The written exam turned out to be indeed a simple test.

As long as they know the basics of the City of Leatia's history, rules, and system as well as the concepts of abilities and demons, it's a sure pass.

The trials started just this morning with the written test, and after lunch hour, students are distributed a personalised schedule.

The schedule consists of both general and specific time slots with information on where they should report to for the next stages of the trials.

Sent to them digitally, Lena opens hers over her desk dashboard. She is rather surprised to find her first slot to be in their Weaponry room, with her assigned group: Group 12 (Azure Dragon).

Neesha, who's also classified as an Azure Dragon, is a few groups before her. The class representative tells Lena that the first, general round is always quick and simple.

Trusting her friend, Lena makes her way to the Weaponry reporting area for registration. They scan each arriving student with a portable screen that expands and collapses at ease—and one swipe over their front bodies will generate the students' data on the blue screen, indicating their basic enrolment information as shown on their daily desktops. Other than current ability type and ability class, it also displays their homerooms and current standings in the academy.

Lena can briefly read hers through the semi-transparent screen, slowly deciphering the mirrors words:

Name: Lena
Homeroom: Year 2, Aquila

The government representative, Wren, lifts her gaze and briefly scans Lena with her own eyes. "You new here?"

"Yes," Lena says with the best confidence she can muster.

Wren nods and jerks her chin to the grouping students in front of the forming door. "Well. Good luck on your first trials."

Grinning awkwardly, Lena walls over to her own assigned group. If Wren doesn't find it weird she's an unranked second year student in Arcane Academy, she will not be raising any red flags.

Her steps are lighter by the time she reaches the group. It's a group of ten students, and Lena recognises Casper, the class representative of Corvus, eyes her with disdain.

"Hi, Casper," Lena attempts, then winces as he scowls.

He fiddles with his metal piercings before crossing his arms. "Aquila."

Of the three classes of year 2, Aquila and Corvus are rivals from the start, being one of the most competitive pairs of Arcane Academy history owing to the strong talents both sides hold. In fact, Caelus, the Ace of Arcane Academy, is in Aquila whilst Nova, an unrivalled second rank is in Corvus. The two classes make it their own objective to compete against one another, even more so than for their individual ranks. In fact, the classes are united in supporting their own strong students to beat the other class. Not taking Caelus into account, Casper is always bragging about how three out of four of the 'Four Horseman' of Year 2–the strongest students of the year—happen to be in Corvus.

Lena isn't looking for a fight, she she decides to ignore his remark. Thankfully, they do not have to wait long as the door reveals itself and slides open automatically for them.

Wren instructs, "Go ahead, the door will scan you as you enter."

No one complies. In fact, some of the front students take a few steps backward, and Lena is pushed behind. Wren doesn't question the students' movement, and instead proceeds to register the next group.

"Is something wrong?" Lena asks under her breath.

An earthquake like shudder answers her, shaking the room before them and jolting the corridor they are standing in. But as Lena looks around, horrified that this may be an invasion or a demon attack, the students around her are unfazed. In fact, they look amused. Wren continues to scan the next batch of students after Lena's group without batting an eye, either.

Casper leads the group into the room after the quake. And as the students pass through the door one by one, a beep is sounded each time a student walks through, amounting to a total of ten times. They walk into an empty Weaponry room—except the middle ground is still patching itself up from a certain fracture.

Lena looks around, wondering what has just happened and the fact that none of the students in her group seem disturbed by it.

Once again, her queries are answered in the scene before her as a sparkling stream of pretty explosions light the other end of the room. The sparks and smokes clear to reveal another group of students leaving through the other end via another exit—the previous Azure Dragon group. And, amongst them, is a certain dark blue-haired boy. Nova, one of the strongest in their year and the second ranked of Arcane Academy.

As Lena watches, his fists are still alight with sparks he ignites from the atmosphere with his abilities, and Nova yells something inaudible as he punches the wall.

A government representative is quick to action. He ensures the group leaves and makes to gather Lena's group.

But however formal the trials is, it doesn't stop the loud, arrogant boy from creating explosives everywhere, as another wave of boom sounds after him, leaving a trail in Arcane Academy's corridors. Lena wonders if he's itching for a fight.

"Like the performance? It's why we step back. My class' students are over-performing themselves," brags Casper.

Rolling her eyes, it's Lena's turn to cross her arms. "Let's see how you do in this slot."

"Why you—"

Meanwhile, the exit seals itself and the room is as good as new. A system voice announces, "Being classified as an Azure Dragon means that your abilities involve using a medium, and they require one to activate. Upon your entry, we have analysed your registered abilities and have prepared various objects and items for you as fit."

Sure enough, objects begin materialising and lining themselves up against the wall: Lena is not surprised to find a range of weapons, but random stuff such as cooking equipment, stationery, toiletries, and other miscellaneous items are also laid everywhere.

Automated minions zip into the room, and each round robot carries a wristband that they attach to the students in the room.

"For this stage of the trials, the temporary wristbands attached to you will detect the use of your abilities. Please achieve three green passes on the device by using your abilities thrice over the objects related to your medium. You may begin."

