Kai stared at her in confusion.
However, the green-robed mage did not respond, and just grinned instead.
"I like your ability to survive. I like your resolve to kill. But most importantly, I am interested in your soul."
"My soul?" Kai shivered thinking that he had encountered one of those fabled evil magi who absorbed others' souls to increase their own power.
"Yes. It is almost completely malicious. The balance of your soul is all wrong, as though someone has removed the benevolent side from it, leaving only a bit behind, allowing your soul to almost completely be taken over by the malicious side."
"Well, that is not a bad thing. It allows you to more logically process things and not let emotions like love, happiness, and excitement cloud your judgement or make you let your guard down."
"On the other hand, feelings like despair, pain, and anger will more often than not take over your mind, and ultimately lead to your soul being broken, just like it is now."
"However, each time you successfully recover from such a state, your soul will grow tremendously, reducing the chance of such feelings from affecting you and making you more resilient to them."
"From what I see, this is your second time being broken. Well, all the better as you are already on the path to recovery."
"So, will you be my disciple?"
Kai had heard from Fred about the structure of disciples in the Bluestone Sect.
A regular disciple like his was an outer disciple, who must work based on the hall they join to earn Mana stones, and then spend it on spells, and other items they need to grow and improve their power.
A little higher up were the inner disciples, who were properly accepted by the sect as potential candidates to reach Rank 1. Such disciples were given a set of special rules to follow, which Kai was not informed about yet. This was also the highest level a disciple could reach within the sect without taking on a mentor.
Such a system was created for the specific purpose of creating something to 'hold onto' the more promising potential Magi by creating something within the sector that they care about; their mentors and fellow disciples of that mentor.
A mentor needed to at least be Rank 1, and needed to have the title of an Elder. Such a title could only be earned through contributions to the sect.
If you got selected to be the disciple of a mentor, you would become the direct disciple of that mentor.
Alternatively, if you reached Rank 1 without taking on any mentor, you would receive the title of Young Master of whichever hall you were part of.
Unfortunately, this came with a lot of negatives since the Bluestone Sect was not sure if you would truly remain within the sect in the future. Therefore, the sect would divert fewer resources and send them to more frequent and more dangerous missions to make the most out of them while they were within the sect.
Of course, there were also those with 'special' statuses, like Aaron, the soon to be Count of the Drake County. Such people were generally left alone.
Kai, unfortunately did not fall into this category and would be highly disadvantaged within the sect if he were to follow Aaron's path. Therefore, Kai needed to become someone's direct disciple before he reached Rank 1.
But that was in the future, since Kai would need a long time to reach anywhere near that level. This was why he had not thought about it until now.
"May I ask, what is your Rank? And who was your mentor?" Kai asked probingly.
"Brat! You-"
"I am at Rank 2. My mentor was Archmage Bluefire himself, but you might know him as Archmage Blue."
Both Kaia and the elderly mage in blue were stunned. Kai was stunned because she was the direct disciple of the Archmage, while the elderly looking Mage was shocked once more because she was telling all this to a brat who had yet to learn a single spell.
'What is she planning this time?' The mage in blue sighed in his mind and decided not to speak anything. He leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes, deciding it was best not to get involved any further.
They were both direct disciples of the same person, but that was just in name. He was not truly the Archmage's direct disciple, but more like a babysitter for his true direct disciple; Aria.
Kai hesitated for a moment but he had to ask. If he did not, he might end up regretting it for the rest of his life.
"What are the benefits and restrictions for becoming a Direct disciple? Can you please-"
"Yeah, I know. Being a direct disciple means you will have to sign a magic contract that you will never betray the Bluestone Sect. If you do, you will deeply injure your soul, and fall in Rank by 1. Simple. And you have to complete one direct mission I give you every year. That is all for the restrictions. As for the benefits, well first and foremost you can use my name wherever you need to. Secondly, you. Will be given a Meditation technique. In case you do not know, such techniques help increase your Spiritual Energy without having to spend ridiculous amounts of money on potions."
"Other than that, you will be given 200 mana stones every month for personal use. What you do with it is up to you."
Hearing these benefits, Kai's eyes immediately brightened, but then dimmed once more as he realised that all the work he had put in until now, all the dangerous situations he had gone through; were for naught. He did not need to do all that, since everything was being handed to him on a silver platter.