Eight years old, a Level 2 Mage, promoted in three days.
No matter how you looked at it, those numbers seemed completely abnormal.
The old man's eyes were full of shock.
The other staff in the Promotion Hall and those waiting to be promoted had also begun whispering among themselves.
Lu Cang silently grumbled to himself.
If Chicheng hadn't dragged him off to drink, he would have made even faster progress.
Come to think of it, he'd spent more than half of these past few days unconscious...
"Lord Iz."
"He's too young. We're afraid we can't oversee his Promotion Ritual..."
Iz gave a slight nod. "I know."
Then he turned to look at Kumiloni.
"It should be fine for Kumiloni to oversee the ritual, right?"
The old man nodded and bowed respectfully to Kumiloni.
"Of course. There's no problem."
Kumiloni smiled lightly. "Then I'll take over."
The old man added, "But the records..."
Kumiloni nodded. "Yes, I'll follow the standard procedure."
The old man breathed a sigh of relief. "That's good."
Promotion Rituals followed a standard procedure.
It was stipulated by law.
Kumiloni smoothly took over the old man's place and stood where the ritual officiant was supposed to stand. She announced, "A mage's Promotion Ritual requires meeting the standards in three areas: mana, elemental sensitivity, and spell control. You must also have at least one proven battle record."
"The first test will measure your total mana."
Word had spread that Izpalut was about to be promoted to Magic Saint.
More and more people crowded around the Promotion Hall.
When they saw that the one being promoted was a child,
they felt their hopes fall, then turned to leave.
But then they suddenly thought...
A child?
Why the hell would a child be taking part in a Promotion Ritual?
Damn.
Taking a closer look, they saw that Kumiloni was officiating.
So they turned back again.
But when they did,
they found themselves facing a wall of people. The spots they'd claimed earlier had long since been taken by others.
"This little guy..."
"Isn't he the one who treated everyone the day before yesterday?"
"Oh, right! I remember. Little Lu Cang, right?"
"I heard he soloed a second-tier dungeon on his first adventure!"
"Really?"
"He's Izpalut's personal disciple. How could that be fake?"
"Damn... That's incredible. I wish my kid could turn out as promising as him."
Lu Cang's lips twitched slightly.
He'd expected people to watch, but not this many.
Iz, oh...
I was hoping to develop quietly. You're making such a spectacle of this. What am I supposed to do?
Lu Cang placed his hand on the crystal ball before him.
A mana test?
Kumiloni announced, "A mana value of 5 meets the standard, 10 is excellent, and 20 is perfect."
Twenty was perfect?
That probably meant a hundred times the base mana.
Lu Cang placed his hand on the crystal ball and released his mana...
Bang!
The crystal ball instantly filled with fine cracks!
Hey... This is not the time for this classic scene to play out. Don't break and show a zero afterward. There are so many people watching!
He didn't want to attract too much attention, but he didn't want people to think he was useless, either. He still had some pride.
Fortunately, the crystal ball had only cracked slightly.
It hadn't shattered to pieces all at once.
At last, a number appeared...
And it was a number that left everyone speechless.
[Mana Value: 10000]
How much?
How many zeroes?
One, ten, hundred, dad, grandpa!
Ten thousand?
Five was a pass, ten was excellent, and twenty was perfect...
And you've got ten thousand?
The entire Promotion Hall fell silent.
A terrifying number like this had appeared only once in the past few years.
Well, there had indeed been one other time in the past few years.
But if you went back thousands of years before that, there hadn't been a single instance.
Oh.
Lu Cang more or less understood what this number meant.
It was probably a multiplier of the mana value he'd had when he first awakened as a mage.
Twenty meant twenty times the initial mana value.
Most mages
hovered between five and ten times their initial mana when advancing from Level 1 to Level 2.
Only a very small number of mages could train their mana to twenty times its initial value.
That was the limit of what most highly effective [Magic Enhancement Techniques] could achieve.
As for a hundred times,
that could only be reached during a Magic Tide. It was also known as the [Mana Limit of a Level 1 Mage].
Ten thousand times.
Only the Mana Void could make that possible.
Huh...
She'd said twenty was perfect, so Lu Cang had assumed that meant twenty was the mana limit for a Level 1 mage.
The noisy hall had gone completely silent.
Kumiloni showed not the slightest sign of surprise.
Shock was for everyone else.
As the officiant, her only responsibility was to carry on with the ritual.
"Next, we'll test your sensitivity to the elements."
"Five elements is a pass, and eight is excellent. Beyond that, only the degree of sensitivity to each element will be assessed."
"The first element... Fire."
Once again, the test used a crystal ball.
This test... Was there no variety?
Thinking this, Lu Cang still placed his hand on the crystal ball.
A ball of flame sprang up on its surface.
This meant he was perfectly attuned to fire and could sense every trace of the fire element.
"Monster..."
"Damn, is he even human?"
"Being able to sense 70% of the fire element already makes someone an exceptionally talented fire mage."
"Does this guy sense all of it?"
Full sensitivity to the fire element was only the beginning.
Lu Cang continued with the next elemental test.
Ice element—full sensitivity.
Dark element—full sensitivity.
Water element—full sensitivity.
Wind element—full sensitivity.
After spending the whole afternoon reading yesterday, Lu Cang had learned roughly how things worked.
Not every mage was an all-rounder who could learn every spell.
Most mages had a particularly strong affinity for only one element.
Elemental sensitivity could be cultivated later on, such as by using a Dark Crystal to sense the dark element, but it would still start at 1% and increase gradually.
The higher it got, the harder it became, and the more effort and resources it required.
But the final 90% was impossible to improve beyond.
So mages with strong sensitivity to a particular element would eventually choose to specialize in that field.
Greater sensitivity to an element meant better control and faster learning of its spells. Their spells could even become more powerful.
Eventually, this gave rise to distinctions such as fire mages, ice mages, and lightning mages...
But Lu Cang, standing before them,
had displayed 100% sensitivity to every element tested.
100% sensitivity to every element.
A perfect all-element mage.
This time, even Kumiloni showed a hint of surprise.
If she hadn't tested him, she really wouldn't have known that Lu Cang had perfect sensitivity to every element.
"100% sensitivity to every element!"
Even the old ritual elder in the Promotion Hall couldn't keep his voice from trembling.
He'd felt some regret at not being able to witness Iz's promotion to Magic Saint.
But it seemed he'd instead witnessed the birth of a new magical prodigy.
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