ã€ŠWitch of Darknessã€‹


 1 : Beatrice

    Looking at the large line of young people in front of her, Beatrice couldn''t help but sigh.

    ¡°This is going to take a long time,¡± thought Beatrice as she watched the line slowly move.

    Over two hours later,

    Walking up to the young man that was sitting on a comfortable chair, Beatrice couldn''t help but be irritable, having waited for so long.

    ¡°Place your hand on the orb¡±

    As the young man said that, an orb suddenly floated over from the table and in front of Beatrice.

    Without hesitating, Beatrice placed her hand on the orb, and after a few moments of silence, a loud sound suddenly emerged from it, as the orb lit up.

    Two years later,

    Sitting cross-legged, Beatrice''s mind began to wander, her eyes remaining closed, but even so, Beatrice could not find what she was looking for, similar to what had happened for these past two years.

    Suddenly, the door to the luxurious room Beatrice was staying in was opened, as a relatively old man dressed in a black suit walked in.

    ¡°Miss Beatrice, as your father has said, using the Mage''s meditation technique in this place has nearly no effect, you should at least socialize with your peers,¡± said the old man, William.

    ¡°My peers, that group of foolish rabble?¡± asked Beatrice as she looked at William, but even though she was angry, looking at the butler who had helped raise her, Beatrice became a little less harsh.

    ¡°Since I have completed the three hours of training permitted by the Breathing Technique and the medicinal bath, is there anything more efficient than practicing the meditation technique,¡± asked the girl with pure white hair as she looked at her butler.

    ¡°No, miss Beatrice,¡± said William as he slightly bowed.

    ¡°See, then go ahead and call the maids here, I need to take a bath after this,¡± said Beatrice as she smiled at her butler.

    ¡°Yes, miss Beatrice,¡± said William before walking out of the room.

    Looking at the nearly empty room before her, the smile on Beatrice''s face became slightly larger

    ¡°Only a few more days,¡± mumbled Beatrice as she silently remembered the time two years ago when she, alongside hundreds of other children of nobility, had been tested in regard for their talent to becoming a mage.

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    Ever since then, Beatrice had awaited the day she would become a mage with anticipation she has not had for anything else in her entire life.

    As such, for the past two years, Beatrice had thoroughly studied the basic meditation technique she had obtained from the mage that had tested her magic talent zealously.

    But sadly, as William had just said, because of the extremely pitiful amount of elemental energy in her surroundings, she had not made much progress.

    After staying in her room for a few more moments, two maids walked in.

    ¡°Alicia, you go prepare the bath, while Alice can follow me,¡± said Beatrice, as she walked out of the room, making sure her complicated dress did not touch the ground.

    Walking for a bit, Beatrice reached a more secluded area of the castle, compared to the main estate, this area was much less decorated, and even the color scheme slowly shifted.

    As she walked through the estate, Beatrice''s eyes unconsciously went to her maid before narrowing and returning to normal a few moments later.

    Soon after, Beatrice walked to a flight of stairs, and the bottom of the stairs lay two guards.

    As soon as the two guards guarding the stairs saw Beatrice, they immediately made way for her, letting her go down to the lowest level of the dungeon, at the same time, the maid remained outside the dungeon.

    Unlike the other floors of the dungeon, this one was completely separate, being created at the request of Beatrice around one and a half years ago, not long after she had her talent tested.

    The moment she entered the dungeon, Beatrice traveled to a particular side room before skillfully changing from her complicated dress into a robe specially prepared for this.

    Soon after Beatrice left the side room, a guard with his face hidden by a mask approached her.

    ¡°Has the subject been prepared?¡± asked Beatrice as she looked at the guard.

    Unlike the other guards in the castle, upon the gaze of Beatrice, the guards of this dungeon did not even dare raise their eyes.

    ¡°Yes miss Beatrice,¡± said the guard before following Beatrice, who was now walking to the main room of the dungeon.

    At the center of the room stood a table, and on that table stood a young boy, who right now, seemed to be completely sleeping.

    ¡°The legs are all that remain to be tested, even though it''s not likely, you can never be sure,¡± mumbled Beatrice before walking towards the boy with a set of surgical tools in her hands, the tools having been specially sterilized for this job.

    ¡­

    ¡°It''s as expected, those that have the talent to become a mage have no apparent physical difference from normal people, further testing is required on the matter once I learn magic, but until further notice, I can assume that the information given to me by that mage is valid,¡± thought Beatrice as she finished writing her journal of the day, having taken a bath just before.

    Suddenly, Beatrice felt an extremely faint smell.

    ¡°Alicia, prepare another bath for me,¡± said Beatrice, her voice becoming slightly cold as she felt the faint smell of blood emanating from her body.

    Without any words, Alicia walked out of the room, to prepare Beatrice''s bath.

    After this, Beatrice walked out of her room, followed by the other maid.

    ¡°It''s really quite impressive,¡± mumbled Beatrice as she looked at her maid.

    ¡°Miss Beatrice?¡± asked the maid.

    But before the maid could say anything else, she suddenly lost consciousness.

    ¡°How did you even manage to sneak into this place with your skill, my maids do not talk to me unless specifically asked,¡± said Beatrice as two guards suddenly appeared and picked up the fainted assassin.

    ¡°Send her to my floor of the dungeon,¡± said Beatrice, causing the guards to flinch for a moment.

    ¡°Yes miss Beatrice,¡± said the Guards before carrying the assassin, off the ground, as to not dirty the floor, nobody makes a mistake in front of Miss Beatrice three times, the last time they dirtied the floor was deeply imprinted into their mind.

 2 : Beginnings

    Feeling Alicia wash her body, Beatrice couldn''t help but smile and close her eyes.

    "Wash this spot," said Beatrice as she pointed to a place on her left hand, where some parts of her experimental subject had landed, this was the spot Alicia failed to clean Beatrice properly before.

    Without saying anything, Alicia began once again gently cleaning Beatrice''s pale hands, as if scared to damage them.

    Suddenly, a knock on the door of the bath was heard.

    "Enter," said Beatrice before another one of her maids entered the baths.

    "Prepare me one of the black ones," said Beatrice before the maid even asked, causing the latter to exit the baths as quickly as she entered them.

    "You should be more careful, don''t make such a mistake next time Alicia, you are the only one who can wash me properly," said Beatrice, as she moved her hand, touching Alicia''s face with the back of her hand.

    Feeling the hand of the young miss, Alicia''s face couldn''t help but blush, but even so, she continued to honestly clean Beatrice with a blush on her face, the latter to chuckle.

    ...

    Feeling the complicated dress tightly wrapped around her body, especially her chest, Beatrice could feel it was a little too tight, but even so, she could not be bothered to change into another one, as that would take too much time.

    "Increase the size of the dresses by one," said Beatrice as she walked out of the room, leaving the room followed by Alicia, leaving the other maid alone.

    After walking for a while, Beatrice arrived at a large ornate door, with two guards on either side, and as soon as the two guards saw Beatrice, they immediately made way and allowed her to enter, bowing as their young miss passed by.

    Not doing anything, Alicia then stood at the door, alongside the two guards, and began waiting for her young miss to finish eating.

    Without saying anything, Beatrice walked up to her specially prepared chair on the long table.

    "Mother, how was your day?" asked Beatrice as she looked at her mother with a rarely seen smile on her face.

