We spent the next three weeks fighting the forest black bear while wearing the same armor and equipment we used when we fought the golden brown bear so we can get comfortable using it in battle.
It's the day of the test and we assembled early in the morning today.
"Is everyone excited?" grandmother asked.
We all nodded.
We entered the nearby forest and started searching for a golden brown bear. In the first hour we found one but, it was a female and was accompanied by two cubs so we decided not to hunt it. We found a suitable target after searching for 3 hours. It was a lone adult male.
Grandmother used a barrier spell to prevent the bear from escaping.
"I will remove this barrier once you killed the bear, and don't worry, this barrier can trap a demon lord for months. So don't expect the bear to be able to escape or other magical beasts destroying it," she said.
"How big is this barrier?" I asked.
"One kilometer," she replied.
Grandmother jumped into a nearby tree branch and sat to observe our battle from a distance.
We moved to our positions according to Formation A.
The golden brown bear tried to run away, but Mark coated his sword and unleashed a flying sword slash which resulted in the bear's left hind leg getting cut off from its body.
It stumbled and howled in agony. Alice killed it using pyroblast and half of its body got blown to pieces. Some of the scattered flesh landed on us and we got soaked with a bit of blood.
"Alice, you shouldn't have sharpened the aura so we could at least get some meat for dinner," I said.
"Well, I didn't expect it to be so weak. Your grandmother always said that you should not underestimate your opponent and always make sure you killed your opponent," Alice replied.
"Dont blame her Felix. This is the result of our two-year training," Mark said.
Grandma jumped down from the tree branch and landed on her feet.
"Not bad. I guess everyone can fight against a golden brown bear solo and win, but that does not mean you should slack off, especially you, Felix. There are a lot of powerful creatures on this planet that can wipe off you from existence with a mere thought," she said.
We all nodded.
"It's time to return to the village, since the smell of blood and a dead body will attract even stronger magical beasts from deep inside the forest. After taking a bath and eating lunch, return to our house because I will give rewards to everyone for finishing the training and the test," she said.
It took us nearly three hours to return in front of my house and my friends returned to their home while grandmother and I entered the front yard. I took this chance to start my rock collection and found 10 cool looking rocks I liked. I also somehow convinced grandmother to store the nice round boulder and the 10 rocks inside her space-time storage ring.
Mother greeted us with a warm smile and said, "Based on your appearance, the hunt went successful."
"They passed it with flying colors," grandmother replied.
Grandmother placed the 10 rocks and boulder near the banana tree and went inside the house while mother grabbed my hand and lead me to the bathroom.
Mother helped me undress and rinse my whole body with water. She produced a soapy substance that smells like fresh bananas and rubbed it on my whole body, then rinsed again. She forgot to bring a towel, so created one out of thin air and pat dry me with it, then briefly left to bring me a t-shirt and short to wear.
We went inside the house to eat lunch, then I went to the front garden and waited together with my friends to get our rewards.
It took a while for grandmother to arrive with our rewards.
"Felix, some of your rewards are already inside your closet, so be sure to check it later," grandmother said.
I nodded.
"Here are your long-awaited rewards, starting with Alice. Come here Alice," she said.
Alice nodded and followed her instructions. Grandma tapped her space-time storage ring twice and multiple items came out, which she handed to Alice.
The items that I could identify are the magic robe made from an unknown material, a red staff with a red orb on top of it, and multiple magic books.
"What is this?" Alice asked while pointing to the items she received.
"The items you received are magic robe made from azure wooly mammoth that gives you 50% magic resistance, a red orb staff that is made from a corrupted red oak, a short sword made of mythril, a bow made from a white ash oak, grimoires, artifacts and a rule book," grandmother replied.
"Why is there an orb on top of the staff when you can cast magic spells normally with the orb and staff separately? What is the difference between grimoires and artifacts? Why did you give me a rule book?" Alice asked.
"Yes, you can cast a magic spell with the help of an orb or staff but, the magical properties is lower than the combined one. For example, a staff without an orb made from a corrupted red oak has these magical properties: 35% mana control, 30% increased spell penetration, 50% reduced mana consumption, 40% faster spell casting, 50% faster mana regeneration, 10% increased spell power, and 20% increased spell cast range. The red orb has these magical properties: 70% increased spell penetration, 30% increased spell cast range, 40% increased spell power, magic spell lifesteal and 60% faster spell casting. The combined one has these magical properties: 35% mana control, 100% increased spell penetration, 50% reduced mana consumption, 100% faster spell casting, 50% increased spell power, 50% faster mana regeneration, 50% increased spell cast range and magic spell lifesteal. Most people don't have the combined one because it is expensive and risky. There is a high chance that when combining the two will result in either one or both of them getting severely damaged or destroyed in the process or the magical properties of the staff or orb not getting added. It took our ancestors millions of years to perfect this process and there may be hundreds of billions of staff that failed this process, while only hundreds of thousands of staff have been successfully combined with an orb along with its magical properties. When you absorb grimoires, you get a magic spell, boosts your magic power and mana capacity while equipping an artifact gives you more power. I gave you the rule book to let you know what Felix can and cannot do," grandmother replied.
