“Just call me Mara. We’re both level-3 apprentices. I don’t deserve the extra respect now.” Mara gave Angor a sad look. “Trust me, it won’t be long before I need to call you ‘Mister Angor’.”
Angor was taken back a little. He used “Mister Mara” both unconsciously and to obey his noble discipline—he had forgotten that he was not the powerless mortal kid from several years ago.
“I was lucky to find a brilliant teacher who can guide me.” Each time Angor didn’t know how to respond to such flattery, he’d just make an “excuse” that he had too much luck.
“Luck, huh?” Mara let out a hollow chuckle.
Within two years, a mortal young man turned into a top-level apprentice as well as a future master alchemist...
If this could be explained by a single word called “luck”, then the whole path of wizardry would be a huge joke.
It was true that luck played an important part in one’s development. Breaking one’s level limit, winning a fight, or creating a tiered alchemy item... yes, they all required luck.
However, gathering enough mana and strength for a limit-break, learning enough combat experience prior to a fight, gaining necessary skills for doing alchemy... These were definitely NOT luck.
Luck might give someone a temporary boost during critical moments, yet only talent and enough effort could allow Angor to achieve so much at such a young age.
Of course, Mara didn’t believe Angor’s excuse, but he wouldn’t protest either.
“Sure... Maybe you’re right.”
Mara did not wish to quarrel over the trifling matter. His task was to befriend Angor as best as he could, which meant he was to avoid anything that might be considered hostile.
Truth was, Mara held some grudge against Angor that was kept deep in his mind.
Two years ago, when sailing across Devil’s Water, he did not teach Angor a channeling method because of his own selfishness, which allowed “Phantom Master” Sunders to seize the boy in Barbie’s Restaurant instead.
It all happened when Heroline—a wizard from White Coral Floating Island Academy as well as the possible mentor of Angor, should Angor join the academy later—was watching.
And because of this, Mara never stopped receiving foul treatment from the academy.
Heroline did not intentionally malign him. She simply told everyone what happened at Barbie’s Restaurant in detail, which naturally caused Mara’s following misfortune.
“You gave your grandchildren the channeling method but not to Angor? Triangle Channeling isn’t anything valuable! Why would you do that?!”
After the incident in the restaurant, his colleagues had been scolding him like this for an entire year.
The situation slowly became better because Angor was only a talented mortal. There were many such talents in the academy. And since the academy was too far from Brute Cavern to learn about Angor’s conditions, people gradually forgave Mara’s fault.
But the terrible experience in one year had stripped most resources from his hands, which prevented him from gaining much progress even though he was already a level-3 apprentice.
This was why Mara somewhat resented Angor.
He thought things would gradually return back to the right track as more time passed by and when people had completely forgotten about Angor.
But the news about the garden challenge in Floating Mech City came. It was Heroline who brought the news to Mara.
Half a month ago when Mara was training on a new cantrip, someone called him and said that Heroline required his presence.
Both confused and a little terrified, Mara followed the order and went to Heroline’s office.
Heroline never tried to harm Mara for real since there was no point for a wizard to act so narrow-mindedly on a mere apprentice. This was why Mara had no particular thoughts toward Heroline. He only blamed himself for making the giant mistake, and at the same time, blaming Angor for showing up so untimely.
Even so, he was scared when Heroline summoned him because the only thing they might talk about was the unpleasant incident in Barbie’s Restaurant.
It was until he read through several pieces of news in Heroline’s office that he realized a shocking fact—Angor had become the center of attention in the southern wizarding region.
The boy had both eye-catching rumors and a bright look, which granted him a place on the covers of many trending magazines.
As Mara looked at the portrait drawn by skilled artists and recalled the particular boy he met two years ago, Heroline explained why she needed him here.
“It was YOU who lost such a great genius to Brute Cavern, and it shall be you who bring him back to us.”
By “bring back”, Heroline didn’t mean to force Angor to defect from Brute Cavern. She wished that Angor could at least assist the academy to a certain extent.
“You know how much value a potential master alchemist holds. Either you succeed with your task, or I shall officially condemn you for failing to teach our apprentice a proper channeling method in time. Your grandson also left us and joined Candy House, right? That should be settled as well.”
