—4E, 201, Last Seed, 17th, 10:00 a.m.

Falauda stood at the gate of the Mage Academy, a little bored.

As an elf from the southern Isle of Summerset Isle, she has been able to adapt to the freezing cold of the northernmost city in Skyrim, but she has not adapted to the razor-sharp and cold gaze cast by the inhabitants of Winterhold.

Unlike Morningstar City, which is located in a depression in the west and has a good harbor environment, the coast of Winterhold is covered with snow and ice all year round, and the rocks and ice structures form a huge barrier from Winterhold to the North Sea, and there are also a number of pebble beaches dotted around, with the result that the sea route is completely cut off, and the only way to exchange supplies with the outside world is to rely on the mountains that surround it and the ice fields between the East China Sea for land transportation, but all kinds of violent elemental creatures will attack anything that passes through it. As a result, the lives of the inhabitants of Winterhold are also extremely difficult.

But the blame must not be placed on the Academy, and a passing Winter Castle guard deliberately watched her spit at the side of the road, which made Falauda a little angry, but finally suppressed the idea of using magic tricks to teach him a lesson.

Today's Winterhold, the fief is only a barren village and town, in the sense that the capital of the fiefdom is located near the entrance of the Winterhold Academy, and the other parts have completely disappeared with the "Great Collapse" more than twenty years ago, and now when it comes to Winterhold, only the Mage Academy and "the village at its gate" will be remembered, and rumors are circulating throughout Skyrim Province that it was the Mage Academy that destroyed the Winterhold.

Are you kidding!

The mages of the Mage Academy predicted fifty years in advance that Wintercastle would collapse and slide into the Sea of the Undead, allowing the surrounding residents to move and take refuge, but they turned a deaf ear to this, and even thought that the Mage College was alarmist in order to achieve some ulterior purpose.

Even if the Nords were martial arts and disdainful of magic, they should not be arrogant to this extent, and Falauda had seriously discussed with his colleagues that it would be better to ignore the arrogant Nord barbarians and let them sink to the bottom of the sea, but they were denied.

Eventually, during the great war between the Empire and the Somo Elves, the mages used various spells to forcibly move all the inhabitants of the collapsed area to safety, and then the entire Winter Castle sank to the bottom of the sea in front of the eyes of those who were stubborn, leaving only the mage academy protected by magic.

Afterwards...... Falauda was still indignant when he thought about it, what strange arguments such as "why not protect the whole of Wintercastle if it can protect the Academy", "why not transfer our wealth", "The Academy must provide us with shelter", etc., even after nearly twenty years, there is still a market in this barren village and town.

This also made it extremely difficult for the Mage Academy to recruit apprentices, and there were only three apprentices in total today, none of whom were natives of Skyrim Province.

As Falauda was about to close the doors of the academy at the end of recruitment, a young girl dressed in mage robes and wearing a hood appeared in front of the gate.

"Well, is it already over?" She asked in a thin voice.

Although she appeared to be a blonde Nord, the elven instincts and the mage's keen perception could tell that the woman had no ill will at all, and Falauda decided to give her a chance.

"See the magic well behind me?" She pointed to the blue glowing "well" on the inside of the gate, and said to the Nord girl, "Ignite it with magic, and you're qualified." ”

This mana well is used as a regular lighting inside the Academy, and can be ignited with the simplest of transformational spells, "Magic Light", and provides gentle blue light and slow mana regeneration until the mana salt is depleted.

"Is that so?" A small ball of white light appeared in the Nord girl's hand, and she raised her hand to throw it into the magic well, and a pillar of blue light instantly rushed out of the well.

"Very good, you are qualified, after entering, go to Mirabelle Ewen to sign up and accept her arrangement."

Falauda watched as the Nord girl lit the magic well on the long bridge leading to the main building of the academy one by one, and was very satisfied.

The magic wells at the door will be extinguished shortly after they are ignited, and their function is only to test the total amount of magic power of the apprentice, generally speaking, the magic apprentice who has just awakened his magic ability will consume all the mana when he ignites one of the wells, and this apprentice actually ignited all five magic wells along the way in one go, so that Falauda's depression after standing in the wind and snow for a long time was slightly relieved.

Mirabelle must be glad that I had found such a good apprentice, Falauda thought as she locked the door of the Mage Academy, carved with stars, triangles, and suns, and double moon reliefs.

————

The main body of the Mage College is in the shape of a large cylinder, and it can be seen from the remnants of its foundation after the Great Collapse, that in addition to the surface buildings, there is also a part that is located underground.

After passing through the test bridge, the wind and snow stopped, and it is a circular square with a barrier against wind and snow, with a statue of the founder of the Mage Academy and the first chief mage Sulidor in the center, the main building containing the "Temple of Elements" and "Arcane Hall" on the front, and the "Hall of Achievement" and "Hall of Faces", the residences of apprentices and mentors, on either side.

