Zenith of Sorcery

On the day of the judging ceremony, Julia and the others were woken up by their teachers early in the morning and led to a large training hall near the center of Adria. Unlike their cramped, dismal tower, the Great Sea Academy had actual training facilities for occasions such as this, and there would be no need to make an improvised trial ground. It was a big place with several rows of stands for the spectators, and a large flat area in the middle, suitable for both physical and magical demonstrations by a large number of people. Of course, facilities like these were more important in a highly populated area like this than they were in the middle of a forest, as disputes were more likely to crop up in Adria than in their little corner of the woods.

Their teacher set off towards their destination at a relatively fast walking pace, and his students followed after him like a line of ducklings trailing after their mother. Julia wondered what would happen if some of them fell behind or got lost, but after some thought, she decided he would immediately notice the issue and move to correct it. Their teacher often looked as if he wasn’t paying attention to them, but every time it mattered, he showed incredible awareness of his surroundings. Supernaturally boosted senses? Spying spells? Whatever the case, he clearly wasn’t as oblivious as he appeared.

Julia had to admit, she had been harboring many doubts about their teacher for a while now. His appearance and attitude back during her own judging ceremony was very mundane and underwhelming, and he rarely demonstrated any amazing magic around her. The tower he had them repair was not really a dwelling of a master wizard, either. And finally, while she was not a material girl, the fact that he had never provided them with any expensive supplies, potions, or powerful legacies was a bit disappointing, and made her wonder if their teacher really was as powerful as people said he was. Half the point of having a powerful teacher was that he could provide you with resources that would speed up your training and growth through the ranks, no?

The fight between him and the unknown mage had put all her fears to rest. While she only caught glimpses of their clash, it was enough to realize their teacher’s might was absolutely awe-inspiring. No wonder Headmaster Titus had so much fear and respect for Marcus! Great Tree held regular battle demonstrations to raise morale and give younger mages some perspective, and nothing Julia saw in these events could compare.

In the end, her teacher was not a fraud. He was just eccentric.

That was a relief. Julia could deal with eccentric.

And speaking of their teacher being weird, he was clearly intending to repeat his actions from the previous judging ceremony and just walk into the room looking like a wandering pilgrim. Did he enjoy sowing doubt about his own abilities or was there some higher goal to his actions?

The trip through the city was not eventful, and soon they entered the training hall, which was already quite packed by the time they arrived. It was hard to tell how many hopefuls had showed up to participate, since it wasn’t just them present, but also their parents and relatives, who would be watching the whole thing from the spectator seats. However, if she had to guess, she would say there were about two hundred hopefuls scattered about. Strange. That wasn’t so much more than at the judging ceremony she had gone through. You would think that in a big city like Adria, the number of candidates interested in being taught by a spirit rank mage would be much higher.

After discussing something with a nearby guard, their teacher sent them to one of the spots in the front row where a number of seats had been reserved for them. He then left to organize the judging ceremony, while they were left to their own devices. Julia was a bit annoyed with this, since they had never established a leader amongst themselves, so if any of them decided to act out or make a scene, who was supposed to establish order and take responsibility?

The first problem came up immediately when they arrived at their reserved seats. The front row was a coveted thing, and in their absence, a bunch of people had already claimed their seats as their own. It took some arguing and throwing around their identity, but they managed to push them off and claim their seats. The whalebone medallions their teacher gave them came in useful in this regard, as they were an undeniable proof of their identity.

Julia thought that maybe once their identity became known, it would cause something of a stir among the other spectators. However, nobody seemed to care too much. They may have been Marcus’s students, but that didn’t seem to impress the crowd around them much.

“You’re just a bunch of beginning students, hmph!” A man scoffed at them. He was one of those they had chased off when they were claiming their seats, and he was not happy with them. “Who knows how many of you will even become apprentices, let along real mages. I swear, young people get a little power and immediately start looking down on their elders. What is the world coming to these days…”

To be fair, aside from him, nobody actually looked down on them so obviously. But Julia could sense from their attitudes that they didn’t see them as particularly prestigious. The words ‘charity’ and ‘orphan’ were thrown around by some people in hushed conversations… Julia ignored them, as a commotion was developing in the center of the training hall, where their teacher was talking with a pair of Great Sea mages.

