Jack put on his Concealment Coat with the hood up before following Wilted Tree and Leavemealone out of the warehouse. The buildings in this town were rather unique. They didn’t seem to be made of stone or wood. Instead, it looked like some sort of translucent material. The walls appeared constantly changing as different lights hit their surfaces. The entire place appeared surreal due to it. Jack found it to be truly distracting, he couldn’t imagine how the people here got used to it.
Most of the roofs were shaped like mushroom-shaped domes, adding another weird vibe to the town.
Jack tried not to look around too much, he would attract attention otherwise. Aside from the concealment coat, he also wore a facemask for good measure, the one he used to infiltrate the noble’s house in Transviste.
Both he and Wilted Tree paid attention to their radar. If there was a group of white dots traveling together, that should be a patrol. They would then go to a corner and stay out of sight until the patrol passed.
This city was not as crowded as Thereath or Tranviste. Wilted explained it was due to the unstable political situation. Civil war was brewing and everyone didn’t feel like going out much.
Jack asked her if the civil war was caused by the power struggle between princes. He had heard Master saying something about helping the prince to secure the throne. He wondered if this place was the same as Themisphere. He figured if things went out of hands between the three Themisphere’s princes, a civil war might happen there as well.
Wilted Tree informed them that Ethereal royalty mostly had only one offspring, this was a tradition to avoid a power struggle between the ruler’s descendants. The current royal family was the same. The ruler only had one prince.
“Why is there any civil war then?” Jack asked.
“Because the prince can’t wait to take the throne from his father. Or more accurately, he has been incited,” Wilted answered.
“By Master?”
Wilted nodded. “The prince personality had always been an ambitious one, contrary to his father who valued peace. Master has made use of the prince’s nature to start a rebellion. Once they won, they will then mobilize their forces to invade other countries.”
“Are you serious? Is he planning on world domination?”
“Yes. But his end goal has always been to stand on top of all. This conquest is a way to make him easier in getting all the divine treasures.”
“Can he truly become a God by collecting all divine treasures? How does he get all this information anyway? On that matter, how do you?” Jack asked.
“… we will talk about that once we are at a safe place outside this country,” Wilted replied.
It’s a good thing that the warehouse the portal brought them to was not too far from the Mage Academy, so they didn’t have to travel long.
“You have to wait outside,” Wilted Tree said to Leavemealone. “Only magic-based class can enter inside, but don’t wander around.”
Leavemealone just shrugged and leaned on the wall of the building.
Seeing his nonchalant attitude, Wilted said to Carnelia, “watch him!”
Carnelia gave a salute and said, “Yes, ma’am! He won’t leave my sight.”
Jack wondered if Peniel could act that obedient to him.
After entering the Mage Academy, a sharp voice addressed them. “No concealing within this hall. Take off your hood and mask!”
An ethereal with a ceremonial robe floated to them. This time, Jack couldn’t tell if this ethereal was a man or woman. Its robe was too large to show its body shape. Even its voice, though extremely clear inside his head, sounded like the voice of both man and woman. This ethereal had long and neat hair but Jack could not tell its gender just from its hair.
Jack was hesitant for a second. Wilted gave him a nod. He then took off his cover.
“A human?! What are you doing in this country?” The ethereal mage asked.
Wilted took the initiative to answer while showing his Order of Magi’s badge, “Forgive our intrusion, great mage. I’m a member of the Circle of Magi, we would like to ask your permission to use the magic furnace.”
“Wilted Tree, Novice rank of the Order of Magi,” the ethereal announced after taking a glance at Wilted’s badge. “It is, of course, no problem to let you use the facility. He, however, I have to ask to leave. Our order will get into trouble with the authority if we harbor a hostile race.”
“He is also a member of the Order of Magi,” Wilted quickly said.
Jack hurriedly took out his Order of Magi’s badge after hearing Wilted’s word.
