"In less than one hour, one of the masters will open the gates and collect the fees," Alfred got what William was thinking about, "but co on! It's a one hundred spirit crystal! You can co tomorrow and enter here for free."
"I don't need that," Alfred took what William said wrongly, and thought this kid was just trying to preserve his dignity or face or sothing.
"It's your choice then," Alfred shrugged, returning to stand silent on the side as he resud revising what he learnt before.
As for William, he didn't stand there idle. These disciples ca from higher grades, and they were all commoners.
But they wouldn't survive without the backing of a strong clan or family. And so, William rembered their faces, especially those who spread bad rumours about him.
For sure they were either associated with dirty clans and families like the Bronze Lizards, or they were friends with such clans and families.
In brief, commoners or not, they were part of his enemy circle. William knew how hard it was for a commoner to live in the academy. They might be slightly better than his past life as a porter, but the sa rule still applied to them.
If they wanted to survive, they got to serve others. And that was because they lacked any backing, were quite poor, and had no access to extra resources.
William knew better. The number of the commoner spirit masters in any place was just much more than the number of spirit masters coming from big families and clans.
But for a reason he couldn't truly accept, no commoner tried to rally his folks around and succeeded. If such a thing ever happened, then a formidable force could be ford.
"This is interesting," William recalled how this was also the rule in the outside world. Those with wealth and power, got a na behind their backs, were always on the top of the pyramid, ahead of everyone else.
It wasn't just a problem of wealth and fa, many preferred to lean over sothing bigger than working hard to make a na for themselves.
Being lazy or just greedy, in the end many if not most of the commoners would flock around shiny clans and families.
William knew even if he stepped up and took the lead of those commoners, provided them many benefits, not many of them would join him.
That wasn't an issue of loyalty, it was just their nature. That was what they were, so were destined for greatness, and others were destined to just be nothing.
"It's ti for the test," and just as Alfred said, in one hour the doors opened. A middle aged man ca out, one that William never saw before.
'It seems those artisans in the academy love to show off their muscles!' William noticed how similar the outfit of this dude was with Ellina's. He showed his muscular abdon from an opened shirt, and muscles of arm as this shirt was sleeveless.
"For anyone wanting to take the test, he or she has to pay one hundred spirit crystals," that master said, took out a cauldron like pot and stood silently on the side.
He even closed his eyes. And that told William he must be using spiritual sense to detect all moves around him.
'A gold spirit master like Ellina…' William knew that spiritual sense wouldn't be opened until the spirit master entered the gold realm.
"It's now or never," Alfred said to William, aning it was ti for him to retreat without losing anything, better than embarrassing himself and losing one hundred crystals on top of that.
However, just when Alfred passed by the cauldron, leaving his spirit crystals into it, William followed, taking the required spirit crystals.
"Bronze spirit master? Are you sure you want to take the test?" the master who kept his silence and eyes shut, spoke all of sudden, slowly opening his eyes and focused over William.
"Greeting master, I just want to enter the Forging departnt," William cupped his hands, not feeling any pain or loss about those one hundred crystals.
"You aren't here for the test?" and when the master heard his words, he frowned, "today is a special day. There are no available rooms to forge or free masters to learn from. Return back and co tomorrow."
"Sorry master, but I already paid the crystals," William pointed towards the cauldron that was at least twice his height.
"You can get them back," the master mistook his aning, and waved his hand as if this wasn't a big deal.
"I want to et master Ellina," William felt it was going much harder than he thought to enter that place.
"I just told you, no one is free today," the master frowned when he heard William's words.
"Just inform her that William is on the door, ready to honour the deal between the two of us."
"Deal? What deal?" the master frown deepened, before his eyes suddenly froze on top of William as if he was seeing him for the first ti, "you… You are that porter!"
He said it as if he saw a monster or sothing. William didn't get what made this master act like this.
During the ti he spent in the forest, in the academy defending and clearing up his na, fighting at the Long clan, reading inside the library, the entire Forging departnt was going through a huge storm thanks to him.
The secrets he showed Ellina ended up opening more doors to the forging masters here. This master was one of the many who got absorbed in studying everything they learnt from William.
William's na was like thunder in the ears of the higher ups in the Forging departnt. And his na beca widely known in the entire forging master circle.
It was the first ti for this master to et William. After all, Ellina didn't describe him and just focused on informing everyone about his novel ways in forging.
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