As it turns out, the next event is the big one for me. The area of effect round. It's simple, shoot one spell at a target in the middle of the field, and see how large the area is that your magic covers. I'm not sure how I want to approach it though. Do I just dump all my mana at once? That might be the most accurate representation of throwing out a spell like that in battle.

Or, do I make it using multiple parts? And then, how do I make those parts? Just normal stacking, or should I set them to cascade?

Of course, I also need to consider how long it takes to compose the spell. I could take forever to make an absolutely ridiculous spell, but there's no way Tenkala would allow that. I wish I could just start forming my spell now, while I wait, but suddenly starting to cast magic when it's not my turn would definitely get me punished...

Well, all I can do is wait. While I wait, I pay extra close attention to the area of effect of different mages. Lots of them just have ordinary spells that are generally single target, so they don't accomplish much, but the ones with proper area of effect magic, now they are pretty impressive.

Twenty feet, thirty, fifty, one hundred. The guy that looks like your classic fire mage, an actual fire elemental, called a vulc in this world, has a very lengthy chant, and all of the contestants start backing up.

Anticipation starts to build up in the crowd, before he drops a full hellstorm fireball of destruction in the middle of the field, three hundred plus feet across. Fire explodes out in every direction, with a huge roar of applause. A few flecks of the fire even bounce off the shield around the arena.

A number more go after him, but no one even comes close to his impressive show, and then its my turn again, since I'm near the end of the list.

I immediately start casting, to make the most out of my time before Tenkala gets impatient. I've decided on a stacked, multispell cascade for this, mainly fire since it likes to spread more than other elements. I mix in just enough air here and there to get the fire the air it's going to need to go full nuclear.

I build up the spells by continuously summoning elements to stack onto them, a dozen different spells at once, before they get attached to the main spell, so I can get way more elements attached in total compared to summoning all at once.

The spell formations all twist around me, turning and shaping, expanding and collapsing as I keep adding onto them one after another. At least I think there's enough to watch to keep people somewhat interested hopefully?

When I think I'm starting to test Tenkala's patience, I start walking, somewhat slowly, to the far end of the arena. The other contestants look at me uncertainly, some of them scoffing. Just to be safe, I yell, “Please get clear, I have no idea how big this will be!” That one draws a mix of interest, caution, disdain, and laughter. At least it gets the other contestants to back off, just in case.

When I reach the far end of the field, I dump the rest of my mana into larger and larger spell formations much more quickly than the previous ones, fitting it all together to go off at once. Then I take a breath, and lob the spell upward.

I'm not confident in my accuracy over this distance, so I go for a slow arc, using mana control to try and land it on the target in the middle of the field. Even if I don't hit the mark, it should land nearby rather than missing and flying into the far wall or something.

The spell, just a little dot that acts as a container for all of the other spells stacked inside, hits the ground right near the feet of the target, which isn't so bad, I think.

Then there is an earth shaking, fiery explosion that sends me hurtling to the ground. I roll a few times before stopping and looking back up. Fire is shooting up into a huge arc, multiple rapid fire explosions echoing and combining as the whole thing builds and builds, covering the sky and the entire grounds inside the arena, whole sections of the explosion tracing out the boundary of the magical shield erected around the arena field to protect the audience from things exactly like this.

I swear, the trails of fire reached like a mile into the sky at one point.

Once things have started to calm down, the startled, half-terrified, half-excited audience hesitantly begins to clap. Well, this decides it, I'm taking Area Control, area of effect is by far the most effective aspect of my magic.

As I'm thinking that, Tenkala comes stomping over. Why does he look so ang-

“Punish Slave: Harsh.”

I hit the ground, waves of pain crashing over me.

Fuck!

Ahhh!

“Grraaghhh” I release a strangled cry as I try to speak.

Shit fuck ahh ow!!!!

It hurts!

It fucking hurts!

I'm rolling on the ground, holding my chest against the pain.

“Stop! Fuck! Ahh!” I shout.

Why is he doing this to me?

Master! Help!

Please!

Then the pain is gone, and she's there.

“What the fuck are you doing to my slave?!” she screams.

“She's been acting up this entire time. Now she blew up half of the arena and scared the audience out of their wits!” He gesticulates at the pillar of flames, glowering at her, standing like half his height.

“It's an area of effect magic test! That's the point! And there's a shield for exactly that reason!”

“She didn't properly warn anyone first!”

“She did! Didn't you hear her shout to get clear?”

Tenkala growls, but he averts his eyes. He knows he screwed up. Then he reluctantly bows. “I apologize, miss. I have mishandled your slave.”

Ignoring him for a second, she extends a hand to me. “How are you feeling, Yumi? Are you alright?”

I swallow hard, still shaken up after that unfair punishment, so much worse than normal. Then I take her hand and she lifts me back to my feet. I lower my head a little. “I'm, uhh, fine, Master. Thank you.”

“Do you want to continue? Or should we just go home now?”

I pause. I've already decided on my Focus. But we still have the damage test, and I really want to know how far behind my magic damage is, how much I still need to catch up so I'll be strong enough...

