Chapter 18
A few more days passed, and Veris made progress on what he had been investigating.
Mercury City did indeed produce a magician who, in just over a year, rose from a magic apprentice to a sixth-tier magician, becoming an unparalleled figure in Mercury City. He is currently residing temporarily at the Duke of Mercury's mansion.
The Duke's mansion was vast, practically a small royal palace. The magician temporarily resided in a corner of the mansion and openly accepted magic apprentices in Mercury City and the surrounding towns and villages. He quickly amassed a number of magic apprentices and low-level magicians under his command.
Although he was temporarily residing at the Duke's mansion, this magician had his own residence.
Simply make some magic scrolls and send them to the auction house to earn a considerable reward.
The vast majority of magic apprentices learn their knowledge and teachers from churches, but there are no capable magicians in Mercury's church. If they want to improve themselves, the only way is to go to the Kingdom of Lortheran.
Now that they had gone to the Kingdom of Lortheran, the Lortheran royal family naturally tried to recruit and win them over.
This is also a tacit cooperation between the church and the royal family.
The church monopolized magic books and materials, as well as a large number of magicians. Magical apprentices who have magical talent but no books to learn from or teachers to guide them will hardly make any progress in their entire lives.
A genius magician is enough to destroy an entire county.
Whether in a large or small county, the number of magicians was kept within a range acceptable to the royal family.
—This absolutely does not include Mercury's magician.
Mages above the fifth rank must register with the church. After examining a mage, the church will issue a residence permit, allowing the mage to move around outside the Kingdom of Lortheran.
Nowadays, very few magicians can obtain this license. In fact, only one or two high-level magicians can be found in counties that are completely controlled by the Lortheran royal family.
Examining magicians is also to ensure the safety of the county's civilians, as magicians with poor character can easily cause great disasters if left unchecked.
Mercury's magician was clearly kept in the dark by the Duke.
The Mercury Church still contains the magician's previous registration information, which shows him as a third-tier magician, completely contradicting the information the scout had heard, and the information was from a year ago.
When Father Webster heard James say that the mage had instantly killed a sixth-tier magical beast, he was skeptical, because the Duke's mansion was keeping the mage's existence a secret. He hadn't been in Mercury City often this year, so he didn't know if such a person existed.
Moreover, his memory is still stuck when Sylvain was tested for his magical talent.
Secondly, even if such a magician did exist, he couldn't surpass Sylvain. The old priest always treated all other magicians equally. Since the authenticity was questionable, and given that Sylvain had come before him, and that he hadn't fully grasped the information about Mercury City in the past year, and being in Albion, he couldn't rush back to the church to review the records and verify them, the old priest remained calm on the surface.
Veris, however, had more to consider. The fastest he had ever seen a magic apprentice advance to the sixth-level mage was Sylvain, who took only three days.
As for the mage named Keith, the information is incomplete, and he has never actually met this mage, so it is difficult to determine how much time this person spent becoming a sixth-tier mage.
Putting that aside, where did this person get the magical knowledge he learned during his advancement?
The Church monopolizes magical knowledge; this is an open secret.
Church records indicate that Keith only borrowed some low-level magic books before mysteriously disappearing for a period of time.
Now that Keith is openly recruiting magic apprentices as students in Mercury, he naturally has a certain number of magic books in his possession. No magic books in the church have been stolen, and no high-level magic books have flowed into the public auction houses across the continent.
The most likely explanation is that it's a magic book written by Keith himself.
Veris found it very interesting; if Keith could comprehend the principles of magic on his own and write a spellbook, then this person's talent would be even greater.
pity……
Judging from the remains of the magic scroll, the inscription of the double magic circle was nearing completion, but the circulation of magic power was far from sufficient; this person had not yet mastered the perfect double magic circle operation.
Furthermore, magic scrolls have a major drawback.
The power is unstable.
This shows that Keith's foundation, whether he read wild magic books or taught himself, was seriously flawed, and even the direction of his magical research was wrong.
This kind of behavior is unacceptable and misleads young people.
In Veris's attic, where books and scrolls still lay piled on the floor, he sat at the table, pen in hand, pondered for a moment, and then wrote on the reply scroll:
[An urgent order has been issued for the garrison wizard of Nottinghill County to travel to Mercury County to thoroughly investigate this matter.]
Nottinghill is above Amberley, diagonally opposite Mercury, and across from Milford Sound. A quarter of its land borders the Kingdom of Lortheran.
The Duke of Nottinghill, residing in Nottinghill, like the Duke of Mercury, disregarded royal authority and ruled by himself.
With no high-ranking mages stationed in Amberley, Milford Sound was essentially a royal backyard, so the task naturally fell to Nottinghill, which was close to Mercury.
If Nottinghill disagrees, the Kingdom of Lortheran can immediately send troops to take down the Earl.
Their plan was to sever the lifeline of Nottinghill, which would allow them to confront Duke Mercury if they advanced, and face the overwhelming force of Lortheran's army if they retreated.
In such a situation, even the cowardly duke would resort to desperate measures and cooperate with Duke Mercury.
With a smile, Veris continued writing:
[A message arrives at the Duke of Mercury's residence: the High Papacy will dispatch two fifth-tier mages and seventeen accompanying priests to the capital city of Mercury.]
