Aethernea : Soulbound [Book 1]

Episode 142 - Mere decade

Previously:

Friday, the last day of Muni entrance exams, Special exam. As it turns out, the Spell Replicating exam Kiel chose was not designed to test spell replicating ability, but rather, to test for a special talent that can only be revealed through the process of spell replicating. Kiel is tasked to spell replicate several artifacts, including Clay Mines. Unfortunately, an accident happens while testing his Clay Mines and an explosion occurs. Examiners are thankfully fine but they start arguing with each other. They give Kiel a final artifact, whose enchantment he doesn't need to replicate but to just draw it out. However, Kiel finds that the enchantment is too small and he can't sense it clearly with his mana sense. In this stressful situation, Kiel manages to see a flash of light inside his head for a brief moment, showing him how the enchantment looks like. After he successfully draws out the spell design of the enchantment, examiners get excited and ask Kiel to be their disciple. Kiel is confused and they explain how professors in Muni are required to mentor students and start telling him the story of Alann Farhice and how he discovered a special ability IPOMQ which alows the user to feel the difference in spell quality of spells cast.

* * *

"If your enchantment wasn't of a higher quality than the original, how could it have possibly managed to activate? The quality of your last Clay Mine went beyond the theoretical limit."

...

Kiel stared at the grandma blankly.

For full 10 seconds.

Before he managed to produce a response:

"Huh?!?"

Episode 142 – Mere decade

Seeing Kiel's half-petrified half-gobsmacked expression, grandma couldn't hold her mirth in any longer and she burst out laughing. "Why did you think we spent all this time talking about IPOMQ?"

The other examiners also joined in the laughter. "Why did you think we were so excited? Even fighting over recruiting you?"

"Of course, it's because you are one of those people with IPOMQ!"

Kiel felt as if lightning struck him from the clear skies. His mind in disarray, all he could do was stare dumbly at the laughing professors in front of him.

After they were done laughing, Kiel was still standing in dumbfounded silence, but hey, at least he tried to break it – he opened his mouth to say "Impossible! How could I not know I had such an ability?", but then, he realized that the examiners had already explained the reasons why he would be unaware. Therefore, he closed his mouth without saying a word.

Still, he could hardly accept this turn of events. How could there be such a coincidence? He applied mistakenly for this special exam and it just so happened that he actually had such a talent?

Him? A non-mage? He actually had a special sensitivity towards magic quality? Could this get any more absurd?

He didn't dare get his hopes up, so he shook his head, smiled wryly, and finally uttered words: "You said yourself that this power is hard to test for. And the measuring apparatus is aged, it might be malfunctioning..."

"One might be, but not all of them!" Granny shook the stack of papers in her hands. "You've got impossibly high numbers in all of the tests. It isn't that there is something wrong with the data but that the speed of your learning ability is off the charts!"

Seeing Kiel who looked like his spirit had left his body, the middle-aged man hurried to explain: "The purpose of the first test was so that we could see your normal spell weaving style and how precise your weaving is usually, when you are not putting in special effort. It would also allow us to see your learning speed when you are concentrating on improvement.