After finishing all the necessary processes. Jack, Ellie, and Bill came out from the City Administration Bureau.
“As the old lady said, the construction will take one day time. You can go there tomorrow morning to start everything,” Jack said.
“All right. Will you be there as well?” Ellie asked.
“I will try to be, but there might be a chance I will not be available.”
“Fine, we will take care of it. Don’t worry about it.”
“Okay, I will be off now. Where will you go from here?”
“I think we will go and take a peek at the ongoing construction.”
“You know the way?”
“We will manage.”
After they departed, Jack made his way to the nearby academy buildings. Since he had gone to the Mage academy before, it didn’t take long for him to find the place. When he entered the Mage Academy, it was still the same quiet atmosphere. Not a single soul at sight except for the stoic old mage from before. He was still reading a book, but he was sitting down and reading at a table this time.
The old mage’s classic pointy wizard hat was on the table this time, so Jack could better see the mage’s feature. Even though there were wrinkles all over now, Jack could see that the man was very handsome at his young age. The more striking aspect was his hair, which was long and neatly combed to the back. The hair was white but some strands appeared to have plum color.
Jack came before him and made a polite greeting.
“Good day, sir. We meet again. I’m looking to use a magic furnace, I was told that this academy should have one?”
The old mage lifted his gaze to look at Jack. Jack was worried that the old mage would be chasing him away. Then he closed his book and stood up. “Come,” he said and headed directly to one of the corridors. Jack hurriedly followed after him.
He didn’t go up to the magical foyer by the second floor this time. Instead, he was taken down to the basement. The place was gloomy with dim lightings. He did not realize it at first, but after a while, he noticed that the small lights that illuminated the basement were in fact following them as they moved.
They soon came to a wooden door with several runes inscribed on its surface. The old mage uttered several unusual syllables, which made the runes on the door light up for a few seconds. He then opened the door. He didn’t enter inside but instead stood next to it and looking at Jack. He seemed to be instructing for Jack to go in by himself.
Will it kill you to speak a few words? Jack wanted to utter, but of course, he kept his mouth shut. He had tried to inspect the old mage, but for some reason, the device was not working. It was the first he encountered such happening, as if something was obscuring his monocle. That’s how Jack knew for certain that the mage was not simple.
When Jack passed through the door, the old mage unexpectedly asked him a question, “do you have a magic stone?”
Jack took out the common grade magic stone which he had bought before, “this one?”
“Don’t work, you need at least uncommon grade,” the old mage said.
“Oh… I don’t have it,” Jack answered worriedly.
The old mage took out a magic stone of his, and said, “1 silver.”
The guy was selling? Jack took out his coin and gave it to the mage, the mage handed his magic stone to Jack.
The old mage then said, “one uncommon magic stone for one usage of the magic furnace, how many times do you need to use it?”
“One time, I think?”
The mage nodded, then walked away, leaving Jack to his own device. Jack looked at the inside of the room. It was similar to the room where he had taken the Mage test, it was a simple circular room with no openings, only one door for entry and exit. At the center was a blue tall pedestal with a round shape. There was a large hole at the center with glowing lights that were swimming inside. Jack approached the pedestal, he assumed this would be the Magic Furnace.
Jack was speechless, with that stoic old mage that provided almost no guide, what would other people do when they came for their mage test or to use this magic furnace? Luckily, he had a personal guide.
“So how do I use this thing?” He asked Peniel.
“Put the Orb of Disguise inside, but before that, you equipped your mage garbs and weapon first.”
Jack followed her instruction and put on the Flowing Lavender Robe and Spellcasting Gloves, he then replaced his other equipment with the common grade cloth armors he had bought, except for his cloak and accessories, since those equipment were accessible to all classes. He then unequipped his sword and equipped his magic staff onto his main hand.
“Can a mage use a shield?” Jack asked Peniel.
“You can.”
He then equipped the Guard’s Round Shield on his off-hand.
After finished adjusting his equipment, he took out the Orb of Disguise and inserted it into the hole inside the pedestal. A prompt appeared asking him for one uncommon magic stone. Jack used the magic stone from the old mage for it. After making the payment, the swimming lights swarmed the Orb of Disguise. It then glowed bright blue. The bright light extended out and encapsulated Jack. He felt like a soft warm cloth was wrapping around his body, it felt comfortable. A holographic image then appeared beside him. It was an exact copy of himself.
“Now you can start modifying your look,” Peniel said.
“Modify? What for?”
“Hello, it’s called a disguise. What’s the point if you look the same?”
“How do I do it?”
“Start by touching at the parts you want to modify.”
Jack went ahead and touch the nose of his holographic copy. A series of pictures of different kinds of noses appeared. He assumed he should choose one of them to change the look of his current nose. He then proceeded to pick one. After knowing the drill, the rest was easier. He proceeded to change his hair, his eyes, his mouth. He added some beard to his face and made himself look older. That would make him more like an archetypal mage. In fact, he was using that stoic old mage as a reference model, except not as old as him, he set his appearance so that he looked to be around late thirty years of age.
After finishing with his facial look, he touched his robe, a series of pictures of different robes appeared.
“I can change the look of my equipment as well?” He asked.
“Yes,” Peniel replied.
“Then why do I need to change to cloth armor? Might as well just wear my original armor and made it looked like a mage armor.”
“Look at the selections first before you make your comment. Do you see any of that look like medium armor? You can only change the look but the type will always have to be the same. You can only change a cloth armor of one look to a cloth armor of a different look. You cannot change a medium armor to make it look like a cloth armor.”
“Oh…,” now that she mentioned it, he did only see robe-like looks in all the selections.
Since the Flowing Lavender Robe was already having a cool appearance, he didn’t make any change to it. Same as his Spellcasting Gloves. He made changes to the other common-grade equipment to make it more in tune with his two rare equipment. He didn’t forget to change the look of his magic staff as well. At one point he might be forced to reveal his dual-class trait. At that time, he didn’t want people to recognize his disguise due to him using the same staff as his original one.
He also changed his God-eye monocle look. It was a rather unique-looking piece of equipment, so it would be easy to be recognized if he didn’t change its appearance. He made it look like common glasses. A mage with glasses, that should add a touch of smartness to his disguise.
He looked at the modifications he had made. He was quite satisfied with it. After double-checking again to not forget anything, he clicked on the holographic confirm button. An error prompt was heard, a floating text appeared that informed him that he would need to enter a new alias for this disguise.
“Are you seriously thinking of walking around in disguise while your name still clearly points to your real self?” Peniel said to him with a hint of ridicule.
Jack ignored her, he gave it some thought. What name should he use? He was planning to use this disguise soon and it needed to attract attention, so he would need an overbearing name. After spending some time thinking, he typed in his mage alias, Unrivalled Arcaner.
“That was one cocky name,” Peniel commented.
Jack ignored her again. He clicked again on the confirm button. This time the image of his copy vanished and the light when back into the Orb of Disguise. The orb then came out of the pedestal by itself. Jack took the orb back.
