Mercenary Wars

Chapter 228 Effort and Talent

After confirming that the candidate had cheated, the Arcane Eye immediately emitted rings of light blue ripples that spread outwards like waves.

Two academy mages arrived immediately and headed straight for the location of the cheating student. They acted swiftly, clearly having anticipated this situation.

"I didn't cheat, you've got the wrong person!" the candidate tried to explain in a panicked voice, his tone trembling noticeably. His face had turned deathly pale, and large beads of sweat soon rolled down his forehead.

Without further ado, the academy's sorcerer took out a crystal ball, and with a flick of his wrist, the scene of the examinee cheating by making a cheat sheet appeared on the crystal ball. The contents of the cheat sheet were clearly visible, and the evidence was irrefutable.

The candidate's face turned ashen instantly, and he couldn't utter a single word. His body began to tremble slightly, as if all his strength had been drained away in an instant.

"Come with us," the academy mage said calmly, drawing an X on the stone table with a badge. The badge emitted a faint red glow, and the mark it left on the stone table was also red. Without a doubt, with the appearance of the red X, the answer on the table was invalid.

The examinee had no choice but to lower his head, get up, and follow the two academy mages away. The surrounding examinees all turned to look, some gloating, others shaking their heads and sighing.

On their way out of the examination hall, the two academy mages talked: "What a nuisance, someone cheats every year!"

"There's nothing we can do, there are just too many people. I heard that cheating is rare at Deep Blue Academy; they only have less than a tenth of our number of test takers each year."

"If I were the dean, I would definitely raise the entrance exam registration fee to five gold coins, and require applicants to have a magic-related middle name. Also, the age limit for registration would be under twenty!"

"Age might not be an option. After all, you know, the Pope himself couldn't enroll because of his age..."

"At what age was the Pope restricted?"

"I think she was twenty-two years old."

"Then change it to twenty-three! I've had enough anyway. Tens of thousands of people take the entrance exam every year. Haven't you noticed that the air in the academy isn't fresh anymore?"

"It seems a bit..."

During the two-hour arcane science test, Gaucano noticed no fewer than ten instances of cheating being caught, exceeding the total number in the previous two tests combined, demonstrating the profound difficulty of this subject. Each time the Arcane Eye emitted a ripple, it caused a slight disturbance in the examination hall, but it quickly returned to silence as everyone continued to cope with this most demanding test.

Gao Jiano also felt considerable pressure, often racking his brains and scratching his head. He revised some of the answers again and again. Fortunately, the stone table exam paper was like a touch screen, making it very convenient to modify. Otherwise, it would probably have been a mess of scribbles long ago.

His knowledge of arcane arts mainly came from Darius.

As a highly talented array master, Dariss possesses a remarkably high level of arcane knowledge, and every time she gives guidance, Gaogano benefits immensely.

In addition, some of Gaucano's learning experiences in his previous life also helped him with arcane studies.

After all, a large part of arcane studies is related to graphics, similar to geometry.

For example, the last question on this exam paper was an extremely difficult one on "spatial magic graphics".

"Consider a mage drawing a four-point teleportation array, requiring that there must be a spatial folding trajectory between any two points; the four folding trajectories eventually enclose a stable spatial figure; if the figure is stable, then the location of the core node must be unique... Please prove that the core node will only exist uniquely when the spatial figure formed by the four points can be projected into a convex quadrilateral in three dimensions." Gao Jiano read the problem several times, but still didn't quite understand it, and had no clue how to solve it.

After running my fingers through my hair for ages.

will not!

Gaucano decisively abandoned this question. Rather than wasting time on it, he decided to focus his energy on questions where he could score points.

He then began to re-examine his previous answers.

He carefully checked the previous questions, and in the last minute, he wrote a few lines haphazardly on the last question before the test ended.

"The written examination is now complete. The academy will announce the results within two weeks." The notification sounded. "Approximately one-fifth of the candidates will have passed the written examination, and those who pass will be eligible to participate in the spellcasting test."

As the notification sound echoed throughout the examination hall, the impact of the awe-inspiring aura also disappeared.

