The Stargazer

by Nikostar A

  The crowd was once again stunned and swore, "Are you trying to make a comedy show!?"

  "Can you not just build up the tension and to just do something like that?"

  The students swore but nobody stopped Alexander from going to the bathroom. They sat down here for a while; it was possible that he had an emergency but who would have time to think about something like that?

  "He cannot be thinking of running away, right?" asked Steve while looking at the director of studies.

  The latter immediately started sweating, "No, no. Of course, no. Where can he go without us?" said the director of studies but at the same time, his tone did not sound very confident.

  It was only when Alexander finally appeared on stage one minute later that the director of studies let out a sigh of relief.

  All the spectators were staring at Alexander's back. The final outcome of the agreement between the Exil and the UN rested on his shoulders and yet, he was being so carefree!

  Alexander calmly walked up to the stage and faced an angered Wang Chong.

  The latter glared at Alexander, "So you are finally here. I thought you were trying to run away. You said you can beat me in just two moves? Let me teach you a lesson."

  To his threats, Alexander simply sneezed and turned toward the referee who was about to start the countdown, "Mr. Referee! Please be prepared. The match is going to end very quickly. My attack is quite strong, I don't want to be blamed if anything happens to him."

  Wang Chong's face turned red! He was being humiliated once again. He exploded. "What are you waiting for? Start the countdown," Wang Chong bellowed at the referee.

  Alexander was internally laughing when he saw Wang Chong's behavior. For this fight, he was going to go all out. Why did he suddenly change his behavior and instead of laying low, decide to show his strength?

  It was because there was nothing to earn by showing his strength before but now, by doing so, he would not only secure his session in the cultivation box, he would also steal three hundred spirit stones from the rogue mage named Steve.

  Both rewards were extremely valuable. Spirit stones were the currency used on Loha but it also contained mana and could be used as recovery resources.

  Alexander was well aware of the difference in power between him and Wang Chong. If he relied only on magic, he was bound to be defeated. He had to use the stars if he wanted to win but then, it would be very suspicious if he barely won. It was impossible to claim that he was just being lucky. Going all out was the best solution; he might be able to cover his use of star power.

  To top it off, Alexander was also curious about the extent of his power and he was tired of the other student's annoying behavior. They all looked down on him because of his weak side, but it was time to show them something different.

  When going to the bathroom, Alexander executed one of the body postures of the constellations. He could not do so in front of everyone as it would attract unnecessary attention. With his body full of star energy, Alexander was prepared to face Wang Chong. He had already read the information about Wang Chong and knew that he was a mage that enjoyed using fire spells.

  Everybody's attention was focused on the match. Even Sonya who was still dizzy did her best to have a look at the duel. She was proud that she managed to beat her opponent but Alexander was her rival! He was the first one to defeat her at the academy and if she made some progress, she was also curious about the progress Alexander made.

  The battle began and immediately, Wang Chong activated his spirit circuit!

  [Magma Pillar]

  "He is starting with advanced spells?" exclaimed the director of studies.

  "I told you he has a lot of resources. His father managed to get some Lohan natives to teach him a few tricks. I seriously doubt Alexander will win, let alone when using only two moves."

  On the stage, Alexander smiled and activated his own spell.

  The ground under him suddenly exploded, releasing a giant pillar of magma. Wang Chong could not help but smile; he could feel the terrifying heatwave erupting from the ground. He raised his head to look at Alexander but the latter had already disappeared.

  "Is that all you've got?"

  Wang Chong recognized the voice in an instant. He raised his head and saw Alexander.

  "[Fly]! He is using [Fly]!" The students loudly exclaimed when they saw Alexander's appearance. A pair of angelic wings appeared behind his back. With a single flap of his new wings, Alexander easily avoided the magma pillar and stabilized himself high in the sky, away from all the dangers.

  The recruits of Nuevo Mundo turned toward the team captain, "How did he learn one of the spells of the organization?"

  Nuevo Mundo was famous for its flying squad. Nuevo Mundo meant New World in Spanish. It was precisely because of the flying spell that the organization chose this name. By flying, they would gain access to a whole new perspective; they would be able to watch the world from the sky.

  Although [Fly] was not an exclusive spell of Nuevo Mundo, it was still quite rare for the other mages to learn it. It was a difficult advanced spell that took time to master; it was on the same level as [Telekinesis].

  The team captain was speechless. He himself only learned [Fly] a whole year after joining Nuevo Mundo.

