"Enter in the same files. Don't break your rows and columns. And don't push the others around you. It's nothing scary so don't be afraid while entering the portal. You aren't going to feel nauseous! This isn't a warp portal even though it somewhat resembles it!"
I had already said goodbyes to Rein so we returned back to the line that I was in.
There were many students around her but there weren't more than fifty of them.
'There were thousands of students in the academy right now and if not even fifty of them were giving the test alongside us right now— a sight that would be common in every test zone.'
There are never more than fifty people in one testing room present throughout the academy.
The headmaster arranged things properly before making the various test points, and all of the testing places had a meaning to them.
He took into consideration various aspects and variables that could affect the smooth transition of the tests, so the fact that they were having any kind of difficulty because of the places just showed how even the headmaster wasn't a perfect being.
'Even someone like him could not foresee a few things. And truthfully, it was inevitable.'
This wasn't something big though so, things will go well in that place.
"Good luck, vice captain."
The teacher in charge smirked at me as if he was looking forward to what crazy things I would show them, and, well, he wasn't the only teacher that had given me that kind of look in since this morning.
Bowing to the teacher, I entered the blue swirling portal with starry elements of condensed Mana particles present all over it.
It was pretty much the same experience as entering a warp portal, but unlike the sensation of my entire body twisting and decomposing, what I felt while crossing this portal was something similar to Rein's shadow travel.
'We moved through a medium while maintaining the physical structure of our bodies.'
When one enters the warp portal or even the 'gate' that we had in the tower, one's entire body structure decomposes and the elements inside their body separate into the smallest forms.
'These smallest forms aren't Mana particles, but a wave-like structure that we could compare with the waveform of the light.'
This process is not only sophisticated but something dangerous and there is always a risk to one's life.
That's why the mages maintaining the warp portals always cast a unique protection spell on the travellers during the warp travels.
These barriers protect their bodies from falling apart completely. And, though those with a Mana nucleus or control over other special energies don't need these protection spells, it's always good to take precautions.
'I cast a spell on everyone whenever we travel through the warp portals. However, we don't need something like that when we travel with the help of Rein's skills.'
One's body doesn't fall apart when she uses the shadow travel skill.
The body simply becomes one with the shadow or we can say that the entire body submerges with a certain element.
'There are various elemental travel skills where one uses the elements present all over nature as a medium for travels.'
Even the new skill {Light steps} that I have works on a similar principle… just that the area that this skill can cover is nothing compared to the vast area that her skill could cover.
'Her skill is practically like a risk free teleportation ability.'
Something I genuinely wish to have one day…
But, well, being greedy wasn't a good thing.
"Hmmm. So this is the first gate."
I was standing before the very first door after passing through the unique portal of the headmaster.
All around me was an empty space that resembled a starry night and I was standing on a white platform that didn't have anything special about it.
There was one door before me, and that was it.
After I pass through that door, as the teachers had instructed, I will reach the junction connecting all the other rooms.
I'll have to find my own desk room there… but that can wait.
[{ *Yes master. It's as you thought.* }]
When they first told us that we would return back to this place after going through a wrong door in the door junction, a thought crossed my mind.
'Why would we even have to go through an extra door to get to where our designated test areas were.'
The testing process for all tests are different so there was no way any of us would have known about this door thing, but at least, the door junction part was common every time.
'Usually, one had to pass an extra test question before they start with the question papers in some of the cases.'
One just knows when they are presented with those questions so, this time as well, many of the other students might have caught up to this strange extra door thing.
'This place was the question itself.'
The door before me, this white platform, the stars around me, the question was hidden in all these things and, even though not many might be able to notice it, I knew for certain that there would be at least ten among the fifty that would know what these things were pointing towards.
'This is a magic theory paper so the question should also be related to magic theory.'
And what better way was there to hide the question than an extra door with starry surrounds and a door with various geometric patterns.
'This will be interesting…'
There was a question hidden somewhere in these patterns of the door, or the white platform under me, or somewhere in these stars like twinkling things before me.
'There was a chance that there were multiple questions hidden here and I'll have to solve for all of them.'
And Lucy had figured that much out already.
But, she wasn't the one giving the exam here.
There was thankfully no time limit before entering the testing room so, I had all the time I wanted in this special space with slowed flow of time.