A short line had formed in front of the stand, mostly occupied by young children and one or both parents, but each person only stayed at the stand for a minute before leaving. Andric couldn’t fully see what the children were doing once they had their turn with the scout from Varinius, but he didn’t need to wait long for it to be his turn.

“Hi, good morning, reach out his hand and I will begin the test,” the man concisely spoke and held out his hand. He had done this many times, and he was ready to test Andric without any break between him and the previous child.

Andric didn’t need Lieve to move his hand for him, and he reached out on his own. The distance between him and the man was fairly significant - compared to the children that walked themselves to the stand - and Lieve held Andric closer to fill the gap.

The man felt surprised, seeing Andric’s calm demeanor and strict adherence to his request. Normally, children Andric’s age were unruly or unwilling to immediately cooperate.

Lieve gave a half-smile and said, “He’s a smart one,” and the man continued with the test.

He moved a small packet of formless mana from his hand to Andric’s hand, then recalled it. Though the mana had no form, it actually held the form of all spells, and thus could be used to perform any spell with.

The process for testing a magician’s affinity was simple; he injected formless mana and felt the returning mana for discrepancies. Any mana that Andric did not have an affinity for would be returned at one eighth the original power. If he had an affinity for it, it would return at full power.

The man first checked for elemental affinities, but Andric had none. Wolter and Lieve had elemental affinities, but neither the man or Andric knew that. Next, the man checked physical affinities, which he quickly confirmed Andric to have.

Elemental affinities were the most common and had to deal with elements like fire, water, rock, and even something as mundane as shoes. Physical affinities dealt with the human body, and were usually limited to body-fortifying and healing.

Over the course of a few dozen seconds, the man quickly tested the scopes of Andric’s physical affinities. Body-fortifying and healing were easily confirmed, but the man was surprised to see that Andric also had an affinity for healing foreign bodies, which was much rarer than self-healing.

Most magicians were limited to using their spells on themselves or on their immediate vicinity, but Andric had the affinity for long-ranged magic. Not only would he be able to heal any wound he sustained, but he would be able to heal deadly injuries across large distances.

The man continued his testing, and he found that Andric could even use destructive physical magic. A magician could use destructive elemental magic to launch a projectile at their target, but those projectiles were often easy to block or dodge. In the case of destructive physical magic, though, no projectiles were used.

Several seconds later, the man confirmed the rest of Andric’s affinities, and he couldn’t help but be mesmerized at the insane combination.

Unintentionally, the man had spent over a minute grasping Andric’s hand and analyzing his affinities. A regular test usually concluded within thirty seconds, but Andric’s had taken twice the normal time. When the man finally came to his senses, he let go of Andric’s hand and excitedly said to Lieve, “You son has the affinity for mortal magic. As it pertains to human or animal tissue, he can create, destroy, and everything in between. He’s ranged, which means he doesn’t need to touch something to use his magic on it.”

Lieve paused for a moment and mentally digested what the man told her, then said, “That sounds really good,” and put Andric on the ground. He stood and held onto her leg with one hand while trying to listen to Lieve and the man.

“It would be an absolute shame if you didn’t start his magical training as soon as possible,” the man said, and he opened a book that laid on the stand’s countertop. He flipped to a certain page, then opened another book and tore a blank page from it. With a quill, he copied several lines from the book onto the blank page, then said, “The affinity test is free, but they like us to charge 100 coins for the starter spell chant.”

“That’s fine,” Lieve spoke and took a small coin from her pocket. She handed it to the man, and the man handed her the sheet of paper he wrote on. Lieve rolled up the paper, placed it in a pocket on the inside of her shirt, said, “Thank you,” and picked up Andric to leave.

“Thank you, and good luck!” the man said, and then turned to his next customer as Lieve walked away.