Second Exam (2)

Luca had an idea for the spell he wanted to perform, however, there was a major problem. Though the System had already proven that it could indeed be done as he designed it to, he'd never cast the spell before. Therefore, this spell was only possible in theory, despite being confirmed by the System to be a complete spell. Originally, he had designed it back in Bristol, reaching the status of completion there, but his sudden knowledge expansion caused him to quickly make new alterations to the spell last minute. The System's classification for the first rendition of the spell was Lv. 4, but it had left the revamped second edition unclassified due to its odd nature post-change.

"I need to let you know this now, ma'am, but this spell I'm about to use is... strange and it might cause some serious problems... I've never used it before, though the theory holds up." The boy wanted his witnesses to be aware of his intentions prior to his act.

Samlin interjected before the Head Guildmaster could respond by waving his hand and chuckling, "This array was designed by a Lv. 9 Array Specialist Grandmaster. Unless you can caste peak Lv. 9 spells, this thing can handle it all."

The young Dragonborn was not unfamiliar with the array's history at all, he just preferred to declare some warning ahead of time. Sighing and stretching his shoulders, the boy began to chant in a strange language that, to the surprise of the two witnesses (not counting the dragon familiar), turned out to be the language of the Ancient Elves, the race that was considered to have created the original spells that, with time, were lost due to the inability to cast magic based on a combination of instinct and power. Among the strongest known spells, at Lv. 15, 17 out of the 20 spells required knowledge of Ancient Elvish to cast it, while the lowest level spell requiring it was Lv. 8. This alone alerted the two officials to what Luca had meant when he said it was strange.

In the centre of the room, as Luca chanted continuously, space began to ripple... then distort... then twist... before collapsing in on itself rapidly. As he began to move to the next phase, he telepathically asked for the two officials to alter the virtual space to a large outdoor area like the plains, as it was a large-scale spell. Thankfully, this could be done within the span of two seconds as Samlin did as he was bid. Now, the collapsing space had reached the size of a yoga ball, at which point Luca then compressed it into the size of a grapefruit. The immense power hidden inside the small orb that Luca took in his hand caused the virtual space to quake with pressure, requiring the lead researcher to activate the high-level protocols out of surprised fear, all while Elizabeth stared with a mix of wonder at the boy's abilities and fear of the spell's power, even before it had been unleashed.

Now that it had reached this point, Luca, increasing the chant's speed, wound up his arm and gave the orb a powerful fastball pitch at a 45-degree angle into the distant sky. Once it cleared 300m or so and began to drop back down, Luca's chant had reached the climax, and, slamming his hands together, he spoke the final word of the chant to fully activate the spell for the amazed and horrified audience to witness.

The grapefruit-sized orb suddenly swelled back to its original yoga ball size before dropping down to slam into the earth, like a bad landing without a parachute. Upon contact with the earth, the orb appeared to vanish, only to be replaced by a rapidly expanding hemispherical void that consumed and destroyed everything until reaching a diameter of 160m, consuming everything within its 20,000m enclosure. Then, the enormous hemisphere collapsed back in on itself until becoming a tiny speck that disappeared altogether. The three witnesses (dragon included this time) and Luca were all astonished at the spell's results, revealing an enormous hemispherical bowl 184m deep at its lowest, with all of the earth that had been there previously having been devoured by the enormous expansion of the spatial orb.

Other than Luca and the excited Arcturus, Samlin quickly wet his mouth before asking with mild awkwardness, "That spell... I understand the... gist of what you were... going for, but... what in the name of the God of Light did you make this spell for?" This incredibly destructive spell clearly outclassed most spells below Lv. 7 with ease, especially due to it being a Space-type spell, one of the elements considered the most difficult to resist or contain. Almost anything struck by such a spell would die, without any chance of survival.

"Umm..." Luca scratched his head with a small, awkward grin on his face; he'd never seen the full effects of the spell via the System's design setup, only getting the bare basics. The actual destruction was never shown. This discovery horrified him, more so than the other two witnesses (dragon still not included). "Originally, I was planning to make a small-scale version that would only be big enough to open a small hole in a wall, maybe big enough to make a pit in the ground to avoid flames, basically a spell to aid in escaping, but this happened after I did some changes after my trip to the archives here... I... didn't expect this much damage at all..."

Elizabeth, having recollected herself, coughed grimly, "If you did expect it, I'd be worried about your intentions." Assessing the damage, with Samlin's inputs, she quickly categorized the spell as being at the peak of Lv. 8. The level was increased by one due to its status as a Space-type spell, an exceptionally difficult element to use. "However, thanks to us witnessing it here, we can immediately list off its many flaws. Firstly, the long casting time. The array's information says it required a full 8 seconds to charge up and then activate the spell, a dangerously long time for a solo mage. Coupled with that long casting time is the requirement of knowing enough Ancient Elvish to even begin the chant needed to cast the spell. As a Space-type spell, it undoubtedly needs far more control, and therefore mana, to even cast. How much mana did you use, Luca?"

As Luca was unfamiliar with the sensation of virtual mana, he turned to the System for answers, which he quickly received, "The total mana I needed to cast it was about the same as the entire mana pool of a Lv. 9 mage."

Samlin whistled incredulously, "Yeah, that's a spell that, most likely, only the Archmage of Space could ever perform. And you just made this now, as a ten-year-old boy. That is... I don't really have words for it."

The boy was mildly flushed in the face as he mumbled, "The highest level spell that I have actually mastered is Lv. 4, so I would be a Lv. 4 mage. Without this array, that spell I just cast wouldn't have ever been used. Thankfully, I didn't do it on my own. I could kill myself with a bad experiment with a spell like this one."

"Yet another good point. This spell destroys indiscriminately, making it extremely deadly not just to foes, but to the caster and their allies. As such, this spell should be classified as an Offensive type, Large Scale type, and Suicide Attack type. There aren't that many of the third classification, and for good reason. This spell, obviously, will not be released to the public for any reason, unless you cast it in public, of course."

"Highly unlikely, I'd die before getting a quarter of the way through it. Halfway in, I'd definitely die after burning my life force to power it." Luca was not stupid with the specifics of his own creation, and he immediately knew where such a spell could go wrong, even without the guidance of senior mages.