    "Very good, things are going well," said Iris as she looked at her now fifteen-year-old daughter with a smile on her face.

    After this, Beatrice did not say anything else, merely looking at her father and two-year-old brother with a slight smile on her face.

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    As she took a small bite of the meat on her plate, a surprised expression appeared on Beatrice''s face, and after gracefully eating the rest of the meat, Beatrice asked a question.

    "Father, did you hire a new chef?" asked Beatrice as she remembered the extremely tender and juicy meat she had just eaten.

    "Yes, so I see you like his cooking," said Renald as he took a bite of the meat himself before frowning.

    "If it''s to your taste, I can have him make your meals," said Renald as he wondered why the meat tasted slightly worse than usual.

    "No, no, I want to ask him something about the food," said Beatrice as she let out a gentle smile.

    After this small discussion, the meal continued.

    Looking at her daughter, who was eating with a smile on her face, Iris couldn''t help but take in a deep breath.

    "You don''t have to keep the smile up," said Iris, looking at her daughter, who, for some reason, no longer smiled after becoming three old years old.

    Back then, upon noticing this, both Iris and her husband, had brought the best doctors from the entirety of the Lyon kingdom to check on her.

    But none of the doctors could find anything wrong with their daughter, as such, they could not do anything, only have her and her Husband smile more around their daughter, to hopefully make her more likely to smile.

    Somehow, this somewhat worked, but sadly, Beatrice only really smiled when her experiments were a success or when she became stronger.

    Suddenly, the temperature in the room slightly fell, as the smile on Beatrice''s face disappeared

    "Thank you mother," said Beatrice, causing Iris to smile.

    Even though no smile could be seen on Beatrice''s face, Iris could see the love hidden deep inside of her daughter.

    She knew, that even though Beatrice tried to hide it, she loved her family.

    After a few more moments, Renald couldn''t help but ask a question.

    "Have you prepared everything you need for your journey?" asked Renald as he looked at his daughter.

    "Yes, everything I need is ready, and if something''s missing, I will get it in the capital," said Beatrice as she couldn''t help but look at her little brother in the corner of her eyes.

    Suddenly, tears seemed to begin forming in the corner of little Frederick''s eyes, causing Beatrice to frown before letting out a smile.

    Seeing the smile on Beatrice''s face, the tears in the corners of Frederick''s eyes disappeared, but even so, Iris was not happy.

    Suddenly, Iris knocked thrice on the table, causing a door to the room to open, allowing an old maid to walk in.

    "Elizabeth, take Frederick to his room," said Iris, causing the old maid to walk next to the young child.

    "Young master, will you come with me?" said Elizabeth, prompting Frederick to climb in the arms of the old maid.

    Moments later,

    Looking at the back of the old maid, memories from his childhood couldn''t help but appear in the mind of Renald.

    "How is Alicia?" asked Renald as he turned his head to his daughter.

    "She''s young but quite good," said Beatrice as she took a bite out of her food, causing Renald to smile.

    ...

    "Miss Beatrice, tomorrow morning you need to begin your journey to the capital," said an old maid as she followed Beatrice around.

    "I know Elizabeth, you don''t need to remind me anymore," said Beatrice before taking a good look at the maid behind her.

    Looking at the gray hairs that appeared on Elizabeth''s head in the past few years, Beatrice sighed.

    "You should leave some more tasks to your granddaughter, Alicia is already qualified you should rest a bit more," said Beatrice before entering her room.

 3 : Trip

    As he watched the relatively short white-haired girl approach the carriage, George felt sweat appear on the back of his head.

    This, of course, was something that all those serving on the Agnes estate felt, except for the head maid and butler.

    But even so, George still respectfully opened the door to the luxurious carriage, allowing the young miss, alongside the middle-aged guard her father had sent with her, to enter.

    "Has everything for the journey been prepared?" asked Beatrice as she opened one of the leather books already present in the carriage.

    "Yes, miss Beatrice," said Henry, before entering the carriage himself, and after a few moments, the carriage in front of them began moving, prompting the coachman to follow along.

    After the carriage began moving, Beatrice put the book down and held her head up with her right hand, staring out of the window, Beatrice watched as the large castle behind them became smaller and smaller, and after a few minutes, entirely disappeared into the distance.

    The moment Beatrice could no longer see the castle, Beatrice sighed before once again picking up that same book.

    As the carriage was moving along on the stone road, Henry suddenly felt a small chill surround him, as the only other passenger on the carriage other than the coachman, Beatrice, was the first one Henry turned to the moment he felt that.

    Looking at Beatrice''s pitch-black eyes, Henry breathed a sigh of relief, as if nothing had happened.

    "Now that she''s away from her parents, It''s normal for young miss to be a little colder," thought Henry after taking his attention away from the young miss, as if not to be rude.

    "It''s that same feeling I felt a few years ago," thought Beatrice, but of course, she was not worried, as she had felt the same thing a few times already, the last time being two years ago, just before her talent was being tested.

    Because of how paranoid Beatrice was, she repeatedly checked her physical state after that, but of course, nothing seemed to be wrong, even though she could barely breathe for a dozen or so seconds.

    "Maybe I can find some information about it at the school," thought Beatrice as she decided to search for more information before speaking to anyone about it.

    But suddenly, Beatrice realized something.

    "Why was I able to breathe so easily," thought Beatrice as she analyzed all the possible variables that could have affected it.

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    Suddenly, Beatrice turned her eyes to her left inner pocket, before taking out fourteen colorful stones out of it, her eyes then immediately darted to a certain stone.

    After finding out about her mage talent, Beatrice''s father learned that most mage schools require something called ''Elemental Stones'' as tuition, as such, he spent the past two years searching for these stones.

    Beatrice remembered that the mage who tested her talent said that even if your magic talent is not great, If you present five elemental stones, some schools will accept you.

    After spending a large amount of effort, Beatrice''s father managed to gather fourteen elemental stones, but looking at one of the stones, Beatrice noticed something, the light emanating from it had slightly dimmed.

    As soon as she saw what happened, Beatrice immediately realized what had happened.

    "For some reason, my body wanted to absorb elemental energy, but since the amount of elemental energy in the air here is so small, I had trouble breathing," thought Beatrice before being reminded of something else.

    "Last time it was before I tested my talent, now It''s as I began my journey, this feeling seems to appear near important events," thought Beatrice, as the theory that she had some kind of special body that required elemental energy was rejected by her.

    "Good, such a thing would be troublesome," thought Beatrice before noticing that her book had fallen on her lap.

    After making a summary of all her new theories in her mind, Beatrice once again, for the third time today, opened the book.

    As such, Beatrice''s journey to the capital had begun.

    ...

    Later that day,

    Suddenly, the carriage in which Beatrice was in stopped as Henry made some hand signs towards the carriage up front.

    "Miss Beatrice, It''s time for your meal, we will rest here today," said Henry as he opened the door of the carriage.

    "Notify me when my meal is ready," said Beatrice as she continued burying her head in her book.

    Looking at his young miss, who seemed slightly happier than a while ago, Henry smiled before standing guard at the door of the carriage.

    Half an hour later,

    "Miss Beatrice, your meal is prepared," said Henry before opening the door to the carriage.

    Without saying another word, Beatrice exited the carriage before following Henry.

    Looking at the table in front of her for a moment, Beatrice turned her head to Henry with an inquisitive gaze.

