Chapter 154: Chapter 153: Where Did the Wizard Go?
Several days passed in the blink of an eye, the giant ship floated on the sea but did not set sail; it was waiting for the arrival of the rest of the wooden boats that were recruiting students.
Three days later, two more wooden boats met up with the giant ship, each boat carrying about dozens of students.
Eventually, the giant ship gathered four official wizards, several wizard apprentices, nearly two hundred students, and an unknown number of sailors, and then set sail for a long journey.
The four wizards came from the three wooden boats used to recruit students. Siv was among them, responsible for recruiting students along the Jade River. The other two wooden boats were responsible for recruiting students from two other major rivers on Smans Island, and the last wizard had always been on the giant ship, purportedly the most powerful.
The four wizards usually did not show themselves. Apart from having contact with Siv, Richard had not even seen the other wizards.
The wizard apprentices were almost all direct disciples of the four wizards—some had one, others had two, but never more than three. The wizards brought them on this voyage for experience. Each one was strong enough to easily handle some of the ordinary students who were yet uninitiated; thus, they were in charge of some of the order on board.
Compared to wizard apprentices, the newly recruited students were much less capable; most of them had talent but no combat abilities, and most had not undergone Life Remolding three times. Even so, that didn’t mean there weren’t formidable individuals among them.
With the merging of the two wooden boats, the number of students on the giant ship reached nearly two hundred, fifteen of whom possessed high-level talents—more than students from the boats from Jade River.
Among those fifteen with high-level talents, there was a girl named “Nancy” who was particularly notable.
She was only sixteen years old but had the strongest high-level talent, known according to some rumors as the “Golden Seed”—a potential barely reached by even some wizard apprentices or wizards. Possessing such high talent did not guarantee becoming a powerful wizard, but the chances were very high.
Rumor had it that she was a princess of a small country, with wizards in her ancestry. Influenced by her bloodline, her talent was extraordinarily prominent. Additionally, her intellect and learning ability were astonishing; without external guidance, she had even mastered several basic and practical spells, qualifying her as a level-one apprentice.
The reason she followed the White Stone Tower to the continent was partly to learn more and partly to seek her ancestors’ legacy, suggesting her future was boundless.
Thus, Nancy was favored by the four wizards on board; all four had indirectly or directly expressed interest in taking her as a direct disciple, but Nancy had politely refused every offer. Nancy’s vision was clearly high; knowing more, she did not want to tie herself only to the wizards recruiting students.
This made the other students who didn’t even get a chance to meet the wizards both admire and envy Nancy.
However, for Richard, none of this mattered.
He had spent days in his cabin, pondering some matters, also occasionally curious about some secrets of the giant ship.
For instance, how the giant ship, with a displacement of thousands of tons, could race across the sea at over 25 knots.
Although there were sails on the ship, relying solely on wind power was impossible to achieve such speed, not even 20 knots unless there was another power source.
On modern Earth, ships’ power sources are generally diesel engines; what might it be in this current world—could it be a wizard’s spell? But how could such a spell consistently function?
Richard stroked the White Jade Plate in his hand in his cabin, which was inscribed with intricate and dense magic runes, more complex and concentrated than previous runes. He was conducting some tests, intending to miniaturize and intensify the magic runes. Only by doing so could he inscribe runes on smaller objects.
His eyes glinting, Richard then pulled out the silver-white ring he had acquired at an auction, lost in thought.
Just then, the corridor outside his cabin door filled with the sound of fast-paced footsteps and noise, sounding like many people hurrying towards the deck.
Pandora, sleeping in her bed, furrowed her brow, murmured annoyedly, and turned over to continue sleeping.
Richard raised an eyebrow, gathered his things, and pushed open the cabin door to step outside.
Upon exiting, he saw people rushing out of the doors on both sides of the corridor, running up the stairs towards the upper deck.
Looking across the corridor to another cabin door, Richard spotted Gro.
“What’s going on?” Richard called out.
“Um,” Gro replied, scratching his head, “Lord Richard, I’m not too clear either, just know something seems to be happening on the deck, and everyone is rushing to see.”
“Lord Richard, do you want to go up?” Gro asked, already having closed his cabin door and following the crowd towards the stairs.
Thinking for a moment, seeing what was actually happening and getting some fresh air wouldn’t hurt, Richard replied, “Alright, I’ll join you.” Saying this, Richard followed Gro’s steps quickly up the stairs to the deck.
Upon reaching the deck, Richard saw that it was crowded with a throng of people gathered at the edge, all looking intently in one direction out to sea.
Richard’s eyes flickered as he followed the crowd’s gaze and saw a large ship, displacing several hundred tons, approaching the massive vessel.
Another ship recruiting students?
Richard shook his head silently.
If that were the case, the massive ship would have waited to set sail until it met up with the other.
Was it just an ordinary ship sailing the seas then?
What was so interesting about an ordinary sailing ship?
Richard pursed his lips.
Looking intently, he realized that the approaching ship was not ordinary. Its deck was crowded with people brandishing various swords, waving them around and shouting.
Faint voices carried over, “Stop the ship! Stop the ship!”
So… it was a pirate ship.
Richard’s eyebrows raised.
Encountering a pirate ship was indeed a reason for excitement among the students aboard, yes, excitement, not fear. After all, weren’t there four legitimate wizards on the giant vessel? For pirates to board would be a suicidal move, right?
Everyone already anticipated that they would soon witness the Master Wizard taking action, so they excitedly gathered on the deck to watch the impending spectacle.
The pirates, apparently unaware of what they were up against, continued to approach.
The skull flag, a symbol of robbery and slaughter, was hoisted. The sails billowed, and the sailors rowed furiously, skillfully cutting into the giant ship’s course at an angle, steadily closing the distance.
One minute, two minutes, three minutes…
The crowd could now clearly see the appearance of the pirates standing on their ship’s deck, already anticipating the Master Wizard’s soon-to-be intervention.
But… the wizards did not act, nor did they even show themselves, not even the Apprentice Wizards who usually maintained order were visible.
After a while, the crowd sensed something was amiss.
“Hey, where is the Master Wizard?”
“Could it be that the Master Wizard doesn’t know we’re about to be robbed by pirates?”
“We should inform the Master Wizard about this; otherwise, we are in danger.”
“But, where is the Master Wizard? We can’t find him anywhere.”
In an instant, the situation shifted. It was no longer the show “A Thousand Ways for Pirates to Die” but had turned into the suspenseful mystery “Where Have the Wizards Gone?”