A magically enhanced door blocked the way forward. The obstacle was borderline unbreakable, and there was no mundane way to get it open. Not by pushing or pulling. But some method of unlocking had to exist, by reason. It wouldn't have been a test otherwise, only aimless bullying.
An incomprehensible mystery to a non-magician. But nothing too complicated for someone with the gift and appropriate knowledge. Even the bewildering wonder of magic was bound by its own set of rules, which left scarce few possible explanations.
An arcane mechanism that could be planted in place and functioned free of human control or supervision...That was the form of magic commonly known as a seal. It was a seal when attached to a specific object, and ward when it encircled an area, but the base mechanic was the same in both cases: a predefined event triggered a set effect.
With the trigger conditions and the evoked effect, only imagination was the limit. An incredibly versatile form of magic.
Landmines were a common military application of seals. Planting destructive or debilitating effects on the terrain for unsuspecting enemies to step on. Unlike regular traps, magic mines had no revealing visible parts, trip wires, nets, or baits, which should explain why sensory magic was widely seen as the best thing since sliced bread.
Well, being able to see a seal was still far from disabling it.
These spells were broadly divided into two categories by how they were created. The caster could infuse the seal with a base mana pool when it was set, which was the quick and easy method. The problem with this approach was that the mana pool wasn't eternal. Energy was difficult to hold in one place, especially without a medium, and escaped as radiation over time. A more advanced, long-term seal would have a dedicated battery, or maybe even its own generator that could keep it going for hundreds, if not thousands of years.
Which type was on the door then?
I knocked the boards with my left hand. No reaction to the rings. The intangible power lines were rigged like blood veins across the surface. Even if the flow was blocked in one area, the energy merely passed around. But, clearly enough, there was a separate power source, and touching the cryptogram itself did nothing to unseal the way. As long as I couldn't make direct contact with the mana supply, I couldn't open the door that way.
Would've been too easy, anyway.
The schoolbook response in such situations was to probe the seal further to learn more about it. See how it reacted to mana, or different elemental effects. Because everyone's energy wavelength was a little different, setting spells to react to mana emissions was difficult and that rarely made it blow up.
No, no, this wasn't a mine.
Just for recognizing it as a seal, I unwittingly began to treat it as an explosive. There was no need to be so on guard.
I held out my hand and injected a bit of mana into the door.
A faintly glowing interface of visible light emerged on the surface, shaped like a heraldic cross symbol. At each end of the ornate cross shape was a small glyph, represented as a decorative circle with a graphic symbol in it. One shaped like a red flame on top; a green whirl on the right; a blue wave on the bottom; a baby blue snowflake on the left. It wasn't so hard to guess what the glyphs represented. The elements of fire, air, water, and frost, respectively.
As I moved my hand near the glyphs, their glow briefly brightened and faded when I drew away. When I poked a circle, the cross shape flashed briefly red, and quickly spun clockwise a full circle. No explosion. The symbols on the glyphs vanished and reappeared in switched places, but the door didn't open.
So that was the deal.
It wasn't a trap, or an obstacle, but a puzzle.
The interface presented a mechanic by which the door could be opened nonviolently. All the examinee had to do was deduce how to operate the glyphs. Based on how seals commonly worked and the layout of the cryptogram. I didn't think I'd be cracking riddles today. Thankfully, this one wasn't very difficult.
Let's see...
Spoiler
There.
I pressed the water glyph. The interface flashed faint blue, faded, and the door opened inward with a soft groan. That was one down.
I continued into another tunnel no less bleak and barren than the other, and walked on, careful not to knock my toes on anything. On the left side wall, halfway in, I noticed a small depression, like a shelf for a lantern, or maybe a decorative element. Instead of light, a small cardboard box was left in the recess. The box had nothing mystical about it, but it was markedly newer than anything else in the tunnel, as if put there only recently.
Was this the treasure the Professor told me to look for?
I took and opened the box and found a small orb inside. Hard and smooth, containing just a smidgen of natural mana. Not enough that you'd even feel it without heightened senses. Goldroot extract had to have been used in the making, going by the slightly soap-ish scent. The rest of the orb appeared made of plain sugar and starch.
"Really? Candy…?"
What was this, a treasure hunt for children?
I didn't like candy much. In the army, they fed cheap candy to war mages all the time, since the brain needed sugar, and candy was cheaper to produce than proper food. The mere smell of anise still made me sick. I stuck the sweet in my pocket and went on.
Another thirty steps in, and the way was shut again. A door of cast iron rose in front of me, another magical puzzle layered over it. This seal had a similar cross glyph interface as before, but the level of difficulty was a step higher. Multiple glyphs had to be activated in succession, and the key element switched after each input. An error in execution reset the puzzle, as before. Mindlessly throwing your best element at the door wasn't going to work anymore. The previously optional method to identify the correct element was now a hard requirement.
Not that my own solution was any different. Being able to observe the structure of the seal directly, I could see which element was promoted at a time, and the thing didn't take any longer to crack than the first one. Let's aim for the top score.
Another dark tunnel.
Another recess in the wall, with a box and a piece of hard candy.
How many doors were there? Was I going to have my pockets full of candy by the end?
Was I actually going to reach the end? The puzzles kept on getting progressively more difficult. On the third door, covered in bolted plates of bronze, the switch glyphs no longer displayed their elemental charge. To render them visible, you had to expose the door to varied elements. That required a degree of control over your inborn affinity. A lot asked of a sixteen-year-old novice.
Normally, being a neutral mage should be a massive advantage here, because without a natural bias, they could freely switch the elemental aspect of their spells. But I couldn't conjure elemental effects at all. There was no way for me to solve these puzzles the legitimate way. But all the tricks were useless if you had a way to check the backstage and how the seal was wired. The wrong choices connected only to the scramble node, so as long as I identified which part of the seal reshuffled the puzzle and which one unlocked the door, I could get through.
But I kept on having to rely on my eyes.
Staring at immaterial forms was always a pain and a half, and the technique was hindered by the dragon rings, like everything else. A rough, wobbly grain filter was imposed on everything I saw, the patterns melting and symbols jumping. My eyes watered, my head throbbed painfully, and I was starting to get lightheaded.
Could I even make it to the end of the corridor before passing out?
"Maybe I should just give up now…?"
The professor did say clearing the challenge wasn't necessary.
Then again, knowing how poorly I did in the general-ed part, I needed all the points I could get to secure my enrollment. This was no part to start acting weak. Damn this school for making me put effort into things.
How and why did I end up having to do something so annoying?
I took a breather and shut down my vision. Left in impenetrable darkness, I squatted down to rub my stinging eyes and waited for the dizzy spell to pass. Thinking again, this actually suited me. Being stuck in a black pocket of earth without people, where no sunshine could reach. I belonged in the dark. One day, they'd bury me in a nameless hole like this and then sigh together in relief.
Ha. Get real. I wouldn't give them that pleasure. No grave could hold me. I'm going to live forever, out of pure spite, and keep everyone on their toes. Forever. I didn't hate people, but I could be allowed that degree of payback for my troubles, surely.
I got up and went on.