The Ethereal laughed. Jack thought the laughing sound was rather strange, considering he couldn’t discern if the voice was of man’s or woman’s.
“Unless he is of the Adept rank, I still need to ask him to… Storm Wind…?” The ethereal mocking tone suddenly stopped after seeing Jack’s badge.
“Yes, that’s me… Does this mean I am not allowed in?” Jack asked worriedly.
The ethereal was silent for a while, before saying. “Go in. Don’t dally. Make it quick!”
Either Jack or Wilted was a bit confused by the ethereal’s sudden change of attitude, but they happily took the win. They thanked the ethereal and hurried over to the room with the Magic Furnace. The ethereal didn’t accompany them. The layout of this Mage Academy was almost the same as others, so Jack had no trouble finding the place. Additionally, Wilted Tree seemed to be very familiar with the place as well.
“Do you know what that was about?” Jack asked. “For a second, I thought he… or she was going to throw me out.”
“I have the same thought too,” Wilted replied, equally confused.
Once they were inside the room with the Magic Furnace, Jack took out his upgraded Orb of Disguise. Since he had done it before, he didn’t need any guidance. He paid the magic stone fee and started to work on his disguise setting. The only difference this time was there was now an option to choose a race. He, of course, chose the ethereal race.
In the class options, he could choose any class. But if he chose a class which he had no skill of, his disguise could easily be found out. So he preferred to choose between Blade Dancer or Archmage. His Unrivalled Arcaner was already an Archmage. When his mage class upgraded to Archmage, his Unrivalled persona also received an update to its status. After a brief thought, he decided to have this ethereal disguise using his main class, Blade Dancer.
The rest of the setup was only appearance-wise. He had no idea what good-looking was for an ethereal race, so he simply tried to make it as cool-looking as possible. He added a long scar that went from his forehead through his left eye all the way to the side of his mouth.
For the hair, he used a dreadlock hairstyle. He was grinning while working on the look.
“Why is he smiling?” Wilted asked Peniel.
“He does that often,” Peniel replied. “I have long since stopped asking why.”
He didn’t forget to modify his Storm Breaker look. Though he already look different as an ethereal, he still decided to be prudent and changed the look of his armor. There was an option to have the armors follow their original looks or modify them. If he modified, even if he changed armor, his disguise look would still use the modified version, meaning they would always look the same following his current setup no matter what armor he wore. He chose the most badass and cool-looking armors.
The last thing to do was to give his second disguise an alias. Jack thought for a second before inputting the name.
After finishing, Jack took back the orb. He activated his second disguise. A battle-hardened yet also punk-looking ethereal appeared before the two women. The two stared at him in silence, not sure what to say about it.
“Impressive, isn’t it?” Jack asked after letting them observe for a while, assuming their silence for awe.
“I… I’m not sure what to say…,” Wilted finally said something. “Do you want people to be afraid of you, acknowledge your youthful spirit, or are you trying to make some kind of a statement with that look?”
“Um… I’m actually just trying to make it look cool,” Jack said. “Anyway, the only statement that I make with this disguise will be my alias.”
“What alias do you use?” Wilted asked. She couldn’t see it since this disguise was also wearing Cloak of Shadow.
“Master Slayer!” Jack announced loudly.
“That… Wouldn’t that simply asking for World Maker’s attention?” Wilted uttered, facepalming her forehead.
“Not a problem, they can’t inspect my name.”
“If you go into an establishment, your name will be registered there. They can easily find out about your name.”
“Let them come! Save me the time from finding them.”
“Did you forget already that we just struggled to escape from them?” Wilted uttered, exasperated.
“I admit that Master is a bit overpowered, but with time and preparation, I don’t think he is unbeatable,” Jack said with confidence.
Wilted Tree’s mouth twitched.. “If you get captured again, I will save you, and then I will kill you myself so the Lightning God Blessing moves to a random SSS quest,” she threatened.
