After gaining entry at the gate, Vega looked at the running apprentices. They were in a hurry, running together toward the grand hall.
"What is happening?" Vega looked back at Mayne.
"Who knows? Probably they're trying to find out how much you're worth."
He was sure Mayne wouldn't tell him. He would find it out himself after delivering the boar and getting his contribution points. Whatever the commotion was, it could wait.
Shaking his head, he smiled, bringing Mayne toward the port.
The sun had disappeared, and the lanterns all over the place shone brightly, changing the ambiance in the port. It looked empty, something that never happened around the port. Probably because most of the apprentices were heading toward whatever they were in a hurry for.
Finding the correct stall was a simple matter. Vega just followed the aromatic scent of the boar meat being grilled. Even though the port had many food stalls creating a lot of different wonderful smells mixed with the saltiness of the ocean, the boar meat had the signature smoky flavor hung in the air.
Arriving in front of the stall, Vega greeted the lady who still looked beautiful even though she had to stay under the sun every day.
"Hello, aunt!" Vega bows to the lady. Even though her level was now below his, showing respect for someone who provided him with food was never a bad choice.
"Hi, there!" She scanned him, raising her eyes, and closed her mouth gracefully. "Wait, you broke through?"
Vega nodded.
"Should I call you senior then?" She chuckled, closing her mouth.
She spoke more politely. Vega remembered the first time meeting her. The lady called him 'boy' when talking to him. Now she actually treats him like an equal. Vega cleared his throat. "Aunt, do you have any private place to do our exchange?" He asked her, tilting his head, indicating that he had brought Mayne with him, who stood obediently behind him.
She nodded. After giving some instructions to her helpers, she gestured toward him, leading the way to a simple hut located not far from her stall. She unlocked the formation surrounding her house with a simple wave of her hand and went in.
Inside, the furniture was too simple. Even the table looked similar with the one he had in his house. After letting Vega sit, she excused herself, went behind another room, and brought back a tray filled with a bottle and two cups with her.
Pouring the mead inside the cup, she offered the sweet-smelling mead, and after waiting for him to drink it, she drank hers. "I got this exchanging a whole grilled boar with an apprentice whose father was a well-known brewer. I think the taste was quite nice even without having been processed with mana."
Vega nodded and felt the meat too soft, lacking the usual strong kick he had in the inn. "Aunt, in the contract, I only have to hunt one boar, but I found a boarlet when hunting the boar." Vega told her the stories when a lone male boar almost killed him after killing the cute boarlet.
"That's wonderful. I know hunting boar is a little difficult, especially when one starts getting aggressive. Their earth element is really difficult." She scanned him, feeling confused about where the boy put the boars. Taking a knife from her pouch, she prepared for any underhanded move. The boy in front of her was probably pretending to waste her time and that he would kill her when she lost her focus.
Contracts were always being used for trade between apprentices; the problem was that the simple mana signature was insufficient if the other party had a higher level. Even though they broke the contract, the consequences were minimal. The stronger contract that was normally cost twenty times more requires the user to sign with their blood. Even though blood magic was lost during the great war, some of the simple methods survived until now.
Vega understood her worry and took out the boars from inside his space ring. Even though Mayne and the lady work together to take it away from him, the gap between the intermediate level and him is huge, especially after knowing that his mana had turned into a liquid version, which contains several times the volume of the gas version.
His guest was correct, and the aunt and Mayne gasped at the sudden appearance of the boars. But after scanning around his fingers and neck and couldn't find any accessories that could serve as a space artefact, they gave up the search. Killing Vega was a waste of time, and even before they successfully retrieved the space artifact, Elder Addilyn, who observed the port, would arrive instantly.
Vega finished the mead and put his arms on the table. "So, aunt, can I get more points because I killed more than what the contract stated?"
"Of course," she put away her knife and gulped. "Even without your reminder, I'm going to give you more. She took out her own medal.
After the transaction was finalized, Vega thanked the lady and walked briskly toward her mentor's residence.
Inside, the place was empty and the buzzing sound around him proved that his mentor always activated the hidden melody to hide the original state of the room.
