Once again, Clark's eyes became vacant and he stood in place with his left foot placed ahead of his right foot. Contrary to what everyone thought Clark would do, he stood still and let Nick's grey blade light envelop him completely, covering him with a grey glow that could not be seen through with the naked eyes.
Clark's clothes and body suffered severe cuts as a result of being enveloped by the grey blade light but as soon as blood was drawn Clark managed to somehow overcome the false reality. Clark instantly felt copious amounts of pain at that time because of the cuts all over his body and not only was much of his flesh torn apart, within two seconds of the blade light enveloping him, his eyes were completely destroyed.
At that time, Clark's entire body began glowing with white light as a result of the effects of his own method being activated:
(Delayed Restoration)
The white light emanating from Clark overwhelmed the grey blade light and forced it to dissipate within moments, maintaining its own enveloping white glow as it did. A few seconds after the grey blade light vanished completely, the white light dissipated and Clark's body and clothes began visibly mending themselves, and within four more seconds, they seemed to be restored to their exact state before the harm dealt by Nick's grey blade light occurred.
Clark creased his brows and breathed heavily for a few seconds while eyeing Nick, who did not immediately attack him again, thinking:
(I had cast Delayed Restoration on myself after the first time that I experienced the visceral vision resulting from Nick Capitol's magic. I did so because I had a sneaking suspicion about the vague human figure that appeared before the vision occurred. Delayed Restoration is a rank 3, advanced grade, time path spell that is triggered during the period after it is successfully cast, only and exactly when I receive a life threatening injury. It then dispels the offensive magic power acting on my body by fast forwarding the flow of time acting on the magic power while also negating the magic power's effect and my spell also reverses my condition to exactly before I was hit by the magic power that caused the life threatening injury. Delayed Restoration is a very precious lifesaving and recovery spell. I cannot believe that it was triggered by a student. No...that's the wrong way of thinking. Nick Capitol is graduating; he is not a student anymore...)
Clark squinted his eyes and turned slightly in order to completely face Nick. Nick had been observing Clark directly since his blade light dissipated and he had witnessed every moment of Clark being completely healed of his severe injuries; Nick thought:
(Clark Lance's time path methods are not simple. They saved him from being cut apart just in the nick of time, twice...no pun intended. It's time to change strategies.)
With that thought, Nick quickly sheathed Failed Tool and cancelled Tyrant Domain and Tyrant Form but Nick kept Tyrant Armor active and wrapped around his entire body. Clark was a little surprised to see Nick sheath his sword and was even more surprised to notice that the space path method that was influencing the field had abated; Clark asked himself internally:
(Is Nick Capitol calling it quits already? Hmph! Don't even think about it; I'm going to pay you back for each cut that you inflicted on me.)
The audience was confused by Nick's actions, especially the ones that resulted in his magic power suddenly dissipating. They discussed amongst themselves:
"What is Nick Capitol doing? Why did he cancel his bad ass spells and sheath his sword?"
"Maybe he's giving up. Honestly, I'm surprised that he even has a few rank 3 spells that he can use so well."
"You might be right. Each time Nick Capitol tried to pressure instructor Clark, Nick's efforts ultimately came to nothing. The better Magician is obvious from a glance."
"Hold on, don't be so quick to judge when the match has basically just begun. My trusty pocket lint feels moist, so there must be something brewing between those two."
"Your trusty what?"
"Don't listen to that guy. He successfully crafted a half-baked, luck path scouting magic tool and now he thinks he's the shit."
...
Patrice Suez who was sitting in one of the rows closest to the action observed Clark and thought:
(Clark's inaction after he attempted to side step Nick's last blade light attack seems similar to my own moments of forced inaction when I battled Nick during the inter-academy competition years ago. Nick is using a similar spell as back then but this time, the effect would have to be of the rank 3 level to have had such an influence on Clark. It looks like Nick came fully prepared with Rank 3 versions of his spells that he used during our battle. He's surpassed even William in terms of preparation. Who would have thought that after disappearing for years, Nick would show up like this?)
