With the signal given by the Instructor, the examinees started pouring their mana into the crystal balls
The originally transparent crystal balls started to glow with blue color as the examinees poured their mana into it
Some examinees blindly poured mana into the crystals but they found out that mana would leak from them and dissipate in the air unless they are actively controlling their mana
They wouldn't pass just by pouring mana into the crystal ball. If that was the only standard then none of the poor mages might pass. The poor couldn't get their hands on resources that increase their maximum mana capacity. Only the rich can get hold of such items. As such, most poor mages have mediocre amounts of mana
To give the poor but talented mages a chance to be admitted the test also tests the mana-controlling skills of the examinees
Even if a mage were to be given an endless supply of mana it does not necessarily mean that they can control all of their mana at once. Some could only control a small fraction at a time while some could control a huge fraction. It all boils down to the talent of the mages which was what this test is testing
After realizing their mistake the examinees stopped blindly pouring mana into the crystals. They instead poured mana into them while also maintaining their connection and control with their mana
However, because of that, the amount of mana that they could pour inside the crystals has become limited
Fortunately, to receive a recommendation letter for the admission test, a mage must show enough talent in cultivation
The first test caught the examinees off guard since it tests their willpower and not their talent. That causes many of the examinees to fail
But this time although the examinees are having a hard time they are still performing better than before
The examinees poured as much mana as they could control inside the crystal and have their mana wreaked havoc. However, as talented as they are a second-rate academy still has a high standard. All of them were facing great resistance from the crystal ball
No matter how chaotic their mana moved and slammed on the crystals these crystals were not breaking easily and proving themselves a challenged
Crack...
Suddenly, the examinees' attention was grabbed by the sound of something breaking. When they unconsciously looked at the source they saw Rezen with a flabbergasted expression on his face
Rezen already expected that it would be easy for him to destroy the crystal given to him. However, what happened is still beyond his expectations
The moment that he injected mana into his magic crystal it immediately shattered without any resistance. It was to the point that Rezen suspects that as long as one injects mana into the magic crystal it would immediately shatter no matter what the injected amount is
The shattering sound was although not very loud still enough for the other examinees to hear and for the nth time today all eyes fell on him
All of them have seen how small the crystal ball assigned to Rezen and now that he easily shattered it almost everyone sneered at him for cheating
As much as this embarrassed Rezen he still held his head high. He would just become an easier target if he were to show a sign of weakness and meekness
As much as the other examinees want to continue staring at Rezen as if they want to kill him they had no choice but to resume what they were doing earlier if they don't want to fail the test
Once more, they had their mana crash against the crystals to shatter them. Some cracks already formed on the crystals of the more talented examinees and it requires more push
Rezen just stood there waiting patiently for the others to continue their test and it didn't take that long before another cracking sound entered everyone's ears
This cracking sound's volume was lower compared to the first one but it still attracted their attention
When they turn to look at the source they saw a woman focusing entirely on the floating crystal ball in front of her
There was an area of her crystal ball where a hole could be seen. While she didn't shatter the entire crystal in one go just like what the cheating Rezen did, she was the first examinee to puncture a hole in her crystal ball
Naturally, the other examinees were curious about how she did that and they turned to look at her crystal ball and they noticed something different
The other examinees were crashing their mana to the crystals in two ways. The dumber ones were blindly pushing their mana into any direction while the smarter ones were pushing their mana in one direction
However, what this woman was doing is condensing her mana into a small rotating spiral to increase its penetrating power. By doing so she was able to puncture a hole in the crystal and she started repeating her action
Once she succeeded in making a hole in the crystal she would move her mana to another area to do the same thing. It was a clever way to pass the test
The examinees gained inspiration by watching her or more like they started imitating her
However, while they benefited from watching that woman, most of the examinees are ungrateful and they have similar thoughts inside their heads
"Hmph, I'm not going to lose against the ugly woman!"
These rich and snob Young Masters and Mistresses instead of being grateful that the woman gave them an idea on how they could pass the test were ridiculing her in their minds
That is because that woman in human standards is ugly. She was very skinny and her face was hollow. Her eyes occupied a large area of her face and her cheeks were sunken. Her hair was curly and her lips looks like they were swollen
Her fashion style was also off as except for her head to ensure that she'll be able to see clearly, she was completely covered from neck to toe with her clothes
"Hmm, who is she? I feel like her vibes were different from the others. Is she also a tribal person?"
Although there is no essentially no difference between the appearance of city and tribal people making it hard to differentiate between the two if both are wearing the same type of clothes, the vibes between the two are still completely different
Rezen spent time with tribal people and also the city people. He felt that this genius woman don't have the same vibes as the city people
"There are other dormitories inside the City of Hope that housed tribal people. Some of them should be talented even if compared to city people. Is she one of them?" Rezen thought as he rubbed his chin
Aside from people like Philome and Wermon that treats tribal people as just any other people the others are not the same. Many are prejudiced and blatantly dislike tribal people
As such, Rezen would love it better if he surround himself with tribal people. If they are talented then that is even better since he could make them his subordinates
He already recognized the fact that what a single person can do is limited and he should have many subordinates
It was hard to make city people submit to Rezen because of his origins. As such, it was better to recruit tribesmen and help them grow stronger
This is just the admission test but Rezen already has a subordinate candidate that he chose
Just like that the test continues with many of the examinees copying that woman that Rezen doesn't know the name of
Instead of destroying the crystal ball in one go they opted to puncture multiple holes in them and when the crystals are weak enough then they would crash them with their mana
In this way, they increase their chances of passing. But of course there are still those that failed the test. They used and did everything to the best of their abilities but they still failed in the end
All of these examinees might be talented but they cannot be all admitted. There is a need to separate the strong and the stronger if Trsyt Academy does not want to overcrowd itself and accept more students than it can possibly handle