Mercenary Wars

Chapter 229 Spell Demonstration
Among the applicants were already many noble children, and after the elimination process through the written exam, the proportion of nobles naturally increased further. After all, commoners rarely even had the opportunity to learn to read, let alone magic.

Therefore, during the entire spellcasting test, there were plenty of people with names and surnames, either from prosperous families or from humble backgrounds where their ancestors had been wealthy. On the contrary, ordinary people without surnames were in the minority.

Among all the commoners, Dariss was undoubtedly the most eye-catching.

When the tiny blue-haired dwarf girl stepped onto the demonstration stage, everyone instinctively straightened up—otherwise, they might not have been able to see her.

On the spacious demonstration stage, her height of only about 1.2 meters made her appear exceptionally small.

"I...I am Dariss." Dariss's voice betrayed obvious nervousness, and her movements were also very restrained. Although the shapeshifting mask was extremely powerful, there were several archmages among the judges, and she couldn't help but feel a little uneasy.

In particular, there was a judge who clearly possessed some kind of visual blessing, who would frequently scrutinize the candidates with his gleaming eyes.

Just as Daryls finished saying her name, the judge's eyes began to gleam with a gray light as he stared at her for a while.

Daryls's face turned pale instantly, and she instinctively gripped the hem of her mage's robe tightly.

Fortunately, the judges didn't notice anything amiss and quickly looked away, saying to a bald judge next to them, "So it's a dwarf. I thought it was a child."

“Of course they’re dwarfs, otherwise how could such small children participate in the test? In the past year, the number of dwarfs who have immigrated from the Broken Isles has increased considerably,” said the bald judge.

"Was it influenced by the Dibto War?"

"should be……"

Hearing the conversation between the two judges, Daryls breathed a sigh of relief.

Because of the distance, Gao Jiano couldn't hear the judges' hushed conversation, so he was still a little nervous and stood stiffly forward.

Others didn't seem to think anything of it.

After all, in most people's eyes, the dwarf girl looked like a little girl among humans, and it's perfectly normal for a little girl to be nervous on stage. Whispers rippled through the candidates' seats, with many feeling kind sympathy for the petite and adorable dwarf girl.

Not only that, but an elderly female magic professor on the judging panel waved her hand and said softly in a comforting tone, "Don't be nervous, little one."

Darliss composed herself and then began to demonstrate the spell.

Before becoming a favored one of Sindragosa, she didn't have any suitable blessing spells to demonstrate, but she had a high aptitude for learning, especially water magic, and mastered quite a few spells, including some at the third level.

After becoming a favored one of Sindragosa, a blessing spell suitable for demonstration was also available—the Frostbite Blizzard.

To be precise, it is called "Extreme Cold Silent Blizzard," which is not only more powerful than an ordinary blizzard, but also does not require chanting incantations; it only requires some simple casting actions.

So naturally, Darius chose it as the spell she would demonstrate last.

"Next, I'm going to demonstrate the Blessing spell Blizzard," she said, opening her arms wide.

"Whoosh—" A cold wind howled, and the air was immediately filled with chill.

The high dome of the hall became a cold nest where wind and snow gathered, and in an instant, accompanied by the raging cold, a vast expanse of ice and snow had already taken shape.

Feeling the biting cold all around, everyone in the hall paled, even the well-informed judges couldn't help but show a hint of surprise and began to whisper among themselves.

The candidates' reactions were naturally more obvious.

"This spell's power is probably comparable to a fourth-level spell!"

"A wide-range blessing spell, I'm so envious..."

"Where did this little girl come from, Okarigan?"

"No, I noticed when I looked at the results announcement that this Daris dwarf seems to be a local of Ax City, living in the Mage District."

"Huh? How come I've never heard of a blue-haired, magically gifted dwarf girl in the mage district?"

As everyone was discussing, Dariss pointed a finger at the mithril doll.

"Hu-hu-hu-"

The cold wind howled, and snow fell in abundance.

Like a strong wind whipping up years of accumulated snow, or like a sudden avalanche, it was impossible to tell whether the wind was faster or the snow was colder, as it swiftly crashed into the mithril doll.

