SOUL FORGE CHRONICLES
Chapter 9 — Vice Dean Aldeon
"Airship preparing to land! All students are prohibited from any activity inside their rooms."
"Repeat."
"Airship preparing to land! All students are prohibited from any activity inside their rooms."
The strange voice of the food-delivery doll echoed throughout the airship. After nearly a month of flight, the group of students had finally arrived at their destination — the Grey Tower Academy of Magic.
Aldric sat calmly on his bunk.
After ten days of recovery, his magic reserves had fully replenished. Elara had also successfully completed her Mana Flow construction during those ten days and had learned all the zero-ring spells.
Kevan's visit had made both of them realize that going it alone would put them in a very disadvantageous position in the exam.
So the moment Elara completed her Mana Flow, the two of them officially formed a defensive alliance.
"Aldric, what should we do next?"
Elara sat on her bunk, gripping her sorcery bag tightly. The knuckles of her fingers were slightly white.
The coming life-or-death battle filled this girl — who had never even killed a chicken — with dread, even though she was now officially a sorcery student.
"What else can we do? Kill people."
Aldric's voice was completely casual, as though the battle ahead was no more burdensome than going out for lunch.
BOOM!
Aldric's words had barely left his mouth when the entire room shook violently, and the deafening sound of the airship landing echoed through every corner.
"The airship has landed. All students, collect your belongings and disembark in an orderly fashion."
Aldric and Elara gathered their things and left the room, lining up to exit the airship one by one as instructed by the recruiting sorcerers.
As they exited, the skeleton sorcerer Eisen handed each student a small bag. Inside were several test tubes, each containing more than half a tube of emerald green liquid.
Looks like nutrient potion, Aldric thought.
Outside the airship stretched a vast, dimly lit open area. Dozens of magic airships were arranged neatly in the air, their massive hulls blocking much of the sky. Beneath their shadows, tens of thousands of students stood in large, orderly square formations.
Aldric followed his group and joined the massive formation.
Above them, an elderly sorcerer with a long white beard, black robes, and spectacles floated silently in the air — seemingly without using any visible levitation magic, as though his body simply wasn't bound by gravity.
"Zephyr-class airship number 050 has arrived. 198 students successfully recruited," Mordecai reported, bowing respectfully toward the floating sorcerer.
The white-bearded sorcerer gave a slight nod, and Mordecai withdrew quietly.
"Silence."
The sorcerer's voice was not loud — yet somehow it reached every student clearly, even to the farthest corners of the formation.
Aldric stared at the sorcerer, and an inexplicable fear immediately seized his heart.
Although this sorcerer displayed no striking aura, Aldric sensed something different — as though he were a creature of an entirely different category from the recruiting sorcerers he had encountered so far.
Could this be a true sorcerer?
"Welcome to the 432nd entrance examination of the Grey Tower Academy of Magic. I am the Vice Dean, Aldeon, and also the examiner for this examination."
His voice flowed calmly yet carried immense authority.
"This examination is divided into ten examination halls, each containing one thousand students. Each hall will have ten magical creatures, each carrying magical items prepared by the academy. Students with sufficient strength may hunt them on their own."
"Other rules regarding the examination can be found on page thirty-two of your admission handbooks. Those who have not yet read it — read it now."
"Now, let us begin."
Vice Dean Aldeon raised his hand.
Beams of light appeared beneath the feet of the students, interlocking to form an incredibly complex and beautiful geometric pattern.
Aldric stared at the light beneath his feet, a flash of panic crossing his mind.
Was this examination going to scatter all students immediately?
Bzzzt!
A buzzing sound filled Aldric's ears, and the scene before him shattered into swirling colors that made him instantly dizzy.
Teleportation.
After three or four seconds that felt extremely unpleasant, the scene before Aldric slowly returned to normal.
A lush, ancient forest stretched out before him.
Aldric leaned against a large tree trunk, swallowing hard to push down the nausea rising in his throat.
"Tricked by those nobles. They didn't even know the details of the exam. Now I can only hope Elara will be alright."
Aldric muttered while recovering, then looked up and spotted a beam of light shooting into the sky far in the distance.
That blinding beam was clearly visible even under broad daylight.
That was the destination the students needed to reach within fourteen days.
Aldric fastened the belt of potion tubes around his waist and immediately set off toward the direction of the light without wasting a moment.
The academy's rules set a fourteen-day limit — meaning arriving early was certainly permitted.
And finishing the exam sooner meant reaching safety sooner. Logic that didn't need to be explained twice.
...
The moment the teleportation ended, the ancient forest that had been quiet for years began to stir.
Tens of thousands of students moved almost simultaneously after landing. These students had varied abilities — some were trained knights, some former guards, some who had just mastered basic sorcery. Each displayed their best capabilities, all moving toward the pillar of light in the distance.
Somewhere deep in the forest, Rael was struggling through the thick undergrowth.
As a talented knight's guard, his powerful physique combined with sorcerer's potions had allowed him to recover from injury faster than a normal person. But every time the effect of the potion faded, the relentless pain reminded him of what he had lost.
"That bastard... once I learn sorcery, I won't stop until I've gotten even!"
Exhausted, Rael leaned against a large tree trunk, cursing between ragged breaths.
His eyes were red. His teeth were clenched. The burning hatred clouded his mind.
So clouded, in fact, that when a figure emerged from between the trees ahead of him, Rael almost couldn't believe his own eyes.
"Hey, running into an acquaintance. The crystal ball is safe now."
The figure appeared surprised yet slightly pleased, then raised a hand.
That blue light appeared again.
The blue light Rael would never be able to forget.
This was not an illusion. It was real.
A tremendous fear struck Rael all at once, and he spun around to flee as fast as he could.
Although he had cursed every day, the truth was that every night since that injury, he had been woken by nightmares about that blue light.
Aldric had nearly become his deepest fear.
And now that fear was standing before him in the flesh.
BANG!
The moment Aldric stepped out of the airship, he had stopped holding back.
A Mana Bolt shot from his fingertips, drawing a line of blue light through the air, and struck directly at the back of Rael's head.
Rael fell to the ground without managing to cry out.
Aldric stood still for a moment, staring at the scene before him.
Then he turned and vomited behind a tree.
This was his first kill — and it turned out, no one could face it with perfect composure, no matter how prepared they thought they were.
Aldric took a long breath, wiped his mouth, and forced himself to stand upright again.
After a moment, he walked back over to Rael and retrieved the crystal ball and nutrient potions from the body.
With this, he now had two crystal balls. The minimum requirement to pass the exam was already met.
Aldric then thoroughly searched Rael's pockets.
And there, among ordinary belongings, his fingers touched a diamond-shaped black crystal.
Inside that crystal, Aldric detected an incredibly dense concentration of magical energy — far denser than anything he had ever felt before.
"This is... a magic stone?"
— End of Chapter 9 —