Chapter 25: Hubert Lanchi and His Formidable Allies
Chapter 25: Hubert Lanchi and His Formidable Allies
What was usually a well-organized conference room had now descended into chaos. Many teachers, their eyes wide, stared at the large magical screen hanging in the center of the room. They stood up, their hands gripping the table in front of them.
"...?"
The spacious conference room echoed with voices filled with confusion and shock.
Unless one possessed the ability to cast spells without incantations.
Otherwise...
This 'Friendly Exchange' card could be a bane for all traditional mages! Due to the convenience and flexibility of spellcasting offered by magic cards, modern mages rarely bothered to master the art of incantation-less spellcasting, even if they learned new spells to expand their repertoires.
"Is it possible that the Magic Engineering Institute has been secretly working on something new again...?"
Even the vice-principal, Ron, who had been quietly taking notes, couldn't help but feel his eyes twitch.
He knew that from now on, 'Incantation-less Spellcasting' would have to become a mandatory course at the Sage Institute.
This nauseating card would spread like a virus, starting from the Icelyte Academy, then throughout the Royal Capital, the Kingdom of Horton, and eventually, the entire Southern Continent and the world...
And the creator of this card remained unknown.
Often, there would be card creators with mysterious talents who, while crafting their cards, were unaware of the disruptive impact their creations would have on the world. It was only after their cards entered the market and gained traction that their true identities would be traced.
It seemed that after the exam, whether Lanchi passed or not...
There would be those who would seek him out to inquire about the origin of this 'Friendly Exchange' card and try to investigate its source.
Or perhaps, they would take the card from him and attempt to reverse-engineer the toxic magic within, replicating its spellcasting principles as quickly as possible!
"It's probably not something he created himself..."
Vice-Principal Ron rubbed his temples.
While students at the Sage Institute did learn about magic card crafting, it was the students of the Magic Engineering Institute who specialized in card creation.
The card creator who came up with 'Friendly Exchange' would be considered an explosive talent even among card creators.
Now, it seemed that instead of letting Lanchi, who held the clue to this "miraculous card creator," return home, it would be ideal if he could join the Sage Institute.
With Principal Lorren here, no one would dare to cause trouble for Lanchi.
However, if the 'Friendly Exchange' card were to rapidly flood the market, it would undoubtedly become a huge headache for the Sage Institute.
Who was this newcomer who had suddenly appeared out of thin air?
As Vice-Principal Ron pondered this, he flipped through the documents in his hand, feeling more confused as he read the blank-like resume.
The more he looked at it, the more bizarre it seemed.
If the last assessment was a coincidence...
Then this was the second time Lanchi had surprised them with an outstanding performance.
Moreover, he hadn't even displayed the abilities typical of a White Mage.
The boy remained an enigma.
According to the information, Lanchi himself did not possess any spells, and his function as a White Mage had been certified by the Magic Tower.
Most of the card slots in his possession were probably filled with healing spells.
Purely functional spells like 'Friendly Exchange' would only take up two or three slots at most.
What Ron couldn't understand was...
With Lanchi's low magical power, why would he choose to have so many healing cards?
Each person's soul could only carry a limited number of magic cards.
The higher the rank of the magic card, the more space it occupied in the soul after soul binding.
For example, as Lanchi was a second-tier mage, he could only soul bind magic cards with a combined rank of 20 at most.
And the highest rank he could bind was second-tier magic cards.
If he were to reach the third tier in the future, he would be able to soul bind magic cards with a combined rank of 30 at most and could bind third-tier magic cards as well.
On the other hand...
If a second-tier Lanchi were to soul bind only second-tier magic cards, he would reach his carrying capacity by binding just 10 cards.
However, if he included some first-tier magic cards, he could bind more cards overall.
The 'rank' of a magic card could also be considered a 'cost' to some extent.
Lower-tier magic cards could be seen as having lower costs.
