"What do you mean my fire-breathing potion is defective? You drink it, you breathe fire! Exactly as advertised!" -Cormin Hornswaggle, Goblin Alchemist

"Please give a gentle applause for our first participant of the day, Hydromancer Archmagus Fibuela Svensdöttír!" Hans announced in a grandiose manner after he returned to the dais following the elven Grand Elder's performance.

Fibuela was the old dwarven water-mage Cal saw in the square three days ago. The same archmage who had invented the water bed she bought. The Unliving dwarf looked positively ancient, although as far as Cal knows Unliving just doesn't age, and typically retained the looks they had when they rose as one - the ones who chose to go around as a skeleton not included.

For her part, the Unliving dwarf carried her age well, the lines and wrinkles brought by age lent the woman a look not unlike that of a kindly grandmother, and a wise elder at the same time. She kept her gray hair long, in three braids that fell all the way down to her waist, while her beard was combed to a luxurious sheen, left loose and unadorned, as it ooked like a silvery waterfall with the way it too fell all the way to her waist.

"I would require the aid of our dear friend Archmagus Gapp to provide a suitable target, please." Said Fibuela, her voice clear and full of confidence, her tone indicated satisfaction at herself.

"Certainly, my friend." Came the answer from the front row of the audience. Archmagus Gapp was the old Tortoise-Therian Earth mage from the square. An individual respected by all in the City, for at his advanced age of one thousand six hundred and twenty-three, he was the oldest individual known who still walked among the living. He was not an Unliving, longevity came naturally for those of his kind, but one whose age was of such magnitude was unheard of elsewhere.

With a single hand motion from the therian, the earth heaved, and boulders of solid rock, each of which formed a rough cube easily thirty meters to a side, rose in the field. The old tortoise then cast another few spells, further hardened the rock, then used another and compressed the cube into a rectangle, now far more dense and solid and durable, its height and width halved. "Good enough?" He asked when he finished.

"Should be safe to use." Nodded Fibuela. "What I will demonstrate today is the magnum opus of my research, a method to make water magic a truly viable means of offense!"

Words said, Fibuela raised one hand and pointed a finger towards the nearest boulder - aimed at its narrow end. A stream of water jetted out from her finger, and slammed into the boulder with such force that the water literally sprayed a fine mist everywhere on contact. Fibuela kept her finger trained at the upper-left corner of the block for a moment, before she slowly moved it towards the lower-right corner. To all onlookers, she seemed to do nothing other than caused water to have sprayed everywhere.

She ceased her spell less than thirty seconds later, and stomped the ground with one foot to the confusion of the audience.

Their eyes widened when with a loud snap, the rectangular block slid apart into two pieces, a very smooth, wet diagonal cut visible on the now exposed surfaces - Fibuela had fine-tuned her control so much that she left a paper-thin layer of stone untouched at the sides and the end, that only shattered with the slight impact her stomp caused.

"I call this the Pressure Cutter." Said Fibuela to the dumbfounded audience, who only now started to applaud loudly "It works on the principle of compressing water under extreme amounts of pressure and giving it a tiny outlet to escape with. My next demonstration will show it more clearly. Gapp my dear, would you be so kind as to stack two of the blocks together, standing?"

Gapp smiled and did so with a wave of his hand, the earth underneath the blocks undulated to his will, moved and securely held two of the rectangular blocks upright, next to each other.

"Thank you." Said Fibuela. "Now, observe closely."

This time the dwarf conjured a large cube of water floating in the air, easily ten meters across each facing, and then formed two equally gigantic hands of water next to it to help in the visualization of the process.

"First we apply pressure." She said, as she manipulated the hands and made them look like they tried to press the cube of water flat with great exertion.

"Then we provide an exit." Fibuela made a section of water glow, which indicated where she made the positively miniscule exit and its size, a literal pinprick compared to the ten-meter cube. A stream of water immediately forced itself out from the exit. The stream struck the left side of the boulder in a spray of mist.

"The difficult part is mostly controlling the direction while maintaining pressure, and the stream loses integrity quite rapidly, so this is only applicable in closer ranges for now, something I will endeavor to improve upon in the future." Explained Fibuela as she manipulated the stream and moved it towards the right side of the boulder steadily, and simultaneously shrank the cube as the hands pressed down on it.

The top half of the boulder in front slid off with a crash, the cut surface as smooth as the previous cut, while the boulder behind it was left untouched, which showcased the hydromancer's complete control over the spell. "But for the time being, I find the results satisfactory."

Fibuela then bowed to the thunderous applause the crowd offered.

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"No wonder she was in such a good mood lately." Commented Aideen as she applauded from her seat besides Cal.

"I never even imagined water could do that." Cal said, still amazed by the demonstration. "How hard were those boulders?"

"Let me see… that size… compression by a factor of four… knowing old Gapp those boulders are at least as durable as adamant steel (an alloy of iron mixed with small amounts of adamant, renowned for its extreme durability, and prohibitively expensive due to the need for adamant in the production)." Aideen calculated for Cal, since the younger woman was less familiar with the capabilities of the old tortoise. "Considering Fib took less than thirty seconds to bisect one of those lengthwise, I imagine that spell would cut through a human like a hot knife through butter."

"I will never look at hydromancers the same way again" Said Cal, as she pictured in her mind how a hydromancer could turn monsters into chunks of meat.

"To be fair, Fib did spend like one and a half centuries getting that spell right, so I highly doubt anyone would be able to replicate it anytime soon." Aideen said. "And not like there's that many hydromancers out there of her caliber."

