I miss my crow, I just notice hes gone.
...They took my boy.
Anyway
I was still sitting on the bench long after everyone else had rushed toward the glowing gates.
People really do see colors and immediately start making up conspiracy theories.
"Do you guys think the gate colors represent difficulty?."
"No, they must be based on elemental affinity."
"That wouldn't make sense, theirs just way to many element, for a few doors to account for all of them."
"I heard the crimson gate leads to hidden rewards."
"?... We're in a test, why would we be rewarded for entering a specific door?.
"My uncle's cousin's friend's dog entered the silver gate and became an S-Class."
"What the fuck are you saying?."
Poor guy.
The colors don't actually mean anything.
Well... As far as I can tell.
They're mostly there to spread the applicants out so five thousand people don't try squeezing through the same doorway like it's Black Friday.
The academy does nudge certain types of people toward certain gates.
Red catches the attention of meatheads who think every problem can be solved by punching it.
Blue attracts the "I have a 4.0 GPA and color-code my notes" crowd.
Gold is basically noble bait.
Silver tends to pull in cautious people.
Green lures the nature lovers and "the mana speaks to me" types.
Of course, that doesn't stop people from acting like they've uncovered some galaxy-brain secret.
It's less "this gate is for you"...
...and more so a psychological trick.
One guy was sniffing the air near the blue gate.
Another was running calculations on the angle of the sunlight hitting the crimson gate.
Brother...
Why are you using math.
To pick a door.
The gates aren't that deep.
People just need everything to have hidden lore.
Actually...
Scratch that.
I love it when people invent lore.
I don't check the forum that much, but I once saw someone made.
"The Symbolism of the Lawless land and Why It Represents Humanity's Fear of Commitment."
I absolutely had no idea what they were talking about, but it was hella interesting.
I stood up and stretched.
"Anyway..."
I dusted off my pants.
"Time to do my job."
I stepped toward the nearest entrance.
Silver.
The moment I crossed the threshold
The world folded.
Not violently.
Quietly.
Like turning the page of a book.
The bustling plaza vanished.
In its place stood a corridor carved from pale stone.
The ceiling disappeared into darkness.
Runes drifted across the walls like schools of glowing fish, constantly rearranging themselves into symbols I almost recognized before changing again.
Somewhere beyond the walls...
Click.
Clank.
Massive gears slowly turned.
The entire labyrinth felt less like a building...
...and more like the inside of an impossibly large machine.
A translucent arrow shimmered into existence at my feet, politely pointing down the hallway.
"How nice."
I ignored it.
If years of playing RPGs had taught me anything, it was this:
The obvious path was rarely the interesting one.
Besides...
I already knew enough about this place.
Not every room.
The labyrinth changed every examination.
But some rooms...
Some rooms were constants.
Anchor rooms.
No matter how much the maze twisted itself into a magical migraine, those places never moved.
If my memory wasn't betraying me.
I glanced down the branching corridors.
"Left."
I walked.
The corridor widened into a chamber where floating stone cubes drifted lazily through the air.
One applicant stood beneath them, desperately trying to solve a sequence of glowing runes.
Another kept feeding mana into a crystal pedestal that stubbornly refused to activate.
"Good luck with that."
I quietly slipped past before either of them noticed me.
Further ahead...
A hallway had folded ninety degrees upward.
A group of applicants stared at it in silence.
"Do we climb it?"
"How?"
"...Magic?"
One girl confidently stepped forward.
She cast a wind spell beneath her feet.
For approximately half a second...
It worked.
Then the hallway rotated again.
Gravity changed.
She let out a dignified
"AAAH-!"
as she floated harmlessly into a safety barrier before being gently deposited back onto the floor.
I took a different corridor.
The deeper I walked, the quieter everything became.
"Heavenly Restriction really is cheating for these first two trials."
Noticing the weight shift, a circle beneath my feet briefly lit up.
Then flickered.
The runes hesitated.
Like the spell couldn't decide whether I actually existed.
Finally...
It quietly shut itself off.
The chatter of other applicants slowly faded until all I could hear were the ancient mechanisms hidden within the walls.
Click.
Clank.
Thrum.
I took another turn.
Suddenly I stopped.
"Ah damn."
A massive stone gate blocked the corridor ahead.
Just an absurd slab of stone covered in glowing lines of mana that converged toward its center like the roots of a gigantic tree.
The mana engraved across its surface shimmered faintly.
