Chapter 479 - The Academic Meeting Is More of a Contest Among Students
Chapter 479 The Academic Meeting Is More of a Contest Among Students
In the end, they didn’t pick up any money.
Led by Betta, the three of them wandered in the Monochrome Magic Tower, only to discover that the giant pillar of light Betta saw was where the Council of Elders of the Monochrome Magic Tower was.
Standing on the rooftop of the sand house, they looked at the office of the Council of Elders in the distance. Roland said helplessly, “Is it possible that their treasure trove has been marked by you?”
Betta shook his head. “That’s possible. Only unowned wealth will be marked by my talent. Also, the color and size of the light pillar indicates the amount of the wealth. Right now, there are many tiny silver pillars around us, but they’re too unappealing for me.”
Roland understood the situation. “So, an enormous amount of wealth is hidden below the Monochrome Magic Tower, and you’re the only one who knows about it.”
Betta shrugged regretfully. The Council of Elders’ office was probably the most heavily guarded place in the Monochrome Magic Tower. At least, several Legendary Mages were working there all the time.
Many Master-level Mages lived nearby too. They could reinforce the Legendary Mages if anything happened. Plus the other local Legendary Mages, it was impossible for Roland’s team to dig the treasure out even if the team were twice as large.
“We can sneak back and dig it out secretly after we get stronger or obtain special skills,” said Roland with a smile. “According to you, there must be more than a thousand gold coins buried here. It would be such a shame if we couldn’t dig them up.”
“I guess that’s all we can do.”
Betta heaved a sigh. He was truly bummed, because the golden pillar of light that only he could see was so huge that almost the entire office of the Council of Elders was consumed.
What a super treasure it must be.
The three of them returned to the guest area, and Betta and Roland split up.
Back in their room, Andonara asked curiously, “I overheard what you said just now. Does Betta have a special talent to find money?”
Roland nodded.
“That’s really an unreasonable talent.”
Andonara remarked with mixed feelings. Then, she made food in the kitchen.
When they were together, most of Roland’s food was cooked by Andonara. She insisted on cooking for Roland even though there were maids around.
That was one of the basic requirements that the royal family of Hollevin demanded of the queen. Andonara had studied carefully back then, and now it was Roland who got to enjoy it.
The academic meeting officially began the next day.
There weren’t many participants, no more than 130 people in total.
Every holy land of magic had sent ten students and between five to ten mentors.
They filled up a small hall.
The mentors took the front rows, and the students sat behind them.
Roland took the opportunity to observe the students of other Magic Towers.
Interestingly enough, he found that the seven Magic Towers were represented by seven different colors in nature, and the Monochrome Magic Tower was the only one whose students wore translucent robes.
The same academic meeting had been held too many times. So, the mentors cut to the chase without any ado and presented their findings.
The first day was the Monochrome Magic Tower’s session. Three Legendary Mages who specialized in spatial magic introduced their recently acquired knowledge or their latest magic hypotheses. All the mentors were either nodding or shaking their heads. They could all understand the speakers even though they didn’t agree with them.
But the students certainly felt differently!
Almost all the students were completely dumbfounded. They had no idea what was going on.
Roland, on the other hand, nodded now and then, deep in thought. Betta nodded occasionally too. He also understood some of the presentations.
However, while the other students couldn’t understand, they could still write down everything the speakers said.
Each of them had a tiny notebook before them, and a quill was quickly moving on its own on the notebook, recording everything the speakers said at a high speed.
It was Automatic Transcription, a level-two spell.
Roland was actually capable of the same spell, but it wasn’t really necessary.
Automatic Transcription was purely garbage compared to the system’s camera.
The mentors of the spatial Magic Tower spoke from morning till evening, with only two fifteen-minute breaks in between, during which time everybody answered nature’s call and replenished themselves with food.
After evening, Roland returned to his room, and Andonara immediately served hot food. Roland took a rest after he ate. Then, he sat on the bed and played the recordings of the presentations again, trying to understand what the mentors had explained.
The second day, it was the Illusion (Purple) Magic Tower.
The third day belonged to Abjuration (Brown) Magic Tower.
Then, it was the Evocation Magic Tower’s turn. That was the Red Magic Tower where Roland was from.
Murphy did most of the presentations.
He demonstrated Roland’s self-exploding Inferior Fireball and showed its terrifying damage and room for growth. In the end, he said that the spell was a student’s work without pointing out Roland’s name.