The large, heavy doors of the training hall were loudly and violently flung open as a man flew into the chamber on a flying carpet. He was a large man, in both height and width, richly dressed in blue clothes decorated with golden threads as well as lots and lots of buttons and other ornaments. An elaborate wide-brimmed hat was on his head, and a large cape billowed behind him as he flew.

His flying carpet took him at full speed towards Marcus and the two Great Sea mages, only slowing down in the last possible moment to prevent collision. The man on the carpet jumped off of it and extended his hand to the side dramatically. The flying carpet them rolled itself into a tight cylinder with great speed and flew into his hand.

The crowd around them erupted into speculation.

“Isn’t that elder Iccius?” One of them asked. “What is he doing here?”

“Are we going to have multiple elders vying for students today?” another guessed. “Crap. This is going to invalidate all my bets…”

One of the two Great Sea mages soon started waving his hands to calm the people down.

“Everyone!” he shouted. “I’m sorry for the commotion, but there has been a slight chance of plans! Elder Iccius has requested to make use of this opportunity to pick a handful of students himself, and we didn’t see any reason to deny him. Elder Marcus is still going to pick a student today, as originally intended.”

Julia frowned. Was Marcus’s judging ceremony being hijacked?

Their teacher didn’t seem concerned, however. He was watching the newcomer with calm fascination, like one might watch a colorful bird dancing on their windowsill, not saying a word of protest.

“I assume brother Marcus has no complains about this?” Elder Iccius said, turning towards their teacher and assuming a proud posture. In Julia’s opinion, he was clearly trying to provoke a reaction.

“Not at all, not at all,” Marcus said in a friendly tone, seemingly oblivious to the provocation. “To be honest, I always did think it was a bit of a waste to organize all this just to pick one student. It’s good to see you here, brother Iccius.”

Elder Iccius seemed to be at a loss what to say to that, and soon enough, more people started to stream in. These newcomers were clearly a more distinguished bunch than the current audience, and were often accompanied by servants and subordinates rather than family. Most of them seemed to be spectators, and didn’t bring any children or teenagers to participate in the ceremony, but one of them did. Julia didn’t recognize the severe-looking man at first, but the audience reaction around her quickly clued her in.

“That’s Elder Cato, isn’t he?” one man remarked.

“I can’t believe it,” a woman beside him, probably his wife, replied. “To think a stubborn old goat like him would pick an outsider to teach one of his own flesh and blood. Isn’t that crazy?”

“General Marcus is not just any outsider, though,” the man remarked. “He’s already an elder, and a spirit manifestation mage to boot.”

“He isn’t a general any longer, and Cato certainly didn’t have nice things to say about him when he was,” the woman countered.

There was some more back and forth between the two, as well as a plethora of comments from the rest of the spectators. Julia strained her ears to try and overhear as much as she could without looking like she was eavesdropping, but everyone was talking over each other and it got pretty confusing.

Off to her side, she could see Renatus asking people around him questions about the people that had started to stream in. Wasn’t he worried that he would leave others with the impression of being an ignorant country bumpkin for asking these kinds of questions, thereby tarnishing their teacher’s reputation, and theirs as well? No, apparently not.

There was a teenager walking next to Elder Cato, and from the audience Julia found out his name was Regulus. He was a handsome boy with jet black hair and simple brown clothes with no obvious decorations. He paid no attention to the loud speculation of the crowd directed at him, as if it was none of his business.

Julia instantly disliked him. According to their teacher, there would be three new students joining them after today, and this guy was one of them. The Uticensis family he belonged to were basically nobility of the Great Sea Academy, and he looked like he knew it.

He would probably be her biggest competition.

