Chapter 23. Life in the mountains, breakthrough to official magus rank.

A few weeks after Tirus faked his death,

In the county of the Duke Ryan.

There was an acolyte wearing a crimson robe standing in front of Duke Ryan.

"I am Duke Ryan, you can just call me Ryan. May I know this lord's name is?" Ryan inquired as he looked at the acolyte in front of him in shock.

"How did he get in here without anyone knowing? No…No, that's not relevant, I must be careful if I don't want to die!" He thought as beads of sweat dripped from his forehead.

"I am a member of the crimson bone academy, you may know me as the person who informed Duke Mason about the student selection." The acolyte introduced himself as he sat on a chair without even looking at Duke Ryan.

"Oh! Lord, then may I know what brings you here?" Ryan asked in confusion.

"I'm here to make a deal."

"I want that magical ring that you found a year ago!" The acolyte stated his demands.

"Lord, this…this!" Ryan had a complicated expression on his face, "How does he know about that?"

The ring that this magi was demanding was something that he, Ryan, got out of pure luck. Although it was in bad shape and couldn't be used by him, he could still follow Duke Mason's example to bribe a member of the crimson bone academy if needed.

But now he had to give to away for free, how could his heart not ache?

"Don't worry, I'll pay an appropriate prize."

"You see, Duke Mason's son Tirus Van Elrod has died on a mission, it's not something I made up, it's true. However it's doesn't matter who knows about it or not, at least, not in the academy. However what if this news were to spread among the nobles of this kingdom?" The acolyte looked at Duke Ryan with a grin on his face.

"Then…it will greatly damage the Elrod family! Lord is wise, lord is wise!" Ryan knelt down in admiration as he came to this realization.

"Finally! I'll be able to annex the Elrod estate before I die." He thought, trembling in excitement.

As for why the acolyte was willing to do this to the Elrod estate? The answer was simple, he could no longer gain more benefits from the now declining Elrod estate, but if he made a deal with duke Ryan, then he could not only get a magical treasure, he would also be able to make a connection with a stronger duke's family, although most connections from ordinary human's families didn't mean much to him, but who knew if he could still get a few broken magical treasures from them?

....

In the Elrod estate,

In the main hall, Duke Mason looked at the acolyte in horror.

"What the…l…" he paused, took a breath and continued "Lord acolyte, did my son, Tirus, really die?" He asked the acolyte in front of him. This was the acolyte who had come to him in the past to inform him about crimson bone academy selecting students.

Although Duke Mason knew that the acolyte had no reason to give him false information, but he hoped with all his heart that this wasn't true.

"No, your son, Tirus Van Elrod, died during a mission along with two more acolytes." The acolyte's cold words, to the duke, were like daggers stabbed into his heart.

"….lord acolyte, did…did they find his body?" Duke Mason asked with a sorrowful expression, he just felt that he needed to know this.

"No, they couldn't find a full body, just a hand that had been charred, severed right hand and nothing else."

"I see." The duke took a deep breath and said, "I understand, lord acolyte." He bowed his head as the acolyte turned around and left.

"…."

After a moment of silence, the duke thought, "Why did he die? Wasn't he a genius? What will happen to our estate now?!"

Soon, the news of his son's death spread among the nobles like wildfire.

Days passed and Elrod estate's situation continued to get worse.

.....

A year later,

In a forest far away from any human settlement,

On a mountain,

There was a young man who looked to be around the age of 16 years, currently, he was skinning a wild boar to prepare a sumptuous meal for himself.

This young man was Tirus, who now had dark brown hair and eyes due to the high-grade meditation technique he cultivated.

All meditation techniques had some kind of extra effects on the practitioner. He cultivated a technique which mainly focused on the dark element and thus, his hair and eyes color were slowly turning black because of it.

After he completed the skinning process, he drew out all the blood and threw away the unnecessary internal organs and used the fire elemental particles to fry it immediately.

Soon, he ate all the meat and rested on his bed, which was made up of huge tree leaves.

"It has been nearly a year since I came to this mountain."

"A.I. chip, show me my current stats!" Tirus ordered the A.I. chip.

[Name: Tirus Van Elrod, Occupation: grand knight, rank 3 acolyte, strength: 6.2, agility: 8.4, vitality: 7.3 spiritual force: 13.9 (magic power is in sync with spiritual force) status: Healthy]

"Hm, my spiritual force has made great progress in terms of quantity and quality, I didn't even have to consume all of the 5 Tears of Mary that I refined, the high-grade meditation technique is definitely something else!" He thought, twirling his now dark brown hair.

"Once I break through to the official magus rank, the first level of the meditation technique will reach its completion, completely turning my hair black… I'm looking forward to it!" He murmured.

