The speaker was a man and was accompanied by two women who were also human.
All three appeared to be in their 30s or older. In terms of power, they were weak; they had less than 5,000 power, and the strongest person was one of the two women.
Matt looked at him for a brief moment and nodded. "What exactly does the pillar test? The purity of the mana?" he asked.
The man nodded at him in response. "Purity and concentration, the former being the most important with an importance of 70/30."
Matt nodded. 'As I suspected... But I'm seeing something in the patterns the pillar follows when testing one, and I feel it's testing something else as well...' He thought, though he sighed internally.
Neither he nor Alice had any way of knowing how pure the mana they controlled was because it didn't belong to them, to begin with. And if Earth knowledge can be used here, then Matt is sure that they are far behind in terms of purity.
That's because a perfect body does not process the mana concentrated in the items. It is manna in its natural, unprocessed state.
Still, Matt didn't worry too much about that. The recruitment brochure says they accept people who can't use mana but have Artifacts that allow them to wield it. That means they have a way to teach those people to summon spirits by that method, so they must also have a way to approve.
Suddenly, the man on Matt's side spoke again, still very interested in conversing.
"That's why those who try to enter the academy shouldn't worry. Power is not necessary here and that is the reason why it is a beloved academy among us, those of us who are not so strong or rich. Purity is enough to get in, and once inside, your life will change." He said, smiling a little and looked at Matt.
"My name is Thomas; I hope we can all get in. Then we can change our lives." He said as he introduced himself kindly. For a moment, he looked at Matt's ears.
'Oh... He thinks I'm an outcast among my peers for being a half-elf...' Matt realized and nodded to him.
"My name is Zen, I hope..." Before he could finish introducing himself, someone else interrupted him.
Matt, at that moment, frowned as he looked at this guy planning to grab Alice. His hand moved almost instinctively at high speed towards that spot, and he grabbed that hand just before it could touch Alice.
A dangerous look crossed his green eyes as he looked at this guy. "What the hell do you think you're doing?" icy and deadly words came out of his mouth, making Mason Webb and even those behind him tremble.
That dangerous look... It looked too powerful.
Still, Mason Webb was not just anyone. He soon recovered and felt angry. But even though he tried to retract his arm, he couldn't do it.
'Holy shit, what the hell is this guy?' He thought in shock.
"How dare you!?" he shouted as he let loose a loud punch towards Matt's face. He wanted to break his teeth.
That scream attracted the attention of the people nearby. When all those people turned to look, they could only see a fist flying at high speed toward Matt's face.
Yet suddenly, a different arm crossed everyone's view, and Mason's powerful punch was held in front of that delicate and beautiful arm.
Alice then became angry. "How dare you try to hit him!?" she snarled, extremely angry, and her other arm swung at great speed, slamming into Mason's face.
"Aghhh!" He went flying backward, flying out of Matt's grip but falling, hovering to the ground with intense pain in his head.
When he tried to get up, he felt the urge to vomit and couldn't hold it in; a gush of blood came out of his mouth, mixed with saliva and bits of teeth.
That left him in shock.
Matt looked at that but didn't care in the least about it. He ignored him but moved his right arm to wrap his arms around Alice's waist, pulling her to him.