"WHAT THE HECK?!" Ash exclaimed.
(NEW) Failure: [Medium] Punishment
Her stomach churned. What if it meant expulsion? Public embarrassment? A magical branding across her forehead? Will the system snitch to Mom somehow?
Ashrosaliera started biting her own fingers nervously, her eyes widened, and her legs started tapping on the ground. She was struggling to maintain herself with all the thinking going on inside her head.
'Failure punishment? I never saw that before! What's a [Medium] punishment? Is it like being spanked by mom? No, it probably isn't that serious.'
"No, no! What the hell? I can't tell anyone this. God, I wish Dad were here, " she muttered.
"Honey?"
A gentle hand touched her hair. The voice snapped her back to reality like a whip of cold water, and she noticed the whole room was quiet. Ash turned to see that Zofia was frowning, and the principal was patting her hair to try to comfort her. Ash then glanced up to the upper floors to see some more students peeking down at them.
"Oh… Are you alright? Is something bothering you?".
"Ah! I'm so sorry, Ms. Principal! I got a charley horse, but now it's gone." Ashrosaliera chuckled.
Ash acknowledged how bad that excuse was, but she didn't mind because she was confident about her ability to make up excuses.
"I'm starting to think your brain is not working, Ashrosaliera, was it?" Zofia chuckled, glaring at the loud girl with no empathy, "Falling into the water fountain because you couldn't control your flight, talking like a twelve-year-old, and now you're screaming at yourself."
"What is that punk? Don't make me duel you, I'm going to destroy you and roast you well-done for lunch! Actually, let's go, show me what you're made of! Now I'm mad about that slap earlier."
Offended, Ashrosaliera immediately jumped over to size Zofia up, which wasn't threatening considering how short she was compared to everyone.
"How… Vexing." Zofia commented, raising her chin and only looking at Ash by rolling her eyes down.
The two young women then channeled their mana, and a crimson and ivory aura started filling the air, intertwining and clashing against one another.
"Oh my, alright, stop it you two!"
The air cracked with a bright flash. A wave of warm pressure held both girls back, a light wave so pure it silenced everything. Subduing the [Fire] and [Wind] was a bright white source of mana, a pure and holy type of magic. The elf principal, Alasta, frowned as she held the two of them back by the shoulders.
"The rare [Light] magic?" Ash gasped at the elf, "So you really are strong!"
"Please let me talk, will you?"
Alasta said, looking at Ashrosaliera with disappointment. Ash complied, embarrassedly lowering her head from being scolded by the principal.
"As you might know, there are 8 elemental attributes in this world. The four common ones are [Fire], [Wind], [Earth], and [Water]. The two uncommons are [Ice] and [Lightning]. While the two rare ones are [Light] and [Dark]. So we need to see what yours are."
Alasta took a deep breath and signaled the two to follow her to the left end of the Grand Entry Hall.
"You two are excused because I personally asked Zofia to retrieve my books, and Ashrosaliera got a letter of recommendation from the Department of Elemental Education, which I couldn't ignore…"
'I do?' Ashrosaliera tilted her head.
"But you two will be judged fairly, like any other students. Now, please press your hand firmly on the crystal ball and channel your mana for [Elemental Evaluation]. Then next, we'll go to [Class Evaluation]."
Alasta pointed them to 2 round crystal balls on a small lectern near the wall.
As expected, when Ashrosaliera and Zofia placed their hand on the ball and focused their mana, it showed [Fire] and [Wind].
"Good, now please come to this side for the [Class Evaluation]."
Alasta led them towards the right end of the lobby. There were three strawmen positioned weirdly.
The first strawman stood still, like another boring, ragged strawman on a farm.
The second strawman was spinning around by some mechanism underneath its feet, and on its arm was a blade cutting into the third strawman.
Alasta then explained.
"There are 4 target dummies in the room, fitting for four main uses of Elemental Magic. The first would be for you to attack, and we'll judge your damage output to determine your class." She pointed at the strawman standing still.
"The second one is an attacker, the third is a defender. You can either heal and protect the defender, or buff and assist the attacker."
"And where's the fourth one?" Ashrosaliera asked, curiously looking around because she could only see three.
"That's the neat part. If you have scouting and detection skills, you could look for him yourself. It's also a test!" Alasta answered with a smile. You may do multiple tests or just one. If you wish to do multiple tests, you will have a better chance at being placed in a higher class, but it's not mandatory."
Alasta then turned to Zofia and stepped aside.
"Oh, do you want to go first, Zofia Adinberg?"
"My pleasure, principal."
Zofia approached the three visible strawman dummies. She then channeled her mana. A warm gust of wind circled around her as she fixed her glasses one more time. Ash then noticed that Zofia's tail was moving weirdly up and down at a steady speed. It was like… wagging? No way Zofia was wagging her tail, right? Ash thought, probably just the wind carrying it.
'She's kinda cute doing that…' Ash whispered.
Zofia raised her arm up, with an open palm, and aimed at the first dummy. Her body turned to the side to minimize her potential area of vulnerability, and Zofia's long black hair started to fly wildly. She turned towards the elf one more time.
"For the damage test, I should use all of my damage, is that right, principal?"
"Oh, that's correct!" Alasta answered with an eager smile.
Zofia nodded.
"Wind Magic: Atmosphere Feel."
"Wind Magic: Air Shot."
A shot came out of her palm, a sharp, arrow-like shot flying at great speed towards the training dummy, hitting it in the head.
The shot didn't pierce through, but a significant dent was left in the hay. Ashrosaliera, though, tilted her head strangely and frowned in confusion. She scratched her head with one hand and placed the other on her hip for balance.
"Isn't that a normal [Air Shot] you used on me? What about that [Atmosphere Feel] thing you casted?" Ash asked, noticing how there was nothing different, not in the air and not in Zofia's output.
"Good question, Kettlehead." Zofia smirked, her tail perked upwards.
"What did you just call me, WindHead?" Ash jumped, trying to make up an insulting nickname in retaliation, but fell short.
Zofia immediately aimed her palm towards the other end of the hall, where the crystal ball was.
"Wind Magic: Air Shot."
The wind shot scraped through an invisible strawman from afar, and when it was hit, the target dummy became visible to the eye.
"Well done, Zofia!" The elf principal clapped, "Although I have to deduct some points because you barely managed to hit the 4th dummy. It could be a problem with your [Atmosphere Feel] proficiency or your [Air Shot] accuracy. Make sure to troubleshoot and work on that later on, honey."
"Thank you, Ms. Alasta." Zofia said.
"Pufh… HAHAHA!" Ashrosaliera burst out laughing, "You can't even shoot through a basic hay dummy, and you couldn't aim properly at this basic distance?! You pathetic loser! Wahahaha, I can't breathe! How are you even in the Royal Magic Academy?"
But Ashrosaliera must've forgotten something, and she was about to face one of her first biggest regrets.
===
The [New Friend] Questline Has Been Updated.
Ongoing Quest: New Friend [First Part]
Details: Make amends with Zofia Adinberg during the evaluation
Reward: 0.03 System Points
Failure: [Medium] Punishment
Status: FAIL
[Medium] Punishment initiated
Punishment: ???
===
"Haha… ha?" Ash's voice dropped.