Fairy Tail: You said you were just acting, are you serious

The spacious auditorium was the most suitable venue for the first stage of the examination.

Eric, codenamed Kebra, walked to his assigned seat and looked at the proctor's back with a disdainful expression.

How come the examiners sent by the council only have this level of magical fluctuation?

However, he did not expect that he, who was a slave before, would infiltrate this assessment under the identity of another legitimate guild.

Several years ago, he was kidnapped by the Dark Order and became a slave in the Tower of Paradise, living a life worse than that of pigs and dogs, sometimes not having a meal and sometimes not.

Until a man named Brian appeared, saw his potential, and freed him from that miserable life.

Brian also integrated a Dragon Slayer Crystal into his body, teaching him to use Poison Dragon Slayer Magic, and recruited him into a guild, forming the dark guild Oración Seis.

This time, he was acting on Brian's orders to enter the youth assessment as a member of a legitimate guild.

It is said that this was a spot offered by a relatively weak but legitimate guild. Their purpose was naturally to use this spot to exchange for more funds, which is why he was able to register with that legitimate guild before coming to this examination hall.

If one of them can successfully infiltrate the council members and obtain more secret information and the whereabouts of those relics from the old era, their Oración Seis's plan can move forward even further.

Eric lowered his head, glanced at the densely filled exam paper on the table, and chuckled.

He hadn't reviewed this knowledge and was completely clueless about it, but that didn't matter, since he hadn't intended to rely on his own knowledge to pass the written test anyway.

He had assessed the proctor's abilities beforehand; he probably wouldn't have been able to detect him even if the proctor used his voice magic.

【Sound Magic: Divine Ears】

Eric's ears twitched slightly, and an invisible magical force emanated from him, spreading outwards to the mages around him.

In that instant, the thoughts of the young mages around him flooded into his mind at the same time.

"Damn it! Why are there magic circuit calculation questions on the test?!"

"This is so difficult. I've been a mage for so long, how come I've never heard of these questions before..."

"I heard this question in class, the answer should be..."

Eric listened for a while, then eliminated those candidates who couldn't give him the answers, focusing his remaining efforts on a few candidates who were silently reciting the correct answers in their minds.

Sometimes their answers are wrong, so we compare which answer has more people choosing it, or whichever theory they put forward seems plausible, and then choose that one.

He listened to the candidates' thoughts while writing down his answers on the exam papers.

Eric, who possesses the magic of sound, senses the thoughts of the seven candidates nearby, as well as the occasional proctor who passes by and reveals the correct answer; all of these are his helpers.

Wait, seven?

Then, Eric suddenly realized that something was wrong.

He glanced out of the corner of his eye at the examinee sitting to his left.

He was a young man with gray hair, wearing a fitted suit. He kept his head down, and the quill pen in his hand kept moving across the paper.

Eric looked at the boy with a puzzled expression.

He wasn't noticing the speed at which the other person was writing the test paper; rather, he was only now realizing that he hadn't heard the gray-haired boy's inner thoughts at all, which made him feel puzzled.

What happened? My voice magic stopped working?

Eric focused his attention, and when he realized he couldn't hear the other person's thoughts, his heart began to beat faster without him even realizing it.

His expression changed slightly; this was the first time he had encountered a situation where he couldn't hear the target's thoughts after learning this magic.

The other party's magical energy fluctuations are weaker than his, so it shouldn't be possible.

Moreover, Eric was surprised to find that this gray-haired boy, whose thoughts could not be read, wrote the exam paper faster than everyone around him.

While the other test-takers were still pondering the answers to the earlier questions, the other person had already flipped to the last page of answers and hadn't paused on those questions for more than a second!

Eric looked at his opponent, a competitive spirit rising within him unconsciously.

Undeterred, he began to divert the attention of the other examinees, channeling his invisible magic towards the gray-haired boy, attempting to focus on reading his innermost thoughts.

As Eric focused, a few veins popped out on his forehead, and he frowned as he probed into the other person's mind.

I can't hear it, I still can't hear it!

He hadn't expected all of this to be in vain. A few beads of cold sweat appeared on his forehead, and he couldn't help but think of a terrifying possibility.

This guy may have honed his mental power to a level that I can't fathom!

Just as Eric was still trying to understand the gray-haired boy's feelings, he put down the quill pen in his hand.

Immediately afterwards, the gray-haired boy slowly turned his head and met Eric's gaze from next door.

The gray-haired boy gave Eric a polite smile, which made Eric's heart skip a beat for half a second.

The instant the other person smiled, he felt a murderous aura rushing straight into his eyes!

He instinctively closed his eyes, then opened them again and found himself trembling all over, with even more cold sweat pouring down his forehead.

Although the other person's smile was polite, he only sensed a message being transmitted to him.

Don't bother me.

Eric averted his gaze, lowered his head, and sensed a terrifying aura.

He quickly spread his magic towards the examinees on his right, not daring to cast it on his left, for fear of attracting the gray-haired boy's attention again.

That murderous aura—he was serious. His oppressive presence was even more terrifying than when he faced Brian!

How could such a monster possibly enter the council's assessment process?

the other side.

When Ron saw Eric withdraw his gaze, he also withdrew his murderous aura, which vanished without a trace.

He shook his head and sighed inwardly, "You're just unlucky to be sitting next to me."

Eric's voice magic was indeed useful in this written test, but unfortunately his mental strength was already higher than everyone else present.

Ron discovered that in the Fairy Tail world, most mages had no way to hone their mental strength, and after searching for a long time, he only found a few tattered old books.

Therefore, relying on his talent of "Infinite Wisdom", his mental strength has long surpassed that of many mages around him.

Although his panel rating is still C, he has compared himself with other members of the guild, and the only people whose mental strength surpasses his are Guild Master Makarov and Gildarts.

If he hadn't sensed that their mental strength was several times greater than his own, he would have suspected that there was something wrong with the system's evaluation.

As for this exam paper, it was far too easy for Ron, who had incorporated various magical knowledge.

Seeing the test paper, which was as simple as an elementary school question, he felt as comfortable as if he were back home.

Having finished the exam early, he looked around boredly, waiting for the written test to end.