“I... I'd like to continue, please-” then my mind catches on an idea. I have a way to test my damage here. It's like a damage training dummy, I can use it for damage comparisons. My breath catches, but I have to ask, I won't get this opportunity again. “A-actually, M-Master...” She raises an eyebrow to prompt me. “Could I maybe... I lean in to whisper to her, and a big grin spreads over her face.

“Hey, coordinator.” He eyes her warily as she makes her request. “If you want to make it up to me, could you let my slave take one extra shot at the damage test target after the competition?”

“Huh?” He's flustered for a few moments, asking, “Why?” before he shakes his head. “Fine, fine. Just return to your seat so we can continue.”

“Sure. Go get em,' Yumi,” she waves as she heads back toward the stands.

Tenkala gives me a wary look, but this is my chance.

I bow low. “S-sir, I'll, just, umm, form my magic while I wait for my turn, so I don't waste your time!”

He huffs, but says, “That is acceptable. Return to your place.” I bow deeply again before running back over to my place.

The last few contestants cycle through the area of effect test, but the crowd is a little put-off. I'm not sure if it's the anti-climax after my big spell, how the coordinator unfairly punished me, my master's reaction, or what. Maybe a little of everything?

Stolen story; please report.

But their enthusiasm quickly picks up again when the last test begins. The raw damage test. Here we're supposed to take either one big shot at the damage target, or we have thirty seconds to do as much damage as possible, for the speed casters.

Just like I said, I start forming my magic while I wait. It draws a wary glance from Tenkala, and there are definitely some murmurs from the crowd as well, but for the most part, they focus on the impressive displays from the other contestants.

They all pull out their big spells. Lances of light and roaring fireballs, barrages of ice shards and bolts of lightning. The blasts, booms, and explosions are intense. There are a couple other area of effect mages that throw out their big area of effect magic again, huge explosions filling the arena once more. The crowd roars with each blast, even moreso when big damage numbers come out of the target.

I wonder how it measures the damage? A mixture of impact, temperature, electric current, and other things? How does that work with like, acid and gravity spells and stuff? Is there some way of measuring the raw magical power? Idly wondering that while keeping up a steady flow of low cost spell formations, I watch each contestant go.

The damage numbers vary wildly, anywhere from ten thousand up to fifty and one hundred thousand for the really strong mages. Then there's one, one of the single target mages, who goes forward and casts a very unusual spell, a melee spell.

It coats his fist in some sort of dark magic, void element maybe? He straight up punches the training target, and there's a sort of pop of non-sound that floods the arena. It makes me have to swallow a few times to pop my ears and make the weird ringing go away.

But holy hell is it powerful. Three hundred thousand fucking damage? He could probably one shot a boss with that! No wonder why it's a melee attack! He even hunches low, panting from mana exhaustion afterward. That really is a hell of an all-in...

They need to pause for a bit to get another training target, since his spell apparently disintegrated that one, before we continue. After more impressive showings, it's my turn. Time to see how far I need to go to catch up...

“This is going to be another really big spell!” I shout for everyone to hear, as clearly as I can this time. I've been forming it for almost a half hour while everyone else has taken their turns. I've been using smaller numbers of elements to keep from exhausting my mana over such a long period of time, but I'm starting to run low anyway.

It's mostly like the last. Lots of fire and some air. I'd go with something a little less explosive, considering how last time turned out, but the goal is specifically to see how my biggest spells work, so that's not really an option.

Just in case, I throw out a second warning, considering that this spell is way way more complex than the last one and some of the exponential cascading it's designed for is going to be, uhh, really over the top... “Please take cover!” I shout.

Now the crowd is getting worked up. They saw my last one, and they saw how I started forming this one a while ago. Some people in the front row are moving back, despite the shield. A glance to Master Liina shows a big, crazy grin on her face. I hope she likes this one.

I walk all the way back to the entrance to the stands, so I can take partial cover behind the door. I don't even hear anyone laughing when I do it. The other contestants are looking around for things to stand behind too, a few of them casting magic shields for themselves.

It feels a little silly, but I say it anyway. In English, “Fire in the hole!”

I throw the spell, just like the last one. Lobbing it up high, its slow arc brings it down near the target while I shift back behind the cover of the wall.

I'm glad I thought to crouch down this time, because the earthquake that comes with the explosion would have thrown me off my feet again.

It's a cacophony, I can hear all of the spells going off, thousands of explosions layering on top of each other as they all synergize into a cascade of accelerating magic that fills the arena end to end in every direction.

The fire traces the entire cylindrical shape of the magic shield, the entire way around. After a few minutes, when the smoke finally clears, I can see my damage numbers.

Five thousand.

I cringe. Fuck that's bad. A half hour charge time for damage half of the weakest mage in this competition.

People start laughing.

When they see the comparison between my arena-filling destruction and a simple fireball, the fireball being twice as effective, they absolutely roar with mocking, jeering laughter.

My lips quiver, but I swallow my tears. I knew I had a long way to go, I just... didn't expect it to be this bad.

