Premium! (Please Follow)

Once the paper was handed in, all that remained was prayer and waiting.

After handing the mask to Gerald, Richard stood beside him, anxiously awaiting Gerald's evaluation.

He had made this mask very smoothly, but that very smoothness cast a shadow over his heart.

Would a wizard's test really be this simple?

Second by second, time passed. A mere minute or two felt like several hours to Richard.

"Not bad."

Gerald held the mask in his hand and examined it from front to back.

The white bone mask was suffused with a gentle sheen. Held up to the light, faint gray patterns spread through its interior like tree branches.

Though the Runes inscribed on the back of the mask were somewhat unpolished, their placement was very reasonable and would not greatly affect the casting of spells.

Gerald nodded. For a low-level apprentice, this mask was exceptionally well made. As long as its magic conduction circuit connected, it would be a qualified piece of Magic Armor.

A stream of magic flowed from Gerald's fingertip, following the mask's magic conduction circuit and lighting up every Rune in turn.

When every Rune had been infused with magic, an invisible mental shockwave instantly burst forth from the mask.

"Hm?"

Jacques and Anna voiced their confusion as they felt the impact.

The mask's effect was wrong.

How could a Stealth Mask emit a mental shockwave?

But compared to the two of them, Gerald, who was using the mask, was even more puzzled.

This mask's effect was nothing like that of an inferior product.

"Anna, Jacques, you two have been a little too idle lately." Gerald's face suddenly darkened as he turned to the baffled pair. "Since you knew I gave the wrong design blueprint, why didn't you come to me to exchange it?"

Anna looked at the suddenly angry Gerald in confusion. She had been busy with experiments lately, so busy her feet barely touched the ground. Jacques thought the same. Though he often drank on the fifty-fifth floor, he had not neglected his usual experiments or meditation in the slightest.

"Teacher, I don't understand what you mean."

"You don't understand?" Gerald snorted coldly. "You put quite a bit of effort into this Premium Pale Mask, didn't you?"

Premium? Pale Mask?

Anna and Jacques looked at each other, having no idea what madness their mentor was on about.

Why would they make a Pale Mask?

And wasn't the test for low-level apprentices supposed to be a Stealth Mask? Why had Richard produced a Pale Mask?

Could it be... their teacher had given the wrong question?

Neither of them was stupid. In an instant, their thoughts raced. After exchanging a glance and confirming neither had done it, Anna spoke.

"Teacher, I swear upon my Sea of Souls that I have nothing whatsoever to do with this piece of Magic Armor."

Swearing upon one's Sea of Souls was a wizard's most solemn oath. Wizards rarely made such a vow except on important occasions.

Jacques immediately added, "Teacher, I'm the same as Senior Sister Anna. This thing has nothing to do with me at all. Besides, you know my level. I can manage finished products, but Premium Magic Armor? You could kill me, and I still couldn't make one."

Seeing his two disciples answer this way, Gerald's expression grew even darker.

"Boy, did you make this thing yourself?"

Richard swallowed and nodded nervously.

From what had just been said, it seemed he had made something extraordinary.

"Swear upon your Sea of Souls." Gerald stared at Richard. In his deep-set eyes, the gazes of countless compound eyes converged, almost becoming tangible.

"Before you swear, I must remind you. If you swear upon your Sea of Souls and then break that oath, a stain will be left upon your soul. That stain will cause your mental power to regress and affect your future advancement to wizard, even to Great Wizard.

"So before you swear, think carefully."

Gerald's words were undoubtedly a reminder not to ruin his future merely to save face, but Richard had nothing to fear from a straight shadow.

He had made this piece of Magic Armor from beginning to end.

"I swear upon my Sea of Souls that I made this piece of Magic Armor with my own hands and received no help from anyone."

The moment the oath left his lips, Richard felt an exceedingly faint, invisible ripple disperse from his soul and pass into some unknowable place.

After a while, there was not the slightest fluctuation of magic around Richard, which also meant that his mental power had not regressed.

"This... you really made it." Gerald's voice carried hesitation. He handed the mask to Anna, who, after testing it, passed it to Jacques with a shocked expression.

"How is this possible?"

"A Pale Mask, a Premium Pale Mask. How can this mask's magic conduction circuit be so unobstructed!"

Gerald let out a breath. He had thought he had already seen his share of geniuses. Anna, Jacques, and even the hundreds of apprentices he had taken before were all people of exceptional talent.

Yet before this mask, their talents were all but dust.

"Richard, do you know what you have accomplished?" Gerald said in admiration. "The Pale Mask was originally a test meant for Intermediate Apprentices, yet with the ability of someone who had just advanced to low-level apprentice, you completed its creation and even brought its quality to Premium grade."

"This is something neither I nor even my mentor could accomplish back then."

Jacques handed the mask back to Gerald, his expression extremely complicated. Anna beside him was much the same.

They were both exceptionally talented, so naturally they could see the difficulty of this mask.

Gerald took the mask and inspected it once more. This time, he discovered something new.

The materials used to make this mask were actually extremely poor.

"Can you tell me how you did it?" Gerald's expression turned solemn, and his voice sank. "The skull of a Black Striped Water Python has a loose structure. Using Black Mercury as the conduction circuit will inevitably cause the mercury to form branch paths between the bone, thereby affecting the efficiency of magic conduction.

"In the past, only the skulls of certain mutated Black Striped Water Pythons could be made into Premium Pale Masks. But your mask is different. The material you used is utterly ordinary, even somewhat inferior. I estimate it came from an underage Black Striped Water Python."

Richard nodded. "You're right. It did come from an underage Black Striped Water Python."

"So how did you do it? I am not forcing you to reveal the secret. According to a wizard's rules, I will offer knowledge of equal value in exchange for this secret."

As he spoke, Gerald took a Crystal Ball from a drawer and handed it to Richard.

Equivalent Exchange—the iron law passed down from the Age of Ignorance in the Wizard World—was also the foundation upon which Wizard Civilization existed.

"This contains the formula for Focus Potion. Its effect is to physiologically help wizards calm down, preventing casting mistakes caused by intense pain and emotional agitation.

"This should be quite popular among apprentices. You can ask Anna and Jacques."

Anna chimed in, "That's true. Focus Potion has always been a bestseller in the Commercial District."

Richard looked at the Crystal Ball, then at Gerald, and said,

"I didn't improve anything. If I had to name an improvement, after finishing the mask, I felt its material was somewhat brittle, so I enchanted the mask with an Enchanting Alchemical Array."

"Enchanted?" Gerald fell silent for two seconds before handing the Crystal Ball to Richard.

As a wizard with extensive alchemical experience, he understood the secret the moment Richard gave the answer.

When infused with magic, Black Mercury contracted and thus produced no branch paths. The Enchanting Alchemical Array happened to require magic to be continuously released into the mask itself. Though this magic was insufficient to activate a spell, it kept the Black Mercury in a contracted state and caused magic to accumulate around the magic conduction circuit.

The accumulated magic enchanted and proliferated the bone around the magic conduction circuit. Thus, after the enchanting was complete, the Black Mercury had no paths through which to form branches.

The operation was simple, like a sheet of paper, yet all these years, he had remained pacing back and forth before it.

"This formula is yours. Also, Apprentice Richard, would you be willing to become the apprentice of me, Gerald Oliva?"

Thanks to HONG2018 for the two Monthly tickets.