"True, I guess." Cal admitted. "I assume everyone participating will be an Archmagus then?"

"Not necessarily, many a Magus also present their inventions here." Aideen said. "We don't discriminate, though to be fair, I've never even seen an archmage impress Hans enough to be allowed to perform here."

The distinction between the very similar terms, mage and Magus, archmage and Archmagus, rested entirely on the judgement of their peers. One only qualified as a Magus or Archmagus after they have proven their mettle with magic in practical ways, and not before, regardless of how brilliant the individual might be academically or how high their mana reserves measured. Many mages gained their title as Magus later in life, especially those learned and trained in less prosperous nations, but many never do, as they often eschewed to improve themselves, and instead just sat comfortably and enjoyed the perks their title brought them.

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"Let us warmly welcome our next participant of the day! Hemomancer Magus Shi-Huang will present his newest findings on his research of three centuries!" Announced Hans after the field was restored to its former shape and Fibuela had taken her leave, as she now sat on a seat saved for her in the front-most row.

Magus Shi-Huang was a Human Unliving, old and wrinkled, with a shiny bald head and long, straight beard kept in a manner often affected by Al-Shan emperors. The man also dressed in traditional Al-Shan garments, so his origins were obvious for all to see.

"To show my most recent findings, I would like to ask for a volunteer from the audience." Said the magus once he assumed his place at the dais, a simple bed set beside him - a straw mattress over a wooden frame. "I would require someone who has felt discomfort or ails that not even repeated uses of healing magic could fix, and at least of half human heritage"

Cal stood up and raised her hand, which garnered the attention of the Magus and a good portion of the audience, before she made her way to the dais after the Magus pointed at her and nodded.

"A fellow Hemomancer, Water major. I could not have asked for a better volunteer." Said the old mage with a smile as his mana washed over Cal in a cursory inspection. "Am I correct in assuming that some parts of your body just always felt a little bit off? Likely parts that had been severed and reattached in the past."

"Okay, I'm impressed already. Nobody ever even suspected that, and I've worked with many healers." Cal replied, honestly impressed.

"Don't tell me which areas trouble you, just tell me your impression after the treatment." Said Shi-Huang with a grandfatherly smile. "For reference, when was the last time you had healing magic applied to your body?"

"That'd be two days ago! By me!" Chimed Aideen in from her seat, her voice carried over the distance with practiced ease. "If you can fix what even I didn't notice, I'd say you just secured yourself an Archmagushood right there!"

"Why, I shall truly endeavor to do my best then." Shi-Huang said with a wider smile. "Please lay down on the bed and relax." He added to Cal, who did as he asked.

"My research has been focused on the pathways of the body." The old Magus explained, while he opened and fiddled with a cloth in which a multitude of needles of all shapes and sizes were stored. "And the main reason I needed a volunteer with human heritage is because the body I experimented the most with is my own, which is a human body. Should I succeed in my endeavours, I plan to expand my research to encompass all other races as well."

"As a fellow hemomancer, I am certain that you are well aware of the pathways through which our blood flows through our body." He stated to Cal, who nodded. The old man now held both of her wrists and used his mana for a more thorough inspection. She felt that his affinity was similar, yet different to her own, clearly a Life-Major. "Yet how familiar are you with all the other pathways, my young friend?"

"Not very." Cal admitted.

"That is normal. Now, please don't move, this might sting a bit." Said the old Magus as he started to place one needle after another into Cal's body, and gave a quick but measured pulse with his mana each time. The pain had not even bothered her, though she guessed to people unaccustomed to pain the warning was justified.

The treatment continued for fifteen minutes in silence, while Cal tried her best to sense what the old Magus did, to little avail. She could sense him do something, but cannot tell for certain what he did. It was only after he carefully removed every single needle he put in that Shi-Huang gave Cal a nod.

"Try moving whichever part of your body troubled you before." He said.

Cal immediately moved her left arm through the motions as she sat up. Her eyebrows creased as she felt the sensations, then she grew perplexed as she went through more complicated motions.

"It's almost back to how it was at first…" She mumbled, still somewhat in disbelief. "My arm always felt a little off since the first time it got severed and reattached… I don't think it's felt this good in decades!"

"Your arm has shown much wear and tear, my young friend." Said Shi-Huang happily. "It will probably take three to five more sessions to get it fixed to the way it was before any violence happened to it."

"Can I schedule further treatments after this festival?" Cal asked immediately. "Vitalis be damned, if you're willing to teach, I would love to learn this craft myself, whatever the cost!"

"You're a Water-Major, so if you were to learn this you'll likely only be able to apply it to yourself." Said the old Magus after a moment of contemplation. "But I assume that is exactly why you want to learn it, am I right?"

"Indeed." Cal admitted. "I've never taken it easy and got torn up pretty often."

"I would not mind sharing the knowledge. It is my intent to begin with to spread the knowledge once it encompasses more races and is simple enough less talented hemomancers could use it without difficulty." Said the old man, his hand stroked his beard as he spoke. "We can discuss remittance on a later date."

"Congratulations, Cal." Said Aideen, as she had moved to the dais herself during the conversation. "And congratulations, Archmagus Shi-Huang. Your centuries of labor has brought us to a new frontier heretofore uncharted. We are proud to count your presence amongst us." Aideen said while shaking Shi-Huang's hand, for the first time since Cal knew her adopting a formal tone of speech.

She realized immediately, that Aideen was there in her capacity as a founder of Paradise and a living legend, to congratulate another Archmagus on the success of his life's work.

A great contrast to the carefree, openly blunt woman Cal had grown familiar with these past few days.