Chapter 179 - Chill Out

Merlin's attention snapped to the statue of Hecate. He wasn't that interested in her blessing as it wasn't that useful for him. He wasn't reliant on magic and didn't really have any intention of using the cleric soul much in the first place.

His curiosity got the better of him, and he quickly approached the statue.

"Hecate, grant me your guidance." Merlin chanted, causing the statue to glow and an information window to appear before him.

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Hecate, Goddess of Crossroads and Witchcraft

God's Blessings: ⟪Moon-touched Mage⟫

Abilities: ⟪Speak with Dead⟫

Origin Soul Bonus: N/A

Requirements:

• You must befriend a minimum of three animals. (33.33% Complete)

• You must possess a magic-related soul that has reached level 3. (0.00% Complete)

• A minimum of 40% favourability with Hecate.

Favourability: 74% Hecate is hoping for your assistance.

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'My favourability went up by two points, but the message remains the same.' Merlin thought to himself, 'Just what do you need help with? And why is your favourability so high?'

'This sort of thing should have prompted a quest already.' He thought. 'Am I not a high enough level? Do I need more information? Do I need to receive her blessing?'

'Or do I have her quest already?' Another thought crossed Merlin's mind. 'She might just be related to the shattered sky quest... One of her followers was attacked during a phenomenon. In fact, he was the only one so heavily affected... A coincidence?'

With that large list of questions stashed away within his mind, Merlin left the temple. The second he reached the bottom of the temple steps, he made a beeline for the western gate.

He passed by several players on his way to the gate, some of which he recognised, like the trio of girls and SaintMRP, the man who had already upgraded his fighter soul to a knight. It seemed that the knight had become a member of that team after the incident with LordKyle's group.

'Haven't seen the roleplayers, Ty or Snow yet, but they said they'd get the cleric soul today.' Merlin thought as he walked through the gate, greeting the guards as he passed by.

Merlin's walk to Megalopolis was uneventful, he passed by players hunting the boars, and also saw a few groups of players running out of the gnoll infested forests, but nobody attacked him. He did get a few curious looks, but Merlin wasn't sure if this was just because his appearance was so eyecatching or people had seen him in a recording of his stream.

When he arrived at Megalopolis, Merlin noticed that there were actually other players around now, although it seemed to just be mostly those closest to the top of the leaderboard outside of Merlin's friend group, at least for now.

Merlin made his way through the city, he walked further away from the gate where the rangers guild was located, as his goal this time around was the largest building in Megalopolis, the wizard college.

While both the rangers guild and the merchants association were very large buildings, neither of them compared to the size of the wizard college, even when combined. And for this reason, it was quite far from the rest of the main buildings, as it needed enough room to be built where ruins wouldn't get in the way of construction.

Merlin approached the large building, but the loud argument happening in the plaza in front of the wizard college had caught his interest.

"Clearly it'd be a waste of time to teach you anything if this conversation is anything to go by," the angry-looking wizard snapped at a group of players who seemed to have been arguing for a little while now. "If you're too stupid to understand what I'm saying, why the hell would we bother to teach you anything?"

"This is bullshit. Why do we have to waste so much money on a stupid little stick when you can just cast magic with your hands." One of the players clapped back before chanting for a moment, summoning a small ball of light in his hands a few moments later.

"If you consider that to be magic, you're dumber than a goblin." The wizard clicked her fingers, causing the ball of light that the player summoned to fizzle out and disappear. "I'm sick of this, get out of my sight now or I'll have you forcibly removed."

That line seemed to have tipped one of the players over the edge, as they started swearing at the wizard while reaching for the mace hanging from their belt.

"Like I'd let you." The wizard remarked before clicking her fingers, causing the temperature in the plaza to drop almost immediately and a thin fog to suddenly appear.

Merlin noticed that all three players were now frozen solid, and their health bars indicated that they were all dead.