Therefore, some high-quality, versatile lower-tier magic cards remained useful even for higher-tier mages and were not easily discarded.
At this moment, Vice-Principal Ron couldn't help but think...
Rather, if Lanchi was fully equipped with targeted functional spells like '[Friendly Exchange]', his high spiritual power, coupled with his high magic capacity and sustained spellcasting ability, might indeed be a surprisingly effective pure functional support type."
"Even if Lanchi proves to be effective, the real challenge lies ahead."
"The difference in ranks is just too vast."
The teachers in the conference room began to focus their attention intently on the battle unfolding on the screen.
To them, what was supposed to be an uneventful duel now held a glimmer of hope, which naturally sparked a sense of peculiar anticipation.
However, they were also well aware that the gap in basic attributes between a fifth-tier and a second or third-tier was akin to an insurmountable chasm.
Even without the use of spells, Ferret could easily take down both Lanchi and Huberyan, two squishy opponents. Moreover, Ferret still had a few small-scale instant spells at his disposal, whereas the two examinees would struggle to inflict significant damage on him.
The situation had merely shifted from a ten-to-zero to a nine-to-one advantage for Ferret.
...
On the magic screen, the battle in the Elven Plains continued to rage.
Amidst Ferret's confusion, he realized the abnormality of his inability to cast spells.
This thought sent a chill down his spine.
He suddenly came to a startling realization.
It was as if a piercing sound had torn through the air.
An elusive figure appeared out of thin air, and in an instant, she was upon Ferret, stabbing at his chest with deadly precision!
In that moment, Huberyan was incredibly close to Ferret.
The scorpion-tailed dagger in her hand was mere inches away from piercing his heart.
Moreover, the dagger's bizarre scorpion-tail shape emanated an eerie crystalline glow, indicating the presence of a potent poison.
Get lost!!
Ferret wanted to roar in anger, but all that escaped his mouth was an unintelligible growl. Simultaneously, a deep crimson light circle burst forth from his body!
Even without the ability to cast spells, he still had low-tier, small-scale instant spells at his disposal!
The light circle expanded from his body and vanished in an instant, sending Huberyan flying with tremendous force.
"Huff, huff."
Huberyan, who had been struck head-on by the attack, quickly picked herself up from the ground.
Aside from some minor burns, she appeared unharmed.
The Huberyan who had been standing next to Lanchi earlier had dissipated like a bubble, merely an afterimage created by her invisibility spell.
"Mutt, you managed to dodge that," Huberyan muttered, her face darkening.
In mid-air, Ferret now sported a blood-red line on his cheek, and blood began to trickle down from the fresh wound.
In that fleeting moment, Huberyan realized that she wouldn't be able to pierce Ferret's heart, so she put all her strength into throwing the scorpion-tailed dagger, aiming directly for his skull!
Ferret, with his rich combat experience and lightning-fast reflexes, instinctively jerked his head to the side, narrowly avoiding the deadly pursuit.
However, he couldn't completely evade the underhanded attack at such close range.
A searing pain spread from the wound on Ferret's cheek, causing the veins on his forehead to bulge.
Evidently, even a mere graze was enough to infect him with the poison, and the wound refused to heal, despite the delayed healing status he had cast on himself before the exam.
Furthermore, Ferret was currently under Lanchi's silence status, unable to dispel the negative effects by casting purification magic on himself.
He had no choice but to endure the knife-scraping-throat pain and rely solely on his fifth-tier resistance to withstand the poison's effects.
While the third-tier poison on Huberyan's dagger posed little threat to a fifth-tier like Ferret, he couldn't help but feel his anger mounting.
Those two weak newcomers on the ground might not have had any semblance of coordination, but they were both troublesome opponents.
One could turn invisible and hide from detection on the map, while the other was a seal-type freak who knew what other tricks he might have up his sleeve.
These two truly deserved each other; it was as if they had been cursed by the heavens to be brought together!
(End of Chapter)
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