Picking Up Attributes From Today
chapter-124

Chapter 124: Abbe’s Disappearance, An Inter-Academy Competition

That night, Meng Lei didn’t spend the money to enter the Saint Domain realm in a hurry. Instead, he withdrew innumerable gold coins and piled them on the bed and the floor, filling them up and lying on top of them.

“I wanted to roll about in money so much in my past life that I was even dreaming about it!

“And today… It has finally come true!”

Although the coins pressed somewhat painfully against him, extreme satisfaction filled Meng Lei as he took in the smell of the gold, an unprecedented sense of peace and tranquility within him.

“Happiness can be so simple sometimes,” Meng Lei murmured to himself as drowsiness slowly came over him.

Bam!

All of a sudden, someone pushed open the door to his room, and the magic lights switched on. Meng Lei turned over to see Abbe opening the door and walking in.

“Abbe?”

Meng Lei was rather confused.

Although the two of them were housemates, one lived upstairs while the other lived downstairs. They had never spoken to each other, let alone visit each other.

Why was Abbe there out of the blue?

Abbe stared at the gold coins that filled up the room with a stunned expression. Even with his usual cold, aloof poker face, he was almost blinded by the golden light in the entire room.

Meng Lei has a special hobby like this? It’s hard for one to know another’s true nature even after knowing them for a long time, indeed!

“Haha, I earned a small sum of money recently.” Meng Lei scratched the back of his head and explained with an embarrassed smile, “I wanted to try how it feels to sleep in a pile of gold… Haha, I’m sure you know what I mean.”

“You’re more like a Colossal Dragon than a Colossal Dragon itself!”

Abbe’s lip corner spasmed a couple of times in response before he resumed his usual cold and aloof poker face. His eyes bore into Meng Lei with a complex look within them,

“What’s the matter, Abbe?” Meng Lei was utterly bewildered by how Abbe was staring at him, and he remarked, “You’re behaving rather weirdly today.”

Abbe didn’t reply but merely gazed at Meng Lei quietly. A long while later, he abruptly turned around and walked toward the door. When he reached the door, he suddenly stopped again.

“I’m leaving, Meng Lei. If I can… If there’s a chance to in the future, we’ll meet again in the empire’s capital.”

Then, he left without even looking back.

“What’s going on?”

Meng Lei was unable to make head or tail of his words. By the time he came to his senses, Abbe had already left.

“Abbe! Where are you going?”

Meng Lei hurriedly chased after him, only to realize that Abbe had long since disappeared. His spiritual power spread upstairs, but there was no one there.

He dialed Abbe’s code on the magic communication device, but to no avail.

Abbe had vanished into thin air!

“What the heck is he doing?”

As he stood in the empty living room, Meng Lei became more and more bewildered. They didn’t even exchange a word usually, yet Abbe had suddenly uttered such confusing words that didn’t make any sense today. What was that supposed to mean?

…

Meng Lei couldn’t sleep that night.

Ever since he had mastered meditation, he barely slept anymore. However, whenever he did sleep once in a while, he always slept especially soundly.

However, tonight was a rare occasion where he couldn’t get to sleep.

The moment he closed his eyes, his mind would be totally taken over by Abbe. In particular, those eyes of his that shone with an unusual glow kept coming back and surfacing in his mind, causing Meng Lei to toss about in annoyance and restlessness.

Early in the morning the next day, Meng Lei went to the library as per usual. On the way there, to his surprise, he noticed several unfamiliar-looking figures. They were big and burly, wore suits of armor, and held all sorts of weapons…

Warriors… Warriors had shown up in the academy. And not in small numbers, either.

This caused the students to speculate wildly as they gesticulated at them. They spoke about things like a big competition among the empire’s elites and so on, which greatly puzzled Meng Lei, though he didn’t take their words seriously.

Be it Warriors or a competition among the elites, none of these had anything to do with him.

His top priority at the moment was to study Dragon-Language Magic. Thereafter, he would leave the academy to embark on an adventure to comprehend the universe’s momentum while hunting high-grade Magical Beasts to earn more money at the same time.

The matters in the academy could no longer pique his interest.

