Exchange Meeting (Please Keep Reading)

"Apprentice Exchange Meeting?" Richard accepted the invitation.

"Yeah, it's just us formal apprentices getting together, getting to know one another," Eric explained. Then he added, "Basically every formal apprentice will be attending this Exchange Meeting."

"I see."

After a couple more polite remarks, Eric, having completed his task, rose to take his leave. After all, Richard was far from the only apprentice he needed to invite.

Once he had left, Richard asked, "Senior Brother, what's Eric's background? He feels really strong."

"Strong? Of course he's strong. He's Vice Dean Alex's apprentice," Jacques replied. "Oh, right, Junior Brother, do you have a female companion for tonight?" Jacques suddenly waggled his brows at Richard. "If not, Senior Brother can introduce you to a couple."

"Guaranteed to make your night enjoyable."

"No need, Senior Brother." Richard smiled and shook his head, declining Jacques's goodwill. "I have a female companion."

"You have a female companion?" Jacques froze. His quiet, bottle-gourd Junior Brother actually had a female companion? But he immediately sidled up beside Richard with a gossiping look. "Junior Brother, you actually have a female companion? I thought you'd embraced truth in body and soul long ago, with nothing but knowledge in your heart.

"Tell Senior Brother about her. What school is she from? Which master does she follow?"

"Evocation and Curse, two schools. She follows Master Susanna." Richard did not hide anything. They were Senior Brother and Junior Brother, after all, and they had a long road ahead of them. Even if he wanted to keep such things hidden, he could not.

"Oh! Impressive, Junior Brother!" Jacques beamed as he gave Richard a thumbs-up. "Master Susanna hasn't taken an apprentice in years. She took one this year, and you actually managed to win her over!"

Richard merely smiled without saying anything.

"Since you already have a female companion, Senior Brother won't play matchmaker for you." Jacques's smile faded, and his expression turned serious. "But before you go, I need to make something clear to you."

"The Exchange Meeting is just for fun. Don't take all the boasting and flattery in there seriously, and don't waste too much time on so-called connections. As long as you're strong enough, you won't need to maintain connections—connections will come looking for you.

"Take today, for example. Yesterday, you put a batch of Focus Potions in Senior Sister's shop. Today, Eric personally came to your door and waited for you to return. If you hadn't achieved anything, Eric would only have left an invitation for me to pass on to you, rather than waiting here in person for you to show up."

Jacques spoke in a grave tone, as though he had suffered losses over such matters in the past.

"Mm, Senior Brother, I understand." Richard answered with equal seriousness.

"Since you understand, go back and prepare." Jacques rose and patted Richard on the shoulder. "Senior Brother will be waiting to see you shine tonight and captivate everyone."

That evening, the seventy-second floor of the Central Black Tower.

Richard walked arm in arm with Ellie, invitation in hand, to the entrance of the Exchange Meeting venue.

Richard had changed into a crisp black formal suit that evening, with a badge pinned to his chest and polished leather shoes gleaming on his feet. Beside him, Ellie wore a black gown, with a sapphire necklace tied around her slender neck.

"This should be it." Richard looked at the two Humanoid Mechanical Guards before the doors. Eric really knows how to put on a show. Even his Mechanical Puppets are humanoid.

Humanoid Mechanical Puppets were something ordinary wizards generally could not afford.

Richard took out his invitation and handed it to a guard. The guard swallowed the invitation whole, and the sound of gears grinding came from within its body.

"Identity confirmed. Richard, formal apprentice of Master Gerald, welcome to the Exchange Meeting." The guard gave Richard a slight bow.

Following his example, Ellie handed her invitation to the guard.

"Identity confirmed. Ellie, formal apprentice of Master Susanna, welcome to the Exchange Meeting."

Upon entering the hall, Richard found it resplendent with gold and jade, utterly out of place with the Central Black Tower's dark and gloomy style.

The apprentices who had arrived early gathered in groups of three or five, holding wine as they chatted.

Most formal apprentices were wizard descendants. Unless they possessed special talents like Richard and Ellie, most apprentices could only possibly be accepted as formal disciples by wizards after their first Bloody Exam.

Richard swept his gaze across the hall and spotted quite a few apprentices in the corners who looked powerful at a glance.

These people must be the ones who were accepted as formal apprentices after the Bloody Exam, Richard thought.

As a wild apprentice recruited from among mortals, Richard naturally did not know those wizard descendants. Since the Exchange Meeting had not begun yet, he led Ellie to a quiet corner and sat down.

This Exchange Meeting was a place where crouching tigers and hidden dragons lurked. He felt it was better to remain a little nobody.

As the time drew nearer, more and more apprentices filled the hall. Most of them knew one another, and their relationships ranged from good to bad. When they gathered together, friction was inevitable.

An apprentice built like a gorilla suddenly glared at the apprentice before him and roared. Judging from his mana fluctuations, his strength had already reached the level of an Intermediate Apprentice.

"Kahman, you bastard, you're still alive!"

As he roared, the Staff in the apprentice's hand smashed toward the apprentice before him with the force of wind and thunder.

The Staff in his hand was less a Staff than a long, spiked club. Crystal Balls were generally placed at the tops of Staffs, but he had wrapped his Crystal Ball in a layer of metal spikes, with Runes engraved upon them.

At that moment, the Runes on the spikes gleamed with magical light.

"Heh heh heh, Lac, you idiot are still as stupid as ever."

The apprentice being attacked let out a strange laugh. He neither defended nor dodged, merely watching silently as the Staff came down.

Bang!

"Lac, I remember telling you not to act impulsively at today's Exchange Meeting." A figure appeared before Lac and caught his wind-and-thunder Staff in one hand. No matter how Lac struggled, it did not budge in the slightest.

"Have you forgotten?"

A wave of tyrannical mana fluctuations surged from the figure's body, making Lac tremble involuntarily.

His instincts kept warning him that if he resisted... he would die!

"S-S-Sorry, Senior Eric. I didn't mean to. Please forgive my foolishness!"

Lac abruptly gave Eric a deep bow. His trembling voice was utterly unlike his earlier self.

Eric gave Lac a cold glance, then casually tossed Lac's Staff aside.

"You're lucky. I'm in a good mood today."

With that, Eric took a wineglass and walked to the center of the hall, tapping it with a silver spoon.

The hall fell silent, and every apprentice turned their gaze toward the organizer of the Exchange Meeting.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I am delighted that you could all attend the Apprentice Exchange Meeting I have organized." Eric smiled and gave everyone a slight bow. "Everyone present is a formal apprentice of the masters of the Black Tower, a pillar of the Academy's future.

"The purpose of this Exchange Meeting is to encourage everyone to exchange ideas and deepen your bonds. Therefore, I hope you can all keep your emotions in check and not disgrace the masters behind you.

"You must understand: calm restraint is a wizard's foremost trait."

With that, Eric raised his wineglass and drained it in one gulp.

"Now, the Apprentice Exchange Meeting officially begins!"