Chapter 244: Simple Task
Translator: Kris_Liu Editor: Vermillion
In ancient magic system, Flying belonged to the school of Astrology, but in the contemporary magic system, it belonged to both the schools of Force and Astrology, because the principle of the spell was using the gravity of stars to counteract the one from the ground.
Lucien closed his eyes and enjoyed the night wind when he was flying free in the sky, and he felt that he was totally released from all the constraints. The only thing was that his flying was pretty slow, and he also needed to pay attention to the stars to calculate his directions and flying angle. In order to save some trouble, Lucien knew that he needed an auxiliary magic circle helping him with the calculation, and before he learned Flying (Advanced), sixth circle, he could never fly as fast as a magic steam train, but maybe he could use hydromechanics or aerodynamics to improve it a bit.
When Lucien was still indulging in the wonderful experience of his first-time flying, he heard a low male voice, “Sir, you’ve violated Allyn’s Controlling Regulation, the eighteenth article—flying is prohibited in Allyn unless special permission is given from the congress. So… penalty or imprisonment?”
Lucien suddenly opened his eyes at a loss and he saw the young sorcerer in front of him who was wearing a black magic robe and a flame badge, which revealed his identity as a battle sorcerer. The young, black-haired sorcerer looked rather serious, and from the badges in front of his chest, Lucien knew that he was a forth circle sorcerer and he worked for Punishment Department of the Congress.
However, the young sorcerer was also wearing a white-feather badge, which meant that he had got the special permission for flying, but Lucien did not.
Lucien realized that he was so excited that he forgot the fact that flying was prohibited in Allyn. He rubbed his forehead a bit embarrassedly and asked, “How… How much is the penalty?”
Before the young sorcerer answered, Lucien thought of the fact that right now he only had sixty-one points left, so he hurriedly changed his question, “I mean… How long will I be kept in prison?”
Seeing that Lucien was being quite cooperative, the young sorcerer looked less serious now, “We’re in the rural area of Allyn right now, so, fortunately, the punishment is not as severe as what you’d get if you flew above the city center, and also, this is your first time, sir, so the penalty is thirty points, and if you’d rather go to the jail, you’ll be kept there for one month.”
“A month?! All right… I choose the penalty.” Although Lucien did not want to lose the money at all, he did not want to stay in prison for a whole month either. Lucien decided to regard this as a special upgrade “celebration” for himself, in order to make himself feel better.
“All right…” the young sorcerer signed a ticket and gave it to Lucien, “Just bring this to Punishment Department and pay for it.” Then he grinned a bit when he saw the beautiful ring on Lucien’s right hand, “Mr. Evans, congratulations, you’re a middle-rank mage now. You’re another sorcerer who became a third circle mage before the age of twenty-two. I believe that your momentum will still last before you move on toward the senior ranks.”
In fact, this body was not even twenty, but if talking about Lucien’s real age, the age that he had had before he came over to this world, it was twenty-five.
Lucien put on a polite smile and said, “Thank you. You’re the first one who said congratulations to me. Can I know your name?”
The young battle sorcerer responded humorously, “Of course. I’m not afraid of your revenge, Mr. Evans. I’m Jurisian, from both Punishment Department and Battle Sorcerer Department. My colleague saw you from Allyn’s Eye and found that you were a level four arcanist, so I’m here to handle you, sir.”
“Wait… You’re Jurisian? The talented arcanist in the school of Electromagnetics?” Lucien was quite surprised. Lazar, Rock and Lucien’s other friends kept infusing lots of information into his brain about the young geniuses in the congress, so Lucien recognized the name immediately.
Jurisian, a level four arcanist, was once very close to winning Silver Moon Medal because of the finding of photoelectric sensing, but at the same time, he was very enthusiastic toward fighting and duelling, so he applied to Punishment Department and Battle Sorcerer Department on his own.
Jurisian smiled and said, “I’m not gonna call myself a genius right in front of you, Mr. Evans. In most young sorcerers’ mind, we’ve only got two geniuses. One is Mr. Felipe, who has won Holm Crown prize once and Immortal Throne prize twice, and the other genius is you, Mr. Evans. I have to say that you two redefined the word ‘genius’, because now no one dares call himself or herself a genius if they haven’t won the highest honour in their fields. So, Rachel, Arthur, Samantha, Larry and many other sorcerers, including me, are just like common people.”
For sure, Jurisian was very smart with his words. He showed his respect to Lucien in an indirect way.
After chatting a bit, Jurisian activated Allyn Magic Circle and disappeared in the air, leaving Lucien staring at the ticket in his hand alone.
