After climbing for about ten minutes, they finally reached the tree spirit hall.
It was not big. The walls all had vines climbing on them, which looked very primitive. A group of mortals was working in the hall. When they saw the talents coming in, they revealed some jealous looks.
Of course, mortals envied talents.
A beautiful servant lady standing near a reception desk strolled to the talents on elegant steps. She released a faint light in her eyes and observed the talents. Her sight briefly stopped when going over Angor and Balba, and after making up her mind, she approached the one which appeared charmingly wild—Balba—using an even sexier manner.
“Honourable Sir, welcome to the hall of tree spirit. I’m a member working here, Melaner.”
The woman had a bright and natural appearance. Starlight brimmed in her eye, giving her a more lively aura. When talking to Balba, she intentionally used an attitude of admiration, which certainly would do a good job seizing the hearts of men. The fatty and pockmark boy even whistled when they saw Melaner.
It seemed Melaner chose the wrong target to utilize her charm on because Balba looked at her with absolutely unchanged indifference. His handsome face even showed a tiny trace of disdain. He did not even spare the effort to respond.
Melaner stood there, embarrassed. She cast another look at Angor as if asking for sympathy.
Angor had been speaking to Sailum and was not paying any lustful attention to her like the other talents. Besides, another mature charming lady was standing beside him, and she who was looking at Melaner with a fake smile.
Nausica’s equally competitive charm was the reason why Melaner chose to flatter Balba. Although her effort was obviously denied.
She quickly regained her spirit. Now that Angor and Balba were not paying her any attention, she went over the other talents. Those people looked a little less than Angor and Balba as far as their looks were concerned. However, they were still talents. Melaner only had two more years to work now. If no one could help her before then…
“Please follow me, honorable guests. Melaner will register your profiles,” said Melaner. She walked to Fosah, who quickly whistled at her, and spoke in a lovely manner.
They all realized what Melaner was trying to do. Even the other workers in the hall acted as if they were used to something like this.
The fatty looked experienced in handling women. He skillfully put an arm around Melaner’s waist and beckoned at the other talents.
Melaner suppressed her uneasiness and continued to act seductively as she said, “Honorable guests, please place your bone cards right here. Mister Tree Spirit will test your talent orientations and spiritual power indicators in a moment, and update the information in your cards.”
Then Melaner pointed to a door nearby, “He will be waiting for you in that room.”
Following her instruction, they entered the door. Melaner stayed back at her post. Before leaving, Fosah pinched her hips with a fat hand, which caused the woman to shift expressions drastically. In the end, she could only let out a sigh in frustration.
When stepping into the door, the group was blinded by an intense golden light.
When they could finally adjust their eyes, they realized that the light came from the sun in the sky. They had left the tree trunk and were now standing on top of a giant leaf.
They could clearly see fluid flowing in the veins under their feet. The leaf felt soft to the touch, yet it provided steady footing.
The sun shined on the leaf and created a pale green aura around them. Clouds and mist floated around, putting the group inside a fantastic environment.
No wonder wizards preferred living in such wonderful places.
“You’re here? Come hither, and I shall take a look.”
A gentle, male voice reached their ears.
Following the voice, they saw a man covered in sunlight who was lying in an armchair made from tree leaves. However, it was too misty for them to make out any details on him.
Upon approaching, they realized that the man did not wear anything apart from a leaf skirt around his waist. He was lying on the chair casually, enjoying the sun. When the group finally reached him, he slowly stood up and greeted them, in the same casual manner.
He is the tree spirit?
Angor inspected the figure carefully. He had short, clear green curly hair, a handsome face, and perfect body shape like those deities described in folklore paintings.
Everything was fine about him… except that he might need some proper clothes, especially when there was a lady around. Angor glanced at Nausica and noticed that she was admiring the tree spirit while revealing several “tsk tsk” between her lips. She was not embarrassed at all.
Ah, who was he kidding? Nausica was a mighty pirate lady who fought for the dominance of the sea with a bunch of tough guys. She would not mind something like this of course.
At the same time, the tree spirit was looking over the talents as well.
One moment later, he finally spoke, “So you’re the talents for this term? There are… so few of you. But that’s Sunders for you, and I’m sure the man tried his best. Ten people, fine. It saves me a lot of effort.”
The other talents only heard the name “Sunders” for the second time. The first being mentioned by Lady Mirror. So everything they went through was caused by this Sunders?
“You all used Abelles’ Eye to test your talent, did you not?” asked the tree spirit.
Everyone nodded.
“The result you saw was important nonetheless, but it only showed a very vague idea, and random. This is why I will test your talent orientations again, and recommend a wizard art for you. You can either listen to my advice or decide otherwise. My recommendation is only a… recommendation. It lies in your own hands whether you can succeed in your days to come.”
He waved a hand and a row of seats emerged from the leaf veins. A podium and an object that looked like a blackboard also appeared near his location.
When everyone sat down, the tree spirit walked onto the “teacher stage” and explained the arts of wizards.
Angor learned about them before from Mara. There were three commonly agreed major arts: The Element Art, the Bloodline Art, and the Occult Art.
They majored in different factors, but they could also intersect with each other. Elementalists could still absorb the bloodline of powerful creatures to strengthen themselves, and Bloodline Wizards could also learn some elemental spells. The Occult Art was the only art that called for decent talent. Occultists could learn elemental and bloodline spells, but it was not so easy the other way round.
There were other arts too. However, only these three were considered as the “mainstream” ones.
“I will refer to your personal traits and talent and give you a piece of advice on whether you should choose Element or Bloodline. As for Occult, there were very few who could adapt to it, and I doubt any of you possesses the talent for it,” said the tree spirit as he briefly explained the wizard arts and prepared to do an easy test for them.
Instead of doing the test here in the open, the tree spirit created a room and asked them to come in, one at a time.