Darius had watched everything play out from the fourth floor of the mage tower. Xela who stood beside him sighed on behalf of the kids.
Their little plan had been obvious to anyone even if they didn't use their Mind Power, nevertheless Xela had been rooting for them. She had hoped that Gunner would humor them, at least allowing them to demonstrate their entire strategy, even if it would be too much a request for the half-giant to let them win.
Alas, Gunner had been as brutal as ever, crushing their hopes before they ever really got the chance to show off.
"Is this really okay? Aren't you worried that taking loss after loss will leave them disheartened?" Xela asked uncertainly.
Darius nodded with a slight smile. "I'm actually counting on that."
Xela gave Darius a glance askance, wondering what her scheming Master was cooking up this time. Noticing Xela's look, Darius chuckled and offered her some insight into his plans.
"Well, it's like this. They've come here ignorant and with their own little goals and wants. Their answers before I handed them the Awakening Scrolls were only half-true in the sense that they had only shared their open ambitions."
"But Xela, you of all people should know that the heart has two shades. What they might want deep down might be something different than what they claim to strive towards. I don't blame them, as they likely are not even aware of it themselves yet."
"Let us take Ash as an example. He is a chipper young lad who is honest and talented. He told me that he wanted power to succeed his father. However, once he becomes Safemoon's next City Lord will that really be anything for him?"
"Can we be sure that he will be content with 'just' that amount power once he gets a taste of it? Who is to say he won't strive for more? His desire for ensuring law and order might easily result in him creating his very own faction to enforce it."
Darius rubbed his chin here. "While that should not become a problem, I have to train them well to ingrain who their Master is. Of course, if they had any conflicting interest to me, I would never have allowed them to Awaken back then, so they are clear."
"That is why I can invest our wonderful resources in them without hesitation. Currently, they are not bringing me any profit whatsoever, but that is fine still they are still in the process of being turned into a finished good."
Darius folded his arms behind his back casually. "However, any merchant who wants to have a strong and lasting business always makes sure that his goods are processed properly and to perfection. No blemishes can be allowed to exist that rivals can pick on to destabilize your consumer base, no faults to lead you into a legal mess."
"These five lads are my first products. They must be perfect, flawless. I am still ambivalent about accepting more, but in the situation I do, and it can yield me benefits, I will go all out to make the five the best there is after us."
Hearing this, Xela nodded and gazed down at them. She was a kind-hearted Elf and was slightly naive in certain senses, but she was not foolish, far from it. After events had led her to end up in Foldo's care, she saw the world in a different way and knew where her loyalties lay.
Darius had already humored her by fully explaining his position because he cared about her opinion, just as she respected his methods and position. She just hoped that the kids would not disappoint him… for their own sake.
...…..
After the fifth month came to an end, the lads were now halfway into the first year of their tutelage. With the intensity of the previous months, they expected harder tasks, but were surprised when Darius relaxed things slightly for the 6th month.
They only had lessons with him in the morning and training with Gunner. Their evening time was no longer spent struggling to master Basic spells, but rather with Xela who was now in charge of teaching them conventional education from Earth that had been cherrypicked from Darius' memories in the Supreme Portal.
Some of the topics blew the minds of the young fellows open, as they were encountering many things and philosophies they had never even heard of.
Ash was absolutely taken by the 'Theory of Representative Government', Reina by the 'Idea of Equality between Men and Women', Jonathan by the 'Idea of Hot Weapons', James by the 'Idea of Globalization and Puppet Governing', and Anthony by 'Maths and Science'.
However, apart from Anthony who could apply his lesson in his own research, the other four just considered them to be nifty things. They were smart enough to understand that implementing something like this on Fallon would be impossible even after centuries of effort.
In fact, given the size of Faust and the sheer number of people in the Andrato Kingdom alone, which was in the trillions, such an endeavor may very well take millennia. Fallon was the third largest continent with the highest population in the world.
Gravitas had only been able to achieve its progress because it was a small nation with not too many people, so progress could happen, like on Earth. Fallon alone was like making the sun a habitable planet and humankind filling it to the brim.
If getting anything done with 8 billion people was already so hard, how much more such a number?
Once the 6th month ended, the Apprentices were shocked to find that their Master, Gunner, and Xela were going to leave on what they called an expedition. They didn't give them a frame of time in which they would return, leaving the five feeling like abandoned puppies.
Darius chuckled and told them to handle their own studies until he came back, but he also gave them another task which would be supervised by Martin. That was to head to the Safemoon's dungeon and clear the entire Amateur floor.
They were to do this 5 times individually and 5 times as a team in order to hone their battle skills in real combat and prove that they deserved Gunner's teaching.
Darius' mission made the students feel pressure and excitement. Finally, after being cooped up in the mage tower for so long, they could head out! However, since it was to dungeon dive, they were understandably nervous.
Pleased with everything so far, Darius and his two Branded Servants walked through the portal on the fifth floor to places unknown, planning to finally tackle the issue they had put off for years, which was the Adept Quest.
At the same time, just as they left, the Mage Academy of Safemoon finally opened admissions.
