“So it’s true! The wizard in legends… ‘Phantom Master’ Sunders!”
The entire resource distribution hall became restless. People all looked at Angor with an emotion mixed with respect and fear. Someone stepped back from him.
Hookdick looked at the scene and shivered. He got a bad feeling about this.
The other talents did not know what had just happened.
“Who’s Sunders?” Someone asked in a small voice.
Abelle slowly turned her head to the speaker bit by bit like a robot, then she spoke in a sluggish tone, “‘Phantom Master’ Sunders, a Level-2 Wizard, who’s basically second to none in the southern region. He even fought with a Level-3 Wizard before and he did not lose. He’s absolutely one of the top three most powerful beings in Brute Cavern… or maybe even number one.”
An envious emotion came from the apprentices around Angor. With such a powerful wizard as his mentor, Angor would become a formal wizard for sure!
The talents realized this as well. No wonder the servant called Melaner in the tree spirit hall changed her “target” from Fosah to Angor after the test. She must have seen Sunders’ name on Angor’s bone card!
The apprentices began to talk about Sunders’ glorious history. With every extra piece of information, Hookdick’s face would grow paler.
“Didn’t you say you’re going to kill the boy? Now what? Got your face slapped by the hard truth? Hehe. I’m not in the place to comment, but I still have to say this: There is no way Mister Ness will ever beat Mister Sunders in a fight,” A woman cloaked under black robe taunted Hookdick.
“Why you—” Hookdick threw an angry gaze at the woman.
She slowly lifted her hood and revealed a distinctive, foreign look. She had a pair of charming, violet pupils, short and clean black hair, dark-red lips. Also, her pupils which were slits like cat eyes released a terrifying aura when she squinted.
“Nanagi!” An apprenticed called her name.
“Who’s Nanagi?”
“Mister Wallace accepted her as his personal student when she came to Brute Cavern. She was the only golden poster owner during her term. She reached her bottleneck as a High Apprentice real quick.”
“She’s not even the age of 30. It’s only a matter of time before she turns into a formal wizard!” Someone exclaimed.
Hookdick swallowed his curses back. As another golden poster owner, this woman had trained longer and was able to kill him over and over again in a blink of an eye. Hookdick would not dare to offend her by using the wrong words.
Nanagi did not mind Hookdick at all. Instead, she walked to Angor on light and swift steps, circled around him, and inspected the boy up and down with those cat-like eyes.
Angor, on the other hand, only returned a doubtful gaze at her.
A while later, Nanagi spoke in a small voice, “Lucky you. Mister Sunders is your mentor. If I can… oh dear.”
She shook her head and walked away from the crowd as she said, “I hope you don’t dishonor his name or I’ll kill you.”
She came for no reason and left with those strange words. Angor had no idea what this was all about. Did Nanagi have something to do with his professor?
Angor complained in his mind and returned to his seat.
With Nanagi away, people slowly quieted down. However, everyone regarded Angor with different attitude now. Some were envious, some were jealous, some hated him… Yet, none of them dared to reveal their emotions.
Sunders earned his name by spilling the blood of others. The transmission earlier proved that Sunders really cared about his new student, and these people would never beard the lion in his den.
Hookdick stared at Angor with hatred in the now silent hall. He wanted to use his curse words again, but considering how everyone was so terrified at Sunders’ name, he held them back.
Balba was the one to break the silence. He stood up and moved his muscular body to Abelle.
“My turn,” His voice sounded like something came from a subwoofer speaker.
Balba’s voice woke Abelle from her trance. She straightened her black-rimmed glasses a little and let out an “okay”.
Balba took out his bone card and placed it into the disk.
The disk did not release light or anything at all. Balba grimaced at his result.
No one commented. Even Hookdick remained silent. They had just gotten over Angor’s surprise. If Hookdick said something funny again, people would remember his joke earlier. With that in mind, Hookdick closed his eyes and pretended to be resting.
Balba waited for some more without getting anything. He clenched his fists and revealed some pulsing veins on his neck. He took out his bone card fiercely and moved away.
Abelle tried to comfort him, “Don’t worry, Every time at least six out of ten talents won’t receive their posters. We have a strange situation this time because there are too few of you—”
She halted her words because she realized she was not helping, and Balba’s now even darker expression proved her mistake. Since there were too few, ten talents should all get their posters.
Did this mean Balba was totally useless in the eyes of the wizards?
Abelle stuck her tongue out and complained to herself for having a silly mouth.
Then, Abelle signaled Balba to go to another desk.
“Without a professor poster, you’ll be assigned to a random mentor. Maybe you can find a better one,” Abelle explained.
A better one?
Balba grinned in contempt without responding. Following Abelle’s instruction, he placed his card on the desk.
A servant behind the desk took his card and put it into a wooden pipe which looked like a periscope. After some clunking noise, the bone card was pushed back out, along with another crimson card.
Abelle looked at the familiar card, “Huh? It’s Lady Flora’s card again.”
The servant returned Balba’s boned card together with the crimson one, “Congratulations… you’re assigned to Lady Flora.”
The servant was displaying a weird look and the word “Congratulations” sounded a bit twisted.
A talent spoke to Abelle, “Is Lady Flora bad? Why do you all look so strange?”
Abelle shook her head, “Lady Flora is quite nice to female talents. She would have been a good choice for Nausica. As for male talents… well…
“Oh right, Mister Sunders is Flora’s professor too. So… Angor, you’ll be Lady Flora’s schoolmate now,” Abelle said in the end.
