Two Dwarves and a single Dragonkin were sat on the beach of an island unfamiliar to them. The older Dwarf, Grimsley, stood up and grabbed a stone before tossing it into the ocean. It skipped along the water twenty-four times before it finally sank.
"Excellent throw," Gilbert, the Dragonkin praised with a deadpan expression on his face.
"A've been workin' on my arms lately since ye've been forcin' me te learn how te use a war'ammer," Grimsley shrugged.
The elderly Dragonkin got up and stretched his back. "I can't believe we got in a storm and ended up on another damned island with our boat smashed to pieces!" he shouted without hiding any of his frustrations.
"T-Teacher, please calm down!" Shana, the younger Dwarf, urged her magic tutor. "If it weren't for you and your amazing gravity magic then we'd be dead by now."
Shana had learnt over the past year that Gilbert was very weak to flattery. As predicted, the Dragonkin's white and scaly tail swished about a bit as his cheeks reddened. "Ahem, I suppose you're right..."
Grimsley rolled his eyes and muttered. "Too easy."
"Well, Grimsley, what's the plan? If storms like that are a regular occurrence in whatever ocean this is, then we might be doomed to spend the rest of our lives here." Gilbert was old and he had already awakened twice before, so it wouldn't be too long until he naturally died. He was happy to have found a close friend and a student with some talent in his final years.
"The fooks 'at look for? I'm nay dyin' on this island, pal. Lone's been teachin' me 'ow te build a 'caravel'," Grimsley stated.
"A what?" Gilbert walked up to Grimsley's side and wore an interested face.
The two of them shared the communication orb that Lone had crafted for them, so naturally, they weren't always aware of the conversations held between Lone and the other person.
"A caravel. It's a ship that can 'old up te twenty people supposedly. It might be a bit 'ard to pilot it wae only the three of us, but I'm sure we can 'andle it. Give me a week an I'll have it built," Grimsley stated with confidence in his voice.
Ever since they had teleported to the sea, Grimsley had spent most of his time building, as opposed to his lifelong profession, smithing. He had constructed a mansion on the old island that Gilbert had accidentally destroyed, and he had even crafted the small sailboat the three had used before the storm wrecked it.
Grimsley was confident that within seven days, he could use the details that Lone had given him to craft a caravel that could endure the storms and allow them to continue sailing until they found the mainland continent of Altros, Teresta.
"That sounds like an excellent plan, Grimsley!" Gilbert exclaimed. "... However, could you build us a place to live first? I'd rather not sleep in the wild for an entire week."
"Fookin' 'ell. A've been learnin' how te fight in ma spare time, but what te fook 'ave ye been doin'? Take a few hours a day te learn 'ow to build a cabin, would ye? I'm sure Lone wouldnae mind tellin' ya 'ow it's done," Grimsley sighed.
Only he and his niece, Shana, knew how painfully useless Gilbert was in day-to-day life. If it weren't for Grimsley building everything that they needed, and Shana cooking food for them, then without a doubt, the three unlikely companions would have died almost immediately after they teleported out of Milindo.
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In the large centre courtyard of The Academy, every single student was gathered for the annual magical aptitude test.
This test evaluated exactly how much growth each student had gone through and it would determine if you would move on to the next grade of it you would be expelled and thrown out. Regardless of your family backing, if you failed this test, you would be ruthlessly kicked out.
Several princes and princesses had experienced this in the past and then ordered their soldiers to attack The Academy as some form of revenge, but regardless of the tier of their home country and the power of their parents, they would be mercilessly slaughtered single-handedly by the Headmaster.
This was a testament to his absurd strength. Many of the strongest people on the continent had speculated that the Headmaster was at least a high-tier XXX-ranker or maybe even a Divine-level-being and that he rivalled the Kings of the four world trees and the Guildmaster of The Adventurer's Guild.
"Everyone, silence, please! Headmaster Erion will now speak!" a short and slim girl who looked no older than fourteen shouted. This girl was the Head Student that ruled over the strongest in-school faction, The Sentinals, and she represented the Headmaster most days of the year since that faction was the one under his personal command.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
The entire courtyard full of over a thousand students quietened down and a black-haired man who looked to be of Asian decent stepped onto the stage. A robe that was clearly one or two sizes too large draped over his shoulders and gave him a mysterious feeling despite his youthful appearance.
"Hello, students. It's a pleasure to meet you all. Before this year's test, I have something to announce." The Headmaster's voice was very soft but it somehow filled the entire surroundings and not a single person failed to hear him despite the massive crowd.
"There are two people that are very slowly making their way to my academy and I plan to take them both in as personal students," the Headmaster stated.
"Personal students?"
"Didn't the Headmaster once say that he'd never take in personal students?"
"Right, he said that no one was strong enough in any magical arts on the entire continent to garner his attention."
