My "Bubble" (Part 1)

Kallinda, Sashana, the two apprentices assigned by the council.

"Born in Eversong Woods, raised in Eversong Woods, never having breathed Silvermoon City's decadent air—they're the best material for apprentices. Take them to the Red Sun White Tower. First, cultivate the habits an arcanist should have, then wait for the little apprentices to grow slowly. Raising them is one of life's pleasures, hehehe."

The mentor's laughter was so sharp that it almost sounded shrill.

"When training apprentices, the growth of their knowledge is important, but what matters most is making them accept your values. It's like coloring a blank white canvas with your own color. Nothing makes a mentor happier than instilling their values in an apprentice, and nothing is more tragic than an apprentice whose values conflict with their mentor's. You'll soon learn where the fun lies."

'Masters all have their quirks.' Though the source of that rumor could not be traced, its accuracy had at least been proven by one-eighth.

If it had been before, Shane would never have seen this side of his mentor, nor realized that he was regarded as an equal.

"Mentor, I'll personally pick them up. Until they achieve something, I won't let them have the chance to come into contact with Silvermoon City."

After bidding his mentor farewell, Shane stepped into the arcane radiance, collided with the folded plane of space, passed through it, and arrived on the other side. The coordinates his mentor had given him pointed to a farm somewhere in Eversong Woods. Yet when he emerged from space, he found himself on a small hill, with the target farm below.

The deviation was within acceptable limits. Mastering core knowledge was not something that could be done overnight.

Shane walked down the slope. Mana wyrms flickered in and out of sight among the trees. They poked their heads out from behind leaves and atop branches, curiously examining the unfamiliar visitor. The visitor did not seem frightening, so they cautiously approached and carefully tested him. Once they confirmed there was no danger, they drifted close, circling around him as they slowly danced through the air.

"The little ones were drawn here by arcane energy." Shane gathered the three clusters of orbs above his head so they would not get tangled in them and cause an awkward situation. "One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine." There were nine in total. Like pets, they occasionally brushed affectionately against Shane's skin, cool and pure.

When he reached the foot of the hill, thunderous clanging of steel shook the air. Startled, the little creatures scattered back into the woods. Golems were working on the farm. Quel'Sera's elves had grown comfortable enough to eliminate heavy manual labor. Beneath the Sunwell's radiance, the weather was favorable and the harvest plentiful. One only needed to scatter the seeds and wait for the crops to grow.

"I'm here to see Kallinda. I'm her mentor."

Shane knocked on the door. The elf who answered was also a mage, though only third-ring. The three clusters of orbs above Shane's head frightened him.

"Y-you... sir, I'll call my daughter." The master of the house went upstairs and invited Shane inside.

"My mentor is here! I thought they'd never come for the rest of my life! This is wonderful!"

The girl's excited voice drifted down to the first floor, making Shane smile.

When he met Kallinda, she was a girl caught between adolescence and adulthood, at the very bloom of her youth.

"I still have five years until I'm an adult, Mentor, so don't underestimate me. My goal is to become an Archmage," she told Shane. She was only first-ring, and her talent was still unknown.

After showing proof from the council, Shane seized his apprentice's wrist and teleported to another farm. The second apprentice, Sashana, was a slightly dark-skinned girl, also only first-ring, with unknown talent.

When he found her, she was fiddling with a wand. It was charred, with only the faintest glimmer of magic remaining—a plain, unenchanted piece of equipment.

"Let's go. Your apprenticeship officially begins now!" Grabbing one apprentice in each hand, Shane locked onto his mage tower and activated the teleportation. All three of them jumped through space at once. Bringing two apprentices along was like carrying two bundles on his back. Passing through the folded plane required him to pay their cost as well, draining mana and mental energy equivalent to three people.

When they stepped out of the teleportation space, their feet landed on the soil of Windrunner Outpost.

"Bleurgh—" The two apprentices ran to the roadside and vomited. Later, they said teleportation felt like spinning inside a whirlpool.

"Low-ring and high-ring perception differ, and teleportation feels different too. They get motion sickness." Shane made a note of it, then arranged for the two apprentices to share a room and slowly recover from the aftereffects of teleportation.

Upon returning to the mage tower, Firehawk was the first to find Shane. His magical item crafting was half complete, and he wanted to draw part of the profits in advance. A wedding where nearly four hundred rangers ate and drank to their hearts' content had nearly bankrupted him. Shane understood his difficulties and advanced the money to him.

"I used to feel that you were only one level above me, but after you returned from Silvermoon City, it feels like you're no longer on the same plane as me. My friend, tell me quickly—what happened?" Firehawk was delighted to receive the money. In the past, he would usually have happily declared, "The purpose of money is to spend it extravagantly."

"Some things did happen. They allowed me to step onto another level along the path of the arcane. But those are secrets that cannot be spoken of."

"You've got me itching with curiosity. I need to raise my own level too—I can't fall too far behind. I have plans tonight. See you." Firehawk pushed off with the tips of his toes and left, heading home to find his two wives.

Shane prepared to put into practice what he had learned from the Highborne Wisdom Scroll: <Cultivate taste and build a space that belongs to you>. He had spent two days in Silvermoon City and only learned three sixth-ring spells. It was not a good place to put his knowledge into practice.

A honeycomb, a colander, a sieve—those were the impressions the space around Silvermoon City gave him. Elven arcanists had overused spatial magic too much.

Would it attract demons? Any arcanist capable of exploring the world understood one thing: Azeroth was a world riddled with loopholes, yet exceedingly sturdy. The more powerful a creature was, the greater the price it had to pay to cross into Azeroth—a price so great that it might be hunted down the moment it arrived.

The process of creating a space was lengthy. Shane sealed the door to his room, lay on his bed, and put his knowledge into practice. In his mental perception, the black dot above the Red Sun White Tower was a passage leading into outer space. His mental projection passed through the black dot, and the world beyond was just as he had seen when he advanced: a boundless realm of dark purple, known in arcane knowledge as the Void.

The Void was far from empty. On the contrary, it was rich in matter and energy. Following the method taught by the core knowledge, he extended his mind outward, stretching it until it was neither too fragile nor too thick and short. Then he waited—waited for a "bubble" to drift by, then used his mind to capture it. It was a laborious task that relied on luck.

With exceptionally profound arcane attainments, one could also create defensive barriers to isolate the Void and summon matter to construct a space. That was something for the future.

Matter constantly passed through his mental projection in the Void: hard chunks of stone, massive clouds of powder, black ice, and all sorts of unfamiliar viscous substances. Several bubbles drifted by as well. He captured them with his mind and examined them, but they were either too large or too small, or the matter within them was unsatisfactory. Shane wanted a bubble rich in arcane energy.

After a long time and a huge amount of filtering, he finally found a bubble with a radius of two meters. Blue-white arcane energy filled it, and against the backdrop of the Void, it looked like a star. His mind captured it and drew it toward Azeroth, the "chain" pulling it closer bit by bit. Shane's mental projection was not very long, so he did not fear it being torn apart by the Void. The bubble moved slowly but steadily toward the black dot his mind had passed through, pressed against it, then filled it and smoothed it over.

Part of the surface layer sealed the passage through the black dot, and the pulling came to an end. But it was not over yet. Shane needed to leave his "scent" inside the bubble and turn it into something that belonged to him.