  "Come down if you dare! If you are so strong, why are you hiding in the sky!?" angrily shouted Wang Chong. He glared at Alexander who was flying out of reach of his spells. Naturally, he could use his fire spells to attack him but at this distance and with the help of his wings, Alexander would easily be able to dodge them.

  "How long do you think you can maintain those wings? I can just wait for you to run out of mana!" exclaimed Wang Chong.

  High in the sky, Alexander completely ignored Wang Chong. He was focusing on his spirit circuits and getting ready to cast an extremely powerful spell that would deplete the rest of his mana instantly.

  As soon as his spell would be activated, his wings would inevitably disappear and he would start to fall but thanks to the constellation he had activated, he would still be safe.

  Alexander took a deep breath and finally started.

  ***

  "What is he doing?" asked Steve.

  The director of studies did not know what to answer. He had already been impressed by Alexander's use of [Fly]. Although it was a non-combat skill, it was still impressive that he already knew so many advanced spells.

  The two leaders of the two sides were no longer looking at Alexander directly. Instead, they were looking at the miniature representation of the arena in front of them. The array was activated by the staff members before the start of the battles. It would project a tiny hologram of the mages and would allow them to see the flow of mana.

  Suddenly, Alexander's hologram shook and became completely blue.

  "He is using a spell?"

  "What kind of spell needs to activate so many spirit circuits at once? That's a huge amount of mana!"

  The director of studies looked at the hologram with a solemn expression. "It's not an advanced spell. It's an extreme spell! It cost fifteen low-level spell's worth of mana to activate!"

  Alexander opened his eyes. [Ianto, the Mariner] was ready to be activated.

  "Here we go..."

  [Wrath of the Northern Sea]

  ***

  Wang Chong stomped the ground when he noticed that Alexander was completely ignoring him. But there was nothing he could do apart from standing here and to wait for Alexander's mana to run out.

  Suddenly, Wang Chong felt a change in the air; the atmosphere became tense and heavy. Something was going to happen!

  He looked at Alexander's silhouette. His angelic wings suddenly vanished and an explosion suddenly occurred in front of Alexander.

  However, the explosion did not cause any damage but instead, led to a deluge of water! A massive amount of water suddenly erupted from Alexander's spell and poured down toward the Arena. Due to Alexander's height, the water would take a few seconds to hit the a
rena but at the same time, the amount of water would reach an unprecedented volume.

  Wang Chong was terrified. He watched as the deluge of water slowly took the shape of a giant angry whale falling toward him. Even if he was scared, Wang Chong still tried to attack.

  [Fire Bull]

  A giant bull of fire appeared before him and Wang Chong sent him to charge at the whale.

  However, before he could see the outcome, the referee suddenly intervened and grabbed Wang Chong's collar. "Don't stand here, idiot! Are you tired of living?" He pulled Wang Chong away from the stage and ran for his life.

  The giant whale continued to fall down; it engulfed the fire bull without any difficulty and then crashed on the empty arena. The ground shook. Under the sheer pressure of the water, the entire stage started to crack. Even the neighboring stages were being affected.

  The whale exploded, releasing a massive about of water in the entire arena. The drains of the arena immediately started removing the water but there was simply too much liquid.

  The entire arena was flooded with seawater. The stages ruptured, breaking into several large pieces of concrete that went along with the water.

  The entire crowd was stunned. What did they just witness? Was it really the work of a single mage?

  The students had mixed feelings about it. They had just witnessed Alexander's real strength. The members of the Flemming Organizations were relieved that they did not go against Alexander or else, what would happen if he unleashed that giant whale at them.

  As for Sonya, her heart was aching. She considered Alexander as her rival but the gap between them was so wide. "Is that his real strength? That means that he did not even go all out the last time we fought?"

  Alexander's figure was still floating high in the sky. His face was calm but in reality, he was completely shaken by the strength of his spell. He used [Ianto, the Mariner] and slowly glided down the torrent of water.

  The [Wrath of the Northern Sea], slowly deactivated itself, reducing the water flowing out. Alexander safely landed on the remains of the stage they fought on. He scratched his head awkwardly, "Well, I did not think it would cause that much damage..."

  Chapter 36: Returning to the academy

  It was Alexander's first time in experimenting in using both the powers of a stargazer and the powers of the elemental mages at the same time. The [Wrath of the Northern Sea] was a powerful extreme spell but when combined with Ianto, the Mariner, its effect became unbelievable.

  The water whale was not supposed to reach this size but Ianto provided enough water for it to reach this volume.

  Any extreme spell was extremely powerful; they were the reason why mages were feared and could fight against the Xals for so long. Low-level spells, intermediate spells, and advanced spells, those three types of spells were already widely spread around on Loha and all of them could be learned at the academy.