A few seconds passed.

After the blizzard spell ended, the mithril doll was encased in a layer of ice, looking like a crystal-clear ice sculpture.

The chill in the hall had not yet dissipated.

Some of the candidates in the front row were even shivering slightly from the cold.

Of course, Darius herself suffered the most from the cold.

She was supposed to first create a magical shield that could protect her from the cold before casting the spell, but she had forgotten because she was too nervous.

Therefore, the moment she finished casting the spell, she quickly activated her magical shield.

Even so, she was still shivering from the cold, and sneezed several times while bowing: "Thank you—achoo! achoo! Thank you, judges!"

It seems that snot bubbles even splashed onto the judges' table.

If it were an adult male candidate, this kind of performance would likely be met with disapproval from the judges.

But the dwarf girl always received people's tolerance.

Moreover, many of the judges are elderly people, who are especially lenient towards "children".

Therefore, Daryls's sneezes not only failed to annoy any of the judges, but her endearing appearance also brought a smile to the faces of several elderly professors.

Daryls then returned to the examination area. A blush still lingered on her cheeks, a result of both the cold and the mixture of nervousness and excitement.

“Next, John, twenty-one years old, from Silverpine Town,” the academy mage continued, adding extra details to such a frequently repeated name that lacked a surname.

He then added, "Roden, nineteen, from Canyon Town, get ready. Oscar Esther, get ready."

The candidates took turns going up on stage to give their presentations.

The spells demonstrated were incredibly diverse. Especially the blessing spells; as the origin of magic, the diversity of blessing spells far surpasses that of magic itself.

Fortunately, as a top-tier magic academy on the entire continent, Ax Magic Academy is well-informed and well-prepared, with all the necessary conditions in place.

If Gaucano wanted, he could easily go on stage and demonstrate "the Curse of Fairness," "plant perception," or even "cognition."

But he was unwilling to do so.

After all, these three are top-tier, rare, and powerful blessings; to display them rashly would be tantamount to flaunting wealth.

Especially "Cognition." This most mysterious blessing, for which there are no related legends, if these magic professors knew about it, Gaucano suspected he might be captured and dissected. Moreover, these three holy names carry even greater political risks. Although all his holy names belong to the gray category, the degree of grayness varies. Goddesses with personified images, such as the Furies and the Harvest Goddess, are probably considered "dark gray," only one step away from black holy names—"the one true God proclaims" or "does evil"; the Sage's disrespect for the gods is no less precarious. Perhaps just changing the pope would transform these three not into holy names, but into crimes.

The Academy of Magic at Ax is also influenced by the Church; otherwise, the written exam wouldn't include a theology section.

In contrast, the political risks associated with the blessings of the four natural elements—water, fire, earth, and wind—are much lower, falling into the "light gray" category, and are even permitted for certain clergy members.

Political security, coupled with the fact that elemental blessing spells usually have more obvious visual effects, led most candidates to choose to demonstrate elemental blessing spells.

After much deliberation, Gao Jiano hesitated repeatedly, but finally decided that the blessing spell would only demonstrate the two elements, and the rest of the demonstration would be done with magic.

In fact, he was still a little hesitant until a few minutes before going on stage.

The competition was fierce, and his written test score wasn't high—relative to the number of places available at the Ax Magic Academy. If his spellcasting test score wasn't good either, he might be eliminated.

Fortunately, after some observation, Gao Jiano was fairly confident that demonstrating two blessing spells along with some magic spells should yield good results, at least enough to pass the test. After all, among the first few hundred candidates, no more than one-fifth demonstrated two blessing spells. Considering this was the top group of candidates, the percentage demonstrating two blessing spells among all five thousand candidates was certainly even smaller, possibly less than one-tenth.

Of course, this choice still has some hidden risks.

The reason is simple: the local customs and environments are incompatible.

The repulsion between water and fire, wind and earth, is a natural law. Gaining the favor of one element inevitably means incurring the dislike of its antagonistic element; this is basic common sense in the magical world.

Therefore, under normal circumstances, a person cannot simultaneously possess the blessings of the water and fire elements, nor can they simultaneously possess the blessings of the air and earth elements.