"What will happen if I absorbed the grimoires you gave me?" Alice asked.
"You will learn some tier 1 and tier 2 spells that are compatible with your magic element affinity. It will also double your mana capacity but only 6-year-old and below can absorb it ," grandmother replied.
"What would happen if I equipped the artifact?" Alice asked.
"It will immensely boost your strength, agility, endurance, dexterity and speed," she replied.
Alice nodded.
She gave similar items to Jack and John. Mark and Josh also got the same items and got an extra leather armor made from azure woolly mammoth that has some runes carved on it to lessen the weight by 80% and make it more water resistant.
I also received similar items except it is obviously made from a different material.
"The items that you received are green magic robe made from the silk of a blood demon spider king, a black orb staff made from the branch of a cursed devil maple tree, a short sword made from Abyssnium, a bow made from a white ash maple tree, grimoires, artifacts, eyeglass, and the rule book," she said.
"What is the purpose of giving me an eyeglass?" I asked.
"By now, your two visions are starting to merge together, which makes it difficult to focus and see in long distances. This eyeglass has the magical property of allowing you to regulate what you see. For example, you want to see through your human eye only, you need to send a signal to your eyeglass to do it and vice versa," she replied.
I immediately wear the eyeglass, and she was right. It fixed my vision problem, and it also made it easier to switch between my two different eyesights without changing my eye color.
"How strong is my magic robe compared to my t-shirt?" I asked.
"Don't even bother comparing it, as it is worlds apart from each other. The silk produced by a blood demon spider king is 100 times stronger than the one used on your t-shirt while having the same weight. It should be almost as tough as your sword and give you a 100% magic resistance," she replied.
"What is abyssnium?" I asked.
"It is a magical alloy that is found in the deepest layers of the abyss. It is ten times tougher than the celestial ore found in heaven and used by the gods and their angels to create their weapons and armor, or the devil ore found in hell that is used by the devils to create their weapons and armor," she replied.
"What are the magical properties of my staff?" I asked.
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"It has 100% mana control, 200% faster mana regeneration, 200% increased spell penetration, 200% reduced mana consumption, 200% faster spell casting, 200% increased spell range, 200% increased spell power and magic spell lifesteal," she replied.
Damn! This is what you call theoretical end game stats lmao. Not even my in-game equipment that I grinded for years and spent some money on can come close to this.
"Can you multicast spells with it?" I asked.
"Yes, you can multicast spells with the help of your staff," she replied.
"What is my current limit of spell that I can multicast at once?" I asked.
"At your age, hmmmm, your current limit is 10 spells," she replied.
"What are the magical properties of my sword?" I asked.
"I don't know. Only the user of the sword or the abyss knows its secrets. By the way, you are the only user of this sword because it has never been used before. The only thing I know is that it is covered by some ancient runes to reduce its weight by 99.99% and it is extremely sharp and powerful," she replied.
"How does the abyss knows the secret of my sword?" I asked.
"The abyss is the one who forged your sword. Whenever a Maple is born, the abyss creates a weapon that individual can only use. Anyone who dare touch your sword will die immediately from the curse of the abyss and not even tenth tier dispelling magic can save you," she replied.
"Can we absorb the grimoire here?" John asked.
"Yes, but only absorb the white grimoire because the other four grimoires contains tier 7 and above spells that you can't use and right now you don't have the strength to pass the test to inherit the spell and power inside it," she replied.
"What happens if you failed the test?" Mark asked.
"It depends on what tier the spell is inside it. Tier 1 to 3 will only kick out your consciousness and you can try again. The Tier 4 to 6 will cause mild to severe injuries. Tier 7 and above will result in death," she replied.
I opened the white grimoire and it transported my mind to another location. I was on top of a mountain and there was another book in front of me. There is a sign reading open this book and find the word 'blank'. There is nothing for me to lose, so I followed it and after flipping the first page, there is a giant 'blank' written on it. My mind returned to my body after finding it and I could feel my mana capacity doubled.
