The aptitude assessment of the Golden Sun province was held in the Golden Sun College's Gym near the Central Trading Hall.

It was a huge hall with several floors that was usually used by the students of the Golden Sun College. Today, the Gym was reserved for the applicants of the Saphirelake Military Academy.

Applicants from all over the Golden Sun province applied to the Saphirelake Military Academy, but there were only a few thousand spots.

The Golden Sun province already had close to 100,0000 applicants. The number was in the millions in Elyra, and even higher all over the solar system.

Of course, most people applied to multiple Academies and Universities simultaneously, but the number of applicants for the Saphirelake Military Academy was on par if not higher than the number of people applying to join the Big Five Universities and the Great Three Academies.

Michael was probably the only one who applied just to the Saphirelake Military Academy. In fact, he didn't even apply. Alice did that for him.

At first, he was against Alice's actions and felt like she intervened too much in his business, but he felt grateful to her now. The Saphirelake Military Academy would give him the necessary opportunities to procure more information about the old languages before the Third Epoch.

By the time Michael arrived in front of the Golden Sun College's Gym, he was a little late. After working out for several hours in the Training Centre, Michael had to eat a little bit more. He consumed too much nutrition and carbs doing all those high-intensity workouts.

It was a bad omen to participate in an important exam with an empty stomach. That was what his brother told him all the time.

Thus, he ended up a little late, staring blankly at five extraordinarily long queues. Powerful Adventurers and Lords carefully guarded each queue.

They were bodyguards, who had been hired to protect the applicants from external danger, and from each other. Simultaneously, they had to make sure that nobody would skip the line and that everything went smoothly.

Michael was sure that it was not necessary to have a dozen powerful Adventurers standing guard in each queue, but he was quickly proven wrong.

Before the applicants were allowed to enter the Golden Sun College's Gym, they had to meet the requirements first.

The applicant's ID would be scanned to look at their records, their final score would be noted, and the age of their bones would be tested and compared to the energy level of their War Runes.

If there were too many duplicate records, the final score was too low, or the student possessed too little energy for his, or her age, the applicant wouldn't be allowed inside the Golden Sun College's Gym. It was harsh, but so was reality.Michael didn't think that students would apply to the Saphirelake Military Academy if they knew that they were trash. However, the truth was the complete opposite.

A tenth of applicants barely met the requirements to enter the Golden Sun College's Gym, and those who failed to enter the Gym would either scream loudly, voice out their complaints loud enough for everyone to hear, or go wild like bloodthirsty maniacs.

Only a few students left silently with their heads hanging low, most had to be carried away by the bodyguards.

That was shocking for Michael. He didn't think that it would be this difficult to enter the Gym where the aptitude assessment would start for real.

'I should think of the door to the gym as the first hurdle. The aptitude assessment started the moment I became an applicant to the Saphirelake Military Academy!' Michael mused inwardly as he queued up.

Michael thought that it would take a while before the hundreds of people in front of him were either thrown out, or given permission to enter the Gym, but it was not even lunchtime when it was finally his turn.

It looked like he was one of the last applicants to appear. Nobody had queued up behind him.

"Scan your ID over here and stretch your right arm out." A neutral voice spoke to him.

The woman standing in front of him looked exhausted. Her eyes screamed that she needed a few more holidays and that it was time to go home.

Michael retrieved his Lord ID and stretched out his right hand. The Lord ID was scanned, and both his records and final exam score were shown and thoroughly looked through by the artificial intelligence that was used during the aptitude assessment.

A few seconds later, Michael was allowed to retrieve his Lord ID once again, and three notifications popped up in front of the tired woman.

[Final Exam Score: 584 Points – Excellent]

[Criminal Records: None]

[Humanity Danger Level: 0]

"Looks fine to me," She said nonchalantly. Her hand reached out to Michael's stretched-out arm in the next second.

"Don't resist the warmth. I am using my Soultrait to scan your energy level and the age of your bones."

As her words reached his ears, Michael felt a sudden warmth spread through his arm. It was refreshing and soothing.

"Layla, note down that the applicant turned 18 this month according to his bone age. Both the bone age and the time of his War Rune's manifestation match with the date of birth on his Lord ID." The woman said before she stopped.

One may not think that it was an issue, but it was crucial that the bone age, the ID's date of birth, and the time of the War Rune's manifestation overlapped. The reason all this data had to overlap was that many big families tried to fool Big Universities and Academies using means to fake IDs, stagnate their descendant's bone aging, and so on.

Why? Not every descendant of the strongest families was exceptional. That was simply not possible, not even with the influx of countless resources, the best instructors, and various other methods to strengthen the youngest generation.

However, the strongest families and most influential clans had to ensure their reputations wouldn't be harmed in any way. Their descendants had to be known as prodigies rather than bottom rankers and pushovers. That is why they used every possible means to provide their talentless descendants more time to study and train longer than others before they would have to compete against Awakened, who manifested their War Rune much later.

This worked for a while until a few families' debauchery had been exposed.

In response to the trickery used in the aptitude assessments, the tests were changed, and made more stringent, making it near-impossible to fool the system.

But the exhausted woman had a different reason why she halted in her tracks. She was not worried that Michael was trying to fool the system. The woman closed her eyes, and Michael's hand was getting warmer as she completed the scan.

Simultaneously, the AI's voice rang out.

[Noted. Bone Age and date of birth match. The applicant was born 18 years and 17 days ago. Energy Level Data is still missing!]

"Lowest Tier-1…you advanced pretty fast, not bad. You're still a Lord as well. Good!" The exhausted woman said after a while.

She let go of his arm and gave him a thumbs up.

Afterward, the woman noted down his energy level on the assessment form with his name.

"You can go inside. Good luck."

Michael smiled at the exhausted woman and thanked her profusely. Then he walked inside the Golden Sun College's Gym.

He overcame the first hurdle without any qualms. It hadn't been that difficult, but that was only because he worked hard enough in the last few years.

His final exam score was high because of his hard work, and he didn't have any criminal records because he didn't beat the shit out of his former classmates. Michael endured their bullying without retaliation for years. Finally, he received acknowledgment for that – even if it was just from artificial intelligence.

The past did not matter right now. What was important was that he had made it and that he didn't allow his intrusive thoughts of the past to subdue his willpower. It may not be important to others, but Michael felt proud.

Inside the Golden Sun College's Gym, Michael was led to the next station. His blood sample was taken, and a few staff members approached him with a few machines.

"Please don't worry, Sir. We will attach something to your body to test the soul power of your Soultrait. Please don't resist and utilize your Soultrait's full power!"

'Hmm?!'