Reading through Virlyd's magic profile would have crushed the confidence of everybody who tried to even think about competing with him in a fight.

Someone who was at the very pinnacle of the apprentice rank was not somebody who could be dealt with very easily. In fact, it was probably not an exaggeration to say that even if the six other contenders joined up and attacked him at once, they might still not be able to pull a victory against him.

The fact of the matter was that President Mileila had the right idea when she suggested doing away with the selection process and simply making Virlyd the representative. And that likely would have been what everybody would have agreed on if not for Virlyd.

"He was the one who suggested holding the tournament because of the possibility that he might not be the most fit for the role," Cæ shook his head. "He's far too humble. Frankly, even if I do win, I don't think anybody would choose me as the tentative representative over him."

Still, Cæ had no intention of holding back in this regard, especially when it might have been the only chance to grab the opportunity to represent the Elendir Institute of Magic in the Vertir Combat Competition.

"So, what do you have in mind now that you have seen what he is capable of?" Serulia asked once Cæ combed through the rest of the thick profile. "Do you have something in mind? Do you think you can possibly pull a victory against him?"

Cæ closed his eyes as his imagination got to work.

His rich imagination allowed him to use what he had observed and what he had gotten from the magic profile to simulate a battle between himself and Virlyd with great accuracy.

In his mind, a three-dimensional combat arena appeared out of thin air with an accurate replica of Virlyd standing on one end and Cæ standing on the other end. The two of them faced each other, donning the athletic uniform of the Elendir Institute of Magic.

Cæ raised his wand while Virlyd tightened his gauntlet.

The fight began.

WHOOSH

In the blink of an eye, a single magic circle appeared before Cæ.

One of the basic body-protection defensive spells that enhanced his constitution.

And yet, despite his fast magic processing speed, it was still inferior to Virlyd's body-casting speed.

Before the magic could even take place, Virlyd's attack had already reached Cæ, blasting his body with a powerful blow. If Virlyd didn't show any mercy and attacked him at full power, then Cæ's unprotected body would even explode into confetti.

Cæ opened his eyes with an expression of severity.

"In a one-on-one, it might actually be absolutely hopeless. Magic circles are slower than body-casting, and his mana-motive force means that he doesn't really suffer from the disadvantages of body-casting either. This makes him rather invincible in combat against someone who isn't on his level and doesn't have some body-casting proficiency.

"Then why don't you use body-casting as well?" Serulia raised an eyebrow with a curious expression. "That solves the problem."

Cæ shook his head as his expression grew even more grim.

"I haven't mastered any body-casting."

Her eyes widened with a shocked expression. "You what…? You are focusing on combat magic, but you have not yet mastered body-casting? That doesn't even make sense! Body-casting is bread and butter in combat magic. Even without martial magic, the speed it provides is simply too good!"

Her reaction validated his intuition that that was a shortcoming that he needed to shore up as soon as possible.

"I noticed that that wasn't covered in your information package," Cæ remarked. "But yes, I haven't mastered any body-casting yet. Let me remind you that I have only been practicing magic for about a year now. I haven't had the time needed to go too deep into any field. And that will likely remain the same since I have chosen to apply to a diverse set of fields without specializing in any one field."

"You what?!" She got up, staring at him with an aghast expression. "How could you do something as foolish as spread yourself so thin?! The magic industry has very little use for a man who only knows the foundations of many fields."

Cæ heaved a sigh.

He had gotten this reaction multiple times by now.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Everybody who learned that he had chosen not to specialize but develop a foundational mastery of each field called him crazy.

He didn't even necessarily blame them, either.

As he had studied in magiconomics and in his business degree prior, labor could be divided, but skill could not. Nobody had any use for someone who was only mildly competent in a large number of unrelated tasks.

He didn't even have the patience to explain to her that he had no intention of ever getting a regular job like virtually every other mage he knew.

He didn't even need to.

Trinity Housings was doing very well, and sales had held up quite well in the slums even after the monsoons had long since ended. Word of this new, relatively cheap, and convenient micro-housing unit had truly spread to each and every corner of the Colohen Slums.

He was also getting an income by virtue of being a member of the Student Council, as well as his revenues from Selvig's Ristorante.

"Coming back to the main point." His attention returned to the document before him. "I don't have any body-casting at the moment, which means that if I'm his first target, I might be screwed. Other mages also have body-casting, but their body-casting is far too weak compared to someone like Virlyd's, whose body-casting is on par with my regular spells."