I guess they were still experimenting on how to make an artifact with restrictions as it was too easy to solve and I am going back to grinding my mana control to 50% again as it just dropped to 25%.
I looked at my friends, and they were still unconscious.
"Oh right, I forgot to give you a familiar," grandmother said.
"What kind of familiar will I get?" I asked.
She smiled and gave me a silver whistle necklace.
I wore it and she said, "Try blowing the whistle. It will call your familiar."
I nodded and blew the whistle. A giant red circle showed up on the ground near me and a giant jet black wolf with ghastly white eyes appeared on it.
"What kind of wolf is this?" I asked.
"It is a shadow wolf. It can travel in the shadows, cast shadow spells while hiding, and it is also immensely powerful in combat," she replied.
The shadow wolf hid inside my independently moving shadow.
"Do I need to sign a contract with it so it would recognize me as its master?" I asked.
"Yes, but for now that whistle is good enough for you to summon it and give orders. You are nowhere near the required amount of mana to sign a contract with it," she replied.
A few minutes passed my friends are conscious again and also doubled their mana capacity. We spent the next few hours practicing mana control before going home to eat dinner. After eating dinner, I checked my closet and wore the magician silk hat and black utility belt. I went downstairs and asked my grandmother to check what properties does the magician silk hat and black utility belt has.
"What properties does the magician silk hat have?" I asked.
"It has 100% increased spell penetration, 100% faster spell casting, 100% increased spell range, and 100% increased spell power," she replied.
"How about the black utility belt?" I asked.
"It can store unlimited items inside it. You need to tap it twice to activate its storage system. If you want to retrieve an item, you need to think of the specific item you want to retrieve and tap it twice," she replied.
"Thanks grandma," I replied.
I went upstairs again and decided to wear the magician silk hat and black utility belt every day.
We continued to practice mana control for 6 days and got interrupted on the seventh day when the village chief visited us early in the morning and told us to go to the outside of the village hall.
Grandma teleported me and my friends outside the village hall to save time. There were many adult people and kids gathered here. At a distance, I could see an old man accompanied by two young men all dressed with the traditional mage clothes and beside them is a medium size orb.
"It looks like everyone eligible has now arrived. Please form one line and, one by one, the kids will touch this orb. If it lights up, it means that you have passed the test and will receive rewards. If it does not light up, it means you have failed the magic capability test," the old man said.
It seems the old man must have used some kind of magic spell to amplify the sound of his voice or else I wouldn't be able to hear it. He must be also capable of advanced mana control to pinpoint the age of the kids in the entire village without even travelling to every house and asking them their age.
It took several hours before it was my turn to take the test and touch the damn orb. Almost all the peasants failed while the rest passed. My friends passed and produced intense light on that orb, which shocked the mages.
I walked towards the orb and was about to touch it when one of the young mages said, "Are you sure you want to embarrass yourself?"
"Why would I embarrass myself?" I replied.
"I don't feel anything from you that shows you have an affinity for magic, like your magical aura is absent, which means you are incapable of using magic," he replied.
The old man chastised him and said, "Forgive him for his rude remarks as he does not know that there is someone like you who has almost undetectable magical aura and still be able to use magic."
I nodded and touched the orb. Instead of producing a light, it shattered into many pieces. I got confused and looked at them to get an answer to whether I passed or failed the test. The two young mages were overcome by shock and confusion on what happened while the old man was shaking his head and said, "I told them to get a larger and more powerful orb to use for this test in case a hidden Maple is living here since it is literally named Mapleminster. I should have pressured them more even though there has been no Maple sighting for almost a decade now."
"Aren't they a stuff of legend and is only used to scare peasants?" One of the young mages asked.
"What kind of nonsense are you talking about? You are already looking at one and peasants are naturally afraid of them," the old mage replied.
"Umm, err, did I pass?" I asked.
"Yes, and don't worry about the broken orb. That is our fault for not providing adequate testing equipment," the old mage replied.
I nodded, and it took me around a minute to locate grandma and my friends and go there. Grandma was giggling while my friends are standing there cluelessly on why the orb shattered.
"Err, there is some minor incident with the testing equipment, but ultimately we managed to test everyone with no delay. Congratulations to everyone who passed. Here are your rewards: All those who passed are granted a house to move into the capital city Chester, scholarship in the Imperial Magic Academy, and 50 gold coins. We will give you 1 week of preparation to pack your belongings and everything you might need. We will also escort your whole family and provide the transportation vehicle while traveling to the capital city to guarantee your safety," the old mage said.
