Caesar University was an elite institution and of course the lodging provided to the students also conformed to that standard. The fact that each of the students participating in the test had extremely great potential also ensured that the university provide them the utmost comfort so as to rein them all in before the test commenced.
The dormitories had been divided based on gender. All of them received their own rooms in their respective dormitories where they could rest until the beginning of the test.
Zavier who was the only male student was left at the gate of the male dormitory while the rest of the group moved onwards towards the girls' residence.
The teacher that was responsible for escorting the students were stationed in a separate building that was even more grandiose than the dormitories of the students. So Calista too broke off from the group of girls after they reached the girls' dormitories.
Zavier soon found the room assigned to him and got the key for his room from an attendant who was wearing neat and clean clothes with a prideful expression on his face.
As soon as he entered the room, the temperature lowered a bit and became even more comfortable. He got the feeling that there was an air conditioner in the room but of course this was nothing like his past world. Therefore, the only explanation for the change in temperature was magic.
Zavier was sure that the temperature was somehow being regulated using magic. Whatever the case, Zavier felt happy with his current room.
Not only was it beautifully decorated, the infrastructure looked extremely user friendly as well. Zavier had always thought that the elite compromised comfort for grace and prestige. But when he laid his eyes on this room that was like a piece of finely crafted art, he could get a glimpse of what the truly rich were really obsessed with. The room was a blend of artistic nuance and extreme comfort that was good for both the body and the soul.
He threw his luggage towards the closet and dived into the softness of the bed. The clear smell of sunshine and lemon wafted from the covers of the bed. It appeared to have been freshly washed so Zavier took no time in making himself comfortable.
Before he closed his eyes, Zavier had to make sure of one other thing that had been constantly on his mind throughout this time.
"Turn on the sharing mode please."
[Sharing mode has been enabled successfully.]
[You are currently sharing your senses with four other clones.]
Familiar set of messages greeted him on the system screen.
As soon as he was done confirming the whereabouts of the three clones who he had sent ahead of the group, Zavier decided to go to sleep to shed off the weariness that he was feeling after the journey. This was his first sleep on the bed after a week of travelling and sleeping on the ground.
"Turn off the sharing mode."
[Individual mode has been enabled successfully.]
Zavier closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep in an instant due to how tired he had been. His droopy eyelids could finally rest at ease.
Zavier had no recollection of the night as he woke up the next morning. It was a death like sleep that made him forget everything else momentarily.
Zavier stretched himself straight after getting off the bed and headed off to the bathroom to freshen up.
Once he had put on one of his best looking but extremely comfortable outfit, he took some necessary things in a small bag and headed outside.
The rendezvous point that had been decided was in front of the girls' dormitories as it was in between both Zavier's and Calista's residence and the girls had the majority when it came to the number of people.
When Zavier reached there, he could see everyone waiting for him. It seemed like he was the last one as even Calista had already arrived and was busy talking to the girls.
From afar, Zavier felt that Calista was busy instructing the girls regarding something.
When he stepped closer to the girls, Calista looked at him with slanted eyes as if blaming him for coming even later than the teacher. Still, she did not call him out on it in front of the girls.
"Now that all of us are here, we can move towards the stadium where the participants will be gathering before the test."
Before the others could reply, Calista had already turned around and began walking towards the direction of the stadium.
The students including Zavier all followed behind her. Calista looked like a mother hen leading her chicks back home.
Of course Zavier could not care less about how they looked to the general public. The only thing he was concerned about was the test that they needed to take soon.
The stadium that was also their destination for the day was as huge as they came. The capacity that it had been built for was a hundred thousand spectators and five thousand participants could be accommodated in the centre of the stadium.
What Zavier had deduced through word of mouth of countless strangers along the way was that the total number of participants for the preliminary tests was far lower than that.
Therefore, they did not have to worry about being cramped in the centre of the stadium together with other participants. There was plenty of space for everyone.
There was an orderly queue for those moving towards the centre of the stadium.
Zavier's group too got in line and waited for their turn to enter.
After they managed to get in, they stood in a corner of the stadium away from all the noise and gossip.
This was a rather small section away from the centre and away from the eyes of the people.
They formed up a line and quietly waited for the next announcement to be made.
The influx of people did not stop even after they had gotten in. Judging from the number of people still walking in, they had made it to the stadium slightly earlier.
It looked like they were not the last group at the very least.
The waiting period had to be extended because of those people who were already getting late and had gotten stuck within the line at the entry point.
As the entry line continued to move the seats in the stadium continued to get filled. Not only the seats, even the space in the centre of the stadium was gradually being filled with the new participants.
Zavier's perception system was still active so his ears were perked up in all directions. He kept an eye on the participants and heard everything they said just to find out if someone knew anything more than they did.
He heard a lot of useless information that he filtered out and ignored without a thought.
During the course of that he found out that the total number of participants arriving at the stadium that day was capped at fifteen hundred.
