Chapter 4

Ventex sat cross-legged on his bed. Everyone else in the house was asleep, but he stayed awake while examining the mysterious bead from inside the tree. Shortly after coming into contact with the orb, Ventex connected the dots between it and the discusion Dyon and Verline where having about a magician's exuberant spending. In all likelihood, Ventex had found a plant that magicians could eat, but he didn't know what kind of affect it would have.

In Ventex's previous life, there were no plants that contained large amounts of mana. Typically, besides humans, only magical beasts and monsters could hold mana. However, magical beast and monster flesh was poisonous, and the poison could even kill low ranking magicians. Ventex thought twice about eating a random piece of mana-infused wood.

The next morning, Ventex sat with Karugh and Yanette on the floor in the main room, and Lindette sat in her chair. Karugh and Yanette eagerly ate their bowls of praut, and Ventex watched the black orb float on the surface of a cup of water. He had not completely decided to eat it, but he wanted to try making it a little more edible than a hard sphere of wood.

"I'm going to stay home. I should be finished by the time you get back," Ventex said, taking his eyes off the orb and .

"Alright, but don't eat that. It can get stuck in your throat, and that would be very bad," Lindette said.

"Ha, I won't," Ventex laughed.

He felt it was funny, when Lindette tried to impart wisdom to him. If they compared their mental ages, Ventex exceeded Lindette by more than half a century. Although Lindette's worrying was unnecessary, Ventex gladly accepted it.

After Lindette, Karugh, and Yanette left the house, Ventex took his sword and the orb and carried them to the backyard. He stuck the sword in the ground, placed the orb between him and the sword, and sat with his back facing the house. A few minutes later, Ventex entered a perfect meditative state.

His mana channeling vortex remained the same as it was the day before, but his arcane core shuddered with every added mana fragment. Even the smallest addition was enough to make it rapidly fluctuate between a calm and a compacting state. At any second, the mana in the arcane core would finally reach a terminal mass, and the entire supply of it would empty and become the walls for his rank 13 arcane core.

Several minutes went by, and the status of the arcane core remained the same. With every additional mana fragment the mana channeling vortex brought into his arcane core, the present walls rippled, showing they were about to burst.

Then, as suddenly as Ventex knew it would happen, it did. The shakey walls of his arcane core exploded into a cloud of mana, which he needed to quickly wrestle under control. The mana technically still belonged to him, which gave him a degree of control over it. He used his mana sense to visualize where the cloud had expanded to, and he subsequently compacted the cloud into a sphere the same size as his previous arcane core.

Mana moved without mass, and it sculpted in direct accordance with Ventex's will. He carefully measured the density and thickness of the mana cloud and he formed an arcane core from it, and he made the walls of his arcane core completely smooth and even.

The slightest mistake could make his arcane core weak, making his next advancement less effective. From an early rank, magicians needed a stable foundation, or else their later ranks would be less powerful than other magicians. Ventex, who had mana sense and his experience from his previous life, tirelessly crafted himself the best possible foundation.

Advancing between magician or mage ranks was no easy task, but advancing through magus ranks was much harder. The complexity of a rank 13 arcane core far surpassed a rank 12 arcane core - fitting for their different levels of capabilities.

Advancement from rank 11 to rank 12 only required a few minutes, but advancement from rank 12 to rank 13 required hours of patience. At least two hours were needed for Ventex to complete the advancement, and less skilled magicians would need even longer.

Advancement could be done while not meticulously focusing on the new arcane core, but it certainly helped. Thankfully, Karugh and Yanette wouldn't be home for another few hours, and Randric and Lindette knew not to interrupt Ventex's meditation.

For the time it took Ventex to build his rank 13 arcane core, he would be unable to use spells. To minimize his period of vulnerability, Ventex needed to complete the advancement as quickly as possible, but he still needed to maintain a strong foundation for his future advancements.

Trillions of mana fragments circulated inside the mana cloud, and Ventex's will commanded each one of them. Mana, ordinarily wild and unpredictable, moved like a puppet at Ventex's fingers. Rank advancements were a trivial matter to a magician of his calibur, and he could afford to make special alterations to his arcane core that very few other magicians would be able to.

Once shape for his arcane core's walls were made, Ventex began spinning the still-volatile mana in a clockwise manner. He maintained the wall's impeccable surface and thickness, and the mana turned in a way reminiscent of the way his internal mana circulated when he opened his mana vortex.

By giving his arcane core's walls a clockwise rotation during the solidification stage of development, his rate of mana channeling would be increased. At the cost of a hugely increased difficulty when building the arcane core, Ventex secured himself a faster rate of advancement toward his next rank.

The arcane core's development finished as it hardened. Starting from the exterior of the arcane core, the walls hardened. Four layers of mana fragments constructed the walls, and close to one trillion mana fragments composed each layer. All of the mana fragments in each layer needed to compact simultaneously, and Ventex's will divided equally among them.