Jessica Jones watched the battle while her expression indicated her awe. She mused:
(Nick isn't losing out to Clark Lance in terms of apparent skill. Nick has really improved over the past few years. How is his progress so rapid? Although I have a few inheritances to guide me, I still need some more preparation before I try to promote to rank 3, especially in terms of understanding the foundation laws that I'll have to add onto my existing ones and the upgraded meditation technique that I'll have to use to keep my divergent grade mindscape...)
After having observed Nick's and Clark's battle so far, William asked aloud:
"How did Nick surpass me so significantly using just a few years?"
Victoria, who was sitting beside William, at his right side, did not offer him an answer to his question and just eyed Nick, who finally seemed ready to get on with the fight.
Back on the field, Nick simply waved his right hand and cast one of his spells; black miasma emanated from his body as a result but quickly faded as his spell resolved:
(Saturn.)
Clark suddenly felt himself become weightless and his mind immediately went on the alert:
(Space magic? So he hasn't given up; he has just changed strategies. Hmph!)
Clark was quickly raised two feet into the air as a result of there being no gravity acting on him but he was not perturbed.
(Neptune.)
Clark finally took his right hand out of his right pants pocket while pointing his left index finger at Nick in order to attempt to cast one of his methods with Nick as the target, but Nick had already disappeared from his spot on the ground, five meters away, with a blue flash briefly taking his place and then instantly reappeared in midair amidst the same briefly existing blue flash, slightly raised above Clark at the latter's immediate right flank.
Nick's right arm flashed with sparks of black light as soon as he reappeared, following which, he punched out using his right fist at the right side of Clark's face at a speed that made his arm faintly blur but Clark was already prepared and reacted in time:
(Lagging Present)
(Fast Forward Crash)
Clark's body immediately radiated formless magic energy exhaust and the distinct magical signature of time path was sensed emanating from him. Nick's movements in midair appeared to slow to a crawl while Clark's right index finger approached his belly; Nick easily sensed the time path magic power imbued within Clark's right index finger at this time.
Clark smugly smiled as his right index finger leisurely came into contact with Nick's belly; Clark expected his Fast Forward Crash to resolve the next moment while thinking:
(Get away from me. I don't like your smell.)
However, to his surprise, not only did his Fast Forward Crash not resolve but his right hand passed through Nick's abdomen, coming out at the latter's rear, as if Nick was not really there. Clark's eyebrows slightly jolted upwards for a moment when he witnessed this.
(Pluto.)
With four seconds having passed exactly at that point since Lagging Present was last cast, Nick became free of Lagging Present's influence and his right fist continued to punch out at full speed towards Clark's face. Nick's right punch hit Clark on the right cheek in less than a second after Nick regained his intended movement speed and Clark was immediately launched backwards as a result of the punch, towards a part of the field wall that faced Nick, almost two hundred meters away; Clark's body flew away like a shot cannon ball.
Nick quickly landed on his feet following his successful attack while Clark had almost crashed into the field wall, with only inches of distance remaining to cross before he did, but instead of crashing into the wall, his body stopped moving backwards completely, just those few inches shy of impact. At that point, Clark seemed frozen in place for some reason while his body radiated the thick but formless and invisible aura of time path.
(Paused Present)
Clark actually seemed like he was half-laying on thin air at that point after his spell resolved, his head still being in an awkward orientation because of Nick's punch. Clark appeared motionless for about two seconds before he regained motion and fell towards the ground, following which, he fixed his posture and landed onto the ground, standing firmly on his feet, thinking:
(I don't sense the influence of Nick's method that made me weightless before. His spell must have a limited area of effect. Also, that soul path method that Nick perpetually wraps around his body is problematic; I suspect that it is the reason that Lagging Present's duration was shortened to four seconds rather than its usual six seconds during my last physical exchange with Nick.)
Clark didn't think too much about why his hand had passed through Nick's body because he did not know much about space path, anyway, so he cast another one of his methods:
(Fast Forward Flow)
Clark quickly took a running stance and then ran towards Nick. His body moved so fast that after-images followed his every step, leaving many in the audience stupefied by the large number of Clarks that they saw suddenly appear and within moments, Clark had crossed the two hundred meters between Nick and himself to stand right in front of Nick. At that point, Clark punched towards Nick's chest using his left fist just as quickly as he had run to his current position. Nick immediately cast his own method in response:
(Pluto.)
