Leo reached the city lord's manor at dinnertime. The towering manor was the most dazzling building in Tiyama City, radiating a warm glow even after night fell.
There was no electricity here, yet the city lord's manor remained brightly lit through wizard power.
As long as this manor continued to shine at night, the common people of the city had something to anchor them.
"Hahaha, kid, I thought you were going to be late. Who knew you'd actually make it within five days? You haven't even given me a chance to find an excuse to punish you."
"What a shame."
Gru's booming voice shook the entire hall, and everyone inside turned to look at Leo as he entered.
He had ordinary looks and a pitifully weak aura. Only his flesh, brimming with extraordinary vitality, marked him as a body refinement wizard apprentice.
Curious, indifferent, pleased—gazes of all kinds fell upon Leo, making his steps falter for an instant.
Those weighty gazes prompted Leo to study the people dining in the hall.
First was Gru, seated at the head and eating and drinking with abandon. His cavernous mouth devoured food like a machine running at full power.
Beside him sat an impeccably groomed middle-aged man, with a gemstone ring on each slender finger. His sumptuous robes made him look exceedingly distinguished.
Although his aura fell far short of Gru's, it was much stronger than Leo's. This had to be Samatchi, the lord of Tiyama City, a peak elemental wizard apprentice who had failed to advance to Level One Wizard.
Four people sat along each side below them, all dressed in wizard robes and all with auras far stronger than Leo's.
There were actually eight wizard apprentices here!
Leo scanned the room, feeling somewhat disappointed. He had not found the aura he was looking for.
At the same time, he was startled. Only he and Gru had accepted the Tiyama mission. There had been no mention of so many wizard apprentices being here.
"You must be young Leo. I've long heard that Master Gru has an exceptionally gifted student. Now that we've met, you certainly are an impressive young man."
Samatchi lived up to his reputation as a seasoned hand who had built a city from nothing and managed it for over a century. He did not make Leo feel the least bit uncomfortable.
He greeted Leo, personally arranged his seat, and provided food that delighted him even more. Their occasional conversations were all on topics Leo could join in on. Before dinner was even halfway through, Leo had already developed quite a favorable impression of the city lord.
Even better, this was not the academy, where only money could buy fine food. The dazzling assortment of dishes in different flavors overwhelmed Leo's eyes, and he loosened his belt and dug in.
Leo felt no embarrassment at disregarding appearances. Body refinement wizards were simply like this: strong bodies and hearty appetites.
Neither Samatchi nor the eight elemental wizards found Leo's behavior surprising, and they chatted from time to time with smiles.
Leo was completely unfamiliar with their topics, however, so he simply stayed out of the conversation and ate.
Just look at the row of servants standing behind Gru, responsible for bringing food. He finished a plate in one bite and could clear a table in ten seconds.
Compared with him, Leo did not even qualify as a little brother.
After the meal, there was little further conversation. The eight elemental wizard apprentices left quickly, and arrangements were made for Leo to turn in early. The next day, he was up before dawn.
"Teacher Gru."
According to the Purple Flame Wizard Academy's schedule, it should have been time for him to spar with Gru.
Gru barely needed sleep. Seeing Leo approach, he tossed him several documents. "Read these first."
Leo opened them. One contained a map of Tiyama City and a detailed introduction to its surroundings; another listed the tasks they needed to complete over these twenty years; the last was the training schedule Gru had arranged for him.
There was nothing remarkable about the first, just information on the population, farmland, mineral deposits, and distribution of resources.
The important ones were the other two.
The mission descriptions in the second document were far more detailed than what he had seen at the academy.
Back at the academy, Leo had only seen a standard garrison mission, involving things like population growth and apprentice training.
But besides those basic tasks, the mission description Gru gave him also covered the dangers Tiyama City had recently faced. Leo understood that these were the main tasks.
There were three main points. The first was that people had suddenly begun disappearing from Tiyama City over the past five years, mostly people under twenty.
Transportation in the Wizard World was not as convenient as on Earth. Many cities here were extremely far apart and were not in competition, so there was no need for them to seize one another's populations.
Besides, under the academy's rule, it did not permit such things. The population was the foundation of its rule, and the academy never allowed major fluctuations in the number of commoners. Neither war nor plague was permitted.
