"Ring."
Kai took off his Bluestone Sect ring and handed it to the grumpy old man at the reception, who now replaced the beautiful lady from before. However, Kai did not say anything, and instead waited for his rewards with expectant eyes.
He waited, and waited, and waited, and after about 3 hours, the grumpy old man returned and called out to him.
"Go there. Those who will handle this matter are waiting for you over there."
Kai simply nodded and followed the instructions, finding himself in a vaguely familiar situation; in a room with official magi.
However, the two who were here were once again exactly the same who had interviewed him back when he had returned from his first mission regarding the immortals. Seeing the familiar faces, Kai greeted the two with a slight smile on his face, which was rather forced.
"It's you again." The elderly-looking blue-robed mage spoke first, just like the previous time.
"Yes," Kai reported curtly. Unlike the previous time when he had been a bit confused and worried, he was not in the mood to put up with the elderly mage's crass remarks. Clearly, the mage in question was also taken aback as he did not respond for quite some time.
The female mage in green robes just looked between my indifferent yet exhausted eyes and the blue-robed mage's perplexed expression.
A moment later, she began to chuckle silently, and both Kai and the elderly mage noticed it. Almost immediately, it appeared as though she had become the centre of attention for everything.
The elderly man who seemed almost like her father, was looking at her as though he was adoring his lover.
Meanwhile, Kai was looking at her because she was giving off this intense feeling. A feeling of attraction, not that which one got from the opposite gender, but something more closely related to his soul.
He did not realise why it was so, but he decided not to entertain this curiosity for now.
Instead, Kai turned his attention from being solely focused on the green-robed mage to both magi equally.
"Go on. Tell us then child, what happened." She waved her hand at the elderly mage and motioned for Kai to continue.
"Well, I was told to investigate this small village for disappearing children. I found this to be a fact by a huntress. I waited for the kidnapper, but no one came. Then one day the huntress left the village secretly. I followed her but she vanished."
"This happened many times until one time I noticed an odd sound of someone shovelling dirt, and coincidentally found Victor, the real hunter of the village, and he told me the reality about the village and the village chief."
"As it turned out, most villagers including the huntress were face puppets made out of green goo made by the village chief, who was a Rank 1 mage. Based on the diary I found there, he most likely should be a mage who got kicked out of his tower or is on a secret mission from a mage tower in the Blackthorn duchy. Plus, he wrote that if he completed his experiment, he would be able to return to his 'Master', or something like that."
"And where are these books? Don't tell me you conveniently burned them?" The blue-robed Mage interjected in a sharp tone.
"Were they useful or valuable?"
"Hmph! Of course! Anything from a Rank 1 mage is useful."
"Then how much will you pay for it?"
"…"
The soft smile on the green-robed mage's face gradually turned into an even wider smile while the blue-robed mage frowned even more, but was at a loss for what to say once more. He had never seen such a rude disciple. Even his students who had reached Rank 1 did not treat him like an equal like this child, who was no more than 12 in age and definitely had yet to learn even a single spell was treating him.
Meanwhile, the green-robed mage was smiling not due to Kai's courage, but because of what she noticed inside him.
'A soul of almost complete malice which has been broken and healed already, but has just been broken once more?' She mused as her gaze on Kai gradually became more intense.
'If he does not die before his full potential is reached… He will definitely reach at least Pseudo Rank 2, if not higher!' She had seen the despair and hopelessness in Kai's soul, but mixed in with that was a seed. It was the seed of conviction which had clearly just been planted, meaning he was still unstable, but would gradually heal himself completely!
"What do you want?" She ended up asking him.
"Mana crystals. Lots of them." Kai said directly without even realising.
"Alright. Hand over the books." She said, and Kai complied, leaving the elderly man at a loss for words yet again.
"Here, 2000 mana stones."
"I also have some items he left behind." Kai took the mana stones and then added.
"Oh? What might they be?" She asked.
[Staff of Life Mana][Unknown Necklace][Stasis Magic Array][400 Mana crystals]
Kai listed out everything he had, and immediately the green-robed mage asked.
"Show me the unknown necklace."
Kai hesitated but ended up removing it and passing it onto her anyways.
She took it, and placed it on her palm, before using the index finger of her other palm to lightly press on the black jewel of the necklace.
"Hmm. This is indeed a Spacial tool, used for holding items in a compressed space. It can hold up to 1 metre-cubed, but nothing which can affect time or space; like other Spacial tools."
Kai's eyes widened at this, but soon noticed that the necklace had been thrown over to him. Immediately, he caught it and held it between both palms as though it was the greatest treasure he had ever seen.
And it was!
But why was she returning it to him? Kai looked up at the green-robed Mage, who seemed to read his thoughts and smirked.
"Become my Direct Disciple, child."