In the Simulation World, a pile of ruined Array Base Plates had already accumulated on the corner of the desk in front of Brand.
Although Brand initially thought the exam question wouldn’t be a big problem when he first saw it, he wasn’t a professional artist, lacking the ability to casually draw perfect circles and squares. Only after actually trying his hand at it did he realize that drawing this thing was slightly more difficult than he had imagined. Of course, this was still within the scope of what he could handle.
Drawing this Array Base Plate did not require profound artistic skill. As long as straight lines weren’t overly crooked and curved lines were as smooth as possible without obvious sharp corners, it would be fine. The main difficulty lay in the sheer number and complexity of the lines required. If he wasn’t careful, the lines would easily intersect. Furthermore, dipping the brush in the pigment was very troublesome, and the ink would often run out when drawing long lines.
As a novice who hadn’t used a brush much, Brand felt highly unaccustomed to it.
After ruining many answer sheets, Brand barely managed to draw the general framework of the Array Base Plate. Thinking about how he still needed to sprinkle various Magic Powders over certain lines to alter the flow speed of Magic Power, and how the empty circles still lacked their corresponding runic symbols numbers one through three, Brand couldn’t help but feel a headache coming on.
He wondered, "There is still plenty of Time anyway. How about I eat something first?"
Perhaps practicing the Array Base Plate drawing had consumed a lot of his energy; even though Brand had already eaten quite a bit of food in the grand banquet hall, he still felt somewhat hungry right now.
At the Royal Mage Academy’s Grand Banquet Hall.
The atmosphere around Professor Morian was somewhat solemn. After questioning Anna in detail, Professor Morian and the group of instructors unanimously concluded that a Mysterious-man had secretly taken Brand away.
They also had a few guesses regarding the motive. Because the entire grand banquet hall was enveloped within the Dean of the Academy’s Elemental Domain, the actions of a Mysterious-man inside the hall could not possibly escape the Dean of the Academy’s Perception. Unless, of course, they possessed formidable strength far surpassing that of the Dean of the Academy.
However, that was something almost impossible to occur!
One had to know, the Dean of the Academy of the Kaya Empire was no ordinary Mage; he was a Great Mage standing at the very pinnacle of the Mage hierarchy. Setting aside what kind of person could far exceed the Dean of the Academy in strength, even if such a person truly existed, what would their motive be for taking Brand away? Brand was merely the second son of a Viscount and a Reserve Mage Apprentice. How could he be worth the attention of such a super-elite figure!
Even if he was a little bit handsome...
"Do you think someone took Brand away out of jealousy because he’s too handsome?"
"Impossible! If someone were jealous of Brand, they could just kill him directly. Why bother taking him away? I think someone took a fancy to his beauty, so they kidnapped him to lock him up in confinement!"
"Damn it! I should have made my move earlier. Now I’m one step too late!"
"Yeah! If I had known, I would have ambushed him outside the banquet hall and just snatched him away when he came to attend the banquet!"
Listening to the Female Mages’ topics growing increasingly bizarre, Professor Morian couldn’t help but massage his temples in exasperation. He truly couldn’t understand what kind of dirty trash was filling the heads of these superficial Female Mages. Brand’s fate was still unknown! Couldn’t they be a little more serious at a time like this!
Fortunately, aside from the large number of female instructors from various disciplines present, there were also two reliable male Rune Array Science instructors. Regarding Brand being taken away by the Mysterious-man, they proposed a far more reasonable hypothesis.
"There is no need to consider a Mysterious-man bypassing the Dean of the Academy’s Elemental Domain; the probability of that happening is exceedingly low. I believe the Dean of the Academy is definitely aware of Brand being taken away, and might have even silently permitted it."
"You’re right, I completely agree with your viewpoint.
"Beyond that, the motive of the Mysterious-man is actually quite easy to guess. We gathered here to take Brand as an apprentice. Abducting him just as he was about to meet us—isn’t that exactly to prevent this from happening?
"So, without a doubt, the Mysterious-man wants to beat us to it and take Brand as an apprentice!"
In just a few words, the two reliable male instructors had deduced the truth of the matter. Their deduction immediately gained the approval and support of the ladies. Following that, all the instructors felt filled with righteous indignation regarding the Dean of the Academy’s biased behavior in this matter!
"Taking an apprentice should be a fair competition! It depends on each person’s own abilities! The Dean of the Academy has gone overboard this time!"
"Let’s go! Let’s go find the Dean of the Academy and demand an explanation! Let’s see which vixen is so shameless about the rules!"
And so, egged on by a few of the bolder instructors, the group of mentors marched aggressively toward the academy leadership’s direction.
At the same Time, at the Moon Lakefront, the Dean of the Academy, Andrew, suddenly had a change in expression and said to the purple-haired lady named Celine beside him:
"Little Celine, they are heading my way. To avoid them following my tracks here, I will retract this clone for now."
After the Dean of the Academy left, Celine looked across the lake at Brand, who was still deep in thought without making any moves. She unconsciously furrowed her brow.
She wondered, "Why hasn’t this little guy started yet? Could he be dissatisfied with my arrangement and planning to turn in a blank exam?"
Celine felt slightly uneasy in her heart. However, since the method for testing Brand had already been decided, she didn’t intend to reveal herself and ask him. Even if Brand decided to turn in a blank sheet, she would respect his choice, wait quietly until the Time ended, and then provide him with adequate compensation.
In the Simulation World, Brand ultimately decided not to give himself an extra meal.
This was mainly because he would likely need to drink an Awakening Potion to restore his Spiritual Power later when doing the Rune Drawing, so it wasn’t suitable to eat too much right now.
After many attempts, Brand had actually successfully drawn the Array Base Plate of the Rune Array several times. However, because the success rate was relatively low, the lines on the Array Base Plate were somewhat crooked and unsightly. Brand, who always liked to pursue exquisiteness and luxury, couldn’t quite accept producing such a defective piece of work. Therefore, he practiced many more times.
Only after he raised his success rate to a certain level and the drawn Array Base Plate was barely passable did Brand finally prepare to start answering the exam.
At the Moon Lakefront.
Brand woke up from his Meditation. First, he glanced at the hourglass on the corner of the desk, which had about half of its sand remaining. Only then did he pick up the brush and slowly begin to draw the Array Base Plate.
There was still plenty of Time; Brand felt completely Calm inside.
On the opposite side of the lake, Celine, who had grown somewhat irritable from waiting, finally breathed a sigh of relief when she saw Brand begin to answer the exam. Constrained by the Dean of the Academy’s threat to reduce resources, Celine had actually already secretly made a decision: as long as Brand’s performance wasn’t too abysmal, she would consider taking him in as a disciple.
However, if Brand refused to cooperate and didn’t answer the exam, then things wouldn’t proceed so easily.
A forced connection would bear no fruit, and there was also a group of thirsty instructors glaring covetously outside. If she truly missed out on Brand—this so-called once-in-a-millennium genius of Rune Drawing—she really didn’t have much confidence in raising a Rune Array Master who could pass the test within two years.