The next morning, the air in Ray’s suite was filled not with the smell of failure, but with the hum of laborious, grinding effort.

Ray stood in the center of the practice room, his feet planted in a textbook stance that was technically perfect but stiff as a board. He held out his right hand, his brow furrowed in a mask of intense concentration. He wasn’t faking the sweat on his forehead; he was forcing his body to suppress its natural efficiency, fighting his own reflexes to perform the spell slowly, deliberately, like a student reading from a manual.

“Ignis…”

Ray chanted, elongating the syllable, his hand trembling slightly.

“Jaculum.”

He pushed a small amount of manipulated ambient Mana into the construct. It didn’t fizzle. It didn’t smoke. A ball of orange fire, the size of an apple, coalesced in his palm. It was stable. It was real.

Ray thrust his hand forward. The Fire Bolt sailed across the room. It didn’t streak like a lightning strike; it traveled with the leisurely pace of a thrown rock. It struck the practice dummy in the chest with a dull thud and a small puff of sparks, scorching the leather but failing to knock it back.

It was a functional spell. It was a successful spell. But in a real duel, Ray would have been stabbed three times before he finished the chant.

From the corner of the room, a loud, rattling snort broke the silence.

Master Zipkin sat slumped in his favorite chair, his wide-brimmed straw hat pulled low over his eyes, his legs stretched out and crossed at the ankles. He shifted slightly, scratching his stomach through his stained tunic without opening his eyes.

“Loud,”

Caleb mumbled from under the hat.

“And bright. Two things I try to avoid before noon.”

Ray lowered his hand, letting out a breath he had been holding. He walked over to the small table where Rina had laid out a plate of flaky pastries, Caleb’s ‘consultation fee,’ and poured a cup of tea.

Caleb’s nose twitched. He sat up, the lethargy vanishing instantly as he reached for a tart.

“Ah. Breakfast part two.”

He took a massive bite, chewing happily.

“So? You woke me up. You usually just fizzle quietly in the corner. What’s the occasion?”

Ray sat opposite him, leaning forward with the eager, nervous energy of a student who was about to make a terrible life choice.

“Master Zipkin,”

Ray began, his voice serious.

“I’ve made a decision. I’m going to register for the Promotion Trials.”

Caleb froze. The pastry halfway to his mouth stopped. He stared at Ray, blinking slowly, as if Ray had just announced he was planning to fly to the moon by flapping his arms.

Then, a low chuckle started in Caleb’s chest. It built into a wheeze, and finally, a loud, barking laugh that made crumbs fly from his mouth.

“You?”

Caleb gasped, wiping a tear from his eye.

“The kid who takes ten seconds to light a candle? You want to enter the PromotionTrials?”

He laughed again, shaking his head.

“Oh, kid. That’s rich. You’ll be eaten alive. The first round might be akin to a spelling bee, but the 2nd round is a brawl. You’re… well, look at you. You’re an academic. You’re not built for the pit.”

Ray looked down, feigning a hurt expression, but kept his voice determined.

“I have to try, Master. I need to prove that my method, my engineering approach is valid. And… I need the stipend.”

Stolen story; please report.

Caleb’s laughter died down, replaced by a look of lazy, cynical pity. He leaned back, crossing his arms.

“Ambition,”

he sighed, the word sounding like a curse.

“It’s a terrible disease, Ray. Makes you do stupid things. Makes you work hard for no reason.”

He looked at Ray’s determined face and shrugged.

“But you know what? I think you should do it.”

Ray blinked, surprised by the pivot.

“You… you do?”

“Absolutely,”

Caleb said, grabbing another pastry.

“There’s no cure for ambition like a good, hard failure. You need to go out there, get knocked on your ass, and realize that the world doesn’t care how hard you try. Once you fail, you’ll see that being mediocre is actually quite comfortable. You’ll stop trying to be a hero and start enjoying the naps.”

He grinned, a genuine, supportive smile rooted in absolute cynicism.

“I’ll even sign your sponsorship form. Consider it my contribution to your education. The lesson of ‘Reality 101.’”

Ray suppressed a smile. It was exactly what he needed.

“Thank you, Master. I appreciate your… support.”

“Don’t mention it,”

Caleb mumbled, mouth full.

“There is one thing,”

Ray said, pressing his advantage while Caleb was in a ‘helpful’ mood.

“I’ve been researching the potential hazards. There are rumors about the Scenario. They say they might use a ‘Spell-Refraction Crystal Core.’”