That meant a place that was meant for five thousand people would be used by only fifteen hundred people. Surely someone had planned for their comfort quite thoroughly.
Calista while standing beside them looked like a student herself due to how young she looked.
The high school students surrounding them couldn't help but sneer at them with a mocking expression on their faces when they saw Calista leading them.
"Hmph…looks like the Merion High School has really fallen from grace. They could not even send a B rank teacher to accompany the endorsed students. They had to make do with a student leading the team. How pathetically pitiful!"
Someone who was passing by managed to get his whole speech in.
Zavier looked at him and thought to himself that some people really liked getting slapped in the face.
Zavier knew that this group must have been from their empire since they were able to recognize about Merion High School so well.
The teacher leading the group of loose lipped boys was angry enough to spit fire. He admonished his students strictly but the kids refused to relent. They felt that they were justified in saying that as Merion High had really sent a student as a group leader unlike their school that had sent a prestigious B rank teacher as their leader.
A color of embarrassment passed on the old teacher's face as he looked at Calista with an apologetic expression.
Before the old teacher could have said anything, Shiranui who had been holding her anger so far finally couldn't stop the lid from popping out.
Black flames emerged in both her hands and the high temperature was enough to scare off the boys who had been insulting her teacher.
Unlike the rest of the students, Shiranui had a special bond with Calista. She had been her teacher for a long time and was now even her current class teacher. Shiranui couldn't let anyone badmouth her if she could help it.
The boys looked as if they had lost their souls. They recognized the skill that and knew how dangerous it could be. They were finally able to judge the magnitude of the calamity that they had invited.
With pale faces and trembling legs they looked at their teacher hopefully but he only snorted as if they had brought upon that fate by themselves and he had nothing to do with it.
Shiranui threatened them with a cold and terror inducing voice.
"You better apologize fast to my teacher or my flames might go out of control. There won't even be a wisp of your soul left if that happened. My black flames can even burn souls, you know."
Before the boys could gather their wits, the old man that was their teacher stepped forward first and bent his back to look at the young looking teacher in front of him with an expression that was full of remorse and repentance.
"You are a noble and respectable lady. Please forgive my students. I apologize for the harsh and demeaning words that my students have uttered. They are young and foolish and cannot see Mt Tai even when it is right in front of them. In their place, I must ask for your forgiveness and understanding. Being their teacher, I am willing to bear any punishment that you may want to give me for their transgression."
Calista's expression did not change throughout. It was as if she had already known the whole routine by heart. In fact, this was definitely not the first time that there was such confusion. People often misunderstood her position because she didn't look the part.
Some of them even resorted to calling her a fraud or a deceiver and taunted her due to those misunderstandings. It would have been wrong to say that she never felt mad about it even at the beginning but slowly and gradually she learnt to take it all in a stride and forget about unnecessary events as soon as possible. This led to her becoming used to such taunts and misunderstandings and her immunity towards such incidents grew to unprecedented heights.
Though Calista wasn't surprised that such an event had taken place, Zavier was truly shocked.
He had just witnessed a middle aged old man humbly bending his back in front of a little girl and asking for her forgiveness as if it was the greatest blessing in the world.
Though others didn't find it odd, Zavier thought that the scene was slightly comical. The old man asking to be punished and the little girl acting aloof and mighty as if the old man weren't worth anything.
Calista waved her hand tiredly as if she had seen countless such scenes before indicating to him that she wasn't interested in his apology and that the old man could leave.
Nadia who was witnessing the expressions of Zavier the whole time began to explain the situation to Zavier as if he had not been able to understand any of it.
"Teacher Calista used to be very famous even though she might not look like it now. A few years back she was one of the brightest stars of our empire and that lasted until your Aunt Valerie rose to prominence. She broke all the existing records and her speed of progression was even faster than Teacher Calista. The spotlight shifted from Teacher Calista to Teacher Valerie but those who still recall Teacher Calista know how famous she actually was. Therefore, the attitude of the old man isn't wrong at all. It must be like this. If it had been any other person and not Teacher Calista, the old man would have paid in blood for embarrassing them. An A rank mage is a big deal after all. There is no way someone as important as that could take insults to their face lying down like that."
Zavier heard her words and came to understand some of the dynamics of the world that he had taken at face value earlier. He had never thought that even A rank mages had such prestige.
Those who had witnessed a better view would look down on the view that was not comparable to what they had seen before. Since Zavier had fought against even S rank mages before, he didn't think that A rank mages were a big deal. But that was where he was wrong.
What Zavier had failed to understand was that the world that he was living in was the world of the mages. Even B rank mages were considered among the general public to be masters who could live in comfort and wealth if they wanted to.
Someone who considered even A rank mages subpar would never have bothered to even look at B rank mages and that was exactly what Zavier had been doing.
