novelThere are No Shortcuts to Success
| ← Ch.068 | Ch.070 → |
It was obvious that President Rhansey could barely contain his excitement, so the two vice presidents who appeared to be much calmer cleared their throats quickly and reminded the President to be more aware of his image. The President instantly came to his senses and the usual composed look appeared on his face once again before he said to Mia, "Thank you, Mia. Excellent job! At the same time, please allow me to apologize for not discovering your talent earlier. I've been careless in my job."
His polite and modest words cause Mia's face to instantly flushed with embarrassment. She took a step closer to Baiyi and gently shook his arm, wanting him to help alleviate the awkwardness that she felt from the words.
"Alright, Mia! You've done a splendid job. Now, wait for me outside, okay?" Gently stroking her head, Baiyi signalled for her to wait outside while he stayed with the presidents to discuss the subsequent arrangement.
After Mia had left the room, Baiyi walked a few steps forward and took a seat next to the table as he cast a side glance towards the wooden box that was put aside by the President. As he had expected, there was indeed a sophisticated drawing of a complex formation inside the box with a high-grade Mana Crystal mounted right in the middle of the drawing. It was all thanks to the crystal that the formation was able to remain active for such a long time. From what he could see of the layout of the formation, if someone failed to crack the barrier and tried to open the box forcefully, the crystal would explode in an instance and although it was not powerful enough to cause injury, it would definitely burn the log inside it into ashes.
Actually, compared to the boring log, the exquisite well-designed wooden box was the real treasure that the Sage Vagabond had left behind. If one understood the profoundness of the formation and successfully broke it open, then there was no doubt that one would obtain the wisdom and knowledge of the legendary Sage Vagabond. Baiyi wondered how many people in the world would be able to realize that. Still, he did not plan to burst the presidents' bubbles so he decided to let them figure it out themselves.
At the moment, the President was not in the mood to think about it at all. After he had put the log away, he took a key out of his pocket and handed it to Baiyi, "This is the key to the laboratory that I've promised you. I've already asked my students to clean the place up beforehand and all of the facilities have also been serviced and replaced. Other than it being slightly remote and outmoded, the laboratory is still perfectly functional."
"Thank you for your generosity." Baiyi said politely and took the key from the President.
"A-Ah, you flatter me!" Faced with Baiyi's modesty, the President felt a little awkward. He immediately waved his hand as he exclaimed, "The person who is truly generous here is you, Master Hope. You only asked for such meager rewards in return for your help in solving such a big problem for us. I don't even know how I should thank you properly."
"That's right! And about the condition regarding Mia, well, I can see now that it's a completely reasonable request. We really did not expect the innate aptitude of that lovely little girl to be so good! At this point, allowing her to directly enter the Golden Rose class is not a problem at all!" Vice President Kim interjected.
"Thank you for your kindness but there is no rush for that yet, " Baiyi shook his head as he continued, "It's better for her to take part in the final exam first." In truth, the reason he insisted on Mia taking the exam was to use the opportunity to develop Mia's confidence in herself. Even though he had already given up some of his previous plans after listening to the Shadow and the Warrior's advices, he still did not plan to let Mia make all of the decisions regarding her own life yet. With her character, well, she definitely would need some guidance and supervision, otherwise, she would comtinue being timid. Baiyi really did think that the final exam would be a good opportunity for her to better herself.
"Well, since you insist on this, then we'll respect your wish, Master Hope, " Vice President Lee nodded his head before he continued saying, "But, there's one thing that I'm really curious about. Since you're a master with such a profound and immense knowledge that you could even teach Mia to deal with such a complicated barrier in such a short time, why are you letting Mia stay at the academy? With all due respect, I'm sure your knowledge and teaching standards are much better than most of the teachers here, am I right, Master Hope?"
Well, it's because we both need a quiet environment similar to the environment in the academy... Baiyi silently thought to himself. However, he replied modestly, "I only have a little knowledge on traditional and old-fashioned knowledge. I'm not a qualified teacher because there are a lot of new informations and theories that I'm not familiar with at all in this new era."
"Ah, is that so? Alright, I understand now." President Rhansey nodded his head and continued, "Then please allow me to express my gratitude to you for the last time. We truly owe you a big favor. You must let us know if you need any help in the future, Master Hope. Are you sure this reward is really enough for you? Please let us know if there is anything else we can help you with."
"Well... Now that I think about it, there is another thing. Mia lacks a staff for her use in the battle ring, " Baiyi finally added on.
