BEACH OF GATES
A youth came out of the forest alone. He wearing a noble attires with long black hair which covered half of his hair.
He is Max Wolfe, the young master of Wolfe family. He also former slave Thirteen whose abandon his old name and identity.
'Name is like outer appearance is just a vessel. Change your appearance or your name, no one will recognize the old you. Starting today my name is Max Wolfe. I will be using this name until I decided the name bring no more benefits to me.', Max slowly walked to the camp.
The mercenaries realized his return, "Young master Max, you back. Where that slave has gone to?"
'SECOND! Adjust my vocal chord similar to old Max Wolfe'
[Affirmative!]
There are many ways to change your voice and with SECOND's assistance, Max can do the adjustment on breathing, the air exhaled and his pitch to manipulate his voice easily. Normal people need a lot of training to change their voice.
"That slave dare lie to me! I beat him. Let him rot there!", Max sound a little rough to show his anger but actually he still adjusting his voice.
"Oh..", One of the mercenaries answered and then act like he won't pursue the matter anymore.
'They said this brat is very kind to everyone including slave but in reality that just an act. Now we far out here, he just decided to drop the act and be like other young masters, spoiled and arrogant.', the other mercenary whispered to his group when Max left to his carriage.
'This spoiled brat really an idiot. That slave can be used as cannon fodder but wasted because of his whim. Now we lacked one.', others commented.
The old Max Wolfe despite rumored to be kind to anyone actually rare to get involved with commoners so anyone here including the slaves and servants doesn't know his real personality and how he usually acts. The mercenaries are just hired the group to escort because they specialized in escorting caravans to far places. They never met the old Max Wolfe before. His father, the Count Wolfe the one planned the trip and hired them.
Max reached the most decorated carriage in this camp. It obviously for the V.I.P of this trip, the young master and now it belongs to the current Max Wolfe. The old Max has already been mutilated and buried in the deep jungle.
Max rested on the expensive bed and start planning his next course of action, "I used a mix of herb solution to change my skin tone as a makeup and this long hair as wig but later someone will notice the differences. I should stay inside this carriage as much as possible. Sooner or later, those people will start forgetting the old face and used to the current one.
Since then Max always stays inside the carriage. He only went outside for urgent needs while changing his face slowly to the original. The trip is taking over a year to reach the destination and Max having less contact with the rest the group to hide his identity changes. He focused on his research on mana. He just had a lab mouse to before which is the old Max. He also capable of sensing mana seeing his magic talent managed to be detected. Max dissect his corpse to learn more about mana from others perspective. His research bore fruit when he managed to control to a certain level but still cannot control or display any elements from the mana.
A year went by, the group already traveled thousands of kilometers passing through many kingdoms on their way and they finally reached their destination. Their trip filled with danger. A band of bandits the least of their concern. The most dangerous part is the magical beast. The beast is radiated with mana become far stronger and far more ferocious. From the original number of more than forty peoples, less than fifteen survived the harsh trip. The mortality rate is over 50%! Max kept hiding in his carriage the whole situations less he exposed to unknown dangers.
"Max just woke up from his nap opened his carriage door and came out. By now he already used his original face but his long hair still covered his eyes. He already disposed the wig and just let his original black hair grew long. People won't notice the difference after a long trip, even lush black hair lose its radiance. Max's original eyes are deep purple and the old Max has green eyes. Even if facial start changing slowly, the eyes color cannot change that easily. This world does not have contact lenses and Max cannot find any medicine to change eyes color without damaging the eyes
They reached the northernmost part of the continent and arrived and a beach. They called it the Beach of Gates. This is their gate to the Mages world and only those qualified can be passed through the gate. Success into a new world or fail stuck as a mortal.
As they neared the sea, a huge encampment with numerous tents of various shapes and sizes stood together forming a huge community. Surrounding them were dozens of carriage same as their group. Everyone goals here are the same that is to become Mage.
Peoples rushing around the tents and what amount the most are the youth in their early teens, each and every one of them carrying a curious look and hope. SECOND, this rough estimate that over thousands of people here, filling the entire camp. Max walked to the camp's entrance after parting with his group. They will wait outside to wait for the news. If Max succeeds, they will be returned bearing good news to Wolfe territory and if he fails, Max will return with them with an shame and awkwardness.
There a group of white robes on the entrance but not as the receptionist but for trial. They will bring the aspirants into big tents and those people came out with different expressions adorning their faces. To participate in the trial, a fee is required but not gold or silver. They charged ten magic crystals for each applicant. Max also brought with him a pouch of a magic crystal. The Wolfe family exhaust their resources to collect the magic crystals and including their own resources for hundreds year only managed to collect 22 magic crystals only. That show how rare the magic crystal is. Max waited until his turn arrived and passed the trial fee and then the white robe bring him to one of the tents.