Wallace was satisfied in today's lesson. He had learned that all the Grand Arcanists of this country were trying to improve the magician's society using their own ways.

It was very good news for him since he wanted this to happen as well.

After the class, he noticed that he received a message from Yumi asking about the Virtual Reality Pod. It seems that she's interested in purchasing one.

'Let's see...'

Wallace quickly checked the number of finished products with Avalon. It seems that it has already reached more than eight hundred copies.

'Well, I should start selling VR Pods now... For the advertisement... I'll just buy some banner space on some popular website and perhaps I should ask for Tracy's help... I wonder how's Kazimir now...'

Kazimir was his classmate during the first and second year at the academy. The man has returned to his country, the Virgan, and continued his studies there.

Based on his understanding, Kazimir's family wasn't so simple. This made him decide to ask for his help on spreading the VR Pods in that country. Unfortunately, he didn't have time to contact him during the vacation but it seems that he can try doing it now.

Soon, another message came in. This time, it was from the Headmaster. It looks like Percival was being contacted by Miss Chamber to be a middleman between him and her. The latter seems to have a request for him and so, asking the headmaster's presence seems to be appropriate due to the previous encounter.

Wallace thought carefully before agreeing to meet with Miss Chamber as long as the headmaster was present.

***

Wallace headed towards the Celebrity Idol's building where they all agreed to meet.

"It's good to see you again..." Miss Chamber kindly smiled as she immediately greeted Wallace after he entered the Tier 2 room.

The latter smiled and greeted them back politely.

The room has a different ambiance due to the presence of the sofas, table, and snacks.

The headmaster gestured for Wallace to sit in front of Miss Chamber while he was in the middle.

'This man really likes to drink tea.' Wallace thought after seeing the drinks and snacks at the table. This made him wryly smile thinking that this conversation might actually take longer than he expected.

"Alright, Wallace... We were just discussing her request. It is not a simple matter. You don't have to be pressured. Whatever your thoughts are, you can discuss it with her. She's open for negotiations."

Wallace had no idea about the lady's matter so he kept silent and just nodded to tell him that he understood his advice.

Percival then glanced at Miss Chamber informing her to begin her piece.

"Hah... I think that my request is quite simple, actually... It is for us, Soul Arts Magician, to be capable of defending against such powerful probing skill... Right, you don't have to hide it. I'm clearly aware that your skill had something to do with Soul Arts... We don't want to learn how you do it but we want to learn how to shield against it."

Wallace kept his silence for a moment. The lady must really be confident based on her tone. Anyway, she's the real expert in terms of Soul Arts. Maybe, the Divine Sense was just too difficult to fight against due to the several improvements it had before. The skill's only drawback was its traceable origin which even led him to be discovered by this lady.

"So, it's really a Soul Art, huh." He muttered softly before glancing at Percival's direction and continuing his words.

"What do I get in exchange?"

"In exchange, we'll give you three Grade A Mana Artifacts useful for defense, attack, and healing."

"I'm not interested in that..."

"Mhmm... How about this, I'll let you meet some popular female idols I know."

Miss Chamber smiled after saying this. She had quickly thought about what could this young man be interested in and immediately remembered how he tried to peek with so many celebrity idol trainees. So she immediately offered this thinking that she had a good grasp towards Wallace's thoughts.

Wallace shook his head and smiled wryly. He had a guess on what this lady was thinking about.

"What I want is everything you know about the Soul Arts..."

"Impossible..."

"Then I can't help you."

"W-wait. Listen, Celebrity Idols requires five years to graduate, remember? It's not just because of the long talent training but because the Soul Arts requires accumulation. It's not something we could teach in a week or so. It requires diligent practice that spans 5 or longer years." Miss Chamber immediately explained to Wallace.

"Fine... But I still want to learn. Isn't there a quicker way? Don't you have books, memory crystals, or something like that?"

"We do have... but..." The lady was feeling a bit conflicted since it was their duty to teach the Soul Arts to their students. It's all because they don't want others to suffer.

Indeed, the Soul Arts is a very dangerous path to study alone since it basically touches that human's 'breath of life'. Any mistake and the magician could suffer irreparable consequences. She doesn't have any intention for this talented student to suffer soul damages.

Wallace gave the lady some time to think as he brought out his mobile device. He saw a message from Avalon with an attached message from the Golden Trident Group. It was about their automaton's cancellation of service. Well, it seems that Avalon has decided that those automatons were really not useful. So the A.I. has already replied in his place and it was just making a report. He replied with an OK to let it know that he approved its decision.

"Fine! I can give you a memory crystal. But you can only practice the first stage of the Art if you have someone expert guiding you. I could be that expert. As for the rest, it shouldn't be as dangerous. Even if you fail, you won't die for sure." Miss Chamber said as she gave in to Wallace's request.

Then, after making some clarifications and formal agreement with Miss Chamber, Wallace waited for the lady to leave so he can speak with the headmaster alone.

"Are you really going to help them create a mana artifact to defend against your own skill? That's doesn't sound good to me."

"Well, I didn't intend for them to be insecure about my skill. Anyway... I will be learning a lot of things and I will just create an artifact that is "acceptable." That should be enough to satisfy her."

"Mhm... Just remember to make sure that it's somehow effective since she will surely hire some Magic Engineers to either reverse engineer it or study its structure to understand it's secrets... they may even try to improve it to their satisfaction."

"I understand. I'll keep it in mind."

Percival nodded after seeing that the young man was taking this seriously. He then started asking his question.

"So, What would you like to discuss with me?"

"Mhmm... I just wanted to have a leave of absence for perhaps four days or more?"

"Hah? What do you mean?"

"I'll need to go somewhere. So, can you guarantee that it won't affect my study and not let my classmates be suspicious of anything."

Percival furrowed his brows but soon nodded in understanding. He didn't ask for the student to explain further and immediately made a suggestion instead.

"How about I'll announce that I've given you some tasks so you'll be absent for the next few days..."

"That sounds good to me. I'll do it next week after I made an artifact for defending against my Soul Probing Skill..."

The headmaster was as carefree as usual.

They chatted for a long while again discussing random things and about the current events in the city. This made them feel a little bit closer to each other and this somehow resulted in them gaining a little bit of each other's trust.

***

Wallace returned to his home as he quickly went to his workshop to work on the artifact being requested.

He pondered a bit about his decision as he wanted to make sure that it was fine.

"Haaah~ I wonder if this is the right decision. Anyway, it's beneficial for me to learn the Soul Arts."

Although he sounded confident while speaking a while ago, creating an artifact that could backfire on him wasn't a small matter. So he had to carefully put all his thoughts about the artifact to make sure that it won't heavily affect him.

As he was planning to start making the blueprint, he was stopped by a sudden mission notification from the Pathfinder.

[ Finding More Strength

The presence of the Zen coins buried in an underground base showed that this world has already made contact with an advanced civilization outside this world.

Hurry and increase your strength and not waste any resources.

Maximize the remaining Aether to forcefully advance your research.

Rewards: Module of Quantum Brainwaves Control System x10, Arcana x1, Complete Secret Art of Flowing Spirit, Mystery Box x3 ]