Chapter 9 – The Target Was Unexpectedly Fragile

Chapter 9 – The Target Was Unexpectedly Fragile

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”Here, you will have to hit the mud puppet with magic. So to put it another way, it’s a ‘targeting’ exam”

The examiner explained to the examinees including me which were gathered in the school yard.

At a short distance away from us, several mud puppets are moving left and right.

Apparently, they were controlled by magic.

But from reading the built-in magic formula, it seems to be of low quality.

After it moves a certain distance to the right, it will then move to the left and back to the right again, it’s just like a puppet simply going back and forth repeatedly.

It’s poorly made, but this is the first time I’ve seen something that looks like a magic tool.

“Mud puppets…! As expected of the magic school in the royal capital”

“Are those high-class products?”

“Yeah. It is said to be silly for one to cost more than 10 gold coins”

Looking at the moving mud puppets, the examinees around me were murmuring in hushed tones.

“Now I will be explaining more about the exam in details. All of you will be standing on this line”

I looked at my feet and saw that a single white line had been drawn.

”Without stepping out of this line, I’ll have you release Fire Spear, which is also the basic magic. Just stay focus on the mud puppet”

I see.

This practical exam is to shoot at a moving target with magic.

It’s simple but profound.

“The mud puppet over there…?”

”Is it even possible to hit a target that’s moving around like that with magic…?”

There’s murmur around me.

Seeing this, the examiner slowed down his tone,

“Don’t worry. Even if you can’t hit the mud puppet with magic, the score of the exam will be determined by the speed and strength of the Fire Spear’s construction. In other words, even if you can’t hit it, it doesn’t mean that you will get a 0 point, so please give your best and use all your power —that’s about it”

Hearing this, the examinees around me breathed a sigh of relief.

Hmm.

You don’t have to be able to hit it, said by the examiner.

But a mage who can’t hit a target of this magnitude will only have a hard time in the future.

I can’t think of any other option but to ‘hit it’ from the start.

“Well then, let’s start with examinee number 1, please”

Thus, the ‘targeting’ practical exam started.

In turn, the examinees stood in front of the white line and unleashed their magic.

“Gather yourselves together in these hands, O flame. Be a spear, pierce the enemy and burn them”

I feel like Cyril was muttering something in a whisper too, but what were those embarrassing words?

Perhaps……it’s a chant?

Well, that’s all I can think of.

It’s a method that was used before I started the magic revolution.

It was so old that I forgot it existed because I hadn’t used it.

A feeble flaming spear released from the examinee heads towards the mud puppet.

But it seemed to have missed the target.

“Well that’s obvious. If you’re using chanting magic, you’re not going to have much control over it”

The reason is that the chanting magic is ‘something completed’ by itself.

It’s less versatile than building a magic formula from scratch.

It won’t hit the mud puppet that simply going back and forth easily.

“Well then, next examinee please!”

One after the other, the examinees casted their magic.

“Gather yourselves together in these hands, O flame. Be a spear, pierce the enemy and burn them!”

“Gather yourselves together in these hands, O flame. Be a spear, pierce the enemy and burn them!”

The magic was released one after the other.

However…it’s not looking good.

The flaming spears released by the examinees at the same time didn’t hit the mud puppet, they landed on the ground.

“Next! Examinee number 50”

“Yes~!”

A pretty voice was heard, and a girl stepped out of the crowd of people.

Oh.

That is… is that Lara?

The girl that I helped yesterday.

Now, let’s see what you are capable of.

“……gather in these hands, O flame. Be a spear, pierce the enemy and burn them”

Just like everyone else, Lara chants the same chanting magic.

Hmm….from what I saw, it seems that Lara’s magic power is red in color.

Red color huh. It’s a magic color that excels in attack-type magic.

Flames gathered in Lara’s hands and eventually formed a spear of flame that was much larger than the other examinees.

“Eh?”

Lara, the person in question, looks surprised.

Then the large flame spear rushed forward with a ‘goooo’ sound.

It couldn’t hit the mud puppet but landed on the ground nearby it and caused an explosion with a loud thud.

A lukewarm blast reached here.

As if everyone was surprised to see that.

“W, what the heck! That attack magic was….!”

”It really was Fire Spear, wasn’t it? It couldn’t hit the mud puppet but…… I’m sure it could annihilate the enemy if it was that strong”

”She did well even though it’s an unfortunate magic”

They looked at her and said that.

It’s a chanting magic, so it probably couldn’t be equipped with a homing feature, but its power is different compared to the other examinees.

“Eh, eh? What’s going on? I’ve never casted such a powerful magic before, could it be the effect of the ring? No, but…it wasn’t like this when I test-fired it before buying the ring….”

Lara looked puzzled and looked at the ring on the finger of her right hand.

Come to think of it, I have improved that defective ring.

But.

“Lara can become a fine mage after all”

The quality of her magic is good.

It was just 200%. It shouldn’t have that much of an effect.

Right now, she is still using the inefficient method called chanting magic, so she can’t hit the mud puppet….if I could train her from scratch, she’d be an excellent mage.

“Well then……next! Examinee number 99!”

It’s my turn.

I take a step forward and stare at the mud puppet.

“Kurt~, goodluck~”

I looked back and saw Lara waving her hand at me.

Because of that, everyone is looking at Lara and me.

“……It’s embarrassing”

I scratched my head.

Well, I’m not in a bad mood.

All right. I can’t show everyone my uncool part.

I analyzed the mud puppet and formed a magic formula.

There were a few examinees who were able to hit the puppet, but none of them were able to break it.

So it’s hard to know what the strength is… but let’s suppose a [Strength + 1000%] has been granted to it.

There are ten moving mud puppets.

……analysis complete.

“Will this be enough?”

I created ten Fire Spears.

Of course, they also have a homing feature added to them to prevent from being strayed away from the target.

I fired them in unison and the ten Fire Spears went straight towards the mud puppet.

Every single one of them was hit.

The mud puppet set off an explosion, which caused a chain of explosion.

“Uwaaaa!”

“What happened!”

The screaming voices of the examinees echoed throughout the schoolyard.

And by the time the gray smoke had subsided……

“M, mud puppets had been completely annihilated!”

“Also, it looked like the Fire Spear was simply headed towards the puppet…?”

“Moreover, that gold-colored magic….a defective magic? It shouldn’t be, I must have seen wrongly. I’ve never heard of such a thing being possible with the defective magic”

It’s a given. I’ve added a homing feature to it.

But apparently, the mud puppets were made of a brittle material.

I can’t believe that a magic of this magnitude could destroy all of them.

“I’ve never seen a mud puppet get crushed before!”

“Yeah, I’m with you. According to one theory, it has an endurance that rivals even the armor made of orichalcum… or so I heard?”

Orichalcum?

Ohh, that brittle metal.

I never thought it would be made of such a brittle material, since I had found a metal far stronger than that 1000 years ago.

“Kurt, you’re really amazing~!”

Lara came running up to me and gripped my hands tightly.

”Ha, haha…… all the mud puppets are broken. What should I do with the exam……I mean, you could just hit one of them……why do you have to hit all of them?”

Meanwhile, the examiner, whose glasses have been shifted, was at a loss when he saw the broken mud puppets.

I felt sorry for him, so I repaired the mud puppets with magic after this.

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