15 Chapter 13: Breakthrough and spells

Returning back to his manor, it was already the beginning of the evening.

Arthur was already waiting for him with several rings in his hands near the table with dinner when Theo entered his manor.

"What is that?" asked Theo, sitting in the chair and beginning eating his dinner.

Arthur that was standing nearby, and that was watching after Theo in case he needed anything was quick to react.

"These are the congratulatory gifts for young master's body recovery from the heads of the Roland and Aus families. There are a lot of useful potions and other resources that can help you both in magic and battle-energy training."

Theo nodded and took those 2 space rings before sending them to his own space ring and continuing eating.

A half an hour later, Theo finished the dinner, sent Arthur away, and moved to the meditation room.

***

Sitting in the lotus position, Theo drank several potions that increased mana gathering, before closing his eyes and concentrating on the mana gathering process.

Immersing in training, the time seemed to go faster while the half-filled mana heart in his body began gathering mana.

Several hours later Theo finished filling 3/4 of his mana heart with mana. He didn't stop on that and continued to slowly increase the mana in his mana heart without paying any attention to the time.

Soon, when he finally finished mana gathering and filled his mana heart, weak magical vibes began coming from his body.

The accumulated mana that he gathered, attacked his mana heart, affecting it, and breaking throughout to the other parts of the body in the process.

Theo began shivering when mana went out of his mana heart, and huge pain appeared in the kidney area of his body, but he could only grit his teeth, and continue trying to give a direction for the mana.

The mana that appeared from the mana heart began moving in different directions, affecting and adjusting his body parts in the process. Though it was painful, Theo bore the pain and concentrated on his goal to give a direction to all that mana, so that it affected his body in a balanced way.

Several moments were enough for mana to quickly pass through every part of his body, disappearing in certain body areas, adjusting and blessing it for magic use in the process.

Only half an hour later when the amount of mana that was circulating in his body decreased significantly, and his mana heart finished changing, becoming bigger and stronger, the mana in his body began slowly returning back to the place from which it escaped.

A short time later, all the mana disappeared in his mana heart, his body finished adjusting, and he successfully became the 2nd rank adept!

Though Theo was already tired, he had more things to do yet while it was still easy to impact on his body, and it hasn't recovered from the breakthrough yet, so the 1st thing he did was drinking another mana recovery potion before closing eyes again.

A short time later when he finished filling 1/4 of his mana heart, he allowed a small portion of his mana to exit his mana heart, letting it move across his body. Unlike before during the breakthrough when there was so much mana in his body, and when he could only give an overall direction to it, now he was controlling that mana, moving it to the areas that were weakly affected by mana adjusting.

After the disappearance of the portion of the mana in the new body area, Theo began the process again, releasing another portion of his controlled mana to travel across his body.

The same procedure continued for several hours, and after the nth time, his consciousness began weakening due to mental exhaustion, so, understanding that he reached his current limit, Theo stood up and left the meditation room.

Leaving the room, Theo felt both mental and physical exhaustion while he was moving to the chambers.

***

At the same time as Theo was undergoing the breakthrough, in the distant unknown place near the border between Griffon kingdom and one of the Trade Union's vassals, there was a unique place below the surface, where an altar was surrounded by many columns. There were several huge inactive golems, standing in that hall.

A moment later, an artifact in the center of the altar began covering in different incantations, while a unique magic vibe began appearing from it.

The hall trembled, light stones activated, illuminating the darkness, and soon small flames appeared in the eyes of the huge golems that were guarding the hall, the moment later they turned their heads towards the altar.

With each passing moment, more and more golems and other structures began showing traits of awakening, and groups of smaller golems began appearing in the hall around the altar. They were entering into the battle regime and forming a battle formation around the altar while a magic shield appeared behind them around the altar.

The hall became silent while all the golems turned in the direction of the entrance as if they were expecting a company.

However, moments later, the artifact stopped shivering while the incantations began darkening. Several moments were enough for the artifact to return to the condition in which it was before. As if feeling that change, all the golems outside of the magic shield lost interest in anything that was happening on the altar and the hall itself, and they began leaving the hall, returning to their initial positions while the hall itself and other structures stopped changing, and soon even light stones deactivated again, returning the darkness back this place.

Only the huge golems were still looking at the altar, but soon they also lost any interest when a magic shield disappeared, so they adjusted their heads to the initial position, and empty darkness appeared in their eyes.

***

Waking up, it was already the middle of the afternoon, Theo quickly stretched his body, checking his feelings after the breakthrough, before beginning circulating his mana across his body, using one of the methods Nolan gave to his students.

Several moments later, the mana began circulating across his body, and he felt how a certain strength was moving inside him.

Smiling to himself, Theo took a sheet of paper, he got from Nolan before looking at the different basic spells.

Though he knew most of them, he chose those spells that would be useful and would help him to get used to his small 12-years body. There were many different spells from all elemental forces and even some basic spells from several attributes.