“The Green Dragon is a Wood-Elemental Colossal Dragon. Although its body is weaker than Colossal Dragons of other elements, the Wood-Elemental Dragon is a master of two types of magic—wood-elemental Dragon-Language Magic and poison magic.

“Wood-elemental Dragon-Language Magic is capable of commanding all plants in the world and controlling plant growth. This has led to the Green Dragon also becoming known as the Plant Manipulator, and it is a notch stronger than even the Fairies’ flower spirits.

“Poison magic…”

He had taken five days to study thunder-elemental Dragon-Language Magic and another five days for earth-elemental Dragon-Language Magic.

This was his eleventh day at the library, and Meng Lei began to study wood-elemental Dragon-Language Magic. Despite the fact that he had gained wood-elemental magic talent the latest, his cultivation speed for it was exceptionally quick.

One reason for this was his powerful spiritual power. Since he was building on top of an advantage, be it his accumulation of wood-elemental magic power or his study of wood-elemental spells, his speed was astonishingly fast for both.

The other reason was the Golden Leaf.

The Golden Leaf had occupied a spot in his sea of consciousness and was constantly absorbing Wood Elements in the universe every moment. As a result, Meng Lei was just like a magnet, accumulating wood-elemental magic power at a shocking speed.

Due to these reasons, it was hard for him to cultivate wood-elemental magic at a slow speed even if he wanted to!

Just as Meng Lei was immersed in the profound wonder of wood-elemental Dragon-Language Magic, his magic communication device suddenly rang.

Meng Lei’s brows furrowed slightly. He took out the communication device to see that it was actually Mr. Dirk that was calling. He muttered, “How strange. Why is Mr. Dirk looking for me?”

Puzzled, Meng Lei picked up the call.

“Meng Lei, I heard that you’ve been cooping yourself up in the library every day recently. How’s your mastery of Dragon-Language Magic?” Mr. Dirk asked merrily.

“Not bad. My rewards are great,” Meng Lei replied honestly.

“Your talent is practically insane!” Mr. Dirk couldn’t help but sigh in approval. Then, he went on to business and said, “Meng Lei, there’s something I need to inform you on in advance. You must be mentally prepared for it.”

“Huh?”

A look of confusion came over Meng Lei’s features.

“The inter-academy competition to strengthen friendly ties among the academies is starting soon. President Fred has personally selected you as the captain to represent us, the Fire Dragon Magic Academy, in the competition this year.”

“Inter-academy competition?”

Meng Lei blanked out for a moment, and then, he recalled the Warriors on the school campus.

Mr. Dirk explained, “The inter-academy competition’s full name is known as the ‘Empire-wide Inter-Academy Exchange Competition of The Elites’, and it’s held once every four years.

“All participating contestants are chosen from the Dragon God Empire academies’ current student body. They must be 30 years old or below, and both Warriors and Magicians are eligible to enter.

“Apart from attractive prizes, all students that show excellent performance will also win great honor and glory for their academies.

“There’s even word on the street that the prizes this year include a slot to enter the empire’s sanctum of blessings!

“Therefore, the president and other academy leaders have placed great importance on this year’s inter-academy competition. The president has even specified during the meeting this morning that you are to participate.”

At this point, Mr. Dirk asked, “Meng Lei, do you have any other questions?”

“The Empire-wide Inter-Academy Exchange Competition of The Elites…”

Meng Lei was rather troubled. He said, “Mr. Dirk, as a member of the academy, I am obliged to represent the academy to participate in the inter-academy exchange competition… But aren’t we kinda bullying others if I join?”

“Uh…”

Mr. Dirk was taken aback for a moment before he subsequently burst into silent laughter. “Are you concerned that there’s… Cough, no real challenge in the competition, Meng Lei?”

“Yeah, that’s more or less what I mean.”

Meng Lei nodded repeatedly. He didn’t dislike competitions like these since he could take the opportunity to broaden his horizons and pick up a few attributes, spells, bloodlines, and whatnot to enrich his arsenal of weapons.

However, if they were asking him to fight with a bunch of kids, then that would be rather meaningless. Besides, it would feel somewhat like he was bullying young children.

“If it’s about that, then there’s no need for you to worry at all!”