Alaric’s hands were shivered against the examiner’s body. Daphne was covered in burns, parts of her leather armour damaged from the explosion.
Alaric’s vision flashed with distant memories of carnage. Despite the memories, the flow of his aether was constant, supplying the healing spell with constant power. He’d had these flashbacks many times and even grown used to them.
Brushing away his dark memories, he brought his ear to her nose and felt for her breathing as he kept his Healing Spell working.
Vines had already sprouted in clandestine parts of the large training hall, not enough to damage the structure, but enough to give Alaric the vision he needed to observe every corner of the training hall.
The last thing he wanted was to draw the attention of all the examiners on what he was doing. The smoke was thick enough to obscure the ring and Alaric’s current position but it wouldn’t be for long.
Through the sight his vines granted him, he took note of what was happening in the Training Hall. The explosion had attracted attention but no one was approaching.
The examiners were swatting away smoke from the explosion, their bodies protected by a thin translucent barrier cast by a man dressed in luxurious robes. The Guild Master’s gaze remained unchanged as he waited for the smoke to fade away, a relaxed look on his face. Was it possible that no one expected Daphne to get this injured… or perhaps that’s how much they trusted their healing magic?
Fortunately for Alaric, no one seemed to have noticed the boy almost fly from his spot and dive into the flames to catch the injured examiner. If someone did, then they were doing well to hide it.
“Put me down this instant!” the woman in his hands suddenly squirmed.
Alaric placed the woman down despite her squirming and stepped away from her. He wasn’t done using the only Healing Spell he knew, but seeing as she was only left with minor injuries, he didn’t insist.
The woman stood and checked herself over. Odd magic had set itself in motion and Alaric watched in awe as the scorched parts of her armour started mending themselves, conjuring up fresh fabric and material.
His inquisitive mind was already searching for a reason this was possible. What kind of magic was it? Time Magic? Or was there perhaps some store with the materials the spell was using to mend the damaged armour? It was a rather curious piece. He wondered if his own white—now black—armour was capable of something like that.
Sighing, he bowed his head to the examiner slightly, “I’m glad you’re okay.”
Then he walked away without another word.
The examiner stared at his back as he walked away, assessing the boy’s actions for a bit before turning back to her job.
A frown crossed her face when she realised she was now supposed to grade someone who had injured her.
Copper wouldn’t cut it this time. The woman groaned, ‘I hate dealing with promising adventurers.’
As the smoke cleared, everyone gathered around the ruined ring, the Guild Master approached with a smile plastered on his face, “My my! Even I didn’t see this coming. What’s your name, miss?”
The lithe woman with a phoenix perching on her shoulder replied indifferently, “Scarlett.”
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“Scarlett… Have you worked in the line of assassination before?” the Guildmaster beamed.
“I’d rather not discuss my past,” Scarlett replied with a chill in her voice. She wasn’t very expressive which only made the slight furrow of her brows all the more frightening.
“Right… No backstories, got it? I’m sure Alistair will have one for me though,” the Guildmaster turned to the boy, disappointment still thick in his voice.
Alaric sighed… This was going to be a long day, “Perhaps my test should come next.”
“Don’t bother. We’ll do the Mage next. You… will come last,” the Guild Master scowled, “Daphne, seeing as you hadn’t summoned your guardian, I think Silver will suffice. Should she fail to live up to what a Silver rank adventurer is capable of, we’ll demote her to bronze.”
Daphne nodded with a shrug, “Yeah, that will do.”
With that, the Guildmaster moved on to the timid girl who’d barely said anything since the start of this whole exercise. Her guardian, a large wraith hovering above her head, cloaked with two blue shining lights where its eyes should have been, stirred.
Alaric had already caught on the reason there were five examiners here today. Each of them specialised in a different role and Daphne was the examiner for those applying for the role of Vanguard.
The man who’d cast the barrier which protected the examiners from the shrapnel approached the ring, then raised up his hands.
A large rune circle appeared on his hands, then a spell took a hold of the large training hall. Alaric frowned at the rune circle. He’d seen rune circles before… but now he realised something was off with this method of casting spells.
For one, he didn’t understand them at all. Were they some other form of utilizing the Old Tongue or was it a completely different way of casting a magic spell?
Why didn’t this man just recite his intentions like Alaric normally did? Of course, it wasn’t as simple as that but that was the gist of the kind of magic Alaric was used to casting.
The shrapnel in the room began to float and fly back towards the blast area, fitting back into place like a recording on reverse, repairing all the damage.
This time, however, Alaric was able to tell that it was Time Magic that was reversing the effects of the fire and returning the ring to its former state.
[ Is Time Magic that simple? ] Alaric wondered.
[ No, it’s not but this is a rather simple scenario. Manipulating the time of inanimate objects isn’t nearly as hard as that of living creatures. The variable missing in this spell to make it hard is a ‘will.’ Living beings have a will, no matter how small, that they impose on the world around them. That’s why casting a spell on a living thing is several times harder than casting a spell on an inanimate object. ] the guardian explained.
[ Oh… ] Alaric digested the information before surmising, [ So, he’s showing off? ]
The guardian chuckled humourously, [ Yes, Alaric. He’s showing off. ]
It didn’t take long before the man was standing in the ring with the girl. His eyes remained relaxed as he addressed the girl before him, “What sort of magic do you specialise in?”
“Healing magic and Holy Magic,” the girl said in a low tone. Her voice wasn’t audible in the slightest but everyone heard it. Not just because it was audible but because these were perhaps the most valuable types of magic for a mage in any adventuring party.
Healing Magic was the perfect thing for a party that didn’t want to waste money on healing elixirs while Holy Magic was the perfect for combating demons. A combination of Healing Magic and Holy Magic, however. That was unprecedented.
The relaxed expression on the mage’s face vanished. Suddenly his show of Time Magic looked like a parlor trick. “You’re not messing with me, are you, girl?”
The girl shook her head, “No, sir.”
“Guild Master, can we get a Corrupted Demon Core here? We’ll have the girl purify it… and if she can do it, we’ll award her Silver Rank,” the man announced.
“Took the words right out of my mouth, Harrow,” the Guildmaster’s voice echoed. He reached for a ring on his hand and rubbed it… A moment later, a jar appeared before him, inviting an ominous pressure into the room.
Alaric’s stomach twisted in a knot as he clenched his fists, his eyes glued to the jar. The simple object emanated enough pressure to stop whatever complaints were about to come streaming out of cocky brat who’d been given Copper Rank.
It was a pressure Alaric was very familiar with, having been stored so deep in his bones that he found his aether flowing on instinct at the Corrupted Core’s presence.
The jar was engraved with a litany of runes to contain the miasma rolling off the core and even then, there was a dark aura about the jar, bringing the room into an ominous silence.
Harrow smirked as the jar floated over to his waiting hand, “You just need to purify this… You don’t even need to show us your Healing Magic. Any second-rate Mage can cast a healing spell. So we’ll assess your Holy magic instead.”