Chapter 464 - Come on Fire at Me
Chapter 464 – Come on Fire at Me
While Roland was confused, Betta came close and said in admiration, “Brother Roland, your name has been known by almost the entire Red Magic Tower. I was doing quests in the western district, and even the bottom-level people there had learned about you.”
Betta had been doing quests for days.
He was only level six, which was a high level for the players but not among the highest anymore.
Roland, on the other hand, was level eight. He wasn’t interested in regular quests that gave too little experience. Only the epic quests could attract him.
He would rather spend his time on magic experiments than waste it on regular quests.
Now, many Mages were gathered in the main hall.
Most of them were level five, so Roland, as the only level eight, was quite distinctive.
Everybody was observing Roland, and Roland looked around and observed them too.
Most of the Mages were human beings, but there were a couple of elves, dwarves, and orcs.
Roland even saw a male drow, and the two noble Mages who were reprimanded by him a few days earlier, and didn’t dare to argue with him.
When they met Roland’s eyes, they simply moved their gazes away without looking back at him.
Roland was rather satisfied.
Soon, it would be time for the Ruby Class to officially start. According to the guide, all they needed to do was to gather in the main hall, and someone would come here to guide them when the time came.
Everybody waited quietly.
As the commencement of the Ruby Class drew closer and closer, fewer and fewer people were whispering.
Eventually, the main hall became so quiet that Roland could even hear people breathing around him.
A moment later, the time finally came.
Several storms that emitted immense mental pressure appeared in the sky and quickly descended.
In the end, four gray-haired Mages walked into the main hall one by one.
Everybody could sense their rank with mental power even if they did not see the Mages’ level.
The Mages were three Masters and a Legend.
Roland and Betta watched the Legend, who had a skull mark above his head, walking in the front.
He was wearing a magic robe that was emitting blue light. He seemed rather gentle.
He gazed at everybody in silence for a while, as if he was counting the people in the main hall.
A moment later, he said, “Well, the number is right. Which one of you is Roland?”
Roland raised his eyebrow.
The people around him all looked at him.
After only half a second of hesitation, Roland stepped forward and said, “I am.”
The Legendary old man looked Roland up and down and asked with a smile, “Your oil-making and water-making techniques are both interesting, but I have a question. Why did you create the oil-making spell?”
“I believe that Mages should be capable of making money with magic as early as possible. After all, not everybody comes from a rich family.”
More than half of the magic apprentices looked at Roland with gratitude.
The oil-making spell was simple and easy to learn. It had made their lives a lot easier with the extra income.
The old man spoke again. “It’s true that what you did can prevent Mages from being troubled by the lack of money in their pursuit of magic expertise. However, the problem is that Mages wouldn’t be as esteemed as right now when there are more of them. After all, that which is rare is dear. After the oil-making spell spreads, there may be ten times more Mages in the future than there are right now. The excessive Mages would make magic ordinary and mundane. At that time, the Mages might treat you in a different way.”
Almost everybody focused their eyes on Roland.
What the old man said did make sense.
Roland said with a smile, “I believe that only if more Mages and more magic associations emerge and communicate with each other can the development of magic be boosted. This is a huge world. There are the Realm of Devils, the Astral Plane, and even the Realm of Gods apart from our main plane. A lot of places are out there for us to explore. We needn’t worry about the redundancy of Mages at all.”
“Hahahaha.” The old man nodded in satisfaction. “Kid, you have a clear vision and a broad mind. I’m making the call now. You’ll be the monitor of the Ruby Class.”
All the students were surprised. Some of them weren’t happy, but they dared not say a word.
“May I know your name, senior?” asked Roland.
“Alfred, a Great Elder of this Magic Tower.” The old Mage turned around and said to his three partners, “They’re all yours now. Teach them carefully.’
The three Mages nodded.
Then, the old man walked out and disappeared into thin air.
It was Teleportation, not a flash… Sensing the frequency of the magic waves in the air, Roland recognized the spell that the Great Elder used easily.
How confident must the old man have been to use Teleportation inside a city?
To this moment, Roland still had no courage to use Teleportation inside a crowded city, because if he failed, the spatial shock he caused could drag the people in the vicinity into the Astral Plane.
Although Roland had never really failed in casting Teleportation, he would rather not take any risks.
No matter how many times he had succeeded, countless civilians would die if he were to fail once.
Few dead people could be resurrected, and time couldn’t be reversed. He wouldn’t be able to make up for what he did.
Therefore, Roland would never do anything so dangerous until he could restrain the spatial shock with his mental power even if his teleportation failed.
