The Wizard World

Angele opened the five boxes one by one after Rossi left.

In each of the first four boxes, there was a huge white egg and bits of wood filled up the rest of the space to prevent it from breaking. The egg was about one meter long and half a meter wide.

On the surface of the egg, there was a blinking silver rune, most likely used to store the information about those eggs.

Angele checked all the runes and finally understood what those humongous eggs were.

They were the gift Isabel mentioned in the message. These four rhino eggs were the ones she acquired while collecting the rhino blood.

All the eggs were about to hatch. The only thing Angele needed to do was to remove the silver runes. The baby rhinos would consider the first person they saw as their owners after breaking out of the egg.

The rhino had the similar size as the glowing elephants, but their strength was stronger and their stamina was higher. The creature had a slow speed, but it could draw life energy from the earth and recover extremely fast from physical injuries.

Rhinos were popular as they could endure a certain amount of damage for their owners. Isabel gifted Angele four rhino’s eggs. Even if Angele decided to trade them for other rare resources, it would bring him a great profit.

Although there were ten boxes of the heart of the tree, there was only one heart. The heart’s size was enormous and had to be cut into pieces for delivery.

The last box was filled up with magic stones. There were also several crystal cards lying in the middle with some rhino blood samples.

The members of the Bennies Family knocked on the door as soon as Angele finished carrying all the boxes to the storage room.

It was Ivan, the Wizard apprentice that helped Angele back at the trading tower.

"Master Green, here is the list of available guards and apprentices." He clapped his hands and two strong men carried a huge square book into the living room.

The book had a black cover; the length of its side was about one meter and was about half a meter thick.

*BAM*

The book was dropped onto the floor. It sounded like a large stone hitting the ground. The two men bowed to Angele and Ivan before leaving.

Angele walked to the book and opened the cover. Inside, he could only see high-quality pictures of people. The information of the person on the page was slowly transferred to his brain through a special force field.

The Knights were listed on the first half of the book and the Wizard apprentices were listed in the second half. Some of the Knights already served in Nola for years and Angele knew that the radiation of energy would have negative impacts on their body. There was a limitation on how many years they could stay in Nola, so he decided to look for the ones that came to Nola recently.

Angele spent a while to check the list and picked five Knights that came from the other side of the Gem Sea. Three men and two women, they arrived at Nola not so long ago. According to the information from the book, all of them had no relatives and they could stay in Nola for at least 20 years.

The Wizard apprentices listed in the book all reached at least rank 2 and under their pictures were communication runes. If the rune was no longer glowing, it meant that other wizards had already signed a contract with them. There were probably several wizards reading the list at the same time.

Angele listened to Ivan’s explanation as he read through the information of the apprentices.

"This is the complete list of apprentices that entered the land through the Sea Hawk Dock. I would suggest you make the decision quickly if you see someone you want..."

*CHI*

Angele finally found someone he was interested in and decided to send the contract, but the apprentice’s communication rune stopped glowing as Angele was about to put his finger on it.

Angele shook his head and stared at Ivan.

"Does this happen often? I was about to send a contract to this guy."

Ivan shrugged, brows knitted. "Well, yeah...Wizards know who they need. Some apprentices are stronger and have better family backgrounds. They are quite popular, you know."

"It’s a different story for Knights. The list was made by the master wizards of the Six Ring High Tower. All the apprentices or Knights on the list all registered at the obelisk and were asking to be hired. There are many lists like this in the three major organizations, but the names in the book may vary. Still, you need to be fast if you want to hire a good apprentice."

"Knights are usually not that popular." He added, "They’re weak and have many limitations. Apprentices can assist you in the experiments and some of them are capable of handling the materials."

"Yeah, I can understand that." Angele nodded and kept reading the list.

About half an hour later...

"Huh?" Angele suddenly stopped at a page.

The rank 3 female apprentice’s picture looked familiar. There was a serious expression on her pretty face. The blond ponytail was hanging behind her head.

Angele confirmed his assumption after reading the information transferred to his brain.

‘Nancy Aria. Age 22. From Labyrinth College. Rank 3 Wizard apprentice.

Language: Anmag.

Proficiency: Wizardry books scribe. Combat expert.

Service History: None.

Family Condition: Unknown. Relatives were lost during the war.