Clark's punching left fist proceeded to pass through Nick's chest as if Nick's body was not really there but Clark followed up by using his currently enhanced movements to punch at Nick's face with his right fist. Moments later, Nick cast Pluto again and Clark's punching right fist passed through his head as if Nick was not real. Seeing that Nick was not defending himself using his soul path method alone, Clark figured that Nick was wary of his time path methods and so did not want to be touched by him.
Clark took the opportunity involved in Nick being overly concerned with his physical touch to open his mouth, casting another of his methods:
(Fast Forward Pulse)
A pulse of white colored magic power radiated from Clark's mouth and rapidly crashed into Nick's body. Following that, Nick, whose real head and chest were now within the adjacent space created by Pluto's effect, immediately coughed out two mouthfuls of blood and not knowing the cause of the damage to himself, realized something:
(I should have cast Tyrant Sense before I forced my head into this adjacent space. At least then, I would be able to know what is going on within my original space. Sigh, I have to learn things the hard way. Pluto works by embedding space path laws within parts of my body that forces those parts into this adjacent space while basically leaving a representative image of those body parts at corresponding positions within the original space. Those representative images are intangible and don't mimic the actions of the real body parts within the adjacent space.)
Within the adjacent space, Nick's head floated about half-a-foot above his chest and his chest floated several feet above the concrete floor below it. The adjacent space created by Pluto was practically a lit void that had a concrete like floor that stretched on endlessly, and it did not allow Nick to physically view what was happening in his original space while his head remained there but Nick could still cast his spells to affect the original space.
Reacting to the damage that he received due to Clark's method, Nick cast Pluto again but this time, his entire body manifested within the adjacent space. Nick immediately sensed the formless aura of time path flowing within his body and acted to circulate his own magic energy in order to resist the foreign magic power as well as cast Tyrant Recovery to heal himself of his apparent internal injuries that caused him to cough up blood.
Seconds earlier, within Nick's original space, moments after Clark had cast Fast Forward Pulse and its magic power crashed into and affected Nick's body, Clark witnessed the space all around Nick's body suddenly warp, following which, Nick's body vanished completely and the surrounding space stabilized soon after. Clark creased his brow in response and immediately lowered his fists to his sides, casting his scouting method during the meantime:
(Present Scene)
Snapshots of current and past scenes of the field, within a few seconds of Clark casting the spell, appeared within his mind but as he maintained the spell, he could no longer find Nick's presence within any of the most current scenes. Clark mused:
(Did he leave the field? But I still sense a lingering space path magic power even though I cannot see it. Nick clearly has some obscure methods but I can handle them. My Fast Forward Pulse emits a pulse that speeds up the flow of time acting on objects or parts of objects that the pulse comes into contact with. I manipulated the spell to influence only Nick's blood vessels, which should have resulted in his blood moving extremely fast within those bleed vessels and therefore causing damage to his internal organs. Damn it! He could be healing himself of those injuries as we speak. Space path excels in giving its casters the ability to advance, retreat or hide at their convenience. I should have kept that in mind.)
The audience was also confused by Nick's disappearance. Within a hidden section of the arena, the dean sat behind a large bay window, looking out at the field; a member of staff, who was also a Magician, sat beside the dean. The room that they were in was relatively small, well lit and had white tiled floors; the chairs that they both sat on looked like thrones made out of emerald colored, polished wood. The other Magician sitting in the room, who wore a black magician's robe that had a hood which hid the Magician's face, asked the dean:
"Nick Capitol has appeared to have left the field, do we end the test now?"
Xavier Gecko shook his head and then replied:
"He has only superficially left the field. He is hiding within an adjacent space connected to the field's own space. Spells like that are usually very taxing, so he should not be able to remain within the adjacent space for much longer."
