Beast Taming? Nah, Dragon Herding is Way Better! - Chapter 53

Chapter 53: Planning to Excel
After a while of waiting, Diluc finally has his turn to get examined for this particular trial, participating along with him are familiar faces that takes the trials the same time as him for the one before this, now all of them, along with some additional people from the other passers of the second trial, standing right in front of the device supposed to measure their strength.

The device is a fairly simple one, with a metallic humanoid figure fixed right at the end of the device, with a score board above the dummy that’s based on the speculation of most if not all young men in this place, is a score that goes up depending on the power of the attack that the metal figure receives.

Based on these scores, and how the examiners announce who passes and fails, most of the smarter ones already figured out the estimated range of students who are able to pass this trial, having every single person among them to dish out a damage output no less than seven hundred points on the scoreboard, something that seems quite hard despite sounding so simple given that more than half of the participants who reaches this trial fails with their scores not even reaching the five hundred mark.

While it appears to be quite the hurdle for the normal people aspiring to be a student of this academy, most of the nobility are able to produce a considerably good results even for the passing ones, especially since even they give it their all even if some of them tries their best to not make it obvious, as failing to enter the academy despite being a noble will not only make them appear like a fool and be humiliated, but they will also be most likely cast out the moment they try to return back to their home.

“Please hit the metal dummy with all you got” finally reaching in front of the examination area, Diluc was greeted by an examiner who appears to be a normal human, well, except for the deeply disturbing eye bags resting right on his eye socket, something that seems to threaten to reply his barely open eyes given how big of a mark it is.

Coupled with the lethargic voice, Diluc couldn’t help but feel a bit of pity towards this man, who seems to either work himself to the bone even in the middle of the night or ‘work’ himself in the bed even in the middle of the night.

Scanning the material used to make this metal dummy, the emperor-like young man nods to himself as he found out that it is made from a relatively good material, material that is more likely than not, able to tank the damage he can dish out if he controlled it for a bit.

“What’s the upper limit of the students who had taken this trial so far?” having already gathered quite the attention to himself during the second trials, Diluc couldn’t help but ask as he plans to continue showing impressive results, thinking that there might be some perks he had yet to know for being exceptional in this entrance exams.

Of course, he only plans to show what the Dragon Herding System classifies as ‘bare minimum’ and anything higher than that is something he meant to keep for himself, as some sort of situation inversing, or even lifesaving trump cards that he would rather conceal than show others, for now.

Hearing the words from the young man, this examiner looks at him with his tired, lethargic eyes before revealing a helpless smile, seemingly thinking of something as he takes another look at this young man.

“You must be the reason why we need to adjust these devices” the extremely tired-looking examiner said with a wry smile on his face before he starts speaking once again, this time telling the emperor-like young man what he needs to hear.

“The highest record so far is a student who manages to reach a damage output of one thousand and five hundred through a single instantaneous punch, and even that seems to be something of a normal thing to him given how nonchalant he seems after the attack” the examiner pointed out as he recalls the face of that young man, in fact, as an expert practitioner himself, he saw some beads of sweat on that young man’s neck after the attack but wanting to see for himself the talent of this young man, he decided to hide this ‘minor’ detail for now.

“The news travels really fast here huh?” hearing the words from the examiner, Diluc said as he starts preparing himself, the lethargic-looking examiner merely smiling at his words as even if this student knows about how fast the information transfer between all the staffs of the school is, he would rather not reveal why is that so to him.

“Any attack will do, right?” looking at the examiner once again, Diluc asks as he finishes his preparation, seemingly still stretching himself as he asks the examiner.

“Any attack will do” the examiner repeats as he points to the dummy once again, prompting the emperor-like young man to step forward and come closer to the metallic figure, before reaching his hand towards it.

‘Since I’m known as a mage, I better do it like this’ he thought to himself as fire elemental mana surges from around himself towards his palm that is currently in direct contact with the dummy, something feeling off in his mind until he realizes something lacking in his spell.

‘Oh right, we can’t forget about this’ he mentioned in his mind as he starts forming a magic circle, something really unnecessary to him now given how easily he can manipulate the mana in the surrounding and inside him with just his thought, however, opting not to show too much of what he can do, he opted to still conceal his magic behind a magic circle, more of a decorative one rather than a purposeful one.

Even if it is a decorative one though, there’s hardly anyone who can identify it as such given that the very same magic circle serves the same purpose as the magic he is casting, creating the extremely realistic illusion of this magic being called upon by the magic circle, and not the truth that is the other way around.

Without even muttering a single word, the magic circle collapse into a small area where the fire elemental mana gathers the most, signifying what other people knows as a successful spell casting, another illusion created by the Ruler of the Draconic Realm himself in order to deceive the eyes of the masses, academy staffs and aspiring students alike.

Seeing the absurd thing happening right in front of him, the eyes of the lethargic examiner couldn’t help but grow wide with his pupils constricting in absurd surprise, the intensity of this attack prompting him to wave his hands as multiple magic circles surrounds his arms, all of them a blue colored one that seem to signify the element he wields.

“Water wall”

The examiner mutters as he casts a half dome of water around the device and the young man he is supposed to examine, this barrier of water made from mana something that sets itself as the most useful spells in terms of defense when it comes to water elemental mages, something of a must learn or rather, an essential spell among the arsenal of mages who wields the water element like him.

The power of this spell makes the lethargic examiner all the more surprised, a surprised shared only among the examiners and school staffs given that with their current strength, they are able to see some micro vapors that seems to escape out of his barrier, meaning that the heat produced by the young man’s attack is more than enough to affect a barrier created by an expert like him, even if it is just in a small amount.

‘Monster!!!’ the examiners and the other academy staffs thought of one word in all of their heads simultaneously as they look at the performance of this young man, a performance that seems to be of someone who only exist once in a generation if not even rarer.

After the attack finally subsided, the other young men couldn’t help but feel like there is something wrong, something they felt the moment this emperor-like young man starts casting a spell, a speculation that becomes all the more apparent as the examiner supposed to check him casts a water wall around the young man, something that never happened even when there are other fire elemental mages that takes this third trial before this young man.

“T-this…” after everything settles down and they can finally see the result of the young man’s attack, not only the students, but even the examiners and other academy staffs couldn’t help but freeze on their tracks as they saw the number recorded on the scoreboard, along with the direct effect of the attack to the metallic figure.