Versatile Mage

 In the corridor of a building by the lake at the Pearl Institute…

 The sunlight was passing through the French windows of the classroom, shining upon the desks and chairs, the electrical equipment, and the ceiling lights. The only thing it failed to light up was the grim look on Mo Fan’s face as he sat behind the desk beside the speaker’s stand.

 Mo Fan and Mu Nujiao were the only people in the classroom. The graduates would show up in another half an hour. Mu Nujiao was trying to comfort Mo Fan, although she could not help but laugh hysterically inside.

 “There’s no way I would accept this if it wasn’t for the handsome rewards!” Mo Fan swore.

 “I bet Dean Xiao is giving you a chance to experience how it feels to be a mentor. Perhaps he’s going to make you an honorable mentor of the Pearl Institute. It’s good for you,” Mu Nujiao encouraged him.

 Mo Fan initially thought Dean Xiao was just joking. After all, he was still a student of the school, while a mentor would have to be qualified before they were allowed to guide a bunch of graduates.

 Unfortunately, Mo Fan had underestimated how cunning Dean Xiao was!

 Since Dean Xiao was the dean of the institution, it meant his clearance was higher than a mentor, and if the job was only available to the dean of an institution, the dean could then assign anyone to be his assistant mentor as he wished.

 Normally, a job at this level would require two to five mentors, each with three to seven graduates under them, to be completed.

 Dean Xiao currently had a job in progress, but the mentors under him had yet to make any progress. He had no choice but to put it aside. To his surprise, Mo Fan had suddenly shown up and said that he wanted to graduate. Dean Xiao believed it would be a waste of his talents to assign a job to him like any other graduate. He decided to make Mo Fan a mentor instead and ask him to lead a few students in taking care of the part of the job that had been troublesome so far!

 It was impossible for Dean Xiao to handle everything on his own. If Mo Fan managed to get the job done for him, he was more than willing to let Mo Fan graduate With Excellence as he wished. It was killing two birds with one stone!

 —

 —

 “We never thought we would actually be selected. It’s a job that Dean Xiao is in charge of. We didn’t make it when the four mentors were recruiting graduates for it since the guys that were ranked higher than us claimed all the spots. To our surprise, Dean Xiao ended up appointing another mentor to do the job. Thank God!” a dignified and old-fashioned young man exclaimed.

 A few other young and good-looking students showed up. They exchanged glances with one another. A young man with spiky hair said, “Are you all here for the graduation mission too?”

 “Yeah, I think the mentor is waiting for us upstairs. I hope it’s not a strict old woman. Otherwise, we are going to suffer. I’ve already signed a contract with the Shoreline Alliance. I’m just waiting to get my Pearl Badge,” the young man who seemed like he had walked out of a museum answered.

 “Humph, does it matter who the mentor is if we’re good enough?” the young man with spiky hair said arrogantly.

 “Hehe, that might be true, but each mentor is responsible for a part of the job. If the part assigned to us is so difficult that we just can’t finish it, we still won’t get our Pearl Badge no matter how good our performance is, right?” the old-fashioned fellow said.

 “Let’s go, the mentor should be waiting for us,” a cute-looking girl hurried them along.

 There were six of them. The six graduates met up at the ground floor. They gathered their courage and headed for the classroom.

 After entering the classroom, the old-fashioned young man saw Mo Fan sitting at the speaker’s stand. He immediately frowned, “Hey, what you are doing? You shouldn’t be sitting on the mentor’s seat, even if he or she isn’t here yet. If the mentor has a bad first impression of us, we aren’t going to get our badges!”

 Mo Fan was stunned. He could not react in time.

 The handsome man with spiky hair went forward and dragged Mo Fan off the seat. He said, “I’m different from them. I’m aiming to graduate With Excellence, so you better not do anything that would make the mentor mad, or I’m going to make you pay for it!”

  The cute-looking girl quickly came up to settle the dispute. “Hey, calm down, we’re a team. Let’s not ruin the mood now!”

  Mo Fan glared at the student and snapped, “If you don’t let go soon, I’m afraid you will never graduate With Excellence!”

 “What do you mean by that? Are you threatening me? I’ve seen the likes of you quite often, trying to be a freeloader on the team in order to graduate! I won’t be teaming up with you bunch of trash if some idiot hadn’t made a mistake that ruined the whole operation last time. I’m warning you, you don’t want to mess with me!” the man snapped angrily.

 It was Mo Fan’s first time seeing such a bad-tempered and proud student.

