Episode 5. Beginner's Test

The Precision Test (PT) is a standardized evaluation procedure designed to measure a mage's fundamental capabilities in precise detail.

Through it, a coach can assess the individual mage's tendencies and potential, allowing for a personalized approach to training guidance.

Therefore, labels such as 'child abuser' or 'juvenile PTSD factory' are nothing more than the world's unreasonable slander.

*

I scratched at the few stickers stuck to my head.

"Can something this trivial actually test anything?"

Yuri smiled pleasantly and pressed the stickers down harder.

"Ow-ow-ow!"

I blinked back the tears that had squeezed out and glared at Yuri.

"Tch…"

"Of course it can~ little one~ This Precision Test room will start summoning enemies calibrated to your Ether Synchronization Rate~"

"You mean Abyssal Entities will appear?"

"The ones that show up~? Bam! You just take them out~ They're fake, of course, so it won't hurt much even if you get hit~ Hehe~"

"Hmph. How dull."

At my words, Yuri swished her shark tail.

"Oh, we'll see~ You'd better give it your all~ Ehehe~"

Yuri gave a wave, opened the door, and stepped outside.

I was now left alone inside a vast white room.

"No matter how I look at it, this is a peculiar room."

The enormous room, finished in white tiles, put me in mind of a psychiatric ward.

From a speaker mounted in the corner, the voices of Yuri and Monika came through.

[Ready to start, little one?]

[Hehe~ I do hope you won't cry~]

"What do you mean by—"

Before the words were even out of my mouth, I felt the sensation of grass beneath my bare feet.

*Grass?*

"!!"

I sensed killing intent and rolled on instinct—a massive blade came slicing through the exact spot where I'd been standing.

I raised my head. A colossal Abyssal Entity loomed before me.

*They said it was fake, and yet…*

"The Ether waves look completely real to me."

Grass torn up by the Abyssal Entity's strikes and dirt spattering across my face made it abundantly clear—this was real.

My heart hammered like mad, and every hair on my body stood on end.

*These lunatics. I knew better than to trust mages.*

I'd thought there was something sinister lurking in those eyes of theirs.

While I was cursing them inwardly, a strange window materialized in the air before me.

It was the Abyss System—the kind I'd only ever seen inside an Abyss.

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[Precision Test commencing.]

[Survive for the following duration.]

[Time Remaining: 09:53]

[Score: 1]

===============

"Are you telling me I've actually been dragged inside an Abyss…?"

I threw myself sideways and narrowly evaded the next attack.

Fortunately, the instincts honed during my days as The Exorcist were still razor-sharp, so dodging posed no great difficulty.

"However… if I get h-hit, I think I might die… C-could we not call it here, if this is meant to be a joke?"

My trembling voice embarrassed me, but no matter how I looked at it, this was real.

"P-please spare me. Is it not enough that a small child begs like this…?"

There was no answer.

"These people must be out of their minds! A seven-year-old child with no equipment whatsoever…! I must have been mad to follow a mage! You savages…!"

The stream of curses was cut short.

I rolled to dodge the blade the Abyssal Entity brought crashing down, then lunged forward to put distance between us.

"I don't know a single spell to begin with!"

===============

[Transmitting information on the basic spell: Ether Shot.]

===============

"What is that supposed to—"

Before the words were out, an enormous volume of information was crammed directly into my head.

A throbbing headache clawed at my scalp.

"Ugh-gah-gack!"

It hurt so badly that drool ran down my chin.

The information forced into me was riddled with incomprehensible terms—Ether Synchronization Rate (ESR), Core Image resolution (CI), neural circuit formation within the brain.

"What even is an Image Core! I've only ever heard of neural circuits!"

Not that there was anyone to hear me—so I simply had to get on with it.

I dodged the Abyssal Entity's attacks and sorted through the information flooding my mind.

1. Absorb the surrounding Ether.

2. Convert the Ether into a usable state through the Image Core.

3. Compress the Ether into a sphere and fire it at the target.

A spell with a simple three-step process.

I barely evaded an incoming blade and tried to grasp what this 'Image Core' was supposed to be.

"An image? Those mage types were always going on about it…"