.

It made sense. If what I heard about the special admission tests were true, then this was nothing but a formality.

Not a single person was gonna fail the test here regradless of their talent.

They could've been here for appearances, they could've been here to check out their new students, or both.

Either way it didn't matter to me. It didn't seem like they were here to make things difficult for us.

One of them was sitting expressionlessly as he scribbled, two of them were bored while the last teacher looked at us with a small grin, which didn't emanate any malicious feelings.

The last instrument was a small orb.

It was the one the device which we were all familiar with.

Even i knew what it was. It must've been a mana orb. I'd heard about it before. It told you your element and affinity.

I already knew I was a Knight courtesy of my broken arm and the hole i punched through my room's wall.

But i had no idea about my element yet, so I was excited just looking at the thing.

Any element would be fine, i was more than grateful to get to cultivate at all, let alone study at the royal academy.

Yet I still couldn't stop fantasizing, what if I awoke a rare element like light or darkness?

I shook my head at the thought.

Elements were determined at birth, it wasn't something you could awaken with hard work or luck.

The chances of awakening a rare element like light or darkness were less than one in a million.

I didn't believe I was fortunate enough to possess such talents.

Finnian had walked up to the mana orb by the time these thoughts passed through my head.

"Place your hand on the orb and inject as much as mana as you can into it."

Finnian did as instructed and soon after, the orb started shining in a blue hue.

It was a weak at first but gradually got stornger and stronger and stopped after reaching a certain level.

It looked a deep blue, but not the deepest there was.

"Water element, second grade affinity."

Finnian didn't seem too surprised at the results. He must've conducted this test before.

"You may stand down."

Mr pewterschmidt gestured to Finnian.

Finnian gave a polite bow and walked down from the platform, back to his original spot.

The same process repeated itself as everyone's name was called one by one.

Most of them had second grade talents with some in the third grade.

those in the third grade had at least one second grade talent too.

Not long passed before the last examinee was called up the stage, me.

"Number 50."

Everyone's gaze focused on me the moment I started walking.

I could feel the scorn in their eyes and see mocking grin on their lips.

It didn't take a genius to guess that they were all looking down on me.

So far, 25mages and 24 knights have been called up on the stage. It was clear that I was the last knight, and a sorry one at that with my small and skinny frame, as well as broken arm.

Even if that wasn't the case, the fact that I was a commoner was enough for them to look down on me.

I tried my best to ignore them but their gazes, in addition to the teachers' added on and put me under pressure.

Nevertheless, i braced myself and walked up to the stage.

"Place your hand on the mirror."

A white light flashed through the mirror for a split second before a series of texts appeared above it.

"Examinee number 50, name, Emil Ashdown, Age, 13, time of awakening, a few days ago, cultivation level, none."

*Chuckle*Chuckle*

Inevitably, some laughter rang out in the hall for the first time.

I could more or less guess why. I was the only person with no cultivation, not to mention i just awakened a few days ago.

I was ashamed when the examinees laughed, even more so when one of the teachers, a short and burly man with a large brown beard and mustache chuckled.

The man next to him, who was similarly short and burly but with red eyes and spiky hair, scoffed at him.

"Great, fitting of your to laugh at a student. I expected nothing more."

*SLAM*

"What Did You Say You Porcupine? You Wanna Have A Go At Me!?"

The man with the large beard slammed the table into smithereens in a fit of rage.

"Sure! Bring Your Hairy *** Over Here Pashmak! Let's Settle This Once And For All, It's Either You Or Me!"

I had no idea what 'Pashmak' meant but the bearded teacher seemed outraged when he was addressed that way.

Me and all the other examinees within the hall receded to the furtherst point possible.

It took a good five minutes for the three other teachers to seperste the two.

Finally after settling down and changing their seats, the test could continue.

Everyone heaved a sigh of relief, me included. we could live to see the light of tomorrow.

"Step in and circulate your mana, keep your eyes closed when the light hits you."

I did as instructed and walked in.

Mana circulation, something I'd learned on the way here.

I felt the mana pathways within my body travelling from my heart, the source of all my mana, to every inch of my body, and started pumping mana into them.

The green light hit me just as expected. It gave me a weird feeling.

I was fully clothed, but i felt fully ***** in front of it.

The light stopped and I stepped out a few seconds later.

"4th grade mana pathways, 4th grade mana level."

*Chuckle*Chuckle*

Once gain, laughter burst out in the hall, only to be shut up within a split second under Mr pewterschmidt's pressure.

I clenched my remaining functioning fist.

'****.'

My talent for magic was trash, the lowest there was.

I didn't expect much to begin with, but i still had some hopes, thinking that maybe a miracle will happen. All wishful thinking.

Defeated, i used every ounce of my strength not to show my disappointment and walked up to the mana orb.

Before Mr pewterschmidt could open his mouth, i placed my hand on it and poured all my mana into it.

My path as a magician was bound to be arduous with my talent, my element didn't matter as much anymore.

The mana orb started emanating a red hue as I poured my mana into it.

'so it's fire element.'

It didn't get to glow much before coming to a stop though, a weak fire element, it was.

'fourth grade affinity, i knew it.'

I lamented in my mind.

The other students didn't laugh but still had grins on their faces.

None of the teachers showed any reactions, but i could tell they weren't too impressed, nor surprised.

Having second or even third grade talents was a rarity, those who had it were monsters originating from a bloodline of magicians.

Disappointed even more, i was ready to remove my hand and walk away when I froze in my tracks, my hair standing on ends and eyes wide in shock.

"What's the matter examinee number 50?"

Mr pewterschmidt asked.

I looked at him, and then the other teachers and students.

They all seemed weirded out by me, questioning looks on their faces.

"Can't..."

I hesitated, but still blurted it out.

"Can't you see this?"

I said, pointing at the mana orb still shining under my hand.