The bovine thought about the mysterious aura Zheng exuded before he defeated the Redback-Hyena. The aura sent chills down the bovine's spine.
'He is a mysterious man,' the Dream Bison mused.
The black bovine said, 'To be honest, I didn't expect much from you. When you came with your father earlier, I perceived you as a dummy. I doubt you will ever become strong enough to be revered.'
The Dream Bison was trying to get on the prince's nerve, and it worked.
Zheng angrily said, "F*cking you is a stupid bull."
The bison laughed as it shook its head. It corrected Zheng, saying,
'The right sentence is, 'You are a f*cking stupid bull.' And if you wondered how I knew this, it was your father who taught me. He said he learned it from a guy named Muller.'
Zheng got to his feet. He was angry with the bull. He had thought that the bull had repented of being an annoying fat prick but now, he thought otherwise. He said to the bull,
"It has been proven that the world is spherical. This means that things go around. One day, it will be your turn to be weak, and I will be strong. But when I'm strong, I will show you how to be a nice creature."
'I look forward to that day, young dragon.'
Both the man and the bovine stared at each other for a while before the bovine broke the silence, saying,
'I hope you remember that you haven't finished some things you wanted to do.'
The bovine turned its back on the prince and laid down. Zheng was angry that the beast turned its back on him because he thought it was rude. Like before, he maintained his calm composure while putting on a resting b*tch face.
Zheng continued to read.
"The next test is to check your stamina stat. For this stat, you will need a spell that will tell the orb what stat to look out for. After casting the spell, you will press your hands on the orb from opposite directions for five minutes.
"You complete the test when your hands are repelled off the orb before or on the five-minute mark. You also complete the test when you hold until after the five-minute mark.
"The spell to be used is: VAH-VAH-TO STAMINA. The orb glows golden, and you begin the test.
"The stamina stat, like the intelligence stat, has grades. But unlike the intelligence stat, it doesn't use an orb glow for measurement. Instead, it uses numbers.
"100 to 5 stamina points is grade white, the weakest grade.
"300 to 101 stamina points is grade brown.
"500 to 301 stamina points is grade blue.
"850 to 501 stamina points is grade black.
"1000 to 851 stamina points is grade red, the highest grade.
"It is to be noted that not more than ten mages across the continent can boast of having stamina beyond the grade blue rank. Beast tamers are included. Even dark mages can't boast of that. Any mage with stamina beyond the blue grade, in my opinion, would literally be invincible.
"The difference between a mage with 301 stamina points and one with 300 stamina points is greater.
"The mage with 301 stamina points can sustain many more spells than the other with 300 points.
"With this knowledge, you can string out how the intelligence stat and the stamina stat depend on each other.'
A person might have a high intelligence stat hence have the potential to learn a lot. But if this person has low stamina, the brain cannot endure the learning process or even retain learned knowledge for a long period of time.
The reverse is that the person can endure the learning process and retain learned knowledge, but due to their low intelligence stat, they cannot learn much.
"Mages of different power levels commonly have grade-white stamina. This stat is what keeps our world from being overrun by the selfishness of mages. They don't have the stamina to pose as threats for long."
Zheng's mind rested on the fact that he wouldn't disappoint himself in this stat test. He returned the intelligence stat orb to this ring and took out another unused orb. He placed his hand on the orb in the opposite direction.
"Vah-Vah-to stamina," Zheng calmly said.
The orb glowed golden, and he instinctively applied pressure to the ball with both hands. Apart from the normal reactive force of the orb, another reactive force aroused by the spell was repelling Zheng's hands away from the orb's surface. The prince battled to stay with the orb.
Zheng remembered that he had no way of timing himself. He gritted his teeth and said, "I'm really dumb."
'Don't worry about that. I'm a good timekeeper,' the Dream Bison said.
"AHrgh!" Zheng yelled in anger as the orb repelled off his hands and fell to the ground. He was angry because he knew that he was still some time away from the five-minute mark.
'Three minutes. Pathetic," the Dream Bison said with faked spite.
The bovine's words made Zheng angrier, but he couldn't unleash his wrath on the beast. He was also angry that the beast didn't bother to spare him a look. He forced his mind off thinking about the bovine and focused on his test.
23 stamina points was what the orb on the ground currently displayed.
Zheng thought loudly, "23? Is that high or low?"
The Dream Bison said, 'Not bad; I once knew a mage who ruled a city with this amount of stamina points. But you can never be as great as her.'
"I'm not competing with anyone."
'Oh my, don't think like that. You are competing with a lot of people. I'm very sure that there are a few people out there who know about your family's secret.'
Zheng said in dismay, "Why would my father tell you our secret?"
'Because I'm a good friend. That is why he entrusted you to me.'
Brief silence.
'Like I said, you are competing with a lot of people for the throne. Mess up your chance, and they will have their opportunity. Don't think that they don't have a way to solve your family's secret.'