Keying Ship

Days passed, and after going through administrative procedures, Ourin signed the contract. Although it seemed unimportant, Ourin made sure to check all the terms, and some of them were not in his favour. For one, he could be assigned a mandatory mission in case of crisis, meaning that he could be conscripted to become part of the academy's forces.

The worst part of the contract was that his soul was bound to it, and there would surely be some side effects if he broke the contract. In the best case, some injuries but most likely, death.

Still, Ourin did not hestite to sign the contract.

The opportunity to learn magic was priceless, and Ourin did not plan on staying a mere knight for a lifetime. Now that his talent in magic was confirmed, he could focus on his new goal : becoming a magus. Although his grade 1 talent was a harsh reality he would have to overcome, Ourin knew that he also happened to possess three advantages over his peers.

First, Leylin's broken magical artefact would be enough to enter a magical academy free of charge, meaning that his 11 magic crystals that his father had painstakingly amassed sacrificing enormous amounts of wealth that impoverished the household for a decade would not be wasted in joining in the academy, but in his strength instead.

Second, he possessed the biochip, which meant that he would be able to learn more efficiently than his peers and become more knowledgeable than others. That way, he would be able to achieve much more on the theorical side, and focus on practical training, giving him an edge in terms of experience and overall strength.

Third, he was already a knight, and with his knight killing technique [Perfect Defense] and the [Ironguard Secret Technique] increasing his strength and vitality by 25%, he was already very strong and if he played his cards right, he might be able to use his strong physique in combat, thus getting endge over others.

That being said, the ship did not take off before two whole weeks, a time which Ourin used to strengthen his relationships with Harry and Joella, the two apprentices from the Steelcrest Alliance who had chosen the Merficura Academy as well.

Neither Harry nor Joella were highly talented, as Harry awakened grade 1 talent and Joella grade 2 talent. However, the both of them possessed fire elemental magic, making the Merficura Academy very suitable for them. After all, the Merficura Academy was very famous for its knowledge of fire and nature elements, even more so than other academies. Accumulation of knowledge was its primary goal, and there was a system of [Knowledge Point] that highly interested Ourin. To him, the more knowledge he could get, the better it was.

Because of its thirst for knowledge and its willingness to do anything to gather knowledge and experiment, the Merficura Academy was actually known for being very cruel and apathetic, qualifying as a dark magus path academy, abiding by the Southern Magus Union laws.

Boarded on the Keying Ship, which was an eastern-looking medieval ship with three mats and enormous sails, roughly two hundred apprentices boarded onto it. Every apprentice had to share a room with two to five roomates, with the only exception of a few talented fellows who possessed grade 4 talents.

Sharing a meal on the deck, Harry suddenly asked: "Have you heard? Alfred and Vanessa, both grade 4 talents, already received their meditation techniques from the magus who will escort the ship to the Merficura Island in exchange for signing a master-and-disciple contract. Alfred also received a magical artefact, and someone saw him summon a fire creature out of it, although he seemed drained afterwards..."

Ourin nodded, not the least surprised by this development. It was to be expected that highly talented individuals would be nurtured early on. As for the untalented ones, they could only wait, making the gap ever bigger.

"There is an interesting rumour going on...apparently leaked by Vanessa. I was only able to get it by exchanging a dozen gold coins for it. According to her master, there are many magi observing our every movement in the ship. Depending on our behaviour, individual strength and reaction to crisis, we will be selected by the magi directly", Joella said

Ourin's eyes flashed in surprise.

Unlike the Abyssal Bone Forest Academy, it didn't seem like they would be given the opportunity to choose their masters. Instead, the masters would choose the students they found most suitable for their teachings and experiments. While this was a good opportunity to get acknowledged by a strong magus, this was also a dangerous endeavour in which Ourin and other untalented students might be selected by an evil magus thinking of them as guinea pigs for his future experiments. Remembering the details of the book of some grade 1 talents becoming disfigured for life, Ourin's face started to become pale.

Just as he was meditating on those words, the ship started to move, and the sailors who had been inactive until now started to remove the anchor and deploy the sails. All of these sailors might look unconspicuous, but they were all on par with preparatory knights in terms of strength.

They were getting one step closer to the path of Magic.