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Al lowered the recording artefact and looked blankly at the wall of his office in silence. He'd watched the fight between Markus and Gaige over 50 times. Each time, he approached it with a different perspective, hoping to find something, anything, that could've offered a chance towards Markus' victory. Yet with each watch, he would end up getting disappointed.

"It's truly unfortunate. To face someone with the Abyssal Wyrm Bloodline... Markus couldn't stand a chance..."

And that was the entire truth. In fact, through his admission, Al wouldn't have been able to trounce over Gaige if he had been in Markus' position. It was a sad realisation and spoke volumes of how advantageous having a superior lineage was for a mage. After all, if it weren't for Gaige's bloodline, Markus was guaranteed that victory!

Al read through the letter Guy left for him once again, with a dejected expression.

"Here's another unfortunate victim of this stupid tradition..." he sighed.

Although there was sound reasoning behind the academy's decision to hold the apprentice tournament, there were many times when Al saw promising teachers slip through the cracks due to unforeseen or unfortunate circumstances. In this case, for instance, although Al recognised Guy's tenacity and impressive teaching style, he could do nothing about the tragic outcome since the student that was participating in Guy's name had lost the match.

There are so many details that are important and need to be taken into consideration when evaluating a teaching apprentice's efficacy apart from just teaching their students how to cultivate and fight with magic. It was also important to assess a teaching apprentice's ability to inculcate proper values in their students, especially when it comes to the use of magic. Furthermore, it was also imperative to test the apprentice's open-mindedness, willingness to go above and beyond for the benefit of their students, patience, and so on.

As he mentally listed these factors with great vigour, Al paused and started to chuckle wryly.

"Why am I describing Guy?"

Al realised that after working with Guy and interacting with him, he had changed his perception of what a teacher needed to be. Al never had any qualms with the way the academy conducted its business, or how it pitted teaching apprentices against each other in what could only be known as a free-for-all dependent heavily on luck and chance. In fact, he even used to agree with this method. There was an oversaturation of teachers in this world, why bother training them when it was possible to pick prospective - lucky - teaching apprentices from a seemingly endless pool of choices.

Through experience, Al knew that the lucky ones that survived the culling process were capable of advancing by themselves. And those that failed to do so would simply fall through, making way for newer - lucky - blood to take their place.

Who cares about stability and capability when it actually came down to teaching students? Wasn't being powerful a reasonable indicator of how effective a teacher someone could be? After all, how could you become so strong if you didn't have a veritable reservoir of knowledge backing you up? Wasn't it easy to just say a few words, provide a few insights, maybe correct a few errors along the way? The students could handle the rest - how can they expect to grow stronger if they cannot even cultivate by themselves. What about those students that couldn't decode the almost cryptic insights offered by mages many realms above who had a more abstract view of the world? Well, they just weren't lucky, or maybe cultivation wasn't meant for them!

And that last point also highlighted the fatalistic nature of cultivation and magehood. It was a truly dog-eat-dog world that heavily favoured those fortunate and lucky. What use was methodic training and hard work if all it took to advance was a nonsensical fortunate encounter that compressed decades of effort into minutes? There had been many situations when Al had lost opportunities to other mages who just happened to be in the right place at the right time or had the exact key needed to crack some form of code that would let them benefit from a chance encounter that Al had toiled endlessly to pursue. At those times, he would simply convince himself that he had been unfortunate, or that they were rightful victors of the game of chance that was life.

But now that he thought about it, the whole system was whack! Observing the world of cultivation from Guy's out-of-the-box point of view had enlightened Al of the fact that regardless of the many discoveries and advancements made in the field of magic over the thousands of years, the world had remained stagnant. They either rehashed an existing theory into a different package or offered another theory without any strong evidence supporting it. If observed from a detached perspective, one could truly see that the world hadn't moved forward at all in the last 6000 years.

However, whenever Al interacted with Guy and discussed the almost revolutionary theories Guy proposed, he could envision a brighter future. He just knew that Guy was the answer, the much-needed solution, to push the world forward. He would bring this world to a new, more awesome age, beyond Al's realms of comprehension. And yet the messiah who was meant to change the world had become the unwitting casualty of a system that formed the foundation of the existing, stagnating, mage society.

