Finn watched as Anatalia's got in her battle stance. He planned to take this opportunity to see how humans and demi-humans fought, take some notes and implement it into his own techniques.
For this test, Nagic fought with bare hands while Anatalia used daggers.
"Start," Nagic declared with a devious smile.
The fight kicked off and Anatalia casted a spell, launching three firebirds at Nagic.
Nagic moved around to dodge as well as using his own wind spell to block one of them.
But the fire birds were a diversion to give Anatalia a chance to close up.
She assaulted Nagic with her daggers, directly aiming for his weak points even though it was a test. Nagic didn't complain, only using his palms to divert the path of Anatalia daggers.
While Anatalia was assaulting him, she used her mana and an incantation to form 5 magic circles around herself. As she activated the magic circles, she immediately retreated to not get caught in the fire ball she indiscriminately launched at Nagic.
Instead of also retreating to create distance from the large fireballs, Nagic created green magic circles that surrounded him.
The magic circles released a gust of winds that were able to reduce the size of the fireballs, giving Nagic an opportunity to easily dodge them.
Watching this, Finn commented, 'Is that how to really use magic? Those circles…' It only got more impressive to him from there.
After Anatalia saw the way Nagic reacted to her fire balls, she immediately muttered an incantation with one of her palms stretched outwards.
Right where Nagic was about to land after moving around, a huge red magic circle appeared on the white floor.
In arcane words, Anatalia said, "Fire Pillar."
Fire surged out from the floor like a volcano that erupted. As it surged, it was about to engulf Nagic who was right above it.
For the first time since the test began, this was the first time Nagic face had no smile plastered on it.
He brought out his two hands, stretching them towards the rising fire. Multiple green magic circles appeared right in front of him, then joined together.
Using the same arcane language as Anatlia, he instructed the magic circles, "Burst."
This was the same magic circle he used to create a gust of winds, but having overlapped them together properly, the effects of the magic circle did the same.
A concentrated gust of wind appeared in the heart of the pillar that was now a hair's length from Nagic.
Like a popping balloon, the gust of wind burst outwards, spreading the fire pillar with it.
Just when Nagic felt like he had handled an issue, Anatalia, with her body enhanced using mana, had arrived before him with a huge leap.
Like a beast using its clawed paws to descend on its foe, Anatalia brought down the double daggers from above her head.
Nagic smiled nervously seeing this. He raised his hands up and formed a barrier in mere seconds. But such a barrier was not strong enough to handle the strength of an enhanced Anatalia.
The barrier broke, and Anatalia's dagger came down, reaching close to Nagic's neck.
Seeing this, Nagic said, "Let the test end here, pretty lady."
Anatalia looked at Nagic bitterly, unwilling to end it here. Still, she did as her administrator stated, and sheathed her daggers as she backed down.
"I'll go set the equipment for the core quality test, wait for me." Nagic said, adjusting his robe and placing one hand within it.
As they concluded the test, the spectators began to chatter.
"Whoa, what a show."
"For someone who has such a beast though, I expected more."
"What do you mean? If she's truly the age she looks, she has crazy potential."
"Right? At her age, I was still pulling wagons, hahaha."
"That lover boy is also still as strong as ever. Just see how he performed."
"Do you know? It's said that he doesn't use one of the four usual elemental magic."
Overhearing their conversations, Finn wondered, 'Huh, why are they still down grading Anatalia, she literally beat him! Then again, I don't think that Nagic guy went all out… but I don't think Anatalia went all out either!"
As Finn had his inner monologue, Anatalia, looking a bit down, appeared beside Finn and sat.
"So, what'd you think?" Anatalia asked with genuine curiosity.
Without hesitation, Finn said, "I think that was impressive. You did so well!"
"Mhm, well, you're not familiar with magic so you wouldn't know…" Anatalia said solemnly. "Still, thank you."
"Eh…" Finn wanted to cheer her up, but then Anatalia started talking.
"I felt like that weirdo was mocking me throughout that test, the way he was smiling and all makes it even more annoying!
"I used a fourth tier spell, and a third tier spell that could be considered a fourth tier. I even created multiple second tier spell circles, but can you imagine what this guy did? He used a second tier spell to dodge them all!"
Finn didn't really get it, but he still let out an "Ah" sound. 'You don't have to tell me anymore, that guy really bullied you!' He thought while Anatalia continued to talk about the test.
She talked about how Nagic dodged attacks that threatened his life while smiling casually. The whole battle seemed to move at the pace he wanted it to.
The most annoying of all, he was barely using any of his true abilities, both Finn and Anatalia were aware of this fact.
'Tsk, if he pisses me off too much and a situation comes, I'll just turn him to energy!' Finn commented.
After a while, Nagic came back for the core quality test with guild employees following him from behind.
They went to one corner of the hall and unlocked and opened a cover on a small podium that was there.
What was covered was a crystal clear orb that sat on a magic circle, but this magic circle had one of the most complex runes in the world within it.
"Don't be disappointed in me yet, I still have something to show you." Anatalia said to Finn.
Anatalia left where she sat and approached Nagic.
"Channel your mana into this orb and stop when you see the orb has made full changes," Nagic said.
Anatalia followed his instruction and did as he said.
As everyone watched to see the changes that'll happen, the adventurers discussed more.
"Imagine she comes out as a Gift user." One of them joked.
"What will a Gift user be doing here? It's way better to start their own faction or get a high position in already existing factions."
"Let's assume she didn't want to do any of that yet, if she was a Gift user, she'd just need to release the aura they are said to have, and she'll immediately be placed as an A rank or higher."
All the adventurers sighed as they had the same thoughts. They all wished they could obtain a Gift, life would be easier then.
Finn digested what they said and smiled to himself, 'Guys, I have a Gift, but I know nothing of this aura you're talking about, I swear it's not as easy as you think.'
Then someone said, "Yo, look, the orb is reacting!"