Chapter 81 - Evaluation

"Why Regarth?" Delila eventually asked.

"Rose and I want to become adventurers, and Regarth is affiliated with them and has its own dungeon!" Lily explained excitedly.

"Stremweth has access to a dungeon," Stuart pointed out.

"As does Helia, one we share with our brother-school Kalway," Delila added.

"I didn't know that," Lily admitted.

"I don't blame you," James interrupted Stuart and Delila. "While they both have access, they aren't built on top of the dungeon, unlike Regarth."

"Oh… So it's not part of the curriculum?" Lily asked curiously.

"We have courses and field trips to them," Stuart countered.

"But they aren't mandatory," Delila mentioned reluctantly. "Although anyone on the dueling teams is highly encouraged to do so. And while Regarth is affiliated with adventurers, graduating from any magic school would be a boost in your adventuring career."

"I see; thanks for letting me know," Lily replied cheerfully.

"Just promise me you'll give our offers some real thought, and don't just blindly pick Regarth," Delila said with a gentle smile.

Lily nodded. It was the least she could do, although she doubted anything they said would change her mind.

"Does this mean the examination is over?" Lily asked.

"Yes," Delila answered.

"No," both Stuart and James answered too.

Delila frowned while James gestured for Stuart to go first.

"I still want to see you chant and cast a regular spell," Stuart explained. "You claim they are weak, and I want to see if it's frankly from a lack of training or your bloodline."

"Okay," Lily agreed. "I'll do a basic one from the four main elements?"

Stuart nodded.

Lily proceeded to do her first chant, a simple fire spell used either as illumination or to light kindling. She made sure that her enunciation was without flaw, but as usual, she starved the spell of the Mana it required.

When she finished the chant, she held out the tiny flame between her palms and presented it for examination.

"Wow, that's underwhelming," James said bluntly. "No offense, but after seeing all the stars and cloak, that little flame is just sad."

"I didn't hear anything wrong with your chant, a textbook example," Stuart sighed.

"Sorry…" Lily mumbled.

"Don't be sorry; the fact you can do magic at all is already enough," Delila said reassuringly.

Stuart then instructed her to try the others. She performed a basic water spell, often used to create clean water. The Mana-starved spell could barely fill a glass, whereas proper usage could quickly fill entire bathtubs.

This was repeated with earth, a simple spell to gather sand and dust. There was certainly a lot of sand and rubble in the room from all the statues Lily had destroyed, but the effective radius of this gathering spell left the examiners wanting.

Finally, they ended the test with the defensive gust spell learned for self-defense. When Lily cast it, it barely blew the examiner's robes and hair.

"Again, another textbook example of the required chant," Stuart sighed. Lily could tell he genuinely sounded disappointed.

"It's certainly better than nothing," Delila said, trying to find a silver lining. "In some cases, they can't cast any spell outside of their bloodline, and having even a little water and fire can be lifesaving. Likewise, I'm sure you can still clean your room with that earth spell."

"True, it's better than nothing," James agreed.

"It's certainly a pity, though," Stuart sighed again. "I can tell you must have gone through a lot of practice to learn those chants, especially if your magical awakening was as recent as Richardus mentioned."

I didn't expect him to feel bad about me. I guess he isn't all thorns?

"Umm," Lily interrupted. "I did mention that it still works fine on glyphs. I have no problem with the fire in glyphs; they are as hot or large as I draw them."

James snapped his fingers and pointed at Lily, "Which is exactly why I said the test isn't over. You mentioned glyphs, and while the other two might not care about them, Tresnia certainly does. We are the number one school for magical crafts and trades for a reason, after all!"

"Would you like me to go fetch one of my glyphs and give it to you?" Lily asked.

"Nope," James said, shaking his head. "I want you to draw one right here and now so I can vouch that you did it."

"Umm, okay," Lily replied a little nervously.

