Leaving the scene, Ether and Adam sorted through the spoils they'd gotten from catching the cabin warrior.
-Doping potions.
-2 mana enhancers.
-2 strength boosters, for knights.
-5 number tags.
The condition for passing was 5 number tags.
With this, one of the two could pass, but neither said they'd go first.
The two of them were already comrades who'd shared their hearts.
The victory a moment ago wasn't an individual victory but their victory.
The win over the warrior looked like something Adam had achieved on his own, but in truth Ether had also secured number tags by taking care of the participants hiding in the bushes.
Without Ether's help, they might both have been ambushed and killed.
Above all, it was Ether who'd cut off the warrior's head at the end.
Come to think of it, aren't I way too weak?
"...Hmm."
"Why the face?"
Adam, lighting the campfire, spoke.
"Honestly, I'm a little shocked at how weak I am."
"You say you're weak while using explosion magic that brutal?"
The praise made the corners of his mouth rise slightly, but his heart wasn't at ease.
It was enough to knock out even Imperial knights, and yet the man had survived a compressed explosive sphere.
Any other mage who heard him would curse him for being too full of himself, getting shocked because he couldn't subdue someone with a single spell, but it couldn't be helped.
A grimoire's magic had to be special.
Because of the curse, he was living a life of insomnia, living bomb, force-majeure terrorist, a diabetic who'd die without mana stones, and the magic's performance was mediocre too?
'Then it really is just a curse.'
People naturally believe they've been blessed, and Adam, too, wanted to believe this grimoire was a blessing.
So he wanted to get stronger, and desperately wanted to find evidence, any evidence, that this wasn't a curse.
Chewing on jerky, Ether asked.
"Adab."
"Finish eating before you talk."
Ether spoke while chewing on the jerky.
"Arcanishts and magesh aren't shtrong jusht because they know a lot."
"I know. The person I know said mana control was the most important thing."
"That's part of it, but no."
"Sorry?"
"It really seems like the person who taught you magic didn't teach you anything. Actually, apart from mana control, there's something called a stage that raises a mage's skill."
Adam turned his head toward Ether.
"By any chance, is there a mage ranking system like 1st Circle, 2nd Circle?"
"There's a system like that, but talking about it here is meaningless. The point is that mages have stages too, and the reason you're weak, Adam, is that your stage is still low."
Of course Adam's stage was low.
It hadn't even been a year since he'd started learning magic.
Ether, grilling jerky over the campfire, went on.
"Even magic families have their dimwits. Why do you think they have low stages despite their good bloodlines?"
"Well. Aren't they just lacking talent?"
Talent.
She seemed sensitive about the word, because the moment she heard it, Ether's brows drew together.
"Talent is an invisible illusion. Talented people do their best too, so you can't tell whether that person succeeded because of talent or because of effort."
"Right. Talent can't be measured. You can't put value on something you can't see."
Adam agreed wholeheartedly.
"Raising your stage isn't about talent. It's about character: knowing yourself and understanding who you are."
Character?
Isn't that an overwhelmingly vaguer concept than talent?
"I'll give you an example."
"The continent's Archmage Aicolman reached a stage in his youth. But they say the time he truly broke through the wall was in his late 20s."
"People can't relate to it at all, but the Archmage said that only after he recognized his lack and achieved something did he reach the stage where, beyond other people's recognition, he became truly convinced he himself was an Archmage."
"Knowing your own lack and desires. That's the shortcut to climbing to a stage."
He didn't really understand what she meant, but somehow he felt like he got it.
"Ether, have you by any chance reached a stage?"
"Hehe, I'm not telling. Anyway, it's not as grand as a stage, but I do know what my lack is."
He didn't ask what that lack was.
Before he knew it, this young girl chewing on jerky looked big to him.
Knowing my own lack.
That leads straight to a change in magic.
Adam took the jerky she offered, ate it, got up from his seat, and moved off in a hurry.
Because it felt like something was about to come to him.
"Hm?"
Just then, a massive shock rippled from the other side of the forest.
THOOM!
THOOM!
It was the sound of footsteps.
"That sound......."
"The hidden boss......."
The 3rd rule came to mind.
-Three hidden bosses will appear at the teleport site. Any applicant who takes a hidden boss's number tag passes unconditionally.
***
The Imperial Palace Recruitment Exam Committee.
Deaths during the exam were surprisingly rare.
Participants could declare surrender, and if it got dangerous, the committee forcibly recalled and treated them.
The Recruitment Exam always put safety first, so the rule was to forcibly recall anyone who looked certain to die.
But with the cabin warrior, it had failed, which was rare.
His neck had been cut faster than the recall could happen.
"A terrifying team."
The chairman muttered, watching the crystal ball screen.
On the other side of the glass, the Recruitment Exam was playing out in real time.
"It's been a long time since an applicant that age wielded fire magic at that level."
"But is that really fire magic? It went BANG! and blew up."
"Maybe they thought it was arcane magic."
"Hmm, is that it? It seems like it's beyond that level."
The salaryman vice-chairman was easily convinced.
"More importantly, Vice-Chairman, why are there so few injuries today?"
"Are the hidden bosses asleep?"
"Check, quickly."
The hidden bosses were what made the Imperial Palace exam popular.
The Imperial Palace Recruitment Exam had 600 participants in total.
Theoretically, as many as 100 could pass.
For entertainers, the fun comes from fewer passers and more participants.
After some deliberation, the committee created the hidden bosses.
It was a genius idea that succeeded at both fun and cutting down the number of passers.
The hidden bosses were the jokers.