Professor Addilyn arrived wearing more casual clothes and glanced toward Mayne a little before praising him. "Good job for breaking through the level so fast. Who's that?"
She tilted her head and reminded Vega about his first scene arriving at the Shoal Blue Sea Academy with Mistress Vin and the twins whose names he forgot. Something started with 'm', Mira? Moira? He shook his head and chuckled.
His mentor looked at him weirdly. "What?"
"Nothing. Here is Mayne. He was supposed to be my friend, but he ambushed me outside, and after figuring out that I had broken through earlier than him, he gave himself up. Is it true that anyone outside is now considered a traitor?"
"Yes, in fact, the principal shared the news yesterday. But luckily, you and the other inner apprentices are exempt from the rules. I heard even Nora was still outside picking plants, following the order from her mentor."
Vega recalled. Nora was the other inner apprentice he met during Mistress Vin's inauguration as an adept.
Mistress Vin waved her hand, vibrating the air around her and making Mayne fall unconscious on the floor. "Now, we can finally talk freely."
"Yes, but what will happen to him?"
"Nothing serious. Because you are still alive and well here, so, he basically didn't do anything. But we have to talk about you. Because you broke through faster than the others, you had to join the competition between the other high-level apprentices. Now, what do you know about a high-level apprentice?"
"Only that my mana turned into liquid and we must master something called three-dimensional spell models. Other than that, nothing."
Professor Addilyn nodded, took out her zither, and played some strange melody, summoning smoke around her that moved around, creating a different scene.
Vega gasped and blurted a word. "A movie!"
"Wait, you know what that is? Never mind. You'll tell me later about this strange knowledge of yours. But, while they are similar, they are not films. You can probably see the real one around the bigger islands. I'm sure that Oase del Mare had one famous theater."
Vega nodded. Since he copied the information about the capital, he yearned to go there, but unfortunately before he was still a low-level apprentice, he could only leave the island if his mentor was with him.
"I was saying, high-level is really different compared to low and intermediate. This is when you can be considered an adept, of course, without the same power level. But your liquid mana is enough to control simple flying magic items; of course, with the increase in prices now, it's hard to buy for your level."
"And don't forget high-level is the longest stage in your apprenticeship because it has three minor stages. You, the unpolished, and then the polished and flawless. The stages will be applicable for any other stages after that. Even first- or second-level adepts I'll lend you a book for you to learn more."
Vega nodded; he'd read it somewhere but still didn't understand the difference between each level.
"Now, the competition. Any stage of high-level apprentices had to join the competition that's going to start in five days. Either you're too lucky or unlucky, but the competition is always fierce. Even we have to submit the end result to the guild." She sneered, obviously hating the adept guild.
"I hope you can learn your first three-dimensional spell model to bring to the real, unpolished stage in five days. Any spell can improve your chance of surviving the competition. Oh, remember, death is common during the competition."
Vega didn't waste much time in her mentor's place. After Professor Addilyn lent him four books related to any knowledge of a high-level apprentice, including one old scroll related to the next meditation exercise, he headed toward his room to prepare for his promise to tutor the kids.
Arriving in his small room, he looked around, feeling a little down because his room was still the same small room he got for two years while rejecting Dion's offer to live together. He remembered that he still worried about the handsome knight back then.
He needed to find a way to move to the higher-level accommodations where he could buy more stuff to decorate his room, similar to Dion's huge place in his sect.
Sitting cross-legged on the bed, he started to imagine the seven symbols in his mind to change the pure ambient mana around him into his own mana.
He frowned. Normally Mana moved easily toward him so he could absorb them by following lines. But now he found his room too empty. The mana around him were too little. Unwilling to spend magic crystals, he needed to find a way to move to the higher level accommodation where he could buy more stuff to decorate his room similar with Dion's huge place in his sect.
Giving up, he started to take out the first book from his mentor to read and study before he went to sleep. Taking out his tome, he opened it and asked, "Do I need to open it when reading the book?"
"No, just read it like usual. Our connection is located in our soul. I copy any new information even when you close me. I think the distance could be a problem, so you have to keep me close at all times."