    After this, Henry turned and looked at the table before frowning, as someone stronger than an Official Knight, a Royal Knight, Henry could still smell the slight oak scent coming from the table, that its creators had failed to truly remove.

    "Young miss, should I punish the ones who were responsible for this?" asked Henry as he prepared to take action.

    "No need, teach them better next time, such imperfections are impermissible, this reflects badly on you rather than on them," said Beatrice as she sat down on the comfy chair that was brought from the estate, unlike the table.

    Merely a moment after Beatrice sat down, three plates were placed in front of her alongside several pairs of silver dining tools, for which Beatrice specifically asked for as she did not like the feel of gold dining tools nor did she appreciate the utterly abnormal price of gold these days, and such, Beatrice began her meal.

    "Since you do not have the resources available at the estate, this is acceptable, but the chef can do better," said Beatrice after somehow finishing three plates full of food in under twenty minutes.

    Hearing what Beatrice had to say, Henry smiled before nodding as he bowed

    "I will go rest in the carriage, do not disturb me unless necessary," said Beatrice as she walked back to the carriage.

    "Yes miss Beatrice," said Henry before following his young miss back and standing outside the carriage door.

 4 : Inn

    Five days later,

    Looking at the prosperous city in front of them, Henry smiled and breathed a sigh of relief at the same time, arriving early was not a bad thing at all.

    And after a few more minutes of travel, the three Agnes family carriages entered the capital city of the Kingdom of Lyon.

    "We will first go to the estate in the capital, then I will go to the meeting place tomorrow," said Beatrice as she looked at Henry with a smile on her face.

    "Understood, young miss," said Henry as he signaled to the coach driver to travel to the estate.

    After a few moments, the three carriages turned left and once again began traveling.

    ...

    "Thank you, Henry," said Beatrice as she stepped out of the carriage as she looked at the luxurious inn in front of them, even without having visited it before, Beatrice knew that this inn was owned by the Agnes clan.

    After this, Beatrice, Henry, alongside another two guards entered the inn, which seemed to be closed for business right now.

    The moment Beatrice entered the inn, she saw about fifty carefully dressed people bowing to her.

    Suddenly, an old man, who was even better dressed than the group of people, carefully walked toward Beatrice as he bowed.

    "This old man greets young countess," said the old man, as he dared not look into Beatrice''s eyes.

    "Is that so," thought Beatrice as her gaze turned to the over fifty people bowing toward her.

    "Show me the financial situation of the inn," said Beatrice as she skipped over everything else, and got to the main point, her cold voice causing all in the room except Henry to shake.

    "I will lead the way for the young countess," said the old man as he kept bowing, even with his frail old body.

    "You can stop, I don''t need you paralyzed," said Beatrice as she looked at the back of the old man, even she did not have any reason to continue torturing the old man.

    After hearing what Beatrice had just said, Henry breathed a sigh of relief, as he did not want to execute a powerless old man.

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    As the old man straightened his back once again, he let out a silent sigh of relief as the pain slowly disappeared.

    "Lead the way," said Beatrice, causing the old man to begin walking towards the stairs behind the group of people.

    As the sound of heels walking on the stairs sounded, the group of workers held their breaths, waiting for the demoness to leave, only daring to breathe once they heard her arriving at the third floor.

    Looking the countless book and scrolls in the room, Beatrice smiled.

    "Place the financial reports for the five previous months alongside last year''s report on the table," said Beatrice, her voice now sounding more amiable than before as she sat at the table in the middle of the room.

    As if expecting what the young countess had to say, the old man swiftly brought five small and one large book in front of her, before remaining silent, trying his best not to breathe too loudly in front of Beatrice.

    "Go sit," said Beatrice, as she pointed to a chair in a corner of the room, before not paying any more attention to the old man.

    After this, began the longest wait the old man had ever had to endure, every single minute felt like hours of torture, but even still, he did not want this torture to end, as the verdict that awaited him at the end of it seemed even more dangerous.

    "It seems you did a relatively good job at managing your employees, but you can punish the one that did exchange your profit for gold coins for the past three months, that person doesn''t need to handle the money ever again," said Xu Yue as she looked at the exchange prices for three months ago.

    "149 silver coins for 1 gold coin, this price is really too high," thought Beatrice before talking again.

    "Keep the silver coins in house for now, wait until a few months to exchange them, you will know why," said Beatrice as she decided not to reveal the news her father had told her to this old man.

    "Once that gold mine is annexed, the price of gold will plummet, that would be a fantastic time to make money, pity I won''t be here," thought Beatrice as she closed the financial records with a smile on her face.

    Suddenly, Beatrice''s eyes turned to the old man.

    "What are you waiting here for, you can leave," said Beatrice as she looked at the old man.

    "Yes young countess," said the old man before quickly exiting the room, leaving Beatrice and Henry alone in the room, with the two guards remaining downstairs.

    "You can tell my father this old man can be trusted, and that our business in the capital is going well," said Beatrice in a cold voice, before Henry could even ask the question.

    "Yes young miss, I will relay this information to your father once I return to the estate young miss," said Henry as he slightly bowed.

    "Another thing, when the price goes down, tell father to stockpile gold and be more cautious, this next period is not suitable for battle," said Beatrice as she looked at the map of gold mines in the surrounding kingdoms, and the date at which mining had started in them.

    Even though he did not know why Beatrice wanted the count to stockpile gold, Henry obliged, he would make sure these messages would make it to her father.

    After a while, Henry also retreated from the room, leaving Beatrice to look at a map of surrounding kingdoms.

    "This place will really become chaotic after I''ve left, but things won''t be too bad," mumbled Beatrice as she looked at the map in front of her, occasionally, Beatrice would cross out the name of a principality or so off the map, revealing a new, much more centralized map.

    "Too bad I will miss so much of the fun," mumbled Beatrice before sitting back down in the chair, as if deep in thought.

 Trip 2

    After looking at the several noble children in front next to him, prince James'' eye turned to the three men dressed in gray robes, who could be seen walking towards one of the carriages.

    As he stared at the three mages who would take their group to be enrolled in magic school, James suddenly felt an intense pain in his forehead, causing him to take his eyes off them.

    "Good morning, prince James," said an ever-so-familiar voice from behind James.

    Looking at the smiling girl that appeared behind him, a smile appeared on James'' face, but even so, James was on his guard.

    "It is very beautiful morning," said James as he politely replied, but even so, James did not like looking into the eyes of this girl, Beatrice Agnes, daughter of Count Agnes, someone whose power and influence far exceeded his noble rank.

    There was something with Beatrice that James found chilling, he did not know what it was, but when he looked at the young countess, James felt a deep chill in his heart, as if the person in front of him knew his deepest secrets.

    "Very much so, prince James," said Beatrice before walking towards one of the carriages in the long convoy that would transport the magically gifted children to the edge of the continent, where further transportation would be provided to them.

    As soon as Beatrice entered the empty carriage, she felt something go over her in a flash, one moment it was there, and the other, it was long gone.

    "It''s probably a spell," thought Beatrice as she picked up a leather book from the compartment below the carriage seats, where she had ordered her guards to place it, and as such, Beatrice began waiting for the moment the journey would begin.

    A few hours later, Beatrice abruptly heard a voice in her head.

