Invisible gusts of wind surged within the cramped room, with the sound of howling uninterruptedly filling the air.
After a while, Colin collected himself and stood still, slowly exhaling the Golden Paper.
Upon seeing the characters on the Golden Paper clearly, he immediately raised an eyebrow.
There, in the column for Knight Rank, the long-unchanged Ultimate Knight (100/100) suddenly flashed with a blurry ↑ symbol.
This meant that the strength of a Knight continued to rise.
Regrettably, there was still no qualitative change; he had not broken through the limit of an Ultimate Knight.
Hmm?
Suddenly, he shifted his gaze, quickly looking at the Talent column.
The characters behind the Strong Life Talent slowly pulsed, changing from 4/100 to 5/100.
'Strong Life Talent is essentially about strong Life Force. This new Breathing Skill...'
Colin closed his eyes slightly, carefully feeling the unique Blood Energy brought about by the knight's cultivation in his body.
Surging, plentiful, rich, and viscous...
He opened his eyes, a hint of surprise flashing through them—the Blood Energy was still Blood Energy, but it had almost a qualitative difference from before!
Subconsciously, Colin's gaze shifted to the column for Breathing Skill.
That newly fused Breathing Skill had advanced a notch after he had practiced it once.
'I wonder whether this fused Breathing Skill, after breaking the limit once... could further advance the path of a Knight.' Colin couldn't help but look forward with some anticipation.
Though the strength of a Knight was far from that of a Wizard, he still saw value in it.
After all, spirit and body always complement each other.
At least among the Second Rank and Third Rank Wizards he had seen to date, the body should have been enhanced through special means.
For instance, Atbolde must have fused with the bloodlines of Magic Plants, and the Third Rank Wizard he saw in the classroom when searching for Lillian, resembling an ice sculpture, likely underwent some sort of transformation related to Elemental Life.
As he pondered, he moved a thought and, as usual, chose one character from each to name the new unnamed Breathing Skill—the Yi Guang Breathing Method.
Having done all this and planning to continue studying the precursor knowledge of Ancient Tree Heart Witchcraft, Colin suddenly thought of the item exchange meeting Mayer had mentioned last night at the restaurant.
Snap.
He subconsciously took out his Pocket Watch, and the silver hand pointed to five o'clock in the afternoon.
"Lord Colin, there will be a small-scale Wizards' item exchange meeting tomorrow evening. I don't know if you would be interested in attending... The main purpose is to exchange what we have, be it knowledge, Witch Tools, or even news. They can all be items for exchange."
He put away the Pocket Watch and took out the voucher Mayer had given him, recalling Mayer's words from last night.
'The item exchange meeting will be at six o'clock, and the location is in the private dining rooms on the third floor... Just right after dinner.'
After a moment of contemplation, Colin put away the voucher and made a decision.
The sun slanted westward, with golden light piercing through the central dining room's circular glass windows on the second floor, angling inside.
Ding dong dong—
The soft sound of a piano harmonized with the clinking of cutlery and plates, echoing throughout the entire dining room.
Colin set down his fork, picked up a napkin, and wiped his mouth.
Dinner was Tuscan salmon. With each bite, a rich creamy aroma filled the mouth.
Although tasty, he missed the dinners made by Renee even more.
It was a flavor from his homeland, a delicacy only he would recognize.
Without any clouds to obstruct the view, and from this altitude at ten thousand meters, it seemed the glow of the sunset was even richer.
Making his way through the golden remnants filtering in from the dining room's windows, Colin walked past the neatly arranged tables and chairs of the hall towards the area with private rooms. Following the directions on the voucher, he arrived at the room where the item exchange meeting was held.
"Lord Colin."
As he entered the room, Mayer greeted him, looking somewhat surprised, "I thought you wouldn't come tonight."
"Just looking around since I have nothing else to do."
Colin scanned the room.
There were already quite a few Wizards present; many faces were familiar, Wizards from other affiliated Schools whom he had seen during the boarding.
There were also many Wizards he had not seen before—they were either from other Schools in the city or were Wandering Wizards of the city.
On this Airship, aside from the Nine Major Schools and their affiliate Schools, there were also other Wizards.
With many Schools in Neustadt City, it was natural that there wouldn't only be the Nine Major Schools and their affiliates.
In fact, besides the nine universally recognized top-tier Schools, there were over a dozen second-tier Schools, and countless insignificant ones.
However, many Schools as there might be, they were all under the jurisdiction of the Supreme Council, and naturally, all needed to travel to the Southern Sea Domain.