He assumed that Alfred, the Legendary Mage, was already capable of doing that.
At this moment, one of the three old Mages came forth. He had black hair and brown eyes. Looking around at all the students coldly, he said, “Except for Roland, everybody in this Ruby Class came here either by pulling strings or because there were no better candidates. I don’t expect you to achieve anything, but you should at least pass all your exams, or you will stay here forever. We don’t want the reputation of the Red Magic Tower to be ruined by any losers.”
Nobody was angry even though they were looked down upon, because what the old man said was true.
Even Betta had come here through his “connections” after completing a quest.
As for the prospect of staying in the Red Magic Tower forever… Most Mages were actually very proud. If they didn’t learn well, they would be too ashamed to go out and be mocked.
“Since the Great Elder has named Roland the monitor, it’s settled then. No objections are allowed.” The black-haired old Mage looked at Roland and continued, “But I’ll keep an eye on you for a while. If you can’t remain at the top of this class, I’ll report it to the Great Elder and remove your title as the monitor. So, you need to work hard. Got it?”
That was the stick after the carrot.
Roland smiled without giving any reply.
He was here to learn things, not to be offended. He had been named as the monitor and then criticized for no good reason.
Did they think that he had no temper at all?
The Red Magic Tower wasn’t the only one out there anyway. If things didn’t work out here, he could always study in another Magic Tower.
The old Mage frowned when Roland didn’t respond to his question, but he didn’t say anything. He simply looked at the others and said, “The Red Magic Tower is best at evocation, but we’re not bad at the spells of other classes either. Also, we won’t demand you to specialize in evoking magic. You can learn whatever you want. We’re only responsible for teaching you according to the schedule.”
This time, the students finally began to whisper.
“Silence.”
The main hall fell quiet again.
“The eight major classes of spells, plus enchantment and alchemy, the two ancillary classes, are ten courses in total. We’ll hold an exam every year. You’ll pass it with a score of 600 or higher. If you fail, you’ll be driven out of the class and will rejoin the next five-year class when it starts. More than ten students in this Ruby Class are from older classes, so you need to work harder. If you can’t keep up, you’ll have to stay in the western district of the Red Magic Tower forever.”
Roland realized that the magic apprentices in the western district were actually the offspring of the detained students from early years.
Since their parents knew magic, it wasn’t too hard for them to become magic apprentices.
Everybody looked at each other and speculated who the detained students were.
Nobody looked at Roland.
A man who had been publicly praised by the Great Elder certainly couldn’t be a detained student.
The black-haired old Mage turned around and said to his two partners, “Okay, you’ll take care of the rest.”
After that, the black-haired Mage walked out of the hall and flew off.
One of the remaining two old Mages had golden hair, and the other had red hair.
The golden-haired Mage looked like a gentle man, whereas the red-haired one had a threatening body figure.
The golden-haired Mage spoke first: “In your freshman year, you will learn magic from the two of us. I’ll teach you divination, conjuration, abjuration and illusion, and my red-haired colleague will teach you the other four magic schools. We will take turns and each teach you for one day. There won’t be any rest. The content of the teaching sessions will be interpretation of basic magic models and fundamental magic mechanisms. It won’t be hard. Right, you can call me Triton and him Montasisa.
Montasisa, the red-haired old man, put on an innocent smile for everybody.
But nobody lowered their respect for him because of the smile, because every Master Mage was a mobile war machine.
Then, Triton, the golden-haired Mage, looked at Roland. “Roland, you are the monitor, and you’ve created two spells, but I don’t know your expertise in destructive spells. So… why don’t you attack me with your most powerful offensive spell to show me your skill? I’ll block it.”
After a brief shock, Roland asked back, “My most powerful offensive spell?”
“That’s right.” Old Mage Triton nodded. “Do your best without holding anything back.”
This was the tradition in every new class. It was meant to set up the authority of the teachers.
At this moment, Betta looked at Roland and suddenly begged Triton, “Mr. Triton, don’t do that. If Brother Roland attacks with his full strength, not just you, all of us will suffer. Some may even be killed.”
Everybody looked at Betta and Roland in surprise.
Roland was still expressionless.
Triton burst into fury after hearing that, and his beard was almost bristling. “What an arrogant boy. I’m a Defense major. Even the Great Elder can’t break my defensive barrier without using a spell above the fifth ring. Come on! Just do your best. Let’s see what you’ve got.”
Roland turned his hand upside down, and a blue fireball emerged in his hand and slowly grew larger.
“Shoot!”
Betta cursed in a low voice and ran back. He broke the nearest window and fled as quickly as possible.