บท 14: Aptitude Test
Leylin followed the witch’s instructions and placed both of his hands on the crystal ball.
Icy cold! Vibrations!
A strange tactile feeling was transmitted from the tip of his fingers.
Leylin’s head hurt as if there was a glass rod stirring inside.
Along with the start of his headache, the crystal ball in front of Leylin also emitted a faint glow.
“Very good! Don’t let go! The witch stared attentively at the crystal ball.
As the pain increased, the crystal ball in Leylin’s hands also grew brighter, “No! No more!”
Leylin clenched his teeth, and the pain that practically split his brain into two caused him to loosen his grip uncontrollably.
“Okay! So you are at this level?” The witch nodded her head. She took out a goose feather pen and scribbled on Leylin’s form.
“We have categorised the aptitude of the acolytes into five grades, with the first grade as the worst and the fifth grade as the best. You are in the third grade, a middle ranked grade!”
The witch said as she turned a ring on her hand and made a strange mark on the sheepskin, which had been shining brightly with light.
“My examination here is over, you go on behind me! Next!”
Seeing a young girl with freckles entering the tent, Leylin took the sheepskin paper, stood up and gave his thanks, and then lifted the hanging curtain of the tent, heading to the next procedure in line.
The area was still as spacious as the one earlier, and in the middle, there was a white bearded old geezer.
“From the layout of this tent, there should only be two tests. It is really simple!” Leylin thought, as he sat in front of the old geezer and handed the form over to him.
“Third grade? Not too bad!” The white-bearded old geezer stroked his chin, “Alright! Now to test for elemental affinity!”
The old geezer knocked on the tabletop and it split open, and a black basin rose from the centre.
This water basin was not smooth. It seemed to be made of stone, and there was a kind of liquid metal flowing inside that resembled mercury.
“Carefully look into the water!” The old geezer’s voice sounded, seemingly carrying an authoritative tone.
Leylin could not help but to divert all his attention towards the centre of the water basin. With his constant focus, the mercury in the middle swirled continuously and turned into a whirlpool, as if a mouth had opened at the bottom.
“Now, tell me, what do you see?”
Leylin’s eyes were a little glazed over, “Shadows, and a black coloured whirlpool! And there are red spots near the outer circumference!”
“Anything else?”
“There are also green specks of light in the surrounding area!”
“Is there a lot of green?”
“Not at all! Very little!”
“Okay!” The old geezer snapped his fingers, and Leylin suddenly came back to his senses, “What happened to me!”
“Your test is already over! In the aspect of elemental affinities, you have the highest affinity with the Dark and Shadow elements, after that is the Fire element, and you also have a smidgen of affinity with the Plant element!”
As the old geezer spoke, he rapidly filled in the form and added his handprint.
“Let me give you some advice! Magi are able to use every kind of energy! But only by following the path you have the highest affinity with, can you progress the furthest!”
The old geezer handed the form back to Leylin, “Alright! Your test is over. Walk out from the back entrance and start choosing your academy!”
Leylin bowed, and then left the tent.
As he lifted the canopy at the back, a ray of sunlight came shining down.
“A.I Chip, reproduce the state I was in earlier!”
“As expected!” Leylin’s face darkened, and then he exhaled helplessly, “Thankfully, the other party does not have any bad intentions, if not……”
Deep in his heart, his thirst for power only grew more intense.
“Hey! Leylin!” George’s voice rang beside his ears, “You finished your aptitude test too?”
George’s voice travelled over.
“Yeah!” Leylin nodded his head and waved the sheepskin paper form in his hands.
“I have completed it too, hehe! I, this young master, am a genius with a fourth-grade aptitude!” George laughed loudly, wearing an excessively smug expression!
“I am not too familiar with the grading of acolytes, could you explain it in detail for me?” Leylin asked.
George’s family was much greater than Viscount Farlier’s family, and he was able to know more secrets regarding the Magi.
“Of course! This is all common knowledge. No matter which academy you enter, there will be people who will tell you.” George said.
“The aptitudes of the acolytes are ranked according to the chance of being promoted to a proper Magus, and they are categorised into 5 grades! And the fifth grade is the highest, with a 90 percent chance of becoming a Magus!”
“The fourth grade is slightly inferior, but there is still a 50 percent chance! I, this young master, am a genius at this level! Haha……My father will definitely be elated!” George digressed, he was clearly too excited.
“And the rest? Hurry and say it!” Leylin punched George’s shoulder and finally brought George back on track.
“Oh? Earlier I mentioned up to the fourth grade. What’s below it is the third grade, where there is a ten percent chance of becoming a Magus. As for the second grade, there is only a 2 to 3 percent chance, and the first grade is the worst, with only a 1 percent or even 0.1 percent chance.”
“Anyway, there is only a chance for third grade and above. As for the first and second grade, basically, they can only be an acolyte their whole life!”
