It was Sophie rather than Jack himself who couldn't help but wake up early, eager for the examination result. She was, without a shred of doubt, certain that her little Jack would pass with flying colors.

Jack delightfully followed his mother to the Artificer Guild.

The hall was crowded with the same test takers, along with their parents and guardians, of yesterday. The guild hadn’t yet started its operation, so most people looked for themself a seat or stood in anxiousness. Jack got Sophie a chair while standing by her side.

The clock hit eight, and the guild members burst out from their offices. Two carried with them a glass board to the middle of the hall. With a flip of a switch, the list of the contestants and their final scores appeared.

“Those who had a pass on their name, please move to the next room to continue the procedure,” said Howard, the young man who had had the exchange with the guild master about Jack’s case earlier.

The attendants, impatient as they were, couldn’t help but flock around the board. Jack held Sophie back, not wanting his mother to get caught in there. Using Identification Lens, he could examine the list from afar, and what he found made him frown. His name wasn’t even on it, let alone pass or fail.

Jack hadn’t yet figured out how to inform Sophie about this when he saw Howard blend his way through the crowd to him and his mother’s place.

“Jack? Jack Corvus?” he said with a smile.

“Yes, that’s me,” the boy nodded.

Sophie also stood up, a moment of uneasiness flashing in her eyes.

“Is there something with my boy?” She asked.

Howard bowed his head at the Harper lady and comforted her with his words.

“Nothing at all, my lady. It’s just that the guild master, Lena herself, wishes to meet Jack for some private exchange.”

Jack patted his mother’s hand.

“Oh, in that case, I’ll go with him for a while. Don’t worry; your little boy must have been so excellent to receive this special treatment.”

Sophie puffed at her son, and Howard couldn’t help but twitch the edge of his lips at the boy’s confidence.

“After you then,” Howard signaled at the stairs.

The two walked to the third floor, where Lena’s office was.

Entering the room, Jack immediately took a moment to glance around. An unremarkable chamber, in his opinion, simple in decoration, with a small table at its center surrounded by small gray sofas. The guild master herself was sitting at her working desk in the room’s corner.

Lena, seeing the visitors, instantly stood up and welcomed him.

“I can’t believe we would have the chance to see each other again so soon,” she said joyfully.

“And I couldn’t imagine I would have this honor,” Jack answered with a smile.

Howard then left the room, going back to supervise the approval procedure of the other contestants.

Lena pointed at the tea set on the glass surface of the table.

“Tea?”

“Of course,” Jack replied.

The two then sat down at the table. Lena elegantly poured for them two cups of smoky, fragrant tea.

Jack took a sip to please his counterpart.

After some chatting, mostly about Bastian, Lena got the main point.

“Your capability is giving me quite a headache!” She said, staring into his eyes.

Jack was a bit startled facing her sudden intriguing look. He reckoned his careful sets of answers hadn’t been careful enough.

“Headache in a good way or bad way?” Jack asked with a wary smile.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

“Oh, what makes you it’s in a bad way? As a matter of fact, it’s even a little bit too good to be true, you know?”

“Oh, so am I a miracle boy in your eyes?” Jack jokingly said.

“So it seems!” Lena nodded, then held her fingers up and started counting. “Skipping grade as soon as you woke up from a two-year coma, taking down a monster that no other unawakened child could have, surviving a bandit attack, mysteriously advancing into Herald, assisting Bastian in acquiring his long-awaited Archon ranking. Yes, ‘miracle’ is quite an understatement.”

Jack took another sip of tea in silence. He wasn’t surprised by the amount of revelation one could gather around him since his return. To him, such information wasn’t as threatening to him, not anymore, ever since he got himself under the wing of powerful men, such as Meinhard and, most recently, Bastian.

“So,” Lena continued. “I’m inclined to ask of this miracle here something.”

Jack squinted at the woman in front of him, the gears in his head shifting in uneasiness, imagining the troubles that would come with the upcoming words.

Lena pushed her glass up, looking straight at the boy, and started saying.

“You must be assuming you are in a safe spot. I think so too. But this is only true when this right now is your ceiling. I reckon the contestant with the highest score on the hardest test in the history of the exam is bright enough to understand this, right?”

