The Wizard World

Everyone looked at Jared with mixed feelings. Angele was surprised, too. After all, Jared was nearly a year younger than him, but Jared already reached stage 3. Angele realized that he really had no idea just how vast this mysterious world was.

“No, impressive actually. Jared, right? Can you spare some time after the test, so we could talk?” the man asked with an excited look on his face.

“Sure.” Jared nodded, still having a calm demeanor.

“Stage 2 wizard apprentices under the age of 18, please stand by my left side.” The man nodded before he turned back to the rest. Seven more people stepped forward while four people remained uncalled, not including Angele.

“Good, stage 3 wizard apprentices won’t be tested. The rest of you, come with me,” the man said before nodding.

“Come in here one by one. Stage 2 wizard apprentices first.” He walked through a wooden door at the end of the hall. Angele attempted to peek, but he couldn’t see anything but darkness inside. The stage 2 wizard apprentices went inside first. Within 20 seconds, they went out with different expressions on their faces. Some of them looked happy, while some looked despondent.

Angele didn’t need to wait for long before it was their turn. He hadn’t even reached stage 1 yet, but the man didn’t seem to care. There were four apprentices who were at stage 1. The first one who went inside was a black-haired girl with a ponytail. She went in and after just a few seconds, she got out with a disappointed expression and tears in her eyes. Only a few who went in got out with happy expressions while the rest all looked disappointed. As they knew of this fact, Angele and the other two became nervous, merely looking at each other without doing anything. It was clear that no one wanted to go in first.

“Hurry up! Next!” the man yelled. He was speaking in Rudin, but he had a strange accent whenever he got nervous. Angele looked at the other two before deciding to head in first. He hesitated for a second when he was right in front of the wooden door, and then he went into the darkness. He inhaled once and smelled something fishy. It was the volcano grass, something that Angele had on his way to Marua.

“Can you sense my location?” The man’s voice was coming from all directions. Angele listened carefully and used the chip to enhance his sensation.

‘Analyzing… The sound waves are coming from all directions. The number of sources is 4. No actual location detected…’ Zero reported. Angele scrunched his eyebrows as there was nothing else he could do.

“Yea, you can’t.” The man stopped for a moment before he started writing down something.

“Which directions does my voice come from?” he asked.

“All directions,” Angele answered.

“How about up and down?” the man asked.

“Nope,” Angele said.

“Good, you’re being honest. Your name?” he asked again.

“Angele Rio,” Angele said.

“There are five different levels of talent. You’re at level 2, slightly better compared to level 1. You may leave now,” the man said.

Angele felt a bit disappointed. Before leaving the room, he bowed toward the darkness.

The two outside the room saw Angele’s expression, causing their anxiety levels to escalate. Nonetheless, they still went inside and took the test, but they had a lachrymose expression. After the test was finished, the man in black robe walked out of the room and locked the door. He then turned around and looked at all the apprentices.

“Stage 3 wizard apprentices, your rooms are on the 1st floor. Stage 2 wizard apprentices’ rooms will be on the 2nd floor. The rest, just go to the 5th floor and pick any room you want. Dining room and bathrooms will be on this floor. The rooms above the deck are all full, and people there are from other countries. Don’t go upstairs if you don’t have any reason to do so. You do not want to mess with some of the terrible ones. As long as you don’t go up there yourself, they won’t come down here. I shall oversee the deck, and if you have any questions, you can talk to me there. You may leave now. I’ll post the list later. You can come and check if you want,” the man in black robe said before leaving the hall.

“Well, shall we go find ourselves some rooms?” Others all agreed when someone said this. The wizard apprentices of Marua Harbor were already divided into three groups: stage 3 wizard apprentices, stage 2 wizard apprentices, and stage 1 wizard apprentices. They didn’t live on the same floors, and Angele needed to go to the lowest floor. They bade farewell to each other before going to their respective floors.

