The Golem Mage

And the grading of the students continued as usual after Alec got his wish and returned the reward he had received back to the man at the counter, after that, only a few were able to reach the A-rank grading, and all of them were team captains.

Meanwhile, most of the vice-captains received either B or C ratings.

Lucas and Beatrice both received B ratings, and while the vice-captains were still being graded and getting B’s and C’s, those behind them began to feel nervous, seeing that even people stronger than them were already dropping lower than expected.

However, for the envoys, it was hard to believe that there were so many talented people among this batch of mages from the Five Kingdom Continent, because of that most of the envoys from other locations have already come over to wait for when all the grading would be finished.

Pale and Katie received C and D ratings respectively, while Sophia and Endrick both got C grades, this came as a shock to Pale that they both have the same grading as him, but he simply credited it to the fact that, since they had been following Alec, they all seemed to have grown ridiculously stronger than before.

Brandon and Arthur both got C ratings, while Agnes and Knight both received D ratings, pretty much all the mages from the fifty-first position downward mainly got D grades and below.

In fact, Alec was not the only one with an F-rank grading, he was simply the most glaring case because he had been ranked third on the list, even Liam, who had been happy about Alec’s supposed misfortune, ended up receiving an F grade himself.

Eventually, the grading process was completed, and all that remained was the selection of the regions that would accept them, the lords sent by each regional king began moving toward those with the most promising grades, trying to make counteroffers against whatever the head envoy who had brought them was offering.

And funnily enough, many of them accepted those offers, it was then that Alec fully realized he wasn’t the only one who had developed a bad feeling about that man.

The way they acted while bringing them over, and the fact that he had already picked favorites even before they arrived here, had already left many of the mages feeling displeased about the way they operated.

So when they saw a chance to choose differently, they all took it, not far away, Lucas walked up to Alec and tossed him a space ring.

Alec caught it in his right hand, behind Lucas stood both Kaelus and Aeron Blade, waiting for him.

“I kept thinking about how I could repay you for all the times you trusted me and helped me on my way here, but I just couldn’t come up with any good ways to do that, so I decided to do this small thing for you”.

“Though the reward that was given to me was flashy and fancy, however; I still have a couple of the pills you gave me, and they are not that far off from the main reward, so I changed my reward to corpses and i’m passing it on to you because i believe they would be of more use to you than me, and I hope we meet again in the future.” Lucas said as he stretched out his hand toward Alec for a handshake.

Alec looked at him, with all sorts of emotions running through him, he knew very well that Lucas was not someone who liked conversations like this.

He was more of a warrior, someone who spoke best when his sword was clashing against yours.

“I see you’ve decided to stick with them,” Alec said as he shook him back.

“Yeah. We’ve seen a region that has promised to give us territories that are practically close to each other, that way, we’ll be able to help one another out, though we might not have a close relationship, however; Blades always look out for one another. Especially now, in a foreign environment, we’ll need to hold onto that doctrine more than ever.”

After hearing Lucas’s explanation, Alec simply nodded and pulled his hand before engulfing him in a hug, he really didn’t want to take the space ring from him, all he wanted to say was that he could get more himself and was only looking for an easier way to make himself stronger which was why he did what he did for himself and the major reason why he asked his inner circle to do the same is because they are going to be near him so he can give them part of the harvest, but he knew Lucas had already exchanged it, and now there was no going back.

So he accepted Lucas’s goodwill, not wanting to leave behind any unsettled feelings. After that, the rest of the team—mainly the guys—gave Lucas a bear hug, while the ladies settled for short hugs before he walked away with his two clansmen.

Then Pale and Katie came over and told him that, though they would have loved to stay close to Alec, from what they had been hearing, the only regions willing to accept an F-ranked mage were the border regions, mainly called the wilderness, where invasions from abyss lords and their armies happened frequently.

So Pale planned to go with Katie and establish a safe haven close to each other, so they could watch over one another just like Lucas was planning to do with his clansmen, hearing this, Alec gave them his blessing.

Now there was only one more person he had to worry about after those two left as well, and his worries was Beatrice Marionette, she literally had no one to tag along with.

She looked at Alec with cold eyes.

“Are they all going to be going with you?” Beatrice asked.

“Actually, we all plan to give Alec our lord tokens and merge our lands under his, so we can become one big kingdom as quickly as possible. We’re fine with being assigned titles for now.” This time, it was Arthur who explained.

“From what we’ve learned, once someone becomes a human king on this continent, those appointed under him naturally become lords over different parts of his territory, since they’re there to help keep things in order, so we would do anything in our powers to push him to that level as soon as possible.”

Hearing that, Beatrice almost squealed.

“I want to join too, but you have to promise not to burden me with duties. I just want to live peacefully day by day and cultivate. Is that possible?” Beatrice asked, causing Alec to laugh out loud, though she was trying her best to maintain that poker face, however, it really wasn’t working for Alec, as he just found her behaviour cute instead.

“Of course, you can come under me, I promise you, if anyone makes you do any work, I wouldn’t take it lightly with them, I would make it my life goal to punish them instead,” Alec promised, while doing his very best to keep a straight face.

Beatrice, on the other hand, had a small smile breaking out on her face, though she was trying her best to hide it, however; Alec had already noticed it.

While he and his people were still talking, a lot of envoys from much wealthier and more well-off regions came with the intention of recruiting Arthur, Brandon, and the rest of them. However, they all said one thing—they were going wherever Alec was going.

And since those envoys didn’t want to offer Alec a chance to come to their regions, they all left, they would rather chase after another high-grade talent than allow a lowly F-grade human to enjoy their highly compatible mana regions.

Just then, a fragile-looking old man walked up to Alec, a stick in his hand.

“Finally, the biggest shot among the F-grade mages. I have come to offer you the chance to become a mighty lord in the Wilderness Region,” the old man said, baring all his teeth as he stared at Alec.

The joy on his face was unmistakable, he seemed genuinely happy that a mage like Alec had no place to go except the wilderness.