Chapter 286 Manager's Office
We had many useless things to talk about before the main thing and from the things I heard at the time our exams were going on with Celes; I knew this receptionist was more trustworthy than any other in this place.
Sir Lucius trusted her, so it was alright to even let her listen to the \'less important things.
I knew he would be happy to see her doing good, too. She was amazing in what she did anyway.
Rein joyfully nodded and everything aside… I can\'t understand just how the hell they could call this child-like girl the witch of slaughter on those small battlefields!
Just looking at that anticipation-filled, childish face was enough to tell just how much she was looking forward to eating not-so-simple chocolate.
I have read about it and even heard many things about his chocolates and all, but I knew it wouldn\'t be anything near the ones \'she\' made.
Maybe… somewhere near but, not at that level.
I was also looking forward to tasting his special sweets, but she was just on another level.
Excitement was practically oozing out from her and she was looking perfectly like a little child.
Anyway, our dear receptionist Stella opened the door, and we all saw this biiiig office that covered the whole top floor of this giant building.
The outside of the place was just simple. Even the small horizontal hallway we walked through to reach this place was also much simpler than many places of this extravagant hexagon tower.
I didn\'t have much expectations from this place\'s inside too but, as soon as I saw the fabulous place, I was genuinely surprised.
A giant room with sparkling lights and lamps and many old-looking things decorated in a glass case.
Many of them were artifacts, and many were just normal paintings and jewels.
There was strong protection magic on these glass cases. Strong enough that even I would need a loooooong time to decode it but, just seeing this place was amazing~.
Arts, potions, pottery, archaeological findings, detailed notes, even maps of ancient times, and much more...
\'Damn. I will have things like these in my room too...\'
This was aesthetic...
There was a transparent wall on the left side of the room and that place, the first and main part of the room, was his special space for chocolate production.
It had many old, as well as modern tools and artifacts, and the fresh scent of coffee, even penetrated the walls as it entered our noses the childish Rein was elated just from this amazingly delicious aroma.
It actually seemed delicious, just like my master\'s chocolates, a level that was far away for a youngster like me.
Even though I knew cooking and was quite good at it with my otherworldly knowledge, I was still not even at the level of my grandmother. Though I knew I had surpassed my dad in cooking in basic aspects.
I was still not good enough to make his special dishes just yet.
This cooking stuff was one thing, but… I was interested in the right side of the room more than those chocolates.
And that place... some pretty good things were decorating that wall like trophies.
\'The loved prizes of the former <S> and <SS> rank adventurers. Didn\'t think would see things like these here, and just decorated on a wall, no less.\'
(level-11) and (level-12) artifacts, ranging from weapons like gorgeous swords, shields, and ornaments, to musical instruments and magic wands.
Two divine artifacts, covered by unparalleled spells, and one ancient artifact of the same rank as mom\'s bracelet.
But this artifact was nothing like the weapons I had or ornament like mom\'s bracelet.
This one was just a special pot that can be used in old alchemical elixir-making methods... I am not much good with these things.
Master was unreally good at handling those things, and she taught me all the things she knew and I remember everything but, using that method to make those elixir pills and that other stuff was just... a no-no.
We had modern things, and pills had a particular kind of energy storage structure that was of no use in my energy circulation methods.
It wasn\'t like they didn\'t suit me or anything...
I can take any kind of medicine and elixir and the energy would just naturally gather in me like all other ones do because of energy circulation.
But, it was mostly used to increase internal energy, which was the natural energy and something most commonly used in eastern cultivation as well as martial arts.
It was an excellent piece of artifact, but something that didn\'t go well with me.
Internal energy cultivation was close to Mana cultivation but... the energy cultivation that I used, the full body Solnova cultivation which naturally collected Mana too, was the best method that suited me.
Even better than high-sensitivity Mana cultivation.
If I do internal energy cultivation too, then it will just hinder the Mana and Aura.
Solnova was just as fast manifesting as internal energy and it was similarly thin so it was alright to just use Solnova, which had fundamentally diverse uses than the internal energy.
One can\'t use internal energy in spell manifestation.
The techniques they used were fundamentally different things and very few people can use the \'attributes\' in internal energy cultivation.
It was mostly focused on physical strengthening, martial techniques, and things like that.
Master did teach me a few of those things and some special techniques in my special energy circulation arts were based on eastern techniques.
Well, I still didn\'t like to use those things.
I was neither strong nor good enough to use them just yet.
I will need time to get stronger and specific situations when I would absolutely need to use them.
They were dangerous, and one could tell just how much lethal they were from the fact that I made an archmage bleed with a single punch.
Those techniques were dangerous, and not something I can use carelessly.
But those useless things were not something I wanted to think about while standing before the branch manager of one of the strongest adventurer\'s association branches.
And as I said... the stereotypical appearance of an old, wise mage.
The room was big, and the two sides were also amazing, but the center of this office was the main thing.
An open area with some couches, an enormous table for discussion, and sitting at the very back of this room, just before the background\'s endless glass window, on his comfortable chair, behind his peepers-filled desk, he smiled at all of us.
A long, pure white beard. Same long white mustache that becomes a part of his beard. And the mage hat on his head.
The same cone-shaped hat everyone knew of, and his one was dark purple. A bit darker than Rein\'s real hair.
There were golden designs on it too and this hat was a (level-8) artifact that increased the Mana gathering speed by 0.5% and decreased the temperature of his head... I genuinely do not know why he would even wear such a weird thing.
He didn\'t wear the reading glasses, but his pure golden eyes definitely shined better than anything on his old face.
The special eyes of a (tier-8) mage, and something that those on the top possessed.
The light in them wasn\'t because of his strength but because of his special life experiences and unimaginable life-and-death situations.
Something similar to dad and me.
But it was different for both of us.
It didn\'t have the desperately gained strength, nor the one that was achieved after surviving desperate situations.
This was strength gained after eradicating the impossible.
The strength realized during the desperate situations was greater than he himself had ever expected.
Wearing a purple mage robe with the same golden designs, he sat in that place, with his hands interlocked, and watched us with the all-famous old smile on his face.
He was an amazing person, someone who had been a <SS> ranked adventurer in his old days, and he was really famous.
He was famous enough to have many books on him and the most famous ones of them were about... why the hell would a high-level mage who should look like in his primes would look like the wrinkled old man he looked right now.
It wasn\'t because of some normal reason, like being different from other mages and such.
The fact that one possessing high magic is naturally young looking was the same for all in this world.
More than that, there were potions of alchemy that could make far older-looking people as young as my dad and uncles.
He was a mage, and he wasn\'t much older than our grandparents.
Just some years older even if I had to say but, he was definitely younger than even Rein.
So, what could be the reason this great mage would look like the special, old, fantasy mage who is well known throughout many world\'s pieces of literature?
The reason behind it was funny, and that story was well known and children were given the teachings of not messing with a particular kind of being and magic in this world with these kinds of stories.
The same beings as this person I fell for… haaa…
\'Witches and witchcraft... if possible, never go on their bad side. Especially the adult ones...\'