by Cloe D Frost
It was a feeling that he recognized.
A feeling that was very familiar to him.
When his mind reached this train of thought, Kiel’s pupils couldn’t help but involuntarily shrink. For he realized, that he hadn’t felt that feeling for a while.
Several days to be precise.
Being with Elaru was infuriating, irritating, unpredictable, and often humiliating and awkward.
Yet out of all the emotions it evoked within him, loneliness was not among them.
* * *
Elaru and Arion’s second test of the day was in the last timeslot allocated for the second test, right before the start of the written test. (No doubt it was the doing of Deora and Zerel who thought Elaru would break their equipment.) The written test was the last test of the day which everyone had at the same time to prevent leakage of exam questions.
Kiel’s second exam started earlier, so he was the first one among the three to leave.
Once again, he waited in front of the designated classroom for several minutes, surrounded by the horde of people licking his boots and wagging their tails.
Once again, he smiled and politely conversed with them, displaying his noble and elegant bearing.
Once again, he inwardly cursed and grumbled, wanting nothing more than for all of the people to shut up and go away.
Once again, he was unable to speak the truth, unable to discard his kindhearted and dignified image, unable to just be himself.
For the first time, he wished nothing more than to just go back to that sunny clearing, on that soft blanket under the tree where he sat a few minutes prior. He wouldn’t even mind Arion’s and Elaru’s presence.
Oh, how low he had fallen that he wouldn’t even mind the annoying duo.
Luckily, it didn’t take long for the doors of the classroom to open revealing Rau Eryey who invited them in. His dark hair that looked like silk was still as neat as it was this morning and his face showed no signs of fatigue.
The desks and chairs have been moved to the edges of the classroom, leaving enough empty space for the exam equipment. Two different sets of equipment were sprawled over the floor in the middle of the room.
When everyone came inside the room, Rau closed the door, and Kady started explaining the contents of the exam.
“The second exam for today tests your multicasting.”
Multicast or Simultaneous Cast Count was a metric that represented mage’s ability to cast multiple spells at the same time and their ability to simultaneously control those spells. It was a mix of good weaving, spell control and ability to multitask.
Kady walked towards one of the two apparatuses that stood further away from the teachers’ desk. It was made out of many small glass objects littered over the floor. The objects were connected by glittering strings and shaped into all kinds of different forms such as cubes, stars, spheres, donuts, pyramids, and more.
Through the black half-transparent glass the objects were made out of, one could see that each object contained a small dark marble in its center.
Laying in the center, surrounded by glass objects, was a compass-like object acting as the hub for all the strings.
“This apparatus will test how many simultaneous spells you are able to cast.”
Kady cast a trigger spell on the compass like object. Right after that, the previously dark marble inside the glass pyramid lit up, emitting dazzling golden light.
“To start the test, cast the trigger spell upon the object that lit up.” Kady pointed towards the glowing pyramid. “We will show you the trigger spell later.”
Kady then weaved the trigger spell so that its spell roots targeted the pyramid. As soon as her trigger spell activated the light coming from the marble inside the pyramid went out.
In its place, two other objects light up.
Kady chose one of the objects and cast the same trigger spell over it.
However, surprisingly, nothing happened.
“For the lights to go out, your trigger spells will need to trigger the glowing objects at the same time. Only if they are activated at the same time will you manage to deactivate them and pass the current stage.”
This time, Kady cast two trigger spells, targeting the two glowing objects. As soon as her spells activated, the glowing objects dimmed. However, right after their light went out, another four objects lit up.
“Each time you manage to deactivate all glowing objects, new objects will light up at random. The number of newly lit objects will always be higher than the number of objects you previously deactivated.”
Kady then proceeded to cast the trigger spells over and over. After the number of lit objects had reached 20, she stopped and pointed towards the compass like object.
“This device will display your score. It calculates the score based on the amount of time it takes you to successfully pass a stage and the number of passed stages.”
Kady then cast another trigger spell to reset the apparatus before moving towards the second apparatus in the room.
The second apparatus was near the teacher’s desk and was made out of a large pink cactus surrounded by a spiral of cubes. Almost the entire body of the cactus, as well as the spikes protruding from the surface, looked as if they were made of pink jelly. The metal base of the cactus had another compass like device embedded into it.
In a spiral around the cactus, black and white cubes were placed alternatingly. The cubes looked exactly like the cubes they had used in the previous test.
“Here, in the second part of the Multicast exam, you will be controlling the same cubes you were controlling in the previous exam.”
Kady cast a trigger spell upon the cactus to activate the apparatus. As soon as her spell activated, the spikes on the cactus extended to one meter in length. The spikes turned into wiggling tentacles. The tentacles started out thin but got thicker at their ends, where they formed a circular opening.
On the opening of one tentacle formed a pink bubble.
“This test requires you to control the cubes to pop bubbles.”
