After a few moments standing inside, with everyone including myself giving each other some space, a monotone female voice had echoed into the room.
"Welcome to the Magic Status Evaluation test, as all of you are Copper X and below you shall be evaluated as a group."
"If you surpass Copper X at any time during this evaluation we will be sure to evaluate you individually and with more detailed tests from that point onwards."
"Your Vaes capacities have been evaluated and we shall reveal the relative ranking and capacity to you now."
A floating blue screen had appeared in front of me shortly after, stating that my Vaes capacity was 84% lower than average for my age in Farrina City, 73% lower in the whole of Ganion, and around 60% lower than the speculated average Vaes capacity in the world for my age.
It also stated that my Vaes capacity was 3% lower than the capacity on an average 12-year-old in Farrina City, Which was actually not so bad considering the amount of time i had been exposed to Vaes.
My Vaes capacity grade was also stated as E-, with the grades going from G- to S+
Your Vaes capacity does increase as you age, and like having a talent for magic, some people had their Vaes capacity increase at an extreme rate without the need to train and just getting older.
Most people couldn't depend on their Vaes capacity "talent" though as it usually grew at around 1% of the total every year.
Looking around me, the others seemed to be staring into space but i knew they were also checking their results, i was able to see their expressions though.
One guy had a disappointed expression on his face, two having quite a neutral expression and a girl with a big smile on her face.
I had already taken a picture of the information and it was stored in my canvas, the blue screen disappearing a short while after.
"Next up, we shall now be evaluating your Vaes control through a series of multiple tests, please read the instructions for each test carefully"
After the voice was done talking, a white pedestal had risen up in front of each person from the ground where a hand shaped blue outline had appeared on the surface of the pedestals.
We had all taken the hint and placed our hands on our pedestals as blue cubes had appeared for each of us.
"These tests will give points on your control, ability to complete the tasks, and speed.
But do attempt to focus on control more as you will get penalties if you fail to complete the criteria or task."
---
After a series of multiple tests involving Vaes control, too many for me to remember, Well… there were exactly 26, the voice had started talking again saying that the results would be revealed shortly.
The tests weren't too complicated and focused on doing miscellaneous tasks such as moving through a maze or drawing a picture, though it was only able to be done by controlling the Vaes within each of the tests.
I had zero difficulties for all of the tests and had done most of them almost perfectly, though for the others it was a different story, all of them having a face of concentration throughout the entirety of the tests.
When the blue screen had appeared once again, my results had shown that my Vaes control had a grade of A+, which i had only seen during a few of my elementary school homework and tests.
I was quite satisfied with the results, as i didn't feel like my control could get any better than it already was, but obviously, i was wrong as i had not even reached S- grade, though i knew with a bit more time and effort that i would reach it soon.
Vaes control was something very hard to improve on as it mostly relied on talent and experience, with even talented mages having a hard time improving their Vaes control.
80% of people in the world had a Vaes control lower than E+ grade, and the other 19% would only be able to reach B, and let it be known that each and every grade was exponentially harder to reach than the previous one.
This was also applied to Vaes capacity, as 80% of people in the world would reach C and 15% percent would be able to reach A-, showing just how much more difficult it was to improve Vaes control.
"Congratulations to Al for reaching Bronze III at this point in time, Sir Al shall now be treated to a personal evaluation in a separate room"
When the voice had spoken once again the instant the Blue screen had disappeared, i had assumed it was going to explain the next area of testing and i was completely wrong.
Everyone in the room had a look of shock on their face as they faced themselves in my direction, i was only slightly surprised as i guessed it was due to my Vaes Control grade being so high.
A door shaped hole had appeared on a wall by the side of the room, wasting no time as i walked through it into a similar but smaller white room, with a white sofa chair in the middle.
The advantages and better treatment were already being applied i see, happy to have evidence on how seriously this magic status is taken.
Upon sitting on the sofa and leaning back into it, a more emotive and lively female voice had started to echo in the room.
"Congratulations on reaching the Bronze tier, you shall be re-evaluated for your Vaes capacity and control to better analyze it for your benefit."
Almost the same thing had happened as in the other room, with a larger blue screen appearing in front of me showing me my results on Vaes capacity, having much more relative data and being more detailed.
It had stated that i had 1348 units of Vaes, each unit of Vaes being equivalent to a single use of the most basic formula spell that was usually the first formula spell taught to students, the lighter spell.
The lighter spell did exactly as it stated, which was to produce a small flame the size of a lighter for around five seconds. It was a static spell in which you could not change anything about it at all, using the same amount of Vaes each time no matter how efficiently you had controlled your Vaes.
The formula is extremely inflexible as well as there was literally no variables you had to input at all thus it always used the exact amount of Vaes no matter the person and always being active for exactly five seconds, with the exact same strength, thus making it the perfect unit for Vaes.
