The Truth of Magic

Chapter 32: Aftershock

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

Back in the Hall of Awakening, the large group of wizard apprentices that were seated below the stage was stunned by the scene they had just witnessed, and they had no idea what on Earth had just happened.

Some of them had special gifts of their own and were especially sensitive to one of the Eight Schools of Magic. So when they sat on the throne, they would stand out from the rest.

For example, if they were sensitive to Transmutation, then perhaps some item on their person would start to change shape.

If they had an Abjuration gift, then perhaps some Abjuration spell, like Mage Armor, might appear on them spontaneously.

And even if there was no special effect in particular, they could follow the directions of their thought process while they sat on the throne to find a path suitable for their future.

This was also the reason Mystra arranged for their wizard apprentices to study Feats only after they had had their awakening ceremony.

But none of these wizard apprentices had ever heard of someone just disappearing into thin air, like Zhao Xu had done.

The even creepier part was that after that young man had been gone for a while, he reappeared in the same place.

Even after that female wizard, wearing her big cloak that concealed her face, had gone to teleport the young man away, many of the apprentices took a while to recover from their shock.

“This special privilege is really too obvious, isn’t it? Even the NPC wizard apprentices on the other side are in an uproar. Someone actually managed to cut the line like this, and then disappear easily without a trace after showing off,” remarked a tall, skinny man sitting among the players from Earth.

“Oh please,” the plump man sitting next to him scoffed. “That guy who was just up there was an NPC too, wasn’t he? So this is an internal fight among those characters. It’s so sad, they get all the good stuff while the game puts all of us who chose to be Wizards through this kind of abuse.”

“But didn’t you notice that he also had an Asian face? He might be a player for all you know.”

“If he’s a player, then I’ll jump down from the floating city right now and see if I can cast feather fall a dozen times before I hit the ground.”

“Bold words.”

“My elder brother was part of the marketing team for this game. Can you believe it? Before the promotional clips came out, he didn’t even know what game this was. Throughout the entire process, the higher-ups decided everything and they wanted to market it without caring about the budget. The only choice consumers could make was whether they wanted the account or not. As for game content, nobody knew who decided on the design and all, and there are even people who speculate that the bulk of it was developed entirely by an AI.”

The plump man got excited and rambled on.

“AI generating programs isn’t anything new, but have you seen any game like this before? It’s so highly detailed that I was nearly convinced myself. The method of casting those 19 cantrips is so deep in my mind that I could write the strokes even while I was bathing, and I felt as though I could seriously cast those spells. When I have time later, I’ll start writing these spells from memory when I’m in the real world and get someone to check them. Do you think there’s a backdoor to this incredible game? If there is, I’m totally taking it.”

“And so, about that man’s status and treatment, I’m quite sure he’s the child of some big shot in the Wizard Association. Otherwise, that old man, Mocar, would never have behaved so reverently. Didn’t you see how snobbish he was, even toward that princess from the Eastern Empire?”

“In real life, I’m usually the one with special privileges. I can’t believe I have to suffer like this under a bunch of NPCs in a game.” The tall, skinny man in frustration.

The two men in front were engaged in pointless conversation and Wang Ningwei wasn’t concerned with them at all. Her eyes continued to watch the nine mysterious people standing on the stage.

Of the nine people, seven of them were higher status and stood nearer the middle. The remaining two others were bodyguards of sorts and they each took one side as they patrolled the area.

“Oh my, what brings you all the way here?” asked the elderly wizard conducting the ceremony as he bowed his head and looked as polite and respectful as possible. He had to be reverent towards this man.

A hundred years ago, when he had just started school at Mystra, the man in front of him was already the Chairman of the Wizard Association’s headquarters.

“Nothing much. That Antonya took him away already?” murmured the Chairman of the Wizard Association’s headquarters, Oz, as he walked around the throne.

“That’s right. After he reappeared,” replied the elderly wizard.

The chairman, Oz, didn’t seem to care at all. He waved a hand to cast a spell so that all the wizard apprentices seated below the stage wouldn’t be able to see anything happening on the stage. Then he squatted down to inspect the state of the throne.

Three out of the six men walked up to the throne to inspect it.

The two bodyguards continued to stand to the side and didn’t move.

After conducting his inspection in silence for five minutes, Oz finally stood up again.

“I knew we’d have to clean up some of this mess. Let’s go. The show’s over, so there’s nothing to see.” Chairman Oz waved his hands about.

After that, one of the middle-aged men among the seven, one who had been very alert of his surroundings from the beginning, immediately cast a spell.

“Mocar, stop the ceremony for today. Tell those apprentices to come back in five days.”

“Yes, I’ll do that, Chairman.” Mocar knew that he had underestimated the impact that the young man had created.

The large majority of the apprentices seated below the stage didn’t know that their awakening ceremony had been pushed back five days just because of this person.

Only a small handful who had come under the tutelage of high ranking wizards in Mystra because of their recommendation letters knew who these seven mysterious men were. Those apprentices didn’t say anything, and they found it hard to believe that a simple awakening ceremony would attract the attention of all the bigwigs.

Because the thing that most of the apprentices in the room didn’t know was: these seven on the stage were all the bigwigs of Mystra.

With those seven gathered together, even a minor deity would struggle to escape with his life if those seven tried to kill him.

The wizard apprentices only realized that the group of mysterious people had already left after the illusion spell faded. Most of them were still excited as they watched the elderly wizard, Mocar, go up the stage and they waited for him to announce that the awakening ceremony was going to start.

The seven bigwigs that had just been standing in the Hall of Awakening came out from an Otherworldly Gate and entered the Supreme Council Chamber.

This small meeting room didn’t have any décor, only an ordinary wooden round table with twelve chairs around it.

But this was where all the orders from the Wizard Association headquarters would be dispatched after being decided within this very meeting room.

Countless people within the Association fought hard to fulfill their dream of getting their very own seat inside this meeting room.

“We were in the middle of a good meeting and then this had to happen. What a coincidence,” said the last among the seven bigwigs to become a Legendary Wizard, Stormrage, after he had taken a seat.

“When was the last time such a big commotion happened at the throne?” The only female among the seven was also the only Elf. Valance started thinking through her memories.

She didn’t sit down, instead stood at the window. One of the seven bigwigs, Renault, said, cigarette hanging from his mouth, “It was more than a hundred years ago, and it was that fellow, Krol. He only took 35 years to become a Legendary Wizard and that’s the fastest speed in the Association’s records. At that time, all he could do was summon a baby Time Dragon from nowhere.”

“If I hadn’t seen it and sent it away in time, then you would have seen two Time Dragons and a Tome Dragon arrive on the floating city,” scoffed Stormrage in annoyance.

“That Zhongxia adventurer from Earth is more than he appears. The impact that the throne of the arcane king suffered isn’t something we can repair in just three or four days. The impact that Krol caused back then was fixed within two hours and it didn’t delay that batch of apprentices at all,” added Renault.

“Hoho, it’s not him who isn’t simple. It’s the one he went to see who’s not simple,” Stormrage corrected Renault with some annoyance.

Everyone present had already heard what had happened earlier from Antonya.

Zhao Xu had gone against the flow of time to meet the third generation goddess of magic, Sisylvana, at the point where she had reached the peak of her wizardry but had not become a goddess yet.

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