The wizard's journey

Chapter 3: The Mystery

The lord's mansion was indeed more luxurious than the viscount's, Grim thought to himself.

The hall was crowded, and Grim couldn't wait to look inside. He saw a wizard in a wide, gray robe sitting at the highest point of the hall. His face was just as Mary had described, as if enveloped in a layer of smoke, unclear and mysterious. On the table in front of the wizard sat a transparent crystal ball, emitting a soft glow that enveloped the entire hall in a mysterious aura. Next to the crystal ball crouched a red-eyed frog, croaking incessantly.

"Is this a wizard?" Grim was excited. This was the first time he had seen a wizard who wielded the mysterious and powerful magic. In front of the wizard's crystal ball, a plump girl with brown hair was nervously touching the crystal ball with her eyes closed.

The people in the hall held their breath, and there was silence for a long time until Grim looked behind the wizard, noticing three children about his size.

"Is it her?" The first girl Grim noticed was pouting, clearly unwilling. This girl was the one who had abandoned the "Hunting Nose Transformation and Scent Atlas" magic book at the viscount's mansion in winter. Over the past six months, Grim had learned that she was the only daughter of the lord of Biser, possessing great power.

It seemed that the portly nobleman from before must be the great Lord of Biser City.

The other two appeared to be siblings, Their strikingly similar appearances suggested a blood relation.

The boy was proud, standing tall behind the wizard, sneering at each person who came for the wizard apprentice's aptitude test, much like the fellow collecting gold coins at the mansion's entrance.

The girl seemed somewhat shy, probably unaccustomed to being the focus of so many people's attention.

"Could they be the ones identified as having the aptitude to be wizard apprentices?" Grim wondered.

Indeed, Grim was right. This sibling pair had been identified in a city before Biser as having the aptitude to be wizard apprentices.

Being selected from hundreds, even thousands of children, and having the high and mighty nobles fawning over them indeed felt exhilarating.

The boy was named Yorkris, and the girl was Yorklianna, originating from a humble hunter's family.

Once both were identified as having wizard potential, the typically aloof nobles suddenly became as eager as tavern wenches around them, making Yorkris feel as if he were the center of the world, a favored child of the heavens, and the protagonist of his own destiny.

Yorkris looked down on those rushing to test for wizard potential, his eyes filled with disdain.

If it were so easy to have the aptitude for a wizard's apprentice, why would Master Arovoz only have them, his siblings, and that fool outside the city in the first three cities?

Having the lord's daughter as the only one in this city was already fortunate, and even that was through bribing the wizard.

"Mental strength 6, not qualified, next."

It was at this moment the mysterious wizard spoke. Simultaneously, the plump girl touching the crystal ball, her face tense with nervousness, turned pale and left the crystal ball under the urging of those behind her.

"Ah, another failure."

"Yes, it seems there's little hope for us."

The people, who had been holding their breath, sighed in disappointment. After a day of aptitude testing, besides the lord's daughter who was the first to be tested, no one else had shown any wizard potential. If it wasn't for the gold coin they had already paid, most would have given up by now.

"Mental strength 5, not qualified, next."

The boy in front of the crystal ball left dejectedly after a helpless shrug.

One after another, those tested for the wizard apprentice's aptitude left, and as Grim moved closer to the front, a sense of despair began to rise within him. It seemed becoming a wizard wasn't so easy.

Grim recognized the boy in front of him; he was the son of the Moon Bay Tavern owner, named Wade. The Moon Bay Tavern was the most luxurious place in Biser City, so this fellow must have countless gold coins.

Wade, nervous, stood in front of the crystal ball, touched it, and closed his eyes as the crystal ball began to emit a soft glow.

"Mental strength 9, not... huh?"

Grim saw Wade secretly handing the wizard a bag containing several strange stones, about twenty or thirty in total.

Grim immediately thought of a possibility: bribery?

"Alright, stand behind me" the wizard, having accepted the bag, changed his verdict.

Wade, thrilled, thanked the master and excitedly took his place behind the wizard.

Grim's face fell; he had nothing to bribe the wizard with, and he doubted the great wizard would care for the only gold coin his family had left.

Confused and anxious, Grim approached the crystal ball, unsure of what to do.

"Place your hand on the crystal ball and close your eyes."

Following the wizard's instruction, Grim did as told, and for a moment, the hall seemed to quiet down, as if the world had been covered with a giant dome.

