The young man left the room and quietly closed the door behind him. His whole appearance suggested that he was busy with hard work. Sweat appeared on his forehead, a tired and indifferent face, a stoop in the shoulders and a downcast look. In addition, the aura visible to everyone present showed noticeable signs of approaching magical exhaustion. Then, as if remembering something, he tried to straighten up and looked at the people around him. "Next," he said and walked over to the other two magicians standing at a distance from the door.
"Well?" one of his few friends asked him.
- Top score. - He smiled wearily.
- Wow, congratulations, were the tasks difficult?
- thanks to luck, I got not too hard.
- Not hard for you or at all? I remember the last time you also said that your test version was simple, but no one who pulled it out after you never handed it over.
- Then you'd better pray, Uriel, that you'll answer something else. The theory was quite adequate, even too easy, but here is the practice… It's been a long time since I've been so tired.
Munith smiled again. Although he was almost overcome by magical exhaustion, the sorcerer was still very happy. It was still weakly manifested in his voice and behavior, but in his soul he was over the moon with happiness. It's not so much about successfully passing a particular exam, as it is about his magical talent. Right now, the wizard has received confirmation that he has every chance to become a great mage. Even if nothing works out for him with his own research, he will at least become an excellent fighter. And for a young man, it was critically important. Or, more precisely, not for him, but for his parents.
He was born into a poor family. But a poor family in the city and a poor family in the country are two fundamentally different things. And he was just a city man. Most likely, he was waiting for the same fate as his father, that is, a grueling job at some manufactory, if he had not discovered a magical talent. He studied so hard at school that he was able to get from his small town to one of the capital's schools. The best of the best got there. Or those who had a huge fortune. Unlike magic academies, which differed only in prestige and level of competition, schools provided fundamentally different levels of knowledge. There were not enough educated people to teach all children at the same level. And the children themselves were different. Someone quickly assimilated all the knowledge and demanded more, while others trudged at the end, barely avoiding deduction because of their intelligence, and sometimes simply because of laziness. So when entering the academy, Munith had a significant head start in front of most students, thanks to his school knowledge. The situation of the same Uriel, when he caught up with the knowledge of his biology teacher at the metropolitan school was simply impossible. And Munith at the same time became the best graduate of his year.
But all the time he was studying, he was dominated by the fact that he could turn out to be a bad magician. Magical talent did not overlap in any way with talent in teaching sciences. Although they overlapped in some ways, they were far from the same. He could have a weak aura, with which no success shines, he could not wake up his abilities, and finally, he could not cope with memorizing and creating spells. But now all these stages have been overcome. His own prospects seemed limitless. There were no longer any factors beyond his control on the way to becoming a strong wizard. And he will do everything in his power to realize this potential. After all, he worked primarily for his parents. They were not in danger of poverty even if he did not become a sorcerer, because he was already so educated that he could easily take a good position. But then they were threatened with an early death. Due to working in harmful industries for a long time, the father's health has already been undermined, and the mother has been sickly since childhood. Therefore, he remained the only child in the family. To cure them is not a problem, even for a first-year average student. But he wanted not only that, but also to prolong their lives as much as possible.
Wizards have lived longer than humans anyway. Not indefinitely, but theoretically up to several thousand years. Life mages could last up to five, six with some effort. Although among the sorcerers known to Munith from books, lectures and rumors living now, there was not a single one older than five hundred years, and then they were useless weak-willed, pathetic, low-ranked magicians. The fact is that magicians had a huge mortality rate. Wars were entirely on their shoulders, besides duels to the death were common. Experimental errors often led to the death of the researcher, and only sorcerers opposed world threats. What is worth only the murder of one of the strongest gods, which happened not so long ago. Only those who sat below the grass and did nothing but routine, shaking from every knock on their door, could become centenarians. So the oldest of the strong magicians lived up to two hundred, maybe three hundred years.
In addition, sorcerers had the opportunity to prolong the lives of other people. Not for long, for twenty or thirty years. But for Munith's parents, who could die in a dozen years, it was a huge time. Moreover, they did not live all their lives, but survived, engaged in the hardest work. As a loving son and a talented magician, he wanted to give them this time, and most importantly, the ability to fully control their fate. Even the simple possibility of not working will be a huge gift for them. But he was going to give them the opportunity not only to relax, but also to do whatever they wanted.
- So what are the questions?
- Personal and common spells, with examples and analytics, Guilford defense, Magnus attack.
