I'm Not Listening

Pitero abruptly emerged from meditation and rose to his feet in excitement, slowly approaching Arnold.

Pitero stopped half a meter away from Arnold and asked hopefully, "Lord Arnold, I actually have earth-element affinity too? I can even sense the fluctuations of those khaki earth elements now!"

"Yes. Not only do you have earth-element affinity, Pitero, but it is definitely high-grade," Arnold confirmed.

"I have earth-element affinity... and it's high-grade..." Pitero was in a daze.

"When you meditated before, you must have sensed earth elements besides wind and fire elements, right?" Arnold asked.

"Yes, but I thought it was because my wind and fire elemental affinities were low-grade, so I didn't pay it any attention." Pitero sounded frustrated.

"Then there was probably something fishy about your magical aptitude test back then. The priest who tested you may have deceived you," Arnold said thoughtfully.

"The result of my magic test was told to me by the young nobleman from our town. Could he have deceived me?" Pitero looked disbelieving as he slowly recalled that magic test from years ago.

After thinking for a while, Pitero finally gave a bitter laugh. "I never expected Young Master Ruxi to be the one who deceived me. He was also the one who encouraged me to keep practicing magic back then. Why would he deceive me?"

"It is very likely that young nobleman bribed the priest to conceal your earth-element aptitude. Otherwise, with such high earth-element affinity, no academy would have refused to accept you, even if your spiritual power had only been at the lowest mage level back then," Arnold said again.

"Yes, that's right. Then Young Master Ruxi and I..." Pitero replied, unconsciously wanting to recount the whole story.

"Stop. You don't need to tell me about the story between you and that young nobleman. I'm from the Don't-Listen School. Once you've achieved something in magic, go back and take revenge!" Arnold directly cut off Pitero's long-winded account.

Having been interrupted midway, Pitero instinctively wanted to continue. But seeing Arnold's expression, he stopped himself, though he had no idea what the Don't-Listen School meant.

So Pitero no longer spoke of his grudge with that young nobleman. Instead, he walked straight up to Arnold, solemnly kowtowed, and said, "May I have the honor of becoming Lord Arnold's disciple?" After saying that, Pitero prostrated himself on the ground, looking as though he had no intention of rising unless Arnold spoke.

"Get up first. I have a few questions for you," Arnold said casually.

"Mm." Pitero stood up and answered.

"I can now tell you clearly that your earth-element affinity is extremely high, definitely high-grade. Although you're already eleven, you've continued meditating over the past few years to train your spiritual power. Your spiritual power must be far stronger than that of ordinary people. Combined with your high-grade earth-element affinity, plenty of magic academies would be willing to take you in as a student." Arnold laid out the pros and cons for Pitero.

"I believe Lord Arnold's level must be very high. You are worthy of teaching me," Pitero said firmly after gritting his teeth.

"Indeed, teaching you magic would be more than easy for me. But why should I teach you? What benefit would I get from it?" Arnold threw a barrage of questions at Pitero.

Hearing Arnold's questions, Pitero lowered his head. He knew there was an eighty or ninety percent chance that Lord Arnold would not accept him as a disciple. Still, he clung to a sliver of hope. Perhaps Arnold might take him in because of his high-grade earth-element affinity.

Pitero fell silent, and Arnold continued sternly, "However, I should still be staying with the caravan for a few days. When learning magic, you have to seize every opportunity. Go think carefully about your own situation first!"

Arnold's words were clearly telling Pitero to leave, so Pitero went to the side and sat down cross-legged. Watching Pitero sit there blankly, Arnold paid him no mind and continued pondering the magical problems from earlier.

Sitting off to the side, Pitero thought about his past.

Ever since he was young, he had trained and practiced the Qi Accumulation Form with a group of children from commoner families and noble families in town. Then, when he was eight, his parents took him to have his magical aptitude tested alongside the noble children. Afterward, the young nobleman personally told him that he did have magical aptitude, but it was the lowest grade among mages, and no magic academy would be willing to accept him.

After that, his parents arranged a path for him. He would focus on cultivating martial arts, strive to enlist in the army once he grew up, obtain the army's battle qi, and become someone above others. But Pitero was unwilling to accept that. In the end, the young nobleman encouraged him, saying that his family possessed a method of meditation. The young nobleman directly taught Pitero the method.

Attempting meditation for the first time without anyone's guidance was an incredibly dangerous thing, yet Pitero had somehow succeeded. For the next five years, he tirelessly trained his spiritual power through meditation and refined wind- and fire-element magical power. In this way, Pitero had reached the level of a Second-level Mage, though he knew very few spells and could only cast several extremely simple first-level spells.

Now, after Lord Arnold's guidance, a great path leading to the level of a High-level Mage lay directly before him. As long as Pitero was willing to display his high-grade earth-element affinity, a magic academy would surely accept him.

Yet for some reason, Pitero felt that Lord Arnold was definitely more formidable than the instructors at those magic academies. Though Pitero had not heard Old Blackhead's explanation, he had watched Lord Arnold effortlessly deal with a band of bandits whom even the mercenary captain had been unable to handle. It was easy for him to infer that Lord Arnold was at least a Ninth-level Archmage.

Furthermore, although Pitero did not recognize the Gravity Spell Lord Arnold had cast earlier, the khaki glow emitted by the spell clearly indicated earth magic. With such immense power, it could not have been earth magic casually cast by a mage of another element. From this, he concluded that earth magic was at least one of Lord Arnold's primary disciplines.

How wonderful it would be if he could become Lord Arnold's disciple. Lord Arnold would remain with the caravan for a few more days. He had to seize this chance to become Lord Arnold's disciple. Pitero silently swore to himself.

After figuring these things out, Pitero entered meditation and prepared to refine the earth elements between heaven and earth into his own magical power.

The moment he entered meditation, the speed at which he refined earth elements nearly made Pitero cry. Refining for one hour at this speed was comparable to refining wind and fire elements for ten hours in the past.