Chapter 318: Theoretical Test

So, why did you work so desperately to be able to learn this explosion skill?" said Angus.

Hearing this question, Ferry looks gloomy and immediately tells Angus about his life story. Apparently, Ferry is a commoner with a hard life. 

Before becoming a member of the explosion squad, he was an adventurer of a small guild. As a commoner, third grade is already the height he could reach. Beyond third grade, he needs to get guidance or support from others.

This kind of problem happens to a lot of combatants in Firuman. Unless they are already talented enough to break through grade four on their own, most of the combatants will be stuck in the third grade.

This is also the reason why education facilities like the royal academy are important. Just by managing to form a mana core using their standard technique already guarantees the student to reach at least fourth grade.

However, not everyone could enter the royal academy. Only influential people and wealthy people could enter it. Moreover, it also costs a lot of money. Ordinary commoners like Ferry, who still struggle with everyday life, could never get this privilege.

Ferry's life as an adventurer is full of uncertainty. There are many times when he almost gets himself killed during his job. Therefore, after reaching third grade, Ferry decided to enter the newly formed Explosion Squad.

He believes he will get many benefits and could possibly reach a higher grade if he joins the army. However, reality hit him hard. In here, there are many people with more talent than him. 

Ferry's capability is only above average, with a slightly good self-taught fire elemental mastery from the report. So, as he hears Angus going to test them for a second time, he feels like this is an excellent opportunity for him.

After hearing Ferry's story, "Hm.. I see. What is your dream?" asked Angus.

"My dream?? I.. I am not sure. At first, I just wanted to have a stable life. Becoming part of the explosion squad gives me a good source of income and a stable life. So, I am truly not sure about my dream. But, I really want to get stronger." said Ferry.

"I see… Here, take it." said Angus while giving Ferry a space pouch.

Receiving the pouch, "Inside there, there are books that contain fire mastery and explosion skill. Read all of them while recovering. After a week, I will start to test you about it. If your result is not up to standard, then your spot will be replaced by others." said Angus.

"Make sure you study hard. I don't want to teach a dumb and weak-willed person." added Angus.

Then, Angus gets out of the Ferry's medical room. After that, Angus also goes towards the other two soldiers that passed the test. One of them is a male in his forties called Gibby, while the other is a female soldier called Tilda.

Like Ferry, Angus also interviewed both of them with the same question. Unlike Ferry, Gibby is an experienced soldier in the army. He is one of the soldiers previously stationed in the Black Fortress. 

A few years ago, Duke Jacob's fight against Evil Mother Treant deeply impressed Gibby and became the source of his motivation. 

Unfortunately, Gibby himself is not a magician like Duke Jacob with a lot of available resources. In the end, he could only try by entering the Explosion Squad.

On the contrary, Tilda is different from the other two soldiers. To Angus' surprise, Tilda is actually the daughter of Baron Flintless. Unfortunately, she is the last child in her family. 

Usually, the last child of the small noble will not get anything or support from their family after they reach adulthood unless a particular case like politics and diplomacy. 

Tilda happens to be forced to leave her house and territory after she reaches adulthood because of the dispute with her family. Still, because of her status as noble, she has some kind of network to gather information.

As a noble, she knows Angus will never truly hurt or kill them. She also managed to see through Angus's intention from the start. Therefore, she decided to hold on and keep waiting for him for days without eating, drinking, or resting.

Like Ferry and Gibby, Tilda also has a lot of hope to learn and become stronger with the help of Angus. After interviewing both of them, Angus gives each of them a space pouch with books. 

Like Ferry, he will also test them after a week and replace them if they are not up to standard. Even though the three of them managed to pass Angus's test, Angus still refuses to teach a brain-dead person.

He will need to take a lot of effort and time to teach a stupid person than the smart one. He knows as a warrior, the three of them need to study hard to reach his qualification. But, Angus could compromise with them if they show their true dedication by studying hard.

Three days passed by in a flash, and the seventeen soldiers that passed Angus's test began to get their test. During the last three days, these seventeen soldiers have tried to study hard and fight each other.

They are fighting over the books inside the circle. Some of them even damaged the books because of their fight and got beaten up by everyone. Moreover, Angus refuses to give another book until the test is done. 

They could also only stay in the rune circle for a certain time, which decreased their study time. As a result, most of these seventeen soldiers didn't study properly and received bad test marks.

Like Angus said to them before, Angus immediately changed the seventeen of them with other talented soldiers based on their performance report. This way, Angus can force all the soldiers to study hard and increase their training to perform well.

Moreover, Angus could also spread the basic knowledge of explosion skills to the whole soldier in the base and increase the whole combat capability of the Explosion Squad.

The news about the new seventeen people getting selected is spread around and rouses hope in the soldiers that have already given up before. No matter what, the opportunity to have a high skill like explosion skill is too great to be given up easily.

Like the previous one, Angus gives another assignment to the newly selected seventeen soldiers. They all need to study the books under the rune circle and be tested in three days. The newly selected soldier managed to perform better than the last previous one in the test.

However, they are still not able to understand thirty percent of the book's subjects. Therefore, Angus changed them into another seventeen new soldiers.

While the other soldier struggles with Angus's ploy, Ferry, Gibby, and Tilda's test day finally arrives. Unlike the other seventeen soldiers that could only study at the limited time under the scorching circle rune, they could study without any constraint and more extended time.

After the three of them take Angus's theoretical test, they feel like they have almost lost their soul. Despite the significant advantage they have, they feel like they can't get a good result. 

It is not because Angus's test is hard, but the book's subject is too hard to understand. The next day after the test, Angus gathered the three of them in his working room. 

The three of them enter Angus's room nervously as they know their spot will be offered to others if they fail. It means they will be losing their opportunity to learn explosion skills.

Entering the room, they find Angus sitting meditating with candles around him. The candle fire burned up and died down, according to Angus's breath. Every time he exhales, the fire begins smaller. While every time he takes a deep breath, the fire becomes brighter.

Ferry and the other two never see this kind of exquisite fire control. Since they have already read some of Angus's books, they know how hard it is to achieve this kind of fire control and manipulation.

Yet, Angus, who is much younger than them, easily managed to use this kind of technique. After a while, Angus opened his eyes from his meditation.

"Good, all of you here. Now, each of you takes a candle from that chest and lit them with your own fire mana." ordered Angus.

Waking up from their stupor, Ferry and the others immediately took the candles and lit them up.

"Good, now try to manipulate the fire as big as possible." said Angus.

The three soldiers immediately did as Angus instructed, but none managed to manipulate the fire to begin bigger. After a few minutes of trying, none of them managed to do what Angus ordered.

"All right, that's enough. Hmm.. Before I continue, which one did you prefer? Taking a bath or gathering wood?" asked Angus.

"Err.. Pardon me, sir??" replied Ferry in confusion.

"Well, just answer it. Which one did you choose?" asked Angus again.

"A bath, I guess." said Ferry.

"Taking a bath, sir." replied Gibby.

"I prefer taking a bath." said Tilda.