True to the dean's words, a section of space immediately behind Clark's right shoulder warped, following which, Nick's entire body reappeared, still covered by Tyrant Armor. Nick punched at the right side of Clark's head as soon as he appeared but Clark, who was still using his time path scouting spell, noticed Nick's arrival immediately and responded by casting Lagging Present on Nick without even turning around.
Nick's movements slowed to a crawl but he was not phased. Suddenly, a tennis-ball-sized sphere of grey magic power appeared in contact with Clark's middle back, following which, Clark was launched forward at incredible, hair raising speed towards the field wall, over eight meters in front of him; the grey sphere dissipated immediately after Clark was launched. Clark quickly cast Paused Present and stopped himself from crashing into the field wall, just a few inches short of making contact with it.
He then fell one foot towards the ground, soon landing on his feet and turned around to face Nick but Nick had already disappeared from his previous position and instantly reappeared amidst a flash of blue magic power, standing almost one meter away from Clark's immediate front. Now being free of the effect of Lagging Present, Nick briefly mobilized the dreadful aura associated with his Cursed Vessel talent, which resulted in a dark, fear inducing aura quickly enveloping Clark.
Clark immediately developed goosebumps when he sensed the dark aura and for a short time, could not think clearly enough to cast spells. At that point, in his vision, Nick's body was replaced by the vague figure of what looked like a hippo-sized, winged magic beast that had red and blue eyes and which seemed to be made entirely out of black miasma. The strange magic beast then menacingly opened its mouth at Clark but no sound was heard coming out of it. Clark opened his eyes wide when he witnessed such a scene and thought:
(What the hell is this?)
Seeing that Clark had seemingly been frozen in fear by his dreadful aura, Nick internally rejoiced and moved his right arm forward at a speed that made it blur in order to grab Clark by the face. Following Nick's palming of Clark's face, a basket-ball-sized sphere of red magic power enveloped both Nick's right hand and Clark's head. Just as Nick was about to manipulate the effects of Saturn further, he and Clark were immediately forced apart and Nick was made to move towards the opposite side of the field against his will by an invisible force.
Both Clark's and Nick's spells were forcefully cancelled during this time, so Nick's Tyrant Armor abated, returning his skin and clothes to their original colors. The magic beast and Nick's dark aura had instantly vanished from Clark's view as soon as they were separated and Clark could now plainly see Nick's body once again as Nick flew away from him. Clark spoke aloud at this time:
"What the hell? I'm not done dealing with that brat, who said that the battle could end already?"
Nick was quickly brought to the opposite end of the field and placed to stand on his feet while Xavier Gecko appeared standing in the middle of the field. Dean Gecko looked over at Clark and said:
"Separating you and Nick was my own decision, instructor Clark. The test of strength is now over as I and the others here have seen enough. Nick Capitol is a worthy rank 3 Magician and is indeed qualified to graduate from our academy."
Clark had no choice but to swallow his frustration and displeasure after the dean spoke. Clark stood straight and simply folded both his arms after hearing the dean's explanation, soon eyeing Nick, who stood over three hundred meters away from him on the other side of the field. The audience also heard the dean's explanation and discussed:
"So the test of strength is over just like that?"
"Hmmm...both Nick and instructor Clark used quite a few of their spells and came to blows a few times. We already saw that Nick could pretty much hold his own and so did instructor Clark."
"Yeah...considering that this was just supposed to be a graduation test, Nick's evident abilities should more than qualify him to be licensed. Hell, I wouldn't be able to even last a second fighting against Nick or Clark."
"Did you see Nick's weird space path spells like the one that made instructor Clark's fist pass through him or the one that sent instructor Clark flying into the wall? Where did he get such rank 3 space path spells from?"
"Has Nick already been recruited by a powerful organization? How else would he have such methods?"
"Did you see how instructor Clark froze up at the end of the battle? What would have happened after Nick grabbed instructor Clark's face if Dean Gecko had not interfered?"
"Nothing good..."
...
Randolph Jenner and Carla Jenner were slightly surprised by Nick's abilities. They knew Nick's background better than even Richter Order Academy because of their private investigations of him prior to getting into business with him and they did not find it likely that Nick would be so formidable after having become a rank 3 initial stage Magician relatively recently.
