Chapter 6: Applying for Graduation
Inside a private room at the Deli Hotel.
Linley, Yale, George, and Reynolds were casually seated on both sides of a long rectangular table. On the table, more than a dozen exquisite dishes were arranged in pairs, with fruit wine and strong liquor placed nearby. The four brothers were currently drinking fruit wine and chatting about what had been happening recently.
“Linley, you should have gone to the Magic Beast Mountain Range after the year-end test last year. Dixie took the test and finally reached the rank of a sixth-grade mage, but you didn’t even participate. Some people are saying you’re not as good as Dixie now… it’s ridiculous. Only a few of us know you actually reached the sixth-grade mage level long ago,” Reynolds said indignantly.
Linley took a sip of fruit wine and smiled faintly.
A sixth-grade mage?
Ever since entering that rare state of mind and carving the piece ‘Awakening from the Dream,’ the growth in his spiritual energy over ten days and ten nights had increased it tenfold. This allowed Linley to leap directly from a sixth-grade mage to a seventh-grade mage.
In terms of spiritual energy alone, Linley’s was now at the upper-middle level of a seventh-grade mage.
“Reynolds, you know how the third brother is. He doesn’t care about things like that. If he did, he wouldn’t have skipped the annual grade competitions every year,” Yale said with a chuckle. “Oh, by the way, third brother, your Uncle Hillman came to the school at the start of this semester.”
Linley paused, looking at Yale, and immediately asked, “Uncle Hillman? Was there something wrong?”
In the past, Linley always went home for the New Year, but this time he had spent the transition from winter to spring in the Magic Beast Mountain Range.
“Nothing serious. He was probably worried because you didn’t come back for the New Year, thinking something might have happened to you,” Yale said casually, then continued, “Oh, and there’s something I have to tell you. On the day your Uncle Hillman came, the head curator of the Pruxie Guildhall also showed up. It was about your stone sculpture ‘Awakening from the Dream.’”
Linley raised an eyebrow in surprise. “The head curator? How did he find out about my stone sculpture ‘Awakening from the Dream’?”
At this, Reynolds looked a bit embarrassed and said, “It’s my fault. When Yale had someone bring your sculpture back from the back mountain, I thought no one else knew how valuable it was, so I kept it in the dormitory to admire from time to time. But then Ostuni came looking for you, found our dorm, and happened to see ‘Awakening from the Dream.’ Later, he told Curator Maia about it.”
Linley nodded slightly.
“Linley, the head curator wants you to auction off ‘Awakening from the Dream.’ If not, he’d at least like to display it at the Pruxie Guildhall. Are you okay with that?” Yale looked at Linley.
Without a moment’s hesitation, Linley shook his head.
“I don’t want to make ‘Awakening from the Dream’ public for now, and I’m not short on money.”
For Linley, ‘Awakening from the Dream’ represented a period of his emotions. Of course, after carving it, his state of mind had changed.
Especially after everything in the Magic Beast Mountain Range—being surrounded by countless dragons in the Misty Valley, witnessing two super magical beasts fighting each other underground, nearly dying, and especially after absorbing dragon blood and successfully becoming a Dragonblood Warrior.
Having gone through all that, the memories of Alice now felt very distant to Linley.
He had also come to understand that cherishing the present was the most important thing.
“If Father knew I could perform Dragonform, he’d probably be very happy,” Linley thought of his father.
Hogg had spent his whole life hoping his sons would become Dragonblood Warriors. Little Wharton’s Dragonblood Warrior bloodline had reached sufficient concentration, and now Linley could already perform Dragonform, even reaching the level of an early eighth-rank warrior after transformation.
If this news were told to Hogg—that both his sons could become Dragonblood Warriors—Hogg would surely be ecstatic and immensely proud.
******
Linley could also guess the value of the stone sculpture ‘Awakening from the Dream.’ He knew that keeping such a large sculpture in Wushan Town would be absolutely unsafe. So, he asked Yale to continue storing ‘Awakening from the Dream’ for him.
For the massive Dawson Conglomerate, this was a trivial matter.
Leaving the hotel, Linley and the other three walked along a tree-lined path.
“Yale, George, Reynolds, there’s something I have to tell you,” Linley said after some deliberation.
Seeing how serious Linley looked, Yale, George, and Reynolds focused their attention.
“I plan to apply for graduation in the next few days,” Linley said with difficulty.
Graduation meant leaving Ernst Institute of Magic and leaving his three good brothers. Linley had entered Ernst at the age of nine and was now seventeen—eight years in total. The most genuine eight years of his life, spent forming bonds with brothers without any ulterior motives, true brothers.
Linley was reluctant to part with them.
But in life, one had to accomplish something. Once he graduated, noble titles, fiefs, armies, and so on would come to him. That would be the time to forge ahead boldly.
“Graduation?”
Yale, George, and Reynolds were all stunned. Yale was the first to react, saying, “Third brother, why are you in such a hurry to graduate? What’s so good about graduating from Ernst? Isn’t it better for the four of us to stay together? And Ernst is much more peaceful than the outside world.”
George and Reynolds also quickly tried to persuade him.
Linley shook his head. “No, we can’t just hide inside Ernst and avoid contact with the outside world.”
“Third brother, you’re only a sixth-grade mage now. While that’s considered a decent level outside, there are still plenty stronger than you. Why not wait until you reach seventh-grade mage before graduating?” George suggested.
