The sun hanging high in the sky emitted passionate rays.
It was already the afternoon.
After lunch, Colin took a carriage to the eastern seaside of the city.
He was almost there now.
The salty sea breeze passed through the round window of the carriage, stirring the curtains and bringing a hint of coolness inside.
Colin lifted the curtain in response and looked into the distance.
A captivating shimmer of blue was the first to catch his eye.
This was the docking harbor for the entire island, crescent-shaped overall, with several wooden docks of various lengths extending from the golden sand.
At the end of the docks, white seabirds circled regularly, occasionally emitting sharp calls.
The sunlight sprinkled bright patches on the blue sea surface, and these patches became more noticeable especially during the sunset and brilliant sunrise, like dazzling gold foil on a blue gemstone.
The carriage stopped on the beach, and Colin alighted.
By this time, quite a few people had gathered here, the majority of whom were wizards, with the remaining being their followers.
This group appeared to be congregating together but was distinctly divided into different circles.
Colin easily found the circle belonging to the School and the Patrol Department.
To avoid standing out too much, he joined the circle of the School.
"Colin, you're here too?"
As soon as he approached, someone greeted him.
Looking toward the voice, it was Luke, who was standing with several wizards from the Patrol Department.
"Yes, after all, it's the first time I'm truly welcoming the merchants, thought I'd come early," Colin replied.
The merchant caravan would pass by Blackstone Island about once every six months.
But before this, perhaps due to financial constraints or a sense of pride from unknown origins, the previous owner had never really interacted with the caravan, always just watching from afar.
"The logistics folk from the School are also here, according to them, the caravan should arrive here around 4 PM," Luke then revealed to Colin.
This time was known through a token left by the caravan.
'Four o'clock, eh.' Colin nodded.
It was already past three o'clock now, so it wouldn't be a long wait.
At that moment, a beige carriage suddenly arrived.
Just by seeing the familiar chestnut-red horse and the beige carriage with gilded decorations, Colin knew who it was.
Regina stepped down from the carriage.
But her expression was not as gentle as usual and slightly cold, her complexion also inexplicably pale. The black cat named Maggie, always by her side, was also nowhere to be seen…
"Lady Regina," the nearby Luke stepped forward and respectfully greeted.
It was then that Colin noticed a triangular badge pinned on the front of Regina's black wizard robe… it was a brilliant gold.
"Lady Regina," led by Luke, the crowd gathered by the School also bowed their heads and respectfully greeted.
Colin naturally followed everyone and offered his greeting as well.
Regina's expression remained cold, without any response.
'Could it be that something went wrong with her advancement… even Maggie is missing.' Colin watched her somewhat pale face and couldn't help but speculate.
Advancing to an Advanced Apprentice symbolized the complete dispersion of the fog of the spirit. The tainted babbling floating in the world would come into direct contact with one's spirit, distorting knowledge and bringing various consequences.
Only by preserving one's humanity and thoroughly understanding knowledge could one alleviate or even eliminate these consequences.
Thus, advancing to an Advanced Apprentice was not simply a matter of accumulating enough Magic Power. It usually also required making sure one had a deep understanding of the Meditation Method!
But for ordinary Wizards, the level of knowledge mastery was hard to quantify, and it was even harder to ensure a thorough understanding of all aspects of knowledge.
It's like knowing how to cook, but it's difficult to precisely measure whether you have mastered cooking, and even more difficult to guarantee that you understand every aspect of cooking thoroughly.
This was why, as training progressed, less importance was placed on a Wizard's Magic Power Affinity and talent was deemed better for those from Schools than for Wild Wizards!
A Wizard's talent was never just about Magic Power Affinity, which was only half of it; the other half of a Wizard's talent was always their ability to learn knowledge!
"Speaking of which, I've reached 81/100 in the Circulation Meditation, perhaps I could break the limit again soon… By then, I would not be far from being an Advanced Wizard," Colin's eyes twinkled.
"Unlike others, with the Golden Paper, I can directly perceive the current progress of mastering the knowledge, whether I have fully mastered it, whether I have reached the limit…"
"Thus, perhaps I could use the Golden Paper's prompt to choose to break through at the limit of the Meditation Method, when I fully comprehend it… Maybe this could avoid the consequences!"
Thinking this, Colin suddenly wondered, "…what should I be aware of when advancing to an Official Wizard?"
He tried to search through his memories but had no impression of this matter.
"The instructors from the School haven't taught anything about this… perhaps because they are only Advanced Wizard Apprentices?"
Though becoming an Official Wizard was still far off for him, it was always good to be prepared.
Logically, as a member of the School, he should seek such knowledge from someone like Berkeley, a peak Apprentice, or even directly from Wizard Lap.
But his advancement was too rapid; it wasn't appropriate to go to the School so early.
The Wizards of this world were not solely seekers of truth.
Here, the first rule Wizards learned was—do not overly pursue knowledge!
The only parallel rule was—maintain humanity!
Most Wizards in this world pursued power, longevity… or like him, a measure of peace, a measure of power to control their own destiny!
"Based on my current pace, I might need this knowledge in a few years... but to break through from Basic Level to Official Wizard in just a few years…" Colin sighed inwardly,
He lifted his head, gazed at the vast sea, and then squinted slightly,
"Perhaps this knowledge could be found among the merchant fleets…"
Time slowly passed, and with Regina's arrival, numerous Advanced Wizard Apprentices from the School also started to arrive.
A while later,
On the right side of the Sea Domain, several dark spots gradually appeared, faintly distinguishable as a dozen gray-black ship silhouettes.
Before long, almost in the blink of an eye, those gray-black ships approached.
It was at this moment that Colin finally realized the enormity of these vessels.
The ships formed an entire fleet, led by three main, largest ships followed by twelve slightly smaller ones.
The largest main ship, by his estimation, was at least twenty to thirty meters wide and over a hundred meters long! The slightly smaller ships were also dozens of meters in width and sixty to seventy meters in length!
And they seemed to be ironclad ships, a combination of witchcraft and steam, not wooden ships!
Although they could not compare to the gigantic ocean freighters of his previous world, which easily measured hundreds of meters, the enormous presence of these ships when they neared was still somewhat intimidating.
Woo—!
The steam whistle of the large ship boomed!
The sound, long and loud, drowned out the Wizards' ongoing chatter and captivated their attention.
Watching the gradually halting fleet,
Colin, for some reason, suddenly felt a surge of anticipation…