    "All seven magically gifted prospects come out," said the calm voice of a middle-aged man in an accent Beatrice had never heard before, with nothing else on the surface being easily identifiable by her.

    The moment she heard the resound in her head, she got up from her seat and placed the book down before walking down the steps and exiting the carriage.

    What greeted Beatrice as soon as she walked out was the sigh of two boys and one girl standing in front of three robed men, with three more teens walking towards them as well.

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    And soon after that, the group of seven magically gifted children was gathered in front of the three mages.

    Looking at the three mages, Beatrice noticed that the one who had tested her talent was residing on the left, with a similar mage on the right, and in the middle, stood a much older mage with dark eyes.

    The moment the seven teens were gathered, the older mage''s eyes passed over all of them and in an instant looked at Beatrice.

    "Have you practiced the Basic Meditation Technique?" asked the old mage as he looked at Beatrice, causing the latter to feel sweat falling down the back of her head.

    "Yes," responded Beatrice, finding no reason to lie, and even if she wanted to lie, for some Beatrice felt like she couldn''t, it was as if she could only speak the truth in front of the old mage.

    "Good," said the old mage before turning to the carriage up front.

    "Klein, Leylin, confirm their talents once more, then we can begin the journey," said the old mage without turning back whatsoever.

    Without saying any words, the two mages went to work, the left mage began from the left and right mage began from the right.

    A beam of white light came out from the left mage''s hands, the beam then landed on a girl, one of the three girls here and the only commoner among the children, as such, this girl was clearly more timid and unconfident than the left of the children.

    After around half a minute, the beam of light then turned towards Beatrice, who was second on the left side of the children.

    Aware of what was to come, Beatrice closed her eyes to not be blinded by the beam of light, only opening them once she was sure that it was over

    It took only two minutes for the talent of all the children to be tested, and after that, the two mages began walking towards the first carriage, prompting the children to wordlessly do the same.

    "We need to go," said Beatrice as she looked at the commoner girl behind her, causing the latter to sheepishly nod, not being used to this environment.

    "If you are bored from staying alone, you can come to talk with me, in my carriage," said Beatrice as she waved her hand towards the girl.

    Seeing this, the girl turned her head towards prince James whom she had been talking to, before deciding that going with Beatrice, who was also a girl, seemed like a better choice.

    After this, under the command of the first carriage, the coachmen of the thirteen other carriages which carried both the people and supplies necessary for their trip began moving the carriages.

    ...

    "So, how are you feeling, Susan?" asked Beatrice as she looked the girl sitting opposite of her with a smile on her face.

    Susan, as a former peasant, had no last name, as such, Beatrice simply addressed her by her full name.

    "I''m very excited Miss Beatrice," said Susan a smile appeared on her face, but compared to noble children, who were trained in hiding their emotions from young, Susan, who had only received two years of training was still too inexperienced.

    As such, her anxiety was still very much showing, especially under Beatrice''s gentle yet piercing eyes.

    "Good, you don''t have to worry, right now we are under the protection of the actual mages, we are very safe, but we are now colleagues, you can address me, Beatrice," said Beatrice as she lightly held Susan''s hands, as if reassuring her.

    "Thank you, Beatrice," said Susan, not daring to look into Beatrice''s eyes.

 Errol

    Looking at Susan, who seemed much more comfortable around her right now, Beatrice lightly smiled, and such, after two long years of waiting, Beatrice''s journey into this magical world has finally begun.

    ...

    Three months later,

    Looking at the endless ocean in front of her, Susan felt electrocuted, even though she was mentally prepared for what she was about to see, but still, the sight of the clear water mesmerized her.

    After looking at the ocean, Susan turned her head towards the beach, and the encampment that was set up on it.

    But even so, looking at the over two carriages that were visible next to the encampment, Susan felt some apprehension.

    "Those people are the same as us, you don''t have to worry," said Beatrice as she looked at the carriages that obviously came from the other kingdoms on the continent.

    But as she counted the number, and looked at the different styles of carriages present, a light flashed in Beatrice''s eyes.

    "So our group is quite a bit above average in number," thought Beatrice as she counted only around two hundred carriages for the over twenty kingdoms on the continent.

    Even though this information had no use temporarily, Beatrice still kept it in the back of her mind, as it could possibly be useful.

    As Beatrice was still caught in thought, the convoy of carriages from the Lyon Kingdom had already finished traveling down the hill, it then began traveling towards the encampment.

    Just as their convoy was halfway there, a black light suddenly flashed in front of the first carriage, causing Beatrice to nearly be thrown off.

    "Is everything alright, Beatrice?" asked Susan as she looked at the friend she made over these past three months.

    "It''s nothing," said Beatrice seeing that the light was gone in just a moment, if she could see it, the mages must have seen it as well, as such, Beatrice paid no further attention to it.

    ...

    Looking at the decrypt old mage in a white robe, Lesley swallowed his breath.

    "Have all the children from your group been accounted for, Lesley?" asked the decrypt mage, that looked much, much older than Lesley.

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    "All the children have arrived, completely unharmed, Lord Errol," said Lesley as he looked at the official mage before him.

    "Good, the school needs new blood, hopefully, some disciples with suitable talent can be found," said Lord Errol as the decrypt bones in his body creaked.

    Noticing that the Official Mage was satisfied, Lesley breathed a silent sigh of relief.

    Suddenly, Errol turned to look at Lesley, a smiled appearing on his face.

    "Lesley, for how long have you been at the Pinnacle of the Apprentice level," asked Errol as he tapped his fingers on his chair.

    "Thirty-four years, lord Errol," said Lesley as some excitement appeared in his mind.

    "Good," mumbled Errol as he handed a thick notebook to Lesley before dismissing the latter.

    As he sat alone in the empty room, Errol''s body began shifting, his bones moving, and horrifying sounds appeared as Errol''s organs shifted places before revealing their true form.

    If any non-mage looked at the monstrosity that covered the room, at best they would die, and at worst, both their body and soul would rapidly mutate beyond repair, becoming a mindless monster only interested in one thing.

    After a while, the entire room was covered by exposed flesh as Errol''s true twisted form revealed itself to the world in all its glory, after this, the monster''s mind began looking out of its body, searching for something, or rather, searching for darkness.

    And after a long time, Errol found what he had been searching for.

    ...

    As the group of potential mages from the Lyon kingdom gathered around a campfire, a dark shadow seemingly stared at them for a while before moving on.

    Unaware of what had been watching them, after three whole months of tiring travel, even the noble of the group relaxed themselves.

    "It''s very good," mumbled Beatrice as she took a bite of the meat that was being roasted on the campfire, even Beatrice did not prefer it to the one made by her chef, it was still very good.

    "Thank you," said Tom Wesley, a minor noble whose magic talent was also discovered.

    Even though the nobles had relaxed, for them to start a conversation with one another was something else, as not leaking information about potential weaknesses took precedence.

    "What does everyone want to do at magic school?" asked Susan, but the response to her question was total silence.

    "I want to learn Magic, anything else can take the backstage," said Beatrice as she looked at the group before with a smile on her face.

    "That''s what I plan to do as well," said Jennifer, the daughter of one of the Three Archdukes of the kingdom, as she looked at the person next to her, expecting his answer.

    "That''s good and all, but you need to make friends, you can''t be alone all the time," said Bradford, the son of a duke, as he took a bite of meat as well.

