"Sir Ebony, I have a question."

'Are we doing that test or not…' Seven considered himself patient with people, amongst all the other Numbers, but Ebony was still not one for inefficiency when the job was to choose a few students.

The red-haired young lady geared in chain mail and a half-armour with her belly unprotected by metal, didn't falter from his silence. "You're carrying a longsword, but nothing on your description says you're a swordsman. Will you be teaching sword mastery?"

Seven looked at the longsword on his waist as if he had sight.

"You may find out. I'll continue." The sealed gallery floated and was forcefully returned to its original position. They could continue watching.

"This is one point of my base regenerated mana, uncompressed." Seven conjured a mana sphere for them to see.

By the looks of it, Tidal Academy only took in the best because even the unclassed warriors had mana sense.

"It's small…natural density fortification."

Seven quickly overheard a 1.3-metre short girl and pulled her profile up. The young girl was unclassed and could already tell that 1 point of mana had a different physical size for every individual and made a good guess.

'She's sixteen years old…but so small. Malnutrition or mental genetically inclined?' Her family background, history and direct parents' strength and Classes were not a secret to them.

"Each of you will attempt to exhaust 1 point of my mana, succeed, and you pass." Seven stated the simple test. He didn't think he needed to explain further, but the teenagers weren't as intuitive as their guardians, who all knew they were picking a fight without saying it clearly.

"Exhaust in what way?"

"My mana will fight back, once it's used up, you pass."

"What's the time limit?"

"None. I will not refill the single point over time either, it will be finite."

"Are we allowed to use whatever is at our disposal?"

"If it's powered by your own strength and energy."

"What's the catch?"

"None."

"Some of us are unclassed, and most are Journeymen. Is the test the same?"

"Yes. Stronger people have an advantage; that is true everywhere. The difficulty of a hurdle will not change. The weak struggle to achieve the same as the strong."

"I'll go first!" Masline jumped up and down with his hands raised.

"Inefficient. We will conduct the test concurrently." Seven conjured another 599 mana spheres with a single point of Ebony-branded base regenerated mana.

The young mages short-circuited for a moment when they noticed all 600 mana spheres had a separate mental hold over them. "no-not a barrage type mental hold."

The 600-fold multicasting wasn't as impressive as these teenagers imagined. It was one thing to cast a spell using millions of mana and another to hold a single point. With Ebony's ability to mentally compartmentalise, multicasting was simple. At worst, for the Numbers, it took a bit more Will to copy the mental processing power of their main.

Once these kids had Tier 4 or 5 spells under their belt and the mastered them, conjuring a hundred mana sphere as simple as a ball would be easy enough.

The next step wasn't so simple.

Seven overrode all the under-evolved creatures' magic bodies and spread them across the large field with gravity so each of them was contained within a small field of their own. It took time since he moved them gently, not to scramble their brains or muscles up by force.

Then he used another 600 points of mana to display a number counter three metres off the ground.

[ 1 / 1 ]

"When the number on the left hits 0, you pass. When you say 'I quit' the test would end, and you may leave." Seven gave his final explanation before gesturing to Mallory to lead the way.

"Is this really all to your test?" She asked while hiding her disbelief.

"Mmm, now library." He forgot that she wasn't Xin and wouldn't be able to guess what he was thinking of.

"…You're not going to watch?"

"I will be." They have and will always be watching the area around Tidal.

"The library has enchantments; you would be cut off from magical links." The headmistress felt a headache coming from how little Seven showed any concern about her highly advertised class and instructor with her name on the line.

"The mana spheres can continue working, I'll have another Number take over control if needed." He didn't feel the need to explain or tell Mallory about his Will Relay Buffers.

Mallory paused and saw the ever-eager Masline to leap and land a charging slash with his two-handed sword on the orb of mana. He roared while his stamina was consumed by his Skill.

[ 0.999999999999999999999999998992 / 1 ]

"Did…did you have any hopes of finding a student at all?" Mallory's long lashes shook when she blinked thrice after looking at the numbers that were decreasing across the field. Many were still confused at what they were supposed to do to 'exhaust' a point of mana.

"?" Seven cocked his head. "It's a simple test with no fail condition other than giving up. All should pass if they want to learn from me."

[ 0.998999999999999999999999998992 / 1]

Masline's number dropped again when the mana sphere diluted from Ebony's Grandmaster's density to his unclassed version, then diluted a few times over to match the purity increase they got after multiple evolutions.

Converted into an ice turtle scale that flew around to whack Masline.

Originally gasping when the number dropped 'significantly' Masline found himself parrying the flying scale coming at him from every direction.

Although it was 1 point of mana, it had more Fortifications than just density, which can be adjusted.

Ebony's mana was also 300% more compressible, which does not increase the volume of mana used since 1 point was 1 point, uncompressed.

