Volume 1 Chapter 109 Fifth Grade exam
After meeting the king, Xu Yi was even busier during the next two days.
The king not only ordered ten thousand small Magic Harvesters from Xu Yi. Other than this, of the other five kinds of agricultural magic machine that Xu Yi brought, he ordered between five thousand to ten thousand units of those.
For such a large order, to accomplish this, there was no doubt that there were many details to take care of. So during these two days, Xu Yi had been negotiating with the people sent by the king and members of the agricultural department.
It was impossible to reach a complete understanding in just two days, but after receiving the care and promotion of the king, the negotiations had progressed very smoothly. In just two days, they had already set up a preliminary plan.
According to the suggestion of the king, the Lampuri Kingdom and the king would be buying six different kinds of agricultural magic machines from the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, with numbers going from five thousand to ten thousand units.
Of course, with the current ability of the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, naturally they couldn’t received such a large order. But since currently other than the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, there were no other companies that could make agricultural magic machines, they decided to let the Frestech Chamber of Commerce deliver in batches.
The first batch for magic machines was five hundred units and they needed it before the spring harvest.
Agreeing to this batch order actually gave Xu Yi a strong headache.
Although after bringing in the hundred dwarves from the Angola Tribe, the production speed of the magic machine workshop had increased, it would still be very difficult for them to complete three thousand agricultural magic machines before next spring’s harvest.
The reason why Xu Yi had agreed was because the king wouldn’t allow the order number to be below five hundred units. If it was below this number, it was hard for Xu Yi to show the benefits of ma.s.s production and it was not possible for the king to be determined to invest in this project.
After all, behind a giant order of tens of thousands of agricultural magic machines, it required the king and the agricultural department to pay a large amount of several million gold coins.
This amount was not something the Lampuri Kingdom’s finances could support, so the king proposed to Xu Yi that the kingdom would use its resources to pay.
Xu Yi naturally welcomed this. Although his request for a piece of land was rejected by the king, his request for an iron mine and a Magic Crystal mine was accepted.
According to the preliminary agreement between the two sides, Xu Yi would obtain two iron mines near Banta City for now, as well as three Magic Crystal mines to the northwest of Banta City which were quite far away.
Since Xu Yi didn’t understand anything about these mines, this was only a preliminary agreement. Once Xu Yi and the Frestech Chamber of Commerce investigated these mines and were satisfied with them, the agreement would come into effect.
And after taking these mines, Xu Yi must follow the requests of the order. He had to finish all the requested small agricultural magic machines for the order and he had to change the farmland inside the kingdom according to the agricultural department’s requests.
So there was a large amount of pressure on Xu Yi right now.
Before next year’s spring harvest, if the Frestech Chamber of Commerce couldn’t finish the first batch of orders, not only would they not be able to gain the mines, they would also lose the trust and support of the king.
If this really happened, it would be a large hit to the Frestech Chamber of Commerce without a doubt. This would also greatly affect the long term plan that Xu Yi had in an irreversible manner.
So this first batch had to be complete and there couldn’t be a single mistake.
But as a mechanical engineer, Xu Yi had extremely fine requirements for his work, he wouldn’t allow even half a mistake. So he was already used to this kind of pressure and had even learned to create power from this pressure.
Although this first batch of orders of agricultural magic machines were very big, Xu Yi felt that he could use this chance. He would make the changes that he was already prepared to make to the production magic machines, making the Frestech Chamber of Commerce even stronger.
As long as he grabbed this chance, there was no doubt there was great prospects for the Frestech Chamber of Commerce.
After working for two days, the third day was the Magicians Guild’s Fifth Grade exam.
According to Xu Yi’s original plan, he was supposed to partic.i.p.ate in the Fourth Grade exam yesterday, going straight from the Primary Grade to the Fourth Grade. But after thinking about Viscount Leslie’s sudden request and considering it over, he finally decided to skip the Fourth Grade exam and directly partic.i.p.ate in the Fifth Grade exam.
The magicians partic.i.p.ating in this exam was far less compared to the amount on the first day. After Xu Yi looked over the examination ground, he found that including him, there were less than fifty people here. There weren’t even as many people as there were on the first day in a corner.
It was different from the Primary Grade exam, Xu Yi didn’t know a single one of these magicians.
After all, those that dared partic.i.p.ate in the Fifth Grade exam, they were already magicians of the Fourth Grade. It was impossible for there to be many Fourth Grade Magicians and it was very hard to break through to the Fifth Grade, so there were few magicians that partic.i.p.ated in the Fifth Grade exam each year.
At the Primary Grade exam, Xu Yi who was already twenty seven was considered a bit old, so he was looked at by people with gazes of despise. But here at the Fifth Grade exam, he was considered rather young, making people feel he was an outstanding talent, so it attracted the gaze of the others.