Thus, the disappearances in Tiyama City were an abnormal incident, especially since those disappearing were all young.
Twenty was the age limit for testing whether someone had the talent to become a wizard apprentice!!!
Samatchi had investigated before. As a wizard apprentice who had once attempted to reach Level One, his methods were far more powerful than Leo's, but he had still found no answers. With the number of missing people approaching four figures, he had finally been forced to contact the academy.
Although Leo had no detailed investigation of the incident, seeing that all the missing people were under twenty was enough for him to know that this was definitely a huge problem.
The second matter was that many wild beasts around Tiyama City had become agitated and formed beast tides in recent years, causing tremendous damage to the city's farming and injuring people on multiple occasions.
Tiyama City had its own guards, and even Samatchi, a peak wizard apprentice, had intervened several times. Yet repeated clashes had failed to resolve the beast tides, so he had simply reported this to the academy as well.
The last matter was that Samatchi had accidentally discovered traces of wizards from other academies near Tiyama City. This was far more serious than the first two incidents.
Finding wizards from other academies within the Purple Flame Academy's sphere of influence, especially ones who had sneaked in without announcing themselves-even thinking with his heels, he knew they were not here to give anyone a pleasant surprise. They were more likely unwelcome guests.
The danger levels of the first two matters were unknown, but the third definitely involved wizards, making it extremely dangerous.
That was why Leo had seen those eight wizard apprentices at the banquet last night.
They were not here on a garrison mission, but had come specifically to handle the third matter: dealing with the wizards from other academies.
"So besides selecting suitable wizard apprentices and helping Samatchi manage the city, we also need to investigate the disappearances and the beast tides?" Leo asked after reading this far.
"Correct, but you'll be doing most of that. I'll only step in if peak wizard apprentices or official wizards appear." Gru pointed at Leo.
Leo nodded without objecting. He had expected this long ago. These matters did not require someone at the level of a Level Two Body Refinement Wizard at all. An ordinary garrison mission only required a single Level One official wizard. Sending a Level Two was simply using an antiaircraft gun to kill mosquitoes.
So it was no surprise at all that Gru was using him as labor.
More of Gru's assignments centered on Leo himself. Although saying so might sound like he was inflating his own importance, that was the truth.
Having already seen through the Purple Flame Wizard Academy's plans, Leo had a very accurate understanding of his own place.
Leo carefully examined the third document, the detailed training schedule Gru had arranged for him. Sure enough, it confirmed his suspicions.
The sparring sessions where he took a beating from start to finish were gone, replaced by struggles against various harsh environments.
For example, living like an ascetic in deserts, bitter cold, volcanoes, swamps, poisonous miasma... and other harsh conditions.
These all further developed the limits of the physical body and were basic subjects for body refinement wizards.
Seeing this, Leo quickly flipped through the descriptions of the terrain around Tiyama City. Sure enough, all these harsh environments could be found within a hundred li of the city.
"Noticed it?" Gru looked at Leo with a half-smile.
Leo nodded. Finding all these environments in one place really was difficult. It would have been utterly impossible on Earth; only the Wizard World had such a place.
"A terrible battle once took place here, leaving behind quite a few harsh environments. Other wizards might dislike them, but for us, this is a treasure land."
"Ah, I put a great deal of effort into honing you. I searched through all the Purple Flame Academy's records, and this was the only suitable place." Gru let out a long sigh, looking exhausted.
Leo thought for a moment, and a suspicion suddenly occurred to him: the entire Tiyama City garrison mission was incidental. The disappearances and beast tides did not matter. Their main purpose in coming here was to continue honing him.
"As I said before, I won't interfere in your private affairs, but you must ensure that your physical defense can withstand a 100-point attack during this garrison assignment," Gru stipulated.
Leo nodded. His purely physical defense was currently only 20 points. Even herds of beasts that a Gatling gun could slaughter could injure his body, showing that he truly fell short as a body refinement wizard apprentice. Of course, that was inseparable from how little time he had spent training.
In Gru's words, once Leo could rely on his physical body to tear apart a Level One savage beast with his bare hands, he could prepare to advance to Level One.
Those words reminded Leo of the wizard apprentice he had encountered on the way here—a peak wizard apprentice capable of instantly killing a Level One savage beast above his own level.