Among the Goldthorn apprentices who had come to study at Silverring Academy, only Samuel had been here before. For the rest, this was their very first time.
Even Morrison, the oldest among them, looked visibly shaken as his eyes fell on the vast sprawl of Silverring Academy.
Compared to this, bustling Emeraldwood City was nothing more than a backwater village!
In contrast, Lynn, who had crossed over from an advanced information age in his previous life, was perhaps the calmest of them all.
"Excuse me, are you apprentices from the Hossens School?"
A Silverring apprentice suddenly approached.
"Yes. And you are…?" Morrison asked politely.
"My name is Light. The senior in charge of welcoming you, Kleiman, has been delayed by other matters. He asked me to inform you to wait here for a while," the Silverring apprentice said with a smile before adding:
"I also accepted the task of welcoming new arrivals, though my group is just visiting exchange students. They haven't arrived yet… but by my estimate, they'll be here in a few minutes."
"I see. Thank you for letting us know," Morrison replied.
Apprentices coming to Silverring were divided into two categories: official exchange students and visiting students.
Official exchange students were like the Goldthorns, treated as equals to Silverring apprentices, with full privileges and opportunities.
Visiting students, however, were different. They were like Hossens School had been in the past, paying dearly for the chance to study here, but receiving far fewer privileges, fewer resources, and less status.
"Kleiman should be here in a few minutes. In the meantime, why don't you all take a seat by the windows?" Light suggested.
Morrison nodded and led the group to the seats by the towering glass panes.
It was only just past noon, yet because of the weather, the sky outside was already almost pitch-black. Blue-violet lightning darted through the clouds like writhing serpents.
Crash!
A deep rumble followed, and then the rain came in torrential sheets that blurred the academy's skyline beneath a shifting veil of mist.
"I wonder how long this storm will last," one apprentice muttered.
"Two hours and forty-nine minutes," Light replied with a smile. "It will stop precisely at three o'clock."
The apprentice blinked, stunned at his uncanny precision.
Lynn, however, glanced up at the colossal ring half-hidden in the clouds and immediately understood.
This rain wasn't natural.
Light's next words confirmed his suspicion:
"This downpour is the first scheduled rainfall of the month. There will be several more. Once you receive your academy badges, you'll be able to check the exact times of rainfall through them."
"This rain is… artificial?" apprentices whispered in awe, their surprise palpable.
"There's far more fascinating about Silverring Academy than this," Light said with a small smile. Then his eyes flicked to the side.
"My exchange group is arriving to visit the visiting students from the Root School."
"Root School?" Lynn's brows rose slightly. Beside him, Leah and Caroline exchanged startled looks, following Light's gaze.
A new group of travelers emerged from a silver-gray corridor. At their head was none other than the Root School delegation they had already encountered.
First-Circle Wizard Moore led the way, with the injured Hernant supported by two apprentices right behind him.
As Hernant's eyes fell on Lynn, rage immediately twisted his features. Even now, he still believed Lynn and his companions were the ones who had ambushed him.
But then, after a moment's hesitation, doubt flickered in his gaze. These apprentices… are they visiting students too?
"Are you Wizard Moore of the Root School?" Light asked as he stepped forward.
"Yes," Moore replied with a nod, his eyes drifting to the Goldthorns. "And those apprentices behind you?"
"They're official exchange students," Light answered. "Why? Is there an issue, Wizard Moore?"
"…No."
Moore's expression remained calm, though his brow furrowed faintly. Hernant, however, visibly stiffened. After a long pause, he lowered his head and refused to meet the Goldthorns' eyes again.
"In that case, please follow me. I need to get you processed before three o'clock, otherwise you'll have to wait until tomorrow," Light said, leading the Root group away.
The Root apprentices trailed after him in silence, leaving the Goldthorns behind to continue waiting.
Half an hour passed. Yet Kleiman, the Silverring apprentice who was supposed to welcome them, never showed.
Another ten minutes slipped by before, finally, a new face, a student named Griya, approached.