When he came out of the room, Mia quickly ran towards him and hurriedly held on to his arm. Gently, she asked, "So? Mr. Hope? Have you talked to them?"
"Yes, I have. You will be able to enter the Golden Rose class as long as you win first place in the final exam." Baiyi lied but even so, a happy smile could be seen creeping up her face.
"Really? That's great!" Mia cheered and then as she slightly shifted her head to one side, she asked again, "B-But, is that barrier really that complicated? It was quite easy to crack, wasn't it?"
"Well, the formation was set up by the Sage Vagabond after all so it's still considered as complicated for most people. However, it's simple for us because the combination of my knowledge and your innate aptitude makes it easy for us."
"Ah, alright..." Mia nodded her head like she understood before asking again, "B-But, who exactly is Sage Vagabond?"
"Him? Tsk... Nothing more than a grave robber!" Baiyi snorted. Speaking of that, even though the Explorer is one of the Walkers supporting the use of formation but to actually dig up my teacher's grave? That's so... I don't even know how I should feel about him
After settling that issue, Baiyi had free time on his hands. In the following days, he mainly used his time and effort to train Mia. Now that he had access to a secluded but huge magical laboratory, it was more convenient for him to get the job done.
As for Mia, it was the busiest she had ever been ever since she entered the Celestial Fortress Academy. She still went for classes every morning as usual and afte dinner, she had to rush to the laboratory to have another lesson or practice with Baiyi, leaving no time for her to feed the pigeons at all. For that reason, she had became thinner and Tisdale who sometimes came to visit her could not help but feel sorry for her.
Be that as it may, Mia's enthusiasm in learning had not been reduced at all. Her success in breaking the barrier coupled with the promise that she had made with Tisdale had driven her to be more eager and passionate in studying, even more so than when she first summoned Baiyi. In the face of Tisdale's concern, she only laughed indifferently and reassured her, "Don't worry, Sis Tisdale! I'm doing really great!"
Then, she quickly went back to the magical practice that Baiyi had specially designed for her. In truth, since a few days ago, the little girl had realized the fact that she had an abundance of Mana in her body that never seem to deplete. When she told Baiyi, he merely explained to her that she possessed a rare trait replenished her Mana faster than other people.
"This is a very special trait, Mia. Those people who have this trait are usually supernatural beings who had their names recorded in the annals of history so you can't just let it go to waste, okay?" Just like that, he managed to fool Mia and with her simple mind, she really believed his lies and worked even harder after listening to his words.
Looking at Mia who had all her attention on practicing her incantation, Tisdale whispered to Baiyi who was drawing a Magical Scroll for Mia at the moment, "Teacher, do you really need to do all these?"
"Yes, of course! How can you not work hard if you want to pursue power? Pass that Ethereal Dust to me please..." Baiyi replied without even lifting his head up. He had used all of the money that he earned to buy all sorts of magical ingredients. The table in front of him was filled with a variety of things that could be used to make scrolls or to strengthen his existing magical tools.
As a matter of fact, regardless of how powerful Mia's innate capability was, he must ensure that she obtain the first place even if it means making use of all the magical tools and scrolls that he usually did not like to use. Although the method that he had learnt from Undine was not suitable to be used all the time, it was still quite a good method to use in an emergency or for a short-term remedy.
Sighing secretly, Tisdale obediently handed the ingredient over to Baiyi and watched him used his Mana to grab the dust and drew a formation on an empty scroll. The item was a commonly used ingredient as the formation or rune that was drawn using that ingredient would be able to remain active for quite some time.
After he had finished drawing the formation, Baiyi skillfully used some ordinary paintsto mark a few points in the formation before handing a parchment and a booklet that was drawn with formations over to Tisdale, "This is the modification that I've done after studying that formation in your house. I've written the operating method in the booklet so just go back and study it. Once you've adjusted the formation using my method, you will be able to use some cheap materials to replace those current expensive materials and it will help you reduce your expenses effectively."
After he had finished, he lifted his head up to look at Tisdale before he continued, "You said that Mia has become thinner but what about you, Tisdale? Aren't you getting thin yourself, too?"
When Tisdale heard of that, she could feel a kind of warmth enveloping her whole body. Once again, she experienced fatherly love from Baiyi's caring remarks.
Just as she was about to open her mouth to thank Baiyi, she saw him turning his head back and loudly shouted Mia, "The third and the eighth notes are wrong again! Seriously, if you repeat the same mistake again, as per our agreement, the hammerhead shark doll is going to sleep with me tonight!"
Hearing such a childish word, Tisdale could not help but let out a contented laugh.
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