In the past, Carla suspected that Nick might of had a powerful teacher protecting and guiding him but she later ruled it because of Nick's apparent efforts to distance himself from her. Her thought process was:
(His actions to distance himself from me are those of a lone, wary and struggling soldier. It is unlikely that he has a backer.)
Despite their disbelief, the results had already been made apparent; Nick Capitol was a very capable rank 3 initial stage Magician. Randolph asked Carla:
"Have you given him help? Where did he get those rank 3 space path spells? I can ignore him having rank 3 blade path and soul path spells but rank 3 space path spells are not easy to obtain on the market for any student. It's either you helped him or you stupidly let someone else beat us to the punch in seriously recruiting him."
Carla frowned in response to Randolph's words and replied to him:
"Watch your words, cousin; don't take my patience for granted. Nick's current rank 3 spells seems to be improvements on the rank 2 spells that he used during the inter-academy competition a few years ago. I know for a fact that he has skills as a spell maker, so it is likely that he developed those space path spells himself."
Randolph opened both his eyes wide and then relaxed them before saying:
"He designed the magic formation that we use to produce soul healing scrolls and now you're telling me that he can develop such high quality spells on his own. Our business partner is evidently very...unique. Why haven't you moved to get closer to him up until now?"
Carla replied with an annoyed expression:
"Do you think that I, a rank 4 early stage Magician, needed to humble herself before a rank 2 Magician over uncertain future benefits? Having a marriage arrangement was enough until now. I'll have to talk to Nick later about the details. Don't ask me anything more about my personal affairs."
Not wanting to push Carla to the limits of her patience, Randolph turned away from her and eyed Nick with clear interest. Not far away, William Rollins rubbed his chin with his right hand and said aloud:
"Nick is something else. Even after these few years, he is still surprising me. I wonder how he cultivated to this level in such a seemingly short time."
Victoria Nelson was silent for a few seconds before adding:
"It looks like being a hermit and a loner has its benefits."
Victoria said that spitefully but then she remembered the intimate contact that she and Nick had during the inter-academy competitions a few years ago and her face slightly flushed. William saw Victoria's strange condition and asked her:
"Are you getting sick?"
Victoria just waved her right hand silently in denial. Patrice Suez, who sat a few rows away from William and Victoria smiled and muttered under her breath:
"Nick, you are such a freak."
Jessica Jones and Pearl Wiles each only silently clenched their fists at their sides, a clear competitive spark existing within their eyes. Jessie Auburn sat relaxed in his seat and called someone on his smartphone. When the person picked up, Jessie told them:
"I want you to keep track of someone for me while I am still attending Richter Order Academy. Don't you dare lose track of him..."
Thompson Varrow sat in his seat with a hot dog in his right grip while he watched the events on the field. He took another bite of his already half-finished hot dog and after swallowing, he murmured:
"Another good student moves on. I hope that the rascal and I meet on the battlefield, someday."
On the field, Dean Gecko addressed the audience and Nick:
"Nick Capitol has done well during this test of strength and will be allowed to graduate. In the presence of all of you, I will hand him his magician license and his diploma."
After saying that, Dean Gecko disappeared and then reappeared immediately in front of Nick with a rolled up piece of paper within his right grip and a mostly grey metal card within his left grip. The dean lightly smiled at Nick and said:
"These are your diploma and magician license. Don't lose them or you will have to go through a fair bit of trouble in having them replaced."
Nick accepted the paper and the metal card from the dean but was not fooled by the latter's genial smile. Nick had never forgotten that Dean Xavier Gecko had long since tampered with his soul. Nick thought at this time:
(I need to work on getting rid of this bastard's method that remains on my soul while I am away from Richter Order Academy. Who knows when it could bite me in the ass?)
Nick looked at his magician license and felt nothing. To him, it was only a slightly special tool with his name and picture on it. The good thing about it was, however, that he could make use of it to join the Magicians Association and procure magic items that he was not able to easily procure in the past. Nick slightly nodded his head at the dean to indicate his appreciation; he also stored his diploma and magicians license within his space band.