…
After they had the professors arranged, Abelle led them away from the distribution hall and began assigning their residence.
“Your professor is such an amazing wizard!” Sailum exclaimed in surprise.
Angor remained calm, “I didn’t think that I need to tell people about it. Professor Sunders and Miss Flora were the ones who controlled the cloud whale.”
Nausica was also interested in Flora since she just received a poster from her. She asked, “So the witch on the cloud whale is Miss Flora?”
“Bare feet, umbrella, floating in the air, that’s her,” Angor said.
“I see…”
A certain scene appeared in Nausica’s mind. A young lady wearing a beautiful dress who carried an umbrella and floated in the sky. A handsome blond boy sat under a tree while reading a book as he talked to the lady.
Nausica witnessed it on the cloud whale. She was thinking about Flora and Angor.
She then glanced at Balba who had been listening to their conversation. When Nausica looked his way, Balba blushed a little. However, it was not very obvious because his skin was too dark.
Nausica smiled at Balba, rolled her eyes, and asked Angor another question.
“Abelle said Lady Flora isn’t nice to males? But you two were fine on the cloud whale, weren’t you?”
Fine?
Angor recalled his days on the cloud whale. Flora was just a mischievous witch who was always playing jokes on him, and she played lots of pranks, some of which were pretty dangerous. Angor was never hurt though. The grim reaper “Little Red” floating behind Flora was quite friendly to Angor. Little Red would often help Angor escape from Flora’s tricks.
Angor believed that anyone else in his shoes would meet some terrible endings since they could not see Little Red.
Thinking about this, Angor revealed a bitter smile at Nausica, “Sigh… I’m not sure if she’s nice to females. But I can tell you that she is… unruly. Common people will have a hard time trying to survive in her hands.”
“You’re alive and well. So… you’re not a common one then?” Nausica joked.
Angor only shook his head.
Balba realized Nausica was trying to help. He did not show any expression, but he clearly knew how cruel the wizarding world was, so he was really thankful for Nausica’s little favor.
…
The tree spirit garden was huge. They used a bus which ran between tree vines hanging in the air, and it still took them half an hour to reach their destination.
They dismounted the bus. The hanging railcar made from plant vines and thin wood rushed back into the distance.
“Woah, the bus was amazing. It could run on such fragile branches!” Sailum was excited. This was his first time riding on such a fast vehicle.
Sky buses—boxes made from leaves, vines, and wood which hang on the branches of the Tree of Eternity and dashed among clouds.
The scenery looked brilliant from up there as well. They enjoyed the warm sunlight and misty clouds going over them on their way. The swiftness of the buses was quite a sight to behold.
When every talent was discussing the buses, Abelle spoke, “The transportation in Brute Cavern is pretty outdated. I heard that Evory had all sorts of steel building and railways for trains, as well as metal cars running on the ground which doesn’t need rails at all. There are also steam airships in the air. Every man who went there all praised highly of their alchemy products!”
Trains, airships, steel buildings, and metal cars… the romance of men.
Even Nausica longed to see the place. They all remembered the name “Evory” in their minds, hoping to go there someday.
After another five minutes of walking, they saw buildings in the distance.
“We’re here,” said Abelle. She pointed toward a vast, green field in front of them, “This is where you’ll be living.”
The endless field only had tattered plant patches growing on it due to the lack of sunlight caused by the Tree of Eternity.
That was not important though. The point was, there was nothing on the field!
“We’re not going there?” Fatty Fosah pointed to the left where a moderate-sized city could be seen in the far distance.
A city that was full of houses built in different shapes and out of various materials. There were tall, stone structures which reached all the way into the clouds, and low, mushroom houses, wooden cottages surrounded by flowers, elegant castles besides the lakes… No matter big or small, they all looked delicate and dazzling.
Abelle smiled, “That’s Apprentice Town Eight of Tree Spirit Garden. There are a total of 36 apprentice towns in the garden, numbered one to thirty-six. All the towns have large-scale magic arrays drawn under them by powerful wizards. They allow us to meditate better and save a lot of time. But apprentices need to pay magic crystals to live in there.”
Abelle reached for her coin pouch with a sad face and pointed to the field in front of them, “Without magic crystals, you’ll have to live down here. The field doesn’t have a name. We just call it the Cave Field because the underground is hollowed out into many caves with lots of passages connecting everywhere. Before earning enough magic crystals to live inside apprentice towns, this will be your home.”
So their residence was underground? People finally understood.
They spent a night in a ground cave outside Twilight Town when they first came to the Fey Continent, so they did not really resist the idea.
However, when they actually stepped into the caves, they realized why this place was free.
Abelle led them into the dark cave. Soon, they saw a small room blocked by a simple iron door. Abelle pointed to the door and said, “The room looked simple from the outside, but… ahem, it’s even simpler on the inside.”
She pushed the iron door open and revealed some space which was barely two square meters large.
There was nothing inside apart from a platform, which was basically a pile of dirt.
“You can use the dirt pile as your bed, your desk, or whatever you wish. Those who made these caves put the dirt there without any particular reason. Dispose of it if you want. Every underground room looks the same, so you can choose one freely. When you do it, place your bone card in the slot on the iron door, and it’ll record your identity. Also, a sign showing that someone took that room will also show up in front of the door.
“Alright. My job’s done. Good luck on becoming wizards!” Abelle smiled and bowed to them before she left on her tri-colored deer.