At the thought of the missing-person mission Leo had posted, Toronto's plump face twisted into a chrysanthemum. He truly did not know whether Leo was ignorant or fearless. How did he dare...
But whatever he thought, he still had to wear an ingratiating smile.
"Brother Leo, to tell you the truth, the chances of finding a few ordinary living beings in the Wizard World are practically zero. I passed the message to headquarters, and they replied that they'd sent the missing-person notice to every branch, but there's been no news yet."
Seeing Leo's expression sour, Toronto immediately explained, "Of course, it might just be because not enough time has passed. I'll keep pressing headquarters. You know how vast the Wizard World is. It's perfectly normal not to hear from some places for centuries. Please understand."
"Thank you."
Leo knew he was asking too much of Toronto. Whether in status or Wizard Coins, there was nothing about Leo that merited special attention. A slightly unusual Wizard Apprentice—there were more people of that level in the Wizard World than ants.
Who would care about a mission posted by a Wizard Apprentice, especially one that clearly offered no profit?
The most likely outcome was that no one would pay attention to the message Toronto sent up, simply tossing it into some corner to gather dust.
Leo had only asked Toronto to post a mission to find his family from Earth out of a hope that he might get lucky.
What if? What if they could be found...
If the one posting the mission today had been a Level Three Great Wizard or a Stigmata Wizard, the answer would surely have been different.
Unfortunately, Leo was neither.
Level Three Great Wizards and Stigmata Wizards were far too distant.
"There's no news about the people, but all the materials are ready. Take a look." Toronto quickly changed the subject. He still wanted to win Leo over and absolutely could not offend him.
"One hundred and fifty standard base portions of materials, including fifteen portions of special materials. That comes to 170,000 Wizard Coins. I selected only the finest. There's absolutely no issue with the quality."
Leo checked them and confirmed that they were indeed top-quality materials, then stuffed them all into his Shadow Space. The price was that the Wizard Coins he had saved for eight years instantly shrank by half.
The materials were not expensive individually, but Leo had bought an enormous quantity. He had prepared twenty years' worth outright.
After leaving Green Cottage, Leo went to see Skye at Purple Golden Flower. After likewise receiving no news of the people he sought, he spent another 200,000 Wizard Coins on a portable miniature laboratory.
That left Leo with only 30,000 Wizard Coins.
He had gone from rich to penniless in an instant.
He was about to undertake his first mission since coming to the Wizard World, one that would last twenty years. Leo took the opportunity to visit a tower and knock on its door.
Throughout Purple Flame Wizard Academy, the number of Wizard Apprentices remained around twenty thousand. There were also about five hundred Official Wizards and above. Together with other personnel, the academy's total population stood at around twenty-five thousand.
Of all those wizards, Leo knew only two. One was naturally Gru, the Body Refinement Wizard responsible for teaching him body refinement, and the other was, of course, the Level One Elemental Wizard Gavarci.
Leo did not have to wait long before the tower door opened, and Gavarci appeared before him with the frog Lilith perched on his head.
"Little Leo, what brings you here?"
Gavarci had a certain fondness for Leo, but it went no further than that. Over a thousand years, he had seen far too many Wizard Apprentices. Leo had left a slight impression on him only because of his unusual constitution.
"Master Gavarci, I'm about to leave with Teacher Gru on a garrison mission, and I'll be away from the academy for a long time. Before leaving, I wanted to come say goodbye and thank you again for looking after me," Leo said sincerely.
"Oh, thoughtful of you."
Gavarci showed little reaction, his expression calm. It was only a mission.
"Ribbit, ribbit."
Unlike the unperturbed Gavarci, the frog Lilith was rather excited, because Leo had not bought her an insect platter in a long time.
Naturally, Leo had not come empty-handed. His knowledge from Earth was inadequate, but his grasp of social etiquette was certainly not lacking. The bridge that gave him the nerve to visit Gavarci, with whom he had little connection, was Lilith.
Ten platters of the latest insect assortment instantly had Lilith croaking with delight. She cleared every plate in an instant, tilting her head back until her snow-white belly was visible.
"Garrison missions generally last at least ten years. Away from the academy, you must always remember what lies at the essence of a wizard. Knowledge is the foundation. Never lose yourself on the path of pursuing the essence of knowledge."
Gavarci took two wizard books from the spatial wizard tool he carried and handed them to Leo. After a moment's thought, he took out a bottle of potion as well.
"Lilith can't eat your food for nothing. These two books belong to the same series as those I had you read before, and they're just right for you now. As for this Black Pearl Potion, I won't say more about its effects. Keep it to protect yourself."
"Thank you, Master."
With a respectful expression, Leo bowed with the utmost formality. There was nothing affected about it as he solemnly placed the wizard books and Black Pearl Potion into his Shadow Space.
Even setting aside the two wizard books, which clearly came from a private collection, that bottle of Black Pearl Potion alone was worth far more than ten insect platters.
"Go on."
The tower door closed again, and Leo reluctantly returned to Gru's courtyard.
He knew his little scheme certainly could not escape Gavarci's notice, but since Gavarci had not exposed it and had even given him wizard books and a precious potion, there was no problem.
Leo smiled wryly. If his strength were not so meager, and if he were not leaving for twenty years, he would never have done this.
