Chapter 373: Pre-Trial Assessment
"Sorry, I just finished my morning exercises, so I didn't have time to control the magical power within my body."
Upon seeing the steaming vapor around him, Solo-Flame quickly reined in the magical power within his body and chuckled awkwardly at Jia Na, then looked away, avoiding direct eye contact with Jia Na.
"I thought it was because we hadn't seen each other in a long time, so Senior wanted to give me a warning."
Watching Solo-Flame's flustered expression, Jia Na merely returned a polite smile and didn't take it too seriously.
"Give you a warning? With my current strength, I'm afraid I'm not qualified enough."
Hearing Jia Na's slightly conciliatory words, Solo-Flame's expression was no longer as awkward as before; instead, he shook his head with a self-deprecating laugh.
Upon hearing this, Jia Na was silent for a moment, then changed the subject and said:
"Senior, are you also going to participate in the White Tower Trial's pre-assessment later?"
"That's right, so I'm planning to go back to my dorm to change clothes first—you don't have to wait for me, just go ahead."
"Okay, then we'll see you at the assessment."
Watching Solo-Flame's hasty departure, Vivian-Rose, who was beside her, chuckled, clearly delighted.
"It seems someone's strength is so great that even the upperclassmen are starting to feel inferior."
"Let's go."
Seeing that Jia Na didn't take the bait, Vivian-Rose just shrugged. However, when her peripheral vision once again caught sight of Solo-Flame not far away, the smile on Vivian-Rose's lips gradually faded, leaving only a silent sigh.
"He's not the only one feeling inferior—"
Because they were walking and it was still early, Jia Na and Vivian-Rose walked and stopped for over half an hour before finally arriving at the assessment point for this pre-assessment: White Coral Academy, Fighting Training Field.
"Should we go in?"
Looking at the opaque, silver-white barrier set up outside the Fighting Training Field, Vivian-Rose turned her head and asked Jia Na beside her.
"Let's go in. After all, there's only a little over twenty minutes left until the assessment begins."
As an annual major event, at the end of each year, almost all Third-level Wizard Apprentices in the Wizard Gathering Place would rush to the assessment point before the final exams to undergo the pre-assessment for the White Tower Trial, which would be initiated by Dordogne the following year.
The purpose of the pre-assessment was to conduct an early evaluation of all eligible Third-level Wizard Apprentices in the various Wizard Gathering Places before the White Tower Trial, thereby conducting a qualification review.
The assessment results would not be announced on the spot. Instead, each academy would first conduct a qualification screening, then allocate the White Tower Trial Wizard Apprentice slots based on the number of slots each academy possessed, and then transmit the decided information to Dordogne-White Tower for the next round of qualification selection.
Until the final selection of all trial seeds was completed—
"I wonder how many Wizard Apprentice slots White Coral Academy has this year—"
Thinking of this, Jia Na couldn't help but recall that last year, during the Dark Sun Apostle encirclement operation in the Shadow World, Losia-Haige, the headmistress of Black Bone Forest, had promised Anthony-Black Sparrow to transfer a White Tower Trial Wizard Apprentice slot to White Coral Academy due to the final distribution of the Dark Sun Apostle's soul.
However, Jia Na was not sure whether Anthony-Black Sparrow had already used that newly added Wizard Apprentice slot at the beginning of this year, or if he had not used it yet and was planning to save it for next year.
"Pop—"
As Jia Na and Vivian-Rose stepped into the barrier together, two sounds like rippling water suddenly echoed in their ears. Immediately afterward, silver light flashed, and in the center of the Fighting Training Field, a giant Silver Mirror nearly three meters high clearly appeared in the eyes of Jia Na and Vivian-Rose.
"What is this thing?"
Because previous generations of Wizard Apprentices would sign strict confidentiality agreements before participating in the White Tower Trial, even information about the pre-assessment was not accessible to others, except for those who had participated last year.
"It should be some kind of magical artifact used to test talent information." Regarding Vivian-Rose's question, Jia Na also shook her head and offered a relatively reasonable guess.
"Jia Na, we're over here!"
Just as the two were standing and observing the strange mirror in front of them, Malo-Haige, who had arrived at the assessment location half an hour earlier, was loudly shouting towards Jia Na's direction.
"Why did you all come so early too?"
Looking over at the sound, Jia Na saw that several of her familiar classmates had already arrived at the Fighting Training Field and were sitting together in an area marked with the White Coral Academy emblem.
"Of course, it's to come early and see who the competitors from the other two academies are—but now it seems, besides our academy's people, the people from the other two academies haven't arrived yet."
As Jia Na and Vivian-Rose approached, Malo-Haige naturally invited them to sit in the seats next to him.
At the same time, Jia Na also didn't forget to greet Niya-Flame, who was sitting on Malo-Haige's other side, and Andre-Green, her "fellow townsman" from the same Lower City.
"It seems that, except for Bell, all the newly promoted Third-level Wizard Apprentices in the class have arrived."
As Jia Na said, apart from her, the "cheat player" who had been promoted to Third-level Wizard Apprentice early, the proud children of Wizard families: Vivian-Rose, Bell-Moonshadow, Malo-Haige, Niya-Flame, as well as the commoner star among ordinary Wizard Apprentices: Andre-Green, had all recently broken through to Third-level Wizard Apprentice, barely catching up with Jia Na's progress.
Among them, Vivian-Rose, who had switched from the 【Wizard Sequence】 to the 【Warlock Sequence】, was the earliest to be promoted to Third-level among this batch of Wizard Apprentices. However, her promotion progress was still a bit later than Jia Na's, who had "cheated with extra points."
"It seems I'm late."
As the barrier rippled again, Bell-Moonshadow also arrived at the assessment point early and sat to Jia Na's left, next to Vivian-Rose.
"Why haven't those upperclassmen Wizard Apprentices arrived yet? Could it be that they all agreed to arrive just in time?"
Looking at the Second-Year Third-level Wizard Apprentices who had already arrived early, and the empty seats around them reserved for other upper-year Third-level Wizard Apprentices, Malo-Haige couldn't help but mutter with a slight hint of doubt.
"I heard that today's pre-assessment is led by the headmasters of each academy. Perhaps those upper-year Wizard Apprentices will arrive with Headmaster Anthony—"
Splash! As soon as Niya-Flame finished speaking, a sound like pebbles falling into water came from the barrier surrounding the Fighting Training Field.
As the sound gradually ceased, the upperclassmen, led by Grace-Eva, entered the Fighting Training Field one after another and walked towards the location where Jia Na and the others were sitting.
