In the Month of Frost, bits of snow fell from the sky. Even the sea in the distance had frozen.
A large, black wooden carriage slowly moved along the spiral mountain road near the sea.
The carter held a horse rein with one hand which was connected to a fierce highland horse wearing a beautifully crafted saddle, and a bronze brazier on the other hand. He would place his stiff face close to the brazier now and then, to absorb the faint heat emerging from the brazier’s vent holes.
Two sliding glass windows sat on both sides of the carriage. One of them was opened by someone—a pretty girl, looking around the scenery with blinking eyes.
As the girl had her fun, a plumpy hand reached out and shut the glass window.
“A-choo! Aleen, it’s so cold outside. Don’t do that. I’m gonna freeze up,” said the chubby boy in a childish voice.
“Humph. Brother is so weak. Look, Brother Padt never said a word about the weather. You’re the only one complaining.”
The carriage was carrying Mara and his companions.
Angor was not expecting being cued for no reason. He did not participate in the pair’s argument. He only smiled and kept himself on one side of the carriage. Mara was sitting beside him with eyes closed, meditating,
Alan twitched his lips and mumbled, “Brother Padt, Brother Padt… Who’s your real brother?”
Aleen was sharp enough to hear it. She did not protest though. She only let out another humph and rolled her eyes at Alan secretly. Then she sat beside Angor and began to chat, not minding if anyone was listening to her. Aleen never went outdoors often, so most of her topics were chitchats among the nobles in the city.
Angor was not interested but he did not stop Aleen. He would even nod in response now and then to pretend to be listening. However, most of his mind was occupied by his own train of thought.
Mara offered a condition on that day. If Angor agreed, Mara would give him the Ice Coffin of Healing scroll.
Angor complied in the end because that condition did not sound too hard.
—If Angor broke through into a Level-2 Apprentice Wizard, he must accompany Mara and explore a ruin site.
Mara did not say anything about the ruin. He only mentioned that he did not know if the ruin was dangerous. The journey would be unpredictable, but Mara did require Angor to be a level-2 apprentice to join. It took Mara almost 10 years to break through into Intermediate Apprentice, and Angor was not even sure he could achieve that.
This meant Angor could get the scroll in exchange for “possible” danger. Worth it.
After using the Ice Coffin of Healing spell on Jon, Angor stayed in the manor for another day. He then took his luggage, bid farewell to Leon reluctantly, and stepped onto his journey towards the unknown land together with Mara.
…
The nightfall had come. Such darkness during the winter made it harsher. Even the experienced carter had to stop their journey, find a temporary shelter and wait out the night.
They stayed in the partially dug-out pit inside a mountain boulder and made a camp. The carter tied his horse somewhere nearby and put some blankets on it.
Alan hugged his knees to his chest and became more like a ball now. “I’m cold…” he mumbled.
“Come on, why did you grow all that weight when you can’t even withstand this?” Aleen complained, although her expression showed care towards her brother. She even took out a thick cloak from the tent and put it around Alan.
Mara looked at the interaction between his grandchildren with a smile. He waved a hand, and a clump of green light flew inside Alan.
“The Preserve Heat spell will last ten hours, but don’t rely on it too much. You always had a weak body, so exercise every day from now on and improve your build, so this cold won’t bother you anymore,” said Mara to Alan. He continued, “… and if your talent leans towards the Bloodline Art, it’ll also strengthen your body once you start to train on it.”
Alan nodded in confusion. When the green light hit his body, he already felt the change in temperature around himself, which only triggered his curiosity towards wizardry.
“Hey grand, we already went through the talent test, right? Do we have to take it again at the White Coral Floating Island Academy?” asked Aleen.
Angor listened in as well. He wanted to know it too. What he saw during his test was just too weird. He asked Alan and Aleen afterward. Aleen heard noises while Alan saw another brown bread in the plate. They were “changes” but they were acceptable.
Angor however, transmigrated to another world! He could not understand any of it.
He still believed that it was a “change” during his test, but not fully. This was why when Aleen asked Mara about the test, Angor immediately paid his attention.
Mara stroke his beard with a smile and spoke to Aleen, “The Abelles’ Eye can only tell if one’s talented or not. It can’t distinguish the Art of the talent. Once you’re at the academy, they will give you a more detailed test. You’ll see…
“… Mind this. The test at the academy isn’t a determinant one either. Even if it tells you that your talent leans towards Element, you don’t have to focus your training on the Element Art. It’s all about your own will… ”
Mara paused a little, “… Oh right, you can study any Art despite your talent tendency, true, but certain Arts cannot be learned just because you try hard. For example, there are some special branches from the Occult Art such as Prophecy and Astrology that still require absolute talent…
“I never told you about the Arts of wizards, didn’t I? I’ll explain that today then,” said Mara after some consideration. He then said, “There are many directions a wizard can choose, and different Arts have mostly been established after being perfected for tens of thousands of years. There are many Arts and branches, so I won’t be telling you every one of them. I’ll only explain the three major Arts currently agreed by the world of wizards…
“The Element Art, including the constitution of nature and the source of all. Those who wield this Art are called Elementalists.
“The Bloodline Art, people absorb the bloodline of strong creatures to strengthen themselves. These are called Bloodline Wizards.
“The Occult Art, the aggregation and termination of mysteries. Wizards who learn it are Occultists.
“The Three Major Arts can be used to describe most systems in the wizarding world. Of course, there are a lot of relevant systems apart from them, such as the Alchemy Art, the Summoning Art and so on… Most wizards more or less know some of them. There are also wizards who focus on these supportive systems, but that’s a rare sight…
“… Among the Three Major Arts, the Element Art has the most devotees. Almost all wizards know at least several elemental spells. While the Occult Art has the least followers. Also, the differentiation in the strength of the Occult Art is also the biggest—strong ones are extremely strong, the weak ones are weak beyond imagination. This is mainly because the Occult Art has complicated systems. Two most famous figures from the South are Mandala the Archaeologist and Sunders the Phantom Master. Both are Level-2 Occultists, yet they have completely different levels of strength,” Mara sighed with great emotion when speaking of them.
“As for the Bloodline Art…” Mara sniffed as if recalling bad memories. He then said in a cold voice, “Most of them are able-bodied and bad-tempered. Though they are all strong. Very strong.”
Everyone fell into silence.
“What is grandpa’s Art?” Aleen asked in curiosity.
“Me? Considering the Three Major Arts, I could be considered as a Blaze Wizard from the Element Art. However, most of my studies are about drawing spell formulas, so I’m more like a supportive wizard, a Spell Formula Drawer.”
The conversation lasted for a while. The shade of night became thicker, even the giant mountains and woods in the distance had become obscured shadows, like shifting monsters in the blowing wind.
Everyone was getting tired and eventually fell into a deep slumber.
Angor laid in the simple tent. His eyes were still brimming with intelligence. The conversation tonight touched his emotions greatly. He did not know there were so many paths for wizards. One single branch like Fire Wizards from the Element Art could be further divided into Blaze Wizards, Lava Wizards, Frostfire Wizards… and all kinds of branches mixing a number of elements together.
One could step onto the path of truth either by making it a form of expertise or simply having an extensive read about the branch.
With Jon’s enlightenment, Angor held great curiosity to see to the root of everything in the world, especially when Jon told him about the amazing phenomena in the universe.
Could he explore all these mysteries once he became a wizard?
With the expectancy towards the future, Angor slowly fell asleep.