Elite Mages’ Academy (Web Novel)

Chapter 395: Magic Tests (3)

Xiao Lin had a sense of accomplishment. Compared with Basic Swordsmanship, his Basic Meditation and Basic Perception levels were actually a lot lower. Dealing with such a quick and multi-directional attack was still rather difficult, but he was fortunately able to use numbers to make up for the defensive shortcomings.

The woman did not continue on the offensive, but instead said in a calm but unpleasant tone, “If this is a real battle, you’re already at a disadvantage after that earlier attack. If this is a life-threatening battle, you can consider yourself; half-dead!”

“Huh?”

Xiao Lin was a little dumbfounded. Could that woman be nuts? He had dodged all her energy bombs perfectly. It did not matter if she did not appreciate it, but she had to make sarcastic comments instead. Even if she was deliberately making things difficult on behalf of the military, her actions were still too obvious. He asked in a displeased tone, “Give me a reason. What’s the reason for your comment? Didn’t you see that I didn’t get hit by your energy bomb? ”

“Yes, but you paid the price of using more magic!”

Xiao Lin froze, but did not understand.

The woman continued, “A battle between mages isn’t purely just to bombard spells. This isn’t like the games you play on whim back on Earth! For a mage, every spell cast must be strictly calculated, because you have very limited mental power. Do you think the enemy will give you time to rest in a real battle?”

Xiao Lin understood what she was going to say.

Sure enough, the woman’s brows gradually frowned: “I released four energy bombs in the test just now, but in fact, only the energy bomb in the southeast direction is directed at you. The other three were just to confuse your vision and seal off any escape route. Those three energy bombs weren’t even going to hit you, but you’ve wasted nearly twice as much mental power as I have!”

It had to be acknowledged that the woman’s standard was very high. The Flame Bomb was a Bronze-rank improved spell and its mental power consumption is almost the same as that of an energy bomb. Xiao Lin did not notice the specific attack directions of the four energy bombs earlier. It was still very difficult for him to accurately perceive it within a short amount of time.

In fact, such a feat was nearly impossible for all freshmen, as they had only been in the academy for more than four months. The woman’s criticism of Xiao Lin was not wrong, but from the viewpoint of the new students, it simply made things very difficult for them.

After figuring that out, Xiao Lin looked at the woman calmly. After knowing that she was trying to evaluate him with a specific purpose in mind, he did not complain anymore. However, it did not mean that he was just going to accept it. After a while, he asked, “Do you still want to continue? Or do you plan to grade the assessment already?”

Xiao Lin had since omitted the honorific title of ‘teacher’ when addressing her, causing the woman’s brows frown tightly. She said unhappily, “Is it necessary to continue? Isn’t the outcome already obvious if two mages of similar level are fighting and one of them consumed more than double the mental energy compared to the other person?”

After a pause, the woman put away her staff and began to turn around, and announced the result, “I said it before. The actual combat level is the subject of consideration in this assessment. After all, you’re not going to the New World in the future to play house with those spells! I acknowledge that your basic skill level isn’t bad, but unfortunately your actual combat level does not match your level, so you failed the test!”

Xiao Lin was not surprised by this announcement, but he immediately stopped the other party, “Wait! What did you just say? Can you repeat that again? ”

The woman thought he was pretending to be stupid, so she repeated it word by word, “You failed the test! That’s clear enough, isn’t it!”

“Uh, not that one.”

“What?”

“You said that IF two mages of similar level are fighting, didn’t you?” Xiao Lin asked with a grin and emphasized the word ‘if’.

“Yes.” The woman was puzzled

Xiao Lin had an even bigger grin as he spread his hands, “So that means you just made a hypothesis. Are you going to use a hypothetical situation to judge my failure in the assessment?”

“That’s a fact. Do you want to question my professional judgment in the field of magic?”

“No, no, no, I’m not questioning your professionalism, but obviously, you just used the standard of most people to judge. That’s very unfair to the minority.”

“Do you think you belong to this minority?”

“Yes.”

The woman laughed furiously, “A minority whose initial attribute value doesn’t even exceed ten? I’ve never seen it before! As rapid as your growth is, you’re still at the level of an ordinary person! Don’t mess around anymore. It’d be better for you to head back and prepare for the make-up exam!”

It seems that this woman had done some investigation before coming, but it was obvious that her investigation was not comprehensive. Xiao Lin gradually retracted his smile and said in a taunting tone, “You don’t dare to try? Are you feeling scared? Perhaps afraid that your judgment turns out to be wrong?”

“How do you want to try?” The woman narrowed her eyes. Even though she understood that he was deliberately provoking her, she still could not tolerate it.

“Your criterion for judging me as unqualified is nothing more than due to the fact that I consume more mental energy, is that right?”

“Yes, if you squander your mental energy without restraint and calculation like this, you can’t hold on until the end of a normal battle. You’ll not only harm yourself, but you’ll also kill your future teammates!”

Having said that, Xiao Lin finally felt relieved. How far was she going to compare her mental power with him?

“If this is the case, then why not try and see if I have enough mental power to splurge on!”

The woman had an uncertain look. She went back to discuss with a few other people, then returned to say in a cold voice, “We’ll give you a chance, lest you say that we’re deliberately making things hard for you in the future. We can’t find a Black Iron-rank mage for you to battle with right now, so you’re still up against me.”

“What is the standard to be measured against?” Xiao Lin made sure to clarify the standards on that occasion.

“Based on your style of fighting, your mental power can only support you to fight for about ten minutes at most.”

“Fifteen minutes?” Xiao Lin raised his eyebrows.

“Yes! No more than fifteen minutes, and my calculations won’t be wrong! If you can continue fighting for longer than that period of time, then I’ll consider it my mistake!” The woman’s tone was very determined.

Xiao Lin smiled and his heart finally settled down. All he had to do was maintain ten minutes of fighting? The only comment he had was that the woman was far too naïve. She either did not investigate Xiao Lin carefully or had absolutely no permission to view too many files about Xiao Lin. Otherwise, she would have known that Xiao Lin had been in The Final Land not long ago, and the battles he experienced on the way back far exceeded fifteen minutes.

Although Xiao Lin’s mental power was not comparable to that of most people when he first enrolled, four months of painstaking meditation would normally only bring him to equal the level of an ordinary person at most. However, the woman never knew about the existence of his SS-level talent, much less the Creation skills such as Miracle or even Ruin.