SOUL FORGE CHRONICLES
Chapter 4 — Three Essentials of a Sorcery Student
Killing and Entrance Exam.
Two seemingly unrelated words, combined together, made Aldric feel that this world was truly strange.
"An entrance exam that requires killing? Where did you see that?"
Aldric was somewhat suspicious this was a joke. What kind of academy needed a group of killers as its students?
Elara, still sobbing, handed the admission handbook to Aldric. Just then, the magic lamp in the room lit up, and Aldric — who had now learned the sorcerer's script — used its light to open the page Elara had folded.
The page read:
Before entering the academy, prospective sorcery students must participate in the entrance examination known as the "Race to Death," the contents of which are as follows:
Each prospective sorcery student will receive one crystal ball and seven bottles of nutrient potion, each capable of replacing one day's worth of food, at the start of the examination. Prospective sorcery students must arrive at the designated academy location within fourteen days, carrying at least two crystal balls.
Those who do not have enough crystal balls or fail to arrive within the fourteen-day time limit will be disqualified from admission.
Note: The academy does not provide repatriation services. If disqualified, students must return to their place of origin on their own.
Aldric tossed the handbook back to Elara, then climbed to his own bunk and opened the same page.
The contents were identical.
This was not a joke.
"This will be difficult," Aldric muttered, closing his handbook.
He didn't understand why the academy went through the trouble of gathering prospective students, transporting them by airship, only to eliminate half of them with an entrance exam like this.
But he knew one thing for certain — that question was pointless now. He was already on the airship.
What he needed now was a way to pass the entrance exam.
Among the prospective sorcery students here were lower-class farmers and upper-class nobles. Most commoners, like Aldric, were malnourished and thin-bodied. The nobles, on the other hand, had strong bodies and had been trained in martial arts since childhood.
"Every noble is a knight" — this saying was widespread throughout the Kingdom of Valdenmoor and was considered one of the pillars of noble governance.
In the Kingdom of Valdenmoor, knighthood was more than just a title. It was a symbol of personal strength.
Every knight was a tough, trained individual who wore full armor and could swing a massive two-handed sword with surprising speed.
Furthermore, in Valdenmoor, a noble title could only be inherited by a knight. Therefore, even if a noble's descendants had questionable character or ordinary intelligence, their physical abilities — honed since childhood — far surpassed those of ordinary commoners.
Competing against a group like that, Aldric and his fellow commoners practically had no hope of survival.
"Impossible. If the academy is willing to accept commoners, they wouldn't intend to let them die without a fighting chance."
Aldric's thoughts raced. He immediately picked up the three books provided by the academy.
A magic academy wouldn't waste energy designing an exam that commoners had absolutely no way of passing. There must be something prepared to bridge that gap.
Aldric spread all three books across his bunk — the sorcerer's dictionary, the admission handbook, and the last one, with a straightforward title:
"How to Become a Sorcery Student."
Aldric touched the cover of the book.
[Material: "How to Become a Sorcery Student"]
[Extractable Information: Basic Meditation, Mana Flow Construction, Four Basic Incantations]
[Extraction Cost: 7 Mental Energy]
[Extract Now?]
"Extract."
...
At one end of the airship, in the sorcerers' private rest cabin.
"Eriel, how many students do you think will survive this time?"
Mordecai gazed at the sea of clouds outside the window. The airship was flying at an altitude of about two thousand meters — from here, the sea of clouds looked like an endless white landmass.
"A little over four thousand. This year they cancelled the exchange of crystal balls for magic stones, so no one should be deliberately hunting them."
Beside Mordecai, Eriel — the large-bodied woman who always held her massive sword — leaned against the cabin wall casually.
"I heard the Dean suffered heavy losses in the interdimensional war and needs to increase the number of sorcerers as much as possible. These students are truly fortunate!"
Mordecai let out a long sigh.
Once upon a time, he too had been a ruthless figure who had fought his way up from among the apprentice students. But he had failed to advance in his cultivation and was forever barred from becoming a true sorcerer. Now he could only make a living by working for the academy.
Seeing these young prospective students, Mordecai — who was over a hundred years old — always found himself thinking of his younger self.
"By the way, where has Marlo gone? I haven't seen him," asked Mordecai.
"Some of the young ones in this group are quite clever. They pooled some magic stones and invited him to give a lecture on meditation."
"Oh?" Mordecai was slightly surprised. "Isn't that breaking the rules?"
Eriel shrugged. "If you don't tell and I don't tell, how would the higher-ups at the academy know? Besides, the kids spent magic stones — that follows the principle of equal exchange. Even if the academy found out, they'd just praise the kids for being clever."
But Mordecai shook his head.
"The teaching materials written by the Dean are already clear and simple enough. If they can't learn from that level of instruction, then even if they get in, they're just waiting for death."
He paused, gazing at the sea of clouds outside the window.
"The path to truth must ultimately be walked alone. They might succeed by taking shortcuts for a while — but can they take shortcuts for their entire lives?"
...
Room 225.
Aldric sat cross-legged on his bunk, trying to calm his mind.
Having absorbed the essence of "How to Become a Sorcery Student" through the Soul Forge, Aldric now fully understood the theoretical knowledge of meditation.
Meditation, at its core, was the fundamental practice of a sorcerer.
Its primary function was to help sorcerers increase and recover their spiritual power.
"The three essentials of becoming a sorcery student are: connecting to the Soul Sea, constructing the Mana Flow, and carving mana runes. The most difficult of all is connecting to the Soul Sea."
Following the information now stored in his mind, Aldric diligently adjusted his condition.
According to the book, the stronger a person's Aether Resonance, the easier it was to connect to the Soul Sea. Once connected, a person's meditation was already halfway to success.
Aldric began carving runes in his spiritual world.
There were three runes for basic meditation. The moment Aldric finished carving the last one, his soul suddenly felt as though it had detached from his body — and fell into a bottomless abyss.
The abyss was silent and desolate. Time and space seemed to completely disappear.
Aldric's soul drifted in that void for an unmeasurable amount of time. Boredom, loneliness, and fear flooded his heart like a rising tide that never stopped.
But he endured it all.
This was the necessary path to the Soul Sea.
Finally, after a descent that felt like eternity, Aldric's soul touched something.
The Soul Sea.
In an instant, an endless starry sky unfolded before him.
"The Soul Sea mirrors the material world. Every plane of the material world is a star in the Soul Sea. This magnificent sight has influenced every sorcerer who has ever seen it, which is why sorcerers came to call the material world the Astral Plane."
Notes from the book flashed through Aldric's mind. In this moment, his thoughts seemed to overlap with the thoughts of thousands of sorcerers throughout the ages who had once stood in this very same place.
"It's truly beautiful," Aldric whispered.
He began leaving his mark on the Soul Sea — a sign that would make it easier for him to reconnect here in the future.
"What mark should I leave?"
Aldric gazed at the endless starry sky. Suddenly, a wave of loneliness washed over him without warning.
Alone in a foreign world. A stranger in a strange land. Every time he looked at the stars, the longing for the world he had left behind grew more real.
Aldric used his spiritual power to create a pen — then slowly drew a five-pointed star on the surface of the Soul Sea.
Simple. But it was a symbol of the world he had left behind.
After completing everything, Aldric's mind began to drift slowly.
Basic meditation technique could only keep him in the Soul Sea for so long. If he wanted to stay longer and explore further, he would need to find a higher-level meditation method.
A few seconds later, his consciousness returned to the material world.
Aldric slowly opened his eyes.
Without realizing it, he had completed the most difficult and most important step in the journey to becoming a true sorcerer.
— End of Chapter 4 —