The Lord of Ashes

In the nearly half a year since he returned to the Holy Tower of Dark Fire, Thane's main job has been to deal with the contract signing and retention of these resigned magicians.

As the dean, with the convenience of his position, Thane also has a clearer understanding of some of the current conditions of the Holy Tower of Dark Fire.

Before the Dark Fire Holy Tower launched the war on the Gumo plane, there were a total of 19,876 registered magicians.

The number of registered magicians is close to 20,000, which is not a lot, but it is definitely a lot.

However, with the end of the Gumo Plane War, the number of registered magicians has dropped sharply to 3,207 in the past year.

After all, only a small number of magicians were lost during the war. The vast majority of magicians voluntarily left the Holy Tower after the war.

This is why Thain and Dean Kester tried their best to retain a group of magicians who had just been promoted to the first level. However, with this number, I am afraid that Dropped below two thousand.

It was also this experience that made Thain realize that he could understand the choice made by the Master of Dark Fire on the battlefield of the Gumo plane. But when he really reaches that situation in the future, if he can't do it, it's better not to do it!

The number of people in the Holy Tower dropped by 80%, which is enough to explain the problem.

The current number of registered magicians in the Dark Fire Holy Tower is actually lower than that in the Blue Origin Holy Tower.

A few months ago, Thain handed this data to the fifth-level magician Dark Fire who returned to the wizarding world.

The tower owner didn't have much emotion about the breakaway phenomenon taking place in the holy tower. He even praised Thain and others for their good crisis public relations.

After that, Thane never saw the tower owner again.

It's not that Dark Fire is staying behind closed doors, but three months ago, several knights and magicians of level four or above with strong auras arrived at the Holy Tower of Dark Fire together.

There were no conflicts or battles, and the tower owner, Dark Fire, honestly followed these four-level and above existences and left together.

According to the information conveyed by the tower owner in a vague way before leaving, it would take at least three years for him to come back after "going out" this time.

…

Half a year later, the tide of registered magicians in the Dark Fire Holy Tower fell away and finally calmed down.

Those registered magicians who were able to escape have long since left.

The remaining three thousand or so people are basically magicians who have a certain sense of belonging to the Holy Tower of Dark Fire, or who will not leave the Holy Tower for various reasons for the time being.

It has to be said that with the departure of a large number of elite magicians, the Holy Tower of Dark Fire, which once developed fairly well, now has only three or two big cats and kittens left. None of the two semi-god-level magicians remained, and dozens of third-level great magicians also left.

Counting Thain as a "pseudo-level 3", the number of level 3 magicians that the entire Holy Tower of Dark Fire can muster is no more than one palm.

"With the strength of the Dark Fire Master and the longevity of the Holy Tower, even if it had not experienced this change, the development and operation of this Holy Tower could only be called 'mediocre'." Afterwards, Thain sighed.

In addition to being busy restoring the holy tower to basic operations, Thain faced another problem after dealing with the wave of registered magicians leaving.

"Santa College will start recruiting students in the second half of the year, but we are now facing a serious shortage of students."

"Not only are there a serious shortage of newly recruited apprentices, but many apprentices who have been studying for a period of time have also dropped out of school some time ago." Vice Dean Bob walked up to Thain and said.

In terms of strength, Bob is no match for Thane. He is a well-established academic magician, even though he looks rough.

In terms of ability, Thain's performance over the past six months or so has proven his talent.

If it were Bob, he wouldn't have the confidence to retain more than a thousand first-level magicians for the Holy Tower.

Therefore, although the leadership team of Dark Fire Holy Tower Academy has shrunk a lot, it is still relatively united and stable on the whole.

Under the premise that the fifth-level tower master has always been a hands-off shopkeeper, the development of the holy tower mainly depends on the performance of these deans.

The recruitment of apprentices in a region is inseparable from the number of first-level magicians born locally.

Among the ordinary human classes in the wizarding world, the social structure of nobles and commoners is still maintained.

Those who are qualified to contact and learn magic are those from aristocratic families and magic families whose ancestors have a first-level magician or above.

The wave of registered magicians leaving the Dark Fire Holy Tower in recent years has also caused the families behind these magicians to completely disconnect from the Dark Fire Holy Tower.

Not only that, many of the apprentices who are studying are the younger generations of these first-level magicians.

When those first-level magicians and above leave, they will naturally take their family descendants with them.

This is also the reason why Thane lamented before that he must not follow in the footsteps of the Master of Dark Fire in the future.

Water can carry a boat but also capsize it. If the people's hearts are scattered, it will be difficult to carry the holy tower.

At the same time, Thain also had to admire the tower master's broad-mindedness. Judging from the other party's performance, Thain did not see any psychological pressure on the tower owner.

The only good news is that the regional Holy Tower Academy War ended just seventeen years ago.

The next college war will begin thirty-three years later.

Thain and others still have enough time to prepare.

Since the relationship between the Dark Fire Holy Tower and several holy towers in the surrounding areas is not well handled, from the mouth of Vice Dean Wilms, Thain learned that the apprentices of the Dark Fire Holy Tower in previous years have always been rejected by other holy towers. The target that the apprentices work together to target.

But even under this premise, every apprentice of the Holy Tower of Dark Fire has achieved great results.

In the last regional Holy Tower Academy War, the Dark Fire Holy Tower achieved second place in the overall standings, trampling on several surrounding Holy Towers.

Regarding this phenomenon, Thain couldn't help but sigh, could it be the motivation brought by excessive pressure?

The matter of recruiting apprentices is undoubtedly a major event for the Holy Tower.

Even this matter is more important than the wave of breakaways of those formal and above magicians!

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The decision to determine whether a holy tower can prosper for a long time does not depend on the total number of registered magicians it has at that time, but on the blood-generating ability of a holy tower and the supplementary capabilities of newly promoted magicians above the official level.

If even the recruitment of apprentices is discontinued, then the Holy Tower of Dark Fire is not far away from closing down.

In previous years, the person in charge of apprentice recruitment was the demigod-level magician Kait.

It was the demigod-level old magician who once was on the battlefield in the Gumo plane, but couldn't make up his mind to be ruthless and ordered the space fortress to open fire.

He is a highly respected person in the Dark Fire Holy Tower and the surrounding areas. With his popularity and reputation, he can bring many outstanding apprentice seeds to the Dark Fire Holy Tower every year.

But this senior demigod-level magician left the Dark Fire Holy Tower a year ago.

Since Thane was the third batch to return, he didn't even see the demigod-level old mage.

Kait left, and Bob and others didn't have much experience recruiting apprentices, including their personal connections, which were really mediocre.

Therefore, the crucial apprenticeship recruitment matter still fell on Thain's young shoulders.

Frowning slightly, Thain glanced at Bob in front of him. After pondering for a long time, he said: "As for apprentice recruitment, I will find a way next, so you don't have to worry."

Although he didn’t know exactly what solution Thain thought of, Bob, who had green hair, couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief.

To be honest, he didn't want to see the Holy Tower of Dark Fire decline.

After all, he has been here for nearly a thousand years and has some feelings for it.