Kady cast a Temperature spell on a seemingly random black cube in the spiral of cubes. Her cube flew up towards the pink bubble.
As soon as the cube touched the surface of the bubble, it popped.
However, after it popped, two new bubbles formed on two random wiggling tentacles.
“Similarly to the previous apparatus, more bubbles you pop, more bubbles will form. And the only way to pop the bubbles is if you touch them with your cube at the same time.”
Once again, she controlled the same cube as before to touch a bubble, but this time, the pink bubble repelled the cube and didn’t pop at all. Kady then cast another Temperature spell on another cube and used the two cubes under her control to touch the bubbles simultaneously.
Only then did they pop.
“Just like in the previous test, the score is calculated based on the time taken to complete the test and number of passed stages.”
Kady’s gaze passed slowly from face to face, before she continued: “Naturally, to minimize the impact of your casting speed on the results of the test, you are allowed to cast Temperature and Light on the cubes before the start of the test. Then, once the test begins, you can wholeheartedly concentrate on controlling those spells.
As for the number of cubes you should put under your control beforehand…that is up to you. Choose the number you are comfortable with, a number that will not degrade your performance. You can later increase the number of cubes under your control when the test requires you to do so.
Your Multicast score will be calculated by adding up the scores displayed on the two apparatuses, dividing them by 2 and rounding up to the higher whole number.”
Kady waved her hand and the stack of papers on the teachers’ desk flew over. Each examinee received one paper.
Kiel looked down at the paper and instantly recognized that the pattern drawn on the paper was the trigger spell they need to cast over the glass objects. It was
an extremely simple pattern that everyone should be able to weave without issues. Naturally, they gave them a simple pattern, since this test didn’t test how well they could weave, but rather, how many different things they could weave at once, regardless of the quality of the result.
“Any questions?” The motherly voice of Kady Ailert resonated in the quiet room in which only the rustling of papers could be heard previously.
After waiting for a few seconds without anyone speaking up, Kady nodded. But it was unclear whether it was towards the examinees or Rau. For at that moment, Rau opened the door to the classroom and motioned for the examinees to leave.
“In the following exam, you will be required to cast a lot of simultaneous spells which will make the situation hectic and hard to supervise. To prevent any interventions from a third party that might not be caught by us, you will be required to wait outside the classroom until it is your turn to take the exam.”
In other words, the examinees would go in and take the test one by one. The rest of the examinees would (im)patiently wait outside for their own turn.
* * *
Kiel was thrilled to volunteer to take the test first. That way he wouldn’t have to wait and would be done immediately. He was surrounded by a horde of people – a long wait would be a nightmare.
Perhaps he could even return back to Elaru and Arion before their test started and spend some more time studying under the warm sun.
Judging by Kiel’s cold and dark personality and white skin, one would think him to be a creature of the night that preferred staying indoors. However, even though Kiel disliked many things, the sun wasn’t among the things he disliked. On the contrary, he loved sunlight. Everything looked better under the warm rays of sunlight. When the rays danced over his face, he felt energized.
Another of the rare things that he liked was the relaxing green color of the grass and leaves. He also very much liked the refreshing scent of flowers and herbs.
Forests have acted as his sanctuary for years, making him develop a special attachment to the greenery. However, staying outdoors also had its drawbacks, so he was the kind of person that exercised moderation. He preferred to read and practice his skills outdoors, while sleeping, bathing and eating was better done indoors.
Encouraged by the prospect of reading under the bright sunlight, Kiel became the first examinee among his batch to take the Multicasting test.
* * *
Author Note:
I have several things I want to say to you guys:
1. I am implementing the GravityTales tradition to include a few paragraphs of the next chapter as a teaser each time I post a new chapter. From now on, if you click on the next chapter, you’ll be able to read a few more paragraphs of text.
2. Did you know that one free way you can earn extra chapters is by contributing to Aethernea wikia? There is a progress bar there that fills up according to your contributions. When it gets filled up, everyone gets an extra chapter. ;)
3. I wanted to point out, that I really enjoy hearing your theories. I am dying to tell you what I think about them and it brings me much pain to refrain from doing so because everything I say would be a spoiler in some way. Just wanted to make it clear that I saw them, loved them, but can’t reply.
4. Thank you so much for your wonderful comments and spreading the word about Aethernea. You have no idea how much it means to me.
Coming up in the next episode:
Kiel entered the main hall of the White Quarters which was filled with tables and chairs just like the main hall of Red and Blue Quarters.
Creating something out of nothing and replicating the existing was very different and required different skill sets.
They screamed bloody murder, looked pale and disheveled and tripped over one another as they ran for their lives.
Episode 59 – I am Kiel Rroda
Episode 59 – I am Kiel Rroda
Previously:
Kiel entered the classroom to take his Multicasting exam. All other examinees are waiting for their turns in front of the classroom.