    After Susan''s question, which tried to bring the group of children closer, it seemed like the group of children split into two sides, those that wanted to study magic, and those that also wanted to make friends, but most ironically of all it seemed that those that said they wanted to study magic seemed much closer.

    At least compared to those that wanted to make friends, which seemed weary of each other.

    "Good thing I didn''t involve myself in that mess," as she looked towards Prince James and the other two teens that said they wanted to make friends, the three of them seemingly maintained distance of each other, having somehow managed to become wary of each other.

    Suddenly, Beatrice sat up and turned around, her mouth them became open as Beatrice did not know what to say.

    Looking at the majestic flying ship that was arriving at the horizon, Beatrice felt shocked out of her mind.

 Elemental Energy

    Looking at the boundless ocean below her, even Beatrice''s calm mind slightly shook.

    In every direction, no matter where she looked all Beatrice saw was water and more water, the last time Beatrice had seen even a bit of land was half a month ago, when she managed to spot a tiny uninhabited island in the distance while gazing at the sea.

    After gazing at the sea for a while, Beatrice turned her eyes to the two people next to her as well.

    "Couldn''t you have dragged someone else here? I already told I don''t like the ocean," said prince James as he looked at Susan, compared to a month ago, James seemed to find it much less necessary to hide his emotion''s as his true personality shines through.

    "I don''t know many people on the ship, and I already talked with everyone I know, only you and Beatrice are left, don''t you feel anything when looking at the beautiful ocean surrounding us," asked Susan, who seemed like she had gained new life when above the ocean.

    "I feel only frustration, I can''t wait until we get to land," said James as he shook his head and managed to make the slightly sick look on his face disappear.

    Suddenly, Beatrice turned towards the two of them and smiled.

    "You need to go inside, It''s almost dark," said Beatrice as she noticed that the sun was almost at the equator, causing the color of Susan''s face to visibly change.

    "Yea, let''s go," said Susan as she quickly began walking to her room while urging the other two along as well.

    Even though not scared, unlike Susan, the two of them quickly moved to their respective rooms, as they had already learned that being active on a ship created by the Shadow Monastery at night was not a good idea from the first night they came here.

    Susan remembered the screams one of the teens made when his body was being healed by the mage, she let out a shudder, feeling something like that was not something Susan even entertained of doing, as such, when even a hint of Darkness approached, she fled to her room, where she knew she was safe.

    As the mages did not tell the teens any information, they did not know what this ''Shadow Monastery'' that made the ship was, but they did not want anything to do with it, of course, based on the way the mages looked and were dressed some of them already had some ideas.

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    Looking at the piece of paper on her desk, Beatrice wanted to tear her hair out, but as she slowly took a deep breath, she only crumpled up the piece of paper and threw it at her wall.

    "There are no preparations that I can do," mumbled Beatrice as she looked at another blank piece of paper on her desk.

    At first, as to gain a foothold in Mage school, Beatrice wanted to gain an underling, and thus began the plan of slowly making Susan into one, but once she managed to learn that the magic schools were not only separated on talent, but also on the type of talent, Beatrice scrapped turning Susan into an underling.

    Based on Susan''s state above the ocean, Beatrice theorized the fact that she had talent in water magic, and even though Beatrice didn''t know for sure, she was almost certain she didn''t have any talent in water magic, or rather, she theorized she had talent in fire magic, because of just how sick she felt while at sea.

    But of course, after spending some more time, Beatrice eliminated that theory and predicted she had talent in some sort of Dark magic.

    Upon this discovery, Beatrice began attempting to learn information from the mages from the Shadow Monastery, but of course, that failed as well.

    And as neither Beatrice''s Mage nor Knight training seemed to have much effect right now, Beatrice was stuck with nothing to do, the only thing left for her to do was an attempt to sense the elemental energies around her, which she seemed to fail miserably at.

    Today was the day Beatrice gave up attempting to extract information from the mages, and right now, she did not have a better plan at all.

    Of course, this month was not a complete failure, as she further strengthened her relationships with the other magically gifted students and managed to not make a single enemy.

    The only thing possibly wrong was that James seemed to have seen through her plot, of course, If these two do not go to the same magic school there will be problems.

    Just as Beatrice was in deep thought, she suddenly sensed something around her.

    Feeling the extremely huge amount of elemental energy that seemingly just appeared around her, Beatrice was shocked.

    Even though she sensed the elemental energies around her, Beatrice did not do anything rash, she did not dare absorb it at all, as the basic Meditation technique did not record this part at all.

    But even though she did not dare absorb it, Beatrice still felt somewhat different, it seemed as, compared to before, Beatrice had more energy, although not much more, she still felt the difference with her control over her body.

    Even so, Beatrice did not stay up later to do more tests on its effects, as sleep was something she took very seriously.

    Before learning about mages, Beatrice took sleep, knight training and her diet even more seriously, as she wanted to live as long as possible, but even though she was about to become a mage, Beatrice still took her old habits with her.

    ...

    "This difference..." mumbled Beatrice as she got up from her bed and washed her face, even though Beatrice had just woken up at three in the morning, half an hour earlier than usual, she felt extremely refreshed from her sleep.

    As she felt the effects of living in a place with large amounts of elemental energies, Beatrice couldn''t help but think of her family.

    "I will take you here next time," mumbled Beatrice as if making a promise to herself.

 Affinity

    Looking at the seven official mages that stood in the center of the huge field Beatrice felt a large amount of pressure, and so did every single one of the over seven hundred future mage apprentices whose talent''s were about to be tested.

    After a few moments, a name first name was called.

    "Julian Gladdal from the Oerster Kingdom, come forward," said one of the mages, before a young man came out of the crowd and walked in front of the seven mages, when suddenly, a several-meter large glass ball appeared in front of him.

    Seeing this, Julian put his hands on the glass ball, and in only a few moments, began shaking, after a few seconds, a light blue color began emanating from the ball, but Julian was still not yet done, as he still continued shaking, he then continued shaking for more than a dozen second before coming to a stall.

    " Wate affinity, E grade, spiritual power, 6.1," said one of the mages before a bronze token flew in front of Julian. He then continued walking on the designated path, not knowing where it would lead.

    After the first, the next talent tests went somewhat faster, as a certain rhythm could be felt in the field.

    "Wind affinity, F grade, spiritual power 2.1"

    "Fire affinity, D grade, spiritual power 3.4"

    "Dual affinity, fire and wind, B grade, spiritual power 6.8"

    "Earth affinity, E grade, spiritual power 5.4"

    After this, a large number of students with a large number of different affinities and grades appeared, after each student had their talent tested, one of the official mages would then hand them a token, which Beatrice thought represented their potential.

    Wood, Stone, Bronze and Silver, and Gold these were these were the materials that Beatrice had seen the tokens be made of, but of course, there were probably some other higher level tokens with those with even better talent.

    Suddenly, silence ensued in the field as a certain sentence came out of one of the Official Mage''s mouth after the testing of the two hundred and seventy-sixth potential mage

    "Wind affinity, A grade, spiritual power 7.2," said the mage, causing all of the eyes in the field to focus on the teen in the middle, even some of the official mages looked differently at him compared to the others being tested.

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    After this, Beatrice managed to take a look at the token granted to the teen, noticing that it was a silver-white token.

