The crowd was whispering, saying all kinds of negative things about how this dwarf was trying to downsize last night's threat against their lives.
When the bunch of little potions were passed onto Emery's hands, he hadn't expected he would get nine of them. He could remember Master Grom saying 'we'll give you a potion in return for each of you who will return with the plant we require'. Emery had assumed they'd only get one per acolyte but did this dwarf change his rules at the last minute to at least make them feel better?
Emery turned around and saw how the others appeared confused. He wanted to know why they looked like that when Master Grom decided to walk away. Silva then appeared from the masses and stopped the dwarf.
"Master Grom, please wait! You didn't announce the winner of this challenge!" Silva exclaimed.
Grom stopped on his tracks and seemed a bit embarrassed. "Oh dear me, that totally slipped my mind. I appreciate you reminding me, dear."
Silva turned to Emery and said, "You, where were you?"
"I had a prior plan this morning, so I had to do that first," Emery replied.
Silva muttered something under her breath, but Emery didn't hear a word she had just said. "Anyway, the most a student had submitted was five while I exchanged two. Not even a total of twenty moon clovers had been found, so your submission of nine makes up to half of the rest."
Emery was astounded. "What?"
Silva nodded, looking proud, and said, "Yes, you are supposed to be the winner."
Master Grom faced the crowd and looked thoughtful. "I, indeed, had promised that whoever exchanged the most number of moon clovers shall have a spot within our ranks. However, with the amount I have just received, this is the least I have collected in a century. Therefore I am unable to accept any apprentice this time"
The acolytes nearby grumbled. Emery could vaguely hear the words they used to describe the dwarf: nasty, hypocrite, opportunist, etc. Grom still paid no attention to it and turned away once more but when he was about to leave, he almost bumped into a woman whom Emery recognized.
"Magus Minerva," said Emery.
Minerva returned him a glance before bending forward, face almost touching with the dwarf's, and began to play with his beard. She said, "Master Grom, you are not thinking of going back on your words for my student now, are you?"
Master Grom seemed to puff smoke from his ears. He tittered as he said, "Ehem, is he really your student Magus Minerva?"
She nodded in response and said, "Of course, Master Grom. In fact, he almost died trying to find those plants. Surely Master Grom is not that cruel, right?"
Minerva stroked the dwarf's beard again and a big smile filled his face. "Ehem. Alright. Alright. Boy, you come with me now."
Magus Minerva winked at Emery before leaving herself.
Emery was a little surprised by what he had just witnessed, but he knew that this was the best opportunity for him and should not be missed. Emery immediately followed where Master Grom had gone and finally caught up to him.
"Boy, what's your name," Master Grom asked, his voice sounding indifferent.
"Emery, Master Grom," replied Emery as he walked behind the dwarf.
"Emery, is it? Hmm. What's your connection with M-Magus M-Minerva?" Master Grom said.
Emery paused for a moment, he thought he had heard Master Grom sounding a bit excited for a moment before placing it on the back of his mind. He answered, "She… she's my class instructor,"
Master Grom looked thoughtful for a moment and said, "Then why did she take special attention to you boy? Who are you actually?"
"I…" Emery had no idea how to answer the dwarf. It never had occurred in his mind he was special or what.
Seeing how he had hesitated to answer, Master Grom's voice suddenly raised with his nostrils seemingly flaring. "Whatever it is—remember—always talk good things about me to her okay! Okay!"
Emery was taken aback and responded without thinking, "Yes! Yes! Yes! Master Grom!"
Master Grom tried to regain his composure with a cough and then said, "Excellent, boy."
They then took the return portal from the Elder's Respite to the plaza, then to another portal. As soon as Emery stepped out, he was visibly shocked once more to see the location they had just arrived at. The place was full of tall, straight structures with transparent windows on its surface, flying boats, moving carriages on the ground without being drawn by any animals, sprawling crowds, straight roads that had trees on the side. This place was certainly much bigger compared to the combat institution.
"Welcome to Golden City, boy," Master Grom exclaimed. Emery, still wide-eyed, looked over for as far as the eye could see the whole place was filled with bustling people and buildings.
"Come on now, we don't have all day, do we?" Master Grom urged as he walked ahead of Emery, who was still gawking at such an unbelievable place.
They walked for a good five minutes or so, when Master Grom stopped on his tracks and invited Emery inside another towering building that had flying objects inside like giant boats with wings made of wood or iron entering and exiting. After going inside, Emery couldn't help notice the large greyish-black staircase with yellow lines on the side that seemed to move on its own leading upstairs. Master Grom called out to him with an irritated voice.
"What are you doing, boy? This way!"
They entered a small room that seemed to only fit four to six people. Master Grom pressed a button on the side and the door hissed closed. Emery wanted to voice out his thoughts why were they inside such a cramped space when the room trembled and Emery experienced a tingling, weird sensation in his head, making him dazedly look in front of him. There, he saw through the slits of the door, they seemed to be moving upwards since the light outside descended.
The door hissed opened this time and Master Grom exited the small room with Emery following closely. Emery glanced back at the door and it closed on its own without any other person in the room. Not long after they walked out, Master Grom led Emery to a place where there were a lot of the same flying boats. They stopped in front of a wooden boat-bird.
Master Grom looked at him and said, "Oh boy, don't tell me you come from a lower world, do you?"
"I…umm… That's what they say."
Master Grom let out a big sigh and said, "You'll have a tough time ahead of you then, boy. It seems your beautiful instructor isn't doing you a favor and is wanting to make me suffer at the same time."
The dwarf entered the boat-bird object and beckoned Emery to sit on the back. Emery hesitated for a moment before steeling himself and trusting this small, old man with an overgrown beard.
As soon as Emery had taken a comfortable position and strapped on the safety leash Master Grom had asked him to wear, the boat-bird began to shake and then sped off over the city, and the wave of fresh air rushed into Emery's face, making him feel unsure whether to focus on the refreshing air or the gnawing feeling in the pit of his stomach at the thought they were hovering a hundred feet off the ground with nothing solid below them except for the cold, hard ground. It was a world of imagination that never existed in his mind.
It didn't take long for them to arrive at their destination and the boat-bird to go inside a much larger building than the one they had come from.
Master Grom looked back at him with a wide grin and said, "We have arrived at the Apothecary Institute."
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Author announcement
Dear Earth's Greatest Magus Readers,
First, let me introduce myself. I am a father of two young daughters and I own and run my own small business. With these in mind, I must tell you that I do not have as much time to write as unlike other full-time authors.
Nevertheless, I love to create stories. If you checked my profile, you will see that I have also written another book for more than a year. So, I could confidently say that I do not abandon a story.
More than a year of experience and hundreds of written chapters later, I realized I am losing the readers interests because of my inconsistencies in publishing. However, this is what I am striving to improve this time.
This book won first place in the WPC event and winning it meant the novel received a contracted deal. Like all the other contracted novels, this novel must go to premium.
The premium will start from chapter 46 and from that point, the chapter's will be locked and opened only by either using coins or fast passes. The good news on that side is that it means I have to post a daily minimum of one or two chapters per day for the next few months.
I hope you are all enjoying this novel so far and are trusting me as the author to do my best to give the best experience in the world of magi.
Wishing for your continuous support.
Sincerely, Avans.