The layout of the second floor mirrored the first almost perfectly.
Only the atmosphere differed completely.
A heavy, earthy scent filled the air from the countless medicinal ingredients stored throughout the room.
The shelves lining the walls contained glass jars of dried herbs, rare seeds, preserved fruits, and harvested parts from low-rank magical beasts.
Bones.
Coagulated blood.
Eyeballs floating inside jars of murky liquids.
Unlike the elegant women managing the floor downstairs, most customers here were men dressed in robes of vastly different styles and colours.
While Sam headed directly toward one of the women managing the main service counter, Vergil slowly wandered toward the side of the floor facing the street below.
That section had been designed almost like an open indoor balcony.
Standing there allowed wealthier customers to quietly overlook the busy town streets beneath the facility.
Vergil quietly rested his hands against the polished wooden railing and observed the movement below.
His gaze gradually drifted back toward the large public notice board sitting in the centre of the town square.
Amid the constant, droning sounds of trotting horses, grinding carriage wheels, and shouting merchants, one particular phrase suddenly reached his ears from a nearby conversation.
“Mirror Lake Academy.”
Vergil’s eyes narrowed slightly.
This was the absolute first time across both his lives that he had heard that name.
But the word Academy alone immediately captured his full, undivided attention.
An academy meant books.
Expansive libraries.
Unlocked knowledge.
If he could successfully gain access to a true library, he might finally form a clearer understanding of higher cultivation realms and the wider parameters of the world itself.
But almost immediately, Vergil frowned, a heavy dose of reality hitting him.
Joining such a prestigious institution would undoubtedly require leaving his isolated village entirely.
He silently contemplated the terrifying risk of that idea while staring down toward the snow-flecked cobblestones.
Absorbed in his thoughts, he failed to notice Sam returning to his side, carrying a tightly wrapped brown paper package.
Sam followed Vergil’s lingering gaze toward the distant notice board before calling out.
“Vergil.”
Vergil snapped out of his mental calculations and turned toward his friend.
His eyes briefly moved toward the neatly tied package in Sam’s hands.
“Did you get everything your mother needs?”
A genuine, relieved smile appeared on Sam’s face just as a freezing gust of winter wind swept through the open balcony area.
“Yes.
It took almost half my silver, but the quality is high.”
Vergil nodded.
“Then let’s leave.”
Without lingering further in the pungent room, he turned toward the wooden staircase leading back down to the first floor.
Sam followed a step behind him, tucking the medicine safely beneath his cloak.
“What exactly do you want to buy next?” Sam asked curiously.
“Clothes.”
Sam nodded in understanding.
Once they descended to the luxurious first floor, Vergil immediately noticed several of the finely dressed women behind the counters giving them subtle, sharp looks of disdain because of their frayed, worn village clothing.
Vergil ignored them completely and continued walking toward the exit with an unbothered expression.
The moment the two stepped outside the heavy doors, the biting cold wind immediately struck them both.
Sam visibly shivered, pulling his thin collar tighter.
Vergil’s attention once again locked onto the notice board nearby.
Compared to earlier in the afternoon, the thick crowd surrounding the board had thinned out considerably.
Most of the remaining people lingering near the paper announcements appeared to be youth roughly their own age.
Vergil looked toward Sam, his curiosity winning out.
“Let’s go check it out.”
Without waiting for a response, Vergil immediately shifted direction and headed straight toward the public notice board.
Sam quickly followed beside him, his anxiety briefly forgotten.
As they neared, the youth gathered around the board, the fragments of conversations ahead already revealed what had drawn so much frantic attention.
An official admission notice.
From the legendary Mirror Lake Academy.
Sam’s eyes widened instantly in absolute awe.
“Mirror Lake Academy?” he whispered, his voice trembling slightly.
“Teacher Brianna always dreamed of joining Mirror Lake Academy when she was young.”
His pace quickened immediately, driven by sheer curiosity.
He pushed his way closer toward the front of the lingering crowd until he stood directly before the wooden board.
Vergil narrowed his eyes slightly, absorbing his friend’s reaction.
So Sam already knows about this place.
Because of the surrounding people blocking his direct line of sight, Vergil had to rise onto his toes slightly to properly read the announcement.
Numerous parchment papers had been pinned across the large, weathered wooden board.
But his attention immediately focused on the largest, most pristine sheet placed at the very centre.
Near the top of the notice was a beautifully painted image of a small, isolated cottage resting beside a quiet, pristine lake.
The moment Vergil locked his eyes onto the artwork, his pupils contracted slightly.