Gaucano happens to possess the blessings of both the wind and earth elements, a rare occurrence that is sure to attract attention.

Time slowly passed as he hesitated and considered.

Finally, the academy mage called out, "Next, Gao Jiano."

Gaucano took a deep breath and walked onto the demonstration platform.

Many test takers had already left, so the hall was now quite empty. Fewer than a hundred people remained in the large space, and the occasional noisy chatter had become very quiet.

This is probably good news, since it means he won't have to demonstrate under intense scrutiny like Dariss did.

A brief self-introduction.

The judges were drowsy.

They have watched hundreds of spell demonstrations.

If we include previous years, some judges may have watched tens of thousands of spell demonstrations, so it's easy to imagine how tedious and boring they must be.

“The first spell I’m going to demonstrate is the Ice spell,” Gaucano said, walking toward a basin of water not far away.

This was a decision he made on a whim.

Freezing is not a spell suitable for demonstration.

Everyone is more inclined to admire spells that create spectacular scenes—like Darius's blizzard.

In contrast, the effect of the freezing technique was not very obvious, and the difficulty was not high. Among the previous hundreds of candidates, it seemed that only one had demonstrated the freezing technique.

But Gaucano recalled the conversation he had experienced.

Over the past few decades, the incantation for freezing has undergone significant changes. The new incantation is more concise, but it has lost some of its classical charm and depth.

Many older monks still use and revere the spells of the past—the spells learned by Gaucano.

Therefore, he felt that this might help him make a good impression on the judges.

As it turned out, his idea was correct.

As the incantation for the freezing spell was recited, many of the judges, who had been drowsy, raised their eyebrows and perked up.

The elderly professors chatted and discussed for a while.

“There aren’t many reliable young people like this anymore,” Professor Matthew said. He stroked his gray beard, a look of satisfaction in his eyes.

A judge next to him agreed: "Yes, young people nowadays like simple and superficial incantations, showing no respect for the wisdom of the ancients..."

Of course, the results don't seem to be perfect.

For example, the chief judge sitting in the very center, the vice dean Archmage Albert, seemed to have no reaction whatsoever.

Perhaps it's because he's relatively young among the judges, or at least he looks young.

In fact, from Kevin Fogel to Gaugano, Albert's expression hardly changed throughout the day, as if he were always meticulous, which contrasted sharply with the laxity of most of the judges.

His classic ice-forming technique inspired many senior professors.

Then came a few standard spells.

Gaucano had been practicing these spells intensively for the past few months, so he was naturally very skilled at using them.

Some judges nodded slightly and murmured among themselves. They acknowledged Gao Jiano's solid performance; while there weren't many surprises, at least he didn't make any mistakes.

Up until this point, it was a rather unremarkable spell test, and the judges did nothing but whisper among themselves.

“Next, I will demonstrate the Wind Element Blessing spell – Gentle Breeze,” Gao Jiano said.

The spell's name, as displayed on the panel, is "Swift Breeze".

However, in the magical system, the more common term is "Gentle Breeze," which is used to encompass all similar blessing spells.

This also serves to protect the privacy of sacred names. After all, if one were to directly say "Swift Breeze," a mystic could easily identify at least a few potential recipients by following the clues. "Breeze" is different; there are at least a hundred recipients who could offer a similar blessing, and the corresponding sacred names number in the thousands.

As soon as Gao Jiano finished speaking, a series of swift breezes were generated, and ripples spread through the air.

An invisible current of wind swept by and gathered, causing the mithril doll to sway.

The doll is made of mithril on the surface, but the inside is made of a much heavier material, making it difficult to shake with a gust of wind spell.

"Good talent," Professor Matthew said. "Keep going."

The effect of the Breeze spell wasn't particularly impressive, but the value of the Blessing spell far surpassed that of magic, and the other judges also showed clear approval.

Gaucano: "The last spell I'm going to demonstrate is an earth elemental blessing spell, Stone Skin."

Chief Judge Archmage Albert was taken aback, as if he thought he had misheard: "What?"

(End of this chapter)