Six streams of light flowed into a circular crest at the center.
The moment I stepped within a few meters-
Click.
The entire gate lit up.
...
At this point I'm suppose to unlock it with mana welp.
I'm cooked.
Insert fear & hunger meme.
THIS DOOR IS TOO STRONG FOR YOU.
....
I shoved.
Nothing.
I kicked it.
Nothing.
I knocked politely.
...
Nothing.
"Worth a shot."
I slowly turned around.
There just so happened to be a stone bench against the wall.
How convenient.
I walked over.
Sat down.
Folded my arms.
Then slowly leaned back until I was lying across the bench.
Should I find another way?.
"I entered this trial hoping..."
"praying..."
"that I wouldn't run into the super, super evil Mr. Door."
[Look closer.]
"Why?."
...
[My eyes, aren't that weak, for Mr super evil door, to defeat it.]
"Well you're the boss." I shrugged
I approached the gate again.
The magical crest pulsed once, its engraved lines glowed brighter.
I narrowed my eyes.
"Wait."
Something felt off.. I feel like I'm missing something.
[Do you know what magic is?]
"Magic in a sense, is just abusing the living hell out of a concept."
[Close enough. Magic is, at its core, the manipulation of phenomena that exist within reality. Fire, water, wind, and earth are merely the simplest expressions of that principle, which is why they're classified as Tier One magic.]
[As you ascend the tiers, the phenomena become increasingly complex. The Progenitor who banished the capitalization of magic, manipulated space and time at Tier Seven.]
[Every spell, no matter how grand, is built upon a fundamental principle.]
[So... what do you suppose this one is?]
I stepped closer until my face was only inches from the glowing mechanism.
My eyes traced the flowing mana lines before settling on the center.
"Then what does this imitate?"
My eyes drifted back toward the crest.
Six streams.
One center.
Constant rotation.
Waiting.
Waiting...
"Lock."
[Exactly.]
[It's merely imitating one.]
[Most applicants are only capable of Tier One magic. Why would the academy's second trial begin with a magical mechanism far beyond their ability to understand?]
[Every complex spell still follows a simple foundation.]
[This door's foundation... Is an ordinary lock.]
Every stream of mana converged toward the circular crest at the center before disappearing beneath the stone.
I leaned in.
Letting the eyes process it's foundation, I slowly traced one of the engraved lines with my eyes.
Magic wasn't replacing the lock, it was simply imitating one.
Since every spell needed a concept, this spell had chosen locking.
The mana wasn't the mechanism.
It was merely acting out the role of a key.
[Yay, you graduated kindergarten.]
Nice.
I think I understand.
Another applicant would've simply detect and match the flow and rhythm of the magic, before pouring mana in.
The spell would've recognized the mana.
Verified it.
Then manipulated the internal mechanisms, the door would've opened, because the mana acted as the key.
"You've got to be kidding me."
The six streams of mana weren't random.
They all converged toward a single point.
Like tumblers, not magical circuits.
Tumblers.
Magic had simply replaced metal.
"That's incredibly stupid."
[Elegant.]
"Stupidly elegant."
I placed my hand against the stone.
Click.
One pulse.
He waited.
Another.
Still too slow.
Third.
Fourth.
The rhythm repeated.
Again.
Again.
Again.
Only then
"Huh..."
The crest wasn't asking for magical power.
It was asking for timing.
Every pulse represented one tumbler aligning.
A grin slowly spread across my face.
"Oh..."
"I see what you're doing."
I waited.
The first line lit.
The second.
Third.
Fourth.
Fifth.
Now.
I slammed the heel of my palm into the center of the crest.
Not hard enough to break it.
Just enough to interrupt the mechanism exactly as the final "tumbler" aligned.
...
Click.
A tiny sound.
The six streams of mana froze, before reversing.
One after another.
Clunk.
Clunk.
Clunk.
Deep inside the gate, ancient gears groaned to life, dust drifted from the ceiling, the enormous slab of stone slowly slid sideways, the opening was barely wide enough for one person.
I blinked.
"..Seriously?"
It opened.
It actually opened.
Behind me, another applicant rounded the corner.
He froze.
"..."
"..."
He looked at the open gate.
Then at me.
He stared for another few seconds before immediately sprinting toward the door.
The moment his foot crossed the threshold.
CLANG.
The gate slammed shut in his face.
The poor guy bounced backward and landed flat on his rear.
I coughed into my fist.
"Skill issue."