    "So platinum is above gold," thought Beatrice before a certain voice broke her out of her thoughts

    "James Lyon from the Lyon Kingdom," said the official mage before James hurried about towards the glass ball.

    Compared to before, Beatrice watched with great interest as a somewhat bright red color emerged from the center of the ball as James put his hands on it.

    "Fire affinity, C grade, spiritual power, 5.3," said the official mage as he handed James a silver token, and after that, the next name was uttered.

    Beatrice Agnes, Lyon Kingdom

    As she walked forward toward the ball, nervousness filled the otherwise calm Beatrice, but even so, she still calmly put her hands on the glass ball.

    Looking at around herself, Beatrice found that the large number of kids and teens around her suddenly disappeared, being replaced by pitch-black darkness.

    Right now, as she looked at her hand which she knew was only centimeters away from her face, Beatrice couldn''t see anything, only darkness, but surprisingly, Beatrice did not feel fear nor helplessness, only peace in the dark void.

    Suddenly, Beatrice found herself once again standing in the middle of the field, countless pairs of eyes staring at her.

    "Darkness affinity, B grade, spiritual power 12.4," said the mage, as his voice once again becoming surprised as said that, as soon as those words came out, Orrel, the Mage representing the Shadow Monastery suddenly smiled, his smile becoming bigger once the representing her spiritual power came out.

    And after a moment, a golden token came in front of Beatrice, prompting her to pick it up and walk on the path those that came before her also walked.

    After this, whispers erupted in the field.

    But these whispers were promptly stopped by the words of the Official Magus.

    Susan, Lyon Kingdom

    Rather worriedly, Susan walked up to the glass ball and placed both her hands once it.

    "Water affinity, A grade, spiritual power, 8.2," said the mage before looking at Susan, as if to examine her.

    In all seven hundred children, other than those two, nobody else had A-grade talent, with three more other B grades emerging after a while, but of course, a storm was already brewing under the surface.

    ...

    Looking at the inviting tents behind her, and at the pitch-black tent in front of her, Beatrice knew that she was at the right place.

    The first thing Beatrice was greeted with as soon as she walked in was a group of seventeen people, each sitting in a certain part of the wooden tent.

    "I really fit in quite well," thought Beatrice as she looked at the pale faces of each of the potential mages before sitting down.

    Even though she learned that the Shadow Monastery did not have the best reputation, Beatrice still felt quite good being here.

    Merely thirty seconds after arriving here, a man, who looked around thirty years old walked in.

    As soon as he did that, Beatrice recognized him.

    "This was the mage that tested my talent back in the Lyon kingdom," thought Beatrice as she looked at him.

    As soon as the mage walked in, he turned to Beatrice, as if beckoning to her before walking toward one of the walls of the wooden tent.

    The moment the mage approached the wall, it suddenly turned into a door, which the mage walked into.

    Only hesitating a little bit, Beatrice walked towards the door before walking in as well.

    After Beatrice walked in, the door once again turned back into a simple wooden wall.

 Teaching

    As soon as Beatrice walked in, she saw the same mage sitting at a table, a single piece of paper being visible on the table alongside a needle.

    Looking at the talented potential mage, Leylin couldn''t help but smile.

    "Miss Beatrice, you can sit down," said Leylin as he moved the piece of paper toward Beatrice''s part of the table.

    Sitting down, Beatrice looked at the silent mage before looking at the piece of paper in front of her.

    As soon as Beatrice looked at the piece of paper, a dozen or so page-long contract appeared in her mind.

    Seeing that it was a contract, Beatrice braced herself for the worst, but upon further inspection, she felt quite surprised.

    Although quite strict, the student enrollment contract into the Shadow Monastery did not seem to be as bad as Beatrice expected, of course, Beatrice could only say that because she has not yet the contract for those with worse talent, otherwise she would know better.

    After looking through the contract for a while, Beatrice nodded, it seemed everything was alright with it, the only major thing inside of the contract was the clause that stated what would happen, if someone betrayed the school, just reading it, Beatrice felt something crawl up her spine.

    With just a moment of hesitation, Beatrice picked up the needle that was placed on the table before stabbing her finger, a few drops of blood then fell down onto the contract before dissipating into it.

    As soon as that happened, Beatrice felt somewhat different, as if a restriction was placed on her, but it did not feel that bad, merely being a weird feeling in the back of her mind.

    "Very good Miss Beatrice, after the talent testing finishes we will go back to the school, at that time Teacher Orrel will personally guide your magic training, as to not waste time," said Leylin as he took the contract before walking out of the room, Beatrice following him.

    Watching Leylin exit the temporary wooden building, a weird feeling emerged in Beatrice''s stomach.

    "This is the beginning of my school life," thought Beatrice as she sat down at one of the empty tables and began thinking.

    After a while, several more students began streaming in, and a few minutes later a mage also entered and brought them into the room, but as they exited the room, Beatrice noticed something, their somewhat bitter expression.

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    "That contract should be quite rough," thought Beatrice as she remembered her own contract, in fact Beatrice thought it was quite a good deal, as unlike what Leylin said when she tested her talent, she did not have to pay anything for the school, in fact, she would be able to obtain three elemental stones a month for free.

    The contract also did not put too many restrictions on Beatrice, other than not betraying the school, in fact it even included a clause in case the school put unreasonable demands on her.

    And as such, several hours passed, with more than a dozen students coming in, and by the time fourteen hours had passed since the beginning of the talent testing spree, twenty-six students arrived here.

    Suddenly, Leylin, the mage who had everyone signed their contracts with came into the temporary building.

    "Come after me," said Leylin, causing the twenty-six students to immediately get up and follow him onto a path and then an open field where Errol stood alone.

    After just half a minute, the same flying ship that brought a hundred students from Beatrice''s continent here once again came along, but for some reason, it seemed somewhat darker right now it.

    And just a minute later, the ship landed on the field, with its doors opening, allowing the students to walk in.

    Suddenly, a voice sounded into Beatrice''s ears.

    "Come to room number one in thirty minutes," said the voice of an old man, presumably Official mage Errol.

    Hearing that, Beatrice truly did not know whether to be happy of worried.

    ...

    Looking at the imposing number 1 on the door of the room, Beatrice felt a heavy weight falling onto her heart, but even so, she steeled her heart and knocked on the door.

    "You can come in," said Errol''s slightly ominous voice from behind the door, causing Beatrice to grit her teeth and open the door.

    Looking at the warm room in front of her, and at Errol who was sitting on the chair, Beatrice felt a weird feeling.

    "Sit down, and if you want to ask, address me as Mr. Errol," said Errol as he looked at the small library behind him before walking over to it.

    "Yes, Mr. Errol," said Beatrice as she sat down on the chair in the middle of the room.

    "I have learned that you have mastered the Basic Meditation technique and that you are not aware of anything related to mages, is that correct?" asked Errol as he picked out several books from the bookshelf before placing them on the table.

    "Yes Mr. Errol," said Beatrice as she breathed a sigh of relief.

    "What do you think mages are?" asked Errol as he continued picking out more and more books from the bookshelves.

    "Beings made out of elemental energy?" asked Beatrice, unsure of her answer.

    "Wrong, but well, that could be debated, but even so, most mages are not made out of elemental energy, rather, mages are but one thing, Pursuers of truth!" said Errol as his voice became nearly fanatical as he neared the end of his sentence.

