Frank dressed himself and walked towards James. Adam gave him hope, and he was full of motivation. He couldn't consider resting at all, he didn't care about his relationship with James anymore.
Soon, five days had passed, the research was carried out daily. The pain that Frank could endure daily was limited and the speed of rune building was incredibly slow. Frank only succeeded in forming four runes, while James needed the help of a mental strength amplifier to build the runes.
Soon, the apprentices forgot about Adam again, and life in the Academy returned to normal. However, news soon spread like wildfire -- the final assessment was no longer a simple literacy test.
The same goes for Adam as well.
Many of the apprentices were unqualified because of this, but the Moldo Mage Academy had no choice in that regard. Initially, due to the losses from the war, they lowered their standards to allow even the weakest apprentice to join despite not meeting their initial standards.
This time because of Adam's research, the Sacred Tower decided to reward the Moldo Mage Academy. Hence they decided to weed out the weak apprentices with a more difficult assessment.
This obviously caused an uproar among the apprentices. This difficult assessment was bound to accompany death, and some apprentices who were living peacefully dreaded the assessment. They thought they could become mages step by step while avoiding danger.
Some apprentices requested to leave, but the mages rejected all of their requests without hesitation. Some corpses were dragged out of the tower, as they angered the mages.
The atmosphere in the Academy soon became dark. This assessment could pit the apprentices against each other, and doubt and distrust ran rampant among the apprentices.
The Dean intentionally kept this a secret from Adam. He feared that Adam might kill everyone to weed out the competition.
"Adam, Adam!" Elliot came to Adam's lab excitedly. "Open the door, I have good news!"
Adam was busy conducting his experiments, and motioned the two to continue their work. He opened the door to a very excited Elliot.
Elliot hopped into the lab and glanced around, "As expected of my genius apprentice! Your first lab is this big! Look! You even have an energy fluctuation recorder, even though I don't have one!"
Adam grabbed him by the collar before Elliot could scurry around the lab, "What's the matter, Elliot?"
Elliot was long accustomed to Adam's indifferent attitude, and announced, "The Dean has personally summoned you! Looks like you're gonna make a fortune!"
Adam guessed that this must be his payment for his research, which is indeed good news as he was short on power stones, he smiled, "You are right, this is good news."
The two left the lab and flew towards the tower. Elliot chatted endlessly along the way, "I can't believe you actually managed to harness power from the brain -- I mean, do you know how powerful you are? I no longer have to worry about using tools to obtain accurate results thanks to you!"
Adam asked strangely, "So you're saying... my runes work on you?"
Elliot stuttered back, "Uh, no. Not really, but soon! All of the senior apprentices are studying your meditation method closely, but they are doing it slowly. They still trust Prometheus' runes more."
Adam wasn't surprised. The runes were based on his own standards anyways, so most won't be able to build the runes. He didn't really care, though, since he didn't really intend to make it universal.
Elliot envied Adam, and expressed his envy, "I have been in the Mage Academy for more than 40 years, and I have never been summoned by the Dean."
Adam looked at Elliot strangely, "Victor. Dean Victor -- what level of mage is he?"
Elliot replied, lights glimmering in his eyes, "He's a Level 4 Mage -- with some time, he will be qualified to become a trans-dimensional mage."
Adam was in awe; He couldn't imagine how strong the Dean might be.
Elliot thought Adam was nervous and comforted him, "Don't worry -- as long as you maintain basic etiquette and not offend him, you will be fine! Besides, I heard that he has a good temperament compared to the other mages."
Adam knew Elliot was trying to comfort him, but to mages, apprentices are mere ants to them, so they wouldn't pay attention to ants in the first place.
The two descended from the sky and walked into the tower. This was the first time that Adam was allowed into the other floors. The two of them looked to the ground, not daring to look at the surroundings. The presence of magic weighed on them heavily, and they could tell they were approaching the Dean.
They soon arrived at the top of the tower, and Elliot stopped and panted, "The last floor is where the Dean's office is. I can't follow you, so good luck."
Adam nodded and continued on. The steps of the tower seemed infinite, but suddenly, Adam found that he was no longer in the tower, but an unknown space, "Apprentice Adam?"
Adam was shocked. He couldn't sense where the voice was coming from either, "Yes, respected Dean Victor."
In the next second, Adam felt a gentle push, which pushed him back onto a chair. He mustered up his courage and looked up from the ground, and there stood the Dean Victor -- he was unbelievably tall, completely different from the first day where he saw him.
The Dean could feel his discomfort and explained, "This is my real body, Adam. What you have seen on the first day is just a clone. The magic flowing out of my body is too strong for you, but you'll get used to it in a bit."
Adam was stunned. He couldn't believe that the Dean could hear his thoughts.
"Long story short, the head Trans-dimensional Mage of Moldo and the Fifth Elemental Sacred Tower has praised your research highly. On behalf of the tower, I will reward you," the Dean placed a token in Adam's hands, alongside a materialised rune. He then conjured a contract in front of Adam's eyes, "With this token, you can read all the books in the library for free except the upper three floors."
His first reward was access to knowledge.
"And this rune lets you store items up to one cubic metre."
His second reward was convenience and space.
"And this contract, Adam, I must say, you are incredibly talented. Upon signing this contact, your research will be published to the entirety of the Mage Continent. Whenever a person reads it, you gain ten units of power stones."
His final reward was resources.
Adam signed the contract immediately, envying that agreements in the World of Mages are bound by contracts. At least he longer had to worry about power stones.
"Thank you, esteemed Dean Victor."
"You deserve it all. I didn't expect for the Academy to be so lucky having a genius like you. You solved a great problem for me, too. I need to reward you somehow."
Adam didn't pry on what Dean Victor's problem was, but he knew that the rewards given by the Dean would be grand.
"In nine months, this might come in handy," the Dean said.
A small, black-red egg popped up in front of Adam, and an evil aura emanated from it. Adam picked up the egg, and found that it moved on its own, as if it was trying to invade Adam's body.
"What is this?" Adam asked.
"This is the egg of an unknown creature I got from the abyss plane during the war; it'll be as strong as a Level 2 Mage when it becomes an adult."
Adam widened his eyes. A Level 2 Mage was equal to the Black Mage's power level.
"Little one, it is time for you to go. Good luck in your trial in nine months."
Adam looked at the Dean quizzically, but he was suddenly swept away voluntarily and his vision went black. After regaining consciousness, he found that he was outside of the tower, and his rewards were hovering gently beside him. Elliot was right beside him, "Seems that you gained a lot my friend! Let's see what you got!"
