Chapter 54 - Spell Caster’s Exam – Lucia’s side

Meanwhile, as Cecil had just finished his spell caster exam's second test.

In room SF01, Lucia had just finished her Magic Aptitude evaluation. She took much longer than Cecil because she insisted on using both her fire and water spells.

Just like Cecil, she used an original spell based off of the water and fire bolt spells.

"Okay, on to the next test."

Lucia only grinned when she thought about the Stage Evaluation test.

'I bet Cecil's already stunned his examiners.'

When the pedestal came up, Lucia immediately stepped forward and put her hand on top of the orb.

She began channeling her mana into the orb and the first violet color bar shone on the bottom of the pedestal.

'Hoohh... I guess the higher the bar, the better it is then?'

Lucia smirked and started channeling her mana faster into the orb. The orb quickly lit up all the way until it was yellow. Lucia's original mana capacity without factoring in her mana cores in her tails was only around 500 units.

Lucia frowned. She then began focusing her mind onto the mana cores in her tails.

'First Core, Release'

Another surge of mana gushed into the orb and immediately the orange and red bar lit up, but because Lucia had released her First Core's Seal all the mana inside her tail's core ended up rushing into the orb with zero constraints.

The orb kept on lighting up until eventually, it cracked.

The examiners behind the window were already on their feet when the red, top most bar of the pedestal lit up.

"High Level Mana Sea Stage!"

"G-genius! Isn't she only 14 years old?!"

"No you fools! Can't you see that the orb has already started cracking! She's at the Peak Level! Just a short ways away from Mana Core Stage!"

"What?!"

"Impossible!"

The examiners took a closer look at the orb that slowly started cracking. Eventually to their astonishment, the orb broke apart and the pedestal's light immediately dimmed down.

"M-mana core... she's in the Mana Core Stage!"

"A 14 year old at the Mana Core stage! This is unprecedented!"

"A-Actually, wasn't there someone like her before?! The previous headmaster's talents practically rival this young girl's! Also, wasn't the previous headmaster also a silver haired foxkin?"

"I-I've been thinking about this since earlier, but... don't you think that this girl looks somewhat familiar?"

The shocked examiners took a careful glance at Lucia. Lucia took notice of them sizing her up and felt annoyed.

She had accidentally broken the orb so she thought that the examiners' gazes were unpleasant. She thought that they wanted her to pay up for destroying their equipment.

Lucia felt that she didn't do anything wrong! It was the academy who was at fault for testing her with such trashy equipment.

Lucia scoffed and crossed her arms over her chest. Then she started glaring back at the examiners but her expression and actions caused another round of discussion from the examiners.

"Huh? look at her... she looks and even acts like our previous headmaster..."

As the examiners were talking, Lucia made her way to the window and knocked on the glass in annoyance. Seeing as the examiners were busily discussing something and essentially ignoring her, Lucia cleared her throat and said loudly.

"Ahem... next?!"

The examiners were shocked and immediately turned towards the young fox girl. One of them spoke out hurriedly.

"Eh... ah yes, yes... next is the Mental Capacity test."

With a wave of the examiner's wand, a desk with books on top rose from the floor.

The examiner began explaining.

"Here we have some intermediate and basic level spells, choose any from the table. They're spells from every elemental system. We will test on how fast you can comprehend and use the spell you have chosen. You have 3 attempts. The timer will begin when you pick up the first book."

One of the examiners was already holding onto a clock-like gadget. It was Alterna's version of a stopwatch.

"Okay." Lucia replied plainly and walked to the table. The books were grouped in colors, red for fire, blue for water, green for air, brown for earth, and purple for lightning. There was also a small amount of white and black books, probably for the light and dark elemental systems.

Lucia went over to the red area and picked up a fire element spell book from the desk.

She took a glance at the spell and found that it was the Scorching Array spell. It was the exact same spell that Lucia had used in the Monster Hunting Event that wiped out half of a Blade Ursa Tribe.

'Heh, Mama had this in her study and I could already cast this spell months ago.'

Lucia only took a small glance at the book and placed it back onto the desk.

She walked away from the desk and stood only a couple of paces away. Then she began chanting.

"W-what?!"

"No way, that fast?!"

"...remember she's at the mana core stage!" said one of the examiners with an understanding gaze.

After the last examiner said his piece, the other two also nodded in understanding, it was expected of this talented young girl to be able to do this.

Lucia quickly finished chanting and she released the spell right in front of her.

"SCORCHING ARRAY!"

A magic circle formed on the floor a few steps ahead of her and then a scorching pillar of flames rose from the ground.

"The chant was also fast!" An examiner exclaimed.

Lucia had already abandoned using this spell ever since she created her original spells, but that didn't mean she would forget how to use it.

Instead because of the influence of her original spells, Lucia was able to somewhat shorten her chant and quickly release the spell.

After the spell subsided Lucia turned back towards the table, ready to pick the next spell she was going to use.

But before she could pick up another book, the lead examiner quickly stopped her.

"Examinee No. 1560, Lucia. You have already passed the test so there is no longer any need for you to use another spell."

"Oh? Well, that's the final Spell caster test right? So next is the fighter's test right?"

Sensing the impatience in her voice, the examiner stuttered.

"Y-yes, ah, congratulations on passing the Spell caster's test, right now you are probably the most promising student candidate from this batch of examinees."

"Thank you, so let's continue onto the next test?" Lucia politely responded.

"Ah, for the fighter's test there will be a new examiners. Please wait a bit. It won't take long for them to arrive."

"Okay~"

The examiners quickly went out through a separate door in the room. Lucia walked towards the window and leaned on the wall beside it and crossed her arms.

'I wonder how Cecil's doing. Hah, I bet he's doing better than me!'

Lucia could not be more wrong because right now in room SF02, Cecil had just barely finished the third and last exam of the spell caster division.

"Holy crap... that was a close one, I almost got caught." Cecil said as he tiredly slump down on the floor.