"You don't have a mentor, so how do you have the mana of an intermediate mage?" The old man looked Thunder up and down.

Thunder shrugged his shoulders.

"Strange." The old man stroked his beard, turned around, and fetched a black robe from inside, tossing it to Thunder. "Since you don't have a mentor, you definitely don't have a mage robe, right? Ten gold coins each, certified by the Duchy Mage Guild!"

Thunder took it and saw that it was pretty much the same as the robe the middle-aged man wore earlier, except for some minor differences—the stars on the chest were only two.

"What does this mean?" Thunder pointed at the stars and asked.

"This is the mark of an intermediate mage! Beginners have only one star, advanced mages have three."

"Archmage is four stars?" Thunder followed up.

"Archmage is a moon! Idiot." The old man said disdainfully. "Hurry up and pay."

"But... I'm here to enroll and learn magic!" If Thunder didn't still have some respect for the elderly and the young, he would have given this old man a black eye by now.

"The academy only teaches you up to the level of intermediate mage. After that, you have to find a mentor yourself. Do you know how to become an apprentice?"

"But... I can't cast magic!" Thunder was utterly aggrieved.

"You can't cast magic?" The old man climbed onto the table, eyes wide as he stared at Thunder. "Not even the most basic spells?"

"Nope." Thunder shook his head firmly.

The old man stared at Thunder for a while, then finally climbed down from the table, muttering nonstop, "The bigger the forest, the more kinds of birds there are. Someone with the mana of an intermediate mage can't even cast the most basic spell!"

He turned around and fetched another black mage robe, stuffing it into Thunder's hands, taking back the previous one.

"Why are there no stars?" Thunder looked carefully at the chest—nothing there.

"Oh, this robe is for magic apprentices. Only when you can actually cast spells can you change to another robe!"

Chapter 15: Molesting a Little Beauty

After testing his physical attributes, it turned out he had the rare lightning attribute, which surprised the old man in charge of enrollment.

After paying a hundred gold coins and receiving the apprentice mage robe, Thunder went to the market, spent ten gold coins to buy a horse, and leisurely headed home.

The old man had said to go home and prepare today, and just come directly for class tomorrow. Because his body attribute was lightning, Thunder was naturally assigned to the lightning magic class.

"A person with the mana of an intermediate mage can't even cast any magic!" The old man muttered to himself as he watched Thunder walk away. "Haha, now those fire element kids finally have a rival."

By the time he got home, it was almost dark. Thunder, dressed in a black mage robe, was admired by all the servants.

"Young master looks so handsome in this!" Uncle Oak circled around Thunder a few times, chuckling, while Little Tiffany's eyes sparkled as if she were seeing a legendary hero riding on rainbow clouds.

Carlos squatted to the side, staring at Thunder with his mouth wide open, laughing gleefully.

After dinner, when it was time to sleep, Thunder found that Tiffany had followed him into the room.

"Is there something else?" Thunder found it very strange.

Tiffany shook her head.

"Then why did you come in with me?"

"To sleep." Tiffany pointed to the side and answered crisply. Thunder followed the direction of the little girl's finger and saw that there was now an extra bed in the study outside the bedroom.

This Little Girl had actually moved a bed here while he was out this afternoon.

"Now that young master has status, Tiffany should always be at your service." The little girl looked at Thunder and said.

But there's no need to move a bed into the study. The study is right next to the bedroom, and there's not even a door.

"Aren't you afraid that your young master might get wild at night and come over here?" Thunder bared his teeth, deliberately grinning lecherously.

"Tiffany isn't afraid!" The little girl pursed her lips, walked around Thunder, and ran to her own bed to start making it.

Thunder stared blankly as Tiffany took off her shoes, didn't even take off her clothes, and crawled straight into bed. Then she propped up her upper body, poked her little head out, and said to Thunder, "Young master, it's late. You should sleep early too. We have class tomorrow."

Well... Thunder shook his head with a wry smile, closed the door, and walked into his own bedroom.

...

At Fael Magic and Martial Academy, Thunder walked along the tree-lined path, searching for his classroom while practicing his talisman-handling techniques.

He was so excited last night that he didn't sleep well. It wasn't because Tiffany, this little girl, was sleeping outside, but because he was thinking about how he could start learning magic today and, in the future, inscribe even more advanced magic scrolls. That kept him up.

Thunder was lost in his imagination, his hands moving seemingly at random but with unpredictable changes, so much so that he didn't even notice someone suddenly rushing up behind him.

It wasn't until his outstretched hand felt something soft, accompanied by a woman's light "ah" cry, that Thunder realized he seemed to have hit someone.

Turning around, he saw a girl in the same mage robe as himself standing behind him, both hands covering her chest, glaring at Thunder through gritted teeth.