Caleb stopped chewing. For a second, the lazy beachcomber facade slipped, replaced by the sharp, hard gaze of a 6th-Circle Master Mage who knew exactly what that artifact was.

“Where did you hear that name?”

Caleb asked, his voice dropping an octave.

“Library archives,”

Ray lied smoothly, the Scheming Courtier polishing the falsehood.

“I was researching historical testing methods. It was mentioned in a footnote about the ‘First Sage.’”

Caleb relaxed, snorting derisively.

“Of course. Old school. Nasty piece of work, that. We don’t make ‘em like that anymore. Too much psychological damage.”

“Psychological?”

Ray pressed, feigning confusion.

“I thought it was just a mirror. Does it reflect spells?”

Caleb sighed, leaning back and picking a crumb off his tunic.

“It’s not a mirror, Ray. It’s a judge. It doesn’t just reflect light; it samples your signature. Read your Mana flow.”

He waved a hand vaguely.

“It feeds on intent. Feeds on ego. If you walk in there puffing your chest out, thinking you’re the Archmage of Solhaven, it takes that energy and throws a Reflection right back in your face. Harder. Faster.”

Ray’s internal committee seized on the intel.

Scholar: “Confirmation! ‘Feeds on intent.’ ‘Sample your signature.’ It creates a Reflection based on the input! Rina’s information was right. It’s a Doppelganger trap.”

Veteran: “And ‘throws it back harder.’ That implies the Reflection scales with the threat level. If we go heavy, we create a monster we can’t kill.”

Ray nodded slowly, looking worried.

“So… it punishes strength?”

“It punishes vanity,”

Caleb corrected.

“The only way to beat a Refraction Core is to give it nothing to work with. You go in loud? You get flattened. You want to beat it? You have to… I don’t know, be humble. Or invisible. Or just don’t give it a clear signal to copy.”

He chuckled.

“Which is why you’ll be fine, kid. You’ve got nothing to copy. Your magic is so weak the mirror probably won’t even wake up. It’ll look at your little orange spark and laugh.”

Ray’s mind raced.

Don’t give it a clear signal.

Conman: “He’s giving us the keys to the kingdom! If we feed it ‘nothing,’ or better yet, if we feed it garbage, the reflection comes out wrong. We jam the signal.”

Ray reached into his pocket and pulled out his prototype ‘Theorist’s Glove.’ He had spent the last night tinkering with it under the guidance of the Arcane Scribe and Crimson Weaver. He had embedded a small, jagged shard of a mirror into the leather palm, wired into the crystal circuit, but disconnected from the actual Mana flow.

“I… I had an idea, Master,”

Ray said, holding up the glove.

“Since my magic is so… constructed… I thought maybe I could use this. I added a reflective shard to the conduction matrix.”

Caleb cracked an eye open again, looking at the glove with mild distaste.

“Why? You want to check your hair while you cast?”

“I thought if I could… refract my own signal,”

Ray lied, weaving the Engineer’s Narrative.

“Maybe I could make my Fire Bolt look… bigger? Brighter? If the Core feeds on ego, maybe I can trick it into thinking I’m stronger than I am?”

Caleb snorted, a sound of genuine amusement. He shook his head, reaching for his straw hat and pulling it back down over his eyes.

“Vanity,”

Caleb muttered, his voice muffled by the hat.

“Pure, unadulterated vanity. You want to trick a Refraction Core by faking power? That is exactly the kind of arrogant nonsense that gets a mage smacked into a wall.”

He settled deeper into the chair, signaling the end of the conversation.

“Go ahead, kid. Try to trick the mirror. See what happens. But don’t come crying to me when your ‘bigger, brighter’ reflection decides to kick your teeth in. It’ll be a good lesson. Now, hush. I’m digesting.”

Ray pulled the glove back, a look of hurt on his face for Caleb’s benefit, but inside, his mind was singing with triumph.

Courtier: “He confirmed it. He thinks we’re walking into a trap because he assumes we want to ‘fake strength.’ But we are going to do the opposite. We are going to fake chaos.”

Scholar: “The logic holds. If the Core ‘punishes vanity’ by reflecting it, then feeding it a chaotic, non-functional signal via the glove, the ‘junk data,’ will force it to generate a Reflection that cannot function! We will jam the mirror!”

Ray stood up, bowing respectfully to the sleeping master.

“Thank you, Master Zipkin,”

Ray whispered.

“You’ve been… most helpful.”

Caleb responded with a loud, rumbling snore.

Ray turned and walked out of the suite, his confidence absolute. He had the intel. He had the plan. Now, he just needed to make sure he registered for the Promotion Trials.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep