2 The Official Academy of West Layem

The Official Academy of West Layem encompassed the 5 main schools of apprenticeship.

The Department of Potion Brewing: This department revolved around the creation and the mixture of exotic materials. Potions could range from support types, offensive types, and others.

The Department of Enchanting: This department focused on the enchantment of various items, weapons, and a large number of living creatures. Enchantments could range from defensive enchantments to offensive enchantments, and others.

The Department of Forging: This department was fixated on the creation, production, and enhancement of various items and weapons. Forging can range from simple everyday items, to weapons and defensive equipment, and others.

The Department of Alchemy: This department concentrated on the refinement and creation of magic artifacts. Alchemy is, in essence, a mixture of potion brewing, enchanting, and forging. There are 3 types of magic artifacts: Type 1 magic artifacts are items that can be held or worn. Type 2 magic artifacts are connected or inserted into the body and are extensions to humans and are permanent, mostly created in limbs. Type 3 magic artifacts are the most valuable and most efficient. The artifacts that correspond to type 3 can be worn or held like type 1s, they can also be made into extensions into the human body, but unlike type 2s, they were not permanent.

The Department of Formations: This department studied and created magic formations. The number of formations cannot be counted as new formations that could have a number of effects are created on an almost daily basis.

…

As Jim Gloa became accustomed to the type 2 magic artifact imbued in his arms, his nervous system gradually became used to the type 2 magic artifact and he regained control over his legs.

"Nice! I didn't get crippled!" Jim Gloa shakily planted his feet to the ground and started taking small steps around the room. This action had thoroughly shocked the two Professors and the two students who were set to become Professors in several months. Professor Ijak had a lost expression on his face as he pushed up the silver rimmed spectacles on the bridge of his nose and silently examined Jim Gloa.

'Pure luck, nothing else to say… truly… lucky.' Professor Ijak's thoughts clashed, but he only reached one conclusion; Jim Gloa was simply lucky!

It had to be mentioned that Professor Ijak was almost a grandmaster when it came to forging, soon enough he would be able to enter the apprentice section of The Official Academy, his opinion on the matter was heavily regarded. The three surrounding Professor Ijak glanced at him in question. Seeing the questioning looks on their faces, Ijak could only show a helpless expression and sigh at the luck of Jim Gloa. Originally, Ijak estimated the impairment of the peripheral part of Jim's nervous system and concluded that Jim Gloa would become a cripple that could only control his arms and his upper body.

Of course, a cripple with a type 2 magical artifact was still invaluable.

This conclusion sounded reasonable at the time and the other three had no qualms with it, but this situation was beyond them.

Even if Jim was considered a student, his backer, Fredrick Victorum, was the one who had set up the whole situation! Jim Gloa didn't have a say in the matter even if he were to lose his life.

A few minutes later, Jim was walking around the room like nothing happened and even called out his claws for fun. The only sign of the earlier events was the charred brown hair on Jim Gloa's head.

"…I think it would be best if Student Jim headed to the medical facility and made sure of his health." Professor Ijack couldn't stand the silence anymore and put on a stiff smile as he kindly suggested.

"Indeed, but first, we should report this matter to Director Diana-" Professor Wilt was preparing to use his circular communication device to request a meeting with the Director as the four had achieved a huge accomplishment, but at that moment, a dark purple Zantedeschia flower bloomed in the corner of laboratory. The petals of the flower were so dark in color, they almost appeared black.

At the sight of this flower blooming, two Professors and two Students quickly put on solemn expressions and slightly arched their backs as they faced the flower. Jim Gloa was a few seconds late, nonetheless, he bowed even lower than his peers.

"That will not be necessary, head directly to my office." An illusory voice that soothed the ears ordered in a light tone. The dark purple flower petals slowly fell and began disintegrating to nothingness.

The five in the room kept their backs arched and answered simultaneously, "Yes, my Lady!"

Lady Diana was an actual Magus! No disrespect could be tolerated in her presence! Even if she had a light and amiable temperament, how could one go wrong treating someone as grand as her respectably?

This world had many fools, but none could become Magi. No one foolish would make it far in life, and this world was no exception. No one in this laboratory was stupid, perhaps Jim Gloa was slightly naïve due to his upbringing, but the company around him and his own growth had molded him properly and will continue to do so.

…

After walking through the hallways of the Academy, the two Professors with the three students trailing behind, arrived in front of the Directors area and approached the secretary sitting behind a desk.

"Please go ahead, Lady Diana will be with you shortly." The secretary stood up and formally saluted four of the five men in front of her using the etiquette of nobles. She then peeked at Jim Gloa and saw his jovial expression that seemed to contradict the charred hair on his head.

