After the bright light faded leon found himself kneeling on the ground on some unknown terrain. Everything on the ground within 5 meters of him had been incinerated when he was teleported, and all that was left was a round patch of scorched earth.
Leon stood up and shook his head in an attempt to shake off his disorientation. He wasn't used to teleporting, so this was to be expected. After getting himself together, Leon tried to figure out where he was. Given the fact that he didn't even know that he had entered a dungeon the first time, he didn't know where the exit would lead him. For all he knew he could very well be on the other side of the planet now!
Pushing that somewhat disturbing thought to the back of his mind, Leon decided to look around. Aside from the scorched area around where he appeared from, there were plants everywhere. He seemed to be on some kind of mountain, but due to the dense foliage Leon couldn't see his surroundings.
Unsure of where to go, Leon decided to climb a tree. Thanks to his draconic form, this was a piece of cake. After scrambling to the top of the tree in mere seconds, Leon was finally able to see his surroundings. Below the mountain was a small city full of several impressively large buildings. This city would be the definition of picturesque given its surroundings. Surrounding the school were rolling mountains, rivers, and there was even a lake situated right at the edge of the city.
After seeing this city, Leon grinned knowing that he would finally be back to civilization after months of isolation in that dungeon. Leon practically skipped down the mountain with a ridiculous grin on his face. After getting about halfway down the mountain he reverted back to his human form, so that he wouldn't scare anyone that he came across.
Within an hour Leon arrived at the entrance to the city, but he was somewhat confused by what he found. Outside of the Gates there were thousands of people camped out in tents, both old and young alike. As Leon made his way through the crowd, nobody so much as spared him a glance, but as he was about to walk into the city through the main gate, somebody grabbed his shoulder.
"What are you doing, are you crazy?" said the voice that presumably belonged to the hand that had grabbed his shoulder.
"I don't think so, why?" Leon smiled, as he turned to meet the person who had stopped him.
When Leon turned he saw a young man, not much older than himself, looking at him as if he was crazy. This man was quite handsome, and had long blond hair tied back in a ponytail. His body was well refined, and he looked as if he came from a privileged background.
Somewhat irritated the young man calmly explained, "We aren't allowed to enter the campus yet. Anyone who enters before the selection process officially begins, will be banned from the school for life."
What caught Leon's attention was the latter half of the young man's explanation. From what he had seen from the top of the mountain, he had a hard time believing that the whole city was one school. It was the size of a city! Albeit a small city, but Leon could hardly believe that a single school could be so large.
"When will we be allowed to enter?" Leon asked while trying to mask his shock. He figured that he would be better off blending in with the crowd, so first he needed to coax more information out of this young man.
"Nobody knows, but we have to wait for the headmaster to come out and welcome us in. It could be weeks from now for all we know. Didn't you know about this beforehand?" The young man seemed genuinely surprised.
Leon just shook his head as if this were the first time that he had heard of it.
"Then you don't even have a tent, huh.... If you want you can stay in my tent until they let us in, it's far too large for just me anyway." The young man said.
Leon was somewhat surprised by the offer, but since he had literally nowhere else to go, he decided to take him up on it. Besides this was good opportunity to get more information.
---
Over the next week Leon got to learn a lot more about this young man. His name was Michael, and his father sent him to the Kroxworth Institute of Magic and Martial Arts, which was the name of this school. He came from a rich family, and had come across the continent just to try and attend this school. Apparently, this school was really famous, though Leon had never heard of it, nor any of the places that michael had mentioned for that matter.
It seemed as if Leon was really far away from home. This didn't bother him too much as he didn't have any family back home, though he would love to see the look on Cecile's face when she found out he was still alive. However, was not a good enough reason for him to go out of his way to go back home. He was more than content to start a new life here.
This school seemed like a good place to start. As long as you can pay the tuition fee, and get accepted as a teachers disciple, then just about anyone can join the academy. Though most people couldn't afford the entrance fee. This was not a problem for Leon, because he had all of the gold that he obtained from the dungeon.He also hoped that with his improved mind he would easily be able to impress at least some of the teachers, if not all of them.
While Leon and Michael were talking like they normally did, they heard a commotion outside.
"Wait here Leo, I'll go check it out." Michael said. He had taken to calling Leon Leo instead.
After a few moments, Michael poked his head back into the tent. With a grin on his face he said "It's the headmaster. Hurry up!"
"Alright I'm coming." Leon said while slowly getting to his feet.
As soon as Leon exited the tent, Michael excitedly dragged him towards a crowd of people that was forming. Once they got there Leon saw an old man with a long beard, and a bald head standing there. He was absentmindedly stroking his beard while staring as the clouds slowly passed in the sky.
After a few minutes pass the old man suddenly redirected his gaze towards that crowd of people that had now grown to an enormous size as if he was just remembering that they were there. The crowd of people was dead silent as everyone was scared to miss anything that the headmaster might have to say.
"Uhum er, Welcome to the Kroxworth Institute of Magic and Martial Arts!" As the old man said this he raised his hands out by his side, and gestured around him. "You have all been waiting out here for weeks, some of you months even, all for the chance to be acknowledged by one of our esteemed teachers!" As he said this the crowd erupted into cheers. Once the crowd finally quieted down he continued, "I am the headmaster of this school, and I am here to announce the beginning of the enrollment fair here a Kroxworth." After he said this the crowd once again began cheering. "Since there are so many of you here today we will not be able to let you all enter the Academy at once, so we have prepared a simple test in order to slim down the numbers a bit." The old man showed the briefest of smiles on his face as many of the people in the crowd seemed shocked, anxious even after hearing these words.
"This isn't fair! This has never happened before, why now?!" Many of the students who were not that confident in themselves shouted protests at the man on the stage.
Regardless of what the crowd thought, Leon knew that there was a reason for this. Although the Academy is nearly as large as a small city, there were hundreds of thousands of people camped out here, and if they were all allowed into the city at once it would be over run. Therefore there had to be some way to weed out the 'weaker seeds'.
After he let the crowd protest for a while the headmaster continued, "Do not worry, if you posses any talent, and have studied at home for at least a year before coming to this school, you should have nothing to fear." The head master seemed to be enjoying riling up the crowd, and he saw many young men and women despair after hearing this. "The test to enter the Academy is simple." He said over the crowd with a booming voice. "There are mana crystals at each of the gates. If you can cause a mana crystal to gain any charge at all, then you will be admitted into the academy for the duration of the enrollment fair. Now I know that many of you are upset with this sudden test, but honestly if you aren't even able to direct mana into a mana crystal, then you are not sufficiently prepared to learn at our academy." The headmaster finished his speech with an aura of finality.
Many people began despairing at this point, but Leon was not one of them. While in the dungeon Leon had learned how to manipulate mana, and then after he swallowed the Legacy Shards, his entire body was forcibly opened to the reception of mana.
People started lining up in front of the gates, while others simply left at this point knowing that they had no chances of getting in. Michael dragged Leon into one of the lines while they were forming, and excitedly waited his turn.
When they were finally up Michael went first. He easily lit up the mana gem and passed through, then turned and waited for Leon. Needless to say Leon didn't have an issue getting in either, and joined Michael.
"So where do we go now?" Leon asked Michael.
Sorry for not updating much this week. I will try to get back to my schedule of one per day for the rest of this week. I am writing this for fun, so when other things come up they take a higher priority than this. I hope you guys understand.
Anyway, I hope that you guys enjoyed this chapter, and I'll see you guys tomorrow.