Chapter 28

As Al waited at the entrance, a man approached from the back. He looked to be in his early thirties, dressed in expensive clothing. His walk was confident, and Al thought this must be Eric, so he bowed.

"Are you Al, the one introduced by the Adventurers' Guild? I heard you are a novice mage. How many spells can you cast?"

The man quickly approached and asked.

"My name is Al. I can use the Light spell, the Magic Perception spell, the Magic Arrow spell, and a few others."

"A few others? That's a convenient phrase. Well, it's fine. You seem to be able to use enough spells for a mage."

Al thought it was natural for an adventurer not to reveal all the spells they could use, but the man seemed dissatisfied. When Al remained silent, the man continued.

"Let's see those three spells for now. Come with me."

The man led Al to the courtyard. There, about three other people were present, and they all looked at Al and the man as they entered. The man, ignoring their gazes, stopped almost in the middle and pointed to one of the walls. A small, battered shield hung there.

"Try casting the Magic Arrow spell at that shield."

"Ah, yes."

The distance to the shield was about 5 meters. Al extended his hand.

"Magic Arrow" - Converge

To show his magic, he cast the spell with a louder voice than usual. A glowing arrow-like object shot out from his palm. It hit the shield and disappeared with a high-pitched metallic sound.

"Hmm? What was that incantation? And the sound seemed a bit different too..."

The man seemed to sense something was off and thought for a moment. But he shook his head lightly.

"Well, it's fine. It's still a Magic Arrow. It's just one, but I'll acknowledge that it flies properly. Next is the Light spell. Make that shield glow in the same way."

Al inwardly exclaimed when he heard this. He had used the Converge option simply because there was only one target, but now he realized that the man, presumably Eric, was trying to gauge his proficiency by the number of arrows. If he failed, he might need to discuss a retake. This thought flashed through his mind, but the task had already moved on. He decided to focus on the Light spell for now.

The duration of the Light spell increases as proficiency improves. Al usually used the option to increase the brightness, so using it without any options was a bit unusual.

"Light"

The shield's surface lit up. The man stared at the light intently.

"The brightness is fine. Does it last about three hours?"

Al tilted his head at the question. When he first learned the spell, he had to recast it at night, but recently he had been turning it off before it ran out in the morning, so he wasn't sure how long it lasted.

"Probably until morning."

The man looked puzzled at Al's uncertain answer. Indeed, the duration would be important if the Light spell were used for camping. Al regretted not measuring it beforehand.

"Alright. We can measure it to be sure. The evening bell just rang. Leida!"

The man called out to one of the three people, presumably practicing spells, a woman with cold blue eyes and beautiful silver hair tied back, who looked a bit older than Al.

"Yes, Mr. Fitz."

"Record when this light disappears. Also, get the others to help bring the box."

She bowed to the man, called out to the other two in the courtyard, and hurried through a door at the back. The man, apparently named Fitz, seemed to be someone other than Eric. After a while, the three returned with a wooden box about the size of a hug. They placed the box in front of Al and Fitz, bowed again, and returned to their original positions.

"Now, the test for the Magic Perception spell. Find the magical items in this box."

Fitz opened the lid of the wooden box. Inside were numerous small objects made of wood and metal, their uses unclear. With so many items, a regular "Magic Perception" spell might not reveal the weaker ones.

"Magic Perception"

"Enhance Perception" - Visual Enhancement

As Al began to search through the box, Fitz warned him not to handle the items roughly. Al responded that he understood and started to pull out items that emitted a blue-white light in response to the Magic Perception spell. After about ten minutes, Al had extracted 13 items of various shapes.

"That's all I could detect."

Fitz watched this with a puzzled expression. He then cast the Magic Perception spell himself and began to verify the items Al had extracted.

"You must have gotten lazy halfway through and relied on your instincts, or... did you ask someone beforehand which items were magical?"

Fitz looked around and seemed to have an epiphany when he saw the three other people.

"Did you bribe the apprentices?"

Al stared at Fitz, confused. The three others were similarly puzzled. However, Fitz, looking quite angry, raised his voice.

"Otherwise, it's impossible to identify so many items from over 100 so quickly. And among the items you confidently showed, three are not magical. There must have been some mistake with a signal or something. Otherwise, this situation doesn't make sense. Who was it? Who took money from this Al to tell him which items were magical?"

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