Nick then cast Saturn and gradually rose up into the air until he reached thirty meters above ground, following which, he flew away from the sports arena. Dean Gecko watched Nick's departure with a plane gaze and internally remarked:
(You have not gotten away from me just yet.)
Clark snorted in response to Nick's departure and suddenly vanished from the field. The dean vanished soon after and the spectators began to leave the arena in response.
Nick flew away from the arena in order to return to his commercial building. He arrived there in less than five minutes and landed a few meters away from the building's entrance, cancelling Saturn. Nick quickly noticed that there was someone waiting at the entrance and he actually recognized the older man.
This man had a white complexion, looked to be in his early thirties, had a slim, athletic build, persistently squinted eyes and short black hair that was faded at the sides. The man wore a standard green military uniform, which had an emblem pinned to the left side of his uniform that featured three horizontal gold bars and two blue stars.
Nick muttered the man's name as if to jog his own memory:
"Lieutenant Andrew Wiles."
Andrew Wiles faced Nick and slowly walked towards him while having a friendly grin plastered on his face. When Andrew was about one meter away from Nick, he stopped walking and spoke sincerely:
"Nick Capitol, now that you have graduated from Richter Order Academy, I was personally sent here to recruit you to the military branch of the Ministry of Magic. How about it, will you come fight for your country?"
Nick remained silent for a few seconds in response to Andrew's question, maintaining an indifferent expression and soon replied:
"No thanks, at least not for a while after I leave the academy. I have some other plans that need attending to."
Andrew's grin vanished when he heard Nick's refusal and he thought:
(After thinking for so long, that is the answer that you give a lieutenant that was personally sent to recruit you...)
Andrew was no doubt annoyed and his magic power surged in response to his emotions. White starlight faintly radiated from Andrew's body, following which, Nick felt an intense pressure bear down on him but he countered Andrew by casting Saturn once again, following which, Andrew suddenly felt himself become weightless and a tennis-ball-sized sphere of grey magic power appeared in contact with his midsection.
Andrew manipulated his magic power in order to keep him grounded amidst the zero gravity but he knew that the grey sphere was a bit trickier to deal with and so he did not bother dealing with it and eyed Nick, regaining his calm immediately. Nick kept his eyes on Andrew and spoke solemnly:
"If you don't put away your magic power, one of us is going to die out her today."
Andrew chuckled and then replied:
"You do realize that I am at the late stage of rank 3, right? You would not win in a battle against me while being at the initial stage of rank 3."
Nick placed his right hand on Failed Tool's hilt and said in response:
"I'm willing to try taking you down if I need to. No one gets to place burdens on me freely. Do you understand?"
Andrew stared at Nick blankly for a few seconds before openly sighing, following which, the starlight radiating from his body abated and the pressure acting on Nick dissipated. Sensing the change, Nick dispelled the grey sphere of magic power touching Andrew's midsection and returned the gravity to Andrew's position but he did not cancel Saturn just yet. Nick then explained:
"After I leave this academy, I want to establish myself before I entertain the possibility of joining the military. I happen to know of the political shenanigans that occur in organizations like yours and so I would rather become strong enough not to be under anyone's thumb before I commit to enlisting myself."
Hearing Nick's reasons, Andrew clapped both his hands together three times before saying:
"You have some decent awareness, which is good. Fine, I will leave you to your plans but believe me, I will be seeing you again. The government does not just let go of promising people that it has its eyes on. He, he. Your involvement with The Magic Scroll Company has already made you a target for them since they have spent billions of pounds on purchasing your invention already. I'll leave you with my number if you change your mind."
Andrew took a business card out of his right pants pocket, following which it floated away from his right hand and arrived in front of Nick's face. Nick took hold of the business card with his right hand and instantly stored it within his space band.
Andrew's grin immediately returned and he waved Nick goodbye once before vanishing amidst a halo of starlight, which also vanished two seconds later. Nick then cancelled Saturn and rubbed the back of his head with his right hand, thinking:
(Who would have thought that Andrew Wiles would have acted against me so openly? Should I expect coercion like that to be a normal thing from now on?)