    "Spells, elemental energy, everything is but a way to reach the truth, you must remember that," said Errol as obsession filled his eyes.

    "Yes Mr. Errol," said Beatrice, as she felt quite a bit more relaxed as she found out that this Errol wanted to teach her.

    "I went off topic again," mumbled Errol before opening his mouth once again.

    "I will be the one to teach you magic while we are on the ship, so as to not waste the time it will take you to get to school," said Errol before smiling and sitting down as well.

 Meditation Techniques

    "To begin, I need to first tell you about the three distinctions between mages, this is the path that you will walk on in your search for the truth," said Errol as four words appeared behind him.

    Mage Apprentice

    Mage

    Archmage

    "In fact, the Mage path is quite straightforward and without many complexities at it''s most basic level, it also has a lot of leeway on how things operate," said Errol as a model of the human body appeared next to him.

    "To first become a Mage Apprentice, one must first condense mana, a form of energy created by the elemental energies surrounding us after being assimilated by our bodies," said Errol before continuing.

    "I must get one thing out of the way, the reason you were only provided the very beginning of the basic meditation technique is very simple, it''s useless"

    "The reason the Basic Meditation the basic meditation technique is considered useless even though it has the same quality as an average meditation technique is very simple," said Errol before asking Beatrice a question.

    "You only have an affinity for the element of darkness, am I right?" asked Errol as he fiddled with the model of the human body in his hands, of course, right now Beatrice did not have the time to notice the fact that the model was too realistic to be a mere model.

    "Yes, that''s right," said Beatrice as she realized what Errol was getting to.

    "Smart, I think you have realized it, since you do not have any affinity for any other element, then why do you need any other element?" asked Errol as a dark fog exited his body.

    "This is what''s called dark mana, or mana of the darkness element, using it, spells of the darkness element will become over twice as powerful and much easier to cast, as such, pure elemental mana is used by any and all magic schools, even the most run-down," said Errol as the dark mana around him turned into various shapes and sizes.

    Hearing Errol''s speech, Beatrice began waiting for something, as even her hardened will couldn''t resist the temptation.

    Looking at the slightly anxious Beatrice, Errol couldn''t help but laugh.

    Then, three pieces of leather with three different inscriptions appeared on the table.

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    "Of course, the first thing you need to do, Is chose your meditation technique, be warned though, this choice is permanent," said Errol as the four pieces of leather went towards Beatrice.

    As she touched the first piece, Beatrice couldn''t help but feel something weird, as if this was not normal leather.

    But even so, Beatrice turned to look towards the first inscription instead, but the moment she looked at it, Beatrice already moved it away, knowing it wasn''t for her.

    "This technique requires you to fall into you deepest and most dark desires, eventually, after doing that and visualizing this rune enough, you will be able to form a special type of dark mana, which can not only do what I told you before, but corrupt and break the souls of those that dare oppose you," said Errol as he looked at the third Meditation technique with a smile on his face.

    After this, Beatrice silently looked at the second rune, but as she did so, Beatrice felt as if the rune wanted to swallow her.

    "Compared with the First one, the Starry Sky meditation technique is much simpler, after visualizing the rune while gazing at the starry sky, the user may be able to harness some of it''s darkness, but of course, there is a catch, if your will is not strong enough, the starry sky will swallow you whole," said Errol now fully staring at the third rune with a smile on his face.

    "This one is quite good, but I should take a look at the third one," thought Beatrice before looking at the third rune.

    "Inner Darkness," said Errol, as he looked at Beatrice, who was staring at the rune as if entranced, but even so he still continued.

    "Why must we use outside methods to change our mana, as long as we harness the hidden darkness hid deep inside of ours souls, our search for truth we be unimpeded," said Errol as he now looked like a fanatical cult leader, instead of the smiling old man from before.

    It took over a minute for Beatrice to exit her trance, but even so, a smile still appeared on her face as she now held the piece of leather holding the Hidden Darkness rune tightly.

    "I see you have chosen, very well, Take these, at the end of our journey I will test your progress," said Errol as the several think books on his table were pushed to Beatrice''s side.

    "Understood Mr. Errol," said Beatrice before stacking all of the books alongside the piece of leather and unceremoniously exiting the room.

    ...

    "Mr. Errol is much more agreeable than it seems right?" asked Leylin, who somehow appeared next to Beatrice, who was carrying the books back to her room.

    "Yes, only he seems rather, how could I say it?" mumbled Beatrice, but before she could finish her sentence, Leylin interrupted her.

    "Passionate towards the pursuit of the ''truth'' isn''t that right?" said Leylin as walked side by side with Beatrice without even helping a lady carry some books.

    "Yes, passionate," mumbled Beatrice before nodding.

    "As long as you don''t interfere with his magic research, Mr. Errol is one of the more nice Official Mages I know, since he has begun teaching, you don''t have to worry, imparting the ''truth'' to other people is also something he appreciates, if you study well you don''t have to worry," said Leylin before he and Beatrice parted ways.

    "If you study well you don''t have to worry," mumbled Beatrice before deciding not to think about what happens if you don''t study well.

    After this encounter, Beatrice decided that the best thing she could do right now was focus on going through the books Mr. Errol had given her, starting with the first one.

    Basic Magic Knowledge Manual Editon 15

 Book

    Basic Magic Knowledge Manual Edition 15

    Looking at the book she picked up from the large stack, Beatrice took a deep breath before opening it.

    Unlike most other books that Beatrice had read before, this book went straight to the point, and began explaining magic from it''s most basic form, causing Beatrice to become entranced in it.

    Even though much of the content of the beginning pages was explained to Beatrice by Mr. Errol, the added details gave Beatrice chills down her spine from excitement.

    But even though it was merely the beginning, it also included some details that Mr. Errol did not mention, or that he thought Beatrice could understand from reading.

    For example, both mana and Elemental energies have units of measurement, Points, with one point being the amount of mana necessary to create 0.00453 kgs of materialized mana or elemental energies, with this metric being created by something called the Magic Council.

    As Beatrice has not yet read the book describing the political situation among Mages, Beatrice did not yet know what the magic council was, but even so, Beatrice could already see that this organization had great authority among mages.

    With her memory being enhanced by the Basic Meditation Technique, Beatrice earnestly remembered every single word recorded in this book, as if she feared she would forget any single word.

    Although this book did not contain any spells nor any wonderous techniques, right now, Beatrice felt as is this was even more valuable than that.

    From what defined Mage Apprentices, to all sorts of different, normal, or supernatural plants and animals, to all definitions ranging from how attack power was defined, with the regular attack power of all spells being tested in the magic council under regulated conditions, to what defined defensive power, to how both physical and spiritual strength was tested.

    With one point in both categories being an average created by the magic council after testing over a million normal humans and calculating the results.

    As such, right now, Beatrice has more Spiritual strength than eleven normal people put together, of course, descriptions and images of all sorts of plants and animals dotted three-fourths of the book, as without knowing these, a mage might be helpless against an easily countered supernatural creature.

    Even extinct creatures, like Warevolves, vampires, harpies, orcs, and other such beings were described, from their strengths, weaknesses, and distinguishing characteristics.

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    But as Beatrice got to the end of the book, what she encountered was not a description, but a warning.

    Even through the page, looking at the huge dragon represented in the picture, Beatrice felt a chill in her heart.

