Chapter 144 - 95: Dean’s Legacy (Part 3)
This was simply incredible!
The Artificial Soul had seen its fair share of the world, but even it was a little moved now.
The Flower took the opportunity to fondly recall its former master. "Back in the day, I don’t think even Lord Martin had your kind of skill at this age, you know?"
Mo Ning shook his head and said with genuine sincerity, "How could I possibly be compared to Lord Martin?"
The more he learned from the Flower, the more he had to crane his neck to look up at the former dean.
Mo Ning changed the subject. "Flower, is there any food here? I’m a little hungry right now."
Just like last time, an intense hunger followed the increase in his Physique Value. It was as if every cell in his body was screaming, ’Feed me.’
The Flower said cheerfully, "Of course! I even picked a lot of delicious mushrooms today. I’ll go prepare a grand mushroom feast for you right now..."
Hearing the words "grand mushroom feast," Mo Ning couldn’t help but recall his first time entering the Great White Birch Forest with the brooch.
On his way to find the Cabin in the Woods, he had seen with his own eyes two mushrooms butting their caps against each other. When they heard his footsteps, they had shrunk back into the ground in fright.
The bizarre scene had left a deep impression on him.
’The Great White Birch Forest might hold even more secrets than I imagined,’ he thought to himself.
Mo Ning felt he had plenty of time to slowly explore the vast forest.
From what he knew of Lord Martin, there was a high probability the Third Level Wizard had hidden many "Easter eggs" in the forest for future generations to discover.
*****
While Mo Ning awaited his grand mushroom feast, deep within the Black Tower, in the Observation Room...
The Sharp-eared Female Apprentice Nasha’s gaze lingered on an orb of light that was now completely empty.
A wave of anxiety washed over her once again.
As Mo Ning’s Divination Talent became increasingly brilliant, her mentor’s focus on him grew by the day. Nasha naturally understood that monitoring—no, protecting—Mo Ning had become her top priority.
Finding any Traitors among the new recruits had become a secondary concern.
After all, Dark Wizards were like weeds in the wilderness—burn one crop, and another would just spring up. You could never catch all the Traitors trying to infiltrate the Academy.
But there was only one Mo Ning.
But the brat had vanished from his apartment again, leaving Nasha completely exasperated.
’That damn brat! Can’t he give me a break?’ she cursed fiercely to herself.
The Female Apprentice waited for a long time, but Mo Ning never returned to his apartment.
Finally, Nasha couldn’t take it anymore and reported the incident to her mentor.
CLICK—
The Rose Silver Mirror on the desk suddenly made a soft sound.
Nasha’s back instantly went ramrod straight. She called out respectfully, "Mentor."
A blood-red rose rapidly emerged from the mirror’s surface. Amidst the flowing crimson light, the face of the Second Level Wizard Yi Lin coalesced, blue light swirling in her mechanical eyes.
Yi Lin first glanced at the empty orb of light.
After Mo Ning left his apartment, the orb became like a television that had lost its signal, leaving only a vast, white, fog-like void.
Only then did she glance at the Female Apprentice and say, "I’ve recently been looking into some information about the new apprentice assessments..."
Nasha’s pointed ears twitched.
She couldn’t suppress the surge of jealousy in her heart.
It wasn’t that she wanted to be jealous, but she just couldn’t help it.
’My mentor is so busy, running as many as three Second Level Witchcraft research projects at once, yet she’s still taking time out of her packed schedule to look into something as trivial as the new apprentice assessment.’
’When it comes to Mo Ning, my mentor is always so different.’
Yi Lin’s topic suddenly jumped.
"Starting with the fourth dean of the Black Tower Academy, Lord Beck, every subsequent dean has personally arranged an assessment for the new apprentices. This has become an Academy tradition.
"Only new apprentices can activate these assessments. They’re said to be so difficult that even an Official Wizard would find them troublesome.
"They’re like those magical comics the Apprentices are so fond of, one quest leading to the next. No one knows how many stages the Lord Deans have set.
"But one thing is certain: the deans left behind many powerful rewards to help new apprentices grow quickly.
"The current dean, Lord Luca, has yet to create an assessment, so to date, a total of three deans have left them behind.
"They have another name—"
Nasha’s pointed ears pricked up even higher, their tips nearly touching the top of her head.
This was the first time she had ever heard that the revered Third Level Wizards, the deans themselves, would personally design assessments for new apprentices.
The Second Level Wizard paused, then said in a more serious tone, "The Dean’s Legacy Trials."
The Female Apprentice couldn’t help but swallow. She asked in shock, "So Mo Ning has activated one of the Lord Deans’ Legacy Trials?"
She naturally understood that adding the words "Dean’s Legacy" to the name meant the trials held an extraordinary significance.
There was a hidden meaning: if a new apprentice could complete all the tasks in a trial, their future accomplishments might one day reach the heights of an Academy dean.
That was unbelievable!
Yi Lin didn’t give a definitive answer, only offering a piece of evidence. "Even with my authority, I can’t find out where Mo Ning has gone. So I can only say it’s a possibility."
Nasha no longer had the energy for jealousy.
She simply sighed to herself, almost numbly, ’You freakish brat, is there anything you can’t do?’
Yi Lin’s mechanical eyes began to flicker rapidly, the blue light swirling in her pupils as if she were deep in thought.
A second later.
The Second Level Wizard made her decision. "Given that Mo Ning may have attracted the attention of a former dean—and on top of that, he can’t possibly be a Traitor for the Dark Wizards—it is no longer appropriate for us to monitor him."
Nasha replied at once, without a hint of hesitation, "Understood!"
The Female Apprentice understood, of course. Her mentor was unwilling to offend a Third Level Wizard and had thus been forced to concede.
Each dean served the Academy for two hundred years. Even after stepping down, they still held immense influence over it.
What if they accidentally stumbled upon one of the former dean’s little secrets—especially one of the unspeakable ones? How would her mentor handle the situation?
Mo Ning was the one chosen by the former dean. Of course that brat could look; the former dean wouldn’t mind. But her mentor certainly couldn’t.
So, they had no choice but to call off the surveillance.
As for him "not possibly being a Traitor," that much was beyond doubt.
Anyone with a powerful Divination Talent would never join a Dark Wizard Organization; doing so would only be a waste of their gift.
CLICK—
The Silver Mirror clicked again.
The blood-red rose swiftly retracted into the mirror’s surface, its petals folding in on themselves, layer by layer. The crimson light faded, leaving only the silent, embossed rose on the face of the Silver Mirror.
Her mentor, Yi Lin, was gone.
Nasha glanced at the empty, white-filled orb of light and sighed, her face a mask of envy.
She knew full well that now that her mentor highly suspected Mo Ning had activated a Dean’s Legacy Trial, she would only pay him more and more attention in the future.
The Female Apprentice walked over to the Crystal Stele, placed her hand on the monument that resembled the finest Crystal, and sank her consciousness into its control interface.
The blank orb of light flickered, then shattered into a fine shower of light motes, vanishing into the dim void.