Only Wisdom Awakened - Chapter 99

Chapter 99: The scales
‘This fucking kid!

I swear I’ll kill him’

The aura of the dean covered the whole room, overflowing and leaking even outside the building, reaching the senses of Hans in his dorm.

‘Again?’ he thought, sensing the dean’s aura twice in a matter of minutes.

‘Iguess I’ll have to check it out’

He got up from his mediation position, and opened his dorm room, heading towards the main building, where the dean’s office was situated.

In the meantime, Henriksson Bergstrom was scared for his life, while the woman in front of him threatened it with just her gaze.

While trying to withstand the pressure pushing him away, keeping his hands in front of his face and his body bent forward, the young man screamed:

“Bitch! Think twice before offending us, you may be able to kill us right now, but what will you do about the barrier then? Do you think this won’t reach master’s ears?”

Even if his words flew away with the pressure, they somehow managed to reach the dean’s consciousness.

She thought for a few seconds before releasing the pressure, leaving the young man on the ground panting and his bodyguard intimidated.

“It seems like I let my emotions get the best of me, my apologies, let us resume from where we left off”

With his butt on the cold ground, frowning, the young man replied:

“Y-yes let us do that, seems like I was a bit hot-headed there, and let senseless words slip from my mouth”

Even if she had resorted to a bit of intimidating and fear-instilling, it seemed to have brought the arrogant man back with his feet to the ground.

The boy took the first word, breaking the silence that lasted for about thirty seconds.

“Mrs. Please do not misunderstand, it is not my greed bringing me to ask the scales from you.

As you probably know, master is always on the search for rare and unique materials.

Even I have no say in his course of actions, whenever he wants something, no one can stop him.

And unfortunately for you, he set his eyes on ‘those’.

At the time, he was advancing to the seventh tier, and couldn’t attend the action in which they were bid for.

No one wanted them, seeing their close-to-impossible usage, and we didn’t have any instructions, so we gave up the bid at a certain point.

So we now ask you to contribute to those, in exchange, we will cast the strongest barrier we have developed, which requires both me and my master to work together.

No one is aware of what we can do, but if we join forces we can create a barrier that surpasses seventh-tier.”

Hearing this, the dean was shocked:

“You mean?..

“No, no, we still haven’t reached the next level, but it would be something similar to a pseudo-eight-tier.”

“Sigh…”

The dean sighed loudly, catching the attention of the young man.

‘This damn bitch! Shouldn’t she be relieved?’

“Is something wrong Mrs. Rivera?”

“The thing is… I am not the current owner of the scales, so I won’t be able to trade them”

“Fuck!”

Exclaimed the boy.

‘Master told me to bring them back at all cost, even if he has to cast three barriers.

If I fail this time I’ll lose the reliability I’ve accumulated during the past few years.’

“That’s fine, I’ll put my name on the line, promising to let Master cast a seventh-tier barrier here as long as you tell us who’s currently in possess of them”

Seeing her hesitant, he added something else:

“If that is still not enough we’ll cast the pseudo eight tier”

‘If I understand the situation right, master needs this material to develop an eight-tier barrier.

And if that happens, hell advance to the eight-tier, at that time, we’ll take over most of the market in Europe, and I, as his apprentice, will have an easier path down my life.

Casting a couple of barriers is nothing compared to that’

While for most mages it was rare to obtain a spell the same level as them, the magic class: {Barrier Expert}, was an exception.

There was a special requirement to form every circle, and that was to create a barrier at the same tier as the circle.

This meant that Lars Jensen, who was at the top of the seventh tier, needed to develop an eight-tier barrier before advancing.

The time it took for him to advance to the seventh rank was two months of seclusion, studying every day, resting a couple of hours every night, and repeating the process endlessly until finding the right way to shape the barrier.

Even if he was obsessed with money and luxury, he was anything but a lazy person.

His dedication and determination were real, and his talent could fortunately keep up with them.

If it was a normal person with that class, then they probably wouldn’t have been able to utilize it so well, this was also one of the reasons why Henriksson Bergstrom accepted him as his master without any second thoughts.

After all, having someone create the path for you was easier than shaping one by yourself.

When he was alone, Henriksson had been stuck at the peak of the second tier for almost half a year, and if it wasn’t for him accepting Lars as his master, then it probably would’ve taken a long time before another advancement.

It was internal information, but three months before this meeting, Lars had gone into seclusion, in order to try and break through.

But just five weeks later, he had come out, and without, so everyone who knew about it remained quite confused.

‘Could the chairman have reached his limit?’

‘Could it be that there’s no mage class above the seventh rank?’

‘Could it be that his barrier is already the sturdiest that could ever exist?’

These were all doubts that arose in the minds of those who were aware of the happenings.

But one of the options was scratched just a week later when it was publicly announced the rise of a certain European mage to eighth rank…

Only Lars and his disciple knew the reason for his failed breakthrough:

Four weeks before the appointment with the dean…

Lars called Henricksson to his office.

“Knock, knock”

“Come inside”

‘Click’ The door opened, and the young man came forward, sitting on a chair just before a wooden desk, opposite a man.

The man was tall and well-built.

His blonde hairs were kept messy, looking like a lion’s.

His eyes were extremely dark and solemn, giving off a feeling of authority and superiority.

His stance, his tone, even the way he moved and breathed, they all pictured a serious person.

“Master!

Why have you called me here?”

Asked the boy quickly, thinking it was an emergency, or that he had done something wrong.

But a deep and calm voice replied to him shortly after:

” I have a task for you, can I trust your abilities?”

The young man thought:

‘Finally, if I can complete this one he’ll definitely pass on to me the barrier required to advance to the fifth tier’

“Y-yes of course, I’ll get it done as soon as I can”

He said, nervously bowing.

“Good.

Do you know why I’ve come out of seclusion even if I haven’t managed to advance yet?”

‘It’s been three weeks already, Is he finally going to tell me?’

“I’m not aware, may I ask for an answer master?”

“I have deemed it impossible to do.

advancing I mean”

“What?! Then.. What will we do now master?”

“I mean right now, I don’t have the means to advance yet”

“Yet? Does that mean this has something to do with your advancement?”

“That’s right.

From my calculations, a barrier higher ranked than the seventh tier must contain a core.

And that core needs to have incredibly high mana conductivity to let the barrier code flow smoothly.

And it has to be at least a mid epic-grade material.

Does anything come to mind?”

‘Hm… a mid epic grade item that we don’t possess… is he perhaps thinking of…”

The young man raised his face to look his master in the eyes.

And saw him trying his best to hold in his grin.

“That’s right, Henriksson.

You can do it however you like, but you have three months.

Go and get them for me…

those two scales.”

…

The attack at the Academy offered an unmissable opportunity for him.

Meticulously planning everything, he reached out to various of his connections to put up as one of the requirements for avoiding the closure of the Academy the deployment of a seventh-tier barrier.

He stood on standby in America, ready to reply to the dean’s call as soon as it arrived, and just two weeks after the request for a barrier was put up…

A call arrived:

“Is this Mr. Lars?”

“No, I am his disciple, but I take care of all the matters regarding outside business, how may I help you?”

“I am calling from the Academy of Los Angeles, America, I would like to offer a deal for the deployment of a seventh-tier barrier.”

Smiling at the phone, the young man replied:

“That’s fortunate, I’m currently in America right now, so I’ll pass by during the next few days”

….

His plan had worked, now the only thing left to do was to accept the gift gratefully and call his master to set up a barrier.

It was all going extremely well…

‘But….

After all this time…

You’re telling me you don’t have the fucking scales!?’