After he finished writing, he put down the quill, and the magic circle on the scroll in front of him flashed by, completely erasing the writing.
Veris reached out and took a new scroll.
He was willing to just grab any piece of paper and call it a day, but when he sent the message back last time, those good-for-nothings thought it was some ignorant magician casting spells randomly and ignored it completely.
They had no choice but to use scrolls reserved for the Papacy and royal court.
Two scrolls were sent, one to the King and the other to the Papacy.
The High Papacy will definitely send a mage to oversee things, but not immediately. Veris estimated the timeframe and wrote down new instructions:
Mercury changed his mind and sent two fifth-tier mages to assist him, along with seventeen priests.
It was exactly the same instruction the royal court would give to go to Notting Hill.
After writing it down, he used the same trick again. The light of the magic circle flashed by, and the writing on the scroll disappeared.
Veris packed his things. Tomorrow was the day the church would send people to select magicians. Although it was said to be a month from now, it was only a rough estimate and could be earlier or later. Albion was located in a remote area, bordering Amberley, and the church always sent people over well in advance.
He was also preparing to leave Albion.
The selection of magicians is notified to the resident priests in the area three days in advance, so Albion has been in a state of inexplicable anxiety and excitement these past few days.
Arnold was the same; he hadn't originally thought he had magical talent, after all, no magician had ever emerged from Albion—but now he considered himself a member of Albion.
However, Allen advised him that if he wanted to defeat the Demon King, his current strength was far from enough. He should take a test, and if he discovered other talents, he might be able to study at the legendary Royal Academy.
The strongest people in the world, except for those who inherit from their families or races, all come from the Royal Capital Academy.
If Arnold wants to become stronger, he must go to the Royal Capital Academy.
Even so, Arnold was somewhat uneasy. He didn't think his talent was much better than others. Leaving Albion was the main city of Mercury, where he had heard there were hundreds of thousands of residents. He had never seen so many people before.
The same applies when entering the kingdom of Lortheran; there must be countless people more powerful than him outside of him.
Allen: ...
However, a sixteen-year-old boy who can kill a fourth-tier magical beast with a single sword is a rare sight on the entire continent.
Even without magical talent, as long as the Mercenary Guild vouches for him, Arnold can obtain a letter of recommendation to go to the Royal Academy.
After all, the Royal Capital Academy isn't just for magicians.
There were also many soldiers and pharmacists.
"Will you also go to the Royal Capital Academy?" Arnold asked Allen.
Allen nodded. He had figured it out these past few days. Staying in Albion would ensure his safety, but living such a wretched life was a disservice to the powerful blood flowing through his veins.
It would be better to go with Arnold and see the world.
Compared to Arnold's rigorous selection process, Allen's admission was much simpler; as long as he revealed his identity as a descendant of the dragon race, the Royal Academy would surely grant him entry.
There are hardly any descendants of dragons left on the entire continent of Icarus.
The dragon race faces immense difficulty in procreation, even through intermarriage with other races. The dragon race's power has been a fact since ancient times, yet it is also declining due to this dishearteningly low birth rate.
Allen's dragon bloodline was actually quite thin, but as long as a trace remained, he could unleash the power of his ancestral genes.
After their conversation, Arnold decided to participate in the magician selection.
Early that morning, a large crowd gathered in the central square of Albion town. Some of them came from nearby villages, while others were residents who came to watch the spectacle. Although the results were pretty much the same every year, what if this year was different?
The church pastors arrived early, and the platform had been set up long ago. They brought a crystal ball that was half their height and placed it on the platform; that was the crystal ball for testing magical talent.
First, register, then queue up. Dozens of mercenaries were maintaining order. Although the scene was noisy, it was still orderly.
Allen mingled in the crowd of onlookers, watching Arnold receive his number and then stand among a group of children, immediately engaging in lively conversation with them.
"You're going to the Royal Capital Academy too, right?" The familiar voice that suddenly rang out beside him made Allen tremble, and his unusual behavior attracted the attention of those around him.
Veris smiled. "Am I scary?"
As a descendant of the dragon race, Allen was nineteen years old and had not yet passed puberty. Veris was about the same size as him. He tensed his facial muscles, but the more he did so, the more nervous he appeared.
"Hmm," he managed to utter a single word.
After that eavesdropping incident with the Mercenary Guild, he now feels uneasy whenever he sees Veris.
I don't know whether his answer was the first sentence or the second sentence.
Veris laughed again.
Arnold arrived early, and the tests were very quick; three or four children were gone in a flash, and it was soon Arnold's turn.
For children in the countryside, asking them to infuse magic into a crystal ball is simply too much of a rip-off.
What is magic, and how is it injected? These are completely unfamiliar concepts.
Therefore, the selection test for magicians is divided into two methods: the first is to inject magic power, and the second is to drip blood.
The priest pricked Arnold's fingertip with a small needle, and a drop of blood fell onto the crystal ball.
The next second, the crystal ball burst into a dazzling light.
The previously noisy crowd instantly fell silent.
The dazzling light continued. The priest next to him, holding a rectangular measuring instrument, looked up and down repeatedly. About a minute later, the light stopped at a certain brightness.
The pastor turned to the registering pastor and gestured, and the registering pastor suddenly rang a bell, which resounded throughout the central square.
"Arnold, sixteen years old, a sixth-tier mage!"
A note from the author:
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