?"In less than one hour, one of the masters will open the gates and collect the fees," Alfred got what William was thinking about, "bute on! It''s a one hundred spirit crystal! You cane tomorrow and enter here for free."


    "I don''t need that," Alfred took what William said wrongly, and thought this kid was just trying to preserve his dignity or face or something.


    "It''s your choice then," Alfred shrugged, returning to stand silent on the side as he resumed revising what he learnt before.


    As for William, he didn''t stand there idle. These disciples came from higher grades, and they were allmoners.


    But they wouldn''t survive without the backing of a strong n or family. And so, William remembered their faces, especially those who spread bad rumours about him.


    For sure they were either associated with dirty ns and families like the Bronze Lizards, or they were friends with such ns and families.


    In brief,moners or not, they were part of his enemy circle. William knew how hard it was for amoner to live in the academy. They might be slightly better than his past life as a porter, but the same rule still applied to them.


    If they wanted to survive, they got to serve others. And that was because theycked any backing, were quite poor, and had no ess to extra resources.


    William knew better. The number of themoner spirit masters in any ce was just much more than the number of spirit mastersing from big families and ns.


    But for a reason he couldn''t truly ept, nomoner tried to rally his folks around and seeded. If such a thing ever happened, then a formidable force could be formed.


    "This is interesting," William recalled how this was also the rule in the outside world. Those with wealth and power, got a name behind their backs, were always on the top of the pyramid, ahead of everyone else.


    It wasn''t just a problem of wealth and fame, many preferred to lean over something bigger than working hard to make a name for themselves.


    Beingzy or just greedy, in the end many if not most of themoners would flock around shiny ns and families.


    William knew even if he stepped up and took the lead of thosemoners, provided them many benefits, not many of them would join him.


    That wasn''t an issue of loyalty, it was just their nature. That was what they were, some were destined for greatness, and others were destined to just be nothing.


    "It''s time for the test," and just as Alfred said, in one hour the doors opened. A middle aged man came out, one that William never saw before.


    ''It seems those artisans in the academy love to show off their muscles!'' William noticed how simr the outfit of this dude was with Ellina''s. He showed his muscr abdomen from an opened shirt, and muscles of arm as this shirt was sleeveless.


    "For anyone wanting to take the test, he or she has to pay one hundred spirit crystals," that master said, took out a cauldron like pot and stood silently on the side.


    He even closed his eyes. And that told William he must be using spiritual sense to detect all moves around him.


    ''A gold spirit master like Ellina…'' William knew that spiritual sense wouldn''t be opened until the spirit master entered the gold realm.


    "It''s now or never," Alfred said to William, meaning it was time for him to retreat without losing anything, better than embarrassing himself and losing one hundred crystals on top of that.


    However, just when Alfred passed by the cauldron, leaving his spirit crystals into it, William followed, taking the required spirit crystals.


    "Bronze spirit master? Are you sure you want to take the test?" the master who kept his silence and eyes shut, spoke all of sudden, slowly opening his eyes and focused over William.


    "Greeting master, I just want to enter the Forging department," William cupped his hands, not feeling any pain or loss about those one hundred crystals.


    "You aren''t here for the test?" and when the master heard his words, he frowned, "today is a special day. There are no avable rooms to forge or free masters to learn from. Return back ande tomorrow."


    "Sorry master, but I already paid the crystals," William pointed towards the cauldron that was at least twice his height.


    "You can get them back," the master mistook his meaning, and waved his hand as if this wasn''t a big deal.


    "I want to meet master Ellina," William felt it was going much harder than he thought to enter that ce.


    "I just told you, no one is free today," the master frowned when he heard William''s words.


    "Just inform her that William is on the door, ready to honour the deal between the two of us."


    "Deal? What deal?" the master frown deepened, before his eyes suddenly froze on top of William as if he was seeing him for the first time, "you… You are that porter!"


    He said it as if he saw a monster or something. William didn''t get what made this master act like this.


    During the time he spent in the forest, in the academy defending and clearing up his name, fighting at the Long n, reading inside the library, the entire Forging department was going through a huge storm thanks to him.


    The secrets he showed Ellina ended up opening more doors to the forging masters here. This master was one of the many who got absorbed in studying everything they learnt from William.


    William''s name was like thunder in the ears of the higher ups in the Forging department. And his name became widely known in the entire forging master circle.


    It was the first time for this master to meet William. After all, Ellina didn''t describe him and just focused on informing everyone about his novel ways in forging.