Yet no matter how much Al wanted to overturn the Academy's decision to bring back Guy into the fold, he just couldn't bring himself to do it. Not because Al didn't have the authority to enforce that action. No, he was more than capable of doing so. No one would question twice if he were to demand the reinstatement of Guy. Moreover, Kaist would be thrilled and would comply without a second of thought. The issue was that Al didn't want to bring Guy back into this toxic environment.

Although Al had confidence in Guy's positivity, he didn't want to taint the man's bright mind with the disgusting politics and undercurrents that prevailed within and without the Academy's campus.

"It's better if he stays in that rural village. I'm sure that he'd thrive even more in that environment! I'm thankful that Markus also decided to drop out. That boy has a promising future, but only if he stays with his Master," Al said with surety.

Still, Al very much wanted to be a part of the process. He had thoroughly enjoyed the past year, observing Markus' growth and exchanging novel ideas and concepts with Guy. Even his cultivation had advanced by a significant amount within that short time period.

"The rural village won't offer much in terms of opportunities or resources..." Al muttered to himself.

"Right! I could do something to direct beneficial resources that way. Maybe... I could be a part of it as well," Al added with a light chuckle.

An interesting thought materialised in his mind that compelled him to visit one of his oldest friends.

Al ventured out of the Academy's grounds before casting a spell for flight. He hovered higher into the air, before zooming out southwards, towards the more prolific section of the city. His destination was the local household of the Rasmus Clan, one of the frontrunners in the field of healing and medical alchemy.

Alchemy was a wide field of study that encompassed many specialisations. Combat alchemy focussed on poisons, boosters, and so on. There were also fields that focussed on transfiguration, control, enchanting of the mind, etc. Apart from those, there was a particular field of alchemy that was widely recognised and was generally deemed of utmost importance, and that was medical alchemy. The practice of brewing healing potions covering a multitude of illnesses, injuries, disabilities, and discomforts.

In this field, the Rasmus Clan happened to be the pacesetters. Their roots ran deep. In fact, they existed even before the Age of Isolation, which was merit in and of itself. Since most clans from back then had vanished through the years, for one reason or another.

Al's primary intention in approaching the clan was to conjure a valid excuse to approach Guy once again. He chose this clan for two reasons. The first was that the current Clan leader was one of his closest and oldest friends, and he wouldn't think twice before directing a few meagre resources in Guy's direction. But it wouldn't be fair for Al to impose on his friend like this if it wasn't going to benefit him.

However, Al was certain that Guy could hold the answer to his friend's most personal trouble. And that was the second reason.

As he approached the mansion, Al slowed down and lowered himself back onto the ground. He could have easily flown into the premises, but it was often a sign of ill-intent to do so. He walked up to the guards at the front gates, who readily moved aside as they recognised Al's face. They offered a courteous smile and bowed with respect as Al entered.

Upon walking through the bountiful front garden, up to the mansion's entrance, Al spotted a familiar figure being led out from the back entrance. Al focused his mana sense and confirmed the figure's identity as Jo Way.

"What was he doing here? And why is he being led out the back?"

After a closer inspection, Al noticed that Jo Way was wearing an awkward frown. It was as if he was disgruntled and ashamed at the same time.

"Did something happen?"

Al remembered Guy's infrequent comments of how "nothing good can come from messing with Jo Way."

Al frowned while in thought, but then he quickly denied the ominous feeling encroaching him, "I'm just overthinking things..."

"No... I should probably warn Goran... Just in case..." Guy may joke often, but he was a wise man. Al knew that for a fact.

Nonetheless, Al continued his approach towards the entrance to the mansion, shelving his current thoughts for later.

As a close acquaintance of the owners of the mansion, he faced little opposition as he walked through the entrance. Even the servants were intimated with Al's presence and readily guided him towards the salon, where their master was currently staying.

Al didn't even need to open the door to the salon before it burst open by itself and a man walked through with a hearty smile on his face.

"Al! How's everything? What brings you here today?"