After a short wait, the competition begins.

“Ladies and gentlemen, mages and and all the non-mages out there, get ready to watch some wonderful magic,” the coordinator says, followed by his introduction. “I am Tenkala, I will be coordinating the events today.”

He clears his throat, then gestures around the arena. “The fundamentals of magic are accuracy, speed, range, area of effect, endurance, and of course, raw power. Our contestants will be competing today to see who can manage all of these aspects the best. Without further ado, let's get to the first contest!”

There's a bit of applause from the crowd as things get going. With a wave of his hand, Tenkala gets us all over to the middle of the arena. “First we will test long range accuracy. We have targets set up overhead, allowing the contestants to shoot at incredible distance- if they can! Let's get on with it, contestant number one!”

We file through, each person taking one shot up and trying to hit faraway targets. Some of the longest range attackers are absolutely incredible, hitting targets so far away they'd be over the horizon at ground level. So I guess there are some insane long range attackers around. For me, I throw a small fireball, aiming as accurately as I can, with a little in-flight tweaks, but end up maxing out at a few hundred feet anyway.

From there, we go onto some speed tests. The first feels kind of silly. I mean, it's not for most of the contestants, but it is for me.

They just have a number of targets that pop up, and the faster you can hit them, the better your score. For everyone else, it becomes a test of how fast they can react and strike each target as it rises, and some of them are amazingly fast, turning, chanting, and throwing out spells rapidly.

For me, I spam a barrage of weak spells over the entire field, so the instant one of the targets pops up, it gets hit by a spell already in the air. It does draw a few laughs and whistles from the crowd. Even a few other contestants chuckle and say things like, 'Yup, speed casters.' There are two or three others among the group that basically do the same thing.

After that comes a pure test of casting speed. Just a nice big target to hit as many times as possible in one minute. I watch closely as each person goes, trying to get an idea of average casting speeds. For the most part, they're limited by how fast the altraskans can recite their command words.

The few other human slaves are a lot more interesting. Like me, they don't need to recite anything, so they tend to cast a little faster. However, three of them appear to be... Wizards maybe?

They use fireballs, which I think was a wizard starting spell. But their spells have some sort of cooldown time, since they have to pause for a second after each one. The other two are able to cast faster, throwing out spells one after another. It's hard to tell exactly what Class they are though.

Interestingly, the altraskan speed casters only need to recite their command word once, and then they're able to keep firing their spell rapid fire for a while.

When I go up, the crowd stirs up a little, because I think they think I'm the fastest speed caster here, after my showing in the last event. I have a pretty good idea where everyone else stands, so let's see how I compare...

I take a big, deep breath. I have one minute. Let's see how many shots I can get off. The start chime sounds, and I cast. By summoning ten elements at once, fired individually, and repeating as fast as I can, I'm able to fire off almost fifty spells per second. I absolutely tear through my mana pool summoning so many at once though, so I need to constantly draw in extra mana, and even then, I wind up hitting mana exhaustion after just fifty seconds.

I bend over, hands on my knees, and pant for the final ten seconds, but it doesn't really matter. I landed over two thousand spells in that time, more than triple second place. That one actually draws a round of applause from the crowd, and a couple appreciative claps from the other speed casters. I look over to Master Liina in the stands. She gives me a smile and a thumbs up, so I grin and return to my place.

So, it really does look like my casting speed is very impressive compared to normal. I was able to match a higher level Synergist while using less mana, so I'm feeling really good about myself in that aspect now. I'm still weak, and there are already things I'm really amazing at. I'll definitely get stronger.

After the speed casting test, there's a somewhat more interesting mixed test. It's an obstacle coarse with a bunch of stuff to impede the mages. Except... we have to get a ball at the end, over a line next to the start. But... Tenkala only says that we have to get the ball over the line. He doesn't list any other requirements...

I guess it's supposed to be a test of how fast you can get through all of the obstacles...

I watch as everyone else runs through the course. It seems like the key is mixing offensive spells with buffs or mobility spells to get around things faster.

And then it's my turn. I feel a bit awkward, and approach Tenkala. “U-umm, sir?”