The crowd dispersed.
"We need to go somewhere before going home," grandma said.
We nodded.
After 15 minutes of walking, we are in front of a modern-looking two-storey building which is out of place in this kind of age and setting. It looks like some kind of bank and it is solely operated by slimes.
My friends entered the first floor, and when I tried to enter it, the slimes blocked me.
"We are not allowed to enter the first floor but, we are free to enter the second floor," grandmother said.
We climbed the stairs and entered the second floor. A smartly dressed slime greeted us.
Based on the slime encyclopedia, this must be the bank manager slime.
It gave grandmother some kind of paperwork and hopped away.
Grandma filled out the paperwork in a few minutes and the bank manager slime took it.
It returned shortly thereafter and brought back one smaller slime with it.
"What is the purpose of the smaller slime?" I asked.
"That is a credit/debit slime. Its main purpose is to allow a Maple to spend the family fortune with no risks and you can also deposit gems and money inside it. You will receive a daily allowance of 20 gold when we reach Chester city and it will grow bigger when you grow up. When you overspend for some reason, it will be deducted in your daily allowance. It also follows you everywhere," she replied.
We exited the building and waited for my friends to return. It took around 10 minutes for my friends to exit the building and grandma teleported everyone in front of the house.
"Why do most peasants fail when they clearly could use some form of magic?" I asked.
"That orb you touched filters out your potential at using non-elemental magic and can only detect your potential in using elemental magic. To light it up, it needs to detect that you can potentially use tier 5 or higher spells. The brighter the light, the greater your potential is," grandma replied.
"Will there be another opportunity for those who failed?" Jack asked.
"Yes, this is not the only test available for 6-year-olds. There are other private magic academies who accept students who can only potentially use Tier 3 and 4 spells. The Imperial Knight Academy, Imperial Military Academy, Imperial Navy Academy, and countless other martial arts school compete for those who specialized in strengthening their body by using spells or through coating their body with mana and have some level of expertise in using a weapon," she replied.
"What if you still failed that?" Mark asked.
"You can go to a town or city to get a decent job or apprenticeship. If all else fails, you can always join the adventurer's guild, doing odd jobs from time to time, or go back to your village and inherit the ancestral farmland your family owns," she replied.
"I didn't know the average peasant has a lot of options to choose from," Alice said.
"Instead of worrying about others' future. Everyone should go back to practicing mana control," she said.
We nodded and started practicing mana control.
"It's getting dark. We are going to head home now," Alice said.
"Invite your family to our house to celebrate the achievement of everyone passing the test," grandmother said.
My friends nodded.
My friends' family arrived at our house congratulating the kids for passing the magic capability test. There was a lot of food on the table. There is roast wild boar, baked chicken cordon bleu, spaghetti with meatballs, vegetable stew, chili mud crab, potato ramen, different shapes of wheat bread and the ever present 6 potato dishes. For dessert, there is pudding, banana cake and apple pie. For drinks, there is buttermilk, milk, orange juice, tea, beer, whiskey and wine.
The adults and kids have their own table. It's their first time seeing my little sister, Olivia. Jack and Mark are only child while Alice has a little sister named Abigail while John has a little brother named Peter.
The adults are loud and seemed to talk about their reunion or something while we only talked about our training, how excited we are in attending school and going to the capital city. We must have fallen asleep while in the middle of a conversation because I woke up in my bed with my little sister beside me.
I ate some of the leftover food from last night for breakfast and went outside to do mana control training. After an hour or two, my friends joined me.
After six days, it's finally time to go to the village entrance located in the north, where the carriages and the old mage are waiting. Grandma teleported us and my friends' family to save time.
The old mage performed a final check to make sure everyone has arrived.
"So everyone has finally arrived. We can start our trip to the capital city now. I expect we will arrive there in a month," the old mage said.
We started our trip to the capital city.
*Meanwhile at the Royal Palace in Chester*
*knock* *knock*
Emperor: You may enter.
*door creaks*
Head butler: Your imperial majesty, I have something important to report to you.
Emperor: Make it quick! I have important matters I need to attend to this morning.
Head butler: According to this letter, sent by the Head Imperial Court mage, the magic capability test for six-year-olds is finally finished and everyone is expected to arrive within two months.
Emperor: Start The preparations for the Newbie Magic Contest, as I want to personally see who is the strongest among them.
Head Butler: As you wish, your imperial majesty.
End of Chapter 5.