"Kleiman is dead," he said matter-of-factly.
Gasps rippled through the group. "Dead?!"
"Yes. If not dead, then missing. The academy has already recovered its badge. The exact circumstances are still under investigation.
"In any case, I'll be handling your reception from this point on." Griya's tone remained calm, almost indifferent.
"But how could this happen? Why would he suddenly die?" Apprentices whispered to one another in shock, murmuring anxiously.
"Could've been a mission. It could've been an accident in the labs. It could've been revenge or simply crossing the wrong person. In the central districts of Silverring, apprentices die every single day. There's nothing unusual about it."
Griya cut through the chatter of the apprentices, leading them down toward the base of the Transmission Spire.
The spire stood at the heart of the central district, a designated no-fly zone, so they had to descend using devices not unlike vertical elevators from Lynn's previous life.
The so-called "central district" referred to the cluster of towers and castles surrounding the spire. Ordinary Silverring apprentices and formal wizards mostly lived here.
Beyond that lay the "lower district," with its dilapidated, crowded buildings where all sorts of wizards gathered, both good and ill.
The "upper district" was above in the skies within the colossal Silverring Fortress itself. Only Silverring Academy's elite apprentices and its full-fledged wizards had the right to live there permanently.
The academy's dominion stretched far. From the Transmission Spire, everything the eye could see was Silverring's domain. The three districts, upper, central, and lower, were merely its core. Beyond them sprawled countless wizard territories that supplied it with resources, together far exceeding the central city in scale.
After leaving the spire, Griya helped them register their academy badges, then escorted them to their assigned dormitories before hurrying off.
...
Sobie Tower, 26th floor.
Lynn shut the door and surveyed his new quarters, costing him 100 low-grade magic stones per month.
Silverring Academy did not coddle its apprentices. Housing for first-level apprentices wasn't free. Rates ranged from 10 mid-grade stones a month down to just one, with the higher tiers offering stronger magical density as well as comfort.
Fortunately, Hossens School subsidized one mid-grade stone per month for its exchange students.
Since the difference in magical density only began at the 8-stone level and above, the cheaper tiers were essentially about space and amenities. Lynn chose the lowest option.
One room, one bath, plus a meditation chamber about five square meters… around thirty square meters in total. Not bad.
The conditions weren't even as good as the stone hut the original Lynn had once lived in.
But Lynn, who had lived in even smaller places while working in his previous life, wasn't bothered.
As for food, Silverring's central district had even developed something akin to food delivery. As long as one ordered from academy-certified restaurants, safety wasn't much of a concern.
Lynn didn't linger. After dropping off his belongings and leaving Lucky behind, he slipped out alone.
Because of how housing was distributed, the Goldthorn apprentices were already scattered across different areas. First-level apprentices were clustered closer together, but the second-level apprentices were relegated further away.
This reflected Silverring's very philosophy of education, if it could even be called that. It was more akin to free-range.
Ordinary Silverring apprentices lived in a cycle: take on tasks, earn contribution points and resources, trade them for courses or cultivation, grow stronger, then repeat.
Only elite apprentices living in the Silverring Fortress, or those formally apprenticed to wizards, enjoyed structured plans and direct guidance.
For Lynn, this meant his four months of study here would be largely self-directed. Aside from two mandatory tasks each month, he could spend the rest of his time however he pleased, even idling away in his dorm if he wished.
Of course, he would still need to pass the quarterly assessments.
Fail, and even as an exchange student, he would be expelled back to his school and barred from returning for two years.
I'll need to carefully plan how to spend my time…
With that thought, Lynn walked down the street where Samuel lived.
He was here because the two had arranged to meet and complete their contribution point trade at the Administration Tower.
Unlike Hossens School points, Silverring contribution points could indeed be traded, but only under strict rules, and only within the Administration Tower.
So even with their badges in hand, they had to go there to finalize the deal.
Samuel's neighborhood was far more upscale. Two- and three-story townhouses lined the street, each with its own small yard. The houses weren't especially large, but compared to Lynn's rented room, they were luxurious.