 The energy of the Space Element burst out of his body with a thought and struck the handsome student. The man was knocked all the way to the end of the classroom. His back slammed heavily into the wall.

 The man was about to lose his calm and fight back with magic when he saw Mo Fan going back to the speaker’s stand and say to the astonished students, “I’m your mentor.”

 The students were dumbfounded when Mo Fan used his magic, but they completely lost their minds after hearing his words!

 What? This guy around their age was their new mentor!?

 It felt as if the sky had collapsed all of a sudden, especially the old-fashioned student and the handsome young man that was still leaning against the wall with a blank face.

 “He’s indeed your new mentor, and I’m his assistant. Nice to meet you all,” Mu Nujiao was done enjoying the show. She said to the students with a broad smile.

 Mo Fan was pleased when he saw the disbelief on everyone’s faces. Being a mentor wasn’t as bad as he first thought. He could teach these arrogant students how to behave themselves as he wished…

 Mm, the girls were pretty good-looking too. He heard some ill-mannered mentors would coerce female students for sexual favors. Would he be able to do that, too?

 “Men…mentor… I’m sorry, I…I didn’t know you are…” The handsome young man completely lost his attitude. He had turned from a savage beast to a stammering little boy. He did not even dare to lift his head.

 “Forget it, I won’t dwell on it further. Dean Xiao has asked me to replace a mentor and take on the job. I’m also here to help you graduate. Those that meet my expectations will receive the graduation badge, but those that perform poorly, I’m afraid you will have to stay at the Pearl Institute for a little longer,” Mo Fan coughed and said sternly.

 “Sure, we’ll surely do our best. Sir, you look so young, how are you maintaining your skin?”

 “Sir, you are so handsome.”

 Mo Fan immediately smiled. Why were these students only noticing his good looks when he was a mentor instead of when he was a student?

 “I will now brief you on the job. Dean Xiao is a Water Mage, and has constructed a Water Circulating Magic Formation covering the river, drains, and canals in Tongxiang. Not only is it used to irrigate the crops, it can also keep the demon creatures away. It can also be used as protection for humans when necessary. The project was commencing quite smoothly at the beginning. The other mentors had already laid down parts of the magic formation, but recently, the source of water in Tongxiang seems to have a blockage. The water stopped flowing…” Mo Fan explained the background of the job to the group.

 “The source of water is usually located outside the safe zone,” the old-fashioned student spoke up.

 “Exactly! Our job is to head to the source of water and investigate why the water has stopped flowing. Apparently, there are a few packs of demon creatures close to our destination. We’ll set out tomorrow. Please prepare the equipment that you will need for the journey by then,” Mo Fan said to the students.

 “It doesn’t sound like an easy job,” a student with a chestnut hairstyle commented with a wry smile.

 “It does sound that way, but we still have the mentor to guide us. We just need to tag along,” a petite female student said with a smile.

 “We can’t say for sure yet. Our mentor is so young, so I bet he isn’t strong either. If there’s some powerful demon creature at our destination, not only will we fail to get our graduation badge, we might even die,” someone whispered.

 ——

 Mo Fan and Mu Nujiao went home after briefing the graduates.

 Mo Fan took a closer look at the information about the job Dean Xiao was in charge of.

 He could not help but admit how bold and smart Dean Xiao’s proposal was. The man had suggested utilizing the naturally flowing watercourse as the source of energy, combined with the waterways scattered across Jiangnan to construct a Water Circulation Magic Formation. It would make a significant difference to the region, since it would keep the demon creatures away, protect the crops, and serve as a refuge when necessary. Most importantly, since they were using the natural flowing water to drive the magic formation, there would be no consumption of energy!

 The reason why barriers were difficult to set up was because of the enormous amount of magic ores and rock pistils needed to maintain their operation.

 However, Dean Xiao’s proposal got rid of the biggest expense of maintaining the barrier.

 If the proposal worked, it would surely be popularized, and greatly improve the safety of the region!

 “By the way, if water is important to every life form, it means the demon creatures wouldn’t do anything to stop the flow of water, either. Why would the water stop flowing out of nowhere?” Mu Nujiao said in confusion.

 Everyone knew the demon creatures would not bother destroying the flow of water, since they would die without water, too. It was extremely rare for a flowing waterway to go wrong. It was a law that every living creature would obey naturally.

 “Are you listening to me?” Mu Nujiao said in a seemingly angry voice when she did not hear any response from Mo Fan.

 Mo Fan lifted his gaze and asked her, “Well… it’s my first time being a teacher. I think I was handling it pretty well… but what should I do tomorrow so they will think I’m an experienced teacher?”