Surviving The Fourth Calamity

West was frozen speechless.

All the mental prep work he’d painstakingly done for himself was wiped out in a single sentence.

No wonder no one ever called this Archmage a bad person, yet at the same time no one ever wanted to deal with him; even his own fellow disciples wouldn’t come to this Side Tower unless they absolutely had to!

This was vicious, okay?

Reality was already cruel enough, why insist on slapping him in the face again?

West didn’t dare refuse to answer either; if this one wanted to make trouble for him, he wouldn’t even need Archmage Ruth to say a word.

Gilbert had plenty of nasty ideas; otherwise, with how terrible the Hainarson Clan’s location was, how had they managed to go all these years without running into a single competent thief?

”The esteemed Mage Selin Bogard believes that as the one managing the apprentices, I must make sure the Magic Tower’s treatment of apprentices doesn’t have the slightest flaw.” West answered carefully.

”Selin Bogard?” Gilbert’s skin‑and‑bones face on the lounge chair twisted into a comical smile. ”So the second-household war between the son‑in‑law and the nephew has actually escalated to this stage?”

He really did get it in a second.

Don’t be fooled by him lying at home all day; in reality his information network was very much alive.

Clearly, once it became certain that Gilbert didn’t have much contact even with his own fellow disciples, and his relations with other factions and even the outskirts mages were downright terrible, and the Hainarson Clan itself was muddling along in total confusion, most people had already learned not to discuss anything they shouldn’t on the Side Tower’s side.

Yet Gilbert would still somehow know all the gossip; West honestly had no idea how he pulled that off!

If only he had that ability!

But West, who couldn’t even figure out how the other man did it, could only sigh inwardly... Everyone knew those High-level Mages would never personally do the kind of petty chores he did on a daily basis.

However, the High-level Mages trailing after Nicholson, while having no problem with resources for themselves, found it very hard to support their own families.

What could they do? Nicholson was a house‑line man; he distributed resources extremely evenly, his calculation skills were terrifyingly good, and he was willing to personally check almost everything... not always, but often enough to basically cut off most people’s chances of skimming any profit.

But these mages also had people they wanted to provide for!

Since they were willing to join Nicholson’s big family, them building a few ”small households” of their own on the side was... actually fairly reasonable, right?

West could in fact understand why Master Rute and Tower Master Nicholson always rubbed each other the wrong way... the two of them had completely opposite life philosophies.

But when outsiders speculated that it was that Mage from Kamente Tower acting as the lubricant in the middle that kept the three of them on decent terms, West only ever sneered... Archmage Karmante was nothing but cold indifference.

He even suspected that if those two really started fighting, Kamente Tower would choose to shoot straight up into the sky and hide out until the battle was over.

Kamente Tower’s students all had similar personalities... to be blunt, the relationship among them was worse than the relationship between the reclusive Gilbert and his own fellow disciples!

At least Archmage Ruth’s students, as long as it didn’t conflict with their own interests, would choose to lend each other a hand, because their teacher’s bottom line had always been very clear.

His own teacher, on the other hand, would not only sit and watch his fellow disciples die, he would also watch them, his students, die; Kamente Tower had no bottom line at all.

West’s position made him enjoy observing all kinds of people’s behavior, so he actually understood very well that even the seemingly brutal internal competition in the Nicholson Faction wasn’t half as bad as what they had in the Kamente Tower faction.

A faction that hardly made any difference whether it existed or not, and that couldn’t even afford to offend the outskirts mages who were stronger than they were... was sometimes really quite useless.

But what could they do?

The Wise Ones and the truly capable all had their own places; those like them, who fell a bit short on both sides, could only let themselves be carried along by the current. It was still better than ending up on the outskirts.

So all he could do was give an awkward smile, putting on the most humble look he had and hoping the other side would spare him a little face.

”West, I remember you’re an 11th‑Level Mage as well, right?”

Hill genuinely couldn’t understand this guy’s way of doing things. As long as he didn’t do anything over the line himself, who was going to blame him over something like apprentice treatment?

As long as the distribution of apprentice resources was roughly fair, wasn’t that enough?