“Yes?”

“I just need to move the ball over the line?”

“Well, yes,” he answers uncertainly, and I hear a few murmurs from the crowd.

“There's nothing else? That's all?”

“Yes,” he says sternly this time, and I cringe away. I think if I ask for any more clarification, he might do something to me... Quickly backing off, I move to the start position. I mean, if the only requirement is moving the ball over the line...

The chime starts my run, and I cast a pull spell, arcing it up over the obstacle course, and back down to the ball on the far side. It leaps through the air, flying back my way, right along the arcing path my spell took. I take one step to the side, allowing it to hit the ground and roll over the line. That was... seven seconds, according to the big timer they have set up.

The arena is silent for a bit, before everyone starts laughing. There are some boos directed at either me or the coordinator, but... I look over at him sheepishly and shrug. He facepalms, now that he understands why I was asking for clarification.

“Alright, alright, moving on!” he calls to get the crowd in order. When I look up at Master Liina again, she's shaking her head and laughing too.

After the silly test, there's an endurance test. From the sound of it, it will be a test of how powerful our spell durations are. Basically, we're supposed to use a single spell to keep a ball in the air as long as possible. He also notes that there are some bonus points for getting the ball far away when it hits the ground, the make it a little more fair to Classes that only have instant spells.

Now here is one of the ones I really wanted to see. I watch very carefully as other mages cast their magic. A lot only have spells with durations of a few seconds, but there are a few. Some who have much longer duration spells in their arsenal.

One mage actually summons an impressive magical typhoon that sucks up the ball and spins it around for a full thirty seconds before dissipating.

So, now I have an idea of average spell durations. As for mine...

I go back over to Tenkala again when it's my turn. He eyes me a bit more warily now. “U-umm, sir? What counts as one spell?”

“Having seen the way you cast, you are allowed to throw one piece of magic at the target.” When he says one piece, does he mean one element, one spell, or...?

“Umm, sorry, so, does that mean there's no limit on how complex that piece of magic is?”

“No, it does not. Just get on with it,” he practically growls, sending me scurrying away.

“If he says I can make them complex...” I start throwing together chains of air-pull spells, mixing them between tornadoes and gusts, and attaching them all off of one another so they'll go off sequentially. It takes time as I keep queuing them up though. I hope the crowd isn't getting impatient...

As it turns out, it's Tenkala who's getting impatient. “Slave, what's the holdup?” he calls, and I flinch a little. He's calling everyone else 'contestant'...

“I-I'm sorry, sir. My magic can take a lot of time to shape.” And I point at the mass of magic next to me, twisting and morphing over and over even as I speak. “I-it should be good enough already, should I just cast it now?”

“Yes, stop wasting my time,” he glares at me and I cringe.

“Y-yes, sir.” I bow my head, then throw my spell at the ball.

As designed, the magic unravels, one spell at a time. Each one is only a couple seconds long, alternating back and for the between a gust of air to pull the ball along, and a tornado to suck it up and hold it in place. As soon as one spell fizzles, it chains into the next one I queued in the magic.

Hmm, while I can get a lot of effective time out of this, each spell itself isn't actually that long, not like when I continuously synergize them. Maybe it wouldn't be the best idea to go for longer duration focus since it won't apply to spells I use like this.

The crowd all stares blankly as the ball slowly but surely makes its way to the edge of the arena. Compared to how overly flashy my magic is normally, this is... really boring. But incredibly effective for the given challenge.

About four minutes in, Tenkala glowers at me. “Slave, is this some sort of joke?”

“N-n-no, sir!” I wave my hands frantically and duck my head. “I formed the magic into a queue so that each piece would go off one after another. That's why it took so long to form the magic, it was pretty complex,” I try to explain, even while I'm cowering below him.

I'm almost thankful when the ball reaches the outer wall of the arena and falls out of the spell, bouncing off the ground. It'll help me avoid the ire of the event coordinator. Especially because my spell still had like forty iterations left...

He just grunts, tallies my points, and moves on. When I get back in line, the other mages are all questioning quietly, because they thought I was a speed caster. I just smile awkwardly.