Sometime after this, another prominent group walked in - three people dressed in beast furs, leading a group of young teenagers. This was Beortan, Marcus’s friend, bringing some of his own tribesmen to the judging ceremony. This time the crowd didn’t know any names other than Beortan, so their comments were little more than background noise to Julia. The teenagers in this group seemed to be just as confused by their surroundings as Julia and her group were, and were looking around in obvious fascination.

That said, while the White Dragon clan candidates had clearly never been in Adria before, they were still members of an adept organization. Just a very isolated one. According to Marcus, White Dragon clan basically had no mundane people – all members of tribe were taught some kind of adept path, though many did not get far in pursuing them, and their foundational techniques tended to be of rather poor quality. Those that failed to acquire any supernatural power by the time they grew up tended not to live very long. The mountains they made their home in were a brutal environment.

Unsurprisingly, none of the White Dragon candidates looked soft or physically unfit. They were all unusually tall, even the one girl they brought along, and all of them sported visible weapons – knives on their belts and even a bow and arrows in case of one of them. The beast furs they were dressed in were also probably some kind of simple armor.

Julia scoffed in her head. What a bunch of savages. What, did they think the judging ceremony would include ritual combat?

…on second thought, who knew what kind of strange thought would pop into their teacher’s head. Perhaps they knew something she didn’t.

Maybe she should start carrying a knife too. Teacher Marcus sure seemed to have a lot of enemies.

“Alright,” Marcus said. “Now that everyone has arrived, we can start the tests.”

There was a major commotion as all the candidates brought here to be tested made their way to the center of the training hall, and almost everyone else was ushered out into the spectator stands or outside the building. The small number of staff that the academy had assigned to the occasion struggled to direct the flow of people, but after some pushing and a lot of arguing, they managed to get everyone where they needed to be.

“Are they really going to have the mountain barbarians take the trials alongside our children?” Someone asked.

“Never mind that, are they really going to have the Uticensis boy participate in the ceremony? What is even the point? I thought his place at Marcus’s side was pre-arranged,” another commented. “Is Elder Cato really going to stand for such blatant disrespect?”

“It makes sense when you think about it,” the third one added. “A simple judging ceremony like this would surely be a joke to a young man of such distinguished background. He might as well participate and quiet any rumors about his right to be here.”

Julia had a feeling all these people would be unpleasantly surprised if they really expected this to be ‘a simple judging ceremony’. In any case, Marcus was indeed having everyone who came complete the trials together as one big group. The Adria hopefuls, the members of the White Dragon Clan, and the boy Elder Cato brought with him. And speaking of Elder Cato, Julia could not see any sign of displeasure on his face at having Regulus go through the ceremony instead of simply being given a free pass. He clearly had no issue with this, and had probably even expected it.

After some thought, Julia realized that he never would have brought Regulus here if he didn’t intend to have him participate. The only reason to do so would be because he had already agreed to it.

After the candidates were all lined up in the center of the training hall and calmed down, Marcus began to adress them.

“Welcome, everyone,” Marcus said. “I am honored that my call for students has resulted in so many talented candidates standing before me today. I am not one for long speeches, so I will not drag this out longer than it needs to be. Let us begin the examination. As your first task, I want you to do ten… no, twenty laps around this training field. This place is a little small for ten laps. After that, we’ll do some basic physical exercises, like jumping over obstacles and climbing a rope, and then move on from there.”

There was a second of utter silence as everyone processed that. Apparently even people like Elder Beortan and Elder Cato weren’t notified in advance what Marcus’s tests exactly entailed, because they were visibly surprised at his word.

Though, Julia couldn’t help but note, neither looked actually outraged or panicked at the realization, either.

“Brother Marcus, is this really necessary?” Elder Iccius loudly protested. “I know you’re trying to give some glory to your friend Beortan, but everyone knows that the most important thing in a mage candidate is the strength of spirit, not that of body.”

“Hey. What are you trying to say here? Why are you bringing me into this?” Beortan demanded, putting a hand.

“If you don’t think physical readiness is important in a student, Brother Iccius, you are free to ignore the results of this first phase when picking your students,” Marcus said calmly.

