Black Solstice-Chapter 34: Performance Evaluation [1]

I trailed behind Professor Olga, passing rows of neatly arranged materials like sealed ink pots, stacks of parchment cards, precision knives, and crystalline conduits. Everything was organized to an almost obsessive degree.

The workstation itself was situated near the center: a broad stone table surrounded by various arcane instruments.

Professor Olga gestured toward it.

"You may begin your preparations. I will observe from here."

Her tone implied ’I will be judging everything you do.’

I set my satchel on the table. My hands were already trembling slightly.

I mean, it would definitely be difficult to concentrate when someone’s intense gaze was drilling into the back of your head like a sniper scope.

’Calm down... It’s fine. Just focus.’

Pushing aside all unnecessary thoughts, I swept my gaze across the table, identifying each item one by one.

In addition to the blank cards, Aether Shards, Stamp Black Stones, and Magic Binding Solution, there was also a neatly stacked assortment of scrolls.

These were the essential tools required for crafting Spell Cards.

Compared to the concept of creating something entirely from scratch, making a Spell Card felt more like "refining" or "re-processing" what had already been prepared.

I took a quiet breath, steadying my hands.

"Alright... let’s begin," I murmured to myself, more to gather my focus than anything else.

Professor Olga didn’t respond, but I could practically feel her sharpening her eyes. Her silence alone was pressure.

Still, this was what I came for.

If I wanted to improve my reishi control, if I wanted to survive this academy without becoming a walking disaster, then this was the first step.

And so, with all the tools before me and a strict instructor watching my every move, I reached for the blank card to begin the process.

† †

From Professor Olga’s point of view, Cassius did not resemble a clueless novice with no prior experience, but rather a prodigious artist of unparalleled talent.

And so, several long seconds passed.

Then came the sound of an explosion.

Spell Cards were incredibly delicate.

Olga stared at the drifting smoke with a blank expression, one simple thought crossing her mind.

He truly was a wastrel who burned money without restraint.

It appeared he had not been content with merely reinforcing his [Imaginary]. Instead, he tried to extract, engrave, and transform his reishi into something far more complex during the encapsulation phase.

A beginner should first learn to walk before attempting to run, yet Cassius was trying to take flight from the jump.

Even a baby needed to learn how to crawl before they walked!

People who attempted such things fell into two categories.

Either those who possessed an overwhelming belief in their own genius,

Or impatient fools with ambitions detached from reality.

Which one he belonged to, she wondered.

"It exploded, huh?"

Cassius looked at the burnt card and frowned slightly.

It seemed he had already expected this outcome.

Fortunately, the lightweight barrier in the cardmaking workshop protected him from injury.

"Well then. Let’s continue."

He muttered those words and pulled a few writing materials from his satchel, then began scribbling frantically as if possessed.

It was as though the explosion had not fazed his spirits at all.

Instead, his eyes gleamed with passion and anticipation, filled with boundless curiosity.

Olga was slightly surprised, but she quickly suppressed it and remained silent, continuing to observe the unusually enthusiastic student.

She wondered how long it would take for him to give up after enough failures and fall I to despair.

Wouldn’t that be something?

Seeing a student fall into despair due to his lack of talent.

It was not strange to think in this manner. After all, she was a devil.

Maybe that would move her icy-cold heart.

While thinking this, Cassius showed no regard for her thoughts, spending his time detonating cards, recording failure data, and studying.

Hours passed.

By now the sky had probably darkened, and all students were already in their dormitories. Instead of returning, Cassius stubbornly continued his experiments.

Needless to say, he had made no progress.

Professor Olga sat with a book in hand about Applied Shadow Theory, already numb to the repeated explosions, even though she quietly thought all of it was a waste.

In her view, his lack of success was perfectly normal.

For beginners, even those who train intensively without regard to resources, it takes many failures before they can create even a low quality card.

Cassius appeared to have no talent at all.

Just like Magical Items, Spell Cards were ranked in ascending order of usefulness, output, and area of effect: from Tier I to Tier VII. Tier I was the weakest group, while Tier VII stood at the top of the utility card hierarchy.

Those with genuine talent for cardmaking could likely produce several functional Tier I Spell Cards early on.

Even geniuses would manage to create Tier II or Tier III cards soon after beginning their training.

Both groups typically started from a very young age. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

Starting cardmaking at this stage in life would not produce meaningful results.

This was simply common sense.

Which was why Professor Olga let out a resigned sigh, thinking the entire effort was pointless. She lazily turned a page and resumed her reading.

A faint light appeared at the edge of her vision.

Even with her attention on the book in her hands, Olga already expected another explosion.

The student she had been observing had failed at this step countless times.

However,

"...?"

There was no sound of an explosion, nor the familiar tearing of a blank card being ripped apart by unstable force.

The light only grew brighter, then gradually faded out.

’Wait, could it be...’

Completely stunned, Olga looked up from her book, her mind reeling from the sheer impossibility of what she saw.

Within her line of sight, Cassius held a spell card in his grasp. It shone like a radiant halo, the runes upon it fully inscribed.

But that was not what shocked her.

What left her speechless was the fact that he had successfully completed the encapsulation on his first true breakthrough attempt.

A complete, stabilized Spell Card was born!

Olga stood frozen, her book hanging loosely from her fingers. It was as though she had just witnessed something incomprehensible.

No, this was downright impossible!

Encapsulation was the final and most delicate phase of cardmaking, the process that even talented first-year students struggled with for weeks. It required precise control, near-perfect timing, and an intuitive understanding of reishi flow that only came from repeated practice.

Cassius should not have been able to do this.

From what she had observed so far, it did not seem like he had even learned how to properly control his reishi. In fact, she would confidently say he had only just begun to grasp the basics.

Naturally, proper reishi control was a prerequisite before one could begin their cardmaking requirements.

Could it be that he had somehow learned to control his reishi while simultaneously improving his cardmaking skills?

That alone would have been frightening.

But the true, mind-numbing absurdity was the fact that he had created a functioning Spell Card on his very first day of learning the craft!

On his first day!

She blinked once, twice, as if reality had glitched and she needed to reload the scene.

But the image did not change.

Cassius was staring at the card with wide, glowing eyes. His breath trembled with exhilaration, and for a moment, he looked almost ethereal.

Holding his chin thoughtfully, the young mage murmured to himself:

"It finally worked. All I had to do was reduce my reishi output to a certain level. If I had gone about the normal method of learning reishi control, it would have taken forever. Thankfully, the previous experiments helped solve that problem."

The card in his hand was bathed in a brilliant light.

It was unmistakably a Tier III Spell Card!

But why did he sound bored?

His tone reminded her of indifferent, arrogant researchers who cared only about their main objective and treated miraculous results as trivial side effects.

Did he not understand the magnitude of what he had just accomplished?

And his words just now... did that mean this entire ordeal had been nothing more than a method for him to improve his reishi control?

"...!!"

For the first time in her life, her heart filled with pure horror.