Aethernea : Soulbound [Book 1]

Episode 36 - Casting Speed Exam Start!

Previously on Aethernea:

Kiel and Elaru arrive in their designated classrooms to take the casting speed exam test. One of Kiel's examiners happens to be Rau Eryey - the elibu young man who Kiel first met when he came to sign up for the exams. He invites all the examinees in Kiel's group inside the classroom to take the test.

* * *

In the middle of the room, there was a large table with a strange apparatus. The device was made out of 20 small glass orbs. The orbs were a bit smaller than the size of a fist and made out of half-transparent yellow glass. They were positioned in a spiral, connected with a thick yellow cable, made out of a strange rubbery material.

In the center of the spiral, at the end of the cable, there was a small hourglass filled with blue jelly. The upper part of the hourglass was completely filled with jelly, while there was none on the lower part of the hourglass. The jelly showed no sign of passing through the small opening between the sides of the hourglass.

As everyone entered the room, the woman sitting behind the teacher's desk got up and smiled. She spoke up in a husky, pleasant tone. "I am Kady Ailert and will supervise your magic casting speed test."

Kiel searched his memory. When he was little, his grandfather made him remember all important surnames. The knowledge still remained.

Ailert was a branch family of the Arten noble family. Artens were the spiritual support of the whole Halnea. They ran numerous temples, practicing all religion-related arts such as meditation and aura sensing. They were the only noble family that kept completely away from the politics.

Rau approached the table with the apparatus and picked up a ball that was at the end of the spiral. This ball was larger than all the other balls and had a more vivid golden color. He quickly performed a spell that no one managed to catch.

As his spell activated the ball reacted to and started sucking up mana all around it like a sponge sucks in water. After a while, the ball stopped absorbing mana and started glowing. This meant that the apparatus was ready for usage.

"As you might have noticed, this magical artifact absorbed a predefined amount of mana that will be used in the test. Your goal is to transfer as much mana from the first orb to the hourglass at the end." Rau put down the orb and pointed towards the hourglass in the middle of the spiral. "When mana reaches this hourglass, it will heat up according to the amount of mana that reaches it. As it heats up, the jelly inside of it will melt and pass through the hourglass. The more jelly passes through, the better your result."

Rau stroked the cable connecting the glass balls. "When you perform the first trigger spell, the speedometer will activate, and the mana will naturally travel down these magic conduits. However, when it reaches the next orb, it won't be able to pass through it."

Rau pointed to the next smaller glass orb, connected to the first big orb by the cable. "When mana reaches these orbs, the orbs will not only block the passage of mana, but they will also slowly absorb mana. When you activate them with a trigger spell, they will no longer block the passage of mana nor will they absorb it.

Your task is to activate these orbs as fast as possible to minimize the amount of mana that gets absorbed and maximize the amount of mana that reaches the hourglass.

However, keep in mind that you can only trigger these orbs sequentially. They will not activate unless the previous orb has already been activated.

Naturally, spell preparation is not allowed."

Spell preparation was when a mage congealed his mana into a spell but avoided reaching the high enough density for the spell to activate. The mage could then later quickly increase the density and cause that spell to activate. Naturally, taking that one last step would be quicker than weaving a new spell from the beginning.