UNITY

It was around seven or so in the morning when Chase began to leave the library. to answer your question, Yes, Chase was up all night reading the books of the ancient archive, so that he could have even the slightest chance at getting into the most prestigious magic and warrior academy on the continent. 

He was not able to finish any of the books; however, Chase decided to take the dusty books home with him, which was no easy task. As the books were both large and heavy, resulting in an awkward walk to the school house.

While walking through the peaceful morning woods surrounding the town Chase wearily rubbed the black bags under his eyes as he looked at the morning sun rising from the tree line.

'So tired, why does this damn test have to be so early? Well, I guess I'm kind of an idiot here for staying up all night.'

As Chase stepped through the small pathway between the trees, he crossed paths with two familiar faces, one was Cloudy who was wearing a white tunic and black silk pants. The other familiar face stood around 8 Inches taller then Chase and Cloudy, The boy was wearing a black T-shirt and black Trousers, however that was not saying a lot as Chase and Cloudy were only around 4'11. 

Kade had bright blue eyes and had black hair with an azure blue lightning symbol dyed into his hair. 

This was usual for children who are high born, their parents tend to choose unique ways of marking their children as their own, Kade for example: had the lightning symbol in his hair, but others such as his teacher Mr. Dane have tattoos or marks with the house emblem engraved into it.

"Sup, Chase! where have you been dude?" Kade asked loudly scaring away a nearby squirrel on the side of a tree.

"I was just taking a walk." Chase shrugged, while holding back a yawn.

"What are the books for?" Cloudy asked Chase with a hint of curiosity.

Chase paused for a moment before answering, "Some books my dad asked me to pick up for him." Chase did not want Cloudy nor Kade to know that he was trying to get into Phoenix Academy. Not because he didn't think that they wouldn't support him, it was because if Chase failed to get into the Academy, it would have been quite embarrassing if they knew he was putting in so much work just to end up not succeeding in making it into the Academy.

"Well anyway, We should head towards the school house now, exams start in an hour." Kade said reaching his arms back into the air in a stretching motion as he yawned loudly.

Cloudy and Chase nodded and began to walk along the path.

"So what are you going to do with those massive books?" Kade asked curiously looking over at Chase.

Chase quickly realized his error in staying at the library all night, as he had no where to put the books that he "Borrowed".

He thought for a moment before answering his friend, "I'll probably just have Mr. Dane hang on to them." His two friends nodded at the idea and then continue to walk in silence.

...

Chase was sitting in his usual desk; however, the atmosphere of the classroom was very different from the usual. Because of the final exams, Many children around Chase's age were drastically panicking. The final exams are a pivotal moment in most people's lives as your results might as well determine where in the human standings you will end up.

People who scored poorly, would probably end up never even getting the chance to leave the village, and end up becoming farmers or labor workers, while students who scored highly at a wide range of schools around the continent that they could attend. 

It was extremely rare however for a scumblood like Chase to even get into a half decent school, but it was not unheard of. Chase did not think too kindly of his own father; however, Chase was not oblivious to the stories people told about his father. 

In fact there was even a reason that Chase chose to dedicate himself to making it into Phoenix Academy. That reason was because Chase's father attended that very same academy when he was young, what happened after Chase was born, and as to why his father decided to move into a small town on the far south of the continent? The truth was that Chase had no clue, his father never spoke about his or Chase's mother's, let alone told him her name.

Chase sat quietly in his seat in the back of the room, while many students were talking loudly or performing obvious actions of nervousness.

Chase however was more worried about going home to sleep, then the difficulty of the test.

 That was until Mr. Dane walked into the room and cleared his throat loudly, "Silence class, your exams will begin shortly." He cleared his throat once more and began to speak again, "You will be given four different sheets of paper, each will be of a different subject that you have covered over your years of schooling. The test will be worth two hundred points, however with every answer you get wrong... fifteen points will be removed from your total score, so I would suggest taking your time and trying your best!" With that Mr. Dane took a handful of papers from his desk and began to pass them out.

...

Once Chase was handed his first test sheet, he looked down to realize that his hands were shaking quite fiercely.

Chase deeply inhaled, paused for a moment, and exhaled with a sigh in hopes of calming his new found nerves.

Before he started his test however, Chase looked across the classroom to see a boy with red eyes, and hair, very obviously peeking over to watch the boy who sat to his left answer questions.

Cheating no matter how little, would automatically deduct one hundred points from your score if you were caught. 

'Idiot.'

He then began to read the first question out of the fifteen on the paper, 'What is the source for all energy/mana types?." 

Chase hastily circled the answer - 'Natural Energy' and moved onto the next question...

Natural Energy was unlike any of the other Energies, for it was not something humans could ever truly understand, the best way to put it would be that Natural Energy was found in all living things and even most nonliving things, it was like the bridge between Magic and the Human realm, but it was also Raw and unrefined power.

Some could say that it is the essence of life, mainly because of the fact that if a human were to get their Natural Energy sucked out of them, they would die instantly. 

Chase continued to answer questions for the next hour, until finally Mr. Dane began to hand out the final test sheet.

Chase quickly began to read the first question on the paper until he had a moment of realization...

'Shit...'