Big G, Coffee Machine and Goblin

Chapter 53 The Test of the Quadrant
Ma Li opened his eyes and found himself standing in the garden beneath the White Tower.

He couldn't remember when he arrived here, whether the magic power assessment was complete, or what the results were. Where had the others gone?

He had already sensed that something was wrong and instinctively reached for his gun, but found nothing.

At the same time, Jia Anda's slightly hoarse voice rang in his ears.

"Concentrate, the test is about to begin."

Ma Li turned his head and looked around, but could not see the female alchemist.

"This is the spiritual world constructed by the four instruments. You cannot see other people, nor can you use the power of alchemical creations or potions. You can only rely on yourself to complete the test, and you cannot leave here before the test is over."

"Okay, so you're like my system notification, telling me what to do next."

This time, the voice in my mind fell silent, probably trying to figure out what the system notification sound was.

Just then, a ball of flame suddenly burst out of the courtyard. The flame quickly ignited a large tree that required two people to encircle, and with crackling and popping sounds, half of the tree's canopy was engulfed in flames.

The scene looked spectacular.

Jia Anda's voice rang out again, this time with only two simple words.

— To put out the fire.

Ma Li didn't know how to put out the fire. According to his common sense, if it was burning like this and there were no fire trucks around, he should run away as soon as possible.

But considering that this is only a spiritual world, we still have to save them.

He looked around and found an old wooden bucket under the courtyard wall, and a small pond about ten steps away.

Ma Li grabbed the wooden bucket, scooped water from the pool, and then carried it to the fire tree and splashed it on it.

This action reminded him of the Chinese idiom "a drop in the ocean."

However, since Jiaanda didn't say anything more, he could only continue doing it.

Although it is just a fictional mental world, the experience in all aspects is no different from reality.

Every time Ma Li approached the fire, he could feel the intense heat that scorched his hair and eyebrows, making them curl up. The feeling of suffocation in his throat grew stronger, and he coughed incessantly.

Moreover, after putting out the fire for a while, Ma Li discovered that the wooden bucket was broken. Every time he fetched a bucket of water, more than half of it would leak out along the way, and by the time he reached the ancient tree, only the bottom was left.

What does it mean when good fortune never comes in pairs and misfortune never comes alone?

But after searching the entire garden, Ma Li couldn't find anything else to hold water. He thought of looking in the front hall, but after trying, he found that he couldn't get out of the garden at all.

With no other option, he could only continue trying to put out the fire using the broken bucket in his hand.

The good news is that although the fire looks terrifying, it doesn't show any signs of spreading, giving Ma Li the feeling that it has a health bar.

Although its health bar is terrifyingly long, with continuous damage, theoretically it could be killed even with a basic knife.

Upon discovering this, Ma Li's spirits lifted slightly, and he continued to put out the fire, bucket by bucket, with water.

Sometimes he couldn't help but wonder whether this was a test of his elemental affinity or his willpower.

Anyway, he worked from morning till night, and from night till morning, until he finally extinguished the last flame. Afterwards, Ma Li threw away the wooden bucket, lay down on the grass, and gasped for breath. He didn't even bother to think about whether the heavy truck would disappear after a day; he just wanted to get a good night's sleep.

He was so tired that he didn't want to move a single finger.

However, the next moment Jia Anda's voice rang in his ears again, "Be careful, it's going to get windy."

When Ma Li first heard it, he was thinking how nice it was to have a breeze, as he was just looking forward to enjoying the wind. But he never expected that a tornado would suddenly sweep through the courtyard.

The delicate herbaceous flowers were the first to suffer, blown into the air. Then the shrubs were uprooted, and soil and gravel were swept up with them. The tables, chairs, decorations and even the pond in the garden danced a chaotic and primitive dance in the gale.

Ma Li had no time to escape, so he could only pick the thickest-looking tree next to him, hug it tightly, and then he was swept into the gale.

He could feel his body being torn apart, but miraculously, he wasn't hit by anything else.

No one knows how much time had passed, but the raging storm gradually subsided, leaving only a courtyard in ruins. But before Ma Li could catch his breath, the earth began to shake and crack again.

He had no choice but to start dodging and jumping along the edges of the cracks and pits again, which drained his last bit of strength.

By this point, Ma Li no longer cared about the test results; he just wanted to get out of there as soon as possible.

No matter what disasters might follow, he didn't want to play anymore. Ma Li made up his mind to just lie on the ground and not move.

However, to his surprise, Jia Anda went easy on him in the final challenge, only asking him to start a fire, and even providing him with flint and tinder, as well as firewood that had already been chopped in the garden.

Although Ma Li was clumsy, he still managed to light the fire before the cold arrived.

Then I just sat by the fire until the test was over.

When he opened his eyes again, he found himself lying on a strange-looking wooden instrument, somewhat like a hospital CT scanner, but with four gems of different colors embedded in the ring above his head.

Connecting those gems is a mysterious rune pattern resembling a star map, which contains both the natural grain of the wood and traces of human carving.

Jia Anda stood beside him, one hand pressed against the center of the star map.

"What was the result?" Levi asked impatiently.

“The affinity scores for the three elements—water, wind, and earth—are 1, 2, and 1 respectively, while only the fire element reached 4 points, barely reaching the level of an ordinary alchemist,” Jia Anda said slowly.

Levi dismissed it, "Alchemists aren't mages, so having such high elemental affinity is useless. As long as they can react to elements, that's enough..."

Even so, he was still somewhat alarmed. Levi was the vice-dean of the Radiant Staff Alchemy Academy and had taught many students. Every young person who could enter the Radiant Staff was an outstanding individual among their peers.

Even the seemingly ordinary Renee scored two 7s, one 6, and one 5 in the four main element tests, making Mali far behind them.

Alchemists do not have such high requirements for elemental affinity, but this is relative.

With such a low elemental affinity, even alchemical materials are difficult to process, which means that Ma Li's future alchemical journey will be much more difficult than others.

Ma Li felt it was alright. As long as he didn't get a zero, it meant that he could still learn and use magic, a magical power that was completely different from science, and he could keep his identity as an alchemist.

"Thank you for conducting the appraisal for me," Ma Li said to Jia Anda.

However, the latter did not respond. The female alchemist stood there, her brows furrowed, as if she had encountered something that puzzled her.

(End of this chapter)