96: Testing the qualifications of a mage

Red River Territory, Red River Academy!

Nearly four thousand children under the age of 14 were divided into over a dozen batches to take turns before Renn for mage aptitude testing.

"Keep moving forward, don't stop!"

Standing behind Renn, Yiven saw that the device in Renn's hand showed no reaction and skillfully directed the line to keep moving.

One child after another hurried past Renn in this manner.

Initially, Renn was quite excited to use the Mage Aptitude Tester, thinking he could recruit a few more children with magical talent to train as Mage Apprentices to assist him.

To his surprise, after testing over a thousand people, he had only selected a pitiful ten children with mage aptitude.

"Spellcasters really are one in a hundred!"

Renn sighed. Just then, the tester in his hand suddenly lit up, and the light was quite dazzling.

This Mage Aptitude Tester that Kapdo had sold to Renn would glow if it detected a subject with magical talent; the brighter the light, the higher the aptitude.

The ten people Renn had detected earlier barely made the tester glow, indicating that those children's aptitudes were not high.

Now, the light from the tester in Renn's hand was much stronger than before, which meant the child in front of him had excellent mage aptitude.

"A genius has finally appeared. It hasn't been easy!"

Like scratching lottery tickets for ages and finally winning a prize, Renn's mood instantly became much more excited.

"Little fellow, what is your name? How old are you?"

The little boy standing before Renn looked at him with some trepidation.

"M-Master, my name is Maicao. I don't know how old I am!"

Summoning his courage, Maicao held back the fear in his heart and the tears in his eyes as he answered Renn's question.

"I'm sorry, Master, I'm too stupid, but I really don't know how old I am. I'm just an unwanted little Slave. Please, Master, don't hit me!"

As Maicao spoke, the tears in his eyes finally overflowed and ran down his face.

Feeling the tears, Maicao hurriedly tried to wipe them away. His dirty little hands rubbed haphazardly across his face; instead of wiping the tears clean, he just smeared the dirt all over.

Feeling like his performance was getting worse and worse, Maicao gave up trying to fix it. He directly curled up on the ground, holding his head, preparing for the coming blows.

This was a lesson he had learned through experience: as long as he curled up tightly enough, his body wouldn't hurt as much.

"Little fellow, am I that scary?"

Renn stopped Yiven, who wanted to step forward and pull the boy up. He knelt down himself and stroked the boy's messy hair with his hand.

"Hmm?"

Crouched down and waiting for a beating, Maicao found that the familiar pain didn't come this time. Instead, a warm, large hand was stroking his hair.

The warmth from that large hand made him feel very safe, as if it possessed a magical power that gradually calmed his terrified heart.

Maicao timidly looked up and saw Renn's smiling face.

"You're not going to hit Maicao?"

"Maicao couldn't answer the Master's question. Master, aren't you going to hit Maicao?"

Little Maicao asked again.

Renn looked at the tear-stained Little Maicao. He extended his right hand, and mana gathered, emitting a faint glow.

"Cleaning Spell!"

A slight ripple of magical energy swept over Maicao's body. The little boy felt as if something had flowed over him, feeling a bit comfortable and slightly itchy, and then all the dirt on him vanished.

"So magical!"

Seeing Renn's display, Maicao felt it was incredibly miraculous. He stood up from the ground and looked at Renn, who was now at his height while kneeling.

"Noble Master, you are amazing!"

"Hahaha!"

Renn laughed and then asked:

"Do you want to learn?"

Maicao stared at Renn in surprise, then became exceptionally excited. He nodded vigorously and said loudly:

"Maicao wants to learn!"

"Good. Follow me from now on, and I will teach you!"

Renn rubbed Little Maicao's forehead again. Based on his bone age, Renn judged that this little fellow was around eight or nine years old.

"Then will you be Little Maicao's master from now on?"

Maicao looked at Renn expectantly. In his heart, he desperately hoped that the person before him would be his master, so that he might not be beaten in the future and could learn such magical things.

"No, I am not your master. I am your teacher. From now on, you shall call me Teacher!"

"From today on, you are no longer called Maicao. Teacher will give you a new name. From now on, your name is Luca!"

"Alright, little Luca, stand behind me. Teacher needs to continue working; there are still many people who haven't been tested yet!"

After saying this, Renn led Luca to stand behind him.

Little Luca walked behind Renn in a daze, then stood there staring blankly, whispering to himself.

"I have a name. Luca. I am Luca. Luca has a name."

"Luca. It sounds so good, such a beautiful name!"

"Luca!"

The testing continued as one child after another passed through the tester.

Yiven and the others nearby, who were maintaining order and assisting with the testing, looked at Luca with immense envy.

The ignorant Luca didn't yet realize what had happened to him, but Yiven and the others knew all too well.

This little boy had gained Renn's favor; his future in the Red River Territory was now limitless, and the course of his life had changed completely.

Most of the day passed, and Renn finally finished testing all the children under fourteen in the Red River Territory. Unfortunately, since Luca, Renn had not found another child with such high talent.

"Yiven, come here!"

After testing everyone, Renn looked at Yiven beside him and tested him as well. Yiven happened to be exactly fourteen this year.

The tester lit up. Renn hadn't expected his casual action to yield a result, and judging by the brightness of the device, Yiven's aptitude was quite good, around upper-middle tier.

"Forty-five just now, plus Yiven makes forty-six in total. Not bad, not too many, not too few!"

A total of forty-six children were found to have mage aptitude; this was Renn's harvest for the day.

"Alright, from tomorrow on, you will enter the Mage Department of the Red River Academy to study. Those of you who were Slaves are no longer Slaves from now on. You are all Mage Apprentices, the first batch of Mage Apprentices in the Red River Territory."

"Yiven, take them to the Mage Department and arrange their accommodations!"

"Yes, My Lord!"

An excited Yiven eagerly led the group of children to the dormitory prepared in advance for the Mage Department.

Three days ago, Renn had received more than twelve thousand Slaves sent by Field.

It took three days for Renn to settle them in completely. The addition of these Slaves made the labor force in the Red River Territory even more abundant.

Farmlands, pastures, Red River Town—now the Red River Territory was filled with people working diligently everywhere.

Although winter was approaching and temperatures were dropping, the progress of various projects in the Red River Territory did not slow down; instead, it was rapidly increasing.

"With the testing finished, Red River Academy is officially on the right track."

"It's still a bit inconvenient to have the General Education Department and the Professionals Education Department together. I'll have to have Johnny build a new Professionals Academy later."

Looking at the Red River Academy before him, Renn planned to continue expanding the school's scale.

The Red River Academy had already undergone a major expansion that was just completed a few days ago. To that end, Renn had personally worked overtime for two days, using spells to help finish the construction.

Otherwise, the previous size of the school wouldn't have been able to accommodate so many students.