Seeing Adam trudge towards him, the apprentice became panicked and exclaimed, "What are you trying to do? The monsters are coming, and you want to fight me? Surrender and accept William's protection!"
Adam was unmoved and continued to walk briskly towards the apprentice, William stopped him, "Adam, we should work together. Believe me, even if you are a Great Knight, it is impossible for you to take on the beasts in the water. Only unity, and only magic can save us," he then stretched out his hand, revealing another magic ring in his palm. This time, the ring felt cool to the touch, with gentle breezes swaying around the ring.
No wonder William was confident. Turns out, he had other magical items on him. Seeing that William had more magical items with him, the other apprentices flocked to him.
William shot a blade of wind towards the sea, causing a huge wave to spiral up. William looked majestic against the waves and coerced, "Adam! Join us! With this alliance, we can protect you until you master the magic and go ashore alive!"
Adam was unmoved and continued to move towards the apprentice, and this time, Ophelia stopped him, "Adam, the beasts will be strong. Please, join us."
"You're in the way," Adam said to the apprentice before him.
The apprentice froze in place, but came back to his senses with false bravado, "Are you crazy? Didn't you hear William? It's a beast that can control magic! How can we win without mastering magic?"
Most of the apprentices regarded Adam as a complete fool, and he was already dead in their eyes. Only a few apprentices from the North did not give up on Adam, and Crystal ran over to pull Adam back into the crowd.
Adam stopped and looked at William. He remembered the fireball ring that Sam Aiden had.
"The alliance you have is pointless. The Black Mage said there are countless magical beasts in the sea. You can't be that naïve to think that you're able to guarantee your safety with just one magic item."
Adam sharply pointed out the loopholes in William's alliance, and William's face fell. William had zero intention to protect everyone from the beginning -- he only wanted to weed out the weak and choose the strongest among them.
"Hah! I have other magic items, and I will distribute them to everyone! As long as they are able to cast spells, we will be safe! That will buy us enough time for them to learn the fireball spell!"
Adam calmly asked Sam Aiden loudly, "How long is the cooldown on your fireball ring?"
Sam Aiden's face turned pale, "Fifteen days."
Adam turned around to leave, "Rather than waste our time on meaningless trinkets, it's better for us to grasp the fundamentals of this fireball spell."
No one stopped Adam anymore, because what he said was right, but they didn't want to leave the false sense of security that this alliance provided. "It might not guarantee my survival, but that doesn't mean that I'm the first to die," some apprentices thought.
"Mr. William, the Eastern apprentices join your alliance," Quentin announced.
William stared daggers into Adam's back. Despite people joining his alliance, their confidence in him wavered. "Damn it, I almost got it so perfectly!" he thought.
It's impossible for him to use the weak to let someone die for him now.
Randy walked forward to pledge the Western apprentices to William's side.
Ophelia frowned, and told William, "I quit this alliance."
William narrowed his eyes, "Miss Ophelia, be serious. You will be protected in this alliance. Do you seriously think you have the power to fight monsters?"
William didn't want to lose Ophelia's support. A great knight like her would be an invaluable asset to him.
Ophelia had already made up her mind, though, "You seem afraid." Then, she turned to the other Northerners, "How about all of you?"
Crystal immediately nodded, "I'll follow you, Miss Ophelia." She craved familiarity, and Ophelia provided that for her. Besides, she realised that the fireball rune wasn't actually that difficult to conjure.
Sam Aiden and the others looked at each other and hesitated, "I'm sorry Miss Ophelia, but we..."
Ophelia didn't need to hear what they had to say and left with Crystal. She knew that with Adam's immense talent, she would be safe with him.
Ophelia was indifferent by nature, so she didn't mingle with other nobles. She practised alone or with Crystal, but because of her talent as a refiner, magical spells seemed foreign to her.
She knew that if she directly asked Adam, she would be rejected. Hence, she intended to trade with Adam, even though she didn't have anything to trade with for the time being.
Adam was busy processing the fireball rune -- it wasn't an inscription, but a simple spell, which means that it's a one-time use spell, and the runes will rearrange and be rebuilt after using it a single time.
This high-level magic can only exist as a rune. The caster can observe the magic power, but not absorb it.
"If I'm correct, one of the three runes is used to guide magic power, one is to heat up, and the one is to cast."
These runes are somewhat like a 'black box'. The caster can use it, but know nothing about the principles behind it.
Adam tried to outline the runes to absorb them, but found there was some kind of magic binding the three runes together.
Adam gestured with his arms and conjured the rune and summoned a blazing fireball with his hands -- the fireball was immensely hot and sizzled in Adam's hands.
Unlike the fireball ring, Adam could control the fireball to a certain extent. Adam guided the fireball using his mental strength and made it fly up and down in front of him.
"Sure enough, I knew I could trust Adam," Ophelia thought to herself.
"Adam is amazing! I need to work hard to be like him!" Crystal thought.
"Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!" William cursed.
"That fast? Did we make the wrong choice?" the three Northerners sulked.
The fireball was about a thousand degrees Celsius, and Adam's body could not withstand the immense heat radiating from it. At this time, he could detect high energy from the sea water in the southeast.
Adam gestured his arms and launched the fireball towards the sea, and the rune quickly reconstructed itself into another fireball rune.
An arrow of water shot out from the sea, dispelling the fireball into a huge cloud of steam. A big fish emerged.
"A monster." Adam instantly retreated to the centre of the deck for a better position.
"Watch out! The monsters are here!" William's group exploded into shrill screams, and he could only stare. After seeing the monster with his own eyes, his confidence plummeted, and he found solace by being in the centre of the crowd. He scrambled out his magic items and doubted whether or not these items, and his group of useless apprentices could resist against it.
Especially since he saw a dark figure floating within the sea.
Everyone suddenly understood what the Black Mage had said about life and death -- cold-blooded animals were truly cold-blooded, and their eyes only had the intent to murder.
The ship continued to zoom forward at a constant speed, crushing any sea monsters that dared to stand in front of the ship.
Ophelia and Crystal remained close to Adam, but he ignored them. It was justified to be afraid.
William gathered his courage and began to issue orders frantically -- he distributed his magic items to a few strong apprentices. No point in hiding his intentions now.
The big fish opened its mouth and roared and demonic beasts rushed out of the sea, ready to attack.
"Crap! They can communicate with each other."
"This is bad."