* * *
After handing his exam pass to Rau Eryey, Kiel approached the first apparatus. It was made out of exactly 100 glass objects of various shapes and sizes. Therefore, the number of objects that he would be required to activate simultaneously couldn’t exceed 100. If he could cast 100 simultaneous spells fast enough, he would be able to achieve full marks.
Kiel felt a bitter-sweet feeling as he gazed down on the pretty glass figurines. When he took the exam last year, this Multicasting test was the first one that he failed to complete flawlessly. It was the start of his downfall.
He remembered it quite clearly. He tended to remember bad memories extremely clearly. And this one was a memory he would never forget.
This first apparatus required him to cast trigger spells over and over again. While the trigger spells couldn’t be any simpler, requiring very little mana, for a non-mage like him, even that amount was too much. If he gave it his all, at most, he would be able to cast 100 of those trigger spells before his mana was completely depleted. And the only reason why he would succeed in casting that many was because of his flawless execution.
Yet, even if he used up all his mana casting those trigger spells, he could at most reach 10 points. And after that, he wouldn’t have any mana left to use on the second apparatus. Therefore, his final result would be 5 points.
The Temperature spell that he would need to cast to control the cubes used in the second test was about 3 times costlier to cast than those simple trigger spells. The upside was that he only needed to cast it once and he would be able to control that cube until the end of the test.
Since there were 50 white cubes in the spiral, he deduced that at most, he would need to control 50 cubes. If he spent all his mana on the second apparatus, he would be able to control around 30 cubes at most.
Therefore, Kiel calculated that if he went all out on the second apparatus, he would be able to reach around 16 points ( the final result being 8 points).
Since he paid close attention to the demonstration of his examiners, he knew how many spells he would need to cast for the first 15 points or so of both apparatuses. He used that knowledge to calculate mana cost efficiency of every single point. Like a beggar he savored every drop of his mana, trying to find a distribution of his mana between the two apparatuses that would allow him to score the highest score possible.
The second apparatus had a rather stable cost efficiency, while the first apparatus had high cost efficiency at first, but it kept dropping sharply.
In the end, he calculated that he should aim to reach 6 points on the first apparatus and spend the remainder of his mana on the second apparatus. Because he made a pause before taking the second test, and because reaching the final stages of the second test took some time, his mana managed to regenerate somewhat, letting him score 14 points on the second apparatus. That way, his final score managed to reach 10 points.
10 measly points.
He remembered clearly how shocked the examiners were when he scored 6 points on the first apparatus. He remembered that humiliation clearly. He remembered how he gnawed on his lips unconsciously until they were blood red. He remembered how his cheeks burned in shame.
He remembered how he was glad that other examinees weren’t allowed to spectate. Glad that their reverence didn’t turn into scorn and contempt. If they were allowed to watch, his disgraceful score would have spread far and wide. He would never be able to live down the humiliation.
Just thinking of the shame he suffered the year before made his blood boil.
Never again! I will never again allow myself to be humiliated like that!
His gaze towards the crystalline objects turned heated.
This time around, all of you will dim for me! I won’t spare a single one of you!
His eyes narrowed into a chilling glare that could make anyone’s hair stand on end. Good thing that his face wasn’t turned towards the two pr
ofessors, for they would be shocked to see that graceful and amiable noble turn so chillingly murderous in an instant.
Without further ado, Kiel concentrated all his attention on the task at hand. He started weaving the trigger spell upon a small glass sphere which was currently the only object which was glowing with light. Since the trigger spell was beyond simple, it only took him an instant for that light to dim.
Two more objects lit up, but an instant was all it took for them to dim once again.
Glass objects kept lighting up and dimming. Lighting up and dimming. Over and over again in and endless cycle.
This cycle repeated so fast that both Rau and Kady were startled.
6 objects. 8. 12. 16.
On and off they went.
Kiel didn’t pause at all. It looked as if he was in life and death struggle. As if the glass figurines had offended him somehow and he had to destroy all of them without mercy.
He wasn’t even breathing. He was too focused on destruction to breathe.
The eyes of the two professors were turning wider and wider.
This boy! Such incredible multicasting potential!
It looked as if he wasn’t weaving at all. As if every light his gaze lands on would immediately be put out. As if it required no thought or effort. As if it was only natural for the magic to bend to his will.
If weaving was like writing letters, then what he was doing was not writing letters but stamping them with a seal! Stamp, stamp, stamp. One swell swoop and the spell was formed.
Kady’s face turned solemn, her omnipresent soft smile fading away from her face.
Kiel’s casting speed managed to reach 25 points, so it was understandable that he was able to weave trigger spells fast. However, to weave all of them simultaneously wasn’t something that could be explained by casting speed alone.
It was as if casting had long become an instinct. Something that required very little thought and concentration. Or was it that his mind was able to perfectly divide its attention into so many different tasks?