Fel stared at the… driver while Siyla stood rooted on the spot, frightened out of her wits. If the man before her was the Academy Master, he would be at least Level 2. People at that level demanded absolute respect, something she obviously didn’t show on previous occasions.

A heavy aura bore on the duo, forcing their thoughts into disarray and preventing them from thinking straight. The aura brought out a primal fear within them. Even the lowliest peasant would know the owner of this aura was a powerful person.

To deal with the stress, Fel formed an exemplary military salute. A remnant from his years serving the Front and the only way he knew to respect his superiors.

“It is an honour to meet you sir.”

Siyla also dragged herself back into reality, falling into a deep curtsey while curling her wings in.

“All respects to Master Mage.”

“Ohh, you guys recovered quicker than expected. Few Mages bother to cultivate willpower nowadays, such a pity.”

The duo remained in their positions. One out of fear of the threatening aura while the other out of habitual respect to their superiors.

Amusement flashed through the man’s eyes, “Fel, you have a rather, militaristic, greeting.”

Beads of sweat trickled down Fel’s neck, “S-Master Mage, I have indeed served my time in the military.”

“It’s pretty impressive that you managed to become a Mage then. Where did you serve?”

“I come from a reclusive clan, so I wouldn’t be so keen on revealing its location. We prefer to remain unknown.”

“Yet you have, would I could only assume to be, an organised military?”

The gears in Fel’s head spun faster and faster, “We may not be a large clan, but we value discipline first and foremost. Even if we are small, we believe we shouldn’t laze about!”

Smiling, the man let Fel go, “Well, you haven’t lied per se. But your origins don’t matter too much as long as you don’t mean harm to my Academy.” He then turned to Siyla, “What about you?”

“Master Mage, I hail from the dryad village in the Monochrome Forest.”

The man's brows rose in surprise, “What business would the monochrome dryads have with me?”

“My companion has strong ties with the dryads. I’m tasked to protect him.”

“So I suppose that you wouldn’t want to be separated?”

“That would be in my best interests.”

The man dispersed his threatening aura, “Ok. Also, you guys can stop calling me Master Mage, it’s too formal. Call me Jarvis.”

Fel and Siyla glanced at each other. The man was laid back despite being an esteemed Master Mage.

Jarvis took out two sheets of paper and two fountain pens, “These are contracts. Read through them if you wish, it contains a list of your expected duties and a statement that if you sign this, you confirm that you have no intentions to harm the Academy.”

Fel and Siyla took the contracts and trudged through the dense fine print.

“Of course, if you break the contract, there will be consequences, depending on how harsh your breach was. This is an Astral Scale contract after all.”

Hearing this, Siyla inspected the contract all over again. She noticed that the yellowish papyrus had a faint, silver sheen to it and that in the corner of the page was a small silver scale. Seeing that Fel was confused, she sent him a mental message to fill him in on some basic knowledge.

After reading through the contract a few times, they found that the contract had three main points.

Firstly, the signer must defend the Academy when it faces danger.

Secondly, the signer must complete three Level 1 assignments per year, otherwise, they would be on grounds for expulsion.

And thirdly, the signer must report their progress to the Academy every month.

There were few restrictions. Jarvis told Fel and Siyla that the assignments weren’t very challenging and that the Academy was overall a rather neutral faction so they were rarely at war.

Fel frowned, “What is the purpose of this Academy?”

A warm smile bloomed across Jarvis’ face. He was rarely asked such questions and took joy in answering them.

“You see, with the rampant popularity of darkness magic, other forms of magic are being shoved into the corner, especially those with rarer sources of energy. Our Academy, in particular, seeks to conserve and develop elemental magic to prevent it from falling being darkness magic. The field of magic should remain wide and diverse.”

“How do you cover the expenditures for this research?”

The smile grew larger, “We gather most of our resources from the valley itself and sell off the excess. We have cash products as well. Our seven element pills are incredibly popular in the outside world.”

“And the main military force are the Academies students?”

“You’d be correct on that one. This is a harsh world. We all need to protect ourselves and there are never enough resources. While we may not be militaristic, we'd never shy away from a fight! We even have a specialised course for combat Mages that I’m sure you’d find interesting.”

“Can we have a look around the academy?”

Jarvis rose from his seat, “Why not?”

He proudly strode to the door and swung them open, only to find himself face to face with a young woman.

She wore simple, pale blue robes and a low hanging hood. Below the hood, Fel saw a pair of shiny glasses and strands of electric blue hair. Fel swore that it was glowing, though it was hard to tell from the few strands that were visible.