- What a nonsense? Why did they put two of the most energy-intensive spells in one variant? Even if we do not make a single mistake, the reserve is not enough for everyone, and considering that we are not full-fledged magicians, but first-year students, then only a couple of people will cope here. - Uriel was surprised. With his abilities and reserve, he wasn't sure if he could activate even one of the spells, let alone two in a row. But the problem is also what exactly these spells are. These charms were not effective, but were dead-end branches of magic, respectively, the students paid much less attention to them than to other, more important issues. Not that to create - to remember their structure and the order of construction is already a feat.
The theoretical question of the difference between personal and general spells is very simple. To make a distinction, the first thing to understand is that completely different-looking charms can lead to the same effect. In a lecture on this topic, the following analogy was given: to create a fire, you can lay firewood in different ways, for example, with a hut or a well, and set them on fire in different ways: with the help of flint, wood friction or magic, but in the end you will still get fire. The flame will have different characteristics, burning brighter and faster or dimmer and longer, performing the desired function better or worse. But all the same, the fire will remain fire, that is, the difference is only in the characteristic, and not in essence. The same can be said about charms. One result can be achieved in an infinite number of ways.
Common spells were considered charms that are known to a wide range of people in one country or all over the world. At the same time, such spells were often the reference ones, that is, the most perfect among their other variations, because, since all magicians knew them, they also improved by common efforts. Common spells provided the best and most stable result at the lowest cost. There were no energy losses, unnecessary modules, unnecessarily long logical chains. But this is the main disadvantage of the common charms. They are completely unsuitable for fighting with other magicians. Every sorcerer is able to recognize them even at the stage of creation. And therefore come up with an appropriate answer. Personal spells were invented by each magician independently, on the basis of common ones, based on his abilities. Complicated and clumsy, containing gross errors and minor inaccuracies, they were used on all battlefields. Since only the creator knew the structure of the spell in advance, a potential opponent is not able to find out the effect of the spell, and therefore properly prepare. Consequently, he will be forced to analyze the weaving on the go or immediately abandon this idea and strengthen his defense. Just imagine the difference between them like this: a general spell is a straight line connecting two points, and a personal one is a tangle whose only task is to hide its true purpose.
This difference predetermined the scope of common and personal spells. Personal ones were used where common ones could not be used, that is, in combat with other magicians. Although there were exceptions here. For example, if one side is significantly superior to the other in strength, then there is no point in using personal charms if there is an opportunity to crush the enemy with the quality and quantity of common charms. In all other cases, that is, in everyday life, research, war with non-magicians, training, personal spells were used incredibly rarely. Thus, the exam required five general spells and for each of them to demonstrate personal analogues. The question is more than simple. But two practical tasks could have baffled many. First of all, because of the banal lack of energy.
Both weaves were invented at a time when it seemed that each type of magic should have one spell that is the most perfect and capable of replacing all the others. That is, only one spell for attack, one for defense, one healing, and so on. Huge teams of scientists have been working for decades to improve the theory in these areas. For example, first you need to determine on the basis of which charms to try to create perfection, so as not to waste years of research in vain. It is necessary to choose the right approach and only then try to develop it to its logical conclusion. Guildford's defense is the limit to the development of perfect defensive charms. Nevertheless, the spell was not used anywhere, and only the most meticulous students paid attention to it. Its undoubted advantage was absolute protection, both from hacking and from direct attacks. This property was the reason for choosing a spell for further improvement. However, the fatal flaws of the charms could not be corrected even after decades of research. Firstly, the spell was wasting incredible amounts of energy. It was assumed that this would be corrected over time, and at first there were really changes for the better, but then scientists were faced with the fact that there was nothing to improve, all changes lead to the worst, and energy consumption remained at a consistently high level. If this were the only problem, then Guildford's Protection, although not universally applied, would definitely remain extremely useful in certain situations. But there was also, secondly. If you attack the shield with an extremely weak, on the verge of disappearing, light magic spell, then the analytical module of the defensive spell will begin to recognize all light as an attack, and, consequently, the magician will remain in complete darkness, without information about the world. The same can be done with air magic, which means that the defender will be forced to either remove the protection, or additionally spend mana on creating air inside the dome. So there were no people willing to create problems for themselves using such an impractical spell in battle.
With Magnus' attack, in general, there was the same problem – a huge energy consumption with a not so impressive effect. Weave was theoretically capable of destroying any defense, but it took a long time from three to ten minutes to achieve the result. Here again, there would be no problems, if not one "but". The enchantments were very unstable due to their special structure and the too much mana contained in them. It turned out that the enemy could destroy the spell in a few seconds, which took long minutes to work.
