…
Queaz continued talking with 'someone' through Contact skill. After some time, he ends the call, "Hm. Hm. I solicit you. Later."
End Contact.
"So? How's ze negotiation's runnin'?" Zeugen asked in a casual demeanor. "Pretty normal, I'd say. Besides, it's not your business, anyway." Queaz replied coldly. "Ayy… come on, now, Herr Queaz." Zeugen tried being persuasive to him, but Queaz remains unchanged. He shall never disclose what he's discussing.
"I think I'll be going back to the island now. You can go, Zeugen," Queaz evicts the dragon man casually.
"Geeeeehhhhh... how unexciting, fine, I shalt leave, then," so said Zeugen dully, shortly, his body glows up, his humanoid stature fades into the shining light.
He transformed back into a green-colored dragon that has wide wings with three laterals. Each has the following color; Red, Green, and Blue. Its tail has a spikey surface that has a color hue like the laterals. Its eyes' pupil are colored in green while its sclera in gold. The dragon also has a small pair of wings fixed on its sideburns. Its head has a sharp fontanel interconnected with a pair of horns.
His voice changes into low bass in-depth voice, "Farewell for now... Herr Queaz."
Zeugen flew into the sky and thus he activated a large magic circle and disappeared instantly. Queaz simply dismissed him and continued paddling his boat ashore.
…one day later, four days before the test.
Marco, Aily, Nina, and Scias are training together. Marco focused mainly on helping Aily honing her mana circuit, thus the effects from the elixir previously slowly wears off Aily's body. And with that, she'll be able to cast her element with ease. Nina and Scias together try to create a combo attack with their element; wind and fire.
"R-Ready, Nina?" Scias asked stiffly.
"You bet I am," Nina shone her readiness.
Together, the two began chanting. Their mana energy creates an immersive light that represents the color of their element. Shortly, the light takes shape of their element and swings around their body in a fast but steady speed.
"Twin Magic—ah!" Nina stopped her chant immediately after a small electrocution hit startled her wrists. It is the sign that their magic did not properly synchronize.
"Scias, seriously?" she frowned.
"O-Oh... s-sorry," Scias replied with apology.
"I thought fire elementalist like you can easily fuse yours and mine element… turns out it was harder than I thought, huh?" said Nina a bit disappointedly.
"Don't give high expectations… you'll regret it," Scias conveyed surely. "How couldn't I? I mean, I did several times doing the twin magic attack with another fire elementalist, you know?" Nina complained.
"Then it's just the matter of m-my element… that being weak and all, heh…" Scias slightly chuckled. However the tone of his short laugh represents greatly of a disappointment.
Nina grabbed Scias' hand, "Scias, don't make a fool out of your own skill, okay?" she smiled. "If we train quite hard, I'm confident we'll reach greater heights!" she cheered positively. "Have confidence in your element, Scias!" she added boldly.
"…uh," Scias nodded and slightly smiled. And so, their training continued on till evening.
Three days later, one day before the test.
Their training finally resulted in a significant change. Aily got recovered from the elixirs' explosive side effect and managed to cast Level 3 wind magic stably. Marco made an innovation to his lightning magic to serve greater purpose and he learned on how to switch between guns and swords in a right timing during fight. Scias and Nina decided to discontinue their Twin Magic attack and trained each on their own. Scias reached Level 3 Fire while Nina reached Level 4 Healing because she casted healing magic multiple times during the two month training period.
"And with that, aren't we all ready for the test tomorrow?" said Marco with a flying smile.
"Hm! I'm more than just ready," said Aily merrily. "But, um… I kinda felt nervous if I have to cast magic in front of many people, ehehe…" Aily giggled adorably.
"Don't worry," said Marco assuring, "You'll show an epic performance there!" he added zestfully.
"Eh…? I don't know…" said Aily as she felt nervous. "Just you wait, everyone will clap their hands joyfully," Marco replied reassuring.
"Marco's right, Aily," Nina joined in. "As I said before, have faith in yourself. You can do it!" Nina cheered her sister smilingly.
"U-Uh…" Scias mumbled to himself. He felt he did has some faith in himself, but somehow unable to synchronize his element with Nina's. He grunted silently and literally joined their conversation and acted like a lone tower.
The next day...
The sun has risen over the horizon, everyone is gathering at the town square. The 'king' is bound to give an opening speech.
