Vega stared at the flask containing the red liquid in front of him. After his seventh try, Vega was undoubtedly successful by matching it with the description in the book. He sighed, wiping his forehead. Slowly closing the stopper, he stored the potion in his pouch and looked at the rest of the ingredients on the table. He could buy a sigil if he was lucky enough to make a potion from those ingredients.
He heard something related with sigils oddly resembling the paper talisman he saw in Wyatt's hand. Except this one would work as an apprentice. A sigil was something expensive created by the adepts that could serve as a trump card if he was stuck in an impossible situation.
Instead of thinking further, he took out some plants from his bag and laid it on the table. The leaves felt soft. As usual, he needed to separate all the leaves and set them aside first. Crushing the stem, he ground them until they became a powder. He separated the liquid coming from the stem and put it aside. After noting that all his ingredients were lined up in the correct order, Vega glanced at the book to ensure his steps were correct.
Vega slowly stirred the bubbling cauldron while adding the ingredients. He enjoyed watching the liquid change color when he added different ingredients. After he was sure that all the ingredients were inside, he used his mana and all of his focus mixing the potion according to the recipe written in the book. He felt that his reserve was being drained fast and hoped that his reserve would be enough. When he almost couldn't hold it anymore, the liquid finally turned red. Making sure it was a successful brew, he let out all the air he was holding and turned off the fire.
He repeated the action several times, resting in between each potion, ensuring his mana was enough for each brew. Alas, some of the ingredients didn't reach the perfect temperature, making him fail twice. Looking at the two flasks on the table plus one in his pouch, he successfully made three potions after wasting twelve sets of ingredients. The statistics were okay—not bad at all. Nodding, satisfied with his hard work, he cleaned everything up and went outside.
Squinting his eyes after being stuck inside the dim room for too long, the sun looked too bright for him. The salty air brought by the gust from the ocean helped him relax. He whistled as he walked on the soft sand. Occasionally, he kicked the sand while playing with them. He took his time before reaching the trading center.
Looking at the profit, he almost screamed loudly, excited. Nothing beats the feeling of holding money after working hard on something. His experience as an elder's personal apprentice made him better at controlling his mana. From the apprentices waiting at the stall, Vega heard only a handful of apprentices succeed in making their potion before giving up.
After thanking the apprentice, he asked around for a sigil, but everyone shook their heads, rejecting his inquiry. A seal was something rare. To make a sigil, one needed fine control of their mana, and most apprentices or adepts were average. Only geniuses like Vin or Wyatt could create one. Does Vin successfully make one herself? I should ask her.
He asked around and discovered that the academy reserved a special area for adepts. It was hidden behind a formation. Lucky for him, the formation opened when he placed his shiny medal, and he could go inside without getting blown to pieces.
Asking around, he knocked on the slightly bigger house and waited. The door opened, and Vega heard the melodic sound from the beautiful princess: "Welcome, sen-- Oh, it's you! What are you doing here?!"
Vega looked at the young face, wondering if the arrogant princess would change, but immediately dismissed the thought. "Mistress. I would like to come here to thank you for saving me back then." Sliding five magic crystals onto the table, she said, "I know it's not much, but please accept it as my thanks." Even though five crystals were small for a princess, Vega knew that she desperately needed the money after spending most of her savings to advance.
Vin nodded curtly and took the crystals. "I repeat, why are you here?"
"I want to ask, do you have any sigils to spare? With your genius mind, I know that you could make one already, right?"
"You're not wrong, but why should I help you?" "How much can you offer for one sigil?"
Vega showed her the potion he had made. "I can make my own potion now, and I don't think money is a problem."
"One hundred, and that's final. I know your apprentice needs to defend himself badly, so I will use my strongest defense spell as a model. Agreed?"
"Yes, yes. Thank you, mistress." Vega left the residence smiling. He had assumed correctly. Vin badly needed an income after advancing swiftly and becoming an adept.
Vega busied himself buying all sorts of ingredients for different basic potions and planned to make a batch of poison to buy his sigil. While waiting for his mentor, he was tired of being stuck inside his room and preferred to venture outside. When he was living on the streets, he actually enjoyed taking some risks. That was one of the reasons he ended up here. If he didn't take any chances and offend any nobles, he would still live in the street, sleeping on a makeshift bed. His grandfather warned him that "any risk has the potential to become dangerous unless one prepares beforehand."
Vega looked at the scarred corpse, feeling satisfied. Several limbs were scattered on the ground, making the scene look like it just survived a catastrophic event. Not only the creature, but his body was also full of blood that had scabbed. The sign that the creature didn't die without a fight With his current mana reserve, Vega could only kill one sapling. Even with all of his trump cards distracting the crab-like creature, he needed a full half an hour to kill it.
After cleaning the bits and pieces, he separated the shells from the body. Discarding the rest, he took back only the most important part of the scarf to the academy. All eyes landed on him, and it was rare to see an apprentice kill a fully grown salmon solo. After dumping the shell in the mission hall, he traced his fingers along the points engraved on the medals that had clearly grown.
Using his points to buy some ingredients, he gained more than enough magic crystals for a sigil from Vin. With more crystals than he had hoped for, he traced his path to visit Vin again.
"This is yours." Vin counted all the magic crystals on the table and finally took a stone from her pouch and gave it to Vega.
Vega held the stone in his hand. The cold stone felt powerful. He suspects that even a group of squirrels won't be enough to get inside his defenses. When he focused on the mana around the stone, he could even sense the powerful might inside.
Vin pocketed all the magic crystals that glittered on her desk and added, "Remember that a sigil, even the most powerful one, can only be used three times at most." After that, she dismissed the apprentice and closed the door.
