Chapter 76: Become Our Advisor!
"It’s great, Mr. Percy! I’ve almost broken through to the third realm! I can’t believe how fast I’m improving with that new mana flow technique!"
Percy chuckled lightly as he told Harold to keep his voice down. They were still in a library. Harold blushed slightly in embarrassment, and Percy asked him to show him something.
"If you’ve improved this much, then you should be able to cast a C Rank skill already, right? How about you make a Morbius Vortex. Create a miniature one for me. Just as big as the palm with three magic sequences."
The Morbius Vortex was a twisting cyclone of wind that most mages with a wind affinity used to determine how far they had grown. The strip had a balance of complexity and simplicity in equal measure, so the only people who could perform it to completion were those who were in the late stage of the second realm and above! So if Harold claimed to be close to entering the third realm, then it should be easy for him to form a miniature Vortex in his hand.
Harold felt a little nervous when he saw everyone turn their eyes to look at him expectantly, and he coughed into his hand to try and calm himself. Harold had actually been practicing the Morbius Vortex for a while now, and even though he knew that he was already close to succeeding, if he tried it now, there was a chance that it could fail! But for some reason, Harold felt like he didn’t want to disappoint Mr. Percy, and that was why he steeled his heart and put his hand out.
Woosh~!
A small ball of wind began to form in Harold’s palm, just as big as an orange, and everyone watched as specks of sand intertwined with the wind and began to swirl inside like a mini-tornado. This was only the first stage, the first magical sequence, and Harold concentrated even more as he entered the second magical sequence. The ball of wind formed into a donut-like shape that continued to spin on its own axis like a ring spinning on its edge! A bead of sweat formed on Harold’s forehead as he succeeded in the second sequence, and now he had to focus even more to enter the third sequence!
The ring of wind began to bend inwards from its edges, and then Harold slowly made the ring twist into a figure-eight shape! Once this stage was done, all that was left was for Harold to bend the figure-eight shape into a Morbius strip, and he let out a long breath as he prepared himself! This was the stage where he had failed many times before, so he had to really concentrate.
"Make sure you have a proper image in your head first."
Percy’s voice reached Harold, and Harold blinked in surprise at the advice before he narrowed his eyes and formed the image in his head. The wind cyclone in his hand began to respond to his intuition almost automatically, and Harold was shocked when the vortex twisted inwards on itself and finally formed a perfect Morbius Vortex with sand moving inside an infinite tunnel of wind!
"I-I did it... I did it!"
Harold was more shocked than ever that he managed to accomplish this, and he looked at his two friends with an excited expression on his face! James and Raya congratulated Harold excitedly, and Percy smiled when he saw the looks on their faces! Harold finally looked at Percy with an expression that practically begged for some sort of recognition, and Percy nodded.
"Well done, Harold. You’ve really grown."
Harold’s face could’ve rivaled the sun at that moment, and Percy chuckled internally before he asked the kids what they came there for. Percy was sure they didn’t come to the library just to show off their magic. James bounced forward and spoke excitedly:
"We were wondering if you could become our club advisor!"
Percy blinked in surprise.
"Me?"
All three students nodded rapidly!
"Y-You always help us a lot when we need it, and your advice is really good. T-There’s no one else that we want."
Raya spoke up shyly while poking her fingers together, and Harold had a strong expression on his face as he nodded, like he was trying to tell Percy that they were very serious about this! Percy hummed curiously, and he thought about it for a moment. Percy didn’t really have time to babysit anyone since he was pretty busy with the work in the library as well as his own research, but for some reason, Percy didn’t feel like saying no! This wouldn’t be the first time that Percy had taken on apprentices. Most of the pillars that traveled around with Percy started off as his students who then became his allies on the battlefield.
And in truth, Percy missed the feeling of helping other people to improve! The satisfaction that came with seeing your student grow and learn was unparalleled, and Percy wouldn’t deny that he enjoyed teaching.
’Well, there’s just three of them this time, so it shouldn’t be too taxing. And since I’m just a club advisor, I won’t really be doing anything that differently from how I am now. I’m sure it’ll be fine.’
Percy smiled once he had this thought, and Percy could see the looks of excitement that came over the faces of all three students once they saw that smile. Percy nodded once and said:
"Okay then. I’ll be happy to be your club advisor. But you have to do everything I tell you to without question, do you understand? I won’t tolerate any of my students slacking off."
"We won’t! We promise!"
James was obviously the most excited of the three, and he couldn’t even stand in place as he kept bouncing on his heels! Harold and Raya high-fived each other, and Percy just chuckled at their reactions! Percy decided that he would allow them to enjoy the excitement for now because when he was done with them, they would be far too exhausted to feel any sort of excitement!
"Give me one moment."
Percy left the three students at the desk, and he moved away to look through the shelves. Once he left, James turned to Harold and spoke with an excited smile!
"See? I told you he’d say yes!"
"Yes, I guess you did. It’s just surprising. I didn’t think he’d agree to it."
Harold had been a little skeptical about Percy accepting their request since he knew that Percy was very busy. But Harold had secretly been hoping that Percy would agree because Percy’s advice about his affinity had been invaluable! There was no other teacher he would rather have as his advisor!
"I-I just hope we won’t take up too much of his time. I don’t want to be a burden."
Raya spoke up from the side with a sober expression on her face, and the two boys looked at each other curiously before Harold put his hand around her shoulder and grinned!
"Don’t worry, Raya. I’m sure it’ll be fine. We’ll just try not to bother him too much."
Raya’s cheeks burned with intensity once Harold touched her, and she ducked her head shyly while nodding! Harold had not noticed it yet, but it was obvious to anyone who saw them that Raya had the largest crush on him, and Raya could barely think straight whenever he touched her like this! Although the three of them had joined this study group mainly for Percy’s tutelage, Raya couldn’t deny that another reason she joined was because of Harold!