NoveLight ™
"You're showing up quite often these days," Arpina remarked with a smile as Leon visited her office. Ever since he began assisting with her research, she had been the only person Leon saw regularly.
Leon smiled back and replied, "I've come to seek your guidance, Master."
Seeing Leon bow respectfully, Arpina's mouth hung open in surprise.
"...What?" she asked, her eyes wide, as if she had heard something unbelievable.
"I'm stuck on something," Leon explained.
"You? Stuck?" Arpina looked at Leon with disbelief, her eyes still filled with suspicion.
"I need new insights to advance my rank."
"New insights? Are you saying you're challenging the advanced special rank?"
"...Yes, that's right."
"Reaching the advanced special rank at 15... At this rate, you'll become a mystic-level magician by 16, maybe 17 at the latest..." Arpina approached Leon and examined him from head to toe.
"You're not secretly a dragon in polymorph form, living life for fun, are you?" she asked, her gaze filled with confusion. Given her rational nature, it was hard for her to believe such an impossible situation was happening right before her eyes.
Avoiding her intense gaze, Leon softly added, "And I also want to start learning the Principles of Harmony in earnest."
"..."
Arpina stared at Leon in silence, as if at a loss for words. But soon, her face lit up with a joy she could hardly contain. It was a look Leon had never seen before. She seemed even more delighted than when Leon first called her "Master."
From that day forward, Leon and Arpina spent every day moving between the office and the training room, completely engrossed in training. Leon delved deeper into the essence of lightning magic, and Arpina personally guided him through the Principles of Harmony. Leon also began explaining his own concept of harmony to Arpina—a method that embraced the unique properties of each element rather than suppressing them to achieve fusion.
"I had thoughts like that too, but with you, it might actually be possible..." Arpina mused.
At first, Leon was in the position of a student, but as time went on, the lines between teacher and student began to blur. Leon's fresh approach to magic, and the realization that his ideas were becoming reality, inspired Arpina to continue her own training with renewed vigor. There were frequent moments where Leon’s novel perspective and Arpina’s extensive experience meshed together perfectly.
Time passed, and a month later...
"You really reached the advanced special rank in just a month," Arpina commented.
A core the size of an adult man's fist had now formed in Leon's solar plexus, much larger and darker in color than before.
Once Leon reached the mystic rank, his core would undergo another qualitative transformation, just as it had when he transitioned from apprentice to the special rank.
He had also gained ten threads of will. The side effects from rapidly raising his rank using elixirs had completely disappeared.
In a sincere tone, Arpina said, "It won't be long before you surpass me."
"I still have a long way to go," Leon replied humbly.
"No, I used to be so motivated to ensure that my students could never catch up to me. But now, that drive is gone," she said with a smile that was both proud and a little resigned. As his teacher, it was inevitable that she felt a twinge of helplessness watching Leon's rapid growth.
Meanwhile, the golem research had also entered its final stages.
"The thesis will be published soon. Naturally, your name will be included," Chief said, still addressing Leon respectfully.
Leon, in turn, modestly shook his head. "I didn't contribute much."
"That's not true. You provided invaluable data on ancient golems, so it's only fitting that your name be included."
"...I've learned a lot as well," Leon replied.
During his time assisting Chief with research, Leon had asked numerous questions about modern golems, gaining valuable knowledge in the process. Chief’s teachings were reflected in Leon’s own golem, Neo, which now had a round face and the ability to speak.
"Arpina’s research is also complete. That means you'll have two papers published under your name. Quite remarkable," Chief said with a meaningful smile, handing Leon a piece of Orichalcum.
Chief explained how he had come across the Orichalcum. "I first found it in the northern Bferiet lordship, in a mountain range of eternal snow."
He described the vast snowy mountains, which stretched endlessly like a chain of peaks. According to Chief, that mountain range was likely the secret lair of an ancient mage.
"A long time ago, the area became a dead land, possibly due to tampering with an ancient magic circle or overzealous experiments. The climate and magical remnants have distorted the natural order, making it an inhospitable place even for mages."
Of course, no obstacle was too great for a mage’s curiosity. Many had flocked to the mountains for exploration, and Chief was among them.
While lost and wandering for days, he had stumbled upon Orichalcum by chance. "At the time, I thought it was nothing short of a miracle."
