Project: Mage - The Frugal Mage

The groups that supported the fifteen participants inside the bubble were looking at the screens solemnly. They didn't blink their eyes for even a second.

All their attention was fixed on the fifteen screens, as there were fifteen cameras inside the bubble.

The fog slowly subsided. The surroundings inside the bubble began to be shown to viewers.

But an amazing thing that nobody imagined happened.

The place was empty, there was no participant or the ball of ice and magma. Both things disappeared from the scene.

When the big shots looked at the images of the Olympic stadium, they saw that the fifteen were lying on the ground with some minor injuries. Each of them was passed out and without magical energy.

The protection mechanism was activated after the explosion happened. All were sent out of the mystical realm.

The medical team of each federation had already acted and started to help the participants.

The question that remained was: Who was the person who got the creature inside the ice and rock ball?

As there was nothing else inside the bubble, it meant that someone received what was inside the ice and rock ball, but who ?? That was everyone wants to know, but they didn't know how to find out.

The medical team analyzed the bodies of the fifteen and were unable to discover anything about the creature inside the ball of ice and rock. It seemed that the thing was nowhere.

Even after many investigations, nothing was found. The fifteen participants only woke up about a month later, when the first phase of the Olympics was over.

…

"Dark Willow, trap them with your black roots" A beautiful young woman screamed. She was fighting some giant carnivorous plants.

"Wua wua" A low, soft voice was heard. The spoken language was unknown. The thing that spoke was a little being that looked like a little dark fairy.

It was small, the size of a palm. Her body was greenish with a slight hint of red, a dark glow emanating whenever she flew with her two fairy wings. On her small head was a hat made of willow leaves, and in her hands was a lantern made of branches and leaves.

The little creature's appearance was like a beautiful fairy from nature, but with a touch a little dark because of the darkness that emanated from her body. Despite that, she is very cute.

Because of her appearance, she was called Dark Willow.

Hearing the young woman's orders, Dark Willow swung the leaf lantern from side to side. The lantern started to shine a dark light, at the same time, several black roots came out of the soil and wrapped around the legs of the carnivorous plants.

"Wua wua" Dark Willow was flying happily over the young woman's shoulder. She completed the task.

"Very good" The young woman used her finger to caress the little creature's small face.

"Wua wua"

"Let's get this over with. Wind Blade" Several blades of wind appeared and cut the plants into chopped leaves.

After defeating the three plants, the young woman took a small green crystal from the floor. That was a core of energy from the wood element.

"You can eat this. That's your reward. "The young woman handed the small crystal to Dark Willow.

"Wua wua" The little thing was happy to see the crystal. That seemed to be her favorite food.

"I need to continue in the competition. I don't know what happened to the younger sister being defeated, but she must have encountered great danger. " The young woman commented. She was Xiao Mei.

After some days of feeding the wooden sphere with its earth element power. The sphere finally broke and the creature that came out of the sphere was a small creature of the dark wood element.

Xiao Mei didn't know the creature's species name, she just knew that the little creature was a type of creature of the elements. A creature that was born from the wood and dark element. Because of the wood and dark luster. Xiao Mei called the creature Dark Willow.

The creatures that are born from the elements had great potential to dominate their elements. But there was a rank for these creatures.

The monkeys that Xie Xinyue faced on the frozen plains were low-rank elemental creatures that can only use physical attacks and no type of magical ability.

Dark Willow was one of those types of creatures, but her rank was much higher because she can use magical abilities.

This was the big difference between low and high-rank elemental creatures. The ability to use magic.

Xiao Mei saw that the Finding Compass that was pointing towards Xie Xinyue has stopped spinning, which means she has left the mystical realm. Xiao Mei did not know what had happened to Xie Xinyue and was concerned.

Since there are no methods to talk to people outside the mystical realm, Xiao Mei could only pray and wait until the month was over for her to leave.

"Wua wua ??" Dark Willow asked in a dubious tone when she saw the concerned look on Xiao Mei's face. The current Dark Willow was like a baby who was just born a few days ago, she just liked to eat and walk around.

The fourth element that Xiao Mei woke up to when she had a breakthrough to the Great Mage was the summon element. She used many to level the summoning element to the advanced level, despite having only one contract creature before, she did so in case of need in the future.

Her thinking was correct, she needed to use one of the vacancies for the contract creatures. Xiao Mei only managed to make the contract with Dark Willow that way, she even more of one spot for a contract creature.

Her first contract creature has not yet been shown, because Xiao Mei wanted to make a big surprise. She summoned it when she was training and resting, as Xiao Mei did not want others to know what kind of contract creature she got.

"Is nothing. I'm just worried about someone "Xiao Mei stroked Dark Willow's cute face.

"Wua wua"

"Hehe ... Let's keep walking" Xiao Mei started walking randomly through the forest again. She was looking for hidden treasures and ways to complete the missions.

…

Xiao Mei's images were shown again after she came out of the tree hole.

When the spectators saw that she had a small creature with her, they understood that the small creature was the thing that came out of the wooden sphere with the dark glow.

Normal people didn't know what the little thing was, they just found it very cute and it looked like a night fairy. However, the situation was different for the big shots, they knew what the little creature was.

When they saw that, only one thought came to their minds: Elemental Creature.

The two groups that were supporting the two young people who were in the same location as Xiao Mei before, when she found the giant tree, they went crazy because they found that their members lost a very rare and precious treasure. An elementary creature that can use magic.

They had to see someone else enjoying the treasure before their eyes, the worst of it was that their two members were fighting each other and let Xiao Mei run away. That was even worse. For they had a chance to get the treasure, but they let it left because of a little misunderstanding.

The two would be severely punished for this error in the future when they leave the mystical realm.

The rival groups to theirs were the happiest with this loss. Thus, they would not have an opponent who had a powerful contracted creature.

Xiao Mei's parents and the people who supported her were the happiest for her, as she got a great helper. But it was different for young people who did not like her, they were very jealous and envious of her luck because she had the summoning element and no one could steal Xiao Mei's Dark Willow. 

Besides, Dark Willow was still a baby, when she grew up, she would become a powerful creature.

…

The Olympic Games had already started two weeks ago.

Of the five hundred and fifty participants who entered, about two hundred and twenty were defeated and sent back to the Olympic stadium. The other three hundred and thirty were still struggling to stay within the mystical realm for another two weeks.

With each mission that appeared, they became more difficult to complete, as it was necessary to defeat creatures more powerful than the previous ones. Some participants were still alone, as in the case of Xiao Mei, she had no chance of defeating a group of rank 4 creatures alone, that was impossible.

Even though these rank 4 creatures can't use magic, Xiao Mei had a hard time breaking through these creatures' body defense. This also happened with the other participants.

Participants who were still alone needed to find other members to increase combat power, but that was difficult to do. For they were all separated by long distances.

Many participants from different federations came together to try to complete the missions. Some pairs worked because both sides had good personalities, but many others failed because one or both members were treacherous and tried to deceive the other.

This type of situation greatly increased the attention of the spectators, as it was interesting to see participants from two rival federations come together to fight creatures stronger than themselves.