Chapter 432: Trial Quotas
Several days later, in the early morning.
Along with a heavy snowfall at the end of the year, Jia Na also welcomed her third New Year in the Wizard World.
"Jia Na."
Just as Jia Na was gazing absently at the icicles adorning the eaves, Vivian's voice drifted in from the snowstorm.
"Vivian, congratulations on finally coming out of seclusion."
Seeing Vivian, whose magic fluctuations were stronger than ever, Jia Na offered her sincere blessings.
"Yes, I can finally come out and get some rest. This period almost drove me crazy."
After walking over to Jia Na, Vivian patted the snow off her shoulders and then habitually linked arms with Jia Na.
"So, did you also receive the results of the White Tower pre-assessment?"
Looking at Vivian's sparkling eyes, Jia Na smiled and nodded.
"I received it. What about you? You must have received it too, right?"
"Hahahahaha, of course I did! I received the passing result yesterday!"
As a medium-sized Wizard Gathering Place, Turin Wizard Gathering Place would normally only have four quotas. However, due to the Bloodred Warlord's attack on the city, Dordogne-White Tower specially approved two additional quotas for Turin Wizard Gathering Place this year.
This meant that six people in Turin Wizard Gathering Place would receive passing results for the pre-assessment this year. Of course, six quotas were still relatively scarce for Turin Wizard Gathering Place.
Even with such tight personnel quotas, the apprentices of White Coral Academy unexpectedly occupied three spots.
Besides Jia Na and Vivian, Solo-Flame, who had failed once last year, also received a passing result for the pre-assessment this time.
Last year, White Coral Academy also occupied half of the quotas. The reason for this was that Losia-Haige, the headmaster of Black Bone Forest Academy, had deliberately given up some quotas to obtain the opportunity to research Dark Sun Apostle's soul from Anthony-Black Sparrow.
Otherwise, under normal circumstances, Black Bone Forest Academy, with its relatively stronger individual combat power, would usually occupy the extra quota out of the four.
This time, White Coral Academy was still able to occupy half of the quotas purely because Mist Tower was not strong enough.
Normally, when the trial quotas could be evenly divided among the three academies, there would be no competition.
However, among the Third-level Wizard Apprentices in Mist Tower, only one person's score exceeded the hard threshold of the pre-assessment.
Because of this, the vacant quota from Mist Tower could only be filled by ranking the scores of the participating apprentices from White Coral and Black Bone Forest. In the end, this good fortune fell upon Vivian, whose ranking was second only to Solo-Flame.
This result was quite a shock to those who had paid little attention to Vivian before.
Especially for people like Bell-Moonshadow, Malo-Haige, and Hugh-Stone, who were relatively more familiar with Vivian, it was even more unbelievable when they learned that this young lady of the Rose Family, who spent money lavishly, whose Wizard Talent was not outstanding, and who later switched to the Warlock Path, actually surpassed everyone except Jia Na and Solo-Flame in score, winning the sixth quota for the White Tower Trial—
"How does it feel to be famous? It's quite good, isn't it?"
Compared to Jia Na and Solo-Flame, whose passing was expected by everyone, Vivian's success undoubtedly made a strong impression among all Third-level Wizard Apprentices.
Therefore, regarding Jia Na's slightly teasing words, a hint of pride unconsciously showed in Vivian's eyes.
"It feels quite good, it's just—"
At this point, Vivian, who had been somewhat self-satisfied, couldn't help but pause in her speech.
"This score can only be considered good in Turin. If it were placed among all the apprentices who passed the pre-assessment, I estimate I wouldn't even rank in the middle—"
When saying the latter half of the sentence, Vivian's emotions were clearly a bit low. However, compared to her usual tension and lack of self-confidence, Vivian was much more relaxed at this moment.
"So, I've decided. This year I'll go to Dordogne and really feel the gap between myself and others. By next year, I believe I will definitely be stronger than I am now!"
Seeing Vivian's high spirits at this moment, Jia Na, who had long considered her a good friend, felt genuinely relieved that Vivian could have such a mindset.
As Vivian said, a ranking of only sixth in Turin Wizard Gathering Place was simply not enough to compete with the geniuses in large Wizard Gathering Places.
To say nothing else, among the proud prodigies Jia Na encountered during the Andrew-Gump Transformation Trial, several had already mastered Law Fragments, and their comprehension of Law Fragments was very high.
Even if they lost to Jia Na in the Transformation Trial, their actual combat strength might not necessarily be weaker than Jia Na's.
Not to mention, among them, there were also individuals like Louis Tor-Turan, who, in addition to mastering the Burning Law Fragment, also possessed the Phoenix bloodline, known for its super combat power and recovery ability.
"Let's go, the ceremony is about to begin soon."
It was also because of the Bloodred Warlord incident that the graduation ceremony, which should have been held earlier, was postponed until the last day of the year. The entrance ceremony for the new first-year apprentices was also postponed until today.
"Whoosh."
The cold wind howled, carrying dense, goose-feather-like snow. Jia Na, who was currently heading towards the Magic Tower, was holding a huge leaf large enough to shield both of them, blocking the wind and snow above their heads.
"There are quite a few new apprentices this year."
As the two arrived at the entrance of the Magic Tower, Vivian immediately saw the new first-year apprentices, dressed in their first-year uniforms, standing on the right side of the Magic Tower's first-floor hall.
Jia Na, hearing Vivian's words, also nodded, equally curious about the noticeably higher number of new apprentices this year compared to previous years.
"Look everyone, she actually came!"
"Shh, keep your voice down!"
"Sister Jia Na in person is so much more beautiful than in the scrying orb images!"
"Is she Jia Na, who is known as 'Turin's Number One Genius'? She truly lives up to her reputation—"
With Jia Na's entrance, the already extremely noisy Magic Tower became even more like a boiling pot. The whispers and discussions, rising and falling like the heavy snow outside, all revolved around Jia Na.
"See? Even if I'm famous now, I'm not even a ten-thousandth as popular as you."
Because she had only recently come out of seclusion, Vivian learned about Jia Na winning the Andre-Gump Transformation Trial later from the newspaper.
So, upon seeing the various eager gazes around Jia Na, even Vivian, who was already accustomed to Jia Na's high popularity, still felt a bit uncomfortable at this moment—