All the candidates left the examination room in small groups, chatting amongst themselves. Some wore confident smiles, clearly satisfied with their performance; others looked dejected, sighing incessantly; still others were engaged in heated discussions about the answers to a particular question, trying to deduce their own correctness from their classmates' reactions…

What followed was a rather long wait.

Although the pass rate for the written test is only one in five, most people believe that they are among those who will pass.

Therefore, for the next two weeks, more than 20,000 candidates were busy preparing and practicing magic in order to pass the next round of spellcasting tests.

The mage district thus became exceptionally lively.

After all, most of the more than 20,000 examinees came from outside Ax City or even outside the Kingdom of Sein, which is no different from more than 20,000 tourists.

Moreover, many of these tourists are from wealthy families with extremely high spending power, making the merchants in the mage district very wealthy. Businesses of various magic supply stores, bookstores, and entertainment venues are booming.

half a month later.

The time has come to release the results.

As expected, the notice board announcing the results at the main gate of Ax Magic Academy was packed with people, all scrambling to get to it.

"Let me see!"

"Don't crowd, don't crowd!"

"Oh, I'm hit!"

Gaucano and Darius thought they were early, since they lived nearby and had come after breakfast, but they were still too slow—many people seemed to have been waiting there since before dawn.

Therefore, when they arrived near the magic academy, they were surprised to find several layers of people blocking their way. Various sounds could be heard from the crowd, some cheering, some dejected, and some loudly inquiring about their friends' grades.

With no other option, Gao Jiano found a high vantage point and used his Eagle Eye technique to check the results.

A total of 5,000 people passed the written test.

Of course, considering the high rate of name duplication in the world of Farallo, there may only be two thousand names among these five thousand people.

Not to mention common names like "John," even relatively obscure names like "Gaucano" are repeated.

So much so that when Gaucano saw his name appear in sixth place, he was taken aback.

Me? Sixth place?
He was self-aware enough to know that he could never achieve such a high ranking.

Sure enough, when he glanced back, he saw that the sixth-ranked "Gaucano" had the following words written in bold: 29 years old, Mosaroye.

Gaucano looked down.

A second later, his eyes suddenly opened.

"Ninth place, Dalis, female, dwarf, seventeen years old, Mage District of Ax City... Mosaic Theology 95 points, Ancient Elvish Language 88 points, Arcane Studies 93 points, total score 276 points."

Darius is ninth!

Total score: 276!
"Boss, boss, can you see me?" Darlis jumped up but couldn't see the notice, so she had to ask Gao Jiano.

“I see,” Gao Jiano said. “What number am I?”

"...Anyway, I passed." Gao Jiano said a little embarrassedly, because he had already seen a hundred people and still hadn't seen himself.

The maid came in ninth place, while I didn't even make it to the hundredth. It's a bit embarrassing!

Gaucano continued looking down.

"Rank 498, Gao Gano, male, human, 22 years old, Mage District of Ax City... Mosa Theology 76 points, Ancient Elvish Language 91 points, Arcane Studies 84 points, total score 251 points."

Fortunately, it didn't exceed 500th place. And to be fair, this is actually a pretty good result, enough to rank in the top 2% of all candidates.

“Boss, what about you?” Daryls asked again.

Gao Jiano: "I passed too. We're about the same, both in the top 500."

To some extent, he wasn't wrong to say that.

After all, the top 500 people took the spellcasting test on the same day, so they were considered to be in the same batch.

This also means that three days from now is the time for Gaucano and Daris to participate in the spellcasting test.

The two practiced for three more days before heading to the academy to take the test. During those three days, they repeatedly practiced their most confident spells to ensure that there would be no mistakes during the official test and to achieve the best possible demonstration effect.

Compared to the written test, the spellcasting test is much simpler: demonstrate six spells.

There is only one restriction on these six spells: they cannot be cast with the aid of external objects.

Wands, staffs, spell scrolls, magic runes... none of these can be used.

Candidates must rely on their own talent—or innate ability—to cast spells.

Yes, talent can also be a factor.

