When Mana opened the lid of the last teapot, there was no smell, no vapor, nothing.
However, the look of these most ordinary tea leaves made Mara stand up suddenly and gaze at the greenish-yellow liquid with great excitement in his eyes.
The excitement was true. He wasn't pretending.
Mara looked at the liquid inside the cup in his hand. He never noticed that his sudden movement already knocked over his chair.
Angor's doubt reached its peak at this moment. Why did Mara react like that towards the Morning Dew? Did he discover that it was from another world?
As Angor asked the questions in his mind, Mara slowly drank his Morning Dew tea from the cup, with great care and solemnity.
Mara's action was so solemn that it almost created an aura, calming all conversations in the once lively room.
Leon wanted to speak, but something convinced him to stay silent.
This did not last long though, as when Mara closed his eyes to admire the great aftertaste of the tea, another unspeakable aura emerged from his body.
The intense aura surprised everyone, before they all realized that they could no longer make any sound.
No matter how hard they tried, nothing would come out. It appeared as if they had entered a world where sound itself was forbidden.
This was not all. Something even more terrifying followed.
Mara opened his eyes abruptly, took out a crystal ball from under his robe and fixed it in the air. He then mumbled something, and with a flash of light and several more seconds, the people around him realized that they couldn't even move now.
"My Spirit is about to break through its limitation with the help of this lesser magical plant. To prevent any accidents during my breakthrough, I have applied a Charm of Binding and a Ward of Silence around all of you. I will lift them once my breakthrough is done," Mara's voice was deep and gruff. The end of his tone also carried a strange accent.
With that, Mara no longer paid any attention to anyone's reaction and closed his eyes, while the crystal ball circled around him.
Among the bound individuals, Count Eton and those from the Morn Family felt discomfort at first, but they recovered soon enough. However, Angor and Leon were panicking.
The brothers had never experienced anything supernatural from the moment they were born, they always believed that the world they saw was the world there always was. But today, tonight, Mara's marvelous magic completely broke the conception of world they had learned about.
It all happened so fast that the unprepared brothers couldn't possibly just accept it and stay calm.
The Binding Charm could stop their movement, and the Ward of Silence could mute them, but neither could confine their minds.
After the initial panic inside the Ward of Silence, Angor slowly gained his calm back.
His enlarged pupils also went back to normal.
When he looked at Aleen who had been sitting across him, she presented him with a comforting smile which could be interpreted as a "don't worry".
Angor was taken aback for a brief second, but he soon returned his own smile, unconsciously.
And now Aleen was blushing all over, with her eyes shifting about everywhere, not sure where to look.
Angor didn't think too much of it. He thought Aleen was only feeling embarrassed because someone was staring at her, so he simply copied Count Eton's reaction—he closed his eyes to relax.
"What was it that Teacher mentioned in his tales? Magic? Spells? Conjury? Or some kind of… sleight of hand? But they were all made-up! Does this mean they are actually real?" Many questions roamed around Angor's mind. He could not disregard them, but he couldn't get any answer.
He recalled some of the historical materials arranged by Teacher, about Goldspink Empire and the other nations nearby. Some of the descriptions contained fantasies, such as how a fire-breathing dragon appeared in the Moissan Canyon near the edge of the empire 800 years ago. The dragon posed great threat to the civilians nearby, so the emperor summoned warriors around the world to slay it. Numerous fighters, soldiers and knights responded to the call and marched into the canyon. However, everyone was burnt to ash by the dragonfire before they could even get close.
The dragon-slaying war lasted several years and witnessed hundreds and thousands of dead or heavily wounded warriors. Yet the dragon did not suffer even a scratch.
Before the emperor decided to seal the entire area centered around the dragon's lair, an elder wearing white robe floated above the Moissan Canyon by chance. He gently flickered the wand he was holding, and the dragon was easily pulled into an unknown space. Afterward, the elder floated away without leaving a word. In the historical record, the dragon-slaying war began in a great tragedy, and ended in absolute absurdity.
Jon's comment towards this part of record was: The conqueror merely designed a myth to calm his subjects.
This was Angor's idea about the story as well. But now, doubts appeared in his mind. Could that elder in white robes be just like Mara - someone who could wield amazing power?
Also, the records about Heylan Imperial mentioned such stories many times, like how the goddess of sea bestowed fortune upon the islanders, or how mermaids seduced sailors and destroyed an entire fleet… The history of many other nations also involved traces of mythology.
Were they really all fabricated?
The scale in Angor's mind began to tip.
…
It did not take very long for Mara to break through. The small quartz hourglass only flipped once, if measured using the unit of time on Earth, it was about 30 minutes.
The protective crystal ball slowly stopped circulating around Mara and began to float in place.
Now, Mara's expression was filled with joy. Of course he would be joyful, he was stuck at Intermediate Apprentice for 20 years. He thought he would never break into High Apprentice in his life, so he gave up in frustration and took the job to find talented students in the Old Earth. He still remembered his own expression, a most bitter smile, upon taking the job. Looking for talents? Ha! There were rarely any talents even in the Prime Plane, how was it possible to find any in Old Earth?
He stepped onto the vessel towards Old Earth with great depression. Only thorns and despair could be awaiting him ahead.
But the gods had mercy! He never expected to run into such a big, pleasant surprise on this dull journey.
First, he discovered two talents, and they happened to be his grandchildren! He satisfied his mission twofold, and once Alan and Aleen grew stronger, they could even help him in return.
Besides, he found out about an unknown lesser magic plant in Old Earth! At the front line, he bought the Morning Dew tea from a traveling merchant, and that was when he realized the tea was almost on par with the White Orchid Potion.
The White Orchid Potion was the only one among lesser potions that could help with someone's breakthrough, so it always cost a fortune. He diligently hunted for quests for many years just to win himself a bottle of it. But now, he discovered the Morning Dew in Old Earth.
Too bad that the Morning Dew tea from the merchant had been laid aside for too long, which greatly hindered its effect. After inquiring about the source of the tea, they hurried to Grue Town on their horses without stopping.
This was what they called destiny!
After his successful breakthrough, Mara finally understood why wizard apprentices tended to roam about deadly ruins, for even a wee bit of destiny could help them advance!