The Nord girl looked at Falauda, who was "trying to find someone by herself", and shrugged her shoulders as she walked towards another male mage in a brown and yellow mage robe in the square.

"Hey, Forrest Gump," she said, "see Mira?" ”

"Don't call me Forrest Gump!" The male mage instantly became furious: "My name is Arnell Gan!" ”

"Okay, Forrest Gump." The girl continued, "I'm looking for Mira. ”

"Oh, wait, you're-" Arnell Gan looked the Nord girl up and down, "Change-based spells are improving?" ”

"It's okay, I'm about to be promoted to legend," the girl gestured in the direction of Falauda, "At least one has already been deceived." ”

"Hehe, legend," Anel Gan twitched at the corner of his eyes, "Mirabel is in the Hall of Faces, and she is being haunted by that 'advisor', so don't mess with you as a 'new apprentice'"

"Tsk, the two of them can probably fight each other all day when they meet, I really don't know what Somo has to send him to do." The girl smacked her lips: "Then I'll go find my father." ”

"I said, you didn't even have the confidence to deceive me, and you still dare to go to Tovdil? A master of change? Anelgan's hand flashed, and his face changed to that of an old, kind, but stern old man: "Nonsense! ”

"Not at all," said the girl, spreading her hands and walking straight to the Temple of the Elements, "besides, my father won't demolish me in front of the new apprentice, and I've won this gamble." ”

"Who did she bet on what?" Arnell looked at the girl's back, shook her head and turned to leave.

————

"I think we knew the dangers of magic, and if we didn't know anything about it, we wouldn't be here."

A slightly shrill female voice echoed through the empty hall.

The Temple of the Elements is a vaulted hall with a large magic well, the central circular area is a place for teaching and practicing magic due to the rapid recovery of mana with the help of a magic well, and the tables, chairs, and bookshelves around the hall are places for studying, recording, and copying scrolls.

But now, there were only three apprentices standing in the middle of the hall, and they were taught by Master Tovdil, who would not normally be tasked with this task, and the training of new apprentices was usually held by mages like Arnell Gan who had just graduated from apprenticeship and obtained the qualification of a mentor - but with only three students at the moment, there was naturally nothing to complain about.

And since the mage academy is not financed by the tuition fees of the apprentices, which is actually quite low, except for a few mentors who are nostalgic for the bustle of the past, the masters are mostly happy, in the words of the master enchanter, Sergils Turianus, "If they want enchanted weapons or spell scrolls, they still have to come to us." ”

"Of course, my dear, of course, you all have special talents, I'm pretty sure of that," the master, surrounded by three apprentices, said in an old but neutral voice, his dark blue robes looking old, but his temperament was not scruffy, "but I'm talking about the precise control of magic so that it doesn't get out of its control, and it takes years or even decades of study and study to do it." ”

"So what are we waiting for, let's start right away!" The words with a strange hissing sound came from an apprentice with a long tail, and his face under his hood looked like a leopard.

"We've just been here, and you don't know what we're capable of, so why don't we show you?" The remaining male apprentices had red skin and appeared to be a Redguard who had a hard time becoming a mage.

Zag the Tiger Man, Brilina Mayo, the Dark Elf, and Onmond the Red Guard, these are the only three apprentices who have been accepted by Falauda today, and they all seem to be grumpy and devastating.

"Oh, your last classmate has arrived," Tovdill thought as he turned his gaze to the Nord girl who had sneaked in, "what do you think about that?" Should we do it now? ”

"I think safety comes first." The girl looked away.

"Don't listen to her, we know our own strength!" The tiger man bared his teeth at the girl.

"Oh, okay, we can do a temporary test, I'll use a shield spell, you use your own spell to attack, I know your approximate level, of course, don't worry about hurting me, the old man still has this confidence." As he spoke, Tovdir took two steps back, unfurling a semicircular barrier.

"Hah!" "Whew!"

The Tigermen and Redguards shouted and threw fireballs and lightning, while the Dark Elves flew out with several ice blades, shields not moving.

"Boom!"

The huge flames burst open, the barrier flashed and almost went out, and the other three apprentices were dumbfounded.

"I ...... Because the spell is too powerful, come and learn how to control it. The Nord girl shrugged and extinguished the flames that had gathered on her other hand.

"Oh, well, you should practice this spell I just used, and when you're all mastered, I'll take you on a journey to discover how other magic has been used throughout history." Tovdir put away his shield, then turned his gaze to the Nord Maiden, "I think we need to talk about how to 'control' your 'power' through some 'means', Zela Pesh (Zero Patient)." ”

Through the camouflage of the illusion, he shivered at the sight of the "Nord Girl" with black hair and black eyes, dressed in a college uniform.