The Mysterious Black Magician

He signed the documents and presented his id card.

"Crimson Agila?" One of the agents muttered upon reading his name. The name rang a bell in him.  "No wonder he was able to beat the ranker," the agent muttered.

"Eh? What is it?" The other agent together with him asked upon hearing his mutter.

"No… it's nothing." After saying it, they said their farewell, while leaving the words that he would receive a summon from the higher-ups of the Training Pavilion any day of this week.

Yman wondered if that was all.

After the agents from the Training Pavilion left, he was fired with a barrage of questions from Airi and Professor Ronnie.

Thanks to Cinde though for being his wall. She was the one who took the brunt of answering their curious question.

After a couple of minutes, the two finally calmed down. "I see, so that's what happened, huh," said the Professor.

"Mr. Crimson, don't be so reckless next time," Airi also said. Yman wondered why she still called him with a 'Mr' attached to his name. But it wasn't important so he just pushed it at the back of his mind.

The group started what they were planning to do for this day.  They were processing all the materials needed for their herb mixing.

Cinde was tasked to practice her skill. She needed to create 10 normal-tier health Regeneration Elixir in the smallest bottle. While Airi was busy mixing different kinds of herbs. Prof. Ronnie was busy with what he was doing. And from time to time he would check their works. Commenting about the necessary issue that needed his attention.

"What are you smiling at?" A sudden question that pulled him back from his mulling.

"Eh?" Yman noticed that he was fixedly staring at her. "Nothing," he said.

"Nothing? I bet you are just shy to say your thanks to me, fufu," Cinde mumbled but he heard though. He wondered if it was supposed to be a joke.

But before he could open his mouth for a reply.

"Apprentice, here is the note!" Prof. Ronnie called out and handed him a piece of paper. Yman took the paper and looked at the content in it. Sistela also took a peek. "Just follow what was written in there. And don't forget to wear long sleeves!" Prof. Ronnie added.

"Okay, teacher," he replied with a nod, then stored the paper in his Cyber Storage.

Yman was tasked to gather some herbs at the mountain that could be seen far behind the Little Garden. It was also the mountain that Prof. Ronnie called the backyard.

He proceeded after wearing a long sleeves jacket to counter the sun. A white and green colored jacket with the logo of their department, a bright hexagram with the test tube together with an herb in the middle.

"Wait! Let me go with you?" Cinde suddenly shouted. Yman and Sistela went to a stop and glanced at her.

However, "No girl, you need to practice your skill," Prof. Ronnie immediately said.

"What? B-but---"

"No buts, go back to practice. Your alchemy skill needed more improvement than the rest," Prof. Ronnie hastily added. He was well aware of this girl's reason for joining the alchemy department. But he wanted them to focus on their training.

With crestfallen, Cinde returned to what she was originally doing.

Yman and Sistela proceeded to their task. He had to walk on the grassy field towards his destination. He didn't need to learn every name of the herbs and plants that he needed to gather. Thanks to Sistela's appraisal ability he could define the herbs easily, together with other information about them.

On the road towards the place, he noticed some magical plants that looked familiar to him. It was the same plant that he saw on the Outerworld around Sitona Town.

However, he noticed that most of the leaves of the plants seemed like they were eaten by worms. Only a few of the leaves remained untouched.

The plant was known as The Bless Plant. Why was it called that? He had no idea. But based on what he heard from the locals there, this type of plant stores a little amount of magical energy. Well, most of the magical plants were the same though.

So Yman just disregarded it as he could not find any difference between it from the other magical plants. He even once tried eating the leaves of it. He once thought that once he ate it, he would awaken his mana pool a bit earlier. But aside from its awful taste, nothing about it was noteworthy.

Yman didn't know how mana appeared in the world. He once heard from his teacher, that the world from the lost era was so different from the world today.

He said, humans and animals at that time were normal beings only. Or even the plants and other things.

The people could not use magic power, and there was no mutated beast, magical beast, or any monsters associated with magic. Though there were some paranormal rumors.

No one even had solid proof of which comes first, the catastrophe or the magical energy. But most specialists at that time believed that the mana came after the catastrophe. Since after the catastrophe, magical and mutated beasts appeared from out of nowhere. And the main cause of their evolution was the so-called magical energy. It affected every living organism in the world, from plants to animals. Many living organisms lost their vitality in the process of evolution.

But even with this reason, the conclusion was still as vague as the reality.

Especially as time continued advancing and the older generation had fallen one by one. New generations started to replace.

