Chapter 35: Recruiting Mage Apprentices

Kristin's patrols were not only to check the situation in her territory, but also to see if she could find any children with magical talent.

Training your own mage can increase the strength of your family. Baron Lorien even has two apprentice mages. The reason Baron Stewart's territory did not train apprentice mages was because Kristin's father was not very talented as a mage and had only reached the second order mage level, and her mother, being an elf, was too lazy to train an apprentice.

In fact, it was enough for the Stewart family to have two mages above the fifth rank. Moreover, both the dragon vein bloodline and the elves were immortal beings who could bless the family for hundreds of years.

But now it did not work for Christine. The purpose of building the Mage Tower was, of course, to improve her own mage rank, but also to ensure the safety of the future port city. The Mage Tower needed mages to use and manage it. As a lord, she could not do this every day, so of course she had to train and recruit mages for the family.

Whenever she arrived in a village or town, she would test all the children between the ages of eight and ten. After ten, they could take the aptitude test at the Mage Guild in Rain City, so she had to lower the age limit if she didn't want to miss anyone.

Although she now had an area the size of two baronies, she had only found three children with the aptitude to become apprentice mages, and one of them belonged to Baron Lorient's town.

The reason Baron Lorient agreed to let Christine test in his territory was because she offered 200 gold coins per person. For Baron Lorient, even if he found a child with the aptitude to become a wizard, he could not afford to train him himself. According to the rules, he could not stop the person from going to the Wizards' Guild to study, so he might as well sell him to Baron Stewart.

In addition, three children with the aptitude to become druids, four with the aptitude to become minstrels, and seven with the aptitude to become knight apprentices were also found, and they were all brought back to the castle for training.

On the mainland, once a person is found to have the aptitude in the legal system, even if he is a slave, he immediately becomes a free citizen. This is a preferential treatment for professionals. If a legal apprentice's family member becomes a slave, they are immediately freed as a subject of the territory. If they become a full-fledged magician, their family members immediately become free citizens. Because it is easier to achieve physical professions, the family members who were originally slaves cannot become subjects of the realm until they reach the fourth rank.

For the families of these children, it was truly a blessing from the gods that their children could be recognized as having the aptitude for a profession, and they immediately signed an agreement with Christine that was almost like a contract of sale.

Of course, according to the Continental Covenant, even a mage apprentice could not be enslaved, so even if the families of these children signed an unequal agreement for them, it was automatically nullified the moment they became mage apprentices. In other words, as free people and mage apprentices, the children could leave if they wanted to, but only if they repaid the huge amount of money spent on their education.

Generally speaking, a mage apprentice from a commoner's background must work hard and diligently for another three years after becoming a first-order full mage in order to pay off the debt. After all, it costs money to continue learning and advancing during those three years.

Even after paying off the debt, unless the talent is really not good and there is no hope of advancement, all mages will not give up learning. If you want to advance, you cannot do without the Mage Guild. A lot of high-level information can only be exchanged for guild points, which means that you have to continue to serve the Mage Guild whether you want to or not.

Finally, a fifth-level mage who pledges allegiance to the nobility can become a local lord, which is the beginning of a family. And the higher a magician's rank, the longer his life expectancy. No ordinary person would give up even the slightest hope in the face of wealth, fame, and a longer life.

In fact, once the Mage Tower is completed under Baron Stewart, mages will come and pledge allegiance to him, because many mages only have access to the experimental conditions provided by the Mage Tower.

For example, a mage's spell slots are limited, and he cannot rely on diligent practice to improve his skills. However, a wizard's tower allows the wizard to simulate the casting of spells. If someone practices three times a day and you practice ten times a day, the gap will naturally appear over time.

In addition, the Wizard's Tower has several other capabilities. It can be thought of as a comprehensive experimental building of a university, and the advanced wizard tower is the one with the latest and most advanced equipment.

Although there are many Mage Towers in the Mage Guild, there are even more Mages. Take Brittany County as an example. A junior mage tower has three laboratories, and an intermediate mage tower has six laboratories. However, the higher the rank of the mage, the longer the experiment will take, so even if you want to use it, you will have to wait in line.

A high-level mage tower has nine laboratories. Even a first- or second-level mage who has been loyal for a long time may be able to get one. In addition, mages from noble families generally receive better treatment, even if it means obeying their masters' orders, which some mages consider appropriate.

At this point, some may wonder: If the Mage Guild is so rich, why don't they just build a few more Mage Towers?

The answer is that the Mage Guild makes a lot of money, but it also spends a lot of money.

A master-level mage can consume tens of thousands of gold coins worth of magical materials for a single large-scale experiment, and it is not surprising that a legendary mage can consume hundreds of thousands or even millions of gold coins worth of magical materials for an experiment.

So the question is, the people who decide whether to build a wizards' tower are the council of master-level wizards. These people hate to burn every copper coin of the Mage Guild's funds for experiments, so which one of them would give up their own interests to build additional Mage Towers for these lower-level mages?

For Christine, the more mages in the family, the better. Besides, mages who have been trained from childhood are more useful than those who have sworn allegiance to someone else. And it is much easier to train mages with a Mage Tower.

Christine can teach the mage apprentices herself, and she can assign the knight apprentices to a few knights. There are no druids or bards in the area, but it is a trivial matter to ask the elves to send two low-level mages to teach the apprentices.

One of the terms of the agreement between Christine and the elves is that after the Mage Tower and the harbor are expanded, they will be allowed to build a temple to the great elven main god here. Of course, there will be priests and temple guards, etc. With the long life expectancy of the elves, not everyone can reach the fifth rank, but there are still many second and third rank druids and bards. It is not a problem for them to be given the main task of guarding the temple and teaching at the same time.

In fact, the priests and temple guards sent by the elves are already on their way here by boat. After all, they must organize the craftsmen to build the temple of the great elven god, and every priest is active in spreading the glory of the god. They will even arrive in Baron Stewart's territory just in time for the completion of the Mage Tower.