The members of other Magic Towers all whispered to each other.
Naturally, they could tell how powerful the blue Inferior Fireball was.
Therefore, they all acknowledged that the Red Magic Tower did the best in this academic meeting, because the Red Magic Tower had presented a real spell when the other Magic Towers only offered theories.
Alfred was quite happy when praised by the other Magic Towers.
Then, it was another important program, the “academic communication” among students.
The so-called academic communication was more of a contest among the students.
However, the contest wasn’t really serious but only conducted in order to belittle the other students and show off.
On this day, two huge arenas were set up in the square.
Those two arenas contained the best technologies of the Monochrome Magic Tower.
They were innately built with seven magic arrays that could ensure the students’ safety without suppressing their strength.
Therefore, the students could fight each other without worries. Their enemy wouldn’t be greatly hurt even if they lobbed a spell at the enemy’s head. The worst that could happen to their enemy was minor bleeding.
After the two arenas were set up, Roland and Betta, who had already been given instructions, each jumped into an arena and looked down at the students and mentors outside.
Under normal circumstances, the mentors would discuss with each other and select certain students for the contests in the arena.
But if a student was confident in his ability, he could also go to the arenas on his own initiative and receive the challenges of other students.
The Great Elder of the Monochrome Magic Tower, in his translucent robe, was unhappy that both of the students in the arenas were from the Red Magic Tower. He walked to Alfred and asked in a low voice, “What are you up to? This is outrageous even if you’re confident in yourselves. You can’t defend two arenas simultaneously. It’s fine with us, but I don’t think the other Magic Towers will be happy.”
Alfred smiled and looked at the mentors from the other Magic Towers. Many of them were staring at him angrily, and still more looked grim.
“That’s fine.” Alfred waved his hand. “We’ve sent them there because we’re confident about
them.”
“Then be my guest.” The Great Elder of the Monochrome Magic Tower walked off and sat down, shaking his head.
At this moment, the students of other Magic Towers grew angrier and angrier and whispered more and more loudly.
A Legendary mentor who was wearing a brown magic robe stood up and roared, “What are you squabbling about? You think it’s fun to speak ill of them behind their backs? They’re waiting for you up there. Just beat them up if you’re angry with them and stop whining.”
Alfred put on a smile.
He had been waiting for someone to say that. As he expected, provoked by the brown-robed Legendary Mage, two students stood up and walked to Roland and Betta.
Then, the two of them were beaten in no more than two minutes.
There were at least thirty blue Hands of Magic behind Roland.
Betta, on the other hand, was using both magic and martial arts. He blocked the opponent’s sight with fire and then kicked the guy out of the arena.
Betta’s way of fighting seemed like cheating, but all the mentors knew that there was no such thing as cheating in a real-life battle, and every method could be adopted for victory. What surprised them was Roland’s performance.
The thirty enormous Hands of Magic startled quite a few Legendary Mages.
To control thirty Hands of Magic simultaneously required immense mental power. Even they could barely gather so much mental power.
The Great Elder of the Monochrome Magic Tower came to Alfred again. “It’s rather impressive that this guy is using so many Hands of Magic.”
Alfred smiled proudly. “He is the apex of the Red Magic Tower.”
“However, it’s very easy to deal with him if he only knows Hand of Magic. No Mages can count on a single trick.” The Monochrome Magic Tower chuckled. “The guys from the Transmutation Magic Tower will probably take action.”
As he expected, a student in a blue robe jumped into the arena.
After the duel began, the student simply cast Elemental Shock, a typical spell of the Transmutation school.
This spell could shake one kind of magic element and make it impossible to activate.
The spell had a massive coverage, so the young student laughed proudly as twenty of Roland’s thirty Hands of Magic vanished, and the last ten were deformed too.
Roland extended his finger, and a gigantic ball of light, with a tail of different colors, crashed into the young man and flung him out of the arena.
The young man would’ve been burnt into ashes had it not been for the protection of the powerful magic array on the arena.
Many mentors got to their feet in shock after seeing the scene.
“It’s not a surprise that he can instantly cast a level-two Prismatic Spray,” remarked the Great Elder of the Monochrome Magic Tower solemnly. “But it’s highly unusual that the spell was so powerful when he cast it instantly. Even the Prismatic Spray instantly cast by me can only be ten percent more powerful than that. Alfred, he is the student who created the blue Inferior Fireball, isn’t he?”