Months passed as Seliphaz immediately began producing the prototypes before conducting an extensive battery of tests. The testing phase in any engineering project was often the most time-consuming and tedious aspect of such engineering projects, taking a lot of her time.
Additionally, they also had to simulate production manufacturing assembly runs to estimate the liabilities of production that each prototype had with them. Thus, Feidin began extensively conducting experiments with the production process, making detailed observations of the pros and cons of the production on a practical level.
These were both tedious and time-consuming tasks that kept them busy for a few months.
In the meantime, Cæ kept himself busy with magical training.
The greater the progress they made with the production process, the greater the urgency he felt to complete the Apprentice Program.
He wanted to be over and done with this and officially become a mage before he launched his business, for he wouldn't have had time to pursue his academics as aggressively as he would if he was consumed with his business.
It was why he had sought a business partner like Feidin in the first place. While he worked on the details of the business with regular input from Cæ, the latter aggressively trained his magic.
Having faked his magical breakthrough to casting magic for the first time several months prior, he had begun dipping his toes into many different popular magical fields such as artificing, enchanting, alchemy as well as his personal favorite…
"Combat magic."
In a large hemispherical training hall, a great number of students were gathered. They wore magical tracksuits enchanted with glowing runes across their entire body. A great many battle arenas were spread across the entirety of the training hall, covered by a massive seven-circle magic circle across the entire circular magic arena.
"Combat magic is essential for all mages," a middle-aged woman directed a sweeping gaze across the students with her violet. "This is true for both magetants and non-combat mages. You need to know combat magic if you are a mage. It is an absolute necessity. Does anybody know why?"
Several students raised their hands.
"You."
"Yes, Professor Lioxin. Combat magic is essential because it is the most economically valued magic in the entire world."
"Wrong. You."
"It's because combat magic is the most powerful!"
"Stupid answer. Different magic is differently impactful in different circumstances."
She swiftly shot down multiple different answers, directing a cursory glance across all of them as her eyes rested on Cæ.
He wasn't raising his hand.
And yet, it didn't seem to matter.
"Mr. Cæ," she smiled with a bemused expression. "Can you tell us why?"
Cæ raised an eyebrow at the professor. "Mages are valued for their skills. Magic runs the world, and there are people out there who are willing to do any and everything they can to get their hands on mages. Including…"
His eyes sharpened, "…using violent means."
The professor smiled with approval.
"Additionally, mages are a politically controversial class," Cæ remarked. "There is a lot of political pressure on the grassroots level against mages. And while this rarely translates into anything meaningful, it is still best to have some combat magic skill and experience to defend yourself should the need ever arise."
"Correct," Professor Lioxin nodded. "That's not all. Mages of each nation undergo a lot of scrutiny from foreign powers."
The students stirred with a hint of concern at her words.
"Do you really think that the nations in our vicinity aren't paying close attention to our talents?" Professor Lioxin snorted. "The Vrannouan Kingdom, the Republic of Suraria, and the Durmen Principality all pay close attention to, in particular, all of you.'
Her words shook them with surprise.
"What did you expect?" she raised an eyebrow. "Everybody knows that the Elendir Institute of Magic takes in the best talents and pumps out the best mages of the nation. So naturally, our allies and enemies alike will pay close attention to all of you. In particular…"
She turned to Cæ with a knowing glance. "They will pay close attention to the top rankers of the magic aptitude test."
Cæ narrowed his eyes with a hint of severity.
He was certainly aware of the attention that he had from within the interest groups and power blocs of the nation. However, he didn't realize that he also needed to be mindful of international and foreign pressures.
"Tsk." He allowed a tut of frustration to escape him.
Professor Lioxin smirked. "It comes with the territory. Get used to it and, more importantly, get prepared for it with combat magic. Let's get started! Now, form pairs and use what you have practiced in the past few months. Also…"
She rattled off several more instructions to the students, who swiftly dispersed to adhere to instructions.
The professor grinned. "Let the magical duels begin!"
Two students at random entered each of the many combat arenas across the vast expanse of the training hall, commencing a series of duels. The winner was to remain in the arena while the loser would be replaced with another student.
STEP
Cæ took his place atop a random combat arena while his gaze shifted to his opponent.
She swept her long, flowing black hair behind her in a graceful motion as she smoothly drew the standard-issue wand from its holster in her combat attire. Her intense gaze remained focused on him as she studied him with an impassive expression.
Cæ had gotten better at detecting affluence from people's body language and demeanor, which was why he could tell immediately.
'She's from a wealthy family.'
Of course, in the nine months that he had been in the Elendir Institute of Magic, this was something he had grown entirely accustomed to, having been surrounded by them his entire time in the Institute.
Cæ drew his wand from his wand holster, pointing it at her.
STEP
The referee stepped in, directing a curt nod to both of them with a stern expression. "Reminder of the rules. No lethal attacks. Adhere to my instructions. Any hint of hostility will be met with a credit penalty and potentially worse. Step forward and state your names."
