Chapter 20 I Just Walk Sideways
Under this extremely strict requirement of self-proof, Thompson's mother finally sat down with her face covered. She was surrounded by nobles who were watching the excitement. Although they did not turn their heads around, their deliberate action of covering their mouths with fans still exposed their excitement.
For at least the next month, they will have no shortage of topics to talk about after dinner.
Soon, Joyce's men brought the materials deep into the forest. She handed the bag to Edith, then lifted Thompson up with magic, and left the scene without changing her expression despite his screams.
"I also give up." Thompson's companion struggled to stand up, looked at Edith deeply, and followed the footsteps of his predecessor. The master was disqualified from the exam. Even if he gritted his teeth and completed the task, he would definitely be hated by the Marquis family. It would be better to take a step back and leave.
After the two noisiest people left, the open space suddenly became quiet. Barney rubbed his ears uncomfortably and glanced away from time to time.
Oh my God, when has he ever been so close to the president of the Magic Association!
Edith and Hedda had the nerve to talk to her, for God's sake!
Everything that just happened was too fast and beyond his ability to accept, so he simply shut his mouth and acted like a water weed drifting with the flow.
"To prevent you from cheating, I have prepared the items for you. I won't give you anything if you are short of materials." Joyce threw the package to Edith and raised his chin. "I prepared it according to your magic circle. There will be no mistakes."
"That's enough." Edith opened the bag and took a look. Not only were the necessary materials there, but there were even more. She put away her things and waved to the team members, "There are no large beasts to experiment with here. Let's go a little further inside."
Seeing that Joyce had no objection, everyone nodded.
Lynch, who was ignored, stayed quietly aside, his eyes always following Edith's profile. When he saw her leave, he raised his legs and followed her without hesitation.
He was at the end of the team and disappeared into the jungle following the footprints of his predecessors.
Lin Qi reads along: “?”
The exam task required at least two people to hand in the cage together. Two people from their team left, and now there are only him and Lynch left. If they separate again, they won't be able to meet the basic conditions for completing the task.
......But he just followed Thompson's command. It would have been fine if the other party was right, but the result was a mess. Even if he followed, Lynch would definitely not like him.
It is better to try it out on your own. Who knows, if you show strong abilities, you might even be admitted to the college as an exception.
He thought for a while and made the opposite choice to Thompson's companion: to leave his master. He walked to the place where the explosion occurred, fumbled in the surrounding grass for a while, picked up the sick bird that was blown out of the cage, and then walked to the outside of the forest.
......
"What a stinky merchant's son, a sewer rat!" Marquis Charles stared at the projection motionlessly. Seeing that the tutor he had carefully selected decisively gave up on his son after he obtained the qualification for the exam, he was so angry that his face turned red. "I really shouldn't have believed the smooth talk of those merchants!"
"Is that your son?" The lady in the green dress beside him turned her head curiously and pointed at Lin Qi who looked like a little tail. "Pfft... you have good taste."
Marquis Charles's face was blue and purple. The one who embarrassed him the most was Lynch! Half a year had passed, and seeing him train hard every day, I thought he had forgotten Edith long ago. Who would have thought that when they met, he would immediately rush over to her.
What a loser! The most hateful thing is that the commoner dared not to be grateful for this and even dared to ignore Charles' son!
But no matter how furious he was outside the court, Lynch inside the court still chased Edith like a wandering ghost - he didn't even realize how strange this action was.
He walked at the end completely based on his subconscious reaction and followed everyone to a flat open space deep in the dense forest.
Edith stopped walking. She sensed something strange from the magical fluctuations around her.
It's a demon-eating bird.
She and Heda exchanged glances, and Heda immediately shouted, "I'm tired, and this place is empty, so why not just do the experiment here?"
Joyce had just been distracted by other students' affairs. Hearing this, he stopped without thinking too much and said, "Then here."
She found a stump to sit down on, and frowned as she watched Edith take things out of the bag one by one.
Why do Edith's actions... give people a feeling of both strangeness and familiarity?
She observed attentively.
The materials are arranged from left to right according to their properties; the leaves of the medicinal herbs are torn off in a few seconds, and the magic is engraved on the metal products. After everything is done, the magic circle pattern begins to be engraved on the ground. The whole set of movements is smooth and flowing, which makes people feel comfortable.
Joyce finally realized where that strange feeling of familiarity came from.
Edith's actions did not conform to the common norms of mages. Normal mages would place materials according to the functions of the array and process them before drawing the relevant functional areas. However, she chose to place things according to the properties of the materials themselves and process them uniformly. She only drew in one go after all the preparations were completed.
This process is so much like something that a group of pharmacists could do!
The herbs were arranged according to their properties, and because the refining time was tight, they had to prepare well at the beginning. That was why she felt familiar with it, but because the other party applied this set of procedures to the magic circle, she was unable to react for a while.
Joyce looked at Edith with a more inquiring look, but when she thought of her father being a doctor, she suppressed her doubts.
Edith was completely unaware of what was happening here. She was nervously adjusting the spell in the magic circle, trying to find the right time to put the materials into the right place.
The function of the magic circle on Heda's earrings is rebound, and the steps to create it are "absorb magic power, compress, cast a directional wind spell to pop out." Now she wants to change it into a "bird net" on this basis, so she must make appropriate additions and deletions.