Vega didn't feel like being treated like that. He even felt happy because, in a way, he was successful in making a deal with an adept. After making sure that he kept the sigil safe inside his pouch, he walked back toward his place.
From his own calculations, his master would go back soon and pick him up around this week. Recalling the implication from his master that he hadn't explored the academy much, Vega took the long path going back.
Huge was an understatement. The academy could be considered a small city on the island. Vega passed by the statue in the main hall and still needed about thirty minutes to walk to the man-made lake around the high-level accommodations. Looking at the view, Vega promised himself to move to one of the buildings viewing the lake.
He heard many things during his time in the academy. Most of them were interesting and fun, but most of the apprentices were afraid that they needed to spend a long time stuck at high level without any chance to advance to become adepts. Some of the most senior apprentices had been in the academy for over twenty years. It was hard to find someone as brilliant as Mistress Vin who could graduate while still young, in her early twenties.
After spending time roaming around in the academy, he unlocked his door, finding someone had already occupied his place.
"You're here," his mentor stared at him, noticing the change in her apprentice.
Vega bowed right away to the figure sitting gracefully by the table while sipping a cup of tea she got from somewhere. "Mentor. How do you find the way to the west?"
Professor Addilyn took her time sipping the tea and finally answered, "Nothing crazy. They agreed to give you time to meet Dion. But," she took out some cookies and snacks and put them on the table. "Take it." She offered Vega.
Vega wondered why his mentor always spoke so slowly, but why? Do I need to sell my body to get to Dion? He sat down, thinking of the many possibilities that could happen during his journey to the west. After being with his mentor and spending time together for a whole week, Vega understood that his mentor worked at her own pace. He could only wait, glancing around the room and looking at the cookies, not daring to touch them.
"They were very kind, but being greedy like most Westerners are, they asked for you to compete with one of their disciples. I will also use this time to see your growth over the past few months. I hope you didn't slack off and can win the match under my name. Somehow they still hate me for choosing to become an adept rather than a practitioner like them." She said while staring outside with a hateful twinkle in her eyes.
"Do I need to prepare for anything?"
Addilyn raised her eyes at her apprentice and saw through what the latter had done in the past months. Sensing the familiar sensation of the sigil and smelling a hint of smoke, she knew that her apprentice was quite busy. "With the sigil you prepared, I think it's enough. It's rare to have a friendly competition between practitioners and adepts. The war made both sides worry about each other. Do you know why most of the newer members in the academy hate the practitioners?"
Vega almost hid himself from being seen through, but knowing her, he wasn't surprised at how his mentor seemed to know everything. "Not really, no." Vega thought back to the many conversations he had with other apprentices. Wyatt and Dion were the only ones who didn't talk about the practitioners with disdain. The others always had some expression when talking about the practitioners. He also knew that his mentor had lived longer than most of the adepts in the academy, so whatever happened must have happened in the past hundred years or so.
"About one hundred and fifty years ago, when I was still an apprentice, the war happened. At first, there was only a little disagreement between one major academy and a sect. But one shouldn't forget that any major faction would have many connections. No one knew the reason why. I suspect they were fighting about a sacred land that appeared out of nowhere in the middle of the ocean separating us." Professor Addilyn took out her map again and pointed to a place where the island was supposed to appear.
"A mystical island full of magical items suddenly appeared out of nowhere? All forces want to get involved to gain benefits from the island. Even as an apprentice, we have to act as cannon fodder in the competition for a piece of land. The war lasted until I advanced, becoming adept after about thirty years. It wasn't a long war, but many third-level adepts participated in it too. Their magical means were stronger than any natural disaster. How many elders do you think we have in the academy?"
Vega thought, and based on his meetings with the three other personal apprentices, he answered, "Four?"
"A good guess. We have six in total, and one of them is the principal. The war took a toll on the number of high-level adepts and practitioners. If I'm not wrong, the old seniors who were still alive hid well and never showed their faces again. Back then, it was common to see second- or even third-level adepts. The problem was that, in the end, both sides suffered casualties. No one was willing to admit their loss. So what do you think happened?" Professor Addilyn stared at her apprentice and asked him.
Vega was quiet, not knowing that the whole situation was that complex. From his experience, he knew that people were greedy. Even the nobles would do many questionable things to reach their goals. "Revenge. Everyone blamed the other factions for their deceased seniors, and the hate grew."
Professor Addilyn nodded, "Yes. Families and friends were gone just for a little war." She recalled her mentor in the academy, who took her in after Krimitak and taught her everything she knew—the previous principal, a third-level adept.
After finishing her tea, her previous sadness had disappeared, replaced by her usual cold face. "The only thing that's different from now is that only the elders remember what the peace was like back then. Yes, we are powerful, but anyone will lose if they are surrounded by someone with less power. It was pretty easy, you know. Number three is always sacred to us. When one reaches a high level, they will gain a huge power increase compared to someone at a low or intermediate level. The same is true for adepts. Even though we're a level stronger than the first-level adepts, we can't fight a group of them at once. The third-level adepts were the only ones who were strong enough to lead any adept society. But since the war, they have all disappeared or died. Even Oase del Mare, the biggest island for adepts, had fifteen second-level adepts. Combining all the academies and schools, we don't even hit one hundred second-level adepts."
Professor Addilyn stood up and reminded Vega to prepare for his leave tomorrow. As a personal apprentice, he can learn the secret being kept from the other apprentice.
He needed to keep his mouth shut. No wonder the other inner apprentices like Sein, Nora, and Phil chose to group together. If one loose mouth or one adept knew the secret, the elders could lose their lives.