"My fellow Aredanians… I thank you all to attend here in our town square. As usual, every year we always hold this event, and today is the day where we shall test everyone's mana energy by using the elemental or any sort of magic spells,"
The 'king' then commemorates everyone about the founder of this island.
"We are bestowed upon the greatest luck ever existed. Our first king has built a wonderful community that still holds for over 950 years long!" said the 'king' boldly. "He is… the first lord of Areda, Areda Istinggar!"
"All hail Areda!"
"All hail Areda! Founder of Areda Island!"
"Glory for all Aredanians!"
Everyone cheered patriotically. Marco, Scias, Nina and Aily watched in the distance not far from the crowd. Marco thoughts, "Yes, the founder of this island has the same clan name as mine: Istinggar. And yes, this island was named after him…"
The king proceeds with his speech, "Not to forget about our fallen legendary hero, who sacrificed his life for the sake of our peaceful community..."
Everyone continued cheering. "This is... a bit unnerving for me," said Marco in discomfort.
He then stepped back a little, but stopped by Scias' arm. He shakes his head, denying him from going anywhere. Scias can always understand his friend's situation. He always comforted him when his friend felt troubled. Aily cheered him up, too together with Nina.
Without Marco noticing, the speech has ended. The 'king' then casts a large magic circle beneath him and summoned a large ornamented stone pillar. "That pillar shall be the measurer of our level and mana energy. How much have we improved thus far, will be determined by that object," so said Marco in his mind as he saw the pillar rising.
"And so... the test... has officially begun!" The king opened the event followed by everyone clapping and cheered in tremendous happiness.
The pillar spreads out an altar-like stage for the elementalists to step on and cast their spells. One by one, they casted their most efficient elemental magic spells. Some determined as leveled up and some stayed at the same level.
Here comes Scias. "H-Here I go..." he said softly.
Scias closed his eyes while simultaneously chanting his strongest-yet fire magic. He opened his eyes to the pillar and casted out his spell by slamming his hands to the ground.
"Ascending Fireblaze!"
A flock of flame emerged around the pillar. The pillar's color shifts into the flame's color: bright red, while the flame rises from the bottom, engulfing the entire pillar. Finally, the flame combusted and caused a brief heat wave surrounding the pillar.
Everyone was captivated by his spell and even called it a flamboyant magic spell.
"Good show, sir. Scias Trophe, Level 3 Fire," said the committee congratulating him.
"Hoho… that tall guy can actually pull some dazzling show, huh?" Queaz muttered in impression silently. He watches among the crowd, the night sky made him looked blended in perfectly.
Aily comes next. She brought her scepter along, which is necessary for her to cast magic stably.
"Wish me luck, everyone!" said Aily as she steps up the stage.
"You can do it, young lady!"
"You can pull an elegant wind, Aily!"
"Try and beat your sister's rank!"
Aily felt stabbed by that last word, "Urghhh… I'm no better than my sister, you know…" she mumbled.
As she holds her ground on the stage, Aily then holds her scepter in front of her. She envisages the flow of the wind alongside the strength of an entity. In a moment, her eyes is dazzled with a glowing green flash for a moment, she dashed a bit upfront to the pillar and aimed her scepter at it and casted.
Windblade Cutters!
A green magic circle appeared, followed by four thin-circular cutters appeared before her, they boost and plunge themselves at the pillar twice at a time. The cut damage leaves a green glow on the pillar.
A moment later, she spinned her scepter twice and casted out her second spell.
"Ironclad!"
Four green magical diamonds appeared around the pillar followed by a glimmering green light coming from the diamonds and lastly, they unleashed a refraction of laser as thin as a yarn to one another. The pillar then showed the mana circuit that flowed within it that came from Aily.
"Aily Meridia, Level 3 Wind. And also, Level 4, Support Magic. Well done," said the committee.
"That little brat, huh…? I thought she's just a big-mouthed kid. Quite the surprise to see her able to cast innovative spell like that…" so said Queaz slightly impressed. His voice cannot be heard inside the cacophony of shouting people.
Aily felt glad after successfully doing the magic. She then looked at Marco, who showed his thumbs at her while smiling.
And the next one is Nina. She walks coolly as she goes up the stage. From the corners of the stage, everyone cherishes her name loudly:
"Wooooaaaaaah! It's the mighty healer!" a random guy shouted.