It was a little mean, but Julia couldn’t help but notice how rotund Elder Iccius looked, and apparently she wasn’t the only one.

“This fatass looks like he could do with a few laps around the training ground himself,” Cassia commented next to her. The other girl was casually leaning on the railing in front of them, tapping her foot impatiently. “Why does Teacher even tolerate this?”

Julia’s lip twitched upward a few times, but she managed to control herself. She didn’t like Cassia. She was crude, belligerent, and much of her behavior was unbecoming of a girl… but sometimes she could be funny.

Down below, the gathered candidates seemed frozen in place, as if waiting for someone to speak up and tell them they wouldn’t have to run after all. If so, their hopes were in vain, for the only one who spoke up was Marcus.

“I don’t know why you are all just standing here, but I will make this very simple for you all,” he told them. He raised his palm into the air. “I will count to five, and anyone who doesn’t start running by the time I finish will be instantly disqualified from the judging ceremony and sent away. One.”

He curled a finger.

Everybody started running. Julia through that maybe some of them were try to be stubborn or be frozen in indecision or something. But no, nobody even tried to protest. Even the other spectators around Julia accepted the situation easily, simply grumbling quietly about how every spirit mage was strange in their own way. Apparently the last spirit manifestation elder who had held a judging ceremony in the city – a woman named Martina – insisted on making a complicated horoscope chart for each candidate before she allowed the rest of the ceremony to proceed as intended. Spirit rank adepts were so rare and coveted that people just accepted their foibles and strange demands most of the time.

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In any case, while everyone had started, not everyone was doing so well after a few laps. They did better than Julia thought they would – she thought a bunch of kids from the big city would find this kind of trial alien, but they were doing alright. Many were better than she was, if she was being honest. However, some of them just didn’t know how to pace themselves or were in extremely poor shape, and soon stopped running in favor of walking or even sitting down. Marcus shouted at those people, telling them to get up and continue because anyone who gave up would be disqualified, but some of them just didn’t seem to care. One boy even made an obscene hand gesture and stormed off out of the training hall.

As for the gathered audience, they at least seemed to enjoy the whole thing immensely, treating it almost like a race. Family members shouted encouragements at their candidates, and some of the crueler spectators jeered and booed at anyone doing badly or trailing behind.

Julia was immensely glad that she hadn’t gone through her judging ceremony under similar circumstances. She could see some of the slower participants wilt away under the audience reactions and lose the will to continue, and she could easily imagine herself doing the same in their position.

She also noted that Regulus was actually doing very well in this. He wasn’t at the front of the group, but then again he didn’t need to be. In fact, some of the people trying to race each other were risking burning themselves out too soon and being disqualified. Regulus was instead trailing after the front of the group and he didn’t look like he was straining himself much in doing so. He was clearly in great physical shape, which disappointed Julia a little. She knew he was magically talented, but she kind of hoped he would get humbled a little in the physical portion of the test.

The White Dragon tribesmen were also doing great, no surprise there. They were all at the very front of the group, with no one being able to match them in speed and stamina.

After some time, when most of the candidates had finished their twenty laps and Marcus simply disqualified everyone else who was left. These were all people who had effectively given up, and were just walking around instead of actually running. The remaining candidates were then put through another series of physical tests that Julia and the others didn’t have to go through when they had been tested. Nobody failed this section, since Marcus only seemed to care about everyone giving the tests a try, and none of the remaining candidates gave up without trying.

After that, a pair of Great Sea mages brought a stone basin full of familiar brass spheres and it was time for the candidates to try and snatch one for themselves while being menaced by a monster. However… this time the monster wasn’t a snake.