"Now two people that he's willing to teach pop up out of nowhere? Kuh! I'm so jealous!"
The Headmaster patiently waited for the chatter to stop with an ambient smile on his face. "In truth, I am somewhat disappointed that these two have not arrived yet. It has been nearly sixteen months since I offered my teachings to one of them."
Headmaster Erion has a sad look on his face and he sighed before he stated, "I did not wish to reveal their identities, but one of them has recently displayed an act of hostility towards me, so I would like for all of you with any backing to issue warrants for his and his companions' arrests. I am tired of waiting for their arrival."
This sent a wild frenzy of murmurs to spread throughout the teachers and students alike. Everyone, regardless of if they were a king or a peasant, knew that the Headmaster of The Academy was one of, if not, the strongest person on the continent, so acting in an unfriendly manner to him, even after he had expressed the will to teach them personally, was almost like blasphemy to the people present.
The Headmaster waved his hand and two astral projections were created. One was of a very handsome nine-tailed Foxkin while the other was of an incredibly gorgeous Human girl.
"These are my future personal students, Lone immortus on the left, and Sophie Vladimirovich on the right. I want them captured during your two-month leave that begins later this year. I won't tell you everything about them as that would ruin the fun, but I can tell you that they are currently in the middle of becoming keepers for one of the four world trees." The Headmaster had a mischevious look on his face.
"Capturing one will grant you access to the sixth level of the magic tome library, and capturing both will grant you access to the final and seventh level where I will allow you to read a single spellbook. That's all. Thank you for your time." With that, Headmaster Erion nodded his head and vanished into thin air.
Amongst the crowd, two young girls were very shocked, but for very different reasons.
Hazel had a look of happiness on her face. 'Mr McCullen! So he is safe... and he was heading to The Academy... This is great! As the Headmaster's personal student, he'll be safe... I hope he gets captured soon so we can meet again.'
Alisa, the small Russian blonde-haired girl, held down her comically large witches hat and mumbled to herself, "He just teleported! Maybe he can teach me about space magic and I can go back home? And that girl... Vladimirovich... Nah, it couldn't be..."
Clearly, the two girls had varying goals, however, today's yearly aptitude test had undoubtedly been beneficial for both of them.
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Outside of the large city, Mystopolis, that was sat next to The Academy, the Headmaster of The Academy and a young looking Human woman were stood in the air with serious looks on their faces.
"Well, Headmaster, you said that one of your future personal students created that thing?" the busty and muscular woman asked as she focused her eyes and stared at the approaching collection of over a hundred green energy blades that were a few hundred miles away.
"Indeed, Guildmaster. I'm ashamed to say that she doesn't have full control over her powers and she created it during a moment of emotional instability, though it was with the aid of several above peak-tier mana orbs," Headmaster Erion informed as he took out an ornate staff from a dimensional storage skill that was similar to Lone's but most definitely weaker than his.
"Above peak-tier? Something like that can exist?" The Guildmaster was a very strong and powerful woman. In fact, she could easily call the Headmaster one of her few equals, so naturally, she was well learned on the topic of substances and items that boosted one's personal power, both temporarily and permanently.
"Apparently so," Headmaster Erion shrugged and waved his staff a bit which caused several silver runes and magic circles to appear in mid-air.
"Hmm, that's still pretty insane, huh? It's not like you can just absorb mana orbs endlessly. There's a limit based on your magical abilities unless you don't mind crippling your mana organs, right?" the Guildmaster asked as she loosened her shoulders and stretched a bit.
"I'm surprised you know that considering you have no talent for magic," the Headmaster honestly praised.
Shaking her head, the Guildmaster replied, "I only know the basic stuff."
"Like you said, normally it would be impossible, but my personal students are very special." There was a playful and very excited tone in Headmaster Erion's voice, but the Guildmaster chose to simply smile and not mention this unusual change in the ancient and powerful mage.
"I see, well, we'd better prepare then. That thing'll destroy my city if we don't stop it. It's a pretty crazy coincidence that one of your students sent an attack like that towards your school, isn't it?" the Guildmaster was obviously not being serious with her accusing words.
"Children will be children." Even the nearly one-thousand-year-old Sophie was nothing but a child in the headmaster's eyes.
"I suppose that's true, hahaha!" the Guildmaster laughed with a massive grin on her face. She had experienced similar things with her more powerful employees like the adventurer group, The Seven Deadly Sins, so she couldn't blame Headmaster Erion for the actions of his future personal students considering how little trouble he and his academy had ever caused for her in the past.
The Headmaster and Guildmaster then successfully blocked the one-hundred and ten blades of Sophie's via several space magic-based formations set up by the Headmaster and with the help of the Guildmaster punching all of the remaining energy that had gathered around the blades, dispelling it.
Lone had no idea that his little 'prank' would lead to his arrival at The Academy happening far sooner than he'd originally planned, that was for certain.