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Practical Tests Part 2
The next practical test consisted of firing magic at targets. They probably looked at your accuracy and precision.
The examinees, after a long chant, fired at the targets.
“They’re terrible.”
There’s no way they would pass. I mean, they didn’t even reach the target. Their incantation was needlessly long and riddled with mistakes, and luckily it didn’t manifest into a spell. They had a lot to work on before accuracy and precision.
“Hm, you think so too?”
I looked behind my shoulders to see a silver-haired boy giving the examinees a troubled look.
“Well, the magic’s not coming out with that incantation.”
You couldn’t fully understand magic by borrowing the cheat-like abilities of grimoires. As such, I conducted several experiments with grimoires to find that I could make a grimoire disappear just by wishing. I used that ability to then verify the fact that I could still cast the grimoire’s spell despite it having disappeared.
As a result, I identified the following facts about magic incantations.
Anybody can theoretically cast a spell, as long as they use the correct incantation, and they have sufficient magic power.However, the magic power necessary for an incantation depends on each word, so longer incantations require more sense and training, with sense being widely considered as one’s so-called talent in magic. A majority of nobles have high sense in this regard, which we can presume as having resulted from having begun their training at a young age.As grimoires automatically incant the spell for you, it’s almost impossible for the amount of magic power required for a spell to differ between casts. Because it’s an acquired spell, restrictions on your talent apply only when using the grimoire and using an incantation instead of the grimoire is extremely dangerous and has a high chance to explode in your face if you don’t have enough sense.
However, the examinee had casted 【Fireball】, and had only incanted “O red flame, gather betwixt my hands and turn to power.” There wasn’t much to mess up.
“Now then, it’s my turn. I’ll be going on ahead.”
The silver-haired boy took his position after having his number called out, and casually raised his left hand. The targets—eight wooden signs—stood roughly 30 meters away.
“O red flame.”
And with that short incantation, a softball sized fireball appeared in the air and rushed forward, piercing through a target.”
“O red flame, O red flame, O red flame, O red flame, O red flame, O red flame, O red flame.”
One by one, the fireballs rushed forward and charred the targets.
“Amazing

” said one onlooker.
Woah, that’s an interesting incantation. At its core, the spell required “O red flame,” and the phrase “gather betwixt my hands and turn to power” merely increased the power and corrected its trajectory. And as this test didn’t care about the power, omitting the second half still left more than enough power.
In any case, it wasn’t something you would think of if you didn’t understand the incantation, and as you would receive no correction to the trajectory, it was like hitting a far-away target with a bow. It was undoubtably a highly skilled technique.
“Next, number 334.”
Looks like it’s my turn now. I began to head towards my position when the silver-haired boy whispered something to me.
“Let me see what you’ve got. Show me that you’re more than just talk.”
It was just a fireball, but he must have done a lot of research and training. I couldn’t leave him hanging.
I walked up to the iron plate on the floor, shut one eye, and aimed at the target.
Next—
“O eight red flames—”
Eight fireballs appeared before me.
The silver-haired boy gasped behind me. It’s too early to be surprised. My largest improvement was hereinafter.
“Bend to my power and blaze a beautiful azure.”
The fireballs enlarged to two meters in diameter in an instant and began spinning around after turning blue before speeding towards the wooden targets.
Crash!
One after another, the fireballs evaporated the targets and erupted into pillars of blue flame.
With just a small tweak to the incantation, you could do this.
However, there were strict restrictions on when and where you could add words, and you needed a lot of effort to discover those rules.
“

”
The jaws of everyone, including the examiners, dropped to the floor as they stared at the now carbonized targets that had collapsed to the floor in flames.
“Is this enough?” I asked.
“Ah, yeah

”
I turned my back to the dumbfounded examiner and headed towards the martial arts examination hall.
“W-wait just a minute.” A voice called out from behind me.
I turned back to see the silver-haired boy from before, completely out of breath.
“What’s up?”
His glaring look said everything.
“What kind of magic was that!?”
“That was 【Fireball】”
“That’s a lie. To cast eight at once, and with that color—there’s no way that could be 【Fireball】!”
“Regardless, that’s the truth.”
“Then let me ask one thing. Could I do that too?”
“Yeah, you could.”
He had enough ability to compact the incantation and correct its trajectory with just his own power, so he should be able to cast a spell with an improved incantation.
“Please teach me. I’m begging you.”
He lowered his head before me.
“I’ll teach you as much as you want if we both pass.”
Leaving behind that simple response, I once again set off towards the martial arts examination hall.