Aethernea : Soulbound [Book 1]

Episode 143 - 5 stages of grief

Previously:

Friday, the last day of Muni entrance exams, Special exam. As it turns out, the Spell Replicating exam Kiel chose was not designed to test spell replicating ability, but rather, to test for a special talent that can only be revealed through the process of spell replicating. Kiel is tasked to spell replicate several artifacts, including Clay Mines. Unfortunately, an accident happens while testing his Clay Mines and an explosion occurs. Examiners are thankfully fine but they start arguing with each other. They give Kiel a final artifact, whose enchantment he doesn't need to replicate but to just draw it out. However, Kiel finds that the enchantment is too small and he can't sense it clearly with his mana sense. While Kiel is stressing out, Elaru can feel his panic and wants to help him, however, the anti-cheating contract they had signed prevents them from communicating.

* * *

All she wanted to do was to embrace his consciousness, enveloping it in warmth.

Yet she couldn't.

The anti-cheating magical contract that they had been forced to sign stood like a thick wall between them, preventing them from communicating in the middle of an exam.

She felt him falling deeper into the pit, slipping like grains of sand between her fingers, unable to be grasped no matter how much she tried.

Yet she wasn't willing! She wasn't willing to stand by helplessly! She wasn't willing to watch him struggle alone in the darkness of night.

"Anti-cheating contract." She felt herself saying with steely conviction. "This is the last exam and there is no need for it any longer. No matter how you look at it, it is the hardest spell to break out of all of your suggestions. So how about it? If you give me your word that I won't have any problems enrolling due to breaking the anti-cheating contract, I'll break it right now."

Episode 143 – 5 stages of grief

The trio of old men almost choked on their own spit, their eyes looking as if they would pop out of their sockets at any moment.

The anti-cheating contract was a mass-produced item that wasn't of high production quality. Neither the density nor the quantity of mana used on it was high, making it last just enough for the exams to pass. However, the quality of the spell design, as well as the quality of mystification, was high.

Therefore, although any of the top-ranked spell breakers were capable of breaking it, the amount of time it would take them to do so would range in weeks. By that time the exam would have already ended. And even if that wasn't the case, it wouldn't matter. Every examinee that was detected not to have the anti-cheating contract active on their mind at any moment in the exams would be disqualified.

The trio of old men, if they joined hands, could manage to break the contract in less than a week's time. However, this little redhead was all alone, so even if her skills were on par with theirs and she had been studying the contract for days, she shouldn't be able to break it.

If she had the help of a spell breaker in studying the contract, the anti-cheating contract would have prevented her from even suggesting breaking it as a part of the exam, for that would constitute as receiving outside help.

Naturally, this suggestion of the little girl made all three of them very agitated. Wasn't this redhead making light of their decades of study? Fine, they had to admit that she was a genius when it came to spell breaking. They would be idiots if they couldn't tell that much. However, this idea was simply... making light of the entire spell breaking profession!