300% more resilient, which reduced the mana consumption when hit by physical or magical force..

When converted to his 3 main elements, they had a 300% mana efficiency to reduce their consumption.

When converted to ice, they were 750% more resistant to heat.

If slashed, they could just split apart before they were hit. The only mana usage from that would be the bare minimum required to move the mana sphere itself. A good comparison he could find was that the mana consumption of the mana spheres moving around would be similar to the amount of calories burned by breathing if he were asleep.

Since their attention was split over 600 times, each of them was 'laggy' and could be hit by many of the Journeymen's active skills or spells, so it wasn't hopeless for them. They were not fully powered by Ebony's Intelligence stat in the thousands because they were powered by Seven's Will instead which lowered the difficulty even further.

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His mana also goes on the offensive, but never goes for fatal injuries. Besides, he was comfortable because this was within Tidal, the Capital City. The teenagers will receive constant healing to their bodies by default thanks to Yvette's work on Navin's barrier.

The only real difficulty was that 1 point of mana could be compressed to a solid form and take even less damage after converting itself to ice mana, absorbing vibrations and letting it pass through to receive even less mana consumption.

The more aggressive they made his point of mana, the faster his mana consumption rate would be.

The Unclassed would have a harder time. They could deal less damage, required less speed from the mana sphere to attack and injure them which lowered the mana consumption rate of the sphere's mere existence. Lower stats, smaller resource pools. However, Seven stood by his words. It was unfair, but that was the advantage of being stronger.

Seven had a skip in his feet, expecting 600 students to join his class.

Data.

So much data to be had.

Mallory interrupted Seven's Mana Discern, vibrational and gravitational perception. Feeling the grooves of the paper, the thickness of the ink reading session merely 3 hours into it.

"Duke Entras returned; he's not exactly happy."

Exposed back to their Will after being shut off within the Academy Library's enchantment, he 'saw' how Duke Entras timed a passing bird to stomp and push himself out of the gravity tunnel, creating a deep crater in the earth. He blast mana out as a generic dispel to prevent further latching from their gravity tunnels and furious charge back to Tidal from underground as if he were a mole tearing through the earth.

The poor bird turned into a bloody mist that acted as a platform for the mighty King.

Mallory was going to have a headache explaining the long hole leading to Tidal's gate and having difficulty finding earth mages to fix it.

'He even dug up a couple of Will Relay Buffers. Instinct or perception?' Seven wasn't surprised by the old beastmen's means. Elders were elders, their experience wasn't for nought.

A couple of crystals back home floated from the storage in the Turtle fort, wrapped in a Scout Pigeon who was on the way to deliver themselves and replant their network nodes.

Seven wondered how to get the Duke off his back. The man probably didn't have the means to kill them even in anger, but they also couldn't do much against Duke Entras other than wear him out at a cost. But Seven didn't want to waste that mana against someone who was merely caring for his daughter.

"YOU!!" The man whose upper half turned even more wolf-like by some mana transformation ability pointed at Seven.

Ready for an exchange as usual, Seven didn't expect the Duke to calm down and shrink back to his original size and looks. He still had fur on the back of his body and large canine fangs, but mostly human appearance. Two deep breaths later, "Ebony was it?"

"Seven."

"Seven? Sure, Seven. Please, take care of my daughter. Make her strong."

"Mmm, after she passes and joins my class."

"A test of conviction and perseverance is not something an Entras would fail. I thank thee in advance, we can't have another failure of the Entras like I am. Magic, anti-magic is the path to strength for a warrior. She can't follow my footsteps."

"You handled yourself spectacularly." Seven gave credit where credit was due. The Duke merely needed some anti-mage tactic training, there was nothing inherently wrong with specialising in pure physicality.

"I was a fish out of its pond. Baring fangs and howling like a loser. Just like the mage back then, just like Archduke Medina. A warrior is nothing in front of a true mage."

"…" Seven disagreed vehemently. He didn't know what Entras experienced over his long life, but warriors could hold their own. "Duke Entras, while it's not convincing coming from me. Warriors and knights are no worse than mages. Even without mana, they have their advantages."

"I can rip any mage's head off. I can tear any earthen shield. No metal stick can pierce my fur. But so what? I can't even touch a Grandmaster mage. No need to consider this old one's feelings, I know you could keep me away perpetually if you wanted. Your mana pool didn't even shake."

"I and most mages at King ranked can't ignore your magic body. I can't do any real harm to you. My greatest sealing magic was broken in seconds. Mages would run out of mana before they can harm you, and few have my physical reaction."

"Argh, I am still an evolution ahead. That says nothing. You're a hybrid fighter if I'm not wrong? No wonder, I suppose there are benefits."

"Talking is not effective, shall I show you instead?"

"What do you mean?"

"Mallory, can you find a mage willing to duel? Someone as strong or stronger than Duke Entras."