Thus, i was able to technically the lighter spell 1348 times if my Vaes didn't regenerate, but it was actually 1348 times 11 times as i still had my Vaes bar that was able to store 10 times more Vaes than my actual Vaes capacity.
It was actually not the first time i had heard of this unit of measurement, as it was mentioned in almost all of the magic books i had scanned. It was not relevant to me as i wasn't able to measure my Vaes capacity as the books had stated it was only able to be accurately measured using machines.
So people usually had magic-tech accessories like necklaces or wristbands that were able to keep track of their Vaes capacity, as without them you had to rely on your Vaes perception to vaguely understand how much Vaes was needed for a spell or roughly how much was used.
Though the ones average people used had an accuracy of up to 20 units of Vaes.
I had changed my Vaes bar so that it stated that it had 13480 units of Vaes as its total capacity currently and that 1 unit of Vaes was equivalent of one usage of the lighter spell, now whenever i used the Vaes in my Vaes bar or its capacity had increased, the numbers would change accordingly.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
Currently, my Vaes bar was at 13480/13480 as i had not started using any spells yet and my strength boost spell was still continuously draining my Vaes.
The voice had stated that a few more Vaes control tests were needed to be done and so i did them, the results being mostly the same with more detail and no unit of measurement for it.
After that, i had done magic perception tests with my grade only being a C despite my fake familiarity with Vaes.
Although i had said Vaes Control was the most difficult area in magic to train, i was referring to areas that were useful, and magic perception was mostly used to know how your rough Vaes capacity or current amount of Vaes in your body, or any similar uses.
Vaes perception was 100 times more difficult to train than Vaes control so no one really bothers and due to the existence of the previously mentioned magi-tech accessories, no one had bothered to train it and even those who were talented in it didn't have many advantages.
It was rumored people with A+ and above for magic perception were able to accurately calculate their Vaes usage, current amount of Vaes and capacity to an accuracy of 1 to 0.1 units of Vaes, and that they could sense the movement of Vaes and general Vaes usage and capacity of another person without the use of the scan spell.
The next thing involved evaluating my Vaes regeneration and i already knew how to "cheat" in this one. I had done as the voice said and deactivated my strength boost spell, letting my Vaes regenerate naturally, but also letting my Vaes bar transfer Vaes into my body at a rate of 150 units of Vaes per minute.
I was able to calculate that i regenerated 22 units of Vaes per minute normally thus bringing the rate to 177 units of Vaes per minute.
I did remember i that i had filled 4/5ths of my Vaes bar in an hour while i was beginning to perceive magic, which was around 100+ units of Vaes per minute.
Magic books had explained though that during the perception of magic and Vaes, your body would absorb Vaes from the atmosphere at an amazing rate, though it was quite useless as most people wouldn't have had used their Vaes or any magic at all before that point in time.
I was actually able to just instantly fill my body with Vaes from my Vaes bar, but i knew doing that would make my grade Surpass S+ rank and i didn't want anyone investigating me more than they already would from my superior Vaes control grade.
The grade i had gotten for Vaes regeneration was a C-, which was okay for me as i could just slowly increase the output of my Vaes bar during future magic status evaluations.
The next evaluation was casting actual spells, with the voice stating that i should do any and all spell i knew. Static spells were to be the only cast once, Variable spells to be cast twice, which is as powerful as i could without going out of control and as weak as i could.
Spells that needed a target or to be cast on an object like telekinesis or clean, the room would provide me with them.
I had cast around 300 spells, which was a low number as i was able to cast around 1000+ spells stated in the books i had scanned, but the average person could only cast and remember 50~ spells or so while Gold and above mages knew around 150+.
The voice had also previously stated that points would be given the more efficiently i cast each spell in terms of Vaes usage, power, and control. High tier spells, complicated spells and powerful spells that were able to be cast would also highly contribute to points, so, i had cast a few dozens of those to bump up my points.
My results turned out to be really good with my minimum spell efficiency to be 70%, maximum 95% for simple spells and an average of 80% efficiency.
There were three areas for spells that had individual levels and were calculated together to form a Spell ability rank.
I received Lvl 7 for spell diversity, Lvl 4 spell quantity, Lvl 6 spell quality with a max level of 12, spell diversity and quantity being relative to one another, so with a higher quantity of spells, the harder it is to raise spell diversity.
The importance and weightage for each area was very different though, diversity having 15% weightage, quantity 10% weightage and quality having 75% weightage, so even if you had a very high level of spell diversity and quantity, someone with a level or two higher than you in spell quality but has an awful spell diversity and quantity level would get around the same or higher grade than you.
