Merlin nominated himself for father of the month. After all, taking care of a dragon was no easy feat.

  He hadn’t thought fully about how to handle the aftermath of ripping a dragon out of a dungeon which should, naturally—if that was the right word—not exist. In fact, he hadn’t even been expecting it to be possible, taking a monster out of a dungeon and tending to it, that was. His whole quest had just been filled with the thought of having a monster that possessed as much mana as an A-Class Mage be his practice partner day in and day out so that he could level up his Intelligence Attribute quickly. And, now, he was stuck tending to it.

  There were no rule books to take care of a dragon, and it was the same in Singularity Mage. Kieran hadn’t taken in the dragon after clearing Glace’s Ice Cave Dungeon. He had set it free into the wild to fend for itself and continued on his journey. Which was why Merlin had nothing to fall back on to help him with his dilemma. But he had been doing well for the past month. The dragon was a lot different from Po, he and Nora’s cat back in London. It slept a lot, was barely mischievous, smart and knew right from wrong. The problem came in its feeding. It was an ice dragon so it didn’t eat anything hot, and whatever it ate—which was solely raw meat—had to be freezing, basically. As a result, electric bills had spiked, and so had money spent during shopping. The dragon ate an awful lot.

  Merlin’s phone buzzed at that moment. He glanced around the waiting area where he was the only one seated, and pulled it out of his pocket.

  [Zombie sister: Merlin! Where are you? Ada’s out of hand!]

  Merlin winced at his screen. He quickly typed and sent a reply.

  [Merlin: Blue. His name is Blue!]

  His phone didn’t take too long before it buzzed again. Nora had replied.

  [Zombie sister: It’s a she, dimwit. And Ada’s the name. Also, hurry back home before this little thing freezes our apartment. Why are you taking so long just to see the Guildmaster?]

  Merlin heaved out a deep exhale and dipped the phone back in his pocket.

  Hiding the existence of a dragon was impossible when he lived in the same house as Nora, which was why he had just come clean. Well, not exactly, since he had not mentioned that he had raided a dungeon. He had just crafted up some bullshit about the System giving him a gift for reaching Level fifty in one of his Attributes. Nora had eaten it up. He had never lied to her before—they had promised not to be those kinds of siblings—so she had not been expecting him to have broken that promise.

  Anyway, she helped him with taking care of Blue, despite how they had argued on his naming and gender—they had no rule book on how to train a dragon,so they both had no idea what exactly Blue’s gender was—and were still arguing on it.

  As for why he was currently seated in a private reception in the Consortium Guild waiting for its Guildmaster, Headmaster Im Ilseong had asked him to pay the man a visit. It was that simple, really. And the man seemed to be well ready to receive him.

  Merlin’s mind took a trip back to the day of evaluation in the same building. He recalled how he had been momentarily jealous of Nora meeting up with the Consortium’s Guildmaster because she was an A-Class Mage, and how he was left to sit in the public waiting area all alone.

  A lot had happened since then, and it seemed he, too, was now important enough to be noticed.

  It was funny. Life was funny.

  “Yes,” said the receptionist who was seated at the edge of the door of the private area. Merlin’s attention was reeled towards her, and while he had been in his thoughts, she had picked up a call. She glanced at him. “You may go in now.”

  Merlin pursed his lips and nodded. Then he stood up as his heart began to pound again, just like it had done when he’d walked into the building, and he headed towards the door a little bit diagonal from where he had been seated.

  He knocked.

  “Yes! Come in,” a husky voice replied from the other side. Merlin cleared his throat, turned the handle, and walked into the room.

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  Merlin was hardly surprised as to how spacious, neatly kept, and exquisitely toned the room looked. It was the office of the Guildmaster of the Consortium Guild, Kim Hyeonki. And if that wasn’t enough to justify the sheer quality of the space, he was an S-Class Mage, just like Headmaster Im Ilseong, and that man lived like a king.

  “Have a seat,” said the man seated on the opposite side of his desk. He was lean, not as bulky as Headmaster Im Ilseong, had buzzed black hair which showed no sign of balding, and, most of all, had an uncanny resemblance to his daughter. Merlin almost thought he was staring at the aged male version of Kim Yiseo.

  Merlin strode forward and sat opposite the man. “Good morning,” he said politely.

  Guildmaster Kim Hyeonki stopped letting his fingers drum on the keyboard of his laptop and shifted it aside. He then smiled at Merlin.