Jarvis froze before regaining his composure, “Imira, nice to see you! I was just about to lead these Mages for a tour around the Academy.”

“I’m sure you are. But you’ve disappeared for a few months and your work has piled up, besides, I’m sure that you don’t need to recruit Mages personally.”

Jarvis’ shoulder’s sagged, “It’s not like it can’t wait a few more hours right?”

“There are four matters that require your immediate attention and 86 you need to address before the end of the day. Not mentioning the 749 matters that can only wait for another week.”

“Hahaha.”

“Did I forget to mention the thousand or so things that you need to solve by the end of the month? If Mages weren’t too bothered with time, you’d be in far more trouble.”

“In my defence, I’ve brought in two exceptional recruits!”

“Yes, and an exceptional amount of trouble to me. Now, back to your desk and get everything done. I’ll give the recruits a tour.”

Imira shoved Jarvis back into the room before beckoning Fel and Siyla forward. Walking down the hallway, Imira gave the duo an apology, “Sorry for Master. He’s a free soul and hates formalities. When he finds someone he likes, he transforms into… what you saw before.”

“No problem. I found it easy to talk to him. If he were stiff and overbearing, I couldn’t have done the same.”

“If he were stiff and overbearing, you’d be talking to an ambassador instead.”

“Ah, before I forget, here’s a map of the Academy. You might want to look at it later.”

Imira walked through a doorway into a stone room with a full-body mirror to the side. She led the duo onto a smooth, grey platform with strange formations carved on it, “Soul, transport us to the Lightning Zone.”

A familiar grey mist leaked out from beneath the platform, wrapping around the trio. The mist grew thicker and thicker, so thick that their every breath took in volumes of the stuff, allowing for it to flow through their bodies.

Suddenly, the mass of mist imploded and their vision went black. In the next moment, they regained their vision, finding themselves in another grey room. They stumbled a little as they tried to walk off the identical grey platform, but quickly overcame their disorientation and cleared their swimming vision.

Imira patted down her ruffled robe, “You might want to check yourselves in the mirror, we’re still perfecting this.”

Sure enough, their clothes were all over the place and their hair looked windswept. They fixed up their appearances and combed their hair down with a few appliances provided by Imira.

A few minutes later, they exited the room into a metal hallway. As they walked through it, small tendrils of electricity reached out to them, only to be swatted away by Imira.

“You might want to form a barrier, it gets rather annoying here.” She then turned to Fel, “Although I doubt it’d bother you.”

She was only half right. Fel discovered that the situation wasn’t too hot for him. He couldn’t absorb the lightning energy, only manipulate it to a certain degree. The best he could do was to prevent it from invading his body. It seemed that the energy conversion was only one way.

Seeing the layer of lightning energy accumulating around his person, Imira shot Fel a questioning look.

Fel could only give a flimsy excuse while desperately waving his hands, “It’s a special technique I practice.”

Though still bearing her suspicions, Imira let it go, there was no use to pry.

They made their way through the winding corridors. There still wasn't a single soul in sight. In fact, for the rest of the tour, they never spotted anyone in the administrative buildings.

Siyla lightened up the mood by asking a question, “Why can’t they just insulate the place?”

“Well, it’s like this so that the lightning energy from the energy pool isn’t hindered. So, for maximum efficiency I guess.”

Imira was about to continue, but they had arrived at the front doors. She paused and took out a few pairs of earplugs, “Put these in, you’ll need them.”

As soon as she opened the wide double doors, an earth-shaking explosion roared out, the vibrations shaking up the duo. It was a full-on storm beyond the doors, complete with dark, looming clouds, flashes of waist thick lightning and hurricane-like winds.

Imira tried to yell over the sounds of the thunder before giving up, sending a mental message instead, “As you can see, it took quite an extreme environment to create a stable lightning zone.”

She pointed to one of the metal pagodas scattered about the place, “We use specialised buildings to concentrate the lightning to specific points. If we didn’t have them the lightning would just fly everywhere, though because of this, everyone prefers to stay indoors.”

As she was describing the uses of the various features of the place, a stone grey carriage pulled up in front. When Fel looked closer, he discovered that it was, in fact, akin to concrete.

“I assumed that you’d prefer an insulated place, although we have a few more… shiny carriages if you’re interested.”

She received rapid shaking heads in response.

While Fel walked up to the carriage, he admired the creature that pulled it. It looked similar to a deer, only twice as large, with long, thick, lightning yellow fur that waved in the wind. Its horns were as long as swords, with horns that grew out jaggedly, like the bolts of lightning. It was a magnificent beast. Fel was thoroughly impressed.

Imira shut the door behind them, the thick insulation quelling the incessant thundering outside.