“So that is the case. It seems like my grade is middle ranked. There should be no academy that will reject me, nor would they regard me as important!” Leylin analysed his current situation.
“How about elemental affinity?” Leylin continued asking.
“Elemental affinity is the future path of a Magus, you know, some Magi can manipulate lightning, some Magi can manipulate fire, and some others can even manipulate frost! These are all paths of choice.”
“Although a Magus is able to use any type of elemental spell, in theory, the ones with the highest affinity will not only let the casting speed be faster but also contain more power. If a Fire element Magus wanted to cast a water-based spell, not only would he consume more spiritual energy, but the might of the spell would also weaken greatly. There could be a water-based pool summoning that ends up as only a water ball!”
“All in all, the elemental affinity will determine the path of a Magus, and the aptitude will determine how far a Magus can walk on that path!”
George concluded.
“The last sentence makes perfect sense, but it doesn’t seem to be yours!” Leylin repeated the words of the last sentence.
“He he! You found out. These are the words of a travelling Magus! I saw them in my father’s study room.” George said embarrassedly, as he scratched his head.
“Oh right! I finally managed to inquire as to why the black-robed Knights were so cold and distant!”
George seemed to have remembered something and was itching to share the news.
“The strength of a Magus, even if he is only an acolyte, is not something a Knight can withstand, so don’t you think that the black robes’ performance when we journeyed was a little strange?”
“There is indeed something strange about it!” Leylin nodded his head and asked with a conjecture, “Could it be that they have some background?”
“No! No! No!” George shook his head, “My dear brother, you are guessing in the completely wrong direction; these black robed Knights are actually one of the experiments of a Magus!”
“An experiment!” Leylin’s eyes widened. In his world, conducting a live experiment had always been a taboo for science, and even if there were any, they were done in secrecy. But here, they had actually done it so openly and aboveboard.
“In the process of the experiment, this batch of experiment samples had already sustained an overdose of radiation and would not live more than several years. That was why they were used as disposables, to escort acolytes like us!”
“This was the reason?” Leylin thought of Angelo’s pale face and silently nodded his head.
Earlier, the A.I Chip had scanned and detected traces of radiation, but the radiation discovered on the white robe Magi were a hundred times more concentrated, so Leylin naturally thought that there was no effect.
“For us Magi, we will be acolytes at least; which Knight would not want to prostrate themselves and hope that we pick them to serve us in the future. The only ones who will not take us seriously are those who will not live for longer than a few days!”
George said with some regrets. His face was indignant, it seems like, as an heir to a large noble family, he was displeased with the rude manners of the black robes from before.
“I heard that for the guys from the west, not only had they been treated like young masters by the Knights along the journey, they had even slept with some of them!” George’s dissatisfaction only lasted a moment, before it turned into a vulgar expression.
“Slept with some of them?” Leylin was a little more awake, “There are also female Knights?”
“Of course, although female Knights are generally quite muscular, a few have practised some unique techniques so they still look pretty good!”
“Also, a female Knight’s stamina is rather good and can withstand all kinds of treatment. Especially during intercourse, her pair of toned thighs wrapping around you, that feeling is too wonderful for words!” George’s current character was that of a lecherous swine.
Leylin recalled his memories. The brat of the past was also a playboy, but obviously, he could not compete with George who was from such a large noble family, so he had indeed not touched a pretty female Knight before.
There were several female Knights under the Viscount, but they all had bulging muscles, which made Leylin feel revolted.
Shaking his head, he did not wish to discuss the contents of this matter with George.
“I understand now. Let’s go and choose our academy!”
“This! My father has already chosen for me, I’ll be attending the Ennea Ivory Ring Tower. My family has a relationship with one of the senior Magi inside……Why don’t you come with me too!” George gave an invitation.
Leylin was a little tempted, but seeing the ring on his neck, he still hesitated,
“Earlier, that Magus never said which academy the ring could help me get into. What if it turns into a restriction instead?”
“No! I wish to walk and look around more!” Leylin declined politely.
“Alright then, I am going to carry out the procedures. You can come to the area for the Ennea Ivory Ring Tower to look for me!” George waved his hands and squeezed into the crowd.
“Where should I go? I don’t care anymore; let’s check out the academies first!”
Leylin strolled aimlessly around the camp and saw all sorts of interesting tents with strange shapes and sizes. Some were like a giant mushroom, where a small fan-shaped door opened in the middle, and some might very well have used some sort of strange horned devil skull, where the acolytes can walk into the tent through the devil’s ferocious mouth as though they were stepping into a haunted house.
And at the front of all these different buildings were marked with words.
“It is the language of the mainland, that’s still fine!”
Leylin took a look, saw some of the academy names, and memorised them, “Ennea Ivory Ring Tower, Mercifura Academy, Wetland Gardens……”
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