Age of Adepts

Just as Grim had predicted, the appearance of the Horton Witchcraft Academy immediately caused a stir in the middle of the continent.

Never before had a witchcraft academy been able to gather such a large number of high-ranking sorcerers and powerful creatures from different planes; never before had a witchcraft academy been able to divide its study and training grounds across a dozen sub-dimensions; never before had a witchcraft academy been able to recruit outside students so unrestrictedly....

Therefore, when the list of instructors of the Horton Witchcraft Academy was made public, the entire Scattered Tower Forest, and even the entire middle of the continent, boiled.

Open enrollment with no race, gender, origin or quota restrictions, high level knowledge and wizard resources with no contractual restrictions, fair teaching without discrimination, good and excellent witchcraft facilities, and that one prominent and dazzling powerful tutor....

Horton Witchcraft Academy is somewhat borrowed from the Coven's training model in many aspects of its setup, not with the family witch as the ultimate goal of training, but rather opening up the Crimson Family's quality resources to the outside world, somewhat similar to a public service witchcraft academy.

This also made the Horton Witchcraft Academy rooted in the Crimson Family, but outside the family system, turning it into a strange melting pot for cultivating free witches.

From the very first day of enrollment, the Horton Witchcraft Academy never cared about the origins of its seekers. Even if a person is obviously branded with the mark of another wizard family, it will still accept him or her, and provides all the basic resources in a fair and open manner.

As long as you have magic crystals, as long as you are willing to stay in Horton Witchcraft Academy, the door here is always open for you.

There is no contract of service, no mandatory tasks, no discrimination of bloodline origin, no distinction between noble and low status... There are no classes to teach, and you are free to come and go.

And this, undoubtedly, was the most attractive place!

One must know that most of the Sorcerer Families in the middle of the continent were not surviving very well.

With the exception of a few families that are able to conquer the different planes on a large scale to capture massive resources, most families are lucky to have a secondary plane that provides a steady stream of magic crystals and resources.

As the scarce resources within the family have to be tilted towards those who are powerful or gifted, the situation is still very difficult for the common shamans and apprentices.

These ordinary sorcerers and apprentices, who accounted for the majority of the resources, could only hold their noses and make deals with these sorcerer families if they wanted to obtain some resources. And the terms of the deal were either a service contract for a certain number of years, or stepping onto the bitter battlefield to fight on their behalf on a different plane....

Either sell your body or sell your life, there was no other way than this.

After all, all the wizard resources had been monopolized by wizard families large and small!

But now, the appearance of the Horton Witchcraft Academy provided them with a new option.

For those wandering witches or free witches, they could go inside the academy and put their name up as a tutor, obtain the corresponding magic crystal remuneration by teaching public classes or by concocting potions, writing scrolls, concocting witch beasts and puppets, and then use this remuneration to buy the high-level knowledge that was open to the public.

As they were free, they could come and go as they wished, and were not subject to the restraints or dictates of anyone or any organization at all, and their lives were not in danger. Moreover, as academy instructors, they could also enjoy a certain amount of free sorcery facilities.

To those free witches who had a large amount of sorcery materials saved up in their hands but were suffering from a lack of a place to carry out their disposal, this was a heavenly good thing!

Moreover, the Crimson Family was rich and generous, and the core witch tower of the Horton Witchcraft Academy was a top-notch configuration. The sorcery facilities inside were so complete and sophisticated that they were top-notch even in the middle of the entire continent.

At the very least, those small witchcraft academies in various regions were unable to compare to the Horton Witchcraft Academy in every aspect, regardless of their financial, material and human resources. Therefore, after hearing about such excellent conditions, those free witches and apprentices all flocked to Ironwood City.

In less than half a year, Ironwood City was forced to undergo three expansions, and the resident population had skyrocketed from 6,000 to 120,000.

This nameless little city located on the edge of the Alois region had almost instantly become the most sought-after large sorcerer city in the middle of the continent due to its proximity to the Horton School of Sorcery.

............

Ferdinand City, Sarupo Family Residence.

Amm, dressed in a grey witch's robe, passed through a silent and dark magic tunnel, passed through a membrane of light that shone with a faint witchcraft glow, and arrived at the public passageway of the spell area.

In front of him was a wider stone tunnel, and a trio of family apprentices, books in hand, were hurrying to the academic hall. In three minutes it would be time for the public lesson on spellcasting by the Wizard of Amb, so the late arriving apprentices could only speed up their pace, not wanting to miss out on this once-a-week free subject.

As the lecturer of this class, Amb would also receive a certain amount of magic crystals and quest points from his family to support his expensive and nearly bankrupt witchcraft experiments.

However, when he reached the entrance of the academic hall, he was surprised to see two men, one woman and three apprentices standing in the doorway, seemingly waiting for his arrival.

Amm hesitated.

All three were senior apprentices under him, or the three with better qualifications.

Seeing Amb arrive, the three apprentices gathered around, but you looked at me, I looked at you, the expressions on their faces were tense and apprehensive, clearly something difficult to talk about.