"Meilia Nelnmont."
Her tone was measured.
"Cæ."
"Then, as participants, do you consent to partake in a temporary magicapita handover for the precise duration of one hour to be automatically and absolutely guaranteed to return for the span of said duration, in accordance with the terms and conditions. registration contract?"
"Yes."
"Yes."
The man nodded, fiddling with a device in his hands. "Then, the temporary remittance has been completed.
Suddenly, both Cæ and Meilia felt a loss of mana in their cores.
And yet, neither side exhibited any reaction.
It was part of protocol.
Some students were far richer than others, possessing far greater magicapita, and thus mana, than other students. Melia Nelnmont, in particular, despite not being one of the thirteen great families of the Democratic Republic of Elendir, already had millions of leenars in her bank account even though she was only eighteen years old. She had estates, penthouses, magicars, and all manner of other magicapita in her name.
This lent her a tremendous amount of mana in her core that would allow her to cast far greater magic than someone like Cæ. Even though her magical power was limited by the mana-motive force that dictated how much of her vast mana core she could reserve, she would still have far greater stamina than Cæ.
The Elendir Institute of Magic was intended as a place to train magic, not flex wealth. Thus, a system was put in place to temporarily shift ownership of magicapita from the students to the magicademy for one hour so that battles could be fair for poorer students.
The referee stepped out of the magical circle and the combat arena as the students faced off against each other.
"And… begin!"
Meilia's eyes sharpened fiercely the very moment the battle commenced. A single-layered magic circle with several runes embedded within a triangle appeared before her.
Cæ's pupils dilated.
Time slowed down to a crawl in his vision.
He instantly read her magic circle and deciphered the kind of magic that she was casting even as he felt her mana converging with the eidos.
Triangles were meant for the Fundamental Forms of Manipulation.
Motion.
And there was only one possible target.
'Me.'
A magical circle appeared before him in the blink of an eye as he drew mana from his core with his mana-motive force to converge it with the eidos.
It formed a spell.
A spell defending himself.
VMMM…!
The clash of spells caused a burst of magical energy to emerge from him, manifesting in the form of sound and light in a colorful display that drew the eyes of the other students.
And yet, Cæ was unharmed.
"Great reactions, but your interference field needs to be constantly active!" Professor Lioxin scolded Cæ despite his successful defense. "You will not always be able to react in time in the real world. You will often be ambushed and caught off guard, causing your reflexes to be delayed. That's why you need to have a passive interference field constantly active in combat! Interference fields are the bread and butter of combat magic. Remember that!"
"Understood Professor." Cæ calmly accepted her criticisms and applied them immediately.
The air around him changed as he kept the interference field enveloping him and his immediate surroundings.
Interference fields were simply defenses against the most dangerous kinds of attacks that could not be actively defended against.
For example, what if someone used magic to make one's heart stop beating?
Or make one's body explode?
Or slit one's throat?
Or deprive one of air to breathe?
It wouldn't even be difficult.
Cæ himself had directly set people to fire and burned them to death even before he entered the magicademy, even if it was with his pure magic.
It was very easy, and it was a one-shot instant win.
There needed to be a solution to counter such broken instant win one-shots, or else mages would die left and right.
And thus, the interference field was born.
It essentially functioned by leveraging the principles of clashing magic.
When two magical spells of different eidos converged on the same target, they would clash, and the magical spell with more mana would win the duel, albeit weakened. This principle could be leveraged to defend one's self from broken one-shot wins by casting magic on one's self and one's immediate environment, causing it to clash with the opponent's magic.
Mana growing weaker the further it traveled meant that Cæ's spells would always win because he was obviously closer to himself than his opponent was. Thus, unless his opponent was overwhelmingly powerful, he would be able to prevent them from directly casting magic on his body.
This was why interference magic was considered the bread and butter of combat magic.
And yet, it only protected one from the most lethal spells that would instantly kill one. It did not protect one from attacks that were created from outside of his interference field and surged to strike him after they were created.
WHOOSH
She waved her wand at him, and another runic magical circle with an embedded pentagon emerged before her eyes.
Only for Cæ to read the spell in the blink of an eye.
'Conjuration. Light element.'
The tip of her wand shined brightly as a white beam of magical energy emerged from the wand, flying towards her opponent at tremendous speeds.
And yet, it never even reached him.
BOOM
The white beam of magical energy blasted into a barrier, haplessly dispelling against the material and real construct.
A barrier constructed from the very lands beneath their feet.
A spell that involved both the Fundamental Form of Change and Manipulation.
A bicircular spell.
Cæ's eyes intensified with determination.
"My turn."
FWOOSH
With a single wave of his wand, a conjuration magic circle appeared before him as he conjured spewing flames from the very tip of his wand, threatening to burn her where she stood.
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