During the entire discussion there was a man at the table who did not speak. The man was dressed in luxurious white clothes with a giant white sword strapped to his back. Further, he was the only one with an assistant standing beside him. He sat at the head of the table signifying that his rank within Milele’s Wizard Hall was very high.

Although it sounded like a cliché, this man did indeed have sharp sword-like eyebrows. Whether they were natural or he shaped them himself to give off a sharp aura, no one knew for sure. Either way, he did not need to do anything as just his gaze alone projected an imposing presence.

The man’s eyes were also deep giving off a scholarly yet warrior-like feel.

Meeting his dark starry eyes, anyone could tell that this was someone who had experienced the vicissitudes of life to a great extent. However, the sea of hardships did not shave off any of the sharpness from this man’s gaze.

Throughout the entire conversation, none of the rewards mentioned had even moved this man.

His expression remained as calm as water in an ancient well. Only a slight smile surfaced on his lips as he watched the other people at the table discuss, argue, and salivate at the rewards.

Although he was retired from any type of combat, this man was the strongest man in the present Milele town as well as one of the strongest warriors within the Kingdom of Toro. During his heydays, he had been a prodigy of the Rudisha Fire Dragon Family which had personally served the Seat of the King for over 100 years now. Half a century ago, the man’s talent and strength were unmatched in the entire Toro Kingdom.

Even the top elites of the Royal Family could not compare to him back then. This man was Zua Rudisha, an accomplished retired warrior in Toro.

Zua Rudisha Moto [The Sword of the King]

A former Kings-guard. He retired after his age set in but he still retained a considerable status in Toro. He was also part of the Hidden Sword Squad in his later years where he worked under one of the 7 Great Swordsmen of the Rock Generation, Epesi the Teleporting Swordsman. Although his age was already over 70, he had the looks of a middle aged man in his early 40s.

[A Peak Level Master]

Cough, cough.

With a slight cough from Zua Rudisha, everyone at the table stopped talking and turned to listen to him. As the deputy Hallmaster of Milele’s Wizard Hall, Zua Rudisha naturally had considerable prestige among all the magicians in Milele town.

“It is pointless to fantasize and argue about the rewards when we are not assured of winning yet.”

“Right, right.” The carefree Katakata chipped in to agree with Zua. He was wondering why everyone was talking about ‘rewards this’ and ‘rewards that’ when all he had done was mention the Jia Treasure House bringing in the Ignition Core.

“Indeed, our priority right now should be to acquire the Ignition Core when it goes up for auction. No. It’s when they go up for auction.” Zua continued his point while dropping a shocking fact.

“They?! Is there more than one Ignition Core?” Sali Salama was the one to ask the question on everyone’s mind.

Zua did not beat around the bush and answered swiftly to satisfy everyone’s curiosity, “Yes, the Jia Treasure House was able to obtain 3 Ignition Cores this time, all of them being Legacy Armor Cores – the Sunbreaker, Chaos Bomb, and Divine Transformation Ignition Core.”

“What?!” Some of the people in the hall even stood up abruptly causing their chairs to fall to the ground. The guardsmen at the doorway almost thought a fight was about to break out.

However, even Zua Rudisha understood their shock as he had been just as shaken when he found out the news.

“If we can get our hands on even one of them, then the top 3 is not out of reach for our candidates especially the salty brat and that battle maniac. Those two are already a cut above their age-mates. They just need the right tools.”

After he revealed the news, the others at the table were not only shocked at the number and grade of the Ignition Cores but also the fact that Zua Rudisha had managed to obtain this secret information. After all, the Jia family had kept the news a secret when transporting the Ignition Cores.

“Hey, do you have a spy within the Jia family or something?” Katakata could not help but ask while leaning back on his chair.

To this question, Zua Rudisha only smiled and put a finger to his lips, “Shhhhh.”

Expectedly, As the deputy Hallmaster of Milele’s Wizard Hall, Zua Rudisha was probably privy of some insider knowledge that others could not access.

“Send more money to support the people we sent. They must win this auction no matter what and get at least one core, no two. It will be embarrassing if outsiders beat us in a game of money in our own hometown.” Before dismissing the meeting, Zua Rudisha gave his orders to the other seats at the table so that they could mobilize more resources and ensure they won an Ignition Core or two at the auction.

However, what was an Ignition Core? Why was it such a big deal?

Ignition Cores were a type of specialized magical cores created from magic crystals using unique magical methods. The most common types of Ignition Cores were Magic Armor Cores, Channeling Cores, and Micro Cores. Channeling Cores were usually installed within magical equipment and magical vehicles to help power and channel magical energy. There were smaller versions of the same placed within wizard staffs. As for the micro-cores, they were used to line the edges and tips of wands in order to empower them.

As for the 3 cores brought in by the Jia family, they were all Magic Armor Cores. With this type of core, a magician could translate their unique form of magic in order to impose armament magic techniques on the core. The result was the materialization of a magic suit of armor. Naturally, the main draw of these cores was enhancing the physical capabilities of magicians allowing them to sustain longer battles and fight in close combat. Further, the magic armor materialized by the core would enhance and ‘ignite’ the magic form and magic class of the user. Therefore, this type of armor was called an [Ignition Suit].

Apart from a magician’s box, grimoires, amulets, wands, and staffs, Ignition Suits were recognized as one of the principal strengths of a magician. Therefore, the quality of the core was paramount as it decided the strength of the conjured armor.

Magic Armor Cores were divided into 7 ranks: Trainee Core, Student Core, Illusion Core, True Master Core, Crashing Gate Core, and Legacy Core. Usually, the cores were fist sized spherical crystals full of magical energy. They could absorb, compress, circulate, and release magical energy in various forms. Most importantly, they could give form to a magician’s unique imagination and accumulated spell knowledge. For these reasons, these cores were very expensive.

Due to the expensive nature of the magic cores, it was not easy to acquire one. Acquisition of magic cores usually involved buying or borrowing a core. However, not everyone was equal in life and some people from illustrious families and clans were lucky enough to inherit powerful Legacy Cores. With such cores, they were pretty much guaranteed to form a top tier Ignition Suit that could even take on opponents stronger than them.

As for ordinary people and people from poorer families like Mwana, they could only rely on borrowed cores and hand-me-down cores. Even then, the cores would be of a lower class. In Mwana’s case, he had received an Illusion Core from one of his aunts back in the village before leaving for Milele town. Before receiving the Illusion Core, he had only ever trained with a Trainee Core like everyone else.

Naturally, the hand-me-down cores or second hand cores had a disadvantage – they were contaminated by the previous users’ magic forms. This contamination happened because every person’s magic form was distinct even when two magicians focused on the same field or used the same spells; a slight difference would still exist no matter what.

It could be said that everyone had a different Magic Footprint even when their study was the similar in the same manner that even identical twins had different fingerprints.

The value of the cores was such that the trainee cores were the least valuable while legacy cores were absolute treasures. Further, the different classes of cores varied in color based on their order from the weakest to strongest: [Trainee Core – Ruby Red], [Student Core – Silver], [Illusion Core – Transparent], [True Master Core – Gold], [Crashing Gate Core – Aqua Blue], and [Legacy Core - Multicolored].

Legacy Cores were the strongest and they varied in color depending on the function. They could encompass as many colors as all the colors of the rainbow. The more the distinct colors, the more versatility the legacy core had. This also implied that legacy cores had multiple grades.