  “Hello, Merlin,” he started. “How are you doing today?”

  Merlin chuckled, his hands clutched together away from the view of the man. “Nervous,” he said. “A little bit.”

  Who wouldn’t when they were seated on the opposite side of one of the renowned S-Class Mages to have fought in the time of the Cataclysm?

  Guildmaster Hyeonki shrugged his brows. “There’s no need to be.” He leaned back in his chair. “It’s not like you’re in any trouble.”

  Merlin cleared his throat, appreciating that. Then silence stretched as the man studied him, and he became even more unnerved.

  “H-How’s Yiseo?” he blurted, trying to cull the tension that had dropped on his shoulders. When the guildmaster narrowed his brows, he quickly added, “I was just wondering.”

  “Are you friends with my daughter?” he asked.

  Merlin wasn’t sure if they were ‘friends’ since the person she was close with was Nora. But he decided to let it fly for the moment.

  “Yes,” he said. “We met in a kind of roundabout manner.”

  Guildmaster Hyeonki nodded. “Yes, I do know how you both met.” Merlin shut his mouth. “She’s fine, though. Thanks for asking. More importantly, do you have any idea why you are here?”

  Merlin shook his head. “Headmaster Im Ilseong didn’t tell me anything.”

  “I see.” Guildmaster Hyeonki nodded. “In that case, I’ll walk you through it. As you already know, you, Merlin Tyrrell, are an anomaly in this world of anomalies.” Merlin listened attentively as the Guildmaster explained. “And because of that, you are special. My friend, your headmaster, is adamant on believing that the Cataclysm will be here soon, despite my various attempts at telling him otherwise. He has made up his mind to do everything in his power to shape you in that regard, as well as the rest of his students, so that you are all ready when the time comes to fight. Which is why you are seated before me at the moment. There’s more to your ability than meets the eyes, and he wants me to find out what those are.”

  Merlin took a step back in his mind, repeating all the words that Guildmaster Hyeonki had just said. He was taken aback by a particular sentence amongst the many.

  “You don’t think that the Cataclysm is returning?” he asked, curious.

  Guildmaster Hyeonki shook his head. “No.”

  Merlin blinked owlishly. “Why not?”

  “Because it is simply impossible. There are things needed to be brought together for the Cataclysm to return, and those who seek to find them can never get their hands on them.”

  Merlin gulped. “W-What are those?”

  “I’m sure you’re not expecting me to tell you that?” said the Guildmaster, the pressure of his voice shoving Merlin’s curiosity down his throat.

  Well, it didn’t hurt to try.

  “Anyway,” Guildmaster Hyeonki continued with a deep sigh. “I watched videos of the practicals you were involved in during the first term, and I agree with Ilseong. Your usage of mana, control, and even its output is weird for a Deficient Mage. You do things even S-Class Mages can’t.” Merlin’s heart skipped a beat and his eyes widened. “Don’t let that get to your head, kid,” said the guildmaster quickly. “You have potential, but you aren’t there yet.”

  Merlin chuckled inwardly. He had not even thought of the possibility of him being on the same level as an S-Class Mage the way he was currently, not to talk about it getting to his head. Guildmaster Hyeonki didn’t need to worry.

  “On that note,” said the guildmaster as he stood up. “That’s enough talking. Come with me.”

  Merlin blinked as he jumped to his feet. “Where are we going?” he asked.

  “To carry out some tests,” said Guildmaster Hyeonki. “Figure out where exactly you stand in the scale of anomalies.”

  Merlin wasn’t sure if he preferred being called an anomaly, at least in comparison to Deficient Mage. Somehow, he had gotten used to that almost derogatory title.

  He shrugged his thoughts away and followed behind the guildmaster. On approaching the door, though, the man stopped, glanced over his shoulder at Merlin and studied him from head to toe.

  Merlin halted, unsure what was going on, or if he had done something rude. He kept his mouth shut, though. And when Guildmaster Hyeonki was done ogling him, he raised a thumb.

  “You’re in good shape,” said the man. “I applaud your consistency. Many kids these days are lazy.”

  Merlin blinked, stunned. Headmaster Im Ilseong had also said those same words to him, and it had caught him off guard the same as now.

  He snapped himself from his daze quickly, though, so that he did not come off as rude.

  “Thank you,” he said. “I try my best.”

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