Wizards begin with Occlumency.

Chapter 235 Young people should be full of vigor!

Two weeks passed in the blink of an eye.

All three phases of teamwork training have been completed.

Phase 1, Starship piloting, combat command and operation, all personnel passed;

In the second phase, team members were divided into groups, conducted tactical drills between groups, and performed joint training with the entire team, and all members passed the test.

In the third stage, based on Link's personal experience and practical exercises using some classic cases, all participants passed.

The time was relatively short, but thanks to their existing tacit understanding, the ten-person team worked out relatively smoothly.

It's impossible to say how strong their tactical execution capabilities and actual combat power are.

We must be realistic and not deceive ourselves.

However, it's impossible to say that they lack competitiveness.

A raging soldier, and a raging nest.

Similarly, with Link as a strong leader, the team members are naturally able to unleash even greater combat power.

That morning, just as Link was considering whether to develop a fourth phase of training to strengthen the team's weaknesses, his personal AI received two notifications in quick succession.

The first notice was a summons, instructing him to go to the Dean's office in the Senior College Administration Building at 2:00 PM today to meet with the Dean.

The second notice was a summons; Sandra Diormand had once again summoned Link.

As Lanny said, this recruitment was not only for Link himself, but also for a ten-person team.

Link had expected this, so it wasn't surprising.

He didn't rush to respond to the call-up, intending to wait until he met with the dean before making a decision.

Just to be on the safe side, Link tentatively sent Lani Taylor a message, asking her to schedule a video call at a suitable time.

As a result, Lani immediately sent a communication request.

Link agreed to the request and the communication was established.

"What is it?"

Lanny's voice came through, mixed with a slightly noisy background noise.

"You've returned to your home country?"

Link didn't rush to get down to business, but asked curiously.

"No, I'm at the main campus, shopping with Sandra. She's trying on clothes."

Lani replied casually.

"Well……"

Link pondered for a moment, then decided to change the subject, saying, "I have to meet with the Dean this afternoon, but I don't know what we'll be discussing yet. To avoid any conflict, I'm not in a hurry to respond to Wizard Sandra's summons."

"About this matter."

Lani turned her head to look in another direction before saying, "There's no difference. The headmaster of the local academy is Sandra's third uncle."

"All right."

Link was speechless.

"She's coming out now, I'll hang up. I'll let you know if anything comes up."

Lani quickly hung up the call.

Link put down his personal smart device, turned his chair, looked out at the lawn, and remained silent for a long time.

"What's wrong? Why are you spacing out?"

Jasmine entered the study, wrapped her arms around Link from behind, rested her head against his neck, and asked softly, "What's bothering you? Or are you dissatisfied with the results of the teamwork training?"

"Neither."

Link grabbed a small, fair hand, rubbed it between his palms, and said, "It just feels like everything in the world is a big net, and people are like little birds caught in the net, unable to be free."

"Is that so? Don't worry too much about things you can't fight back for now. Leave them for later. One day you'll become strong enough to break free from this net and be free. Then you'll be free to do whatever you want."

Although she didn't know why Link had such feelings, Jasmine still tried to comfort him in her own way.

No boy or man can always be as strong as they appear.

There will always be times when we feel vulnerable, or when we are hit hard and feel depressed.

Comforting, reassuring, and understanding are far better than hating their lack of ambition, finding fault with everything, or comparing them to others.

Link's mood indeed eased considerably. He patted Jasmine's hand and said, "Go and inform them to hand over their current work. It won't be long before we have to go to the competition. Also, meet at the camp this evening; there are a few things we need to discuss."

"Understood, I'll go right away."

Jasmine straightened up, flicked Link on the back of the head, and turned to leave the study.

Ever since Link responded to her directly, Jasmine has become increasingly unrestrained in front of him.

She's showing signs of becoming a younger version of Suzie.

It can only be said that Jasmine has chosen Celine the Wizard as her role model and has already achieved a five-tenths resemblance in appearance and a six-tenths resemblance in spirit.

Who knows when he might suddenly decide to eat Link?

After lunch and a short rest, Link decided to head to the dean's office a little early.

Jasmine insisted on accompanying her.

With 15 minutes to go before the scheduled 14 PM, Link had already arrived near the administration building.

Jasmine stopped a short distance downstairs and watched Link walk into the administration building.

It was as if they were sending off and encouraging young soldiers who were about to go to the battlefield.

It's no exaggeration to say that this meeting was indeed a war.

A war without gunfire.

The dean's office occupies the entire top floor of the administration building, and the door is tightly closed.

A bench was placed in the hallway, and Link sat down to wait quietly.