Chief marked the location on Leon’s map and pulled out a piece of an ancient golem from his dimensional pocket. The small piece, weathered by time, glowed faintly white.
"This is a fragment of an ancient golem I found alongside the Orichalcum. Though it’s just a small piece, it’s a priceless relic to me," Chief said, clearly more attached to the golem fragment than to the Orichalcum. This explained why Chief had never mentioned the fragment before, even when offering Orichalcum as a reward.
"In the end, I only managed to escape thanks to a teleport scroll. There’s no way I could have gotten out of there otherwise. I doubt any mage has fully explored those mountains yet."
Chief also gave Leon a rough idea of where the deep pit he had fallen into was located.
"Be careful. The distortion of magic flows isn’t the only danger there. Beasts reside in that place—ones that even advanced mages would struggle to handle."
Leon didn’t plan to head to Bferiet right away. There had to be a reason why no mage had completed a full exploration yet.
"At least I need to be at the mystic rank before I even consider going."
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[Growth Assistant]
▶ Name: Leon
▶ Rank: Advanced Special
▶ Magic Power Quality: D
▶ Attribute Compatibility: All attributes (Fire, Water, Wind, Earth, Wood, Lightning, Light, Darkness)
▶ Training (Complete)
▶ Artifact (Modified)
▶ Rank Advancement (Complete)
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▶ Rank advancement has increased the probability of receiving rewards.
▶ 2,000 hours of temporal crystal have been provided.
▶ Please select your additional rank advancement reward:
▶ Magic Book (B+ tier fire and wind combination magic 'Lava Storm') / Artifact (B+ tier mana assist crystal)
Leon chose the mana assist crystal as his reward for advancing his rank.
At one point, he had wanted multi-attribute magic, but now it seemed unnecessary. He already had a spell called Lava Fountain that combined fire, wind, and earth attributes.
The mana assist crystal could store an amount of mana equal to Leon’s current mana capacity. Just like with a memorize spell, he could pre-charge the crystal with mana and use it as his own.
Given that Leon struggled with the mana cost of his SSS-tier magic, the mana assist crystal was an extremely useful artifact.
As Leon returned to his training room to stabilize his advanced special rank, Arpina arrived with news.
"I’ve found a lead on the blood mages," she said, her expression far from cheerful. Rubbing her forehead as if recalling something troublesome, she continued, "We’ve dealt with all the beasts in the Valley of Souls. They’ll probably release more and manage them again, but it’ll take time to get back to previous levels."
Contrary to Leon’s expectations that the Astellia faction would lose control over the Valley of Souls after the council’s mages came through, it seemed Astellia would continue managing the area.
"As for the hideout where the blood mages were hiding... We didn’t find much of value. We only managed to capture a few of them," Arpina added.
"When I fought them, they seemed more like beasts than people. Did they retain any sense of reason?"
"They were mages who used blood as a sacrifice for their spells. Over time, living only on the blood of beasts eroded their sanity. The blood mage you dealt with was the one who had completely lost his mind. The ones with some sanity left had stayed hidden," Arpina explained.
She went on to describe how they extracted information from the captured mages. "There are artifacts that force the truth out of people."
Arpina explained that Astellia had several such valuable artifacts in its collection.
"They can pull information from a person’s subconscious. It’s one of the few priceless artifacts we keep carefully guarded in Astellia."
Leon was familiar with such artifacts. He had even seen the Mirror of Truth offered as a rank advancement reward once, though he chose a different reward.
‘If you’re ever suspected of being a spy, you’d have no choice but to spill everything.’
Leon realized once again how wise he had been to align himself with the Astellia faction. Otherwise, they might have captured him and forced every bit of information out of him—or he’d still be scrambling to hide his true abilities.
"From the information we gathered, it seems the blood mage organization is spread out in cells, each with its own mission. Their goal was to take full control of the Valley of Souls, but the side effects were too much, and they lost their minds in the process."
Arpina told Leon everything she knew.
"And we’ve discovered another hideout they were connected to. Since they’re organized in cells, it’ll be hard to get much more information by wiping them out, but..." She glanced at Leon.
"Want to check it out?"
Without hesitation, Leon answered, "I’ll go."
For Leon, it wasn’t the blood mage organization that interested him—it was the blood magic itself