Many even believe that talent is the real test in the spellcasting test, and the quantity and quality of blessing spells directly determine a person's final score.

In contrast, magic learned later in life is less important.

After all, this scenario has occurred more than once in previous tests: demonstrating three or four powerful blessing spells yields far better results than demonstrating six powerful spells.

Opinions differ on this phenomenon or scoring rules; in fact, the debate can be quite heated.

Some argue that this is unfair, since magic can be learned, while talent is almost impossible to choose, so magic should be valued more than blessings.

Some argue that because magic can be learned, it shouldn't be overemphasized; what value can something that can be obtained through effort have? Throughout history, all great magicians are remembered primarily for their amazing talent, not for their repetitive diligence.

Deep Blue Academy is clearly a staunch believer in the idea that "talent is above all else." Their entrance exam has an extremely high talent threshold, and those without a "holy name of magic" are not even qualified to apply.

In comparison, Ax Academy of Magic is less extreme, allowing ordinary people to meet the admission standards through hard work.

But this is only relative.

The Academy of Magic still values ​​talent, and those with more prestigious magical titles are more likely to be admitted.

The venue for the spellcasting test was no longer an open lawn, but a large hall. The hall was very spacious, with a ceiling ten meters high and more than a thousand seats.

The hall, from front to back, consists of a magic demonstration stage, a judges' table, and an examinee's table.

There were more than twenty judges, most of whom appeared to be senior and elderly monks. The chief judge, sitting in the middle, was a middle-aged man with curly hair and a serious expression.

Five hundred candidates sat naturally in the examination seats, while dozens of young academy mages stood in the aisles to maintain order.

“The first one, Kevin Fogel,” the academy mage announced.

As soon as he finished speaking, a refined-looking red-haired boy rose from his seat and calmly walked towards the presentation stage under the watchful eyes of many. He smiled, his steps were steady and confident, and he showed no signs of nervousness whatsoever.

"He is Kevin from the Fogel family..."

"He's so young! I remember he was only sixteen!"

"Look at those hypocritical smiles, people from big families are all cut from the same cloth!"

"I heard he exorcised a holy name once, but I don't know what he exorcised..."

The academy's monks gestured for everyone to be quiet.

Meanwhile, Kevin Fogel had already stepped onto the stage, first giving a proper self-introduction, his voice clear and powerful, with the elegant tone unique to the aristocracy.

Then, after the chief judge nodded slightly, he said, "The first spell I will demonstrate is Bless Fire Breath."

As he spoke, he turned to face a mithril doll and took a deep breath.

"Whoosh—" A burst of fire appeared, and a blazing pillar of fire surged from his mouth, instantly engulfing the mithril doll.

A few seconds later, the flames died down.

Kevin, slightly out of breath, said, “The second spell I’m demonstrating is a third-circle spell, High Illusion.”

He then chanted a spell, and another Kaiwen appeared out of thin air. Although it was an illusion, its words and actions were no different from the real person. Even the rhythm of its breathing and the frequency of its blinking were exactly the same. At least the naked eye could not distinguish it.

Suddenly, a judge mage's eyes lit up with a hazy light. He stared at Kevin's phantom for a while, and finally said, "Not bad."

Kevin smiled and continued demonstrating the spell.

All spell demonstrations have been completed.

He bowed to the judges: "Thank you, Dean Albert, Anthony Chair Professor, Tammel Chair Professor, Matthew Chair Professor... and all the judges."

His manners were impeccable, and it was obvious that he knew many of the judges beforehand.

In contrast, it was only at this point that Gao Jiano learned that the chief judge was actually Archmage Albert, one of the vice-principals of the Ax Magic Academy.

Also...Matthew Chair Professor?
He felt like he had heard the name somewhere before, but couldn't quite place it, so he frowned and pondered for a while.

After a while, he finally remembered.

It turns out that the mage who repaired the ice pod with him on the Griffith had mentioned this Professor Matthew.

According to the sorcerer, Professor Matthew's freezing spell seemed to be somewhat unusual...

(End of this chapter)