The Ascelan Vessel

Chapter 6 - Admission Selection Part One

Spending the spare change Zen and El 'procured' from Barkus allowed them to pass the next few days with no financial crisis until the mission reward (their pay check) came from the Adventurer's Guild.

"Here is the Quest Reward!" – the receptionist spoke politely trying to uncover gossip from their faces.

[1927 silver] - The pair looked at it in gloom. Since it was fair for a 'D' rank mission, they could not really complain however their expectations shattering were undeniable. To think such a high class apprentice mage would have such a pitiful bank account.

The money would pay for their accommodation and food expenses for the week. And such they patiently waited for the Admission Selection to begin.

---

5 days later

Their received form from the Administration branch led Zen and El to a remote location near the edge of the capital. Not a mile from which the Milieu River flowed, gradually connecting to the Southern Ocean.

It was not unknown to many but the location of The Academy resided further ahead, surrounded by the natural forest and mountains near a side of the river, protected by the terrain resembling a gigantic fortress in the middle of nowhere.

The title of Fortress was indeed not that far off since it did serve as a major pillar in supplying the continent's military strength.

Fortunately or unfortunately the selection was not to be held there but near the edge of the city where the scenery had yet to turn completely rural.

"How do you feel?" - a glum faced elf asked worryingly but her own face looked strangely pale.

"Fine." - Zen on the other hand appeared tip top. Perhaps strangely so since he spoke out for once when it could have been answered with a simple nod. However his face was flushed and occasionally he would wince out in pain gripping his chest.

The cause of this abnormality was self explanatory. This was the repercussion of using mana transfer – the preparation they took for this Admission Examination.

An Hour ago near an abandoned building a humongous circle of light was emitting from the palm of Elma Yaurda's hand which remained plastered on Zen's back. Both of their countenances portrayed agony and with each drop of perspiration that ticked to the dirt beneath, the light grew dimmer until it vanished.

The effect of mana transfer was short term, the amount of mana missing from the supplier would have gradually returned from the surrounding environment, while the amount in excess for the receiver would have gradually dissipated to it.

However preventing this was what was causing their prolonged pain. The reason for their work was for the first assessment.

"The supervisor's coming."

A young lady appeared before the gathered applicants – nearly a hundred of them in a barricaded clearing.

The supervisor was older than them in age however she remained on the shorter side, barely taller than them, with an unimpressive figure and had a head full of shoulder-length curled light maroon hair. The hood of her long staff uniform was pulled down.

"The appointed time for arrival is over. The First Part of the Assessment – to determine talent eligibility will commence shortly. I will be the Supervisor for this." – her youthful voice rang out yet when she addressed her duty, displeasure showed between her delicate eye brows.

"You will be summoned accordingly and will have to undergo a soul expansion. I assume everyone is fully rested otherwise your results will be inaccurate." – everything spoken was long since known by the applicants but the lady spoke nonetheless.

"The purpose of this assessment is to determine the quality of your 'souls'. The soul type spell we will cast causes the mana inside souls to convert to light energy and be emitted. As you all know, the size of your souls determine your mana holding capacity.

The First Exam will now Begin."

...

It was not long before their turn came. El stepped up into the drawn magic circle like everyone else before her did; several assistant mages surrounding her cast the soul type spell.

'''Weh mochyce laylaau ..... '''

Instantly she light up like the sun. Before long a greenish spherical blob of light, resembling the emerald glow of the untainted forest, occupied her chest region. Other members of the staff made measurements on the radius and the luminous intensity and let her pass.

Following her Zen encountered the same assessment. Both of their results were roughly the same except Zen's light was pristine white with a portion of green and a small speck of abysmal black. Of course their similar results were within expectations otherwise they would not have utilized the mana transfer.

Only someone like El would hide their 'talent' and only someone like Zen could expand their soul taking in such a larger amount of mana.

The soul was an accumulation of condensed mana which, when posses by a body would be considered living. It resided at the core of very being. For mammals, this was at their Solar Plexus. Along with the soul came the mana circuit that the soul used to control the body which radiated from the soul to every corner.

The soul was in fact crucial to mages. Under normal circumstances the soul absorbed energy in its most basic form [Mana] from the surroundings and maneuvered the body but by using special vocal chants the mana in the soul could be guided to accomplish a variety of other miracles inside and outside the body – Magic. Thus the size of souls which determined the amount of mana it could store at once determined one's "talent" at magic.

However there were a number of other factors common plebeians did not know, things only their master who researched for centuries knew.

Other than the size of souls, another factor would be their mana regenerative rate, or the affinity towards surrounding mana, in other words the pureness of the soul. This was something suspected by normal mages. However since mages had more or less the same soul purity and finding the subtle difference was not only expensive and tiring but also useless in any practical sense, not many paid attention to it.

The other factor was the soul's flexibility and tenacity. The ability to resist death and deformation.

Both Elma and Zen had highly pure souls but Elma's one was simply gigantic in size. Even their Master could not help but be shocked. The last time a soul this large appeared, it was in the Ascelan Age. Its flexibility was also not lacking in the slightest but when compared to Zen's, it was not even worth mentioning.

Zen's soul was even more peculiar. It was oldly small and abnormally shaped as though it was fractured and missing fragments. A broken soul was not unheard of. Ruthless soul magic could achieve this but someone surviving was unthinkable but considering the out of the world flexibility of Zen's soul, it was possible. It was like a large piece of chewing gum while others had glass balls (or a giant foot ball in El's case).

This was the conclusion their master had drawn when she first examined them.

With Zen soul, he would be disqualified while exposing El's soul was also highly risky. So the mana transfer, transferred mana from El's soul to Zen which caused El's soul in the examination to appear smaller and dimmer while Zen's to inflate and appear bigger and brighter.

"Attention. The Participants of the Second Part will now be announced."

Of course the pair passed the first part of the test with flying colours.