Instead, it there was a giant illusory centipede coiled around the basin. It was red and purple, with a multitude of twitching legs that looked like daggers. It reared up into the air, twitching its antenna at the candidates, its toxicognaths snapping open and shut repeatedly, and released a soul-chilling, drawn-out rattling sound from somewhere on its body. Or, well, at least the sound chilled Julia’s soul. And considering all of the candidates fearfully took a step back at the gesture, they probably agreed with her sentiment. She definitely wouldn’t want to be in their place right now…

“Don’t worry,” Marcus assured them. “The centipede is entirely illusory and cannot hurt you. Well, you’ll still feel pain when bitten, but that’s just a trick of the mind. Your objective is to claim one of the brass spheres from the basin. How you tackle the beast in the process is up to you.”

“This… this is too cruel,” Claudia quietly protested from her seat. “I wouldn’t have passed my test if we had to brave that.”

“Hush. Don’t say such things in front of outsiders,” Volesus chastised her. “If anyone asks, we had to face a hydra to claim our spheres.”

This time, the reaction of the gathered candidates was a lot less determined. Even though it was just an illusion, it looked very lifelike. Many of them simply refused to face the centipede, and even those that did brave its fangs were much more hesitant about it. Nobody was brave enough to go for the direct approach like Cassia did in their trial, and without a bold example like that, the candidates struggled to overcome their natural fear and the trial dragged on for far longer than it had back in Willow Hill.

Julia gave the girl sitting beside her a complex look. Now that she thought about it, she wasn’t sure just how brave she would have really been in front of that illusory snake if she wasn’t also terrified she would be utterly showed up by this no-name orphan girl. Could Julia actually have failed that test without her…? It was a sobering thought.

“What?” Cassia demanded, giving her a suspicious look. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Nothing,” Julia said with a small sigh. She motioned towards the gathered candidates down in the training hall. “What do you think you would do in their place?”

“What else? Walk up to the centipede and claim a stupid ball for myself,” Cassia scoffed. “It’s just an illusion. Who cares how scary it is?”

“The centipede looks easier than the snake,” Cricket opined. “More scary looking, but less agile. I bet it would be easier to dodge its attacks.”

Cricket’s words seem to have some merit, because soon enough the candidates from White Dragon Clan made their attempt at claiming a sphere and they all successfully dodged the centipede’s attacks.

However, nobody else succeeded in duplicating their feat. Even Regulus Uticensis, who clearly didn’t fear the centipede as much as the rest of the Adrian candidates, got bitten once in the process of claiming his sphere.

Over half of the remaining candidates got disqualified in this round. They simply couldn’t find the courage to approach the monster.

Alas, the following tests, while no doubt nerve-wracking for the remaining candidates, were very boring to watch. They consisted of a series of written tests, a number of puzzles, and the candidates being put under some kind of mental illusion they had to break out from. It was a much more involved series of tests than what Julia and the others had to go through, and she was beginning to wonder why their teacher was so much more demanding of this series of candidates than he was of them. Didn’t this mean he was holding them to a much higher standard? Were the snide comments from surrounding spectators about Julia and the orphans being nothing but charity cases to him actually true?

Thankfully, the spectators didn’t actually know what kind of testing Marcus had put his existing students through, so they weren’t loudly drawing comparisons between them. Instead, they seemed to find the current round of tests just as boring as she did, and were instead discussing the merits of Marcus as a teacher for their children.

Some of the things said were interesting. There were frequent remarks about Marcus having a conflict with the ruling powers of the Great Sea Academy, and even speculation whether he had been exiled out of the academy until recently. Julia had already heard hints of this before, so it wasn’t a shock, but it was interesting how everyone in Adria seemed to know about his problems with the current leadership.

That said, Teacher Marcus was also clearly a figure of much admiration. Many of them insisted on calling him ‘General Marcus’ and praised him as a hero of the First Academy War. He had apparently been part of the small group of elite adepts that confronted and killed Veldoran, the evil wizard who was the true mastermind of the First Academy War, and betrayed humanity by leading an army of orcs into the Silver League near the of it.

However, even these people, despite their admiration at his heroic achievements, had some reservations about Marcus as a teacher. For one, it was known that Marcus intended to drag his new students out of Adria, and that didn’t sit right with a lot of people. Everyone and everything of importance was here in the city, they argued, and this decision to make his base elsewhere would surely severely hamper the growth of his students and their ability to make a reputation for themselves.