In fact, it was Heroline who agreed to send Alan to Candy House because it was the best choice for a talented Gourmet. After all, there were no wizards in White Coral Floating Island Academy who could teach Alan.
But it seemed that Heroline decided to bring the problem back for an obvious reason.
Mara had been looking into Angor’s information carefully since that day, and everything he learned subsequently only shocked him more and more. Alchemy talent, Mystery potential, fighting off a wizard-level monster in the purification garden, scaring away the student of God of Seas, a griffin familiar... This was like mixing the achievements done by different geniuses onto the same person.
Heroline did not say what kind of result she expected. But Mara knew that Heroline sought Angor’s cooperation for the benefit of the academy.
But could an insignificant old man convince a young rising star who attracted the attention of so many great wizards to join him?
Mara had been thinking about this question for half a month when Heroline told him to head to Sleepless City with her.
Mara thought Heroline wished to meet with Angor after dealing with the disaster in Sleepless City, so he was surprised to see Angor right in this hut.
He realized that this was Heroline’s plan all along.
...
Just like this, Mara and Angor were both trying to recover from the surprising reunion.
While Mara was anxious to establish a friendly relationship with Angor, Angor was thinking about his promise to Mara. Before they parted ways, Angor agreed that once he became a level-2 apprentice, he’d help Mara to explore some ruins.
This was how Angor received an Ice Coffin of Healing scroll from Mara to help Jon.
Mara gave him ten years to prepare, and he never forgot about his promise. Since there was a lot of time, he thought about treating Jon’s condition first. After he had gained enough strength, Angor would then go and fulfill the promise.
And now here he was, looking right at Mara as a level-3 apprentice.
He had no problem proceeding with what he promised Mara. Yet he wished to know how much time he needed to finish Mara’s request, and how to explain why he did not go to Mara earlier when he was at level-2.
Mara spared him the awkwardness by speaking first, “I heard that your name had spread to every corner of the southern region in these two years. When I was visiting my family on the Old Earth, I never thought I’d bring such a little monster with me...” Mara smiled.
Angor’s tension loosed a little upon hearing Mara’s joke.
“I was hoping to find a chance and go meet you so that I can answer to that agreement between us.” Angor decided to reveal the matter instead of dodging it.
Mara frowned a bit as he didn’t wish to mention this matter.
The “ruins” he wanted to explore was said to be the laboratory of an ancient wizard. While it was true that finding something would benefit him greatly, it wasn’t the right time to talk about it when he was supposed to seek cooperation.
“Oh, that... we can put it aside for now because of... some personal reasons of mine.” Mara muddled through and changed the topic. “You need to save your teacher within five years, am I right? Please feel free to do it first. And... oh right, I’ve been looking for relevant information. Maybe I know something that can help you.”
It seemed that Mara wanted to use Jon’s matter to strike a conversation with Angor.
Angor did feel glad that he no longer needed to worry about the promise. Even so, he didn’t want to talk about Jon either. He already had something that could solve the problem, and he would like to avoid drawing any attention to Jon.
While acting as politely as he could, Angor tried to divert the topic to something else. “Did you come to Sleepless City alone, Mara? Is Aleen with you?”
Mara shook his head. “As you can see, we can’t bring too many apprentices into this mess. Aleen is still a level-1 apprentice studying at the academy.”
While explaining Aleen’s study during the past years, Mara was wondering why Angor suddenly mentioned her name.
Does he have a crush on my granddaughter?
Mara clearly knew that Aleen always adored this little handsome boy, but ever since he was treated badly by the academy, Aleen somewhat put the blame on Angor as well.
Maybe I can explain to her that Angor had nothing to with the ill-treatment to mend their friendship? Perhaps they’ll become lovers, and Heroline’s request will get solved in no time!
Excited, Mara began to embellish Aleen’s virtues as much as possible.
To Angor, their conversation was fine until Mara kept emphasizing things such as “Aleen misses you”, “Aleen does not have a boyfriend yet”, etc. And he quickly understood what Mara was trying to do.
Two years ago, Angor considered Aleen no more than a common friend. Naturally, he wouldn’t develop further emotions when he had not seen her for two years.
Angor wished to change the subject to something else. And since he couldn’t interrupt Mara too eagerly, which might appear too impolite, he decided to mention Mara’s other grandchild—Alan.
The old man couldn’t possibly attempt to match two boys together, could he?