Chapter 259: Times Have Changed

Compared to the enviable teacher-student relationship between Lord Lord Lord Kuku and his student, Li En's situation was far too pragmatic.

"But this doesn't seem bad either. He's really too enthusiastic; I need to think about whether he wants something from me."

Li En felt it was quite good. Just as Lord Lord Lord Kuku had said before, someone with an Heroic Soul inheritance only needed a stable guide—or, to put it another way, an "automatic answer machine" that could be consulted anytime to point out the path and sort out knowledge gaps.

The Heroic Soul would protect their upper limit and even open new paths, but someone was needed to help stabilize their lower limit and fill in the basics.

Even Li En himself felt a bit of regret.

After all, it seemed he would find it very difficult to learn the "inheritance" from this Archmage, who was far more powerful than expected.

"Forget it, I don't care anyway."

But people who say they don't care usually care a little deep down.

And with Li En gone, the Archmage Alcaster remained in the room, holding the test paper, growing more and more shocked the longer he looked.

"Four hours and twenty minutes." The seemingly young old mage looked at the answers on the paper, doubting life itself.

The greatest trial for contemporary spellcasters was not even those knowledge points and logic, but "spiritual power" and "concentration."

Splitting attention between two or even three tasks simultaneously was a basic skill for mages, but that did not mean double the consumption. At first, the consumption was imperceptible, but as time progressed, the drain on energy, spiritual power, and concentration would increase exponentially.

Li En did not know that this was actually a trial mages set for apprentices, a warning shot to establish dominance.

The mentor would constantly ask difficult subjective questions, and you still had to bite the bullet and calculate content that could never be finished.

It was equivalent to using both emotional thinking and rational calculation simultaneously, with the difficulty constantly increasing under the pressure of time, until one inevitably collapsed.

The questions themselves were not important; forcing the candidate to answer seriously was what mattered. When you finally started calculating wildly or answering irrelevantly, that was when your limit was revealed.

Rarely did an apprentice not make a fool of themselves in such a test; it was just a matter of when they did.

And in this process, the mage acting as the examiner often gained authority.

This was a classic "entrance exam combined with a warning strike." Lord Lord Lord Kuku did not know about it because it was too ancient.

But it was precisely because Li En showed a completely unprepared attitude, and then effortlessly performed nearly five hours of high-speed calculation and logical thinking training simultaneously, that the Archmage grew even more doubtful of life.

"Maybe I really met an extraordinary person this time."

Lord Lord Lord Kuku's era was too distant, and the world of mages was constantly changing. With the continuous development of new technologies and the constant overcoming of various problems, the primitive and unimprovable "computing power" and "spiritual power" had become even more important.

This was similar to old-fashioned calculators looking at memory, CPU, hard drives, and various other aspects; having no defects was the most important thing. But with continuous technological progress and the invention of various "cloud technologies," "cloud storage," and "auxiliary verification," eventually all hardware became less important, with only "computing power" and "network speed" remaining as the core of everything.

The world of mages was the same. With the development and perfection of various spell models, class abilities, and auxiliary items, the "user's computing power talent," which served as the source constant for the ignition engine, had become particularly important.

In an era where everything was lacking, naturally every component was important, requiring balanced capabilities in all aspects. When most capabilities were already complete, key parameters (graphics cards, network) were needed to break the upper limit; at that point, one had to look at the strengths.

This test examined exactly that aspect, so it was no wonder Li En had to be re-evaluated. Actually, five hours was not even Li En's limit; he could truly last an entire day, it was just that Archmage Alcaster himself needed to rest.

This "Mage's Hell Millstone Trial" had worn out the teacher before the student could no longer hold on; if this got out, Li En would immediately become famous.

Previously, when Alcaster took Li En as an apprentice, it was mostly due to political factors. After all, Archmages had many apprentices; only a few were destined to truly enter the inner circle, so having a nominal title caused no loss.

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

"Master, it was Luo Yisi."

Soon, Luo Yisi was brought before the Archmage.

Seeing the Archmage, who rarely showed signs of fatigue, Luo Yisi, a Three-Ring Mage, looked extremely uneasy, suspecting that the Li En he had recommended had caused some trouble.

"Li En Sudar. How many times did he attend the enlightenment class, and what were his learning results?"

These things were actually written in the recommendation letter. But obviously, Archmages did not pay much attention to an apprentice's pre-school data; it was more accurate to verify it themselves.

"He attended the enlightenment class for the first time and came a total of five times. From first contact with spells to the Two-Ring level, it took about a month."

At this moment, not only did the well-traveled Alcaster lose his composure, but even his "graduate students" stared at him with looks that said, "What nonsense are you talking?"

"Are you sure?"

Reaching the Two-Ring level in less than a month? You might as well just become a Demigod before thirty, like that ridiculous Lex, the completely unreasonable Lex.

"Of course. At first, he knew nothing, but every single class, I could feel his ridiculous progress. It was as if one week equaled half a year."

The other apprentices still did not believe it, but the teacher silently nodded, which counted as approval; this explained everything.