Oliver took a deep breath and walked toward the crystal.
His name had already been called. There was nowhere to run.
The closer he got, the more his legs felt like they did not belong to him.
His heart beat so loudly it almost drowned out the noise of the plaza.
He stepped into the open space in front of the crystal, trying to steady his breathing.
Just as he took one more step forward, his foot landed on a loose stone.
His heel slipped, his body lurched, and before he could even curse, he was already flying forward and rolling across the ground like a sack thrown down a slope.
He tumbled like a sack thrown down a hill, arms flailing, and the next moment his forehead smashed into the crystal.
BAM!!!
The bag at his waist swung up with him and crashed into the crystal at the same time.
The plaza went silent for a breath.
Then the laughter exploded.
"Hahahaha!"
"He really fell!"
"Now I know why he's a troublemaker!"
Some students bent over, holding their stomachs.
A few even slapped their thighs. Even several instructors had their lips twitching.
At the edge of the plaza, Fiona's fingers tightened slightly on the fox's fur.
Her expression did not change, but she could not look away.
"…Idiot," she whispered, her eyes locked on Oliver, a trace of worry hidden deep inside.
On the ground, Oliver felt his head buzzing. The pain from his forehead was sharp, but it was still bearable.
What was not bearable was the scream that exploded inside his skull a moment later.
"AAAAHHHH! FUCK! THE HELL IS THIS PAIN!!!" Ethan's voice roared directly in his mind.
To Ethan, it felt as if a blade had pierced straight through his soul.
It did not cut flesh, it did not cut bone; it went past all that and stabbed into the core of his being.
Compared to being killed by a falling sandal, this pain was on a completely different level.
Oliver heard that scream as if someone had suddenly shouted right beside his brain.
His vision went white, and he screamed back without thinking.
"AAAHHH!"
To everyone watching, it simply looked like a boy who had hit his head was now rolling on the ground and wailing loudly.
Laughter grew even louder.
"Troublemaker Oliver, as expected."
"What a crybaby."
The instructor in charge frowned.
"Quiet," he barked.
The laughter died down, leaving only a few scattered chuckles.
At that moment, the crystal moved.
A brilliant light burst out from its core, far brighter than any previous test.
It was not a simple earth-yellow, nor pure fire-red, nor a calm blue.
Countless colors mixed and twisted together, surging like a flood that had broken its banks.
The plaza fell silent again.
Inside the crystal, lines of light raced madly, sometimes gold, sometimes blue, sometimes red, even a strange darkness that flashed and vanished.
It was as if the crystal had sensed something, but could not decide what it was.
At the base, the ring of ten segments appeared. All ten lit up in an instant.
A second ring tried to form, its outline flickering as light forced its way through.
Above the crystal, halos of light began to appear.
At first there was only one ring, thin and faint. Then a second took shape beside it, followed by a third.
The students began counting in low voices, eyes shining, but before they could finish whispering "three," a fourth ring had already formed, then a fifth, then a sixth and seventh in quick succession.
The air above the crystal piling up crowns of light one after another.
"It reached seven already…"
The crystal did not stop.
An eighth halo squeezed out, then a ninth, and by the time the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth appeared, some people could no longer see where one ring ended and the next began.
The whole stack of halos trembled, so bright it almost hurt to look directly at it.
"Twelve rings… is that not a bit too much…"
"Is that even possible? Isn't the record ten?"
Just as everyone thought it would keep climbing forever, several halos suddenly dimmed together.
The twelve rings shook, light collapsing inward.
Three of them shattered and vanished on the spot, leaving only nine crooked halos spinning weakly above the crystal, as if it had changed its mind halfway.
"Nine?"
"Did it fail?"
Before anyone could decide whether nine was good or bad, the halos trembled again. Light surged from the crystal like boiling water.
From nine, another ring forced its way out, then another, then another.
Ten, eleven, twelve. Thirteen, fourteen, fifteen.
In the blink of an eye, fifteen halos were stacked above the crystal, some blazing, some flickering, the whole scene looking less like a dignified test and more like a crystal that had forgotten how to count.
The plaza fell completely silent.
Even the instructors and headmaster were stunned.
At that moment, a sharp cracking sound echoed.
Fine lines crawled across the crystal's surface, spreading in all directions like a web, and in just a few breaths the entire structure was covered in cracks.
"The assessment crystal…" Helena the headmaster whispered, her face turning ugly.
