Bab 17: Chapter 17
Darius walked towards the grand Academy gate wearing his hooded brown robe. After making sure he had hidden all identifications and taken the silver token away, he walked out from the dead-end corner into the direction of the academy. The sheer size of it was even bigger than the city's main gate and it had much more metal used to strengthen it. The supporting metal structures were almost like they had grown into the place encasing black stone and blood-red brick buildings.
When Darius came closer to the gate, mages in black uniforms greeted him, and one of the servants was ordered to show Darius where the academy registry was. The servant was bored and did not say anything to him. While walking in large parks, Darius saw countless plantations for medical herbs and a lot of people wearing grey robes harvesting, cleaning, and guarding these places. Occasionally some black hooded-robed men and women came fast with the horses or left by similar means, and from the bowing head of the servant Darius knew that these were the mages. They came next to the more modest long building that was made of wood and whitewashed walls. The support wood beams were again natural, almost as grown on place. The servant showed him the registry entrance and left the main gate without saying a word. Darius had not even seen the servant's face under the hood.
The registry looked inside like an expensive tavern with all manner of information notice boards and people coming and going. He noticed the mission board that was more grounded than any other board. Several people were even arguing there. Darius went past them to the registry desk.
"Hello there, I would like to register for the academia. How does it work?"
Tired looking grey robed woman with a big nose answered him in a surprisingly low voice,
"Yes, here is the registry paper, but before you write on it, follow me here."
They left the registry area to one side room, only lit by two balls of light that glowed in the air. These balls seem to circulate one another. After watching these balls for a while, Darius saw some symbols on the ground at the corner.
"Here, take this stone and go on top of this formation. I will see to the results. This enchantment circle will show what particles you have and by what amounts and portions you have been gifted."
Darius felt like he was an experiment but reluctantly shook that feeling off. It was just the particle test. The stone on his hand was one he had gotten earlier. A magic stone worth ten thousand gold was just used for this measurement. Mages truly were in a different world. After a short incantation, multiple colours surfaced on the formation. Slowly these colours made a mixed spiral around him, and the stone on his hand glowed very brightly for one second and then suddenly, almost all the colours disappeared. Only darkness did not evaporate, and Darius could see some hint of red and green around as tiny dots in the middle of the air.
"You have come to the right place," the register official said.
With a bit of hesitation, Darius asked, "Why?"
"Look boy, you have exceedingly a lot of negative particles. One of the highest saturations I have witnessed among acolytes. You still seem to be at the very beginning. However, your concentration is nearing 89 percent negative particles, red particles six, green particles four and a very minuscule number of light particles. To put this into perspective, even with over 60 percent supremacy of one particle colour is considered quite good for an acolyte."
"I see, so I would be better at negative particle magic?"
"Essentially, yes, but you will still need high particle comprehension. Your sea of consciousness must be broad enough to carry the spell models you want to learn, not forgetting the memorization of a whole model eventually. With your skills, you might be able to cast some minor spells with negative energy when you go past the rank two or three acolyte requirements depending on your aptitude."
"Right, thanks for the explanation."
"You are welcome. Here is the paper. Finish your details and come back tomorrow. Then we will give you the academy token. Remember to bring 220 magic stones with you for the registry fee."
Darius was already writing the paper. "Yes, sure.. Okay, here it is my name and details. I will come back tomorrow."
Darius left hurriedly while keeping his hood on to avoid anyone seeing his face. While Darius was already at the gate, the registry official looked at the paper.
Name: Ensil
Occupation: Servant
Address:
Still wondering why the address was left off next person asked for something else from her, and she put the paper into the big pile.
Meanwhile, Darius walked past the guards. It seemed that they were not interested in who went out but only looked at the people who went inside. *This might be interesting detail* he chuckled in his thoughts. He walked with fast phasing to a nearby tavern corner and went inside the public toilet. While lifting the lid, he undressed the robe, and after checking that he didn't have anything in the pockets, he threw the robe down into the sewer and watched the robe bubbling and submerging with shit and piss. After the robe was gone, Darius straightened his clothing and walked outside while putting the silver token back on his neck. He walked more hastily, but after he came out from the nobility area, he slowed to strolling and started thinking about his choices. After absentminded walking, Darius was already at his new building. But he was not alone. There were two people, strong people waiting outside the door.
"Hey you, do you own this place?"
"Yes, how can I help you?"
"Leave your rat ass alchemy place while you can or pay us 2000 golds."
Darius stopped walking and answered, "What can I do for you gentlemen?"
"This is how the stores operate. We collect money for Mathias, and you od to pay in time."
"I see. Well, we will discuss this tomorrow then."
Finally, two men left, and Darius could go inside. After closing the door and lock again, he sighed.
"Fuck, always some stupid shit.. I just got the damn building."
After almost destroying one wood beam on the wall, Darius started to think. He didn't know how serious these people were, but the name Mathias still disgusted him. Despite the disappearance of the thug boss, it seemed that his men were, either operating on his command, or they had started to operate privately. Luckily Elvira was still in the tavern storage room making potions. Darius weighed his options. He could scare them away or kill them, or they were just playing around without doing anything but idle threats.
Darius continued going through orders and supplies for the building. Despite the nice scenery and merchant district, he wasn't happy about it. Deep down, Darius knew how precarious the situation was. He would need guards or hired servants. *No. None of these could be trusted.* While ordering new shelves and tables from the carpenter, Darius figured out the solution to his problems. Simply put, his only option would be slaves.
The light of the day was disappearing again when Darius returned to the Green Lantern. After discussing with Elvira, they ate and planned the building decorations and potion sections. After realizing something, Darius asked,
"Elvira, do you happen to know any good potions for corpse removal?"
"Yes, several potions can do that, but we have ingredients for just one of them."
"What are the properties of this potion?"
"Well, it is not so potent. You will need around two potions to melt a corpse into liquid, but it will also melt clothing but not metal."
"That will be enough. Can you brew me several of them? I'll go back to take measurements at the alchemy store. No worries, I am not using them on you," Darius joked.
"Yes master," answered Elvira with a grim smirk.
It felt good to say alchemy store. And even better while owning one. Darius bought one apple cider and drank it while walking slowly towards his store. The starlights were getting brighter in the sky. Darius started thinking about what kind of slaves he would need and how to acquire them. Maybe he could give a request to mister Trader. Now that Mathias was gone, barely anyone else than mister Trader handled the slave sales. Auction houses were tedious and public in most cases, he could not access nobility auctions with private rooms, and academia was out of the question because he didn't want to pay for the lucrative entrance fee.
Darius noticed soon noticed something that he had almost forgotten about. It was something familiar nagging in his mind. While walking, he turned around the corner and saw his building on fire.
Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
stone