Aiden couldn't wait any longer, tomorrow the magic training would start and he would be busy with it. His best option was to leave tonight.
He opened the door and stepped out of the dorm in the midnight. Just as Aiden was about to head down the hill stairs, he was startled by a voice calling him from behind.
"Do you have urgent business outside the hill?"
As Aiden turned around, he saw the man speaking to him was High Instructor Albert. He stepped closer in his sleeping pajama suit.
"Greetings, High Instructor Albert. I need to see my squad mentor, I have some matters with her," Aiden replied, bowing his head.
"Mentor? Your squad has been disbanded, what is your relationship with your mentor?" Albert asked.
Albert shook his head, he stepped forward and touched the gate of the hill made of magic stones.
The magic stones were able to emit energy that was useful in protecting the entire Fire Fountain hill from outside threats.
"I want to ask him for some items, we promised before the main test started," Aiden replied, without saying what items he wanted.
The man beside Aiden kept looking at Aiden intently, trying to figure out if that reason was an honest or a lie.
In the end, Albert allowed Aiden to leave as long as he had to return before 1pm. Albert said if Aiden returned late, he would be punished for it.
"The mentors are chosen from Iris' second-year students. You'll need this map to find their dorm locations," Albert replied.
"Don't get into any fights with them, I won't help you. If your matters are done, return quickly!" stated Albert.
Aiden reached out and took the map, a complete map of the Astralis Magical Academy. The young man nodded in understanding, he made it clear he would return quickly.
"Go!"
Aiden ran down the hill at a fast pace, faster than when he climbed the stairs. As Albert watched him leave, he ordered one of the early instructors still awake to come over.
"Did you call for me, High Instructor Albert?" asked the woman, still wearing the academy uniform.
"There is a first-year student leaving tonight. You go and follow him, make sure he doesn't violate any rules," ordered Albert.
The woman looked briefly behind Albert, then responded with a nod. She would go to keep an eye on the student and make sure he returned fast.
Soon, the woman was off and jumping from branch to branch to catch up with Aiden's fast running pace.
Albert smiled softly, then walked into his house again to rest. Elsewhere, Aiden walked while opening the map Albert had given him, the map providing its own function.
Like a digital map, Aiden had the advantage of clear directions when he had decided on his destination.
It wasn't far, only a few hundred meters from Aiden's current location. In fact, Aiden could see the towering and brightly lit dormitory of the second-year Iris class.
The female early instructor finally saw the figure of the first-year Silk class student Albert had mentioned.
He strode towards the dormitory of the second-year Iris class, apparently wanting to meet his acquaintance.
But, he needed to be careful, the Iris class students' attitude towards the Silk class students was discriminatory, that was due to the difference in power status between them.
"Allana?!"
"Where are you, Mentor Allana?"
Aiden, innocently, shouted outside the dormitory gate, attracting the attention of the other students.
They smiled cynically, seeing that a Silk class student had come to visit them in the midnight hour.
"Hey, you! Are you lost?" a man asked.
"I'm looking for Allana, the woman who mentors the 71st squad. I need to see her," Aiden replied.
"Allana? We know her, but by what right do you get to meet her?!" insulted the man, speaking from behind the dorms' iron gates.
"What right do I have? Don't you know that she's been my servant for a year?" asked Aiden.
Laughter burst from their mouths when Aiden said that. Allana had been one of Iris' second-year students who was talented, which was why she had been chosen as a mentor.
Hearing a talented woman like Allana become a servant to a Silk class student made them laugh even louder.
They said that Aiden was a delusional person and a great liar. That made Aiden unhappy.
"Oh my, my stomach hurts from all the laughing at his jokes," another man said.
"Never mind, go away and stop talking nonsense here," the man ordered.
'I knew it, it'll be hard for me to meet Allana,' Aiden replied.
Albert said that if fighting was forbidden, Aiden couldn't do much, talking and shouting wouldn't help.
In the middle of that, a woman appeared beside Aiden. She was wearing a Silk class uniform with long black hair, a sword hovering behind her back.
"You? You're the early instructor of the Silk class, aren't you?" asked the man from behind the gate.
"I came with orders from High Instructor Albert. He told Student Aiden to meet with Student Allana to settle their business," the woman explained.
"Tsk!"
The rank of the early instructors was much higher than the Iris class, but lower than the academy's main students.
With such a status, the men had no choice but to let Allana meet with him.
"Fine, you two wait there!"
Aiden sighed softly, feeling relieved to be able to meet Allana. He turned around, feeling grateful to the woman from the early instructors who had come to his help on behalf of Albert.
"High Instructor Albert is a strict and rule-abiding man. I wonder, what made him allow you to go outside the dorm at night?" the woman asked.
Not long after, Allana arrived with her friend. Right when she saw Aiden, her face was tight and sullen, reluctant to remember her lost bet against Aiden.
"Hey, Allana. Do you remember the—"
"Tell me quickly. What did you want?" asked Allana, interrupting Aiden's words because she didn't want everyone to know the truth.
"Okay."
"I need the Glacirion gem, do you have it?" asked Aiden.
Allana and the others were shocked to hear the name of the Glacirion Gem, and even the woman standing next to Aiden showed a sort of similar expression.
"Are you crazy? I don't have a high-level gem like that," Allana replied.
"Hmm... it seems hard to find those gems anymore," Aiden stated quietly.
"Then give me 10 water element gems and 10 wind element gems. You must have them, right?" asked Aiden, pointing at Allana.
"Tsk!"
Allana checked her inventory panel and saw a number of gems that matched what Aiden had requested. She took them all out and handed them to Aiden in full.
Now, Aiden had two gems with different elements, each totaling 10. He would soon hand them over to Aurora to please the ice dragon at least.
"You're a fire-element mage, those gems won't do you any good. Are you a fool?" asked Allana, scolding.
"I know that. However, this gem is not for me."
"Then?" asked Allana.
Aiden paused, putting the gem into his magic pouch, "You don't have to know."