"Before that!" Stuart interjected. "We should evaluate her expended Mana. She's gone through a rigorous spellcasting demonstration, and I'd like to have a reading."

"Excellent idea," Delila agreed and gestured for Lily to follow her to the crystal ball again.

Once again, they evaluated the amount of glow produced by the magical sphere—or at least that was what Lily assumed by how intently they were staring at it. Afterward, Stuart wrote something down in his book, but before Lily could even wonder or ask what it was, James grabbed her attention by gently poking her in the shoulder.

The energetic evaluator gestured for them to go to one of the other desks, where he proceeded to pull out a parchment, pot of ink, and pen from a rather odd-looking briefcase he seemed to have retrieved from somewhere.

"You can draw it with just regular ink; no need to risk a real one, and I'll have the drawing evaluated," James explained.

Lily sighed with relief, happy they weren't expecting her to draw in blood or have her explain how she had the ink that could have magical effects.

"Not that any external examiner would be able to use it without you present," James chuckled.

Oh… I almost forgot that blood glyphs are locked. Lily thought sheepishly.

Lily maneuvered the paper, ink, and pen in front of her. She took one look at the pen and frowned—it was terrible. Saying it was well used was an understatement, and the nib even appeared to be damaged as if someone was chewing on it.

"Umm… Sir, do you have another pen?" Lily queried. "This one isn't good enough for accurate glyphs or even for writing a proper letter."

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Lily was worried James might take offense, but to her surprise, he grinned joyfully.

"Excellent!" he praised. "You've already passed the first part of my test."

James then pulled out another pen, almost on par with her prized possession.

"A rather cruel prank," Delila muttered.

"A craftsman should be able to recognize good and bad tools," James explained.

Lily happily examined the new pen; it was more than sufficient for the task at hand. She then thought of what glyph she should draw, and while Lily was tempted to draw a shield glyph or something else spectacular, she realized that it might draw the wrong type of attention toward her.

"Is an alchemical glyph alright?" Lily asked.

I told Richardus I had picked up glyphs from an alchemy book, so it would make sense to draw one of them.

"Sure," James agreed. "I can have one of our alchemists evaluate it along with an enchanter."

After double-checking that the nib was clean, Lily nodded and proceeded to dip and draw her glyph. With all three examiners staring at her work, she was slightly nervous and swallowed dryly. However, she had grown used to Camilla staring at her while lecturing about costs so she could handle the three silent observers.

Nobody said anything until Lily finished the glyph, which indicated that she was finally starting to clean the pen properly.

"I thought I was going to need to dock you points for not asking for a compass, but I see you didn't actually need one," James commented, looking mildly amused.

"How did you manage to draw so neatly and smoothly?" Delila asked.

"Before magic, I was going to be a scribe," Lily answered.

"That'd do it," James chuckled. "I'd hate to know how many hours you spent boringly writing over and over again to practice."

"It wasn't boring," Lily rejected. "And besides, it's not like I could do anything else at the time… Writing was one of the few fun activities I had."

"Bullying? I thought this orphanage was way better than that," Delila asked, shocked.

"No!" Lily immediately denied it. "I was very sickly before my awakening… So I couldn't exactly play with any kids."

"Very interesting… It seems the world of magic has certainly opened many doors and possibilities for you. In more ways than one," James said, rubbing his head.

Lily nodded. Meeting Arakil was the luckiest day of my life.

"And the evaluation?" Stuart asked, pointing at the drawing.

"You can't tell?" James sneered.

"I pay people to do these for me," Stuart replied dryly.

James sighed and shrugged, "Figures. I'm not a glyph expert, but this looks extremely well-made. I recognize only some of the basic stuff here and know it creates a flame hot enough for alchemical concoctions."

Lily nodded, "This one is at the precise temperature to dissolve Sneezeweed instantly without compromising Crystallized Anise."

James whistled, "You've had alchemy training?"

Lily nodded, "Some of the basics."