"You're putting me in a spot…give me a minute."

'What am I doing…Can I beat a mage without my spells and just physical augmentations, without the fact that my body is just a lump of ice?' Seven didn't think his chances were good. He wondered why he bothered doing this, an unequivalent exchange. Perhaps he didn't like Entra's sudden pessimism and disregard for warriors.

An Archmage, even Imperial, would be more than fast enough with defensive and evasive measures to stay away from a warrior while pelting their firepower at them.

As a Number, he didn't fare well without his magic.

As for augmenting his physical prowess high enough to ignore that something that Entras could do as well, it was questionable. The Numbers reacted differently to ice elemental augmentation since they didn't have Ebony's flesh body. Taking away magic also meant taking away gravity and arcane vibrations that would support his physical abilities.

Mallory showed off the power of her words when an elderly mage floated over from a magic tower in the distance.

"Professor Lenning, thank you for coming on such short notice."

"It's no problem, I've been dying to meet the Rejuvenator."

"Lenning! You old fool, you're still alive?" Duke Entras exclaimed in fake shock.

"You're not dead yet, so why should I be?

"Elders, calm yourselves." Mallory shook her head.

"Ahahaha, we're merely greeting each other, young Princess." Professor Lenning's combed his bushy beard.

"Master, I told you not to call me that, the Royal rule will be abolished sooner or later."

"Hahahaha, it is as you say." Professor Lenning was Mallory's master in magic?

Now this was getting more interesting, even Ebony would want to be here. After all, despite having the profile of billions of Imperial citizens, they knew close to nothing about people who hid in their towers day in and day out. And the Elves.

"Instructor Ebony here has a request." She didn't lose her composure even though she was not happy about Lenning's relaxed manner.

"Professor Lenning, would you mind participating in a demonstration for Duke Entras?"

"What manner of demonstration? I would show this old fool the superiority of magic any day!"

"The exact opposite." Seven replied curtly.

"The age-old discussion. Well, I'll humour my dead student and old—acquaintance."

"Thank you." Seven drew his longsword and let it rest at his side without any stance that Entras was familiar with.

Lenning's first move was to fly back to create distance, but he simultaneously fired mana bolts, cast mana skin and put a few layers of arcane mana shields between them.

"As an accomplished warrior, I'm sure you know that the warrior class will not die out." Seven wondered where these words of his were coming from, talking while duelling wasn't exactly a habit of theirs.

Seven had his arm raised, holding the longsword like a butcher would his cleaver. In a single Flicker, he appeared by Lennings' side, ready to decapitate the mage. Chopping down without hesitation, his sword sliced through dozens of transparent mana shields like paper.

"A warrior's advantage lies in their speed and endurance." Seven continued speaking when Lenning was sent to the ground, creating a dust cloud before the figure burst out to the right by flight.

"Perhaps for low-evolution mages, an Archmage's cast speed is no slower than a dedicated warrior. Our mana pools can be as vast as a lake." The old man touched the back of his neck with one free hand, but his mind was busy pushing mana through his staff and forming his spell.

"With your superior body, you can ignore all hastily cast spells." Seven sliced and swatted away every mana bolt without moving from the spot. To simulate Entra's advantages, he began to charge into the weak mana bolts with his body. Even at the ranks of a King, an Archmage typically required more time to cast a Tier 4 spell compared to a warrior who didn't have such limitations with a simple slash. Even a Tier 4 slash, which consumed more stamina, needed a fraction of the time to activate.

Mana skin, physical augmentation and even proper armour alone could allow warriors to take hits to close the distance.

"A good mage is always prepared." Lenning cast a cone-shaped sonic wave of stacking mana to tackle Seven's charge. Each visible wave was stronger than the last, but they were too compressed. Crystalline Avalanche launched forward and sliced the pulsing waves apart, forcing Lenning to drag his body away with his flight ability once more.

The shockwave from Seven's slash swerved from the mana pulses and flew towards a building in the distance. Seven and Lenning weren't bothered by it with Mallory present.

'He set barriers already, fast indeed. Cast speed Fortifications with Arcane magic, mana with tougher physical properties to make full use of pure mana. His mana bolts and shields are much too tough. Is he a pure arcane mage like Mallory? Besides that, this guy knows I'm just a conjured spell. Most interesting of all is how his mana reacted when I tried to chop his neck, the mana reacted before the mage did.' Seven sent information back to their fort.

This man couldn't be left out of their information network.

"I am aware of all that," Duke Entras sighed, clearly unimpressed by the demonstration.

"Then let's see what else our young instructor has in store." Lenning's smile widened. "The easiest solution against warriors is to overwhelm them!"

An erratic typhoon of seemingly endless mana bolts ravaged the tiny area of their demonstration. The barrage-type mana bolts stormed around them. "HAHAHA DODGE THIS WARRIORS!"

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