Athena raised her hands to quieten the audience, to which they quickly reacted. It was only through Delta's acute senses that he noticed the rest of the audience hadn't actually stopped speaking. Their mouths were still moving, opening and closing like a fish out of water, yet no sound came out.

It became very clear that Athena had quite a lot more power than the average person, raising her in Delta's rankings of people to be careful of.

"Now for the moment you've all been waiting for. I'll announce the punishment for this year!"

Athena waved her hands yet again, and sound returned to the audience. Cheering and shouting echoed throughout the hall and those who were late stood sheepishly at the front, some in tears and others trying to keep themselves under control.

The entire event reminded Delta of the gladiator fights Caligula would force captured captives to fight in, claiming he'd free them if they won, then slaughtering all the survivors. His respect for Athena fell after these actions, but he was smart enough to realise he didn't have the power to change anything as of now.

"The punishment I have chosen this year is being thrown into a pit of Fracidulus Freles, the stinkiest species of skunk known to man."

The cheers only increased, as people practically yelled and screamed in celebration in light of the new information. The kids who had come late seemed so upset that you'd have thought they had been put on the slave market.

Athena waved her hands yet again, and a large crane hand extended down towards the children, holding a cage and beckoning for them to enter. They did as they were supposed to, and where carried over to a pit that had opened in the ground. The children were lowered into the pit, and shortly after a loud sound erupted as the skunks all let out whatever gas they had been holding in.

The children were then lifted back out of the pit, their clothes sullied with green fluids that could be smelt across the room. The only humane thing about the punishment was that the academy offered small crystals containing a soap that could wash off any smell, no matter how bad, and thus the stink would only be temporary.

"Now that we've gotten that out the way, let's begin with the Initiation!"

There were around 400 new students and 10 areas where they could be initiated. Each one could take anywhere from 10 minutes to 30, so the students were prepared to be there a while.

Senior students operated on different parts of the hall, calling out students to come down to the stage and enter the realm of Magic for initiation. On a holographic screen that had been activated by Athena, each type of magic was displayed alongside its representative colour.

Arcane - White

Ki - Black

Chi - Yellow

Mana - Blue

Vis - Green

Pact - Red

Delta and his dormmates were sat in the middle, however, the coordinators split up and started from either end, working their way to the middle.

In the end, Delta was the 361st person to be chosen, with the current stats on the wall reading:

Arcane - 41

Ki - 67

Chi - 66

Mana - 93

Vis - 34

Pact - 49

Mana had been quite clearly the most popular, likely due to it being the easiest subject to learn, however being difficult to master. Ki and Chi were both similar yet opposing battle techniques, so they were often head to head and had a roughly equal number of fighters. Vis had the lowest numbers as they were extremely support orientated in early stages, and only bore attacking qualities at late stages through necromancy and focused blows.

A rather tall man with circular framed glasses stood at the edge of the arena, a megaphone in hand.

"Is there a Delta here? Delta?"

"I'm right here," Delta replied, vaulting the bannister between the floor and seating sections.

"Head over to partition 7"

Delta nodded, then walked towards the ten partitions, entering the one labelled 7. It had only just occurred to him that the language spoken here was the same as the one at home, even though he had no idea where this place actually was.

He entered the partition and saw a strange white rift splitting the air in front of him. Whilst he wouldn't have expected to freak out from this, he was slightly disturbed by the attraction he felt towards whatever was through the portal.

Delta cautiously entered his previous mercenary training taking over. He looked around the room he had just entered but found it was completely white and empty. He looked down, but even his shadow had been dissolved in the mystical light that surrounded him.

"Oh? What do we have here?"

Delta quickly turned towards the voice, hands ready to quickly pull out the razor blade he had in his clothes fold.

"Back off, Chi, I found him first."

The figures speaking came into view, the first being an old man with a monk's robes and a silver moustache falling gently over the sides of his mouth. His head was bald and he had a degree of wisdom about him. The second, however, was the complete opposite. He had a rugged beard and was shirtless other than a black, flaming lion's mane that he wore over his left shoulder. His trousers were ripped and he held a flaming curved blade in his right hand.

"I hardly find that fair, Ki. This realm is fair game is it not?" a third voice interrupted, taking the form of a scholar wearing a white turtleneck and circular framed glasses. He had a scroll in his right hand and a folder in his left.

A fourth figure then said, "Could you guys stop arguing? I'm trying to get some sleep here! How am I supposed to keep up my amazing healthcare routine if you keep arguing over my property?"

She was wearing a bikini and was lounging on a deck chair, a smoothie in hand and sunglasses on her face. She had soft, yellow hair, however, had quite a fiery attitude.

"You're property, Vis? Are you crazy? Look at his Mana Attunement! That's the best I've seen since Daedalus' Kid!"

A large red dragon descended upon the arguing bunch, its scales lit up in flares of power.

"Back off, humans. This mortal is mine! It already has a contracted beast, so its obvious what choice it's going to make!"

At this point, Delta had had enough.

"WILL ALL OF YOU JUST STOP ARGUING? I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHO YOU ARE!"

They all turned towards him, confused.

"What?!"