The meeting room of the Order of Sages was grand and beautiful, made in the Valyrian architectural style. The paintings and sculptures featured many famous dragons, as well as references to the Gods and style of their homeland. Rafael spared no expense in recreating an environment where most of the Sages would feel at home again.
All the founders except Zhang were present, including the three new members. Natasha, who wore a white robe and revealed her face to everyone for the first time, was a national-level beauty. She was 1.70 meters tall, with pale white skin, long black hair that reached the end of her back, a thin and delicate face, and black eyes.
Laura wore an orange cloak and had medium-length light brown hair. She was 1.65 meters tall, with tanned skin and brown eyes. Her face was very beautiful even without makeup.
Yuri wore a black cloak, was 1.80 meters tall, and had an ordinary face, with light brown hair like his sister's, the only thing that made him stand out were his completely black eyes that resembled the demons from the films and series of Earth, but that was just a side effect of his Umbromancy.
Rafael, who was in the main seat, began his speech: "Good evening everyone. First, I would like to welcome Laura and Yuri, who have now joined our Order. It is an honor to have two such renowned Masters joining us."
After Rafael welcomed them, everyone also greeted the two new masters, and they also thanked them, saying that the honor was theirs. Then Rafael continued: "For the past few years, our Order has remained passive without any major movements, our focus only on strengthening the core and supporting members, and collecting funds and magical resources. Therefore, the time has come for us to finally take action, today I will reveal part of our plans and ambitions for the near future. But before that, I want a report on our current resources, mission data, and other small tasks that most of you have accomplished since the last meeting. Jack, can you begin?"
As soon as his name was mentioned, a 6'4" tall man with brown hair shaved on the sides similar to a military-style, and brown eyes began his report.
"I have trained 20 assassins over the past 7 years and they have all achieved a certain level of efficiency similar to that of the Cult of the Stranger. They are all skilled in the art of disguise and face-changing, all 20 have undergone several alterations making them agile and powerful warriors. Among them, the vice-leader is the only one in the group who can use magic, all are armed with at least 2 magical artifacts each."
The face Jack displayed was the same at every meeting, including the color and style of his hair. The only difference was the color of his eyes, which no longer had the violet trace. Jack was studying to become a Shadowmancer but had still learned enough Blood Magic to do the basics with Alteration. With the spiritual root potions and the effects of the Yin Yang Tower, he had mastered 4 shadow element spells and 2 darkness spells.
Only Rafael knew this, and everyone, including him, suspected that the face displayed at the meeting was just another disguise of the former faceless man. Rafael congratulated Jack on the success of his training in creating a small espionage and assassination organization and on sharing the Stranger's dark secrets and methods with the Order of the Wise.
He then instructed the assassins on which targets to observe. In general, they would move in pairs, and five of these pairs were sent on five different missions to spy on and monitor possible enemies. The last ten men were then used as bodyguards for important apprentices of the Order, such as the magical blacksmith, Aisha who managed the shops in Asshai, and Henry, a normal human who managed a huge fleet of trading ships.
Rafael also asked if any of the founding members wanted one of these assassins as guards, but they all had their pride as mages and future Masters and said they could fend for themselves. The next to give his report was Vitarys, followed by Zaya:
"With the return of 8 apprentices from the soul collection mission, we have a total of 32 apprentices in the Order who are in Asshai and can be immediately sent on any mission. We have 1 apprentice who is in Dragonstone, 2 are in Henry's fleet, and the other 3 are Liu and his parents, he disobeyed our orders, and left Asshai to carry out a mission in the Shadowlands under orders from the Garden of Beasts. Besides that, our finances are overflowing, compared to the gold expenditure, if you approve, I plan to further reduce the price in Sages Points for apprentices to purchase artifacts from the Order's treasury, in addition to buying some more during the auction."
"We have a good supply of inferior soul stones, enough for dozens of years of operations for all the towers we currently have. However, if the Master of the Order were to acquire any more towers or start operations that require more expenditure, we might have to create or obtain more soul stone farms," Zaya added.
"That boy has already joined us, but he is still focused on the master of the Beast Garden. When he returns, give him a proper punishment for disobeying the Order's orders. As for the number of disciples, it should be sufficient, but we should recruit a few more in the coming years." Rafael added, then turned to Zaya: "We will have more magical resources and inferior soul stones soon. I will talk about it when the other reports are finished. "
Soon after, it was Liza's turn. She spoke about the situation of natural resources and the need for more alchemists so that all normal members could benefit from learning spells faster. She thanked Jhon for using his new spells to help grow more trees of immortality and prioritized the sale of all the fruits from the first batch during the auction.
In the following years, the other trees would bear fruit and these could be kept for use by the members and family of the Order. Speaking of Jhon, he had a completely different look from before. His hair and eyes were now an extremely vivid green color, and even his skin had changed color as well, but he hid the skin using alteration. He had learned 5 spells of the plant element, and 4 of the poison element. He also got his hands on 2 innate spells.
One of the primordial items came from his master Madame Zirya, the other was thanks to Rafael who discovered that the items he had were the so-called primordial ones. When he learned that the three "hearts" found in the Mage's Throat dungeon were primordial magic items of the body affinity, he almost made Vulcan spit one of them back out.
After investigating, he remembered the green crystal he obtained during the Beast Garden elimination test and discovered that it was also a primordial magic item of the poison element. It was a pity that he couldn't use any of them, so he gave one to Jhon, kept 1 heart for Zhang, and tried to trade the other during the great Asshai Auction. Thanks to this, the number of spells Jhon had was terrifying and he became one of the strongest members of the Order.
After Liza and Jhon finished, Omar only added some information that Rafael already knew. His current role was as the vice-leader of the Order of Sages, and he didn't take on any important missions; he only helped Rafael oversee everything.
Soon, the new members turned to speak, and everyone's eyes were on Zhang's empty chair. He hadn't been there for 8 years, and for the past 13 months, all contact with Stygai had been lost...
***
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