That sounds easy enough, Lena thinks. And if the systems have indeed scanned their abilities prior, all the objects they need are already provided. Sure enough, she spots a glass mug.

The rest of the students are already beginning to work. Casper heads to a heavy metal chain and begins manipulating it; another student finds a small book and resizes it, enlarging the item.

Lena heads toward the glass mug confidently, and as visions begin to form, she expects a vibration at her wrist. Few seconds passed, and she still doesn't get a first check. It's then she begins to worry and realises—what if the wristband, with whatever technology installed and programmed, is only able to detect their true abilities?

She concentrates on the visions she sees. As usual, she makes no sense of it. But she holds her line of sight over the forming images. Still, the wristband gives her no signal.

Three of the students are already done with their own testing, and are free to leave. This only increases Lena's slow-building panic.

Lena calms herself. No one is in this room to help her. Arcana and Caelus, who know about her abilities and still let her go on with the trials, must be a fact that she can pass without activating her true powers. Caelus mentioned it is fine to show her teleportation through glass. She might have to do just that—or does she?

Looking around, Lena confirms that there are no actual supervisors apart from the bots that distributed the wristbands—they are the machines that check their completion and collect them after. That is of course excluding the possibility that the government representatives may be watching from behind the robots' cameras, but judging from the way they hover and the angle they present themselves at, it is extremely unlikely that they are under tight surveillance.

Back to the question of using her abilities, Lena's actual abilities enable her to leap through time and space across dimensions, but she's curious on how this wristband detects its activation. And since Caelus emphasised for Lena to be able to show her teleportation through glass surfaces, she can just do that as part of her true abilities to check the activation of her powers.

But that also gives her another thought that she never really entertained before.

The visions she sees are all random because she never pays them any attention or focuses her strength there—it is the passive form of her abilities. That's why the wristband doesn't pick up any signal of her using her powers. If she is to actively use her abilities by envisioning some kind of world thereby reshaping the portal she's about to teleport into...

Lena looks again at the glass mug. If her true capabilities are indeed what Arcana says it is, she will be able to manipulate these images to ones that she wants to see. Worlds she can phase through; time periods she can visit.

She thinks hard about that, and wills the so-called visions she's been calling all this time as random to change. She lets herself imagine, thinking of a different world, a universe without demons or superpowers. The current image fogs and clouds over, and gradually a different one takes its place. It's a landscape of a city, but Lena can't quite tell the details, only that her eyes are so entranced by the possible scenario—

A beep and a vibration by her wrist jerks her back to reality, and Lena nearly jumps out of her own skin. When she tries to read it, a holographic screen appears before her, and one out of three check marks are now lit green. The other two, still grey, are silently awaiting her next move.

Regaining her confidence, Lena picks up a glass pane and does the same thing, getting the second beep. She finds one last object with a glass surface and finishes her test.

With three checks, the bot comes round to congratulate her and retrieve the wristband. She is guided to the end of the room where several students are also just done and about to leave the test space. A door opens for them and they simply leave, just like the last batch of students.

Only when Lena is few corridors away does she actually let herself relax. The first part of the physical trials went better than she'd imagined; it was supposedly an easy one, but with her tricky circumstance she still managed to learn something new about her abilities. Discovering that piece of information will be vital in the upcoming challenges.

The students in Arcane Academy who were initially divided to their own four unique ability groups for the first part of the physical trials are now reconciling with each other in their respective classrooms.

Students are chatting in Class Aquila by the time Lena makes it back to her homeroom and her seat. Roen is checking out something on Sumiye's tablet; Neesha and Clarice are discussing about how their own trials went; Reyes is the centre of attention for a forming group of people including the very striking twins of their class, Mika and Rika. Even Lucifer is here, sitting in a corner, his arms resting on his inactive study desk.

The lively atmosphere is a comfortable sight as the students now await for their next instructions. The first stage was merely to confirm the students' registered Ability Type, or to officially classify new students from the other side to one particular group. In Azure Dragon's—Lena's—case, it was to make sure that as a medium type ability user, every individual was able to activate his or her abilities upon coming into contact with an object. For Black Tortoise, Roen said it was a device held over their heads, reading the presence of certain brain signals as they casted their abilities.

The first day of the trials has been concluded with the written exam and the first trials testing, as lessons will continue as usual for the rest of the day. It will be scheduled as such for the duration of the trials: half day assessments and half day classes.

Lena makes a brief eye contact with Caelus as she makes her way to her desk. He's apparently done with his own session too, already planted in his designated seat right behind hers, a traditional physical book on his otherwise empty table. His glasses are laid precariously between the fluttering pages of the book, where a soft wind passes through gently and finally breezes past Lena.

"I take your smug look as a sign that everything went well?" he asks in a light voice, only for her to hear.

"I'm not smug," Lena says defiantly.

But she does indeed have a satisfied smirk on her face as she looks to the glass window panes on her left. This part of the trials has challenged her in a way that no one else understands, and yet she has found a way. With the same mindset, she will be confidently mowing through the next sets.