The City Lord's Mansion was much more luxurious than the Viscount's Mansion, Elias thought to himself.
The hall was crowded with people, and Elias eagerly looked inside, only to see a Wizard dressed in a loose gray robe sitting at the highest point of the hall, his face, as Lyra had said, seemed to be shrouded in a layer of mist, making it unclear.
On the table in front of the Wizard was a transparent Crystal Ball, emitting a soft light, and the entire hall was enveloped in a mysterious aura. A red-eyed frog squatted beside the Crystal Ball, croaking incessantly.
Is this a Wizard?
A little excited, this was Elias's first time seeing a Wizard who wielded mysterious and powerful Wizardry. In front of the Wizard's Crystal Ball, a chubby, brown-haired girl was closing her eyes, her face full of tension as she touched the Crystal Ball.
The people in the hall held their breath, and for a long time there was no sound. Only then did Elias look behind the Wizard, at three children about his age.
Is it her?
The first girl Elias saw was pouting, her face full of reluctance.
This girl was the one who had discarded The Modification of Hunting Nose and Olfactory Atlas magic book at the Viscount's Mansion in winter. Elias had also learned over the past half year that she was the only daughter of Biser City's City Lord, possessing great power.
Presumably, that pot-bellied noble from back then was the Great City Lord of Biser City.
The other two seemed to be a brother and sister, or perhaps an older sister and younger brother; Elias couldn't tell, but from their almost identical appearances, they were certainly related by blood.
The boy, full of arrogance, stood behind the Wizard with his head held high, looking at the people who came for Wizard Apprentice Aptitude assessment with a sneer, much like the fellow collecting gold coins at the entrance of the City Lord's Mansion.
The girl, on the other hand, looked a bit shy, probably unaccustomed to being the focus of so many people's attention at once.
"Could they be the ones who were tested and found to possess Wizard Apprentice Aptitude?"
Elias wondered.
Elias was right. This brother and sister were children tested and found to have Wizard Apprentice Aptitude in a city before Biser City.
To be able to stand out from hundreds or even thousands of children, and to have those usually high and mighty noble lords curry favor with them, truly gave one a feeling of soaring to the Sky, and it was inevitable to feel a bit arrogant and proud.
The boy's name was Jasper Thorne, and the girl's name was Jessa Thorne. They were originally from an ordinary hunter family.
When both were tested and found to possess Wizard potential, those nobles who were usually so distinguished suddenly fawned over the two like tavern girls, giving Jasper Thorne the feeling that he was the center of the world, the favored child of Heaven, and the protagonist of destiny.
Jasper Thorne looked at those who rushed to test their Wizard potential with contempt in his eyes.
If it were so easy to possess Wizard Apprentice Aptitude, why would Great Master Zorak only have his brother and sister, and that idiot outside, following him from the first three cities?
It would be good if this city only had the City Lord's daughter, and that was even an allocated spot obtained through bribing the Wizard.
"Mental Energy 6, disqualified. Next."
Just then, the mysterious Wizard spoke.
At the same time, the chubby girl, who was nervously touching the Crystal Ball, turned pale and, urged by the person behind her, left the Crystal Ball.
"Alas, another disqualification."
"Yes, it seems there's not much hope for us here."
The people who had been holding their breath sighed one after another. After a day of Aptitude testing, no one had been found to possess Wizard Aptitude except for the City Lord's daughter, who was tested first.
If it weren't for having already paid one gold coin, most of the remaining people would have given up long ago.
"Mental Energy 5, disqualified. Next."
The boy in front of the Crystal Ball shrugged helplessly and left dejectedly.
One by one, those undergoing Wizard Apprentice Aptitude tests left, and gradually, as Elias moved closer and closer to the front, a sense of despair also began to rise in his heart.
It seemed that becoming a Wizard was not so easy.
Elias knew the boy in front, he was the son of the Moon Bay Tavern owner, named Alden. The Moon Bay Tavern was the most luxurious place in Biser City, so this guy definitely had countless gold coins.
Alden stood nervously in front of the Crystal Ball, touched it, and closed his eyes as the Crystal Ball gradually emitted a soft light.
"Mental Energy 9, not... Hmm?"
Elias, with his sharp eyes, saw Alden secretly hand a bag to the Wizard, and inside were strange stones.
Elias, quick-witted, immediately thought of a possibility: bribery?
"Hmm, alright, stand behind me."
The Wizard put away the bag and changed his words.
Alden was excited: "Thank you, Great Master."
After speaking, he excitedly stood behind the Wizard.
Elias's face was grim; he had nothing to bribe the other party with, and he believed this Great Wizard wouldn't even care about the single gold coin his family had left, right?
Elias walked to the Crystal Ball with a jumbled mind, not knowing what to do.
"Put your hand on the Crystal Ball and close your eyes."
Following the Wizard's words, Elias instinctively did as he was told. For a moment, in Elias's perception, the hall seemed to quiet down, as if the entire world had been covered by a large dome.
"Hmm? What's going on?"
Elias opened his eyes, only to see that the people in the hall seemed to be frozen, unmoving.
The City Lord's daughter was still pouting and crying, but her tears were suspended in mid-air. Jasper Thorne was sneering, revealing two sharp canine teeth.
Elias turned around, the annoying fellow at the door who collected the assessment fee was casually tossing a gold coin backward, but the gold coin was now suspended in mid-air.