In George’s eyes, mage training had two major hurdles. The biggest was from ninth-grade mage to the Saint Domain, and the second was from sixth-grade mage to seventh-grade mage.
From ninth-grade mage to the Saint Domain—even with sufficient spiritual energy and magical power, even after a long time…
And from sixth-grade mage to seventh-grade mage, even geniuses typically needed over ten years of effort.
“I’ve already reached seventh-grade mage,” Linley said directly.
“Seventh-grade mage?”
Yale, George, and Reynolds were struck as if by lightning, completely frozen. A genius like Dixie had only reached sixth-grade mage at sixteen. To reach seventh-grade mage, even with hard work, it would take at least until around thirty.
But Linley…
He was only seventeen this year!
“Third brother, are you saying you’ve reached seventh-grade mage?” Yale couldn’t believe it.
“Third brother, don’t try to fool us,” George refused to believe it either.
Reynolds just stared at Linley, silent.
“Squeak squeak~~” Bebe on Linley’s shoulder started chattering indignantly, baring his teeth at Yale and the others. Linley could hear Bebe’s dissatisfied voice: “Boss, these three guys don’t believe you. Boss, show them what a seventh-grade mage can do!”
Linley glanced at Bebe. “Bebe, don’t cause trouble.”
Bebe pretended to look ‘wronged’ at Linley and fell silent.
“This Bebe, his acting skills are getting better and better,” Linley thought with amusement, then looked at his three good brothers. “Yale, don’t doubt me. When I apply for graduation tomorrow and take the test, you’ll see.”
Yale, George, and Reynolds all knew Linley’s character and knew he wasn’t the type to lie.
“Third brother, you really reached it?” George asked softly.
Linley nodded slightly. “How about I demonstrate Flight Technique first?” Linley began chanting a magic spell, while Yale and the others watched quietly. After a moment, air currents swirled around Linley’s body, and he floated up.
Linley didn’t float very high—only about twenty centimeters off the ground. If someone far away didn’t look closely, they wouldn’t notice.
“That’s Levitation,” Reynolds said.
Levitation was a straight up-and-down floating.
“Watch closely,” Linley said. Suddenly, he flew diagonally upward at high speed, rising about ten meters before diving back down rapidly. When he was about twenty centimeters from the ground, he stopped and maintained that floating state.
After holding that state for a moment, Linley landed.
“Flight Technique?” Yale and the others were truly shocked.
What Linley had just demonstrated was simple but clear. Being able to fly diagonally through the air was definitely Flight Technique.
“Hey, Linley, long time no see. I just ran into you, and you’re showing off your jumping skills,” a young man walking by said with a laugh. From a distance, Linley’s movements did look like a jump.
For a powerful warrior, jumping ten meters wasn’t a problem.
And most people at Ernst knew that Linley wasn’t just a mage but also a strong warrior. Someone had once seen him easily lift a boulder weighing nearly a thousand jin from the back mountain to the dormitory.
Linley and the others greeted the young man, who was a friend from the next dormitory.
“Third brother, you really reached seventh-grade mage? How is that possible? But what I just saw…” George whispered in shock.
“A seventeen-year-old seventh-grade mage? Good heavens, has there ever been such a genius in the history of the Yulan Continent?” Reynolds was also getting excited.
Yale looked at Linley, his eyes shining. “I’m almost looking forward to seeing the expressions of the school officials when they test you at graduation.”
……
The next morning, on an open field at Ernst Institute of Magic often used for magic testing, over thirty magic instructors had gathered. Normally, a graduation test only required four mages, but since the instructors had nothing else to do, they came to watch the commotion when they heard Linley was applying for graduation.
After all, most students only applied for graduation after reaching sixth-grade mage and studying for a while in the sixth year, in which case no test was needed. So graduation tests were quite rare.
Among the over thirty magic instructors were also Yale, George, and Reynolds, as well as Vice Principal Delante, who had come out of boredom. As Delante put it, “One of the two geniuses of our school is applying for graduation—of course I have to see this.”
“Linley, use the earth-type magic ‘Earth Spike Array.’ Based on the size of the spikes and the range of the array, we can determine your magic level,” one of the testing mages said.
If he reached sixth-grade, he would naturally be deemed eligible for graduation.
Linley shook his head slightly.
The gathered magic instructors were puzzled, and Vice Principal Delante even urged, “Linley, you applied for graduation, so why…”
“I want to use wind-type magic,” Linley said with a smile.
Delante and the others laughed. They all knew Linley was a dual-element mage of earth and wind. Testing a mage’s strength mainly assessed spiritual energy, and testing either element would determine the spiritual energy level.
“Go ahead, then,” Delante and the over thirty magic instructors said, watching Linley.
Linley began silently chanting the incantation for the seventh-grade spell ‘Flight Technique.’ After a moment, air currents swirled around him, and he floated up. Then, he gracefully flew through the air, turning, diving, and speeding at will.
“F-Flight Technique?”
The over thirty magic instructors were stunned. They knew exactly what level Flight Technique represented.
“A seventeen-year-old seventh-grade dual-element mage, this…” Vice Principal Delante immediately realized that Ernst Institute of Magic, which had been peaceful for so long, would likely be in turmoil for some time.