For one bizarre instant, it felt as though his entire consciousness was being pulled directly into the image itself.
He could almost hear birds chirping softly in his mind.
The gentle, rhythmic movement of water waves lapping against the shore.
The rustling of lakeside trees dancing in an invisible breeze.
Vergil felt a wave of genuine amazement wash over him.
A cultivator possessing a specialised Painting Skill made this.
His tactical thoughts immediately became hyperactive.
Painting Skill…
That matched extremely well with the future path of his Origami technique.
Right now, his paper creations only possess basic, hollow structures.
But with the mastery of painting…
He could potentially give his paper puppets a true, deceptive appearance.
Lifelike colour.
Flawless human details.
Realistic facial expressions.
His gaze slowly lowered from the enchanted image toward the actual text of the notice itself.
At the start of the coming spring, an official delegation from Mirror Lake Academy would arrive in the territory to recruit new students from the surrounding region.
The rigorous recruitment process would involve two distinct categories of testing.
Physical tests and Spirit tests.
Physical Tests:
Sword Skill
Archery Skill
Spear Skill
Boxing Skill
Movement Skill
Spirit Tests:
Elixir Refining Skill
Painting Skill
Forging Skill
Singing Skill
Sculpting Skill
To officially pass the trial, participants needed to satisfy two strict criteria:
A Top Five placement in their chosen category.
A formal recommendation from the judges overseeing that specific test.
Vergil’s eyes narrowed thoughtfully as he analysed the rules.
The recommendation requirement exists because some niche skills may have very few participants.
If only three or four people choose to join a specific category, technically, all of them would become a Top Five finisher automatically by default.
But if their underlying mastery is deemed insufficient, the judges still retain the right to reject them outright.
His attention lingered on one line significantly longer than the others.
Painting Skill.
Vergil quietly pondered whether he should take the risk and participate in the trial when spring arrived.
While lost in his thoughts, he finally turned away from the notice board and scanned the street to search for Sam.
He quickly spotted his friend standing near the edge of the snowy street, seemingly lost in a daze of his own making.
At that exact split second, a young girl suddenly came sprinting wildly around the cobblestone corner.
She failed to notice Sam in her haste.
Sam noticed her presence a fraction of a second too late.
Bang!
The two collided heavily, grunting as they fell directly onto the hard, snowy ground.
The tightly wrapped brown paper package containing the precious medicine flew violently from Sam’s hands and rolled out into the centre of the busy street.
A heavy, fast-moving carriage moved directly over it before either of the teenagers could physically react.
Crunch.
The massive iron-rimmed wooden wheel crushed the delicate package completely into the wet slush of the street.
Sam’s face instantly lost all colour, turning a stark, ghostly white.
Without caring about the dirty snow and freezing mud, he immediately dropped to his knees beside the ruined package and frantically began checking the contents.
Vergil quickly moved forward to help him clear the path of the oncoming carriages.
The girl who had collided with Sam hurried over to the edge of the street as well, bowing repeatedly while apologising nonstop.
“I’m sorry.”
“I’m really, really sorry.”
“I didn’t see you turning the corner—”
But Sam paid absolutely no attention to her frantic words.
His trembling hands moved through the ruined, slush-soaked medicine with desperate care.
Vergil silently helped sort through the damaged items, evaluating the loss with his sharp eyesight.
Two rare medicinal herbs had been completely pulverised beneath the crushing weight of the wheel.
One paper packet containing vital medicinal powder had torn completely open, spilling the vast majority of its contents into the muddy, grey snow.
And the small glass vial carrying the dark, concentrated liquid medicine had shattered entirely, its contents bleeding out into the dirt.
The remaining undamaged items were few, but they carefully gathered them together into what was left of the dry paper.
Once the grim sorting was finished, Vergil and Sam slowly stood back up.
The girl still bowed repeatedly in total panic, her cheeks flushed red from the cold and shame.
“I’m very sorry…”
Only then did another figure approach from the shadow of the nearby storefronts.
A young boy, roughly their own age, stepped forward and stopped directly beside the distraught girl.
He wore expensive, tailored winter clothes trimmed with thick animal fur, and an air of effortless arrogance practically radiated from his features.
Without even glancing properly at the shattered medicine lying in the slush, the wealthy boy casually extended a silver coin toward Sam’s chest.
“Take it.”
Sam stared silently at the gleaming silver sterling resting flat in the boy’s palm, his mind too numb to process the gesture.
Before he could physically react or reach out,
Smack!
The girl suddenly and forcefully slapped the boy’s hand aside, sending the silver coin flying into the snowbank.