The grade that i had gotten was a C as the "high tier spells" in the library books were not that powerful
I already knew that the really powerful and high tier spells wouldn't be in a library book and were strictly kept and hoarded by noble families, the military, magic scholars and high tier mages, and prestigious magic schools like Noraxia Academy.
"Congratulations Sir Al for completing your magic status evaluation, your final magic tier is Silver I and thus are in the top 10% of the world, enjoy your status and privileges from this point onwards, please collect your newly modified Identification card at the identification station."
The evaluation had finally ended and i even surpassed my original goal by a long shot, this would be the first time in my entire life that i was ever in the top percentage for something significant, feelings of accomplishment, joy and excitement washed through my body as my lips rose into a faint smile, my outer feelings as subdued as ever.
A doorway had opened up behind me, and upon exiting it, i noticed that it was the same way i had come in and that despite my inner clock telling me that around an hour had passed since i entered the room, the clocks outside the room had shown that only five minutes had passed since i entered.
Obviously, an advanced time spell was being applied in those rooms to speed up the time inside of it. Not only that, everyone in my vicinity was giving me looks of reverence and respect, a few of them walking up to me and congratulating me on my achievement.
I had noticed that on multiple screens inside the building, it had shown my face and was announcing that there was a new Silver tiered mage in the country.
It was actually quite an amazing thing to reach Silver tier so it was not strange that it would be announced to whoever was around at the time.
I actually felt quite awkward on how everyone's view of me had changed massively in the span of five minutes in the real world, as before i did notice that beyond outright ignoring my existence, more than a couple of people had given me looks of disgust or scorn which was not uncommon for me.
But now the very same people were looking at me with respect in their eyes, and those who had first assumed i was a nobody and looked at me with scorn, their faces were now filled with shock and embarrassment that they had previously looked down on me.
I went back to the same counter where i had gotten my identification card made and the same receptionist was still there, looking as dead as ever. He didn't seem to have noticed the announcement as he probably heard it a lot of times already and didn't care much.
---
Ahhh… when is my shift going to be over?... Well, it would end at 7 PM which is still hours and hours away and I'm slowly getting more and more annoyed that i had to come back during my off time…
Another Silver tier had been "born" apparently, its the fourth one this month, probably another noble as only those rich bastards would have the resources and talent to groom a person like that.
...Huh? Why did they let that guy cut the queue? Wait… isn't this the same village boy that needed a new identification an hour ago?
Why is he here again?
Getting his new card? What? Wait a moment…
Looking down at the Silver Card in his hand that he had picked up from the machine by reflex after hearing the new Silver Tier Mage announcement.
It had shown the exact picture and details of the boy in front of him that he had just newly made an identification card for an hour ago, which now showed in the new Magic Status row that he was a Silver I Tier Mage…
Huh?!? How did this random fat kid that had never gotten identified for 19 years of his life be a Silver Tier Mage???
It was unbelievable!! No one else knew that he had just gotten his identification an hour ago so instead of absolute shock and confusion they only showed respect and reverence.
"Umm... Is that my card there?" The same young man that he had gotten a shock over had spoken, pointing towards the card in his hand.
Slightly panicked that he had just ignored a Silver Tier Mage he could only hope he didn't use the power and status that he had recently gained to make his life worst.
"Y-yes!! Here you go, sir! S-sorry for the delay." He replied back immediately no longer sitting down on his chair or using his usual monotone voice, sounding more enthusiastic but a bit panicky with a bit of shock mixed into it.
Holding the card with two hands and respectfully offering the card to the young man. He had shown a slightly amused expression and bitter smile seeing the massive change in attitude from him, made sense, anyone would be amused if someone did a 360 in their behavior towards you after increasing in status.
---
Progress is amazing, isn't it? I mean a little more than an hour ago i was just a nobody in this world and now i was a highly respected mage with a status much higher than most people would ever have in their entire lives!
I had already left the administration building but not before the receptionist had explained a few functions my new identification card had, it was able to send out a sort of signal to anyone around that it was a Silver Tier card, meaning that whoever was in possession of that card was a Silver Tier mage.
This would allow those who had the relevant status to avoid being treated badly and instead would allow you to have preferential treatment in a lot of places.
Of course, you are able to turn of this signal but have the risk of being mistreated, and you would be unable to file a case against those who mistreated you in relation to your actual status as you had not turned on the signal for your card to prevent such situations from occurring.
It was also imprinted with your DNA and acted like a magnet towards your body, so you would never lose it, and if your card is beyond the vicinity of your person of a hundred-meter-radius, it would self-destruct instantly.
You were able to get a new card 10 times for free in case of self-destruction before you had to pay to get a new one.
What should the next thing on my agenda be?
Seeing how its already been more than 24 hours since I've eaten, i think i should get a job.
Because if the harshness of this world doesn't kill me, my hunger will.
*Stomach Groaning Noises*