Defense test

'I have to do it the old-fashioned way then' Vee sighed Inwardly as multiple small stars began to appear above him which he quickly connected into five star patterns before combining them into a single constellation.

He did not rush the process or slow it too much so he would appear normal but still ended up completing the constellation in three seconds.

'This should be considered average' Vee nodded inwardly as he decided on what spell to use.

"Lightning Burst" Vee called out softly.

The purple constellation above him glowed brighter as a surge of lightning flew out toward one of the puppets.

The speed of the puppets was so slow that they could not even compare to ordinary Noble rank mages so the puppet was unable to dodge before the spell landed right on its metal chest.

Bang!

The spell landed on the puppet and exploded, sending streaks of lightning all over the body of the puppet as it was sent flying backward and hit the black wall behind it.

The puppet convulsed a bit as the remnants of the lightning ran over its body, it was unable to stand up anymore as the green glow in its eyes died out.

Outside the testing space, the red-haired woman watched as Crimson(Vee) used a shortened spell and easily dealt with one of the five puppets. Even the formation on the puppet could not do anything.

"Hmm, not bad. Not all Nebula-rank mages have mastered the act of casting spells without using the full chant and he's quite young too, breaking through to the mage king within twenty years should not be hard for him.

Also, his element just happened to be effective against the puppets, his luck I guess" the red-haired woman muttered to herself as she wrote things on the file that she was holding while watching Vee deal with the other four puppets in a similar fashion.

In less than a minute, Vee had dealt with all the puppets and had already walked out of the testing space. He was back where he was previously and where the red-haired woman was, a contemplating look on his face.

'The northern continent should have these too, right? Sigh, I should have checked during all those years of roaming around. What if I go back and ask my students to get me a few? No, that would be too embarrassing. Sigh, why was I in a rush to leave?' Vee lamented inwardly. He found the puppets quick fun and wanted to experiment more with them, but he did not know if that would be possible or even if they would be able to reach his true level.

"Good job on passing the strength test, your performance, while not the best I've seen, was indeed splendid," the red-haired woman said to Vee with a yawn as she began to run her fingers across the screen of the Epod she was holding.

Meanwhile, Vee was stunned to hear her remark. He had thought that he had overdone it on the test and might get suspected but this woman was saying he wasn't the best? He had dealt with each of those puppets with a single spell, who could have possibly outdone that?

The woman raised her head just in time to see Vee's stunned face, she assumed that he must be shocked to hear that someone might have outdone his performance in the test.

"Don't be too surprised. While you are quite talented, there is no lack of talent on the continent. As they used to say, no matter how strong you are, there is always someone who can beat you up…something like that. Anyway, the daughter of the guild master did this same test many years ago when she was still at the Noble rank, she had managed to destroy all five puppets with one attack. Also, she had the same element as you too" the red-haired woman explained. Vee could see the respect that she held in her eyes as she talked about the daughter of the guild master.

'Daughter of the guild master, who was that?' Vee wondered.

Seeing Vee's stunned face turn to one of confusion, the red-haired woman shook her head before saying.

"I don't expect you to know her, she had been out of the continent for a long time and only returned recently to teach at the academy so you shouldn't know her," the woman said.

Vee made an "ohh" expression as the image of a certain woman flashed in his mind, he was about to ask more but wasn't given the chance as the red-haired woman told him that he could take the next test now which was the defense test.

Vee could only stop inquiring more about the girl who had beaten his score before he even took the test and walked into the space for the defense test.

Similar to the previous space, Vee felt himself go through some sort of invisible barrier and found himself in a large room with black walls all around.

There was only a single puppet in this room which stood motionless a few meters in front of him.

The puppet this time was smaller than the other puppets in the strength test but was more humanoid in structure, its whole body was made with refined steel as it stood there with its head lowered.

"Alright. For this test, I'll adjust the strength of the puppet to the Nebula rank and have it attack you three times. All you need to do is to block the attacks successfully and you'll pass. You do not need to attack the puppet but you can if you wish to, although I'll advise against that as it will only increase the level of the test by doing that"

The voice of the red-haired woman sounded in the space all around Vee, Vee nodded but his eyes did not leave the puppet that suddenly trembled as if it was activated.

Its head that was hanging low slowly raised and its eyes glowed with shining red light as they landed on Vee.

It slowly took a few steps forward in a very human-like manner before coming to a stop and pointing one of its robot hands at Vee.

Swirling sounds and sounds of metal shifting followed as Vee saw the palm of the puppet disappear…more like withdraw back into its arm and what was left was a hole that looked like the mouth of a missile launcher.