Roman placed his hands in his pockets as he walked outside the palace and towards the training ground. The wind that blew by was cold, almost chilling, but it didnât bother Roman.
From afar, he could already see the girls training, and this time it wasnât just Aurelia; surprisingly, it was all the girls, but it wasnât a normal training.
Roman walked closer, and he could see they were testing spells on a magical dummy and taking turns. He had no idea what training this was, but he moved in closer and saw that one of the female mages who cast the barrier spell during the matches was there.
The girls were facing away from the path he was coming from, but the mage was facing the girls, so she was the first one to see Roman, and the girls turned around to see him standing behind.
"Roman, did you have a nice rest?" Reina asked with a smirk on her face.
âWhy is she saying it like that?â Roman wondered as he nodded his head.
"Reina came to call you, but you were asleep. Tomorrow was your match, so we didnât want to disturb you," Ava spoke.
âOhh, so thatâs why she was smirking, she must have seen me naked with Anyaâ
"What are you doing?" Roman asked.
"Measuring Mana and spell power, you should join" Aurelia spoke.
"How does that work with a magical dummy?" Roman asked. He knew that to measure Mana, you use the crystal, but this was just a dummy with high magic resistance; there was no way to tell the spell power.
"These are special papers designed for that," The mage spoke as she walked towards Roman. When placed on the dummy and a spell is cast on the dummy, the paper burns depending on the spell power of the mage.
"Really?" Roman asked.
"Yes, Iâll show you an example," she spoke as she placed one of the papers she had in excess on the ground in front of the dummy.
The paper stuck to the dummy, and then she stepped back a little, raised her fist up, and infused Mana in her fist.
Roman immediately infused Mana in his eyes, and the amount of Mana in her hands shocked him; it felt like his entire Mana pool was gathered in just her fists, and then she punched the dummy.
The punch landed with a heavy thud, and a shockwave rippled out, the dummy didnât move, of course.
It was bolted into the ground and has high magoc resistance, but the paper on its chest burned instantly, not slowly or from the edges. It went from white to black and ash in less than a second.
Roman blinked; the power in her punch was definitely enough to take someone out for a long time, and she just wasted it on an example. Even the girls were surprised as Roman looked at them.
"Thatâs...a bit much, isnât it?" he muttered to Reina who was the closest to him.
The mage smiled like she hadnât just obliterated the thing. "That was me holding back, high mana capacity, high output, your spells have to be stable just like that" She spoke with a smile on her face as she looked at Roman.
"Ohh, I think sheâs trying to impress you, do you think she wants to have sex with you?" Reina whispered back.
"Every female wants to have sex with me" Roman replied.
"Weâve all been trying to see how we measure up. Aurelia has the highest so far, but we still arenât able to burn the paper"
Aurelia rolled her eyes. "Probably because Iâm the only one not using spells, and you didnât use your ultimate spell"
"I still havenât mastered it enough to use it regularly. With more training, Iâll get there, but even if I do, I canât waste it on this. I have other spells," Ava replied.
Roman looked at the half-burned pile of ash on the dummy and nodded slowly. "So... I just hit it with a spell and the paper burns? What if I hit it with flames?"
"The flames wouldnât be able to burn it, you have nothing to worry about, and if you do have low mana, you can always increase it with training," She spoke with a smile always on her face.
"Here," The mage handed Roman one of the papers and took the advantage to touch his hand before letting go.
Roman walked to the dummy, pressed the paper against it, and stepped back.
The girls watched him with different looks, especially Reena, with whom he was going against tomorrow. He wasnât going all out; he was just going to test the waters a little.
Roman took a breath and held out his hand. He didnât want to overdo it. But he also didnât want to embarrass himself in front of every girl here as all of them were ready.
He could already see that all the girls had infused Mana in their eyes to see his spell circle.
So he chose something simple, a small fireball, a basic spell he could control well.
[Fireball]
Mana gathered at his hands as the spell circle formed, and then flame shot forward and hit the dummy.
The paper burned, only a little. A neat straight scorch mark, it was done like that so it could be compared to other papers.
The girls were a little surprised, and of course, they were; they expected some powerful spell that did even more damage, but this was the most basic, and now Roman was the weakest of them all.
Reina leaned forward. "Huh, not bad"
Aurelia nodded. "Thatâs good, I think"
None of the girls wanted to tell him the truth, but he already knew as this wasnât really his all, Roman let out a breath he hadnât realized he was holding.
"You have a more powerful spell than that, right?" Reena asked, she was just surprised as she had been training her best for this match to avoid losing, and here Roman was firing a spell this weak.