"Haah. I should become a peak rank 3 acolyte within 2 or 3 months if I were to consume the potions." He thought while heaving a sigh of relief as he made himself comfortable on his bed and entered a deep slumber.

Although he only had 3 vials of Tears of Mary left, they were more than enough for now, and if they weren't, then he could always refine more.

Days passed, Tirus had completed reading all the books he got from the inheritance.

.....

Time quickly passed by and he soon reached the peak of rank 3 acolyte.

In the evening, inside the underground cave.

"A.I. chip, show me my current stats!"

[Name: Tirus Van Elrod, Occupation: grand knight, rank 3 acolyte, strength: 6.2 agility: 8.4, vitality: 7.2 spiritual force: 15.2 (magic power is in sync with spiritual force) status: Healthy]

"Finally, I've become a peak rank 3 acolyte!" He thought exuberantly.

He had reached the peak of this rank a few days ago, but he thought that his mind should be in its best condition before attempting to break through.

He sat cross-legged while holding a vial filled with pink liquid inside. It was the ancient potion, Thamion's essence. This ancient potion could increase one's chance of a successful breakthrough to official magus rank by 40%, but the best thing about it was that it had no side effects! If even the smallest information about this potion were to get out, then it would definitely cause a bloodbath throughout the entire south coast.

Normally, when an acolyte used a potion to break through to official magus rank, there would be some side effects, for example when one used grime water, their future potential would permanently be limited, and they'd never be able to break through to rank 3.

But Thamion's essence was different, not only did it increase the chance of a successful breakthrough, it also didn't have any side effects. For many, it was simply too good to be true. Though the increase in the chance of a successful breakthrough was undoubtedly lower than what grime water could provide, the fact that it didn't have any side effects made this potion priceless.

The requirement for an acolyte to be able to advance is a spiritual force of 15, a high-grade meditation technique and a rank 1 spell model. 

He already had a high-grade meditation technique and a rank 1 spell model, as well as a spiritual force of 15.

His first innate spell, according to his high-grade meditation technique was going to be a defensive one.

Shadow Cystal Shield. Its effects were that after a magus cast this spell, their entire body could be covered by a semi-transparent crystal shield for the next 20 minutes, and they would be immune to the attacks that have a destructive force of less than 30 degrees. It had excellent defensive capabilities. It's spiritual force consumption rate was 10 units every use. But if Tirus were to use this spell to construct his innate spell model, then he would only have to spend 1/10th of this spiritual force consumption rate.

Without further ado, he opened the vial and drank the ancient potion in one gulp. A rosy scent filled his mouth, he immediately felt refreshed as large amount of negative energy particles surrounded him, like a dark cloud.

Tirus closed his eyes and started breathing in a certain rhythm as he inhaled the negative energy particles.

Soon, he found himself in a dark place, he had completely forgotten who he was, and where he was.

Suddenly, dark flames enveloped everything around him and he himself became the source of the darkness.

.....

The underground cave started glowing in a dark and occasionally red colors. All the wild beasts on the mountains started dying one after another due to the radiation, trees withered, the soil around the cave started turning black, and water evaporated due to the heat.

This whole process continued for the next 9 hours,

Next morning,

[Beep! There is a significant increase in host's spiritual force's quantity and quality]

[The A.I. chip is being upgraded

10%….

30%….

70%….

80….

99%….

100%]

[A.I. chip has been successfully upgraded]

[First level of the high-grade meditation technique 'record of the nameless wanderer' has reached completion]

[There is a significant increase in all of host's stats]

[Host has broken through and become a rank 1 official magus]

Tirus opened his eyes and immediately ordered The A.I. chip.

"A.I. chip, show me my current stats!"

[Name: Tirus Van Elrod, Occupation: rank 1 magus, strength: 6.2 agility: 8.6, vitality: 9.2 spiritual force: 27.3 (magic power is in sync with spiritual force) status: Healthy, Elemental essence conversion rate: 0%]

"Such a high-increase in spiritual force! And…my vitality also increased. The breakthrough was successful!" He shouted in glee, but he soon calmed down, and looked at his hair. "They have turned black." He thought, then took his things and exited the cave.

"Oh, well, I knew something like this would happen, and I doubt anyone would come to investigate but still, better be safe than sorry." He already knew that something like this would happen, that's also one of the reasons why he chose this secluded place to make a breakthrough.

He snapped his fingers as he used a secret technique to completely cleanse the residual radiation in the surroundings.

This was one of the two secret techniques that he got in the inheritance, the other technique being a spiritual force concealment method, it could be used by a magus to cleanse the residue of their radiation in a targeted area. But it could only be used to cleanse only their radiation's residue.

After a few seconds, even though the damage was done, the residual radiation from the surroundings was fully cleansed.

"Okay, now, To the magus city Lonburg." Black light covered his entire body as he flew at full speed.

To be continued….