Risk of Hiring: Situation in Labyrinth College is complicated. Think twice before sending the contract. She is certainly talented but sadly caught in the fight between two strong families.

Information Provider: Marry Rodler (Snake Bird Cliff).’

The communication rune under the picture was still glowing. It seemed like no one had sent a contract to her yet.

Obviously, the information on the hiring risk was the main problem, as no one wanted trouble.

‘Nancy is from Andes Alliance and she’s the daughter of the Duke, right? A war is going on in Andes Alliance?’ Angele wondered. His family and professor Adolf were still living in the alliance. If there was a war, he would have to return to that land again.

Angele did not join any organization and was not sure what was going on with Ramsoda. It would be hard for him to send letters overseas.

He thought for a while and finally put his finger on Nancy’s communication rune.

*CHI*

The rune’s glimmer became faint and the light was absorbed into Angele’s finger.

Nancy was 16 years old when Angele met her for the first time on the boat. According to the information, she was 22 years old already, but Angele was not sure if the data was correct.

Many years had passed. Nancy’s face was still beautiful, but she was no longer a teen.

Angele recalled the day he cured Nancy’s wound using saliva and wood bits. She probably still remembered that.

The memory made Angele smile.

Hiring Nancy was the best option for him at the moment. First, he knew the girl, and he wanted to ask her about the situation in Andes Alliance. For the risk, he already had problems with Miloshine Family, White Mist Forest, and Labyrinth College. The two Liquid stage wizards Angele killed earlier were related to the old wizard with a red beard and there was still a price on his head.

After sending out a contract, Angele kept turning the pages and sent contracts to four more apprentices, two females and two males. They were all about 20 years old and all of them were good at handling materials.

It took Angele about two hours to finish the whole process.

Ivan waited patiently beside the sofa with a smile on his face the whole time.

Once he saw Angele close the book, he stepped forward.

"Master Green, are you done?"

"Yeah." Angele nodded and responded, "Can you also send someone to the public area and tell an apprentice named Asuna from the River Arrow...umm...never mind." He suddenly stopped, realizing that there was no point in bothering the girl.

"Help me locate an apprentice named Yuri from the White Tooth Castle. I need to know his situation. I heard he was sent to the border several years ago."

"The border? Are you sure it’s the border of the White Tooth Castle?" Ivan looked surprised.

"Why?" Angele stared at him, looking confused.

"Two years ago, all the apprentices and wizards guarding the border for the White Tooth Castle all died for an unknown reason. The Northland Alliance and White Tooth Castle sent a sentry team there together but nothing was found. Last year, the apprentices that were sent to the border all died again, and White Tooth Castle decided to quarantine the area around the border to do further investigations," Ivan explained.

"Is that so?" Angele felt depressed. Yuri was the only friend that had sent a letter to him, yet it seemed like he lost his life at the border.

"Yeah, sorry. I need to leave soon, let’s confirm the people you selected." Ivan walked to the book, closed his eyes, and pressed his hands against the cover.

Ten seconds later, Ivan opened his eyes.

"So, five Knight and five apprentices. The Knights are all available since they are still on the list. For the salary, two magic stones per year for each Knight. If they advance during the contract period, you need to add one magic stone per year. Well, if they somehow become Grand Knights, the contract must be modified. Rank 2 apprentices will cost you 20 regular magic stones or mid-level magic stones per year and rank 3 apprentices will cost you 40 regular magic stones per year. If the apprentice has some special skills, the price might increase," Ivan explained politely.

"Not a problem." Angele just acquired a whole box of magic stones from Isabel. He also had several crystal cards and magic stones that were more than enough for daily use. The total number of the regular magic stones in that box was more than 10,000.

"I’ll ask them to come to you after the contract is signed. What time will work for you?"

"How long do you need to send messages to all of them?"

"Two days. Ghost pigeons are fast. The only problem is those people live in different areas, so it may take some time for some of them to get here. Also, I heard that you need guard posts?" Ivan questioned.

"Yeah, bring your workers here and finish the job as soon as possible. I’ll pay for everything. Use high-quality stones if possible. You can arrange that for me, right? After the guard posts are finished, ask the Knights and the apprentices to come here."

"Sure." Ivan smiled.