Chapter 110: Riverside (1)
"Wait, so I’m the only one in the school who decided to help?" Angele narrowed his eyes and asked.
Kelly was not trying to hide anything from Angele, "Well, you’re right, but you need the formula, right?"
"Actually, I’m not going to get too much benefit from just the formula, is there anything else you can offer?" Angele spoke in a light tone. He decided to ask for more, so Kelly would not get suspicious. Kelly probably knew the success rate of crafting Nightmare potion was low, but she did not know Angele had the chip that could help him increase the success rate.
Kelly was not surprised to hear Angele’s question. She nodded, "As a reward, I’ll gift you 500 regular magic stones. What do you think?"
‘500 magic stones!’ Although Angele had four black cards on him, he was surprised nonetheless. He did not expect Kelly to offer so many magic stones.
Angele worked very hard to get magic stones before the war started, and this time he almost lost his life for obtaining those rare materials. Although he was shocked by the offer, his expression did not change.
"Deal. Just send me the message when you’re ready."
Angele drew a snake-shaped rune about the size of an egg in the air as he spoke. It looked like a snake that was about to pounce forward.
He then pushed the rune with his finger. The rune turned into a black flash and sank into Kelly’s gray robe.
Kelly quickly drew a strange insect-shaped rune in the air and pushed it into Angele’s robe as well.
"Good, now we’ve exchanged our Rune Sigils." Angele nodded, "We can contact each other through it directly later."
"Sure, I’ll talk to you soon." Kelly smiled.
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Angele checked the time using Zero after leaving the spell lab. It was 3 o’clock in the afternoon. His plan was to head back to his room and have some rest before study the books stored in the chip. However, he suddenly realized that he had no idea how the Wizards were ranked, so he decided to spend some more time in the library first.
He was the only one in the library at the moment. The place was empty. Angele walked past the two large bookshelves and started checking the glowing shelves. The red ones required the readers to have the Mentality of a rank 3 wizard apprentice, while the black ones could only be read by formal wizards.
Angele checked several red bookshelves before he finally found the book he wanted.
He carefully touched the red glow with his finger. A hole appeared on the barrier, which fitted Angele’s hand well. He grabbed the book with a black cover easily. He did not take the book to the table, only standing beside the bookshelf as he started reading.
On the surface of the book, there was a gray mouse with a pair of blue glowing eyes. It looked it was about to strike whoever was planning to read the book. The blue glow almost looked like a flame, and there was smoke coming out of its eyes.
Angele noticed the strange mouse. He rubbed its eyes with his left hand.
*CHI*
Angele’s hand was hurt by the heat. It meant the flame was real.
He was surprised. The flame looked identical to the flame on the Glowing Elephant created. The only difference was the color. He opened the book and started checking the Wizards’ ranking system.
‘Wizards control the power and the rules of nature. Living beings who understand this power and rules are called Wizards.’
That was the first sentence on the first page. Angele continued reading.
‘6000 years ago, various races started the war against each other due to the 300-year-old hatred between them. Countless wars were declared by Humans, Demi-humans, Merfolk and Inhuman. Many mortals and wizards died. The stronger wizards decided to make a scale to measure the strength of their opponents. That was the prototype of the ranking system. The scale could be applied to any ancient race. It was also the first scale used to decide the ranks of Wizards.’
‘3000 years ago, the scale was improved due to the extinction of many races. Human Wizards were the strongest at that time, so they changed the ranking system to provide a better measurement for the Wizards.’
‘And the one we are still using was created in the year 1429.’
Angele furrowed his eyebrows, ‘1429? That’s one hundred years ago. How old is this book...?’
He thought for a while and started reading again.
‘Titles of the Wizards.’
‘Wizards are ranked on how many spells one can cast without getting a backlash. Based on the level of the spells, there are nine general ranks.’
He saw a chart under the explanation. The nine-level system was carefully explained beside the chart. Details on how each level was determined were written inside the chart.
There was a signature spell between each stage, which was used to measure Wizards’ ranks. Also, the power of wizards at the same rank varied due to the difference between the Talent Spells they had.
The power difference between the ranks was tremendous. The same spell could deal ten times or even 20 times more damage when cast by a wizard at a higher rank. That was the reason why a low-rank wizard had to show respect to high-rank wizards. They never know what would happen if a high-rank wizard became infuriated.
There were 9 ranks for wizards, each rank differing in the way they communicated and how they pay respect to wizards at higher ranks. Angele finished the book quickly. He skipped some of the lore, but he had a general idea about the wizard’s ranking system.
‘9 ranks and 9 class levels...?’ Angele returned the book to the bookshelf and started thinking. At the end of the book, it mentioned the most famous wizards in the 6000-year history. They were all rank 7 wizards, but they were far from reaching the top rank. Although they did not reach the top rank, everyone related to wizards on this land knew about their names.
Based on all the information Angele collected recently, he had a better understanding about the landmarks. Ramsoda College, Liliado, Santiago, and Northland Alliance, all those wizard organizations were founded on the southern side of the land. They were close to the coastline, and they all had their territories.
10% of the land was controlled by Wizard organizations. On the other side of the Ramsoda Empire, there was a huge desert, and by going across the desert, people could reach the wizard organizations on the northern side of the land. Communications between southern wizard organizations and northern organizations were hard due to the long distance.
The area Angele was in right now was called the Dark Land of Wizards by Wizards from other areas. It meant that the place was for wizards who focused on destruction. Ramsoda and Northland Alliance liked the nickname because the damage spells they created were incredibly powerful than the ones created by other wizard organizations.
Angele recalled the days when he was on the ship. They stopped by several docks and wizard apprentices went to different wizard organizations. Yuri went to a place called White Tooth Castle. It was very far from Ramsoda and would take Angele years to reach there on foot.
It seemed like there were many Wizard organizations on this land, but they could not communicate with organizations from other areas due to the travel distance.
Angele thought for a while and started wondering how the other apprentices he met on the ship were doing. Goody guy Yuri, unruly Nancy, talented Jared, Luc Lando, and Velvet, they all went to different organizations.
Loneliness filled him up from within. He barely had any friend at the school. Benedict was the one Angele had the most conversations with, but he was from another organization.
‘I don’t have anyone to talk to here...’ Angele looked around and thought.
He looked around. The library was still silent. Angele missed the days he spent at the Baron’s territory and the days he had at Marua Harbor. He decided to pursue his goal alone, but sometimes he wondered if he made the right choice.
Angele shook his head. "One day, I’ll meet them again," he muttered.
He left the library and decided to check every area of the school. He had always wanted to learn more about the school since he was accepted, but he did not have the time to do so. The main hall could only be entered by formal wizards. There was a black barrier blocking the entrance. Wizard apprentices could not even peek inside.
There were only three vendors left at the trading area. One of them was the place Angele purchased his first set of potion concoction equipment.
The Mission Hall was the place he accepted requests. It was empty as well, but there were still many requests listed on the board. The school was huge and it could easily fit more than ten thousand apprentices.
There were many faculties in the school, and there was a huge selection of programs offered by the faculties. For example, Energy Modification offered more than ten different programs, Enchantment and Necromancy offered more than twenty programs. However, most of the programs had no student, and masters would only be sent to teach the program when there were enough registered students. After the war, many masters and students had not returned yet. Angele doubted if courses were still being offered by the faculties.
The library, Potions Department, lap area, and service department were the places Angele already visited. The dorm was separated based on the faculties.
There was one last area that Angele would like to visit: the garden area.