Abe the Wizard

Wizard Lorenzo pointed at the dummy, “By the rules of the Union, Grandmaster Abel, you must perform a novice wizard spell within a time limit for you be granted an official wizard’s badge.”

Abel didn’t know a lot of novice wizard spells. To be more specific, he didn’t know a lot of attack spells. For fire, he could use the “inferno flame.” For lightning, he could cast a “static field.” For ice, he could cast “the newborn star of frost” and “ice bolt.”

Now that he had the leaf’s rune magic staff, he tended to use the “inferno flame,” which was a close-range spell, a lot less. Because of that, he had been using the other three spells a lot more. “Ice bolt,” especially. His current level of ice bolt was at four.

So, ice bolt it was. Since he was in a test, he should always go with what he was best at. Without doing any enchantments or rune drawing, he tapped in the middle of the air with his fingers. A rune pattern emerged from that, and an ice bolt shot out from his hand.

Swish. The dummy was hit. The ice bolt spread out, and the entire dummy was covered in frost. It took three seconds for it to melt away.

“Most impressive, Grandmaster Abel,” Wizard Lorenzo crossed his arms, “So you can shoot ice bolts in an instance?”

Abel smiled since he knew he got a pass, “I’m pretty talented, I suppose.”

Wizard Lorenzo’s face started twitching again. There it was. He’s been making all these facial expressions the entire day. In fact, he had done it more today than the entire past year.

As experienced as Wizard Lorenzo was, he could tell that Abel was at level four of his ice bolt spell. As easy as it was to make progress at the start, he still needed to practice many times to get to where he was at. It wasn’t just that. A lot of time had to be invested for mana to be recovered. The rune pattern drawing was also an extremely difficult part. One mistake could ruin everything up.

Unbeknownst to Lorenzo, the way Abel practiced was, well, very “comfortable.” When he went to sleep, all he had to do was to set his druid spirit to automatic mode. Once he did that, his 120 point power of Will and 1320 mana point would cast the level 14 “warmth” spell to recover the mana that was depleted.

It was something that the other wizards couldn’t even dream of. Besides, after setting the intermediate magic circle in the Rogue’s Encampment, the concentration of mana there was now extremely high. Abel could use up all his mana, and all it only took a few minutes for him to recharge it all up while inside.

Wizard Lorenzo announced without giving any commentaries, “Congratulations, Grandmaster Abel. You have passed the verification test. Please wait as I process some of the necessary procedures to grant you your wizard badge.”

“Thank you so much,” Abel bowed to show his thanks. Soon, after all the procedures were done, a single staff badge was handed to him.

Abel couldn’t help but feel a little emotional. He had been training to become a wizard all this time. After countless hardships and challenges, he was now free to announce his identity as a wizard.

After rubbing the badge clean for a bit, he placed it in front of his chest.

Abel asked Bartoli, “Am I putting it on right? Is it tilted?”

Bartoli smiled as she helped Abel to adjust the badge, “It looks great on you, Master!”

As hard as it was for Bartoli to relate to Abel’s feelings right now, Wizard Lorenzo knew what it was like to receive his own badge. After all, he was once a young wizard as well. Actually, for a moment there, after watching the joyous look on Abel’s face, he almost forgot that the young man in front of him was also a highly respectable grandmaster blacksmith.

Abel bowed again after calming himself down, “Excuse me there, Wizard Lorenzo.”

“Ha, ha ha!” Wizard Lorenzo laughed in response, “No no no, it’s fine, Grandmaster Abel. It’s very common for wizards to be so “expressive” when they receive their badge. You’re one of the more reserved ones, actually. You should’ve seen what some of the others have done in the past.”

“Thank you so much for your time today, Wizard Lorenzo,” Abel gave a wizard’s bow to Wizard Lorenzo, “Now now I’ve done what I came here for, I shall not take any more of your time.”

Wizard Loren returned a wizard’s bow, “Farewell, then, Grandmaster Abel. Remember, if you want to receive some points, please go to the main hall of our establishment to participate in missions. If you want to make a living in Liante City, points will be very important.”

After saying goodbye to Wizard Lorenzo, Abel took Bartoli to have a look around the Wizard Union building. Soon, they located the mission hall.

The mission hall was about several hundred square meters in area. In the middle, there were ten-something white pillars to support the entire structure. The floor was made of carved rocks, which were so shiny that they could show blurred reflections of the people stepping over them.

There weren’t any chairs. In the center of the room, there was a giant screen that showed what missions were available. At every minute and second, the magic circles on it would continue to update the information.

In front of this screen, there was a line of reception that separated the staff and the wizards that were doing their missions. Everyone here was wizards, obviously. Non-wizards were not allowed to be here.

“Look, Master!” Bartoli pointed towards a few rows on the screen. When Abel looked towards where she pointed at, he saw three missions there were lined up from top to bottom. They were probably put up there at the same time.

Mission name: make magic staffs

Description: the contract owner will provide the necessary materials, and a magic staff will be crafted as requested

Mission reward: 5000 points

Mission name: make magic armor

Description: the contract owner will provide the necessary materials, and magic armor will be crafted as requested

Mission reward: 3000 points

Mission name: make magic knight’s big sword

Description: the contract owner will provide the necessary materials, and a magic knight’s big sword will be crafted as requested

Mission reward: 3000 points

When he saw the last mission, Abel said, “What’s up with this? I thought the missions are strictly wizard-related. Why are there people asking for armors and knight’s big swords?”

A random wizard nearby also said, “Yeah, why are they here? Shouldn’t these missions be assigned to the Blacksmith Union?”

“Curious, isn’t it? Allow me to uncover this secret, then!”

A thin, short wizard spoke out as he scanned at those who were looking at him. He had this prideful sneer on his face. When the others were starting to get impatient, he continued to explain.

“News is that there is an elite blacksmith that has come to Liante City. These missions, my fellow wizards, are specially tailored for him!”

“And who could that be?” Some started to ask. As far as they knew, there weren’t a lot of blacksmiths that could make magic staffs. Even the middle-high tier wizards had trouble getting their own.

Abel didn’t pay any more attention to that. He just frowned as he saw the three missions that were on the screen. Making weapons wasn’t really hard for him. That being said, he didn’t like the idea of doing publicly-announced contracts in exchange for points. There wasn’t a lot of wiggle rooms for jobs like this.

Thus, he started looking up stuff that he could trade with points. He could get potions, gears, spell-related books. There were a lot of things that he could get, but there was only a handful that he really had a need for.

Those that he wanted, they were all very, very expensive. Tower spirits, for example. It cost 10000 points for just one. He had to make two magic staffs to afford one.