‘Mr. Leigong… weren’t we not supposed to stick out this much?’
Beatrice asked after moving away from the testing orb. The other students were looking at her with much interest after she had soundly beaten the crown prince's score.
‘Ah don’t worry everything is going according to plan… you’ll just do worse in the other tests. They’ll just think you have a large mana pool but are behind in skills…’
Zhang Dong quickly thought about something to salvage the situation. There were other tests ahead of them, if she only stuck out in one then it would probably be fine. They would just attribute her to having potential in mana and nothing else.
The testing continued but the stares didn’t stop. He wasn’t sure what went wrong but he must have misjudged the effect that his spiritual energy would have here. It was that energy that he was using and not this world's mana that was slightly on a different wavelength.
‘I need to be ready for the next aptitude test and not make any more mistakes…’
The first test only measured the summoner's mana reserves. The second one would be testing another part, which would be the elemental affinity of the summon. For instance, if a person made a contract with a fire-based spirit like an Ifrit their affinity for fire would be high. Some spirits could have more than one affinity which he was expecting to get.
Prince Ludwig was the first one to go as well. Zhang Dong wasn’t sure if it was due to the green hair but the youth’s main affinity was wind with a surprising holy element as well.
“The prince managed to make a contract with a pegasus, as expected from a member of the royalty!”
Zhang Dong listened to some of the students with interest. The youth's summon was a flying horse and it was apparently also rare. He wasn’t so sure about such a creature’s strength in combat as it was just a horse with wings. But summoners could use certain summon specific spells depending on their spirit. Perhaps this was such a summon that boosted a person’s magical capabilities instead of being a minion that fought in their master's stead.
Isabella on the other hand looked to be the owner of a water-based spirit. From the conversations that some girls were having it looked to be some kind of water nymph. Just as the pegasus this was a higher form of spirit that was also somewhat intelligent. It was clear that the top students had attracted the rare spirits.
Some with their own capabilities but most by offering better treasures for the contracts. Regular students were left with generic summon spirits like the snake that Beatrice’s classmate Adabelle possessed.
After some time passed it was time for Beatrice to take the test. Previously no one had paid attention to her but now people were looking in. Some had expressions of disdain while others of curiosity.
‘Okay… this should work…’
Zhang Dong tried to relax, the test should show the spirit's elemental affinities. He was a cultivator that studied the Dao of lightning and of the holy element. His lightning should be the primary one while the latter the secondary.
The magical device that measured this looked like a mirror. The student was tasked to concentrate on their summoning mark that was on their right hand. When they performed this task right the elements would appear on the surface of the mirror. They would look like small balls of energy, depending on the size it would be clear what the summoned spirit was best at.
Beatrice placed her hand on the mirror and concentrated. The sign on her hand appeared and the surface of the mirror started to react. The tests here were open to anyone to see, the students were sure to look at the results of this dark horse.
The mirror started to shine and soon a blob of electricity appeared in the middle of it. It was quite big compared to what the other student received and implied that Beatrice possessed the rare lightning elemental affinity, which was also quite high.
But then something odd happened, soon after the electrical bubble in the middle appeared a second one also materialized. This one was bright gold, similar to the color the prince had with his pegasus but much larger and clear.
“Lightning and holy?... wait… there is more?”
The students and teachers started murmuring again as multiple elemental bubbles started to appear. They circled around the two large ones in the middle as little planets. Green for wind, red for fire, brown for earth, blue for water. There were all there, the four main elements had shown themselves. There were even some colors that the teachers didn’t recognize.
‘...is it because of all the various Daos that I picked up through the years?’
Zhang Dong scratched his head again. He was a cultivator that had mastered a lot of techniques through the years. The Zhang Clan was versed in water techniques so he had picked up a few along the way. Huo Clans fire, Feng clans wind, and even some earth techniques from some side schools.
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He didn’t focus much on them but considering that he was a nascent soul master he could master them to a certain degree in a couple of days or weeks. Thus the mirror showed a reflection of the Daos that he was proficient in, which was quite many.
This was something unprecedented as most spirits were only good at one thing. Rare ones had a secondary element to go with their main one. Then the legendary creatures had three of them. But he was already showing twice that number.
Thus the eyes were again on Beatrice for showing something never seen before. Where the first test might have been attributed to luck or one rare skill, this showed something more. Now she was far ahead of her competition and only two more tests remained.
‘G-great spirit…?’