"What's going on?"

Grim opened his eyes to see the people in the hall frozen in place. The lord's daughter was still pouting and crying, but her tears were suspended in mid-air. Yorkris was sneering.

Turning around, Grim noticed the man collecting the assessment fee at the door casually tossing a gold coin, which was now frozen in mid-air.

Everyone seemed to be frozen in time.

But something was off.

Grim noticed a table in the corner of the hall with plates adorned with exquisite patterns, too luxurious for commoners to afford. The plates contained delicate pastries and fruits, meant for those testing for wizard aptitude but never actually consumed, serving more as decoration.

However, atop the fruit platter were two creatures with colorful, soft tentacles and countless eyes, floating and playing like jellyfish, swaying in the air.

This was unbelievable!

What were these creatures?

Grim could feel his body trembling, his face surely pale. Although he had longed for the mysterious world of wizards, now that the world was opening up to him, he felt an infinite unknown and fear.

This was a world unlike any he had known.

Grim, mustering his courage, cautiously approached the two strange, unknown creatures. However, just as he neared the table, the creatures seemed startled and swam up to the wall. At that moment, the wall rippled like water, allowing the bizarre creatures to seamlessly merge into it and vanish from sight.

Stunned, Grim was momentarily frozen by the sight of the creatures disappearing into the wall. Yet, as he drew closer to the table, he made an unsettling discovery beyond the four normal torches on it. One torch, though topped with a burning candle, was not a finely crafted decorative piece for nobility but rather a cooked, crimson pig's head.

Grim found it odd that he had initially perceived this torch as normal, yet upon closer inspection, felt it contradicted reality. Strangely, the eyes of the pig's head torch slowly moved, fixating on Grim and locking eyes with him, enveloping the atmosphere with a chillingly eerie air.

"Ha-ha! I've finally broken through to the supreme realm! The sky! The earth! The evil dragon! None can obstruct me now!"

Suddenly, a brash laughter echoed through this eerily silent world. Perhaps due to Grim's slowed perception, although the sound was jarring, it didn't evoke fear. Turning towards the source, Grim saw a minstrel biography novel often read by nobles during their leisure.

The theme of the story was a cliché, involving a poor boy and a noble girl in love, facing her family's opposition. The boy, determined to prove himself, overcomes numerous challenges, ultimately defeating the world's most powerful evil dragon, winning his beloved.

The novel featured illustrations depicting the protagonist defeating various foes, all portraying a tired and unoriginal tale.

"Holy cow."

Stuttering, Grim looked at the biography. A paper figure was breaking free from the book, standing up slowly with lifelike human organs and expressions, notably a look of exaggerated surprise as it surveyed its surroundings. This figure, an illustration of the novel's protagonist, now possessed detailed human expressions, yet remained essentially a thin sheet of standing paper, its backside still a page filled with text.

"where am I? Wasn't I supposed to become a deity?"

The paper figure shouted in panic, then, noticing Grim, it adopted a serious expression, drawing a paper sword and pointing it at Grim.

"Who are you? A deity from the realm of gods?"

Suddenly, the floor's cracks formed a long fissure that opened and closed like a talking mouth, with Grim and the stationary nobles standing atop it, unaffected by the illusion. The fissure repeated the paper figure's words like a parrot, then a scarlet tongue emerged, made of countless wriggling tiny snakes, abruptly snatching the stunned figure from atop the book.

Following a series of screams, the figure vanished into the depths of the fissure.

"This can't be real..."

Shocked, Grim stood trembling in place. Suddenly, the crystal ball on the table emitted a dazzling light, pulling Grim towards it. Touching the crystal ball, the world resumed motion, and the chatter of the crowd filled Grim's ears.

"Mental strength 12, not bad, stand behind me."

Pale-faced, Grim numbly stood up behind the wizard. Looking around, all the oddities had disappeared, including the noble reading the biography, the pig's head torch, and the intact floor, suggesting everything might have been an illusion or a dream.

"Damn it! How did this guy get so lucky to have wizard potential?"

"My child once bullied him; I hope he doesn't seek revenge later!"

The hall buzzed momentarily before quieting down at the wizard's cold huff. The lord's daughter and Wade, the son of Moon Bay's owner, glanced at Grim with surprise. Seeing Grim dressed like a servant, they sneered dismissively, losing interest in further conversation.