Chapter 4 - The Test

The streets of Gloryheim were crowded, especially so at the location where the testing grounds for the mage schools were held.

There were at least 20 or so famous schools, some were generalists having all different types of magics, and some were specialist schools which specialize in particular forms of magics.

There were even several magical churches and major magical sects and families who appeared. Although they were not recruiting, they were scouting for talents to keep their eyes on, to rope in after they graduate from the schools.

Loki, in Cyrus’ body stood in line together with the other teenagers from the Duchy he belonged to, which was the Duchy of Mayfair on the eastern side of the kingdom.

There were around 30 of them, and being a baron’s son, he was the lowest rank among the nobles.

The first in line was of course Jemima Mayfair, the beautiful daughter of the Duke of Mayfair.

She walked up elegantly onto the stage and was instructed to touch a orb on the table by a female examiner. Behind the orb were 10 white marble pillars.

As she touched it, all 7 pillars lit up and one of each color.

“Elemental magic, Level 7 talent. Congratulations” declared the examiner.

A level 7 talent meant that there was a 70% chance the acolyte would succeed to become an official mage. The colors of the pillars also indicated that she would be proficient in magic of the four elements.

Jemima walked off the stage and was immediately approached by several recruiters for their schools.

One by one, the other teenagers went on stage. Many of them were average with talents around 4-6. There was even two who had talents less than 3.

The average talents were of course also actively recruited by the schools. Although their chances were lower, if they made it to become a mage, that was still a major achievement.

Those with lower talents were still not useless, although their path would be more difficult. They would be recruited as acolytes, the same as the others.

Schools still do recruit low level talents because some forms of magical study required experiments on their acolytes.

If an acolyte is unlucky, he or she would be used for experiments if they are selected by teachers who dabble in dangerous experiments.

However, it was common knowledge that the schools would direct the teachers to select the lower talent acolytes if possible.

If they wished to continue, they took the risk of dying or magical mishaps happening to them by becoming experiment fodder. Most low talents would rather not be recruited and return home to take on some other occupation.

Soon, it was Cyrus’ turn and he went on stage to touch the orb. As he touched it, he looked at the white marble pillars. However, it would seem nothing happened.

The crowd started to murmer, this kid was so untalented. Cyrus frowned and looked carefully at the pillar.

Because it was daylight, the shine on the marble could not be seen. However as he took off his hand and placed it on again, it was clear that all 10 pillars were glowing, except it had no changes in color!

The female examiner didn’t notice this and announced “No magic affinity, zero talent”

However, as the crowd laughed, an elderly examiner ran onto the stage.

“Place your hand on the orb again” he said

Cyrus did so again, and again the results were the same. However, the elderly man walked to the pillars and smiled.

“How interesting” he said with a smile. He whispered into the female examiners ear, and she immediately wrote “Dark Magic, Talent 5” and gave it to Cyrus.

He walked Cyrus down the stage while talking to him.

“What’s your name?” he asked

“I am Cyrus Van Dume” Cyrus answered

“Cyrus Van Dune…” he muttered as if trying to remember it.

“You are a level 10 talent with an affinity to all magic. You have unlimited potential. However, I didn’t want this to get out. The reason I assigned you to dark magic is to get you into The Abominable Abyss, the dark magic school. They are a secret school full of forbidden and unspeakable magics” he said

“Why do you want me to learn from them?” Cyrus asked curiously.

“Because I am a lover of all magic, it doesn’t matter to me whether light or dark. The dark arts have been vanishing from our lands through persecution by practitioners of the other arts. However, I believe that because of this the balance of magic is becoming askew. Furthermore, as dark magics take such a long time to master and being persecuted, most dark mages keep to themselves and when they die, their magics disappear” he said with a whisper

“Who are you? Why are you leading me down this path if my talent is supposedly so good?” asked Cyrus curiously.

“Me? I’m Merlin, Grand Wizard of the nation of Misteria” he laughed. “I am giving your talents to the dark arts in hope that they get a boost and that one day, the dark arts may be of use to the nation. Right now, they only recruit low talents for experiments. There is no chance that they will progress as fast as the other magical schools. However, historically there have been many powerful dark magicians. Perhaps you will be able to revive this once great form of magic” he said as they reached the bottom of the stairs from the stage.

“I will do this for the kingdom. I hope your trust is well placed in me” Cyrus answered.

“I hope so too. For our kingdom’s sake. I sense that in the future, our nation will face a tremendous trial. I hope that you will be able to help out when the time comes” Merlin finally said as he wished Cyrus well and departed.

He walked past all the different tents of the different schools and finally found the one he was looking for at the end of the area, in a deserted dirty looking corner.

“The Abominable Abyss” stated the dusty sign over the entrance of a pitch black tent.

“They sure are serious about their advertising” thought Cyrus with a laugh as he walked in.