Trying to win Gavarci's favor by bribing Lilith might well have backfired.
The next day, at the gates of Purple Flame Wizard Academy.
Leo looked curiously at a squad of "fire people" by the gates. These were the guardian beasts unique to Purple Flame Wizard Academy-Fire Elemental Spirits.
With half-illusory bodies and an intense fire attribute, they floated in midair, constantly patrolling and protecting the academy.
They were not confined to the gates. Supposedly, there were no fewer than thirty thousand Fire Elemental Spirits throughout the academy, though they normally did not show themselves to the Wizard Apprentices.
According to what Gru had told him in private, these Fire Elemental Spirits had been summoned by the great Purple Flame Stigmata Wizard through a contract with the Fire Elemental World. In peacetime, they guarded the academy. In wartime, they were soldiers.
Leo silently heaved a long sigh. That Stigmata Wizard, who existed only in legend-his individual lifespan probably exceeded the duration of an entire civilization. It was impossible to imagine what sort of power such beings possessed. They were the true pinnacle of the Wizard World.
Wherever they pointed, countless armies marched to war. World after world submitted or perished in their hands. They were beings more terrifying than gods!
It was also the realm countless low-level wizards dreamed of reaching!
Gru, normally so unruly before Leo, now obediently handed his mission commission to a Fire Elemental Spirit for inspection, even though that spirit's aura was far weaker than his own.
These Fire Elemental Spirits represented the great Purple Flame Stigmata Wizard. No one wished to offend such a great being!
There was nothing wrong with the mission commission, and the Fire Elemental Spirit let them pass. The two soon left the academy. This was Leo's first glimpse of the Wizard World's scenery.
There was none of Earth's so-called modernization, no rows of houses, much less roads leading in every direction.
All he saw was pristine wilderness, unpolluted and without traces of human habitation, in its natural state.
Distant mountains loomed faintly behind clouds and mist. Some trees in the dense primeval forest exceeded a thousand meters in height. Wondrous mist flowed through the air on the breeze, seeming to form a beautiful river in the sky.
An infinitely vast land, a sky whose end could not be seen when he looked up, and warm sunlight shining upon every life in the Wizard World.
According to the books, the Wizard World was so immense that great beings had forcibly shackled multiple stars to transform its living environment.
After the efforts of countless wizards as well, the present Wizard World could be called a wonder of the universe.
Never mind seeing scenery like this on Earth-Leo had only ever seen it in exceptionally high-end science fiction films.
Gru had long since grown accustomed to it. After leading Leo for barely a few hours, he stopped, bared his white teeth at Leo, and smiled with ill intent. "Kid, you're traveling the rest of the way yourself. I don't care how you do it, but get there within five days. This is your first mission outside the academy. You know the consequences if you don't make it."
Boom!
Before Leo could speak, Gru crouched slightly, then shot away like a bomb fired from a barrel, shattering the ground beneath his feet and instantly breaking the sound barrier. Within seconds, he vanished from Leo's sight.
Leo stared at the white trail left in the sky, marveling.
"So this is a Level Two Body Refinement Wizard?"
Leo was envious. He had no idea when he would reach that level, wielding all that tremendous power within himself. With strength like that on Earth, he could throw his weight around and have anything he wanted.
When Leo withdrew his envious gaze, he was still standing in the same place. He could only take out his map to get his bearings.
"Since Teacher Gru said I have to reach Tiyama City within five days, I'll have to cover six hundred li a day. I need to pick up the pace too."
He could not fly, and there were no high-speed trains or planes, so all he could do was run like mad on his own two legs.
Fortunately, Leo was now beyond human himself. Running for days and nights without stopping would be no problem.
Massive fireballs fell from the sky and slammed into the ground. The furious roars of a beast were deafening. Its savage aura whipped up fierce winds that sent sand and stones flying, while searing heat ignited a blaze that instantly swallowed a vast stretch of forest.
Ahead of the pursuing masses of fire, a figure fled in a sorry state.
"Three... two... one. Dodge!"
His nerves taut, Leo trusted Benji completely. The instant Benji shouted "Dodge," the shadow beneath Leo's feet twisted, and he vanished into it.
The instant Leo disappeared, the shadow vanished. A mass of fire fell from the sky and slammed into the spot where the shadow had been. The air shimmered and warped, and within moments, the impact site had burned into lava.
A hundred meters away, Leo's figure had barely emerged from the shadow of a large tree when, without time to see what had just happened, alarm surged through him. Without the slightest hesitation, he plunged straight into his own shadow.
Boom!
Another mass of fire descended from the sky, almost grazing Leo's scalp as it burned everything within more than ten meters of the tree to bare ground.
It had nearly blasted Leo's head off.
A hundred meters away, Leo emerged from a shadow, shaken by how close it had been.
Fortunately, this was a forest, with no shortage of shadows. Leo could make full use of his Shadow Talent.
Shadow Jump used shadows as stepping stones to leap between locations. Currently limited by Leo's mana, its maximum range was a hundred meters. It allowed him to advance as swiftly as though teleporting, at the cost of a substantial amount of mana.
Yet even though Leo moved almost as fast as teleportation, the huge fireballs overhead seemed guided, always managing to bombard him close enough to graze his scalp.