Aside from the ancient data that the lost era left, the newer generation was in the dark of the reality.

While he was walking on the path leading to his destination, he saw many kinds of magical plants and animals that couldn't be found on the Outerworld.

But most of the animals he saw weren't the hostile type. Which is good news. He could gather herbs without the hassle of dealing with hostile creatures.

He also encountered some other students who he believed their reason for coming to the mountain was the same reason as him based on their attire.

They were staring at the magical plants in front of them. Yet he noticed their worried faces, they looked like they were bothered by something. 

A frown appeared on his face when he noticed that the plant they were staring at had suffered the same thing as the blessed plant he saw recently. The leaves of the plant were eaten by insects.

He decided to come near them and greet them but unfortunately, they were not as friendly as he thought. They were even whispering to each other. Perhaps saying not to socialize with him.

The two girls and one boy looked younger which he believed were juniors and the two guys with them were seniors. There were a total of five of them, standing at the roadside. 

Such a large group for the task of gathering. Well, coming to the mountain together with friends must be an enjoyable experience for most. But Yman had never been a fan of exploring with friends. After all, he never had a friend in the first place. Although he met some people and able to converse with them, he could not just assume that they were his friends without knowing what they truly felt about him:

After scratching the back of his head, he decided to not mind them. He passed by and continued walking towards his task.

<Partner, do you think they are from the other Alchemy department?>

Sistela who was resting on his shoulder asked him.

Looks like they have the same thought towards those groups of people.

He too believed that they were the people from different alchemy departments. Perhaps they were seeing him as a rival. It explained the reason for their unfriendly attitude towards him.

In any case, he had to focus on his task.

"Uhm, wait…!" Yman was about to continue walking when one of the girls screamed out.

Yman stopped deliberately and glanced behind him. He saw them staring at him. The girl with big eyes and a pair of raccoon ears was staring at him with a face that wanted to ask.

He turned around and faced them. "Yes?" He asked.

"U-uhm… err…" looks like she wanted to say something but also having a second thought. He was staring at her, waiting for what she would say.

But suddenly, "No need to bother him, Achan," said one of the slightly older male with the same raccoon ears. He had coffee black medium hair that combed on the side. His almond eyes had brownish pupils. And he had little thick eyebrows and a cone face. His hands were tucked inside his long jacket's pocket.

And aside from all of that, he was staring at him with a distrustful face.

The other girl with them tried to pull the girl that they called Achan. They then passed by at him. Yman stared at their back that went farther every second.

Achan briefly glanced at her back. Yman was puzzled though.

He sighed and glanced at the magical plant that lost all its leaves. 'Must be the work of the gluttonous insects,' he thought.

Then he decided to continue walking.

Yman arrived at the foot of the mountain at exactly 2 and a half hours of walking.

He stopped and took the paper from his Cyber Storage. It was the paper handed to him by Prof. Ronnie. Written in there were different kinds of herbs and the description of the location where he might find them.

The first herbs written in the list was the herb known as Teardrop Magical Herb. He wondered who named this herb.

Stated in the paper that he can find it on the left side of the mountain. In the place surrounded by thorny plants.

About 300 meters from the foothill and 100 meters left of the huge rock.

<What happened partner?> Sistela asked when she noticed the confused face of her partner while staring at a piece of paper in his hands.

"N-nothing this paper is messing with me."

<Eh?>

Yman disregarded the stupefy Sistela. He glanced around to locate the said huge rock. But based on his vision, he could not find it at his current location.

He started climbing the mountain after a gulp of water. 

He had to walk around the mountain, without exceeding the given perimeter. Although he would not lose because of Sistela's ability to map the area, the time would be consumed if he loitered away from the designated measure.

Yman wondered and walked to the left side of the mountain. Following the direction stated in the paper of about 300 meters from the foothill.

He asked Sistela to tell him if she found a huge rock.

After almost another half hour of walking, <Partner, there!>

He heard his Deity shouted. Although she shouted, her voice wasn't big. After all, she was a tiny figure only.

But her voice was clear enough for him.

Out of reflex, he glanced to where she was pointing.

Ahead of them, a huge rock was sitting stably on the mountainside.

From thereon, he had to count about 100 meters towards its left.

It was 9 a.m. and the sun rays were embracing him. He let the warm sensation caress his skin as he proceeded.

It didn't take long for him to arrive at the place where they saw the thorny plants.

But Yman suddenly gawked.