Edward Suncrest Pov
The sky was clear, with no clouds in sight. Birds were chirping, trees were rustling and I was flying in the sky on a magic carpet. That’s right, you heard me, a bloody flying carpet. Honestly, I don’t know what I was expecting, maybe a broomstick, maybe a teleportation formation.
But I got none of those. What I got was a flying carpet like the one in Aladdin, and a couple of birds smacking my face. Have I mentioned the fact that I was flying several stories high in the sky?
Because I was flying with nothing to secure my safety, on a magic carpet.
Fortunately, Hakha seemed to have noticed my distress and cast some sort of shield over me. I felt threads of energy chain me onto the magic carpet and the wind stopped spitting birds into me. Feeling relieved, I hastily thanked Hakha who said that it was no problem.
Did I also mention the fact that I was being given special treatment? I asked Hakha about it and he said that I had the qualifications to be trained at the main tower. Prodding him for more information, I eventually learned much about the situation I was in.
It turns out that all six Wizard towers in Iowa were related to each other. The main tower was called the tower of five elements while the other five towers represented each one of the five elements which are Fire, water, earth, metal and wood. So basically, it was the Chinese five elements chart.
Apparently, only talented people could study at the main tower and I was one of them. Hakha also told me that I would be given a choice later at the main tower, on whether to be a common disciple at the main tower or be a genius disciple at one of the minor towers.
He told me that the right choice would be to join the main tower, since the treatment between minor tower disciples and major tower disciples was like the difference between heaven and earth. Noticing my surprised expression, Hakha proceeded to explain the internal situation of the tower to me.
Honestly, I was just surprised that he, a wizard would use a Chinese cultivator web novel term like ‘difference between heaven and earth’. Wasn’t he breaking character like this?
As Hakha explained about things related to Wizards, I began to absorb the essential information to form a full picture of how Wizards work.
Wizards are people who absorb the mana in the surroundings to increase the quality and quantity of their mana pool. Meanwhile, how Wizards display their power is through the use of these things called ‘Soul Arks’. Wizards would use their mana to nourish their Soul Arks and their Soul Arks allow them to use their mana to create magical phenomena.
For example, a curse type Soul Ark would allow the Wizard to use curse magic to attack others, provided they had enough man to use it. Soul Arks also had ranks which corresponded to the ranks of wizards. Rank 1 Wizards can use Rank 1 Soul Arks, Rank 2 Wizards can use Rank 2 soul Arks, so on and so forth.
There were many kinds of soul Arks and they are first split into the One-use and permanent categories. Generally, one-use Soul Arks provided more output as compared to the permanent ones in the same rank as them.
So, a one-use fire ball Soul Ark would provide a stronger blast, heat and radius to the permanent fire ball Soul Ark. It was pretty interesting learning about this stuff, well according to Hakha, I would be learning much more about it in the tower, though he didn’t give any specifics.
Soon, the huge tower I was at previously appeared in the distance, getting closer and closer with every passing second. In fact, it took only 15 minutes for us to reach the base of the tower. Getting off of the magic carpet, Hakha appeared to swallow the carpet and gestured for me to follow him.
Slightly worried about what I had been sitting on for the past 2 hours, I followed behind Hakha, who entered the tower and walked right through the closed doors. Staring slightly, I murmured to myself, “What is this, Platform Nine and three quarte*s?” before copying him and walking into the door.
I will say, right here right now that walking through that door was one of the weirdest experiences in my life. It was also the only time in my life I had phased right through a door. Hell, even after I ascended and became a demon lord, I have NEVER seen any organization use doors like that, not even once.
I had tried to go back to find the door again, and I could never even locate it. All the people in the five elements tower had no idea what I was talking about. At this point, I was beginning to think that that door was some sort of legendary item.
Anyway, after walking through the door and feel every particle of my body being analysed, I felt violated. Definitely one of the most disgusting feelings I’ve had ever.
Looking around to distract myself, I was stunned, for what I saw left me absolutely mesmerized.
Several plants the size of a young tree hung down from the ceiling, the bulbs on their end providing lighting for the hall. Many Wizards were walking around in groups, hurrying to their destinations. Numerous doors were in the tower, some accessible on foot, while others were floating in the air.
Seeing the Wizards disappear as they entered the doors, I remembered what Hakha had told me about them. The main tower was actually designed with just three floors. The top two floors were restricted to everyone except for great wizards and the headmaster. The main floor simply had a mission office and numerous doors in it.
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The doors led to certain areas in the second floor that rookie Wizards were allowed in. In these areas, they would be taught about the essentials of being a Wizard.
Generally, Rank 1 and Rank 2 Wizards are called rookie Wizards. They would be taught at the tower for two years, before the tower stops helping them. Then, if they could become a Rank 3 official Wizard by themselves, they would become one of the towers official Wizards.
Snapping out of my trance, I followed Hakha who entered the mission office. After speaking a few words with the guy behind the counter, Hakha appeared to have received approval, causing him to be ecstatic. Bringing me to one of the doors, he knocked on it respectfully before entering.
The room was quite dusty, with purple gas of some kind spiralling in the air above us. The room itself appeared to be made up of cobblestone, though not a single piece of moss could be seen growing through it.
There was a wooden desk at what looked to be a laboratory, and there was an old man with greying hair standing in front of it. Hakha didn’t try to get his attention and instead, he respectfully stood there, not saying a single word.
