The middle-aged wizard swept his gaze across the wizard apprentices present and nodded in satisfaction. Even his usually stern face showed the faintest hint of a smile.
"Very good. Eighty-eight of you made it this far—more than I expected. Now, each of you will receive one hundred merit stones." The man raised a hand, and an inexplicable glow fell upon everyone's examination tokens. His smile faded as he continued, "You need not concern yourselves with what exactly you are doing. You need only know that what you are doing is very important. At certain special times, wizard apprentices can also prove immensely useful. You need only take pride in what you have done."
As he spoke, the middle-aged man's gaze moved slowly, as though passing over every apprentice's face.
"Presumably, some of you have already reached your limits and can sense the abnormalities in yourselves. Yet you would never choose to withdraw voluntarily, so there is no need to waste any more time waiting." Without turning around, the middle-aged wizard pointed at the small house behind him. "The next step is simple. Enter that house. You need do nothing at all—simply go inside, stay as long as you can, and act within your limits. Once you enter, we cannot guarantee your safety. But if, when you feel you have reached your limit... you come out in time, then under normal circumstances, there will be no danger."
The crowd looked at one another, their eyes brimming with fighting spirit.
Watching them, Ruger thought of the foolish-looking man who had withdrawn at the very beginning—the one who had interrupted him while he was making the Blood Curse Doll. That fellow had probably chosen to withdraw voluntarily precisely for the sake of this "under normal circumstances, there will be no danger."
That man