Nick shook his head, ridding himself of those thoughts and went inside his building. Nick then called Dewy on his smartphone and asked him to come to the first floor waiting area with Sai and Kurt in tow. Nick hung up the phone and sat at one of the tables, waiting for his employees to arrive.
Within five minutes, Dewy, Sai and Kurt could be seen coming from the first floor via the staircase and soon joined Nick at his table. Dewy sat at Nick's left side and Sai and Kurt sat opposite to Nick. Nick asked Sai:
"Has The Realm Exploration Company been legally formed yet?"
Sai replied immediately:
"Yes, the company has been formed as you asked and I have the paperwork that you signed over the past few days ready for your further review. The matter of the new commercial building that we've set to purchase is also still being settled. Real Moguls' construction team are on site making improvements and alterations to it, which should be done within a few days. Real Moguls didn't mind fronting the money for the construction works because they found out that you are a graduating Magician and were willing to do the work on a leap of faith basis."
Nick nodded his head in understanding. He had indeed signed some documents in the past few days so that his company could be formed without a hitch. Nick was not so carefree that he would give Sai permission to pull the trigger on any of his legal matters so Nick looked over and signed all the paperwork once it was prepared. After Nick finished speaking to Sai, he turned his attention to Kurt and asked:
"How is the bank account related matters and the purchasing of supplies going?"
Kurt answered with a hint of pride in his tone:
"After getting Nate, Joy, Heath and Leon to help me to do the filing, I've already obtained a corporate chequing account with Absolute Reserves Bank, one of the largest commercial banks in the country, using the company documents that I got from Sai and a letter of intention. All that's necessary to conclude the banking procedures as well as to actually pay for the commercial building is for you to make a deposit to the chequing account."
Nick replied:
"I'll do that now."
Nick summoned his laptop from his space band and logged into the Magicians Association National Bank online platform, following which, he transferred £300,000,000,000 or 3 vatas to the corporate bank account after getting the exact account information from Kurt; Nick had about 7 vatas remaining in his personal bank account after he made the transfer. Nick then handed Kurt his laptop to set up an online account for Absolute Reserves Bank and following that, Nick was finally able to see the money that he had transferred within the corporate account. Nick then spoke to Dewy:
"Dewy, we will be moving to the new building as soon as it is ready. Get some temporary people to help you set up the office space. Also, have Sai and Kurt help you secure and pay for contracts with cleaning services and security companies. I want everything in good shape by the time that I am ready to move in."
Dewy replied:
"Consider it done."
After making those arrangements, Nick dismissed his employees and went to his second floor workspace. When he sat in front of his work table, he summoned a bag of butter bread and ate it while musing about his next plans:
(During the next phase of my life, my cultivation will still take priority. I can cultivate while I explore realms with the intention of extracting resources, which should be easier using the Silent Ark magic formation but I still have to repair it because of the damage done to it during my last realm exploration. Speaking of the last realm that I explored, I won't be going back there. Most of the magic beasts ignored me because my magic seemed inferior to dirt back then but now that I am rank 3, they might take me a little more seriously. I can't risk fighting rank 4 and above magic beasts. The last time I was there, Silent Ark helped me deal with some rank 3 magic beasts but rank 4 is different. To a rank 4 magic beast, even a rank 4 initial stage Magician might not be a worthy opponent, much less me.)
After setting his intentions, Nick summoned his laptop from his space band again and went onto the Magicians Association's online platform so that he could begin procedures to officially join the association. It was easy to do so once Nick had his magician license. After filling out a few online forms that asked him for his license registration number, which he already knew from looking at his license earlier, he submitted the forms and officially became a member of the Magicians Association.
Following that, Nick ordered materials that he would need to repair Silent Ark.
(In earlier times, I had Dewy use procurement agencies to purchase materials but by using the Magicians Association's online platform, I can simply order ordinary magic materials from the association itself. At this time, I could also purchase different materials of better quality to repair Silent Ark but that would result in me having to reformulate the magic formation and I don't find that effort worth it.)
