Shirley restrained her smile and walked over to Adam, pushing her sister aside, "This might seem abrupt, but telekinesis is very important to us. The two of us tried to optimize the rune structures, but since we have no knowledge of how it works, the efficiency is very low. If you'd like, we are willing to exchange our own knowledge equal to the value of yours."
Their conversation caught the attention of the rest of them.
Adam's name was well-known among other academies. If they were able to listen in to the conversation, they might be able to reap some benefits.
The apprentice named Ike came over with a glass of wine, paying tribute to Adam, "May I listen as well? I'm interested in telekinesis as well."
"You..." Hailey glared.
Ike merely conjured thirteen runes before him and combined them together one by one before infusing it back into his own body. After doing this, he felt powerful, expecting everyone to look at him with amazement. Instead, he was only greeted with Hailey's sneer.
"Tch, I thought you were about to show us something powerful," she snickered, conjuring her own set of twelve runes.
Ike's fists clenched tightly.
Shirley ignored the both of them and kept her eyes on Adam, "As you can see, the two of us can only optimize runes to this extent."
"It's already very good," Adam praised.
Seeing that no one was paying attention to him, Ike's face was clearly upset. He forced out a smile before excusing himself.
"Tsk tsk tsk!" Hailey deliberately made a strange and loud sound.
Adam felt a little strange. Ike could be trying to provoke him, but Adam felt like he didn't have any malice in him... as if he was trying to show off.
"Don't pay attention to him," Shirley interrupted his thoughts. "He is the blood relative of Transdimensional Mage Charlie."
Hailey winked back at Shirley and teased, "Seems like Ike likes yo-"
Before she could finish her sentence, her sister had already sent out a psychic blast towards her.
"Nonsense!" Shirley glared, returning her attention back to Adam. "So, can we exchange our knowledge?"
Adam took Ike's matter to heart, knowing that human emotions are irrational in this regard -- he decided to keep on guard with Ike. As for the exchange, Adam had no qualms about it.
He conjured nine runes before them and said, "Sure, but I want to know what you are exchanging with me."
Both of them have a good eye. At a single glance, they could see that Adam's meditation runes were far more advanced and complex than theirs. They looked at each other knowingly and produced a document out of their own portable space.
"This is the battlemage trial data recorded from the Rex Tower."
"Not enough," Adam shook his head. Having this document now means nothing now that the trial is already looming over them.
Shirley wasn't surprised, producing another document out of the portable space, "And here are the research results between my sister and I -- constructing spells and composite magic of opposite elements."
Adam revealed his two palms -- a tiny pillar of fire raised from one palm, and the other an orb of water. Under the stunned gaze of the two sisters, he combined both of them into one and detonated the both of them.
"There is some value to that, but it still isn't enough," Adam said, the steam dissipating across the room. Adam could already construct magic between two completely opposite elements, so their research could only be used as reference.
Hailey was distressed, her psychic barrier fizzling at the explosion of steam and wailed, "He..."
She has no idea of the concept of bargaining -- no one would be willing to sell the results of their hard work cheaply. She felt disrespected.
"Shirley?" Hailey said, and their gazes met together. They instantly knew each other's thoughts -- Hailey wanted to hand over the core knowledge behind their water and fire composite magic.
Shirley bit her lip and produced another document, "This is the highest price we can pay -- the core knowledge of our magic."
Adam's eyes lit up and agreed. He recorded the calculation methods of his nine runes and handed it over to the two.
Later, Adam and Mage Victor walked out of this room, wanting to find another independent space to rest in.
Before leaving, Mage Victor warned Adam, "Don't research anything too advanced for now. The Tower may call for you at any time, and being late means losing your qualifications. You can peek into the twins' research, but don't try anything for now. Besides, you still need to create something that suits you."
Adam nodded, bidding Mage Victor farewell before going into his room.
He opened the document containing information about the battlemage trial. After reading it, he found that the content of the trial was somewhat different from what he thought.
Originally, he thought he would be brought into a specific trial zone with other apprentices to fight against antimage apprentices of the same level. However, according to the document, the real trial required them to lurk in an area where antimages run wild. They needed to kill a full-fledged antimage.
After reading the document, Adam felt sympathy for antimages.
Mage Santa organized war trials that cleans up all the Level 3 antimages, leaving only the Level 2 antimages as training dummies for apprentices.
The trial methods were all different and can be personally selected by the apprentice -- some include teamwork, some include a solo assassination, some include exterminating all antimages in an area...
Each choice will affect the roles they play in future wars, but it wasn't described in detail in the document. It merely emphasized that their choices matter.
After reading the document, Adam put it away. He started to read the sisters' research on constructing composite magic. Upon reading it, he couldn't help but laugh -- this research was merely trying to prove that they were doing something. The combination of two completely opposite elements can be completely accomplished by his own psychic power.
However, Adam wasn't angry. These two documents were merely the starters, and he was just about to get to the main course.
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