The trademark of the Recruitment Exam that changed the whole board.
The board-shakers everyone waited to see appear.
But today, the hidden bosses weren't rampaging.
***
"Chairman, I've found the cause."
The vice-chairman said, having watched the footage.
"Right now, one hidden boss has killed the other 2."
The chairman came running over in a hurry.
"Talk sense. This year's hidden bosses were prepared by that Third Princess, of all people. There's no way she'd bring in magic beasts that weak, is there?"
"The Daedalus and the Fortress Diamond Bear that were prepared are both dead."
It was absurd.
"Switch the screen."
When he checked the screen, the chairman's jaw dropped.
It was true.
The two giant magic beasts were wrapped in tree roots, vomiting blood from their mouths.
"What is this? What kind of magic beast is it?"
Just then, a voice came from beyond the crystal ball.
"Who are you calling a magic beast?"
The hidden boss answered.
The chairman got goosebumps at the tone, as if it knew it was being watched.
"Th-th-that's......!"
"Chairman, didn't you check the hidden bosses?"
Black boots and a black coat.
Aicolman, sitting on the magic beast's back, glared in the direction the chairman was watching from.
"Her Highness... said she'd bring the Archmage, but."
The chairman's legs gave out.
"That crazy princess! Don't tell me she brought him in as a boss?"
The vice-chairman stared blankly at the Archmage on the other side of the crystal ball.
'It's the Archmage in the flesh!'
The vice-chairman had known the Archmage would appear as a boss.
He'd assumed the man would naturally be brought in as an honored guest, so a lowly official nobody like himself would never get to see him, but as a hidden boss, of all things!
"Forgive me for greeting you so late!"
"No need. You trash."
"Yes, sir!"
The vice-chairman, seeing a celebrity, breathed hard.
"The Empire is still wasting its time on nonsense, I see. Running a gambling den over selecting the Palace's key officials. I was so furious that I killed the nearest magic beast before I knew it."
Aicolman got up off the magic beast's corpse.
"I'm sorry about the magic beast I killed."
"Ah, n-no, sir!"
"I'm not sorry to you lot, but I hate being in debt. The magic beast was your property, so I'll work as much as that magic beast would have."
"Work... You don't mean."
Aicolman put his hand on the ground.
"Now. Shall we start lightly?"
He sent mana into the earth.
Like the roots of a giant World Tree spreading through the earth, his mana spread wide across the entire exam site.
【Grass and trees, become a forest】
For the first time in a long while, the Archmage chanted a spell.
***
"Wooooooah!"
The gamblers watching the Recruitment Exam let out a roar.
2 hours after the start of the Imperial Palace Recruitment Exam.
500 participants.
7 passers.
The gamblers watching the match waited for the highlight with sweaty palms.
It was about time for the hidden bosses to go on a rampage and wipe out half the participants.
Watching which magic beast would rampage was also one of the Recruitment Exam's viewing points.
Just then, a sudden anomaly occurred.
This year, no magic beast came out.
Instead, trees shot up across the entire exam site.
It looked like a far less thrilling event than a magic beast.
Voices of disappointment came from the stands.
But, overturning their thoughts, the living, moving tree roots cut the participants down by half in an instant.
The stands filled with questions about what was happening.
Just then, the face of Archmage Aicolman was caught on the screen.
"Isn't that him?"
"The Archmage......."
"How much money did the Imperial Family spend?"
"Daaaaamn! I knew I could count on them! Everyone, be grateful to me. 5% of that appearance fee must have come out of my wallet!"
The audience praised the Imperial Family's booking power.
Voices echoed about how lucky they were that they'd bought tickets this year.
But for the examinees on site, it was hell.
"Yohan, you moron, get up, quick!"
Giant trees blotted out the sky.
Tree roots like elephants pushed the applicants aside like garbage.
Half the participants were recalled in an instant.
"You're the eldest daughter! I said run!"
"And you're the eldest son......."
The young ladies from prestigious families had never imagined they'd be eliminated so meaninglessly.
Participants who'd formed teams pushed each other's backs, praying for each other to pass.
Just then, the eldest son of a prestigious family met the eyes of a man looking down at them from atop a tree.
"That guy's the hidden boss?"
Aicolman looked down briefly at the applicant who'd met his eyes and spoke calmly.
"Wouldn't it be better to run, quick?"
A baptism of roots surging in like a storm.
People caught in the countless mass were recalled, but being crushed under a tree meant instant death.
Looking at the wall of soil that had already grown too big, the eldest son of the prestigious family lost the will to fight.
I'm going to die.
I can't take on a natural disaster like that.
Why did I have to take the exam this year of all years?
The moment he closed his eyes, his chest full of regretful grief.
BANG!
Before his eyes, with a blue flame, several of Aicolman's trees were snapped at the waist and fell.
"......."
The eldest son of the prestigious family looked up ahead with a dazed face.
Before his eyes, a man and a woman in black robes were blocking the Archmage's path.
"What a waste. I used up mana for nothing."
"Ether, are you the type who worries more about mana than about someone about to be crushed to death in front of you?"
"Sorry? Isn't that obvious?"
"......."
The eldest son of the prestigious family looked up blankly at the man and woman.
He couldn't see their faces because of the robes, but he could definitely feel it.
These two were stronger than him.
"Why aren't you running? You want to die? Already sick of living?"
"......!"
The boy ran immediately.
Thinking even saying thanks would be a nuisance, he immediately surrendered and was sent back to the committee.
Aicolman spotted the small man beneath the severed tree roots.