180 seconds had passed, but Archmage Arlen was still silent. He had a gut feeling that it was already past the supposed duration for Max to maintain the mana sphere, but he didn't want to interrupt him.
He wanted to know Max's limit.
Another 180 seconds had passed, and this time, Max was reaching his limit. Beads of sweat appeared on his forehead, slithering downward to his cheeks, as they landed on the floor, resonating a noise that seemed to be loud.
Max began to feel nervous. The mana leakage was already reaching 3% and Archmage Arlen was yet to tell him to stop.
Just as he was wondering, he suddenly realized that Archmage Arlen stopped counting.
He was instantly distracted, causing his mana sphere to disperse as he glanced at Archmage Arlen, who was staring at him in a daze.
Max was speechless. Did he forget to continue counting?
As though sensing his thoughts, Archmage Arlen was startled awake.
He coughed. "Y-You passed the test."
"How long did it last, Teacher?"
Archmage Arlen felt awkward.
He glanced upward, seemingly contemplating, and said, "More than 180 seconds. Impressive. Alright, let's move on to the next stage.
The Mana Flow Mapping."
Before Max could ask him more about the first stage earlier, he suddenly casted three small floating spell constructs without a chant or moving his hands.
The three small floating spell constructs manifested in front of Max, leaving him no choice but to keep his further inquiries to himself.
Archmage Arlen said, "You must read the mana flow and diagnose the spell structure.
Observe each mana flow movement, identify circulation direction, locate irregular mana fluctuations, and determine their structural stability."
Max was instantly distracted from the three small floating spell constructs.
He immediately fell into deep concentration as he saw the bright mana sphere, the flowing streams of light, the fixed glowing points, and flickering or distorted mana that made up the spell constructs.
Although each of them had quite different nodes where they were placed, they functioned the same.
Archmage Arlen thought Max would only need five seconds to observe given his talent, but he was surprised again when Max opened his mouth after a single breath of observation.
He pointed at the first spell construct and said, "This is a Radial Flow Structure type of spell construct."
He then motioned his finger quite fast, synchronizing how swift he was talking.
"The mana flows outward from the core evenly across channels. However, there is one radial channel that has excessive mana consumption. That is the weak point, as it overcompresses that area causing localized structural stress.
In other words, the spell construct is unstable.
If there's a pressure that increases further, the channel will rupture."
He glanced at the second spell construct and instantly said, "This is a Spiral Circulation Construct.
Its mana rotates outward from the core in a spiral motion. Its circulation continuously expands then loops back toward the core.
However, one spiral channel is misaligned. It becomes the weak point of the construct, causing uneven mana pressure.
But compared to the first one, it's still moderately stable. After all, the construct can sustain itself but gradually stabilizes."
Archmage Arlen was dumbfounded. Max was not missing a single beat of important information at all.
Furthermore, he didn't even take dozens of seconds or five seconds—it was less than that.
Just as Archmage Arlen already lost the attention to listen to Max's diagnosis on the third spell construct, he thought.
Am I witnessing the birth of a genius?
He could barely hear Max's words as he was astounded by his talents.
"The balance node on this construct actually contains mana leakage and this leakage disrupts pressure equilibrium.
This is much worse than the other two. Its stability is critical.
If imbalance increases—"
Max paused when the three small floating spell constructs suddenly vanished.
He glanced at Archmage Arlen with a face filled with confusion.
Archmage Arlen coughed again, but this time, with his fist on his mouth.
He stared at Max in deep silence and suddenly turned his head, glancing at the three target boards.
He pointed at them and said, "Since you can produce a mana sphere, you should be able to launch a projectile made out of mana and hit that target.
I'll be judging the accuracy.
I will give you three, no, six tries since it's obvious this is your first time doing it. Afterwards, we'll officially begin the evaluation on the third stage."
Max glanced at the three target boards and fell into deep contemplation.
At this distance, it's only five meters. But, I have not learned a skill like mana bolt yet.
I guess, I have to rely on my memory.
In his past life, Max chose the Ice Mage on his first class advancement. He learned Ice Bolt as his first active skill.
This time, he was not given a chance to learn an active skill, no skill book and no practice to learn it.
However, Max was armed with future knowledge. His current intelligence points was 25 points and his mana reached 70 after increasing his intelligence points.
1 mana point is equal to 2 mana points.
Max had more than enough attempts to fire a compressed mana that would last five meters.
Without hesitation, he faced his body towards the first target board and raised his hand.
He closed his eyes and visualized his mana flowing inside his body in accordance to the mana pathways until they gathered on his palm.
It was similar to the mana sphere, but this time, Max began to compress the mana sphere more until it was the size of a bead.
The mana leakage was more than twenty percent, and at this point, he had already consumed 20 mana points.
He abruptly opened his eyes and in a split second, he aimed at the first target board.
This time, he conjured a compressed mana on his palm again, which pushes the mana sphere towards the first target board at the rapid speed.
The mana sphere collided with the first target board, albeit not at the center.
Max was quite disappointed.
He mumbled, "I thought it would deal damage, at least, but not a single scratch.
Also, not bulls-eye."
Archmage Arlen, on the other hand, was speechless.