Everyone in the hall seemed to be frozen, fixed in a moment in time, unmoving?
Hmm?
No, that's not right!
Elias noticed a table in the corner of the hall, with plates arranged on it. The plates were etched with exquisite patterns; commoner families simply couldn't afford such luxurious plates.
Inside the plates were delicate pastries and fruits, which the City Lord had prepared for those testing their Wizard Aptitude to eat, but no one actually came to eat them, so they were more for decoration than practical use.
But at this moment, above the fruit platter, there were actually two creatures with colorful soft tentacles and countless tiny eyes all over their bodies, floating and playing like jellyfish, swaying and drifting in the air.
This... this was simply unbelievable!
What is this thing?
Elias could feel his body trembling, and his face must have been very pale. Although he had yearned for the mysterious Wizard World countless times, now that the Wizard World had just opened a tiny corner of its door to him, he felt an endless unknown and fear.
This was a world different from his perceived reality.
Elias bravely and cautiously walked towards the two bizarre, unknown creatures, but just as he approached the table, the two creatures seemed startled and swam onto the wall.
At this moment, the wall was like water ripples, and the two strange creatures easily Fused into the wall and disappeared.
Elias was stunned for a moment, taken aback by the fact that the two strange creatures had disappeared into the wall.
However, because he was close to the dining table, Elias suddenly discovered that besides the four normal candles on the table, there was one candle that seemed extremely abnormal.
Although this candle holder had a burning candle on top, the candle holder itself was not a finely crafted noble ornament, but a roasted, bright red pig's head.
Elias was a bit strange. Why, at first, had he also seen this candle holder and thought it was normal, but then after getting closer, he suddenly felt it was contrary to reality?
Strangely, the two eyes of this pig's head candle holder slowly moved, fixing tightly on Elias, meeting Elias's gaze.
A creepy, eerie atmosphere permeated the air.
"Haha! I've finally Broken Through to the highest Realm! Sky! Earth! Evil Dragon! Nothing can stop me anymore!"
Suddenly, an arrogant burst of laughter emerged from this terrifyingly silent world. Perhaps it was because Elias's mental reaction speed had slowed down, but although he felt it was abrupt, he didn't feel fear. He turned to look at where the sound came from.
It was a bard's biography novel, read by nobles when they were bored.
The main theme of the story was probably about a poor boy and a noble Young Miss falling in love, but encountering obstacles from her family. Then, the poor boy diligently worked his way up, had countless opportunities, and finally defeated the world's most powerful evil Dragon, proving himself and marrying his beloved.
Overall, it was a clichéd and boring story. The novel also had some illustrations depicting the protagonist defeating various evil enemies.
"G-G-Ghost!"
Elias stammered, looking at the biography novel.
A small paper figure was breaking free from the book, slowly standing up. The figure had all the human organs, with vivid expressions, an exaggerated look of surprise, staring blankly around.
This small paper figure was the protagonist's illustration from that biography novel.
Only, at this moment, although he was no longer as crude and simple as the novel's illustration, possessing delicate human expressions, this was only his front!
In essence, he was just a thin, standing piece of paper, and his back was a page covered in text.
"Ghost! Where is this? Shouldn't I have become a God?"
The small paper figure shouted in panic, staring blankly at his surroundings.
Suddenly, the small figure seemed to see Elias, and his small face immediately took on a serious expression. He drew a paper longsword and pointed it at Elias.
"Who are you? A God from the Divine Realm?"
"Who are you, a God from the Divine Realm? Who are you? A God from the Divine Realm? Who are you?…"
The floor tiles in the hall formed a long crack, which opened and closed like a talking mouth. Although Elias and the motionless nobles in the hall stood on the crack, they did not fall in.
It was as if this crack-mouth was just an illusion, yet it repeated the paper figure's words like a parrot.
From the endlessly dark crack, a scarlet tongue suddenly emerged. The tongue came out from under Elias's feet, and Elias could even clearly see that the tongue was composed of countless tiny snakes wriggling together. It abruptly coiled around the small figure, who was standing on the book and already stunned.
A series of screams, and the small figure disappeared into the depths of the floor crack.
"This isn't real…"
Elias was stunned, trembling in place.
Suddenly, the Crystal Ball on the table seemed to emit a dazzling light. At the same time, Elias was pulled into a trance towards the Crystal Ball. The moment his hands touched the Crystal Ball, this world no longer presented a frozen scene, and the murmuring voices of people entered Elias's ears.
"Mental Energy 12, good, stand behind me."
Elias raised his head, his face pale, and instinctively and numbly got up, standing behind the Wizard.
He looked around, and all the strangeness had disappeared. Even the noble who was reading the biography novel showed no abnormalities, there was no pig's head candle holder on the table, and the floor was fine. It seemed as if everything just now had been an illusion, or a dream.
"Damn it! What luck did this guy have to actually possess Wizard Aptitude?"
"It's over, it's over. My child used to bully him. I hope he doesn't come back for revenge later!"
The hall buzzed for a moment, then quieted down again after a cold snort from the Wizard. However, the City Lord's daughter and Alden, the son of the Moon Bay Tavern owner, who were near Elias, looked at him with surprise.
But seeing Elias dressed like a servant, they contemptuously curled their lips, losing any interest in talking to him.