The Mage of Primordial Chaos

Once we received our papers, we immediately turned them over and began working on them. The first subject would be math.

Hm… this isn't all that hard. Just some advanced functions and calculus here and there…

I was able to breeze through it with ease, since it was actually easier than I had originally expected. Hell, Lan Xiao Su gave the other girls and I harder practice quizzes than this. Still, I made sure to double-check all my answers and nearly exhausting my time before finally handing it in.

The papers were quite long, so just like that, half our morning was gone. We were given a five minute break to do whatever we wanted — last-minute cramming for the next subject's exam, use the bathroom, discuss answers for the previous exam… whatever. Speaking of, through our discussion, we discovered that none of the girls nor I had gotten different answers from one another, which meant we either all got everything right or we all got everything wrong. Hopefully, the former.

The next subject to be tested on was Language. That was slightly harder than math for me since I've never really talked much until recently, but I could still guarantee a 90 or higher. 

After Language came lunch break. It was about as long as any other normal school day, but upon returning to the classroom, we would be faced with more exams. We decided to just eat in the cafeteria for today to make it easier to return to the classrooms and avoid being late.

During lunch, however, a certain someone came to see us — me, in particular.

"Heya~ Xuan Kai~" 

"… Qian Hua."

Immediately, the girls around me went on guard, staring at the newcomer skeptically. Her presence also attracted the attention of pretty much the whole cafeteria, causing them to direct their gazes at me even more so than they already were what with the girls and all.

"Do you mind if I… join you?" She asked, smiling innocently.

"If you really need to talk to me, sure," I replied calmly. "But if not, then I have exams to get ready for."

"Hm." Qian Hua glanced around for a bit, then pulled a chair from a nearby table and dragged it to ours so that she was sitting facing me. Sighing internally, I discretely put up a sound barrier around us to prevent anyone from hearing the contents of our conversation.

"I just want to know…" She began, resting her chin on her hand. "How you will play going forward, having lost two members of your class."

"… Do you have to check in with me every time something like this happens?" I challenged. "Why can't you just sit back and spectate quietly?"

"Hm… let's just say you interest me, Xuan Kai. I've never met someone like you before, and I'm eager to know more about you."

"Please stop. That can be taken the wrong way," Feng Mian interrupted coldly.

"We don't need another girl fighting over him…" Yu An Yan muttered quietly.

"Fufu~ but I am genuinely curious," Qian Hua argued. "I am a very stubborn girl. When I want to find out about something — or someone — nobody can stop me."

She seemed to be hinting at something far more lethal behind her words, something enough to make me cautious.

"… Is that a threat?" I asked darkly.

"Nope~" She responded in a carefree tone. "Just a mere statement."

"Well… you can try to pry at me more, but I won't tell you anything," I replied, closing my eyes. "I will fulfill my side of our deal, no matter the odds. When we made the agreement, you never said anything about me having to tell you every move I make. Thus, I have no obligation to tell you anything. We are strangers who formed a simple deal. Nothing more."

"… That's fair, I suppose. But when I'm curious about something, I won't stop until I find the answer. So… you'll have to be prepared for a lot of nagging from me."

"Go for it. But you'll just get ignored."

"Fufu~ we'll see about that."

With a soft giggle, she left, the scent of her perfume still tickling my nose.

How much did she use…? I can smell the other girls' as well, but they aren't half as prominent…

*****

After lunch, we returned to our classrooms to continue writing exams. First came Science, then History, and finally Geography. Rather than two hours like Math and Language, we were only given one for each of these subjects due to the shorter length of the tests.

None of them were too hard, but now, it was time for the final subject test — Magic.

"Class… put your pens away and follow me to the courtyard…" Ms. Cai muttered, lazily getting up from her chair and heading for the door. "It's time for the final exam… yawn…"

Everyone got up from their seats and followed after the teacher, who led the class out through the main entrance of the campus and arrived at the front yard, where a massive black obelisk lay.

"Uh… what is this?" Han Xiao Bing, the arrogant kid, immediately asked in confusion.

"Sigh… basically, you hit that thing with everything you have… if it reaches a green level, which should be around the middle… you pass. If you score below that, you fail… and if you get higher, congratulations, you are a talent…"

The other classes had also gathered here, having finished the rest of their exams. But there was only one obelisk, so everyone had to go one at a time.

"An Ting!" Class A's teacher shouted as a timid girl got out of line and stepped forward. "According to alphabetical order, you are going first. You can hit that obelisk with any spell you want, just give it everything you have."

It seems like Class A would be going first, then B, then C, and finally D. That made sense.

The timid girl, An Ting, walked up to the towering obelisk and closed her eyes. Going first couldn't have been easy, especially with everyone watching. She took a few deep breaths, then snapped open her eyes.

"Level Three Fire Magic — Crimson Scorch!"

She swung her arms in front of her as two crescent-shaped barrages of flames shot out of her hands, striking the obelisk.

BOOM!

A loud explosion ensued, causing smoke to rise up into the air.

"…" The girl bit her lip anxiously, then finally sighed in relief as the smoke dispersed.

Before her, the obelisk had lit up from the bottom up to the middle. The bottom was red, to orange, to yellow, to finally green. She had passed.

After that, she returned to the line and the next person went, also succeeding. From this, I judged the threshold to not be too hard to reach. But that said… there was yet to be someone to pass the green section and be considered 'a talent'.

That is, until Ming Hao came along.

He walked up to the obelisk calmly, then raised his hand into the air with a smirk on his face.

"Legendary Gravity Magic — Moonfall!"

A crescent moon appeared above the obelisk, then sent a pummel of light down as Ming Hao slammed his palm into the ground.

The entire earth shook as the moon's energy hit the black slab of rock with a loud, explosive noise. Immediately, the various levels of the obelisk lit up, starting from red, to orange, to yellow, to green.

He had already passed with ease, but the lights continued to going.

The stage above green slowly lit up — blue. And then… one stage higher, just barely, purple.

"Hm…" Ming Hao rose up and glanced at his results, as if dissatisfied. "It would've been more powerful at night… oh well."

On his way back, he shot me a meaningful glance, then chuckled and turned away. Multiple gazes followed him, impressed.

He never told me he could use Legendary Magic too… looks like that was a little surprise he had for me.

After him, no one else managed to reach that result. Both Xu Lian from Class B and Si Ye from Class C reached the Blue rank, but not purple.

And finally, it was our class's turn.

Amane, whose name was higher up on the alphabetical list, went first. Since she was empowered by my Chaos, her results were nothing short of extraordinary.

"Legendwary Space Magic — Weality Wend!"

Her pronunciation was somewhat scuffed, but the cast worked nonetheless. An invisible slash able to tear space itself shot out of her hand and struck the obelisk. Unfortunately, it wasn't able to break through, but it did reach a power level of purple just like Ming Hao.

In my opinion, she should've used a different spell if she wanted to score as high as possible, but it's not like there were extra rewards or anything. 

In the end, I made up my mind to just hit green and leave it be to not attract any unwanted attention.