18 Ch18.Time to leave.

Four years have passed since I started selling my beer, at first it was quite tough acquiring all the ingredients and tools in order to create enough beer to actually start making money. After a few months of hard work I managed to earn enough to actually buy my abandoned house, after that I spent quite a bit over the next few months, doing various modifications and turning it into a semi-brewery.

I have basically perfected my two beers, I didn't create any new types of beer, as that would take too much time and I already had too many things I needed to do. Other than creating my brewery I also had to acquire different suppliers that would sell me ingredients in bulk at a better price.

After about 6 months, I could no longer do everything by myself, so I started hiring helpers. I first hired people to handle stock acquisition, transportation of all ingredients and then basic processing of the various ingredients. As time went on I started hiring more people for different positions, until there wasn't much left for me to do.

I only hired people from the slum areas since I could pay them less and they were harder working than people in a more privileged position. In order to assure a greater work ethic, I have been trying to implement a few ideas from my previous world, even though I don't know much about this aspect, I just implemented a few ideas that were used in the companies I worked at in my old world.

I promised them as long as they did their job I would give them a bonus at the end of each year. I also said that based on the output and profit I make, I will also increase their pay every year too. This has proved to be very effective and has helped tremendously in making me more money.

In my first year I just focused on getting everything set up, I read a lot of books related to business and the various related workings. After I had everything sorted, I branched out and started supplying all the bars and restaurants in Stratos town. It was quite hard to get them to agree to buy my alcohol but after consistent hounding and using various schemes they all eventually agreed.

It took me about one and a half years to get everything automated, getting people to basically run my brewery for me. After that, all I had to do was sit back and the money just rolled straight into my pocket!

Now just because I was sorting out my business and making money doesn't mean I forgot about the more important aspects, such as exercising and you know MAGIC!

After seeing Toim use magic, I had to consistently hound him for over a month before he agreed to speak to me about it.

From what he said, he is actually just an ordinary mage and that there is an uncountable amount of people like him, he is a Circle 1 Mage. From what I gathered about how the system of magic works, there are nine official levels in magic and only rumors about a further three levels.

Let me give you a basic summary of what I know, the Symbols I have been using are actually called 'Runes' and there is an unbelievable amount of them, it is believed that there is a Rune for everything in the world and that Runes can accomplish everything imaginable, each Rune has a different meaning and function as well as there being numerous variations to every Rune.

Runes can be linked to others and when a maximum of twelve Runes are linked together they form a circle, after forming a Circle, a Mage becomes an Official Circle 1 Mage. The amount of Runes used to form your Circle, represents your talent in Magic and your potential to create more Circles.

Only after Completing your first Circle, can you start on the next one. After forming each circle, your Magical Energy undergoes certain changes, therefore after forming one Circle the next one is always harder. There are a lot of specifics Toim does not know about, so he cant explain the changes Magical Energy goes through after each Circle or why it does so.

Mages are ranked based on the amount of Circles they have completed, for example a Circle 1-3 Mage is generally a Beginner Mage and most people are able to reach these ranks with enough time and dedication, it becomes much harder after that.

The reason Mages form and store Runes internally is because after they have an internal Rune, they are then able to use their Magical Energy to automatically form that Rune, thus casting Magic. After forming one or more Circles, the Mage can even bring out the different Circles, combining them in various ways to form more advanced magic.

Now just because you don't have a specific Rune formed doesn't mean that you can't use it, it will just take you longer to use those Runes, as you will have to control your Magical energy in a very delicate and specific manner to form those Runes. This method is not advised as even the smallest change to a Rune can completely change its meaning and therefore change the Magic you are about to cast.

After getting these details from Toim, I begged him to teach me all the Runes he knows, but was met with a very blunt rejection. After further months of constantly begging him, he relented to teach me only one Rune. He agreed to teach me the most basic and fundamental rune in Magic. This Rune is basically required in every Circle you form, the 'Energy Gathering' Rune, it is used to increase the amount of magic you can gather and then store, thus allowing you to improve faster and form more Runes. It is also used to recover Magical Energy in a more efficient manner.

After he showed me the Rune, he taught me how to form it and absorb it into your body, this is where I was confused, as I always just Internally formed my Runes in specific parts of my body.

What you are supposed to do, is to use your Magical Energy to perfectly form the Rune in front of your body, then when you are happy with it, you re-absorb your Magical Energy containing that Rune. Once the Rune enters your body it will then find the ideal location in your body and permanently solidify there.

Here comes the depressing part… I cant externalize Magic Runes, it is probably due to the 'experiment' I did to this body, or the fact that I have already internally created Runes, I can no longer form a Rune outside of my body…

This gave me quite the shock!! I thought I was creating a 'perfect body' and that it would grant me a great advantage in this world! Unfortunately I just ended up basically crippling myself. This realization nearly crushed me!

After a few weeks of constant practice and trying to find a workaround to my situation, I realized that I could still internally create Runes, I just need more detailed information and I can't afford to screw up the creation process, as it will cause a certain amount of damage to my body.

There are also certain benefits to Internally creating Runes, firstly since I created them internally they aren't affected by any outside elements, they therefore have a more intimate and personal relationship with me, thus improving their performance and energy efficiency.

I am not sure if there are any other benefits, but I will definitely not give up and continue pursuing this path.

After realizing that, I hounded Toim for more information, such as the specific location that rune took in his body as well as asking him to form it for me, so that I could create a 3D mold of the Rune. I used this to thoroughly study it with my 'Greater Comprehension' Rune active.

After some trial and error I successfully created the 'Energy Gathering' Rune in my upper spine, just below my neck. This confirmed that I can still practice Magic, It will just require a much harder process than others, but with my 'Greater Comprehension' Rune I think I will somehow manage as long as I can get into a Magic Academy.

Ahh yes, this is the most important discovery I have made, there are various Cities located in this country called 'Academy Cities'. These cities hold a ceremony every year. In this Ceremony, the various Academies from all over the Country will send over their representatives who will then each hold a test for potential students.

If a Student passes the test they will be accepted into that academy, therefore gaining the right to travel back with the representatives and learn Magic from their respective schools.

There are hundreds of different Academies in the various Cities across this country and the competition to enter a good Academy is very intense, therefore the Academy ranking system was created, there are 6 tiers of academies, ranging from 1-Star to 6-Star. An Academy can gain a Star based on the performance of their students and the success of graduates, they can also lose a Star if their students performance is bad. This is a very complex system and Toim doesn't really understand much more than this.

To get accepted into an academy you have to meet certain conditions, only kids at 10 years old are allowed to participate in the entrance tests, and you only get one chance taking a test of a specific academy, if you fail you will never be accepted into that Academy, you can; however try taking the test of another academy and try your luck.

The tests are conducted over one month at the end of every year. The next round of tests are starting in about 3 months time so I will be leaving this Town soon so that I make it in time.

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