Flower of Beginning

Raz had never heard of a Flower of Beginning, so he asked, "Father, what is a Flower of Beginning?"

Standing up to walk towards the lake, William explained, "A flower of beginning is a rare herb considered by the various master alchemists and potioneers as a B-rank rare plant that can greatly increase a Magus's magic circuits in terms of quality and quantity, which can greatly affect their future prospects. They appear very rarely due to the strict conditions to breed one, and a fully mature flower would have had to sit in something like this mana lake for over fifty years.

"However, the flower can only be eaten by a person before they've fully matured their magic circuits, or else it'll be completely useless. For example, if I ate it I would just be wasting an incredibly expensive herb, but if you ate it, your bright future would become even brighter.

"I never got such a luxury. In fact, even the Princes and Princesses of the Lionel royal family of the Iron Wolf Kingdom would be rather fortunate to have such a luxury. In reality, even though it is considered a B-rank herb. Money and status alone can't guarantee such an herb since such high-ranking plants that can help a developing Magus with their magic circuits come on sale once every decade.

"But look at you, my son! Blessed with perhaps the greatest talent our kingdom has seen, and now even the gods are favoring you with such fortune!"

By the time his father had finished the little rant, he had reached the center of the lake and dived down. A few bubbles surfaced before a sphere of water rose up from the lake alongside William. Inside the floating sphere was a neon baby blue flower in the water that sparkled and gave off a numbing cold.

With a raised eyebrow, William examined the plant still in the floated sphere of mana water as he murmured, "It seems this one isn't fully matured but close. However, it is still a rare herb that'll be greatly beneficial to you. It seems as if you'll have to eat it here, my son, as we have no way to preserve it while transporting it back to the manor."

With wet footsteps, William walked up to Raz while having some doubt as he asked, "Maybe we shouldn't… after all, I don't know how painful it'll be."

He started to develop some doubts as he didn't know whether consuming the herb would be painful or not, and thinking about his son in pain made him very apprehensive. As he knew the herb was meant to be eaten in its original form, but due to the rarity of the herb, he didn't have any references to the experience of people consuming it

What William didn't know was that his son had essentially overcome pain worse than hell in his previous life. Although Raz didn't know how bad the pain would be, he had no doubt that he had experienced worse.

Trying to put on a brave face was tough as a literal one-year-old, but he tried as he exclaimed, "Don't worry, Father! Your son won't shy away from a little pain if it makes me a stronger Magus!"

Hearing his son's resolve, William couldn't help heartily chuckle, "You truly deserve to tread the path of a Magus! Alright, Ed and I will be here just in case anything goes wrong If it starts to hurt, just let us know."

William gently grabbed the flower before handing it to Raz, saying, "Make sure you chew thoroughly ."

Using his chubby hands, Raz grabbed the flower that felt like ice and used both of his small hands to shove the flower into his mouth.

The moment he bit into the flower, an icy chill spread throughout his body like he had eaten a piece of chilling ice, which started to cause him to shiver.

Soon the icy feeling turned into a numbing pain as if he had submerged himself into an icy lake as he jittery muttered, "C-cold. I-It's so cold!"

A small ball of fire appeared next to his face by William, who appeared worried and tried to reassure Raz by saying, "Bear with it! It'll be over soon, and your prospects will be better! But if it's too much to handle, let Papa know."

In reality, Raz only feigned the reaction as though it was quite cold. Compared to the frigid ice plains he endured without any warm clothing in his previous life, it was truly too easy to ignore the feeling, which was actually quite enjoyable.

It was like taking an ice bath, but he assumed that those who ate the herb were usually children who probably could not bear the temperature.

While continuing to feign the pain, he inspected his body with his small amounts of qi and found that the blue substance coming from the flower seemed to be running alongside where his meridians would be as a cultivator.

Being able to see into his body, the blue substance seemed to be ice cold but stimulating his body for over ten minutes as the effect slowly started to fade away until it was gone completely, and Raz fell backward with sweat on his brow.

Reassuring his father, he gave a thumbs-up as William hoisted him up into his arms and exclaimed, "The rise of a new Magus has begun! Soon the Alden clan will be in its glory age as it's only a matter of time for you and me, plus with my father, then the Alden clan will have three Magus! Hahaha, other clans won't be able to touch us, let alone the elders!"

Ed seemed slightly concerned and pat William on the back as he observed, "Why don't we calm down, William, and wait for the reinforcements that old geezer sent us."

Coughing out of embarrassment, William replied, "Ahem, let us ascend."

Carrying Raz, William went back the way they came with Ed, albeit slower as they walked due to the exhaustion they had.

Ed looked at William, breathing harshly, and asked, "Mana deprivation?"

"Yeah, using that parchment took everything out of me and more," William sighed.

Soon the trio emerged from the tunnel entrance as the sun blinded their eyes until they readjusted slowly. Above in the distance was a figure that slowly approached the three of them.