By the time the old Wizard turned around, my legs had already gone numb from standing there for too long.
Slowly, he turned his body around. Contrary to my expectations, he didn’t have a long bushy beard that trailed to the floor. Rather, he had a handlebar moustache, which looked slightly amusing on an old man.
“Teacher! I have found a talented rookie Wizard who qualifies to join the main tower!” said Hakha.
“Oh? Come here, let me take a look at you.” The old man said in a gravelly voice.
Stepping forward, I introduced myself. “Greetings, Great Wizard, I am Edward Suncrest.”
Reaching out, his shrivelled arm grabbed hold of my hands, where I felt something slither into my body. Soon, that sensation reached my other hand, whereupon a small snake came out from the palm of my left hand, leaving behind a small hole.
[Edward Suncrest’s attribute were tested by the Elmer snake, rough estimation of your stats have been transferred to Rank 3 Wizard Hidler]
Passing me a vial containing a green liquid, he gestured for me to drink it before concentrating on the rough estimation of my stats. Drinking the green liquid, I felt a refreshing sensation inside my body, causing my wounds to heal and fatigue to be erased.
[Edward Suncrest has taken Potion of Vitality, injuries have been healed, host is invigorated]
[If the host intakes more of this potion, there will be a small increment in vitality]
Surprised at the results of the potion, I became more interested in the potion after reading the System messages.
As I was thinking about how I would go about procuring these potions, the elderly Wizard smiled and said some words of praise.
“Good, this is definitely good enough to be a student in the first class, Hakha, as a reward your Mana potion allowance per month will be increased to 45 per month. As for you, young man would you like to step onto the path of Wizards in the Five elements tower?”
Taking the cue, I stepped forward and solemnly declared.
“Yes, I wish to begin my path here in the Five elements tower!”
“Good! Hakha take him to the dormitories and let him rest. Tomorrow, the first lesson will begin, to enter your classroom, simply chant this spell and open your rooms door.”
Saying such, Hidler passed me a piece of paper with some words written on it before turning back to his experiments.
Having been approved, Hakha brought me to my room, which happened to be beside his own. Entering the room beside mine, Hakha told me to look for him if I required help.
Having been left in an empty corridor, I simply decided to enter my room and wait for the next day.
Turning the intricately designed doorknob, I entered the room. As expected, it was completely made out of cobblestone, although it appeared to have been tampered with, making it much tougher. There was surprisingly little dust in the small room. There was a single bed in the far right corner, with a wooden desk beside it. Opposite to the bed, there was a door leading to another room, presumably to the toilet.
The room was lit by a miniature version of the bulbous plant I had saw in the main hall before. Other than these, the room was completely empty. Sitting on the bed, I put down his duffel bag and began meditating. Previously, Hakha had advised me to spend some time meditating so that I could sense mana faster. He had told me that with my talent, it should only take me one or two days to do so.
Thus, I am now sitting in a cross-legged yoga pose, trying to clear my mind and sense the mana surrounding me.
Soon, day turned into night and I was still on the bed, meditating. At some point in time, I had slipped into a trance of sorts, unable to feel what happened in my surroundings.
Meanwhile, I was having a fantastic experience. My consciousness had exited my body and was now roaming around the room, and although I couldn’t see, I could sort of ‘sense’ the surroundings. If I really had to describe it, then it would be like a sixth sense.
With this sixth sense, I could sense, no, feel mana in the surroundings. It was a wondrous ephemeral energy that seemed to react to my presence, flowing around me, avoiding my consciousness.
It was then that a thought occurred to me.
‘Wait didn’t Hakha say that Wizards increase their mana pool by absorbing mana like this?’
Thus, I began trying to absorb the surrounding mana. However, it was extremely difficult. The flow of mana was set, and to alter it would take a lot of strength. Gritting my (metaphorical) teeth, I desperately began trying to suck in the surrounding mana.
After several failures, I finally managed to draw a tiny current of mana into my body.
Feeling the mana enter my body, I was incomparably satisfied. However, immediately after that, a wave of exhaustion hit me, causing me to wake up from my trance.
Waking up, I rubbed my face and began reading the System messages that had popped up while I was meditating.
[Edward Suncrest has successfully entered state of meditation, is now able to sense the surrounding mana]
[Edward Suncrest absorbed some of the surrounding mana, mana increased by 0.23]
[Due to having Insufficient Mind power, Edward Suncrest was unable to continue meditating]
Having figured out the cause of my exhaustion, I was honestly a little scared. With my 17 points of Mind power, I was only able to meditate long enough to increase my mana by 0.23, not even a full point! No wonder the requirements towards Wizards was so strict!
Thinking to myself, I corrected some of my thoughts. There definitely is another way to increase my mana pool, maybe those Mana potions from before? No, it couldn’t just be that, maybe wizards have longer lifespans, allowing to use the accumulations of time to increase their abilities? Perhaps it was like that.
Looks like I would have to work harder to become a Wizard, maybe I should try to join Hakha's clique?
In any case, this meant that my path looked to be much tougher than I expected. As I continued thinking about these things, another wave of exhaustion swept over me. Checking my watch and seeing that it was already night time, I took a quick bath and went to sleep to help my exhausted mind recover.
[Edward Suncrest]
Rank 1
Gender: Male
Vitality: 12
Strength: 13
Mana: 15.23
Mind Power: 16 (17)
Attack: N/A Defence: N/A
Skills: Unwavering Will Lvl 1