They were also dubious about the foundational technique he practiced. It was not that they had anything against the Great Tree Technique in particular, but that the art was largely unknown and did not have any great names attached to it. As far as anyone could tell, Marcus was the only prominent user of the Great Tree Technique, and that just didn’t instill a lot of faith in the gathered spectators.

Great Sea Academy had its Three Great Techniques – foundational techniques that almost everyone in the academy practiced, and which had a long history of great deeds attached to them, with many mages having rose to the rank of spirit manifestation and beyond by practicing them. Those were the Boundless Expanse Technique, Sacred Fountain, and The Elemental Star.

Boundless Expanse Technique was the most prestigious of the three, but only the academy’s biggest talents were permitted to learn it. Additionally, one had to have a water element affinity in order to practice it – a normal person had no chance whatsoever to resonate with its mysteries. Gaius, the current Consul that Julia and the others had met recently, was a practitioner of this foundational technique.

Sacred Fountain was also a water-aspected foundation a technique, but one with much more humble requirements. A regular person could practice it just fine, and it was relatively easy to get ahold of. It was the most commonly practiced foundational technique in the Great Sea Academy.

Finally, there was the Elemental Star. It didn’t have any specific elemental leanings, but it worked very well with elemental magic in general. It was not exclusive to Great Sea – all Great Academies had this foundational technique, and even a number of smaller adept organizations. It was the most versatile of the Three Great Techniques, but the least prestigious. The academy basically gave it to anyone whose elemental affinities did not lean towards water.

Marcus didn’t practice any of these three.

“So how come you agreed to send your son here?” Julia hear Renatus asked one of the men in the audience. He had been extremely talkative during all this, going from one audience member to the next until he found someone chatty enough to engage in conversation.

“Well, he is a spirit manifestation mage,” the man answered. “I may grumble about the details, and I do think it would be better if your teacher was less unorthodox, but it would still be a huge step forward for my son if he could get accepted by someone like that. Even if I were rich, no amount of money can buy an opportunity like that.”

Down on the training grounds, the current batch of tests were coming to an end. Only one step remained, but that one step was arguably the most important part of the judging ceremony. Julia still couldn’t understand why their teacher didn’t just start with that and do all these other tests afterwards…

“There is only one thing left,” Marcus told the remaining candidates. All the White Dragon clan members were still there, though most hadn’t done too well in the more intellectual portion of the tests. As for Regulus, he had done consistently well in pretty much all of them. He definitely hadn’t embarrassed his family, Julia had to admit. “And that is testing your magical aptitude and affinity for the Great Tree Technique.”

“Um, do we have to practice the Great Tree Technique in particular?” one of the candidates asked. “I heard-“

“Yes you do,” Marcus simply said. “Anyway, you may have heard that this kind of testing involves a lot of elaborate equipment and mystical objects. However, as a spirit rank mage, I do not need any of that. I can just use my spirit to measure your potential directly. I originally intended to just quickly hold your hand, one after another, and be quickly done with this, but there is a problem…”

He turned toward Elder Iccius.

“Hm?” Elder Iccius asked, raising his eyebrow at Marcus. “What is the matter?”

“It’s just that I didn’t plan for your presence here, brother Iccius.

“If I just measure the candidate’s affinities with my spirit, I will naturally have very accurate image of the student’s talents and affinities… but you won’t. You can’t choose your own students among the gathered candidates like this. I can share my results with you, but I can’t claim I will notice everything that you find important. Should we have the academy officials perform the classical affinity testing for your benefit, or are you fine with trusting my intuitions, brother Iccius?”

Elder Iccius smiled. “Fret not, brother Marcus. There is no need to go through all that trouble. Although I might not be an exalted spirit manifestation mage like yourself, I have my own methods of quickly determining a student’s talent. Behold!”

Elder Iccius reached into one of his pickets and retrieved a fist-sized golden sphere. It floated into the air and started to spin in place. Julia was too far to really make out the fine detail of the object, but it did not look particularly impressive.