The mechanism glowed once more, resetting itself as if nothing had happened.
I quietly stepped through while the other applicant began questioning every life decision that had led him to being outplayed by a door.
The enormous stone gate rumbled shut once more.
Silence returned to the corridor.
....
Far above the labyrinth...
Inside a chamber hidden within the academy's foundations...
A circular table of polished obsidian reflected dozens of floating windows, each displaying a different section of the examination.
Professors sat around it with varying degrees of interest.
Some meticulously took notes.
Others quietly argued over promising applicants.
One elderly professor had somehow fallen asleep despite the chaos unfolding across the screens.
"..."
A young instructor cleared his throat.
"Ma'am..."
The woman reclining lazily across an absurdly expensive chair didn't answer immediately.
One boot rested on the table.
The other swung idly through the air.
Her long ash-gray hair spilled over the armrest like flowing silk, while half-lidded crimson eyes watched one particular screen with mild curiosity.
A teacup floated beside her entirely on its own.
She took another sip.
"Hm?"
The instructor pointed toward one of the projections.
"The Wunderlich boy."
The screen replayed the scene.
Barry staring at the gate.
Trying to shove it.
Kicking it.
Politely knocking.
Lying dramatically across the nearby bench.
Then...
Watching.
Thinking.
Click.
The gate opened.
The instructor adjusted his glasses.
"He bypassed a Tier Three mana lock, without using mana."
The woman blinked once.
"...Huh."
She lazily reclined even further, defying gravity.
"That's cute."
Another professor frowned.
"He essentially..."
He searched for the correct wording.
"Somehow, lockpicked a spell."
"Mhm."
She watched the replay again, her lips curved into a faint smile.
"What an interesting kid."
Another instructor looked unconvinced.
"Shouldn't we report that?"
She looked at him.
"...Report what?"
"He bypassed the intended mechanism."
She stared for several long seconds.
"That's..."
She shrugged.
"...Kind of the point."
Nobody argued.
Mostly because arguing with the Empire's Seventh-Tier Mage of Sloth required significantly more motivation than anyone currently possessed.
And mainly the fact that she's correct.
She stretched lazily until several joints popped.
"Besides."
"If someone builds a magical lock..."
"...they should expect someone to pick it."
A brief silence followed.
"I'm I wrong?."
She nodded once before sinking back into her chair.
"But how?, did he do that.."
She shrugged
"Don't know."
"Thought, i'm more confuse about, why he's participating in the first place, I've already..."
...
She nodded in understanding.
"I guess that's only fair."
.....
Elsewhere...
Another corridor.
White robes drifted silently through the labyrinth.
Hjördis walked with the unhurried pace of someone taking an evening stroll rather than participating in one of the world most prestigious examinations.
The corridor ahead shimmered.
Invisible runes awakened beneath the stone.
A pressure plate depressed.
Click.
Ancient mana surged through hidden channels.
An intricate magical array bloomed across the ceiling.
Normally...
This particular trap unleashed dozens of mana constructs capable of overwhelming even veteran adventurers.
Today...
Nothing happened.
The runes flickered.
Paused.
Then quietly dimmed.
...
A second trap activated.
The result remained identical.
The spell examined the mana flowing through the white-haired girl.
Compared it against ancient records older than kingdoms themselves.
Then...
A simple conclusion.
Creator recognized.
Every defensive mechanism along the corridor quietly returned to dormancy.
Hidden blades retracted before emerging.
Mana cannons politely powered down.
One illusion spell briefly attempted to manifest.
Then awkwardly apologized to itself before dispersing.
Hjördis never noticed.
She simply continued walking.
Step.
Step.
Step.
Far above...
Several professors stared at the projection in complete silence.
"..."
"..."
One finally spoke.
"Did..."
"The security enchantments..."
He swallowed.
"...believe Lady Hjördis is their creator."
Silence.
Someone quietly flipped through, several pages from the book of affinity.
"Technically..."
"they aren't entirely wrong."
The room somehow became even quieter.
The Seventh-Tier Mage of Sloth glanced at Hjördis's screen before letting out a small yawn.
"See?"
She took another sip of tea.
"I told maintenance that would happen eventually."
"..."
"You told them?"
"Mhm."
"They ignored me."
She shrugged.
"Not my problem anymore."
Another trap respectfully deactivated itself as Hjördis passed.
She continued down the corridor without changing expression even once.
The labyrinth had mistaken her for the hands that first gave it life.