Vice Dean Alex

"The airship is preparing to land! All apprentices are forbidden from moving about indoors."

"Repeat."

"The airship is preparing to land! All apprentices are forbidden from moving about indoors."

The food-delivery puppet's strange voice echoed throughout the airship. After nearly a month of flight, this group of apprentices had finally reached the end of their journey—the Black Tower Wizard Academy.

Richard sat quietly on his bed. After ten days of recovery, his mana had long since fully recovered. Ellie, meanwhile, had completed the construction of her Mana Circulation during those ten days and learned all the Zero-Ring Spells.

Kevin's recruitment offer had made them realize that if they merely fought alone, they would still be at a considerable disadvantage in this examination.

So, when Ellie completed her Mana Circulation, the two of them formed an alliance of mutual offense and defense.

"Richard, what should we do later?" Ellie sat on the bed, gripping the bag issued by the wizards tightly in her hands, her knuckles turning pale.

The impending fight to the death filled the girl, who had never even killed a chicken, with fear.

Even though she was now a Wizard Apprentice.

"What else can we do? Kill people."

Richard's voice was utterly relaxed, as if the coming slaughter were no different from going to a restaurant for a meal.

Rumble!

The moment Richard finished speaking, the two of them felt the room shake. The tremendous crash of the airship landing instantly reached them.

"The airship has landed. All apprentices, take your personal belongings and leave the airship in order."

Richard and Ellie picked up their things and walked out of the room. Following the recruiting wizards' arrangements, they lined up and disembarked one by one. As they left the cabin, the Skeleton Wizard who had handed out the apprentice bags gave each of them a vial belt filled with test tubes, each containing over half a tube of emerald-green liquid.

So this is the Nutrient Potion. Richard thought to himself.

Outside the airship lay an open stretch of ground, the light somewhat dim. Dozens of Magic Airships were arranged neatly in the sky, their enormous bodies blotting out the heavens and covering the earth. Beneath their shadows, over ten thousand apprentices stood in an orderly square formation.

Richard followed the line into the formation. Above it, a white-bearded wizard in black robes and spectacles floated silently in the air.

"Zeppelin-class Airship No. 050 has arrived. One hundred and ninety-eight apprentices successfully recruited."

Taylor, who was leading the group, bowed toward the sky and reported. Only after the floating wizard gave a slight nod did Taylor quietly depart.

"Silence."

The floating wizard's voice was not particularly loud, yet it reached every apprentice's ears.

As Richard looked at the wizard, a fear from the depths of his heart instantly surged within him.

Though this wizard had not revealed any aura, the feeling he gave Richard was entirely different from that of the recruiting wizards—as though they were two different species of creature.

Could this be a true wizard?

"Welcome, everyone, to the 432nd entrance examination of the Black Tower Wizard Academy. I am your Vice Dean, Alex, and also the examiner for this examination.

"This examination is divided into ten testing grounds, with one thousand people in each. Every testing ground contains ten Magic Beasts. The Magic Beasts carry magical items prepared by the academy; apprentices strong enough may hunt them on their own.

"The rest of the examination rules are on page thirty-two of the admission handbook. Apprentices who have not read them may do so themselves.

"Now, the examination begins."

Having said that, Vice Dean Alex waved his hand, and streaks of light appeared beneath the apprentices' formation. The lights interconnected, seemingly forming a complex geometric pattern.

Richard stared at the light beneath his feet, and a flicker of panic suddenly crossed his heart.

Could this examination scatter all the apprentices apart?

Buzz!

A humming sound rang in Richard's ears, and the scene before him became an abstract painting of countless color blocks mixed together, making him dizzy and disoriented.

"Is this teleportation?"

Richard grumbled, a nauseating dizziness rushing straight up his throat.

After roughly three or four seconds, the scene before Richard began to return to normal, and a lush primeval forest entered his sight.

Supporting himself against a tree, Richard vomited up two mouthfuls of sour fluid. Teleportation truly was not a pleasant experience.

"Those nobles misled me. Those idiots didn't know the specifics of the examination either. Now I can only hope Ellie can harden her heart."

After vomiting up the sour fluid, Richard muttered to himself, then saw pillars of light shooting into the sky one after another.

That dazzling radiance was clearly visible even in daylight.

The locations of those pillars of light were where the apprentices had to reach within fourteen days.

Richard fastened the belt full of test tubes around his waist, then immediately set off toward the pillar of light without wasting a single moment.

The academy's rules required apprentices to reach the designated location within fourteen days. That meant arriving early should be permitted.

And the sooner the examination ended, the sooner he would be safe. Richard did not need to think to understand that much.

As the teleportation ended, the primeval forest, silent for ten years, began to bustle after the examination started. Among the more than ten thousand apprentices, almost all began moving immediately once the teleportation was over. Some were strong, some weak; there were knights and formal Wizard Apprentices alike. Each displayed their own abilities as they all advanced toward the soaring pillars of light.

Relid struggled through the forest. As a gifted Knight Aspirant, his powerful physique, combined with the wizards' Magic Potion, had allowed him to get out of bed and move about not long after being injured. But tragically, as the Magic Potion's effects faded, his crotch began suffering relentless, round-the-clock throbbing pain.

The pain seemed to be reminding him: you are no longer a man!

"Bastard! Scum! Once I learn magic, I'll fuck you first, then kill you, chop you into ten thousand pieces!"

Exhausted, Relid leaned against a large tree and cursed at the top of his lungs.

His eyes were bloodshot and his teeth clenched. Hatred was like a hallucinogen, numbing his nerves while also making him see things that were not there.

For instance, he actually saw the figure that had robbed him of his manhood emerge from the woods.

"Oh? Ran into someone I know. Looks like the Crystal Ball problem is solved."

The figure seemed pleasantly surprised to see him. Raising an arm, he made Relid see that blue light again.

The blue light that had gelded him!

This wasn't an illusion!

He had really run into that bastard!

Overwhelming terror surged from Relid's heart, and he turned to run.

Though he constantly cursed Richard aloud, every night after his injury, he would wake with a start from dreams of Richard and that blue light.

Richard had practically become his nightmare.

And now, the nightmare had stepped into reality.

Bang!

No longer aboard the Airship, Richard no longer held back. A Magic Missile flew from his fingertip, carving a straight line through the air before striking Relid squarely in the back of the head.

Then Richard saw Relid's entire back of the head cave in, red and white splattering all around him.

"Urgh!"

Richard could not help dry-heaving as he looked at the corpse.

Friends who killed often knew that dry-heaving the first time you killed someone was a normal reaction, born from intense fear and the shock of such a bloody sight.

Richard felt no fear, but for someone who had never even killed a chicken, the thick stench of blood was simply too choking.

After dry-heaving for a while, Richard stepped forward and took Relid's Crystal Ball, along with the Nutrient Potions on him.

With these things, he could focus wholeheartedly on making his way.

After taking the items, Richard searched Relid's pockets again. While feeling around, he found a black diamond-shaped crystal—and within it, Richard sensed an exceptionally dense concentration of magic power.

"This is... a Magic Stone?"

New book setting out, please keep reading (｀^′)