Chapter 41 - Entrance Exams Part 2

"I'll change," Shu lied. If you treated him well, he returned the favor. If you wrong him, he would punish you in such a way there would never be a second time.

"Welcome to the final exam. I am your principal and Spirit Master: Arthur Hog. Welcome to the Black Lotus Academy, first place winner of the inter-academic competition, held annually, for the past three hundred and seventy four years. We accept only the best of the best. I will now conduct the final exam. Please form two lines. One to my left and one to my right," a man in a brilliant white tuxedo and black tie and hair smiled, looking as if he was in his early thirties. "Good. Now, face the person across from you, in the other line. Defeat your opponent and you pass."

Shu's opponent paled as he stepped back. Shu gave a mental command to Bahamut, who expanded to its full size. Bahamut snorted at the other boy and revealed its teeth.

"I surrender!" the boy cried as he wet himself and nine others repeated his words within the next ten minutes.

"Good. Those who lost, please wait for the next twenty to arrive who have also failed one test. You will replace the first ten and the last ten must wait for their turn. As for the ten who passed, congratulations! Please obtain one hundred sets of the uniform and patiently wait in the auditorium for the new term year address. There will be food and refreshments at the tables, if you haven't brought any of your own. Welcome to my academy. Work hard," Arthur smiled and Shu followed the nine others toward the largest building in the academy, after the library.

"HAHAHAHAHA! Welcome. Remember to vote for Boss Weiss for the position of first year representative on the student council," many thugs grinned as Lu Shu and the others entered.

Among his group, he was the only one wearing a crimson jacket. He looked around and barely a dozen wore the crimson jackets. Some students wanted to threaten him but suffered mysterious scars on their legs and ended up howling on the ground. Shu looked at his shadow and knew who had done the dead. Ten chairs were situated around each of the many round tables all over the auditorium. Based on the number of chairs and tables, Shu expected that very little more people would be passing the exams. He ate alone until a group of nine friends approached his table, four of them mages.

"Oh, a God Eater. Un, can we sit here. Other people have occupied more than one chair at the other tables," a girl asked as she, two girls, and five other boys approached him.

"Sure. I hope you don't mind my dragon and tiger cub," Shu nodded as he fed the tiger cub a piece of magical beast meat.

"Alright! Finally, a place to sit," a boy grinned and sat on a chair with a loud thud. "Name's Joey Carta. I'm a Practitioner of the third stage."

"I'm Max Underwood and this is my sister, Mary. We're both Practitioners at the peak of the third stage," one of two twins with black hair and blue eyes grinned.

"Hello. Nice to meet you," Mary bowed.

"Thank you for allowing my request. My name is Bella Hale," a brown haired girl with green eyes bowed. "I am a Practitioner of the fourth stage of the Spirit Shaman tier."

"That's Kei and Kai Yamada. They don't talk much. As you can see, one wears a gold jacket while the other wears an azure jacket. They're cousins from the same clan. Kei is a Practitioner of the fourth stage while Kai is an apprentice mage learning necromancy. However, he is specialized with poisons," Joey grinned as the two boys nodded politely.

"This guy with pale white skin and red hair is Daniel Gaunt. Kind of matches his complexion. A mage apprentice studying the fire element. The final girl is Jiyeon Choi. Normally her last name is first. She's a mage apprentice who also has a generic class of white mage. You know, healing and magic barriers and stuff. Finally, we have Geo Craven. He's a mage apprentice who comes from a long line of earth mages. We're a pretty stable group, if I say so myself," Joey grinned as the three nodded after they all sat down.

"My name is--" Shu began.

"Shu of the Lu Clan. Spirit Shaman of the fifth stage. I heard the man's burst of surprise from the gate. A lot of people have too. It's why they are staring at us. Well, you," Max interrupted and the others saw the crowd avert their gaze as they stared around.

"What's up with those thugs by the entrance. Who cares about that Weiss guy?" Joey growled as he began eating chicken legs from the table. "He somebody important?"

"I heard he's some noble's son from another country. He's at the fifth stage also. People claim he's already the best among us and is a shoo in for first year representative for the student council anyway. However, it's a vote, so he sent his followers to threaten the first years to vote for him," Geo answered. "I don't like how this academy already categorizes people, but it's the best in the continent."

