The training grounds east of the main building.

Training grounds were usually bounded and contained, designed spaces meant for controlled combat. What the academy had built on the eastern side of the main structure was closer to an artificial wilderness large enough that the far end of it was not visible from the entrance, the terrain varied deliberately, sections of open flat ground and dense patches of growth and stone formations.

We assembled at the entrance at the time Hiratsuka had specified.

All twelve of us were there before she arrived.

She arrived from the direction of the main building with a cigarette between her fingers. She stopped at the edge of the training ground and looked at the twelve of us.

"Good. You can follow simple instructions. At least you all are better than a pig. That is a lower bar than you might think."

She set the documents on a stone while smoking.

"Individual assessment. You will each take the field for fifteen minutes. I will observe. I will not give instructions during the assessment. You will show me what you have and how you use it and I will tell you afterward what I saw." She looked across the group. "The others will watch. Watching someone else work is part of the curriculum. Pay attention."

She looked at a list on the top document.

"Lina Vale. First."

***

Lina walked onto the field.

She stood in the center, hands at her sides, eyes closed. The wind around her shifted before anything visible happened, the air subtly changing direction around her body.

Then Sylph appeared behind her.

When the spirit arrived it was serious rather than showing off presence, the High-Rank Wind Spirit Bond fully extended between them, the mana density in the field increasing noticeably the moment the connection was active.

Lina opened her eyes.

She raised one hand.

The mana around her organized itself; the wind was part of it. She was pulling from the ambient field and cycling it through the spirit bond and the output was not a single affinity but multiple ones running simultaneously through the same channel.

A formation appeared in the air above her palm. Not a spell circle.

Then she released it.

Wind Charge shot across the field. It was fast moving across a section of torn-up ground to the left of where she stood, and where it passed the ground torn apart. The torn earth settling. A cut on the stone surface.

Hiratsuka was watching with the cigarette halfway to her mouth.

Lina shifted her stance and the formation changed above her palm. The wind rose sharply around her feet and she left the ground.

She was using the same movement technique as Aether Step. Sustained elevation, Sylph’s presence visible now as a shape in the air beside her, the spirit and the mage operating as a single system.

She stayed at roughly ten meters for thirty seconds. Then she descended and landed and looked at Hiratsuka.

Hiratsuka drank from her cup.

"Next," she said.

***

The half-elf’s name was Rael. He said it when Hiratsuka called him, he walked onto the field with arms-crossed posture.

He uncrossed his arms when he reached the center.

His Phoenix spirit appeared faster than Lina’s had not because the bond was stronger but because he was just showing off. The spirit arrived with wings spreading, the temperature in the field climbing immediately.

Then he did something I had not expected.

He called a second spirit.

It was smaller, darker, moving closer to the ground. A Shadow Serpent, the spirit’s form coiling around his left arm while the Phoenix remained above and behind him.

Two spirit contracts active at the same time.

The fire from the Phoenix and the darkness from the Shadow Serpent began to interact at the point where they met in the air between them. He wasn’t forcing the affinities together. He was balancing them.

The strain of it was visible in his jaw.

Then he casted his domain.

"Night Realm."

A black sphere appeared around him.

He held it for ninety seconds.

Then he let the Shadow Serpent go first and then Phoenix,

He stood in the field breathing harder.

Hiratsuka wrote something on her document.

***

Several others went. Earth, ice, wind, various combinations, some even used sword arts. The field showed the evidence of what each of them had done.

Then Hiratsuka called Sylvaine.

She walked onto the field and stopped in the center.

She looked at the space around her for a moment.

Then she opened her domain.

"Silent Garden."

Silence. The whole training area disappeared.

The space inside the domain was still.

The space inside the domain was still. Inside a domain, the caster decided the rules.

Inside the domain she raised one hand and the illusions came.

Not a single illusion. Twelve of them each one a perfect replica of a different person, each one moving with the particular movement patterns of the person it was replicating. She had been watching us for the entire session. Every movement, every stance, every habitual gesture had been filed and was now being reproduced with a precision .

The version of me standing in her domain had the fox mask on.

Was she in the guild hall?

I looked at the illusion.

It looked back.

....

She held the domain for three minutes. Then she collapsed it cleanly and the field returned to normal and she walked back to the observation line.

"Kael Ardyn."

***

((Mysterious POV)

These idiots still have no idea who they’re dealing with.

I know the future.

I know every major event and every hidden opportunity.

This world is practically a walkthrough for me.

The Hero.

The Villainess.

The future powerhouses.

I know all of them all.

A slow grin spread across his face.

"In this world...I shall become the Hero"

"I’ll take everything."

Power. Status. Fame.

And, of course

"My harem."