The Little Tora pendant was similar to the Little loach pendant of Mo Fan's, the only difference being that it represent a different Sacred Totem Leader, The White tiger.
With the assistance of Little Tora pendant Cao Guang's cultivation has indeed skyrocked this past six months. He could cast the primary Summoning spell before but now he wasn't far from the primary Fire spell.
However Cao Guang was not happy, he had yet to find a suitable Summoned beast that he could transform into his contract beast. So he wondered if he should settle for a Spirit Wolf.
However, Summoning was his primary element so he could not be nonchalant with it like Mo Fan was. In the end he decided to make that Spirit Wolf his summoned beast and conclude a contract with it.
Gao Xuan however during this period had fully learned to cast primary Earth spell: Earth wave.
This made Cao Guang reconsider his original plan and he decided to graduate early as long as he could he cast the Fire Burst spell.
"Fire Burst" said Cao Guang as a stream of red flames hit the ground and burned for some time before fading away.
"I should graduate now and join up with Zhan Kong".
From the beginning Cao Guang had been in a sense of panic and wanted to promote as fast as he could.
Salan would unleash the calamity on Bo City in ten years. And on Ancient capital a year later. He had decided to use the trap set by the Prophet to deal with Salan, since he knew her alias at that time.
However, for good measure and credibility, he knew that he had to be atleast a Super Mage by that point. Which would need him to keep up with a freak like Mo Fan.
But he could not use up every source of Underground Holy Spring without affecting the timeline too much. For this reason he had measure himself and even find new avenues of energy for the Little Tora pendant.
He also did not want to give up on the Parthenon blessing spell and he needed the help of Flame Belle for this. While also ensuring Mo Fan still would get one.
He had to progress and ensure the protagonist's progress did not get derailed, how annoying was that. Either way he had to join the army and make connections.
"Let's go to army outpost" said Cao Guang to his brother.
" Are we graduating already"
"We will see how it goes"
Neither Cao Guang or Gao Xuan had shown of their talent yet. So they had to make an impression on Zhan Kong, if he wanted to execute his plan.
Bo City was only a tier two city but it was the among the furthest human settlement on the south side of Nanshan Mountains. The many different magic wolf species predominantly occupied the areas beyond Bo City.
The military outpost here was only responsible for small scale reconnaissance missions as the danger level evaluation of the wolf species was low right now.
The danger level of most species of demon beasts would change and had to be culled or managed depending on the strength of the specie.
The wolf species leader was a Ruler level Patterned Monarch Wolf. Normally a horde led by a ruler would be kept at bay by an army led by a Super mage. However, the wolf species weren't in a state to attemp an invasion into human territories.
They weren't like the White Magic Falcon horde led by the Silver Skyruler who had managed to win a decisive victory over their natural enemies.
The wolf horde had their own enemies to manage as well a much lower population. Of course Salan would flip everything on its head in a decade, but for now the horde was manageable and only reconnaissance and threat assessment missions were being done for now.
The military outpost in Bo City spanned the whole of the mountain just outside Bo City. It did however possess the large impressive structures and facilities of the higher ranked Military stations.
The duo had made past the guards on duty and received the forms necessary to join.
"We would like to take the Special assessment " said Cao Guang as he handed the forms back to the clerk at the office.
Most institutions hired people who were not mages to do handle a significant portion of the workload. The benefits were obvious ofcourse, Firstly letting mages do office works unless it involved decision makinng was an inefficient use of available mages.
There were only so many mages. The non mages outnumbered mages probably a hundred times at least. Letting these people have no work or jobs would cripple the economy.
"The commander handles special assessments personally here. Lucky for you guys he is available right now" said the guy while giving them directions to a training area.
They made their way to rather expansive indoor training site. The room was atleast a fifty meters in size. They waited for atleast 15 before the door was opened.
Zhan Kong made his way in to the training room. He was wearing his commander's outfit but looked remarkably younger than Cao Guang knew him. He had deep set eyes but lacked his signature side burns form the future.
" I assume the two of you are here to demonstrate your innate talents"
A pair sixteen year old primary mages asking for special assessment indicated Innate talents to he did not think that they would take a combat assessment.
Almost always no Primary Mage would be allowed to leave the bounds of City. The reasons were straight forward they lacked the strength or experience to survive in the wilderness. They also only had a single element and had very little mana.
"Yes sir" said while composing themselves in army posture.
"Gao Xuan you first" said the commander.
Gao Xuan took his place a faced away from the commander while activating his primary spell.
"Earth Wave" said Gao Xuan loudly before riding on the wave of earth and moving forward. His control of the movement was non existent compared to an expert and he only travelled in a straight line but it was significantly faster than any first-tier Primary spell.
"Impressive" said Zhan Kong while nodding at Gao Xuan " but which one is it the embryonic form of a Soul seed or a multiplier?".
Among Innate talents multiplier talents were common however Innate Soul seeds were high end among talents. However, Soul grade seeds would not be awakened directly but in stages so they had to measured to confirm.
"Step in front of these speed gates and perform it again" said Zhan Kong.
Gao Xuan did as he was told and he looked at the commander who was laughing boisterously looking at the display that said 1.5 .
Values between 1 and 1.2 indicated a multiplier talent. Values between 1.2 and 1.5 indicated Innate spirit grade seeds and higher than that indicated an Innate Soul grade seed.
This was the same amount of talent displayed by Mu Ningxue if you took her Contract of Ice bow out of the equation. Why wouldn't Zhan Kong be happy to receive such a talent.
"You're up next Cao Guang" said an ecstatic Zhan Kong.
Gao Xuan had exceeded his expectations by a mile and the commander was already on cloud nine.
"Mine is a summoning talent"
" Is it tangible" asked Zhan Kong while furrowing his brows.
"One effect of it is" said Cao Guang while activating the primary spell of Summoning.
Tangible talents could be verified with experience or instruments, but intangible talents were. Cao Guang would have double the amount of contract slots as a normal mage. But this only be unlocked if he reached the intermediate level atleast. Other than that he could bring a creature from the Summoning plane to the real world permanently by using a contract slot, but he faced the same problem that he had no contract slot right now.
So he was left with only one option demonstrate that he conclude a contract with a demon beast of the same level without fail.
For this reason Cao Guang avoided any contact with the Spirit Wolf so far.
There was another way to verify innate talents, a psychic mage had to question using spells. But such an approach could be harmful and invasive. It was reserved for the worst of criminals.
"You're going to conclude a contract right now?" exclaimed Zhan Kong with shock as he observed Cao Guang's avatar approach the Summoning plane through the spell.
A Summoner had to use his avatar and scour the Summoning plane and make contact with a demon beast of their choice and use many factors like emotion, benefits or even force to make a contract. They could also use consumable magic items to increase their odds and such, yet Cao Guang was going unprepared and head first.
Cao Guang avatar forcefully concluded a contract with a startled Spirit Wolf in front an astonished commander.
The Spirit Wolf appeared in the real world with obvious displeasure and anger.
"Awoo"
Zhan Kong sprang into action action and released his aura to suppress the beast.