"I think Tresnia would love you," James said as he carefully removed the page with the glyph. He then took out a small case and placed the page gingerly inside before closing it.

"Will Tresnia be sharing the details of that evaluation?" Delila asked, gesturing towards the case.

"I'll be sure to send a report," James agreed.

"Bah, don't bother sending one to Stremweth," Stuart said dismissively.

And the grumpy jerk grew his thorns again…

"Now, are we done?" Delila asked. "We have a lot more kids to go through."

"Are all of them going to have to go through what I've done?" Lily asked. "You'll be here past midnight!"

"Heavens, no," Delila replied before giggling to herself.

"Yeah, no offense to the other kids, but we won't be going through them as thoroughly as you," James added.

"Why not?" Lily asked.

"No major bloodlines," Stuart answered bluntly. "Or did you really think we give every child this much attention?"

"And I think all of our school would have our heads if we didn't thoroughly test a completely unheard-of bloodline," James said, followed by a nervous chuckle.

"Speaking of which, we should have one final Mana test," Stuart instructed.

"Another one?" Lily asked, sounding a little annoyed and tired.

"I promise it will be the last one," Stuart said. "I want to see how much, if any, your Mana has regenerated during the most recent reading."

"Okay," Lily agreed somewhat reluctantly.

The process repeated itself, with all three staring at the ball. Lily found herself glaring at it, too, but she had no idea what they were even looking at.

"That's odd," Stuart muttered.

"Oh good, so it wasn't just me," James said, sighing with relief. "I thought I was finally going to need glasses."

"What?" Lily asked nervously.

"Assuming my compatriots are talking about the same thing, you seem to have a rather outstanding regeneration rate," Delila answered.

Lily gulped and realized she had been unconsciously still spinning her core in reverse during the downtime. Arakil had trained her too well.

"Is that a problem?" Lily asked nervously.

"Problem ?" Delila asked rhetorically before giggling. "It's a boon unless you count the jealousy of other mages."

"Indeed, although I thought for sure one of your size would be on the lower end," Stuart said, rubbing his chin thoughtfully.

Seeing Lily look confused, James happily extrapolated, "It's generally believed that the bigger one's heart is, the better the regeneration. More blood, more Mana, as crude as that sounds."

Lily nodded at that explanation, but then Delila opened her mouth.

"Another famous study proposed that smaller hearts beat faster and thus regenerate Mana quicker," she countered.

"Bah," Stuart scoffed. "There are so many circumstances that any study would lack a sufficient sample size. There could be so many factors at play between demis, humans, and bloodlines. Just be happy you were born lucky."

"And on that note, I really think we should end this here," James said as he began scooting Lily toward the door.

"Indeed, we don't want to be here until midnight," Delila said teasingly. "Thank you for the time, Lily. I look forward to giving my suggestion to Helia's headmistress."

"Thank you all!" Lily said happily, giving a small but polite head bow.

"You're welcome," Stuart replied, putting away his notebook.

"Thanks for such a fun demonstration," James said. "Be sure to think of Tresnia. We have extensive alchemy and enchanting classes. You can get licensed in both and make a fortune!"

"Thanks," Lily mumbled. "But I want to be an adventurer."

"And every adventurer needs potions and enchantments, not to mention money!" James countered with a wink. "And you'll have an abundance in all of the above thanks to Tresnia."

"Seriously James…" Delila muttered, shaking her head.

Stuart snorted but said nothing.

James grinned unapologetically at his apparent attempts at twisting her arm. At the door, she thanked all three of them again and promised to properly consider all schools, as she had done previously, before finally exiting.

"That took ages," one kid grumbled when the door finally opened.

James gave a toothy grin before pointing directly at the boy, "Don't worry, you're up next! Inside!"

The boy blinked sheepishly at having been singled out so quickly before hurrying to the door. Right before James closed the door behind him, he gave Lily a quick wink and a wave.

That was certainly an experience… I can't wait to tell Arakil all about it!