Days passed one after another in a similar routine for Kale. At dawn, he would head to his master’s Work Chamber within the Fleshcraft tower.

His master would already have all the necessary items for the three different experiments of the three professions prepared for him.

He would go in and first do the three tests without even greeting his master.

Because his time limit for completing the three tests would be lessened every single day, and the difficulty of the tests also continued to grow at a steady pace, even for someone as talented as he.

It was extremely difficult to continue improving at such a pace. Not to mention, after he’s done experimenting, a bout of complaints from his master would follow over the countless small mistakes he made during each process. However, in Kale’s eyes, those mistakes could be considered negligent.

But the crass Fleshcrafter wouldn’t let a single fault of his slide when it came to the craft. After that, Kale would do his best to ask the most important questions or learn about the hard topics from Lazek, covering subjects in the entire Artificer pathway.

Kale, after the two-hour session with his master, would head straight to the third library where he would digest all the information he learned from his master for the day, reflect on the mistakes made by him, which Lazek pointed out, and think of ways he could avoid making those mistakes in the future.

Then devour and understand the knowledge of multiple new books each day. But gradually, he found that even with his unusual comprehension ability, the various topics in the advanced books were becoming less comprehensible.

For those reasons, he gradually invested more and more time every day in thinking and researching ways to perform his experiments more efficiently and quickly.

Eventually, six days had passed, and today was the day when the disciples of all the Grandmasters would be gathered in one single room, the best of the best.

Honestly, Kale would have preferred not to draw any attention to himself. But it is what it is. He didn’t have the luxury to take it easy, with the threat of certain death looming over his head.

***

Kale stood in front of the Association’s main tower. It was taller and more prominent than the others; it looked even more majestic. This was one of the two structures in the capital of Emberheart that would catch the attention of any bystander or newcomer. Mundane people would be left in awe upon seeing these two unfathomable structures.

With a sigh, Kale walked through the bustling crowd of Artificers, approaching the gateway. In fact, this was the first time he would be entering this main tower of the Association.

So, he could not help but let his gaze wander around, and marvel at this society and world that was built upon the foundation of magic, so much different from the revolutionary scientific world called Earth.

Showing his token as the disciple of Lazek Oberon, he entered through the main gate and was again shocked by the sheer volume of the interior.

But he quickly hid his baffled expression and went to the 7th floor, with a magic-operated lift.

It didn’t take him long to find the particular room that should be the gathering place, but that room’s door seemed closed, and it seemed closed from the inside. Kale frowned.

After a moment of hesitation, he eventually knocked on the door.

There was no response, nor did the door open. So, he knocked once more with a bit more force—still nothing.

Just as he was about to knock again, the door finally opened. There was an old man who opened the door with an annoyed look.

Kale’s heart let out a thump. There was a three-star badge on the man’s robe. Not to mention, the room was already filled with disciples.

The man spoke in a harsh tone, "Which brave fool are you?"

Kale sighed; he already felt a headache coming on, and his mind spun. Did his stupid master tell him the wrong time, or did he turn up late while gawking at the tower and the things inside it?

Most likely the latter. He bowed slightly and said in a respectful tone, "I apologize, Grandmaster, my master told me to come here?"

"Oh, who might your master be?" said the old man with a tone of ridicule.

The door was fully open, and all the disciples looked in his direction from within the room. There was also scorn on their faces. This was an important class, so being late was unacceptable. They indeed had the right to look down on such a person.

Kale answered respectfully, without a change of expression, "Lazek Oberon..."

The moment he said those words, the old man’s expression changed as he fell silent.

But then, the man’s expression turned strange, "Lazek is a Master rank Artificer; this class is only for the Grandmaster’s personal disciples."

Kale looked at the man in the eye, but did not speak.

Then the old man chuckled as he said, "Well, whatever, but why are you late, boy? Not only that, you disturbed the Other Grandmasters who had already started speaking, as well as me. You don’t have the brains to even come on time; in fact, you should have arrived much earlier, like everyone else."

The man shook his head with a disappointed look, "If you cannot even maintain punctuality, how can you ever hope to become a great Artificer. Sigh..., come on in now..."

Kale took in the shameful words with an expressionless face; he couldn’t give two hoots about the old man’s wise words.

As he entered the large classroom, at the front, were the Grandmasters standing; they looked at him, and even the disciples who numbered more than 30 were also looking at him with mock interest.

At this moment, suddenly one of the disciples called out in surprise, "Wait a minute, that’s the flipper freak...?"

Recognition finally dawned on the minds of the few disciples who knew Kale when they were candidates; a few more voices spoke aloud, "That’s the cursed one...."

"That loser tamer?"

"What? How is he here?"

"He actually passed the test?"

"How is that even possible...."

"But if he is here...."

"Doesn’t that mean he is also a disciple of a... Grandmaster?"