  However, extreme spells were different. They pushed the boundaries of power. Only the major forces of Loha had extreme spells in their possession. Even after receiving several requests, they refused to share them with the organizations despite the pressure they received.

  In the end, the organizations gave up trying to obtain extreme spells and started developing their own. It was not an easy task but each organization managed to create at least one extreme spell. An organization was valued according to the number of extreme spells they possessed. Now that Alexander had revealed one, he became the center of attention.

  The seniors all knew what it meant. Alexander must have a huge backing to be able to use an extreme spell. Furthermore, not only was the extreme spell far superior to the ones used by the organizations, Alexander himself was only a first-year student. He only came into contact with magic three months ago.

  Extreme spells were known to be hard to master but if it turned out that the one used by Alexander was easy to use, what did that mean? The force behind Alexander should possess a large influence to be able to obtain those top tier spells.

  With a shaky voice, the director of studies finally declared: "The winner is Alexander. The final score is 8-7 in favor of the academy!"

  Nobody responded. They were all still under the shock of Alexander's spell.

  A small door opened in the arena. The referee and Wang Chong carefully stepped out and looked at the flooded arena. Had they not escape, they might have been completely overwhelmed by the water.

  Having heard the official results, Alexander jumped off the stage and walked toward the corridor. He completely ignored Wang Chong. He had already achieved his goals and had tested the combination of the two paths of power; it was not time to return to being an ordinary student.

  Alexander walked back to the spectator seats and stopped in front of Steve.

  "May I ask for my spirit stones?"

  He did not waste any time to ask for his reward. He did not know if the rogue mages would end up reneging their agreement with the government. Therefore, it was better to ask for it early.

  Steve paused for a moment. He had been confident in the strength of his new recruits but in the end, they still lost. He was the official leader of the rogue mages but there were other people he had to consult before doing anything.

  "Here," said Steve as he took out a large leather bag from his storage ring. "You have earned them. After we become an organization. I hope that in your third year, you will be interested in joining us."

  Alexander grabbed the leather bag and briefly checked it. It was full of tiny blue crystals. "Sure, if you still want me, I won't say no."

  Steve smiled, he felt the pain of losing three hundred spirit stones disappear. If he indeed managed to recruit such a talent, it would all be worth it.

  On the contrary, all the other organizations felt threatened.

  ***

  Eventually, the results of the exchange were settled and all the students were escorted back through the rift. The students did not need to concern themselves with what would happen next; they had already done their part.

  After returning on Earth, the group once again boarded a cruiser headed to the Earth Academy. This time, Alexander could not stay in the open area. Once the situation had calmed down, the different representatives of the organizations all started to approach Alexander.

  It was completely different from the first time when they all tried to avoid him while keeping an eye on him. Since Alexander expressed his willingness to join an organization in the future, they might succeed in reaping him by offering better rewards.

  Naturally, they did not have a say in what their organizations would offer but as long as they could plant a seed in Alexander's head, then they might recruit him in the future.

  Alexander left the open area and entered a private room for some peace. He needed to rearrange his thoughts.

  "Looks like I was right. If I did not accept, the academy would have most probably lost. But since there were still only six organizations in my third year at the academy, it can only mean that the organizations did make a move against the Exil. Of course, it is possible that the academy did manage to win and that something else happened but I am more inclined on the former."

  "Now that the future has changed, I hope it won't affect me too much. The key is to quickly increase the size of my pocket dimension. As long as I have it, I will be unstoppable. Although I have shown some strength, they should not make a move against me yet."

  "They should still be wary of the imaginary organization behind me. At the very least, if they were to attack me, they would need a good reason to do so. I'll lay low for a while and master the constellations first."

  Alexander leaned against the wall as he assessed his own strength. His mana reservoir was large enough to use eighteen low-level spells. It was quite small compared to the average student but fortunately, he could make up for it with his knowledge of spells. Advanced spells, Extreme spells, he could use them all as long as he had enough mana.

  As for the constellations, Alexander still h
ad a lot of them to master. He was already proficient in using fifteen constellations. There were eleven more to go but the remaining ones were harder. The hand seals were more complex and would often involve more moves. It was the same for the body postures; the remaining constellations required him to adopt weird positions. Alexander had to do some physical training to gain flexibility and strength.

  Most of the constellations had supportive effects but the few like Ianto, the Mariner could have powerful offensive abilities.

  Alexander was eager to collect his second reward. The cultivation box was what he was really looking forward to. He would suck dry all the spirit stones the academy had to offer.