Everyone sighed out in relief.

“Now let us get on with our journey.”

She pointed out the various facilities as they rolled around the inner zone. There were laboratories, workshops, libraries, testing fields, even an arena; pretty much everything a Mage needed. According to Imira, there were other facilities such as training halls in the outer zone. This was because True Mages rarely need to practice such basic techniques.

Fel suddenly felt the urge to look out the window.

Time moved on and they found themselves back in the grey, stone room.

Imira turned to the duo, “So, how did you like it?”

Fel answered first, “I think it’s pretty good, I don’t think I’ll lack anything. Although, the lack of people about the place is kind of, disappointing.”

“About that, when it comes to the True Mage’s, most of them prefer to shut themselves in anyway, so it’s a common sight. The outer zone is far busier, though the quieter environment helps with that.”

She then turned to Siyla, “What about you?”

“It’s… interesting. I don’t like the storm, but it’s Fel who’s going to stay here, so it’s his problem.”

A little giggle floated out from Imira, “Well then, let’s go to the metal zone.”

They walked onto the platform and allowed the grey mist to carry them away.

Patting themselves down, they exited the identical grey room into yet another metal hall.

It was a peaceful journey to the front doors. There were no weird tendrils of electricity. But at the doors, Imira paused and asked Fel to conjure a barrier.

Sharp, painful winds howled through the door as she opened it. They discovered that they were in an expansive cavern with the ceiling being a hundred metres tall. Fel sent a telepathic message to Imira as the gale would have torn the words from his mouth.

“Why are all these places so extreme?”

“We tried to create miniature energy pools in every building, but we discovered that it is, in fact, really difficult to restrict such a massive amount of energy.”

“So you just let it run free?”

“We optimise its movement, but other than that, pretty much.”

“I guess that works too.” Muttered Fel under his breath.

Imira acted like she heard nothing, “But some other zones, like the nature zone, aren’t life-endangering, so it’s not all that bad.”

This time, the carriage before was made of solid metal with a hulking being pulling it along. It looked like a cross between a lizard and beast that was armoured with thick sheets of shiny armour. Unlike the elegant deer, this beast was like an unstoppable tank.

Unlike the pagodas in the lightning zone, the buildings in the metal zone rose in in tall spirals. The metal winds spiralled up them and converged at an odd looking room at the top.

Siyla gave the structure a disapproving stare, “Can’t they nibble on some metal?”

Imira burst out in laughter, “Not all metal Mages can do that. Most of them can only absorb pure Metallic energy and metal wind just happens to be rather efficient. Liquid Metallic energy is better, but it’s super expensive.”

“… Wimps.”

“The people here aren’t wimps so much as maniacs, look at that guy over there!”

Atop one of the spiral buildings sat a bare-chested muscular man. He spun the metal winds into long needles that he plunged into his body, literally injecting Metallic energy into his body. Thick globules of blood leaked out of the punctured flesh, only to be sliced away by the metal winds.

“That’s Bas, one of the more, extreme, Mages. He believes that the true path of a Metal Mage is to temper the body. I guess it’s been working pretty well as he’s broken through to peak Level 1 at a rather young age.”

“Not bad… I guess.” Internally, she was nodding in approval.

They continued on and found that, apart from the metal winds and spiral buildings, the facilities were almost identical to the lightning zone. Though Imira said there were mines dug into the walls of the cavern. The metal zone supplied large amounts of well, metal, to the fire zone who fashioned them into a myriad of products, including the lightning rods for the lightning zone.

While all the zones were of the extremes, they complemented and supported each other. The only reason that the Seven Elements Valley could exist was because of these constructive interactions.

Awhile later, they teleported back to the neutral zone and walked to into an empty office. Imira sat behind the desk while Fel and Siyla pulled up a chair each.

Imira took out two contracts and fountain pens, “You can stay a little longer and tour every zone, perhaps even go into more detail, or, you can sign now.”

“If you want to decline, we can talk to the Association and find another Academy for you, but the process will take a week or two.”

Fel and Siyla discussed the issue for a bit before coming to a conclusion. They had perused through the Academy list on their way here and found that there were no other reputable Academies that had specialised courses for both Lightning and Metal Mages.

Looking at a map of the Academy that Imira had previously provided, they noticed that the lightning and metal zones were next door to each other. According to Imira, the teleporters were expensive to use. So if they wanted to move between zones, they would use carriages instead making this proximity even more important.

They nodded towards each other and picked up the pens.

Imira smiled, “I see you’ve decided to join us. Press the nibs against your finger and sign the contract in blood. A little scary I know, but a necessary procedure.”