Pondering a bit over those spells and thinking about his future magic path, Theo smiled when he made a decision that he didn't make in his past life.

In fact, Theo had a huge affinity to fire element as a descendent of the Freinos family that were usually talented in that aspect, he also had a small affinity to water element thanks to his mother, and no affinity to other elements. Back in his previous life, he was too lazy in the young years and never improved his water elemental affinity, he enjoyed being a strong fire mage, and then only after he found a "Space Ruler", and began becoming stronger, he regretted not improving his water affinity to make it as strong as his fire affinity. If only he made some efforts and found affinity improving resources to create a balance between fire and water, he could have become a dual-elemental mage and might have had enough strength to escape when he was accused by Council.

Sighing after remembering some unpleasant memories, Theo made a decision with a resolution visible in his eyes. Following Nolan's advice and his own judgment, he began choosing his 1st 5 spells. He looked at every spell on the sheet and even memorized other basic spells he knew, beginning from the fire element, and finishing with the earth element, but his main focus was on the fire and water-orientated spells.

A half an hour later, Theo finished choosing his spells, and since he knew their spell structure and mana words they consisted of, he moved to the garden to practice on the open space.

Standing on the green grass, Theo silently chanted a defensive spell called "Earth shield", making an earth wall appear in front of him. That earth wall that could easily block several basic spells would be his training target to practice on.

Releasing a short sigh, Theo jumped and began moving around some distance away from his target, casting the spell in the process. He continued to jump and move as if he was evading from the arrows and other spells on the battlefield without stopping his casting even for a moment.

A moment later a fireball appeared on one of his hands, he didn't stop to attack but continued to cast another spell with a fireball in his hand. Several moments later when he has already passed half the distance between him and the target a long, thick, icicle of ice, resembling an arrow appeared on his left hand.

Now when both of his spells were ready, and he was not so far from his target, he unleashed both the fire and water at the wall.

Moments later, both spells hit the wall, the wall was 1 meter in width and could have easily blocked those 2 spells if they were chanted alone, but now when they hit the wall almost at the same time, the damaging effect was much bigger and soon when "Ice arrow" disappeared, after passing half of the wall, the "Fireball" finished the job, by breaking through the rest of the wall and dispelling a bit further behind the wreckages of the wall.

Theo smiled when his wall broke apart, finishing with the battle-orientated spells, he chanted a spell called "Moisture", covering his body and clothes with a thin layer of moisture. Such spell could be used to survive in a desert, or as access to the freshwater because that thin layer could be controlled and moved to some distance from the caster.

Theo enjoyed the chilling feeling for some time before a wind didn't make him shiver, so he chanted another spell called "Fire dust" that created small fire particles around the caster, a moment later a thin layer of water disappeared while he and his clothes dried up.

Finishing chanting his 1st 5 spells, Theo knew that he had to train and get used to the new feelings in his current body, so he smiled when he left his manor, moving in the direction of the guardian knights training grounds where he will find an ideal place for him to train and get used to his new spells.

***

The Magic ground was different than a Physical training ground. There were almost no big open spaces, all the territory of the Magic ground was taken by the different buildings and structures that their own designations. Besides, this training ground had a time limit, anyone who wanted to train here could do that during a certain period of time in a certain building in an exchange for merit points. So, even the people here were different than people in other places. There were almost no chats, laughs, or other similar activities, it was quite silent here while all the people that Theo met threw a quick glance at him before rushing to do their own business,

Theo had a nostalgic smile when he was passing and looking at such familiar places and reactions. Back in his previous life, he usually trained here and got used to the local atmosphere. It was one of the places where he could enjoy silence and peace.

Passing through several more buildings, Theo stopped in front of the big structure in the center of the Magic training ground. The "Adept trials" was written above the entrance to the building. There were also many young boys and girls, standing on the small square in front of the entrance and watching into the magic projection. Inside the projection, there was a boy that was currently passing through the magic obstacle course, he was running and evading from any obstacles, chanting spells in the process from time to time. However, several moments later, he got hit by several attacks from illusionary enemies, and projection darkened. A moment later, the same boy appeared from the entrance to the building while a man in a mage's robe patted him on the shoulder, before letting another student enter the building.

Theo knew about the statuses of these children. He knew that these young boys and girls were the magically talented group of chosen children as prospect mages of Freinos family. It was a rare occurrence for them when they were allowed to train in the Magic training ground, so Theo decided not to spoil their experience and wait a bit till they finish and leave. Besides, he was also a bit curious to watch after the actions and results of his family's prospect mages.

While Theo quickly found a place for himself to watch after the projection not far from the group of children, a man in mage's robe has long ago noticed him, and wanted to invite him to pass the trial, but stopped when Theo turned to look at the new projection of the new student. It became clear that he didn't want to use his status, so he just returned to his initial position to his other colleague to watch after the projection of the trial.