The competition finishes up quickly after that, the last few going through, and then the awards being presented. Despite getting first place in a few of the events, I finish in eighth place. The way they're weighted, my abysmal damage in the last round completely bombed my score.

Whatever. That's not why I came here, I tell myself. Despite eyeing the magic trinkets they give out to the first three places, I tell myself that my goal was to learn where my magic stands, its strength and weaknesses, and how much I need to catch up so I can get stronger. I did that, so it's good enough.

Once the competition is over and people start to leave, Master Liina comes back and waves at Tenkala. I move to her side as she asks about me taking another shot.

“It's fine,” he sighs. “You sure found yourself a strange one.”

“She's a good girl,” Master Liina claims proudly. “Now, Yumi, do your thing.”

“Yes, Master. But, umm...” I'm a bit embarrassed now. My goal is to compare the damage of my spells after choosing my Focus, but that means I need to cast the same spell again.

The one that took a half hour to form...

I made it simple enough to replicate, since it was a lot of the same formation stacked in a pretty straightforward manner, but there were... just so many of them, and I had to make them slowly by summoning a few elements at a time. If I had enough mana, I could summon more to remake it faster, but...

While I'm worrying about all of that, Master Liina chides me, “Come on, use your words.” With a rough swallow on a dry throat, I tell her. “Hah! You don't have a hot date waiting or anything, do you?” she asks Tenkala.

With a dejected sigh, he grumbles his consent to wait.

“Alright, I'm choosing the Area Control Focus now, Master,” I tell her, and then select it.

It doesn't work. No, maybe it did, maybe I just didn't feel any change. So I check my Status briefly, but no, it definitely didn't work.

“Umm, Master? I can't select my Focus.” Come on, don't panic. There's no reason I would just, not be able to select it at some point. No one ever mentioned not being able to after like Rank zero or anything. I shouldn't be locked out of it, right? If something like that happened, wouldn't it just auto-select None?

She looks confused for a moment, but then she shakes her head. “No no, Yumi. Don't worry.” Master Liina pets my head, which helps calm me down. “Slaves can't make changes like that themselves, they're up to your master.”

“Oh.” I blink a few times. Wow, yeah, duh. That makes a lot of sense.

“Here. Select Slave Focus: Area Control.”

This time, I feel the change. I let out a slow breath. Ok, just a little bump along the way. I just have to move on to my test. “Thank you, Master. I'll begin casting now. Sorry for the delay. I'll, umm, try to cast it faster this time.” I didn't intend to hold us up like this.

“Alright, do your thing.” With a nod, she urges me on.

So I do. I start casting, forming up my magic the same way as last time. Lots of simple, easy to replicate forms that fold together in a straightforward way that builds up in complexity because there are just so many of them.

I move faster this time, though it strains my mana pool more than last time. I keep absorbing natural mana to make up the difference, and I think I'm starting to get a little more used to it, because it isn't making me quite as sick as before.

Still, that only goes so far. After ten straight minutes of it, my stomach is starting to turn anyway. But I keep it up since I really don't want to delay us any longer than necessary.

Though some of the crowd started leaving after the competition, enough of them caught onto what was happening afterward that a decent number of people are sticking around to check out what I'm doing.

I do my best to form my spell faster, but I can still only regenerate my mana so quickly by boosting it. I try to push the mana straight into my spells like I've done before to save me from having to absorb all of it, which helps a little more, but it's still twenty minutes to finish the spell, and I'm starting to scrape at the very bottom of my mana pool, dipping into mana exhaustion as I try to finish.

Wincing, I tell Master Liina and Tenkala that I'm finishing and to get clear, then stagger my way over to cover like before.

Then I throw my spell again, when it's... more or less like the last one. It's too complex to be sure I got everything exactly the same, especially in my haste, but it should come out about the same.

On impact, I get another enormous eruption of flaming death, rocking the entire arena again. But what I really want to know comes after.

The smoke clears and...

Twenty five thousand damage?

I blink owlishly.

Huh?

Isn't that kind of broken?

A five hundred percent damage bonus?

I shake my head violently. No, I'm not thinking this through. The damage bonus is based on the size of the spell. I get five times damage from a half-hour spell that's like, two or three thousand fucking feet across.

That's, uhh... I don't know. My head hurts too much to do the math.

“Good girl, good girl!” Master Liina suddenly exclaims, rubbing my head affectionately, which draws my thoughts back to the present. Looking up, I show her a big smile.

Then she approaches a flabbergasted Tenkala. “Haha, it looks like my slave's new Focus is really great. She's such a good girl,” she compliments me again, still rubbing my head while I beam.

It takes a ton of time and effort, but I'm able to throw single spells with comparable damage to higher level mages now, thanks to my Focus. There's something I can do now!

“That certainly is, ahem, impressive,” the tall altraska clears his throat awkwardly.

“Well, I just hope this teaches you not to mistreat others' slaves,” Master Liina scolds him. “Now, have a nice day.”

“You too, miss,” he responds apologetically, with a small bow, and she leads me from the arena.