The boy finally stopped playing and opened his eyes, making a small bow towards the camera. He descended from the arena, and a ripple of murmurs broke out across the realm. That had been a flagrant robbery, hadn't it?
At that moment, the narrator appeared with a smile and said: "I know that many are curious and thinking that this was a scam, but let's demonstrate what happened. What happened is this..." Draven's image was paused and then overlaid with another video of Draven.
"We'll be back tomorrow everyone. Thanks for watching." With a smile that made it clear he knew exactly what he was doing, the presenter ended the program.
As the screen cut to black, the children at the orphanage erupted in conversation about what happened. Was it a robbery? Why did they stop like that? But one thing was clear to them: tomorrow was a day when everyone should be present.
"I don't know what happened," Heimer muttered. If not even the number one genius at the orphanage knew, imagine the other people.
"You still can't see it, but tomorrow they will demonstrate the mana flow of the battle. It will become clearer for you", the old man explained as he left the place.
Kayden didn't say anything and just retreated to his room. He was also curious to know what happened, but more importantly, was for him to assimilate his progress from the day before.
The next day, Kayden started the day with his exercise routine and a good breakfast. At the same time as the previous day, the same set was set up, and Kayden was sitting again in the same position.
Once the correct time arrived, the narrator returned: "Sorry for the suspense, guys. I'm still learning how to use these technologies." It was obvious that this was intentional, but the narrator knew how to hold the audience's attention.
"Let's get started then." As soon as he said that, the scene from the day before was replayed. "Many couldn't see it, but let's highlight the battle mana flow now."
The battle resumed, and for every note Beethoven played, a small transparent string was released from his violin. At first, there were few, but over time, they became dozens.
By the time the knight approached the violinist, there were hundreds of strings in the air. With each step the knight took, more threads joined his body. When the man leaped with the axe, the threads wrapped around every inch of his body.
"Now you could see what happened," Draven chirped in the paused video. "If the knight had taken one more step, he would have been turned into a lump of meat. And luckily for everyone, Beethoven's hearing has returned."
Then several other battles were shown, but none were as impressive as this one. Others also did the same as the violinist, but none managed to deliver such a shocking performance.
Kayden took every minute of the video to learn how the fighters fought, what strategies the geniuses used and other information he could absorb. His conception of the world was rapidly expanding. He didn't even know that apprentice wizards could exert so much strength, nor that swordsmen could be so fast. It was really impressive for him.
The recording lasted another 4 hours and featured about 40 fights, something around one every 5 minutes. By late afternoon, Kayden was reflecting on everything he saw. Many things didn't make sense to him. How did the candidate cast two spells at the same time? How did he move so fast? And questions like that.
With that in mind, he went to the old man's office. He knocked on the door and entered when the old man called him. The place was still the same, with hundreds of books and a study atmosphere.
"Dad, I have some questions about today's battles," Kayden said.
"Sit here", the old man offered the same tea as usual. "I could spend hours explaining what each person did there, but most things are just the basics honed to an excellent level."
The old man seemed lost in thought as he remembered the recording.
"Only one fight was impressive, that of the violinist. He was able to generate a trickle of mana with no element and with energy cost so low that not even a peak ninth rank was able to feel it."
"How did he do it?" Kayden was curious. It was the first time he had seen the old man so amazed by something.
"I don't know," the old man chuckled to himself. "That's the purpose of the test, to find true geniuses, people who are willing to find new avenues of power."
Kayden had a small epiphany over this conversation.
"Genies don't have an increase in the amount of mana or the speed of progress, do they? It's actually about quality," the boy expressed his thoughts.
"Yes," the old man sighed. "It's very easy for a kingdom to cultivate talent to the top, but then what? That's the question. The government is looking for people capable of going beyond the top." This confirmed Kayden's suspicions.
"What level is Beethoven on, Dad?" Right now, that person was the biggest reference Kayden had ever encountered.
"I can't say. It's been a long time since I stopped keeping track of these things", the old man stopped to think for a while. "But I can say with certainty that the boy's mana manipulation talent is at the final levels of the mage realm."
Kayden finally understood that the two were on completely different levels.
, but that was temporary.
'I will catch up and surpass him in 7 years', the boy promised himself and returned to training with rekindled determination.
Two days later, Kayden was finally back in the classroom. He hadn't been there for over a year. The boy was eager to learn as much as possible. The day before, the show had talked about secondary occupations like blacksmiths and alchemists.
This time, Kayden wasted no time watching. It didn't interest him in the least. Instead, he focused this time on fully assimilating his breakthrough. He had managed to completely stabilize himself on the second level.
In the same room, there were several groups of students talking around. His return caused some surprise but was soon forgotten. After all, the boy was seen as a failure, someone who did not deserve attention.
After a few minutes, the teacher came through the door. She was the same person she'd been since Kayden's first day, a small, chubby lady, almost like the teacher in a teen movie. She walked to the board and wrote the words: "Specializations."
"Good morning, students. As we spoke at the beginning of the year..." At that moment, she noticed Kayden. "Oh Kayden, I didn't know you were back. You're welcome, kid. Class, I'll explain to Kayden what we're discussing. Give me 5 minutes."
The teacher called the boy out of the room for a moment. If there was one thing Kayden had to admit, it was that the government did a good job with children's education. It was apparent that educators were instructed to allow all children to develop to their greatest potential, and even those with less talent should be treated equally.
"You've been gone a long time, haven't you, little one?" the teacher said friendly. "Well, what we're learning about is the magical specialization. At the beginning of the year, I asked the students to pick one or two elements that they liked the most."
She began demonstrating various elements and their basic representations.
AN:thanks Saksham_Tomar_3960 and ISEKAI_Fan for the stones