"Yes, senior. I'll try my best." Max nodded and returned to the altar.
The crimson monarch waved his hand the crystal orb disappeared. He then looked at everyone and said, "You guys have more than enough affinity with the fire element, and some of you even exceeded my expectations. Now prepare yourself for the second trial, the trial of strength."
"In this trial, you have to fight the earth golems. These golems do not possess any magic skills but their bodies are very hard. Your rank will be decided by the number of the golems you kill. Any questions?" He asked as he finished explaining.
Aaron asked, "Senior, I think this trial is not fair. I mean, Some of us are strong while others are weak. Doesn't this is favourable to strong ones as they will be able to kill more than others?"
Max also nodded at this. He was the weakest of them and thus fated to lose.
"Oh, you are right. I forgot to mention that to make it fair, your mana cores would be sealed, and you'll have to fight as a two-star mage." The crimson monarch said as he nodded in Aaron's direction.
Max visibly relaxed, hearing this. If everyone has the same level of strength, then he might have a chance to compete against others or possibly win.
The crimson monarch threw some crystal beads toward them "Here, take them. Crush it when you think you will not be able to continue and it will teleport you back here."
"Okay, now I'll send you guys to your battlefield. Remember you have only two hours for this trial." The crimson monarch said and waved his hand. All the altars glowed with crimson light, and they disappeared before they could react.
After the cave was empty, The crimson monarch waved his hand once more, and a mana screen appeared in front of him. As he watched the five contenders on the different parts of the battlefield, he muttered, "I didn't expect to have five people whose talent isn't worse than mine to contend for my legacy. It seems this era has many geniuses. The world is going to get stormy. Let's see who will get my legacy." He then focused on the battlefield.
...
Max suddenly found himself standing on the scorched ground. He looked around and saw no one. He could only see small red hills in the distance and many pitfalls on the ground. The temperature here was no less hot than in the cave. It was like a real battlefield.
"It seems we all were sent to different locations." He thought and then checked his body to see if he had any side effects of sealing his mana core.
"I don't feel any different; my mana core is the same as before. It seems mine was not sealed as I am already a two-star mage." Max thought. He then opened his status window with a thought.
[ Name: Maxwell Garfield ]
[ Age: 18 ]
[ Strength: 10 ]
[ Agility: 10 ]
[ Stamina: 15 ]
[ Vitality: 13 ]
[ Intelligence: 15 ]
[ Mana: 1331/1331 ]
[ Element: Fire ]
[ Lust Points: 0 ]
"Yep!" He nodded in satisfaction when he saw his stamina and mana were full. He looked around to see if he could find any golem. But he couldn't spot any. "Are we supposed to search around for them? Won't it waste too much time?"
Shua~
Just as he was thinking this, mana in his surroundings became agitated, and many golems made from earth element appeared in front of him. With a rough glance, he spotted over a hundred of them.
"Let's see how many I can kill before my mana runs out." He stretched his body and closed his eyes to focus, and shouted [ Fireball ]. Five fist-sized fireballs appeared above him. He had used ten mana points in each to conjure them.
He opened his eyes and hurled them toward the golems' head. With a bang, three of the five golems' heads were cracked, and they collapsed lifelessly while the remaining two used their hands to smash the fireballs away. He frowned at this.
"It's still not easy and takes a lot of mental energy to control several fireballs at the same time. On top of that, they have quite a good agility to defend themselves even though they are made of earth."
"Let's try two then." Max conjured two fireballs and controlled them to the best of his ability as he sent them at the two golems who were nearest to him.
Bang!
Although the golems swung their arm to defend their heads, but one was a second late while the other was a second fast, and fireballs struck them on their 'faces', although they didn't any facial features, and exploded. Their stony heads cracked, and they fell on the ground.
"Two is good for me. I can control them to some extent simultaneously. This is fun. These golems are the perfect practice target for me. hehe." Max grinned. He calculated that he should be able to kill around 70-80 golems if he only cast two ten mana point fireballs before his stamina ran out. He wanted to get better control over this skill as this was his only skill before he could learn more skills, and these golems provided him with the best opportunity.
He wanted to learn a few more skills but there weren't any good skills in their library, and only basic skills were available. There was not any fire elemental skill, so he didn't pay any attention to them.
Magic skills were scarce everywhere, and only common skills were available in the market and not some good ones, let alone elemental skills. Even these common skills were too much expensive for most of people, so very few could afford them. If someone wants to learn good skills and doesn't have enough money, they have to either enrol in the kingdom's magic academies or join the kingdom's Knight force, where the kingdom will provide you with all kinds of skills according to your rank and contributions.
As he was the son of a Viscount, he could just request his father, but the recent situation didn't allow him, and he himself almost forgot about it. Therefore, he decided to get a better control over his [ Fireball ] skill. As for more skills, he had decided to join a magic Academy.
"Fireball! Fireball! Fireball!..."
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Max cast his fireballs continuously and kept destroying earth golems. He wasn't able to hit with 100 percent accuracy as these golems weren't some immovable targets but actively dodged and tried to rush at him and attack.
He kept dodging and attacking with his fireballs. When almost half of the golems were destroyed, his breathing became a bit laboured, and only one-fourth of his mana remained while his stamina almost bottomed out.