- Well, William would have done it for sure. Maybe even Kaisa or Eldis.
- Yes, Kaisa will definitely cope. And in general, she is good, of course. In every sense of the word. - Uriel, smiling, depicted with his hands exactly in what senses she is good. - An aristocrat, an excellent student, and what an impressive aura.
- Are you laughing? I have never seen a more hot-tempered and arrogant person in my life. Everyone likes her from afar, but you will get to know her better and learn a lot of new things. And not only about Kaisa, but also about yourself. Of the three of us, only William will be able to communicate with her on an equal footing. - Munith shivered. He had known this girl for a long time. After all, they studied at the same school and always competed for the first places in the ranking of students. He deservedly considered himself better than her in studies due to the fact that the girl began to receive education from the most expensive tutors at a time when he not only could not read, but did not hope to learn someday. In addition, at school, a commoner could not hope for someone's help and always coped with everything on his own. His rival had the support of her own family, and a much better attitude of teachers. Even with such a difference in starting conditions, the magician was more often ahead. On the other hand, he understood that he spent one hundred percent of his time on his school education. And Kaisa, born into a family of the highest aristocracy, understood such matters that he had never heard of. From culture and art to politics and economics. While also attending endless balls, receptions and salons. So if the girl's attention would not be directed in all directions at once, but focused only on studying, then the result could be completely different.
By itself, this situation did not cause any hostility from Munith. The spirit of rivalry between them, from his point of view, on the contrary, could bring them closer, not separate them. But fortunately or not, no friendship turned out. Strictly speaking, they never started personal communication. In elementary school, he himself was shy of any communication with everyone who stood above him on the social ladder. And besides, Kaisa had her own circle of aristocratic friends, who, although they did not show dislike in his direction, were in no hurry to let him into their group. This happened due to the fact that in schools children still paid attention to each other's position in society. In them, unlike academies, everyone studied. Only if potential magicians did it on a mandatory basis and for free, then all the others paid and they studied on their own will. Because of this, there were barely a third of commoners in schools, and the rest of the places were occupied by nobles and children of the rich. But already in the academy, commoners made up about eighty percent of the students. And if it was no longer customary at the academy to group according to social status, then this was exactly what happened in schools.
Again, if their acquaintance had been limited only to this, then he would have had absolutely no opinion about Kaisa. Well, she or her friends don't want to communicate with him. Perhaps it was a little insulting, but nothing critical, and the magician certainly would not have spoken so badly about her in front of friends. But in high school, his opinion changed. He realized that the girl had no friends at all. She was surrounded exclusively by sycophants, and because of their age, that is, lack of professionalism, this very sycophancy was visible from afar. Since a commoner who was not experienced in such matters saw it, then she definitely sees it. Actually, it was precisely in relation to her improvised retinue that she showed the aforementioned negative qualities of her character. More precisely, not to the entire retinue, but to its individual representatives. Based on rumors, Munith suggested that she tried not to cross the road to the nobility of her level, even if they behaved much worse than their less noble friends. Such hypocrisy did not cause other students to want to communicate with the girl, and she remained alone with the flatterers until graduation. Since there was not a single good person around her, it is easy to draw a conclusion about herself.
- No, of the three of us, on the contrary, I have the least chances. - William, who had not taken part in the conversation before, replied. He was considered the best student of the course and saw no point in discussing the exam, which he himself had passed with honors half an hour ago. His only competitors were the two girls already mentioned and Munith. – You just don't understand the current political situation. It's a long story, but in short, our families are from completely different coalitions, and do not quarrel solely because my family is much less influential and rich than hers. Among all magicians in general, Kaisa seems to be, although not from the most noble house, but definitely from the most influential. So it's you, Munit, who has the best chance. Uriel is too bad at studying to interest a bird of such flight. And I will have to give up my last name, which is impossible for obvious reasons.
- Why am I so bad right away? The one who is at the end of the ratings is bad, and I am the golden mean!
- Go already, the "mean", your turn has come there. - William chuckled.
- Then wish me luck, or something. - Uriel detached himself from the wall, which had previously stoically held his trembling figure in an upright position, giving him a sense of calm. He could get even more peace of mind in the corner, since the number of support points increased in this case, but unfortunately there were no corners nearby. On shaky legs, the magician headed for the office.
- Good luck there!
- Hold on, friend! If you don't remember, try to improvise, maybe you'll get lucky.
- Thank you, I will. - Uriel opened the door and stepped into the unknown.