So the test was also a setup! Jack quietly clicked his tongue.

His mind turned its cautious side toward Lena. Ever since his interaction with her at Bastian’s celebration, Jack had had a vague notion that he had been targeted.

As for the warning the guild master had been telling him, nobody else was more aware of it than Jack himself. If all there was for him was the rank of Herald, he would continue his mediocre life, barely making enough for himself, unbeknown to the malevolent eyes. However, as soon as Jack let his brilliance slip into the wrong ears, the layers of protection he had built for himself would be but a shroud of mist, easily scattered by the coming storm.

“What’s your suggestion then?”

“Become the face of the Artificer Guild of Oxdale,” Lena stressed every single word of the sentence.

“Well, now, isn’t that the way it should be?”

Lena put the cup of tea down, clasped her hands, then put them on the knee above her crossed legs, her eyes full of unspoken thoughts.

“Not because you’re already Bastian’s apprentice.”

Jack raised his eyebrows.

“Bastian was both a member of the Artificer Guild and something even grander. Therefore, the reputation he acquired wasn’t that much beneficial to us.”

“But, beneficial for,” Jack stopped for a moment, then a word popped out of his mind. “Technopolis?”

An astounding look passed by Lena’s eyes for a moment.

“Yes,” she nodded. “That is also the reason we can’t force the swordsmith master to do any of our biddings. We didn’t dare to.”

Jack spent a moment of silence contemplating Bastian’s position. It appeared only the higher-ups really knew his true background. The questions surrounding the word “hybrid” still lingered in his mind, but recalling Bastian’s unpleasant reaction to the word, Jack reckoned it would be more appropriate to save it for another time.

“And what you can do is to use his apprentice?” Jack asked.

“That’s the miracle I’m looking forward to,” Lena said with a smile. “Since you are Bastian’s rightful successor, you have yourself quite a privilege too, even a chance to acquire a seat on the High Council of Technopolis. That being said, I’m not trying to deceive you on this. His reputation could be a double edge sword should you choose to walk this path.”

“True, but accepting the path you offer me,” Jack said, “wouldn’t be much easier, isn’t it? You wouldn’t have taken so much time getting into it if it were.”

“You got it fast, kid,” Lena said, tapping her finger on the table. “To be honest, I wasn’t sure about any of this at all. I needed time to see what you are made of. The test result changed that, however, so I took the initiative, you know. I can’t let someone of your caliber slip from my fingers. However you choose to advance yourself, it will be challenging, and I believe myself capable of releasing some of that burden for you.”

“So what’s the catch?”

Lena’s smile grew wider, understanding she was about to get what she wanted. Jack slowly understood what he had gotten himself into. Not only did he have to worry for himself, but also for the Harper too.

“You will become an official member of the Artificer Guild and gain the support and protection it provides, and I will personally assist you in your endeavor to the best of my capability. In exchange, you will embrace the reputation of the Artificer Guild of Oxdale. Basically, you’ll just do what you normally do, but when it comes to signing up for exams or conferences, you show them your name tag with the guild’s symbol on it. That’s all.”

More like your own reputation, Jack thought.

The guild’s branches were always competing with each other through their annual results and achievements. The higher their ranking, the more prestige and wealth they would acquire; chief among the ones who received all of this was the guild masters themself. With that in mind, the most straightforward option was to support and patronize an individual to their personal glory, establishing them and the organization as the front runner in the Artificer world.

“Alright,” Jack answered with a shrug.

Jack had already chosen Artificer as his public faction, so this would be but a convenience. He didn’t really have to give up anything but had a lot more to gain with this deal. Moreover, he could still find a way to step foot into Technopolis with his capability.

Lena was a bit wary of Jack’s hasty agreement, but the fact that it was done exhilarated her. She had gotten for herself a competent sidekick.

“Well then, let us talk about the other favor,” Jack quickly suggested.

“Okay,” the guild master said without hesitation but then found herself speechless; she couldn’t help but open her eyes wide at the words that Jack would utter.

“I need an Essence Tracer as soon as possible.”