Aethernea : Soulbound [Book 1]

Episode 80 - Quake and Thunder

Previously:

After being poisoned by Dusk Rose and cured by Ixos Eryey, Kiel makes it just barely in time to take his exam.

* * *

Kiel looked at the hourglass and determined he had enough time to condense a large enough crystal to reach 25 points. In fact, as he spent his mana, he couldn't even feel the mana pool emptying itself at all, which was a rather bizarre phenomenon.

Either the mana pool was so large that the amount he had used up was insignificant, or Elaru's mana regeneration speed was higher than Kiel's mana flow speed.

Usually, mana flow speed was much higher than mana regeneration speed, which meant that mages could spend mana faster than they could replenish it. Most of the time, even when mages had higher mana regeneration speed than their mana flow speed it was because their mana flow speed was horrid, not because their mana regeneration was monstrously high.

However, obviously, this was not the case with Elaru.

Her soul was simply an abomination that shouldn't exist.

The sand slowly slid down the hourglass. As soon as the last drop slid down, the glowing markings on the crystallizer went out, and the attraction force inside the crystallizer disappeared.

Kiel let out a breath of relief.

Rau Eryey and Kady Ailert quickly reached his side and complimented him.

Rau reached his hands inside the cauldron and pulled out a large yellow crystal the size of a man's head. The crystal seemed to be quite heavy as he placed it on a weight scale next to the crystallizer with some difficulty.

The meter of a scale quickly skyrocketed.

Kady Ailert beamed as she looked at the number. "Impressive." She smiled. "That is enough for 25 points. Congratulations. The great majority of examinees run out of mana before the end of the test. Your mana pool size is quite extraordinary."

"Thank you." Kiel nodded and smiled modestly.

This situation was completely opposite of what happened last year when he took the test. He remembered the pitying gazes of the examiners clearly. There was even scorn in the depths of their eyes as if saying "A non-mage still hopes to enroll in Muni? How laughable."

He remembered how they picked up a pinky-sized crystal from the crystallizer and wondered if they should even bother weighting it.

He remembered how his cheeks burned in shame, how he had subconsciously pulled his hood tighter around his head as to conceal as much of his features as he could, otherwise he would die out of shame if the two examiners recognized him on the street.

Today, he walked out of the classroom with his head held high, albeit with shaky footsteps.

Today, there was no blush of shame on his face, only the sickly paleness due to the damage caused to his body.

Today, his heart soared high in the sky, all the chains binding it crumbled away.

With his current exam score, it was no longer a matter of whether he passed the exams.

It was only the matter of how high he placed.

* * *

The gray curtain covered the sky completely, congregating into thick clumps that looked tangible. Although it was early afternoon, the courtyard of Muni was shrouded in shadows as if it was dusk.