I left the cliff and drifted down to the very edge of the barrier enclosing the forest.
I didn't step inside. I simply walked along the perimeter, running a passive scan over the magical dome.
"Analysis: Structural integrity is low. However, it is sufficient to prevent external interference from disrupting the examination."
As I walked, I continued to observe the small creature perched on my shoulder. The Stille bird paid no attention to the chaos unfolding miles away inside the barrier. It simply preened its metallic feathers, occasionally looking at me with a tilted head.
"Waaaaah!"
Suddenly, the space a few meters away from me distorted. Several human figures tumbled out of a flash of golden light, crashing heavily into the dirt.
Flap, flap, flap!
Startled by the sudden noise and the burst of mana, the Stille bird chirped in alarm, took to the air, and vanished into the sky at supersonic speed.
My observation session was over.
I looked down at the groaning figures. They were mages, clearly candidates from the exam. Their clothes were shredded, and their faces were pale with terror.
"We... we're not dead?" one of them gasped, frantically patting his chest.
"The gargoyles in the sky... I swear one of them ripped my throat out!" another choked, his eyes wide. He reached up, but his neck was perfectly intact. The only evidence of the fatal blow was a rapidly fading golden glow from the metallic bracelet on his wrist.
They looked up and saw the shimmering wall of the barrier a few feet away. Realization dawned on them. They were outside the testing zone.
"We're disqualified," a female mage sighed, slumping against a tree. "But... we survived. That bracelet actually worked."
Tears of relief pricked their eyes. In any previous year, a fatal mistake against the monsters of the testing grounds meant a lonely death in the dirt. Today, it just meant a bruised ego and a failed exam.
I ignored their quiet celebrations. Having deduced the entire sequence of events, I simply stepped over a discarded staff and continued my walk along the perimeter.
"Hey, who is that?" one of the mages whispered, noticing me for the first time.
"I don't know. I didn't see her at the briefing."
"Whatever. She's outside the barrier. She's not part of the test. Thank the Goddess we're alive..."
They quickly lost interest in the strange, violet-haired girl walking the boundary line. They were far too busy being grateful for their own lives.
…
With the first phase of the exam drawing to a close, my schedule aligned perfectly with Takson's training.
I returned to the clearing where I had established the Pseudo-Virtual Combat Arena. Without my direct intervention, Takson, who possessed no spatial magic of his own, would be trapped inside the simulation fighting monsters until he died of old age.
I opened the gate. Takson stumbled out, looking like a man who had been dragged behind a carriage for three days. But he was smiling.
The first phase of the First-Class Mage Exam ended shortly after.
There was joy, and there was sorrow. The victors celebrated their passage to the next round, while the defeated mourned their lost opportunity. Yet, those who failed should have been the most joyful of all. Thanks to my quiet intervention, a test that typically claimed dozens of lives had ended with a zero percent mortality rate.
Of course, no one publicly knew this.
During the brief intermission before the second phase, Frieren sought me out.
"Those bracelets," she said, pointing to her own wrist, though she wasn't wearing one. "The magic that saved the failing candidates. The teleportation spell felt exactly like your golden gates."
I didn't bother denying it. "Affirmative."
Frieren simply nodded. Having witnessed the bracelet in action firsthand, she had easily connected the dots.
Soon after, the second phase of the exam, proctored by Zenze, began.
In the original history, this phase took place in the Ruins of the King's Tomb, a dungeon ruled by the Spiegel, the Water Mirror Demon. But history had changed. I had completely obliterated that dungeon and its master a thousand years ago. Forced to adapt, Zenze had selected a different, equally treacherous ruin for her test.
I did not go to watch. It was irrelevant to my objectives.
Instead, I returned to the empty clearing where Takson had trained. I had work to do.
This clearing was going to serve as the venue for the third and final phase of the exam. The "test" I had designed was... highly destructive. If I administered it in the real world, the collateral damage to the surrounding landscape would be unacceptable.
Therefore, I needed to upgrade the Virtual Combat Arena.
I extended my black cables deep into the earth, anchoring them to the local mana veins. I spent the next few days reinforcing the spatial boundaries, layering concept-sealing magic with high-density dimensional energy. I transformed the simple training simulation into a fully realized, unbreakable pocket dimension.
As the days ticked by, the preparations were finalized.
…
The morning of the third phase arrived.
I stood motionless in the center of the quiet forest clearing. To anyone else, it looked like a perfectly ordinary patch of grass and trees. Only I knew that invisible, impenetrable walls of spatial magic surrounded the entire area.
I had been standing here since dawn, waiting. I wasn't worried about the candidates getting lost; I had already transmitted the exact coordinates to Serie, who had undoubtedly passed them on to the passing mages.
I pulled up my internal system log.
[Primary Objective: Update Magic Database - Complete.]
[Secondary Objective: Fulfill Contract with Serie - In Progress.]
[Tertiary Objective: Demon Remnant Purge (Aura) - In Progress.]
Everything was proceeding efficiently. Once this exam was over and my contract with Serie was fulfilled, I would no longer need to stay in this region. Aura, the puppet demon I had sent to scout for survivors, would lose her usefulness. I would terminate her and collect the remaining stragglers.
As the sun climbed higher, the sound of footsteps and voices broke the silence of the forest.
The candidates who had survived the grueling first two phases were arriving.
They emerged from the tree line in small groups. Fern, Frieren, Denken, Wirbel, Ubel... I cataloged their faces, matching them to the data profiles I had built during my observation of the first phase.
Finding the clearing empty save for a single, petite girl standing like a statue, the mages began to murmur among themselves.
They set down their staffs and bags, forming small circles to chat and pass the time, casting wary, speculative glances in my direction. They were trying to guess the nature of the final trial, and more importantly, the nature of the strange examiner waiting for them.
….
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