"What are you guys doing here? Classes are about to start and I don't have much time to deal with your problems...let's wait until after class to discuss everything!" Amm frowned.

Natalie, the most petite of the female apprentices with freckles on her face, but still clear-eyed, finally found the courage to speak.

"Teacher, we are the ones who want to resign ourselves to you!"

"Resignation? Are you guys going out of town?" Amm's frown deepened, "Your mental strength has only just reached the high level, and you're still far away from the paragon level, so don't be in such a hurry to train..."

"It's not going on an adventure..."

"Not going on an adventure? Then why are you both quitting at the same time? Tell me, has something happened to your family?" Amb chimed in.

"There are no accidents in our family, it's just...it's just that we want to leave here and go to another place to further our studies. There...the conditions offered there are very generous, and many of our partners in the Witch Tower have already left early! And we just wanted to say goodbye to you before we left..."

Amm was silent.

His face paled a bit, making him look even older and more debilitated.

He had lived a very depressing and stifling life over the years.

Hanging around inside the Sarubo family under the name of Crimson Family traitor, although the family treated him equally and still took care of him, but inside and outside, countless guys who knew the inside story didn't stop laughing at him behind his back.

Even when those Gryphon-like sorcerer apprentices met him in the corridor, there was a look of contempt and sympathy behind their respectful eyes.

The first five disciples who had followed the legendary Fire Witch Grim, and the only one of the five disciples who had a fire affinity. It was surprising that he had chosen to betray his mentor because of his 'loyalty' to the Sarubo family....

If that Grim had died without incident, then Amm would have become a typical example of setting things right, being admired and secretly approved by everyone, and even his status in the family would have been significantly raised. But things happen... the script of life never seems to be written the way the weak think it should be!

That Grim had been suppressed by the Sarupo Family for so long, but he had still risen strong. And what was even more frightening was that his strength had even overshadowed that Lord Sanaza, the 3rd rank witch who ruled over the Sarupo family.

During the powerful battle of the Scattered Earth Tallinn Association, Lord Sanaza was severely humiliated by that Grim and was forced to switch to the secondary plane to rest and recuperate. And now, the one who ruled and governed the Sarupo family was none other than that purple-eyed lord who was the same name as Sanaza.

But just as the family was brewing revenge against that Grim, terrible news came in that the other party... had even advanced to the 4th rank!

And the moment this news came, the entire Sarubo family was silent.

4th step... 4th step... 4th step....

In the Wizarding World, a 4th rank was the top level of existence!

If that Grim was tearing his face off trying to make things difficult for the Sarupo family, even if the Sarupo family had a 6th rank Grand Sorcerer behind it, it wouldn't help.

After all, the Sarupo Grand Sorcerer's origin was far outside of the domain, and he was also powerless to do anything about the internal affairs of the Sorcerer World.

So, in a burst of inexplicable jitters, Amm hid in the Sarupo Family Residence, never daring to take another step outside of Ferdinand City.

Nay he chose to close himself off, but news from afar still continued to come in.

Over the past one to two hundred years, the strongest front in the middle of the entire continent probably belonged to the Crimson Family and that Legendary Fire Witch.

Every once in a while, the latest explosive news would come in, creating a not-so-small ripple within the family. But the news that caused Ammu to gnash his teeth the most was nothing more than hearing that Red Dragon Witch Meryl had advanced to the 3rd level....

The night the news broke, Amm smashed all the contents of the residence and lab, got drunk, and lay in the ruins screaming in agony all night again.

He had always thought he didn't care about anything far away anymore. But it was through that night that he fully realized that he still cared!

But the good news was that time was the best healing elixir, and nearly a hundred years of silence and busyness had calmed him down once again, making him one of the most diligent and hardworking 1st rank sorcerers in the Sarupo family.

Yes, more than two hundred years had passed, and half of Ammu's life had been completed, even when his face and body were somewhat decrepit and old, he was still no more than an ordinary sorcerer of the 1st rank.

Today, here, he was stopped by three of his own personally taught disciples and told to resign. For some reason, Amm's heart was vaguely telling him that it might probably probably also be related to that demonic fellow.

A hideous beast was roaring inside Amm's heart....

Amm bit out with a smile and a gentle question.

"Tell me about it! Where was it that drew you to..."

Natalie was mute.

In the end it was the other male apprentice, Russell, who plucked up the courage to speak up.

"The Horton School of Witchcraft and Wizardry... was... formed by that... Crimson family!"

Crimson....it really is crimson!

There's that cursed abomination of a name again...did that demon put some kind of curse on me? Let me hear the damn name wherever I hide....

The last of the color in his face faded quickly, and his mouth watered with a fishy sweetness for no apparent reason. He shook his body, stretched out his hands to support the side of the wall, and slowly fell to the ground amidst the cries of fear from the three apprentices.

The last breath of life quickly slipped away from inside his aging body....