"WWWOOOOOAAAAAAAAHHHH!!! WE LOVE YOU, MISS NINA!" Many people, mostly men screamed at her excitedly. Nina smiled back at them and waved her hand at them… which further ignites their excitement.
"'Tch! How disgusting," said Aily unhappily as she stepped down from the stage, her aggravation is overly exaggerated.
On the stage, Nina stanced readily, posing like a true mage, she held her cane on her right hand while the other stretched out to the pillar.
"Typhoon!"
A medium tornado encaged the pillar in the swirling high pressure wind. Everything around the pillar was shaken up but was protected by the pillar's magic barrier. The pillar responded by showing a bright green light which caused the typhoon to stop instantly.
Nina spins around her cane and catches it with her left hand and swings it forth, casting her second magic spell.
"Restoration!"
A gust of luminescent light appeared around the pillar, giving it a soothing warm touch. It responded by giving a bright white flash, slowly faded in and out.
"Impressive show, Miss Nina! Level 3, Wind Element. Level 4 Healing Magic!"
"WWWOOOOOAAAAH! AWESOME! SUPER! AMAZING!!!" The crowd shouted. Even the soldiers shouted greatly.
"Hoh… so she holds a rare magic of healing, huh…? That's pretty nifty, I'd say…" Queaz commented again in his heart.
And the next one is Marco.
"Hehe, my turn," said Marco. He stepped onto the stage and clapped hands with Nina. "You can do better than me, Marco," Nina assured him.
"Hm! Leave it to me" Marco said in a much more assuring way.
"Phew, it's been a year since we didn't see each other, eh? Mr. Stonehenge?" said Marco to the pillar funnily. "Well, you'd better get ready, cause I'm 'bout to give you a new strike!"
He clapped his hands together and swung it around twice. It caused his arms to charged up with thunder jolts.
"Shocker Hands!"
He focused the electricity onto his hands and aimed forth at the pillar. "Mr. Stonehenge, take this!"
"Stormfall!"
One big yellow magic circle appeared in front of his thunderous hands followed with a huge flash. A large energy of thunderbolt is picking up on his arms. Marco calmed himself and discharged the large energy at the pillar. A large golden thunderbolt jolted the pillar, making both huge flash and deafening noise. The end of the flash caused a medium explosion that caused a cloud to appear and blasted another thunderbolt at the pillar.
The pillar responded by making a shining thunder up high into the sky, sending all of the electricity onto the air and all the way back to the ground.
"Whoa..." said everyone in complete amazement.
"Hoh… 'Stormfall'? Never heard that magic before… is that a new spell...? Boy that kid has some nifty strength with him… it appears that his affinity to lightning is infinite, huh?" said Queaz as he analyzed Marco's newly-learned magic.
"Well done. Marco Istinggar, Level 3 Lightning," said the committee.
"Huh? 'Istinggar'?" Queaz glanced quickly at Marco with focus.
"Oh, sir, are you next? Please step up the stage," said one of the townsfolk. "Hm? Oh, nope. I'm no elementalist," said Queaz coldly.
"E-Eh? Ah! I see, a tourist? Yeah! You must be a tourist here. A pretty sight to see, is it not?" The other man beside him stated. Shortly, these townsfolk began talking to each other. Queaz didn't bother hearing their conversation as he believed it'll be irritating to hear.
After a few while, Queaz literally got irritated at last by the clattering voices around him, despite his effort to neglect them.
"Hoh... pardon me, I want to go to err—restroom," he said.
"Oh, yes, sure, go ahead," said one of the townsfolk while moving aside.
Queaz walked away from the crowd, leaving Marco's party from his sight.
"That boy's name... is 'Istinggar'? I thought Ghosty told me that the Istinggar folks don't exist anymore... it seems the intel was off, huh?" Queaz fixed his hat a bit.
"This is getting a bit interesting all of sudden. A new insight to take on... but... there's something else that matters first..." said Queaz as he walked down the street.
Queaz then went to the mountain for a small walk, but he actually wanted to do something else. He stared up high. In the sky, he saw a large flare shell launched sky high as it shines brightly. He put his hands in his suit pockets and returned back down...
"…it appears… Zeugen was correct." He ended his sentence and fades away... again.