Even without asking Archmage Ruth, Hill could guess his thoughts: at a time like this, better not to move than to move; after all, how many of the apprentices truly under West’s management would actually follow them to Sia Tower?

Once they got there and started recruiting apprentices again, how many good apprentices could he possibly snatch from the people of Sia Tower?

The importance Tower of Dark Enigma had put on apprentices these days clearly wasn’t about the ones currently in training, but to attract apprentices from noble families... those who hadn’t yet completely lost their room to survive... to take a risk for their family’s sake.

This was a chance to enter Sia Tower! After the Defense Tower incident, who didn’t know who really ruled this land?

Once those apprentices actually came, the Tower Masters would snatch them all up the moment they showed up; they would never fall into West’s hands, no matter who he was.

If someone couldn’t even figure this much out and still wanted to go after West, then... heh~ the only face getting lost would be the one on the other side, wouldn’t it?

West naturally could hear Gilbert’s implied meaning, and could only give a bitter laugh in his heart: yes, technically we are at the same Level, but you’re stuck here because your Mental Sea was injured, while my Talents only ever allowed me to reach this point.

Gilbert’s intelligence was famous throughout the entire Tower of Dark Enigma, to say nothing of that iron will of his that could even withstand Mental Sea turbulence!

West had always been sharp; how could he possibly put himself on the same level as Gilbert?

What if, when the other party became an Eight Ring Archmage in the future, he suddenly decided he didn’t like the look of West anymore?

This was someone who had already given up on himself; there was no need to say anything more... Hill gave him a glance, then tapped the Summoning Bell on the stand: ”You came at just the right time; their meditation time is already over.”

West let out a wry laugh: would he dare come looking for them in the morning?

Forget the apprentices; he had to confirm the meditation time of every single Mage one by one!

Even though most Mages got up at dawn and immediately started meditating, who knew if there was some prodigy who just loved to bask in full sunshine!

-----------------

A slightly hurried set of footsteps sounded a few minutes later. Both kids looked like they’d been in the middle of practice; their outer robes were a bit disheveled, clearly thrown on in a rush.

”Good day, Teacher!” That was Russell, full of energy.

”Teacher... good day.” That was Carpenter, a little wilted.

”It’s nothing serious.”

”Come over here and show Master Wester the apprentice resources you received.”

Russell froze for a second before fishing out a neatly packed little bundle from his storage ring. He opened it slowly and held it up in both hands for West to see.

Carpenter blinked and followed suit.

For a moment, West didn’t know what exactly he should be feeling: was it that these two apprentices didn’t even care about such good resources... this kind of packaging practically screamed that it was meant to be sent back to the family.

He could still understand Russell doing this—after all, those with enough Talents didn’t actually need these auxiliary resources that much.

And with Gilbert’s abilities, the materials he provided Russell for practicing Spells would definitely be more than sufficient.

But Carpenter?

Was it that Gilbert treated all his apprentices exactly the same, or was it about the family bloodline... it didn’t look like that!

Gilbert’s relationship with his family was rather awkward; anyone observant in Tower of Dark Enigma could see that.

Especially that Ulrich who was not very good at hiding his thoughts; it was obvious at a glance that he felt the family had dragged Gilbert down too much.

Though this made many people think Ulrich’s brain wasn’t screwed on quite right—after all, Gilbert mainly sheltered his branch of the family.

But this instinctive attitude of treating himself and Gilbert as one whole did make most mages in Tower of Dark Enigma find Ulrich rather pleasing.

After all, whatever things turned into later, when they first entered the Magic Tower, mages had all made sacrifices for their families.

Seeing someone genuinely value that sacrifice would put anyone in a better mood... That was why Ulrich had slipped into Tower of Dark Enigma so easily; switch him with some other family’s apprentice mage, coming over a few times a year like this, and he’d have been cursed out to his face long ago.

No matter how bad Gilbert’s temper was, he couldn’t possibly turn on someone over something like this; it’s not like Ulrich had killed anyone.

Hiss... he’d have to think this over carefully.

West thought of his own son, whose Talents weren’t bad, and quietly started to plot.

Also, the Hainarson Clan really did have a deep foundation—this storage ring... West gave Carpenter another glance.