Naturally, the cost was ten times higher.
Which house was it again…?
Lynn focused briefly on his badge, about to send Samuel a message, when he spotted the boy already waiting at the door of one townhouse.
"You didn't need to wait outside this early. I told you I'd message you when I was on my way." Lynn smiled as he approached.
"It's fine. I didn't have anything else to do," Samuel replied.
Within Silverring's boundaries, the badges worked much like phones in Lynn's past life, allowing apprentices to message their contacts freely.
Lynn found it oddly familiar. If not for the towers and castles all around, he might almost have believed he was back in his previous world.
"Come on. We'll have to take the public skimmers. The Administration Tower is a ways off, and I don't want to risk being late." Samuel said, taking the lead down the street.
He lived not far from a public skimmer station convenient to an enviable degree.
By contrast, the area where Lynn stayed was far less accessible; he had to walk nearly twenty minutes just to reach the nearest station.
"Even though we can both fly, Silverring City has plenty of no-fly zones. Taking the skimmers is always the safest choice when traveling," Samuel explained.
"I understand." Lynn nodded, stepping aboard the public skimmer with him.
"You can pay either by dropping in magic stones or simply using your badge," Samuel added.
Lynn nodded again, unclipping his Silverring badge.
Oval-shaped, with the Silverring emblem at its center like an unblinking eye, the badge was conspicuous. At first, Lynn could feel the faint scornful gazes of some wizards in the skimmer, but as soon as they saw the badge, those looks vanished.
Silverring City forbade brawling, but it did not forbid duels to the death. In fact, applying for one was simple and easy.
This was a city where nearly everyone wielded power, and fights breaking out over a single harsh word were hardly uncommon.
But a single Silverring badge was enough to deter the vast majority of such trouble.
The skimmer was fast; in barely more than ten minutes, it carried the two of them straight to the Silverring Administration Tower.
Stepping off, Lynn instinctively tapped his badge against the sensing rune at the entrance.
Samuel, following behind, paused for a moment at the sight, then quickly caught up to say,
"Sometimes, I can't help but wonder if this really is your first time at Silverring Academy."
"Is that so? I only did it because the instructions were written quite clearly right next to the rune."
Lynn chuckled, then glanced at the badge as a message flashed six low-grade magic stones deducted. He clicked his tongue inwardly.
If I took a dozen more rides like this, I'd be spending as much as a month's rent…
Not just the rental transportation itself is exorbitant. Truly, city living never comes cheap.
Silverring was a bustling, crowded city of wizards, and its strict rules on movement reflected that. Beyond the many no-fly zones, reckless speed flights were also banned.
After all, a powerful first-level apprentice dashing through the air could smash a third-level apprentice to pieces, or even cripple a second-level one, in a collision.
Silverring had existed for centuries, and such incidents had indeed occurred. Its regulations had since grown long and complex, even Lynn, with his past-life experience, still needed time to adjust.
But more pressing to him than adapting to these rules was deciding on his next step, how to plan out his four months here.
After some thought, Lynn turned to Samuel, who had just finished his contribution-point trade, and asked bluntly:
"Samuel, what plans do you have for the next four months?"
...
…Meanwhile, back in Emeraldwood City.
At a frontier outpost, Wilfer boarded a land-skimmer. His face dark and brooding all through his sentence, he finally relaxed a little, though regret still lingered in his heart.
If I'd known earlier, I never would've provoked Lynn…
Half a month had passed, and at last he had completed his punishment.
Only now had he received his academy badge back, the magical restraints on his body lifted, his freedom restored.
At least I cut my losses in time. There are still two months until the Saint Ring Assembly, and I can still make it.
That half month without contact with the outside world was sheer torment. Now that I'm headed back to Emeraldwood City, once my badge connects again, I'll need to carefully check if I missed anything important…
Outside the window, the scenery blurred past at high speed. On Wilfer's face, for the first time in weeks, there was a smile of regained freedom.
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