Chapter 1 The Chaotic Meeting

The once orderly conference room had descended into chaos. Many teachers stared wide-eyed at the magical screen suspended in the center, gripping the tables as they stood.

"...?"

A chorus of puzzled and shocked murmurs echoed through the spacious room.

Unless one possessed the skill of incantation-free casting.

Otherwise.

This single 【Friendly Exchange】 card could infuriate any traditional mage!

Due to the convenience and free combination afforded by magic cards, modern mages, even if they learned spells to expand their skill sets, rarely bothered to painstakingly master incantation-free casting.

"Did the Magic Engineering Institute develop something new behind our backs...?"

Even Vice-Dean Ron, who had been silent with his pen in hand, couldn't help but twitch.

He knew.

From now on, *Incantation-Free Casting* would become a required course at the Sage Academy.

This infuriating card would spread like a virus, starting from the Ikeryte Academy where it first appeared, gradually spreading to the entire royal capital, the entire Hutton Kingdom, and even the Southern Continent, the entire world...

And its creator remained unknown.

Often, card makers with inexplicable talents were unaware of the disruptive impact of their cards on the environment until their creations had circulated in the market for a long time before their true identities could be traced.

It seemed that after the exam ended.

Regardless of whether Lan Qi passed or not.

Someone would approach Lan Qi to investigate the source of this 【Friendly Exchange】.

Or, they would directly obtain the 【Friendly Exchange】 card in his possession, reverse-engineer the venom magic contained within, and attempt to replicate its casting principle as quickly as possible!

"It's unlikely he made it himself, right..."

Vice-Dean Ron rubbed his brow.

Although some students at the Sage Academy knew how to create magic cards, it was mainly the students of the Magic Engineering Institute who specialized in card making.

A card maker who could conjure up this 【Friendly Exchange】 would be a sensation even in the card-making world.

Now it seemed.

Rather than letting Lan Qi, who held the key to the "miracle card maker," return home, it would be best if Lan Qi could join the Sage Academy.

Because with Dean Loren present, no one would dare to mess with Lan Qi.

And allowing 【Friendly Exchange】 to quickly circulate in large quantities on the market would undoubtedly be a major headache for the Sage Academy.

Where did this newcomer come from?

Vice-Dean Ron, perplexed, couldn't help but flip through the documents in his hand.

The blank slate of a resume became increasingly strange the more he looked at it.

If the last assessment was just a fluke.

Then this was the second time Lan Qi had left them bewildered.

And he hadn't even demonstrated the abilities of a white mage.

His entire system remained a mystery.

The data showed.

Lan Qi himself did not possess any spells, but his white mage profession was recognized by the Magic Tower.

Then the vast majority of the card slots he possessed would still be filled with healing spell cards.

Purely functional spells like 【Friendly Exchange】 would be at most two or three.

But what Ron didn't understand was—

With Lan Qi's such low magic intensity, what was the rationale behind carrying such a high proportion of healing cards?

Each person's soul had an upper limit on the number of magic cards it could bear.

The higher the rank of a magic card, the more space it occupied in one's soul after soul-binding.

For example, if Lan Qi was Rank 2, he could only soul-bind magic cards with a combined 【Rank】 of 20.

And he could only bind Rank 2 magic cards at most.

If he reached Rank 3 in the future, he could bind magic cards with a combined 【Rank】 of 30, and could bind Rank 3 magic cards.

On the other hand.

If a Rank 2 Lan Qi bound all Rank 2 magic cards, he would reach the carrying limit with only 10 cards.

But if he bound some Rank 1 magic cards, he could bind more cards.

The 【Rank】 of a magic card could, to some extent, be regarded as "mana cost."

Low-rank magic cards could be seen as having lower "mana costs."

Therefore, some high-quality, widely used low-rank magic cards would not be eliminated even when one reached a higher rank.

At this moment, Vice-Dean Ron thought.

If Lan Qi filled his entire body with targeted functional spells like 【Friendly Exchange】, relying on his high mana limit and continuous casting ability due to his high spirit, he might indeed be a purely functional support mage who could achieve unexpected results.

"Even if Lan Qi demonstrates unexpected effects, the real problem is yet to come."

"The difference in rank is too great."

The teachers in the conference room began to concentrate on the battle with great intensity.

The unexpected turn in what they had previously thought to be a one-sided duel naturally brought a bit of unusual anticipation.

But they also knew that the difference in basic attributes between Rank 5 and Rank 2 or Rank 3 was an insurmountable gap.

Even with just his fists and ordinary attack magic, Ferat could easily kill the two squishy opponents, Lan Qi and Hibernian. Moreover, Ferat had a few small, instantly castable spells available, while the two examinees would find it difficult to deal effective damage to Ferat.

The odds had merely shifted from ten-zero to nine-one.

...

On the magic screen.

The battle on the Elemen Great Plains continued.

As Ferat was caught off guard, he understood the unusual fact that incantation-free casting was in play.

The thought sent a chill down Ferat's spine.

He was suddenly alarmed.

As if something was cutting through the air.

A figure appeared out of nowhere, and when she reappeared, she was already stabbing fiercely at Ferat's chest!

The attacking Hibernian was extremely close to Ferat at this moment.

The dagger in her hand was about to succeed, piercing Ferat's heart.

Moreover, the strange scorpion-tail-shaped dagger was shimmering with a strange crystal light, obviously carrying a potent poison.

Scram!!

Ferat wanted to roar but could only make strange noises. At the same time, a deep red, scorching halo burst out from his body!

Even if he couldn't cast spells with incantations, he still had low-rank, small-scale instant spells available!

The halo spread out from his body and vanished in a flash, instantly blasting Hibernian away.

"Hah, hah."

Hibernian quickly rolled over and stood up.

Aside from some slight burns, she was unharmed.

And the Hibernian who had been next to Lan Qi had already scattered like bubbles, just a false body left behind after she used her magic to become invisible.

"Bastard, you dodged it."

Hibernian said in a low voice, her face gloomy.

In mid-air.

Ferat now had a bloody line on his cheek, and blood was sliding down the wound, dripping.

In that instant earlier, Hibernian realized she couldn't stab Ferat's heart, so she used all her strength to throw the scorpion-tail dagger in her hand like a projectile, aiming straight at his head!

Ferat, with his rich combat experience and agility, instinctively tilted his head and dodged the attack.

But in the end, he couldn't completely avoid the close-range ambush.

Intense pain spread from the wound on Ferat's cheek, causing the veins on his forehead to throb.

Clearly, he was already poisoned from just a scratch, and the wound was difficult to heal, even though Ferat had applied a delayed healing state to himself before coming.

And Ferat was currently under the silence effect cast by Lan Qi, unable to use his own purification magic to dispel these negative states.

He had to endure the pain of having his throat scraped, relying on his Rank 5 resistance to withstand the duration of the poisoning!

Although Hibernian's Rank 3 poison posed little threat to the Rank 5 Ferat.

Ferat was gradually feeling his anger rising!

The two weak newcomers on the ground had no real coordination to speak of.

But they were both from the underworld.

One was poisoned and bleeding while invisible, impossible to find on the map.

And the other one, a spell-sealing freak, might pull out more tricks.

This damned couple must have been cursed to be together!