The Greatest Sinner

When Evan arrived in the hall, the exam was far from the end. At this point, there were only about half of the students there. Even considering the speed with which Draven handled the applicants, there would still be quite a long wait.

Evan sat in the back row and thought to himself: <Sana bragged about what a good teacher she had, I wonder who will be my teacher?>

Evan was a loner and liked to act solely on his own volition, but he knew he needed a wise mentor. A good teacher could help Evan to become stronger and teach him how to overcome obstacles. Evan needed the experience and knowledge of someone who had already seen a lot in this world.

Of course, Zak was such a person too, but Mossy Vulture and its surroundings were not suited to self-improvement. The Academy of Magic with a huge library, assignments, teachers, and locations filled with monsters was just what Evan needed.

<Luckily, I`ve become an "Inner student", so my situation should be better than the others. I wonder what's going to happen next? Will we finally officially become the disciples?>

<The examiner was very strong, hopefully I will soon reach the same level and surpass him. By the way, why did he say "nightmare" when he announced my time?>

Evan thought that the more the student lasted the more Draven praised him, but did the word "nightmare" sound like a praise?

While Evan pondered what would happen next, the exam went at its usual pace. Most of the students didn't last ten seconds, but the number of persons who reached ten seconds was much higher than it was before.

In fact, the fewer participants remained, the more likely it was that one of them would become an "Inner student". Observing the fights of others and analyzing their mistakes, talented young people could learn a lot.

For the same reason, Enni, who was the first to last ten seconds, attracted a lot of attention. This time she was a trailblazer, showing others that it was possible.

"I hope it won't be long now." Evan muttered quietly.

...

A few hours later, the hall was already full of students, which meant that the exam should have been over by now.

Click.

The doors opened and Draven, with already short white hair, stepped confidently into the hall. There were no other teachers, except him.

Draven stood in front of the students and calmly said: "Each of you has already passed the exam, but you will not officially become the students of "The Last Moon" until tomorrow ceremony. There you will meet the head of this academy and receive your mantles and emblems. The ceremony will be held tomorrow at one o'clock in the amphitheater. At seven in the morning, each of you will be given a list of teachers who want to take you on as the students. That`s all."

After these words, Draven left the hall, and the students were taken to their rooms. Of course, after the ceremony, they would have to find a place to live in the city, in one of the three zones, but before the ceremony, they would be allowed to stay one day at the academy.

Evan, like everyone else, was taken to their temporary housing. Those who`d passed their exams and became the "Inner students" were given their own room. The others had to share their personal space with other people.

Click.

The door closed and Evan said quietly: "A whole room just for me alone, not bad, but it`s a pity there's nothing interesting here."

Evan wanted to wander around the academy, but, unfortunately, he had been warned it was best to stay in the room until tomorrow, as he was not yet a student at the academy.

<Okay, anyway I'll find everything out tomorrow. I wonder how many teachers will want to take me as a student?>

Evan realized that his timing and combat were at a pretty high level. He was counting on it to pay off.

<And what am I supposed to do here?> Evan thought to himself looking at the empty room with a single bed in the corner.

He had two options - to go to bed or to spend a few hours for "Creating". The test and exam lasted a very long time, the sun had long since set over the horizon.

"Okay, let's not waste any time." Mumbled Evan and sat down on the floor, in the middle of the room.

He didn't want to sleep, so Evan decided to infuse mana into the fifth chain, at least as much as he could.

...

Knock. Knock. Knock.

In the morning Evan heard a ringing knock on the door. He hardly woke up and walked sleepily to the door.

<Is it really 7:00 in the morning?> Evan thought to himself. He had been "Creating" until late at night, so he felt like he had slept very little.

Evan opened the door and to his surprise saw Golem behind the door, it looked pretty much like a human, but there were still obvious differences.

Golem beckoned Evan with his hand and headed further down the hall. Evan was confused, according to Draven at seven o'clock in the morning, they were supposed to get a list of teachers, but instead a strange Golem came to him.

After thinking for a while, the young man shrugged and followed Golem. It wasn't hard to guess that Golem had been summoned by one of the teachers and given Golem's gesture, Evan clearly had to follow it.

<Hmm? What's going on?">. Walking past the rooms of the other students Evan realized that no one had come for them.

<Besides me, there are several other students following Golems, including Enni.> Evan thought to himself looking in a distance the girl he knew.

Also, there were Kent, Lars and other young men who`d lasted ten seconds or more, following Golems.

Evan didn't know everyone who had passed the exam, but he quickly realized that the Golems only came to those who had become the "Inner student".

<Where are they taking us? And why so early? The others are definitely still asleep>.

While Evan was thinking, their relatively small group was taken to a huge room, deep underground. It was unbelievably huge, about as big as ten of the arena he'd been in not too long ago. The room was also completely empty, there was nothing but dusty earth.

But, this place was similar to the arena in some ways, there were also spectator seats, located on the left side. Evan was surprised because there was no one there, they seemed to be the only ones there.

Whoosh.

Suddenly the air near the spectator seats began to distort. The barrier slowly disappeared and the outlines of numerous silhouettes began to take shape behind it.

After a while, the students saw a large number of mages. They were the teachers of all ranks. Teachers in white mantles were the most numerous, and they sat behind everyone else. The closer the seats were, the higher the rank of the teacher was.

On the front row sat exclusively teachers of the fourth rank in gray mantles, one of whom was Draven.

But, one person was significantly different from the others. She was a tall girl with pitch-black hair, pale skin, and green eyes. She was wearing a black mantle, unlike the others. It was the head of "The Last Moon" - Arabella Velner.