"This is impossible," another muttered. "In all the years since the academy founding…"
He did not finish.
With a clear, ringing sound, the crystal shattered completely.
It did not fall in heavy chunks. It broke into countless tiny dust that hung in the air for a brief breath.
Those sparkling dust spun once, then scattered, drifting through the plaza like a thin, shining mist before fading into nothing.
Everyone stared, no one spoke.
Even the nobles who had been laughing earlier forgot how to breathe.
Up in the air, Helena's expression finally changed.
Her usual calm and dignified look was nowhere to be seen.
Her brows tightened, her eyes narrowed, and for the first time since she appeared, she looked truly unsettled.
"The assessment crystal…" she muttered,.
That crystal was not some cheap tool that could be replaced at will.
From the founding of the Royal Academy of Asteria IX until today, they had only ever had this one.
It had never failed, never cracked, never even shown a flaw, no matter how many generations of students it had tested.
And now, in front of all these new students and parents, it had shattered and scattered like dust.
On the ground, Oliver slowly pushed himself up.
He stared at the empty space where the crystal had been, his mouth slightly open, not quite able to understand what he had just seen.
Inside the bag, Ethan was still curled up in pain.
His consciousness was a complete mess. He had no idea what had just happened outside.
High above, Helena took a slow breath, forcing her expression to calm again.
"It seems," she said, "that our assessment crystal has encountered… a problem."
That choice of words made several instructors twitch.
If the halos had simply risen to nine or ten and stayed there, they might have believed a peerless genius had appeared.
But halos jumping up and down, from twelve to nine, then to fifteen like a drunk storyteller counting with his toes, and finally the crystal exploding into dust… no one here could bring themselves to say that result was "normal."
In their eyes, the only reasonable answer was that the crystal had malfunctioned.
"The original test cannot continue," Helena said. "However, the academy will not cancel the assessment."
She looked over the sea of faces below.
"From this moment, we will change to a different method.
You will be sent into the outer Forest of Beasts.
Within the time limit, those who can hunt at least one magical beast and bring back proof will pass. Those who cannot will be eliminated."
The plaza stirred.
"Into the forest?"
"Hunt magical beasts? Now?"
"We did not even bring proper weapons…"
Helena raised a hand and pressed the noise back down.
"Because this test is sudden," she continued, "you are allowed to cooperate with one another.
Form temporary teams if you wish. But remember this clearly. The number and strength of the beasts you hunt will affect your evaluation.
The more you accomplish, the better the treatment you will receive after entering the academy."
Her tone did not change, but the meaning was simple.
If you only barely pass, do not dream of special resources.
She did not wait for their answers.
She snapped her fingers.
Six bolts of lightning fell from the clear sky and struck the ground around the crowd, each one landing at a different point.
The stone plaza did not shatter. Instead, light crawled outward from each impact, lines of runes spreading and connecting.
In the blink of an eye, the six points joined together, forming a huge magic circle under everyone's feet.
Runes lit up one after another, lines of light weaving into a complex pattern.
The students looked down and their hearts sank.
A free, riskless test that only required touching a crystal had somehow turned into an exam where they had to hunt beasts in the wild, with no preparation, no proper equipment, no time to even make any plan.
The more they realized this, the more their gazes shifted.
One after another, they turned their heads and stared at Oliver.
If before, some had laughed, some had found him funny, and some had only watched with curiosity, now almost everyone looked at him with the same thing in their eyes.
You caused this!
"It is all because of that troublemaker…"
"He broke the crystal."
"Why did he have to slam his head into it? Could he not just touch it like a normal person?"
"If I die in the forest, I will haunt him."
Oliver felt those stares fall on him like arrows.
He wanted to cry, but no tears came.
'I did not break it on purpose,' he screamed in his heart.
'I am innocent. It broke by itself. I am also a victim here!'
The runes under their feet grew brighter.
Mana in the air thickened, pressing on their skin.
Helena's voice sounded one last time over the plaza.
"During the assessment, we will be observing. Every action you take will be recorded.
Killing each other is strictly forbidden.
Anyone who attempts it will be judged as having failed and will be dealt with as an enemy of the academy."
She paused, letting the words sink in.
"Now," she said, "your test begins."
The magic circle flared.
Light rose from the ground, wrapping around the students' legs and climbing upward.
Vision blurred. The plaza, the towers, and the gathered nobles all twisted and faded like mist.
In the next instant, Oliver, Fiona, Cedric, and all the other new students vanished from the plaza.