Chapter 133: An Invitation from the Temple

  Alex felt his luck wasn’t too bad.

  Even though he didn’t mao acquire a specialization that granted full immunity to mental trol, obtaining Free Will was still a solid sotion prize. Plus, it came with the ued bonus of a bck cat… Sure, the cat wasly helpful, mostly keeping to itself, but having a cat to cuddle was a nice way to rex.

  Over the few days, Alex tinued climbing the Sky Ladder, testing out his new ability. He leased to discover that Free Will signifitly boosted his resistao entment spells. Low-level enters could no longer influence him, and evero entments cast by advanced apprentices could only affect him for one or two seds.

  This was great news for Alex but a nightmare for the es in the Sky Arena.

  Mages weren’t fools. If Alex noticed his own weakness, others surely had as well. In the days following his acquisition of Free Will, the number of enters challenging him spiked. They were clearly hoping to exploit his known vulnerability and stop his meteoric rise. Unfortunately for them, Alex’s new ability reheir efforts useless, making entment apprehe sed group—after neao start avoiding him entirely.

  Why, you ask?

  It’s simple: most entment spells require cle to be effective. If two mages are dueling, cle spellcasting isn’t unusual. But against someone who fights like a temple knight? Let’s just say some enters are still nursing bruised jaws from failed attempts.

  By the time Alex climbed into the Sky Arena’s top 100, he had successfully mastered five-tier spells in four different schools of magic.

  This left Rex utterly speechless. He had never seen anyone learn spells at su absurd pace.

  Spell formus were notoriously plex and often filled with towisting phrases. Most mages spent an inordinate amount of time memorizing and internalizing the runes required to cast even mid-level spells.

  On top of this, the stronger a spell’s power, the more difficult it was to learn, not just because of plexity but due to the sheer amount of energy involved.

  If mages were like hard drives, then spells were the programs installed on them. Simple trips might only take up a few megabytes, but high-level spells could easily occupy gigabytes, or even hundreds of gigabytes, of "ste."

  This limitation is why the White Tower insists that mages specialize in a primary school of magid restrict themselves in others. Every mage has finite "capacity," so their sele of spells is ily limited. In fact, most mages in the White Tower focus on their specialty, pig up only a few practical spells from sedary schools.

  If a typical mage is like a meical hard drive and someone like Rex—a sentor—is a solid-state drive, then Alex might as well be a quantum hard drive. Not only did he appear to have no capacity limit, but his "read speed" was also absurdly fast.

  Rex became even more determihat Alex was destined for the path of magic. He was already strategizing ways t Alex into the White Tower.

  But first, Alex had another matter to deal with.

  “A ba?”

  Alex looked at the invitatioossed onto the table. He sed the tents and hat it was from the Temple.

  “That’s right. You’ve heard about the near-colpse of the Fortress of Order a while back, right? Things have finally stabilized over there. To celebrate the victory, the Temple is hosting a ba for all the heroes who made signifit tributions during the battle… You’re one of them. Uand?”

  “Uood.”

  Hearing Rex’s expnation, Alex pocketed the invitation with a nod. He had heard about the Fortress of Order’s plight—a massive wave of magic beasts had nearly overwhelmed it. However, with reinforts from the Temple, the tide was eventually turned. Judging by this invitation, it seemed the remaini lords had retreated, giving the Temple a ce to celebrate its hard-fought victory.

  “It’s the usual pce. The ba is set during the New Year Festival. These old geezers sure know how to pick their timing. Since you’ve been invited, you might as well go. Bas are for feasting, drinking, and having fun with women. Don’t let your youth go to waste.”

  Rex smirked, patting his forehead as if recalling something.

  “By the way, kid, if you stir up any trouble while you’re out, don’t e back right away. Wait for things to cool down. I’ll e find you wheime is right. Got it?”

  “Got it,” Alex replied respectfully, though he wasirely sure what Rex meant. When a divinatioives advice, it’s best to heed it.

  Satisfied with Alex’s response, Rex waved him off.

  “Alright, off you go. Remember, good food and fun are life’s real priorities. Everything else is nonsense. Go enjoy the festival.”

  With Rex’s words in mind, Alex set off with Ikaros, stepping through the teleportation array to return to the northern alliance’s capital city.

  Unlike before, the northern capital was now adorned with nterns and filled with festive cheer. Lanterns were lit everywhere, the streets were bustling with people, and faint musid the chatter of crowds could be heard in the distance.

  pared to the temosphere of the past, the northern capital was now brimming with life and celebration.

  “No matter where it is, bas are always the same—b,” Alex muttered.

  Standing on the baly, he gently stroked the bck cat in his arms while squinting at the brightly decorated city. Beside him, Ikaros stood quietly, her eyes wandering around in mild boredom as she took in the surroundings.

  “Alex!”

  Much to Alex’s surprise, just as he was settling in, a familiar voice called out to him.

  “Padin Konan?”

  Seeing the padin approag him with ahusiastic expression, Alex suddenly felt a pang ret. He began to think that leaving right now might be the right choice. After all, if something like a "Midnight Festival Murder I" were to occur… it’d be a hassle he didn’t want to deal with.

  “’t believe you’re still alive,” Alex said with a smirk.

  “Yeah, I ’t believe it myself,” Padin Konan replied, smiling wryly.

  “To be ho, when I arrived at the fortress, those terrifyi lords had already unched a massive assault. If reinforts hadn’t arrived in time, the entire fortress would’ve fallen. Many of my rades… didn’t make it,” he added with a bitter expression.

  Acc to Padin Konan, after delivering critical messages to the fortress ander, he was immediately assigo a defense squad. Unfortunately, the squad entered an attack from the beast lords soon after, suffering almost plete annihition. Fortunately, reinforts from the Temple arrived just in time to save him.

  Not that this oute surprised Alex.

  “Well, at least you made it out alive, Padin Konan. And…” Alex’s eyes shifted toward the padin’s chest.

  “You even earned yourself a medal, didn’t you?”

  “Although that’s true…” Padin Konan replied with an awkward smile, the out a long sigh.

  “But to be ho, Alex, I’ve decided to retire.”

  “Oh?”

  Hearing this, Alex raised an eyebrow. Temple knights were indeed allowed to retire, much like soldiers. However, unlike soldiers whose service terms were strictly limited, temple knights folloecific rule: they couldn’t leave during their first five years of service. After that, they could choose to tinue or retire. Given Padin Konan’s years of servid everything he had endured, retiring seemed like a reasonable decision.

  Especially sidering all he’d been through… Yeah, retirement sounded like the right move.

  “Retiring?” Alex asked.

  “That’s right. Holy, watg my rades die oer another has bee too mue. I think… it’s time to leave the battlefield. Maybe I’ll return to my hometown, bee a sheriff, and perhaps even find a wife…”

  Padin Konan scratched the back of his head awkwardly as he spoke. Alex responded with a small smile.

  “Well the me offer you my best wishes in advance, Padin Konan.”

  Meanwhile, Alex silently lit 32 metaphorical dles in his heart for Padin Konan’s hometown.

  (End of Chapter)

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