The first game of Magus Game was finally over, following that, the podiums quickly returned to the way they originally were. The podium where Group 7 was also descended to the ground, joining the other top 10 acolytes of the remaining ten groups and the six thousand others, who were eliminated first.
"Emery!!"
Emery turned his head when he heard his name called. There, he saw his four friends rushing in his direction. Excitement and joy was apparent on their faces, as they approached and showered him with numerous congratulations.
Emery shook his head while smiling. "No, no… if it wasn't because of you all, I would definitely not have been able to make it. It was a team effort."
The gladiator champion was the first to grab him on the shoulder before proceeding to rock him back and forth as he said, "Hahahaha, who are you trying to kid? You are the real champ!!" Thrax was seen laughing heartily, as he continued to make Emery's eyes shake.
Chumo, on the other hand, only stood there without saying a word, while staring at his face. However, Emery could see that there were slight waters in the latter's eyes, as if he was trying to hold back the tears that were threatening to burst out.
Meanwhile, Julian appeared to be a little bit quieter than usual. Noticing this, Klea quickly grabbed his arm and basically dragged him to the others. The group then huddled together shoulder to shoulder.
"You guys are the best!! This is amazing!!"
With the 25.000 team bonus, everyone received roughly 100.000 contribution points, while Chumo, who essentially reached as far as Emery did, received around 250.000.
So, they could roughly guess how much contribution points Emery had, who was basically the champion of this first game received. Even so, none of them wished to know exactly how much he got, as they didn't want their heart to be attacked for no reason.
"If you are showing off, then you better buy each of us a high tier artifact with it!" Klea jokingly said, when he saw Emery was about to say his number.
"Guys, we should celebrate!!" The Thracian cut into the conversation passionately and Klea quickly said."Tonight! At my place! Just like last year I will prepare everything!"
"Shouldn't we celebrate at Terra Palace instead?" commented Emery.
He certainly thought about inviting everyone who had helped them tremendously for this Magus Game to the celebratory party. Names began to appear on his mind, such as Magus Xion, Magus Silica and so on.
Unfortunately, Klea quickly disagreed with the idea. She also had Grand Magus Ororo to thank for, but for this moment, she insisted that they had to celebrate this monumental event between themselves.
She even glared at Emery as she said, "Remember, just us. None of your new privileged friends are invited!"
The group quickly agreed on how and where they should celebrate. Not long after, people started to come in their direction. All of them naturally came over to congratulate them, especially Emery, who shone the brightest in the game.
There were actually hundreds of people that approached Emery, people that he didn't know. They all came and tried to have a conversation with him, acting as if he was the most delicious cuisine in the world. At this moment, Emery felt a little taste of being popular and couldn't help but be overwhelmed by it.
On the other side of the spectrum, he also noticed many eyes that contained other feelings were keeping their attention on him, trying to hide various negative and nefarious intentions.
Later on, even some of the magus instructors came and delivered their congratulations. Emery's attention was caught by one particular magus, Magus Urix. This particular magus was being overly friendly, saying that from now on Emery would be his lucky charm. Which honestly scared him.
Emery only received the enthusiastic magus's words with a smile.
Things turned even crazier by the second with more people scrambling over to their location, that Emery and his friends knew they had to get out of this place. The group quickened their pace, as they made their way out of the Grand Assembly Hall.
Emery's eyes still roamed around, as the group escaped from the group of people chasing after them. There was actually one person he really wanted to see, but couldn't find. Left with no choice, he turned to his friends.
"Have any of you seen my master?"
The others who heard his question stopped for a moment, as their head looked around. "Hmmm, yeah, that's weird. Where is he?"
The group continued on their way through the crowd of people that packed the portal, trying to head to the elite 7 island, where their personal residences were at.
However, right after they entered and stepped out of the portal, three men were seen approaching in their direction. From the faint pressure the group could feel from them, all three were definitely magus-level figures.
"Emery Ambrose?" Asked one of them with a firm tone. "You are coming with us."
This quickly alarmed the group, especially Klea, who immediately stepped in front of Emery and opened her mouth.
"If I may ask, esteemed magus, what is this about?"
The man who spoke earlier briefly glanced at Klea and spoke, "Give way, acolyte. Don't you meddle in official business."
Thrax seemed to want to confront the three magus, but was quickly restrained by Julian. The latter looked at Klea, his gaze asking who these three people were, as she seemed to know their identity.
Klea then quickly whispered to the group that three magus in front of them, who were wearing unique and distinct black uniforms, were the known enforcer of the human alliance.
This made the other three worried about Emery. They wondered what kind of business these enforcers had with him. They looked around and tried to search for help, only to find none of the academy knights in the area dared to bother the three. Apparently, they did have authority here.
Understanding the situation, Emery quickly stepped past Klea and said, "I understand, I will come with you, Please lead the way."
Klea still had a concerned look on her face, but she knew there was nothing she could do. Still, it didn't stop her from saying a few things.
"You better return him!!" She shouted, "Preferably before dinner!!"
She and the others watched worriedly, as Emery went with the three magus, walking away from them.
Emery was quickly led and taken through several portals, surprisingly, toward another part of the academy that he had never seen before. It was a building located at the back of the academy palace. It was certainly much quieter compared to other places of the academy.
He looked around and noticed there weren't any knights standing on the long hallways and the gardens, which was odd considering the academy was protected by those people.
Things gradually became more and more strange, especially when he was led down to a basement area by the three magus, heading into a place that looked a little like a dungeon. This certainly made the already worried Emery become even more anxious. In fact, he was ready to cast his [Blink] spell to escape at any moment if he had to.
The four of them arrived before a large closed door. The magus who did all the talking earlier told him to enter. Even though Emery was still anxious, he resolved his determination and pushed the door open.
It was a dark room without any window in sight. There were only a few dimly lit candles placed around the room and a single chair oddly placed in the center of the room.
With his spirit reading, Emery sensed there were six figures inside the room. From their auras, he knew that all of them were at least magus level, with one aura being stronger than the other – definitely a grand magus.
Unfortunately, Emery couldn't recognize any of them.
The situation was apparently much more severe than he had thought.
"Emery Ambrose? Sit down."
Emery walked towards the chair hesitatingly, but in the end, he sat down as requested. As soon as he sat down, he only realized that a spell formation was drawn on the ground around the chair. He couldn't see it before, because the visibility in this room was very poor.
Before he could contemplate what this formation was for, it suddenly glowing and a notification appeared in his mind, answering it.
[Restriction spell has been placed]
Emery could suddenly feel his spirit force was restrained, just like when he returned to Earth but multiple times stronger. It's most likely he won't be able to cast any spell in such a condition.
His eyes focus on one figure that walked out of the shadow and said.
"Are you scared…? Well you should!"
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Written by Avans, Published exclusively by W.e.b.n.o.v..e.l,