When the argument ended, Jellal and Heroline also joined everyone on the deck of The Redbud.
Since the strong help was here, Sabot finally calmed down.
Jellal looked really pissed off. He gave his metal staff a strong grasp, and where the staff was pointing at—the sturdy deck below—immediately cracked open. Dust and wooden shards flew everywhere.
Jellal's action scared every apprentice on the scene terribly. Easley even kept stepping back until he was backing against a mast.
Easley's calves trembled hard. How could he forget that a mighty wizard was standing in front of him, but not some spoiled noble kid from the Silverheron?
His fear worsened. He nearly wished to kneel before Jellal and beg for mercy right this moment, but he could not even find the courage to do it when being suppressed by Jellal's mighty aura.
Luckily, Jellal did not intend to hurt anyone. He only gave Easley another cold glare, before he lifted his aura.
Once Sabot realized that Jellal had done his "scolding", he moved to Jellal with a polite smile and cast a cantrip called Cleanse, to wipe all the dust and broken deck parts away.
Without minding what just happened, Sabot asked out of curiosity, "You're the only ones? Where's Gravity Forest?"
Jellal had just put away his rage. He was still wearing a cold face, without giving any answer.
Heroline replied to Sabot's question while those water mist continued to circle around her.
"The Gravity Forest sent 'Dryad' Boko. He was attracted by a magic plant on an island though. I'm afraid he's still trying to transplant it."
Despite the name "Dryad", everyone still knew that Boko was a human, not the particular sapient humanoid race from another plane called the Treants.
As for the reason why Boko got his moniker, he majored in the Bloodline Art - not the bloodline of animals, but plants. He never told anyone what kind of plant he transplanted into his body. When he joined a fight, he would show his giant figure like a treant, thus his name "Dryad".
Komoen, who had been standing behind Sabot, also let out a sigh in relief when he heard that his organization also sent someone.
"'Dryad' Boko… I heard he's an expert in carving spell lines. The wands he made are considered fine works even in the Floating Mech City." Sabot nodded in respect.
Heroline only smiled.
After exchanging greetings, Jellal and Heroline walked to their respective guides.
Heroline joined Florent and lifted the water curtain covering her body. She was a young lady with a fine body and a cold expression. Her hair was like a flowing waterfall, and her eyes were blue and shining like stars. Accompanied by her long dress with a similar blue, gradient color, Heroline appeared like someone from the seas.
Heroline looked at Mara, who was standing behind Florent and raised her pale-blue eyebrow. "I know you. Mara Morn, right? You learned flame spells from my mentor 20 years ago."
With a start, Mara quickly nodded. "Lady Heroline! You must have a lot of affairs to attend to, yet you still remember these old, pathetic bones of mine. It's such an honor."
Heroline inspected Mara's strength. A Level-3 Apprentice Wizard. She nodded slightly to express her approval.
That slight nod gave Mara an irrepressible joy. Did he just leave an impression to a formal wizard?
It sounded unimportant, but the truth was that a tiny impression was sometimes enough to completely change an apprentice's future. Mara once heard a story where a lucky boy once happened to impress a formal wizard. When that wizard finished an experiment, he gave his leftover materials to the boy. These materials saved the boy decades of effort. The boy became Level-3 Apprentice Wizard before he turned 30, and continued his unstoppable progression until he finally became a formal wizard.
Knowing the story that encouraged countless apprentices, of course, Mara was excited.
However, Heroline was not really interested in what Mara was thinking. She turned to Florent and asked, "Found any decent ones this year?"
Florent bowed carefully before he gave Heroline a brief explanation about the talents recruited for White Coral Floating Island Academy.
"Anyone with special body properties or talents?" Heroline asked.
She had not found herself a real student for several decades now, because students with good talents were so scarce. She decided to finally recruit one this year, and if she could really find a student with decent talent, she would make the first move. This was why Heroline did not even ask about Barbie's Restaurant first.
Florent tried to recall the talents he found and remembered no special ones. "I found a total of seven from the Land of Revelation, the Magus Corridor, and the Valhalla Isle. None had special body properties. As for special talent… there seems to be one. A talent from the Valhalla Isle claimed he saw shining stars in the sky when taking the talent test when there was nothing at all in the middle of a winter night."
"Stars on a starless night?" Heroline pondered. She hesitated before saying, "I think I saw a similar description in the 467th volume of Abelles' Annual Talent Collection. It talked about a child from a wizard family. When he touched the Abelles' Eye, he saw every star in the sky circling around a track, so all stars formed countless star trails. It also mentioned about the test being done on a starless night.
"After a more detailed test, the talent was truly a special talent that was proved to develop towards astrology of Occult Art, so the kid majored in astrology divination," said Heroline. She then shook her head in pity, "Regretfully, he did not become a wizard. He died of age, putting his talent to waste."
Everyone also felt regret. Even good talent could not save people from aging. If one did not become a wizard, one would turn to dust.
"The one you talked about just now appeared to possess talent in astrology. Not bad," said Heroline. She then sighed, "It's a pity that I don't know anything about Occult."
Accepting that one as a student would be wasteful. Of course, she could still do it. However, she would have to spend a lot of time teaching him while knowing that the student would probably fail. Heroline certainly would not want to do something so thankless.
She declined the idea silently, then asked Florent again, "Are there any other special talents apart from that one?"
Florent shook his head. "Apart from the seven talents, Mara also found three. I don't know about them though."
When Heroline looked at Mara, Mara quickly tidied his clothes and stepped up politely. He said, "I found three talents from Marginalized Island. Two of them are my grandchildren, their talent is fine, but not special. As for the third one…"
Mara recalled the day of Angor's test. The Talent Sphere shined brightly, but he remembered Angor mentioning "floating".
"Floating" was still a common talent.
"There was nothing special about the third one, either," Mara gave Heroline a firm answer.
Listening to their explanation, Heroline's expression became disappointed. Decent talents were rare, after all.
Heroline glanced at Easley. If not for the fact that the kid already learned the channeling method of Tower of Hurricane, she would have tried to win him over. A young man with such outstanding spiritual power would very likely become a formal wizard regardless of the path he took.
Pity… he already joined the Tower of Hurricane. Sure, Jellal inflicted great pressure on the boy, even scolded him, but Jellal never actually harmed him. Usually, when someone offended Jellal, someone would either die or get hurt badly. Jellal made an exception this time just because of Easley's outstanding talent, or the consequence would probably be more severe.
"When we're done with the situation, show those talents to me," Heroline spoke. The test using Abelles' Eye was only a basic test, so it could go wrong. They were on the sea now. She had plenty of time afterward, so she would just take the time and go see for herself.
Mara and Florent instantly knew what Heroline was planning to do. They even began to envy the young talents for their good fortune.
Heroline had a good name in the academy. Unlike the other wizards who always acted noble and arrogant, Heroline was gentler towards apprentices, a pleasant sight in the world of wizards.
Now Heroline even planned to test the talents herself despite her identity. Such a great honor!
Mara was feeling content about leaving a small impression to Heroline just a second ago. Now, he envied the "students" concerned by Heroline… including his two grandchildren.