Therefore, Zavier did not know the true worth of a B rank mage let alone that of a veteran A rank mage like Calista or the even higher S rank.
Usually it was extremely rare to witness a battle between 5 S rank mages since no empire could afford the loss of an asset like an S rank mage in any case. But the first battle that Zavier had witnessed was that comprising of five S rank mages, two A rank mages, a student (himself) and two monsters. Therefore his understanding of the dynamics of the world was slightly screwed up.
The worth of the B rank mages could be guessed from the very fact that such talented students with extremely high genius were being escorted by B rank mages in most cases. That only meant that the B rank mages were the highest level instructors at the high schools that these kids were attending. This was also the case with the middle aged old man who was escorting those foul mouthed kid earlier.
Zavier noticed the fact and couldn't help but think how great Merion High School actually was for it to have sent an A rank mage to escort them and one other to spare who was still busy looking after school affairs.
The mages started at the bottom most level and made their way up progressively. Each time they moved up a level, the magnitude of the difficulty kept on increasing and exponentially.
That was the reason that the mage progression became slower as one kept moving upwards. For example, it was relatively easy to advance till C rank and the progression was quite fast too but beyond that the difficulty of advancement enhanced steeply beyond reason.
Beyond that only a fair number out of them were able to reach the B rank which could be considered to be touching the periphery of being a master.
The vast majority who somehow was able to reach the dividing line that existed between the B rank and above made them feel despair. It was not a dividing line by that point but a chasm that had no end in view.
The phenomenon could be observed from the fact that the teacher Calista who had been such a high talent that even elves would have rushed to take her in was still stuck at being an A rank mage when she had taken that step close to 20 years back.
At that age becoming an A rank mage is an achievement that hardly anyone can muster. Zavier hardly knew this but her progression to A rank mage was far faster than any other mage in history and was following right after Valerie. It had already been 20 years since she had become an A rank mage and had been stuck at the precipice to S rank ever since.
The reason why Valerie was so acclaimed back in their school was because she had broken any and all cross class records pertaining to the speed of growth. Valerie had overtaken Calista in order to become the person who was now called the closest to becoming an S rank mage.
Just from these two people it could be judged that Merion High school was an upper tier school that was better than most of the average schools out there in the empire.
It was not very hard to see the reason that the boys wanted to mock Merion high school. The reason was that they wanted to bring its name down to their level since their backgrounds weren't strong enough to be admitted into a school like that. It was just a way to make themselves feel better after all those students truly didn't lack talent. What they were lacking in was social status.
It was not long after that the close to fifteen hundred participants had gathered in the centre of the stadium. The teachers were accompanying the students and were leading from the front.
There was a loud bang that seemed to be the indication of the beginning of the proceedings as following that sound the president of the Caesar University arrived at the podium and addressed the audience and the participants. It was a few formal remarks that mainly welcomed them all and marked them as the guests of Caesar University.
The main highlight of the speech was the announcement of the beginning of the Newcomer Qualifiers.
Huge applause rang out from the audience and the participants alike following the announcement of the president. The applause was strong enough to shake the stadium strongly as if countless elephants were running about in unison within the stadium.
It wasn't long before the president withdrew from the podium and walked away.
The eyes of the audience were still stuck to the podium even though the president had already gone off. They were all waiting for someone who could tell them more about the tests that they were about to take.
After the president had left, a young and beautiful woman took over the podium and announced herself as Mabel and was going to be the host of the preliminary tests.
However the expression of the host didn't look too good. For whatever reason, the audience wasn't giving Mable too much attention or the respect that she was due because among the audience there were also teachers who had come as escorts for the students. Some of them were B rank mages while there were also some A rank mages like Calista mixed up among them.
The audience was gradually turning away from the stage. Some of them had even managed to make a circle in the centre towards the back. This was the result of the president having made his appearance early.
Otherwise they would have at least remained respectful until the address of the most powerful man in the university. Others were simply not worthy of that much respect in their eyes especially when it was a little girl who was still wet behind the ears.
These people didn't think that the little host on the stage was important enough for them to listen to what she had to say. And that was gradually worsening the mood of the host and her expression was falling with each passing second.
The effect of this was only worsened by some of the comments that the audience was busy passing around in whispers.
"Why is a little girl like her presiding over the test?"
"Hey, do you think there is something else at play here?"
"Do you think she pulled something with the president in order to climb to this level?"
"Usually it is always an A rank or an S rank mage who presides over the qualifiers. I am sure she had to go through the backdoor. She has the looks for it after all."
"Mabel? I don't think there is someone like that in the higher ups of the university and I know all their names by heart."
"She is just a snotty nosed brat who got a lucky break. Don't give her that much importance. Don't you understand? This is what she wants in the first place."
These were some of the nicest comments that the audience passed among themselves. Zavier had heard them all since he had heightened senses as a result of perception system. He only hoped that the host didn't hear all the things that were being said about her.
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