A Greeting Gift

The days passed uneventfully as the final exams drew closer and closer.

Surprisingly, the mood was strangely devoid of any tension. The students almost looked like they were going for a vacation unlike the tensed atmosphere that would usually pervade the schools back on Earth during examination period.

Out of curiosity, Baiyi had asked Tisdale and the Apprentice what is it about exams that made them so festive. It turned out that it just wasn’t the way of the school to worry about rankings. Most of them looked at it as a chance to gauge their true strength and resolve and that attitude made all the difference.

Watching Baiyi’s shocked expression, the Apprentice beamed proudly, "Now this is the true meaning of learning, don't you agree? Learning is, at its core, to facilitate adaptability— not cracking heads trying to devise strategies to score some subjective numbers."

Those numbers has their purpose! Baiyi retorted weakly. Internally, however, he admitted that the Celestial Fortress Academy did possess an entirely different culture— to them, it’s the practicality of knowledge that matters. And in order to provide as much opportunities for such reflection, the students were required to participate in as much real world situations as possible since fourth grade. By the time they were in fifth grade, they hardly spent time on campus ground anymore. On that front at least, it was not dissimilar to universities back on Earth.

That was the reason behind the success rate of Celestial Fortress Academy's alumni upon graduation. They graduated as the apex of their generation.

With the final exams fast approaching, the academy was filled with joviality. The trees were adorned with ribbons, flowers and other decorations. Following the mood, classes were temporarily stopped to allow students more time to train on their own.

"It’s as if Christmas is coming," Baiyi pointed out.

"Well... It’s the semester break after the exam, you know? Everyone’s looking forward to the break!" Mia replied gleefully. She nudged his arms as a thought came to her, "What about you, Mr. Hope? When the break arrives, is there anywhere you want to go? I can keep you company!"

Huh? The place I want to go is not some place you can go. He thought to himself ashe replied her, "Nope. Nothing comes to mind yet."

"Huh? But what about your hometown? I heard that a lot of Soul Armatures always yearn to visit their hometown after returning to the land of the living!"

Hometown? Hmph, how all of us wish to go home! Baiyi thought, amused, as faces of the Voidwalkers with their profound and somber expression flashed in his mind.

He mimicked their somber face and replied in a morose tone, "My hometown was in a land far, far away. It doesn’t even exist anymore."

Mia’s expression was wrought with sympathy. Her hands reached out and held Baiyi’s gauntlet as she said earnestly, "It’s okay, Mr. Hope. You can come to my hometown! It’s a little far from here but it’s a beautiful, peaceful and welcoming place. You’ll feel right at home there!"

Hmph. What an empathetic child... Baiyi ruffled her hair. "Thank you, Mia. If nothing comes up during the holidays, I think it’s a pretty good idea to visit your place. Although... I think it’s an even better idea if you go back to your parents with a Golden Rose clip on your tie, don’t you think so?"

"Y-yes!" Mia’s spirit was lifted just at the thought of that.

For the rest of the days, Baiyi prepared an intense schedule for Mia to train in both practical magic and theoretical knowledge. The latter was conducted with Tisdale's help, who was a tutor in other words. It was not particularly important, hence Baiyi delegated most of the work— and his faith— to Tisdale.

His own attention was focused on the staff that the Academy had finally brought to him.

The body of the staff was crafted from run-of-the-mill wood but it was coated with pewter which facilitates decent channeling of mana. On top of that, pewter made the staff less cumbersome to be wielded than say, silver or gold. The head of the staff was crafted from Mithril, it was perfect for casting spells. Adding to that were an assortment of smaller gemstones to help buff up magical status and effects as well as speeding up mana recovery. Most importantly, the maker of the staff did not enchant it with any special spells so Baiyi could craft what he knew was best for Mia himself.

Not bad. It was not a very expensive staff but its value lay in the fact that it was custom-made probably by someone from the Academy itself. A very suitable staff for beginners and it might even be good enough to hold off against the more high-end toys the rich kids typically wield for a while.

Yet, when Baiyi examined the gemstones a little more closely, all of the initial good impression he had subsided. For Mia’s sake, he had long prepared a large range of magic spells, comprising of different elements such as water, fire, to wind and light. Mia even had the spells memorized and could now more or less chant them right from the tip of her tongue. The only issue was that she still had trouble with elemental transitioning which impeded the overall performance of the spells.

That was why upon inspecting the gemstones, Baiyi could not help but complained out loud, "Oh, come on! At least fuse this with a gem that can help with elemental transitions!"

In a battle between seasoned sorcerers, the raw damage output of a spell was never the true gamechanger. Spells with heavy hits were only useful to break open defenses such as magical barriers and enchanted fortresses. The real factors behind an effective magical attack was its speed, predictability and flexibility plus the more technical-but-no-less-important aspects of spell coverage and distance.

On that regards, the staff was still woefully behind its requirement. It seemed that the Academy was still underestimating what Baiyi’s mind could offer and Mia’s tenacity. What, a little girl using sophisticated strategy is too far-fetched for them?

"I beg your pardon, Sir Hope, but this is truly not the faults of the Academy! The mind of an average student would not be able to dream up anything close to the complex strategies you had devised—it is more plausible to expect only familiar classroom spells and summoning scrolls to be used in a second year final exam," The Apprentice spoke up to defend his juniors. "The kind of battle experience that Sir Hope so highly expects can only be found in fourth year and above."

"Good battle instincts are sharpened since young," Baiyi replied stubbornly, plucking the gemstones down off the staff.

He signaled Tisdale to come close to him. "The alchemical refineries that your family operates… They also refine magical gemstones, don’t they? I would need some that that could improve chanting speed and elemental transitions."

Tisdale understood his intention immediately but her expression was hesitant. "Sir, the expertise of the smithies are producing herbal potions even if they do sometimes refine gems. I’m just worried that the end products might not be as good as you expect them to be. Besides, the difficulty in getting the proper materials..."

Both were clever enough to leave out the issue of price.

"Don’t worry about the materials. All I need are just some common rubies and green spars, as long as you use these formulae." He grabbed a quill and started scribbling onto a parchment from his desk. As Tisdale watched, it appeared to be three alchemical equations and a list of raw materials needed— none of the materials were too rare or costly to obtain.

And with that, after tutoring Mia, Tisdale took the parchment back home and handed it over to the smithies.

The next day as Tisdale was about to leave her home, a middle-aged man was standing outside the door.

It was the head of the alchemical refineries, an elite alchemist named Williams. He entered the house as soon as he saw Tisdale. He quickly closed the door before retrieving the parchment from his pocket.

He said in an almost conspiratorially low voice, "Lady Tisdale, where did you get these three formulae?"

"Is there something wrong with the formulae? What’s the meaning of this?" She replied doubtfully. Williams was one of the best acquaintances her father had introduced her; he was a man of who was professional and loyal. Yet, the way he was behaving at that moment was slightly unsettling.

He lifted his head and Tisdale saw that his eyes were bloodshot. "Milady, I have been working on the formulae all night without rest. They don't look special, similar to the commercial formulae that all artisans such as I have already been accustomed to. But its plainness is only to fool the untrained and unobservant..."

"How… different are they?" She followed up hurriedly.

"Very, milady! The slight change in the formulae as well as the little changes in handling the additional materials— will produce gems with twice or even thrice the effects of other gems! … Do you know what that means?" The alchemist answered enthusiastically, despite him lowering his voice and trying to contain his excitement.

"This means that despite the cost being lower, the gems produced from these formulae provide one, or at least twofold effects!" He answered his own question without waiting for Tisdale to respond. "Alright, there’s a really mild trade-off— the gems produced this way aren’t as durable as normal gems but these gems have always meant to be transitional, anyway! This new technique is 100% feasible!"

"This is the key to an immense fortune, Lady Tisdale! We can just use these three formulae to dominate the market!" Williams added, his joy overflowing. "I even wondered if you have somehow stumbled upon the legendary Alchemical Notes written by that mythical heretical alchemist…"

Tisdale was left speechless by Williams’ explanation. Who was the man she had so fortunately been given tutorship from? It did not seem to take him much time to write the formulae yesterday— who would have expected them to impressed even a seasoned alchemist like Williams?

It turned out that the reason why Baiyi did not mention paying for the gem refinery was because he already paid her in the form of continuous fortune!