Sure, a floating golden sphere was clearly a magical object, but…

“What is it?” Marcus asked, raising the question that everyone seemed to be thinking of.

“It is an artifact of the Sphere Builders,” Elder Iccius said proudly. “It is a sensing sphere that can accurately judge a person’s magical talent.”

An artifact of the Sphere Builders… that had to be amazing, didn’t it? They were an ancient human precursor civilization, and it was said that their skill in both magic and artifice far outstripped anything available in the modern era.

However, his claim didn’t seem to impress the people around him.

“There are so many factors in what makes for a good mage,” Cato suddenly spoke up. “How do you know this thing’s judgments are accurate?”

“I have tested it thoroughly and consulted with other mages who specialize in examining young talent. I trust its results,” Elder Iccius said. “I am confident it will prove its worth over the years, as its predictions start bearing fruit.”

Cato produced a low grunt and said nothing, clearly not impressed with the explanation.

“Alright then. How do we do this?” Marcus asked Elder Iccius.

“Simply perform as you like, and I will have my sphere observe the candidates in the meantime. Once you’re done, I will announce the score the sphere assigned to the candidate.”

“The score?” Marcus asked curiously.

“The sphere assigns each person it judges a number. If it’s between twenty and thirty, they’re mediocre. Anything more than that is good. Anything less than that is terrible,” Elder Iccius said.

After some preparations, a familiar scene took place, where Marcus called out people from a list of names, after which he would hold their hand for a few moments before telling them they were done and calling the next person. He didn’t announce the results of his test, but Elder Iccius was not as restrained. It took only a moment for the sphere to react to a particular candidate, which it did by projecting a series of golden sigils in the air in front of it. Elder Iccius seemed to be able to read these, and after Marcus was done with the candidate he would call out a number.

“Twenty-two!” he shouted. “Thirty! Thirty-three! Nineteen!”

Each time he shouted out a number, he would get a variety of responses. Some didn’t seem to care, others were visibly annoyed with him (especially if the number was low), and others seemed excited at getting a good score. Initially the spectators around Julia didn’t like Elder Iccius’s actions, but since Marcus wasn’t disclosing the result of his examination to anyone, they eventually started to speculate on the numbers being thrown around, and how reliable they might be.

The idle speculation continued until it was Regulus’s turn. Marcus spent an uncommonly long time assessing him, and after he was done he actually asked Regulus a question instead of simply dismissing him and moving on to the next candidate.

“Are you sure you want to be my student?” Marcus asked, loud enough for everyone to hear him. “I’ll be honest with you. All of your spiritual attributes are incredibly high, your soul is uncommonly strong, and while you don’t quite have an elemental affinity, your resonance with the logos of water is very pronounced. You might not be a good fit for the Sacred Fountain, but surely you would resonate well with The Elemental Star or one of its variations? It is an extremely versatile foundational technique that resonates well with just about everyone.”

Marcus turned towards Elder Iccius.

“What does your toy say about him, brother Iccius?”

The man straightened himself up, shooting a look of disdain before answering.

“My ancient artifact gives him a score of 57. The highest score it has ever given someone, if I might add. I suppose congratulations are in order, brother Marcus. It’s not every day you are given an opportunity to teach a future legend like this.”

Julia exhaled in frustration. She had been right. This guy was definitely going to be her main competition in the coming years.

Around her, the crowd immediately erupted into discussion.

“As expected of someone from the Uticensis family!” someone said.

“I don’t know… isn’t this guy just a minor Uticensis family member?” their friend countered. “If he’s so great, why would Cato hand him over to Marcus?”

“I’m glad our children aren’t competing against him,” a woman commented. “Otherwise this would be so unfair.”

“I’m honored by your praise, Master Marcus,” Regulus answered. “But I’m afraid my situation is a little more complex than you might have heard. I can’t resonate at all with any of the major techniques in the Great Sea library. Not just the Elemental Star, anything. My uncle is hoping that since your foundational technique is so unconventional, it will work for me, unlike every other foundational technique I’ve tried.”

