The Mysterious Black Magician

Yman followed Ronnie to the next door and left Rea with Aspe. 

Inside the room, it was dark.

"Oh, looks like the lights are broken..." after Yman heard Ronnie said, he heard a flick sound next, then it was followed by flickers of fires that were dancing in the air.

Four colorful fires that were as big as candle fires were spiraling to all the corners of the room. Then the room lit up when the fires touched the torches at the corner of the room and ablaze it simultaneously.

<Wow!> Sistela gasped in admiration at the beauty of those flames.

He wondered if it was a combination of magic and alchemy as he could smell some powders from it.. Regardless, after the room was brightened, he saw some tools of different shapes and sizes that were lining everywhere. They were mostly made of glasses. And liquids of different colors were inside in each of the bottles. Ceramic jars were also present inside together with some equipment for mixing and grinding herbs. But most of them were scattered everywhere.

'A workshop.' Yman muttered in mind after having a full view of the room. However, his mouth broke into a soundless laugh after noticing how mess up the room was.

"Fufu, sorry for the mess. Come here apprentice, help me lift this thing." Said Ronnie as he was trying to lift the overturned wooden table that was lying on the floor.

He came and overturned the table with ease like lifting an empty box of cartons. Ronnie was surprised to see him doing it. But he never shows it on his face.

Although the table wasn't big, it was made of sturdy wood and quite heavy.

"Truly a gold rank adventurer," Ronnie mumbled.

"What are we going to do, Teacher?" Although he asked, he had the gist after seeing the messy room.

"I want you to stay close as I process the herbs. All you need to do is watch me doing it then remember each step so you have an idea when I give you the test. But before that, I want you to help me clean the room," Prof. Ronnie replied.

Yman forced a smile. Looks like he was right.

"I see. Okay, Teacher!"

Together with Sistela, they picked up all the things that were lying on the floor, before sweeping the dust that was residing in the room.

Ronnie was arranging all the equipment. Especially the mortars that are needed for grinding the materials. Then wiping the cylinder jars that would be useful in mixing and filling.

Yman noticed that none of the equipment inside the room was touched for ages based on the thickness of dust that was sticking on each piece of equipment.

"Teacher, are you perhaps always away from here?" Yman's curiosity defeats him.

"Fufu, although this village is quite far from the academy, I'm always here every weekend."

"Eh, uhm, did you abandon this workshop?" His reply was unexpected for Yman.

Ronnie chuckled. Seemingly, he expected such follow-up questions from him.

"No, it just, when you reach a certain level of Alchemy, the need to use this equipment would be least."

Ronnie said which further puzzled Yman as he had little knowledge about Alchemy. He asked Sistela but she too had no idea as both of them only knew the basic knowledge about it.

Yman likes mixing and inventing things but compared to a professor like Prof. Ronnie he was like a little kid to him.

"Don't be bothered by it for now as it isn't important at your current level. For now, all you need to do is to focus on the first step and learn the basics," Ronnie advised.

"Yes, Teacher!"

<Phew!> Sistela landed on his shoulder.

After cleaning the room, Ronnie started giving a little lecture while also manually processing the materials.

Yman saw Ronnie took the Repeller Herb. "Teacher, what kind of spell is that?" He asked him upon seeing Ronnie's hands were being enveloped by yellowish energy.

"Hmm, it was the Third-Stage of Alchemy spell. It's called Gentle Hand. You can't possibly process material such as this Repeller Herb without advancing your Alchemy Spell to the Third-Stage," Ronnie explained. Then he started explaining how useful the skill was.

Yman was standing beside him while watching him gently grinding the herb without waning the glow that was enveloping the herb.

He sometimes asked questions especially when something came up that was new to him and was puzzled by the process.

While Yman was unblinkingly watching at Ronnie, from the Human City Zone 7, Almina and the others were busy with their training.

Each day, they were learning step by step. Especially those from the Elite Section.

Almina and Maena already mastered the First-Stage of the Perfect Breathing Technique. And now in the process of perfecting the Second-Stage. Both girls were talented and competent. So the two of them didn't waste their time learning.

In the early morning, they would be training physical combat from the instructors. And at 9 - 11 AM would be their lectures. Then the rest of the day would be their magic training.

After their training, they would rest for a little then went to the dungeon and tried to advance their breakthrough level. And to earn money by looting the dungeon.

Every day, their activities revolved around training and fighting monsters in the dungeon. Most of their levels were now level 8-9. On the other hand, Miss Ice held  the highest level from all the Junior trainees.

Looks like the Perfect Breathing was not only useful in fighting, it also helped the one using it to level up faster than normal.

Almina and Maena were already at the peak. Sooner they would advance into a False Path Expert. This news of two fledgling trainees reaching the pinnacle of beginner's level was worthy of big attention.

So at the moment, all the academy faculties were in the mood. Especially Principal Mar. They even plan to celebrate the two. In truth, it wasn't only for them, but also the appearance of the dungeon and the return of their Ace. And for the whole city that started to develop.

They wanted to celebrate before the World Competition would start.

"Principal Mar, do we need to invite some people from the other Academies?"

Currently, inside the faculty room of Zone 7 Academy, Mrs. Aurellia was questioning the principal about inviting some guests.

"Yes."

Principal Mar nodded.

"Are you sure about this Principal Mar? But..." Mrs. Aurellia and the others were skeptical about inviting some big shots from the other academies.

Putting into account their bad results in the past years, most of them believed that no one would bother to accept the celebration. Especially those from the powerhouse academy.

"Don't forget that we still have our Ace. And that young lady from the Amulet family, I believe they are worthy of attention from the other academies. Besides, that girl already took much attention from the other academies after defeating higher level magicians."

Principal Mar believed that many academies started to get curious about Almina. Especially her growth.

In honesty, they needed to try getting allies from other academies to increase their connections. Not only the school would benefit from it, but even the city would also benefit greatly through trades if they gathered allies. Especially now that the city was developing.

"Right. And we also have that young man from the Sun family."

One of the teachers agreed to the principal.

Ms. Pai who was also present inside was silently listening to them. She was fine whatever decision they came up with. Currently, she was thinking about Yman's whereabouts. She lost contact with him after the Demon's invasion.

And she couldn't leave to find him as she was tending his sister.

She would rant at him if ever he showed up. She could not help but bite her lips while feeling unease.