The passage here was very narrow and wet. Angele kept hearing footsteps coming from above, but he didn’t see anyone other than his fellow wizard apprentices. Angele was behind the group of people. The one in front of him was a handsome-looking red-haired boy, and second in the line was a blonde boy. These two were the ones who were beside Angele back on the docks. The one leading their group was the girl who had her black hair tied pony tail and was wearing swordsman armor. She didn’t let her emotions become apparent on her face, but she looked cool and beautiful. She wore tight shirt and pants under her armor, making Angele think that she looked like a European fencing player.

The tight clothes she wore made her look very sexy, especially the tight pants. She had a different style of beauty compared to Nancy. If Angele were to see her from a distance, he would’ve just thought she was wearing normal swordsman suit. However, the girl’s body turned a normal suit into something charming such that the boys who were following her from behind couldn’t help but stare at her butt. The four kept walking down in silence, but then, the talkative blonde boy finally decided to say something.

“Well, since we’re all stage 1 wizard apprentice, we’re all in the same boat now. How about introducing ourselves?” he smiled.

“My name is Lando Luc, 15 years old. Let’s not talk about family though, they don’t care how big a background you have there anyway,” he continued.

“I’m Yuri, 15 years old. Talent level 2. I think we’re the weakest in this ship,” the red-haired boy spoke after his best friend. When he spoke, he had a bitter smile on his face.

“Angele, 14 years old. Talent level 2. I don’t think talent matters that much. We’re young so we still have a chance,” Angele smiled while trying to uplift the atmosphere.

“Don’t talk if you have no idea about what you’re saying!” the girl turned around and spoke coldly.

“Do you know how long it takes for a stage 1 wizard apprentice to reach stage 2? We need to spend at least two years because we’re not too talented! Compared to those who are already at stage 2 or 3, they’re way ahead of us. Two years’ time can help them become real wizards already. The school and organizations will allocate more resources to them. We really can’t do anything!” The girl was almost yelling.

“You know how to become a real wizard?” Angele scrunched his eyebrows as he became a bit mad.

“At least they’re more talented, and they’ll get there faster than us.” The girl calmed down.

“I apologize for my attitude. I was just feeling a bit sad,” she said.

“No worries. As of now, we’re in the same boat, and we might need to help out each other in the future. Don’t get too upset.” Angele nodded.

“Calm down guys. Girl, could you introduce yourself to us? We still don’t know your name,” Yuri said while smiling. The girl turned around and stopped looking at them.

“Velvet, 16 years old. Talent level… 1,” the girl hesitated for a second before she spoke. Yuri and Lando Luc ceased talking. They now felt pity toward the girl.

“Talent level 1… No wonder she was so upset,” Lando turned to face Angele and spoke with a light voice.

“Can you tell me how much of a difference is between each talent level? I really have no idea about it,” Angele asked.

“According to some of the Wizardry books, the level is decided by your rate of progress in meditation. The best ones have level 5 talents, and they can become a stage 3 wizard apprentice within a year. They’re quite likely to become real wizards, even barely failing the promotion tests. Only half of talent level 4 apprentices can become real wizards. Anything below level 4 is tragic. 4% chance for the ones who have talent level 3 and 1% chance for the ones who have talent level 2. For the ones who have talent level 1… maybe one out of a thousand or ten thousand chance and they progress very slowly. A month’s time for some with talent level 1 is equivalent to one day for the ones with talent levels 2 and 3. That is definitely a huge difference,” Lando smiled as he explained.

Angele nodded, feeling a bit sad.

“Actually, wizards don’t really care about the ones with talent level 1, so they just place those who aren’t too talented altogether. It’s not a surprise,” Lando continued.

“So, Velvet is hopeless now?” Yuri joined the conversation.

“Pretty much,” Lando said. Angele stopped talking. He looked at the girl in front of him and saw her shaking shoulders. She must have heard what they were saying.

“She probably spent five years meditating to reach stage 1. Such a pity,” Lando said as he looked at the girl. It wasn’t that he was looking down on her; it was just because he really felt sorry for her.