Sovereign of the Ashes

Morsidor remained silent as he listened to Daelis’ concerns.

It was only after Sein had left the common room and entered the laboratory, with the door gently closing behind him, that Morsidor offered his response.

“It should be possible. Vice Dean Martin and the others initiated this plan over a hundred years ago. I’ve been here for over fifty years, and I’ve witnessed many exceptional young talents develop over that time.”

Morsidor casually reached for the glass placed before him and continued, “With the current quality and standard of initiates at the Black Magic Academy, meeting the dean’s expectation should not be an issue.”

The liquid within the glass was not ordinary; it was an advanced meditation potion personally concocted by Daelis.

Not only could it accelerate the recovery of a mage’s focus and improve the quality of their meditation, it also offered a delightful taste.

To the initiates, such potion was beyond their reach.

However, for full-fledged black mages, it was a mere refreshment for fatigue.

Morsidor used to be meticulous with his resources in the past; he had only started indulging in such luxuries after forming an alliance with Daelis.

The beautiful apothecary had generously provided him with various potions. In exchange, she sought Morsidor’s help in crafting a piece of superior magic equipment.

The collaboration of these two experts in their respective fields served a single purpose—to prepare themselves to extract maximum benefits from the plane beyond the space-time rift when it opened in the future.

Although their expertise in alchemy and apothecary had brought them success in the academy, both Morsidor and Daelis fell short in comparison to the full-fledged mages of the surface world who enjoyed extensive support from the divine towers.

The mages within the divine towers had access to abundant resources and a wealth of knowledge, allowing them to progress swiftly in the Magus World.

Morsidor was over eight hundred years old, with only about a century of life remaining.

Despite this, he remained far from reaching the peak of Rank One, let alone attaining the status of a Rank Two mage.

Most mages within the divine towers had already achieved Rank Two or even Rank Three by his age.

His lack of progress was due to the scarcity of available resources and the lack of knowledge exchange among the black mages.

Another contributing reason was that Morsidor had invested a significant amount of energy and time into alchemy, thus diverting him from the path of exploring the true essence of magic elements.

Zorro believed Morsidor held his second apprentice in high regard, even considering him the heir to his legacy.

While it was true that Morsidor himself felt that way, among his apprentices, it was Zorro who bore the closest resemblance to his mentor.

“Hohoho, I heard Walt and the others seem to have attracted some attention during their expedition in the surface world this time. Lord Dedaelon found two magic seals on their airship.” Daelis chuckled.

“Hm? Is it a regular mage council or the divine towers?” Morsidor asked rather nervously.

Daelis shrugged. “No idea, but it’s probably a regular mage council. If it were the divine towers, they would likely not have made it back alive.”

“Hmph. The divine towers already hold dominion over eighty percent of the resources in the Magus World, yet they are still bent on making things difficult for the underground?” Morsidor snorted indignantly.

Daelis nodded emphatically, adding, “Not only that the divine towers have also been siphoning away the majority of initiate prospects from the Magus World.”

“Word has it that the divine tower academies now mandate an initial focus of at least 10 points for initiates. Looking at the initiates that Walt and his group have brought back, how many of them meet this criterion? Nevertheless, it’s doubtful that the dean and others will lower their standards for new initiates due to this,” Daelis lamented.

“The Blackhaven of the Western Archipelago also sets the bar at a minimum initial focus of 10 points. This is a longstanding benchmark in the Magus World that has stood the test of time. Although a mage’s wisdom is the ultimate measure of their power, their initial focus certainly impacts the speed of their progress.”

Morsidor could not hide his disdain as he continued, “Those divine towers in the Magus World are nothing but sanctimonious bastards, if you ask me. You know where most of their mages come from? Noble backgrounds! It’s all become a ploy of the nobility!”

“Although the Western Archipelago may have a harsher environment and limited resources, at least the Blackhaven’s magic academy welcomes any age-appropriate children from the radiation-controlled areas. Who’s being unfair now?” he added, with a sneer.

Morsidor and Daelis shared their roots in the Blackhaven of the Western Archipelago, but the sheer vastness of this territory, including the Blackhaven, exceeded the scope of exploration even for two full-fledged black mages.

Both of them originated from two separate islands situated in the far reaches of Blackhaven. Morsidor, having spent a significant portion of his formative years in the Blackhaven’s magic academy, possessed a deeper understanding of Blackhaven compared to Daelis.

This divergence extended to their perspectives and approaches to various matters.

Daelis leaned toward prioritizing personal and immediate interests, while Morsidor, though often reticent, exhibited a sense of foresight.

Of course, Morsidor’s comments still bore his own biases.

Recruitment standards for initiates within the Blackhaven differed from the norms in the conventional divine tower academies of the Magus Continent. These disparities stemmed from multifaceted considerations and other factors that transcended a simple judgment of “fairness”.

Furthermore, the two full-fledged black mages had firsthand experience with the initiate competition system within the Blackhaven.

Although their experiences as initiates were not as extreme as Andes, who basically killed his way out from a Black Magic Academy, they were undoubtedly far from easy.

These experiences played a significant role in shaping their somewhat stubborn and unpredictable temperaments.

Morsidor, who possessed greater knowledge of the Western Archipelago, could not help but express his thoughts since they were on the topic of initiate recruitment standards.

“While I may harbor reservations about the orders of the knights in the Magus World, at the very least, the recruitment standards for squires were equitable to all of humanity, regardless of their social standing.”

“In fact, when I journeyed from the Western Archipelago, I passed by numerous public knight academies along the way,” he recalled.

“It was said the orders of the knights had made this change because of a certain supreme knight from the Magus World who advocated this idea in ancient times. I wonder if a similar figure will emerge among our ranks in the future,” he added with a hint of emotion.