Mentor's Mission

The Wizard Academy imposed no hard requirements on apprentices when choosing mentors—or rather, many wizards simply had no desire to take on apprentices at all.

For the vast majority of wizards, apprentices would only divide their attention.

Richard searched through the mentor listings in the Central Black Tower for quite some time, filtering out every mentor renowned for alchemy.

After eliminating the wizards who had not accepted apprentices for many years and those whose requirements for taking apprentices were exceptionally harsh, a wizard named Gerald caught his attention.

"Gerald of the Alchemy School, Level Two Wizard. Primary field of research: alchemy. Has accepted 1,300 apprentices over the past century."

As Richard looked over Gerald's information, he felt as though he had heard that name somewhere before.

"Isn't this Anna's mentor, and the wizard who made my wizard robe?"

Recalling Anna's intimidating presence at the podium and the skills he had extracted from his wizard robe, Richard could conclude that this Wizard Gerald was certainly a master.

"Let's see what his requirements for apprentices are. Reach low-level apprentice, and complete at least one task he has issued." Richard stroked his chin. "Those requirements really are easy. No wonder he can take in over a hundred apprentices every class."

Easy as they were, Richard met neither of those two requirements.

"Becoming a low-level apprentice will probably take a year. I'll go take a look at the tasks he's issued first."

Richard arrived at the Twenty-Fifth Floor of the Central Black Tower, where the Academy's Mission Hall was located. Apprentices could freely accept missions issued by the Academy here.

Richard entered the hall. The enormous space was divided into three sections. On the far left were the daily missions issued by the Academy, mostly involving maintaining Academy equipment, patrolling the Academy's corners, and inspecting cities and mountain ranges within the Academy's sphere of influence. They were missions of extremely low difficulty and extremely low reward.

On the far right were trial missions, mainly involving hunting Magic Beasts and investigating dangerous incidents within the Academy's sphere of influence. These missions were extremely dangerous, but their rewards were equally great.

Between them was the area with the most apprentices, where missions issued by the Academy's internal wizards were posted. These ranged from gathering medicinal herbs to brewing Magic Potions. Their difficulty was moderate and carried a certain degree of danger, but the rewards were likewise substantial.

Richard approached the central area and suddenly discovered that his Crystal Ball had lit up on its own. Probing it with his mental power, he found that he could see every mission issued by the wizards through the Crystal Ball.

"Impressive."

Richard exclaimed, then began searching through the missions for those issued by Wizard Gerald.

After searching for a while, a mission to refine fifty grams of Red Mercury appeared before him.

"Red Mercury: an explosive liquid metal. Apprentices accepting this mission, please carefully consider your own strength. Once extraction is complete, submit it on the Fifty-Sixth Floor of the Central Black Tower. Reward: one hundred Magic Stones."

Looking at the mission description, Richard mentally equated the stuff with nitroglycerin.

"Still, this mission has no time limit, so I'll accept it first. The Miracle Furnace can refine substances too—this is the perfect chance to test its effects."

Richard walked up to the counter, where a snake-haired witch who looked like Medusa received him. Richard glanced at the silver five-pointed-star emblem on her wizard robe.

At the Black Tower Wizard Academy, a silver five-pointed star was the mark of an apprentice.

"Big sister, I'd like to accept mission number 1205."

The witch glanced at him. "Kid, you're a new student, aren't you? Gerald's missions aren't so easy to take."

"Hm? What do you mean, big sister? Are Master Gerald's missions always difficult?" Richard smiled, doing his utmost to make use of his looks.

The snake-haired witch shot Richard a sidelong glance, a teasing smile curling at the corner of her lips. "Stop trying to cozy up to me."

Though she said that, the snake-haired witch still told Richard about Gerald.

"Gerald's missions are famously thankless. Don't be fooled by the fact that he takes in a hundred or so apprentices every class. Very few ever receive his personal guidance."

"So that's how it is." Richard was startled. "Then why does he take in so many apprentices?"

"What else would they do? Work for him." The snake-haired witch fiddled with her fingers. "He has an Alchemy Workshop. Most of the apprentices he takes in go work at his Alchemy Workshop.

My advice is, unless you're exceptionally gifted in alchemy, don't work under Gerald."

After hearing this, Richard fell into thought. There were only a few wizards in the Academy who specialized in alchemy, while every other Alchemist Wizard had extraordinarily demanding conditions for apprentices. If he gave up on Gerald, he would very likely lose his chance to walk the path of an Alchemist Wizard.

Besides, this mission had no time limit, and the reward was generous. Even if he did not choose Gerald as his mentor, simply earning some Magic Stones would still be worthwhile.

"Thank you for the advice, big sister, but I think I have some talent for alchemy. I'll accept this mission."

The snake-haired witch was not the least bit surprised by Richard's reaction. Over the years, she had seen far too many wizards like him.

Every one of them believed themselves extraordinarily gifted, thinking they could win a wizard's favor. Yet in the end, only a scant few truly succeeded.

"Another one who won't listen to advice. What a waste of such a handsome face. Give me your Crystal Ball, and I'll register your information."

After leaving the Mission Hall, Richard immediately headed for the Commercial District.

Refining Red Mercury required a raw material called Sunstone. This material was so obscure that Richard searched the shops in the Commercial District for half the day without finding any.

In the end, Richard learned that an Alchemy Shop called Anna's Hut sold the material.

"Anna's Hut... it can't be run by that Anna, can it?" Richard looked at the shop's name, and the corner of his eye twitched twice.

The raw materials for a mission issued by the mentor had to be bought from his apprentice's shop. This Wizard Gerald truly was a business genius.

Anna's Hut seemed to frequently receive apprentices who had accepted Gerald's missions. Once Richard stated his purpose, the shop assistant immediately handed him a bag.

"Two kilograms of Sunstone, enough to extract fifty grams of Red Mercury. Price: five hundred Academy Coins."

Five Magic Stones. The price made Richard's heart skip a beat.

Compared to the reward, the price of these raw materials was far too low. Aside from a scam, the only reason Richard could think of was that extracting Red Mercury was extremely prone to failure, requiring repeated purchases of Sunstone.

"Fine. Here are the Magic Stones."

Richard accepted the bag with a heavy heart.

Five Magic Stones gone. He had five Magic Stones left.

After returning to his room, Richard reread the information in the Crystal Ball regarding the extraction of Red Mercury.

After confirming that refining Red Mercury required no other substances to be mixed with Sunstone, Richard took a deep breath and took out a piece of Sunstone.

[Raw Material: Sunstone (one kilogram)]

[Refinable Substance: Red Mercury]

[Refining Cost: 100 magic power]

[Refine?]