When the others noticed that Xu Yi didn’t even have a magician’s badge on his chest, they were even more shocked.
This kid can’t have even skipped the Primary Grade exam and directly came here for the Fifth Grade exam, right?
In front of everyone’s shocked gaze, Xu Yi reported his name to the Magicians Guild staff member in charge of the exam.
The staff member in charge of the exam heard this name and looked at Xu Yi in shock. Then he knit his brows and asked in a low voice, “Xu Yi, are you certain you want to partic.i.p.ate in the Fifth Grade exam? I must remind you, although you have Great Magician Camilla’s special recommendation and can skip grades for exams, you only have one chance. If you lose this chance, you won’t be able to receive another special recommendation and you’ll even lose a rank in the Magicians Guild’s evaluation. I hope you understand these consequences.”
Hearing the staff member’s words, everyone finally understood.
So this kid had a special recommendation, no wonder he could directly partic.i.p.ate in the Fifth Grade exam.
Everyone’s gaze looking ata Xu Yi filled with a trace of disdain.
This kid wasn’t even a Primary Grade Magician, based on what did he think he could pa.s.s the Fifth Grade exam? He took this too lightly.
But other than disdain, everyone’s hearts also filled with doubt.
Since this fellow could receive Great Magician Camilla’s special recommendation, he should have a strong talent for magic, only then would he receive Great Magician Camilla’s admiration.
Perhaps he was an apprentice secretly taken in by Great Magician Camilla. He had been focusing on studying magic the entire time, so he never partic.i.p.ated in the Magicians Guild’s exam before, just to shock the world with a single feat.
Thinking about it, a young magician partic.i.p.ating in the Magicians Guild’s exam for the first time and directly becoming a Fifth Grade Magician, how shocking would that news be.
Xu Yi didn’t think that everyone had all these strange thoughts in their mind. Actually he didn’t care at all about whether he pa.s.sed the exam or not, he didn’t even care that much about the Magicians Guild’s exam.
If it wasn’t for Great Magician Camilla and Still urging him, he would have been disinclined to partic.i.p.ate in this exam in the first place.
If it wasn’t for Viscount Leslie’s request, he wouldn’t have directly partic.i.p.ated in the Fifth Grade exam.
His current strength was actually between the Fourth and Fifth Grade. If he partic.i.p.ated in the Fourth Grade exam, there was a 90% chance that he would pa.s.s.
But if he partic.i.p.ated in the Fifth Grade exam, he was only confident in a 50% chance of pa.s.sing.
Compared to the Primary Grade exam, the Fifth Grade exam got rid of many other aspects, only having a written exam and a combat portion.
There was no need to mention the combat exam. The written exam was to test a magician on their magical theory, so it was very important.
Unexpected to Xu Yi, the Fifth Grade exam written portion was actually related to several Fifth Grade Magic Arrays.
In order to study magic machines, Xu Yi’s understanding and research on Magic Arrays had far pa.s.sed magicians of the same grade. He had even discussed many Fifth Grade Magic Arrays with Great Magician Camilla a long time ago, so it was like the back of his hand to him and naturally the content of the exam wasn’t hard for him.
In less than half an hour, Xu Yi had already easily finished the written portion of the exam.
Seeing Xu Yi casually leaving the exam area, the other magicians partic.i.p.ating in the exam all looked at him with gazes of shock.
This fellow, could it be that he really was a genius? Could it be that his strength already surpa.s.sed that of a Fifth Grade Magician?
But an hour later when the real combat test began, the magicians that had been shocked by Xu Yi immediately had their eyes opened.
It didn’t mean that Xu Yi didn’t do well, but in the actual combat test, Xu Yi kept using magic at the Fourth Grade. Even if he could occasionally use a few Fifth Grade Spells, his grasp on them weren’t that great.
No matter how they looked at it, Xu Yi’s strength was only at the Fourth Grade and it would be hard for him to pa.s.s the Fifth Grade exam.
So everyone’s eyes looking at Xu Yi became strange again.
This fellow, could it be that he really was just purely conceited?
After the real combat test was over, although Xu Yi’s performance was not last among the forty seven magicians, he was in the lower middle range.
According to the traditions of the Magicians Guild, there was a quota of people who pa.s.sed each time. In a normal situation, it was impossible for Xu Yi to pa.s.s the Fifth Grade exam.
Feeling the ridicule coming from everyone’s gazes, Xu Yi still had a calm face and didn’t move at all.
As a mechanical engineer, he cared about facts. His strength was between the Fourth and Fifth Grade, so it wasn’t unexpected that he didn’t pa.s.s the exam and it wasn’t something that he couldn’t accept.
Not to mention that he didn’t care about the results of the exam at all.
But after patiently waiting for two hours and when the results were announced, everyone was stunned to see that Xu Yi was included.
Xu Yi’s name was on the list of people who had pa.s.sed!