After ordering the materials, Nick meditated for the next few hours until he received a call from Carla Jenner; she basically congratulated him on graduating and asked when it would be convenient to go through with their marriage arrangement. Nick internally chuckled, knowing that Carla could not so easily force him to go through with the arrangement like when he was rank 2. Although Carla was rank 4, that only mattered if they were alone and some place where she could harm him without consequences but Nick was not foolish enough to be alone with her after graduating from the academy.
Nick made and excuse:
"I have cultivation to do in order to secure my foundations, so the marriage will have to wait. That shouldn't be too surprising, Carla. You know that I come from nothing and have no support so I have to take my cultivation seriously, especially at this time."
Carla countered by saying:
"Nick honey, if we got married right away, you could easily rely on me and the other Jenners. There is no need for you to go at it alone."
Nick internally sneered when he heard that:
(A mature person relies on himself morning, noon and night. There is ultimately very little for me to gain in relation to carving out my own path by relying on Carla or her family. I have to do things my own way and that means being primarily alone, away from people who can adversely influence me.)
Nick said in response:
"Thanks Carla, but no thanks. Rank 4 is a long way ahead of me and every second counts. While I'm sure that your support would aid me greatly, as a mighty man of valor, I refuse to rely on you. Please excuse me. Oh, and I'd appreciate it if you still informed me about the progress of The Magic Scroll Company. I hear that you guys are doing great."
Carla was internally furious but she could not force Nick to do anything from a distance and she could not raid his commercial building because that would affect her relationship with Richter Order Academy, who guaranteed land owners some amount of safety within their property's boundaries. Carla had to hang up the phone with no way to retaliate in the face of Nick's reasonable excuse. She thought:
(Mighty man of valor? He's into poetry now? Fine. I'll let you have your way for now but your freedom won't last.)
Carla was certain of this. With The Magic Scroll Company's financial success, even after handing over shares of the profit to Randolph and Donny, Carla was an exceptionally wealthy woman and because of her wealth, she was rapidly making progress in her cultivation and was only a few years from becoming rank 4 middle stage.
Nick put away his smartphone and continued meditating until the next day when the Magicians Association's delivery personnel arrived at his building dressed in a standard blue uniform, consisting of a pair of cloth pants and a tucked in collared shirt. Following his arrival, the delivery person, who was a white male that had dark eyes and curly, red hair, handed Nick the materials that he had ordered. The magic materials were contained within a disposable space band so it was an easy hand off.
Nick had paid a few billion pounds for the materials, so he was eager to go down to the underground parking lot in order to check them properly and return any material that he found unsatisfactory. The delivery man left in a company sedan and Nick made his way to the underground parking lot where he emptied the contents of the temporary space band, which was in the form of a cheap metal bracelet.
After all the magic materials, which mostly consisted of various metals were placed onto the floor, the temporary space band fell apart. Nick threw the pieces of the ruined temporary space band aside and began to inspect each piece of material until he was satisfied that they were all fit to be used in repairing Silent Ark.
Immediately after his inspection, Nick summoned Silent Ark from his space band. The magic formation floated one foot above the parking lot's floor and despite the dents on its exterior, it still looked like a majestic device. Nick then began the repair process by using his magic energy to rip out the damaged pieces and the pieces around the damaged parts by hand and then replaced them with the new materials that he had ordered.
Despite Nick's familiarity with Silent Ark, the complexity of the magic formation resulted in the repair taking almost five days to complete. At the end of that time, Nick wearily stored Silent Ark within his space band and then went up to the ground floor to have a meal. Before he could get Dewy to cook something, however, Tracy Capitol and Jacob Argant showed up at his door.
Nick sighed when he saw them through the glass double doors but since he was already on the ground floor, he decided to go talk to them. When Nick pushed open one of the glass doors, Tracy, in her excitement to see him, blurted out her reason for coming to his building:
"Nick, Jacob and I watched you during your test of strength last week. You were awesome. Do you think that you could give us some pointers before you left?"