And the City Lord of Neustadt was a member of the Supreme Council.
Beside Mayer, there was another familiar face—Milo from the Wotak School. But to Colin's surprise, Sovoc, one of their group of four, hadn't come to the item exchange meeting.
Furthermore, people like Lillian did not participate in this barter meeting.
"Lord Colin, this barter meeting is much larger than what I told you about yesterday," Mayer sighed.
No sooner had he spoken than a commotion came from the doorway.
Colin listened intently.
"Lord Morton..."
Those noises, upon closer listening, were a series of respectful greetings.
Glancing up again, a fiery Witch with silver hair and silver eyes who was wearing a silver hoop earring walked in.
She was not in a Wizard Robe but rather in a bustier combat outfit; her wolf's tail-like silver hair was tied up, revealing a pale, indifferent face.
"That's Witch Morton from the Silver An School," Milo remarked quietly by the side, his tone somewhat admiring.
Colin withdrew his gaze. The Silver An School, like the Yista School, was one of the Nine Major Schools.
If he remembered correctly, the relationship between the Silver An and Yista Schools was also quite amicable.
Of course, this had little to do with Wizards from affiliated Schools like theirs; Witch Morton was out of their league to connect with.
As soon as Morton arrived, she unapologetically took the main seat, regardless of whether anyone was there, and with her legs crossed, she directly declared,
"Alright, the barter meeting now begins... let's start with you."
She looked towards the Wizard sitting on her left side.
A barter meeting involved each Wizard taking turns, according to a certain order, to speak out about what they were selling or what they wished to purchase, with the rest of the Wizards responding in turn—such was the procedure.
"Yes, Lady Morton," the Wizard on the left side nodded in agreement, pulling out several pale purple Magic Crystals from his bosom.
"Magic Crystals, the auxiliary type, huh?... If it were Attack Witchcraft, it might be difficult to exchange," Mayer commented in a low voice, somewhat surprised.
If Colin had heard Mayer say this before, he would have been puzzled, but not anymore.
The booklet Lillian gave him just happened to contain relevant information.
About Magic Crystals, while they have many benefits, they also come with numerous drawbacks.
The most prominent of these is the difficulty in using them in real combat.
Of course, this refers to Magic Crystals of First Rank Upper and beyond.
The reason is simple: it also has to do with the casting time...
The complete process of using a Magic Crystal first involves injecting spiritual power to construct a Magic Model from the runes inscribed on the Magic Crystal, then the magic power stored within the crystal makes contact with the Magic Model to form witchcraft.
While it saves the Wizard the effort of constructing a Magic Model, the runes' automatic assembly of the Magic Model also takes time,
and, generally speaking, it is slower than a Wizard manually constructing the model.
This shortcoming is not immediately apparent during an Apprentice's period—as with the Light Brightness Skill, once mastered, the casting time is within 0.3s.
Using a Bright Crystal, the time is also generally under 0.5s,
The mere 0.2s difference is not significant.
But when reaching the First Rank, the standard casting time for witchcraft exceeds one second, with at least half taking over two seconds.
After constructing a Magic Model in the mind, the casting time is usually within one second.
At this point, using a Magic Crystal, the difference in casting time becomes somewhat unacceptable.
The Wizard to Morton's left continued:
"First Rank Upper Magic Crystal—Chilor Exploration Technique. There are five in total, three thousand Magic Stones for all, or six hundred and fifty per piece; alternatively, equivalent items or knowledge can be traded."
Indeed, as Mayer thought, the Wizard produced the auxiliary type of Magic Crystals.
The Chilor Exploration Technique, as its name suggests, is mainly used for geological exploration.
After the Wizard finished speaking, several Wizards began to make offers in sequence, and all five Magic Crystals were finally bartered away, marking a good start to the trade.
Subsequently, the Wizards took turns in their seated order to speak.
Of course, not every Wizard needed to bring out items for exchange; those without anything they wished to sell could simply pass.
Colin naturally had nothing to offer, so when his turn came, he naturally chose to pass.
His main purpose for being here was to see if he could pick up anything useful for himself.
Unfortunately, until the end of the barter meeting, he wasn't able to exchange for a single item.
Either it was not needed, or if it was needed, he could not afford it.
'However, it can be considered an experience gained.' Walking along the corridor back to his room, Colin thought to himself.
At the next corner, his footsteps suddenly came to a halt.
In front of him stood two familiar figures engaged in conversation.
One was Margaret, his direct superior at this Alus Association event.
The other was Witch Morton from the Silver An School, whom he had just seen.