She nodded. "That is true. What is your solution then? Do you intend to just let him take you on?"

"There isn't much of a solution I can cook up to such a fundamental shortcoming in such a short period of time," Cæ replied. "I think the best solution would be to simply keep my presence thin and pray that he does wipe me out at the very start of the battle."

Of course, Cæ could erase the lag in magic circles by using pure magic and disguising himself as body-casting, but alas, he didn't think he could do that.

"Wait…" Cæ's eyes lit up as an idea appeared in his mind. "I may not be allowed to use magic before the match begins, but I am allowed to inscribe magic on my hand or anything of the sort, right?"

She nodded. "In fact, there are mages who do that so that they don't have to cast magic circles from scratch in important moments. But the biggest issue is that you become very transparent with your intentions, since anybody can take one look at the magic circle that you're looking at and know exactly what you have in mind. Becoming very predictable is not good for a mage."

His expression grew serious. "It does have its cons, and I would rather not rely on it if I don't have to. But… It's worth it for me in this specific circumstance."

The reason that magic circles were slower than body-casting was that magic circles required more time for the brain to cast the circle from imagination, then see it visually, and create an eidos associated with the visual trigger.

While body-casting directly created the eidos associated with the phenomenon much quicker, because there were fewer steps. Muscle memory was very quick, and that allowed his opponent to cast magic almost instantly.

However, if Cæ could have a magic circle that was ready even before the match without violating the rules, then it was worth it in this case because it would allow him to deal with any initial attacks from any of the six that he was competing against.

That was a decent strategy to not get blasted from the very get-go.

"As for defeating Virlyd…" Cæ shook his head. "I think the only chance I stand is to use an incantation with the most powerful spell that I could muster, somehow utilizing all six elements. I don't know how else I could possibly actually defeat him. I also don't think that there is any chance of victory against him aside from something like a ring-out."

Serulia nodded. "I think that is perhaps your only path to victory. Your spell against me was very powerful. But unfortunately…"

She winced.

"You used it publicly, so Virlyd probably already knows about it. On top of that, incantations are hardly a special strategy, so there's no doubt that he has experience with them and has tried and tested tactics against him."

She didn't think too highly of Cæ's strategy.

She turned towards him with a serious expression. "To be entirely frank, I think it is a miracle that you have made this far. With only a year of magic, your versatility is very low, and your combat style is far from diverse; it's actually quite limited. You only know three fundamental forms, and you do not have any distinct fields of magic; this reduces the complexity of your magic to very low extents. Your opponents…"

She pulled out several other thick documents.

"…are very accomplished in magic and have magic that you have not even faced and do not know how to face because your exposure to magic is still so low. I say this with all due respect, in that you are probably the weakest of the seven."

Cæ simply breathed a deep breath.

"You're probably right."

Cæ had felt this.

But there was only so much that his gifts could compensate for the absence of his mastery of magic.

"I don't have any intention of giving up that easily, however," Cæ remarked with a knowing tone. "Not all of the seven will remain in serious consideration over the coming year. Of the seven, the Student Council will nominate one tentative candidate and the next two best candidates for them to even possibly finalize by the end of the year."

She nodded. "Your goal, if not to defeat Virlyd, should be to remain in contention for the spot. If you can show that by the end of the year, you are better than the other two, then you will be selected."

Cæ nodded knowingly.

"As long as you have the opportunity to grow, I think you have a realistic chance of becoming the strongest student in this magicademy," she informed him. "I am particularly impressed by the fact that your progress in your first year is this high. This means that you will likely grow stupendously in your second year as well, if a bit slower. Considering how strong you are and projecting even greater growth in the coming year. You just might be able to make it in time."

That was a good point. If not counting the two months that Cæ had spent busy with business, he had actually been trained for less than a year.

Once he learned some divination, alchemy, illusion magic, martial magic, the fundamental form of automation, body-casting, healing magic, and so on and so forth, then he would be able to put up a vastly superior fight with his innate ability underneath all that diversity.

On top of that, his eidos mastery and his mana-motive force would also grow tremendously to the point that how strong he would be in one year would be on a whole different level from how strong he was currently.

"My primary goal is still to win tomorrow's battle, but my bottom line is being chosen as among the final three candidates for the final match."

With that clarity in mind, he continued researching his opponents.

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