Why is Kaori also watching these matches? Is he hoping I fail or something? He’s sitting behind that annoying knight-talent kid, Yuma was his name I think.

“Well, it has never happened before, but if your mana-pool is below 150, you’ll just have to try again next year, this duel would be too dangerous for you.”

“Great to hear professor! Luckily, nobody has ever been that incompetent before right?”

Kaori grins directly at me while saying those words.

“S-Sure…”

Mr. ito replies.

“A-Anyways, I’ll continue my explanation. *AHEM* You will pass this part of the exam by landing a serious hit on your opponent or by surviving for more than 10 minutes. You lose if you fall unconscious, get seriously injured or give up. Any extraordinary performances of students will also be rewarded with a direct promotion to the wood [III] class.”

Only one hit? That seems doable… Some of the students still seem a bit uncomfortable though. Seemingly wanting to reassure them, Mr. Ito continues his explanation:

“You don’t have to be scared, it’s only a mock duel, there are support Machia with intermediate healing spells present. Furthermore, the instructors are only allowed to use yellow cartridges.”

Really? Only yellow ones? I turn to Lance:

“Won’t this be a piece of cake for the students? We just have to land a single hit on those professors, meanwhile they can only use low tier cartridges.”

“Hah! As if it would be easy! Those instructors were all professional Machias Reo, they raided towers! As if that experience alone wasn’t enough, they also cultivated their mana pool and physical bodies for god knows how long with all kinds of expensive cartridges. Their pinky alone could probably launch you across the arena if they wanted to.”

“Y-Yikes… That does sound terrifying…”

Yuma, the annoying Knight-talent guy, suddenly sneers at me:

“Heh, you probably won’t even be qualified to fight against Mr. Ito with that abysmal mana pool of yours, what was it again? 100? Ahaha! Should’ve just followed Kaori like me, I just had to sign a contract with his dad and got my hands on a red mana cultivation cartridge! Have you ever even seen a red cartridge? I’ll probably be the only student able to fight against Mr. Wyatt!”

Yuma immediately looks behind him to check on the face of Kaori, who is grinning from ear to ear. Looks like Yuma was able to satisfy him with his display of arrogance.

Urgh, that Yuma guy, he probably just signed his life away with that contract like an idiot, he’ll most likely become a slave for Kaori’s dad or something… Wait a minute… No Reo, it’s alright, your contract with Miss. Izumi is different…. That’s right, just make sure to become a Machia before the deadline… Everything will be fine…

Lance caught the nervous, almost psychopathic, smile on my face:

“Everything okay buddy? Normally I would expect a witty reply from you… Don’t worry, didn’t that hot roommate of yours give you a mana-cultivation cartridge? I’m sure you have at least 150 mana by now.”

“150 Lance? Try 800! Have a bit more faith in your boy.”

I give him a wink and a nudge. He replies with:

“Yeah right, at least you’re still in the mood to joke around, if your mana pool really grew to 800, I’ll call you big bro.”

We both broke into laughter after that exchange and only stopped once the first match began.

…

The fights were kind of boring, the instructors won all of them without much effort. So far, only Mr. Ito had to fight though.

Out of boredom, I started looking around the arena in an attempt to spot some familiar faces.

I stared at a blond girl sitting opposite from me until she suddenly stood up and started waving her arms around, it was Juniper.

I was a bit embarrassed by this gesture and got teased for it by Lance and Fudo, well, I feel like Fudo’s comments came more from a place of jealousy though…

I’m still really happy she came. I’m not super nervous or anything, but I could use the extra support.

Juniper turned out to be the only familiar face I could spot, I tried to search for Sara, but couldn’t find her… Guess she had more important things to do…

While I was busy looking for people, Yuma already made his way to the center of the arena in order to measure his mana-pool.

The equipment shone more brightly than it did during the measurement of any of the other students, the geeky guy standing next to the equipment looked shocked and then announced:

“M-Mana pool of 716!”

Yuma looked satisfied with the response of the audience, which was awe followed by a round of applause.

The bronze instructor, Mr. Wyatt, comes up to him:

“Aren’t you a talented young’un? I’ll tell you what, I can promote you to wood [II] right now if you want, your knight-talent and mana pool of 700+ are more than enough qualification. Although, if you win your spar with me, I could also promote you to wood [III]. Although I have to warn ya, I haven’t lost many mock duels…”

Yuma smugly exclaims:

“Heh! Of course I’ll participate in the mock duel! Please go easy on me instructor.”

Yuma and Mr. Wyatt both get into position on opposite sides of the arena. Yuma with an expensive looking sword, and Mr. Wyatt empty handed. You can really observe the difference between the two now. Mr Wyatt is a burly, bald dude nearly 2 meters tall with a bushy, blonde moustache and then you have Yuma, who almost looks like a child when compared to him.

They both remained stationary while the referee counted down.

“3!... 2!.... 1!.... START!”