That send the crowd into another round of speculation, but Marcus didn’t seem concerned at the admission.

“Ah, I see,” Marcus nodded. “Well, that’s easy to check. Wait until I’m done assessing the rest of the candidates and then I’ll do a group test of how compatible you are with the Great Tree Technique.”

There was no more major commotion after that. Rather amusingly, the White Dragon tribesman didn’t seem to impress the ancient sphere Elder Iccius was using to score people. The highest rated one ended up the boy who carried the bow on his back, called Agron. The sphere rated him 33, which was slightly above average. In comparison, there were more than 10 candidates from Adria that scored in the forties.

Beortan seemed really unamused by that, and for a moment it seemed like he was going to start a fist fight with the rotund mage. The audience found the whole thing very amusing.

Julia really wondered about those numbers. Did they really mean something? Was their teacher actually going to take them into account when making his decisions? Unlike Cato and Beortan, who seemed openly contemptuous towards Elder Iccius and his device, Marcus didn’t show any visible distaste towards its use.

Though he did call it a toy, so maybe not.

In any case, the examination finished and Marcus lined up all the candidates to do the last part of the judging ceremony – testing the affinity with the Great Tree Technique. Unlike the previous part, in which Marcus had kept the result of his examinations known only to himself, here he immediately delivered the verdict on everyone present, disqualifying people who showed no or weak affinity for it.

To the great relief of Regulus, he wasn’t one of them. He apparently had a firm, if unremarkable, resonance with their foundational technique.

Elder Cato was visibly relieved at the announcement. He clearly wasn’t sure himself if this would really work.

“This concludes the ceremony,” Marcus said. “Normally you would receive the results of the selection after several days, once I had the time to carefully examine all the results, but I feel that my selection is very obvious already. The three chosen students are Diocles of Adria, Agron Whitedragon, and Regulus Uticensis. Thank you to everyone else who participated.”

Julia didn’t know who Diocles was, and neither did anyone else around her. However, she no longer had any opportunity to eavesdrop on their conversations because their teacher motioned for them to come down from the spectator seats and join him in the training hall proper. He likely wanted to introduce them to their new fellow students.

However, before he could do that, Elder Iccius interrupted him again.

“One moment, brother Marcus,” the rotund mage said.

“Don’t worry, I haven’t forgotten. You will still have the chance to pick your students among the group,” Marcus told him.

“No, that’s not it,” the man said, shaking his head. “Like you, I’ve already made my choice. I’m picking Aper and Numerian.”

“Ah. The two candidates your… ancient artifact… scored the highest,” Marcus noted.

“Yes,” the man confirmed. “I was quite surprised you did not choose either of them.”

“I don’t agree with the sphere’s scoring system, I guess,” Marcus said with a shrug.

“Hm. Care to satisfy me curiosity, then?” Elder Iccius asked. “I’d like to see what my sphere says about your existing students.”

Julia was taken aback. Somehow she hadn’t expected this.

Marcus gave the man a knowing look, which Julia couldn’t decipher, and then turned towards her and the others.

“Well?” he asked. “Do you want to get rated by this thing?”

Julia and the others shared a look amongst themselves and reluctantly nodded and agreed. Like Julia, they were all probably at least a little bit curious.

Elder Iccius wasted no time and had his sphere observe them all, after which it spat out a quick succession of numbers. Julia thought she would sense something, like an ominous feeling or maybe tingling of the skin, but the truth was that she felt nothing at all.

The final numbers were as follows:

Julia: 31

Renatus: 34

Cricket: 24

Claudia: 23

Cassia: 22

Volesus: 43

Julia didn’t think she would care about the score given to her, but now that she heard what the stupid golden marble said, she was honestly getting kind of mad.

Only thirty-one!? But she had a wood affinity! And she was the greatest talent Great Tree Academy had recruited in the last five years! And… and Volesus was 43!? Even Renatus had been scored higher than her…

This was so unfair!