Chapter 37: The First-Class Exam

Spotting Äußerst across a distant lake, Frieren, Fern, and Stark catch a coach toward the magic city. Frieren has no interest in a first-class title she deems destined to become obsolete and urges Fern to pursue it instead. As they ride, she warns that raw mana alone never decides a duel; technique, experience, effort, willpower, and above all talent count just as much, recalling the eleven duels she lost to rivals who held weaker reserves.

In a remote stretch of Graf Granat's Domain, the black-haired mage Übel is set upon by bandits, only for the monk Kraft to scatter them. Having buried thieves she herself had cut to pieces, he makes clear he stepped in not to lecture her but simply to spare the lives before him. Übel pronounces him dull, and the two part, each bound for the same exam.

At the Continental Magic Association's Northern Branch, the pair learn the test lies two months off and demands at least fifth-class standing. Frieren, never registered with the current association, qualifies only when an elderly mage recognizes her antique Holy Emblem. The relic recalls a flashback in which Himmel and the others failed to know it, yet reassured her that they valued her regardless, a comfort Fern now echoes in the present.

Library research reveals just forty-five first-class mages exist among roughly two thousand, that the grueling exam runs every three years, and that deaths are not uncommon. After two months of training, during which Frieren's birthday quietly passes, the hopefuls gather before the proctor Genau, who opens the trial with a team battle splitting fifty-seven competitors into groups of three.

Among the standouts are Wirbel, who captains the Northern Magic Corps at second-class rank, Denken, a battle-hardened imperial mage, and Übel, infamous for slaying a proctor at an earlier exam. Tellingly, none of the watching mages recognize Frieren, reading her suppressed mana only as that of an aged practitioner.

Rings distributed by Genau mark each competitor's team, identifiable by channeling mana into them. Frieren draws the second team and finds her two young partners already squabbling, while Fern joins the fourth team alongside Übel and a bespectacled mage.