Alchemist or Cultivator?

Chapter 2

Walking into the talent assessment hall felt like entering another world.

The inside was far larger than Rayn had expected. The ceiling rose so high that it seemed to disappear into the distance, while the great dome above shimmered with countless points of light that looked almost like real stars. The sight made the entire place feel vast enough to swallow a person whole. Rayn could not help feeling small beneath it.

Yet the hall was not empty. Strange devices stood across the spacious floor in neat sections, each one giving off a different kind of energy. Some were made from crystal, others from metal or stone, and several were covered in complicated runes that glowed softly along their surfaces.

Academy staff moved among the young apprentices, directing them into separate lines. Each group was sent toward a different testing station, and before long, the hall became a steady stream of nervous students moving from one assessment to another.

“Spiritual Power Intensity Test, next!”

The low-level wizard calling out the names had a deep voice with an unusual resonance. Even though the hall was enormous, every word carried clearly across the room and reached even those standing far from the testing area.

Rayn joined the line and studied the devices around him as he advanced. Most of them were completely unfamiliar. The first station held a huge crystal sphere filled with blue light. Each candidate placed a hand against its surface, and the crystal responded according to the strength of that person’s spiritual power. The stronger the power, the brighter the sphere became. A rune-lit plaque beside it then displayed the final value.

He looked nervous as he placed his hand against the crystal. For several seconds, nothing seemed to happen. Then a weak blue glow appeared inside the sphere, so faint that Rayn almost missed it.

The plaque displayed “2.”

The boy’s face lost what little color it had. When the staff member motioned for him to leave, he lowered his head and walked away without saying anything.

“Sea of Spirit Depth Test, next!”

At the second station stood an old stone platform. It looked plain at first, but countless intricate runes had been carved across its surface. Candidates had to sit on the platform and send their spiritual power into it. The runes would illuminate layer by layer, and the number of completed layers represented the depth of their sea of spirit.

The plaque displayed “Depth Scale 3.”

She bit her lips tightly. Her eyes had turned slightly red by the time she rose from the platform and left the station.

“Soul Purity Test!”

“Elemental Affinity Test!”

“Spiritual Power Refinement Degree Test!”

“Willpower Test!”

Rayn eventually reached the Spiritual Power Refinement Degree test.

The machine before him resembled a large metal star. Its many sections formed a complicated circular pattern, with a shallow groove at the center where the candidate was expected to place a hand.

The apprentices ahead of Rayn took turns touching the center. Light spread from their hands across the metal disc, but most of the patterns they produced were loose and uneven. The glow traveled outward slowly before stopping at a fairly low scale.

“Next, Rayn!”

The young wizard responsible for the station gave him a brief glance before pointing toward the center of the device.

He immediately brought the Inner Cycle method to its highest level. His body became like a sealed world, keeping his true power from connecting with the energy outside him.

Rayn placed his right hand into the groove.

The central rune lit up, and a line of light began spreading across the star disc. Most candidates had produced loose, scattered patterns. Rayn’s result was completely different. His spiritual power gathered into a narrow, focused beam that moved straight along the scale.

One scale… two scales… three scales… incredibly fast!

The wizard beside the machine showed a brief hint of surprise. Reaching three scales this quickly already placed Rayn above most of the candidates who had been tested around him.

The light continued upward.

Four scales… five scales…

Six scales!

The glow finally settled at the sixth mark, filling the center of the device with a restrained but striking brilliance.

The wizard in charge looked genuinely impressed. He glanced up at Rayn as though he had not expected this particular candidate to reach such a level.

“Spiritual Power Refinement Degree, Sixth Level.”

The wizard wrote down the result and gestured for Rayn to continue to the next station.

Rayn removed his hand and stepped aside. A quiet sense of relief settled inside him.

The Inner Cycle method was even more useful than he had hoped. It allowed him to conceal his surplus true essence and spiritual power so completely that even the machine’s energy, despite moving through his mind and examining his condition, failed to detect anything unusual.

The Wizard World’s talent assessment had a total of ten levels. The difference between each level was considerable. Fifth Level was already regarded as excellent among ordinary apprentices, while Sixth Level was enough to place someone above roughly ninety percent of the people being tested.

Rayn understood that the world around him was not a peaceful place. In an academy, talent often determined how people treated you. Showing too little could make others consider you weak or easy to exploit. Showing too much could attract attention that he did not need.

It made him talented enough to receive some respect without turning him into the center of every conversation. If he needed to reveal more ability later, he could still explain it as further growth.

He felt considerably more at ease, but another thought soon came to him.

He knew how much additional power was required to rise from one talent level to the next. Even if he released everything he had, he believed he could reach Eighth Level at most.

He had spent more than a decade cultivating before finally reaching the First Layer of Qi Refining. After all those years of effort, his full strength could barely produce an Eighth Level result.

Then what kind of monsters were those who could naturally test at Eighth Level, Ninth Level, or even Tenth Level without needing years of cultivation?

During the remaining assessments, his results changed from one test to another, but most of them remained around Sixth Level. He completed each station without revealing anything beyond what he had already decided to show.

Once every test had been completed, the final results were gathered by a central device positioned in the middle of the hall. The machine processed the different measurements before producing a single overall evaluation.

“Apprentice Rayn, comprehensive talent rating… Sixth Level!”

That was enough to place him firmly within the academy’s genius threshold. Someone with this level of talent had a strong chance of becoming an official wizard and could reasonably expect attention from the academy’s higher-ranking members.

Several gazes turned toward Rayn. Some were curious, others envious, and a few carried obvious jealousy.

Rayn kept his expression calm, but inside, he finally allowed himself to breathe more easily.

More importantly, he would not have to worry about being treated as a useless apprentice and ending up as an experimental subject on a laboratory table anytime soon.

The guiding wizard’s voice remained as indifferent as before. Sixth Level was impressive, but it was far from unique in an academy filled with talented young people.

Rayn had barely stepped away from the testing platform when a much louder burst of shouting came from another section of the hall.

“My god! Sea of Spirit Depth… Eighth Level!”

“Elemental Affinity, Thunder Element, Ninth Level!”

“Soul Purity, Ninth Level!”

“Damn! What kind of divine being is this?!!”

Several young men and women stood surrounded by other apprentices. Pride was written openly across their faces as the results continued to attract attention.

“Ninth Level talent… it’s the Ashford Clan’s eldest daughter! Truly living up to the reputation!”

“And Young Master Theron with Eighth Level talent! He has extraordinary affinity with shaping element magic, destined to be a powerful spellcaster in the future!”

“That Ninth Level Soul Purity one, rumored to have been pre-selected by a Soul Element mentor!”

There really were countless hidden dragons and crouching tigers here. His Sixth Level talent might look impressive among ordinary apprentices, but beside these people, it was nothing extraordinary.

With so many people displaying remarkable talent, nobody would have much reason to focus on him. Standing among these brighter figures would make it easier for him to remain unnoticed while he learned more about the academy and the world beyond it.

Rayn kept his pace as he moved between the stations, careful to appear no more confident than apprentices around him and give no one reason to remember him later.

The assessment continued for some time. Results were announced from one station after another, bringing cheers from those who succeeded and disappointed sighs from those whose talent fell short of expectations.

“All apprentices who have completed the talent assessment and passed, proceed immediately to the Central Square! The selection of main cultivation direction is about to begin!”

The words spread through the enormous hall and carried the authority of an order that nobody could question.