Meteor Fall Master in the 'Starry Abyss'
Chapter 353 - 003. Spellcaster Potential

Chapter 353: 003. Spellcaster Potential

Leo Duretto returned to his dilapidated home, carelessly tossed the goods he had snatched from the young men returning from the city onto the table, and immediately sprawled out lazily on the bed. Resting against the bare wall, he narrowed his eyes and comfortably settled in for a rest.

"Tsk, these offspring of self-sufficient farmers with their own lands and fields, with their Western Sand Oranges and Serpent Creed Fruits—all academy products aimed at boosting intelligence. Do they really believe that meticulously solving problems will get them into the academy?"

Leo curled his lip, rifled through the contents of his pockets, verbally mocking the young people’s delusions while feeling bitterly envious inside.

If his parents hadn’t died early, he wouldn’t have resorted to stealing from others. Who wouldn’t want to escape from the rural backwater of Blue Chrysanthemum Village?

It was already the Interstellar Era, and no young person could resist the allure of the cosmos and be content living in a farming village. Those noble mages often promoted the idea: pass the exam for the Magic Academy, serve in the fleet for two years, and you could become an elite member of society earning a high income of 400 Silver Essence a month. Besides, you could settle down and buy a house in any city you like.

This appealing welfare package was something the villagers of Blue Chrysanthemum were well aware of.

Their ancestors had been laborers, serving on this educational planet. Many had changed their fate through study, most importantly, altering their and their families’ status from mere laborers earning 30 Silver Essence a month to Combat Mages or Magisterial Bureaucrats.

Leo Duretto was filled with envy for his young fellow villagers. After his parents died early, the family land was sold cheaply to the authorities by relatives. In a fit of anger, he stopped interacting with them and set up on his own.

Over the years, Leo could not be considered idle. He had a good physique, and among the younger generation, he was quite strong. However, his appearance was somewhat intimidating: drooping triangular eyes, a head of straw-like messy blond hair, and a hefty build—practically the spitting image of the barbarians from ancient historical records.

With such an appearance, it was not easy to make a living, so he got by through petty theft and the occasional odd job.

Just as Leo was trying to turn his side hustles into his main venture, his peers had already started studying earnestly, having taken the Magic Aptitude Test at least three times.

Unlike past misconceptions and demonization of Magic Side civilization as a retro-monarchical dominion—Magic Side civilization was in fact very precise in talent selection. Thanks to the early development of Magic Guidance Technology and Magic Workshop systems, the Crystal Tower civilization was a typical parliamentary government. From factories to the frontlines, from pioneer teams to the civil servant collective, they were eternally eager for varied Spellcasters.

Moreover, it was even harder for nobility to emerge within the Magic Side civilization.

The fundamental reason is that the potential of Spellcasters degrades over time.

Unless one belongs to a highly magical species, such as Dragon Kind or Elvenkind, for ordinary biological populations, it often takes only two generations to exhaust the Spellcasting potential. A reemergence might not happen until many generations later.

The problem is, Dragon Kind and Elvenkind simply refuse to join civilizations they don’t recognize. You might retain some of their descendants, but even so, the lineage of a Spellcaster doesn’t change much because of this.

On the other hand, with innate Spellcasters being scarce, that inevitably means within the Magic Side civilization, Spellcasters developed through training make up a significant proportion, even overtaking innate ones on the political stage and seizing the right to speak.

The best method for cultivating Spellcasters is education—without exception.

Intelligence is the key to entering the Magic World. Leo’s peers, under their parents’ supervision, studied by lamplight into the night, relentlessly practicing. They weren’t necessarily born with the luck of Spellcaster potential, but diligent study and improving their intelligence guaranteed they could understand those complex magic textbooks.

As descendants of laborers who had long provided convenience to the teaching and student bodies of Baizhu Star, the Crystal Civilization offered quite a few benefits. An adult villager could at least take the Magic Aptitude Test five times. Once they passed, they would leave behind their farmer statuses, and as ’Magic Apprentices,’ have many more options.

The younger ones could go study at the Magic Academy and, upon graduation, become Formal Mages with both high incomes and status.

Those a bit older could work in the Magic Workshop, and after ten years, qualify as Formal Mages too, albeit with the requirement of additional continuing education exams to elevate their academic knowledge.

The content of the exams wasn’t too complicated; the books were provided well in advance. But the most fundamental issue was—if one’s level of intelligence was not up to standard, they simply weren’t qualified to comprehend the material between the lines.

Being a mage isn’t an occupation with low barriers to entry. If you can’t even decode the introductory textbooks, then you can pretty much say goodbye to the path of a Spellcaster.

If one could grind over time, there might be a way to memorize the material, but given his own economic situation, Leo seriously doubted whether he had that kind of future.

His fellow villagers, both boys and girls, had typically taken the test three times, and with every attempt, their scores got a bit higher. Those whose families were more pressing even got married, established homes and careers, and continued studying and taking exams. Even if they didn’t make it in the end, they wouldn’t be left without a place to fall back on.