In the early morning, Aiden saw Allana coming over to the 71st squad's mess house. Actually, Allana saw Aiden too, but she chose to ignore him and went to meet the others.
"How's it going? Are you ready?" asked Allana, smiling.
Ronald nodded, Clarissa did the same. However, Melinda half nodded with her eyes fixed on Aiden. Allana saw what Melinda saw.
"What about him?" Allana asked.
"By the rules, he's still with our group. Don't you want to invite him?" Melinda asked.
"Listen, Melinda. I don't want to waste my mind and energy to train a commoner like him. It won't do the team any favors," Allana explained.
The woman pointed at Ronald instead, saying that the success of the 71st squad was entirely in Ronald's hands.
If they wanted to do well, then they had to continue supporting him.
"But it would be much better if—"
"Forget it. Let's go to the practice field and leave him alone," Clarissa interrupted, pulling Melinda's hand to leave.
Aiden faintly heard their words, the hatred in his heart growing stronger because those three people really didn't think he existed.
However, Aiden didn't give up. He wouldn't give up after a situation like this, he wouldn't bow his head and kneel down to them just so they would admit his existence.
'I knew it.I'd better train on my own,' Aiden replied.
From Aiden's direction, he could hear the sounds of magic being released.
Not only that, Allana's voice was clearly heard as if she was giving them practice advice.
They continued practicing non-stop from 6am to 10pm. Allana gave them a break while they had to start preparing themselves.
Allana looked back, seeing Aiden still sitting in the pavilion and emitting his fire magic aura.
'Tch!Training like that won't help the team,' Allana complained.
However, what Allana said was completely wrong. The moment of practice itself was a moment of Aiden's intense reflection and focus. As such, he was able to bring up five arrows from the previous two.
The five arrows floated above Aiden's palm, he moved them with his fingers and mind.
Not only Allana, but Ronald, Clarissa, and Melinda also saw the same thing with shocked faces.
"Magic manipulation?" gasped Clarissa.
"He's just a commoner but how can he understand the concept of magic manipulation?" asked Clarissa, unwilling to see Aiden as having an advantage over her.
"Calm down. After the lunch break, we'll be practicing magic manipulation from your dominant element," Allana explained.
That made Ronald and the others turn excited. Allana left the place, while Ronald and the others walked into the house ignoring Aiden's presence.
Only one person walked near the garden pavilion, and that was Melinda. She came carrying a plate of snacks for Aiden.
As Melinda walked up to him, Melinda's eyes witnessed the appearance of Aiden's terrifying dragon aura. The dragon roared at her with its eyes reddened.
"Stay away from Aiden! Don't come near him!" the dragon snapped, instantly making Melinda obey and hurriedly run away from the garden pavilion.
Until evening, Aiden didn't eat the snack. He opened his eyes and saw that it was almost 7 p.m., the Main Test was about to be held.
All participants were required to be prepared with all the equipment they had, the academy didn't restrict it.
They gathered in the main courtyard with their teams, each member of each team would get a white slip.
Aiden received the white slip and activated it with his magic, revealing a status panel similar to the Combat Stats menu.
[Student Status]
[Name: Aiden Aswald]
[HP: 9999999/9999999]
[MP: 100/100]
[Drop item:]
[1.]
[2.]
[3.]
Aiden hurriedly deactivated it so that people wouldn't see it —though only Aiden himself could see it.
Not only HP and MP, but the slip could be useful as a temporary inventory that could save drop items.
However, due to the limitations of the tool, the number of drop items that could be collected was limited.
"Welcome to the main hall of the Astralis Magical Academy. I am Noran, the Head of the southern Astralis Magical Academy," replied a man, who came dressed in a long cape suit and appeared to have an abstract ornament in the shape of a magic circle behind his back.
Not only him, but the two people beside him also had something similar. At least those two were the elders of the academy.
"The Main Test is how we determine who is eligible and worthy to join the Astralis Magical Academy, regardless of your social status," Noran explained.
"Only those who are talented, hardworking, and persistent deserve to be one of us," he said.
Noran invited the committee chairman to begin the main test. A man nodded and gave a short salute to Noran, then walked to the front of the 800 participants.
"Today is an important day for you. I hope you have prepared well and gotten to know your group members," said Reynard, the committee chairman.
Reynard ordered ten mages to open a magic portal to the artificial dimension created by the Astralis Magical Academy.
The portal appeared from small to large, giving all the participants a sense of wonder.
"Your time there is only 24 hours. Collect gold plates from other groups and stay alive," Reynard replied.
"What if one of our members is dying and is taken out of the dimension? Does he have the right to pass too?" a participant asked.
"No, he wouldn't. He'll be out," said Reynard.
"I hope you understand the rules," Reynard replied.
He ordered the teams to enter the portals they wanted. The 71st squad chose portal number 7 to enter, not inviting Aiden.
Aiden didn't care, he would go to portal number 1 and leave his squad members behind.
Right after Aiden entered, he was randomly thrown in the artificial dimension alone.
He landed in the middle of a forest and found there was no one nearby at the moment.
Aiden picked up the white slip and activated it. One of the features of the slip was a squad map.
On it, he could see that Ronald was still with Clarissa and Melinda, while Aiden's dot was far away from them.
"You!" someone shouted from behind Aiden.
Aiden turned his head, seeing that there was a squad looking at Aiden with a sardonic gaze. It seemed they already knew who Aiden was.
"You'll die by my hands, you lowly folk!" the squad leader snapped.
Aiden jumped back when his enemy's stone magic nearly hit him. The young man smiled, ready to defeat them.
[Magic Element: Fire Arrow]
Aiden raised two fire arrows above his right palm, then threw them forward while moving them with his mind, hands, and eyes.
"What is that?" Aiden was shocked.
He clearly saw small ice spikes spinning on his fire arrows, something that was quite surprising to Aiden.
Aiden's enemy tried to defend by bringing up a stone wall, the two magics colliding with each other.
However, when Aiden shot another arrow, the stone wall shattered and the arrow directly pierced the squad leader's left chest.
Not only did it stop there, the flaming arrow also pierced two of the squad members until they were injured and unable to fight further. One man ran away in fear.
"I won't let you go!" threatened Aiden, stretching out his strong arm to aim his arrow at the cowardly man.
"Wait! Don't kill me, please!"
"I-I'll give you the gold plate as long as you let me live!" he said.
He saw his three friends instantly teleport from the artificial dimension to the academy for medical treatment. That was a sign that they were only dying and not dead.
"Give it!" commanded Aiden.
The man handed Aiden the gold plate belonging to his squad. Aiden accepted the plate and instead moved his finger to the side, stabbing the man in the neck until he dying and instantly teleporting to the academy.
'So, this is Aurora's power?Her power makes my fire arrow skill unrivaled,' Aiden replied.
'Maybe this is the right time for me to defeat all those fucking nobles!'