‘A-all according to plan…’
Zhang Dong wasn’t sure what he could say, it looked like things were working against him. The girl had already aced two of the four main tests. She was already sticking out like a sore thumb and he wasn’t sure if he could do anything about it at this point. Even if she failed the other two quests she already positioned herself miles away from the competition.
He had tried to lower his elemental affinities during this test but even then the mirror showed all of his inner workings.It was as if something was working in the background to expose his secrets.
The teachers and the students were now paying attention to her. Through Beatrice’s eyes, he could see everyone whispering. The teachers were taking notes and he could even see some of them going elsewhere. In time he would know that they went to get some higher profile, people, to come. This whole thing was getting out of hand quite quickly.
‘Beatrice, the next test is to measure how much magical pressure a summoner can handle, right?’
‘Yes Leigong…’
‘How about you just pretend to pass out before the other students, just wait enough for it to not be too obvious…’
The master plan had been made, it was more or less the last hope. The next test would put the casters under pressure. From what Zhang Dong could tell it was similar to a popular test that cultivators liked to do. One of the stronger cultivators would release killing intent or their aura on the disciples. If the student didn’t pass out and held on through a test like that they would pass.
This would be the same thing here. One of the mages would deliver magical pressure onto the young spell casters. They would feel strain to their souls and would have to last through it. He wasn’t sure anymore but he felt like with him around Beatrice wouldn’t really be affected by something like that. She would need to play dead otherwise she would probably outlast everyone else while yawning.
…...
Unbeknownst to Zhang Dong and Beatrice, there was some movement in the background. The two tests that the young girl aced brought unwanted attention.
“Is that the girl?”
“Yes… her results have been astonishing. Not since the Arch-mage has someone been able to get such results…”
An old man with a long beard and a classical wizard hat was talking to some teachers. They were looking at Beatrice through a hidden side window. This man here was the vice principal and he was called overdue to the troubling results.
“Could it have been a mistake?”
“Not likely sir, we have checked the devices and they haven’t been tampered with. The girl also isn’t someone with such resources to fool our teachers.”
The man started rubbing his long beard with one hand while looking through the window. After some squinting, he spoke out.
“There is something peculiar about that mana… I will test her myself.”
The man hit the ground with his long staff that looked like a large tree branch with a big green gem at the top. He was surrounded by a magical glow before his appearance changed to that of one of the teachers in this room.
“Could she be one of them? Wouldn’t they try to not stand out this much?”
“It could be a possibility… those results do look troubling.”
The vice principal placed his staff to the side and exchanged it for the one that the teacher was using. He then headed towards the testing room where a smaller group of students was waiting for him.
They were standing in a circle and ready to take the test. They were about ten meters away from the teacher that would be standing in the middle. The disguised vice principal moved to the designated spot and prepared himself for the test.
He was now looking in Beatrice’s direction. He could feel that there was something off about there but he couldn’t put a finger on it. There had been some troublesome things happening around this academy and this girl was being suspicious.
‘I need to test her… I will need to take a peek inside to be sure…’
The students were preparing themselves, all of them had closed their eyes to concentrate so no one was able to see him staring at Beatrice with deep interest. His staff connected with the ground and the mana pressure was released.
‘Interesting…’
A normal mage would have not noticed something like this but the vice principal was someone very experienced. He could tell that the pressure he used for the first test was just bouncing off the girl in front of him. He also noticed that she was pretending to be affected by it, this of course sparked some concerns.
‘Is she putting on an act?’
Due to this whole thing looking fishy the man decided to probe her more. He sent a direct mana probe towards this young girl. If she was a normal human being then she would at most pass out instantly but if she was one of the enemies they were looking for then the reaction would be more adverse.
“W-what is this?”
“Why hello there… I didn’t think I’d be having guests today.”
The man was surprised by a third result. The moment he tried probing the girl he felt something powerful pulling him inside. He found himself in some strange place face to face with someone powerful. This someone had clearly trapped him here as he felt that his connection to his own body was being blocked off and he couldn’t leave.
What he was looking at was some kind of man sitting on a golden throne. He looked like some kind of otherworldly being. There was also another problem, right next to this man was a giant golden dragon that looked quite fierce.
“You’ll have to give me a good reason about why you tried to do that to my little Beatrice.”
“Y-your little Beatrice?”
“Yes, the girl I’m contracted with, why did you try to damage her soul?”
The man started to sweat as he realized what this was. The person standing in front of him was clearly not the enemy that he was looking for. He was some kind of heroic spirit that made a contract with that student. The situation was dire as the vice principal knew well that the contracted spirits were very protective of their contractors. If he made a mistake he could very well have his soul erased by this powerful being…