"Shh! The principal is here," Jiyeon whispered as the smiling man in the white tuxedo walked onto the stage.

""Welcome and thank you all for coming to Black Lotus Academy. I am Principal Arthur Hog. We met when you all took the fifth trial. I am pleased to admit one hundred and eighty four students to my first year division! Remember, we train only the best. You may all be in the same classes, but some of you are much weaker than others. You must strive hard or might as well drop out. If you are not able to reach the eighth stage of Spirit Shaman cultivation, or cast at least ten intermediate grade magic, within fifty years; you will fail and expelled. Please begin voting for who you believe should be the first year representative in the student council and the class president who will create the first year council. They can be the same person or two different people. Note that crimson jacket bearers are not eligible. Thank you for coming and enjoy the rest of your dinner. After an hour, attendants will come in and present you a list of all your classes depending on your status and cultivation stage or tier. Please turn in your list at the administration office within the library's first floor. Thank you and enjoy the night. It is yours," Arthur bowed and left as quick as he came.

"Well that was fun. Dumplings?" Joey asked as he passed the pot of food.

"Always," Shu grinned and emptied half the basket while the others chatted about what classes to take.

"Hmm? We're not going to the same dorms?" Joey asked as they had neglected to vote at all after receiving a personal list for what classes they were eligible for.

"The first years may take some of the same classes, but where you live is based on your cultivation. For mages, this rule does not apply," Bella said. "It was in the student handbook. Didn't you guys get one from the auditorium?"

"Nope," Joey asked.

"They had a handbook?" Geo laughed.

"Did you know?" Kei asked Kai.

"I was with you. How would I know?" Kai answered Kei.

"We didn't know," Max and Mary answered in unison, chuckling at the coincidence.

"I got one. So did Daniel," Jiyeon nodded while Daniel waved it before stuffing it in his storage bag.

"Let's go Bahamut. Later guys. Watch out for that Weiss guy," Shu warned as he rode atop Bahamut as it enlarged.

As Shu arrived at his dorm, he went to the man in the office on the first floor and got his dorm room key. He asked if there were first year through fiftieth year students living in the dorm. The man had laughed and told him that classifications stopped after the first year and you were assigned either by your magic specialty or your cultivation stage and pick your classes from there. The first years was always the introductory phase to allow students to assimilate to academy life and the dorms.

Most people didn't bother to attend their classes as they were not mandatory. It was best to take a class that you needed lessons on. Each class was everyday, save the weekends. At most, people took eight classes, two hours each, or just one class that they really needed. Everyone only had one class that they could all take together: The History of the Academy. Everything else was based on whether they were Practitioners or mages. However, all those classes were for beginners. You had the option to take a class at a higher level if you wished.

Shu browsed through the application form as he entered his room. He saw only one bed and assumed he had no roommate. He went back to the office to request for items for his room and paid for it with a few gold. Later, both Bahamut and his tiger cub were sleeping in their own beds as Lu Shu lit a lamp and began reading as his window ha a view of the moon. He had learned a lot under the Bone Demon, or Overseer, and didn't see a point to going to classes on the darkness, lightning, and water affinities.

He found a class he need to know called Essence of the Soul: Intermediate Studies. The class talked about Mystic Stones, how they developed, what spirit reactors did, and other pieces of knowledge. One very crucial piece of information he learned was that the soul had condensation levels. The higher the level, the more powerful the soul, the less spirit energy one consumed on average. From the description, it said that the soul was bound to only nine levels and had nothing to do with their cultivation except allow the Practitioner to absorb spirit energy more easily.

It one broke to the tenth level of soul condensation, then he defied the Heavens. Instead of an ocean of water in the Mystic Stone, the Practitioner would have an ocean of stars. According to the class description, he had reached the second stage of the soul: the soul ocean. Most people stopped here as most enemies focused on using material attacks. However, Lu Shu had already fused the Eclipse Indestructible Body technique to his body, making all attacks from people below him useless, save for those soul attacks and weapons with special properties. Shu decided to focus on condensing his soul and not waste time thinking about what magical armor he had to wear. After checking the box next to the class title, he laid back and began to sleep.