Chapter 259: Times Have Changed

Compared to Kuku's enviable teacher-student relationship, Li En's situation was downright pragmatic.

"But this doesn't seem so bad either—he's too enthusiastic; I need to wonder if he's after something."

Li En thought it was fine; as Kuku had said before, someone with a Heroic Soul inheritance needed only a steady guide—or put another way, an "automatic answer machine" he could consult anytime, get direction from, and have knowledge gaps filled by.

The Heroic Soul would cap his potential and even open new paths, but someone had to stabilize his floor and shore up his foundations.

Even Li En himself felt a tinge of regret.

After all, it seemed unlikely he'd learn any "inheritance" from this Grand Mage; the Grand Mage was far stronger than expected.

"Whatever, I don't care."

But those who claim they don't care usually care a little after all.

Li En left, leaving behind the Grand Mage Alcaste in the room, staring at the exam paper, growing more and more stunned.

"Four hours and twenty minutes." The seemingly young old mage stared at the answers and began to doubt his own life.

The greatest test for modern spellcasters wasn't knowledge or logic—it was "spiritual power" and "focus."

Splitting attention between two or even three tasks was basic training for mages, but that didn't mean double the cost. At first, you felt no drain, but as time passed, exhaustion, spiritual power, and focus all surged exponentially.

Li En didn't know this was actually a trial—and a warning—for apprentices.

The mentor kept asking subjective questions that were nearly impossible to answer, while you had to grit your teeth and calculate content that could never be finished.

It meant using both intuitive thinking and rational calculation simultaneously, with difficulty escalating continuously under time pressure, until you inevitably broke.

The questions themselves didn't matter; what mattered was forcing the examinee to keep answering seriously. When you finally started guessing wildly or answering off-topic, you'd reached your limit.

Very few apprentices passed this test without humiliation—it was just a matter of when they broke.

During this process, the examiner mage often gained authority.

It was a classic "entrance exam and intimidation stick," but Kuku didn't know because it was too ancient.

But precisely because Li En showed no preparation at all, and calmly performed five hours of high-speed calculation and logical reasoning from the start, the Grand Mage grew even more bewildered.

"Maybe this time, I've actually met someone extraordinary."

Kuku's era was too distant; the mage world had changed constantly, with new technologies solving ever more problems, making the original, unimprovable "computational power" and "spiritual power" even more vital.

It was like old calculators—memory, CPU, hard drive—all had to be flawless; but as technology advanced, "cloud tech," "cloud storage," and "auxiliary verification" emerged, rendering all hardware less important, leaving only "computational power" and "network speed" as the core.

The mage world was the same: as spell models, class abilities, and auxiliary tools became fully developed, the "user's computational talent"—the engine's source—became critically important.

In an era where everything was lacking, every component mattered, and balanced capability was key; but when most abilities were already complete, breakthroughs depended on key parameters (GPU, network)—and that's when the long end mattered.

This test measured exactly that, which explained why Li En had to be reassessed. In truth, five hours wasn't Li En's limit—he could have gone all day, but Alcaste himself needed rest.

This "Mage's Hell Grinding Trial" could wear out the teacher before the student; if word got out, Li En would become famous instantly.

Previously, Alcaste taking Li En as a disciple was mostly a political move—after all, Grand Mages had many apprentices, and only a handful ever truly entered the inner circle; just holding the title didn't hurt.

"Who was responsible for his enlightenment?" The old mage finally summoned his disciple.

"Master, it was Luo Yisi."

Soon, Luo Yisi was brought before the Grand Mage.

Seeing the Grand Mage, who rarely showed fatigue, Luo Yisi, a third-ring mage, looked uneasy, wondering if Li En had caused trouble.

"How many times did Li En Sudar attend the enlightenment class? What was his progress?"

These details were all in the recommendation letter, but clearly, Grand Mages didn't care much about apprentice records from preparatory classes—they preferred to judge for themselves.

"He attended the enlightenment class five times total. From first encountering magic to reaching the third ring, it took about a month."

At that moment, not only could Alcaste, despite his vast experience, not hold his composure—even his "graduate students" stared at him with looks of "Are you kidding?"

"You're sure?"

Less than a month to third ring? Why not just become a demi-god before thirty? Learn from that absurd Lex—completely unreasonable Lex.

"Of course—he knew nothing at first, but every class showed him absurd progress, as if each week was half a year."

The other apprentices still didn't believe it, but the teacher nodded silently, acknowledging it—this explained everything.