Add a water element spell to wet the feathers of the magic bird to prevent the paralysis powder from escaping; absorb the magic power and save it, add a compression spell to create a high-concentration magic environment in the center of the magic circle to attract the magic bird. Finally, add an absorption spell to restrict the movement of the magic bird; keep the directional wind spell, and with the high ejection speed of the compressed magic, push the bird that has lost its mobility directly towards the cage - wait, cage?
She turned her head and looked at the cage in Heda's hand. It was small, barely enough to hold one bird, and there was no way it could squeeze in a second one. Should she throw away this sick bird...
Edith glanced at the cage, sighed, and still couldn't bring herself to do it.
"Come here." She beckoned Nina, who claimed to be good at healing. Healing and wood magic were similar, so she was also a good candidate for carpentry. "I'm afraid the noise will be too loud later... Can you make a spare?"
She didn't dare to say it too clearly, but fortunately the other party understood and gave her a look that said "no problem". Edith felt relieved and finished the finishing work of the magic circle in a few seconds. She looked up in Joyce's direction and said, "No problem, we can test it now."
Joyce raised an eyebrow and looked down at her watch.
Thirteen minutes.
Minus the time she spent whispering with her teammates, it only took about twelve minutes.
It is twice as fast as the average speed of a mage drawing a magic circle of similar level. It is truly... an amazing talent.
"Show me." She changed her sitting position but did not move away from the tree stump, and nodded slightly.
"Please, President Walker, cast the attack spell yourself and activate the magic circle." Edith made a gesture of invitation, "The stronger the attack, the better."
Joyce yawned and casually performed a high-level fire spell.
A bright red light flashed and sank into the center of the magic circle, but no sparks flew. Joyce's mouth was half open, and he looked at the scene in astonishment.
How could her spell not work!
This was not the end. Immediately afterwards, she felt a strong suction force entering her body along the magic thread she had just extended, and continuously transporting magic power out of her body. Joyce urgently interrupted the magic power transmission, but most of the magic power was still "stolen".
Joyce: “…”
She looked at the magic ball gradually taking shape in the center of the magic circle, feeling both angry and amused: "I asked you to replicate the original magic circle, not to surpass it—"
"flap."
A slightly dull sound of wings flapping was heard.
Joyce subconsciously lowered his voice, and a few seconds later, a brown-red feather tail appeared in front of everyone.
It's a demon-eating bird.
The little fellow was less than half the size of a human palm. He was completely attracted by the abundant magic power. He jumped around the magic circle and stretched out his foot tentatively.
No response.
It immediately felt relieved, flew into the center of the magic circle, and headed straight for the magic ball.
"Open the cage!"
Edith shouted, and Nina opened the cage door just in time. The next second, accompanied by a low whine, a straight figure wrapped in thick magic rushed through the door.
Nina staggered twice, and Barney beside her quickly closed the cage. Then, the three onlookers took turns to use spells to completely reinforce the container.
The healthy demon-eating bird was completely trapped there.
"Done!" They high-fived happily, while Joyce behind them had a gloomy face and sat back in his seat with a slightly amused look on his face.
"This is really weird." She shook her head, "I was actually used and tricked by others."
Not only are the materials snatched from her, but even the "bait" to attract the magic-eating bird is the magic power in her body.
"Absorption, compression, directional wind, all the steps are included." Edith shrugged. "A bird accidentally flew into the test site, but luckily no major disaster occurred."
The remaining three people nodded hurriedly, trying to show their surprise at "encountering an accident".
Joyce: “…”
Joyce: "I know that your self-certification was successful. Now, on behalf of Beaujolais College, I declare that your qualification will be retained."
"Justice will eventually triumph over evil!" Hedda cheered softly.
Joyce was afraid that if he stayed any longer he would not be able to hold back his laughter, so he waved his hand hastily and quickly disappeared into the dense forest.
Edith confirmed that the other party had left, then she put away the relaxed expression on her face and looked at the tree beside her thoughtfully.
"What's wrong?" Hedda tilted her head when she saw that she was not looking at the bird.
"It's a bit strange," Edith said.
"The Manta-eating Birds are very alert and generally don't want to touch magic from unknown sources. I'm just trying my luck to see if I can attract them with high concentrations of magic."
“But this went too smoothly.”
She looked at Heda's confused eyes and pulled him to look to the left: "That should be a fruit tree that produces materials rich in magic. The concentration of magic is also very high. There is no reason for the magic-eating bird to leave such a high concentration of familiar food and fall into our trap."
"so?"
"So, I suspect it is deliberately not moving the tree."
Edith walked over slowly, squatted down, and spread the thin layer of soil at the roots of the tree with her hands.
"......Sure enough." She sighed and made way for everyone to see the situation in the pit below.
Hedda, Barney, and Nina couldn't help but gasp at the same time.
"One, two, three... twelve, thirteen, fourteen."
Fourteen devil-eating bird eggs were lying quietly there, and it looked like they would hatch in another day.
"Fourteen healthy eggs..." Barney's eyes were empty, "It will allow 56 people to complete the task painlessly."
"Oh my god...from now on, I am the only one who can walk sideways on this land!"
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