'Successful refinement!?' Honoria Victorum was taken aback, and her blue eyes switched to focus on her brother, Fredrick Victorum. Fredrick seemed to read her thoughts and nodded lightly at her as he and company continued towards the door. 'He actually succeeded! He will definitely be assigned a mentor and become an apprentice because of this achievement! Good, father must learn of this. Merric also contributed in this, what a perfect situation!' Honoria's delicate face let out a smile as she watched Fredrick wait patiently in front of Lady Diana's office door.

After a few minutes, bright light that was blinding shined under the five.

*Flash*

A complicated magic formation appeared and the five figures standing opposite the door disappeared.

Honoria's smile widened and her long blonde hair swayed as she sat back down and quickly contacted her father. She pulled out a pitch-black, round communications device that was the size of her small hand and reported the matter in a haste. After completing this action, Honoria returned to her work and focused on the paperwork on her desk, but the smile on her face didn't fade away in the slightest.

…

A handsome looking young man in a majestic white rob with complicated snake-like patterns was putting all his attention on the experiment he was working on. He had a head of long blonde hair, and bright blue eyes that were filled with life experience, his facial features were sharp, and he looked like a slightly older version of Fredrick.

This was Fredrick's father, Probus Victorum.

"Hm? Honoria? It's not urgent." Probus Victorum was in the middle of an experiment and had several test tubes that seemed to be filled with a blueish-red liquid to the brim on the large lab table behind him. He was currently examining a test tube he placed on a device which constantly released a purple hue of light.

Probus' mind quickly focused on the experiment once again as he ignored the message. The communications device that Probus owned looked exactly the same as Honoria's, but contrary to hers, looking at the device caused one to lose their sense of self for a few seconds. Naturally, this only happened to people who didn't have the Victorum bloodline.

The Victorum family was one of the six noble families of the Layem Kingdom; they had a great deal of power and prestige.

In the Kingdom of Layem, noble families were considered families who had a Phase 5 Great Magus in the family.

The Royal Family that founded the Kingdom was still sitting comfortably at the top, they had recently produced another Phase 5 Great Magus other than their ancestor who had founded the kingdom. The reason the royal family could sit comfortably at the top was simple, it was a well-established fact that their ancestor, the founder, was on another level compared to the other respective Phase 5s of the six Noble Families. He was on the edge of a breakthrough to next realm but seemed to be missing an important piece of information and he had been stuck as a peak Phase 5 Magus for the last 400 years.

Naturally, no one dared belittle someone as grand as him, he stood higher than the six ancestors of the Noble Magus Families of the Kingdom! The general public didn't know the ins and outs of the situation, but the ancestors of the Nobles Families seemed to have the details of the situation and strangely remained peaceful the 400 years since the founding of the Kingdom. Grand Magi at Phase 5 had thousands of years of life and their ambitions exceeded any of their descendants' expectations, their thoughts and plans couldn't be comprehended unless someone of their level interfered and tried to deduce the situation.

Probus originally ignored Honoria's message as it wasn't urgent and he was in a middle of an experiment, but around an hour later, his communications device seemed to be flooded with messages coming from most of his descendants. Probus grew stunned at this development as messages that weren't under the 'urgent classification' kept pouring in.

The communications device produced by the Victorum Family was slightly different for actual members of the family, the device had some extra features like message classification; messages could be sent as 'urgent' or 'not urgent.' Outsiders who bought the device were extremely limited in what they could use the device for, the producers of the communications device kept most of the extra benefits of the device to themselves.

The communications device was pretty much a magic artifact, but other than long-distance communication, it didn't have any offensive or defensive value. This resulted in the device not being classified as a magic artifact

"Let's see." Probus paused his experiment, and with a simple thought, the black communications device flew into his right hand. The first thing he did was check the message Honoria sent.

"Fredrick…" Probus went through the contents that were transmitted to his brain and a smile crept on his face as he understood the situation in a second. Fredrick had refined a low-grade magical artifact along with 3 others from different Noble Houses. The commoner that Fredrick took under his wing had finally shown his value and nurturing him proved to be a great move by Fredrick. "It seems ancestor is ready. Fredrick has already made a move after all." Probus sighed and checked the rest of the congratulatory messages sent to him by Fredrick's siblings.

This was unprecedented! The four responsible for the refinement weren't even apprentices! They couldn't even use proper spell modules, the exception being the Formation Department's head, Wilt Rochester. He studied formations and could somewhat control his own formations.

Normally speaking, this shouldn't even be possible, but with the Noble Magus bloodlines these four possessed, they could at most use the Ancient Cirebic language to stir up the elements around them. They could neither handle words that were longer than a syllable long, nor speak any other word in the Ancient Cirebic language if a syllable was spoken that day; doing so would cause them to end up as shrived corpses who had tried to defy the laws of the world. Most inheritors of Phase 5 Noble Magus bloodlines had to wait for around a day before they could safely use the Ancient Cirebic language one again.

Of course, this only applied to Nobles who didn't become apprentices yet, reaching the level of an apprentice was a different story…