At 13:59 p.m., Link got up and gently knocked on the door.

"Enter."

A deep, magnetic baritone voice rang out from the office.

Link pushed open the door, walked into the office, and steadily walked to the desk, meeting the gaze of the dean, who looked and dressed like a middle-aged man.

He seemed largely unaffected by that intensely intimidating gaze.

"Link Grande reporting for duty."

After standing still, Link introduced himself in a calm and steady voice.

"Yes, sit down."

The dean pointed to the chair next to Link.

"Thank you, Dean."

Link sat down immediately, not completely, but without making a fawning gesture of barely touching the edge of the chair with his buttocks.

Be neither arrogant nor humble, and be polite and respectful.

"Do you know why I called you here?"

The dean spoke in a magnetic voice, asking a casual question.

The big shots can do whatever they want, but Link doesn't dare to.

This is not a very good question to answer.

Answering with either "I know" or "I don't know" is not quite appropriate.

knowledge?

Who told you in advance?

do not know?

What use are you if you can't even figure out what your superiors want?

Link replied, "I will follow the Dean's orders."

Avoiding the important and focusing on the trivial is a universal formula.

"Oh……"

The dean chuckled softly, "Slippery."

The dean pointed at Link and said:

"Judging from your expression, you must know something about the competition, but not much, and you're unsure of yourself, so you don't dare to answer rashly."

Let me tell you this: the academy is preparing to send four teams, each composed of first-level wizards who have been promoted within the last four years, to participate in a competition between several wizarding organizations in the Michelle district a week from now.

You are one of the team leaders who have already been chosen.

You build your own team.

The academy's requirement for you is to secure a top-five finish in the team competition and a top-three finish in the individual competition, with a goal of finishing first. Are you confident?

Team competition is hard to predict, but Link is full of confidence in the individual competition.

However, Link dared not make a pledge so casually.

Making promises that are too confident and fail to deliver can easily backfire.

It's commonly known as not making empty promises.

He tentatively asked, "Could I know which wizarding organizations will be sending teams?"

"certainly."

The dean smiled and said, "I can tell you this information in advance. There are five in total: our Rivosos Academy, Shadow City, Metal and Flame Trading Company, Mesopotamia University, and White Tower Alliance."

These five wizarding organizations are the most powerful wizarding organizations in the Michel District, second only to the Great Sage's Tower of Michel.

Each organization sent 4 teams, for a total of 20 teams.

Making it into the top three in the team competition is challenging, but not entirely impossible.

Link assessed his own strength and that of his direct subordinates, and felt confident that he could achieve his goal.

Compared to some teams that might consist entirely of senior level one wizards,

The only disadvantage of "freedom to do whatever you want" is that it takes a little longer for all members to become first-level wizards.

Talent, resources, equipment, sorcery, training, and tactical execution will all be excellent.

After thinking for a moment, Link replied solemnly, "I can't guarantee anything, but I can promise that I will do my best to get a good ranking."

"You..."

The dean gave Link another perfunctory nod, "You're such a sly one. I know your strength. Is it difficult for you to finish third or even first in the individual competition? Not at all! Forget it, I won't put too much pressure on you. Just do your best and don't hold back."

"Thank you for your understanding, Dean."

Link immediately expressed his gratitude and then stated, "I will definitely do my best to strive for excellence and bring glory to the academy."

"Um."

The dean acknowledged and then brought up another matter, "Sandora will be leading the academy's four teams in the competition this time. She has a personal bet with someone from the Metal and Flame Trading Company to compare the performance of their respective teams. So she has recruited you and your team. I think you should consider responding to the call."

"Yes, I will respond immediately upon returning."

Link immediately agreed.

Just as Lanny said, responding sooner or later makes no difference.

This matter had already been decided before he received the conscription notice.

"Last time she recruited you, there were some setbacks along the way, which caused her to lose focus on legion management and missions, resulting in her neglecting many things. It was your report that reminded her of these issues."

The dean then changed the subject, saying, "She asked me to give you some items as compensation for your recruitment last time and as a reward for your excellent performance."

As he spoke, the dean opened a drawer in his desk, took out three scrolls, and placed them in front of Link: "She understands that you've been searching for 'armor' type 1 sorcery, so she prepared these for you. You deserve them, so take them without hesitation and don't refuse."

"Yes, thank you, Dean. Thank you, Wizard Sandra."

Without any hesitation, Link put the three magic model scrolls into the "small world" in front of the dean.

The dean sensed the unusual spatial fluctuations, concentrated for a moment, and suddenly laughed out loud, saying something rather inexplicable: "Waters is probably going to hate Rosenthal to death."