'Well, they're clearly not going to like that.' Merlin thought to himself.

A few robed individuals stepped out from the wizard college and started disposing of the ice sculptures in the plaza, carrying them off somewhere out of sight. 

"Another group of idiots," The wizard sighed to herself as she made her way inside the building. "They're gonna label me a mass murderer at this rate."

Merlin quickly thought back to his conversation with Snowbunny yesterday, Typhoeus had also argued with a wizard, hadn't he?

But since there was no mention of his death, it was very likely that it didn't escalate to him getting turned into a popsicle.

Merlin doubted that such a thing would have happened anyway, Ty wasn't stupid enough to attack an NPC. If he was, he wouldn't have had the highest position on the leaderboard thirty years in the future.

Merlin quickly changed into his fancy cloak before he made his way into the wizard college building, where he was met with a receptionist and some sort of waiting room. This receptionist had long black hair, black eyes and dark bags under her eyes. She wore a long black robe embellished with gold lace trim.

"Here comes another one..." Merlin heard the receptionist mutter under her breath as he approached.

"Hello there, I'd like to enrol into the wizard college," Merlin said with a polite tone, completely ignoring the receptionist's last statement.

"Understood," the receptionist said with a sigh, "Before you start the test, you must possess your own wand, staff or another kind of spellcasting medium. Do you have one, and is it with you right now?"

Merlin quickly opened his inventory and pulled out his Goblin Hexer's Staff.

"Does this count?" He asked, holding the staff out for the receptionist to see.

The receptionist's face distorted slightly, but she nodded. "That's acceptable, would you like to start the test now?"

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[Common Quest]

You're a wizard I.

The first step for enrolling into the wizard college is to learn how to control your mana.

After being led to the training grounds, you will be taught how to channel your mana into objects. Successfully complete the task to move on to the next.

Channel your mana into a magic orb.

• Reward: +1 Intelligence

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"Yes," Merlin answered, accepting the quest.

The receptionist muttered a brief arcane chant before a ball of light suddenly appeared in front of Merlin's face.

"Follow the ball of light, it'll lead you to the training grounds." The receptionist said before lowering her head as if she was going to fall asleep at her desk.

Merlin turned away from her and started walking towards the ball of light that had slowly started drifting away from him.

The ball of light took Merlin around the facility and down a set of stairs until he was standing in a large room that seemed to have an open roof that let sunlight in and a soft grass floor, but Merlin knew this was just an illusion.

Stepping into the room, Merlin noticed a couple of players doing the first test as well.

"Oh, what's this? Another recruit?" A somewhat grating voice rung out, and Merlin saw who the voice belonged to.

The voice came from a tall lanky man wearing an oversized wrinkled red robe that lacked any designs. His face was obscured by the oversized hood he was wearing, and the only details Merlin could make out was the lower part of his face.

"Ugh, I've got my hands full with these, why can't she be more considerate." The wizard grumbled to himself.

From Merlin's current perspective, it seemed as though everyone in the wizard college had a bad attitude.

"Alright, well new recruit, sit down and listen up because I'm only going to explain this once." The wizard said while pulling a crystal orb, that was roughly the size of a tennis ball, out of his sleeve.

Merlin did as he was told and sat down on the grass, which was much harder than it looked, confirming that it was an illusion.

"Right, so the basics of being a wizard is to move around and channel your mana into things, such as spells, items or your wand," The wizard started talking, "Your first task is to channel your mana into this magic orb, like so..."

The wizard seemed to be focusing on the orb for a moment, and then a bright blue light formed within it before fading out a moment later. "That will cause a light to form within the crystal. If you can do this, you pass the first lesson."

"Now, I'll explain the basics of controlling your mana. Everyone is different, so I can only explain it in vague terms and it's up to you to figure it out." The wizard continued.

He went on for a little while explaining the logic behind mana control, and it was similar to the logic used when controlling additional limbs, with imagination being a key factor.