Lucien was glad that he could have a sixty-point subsidy every month from now on, and his living and experiment cost could basically be covered. However, his budget was definitely tighter than before. Thinking of that, Lucien started to feel a bit regretful with his idea of setting up cleansing magic circles for the factory, or he would earn way more than what he was making right now.
Putting the ticket in his pocket, Lucien started to descend slowly for landing. At the same time, he looked at the darkness in the west. He wished that he could find a chance to go back to Aalto to see all his friends there.
When Lucien was about to land on the windowsill of his villa, a window beside him opened. It was Layria and Heidi.
The two young girls woke up and could not fall asleep again from their great nostalgia, so they opened the window to look at the starry sky.
“Mr. Evans?” They were surprised.
“You two cannot fall asleep?” Lucien smiled, “What about having another set of arcana exercise?”
The two young girls suddenly sensed great danger and took a step backward together, “No, thanks, Mr. Evans. We’re fine here. We just want to… close the window. Happy new year and wish you become a middle-rank mage this year!”
Then they closed the window right in front of Lucien.
Two seconds later, the window opened again. The two girls were right now staring at Lucien who was floating in the air, and they looked shocked,
“Mr. Evans, have you upgraded already? Did we just sleep in for the whole year?!”
…
In the past two weeks, Lucien constructed another third circle magic, Maskelyne’s Star, in his soul. After making sure that his new power was already stable, Lucien was now heading for Allyn Magic Tower to upgrade his magic badge.
So far, Lucien had constructed twenty-seven first-circle, seventeen second-circle, and three third-circle spells in his soul, and that was twenty percent more than the amount that a new third-circle sorcerer could have on average. Furthermore, the best thing was that all of Lucien’s third-circle spells, except Flying, were all his exclusive spells!
In Sorcerer Administrative Department, Eric’s surprised look was nothing new to Lucien anymore. He reached out his hand and said, “Congratulations, Evans, you’re really a genius. Even though you used the magic potion, you still have a very solid mathematical foundation. In most cases, soon some senior-rank sorcerers or archmages will want you to become their student.”
“Thank you, Mr. Eric.” Lucien shook hands with Eric and handed his magic badge to him, “Except for Element and Astrology, I’m still very new in other fields.”
Eric took a look at Lucien’s magic badge and reminded him, “Now you can choose a permanent magic buff on it. What do you want?”
“Can I choose other stuff other than a magic buff?” Having the ring, Element, Lucien did not really need a middle-rank magic buff on his badge, so he asked for alternatives directly.
It was not the first time that Eric encountered this question, so he asked cut and dry, “What do you want? It cannot outvalue a middle-rank magic buff.”
“I want a sculpt spell, Mr. Eric, to increase the effective length of a spell.” Lucien needed it for Lucien’s Great Fireball. Although he had to spend twice the amount of spiritual power to cast both the spell and the sculpt spell, that could stabilize the effects of his own fireball.
The congress had been developing various kinds of enhancing spells, including silent casting, quick casting, enhanced casting, all kinds of sculpt spells and so on. Arcanists or sorcerers needed to meet level requirement to get those spells by exchanging, and they were not cheap for sure. The sculpt spell that Lucien was asking for was the cheapest.
“It’s about the same value.” Eric nodded, “But still, you might need to pay an extra ten to fifty points.”
“No problem.” Although Lucien said so, his heart was bleeding. He just paid for his penalty, and right now he only had thirty-one points. And this thirty-one points was from what was left after he sold his Grimsteel Dagger from before. If he still needed more money later, Lucien needed to sell his Asthenia Dagger then.
Eric put Lucien’s badge together with a piece of note in the magic cage and then pulled the bell. Silver light burst out and the items in the cage disappeared.
Ten minutes later, the bell started ringing. The badge was sent back, together with a thick roll of parchment.
Eric handed the badge to Lucien and frowned a bit, “Evans, you just paid thirty points for the sculpt spell, and you’ve also got a mandatory task.”
Lucien was a middle-rank mage now. Receiving one mandatory task from the congress was just normal, and it happened to be the beginning of the new year.
However, Lucien was still a bit surprised that he just got his task so soon. He took over the badge and the parchment roll written with the sculpt spell, and started to sense the task information contained in the magic badge.
“Demon Cleansing (Simple): In Mount Kapas, Holm, a third-circle sorcerer tried to summon low-rank demons but failed. The sorcerer died from this and the demons occupied his castle. You need to eliminate the demons together with other sorcerers who were also given the task. Reward: fifty arcana points.”