Link didn't quite understand at first, but he intuitively felt that the two people mentioned were related to his "little world".

His use of "Small World" in front of the dean was itself a test.

The dean couldn't possibly be unaware of this, yet he still uttered such a remark, which was a subtle reminder to Link.

Therefore, Link's mind raced, and he made a fairly reasonable guess:

Waters most likely gave the "seed" to his high-ranking being as an extra reward for the first-year two-district competition;

Rosenthal was very likely a high-level being who, for unknown reasons, helped Link in the apprentice-level training realm, allowing him to truly possess ownership of the "seed".

After guessing these things, Link felt no joy.

Rather, it was a vague sense of unease.

Immortals fight, mortals suffer.

I just hope that the struggle between these two high-level beings will not affect him.

A grain of ash of the times falls on a person, and it is a mountain.

A single spark from the power struggle among the big shots, if it lands on a low-level wizard, could burn them to ashes.

"Don't be afraid. As long as you stand firm, everything will be fine."

The dean noticed Link's worries and offered words of comfort, while also hinting at something more.

"Yes."

That was the only reply Link could give.

Whether you understand the meaning or not makes little difference.

Just be a quail that only nods.

"Alright, that's enough for now. Go back and prepare well. You'll receive the detailed rules of the competition before you leave."

The dean waved his hand, signaling Link to leave.

Link stood up, bowed, and left the office.

Only after walking out of the Advanced Institute's administration building did Lin Ke finally exhale a long breath, relaxing his tense nerves and the "brain shut-in technique" that had been operating at full power.

The pressure the Dean put on Link was much greater than that of the behemoth that had been hiding behind the level 5 Mother Nest.

Link hadn't felt his back covered in cold sweat in a long time.

"How is it?"

Jasmine came to greet them from afar and asked with concern.

"It's alright, normal task, executed normally."

Link didn't hide anything from Jasmine, saying, "It's just that I still have to answer the call of Wizard Sandra and represent her in a competition against another team."

"It won't affect the important business, will it?"

"Probably not."

After asking her questions, Jasmine glanced at the cold sweat on Link's forehead and said with concern, "Let's go back to the villa and rest for a while."

"Um."

Link nodded in agreement.

Jasmine drove the Phantom Coupe back to the lakeside villa with Link in tow.

Upon entering the villa, Jasmine bustled about, handing Link a towel and instructing the butler, Hamid, to make tea.

Jasmine only stopped moving after she was sure that Link had stopped sweating and had completely calmed down.

Link observed all of this and, considering that Jasmine's preparation was nearly complete, decided to give her the number of uses of the official wizard-level training secret realm that he had been holding back, after the competition ended.

In this way, Jasmine won't stay at the first-level wizard stage for too long.

Even with significant improvements, the foundation will not become unstable.

Link kept this decision to himself for the time being and did not tell Jasmine.

Consider it a surprise.

evening.

Link, as promised, gathered his group of friends and the socially anxious group at the "Freedom to Do Anything" advanced academy headquarters.

"Team competition, aim for top five, strive for top three!"

Link paced around the nine team members, talking as he went.

"This is what the dean requires of us."

I did not agree.

"It means to strive with all your might."

Why?

Tell me.

Starting with Jasmine, Link made eye contact with each of the five guys and three fake socially awkward individuals.

After a moment, Lynn stepped forward and said in a slightly unnatural tone, "Because we are not strong enough, the big boss is not confident enough."

"Are there others who share the same idea as Lynn?"

"Signal for Lynn to return to the team," Link asked.

There was no response for a long time.

Shaking his head, Link said, "Say whatever you want! Don't we, who are 'free to do anything,' even have this much freedom?"

"Report! I believe the boss has other plans. I can't figure out what he's thinking, so I dare not speak recklessly."

Buck stepped forward and said this.

"Do you think the same way as Buck?"

"Yes, boss."

Link stopped pacing, stood firmly, and raised his right index finger:

"The reason I didn't agree to the dean's request is very simple."

Aim for fifth place and strive for third?

No, I, Link Grand, think that's all the ambition we have for "being free to do whatever we want"?

Screw the "strive for fifth place and aim for third" mentality!

If we're going to compete, we'll fight for first place.

Anyone who dares to stand in our way, we'll kill them!

Do you have confidence?

Link's brief words ignited the passion of the crowd, who roared in unison, "Yes!"

"What confidence do you have?"

Link opened his right hand and placed it next to his ear, as if listening.

"Let's get first place!"

"wrong!"

Link, with a serious expression, corrected him in a solemn tone.

"Everyone was involved in the car overturning!"

(End of this chapter)