Mage? Spell Engineer!.

Chapter 558 Census and Expansion
At Rorschach's instruction, Prager launched a vigorous census.

It's not just a population census, the focus is on testing magical talent.

After the news of the census spread, there was widespread panic in the market. The remaining, unwilling opposition members saw Pavel's "stupid move" as a treasure and quickly compiled rumors of all sizes and spread them.

To sum up, it is probably that Pavel, the traitor who sells out his country for personal gain, wants to snatch away everyone's next generation. The uses include but are not limited to food, medicine, sacrifice, and research; the users include Pavel and the secret society that supports his national salvation alliance, the great wizard who supports Pavel, and the well-known private cult organization.
They made up a very convincing story, but there was actually no need for these people to add fuel to the fire. Many people think so.

So a great panic spread like wildfire.

In order to prevent the situation from getting worse, the male lecturer who is well versed in human nature, the male devil Valland, took multiple approaches. On the one hand, he struck a heavy blow to the remnants who spread rumors, and on the other hand, he had a headache carrying out Rorschach's orders.

First of all, the census was not to randomly ask people to go out on the streets, giving people the opportunity to gather and cause chaos. In order to control the situation, he asked Pavel to declare martial law in the city.

Under the threat of four-legged steel monsters and gun-wielding soldiers, factories were closed and shops were closed. If they wanted to continue operating, they had to organize the families of the bosses and employees and have their children tested one by one.

That is to threaten them with their livelihood.

The winters in Prague are very cold, and many families have lost their livelihoods, which means they have no food and fuel. So, accordingly, Varan made Pavel promise that families participating in the test will be able to receive relief food and coal, and the amount will be distributed according to the number of family members - the more children who come to participate in the test, the more they will receive.

Finally, the day before the census was to begin, the Governor's Office suddenly released the details that the census was mandatory, and minors with magical talent would be given the opportunity to become spellcasters, but whether to use the opportunity was entirely voluntary. Adults could also voluntarily take the test.

This made the citizens' tense nerves relax a little, and they seemed to be less resistant.

Although Varan doesn't know what PUA and Stockholm syndrome are, it doesn't stop him from playing with them. In his eyes, the general public is full of weaknesses, isn't that enough to be manipulated?

On the fourth day after the new army moved in, the census started without incident. The first to start was the industrial zone, which was organized by factory. When the census was completed, they were allowed to start work.

The standardized test has been iterated and is now based on the "completion granting" of the Tree of Law - the person being tested needs to touch the crystal ball, and the test terminal will display the spell models corresponding to the zero-level tricks of evocation, change, conjuration, illusion and protection, and expand the circuit in a limited way.

If one responds to any of them and is able to complete the circuit intuitively, it proves that the person being tested can learn magic.

For the test subjects who have no talent, they can only see the crystal ball changing colorfully, and then nothing happens.

Casting a spell for the first time is like crossing a chasm of unknown distance. This device is like a bridge, but it is only visible to those who hope to reach the other side. For those who are not gifted, it is still as difficult as ascending to heaven to reach the dimension where imagination becomes reality from material reality.

After everyone finally believed that the test was not meant to eat up all the children, they began to feel a little hopeful. What if their own family really exploded and gave birth to a wizard?

The direction of public opinion changed so quickly that overnight, fraudulent products such as "potential development agents" replaced the rumors, and parents who wanted their children to succeed flocked to them.

"Is it over?" The kid who was conducting the test withdrew his hand when he saw that the crystal ball didn't move. The originally cold surface felt warm to his palm.

"It's over. What are you expecting?" The apprentice in charge of watching the place and registering people waved his hand impatiently, "Next one. Ah, wait."

This "wait" gave the kid new hope, but unfortunately the apprentice saw the snot bubbles in his left nostril and remembered a friendly policy: "Go out through the back door, and you can get a cup of hot sugar water at the door."

"Oh..." The kid's drawn-out final tone could not hide his disappointment. The apprentice crossed out the kid's name and muttered, "Tsk, you didn't even say thank you."

After complaining, he picked up the megaphone with the [Amplification Technique] rolled up on it and said, "Next, is Jacob Benesche here? Parents don't need to come in with him."

This testing site was set up at the intersection of the Prague Industrial Zone. A group of parents lined up with their children, and the testers called out their children one by one from the list provided by the workshop owner.

Of course, in order to dispel the doubts of these workers' families, the soldiers pointed guns at the workshop owners and management, forcing them to send their children into the testing area first.

The other employees witnessed with some pleasure the exquisitely dressed "little princes" and "little princesses" crying and entering the cabin, until the "second generation" came out in a daze with no missing limbs. These people felt a little regretful, but also a little relaxed, because at least now they would not be afraid anymore.

The Imperial Academy of Magic itself has already "selected the best" in the public school stage, and those who are extremely talented and can show "abnormality" without the current induction test are sent to the imperial capital early. Most of those detected now are those who have slipped through the net or have not been noticed by the empire.

However, Rorschach accepted everyone, especially those who were fourteen years old or above and were spellcasters who could be used immediately. Some of them were still learning, while many had already joined the workforce to supplement their family income or were apprentices in a craft.

The latter two are easy to deal with. All you need to do is offer a higher salary and an advance, and these guys will happily follow you. Even if they are young girls, their families are poor and they won't care too much. It's just a matter of how much money you get.

They can be taken to Bain by train for training and quickly reach the level of apprentices.

For those of other age groups, Rorschach does not need to "volunteer". He can provide an opportunity, an opportunity that they never dared to think of before - allowing them to freely choose to study in the major wizard towers.

Of the thirteen magic towers, all those within the empire can be opened to them, even those in Istani and Valois. And this is just for demonstration purposes, and there will also be personal towers of magic guild members like Rorschach's mage tower to accept some.

This is an unprecedented "enrollment expansion".

On the one hand, in terms of student selection, this is the first time that the guild has conducted a national-level census with the support of a legitimate authority.

Prager was just the beginning. It inherited the experience of Byrne, and Varan added his own talent for managing people to make the movement go smoothly.

Next, other cities in Bomya will complete the census with the arrival of Byrne's new army, and will receive assistance from local magic guilds.

On the other hand, the reason these mage towers are able to teach everyone is not because they suddenly became kind-hearted, nor because Rorschach has controlled the minds of all tower masters and chiefs overnight, but because all managers at this moment feel an unprecedented shortage of people.

They finally realized that if they wanted to replicate the model of the Rorschach Mage Tower-Bain Special District and emulate the influence that the Star Tower had on Valois, they must have enough spellcasters.

They are all consumables anyway. What does it have to do with the current wizards whether they have strong talents, whether they have the hope of reaching the top of the ladder of magic in the future, or whether they will be apprentices for the rest of their lives?

Taking the astral exploration project as an example, the latitudes of the Star Tower and the Rorschach Tower are not ideal for launch, but the reason they can lead the current project advancement is that they have enough "screws".

Whether it is steel, iron, mithril alloy, or humanoid, it is called material foundation and talent reserve in a nice way.

(End of this chapter)