Chapter 42

Faced with Dils' complaint, Mosido did not respond immediately.

Instead, he waited until Sain left the living room and entered the laboratory. Only after the door closed did he slowly reply, "It should be possible."

"Dean Martin and his team have been planning this for over a century. I came here fifty years ago, and over the years, I've seen many promising young talents grow up."

"Given the current quality and standards of the apprentices at the Black Magic Academy, meeting Dean Martin's requirements should not be a problem," Mosido said, stroking the water glass on the table in front of him.

The liquid in the glasses on the table in front of the two official black mages was not ordinary; it was a high-end meditation potion personally formulated by Dils. Not only could it accelerate the recovery of a mage's mental energy and improve the quality of meditation, but it also had a fragrant and pleasant taste. For the apprentices, it was an unimaginable premium potion. But for the two official black mages, it was merely a beverage to relieve their fatigue.

Mosido, Sain's mentor, was not so extravagant in the past. However, since secretly forming an alliance with Dils, he had received many such potions from the beautiful female mage. Similarly, Dils had recently asked Mosido to help her craft a high-quality magical equipment in his spare time. The two black mages were each getting what they needed, and they were both outstanding in their respective fields.

By working together, when the spatial rift opened in the future, they could maximize their gains from the otherworldly plane behind the rift.

Although Mosido and Dils were doing well among the black mages due to their alchemy and potion-making skills, they still fell short compared to the official mages supported by the Holy Towers on the surface. The latter had more resource channels and a richer accumulation of knowledge, making them the fastest-growing entities in the wizarding world.

Mosido was already over eight hundred years old, and he had only a little over a hundred years left before reaching his lifespan limit. He was far from even the peak of the first level, let alone the second level. Many mages in the Holy Towers of the same age had already advanced to the second or even third level, while he was still stagnating at the first level.

This situation was partly due to the resource scarcity and closed knowledge exchange within the black mage community. Of course, it was also because Mosido had invested too much time and energy into alchemy research, gradually deviating from the true essence of magical elements.

Zorro, the eldest disciple, believed that Mosido valued the second disciple the most and had once considered him his successor. Mosido also thought so. However, among the disciples Mosido had taken in, the one who most resembled him was actually Zorro.

"Hmm, I heard that the group led by Walter, who went to the surface to raid, seems to have been discovered by others," Dils said.

"Dean Dadalon found two magical marks on the airship," Dils added.

"Hmm? Are they from a regular mage organization or the Holy Towers?" Mosido asked, his expression tense.

"Unclear, but they are probably from a regular mage organization."

"If they were from the Holy Towers, the two of them might not have returned," Dils shook her head and said.

"Hmph, the surface Holy Tower mages dominate over eighty percent of the resources in the wizarding world. Are they now going to take over the underground as well?" Mosido said indignantly.

Dils nodded in agreement, "Not only that, but the majority of the wizarding world's apprentice seeds have also been taken by those Holy Towers."

"Hmph, I heard that the Holy Tower Academy's standard for recruiting apprentices is an initial mental energy of 10 points or more."

"How many of the apprentices that Walter and his group brought back this time have a mental energy of 10 points or more?"

"If not for this, the Dean and his team would not have lowered the recruitment standards for entry-level apprentices," Dils said regretfully.

"The standard for recruiting apprentices in the Western Isles' Black Zone is also an initial mental energy of 10 points or more. This is a reliable standard that our wizarding world has explored since ancient times."

"Although initial mental energy does not determine an apprentice's ultimate achievement, the true power of a mage is determined by the wisdom they possess."

"But the level of initial mental energy directly affects their entry speed."

"To me, the Holy Towers in the wizarding world are all hypocritical fellows."

"Where do the Holy Tower mages come from? All from the nobility! This has gradually become a game for the nobility."

"On the contrary, in the Western Isles, the environment is harsh, and resources are scarce, but the Black Zone's magic academy recruits apprentices from all eligible children within the radiation-controlled area."

"Who is more fair?" Mosido said with a cold laugh.

Although both Mosido and Dils were from the Black Zone of the Western Isles, the Western Isles were vast, and the Black Zone's area was not something the two official black mages could fully explore. Mosido and Dils came from two different islands on the periphery of the Black Zone. Because Mosido had once studied in the Black Zone's magic academy for a period, he was more familiar with the situation in the heart of the Black Zone than Dils.

Mosido also had a different perspective on certain things compared to Dils.

Dils placed more emphasis on personal and immediate interests. Although Mosido was usually quiet, he sometimes thought about more profound matters.

Of course, Mosido's words were also somewhat biased.

The difference in the recruitment standards between the Black Zone and the major Holy Tower academies on the normal wizarding continent had multiple layers of considerations and other reasons, and it could not be simply reduced to the issue of "fairness."

Moreover, the apprentice competition mechanism in the Black Zone... both black mages had personally experienced it. Although they were not like Andis, who had fought his way out of a pure black magic academy, their apprentice days were certainly not easy.

Otherwise, their personalities would not be so obsessive and疯狂.

谈到学徒的招收标准，见多识广的莫西多不由感叹道：“虽然我对那些骑士殿堂也很看不顺眼，但至少骑士殿堂的侍从招收标准是面向全体人类的，不分高低贵贱。”

“我从西方群岛过来时，途中见过不少平民骑士学院。”

“据说骑士殿堂的这一变革，是上古时期，我们巫师世界某位至强无匹的骑士，全力推广到整个巫师世界的。”

“也不知道，我们魔法师群体中，未来是否会出现这样一位存在。”莫西多感慨道。

（Note: The last part of the translation was cut off due to the original text being incomplete. The last sentence in the original text is: "也不知道，我们魔法师群体中，未来是否会出现这样一位存在。" which translates to: "I wonder if such a being will appear in our mage community in the future."）