Slowly, Ventex finished the compacting process, and his arcane core finalized at the status of rank 13. With one thought, his empty arcane core began generating mana, and it only took five minutes to generate the mana required for his first rank 13 spell.

For the first magus spell of his new life, Ventex filled his palm with clear colored mana, then burst the spell onto his own head. Instantly, his brain filled with information about the layout of Millou and the surrounding lands, and it filed away the information as if it had always existed.

Ventex's mental map showed the location of every building and person in Millou, and it also showed where people were expected to have gone. Most villagers were either at their home or their work, and the mental map showed when Ventex had last seen them. The current mental map wouldn't update with any information that Ventex couldn't guess for himself, but higher ranking spell would be able to.

Lindette, Karugh, and Yanette were shown as being in the forest, but the mental map didn't show their exact position. Instead, by default, it showed their last known location. Then, by further inquiring the mental map, it showed where they were expected to have gone. Because Ventex went with them almost every morning, the predicted location was fairly accurate. Of course, if something happened he didn't know about, the prediction would be useless.

After casting his first spell, Ventex waited fifteen minutes before casting his second, third, and fourth spells. Again, clear mana filled his hand, forming a sphere. But, this time, he threw the spell ahead of him. It traveled a few feet, then shifted direction and flew around the side of the house, heading toward the forest. His next two spells did the same thing, and his mind filled with information when each of them hit their target.

He checked his mental map, again, the positions of Lindette, Karugh, and Yanette were updated to be their exact location. The tracking spell he just used would be effective for a long time, and it would let Ventex know where they were at all times. A few minutes later, Ventex threw the same spell towards where Randric worked, and it added him to the mental map.

As expected, Lindette, Karugh, and Yanette were in the forest, within the estimated location initially given to Ventex by his mental map. They were slowly moving within about fifteen feet of each other, with Karugh moving the fastest of them all. He took his job very seriously, in stark contrast to Yanette, who quickly forgot whatever tasks Lindette had set for her and opted instead to play around.

Ventex picked up his sword and the magical orb, which hadn't changed at all since he collected it from the tree. He placed his sword in its loop, the orb in his pocket, and started walking towards Lindette. Initially, he walked slowly. After five minutes, he had walked to an area where no villagers would see him, and he cast a spell on his body. Immediately after, he set off running, and each step pushed him forward by ten feet.

Rank 13 spells were capable of almost anything, and increasing his speed was a small matter. He could even increase his speed to a degree where wind resistance became an issue, but Ventex moved at a relatively slow, magically enhanced speed while maneuvering inside the forest that bordered Millou. A more efficient method of travel would've been to fly above the forest, but Ventex opted for the less conspicuous method.

In under ten minutes, Ventex arrived within sight of Lindette, and he removed the speed enhancement from his body. Lindette, Karugh, and Yanette were about two miles away from home, and Lindette's basket already contained a large amount of plants. To the left of Lindette, Karugh was pushing a thorn bush aside with a stick. Further ahead from Lindette, Yanette flapped two large leaves as if they were wings.

"Hey, it looks like you've already got a lot of stuff," Ventex said loudly to announce his sudden presence. Lindette and Karugh both turned to him, and Yanette briefly looked at him before resuming her play.

"Yeah, the euhain looked ripe, so I picked it. After we sell it, we can use the money to celebrate whatever you finished," Lindette said and stood. "So, how'd it go?"

"It's all finished," Ventex smiled and replied. He then waved his hand over the ground, releasing a green spell, causing four euhain plants to sprout and grow large leaves. The leaves could be picked and sold for one common each, and wild plants had between five or ten leaves. The plants Ventex grew each had a dozen leaves, with four layers of three leaves surrounding the stem.

Lindette hadn't been overly surprised by Ventex since he killed the magical beast in the deep forest with his magic, but his creation of the euhain plants caught her off guard.

"I don't know how many Dyon will buy. This much might be a little overboard," Ventex admitted, looking at the cluster of euhain. He only wanted to help his family make a lot of money, but then he thought about how much euhain the village could possibly use, or when the next caravan would arrive at Millou.

"No, no, this is fine," Lindette anxiously said, eyeing the plants. "What else can you make?"

"Well, anything really," Ventex said and shrugged. He cast another spell on the ground, and a small patch of shayron quickly grew. One lock could be sold for ten commons, and they could be kept for years in storage. The demand exceeded the supply, and the money to be made from them was almost endless.

Yanette witnessed Ventex's magic and shouted, "Ventex can do anything!"

"Ha, yeah," Ventex approved, and he formulated another spell. However, this time, the spell failed.

'Not enough mana,' he thought, immediately knowing the reason for failure.

"Well, almost anything."