    "That''s at least five hundred meters tall," mumbled Beatrice as she looked at the hill and the utterly tiny trees next to the dragon.

    "In case of a meeting with a dragon, the recommended tactic is to leave all your valuables behind before running away," read Beatrice as she looked at the bright red text that seemed to be imprinted with the blood of those foolish enough to challenge dragons.

    As soon as Beatrice finished reading that sentence, she turned her eyes to the clock on the wall.

    "It''s been five hours," mumbled Beatrice before realizing for how long she had been reading, turning her head to the other books on the table next to her, which included Basic Biology, Physics, First Aid, and the thinnest book of all, ''A guide to rank 0 and rank 1 spells'', Beatrice sighed before putting her eyes back on the book in her hands before returning to the first few pages, more specifically, a little bit after the section on Mage Apprentices.

    "Innate Talents are the effects of random body or soul mutations under the effects of elemental energy, they can appear when a mage first becomes an apprentice or more rarely at birth, as the Bodies of Official Mages are much more resistant to mutations, See page 378 for more information," read Beatrice as she touched the book with her long nails, as an Official Knight, the sharpness of her nails was undeniable, as such, small cuts appeared in the book.

    "Innate talent huh," mumbled Beatrice before once turning the pages of the book, now to a page she has not yet read, page 378.

    The first sentence Beatrice read caused her to feel an ache in her heart.

    "Innate talents can be divided into perfect and imperfect, those imperfect having various side effects either caused by the mutation or the effect of the talent itself," read Beatrice as her grip on the book tightened.

    "Is it here," mumbled Beatrice as she looked at the huge list of innate talents listed below alongside their side effects and way of identification.

    "This is almost a worst-case scenario," mumbled Beatrice as she finished flipping through the over a dozen pages of innate talents, finding not one that matched her symptoms.

    Of course, Beatrice would not deny the possibility that she was wrong and this was not an innate talent, but based on the information she has right now, that seemed like the most likely possibility.

    "At least it''s not one of those," mumbled Beatrice as she looked at the list of Innate talents with horrifying effects on their user, but even so, worry appeared on her face as she seemed no closer to finding out what that feeling was than before.

    After putting in a bookmark on the page she was on right now, Beatrice placed the book back on the pile.

    Beatrice then took a suspicious piece of leather from the table and began staring at it while sitting crosslegged, trying to imitate the rune etched onto it in her mind.

    Even though it seemed simple, this rune that looked like a butterfly seemed to have many different layers, causing Beatrice a lot of trouble as she tried to recreate it in her mind.

    Of course, Beatrice wouldn''t give up, as such, she began memorizing only a small part of the rune, starting from there and continuing to increase the size of the piece she memorized, of course, this would take a very long time.

 Meal

    Two weeks later,

    As she read the Biology book provided to her by Mr. Errol, a mix of happiness and frustration appeared on Beatrice''s face.

    Unlike the book from before, this did not seem like an actual book, but rather, a huge collection of Mr. Errol''s past notes.

    Seeing the human body be so thoroughly described, Beatrice felt her hands itch as they desired to put both her precious scissors and surgery knife to good use.

    But alas, as on the ship, Beatrice had neither the experimental subjects nor the space for her to conduct her experiments.

    As such, Beatrice had to note down every single idea she had while reading the notes, as preparation for the time when she had access to such things.

    "Could magic be able to weaken the rejection that happens after two people are stitched together," mumbled Beatrice before noting down this idea at the front of her notebook.

    Many of her previous projects, which had failed in the past popped into Beatrice''s mind as she pondered whether magic could help her accomplish them.

    Suddenly, just as Beatrice wanted to turn the page of the notebook, the saw the clock on the wall in the corner of her eyes.

    Seeing it, Beatrice placed a bookmark on the page she was on right now before placing the book on the table and picking up an already familiar piece of leather from next to it.

    After sitting crosslegged and placing the piece of leather in front of her, Beatrice closed her eyes and emptied out her thoughts, her mind, which was usually extremely active quieted down, focusing on nothing expect the rune in front of her.

    But every time she did so, some imperfections would pop up, as such, she would have to redo the whole thing again.

    After the first failed attempt for the day, Beatrice opened her eyes and looked at the clock.

    "One hour and thirteen minutes, that''s much better than before, but still," mumbled Beatrice as she felt extremely sad because of this horrid waste of time, but of course, compared to the beginning, when she had to spend over two hours on every attempt, this was already much better.

    ...

    Opening her eyes and looking at the clock, a frown appeared on Beatrice''s face.

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    "If only I didn''t have to eat or sleep, I would have so much more time, the large amount of elemental energy is making things better, but even so," mumbled Beatrice as frustration could be seen on her usually calm face, but even so, Beatrice still got up and no longer sat crosslegged, rather preparing to go eat dinner, unlike normal days, when she snacked in the middle of the night after she finished her meditation.

    "I haven''t eaten anything at a regular time in two weeks, although I''m still eating healthy food, this can''t be good," mumbled Beatrice as she finally exited her room.

    As Beatrice was walking down the hallway, she passed by several students, some of them talked, while others just lingered together, having become acquaintances or even friends with each other these past two weeks.

    ...

    Looking at the white-haired girl walking toward him, Ermes suddenly lightheaded, even though she was dressed very plainly, Ermes felt a terrifying fear as he looked straight into the white.

    "Are you alright?" asked Kanah, one of Ermes''s friends as she looked at him.

    "It''s nothing," said Ermes as the white-haired girl passed by him and his group of friends, and after she did, all of them felt the mood suddenly become better.

    ...

    "Ermes Donovan Darkness Affinity D grade, spiritual power 2.1," thought Beatrice as she encountered the unintended side effects of her high spiritual power for the first time since she left her home.

    "Even some knights have higher spiritual power, has shown no desire to improve, he can be eliminated from the potential threat list," thought Beatrice as she walked towards the cafeteria with a blank expression on her face, and after getting some food, Beatrice sat down at a lonely table in the corner.

    "Even though they don''t have much space it''s still very good," mumbled Beatrice as she ate a thin slice of steak, enjoying the process of having a full meal after two weeks.

    "Mind if I sit here?" asked a male voice, causing Beatrice to look to the left using the corner of her eyes.

    "No," said Beatrice before continuing to eat her food in silence.

    After this, even with another person joining the table, the same silence as before ensued, with the two eating their food without talking.

    "My name is Laith Keys, I haven''t seen you around here these past few weeks, where have you been?" asked Laith as he tried to start the conversation.

    "Laith Keys Darkness Affinity C grade, spiritual power 5.4," though Beatrice, before responding.

    "Beatrice Agnes, In my room," said Beatrice as she once again killed the conversation, it was not that Beatrice didn''t know how to make small talk or was socially inept, rather, at the moment she did not care about talking, as she would much rather focus her energy on studying and practicing.

    After this, a deep silence ensued up until Beatrice finished her food and left the table.

    ...

    "So, how was she?" asked Saena as she and four other students looked at Laith.

    "I think it''s best not to bother her," said Laith as he remembered the pitch-black eyes he saw just a few moments ago.

    "Told you, even though her talent is not that overwhelming, someone that has that amount of spiritual power before becoming a mage apprentice is not someone to be messed with," said Radyn as he looked at Saena.

    "No, that''s not it," mumbled Laith before taking something out of his pocket.

    "What is this, her fork?" asked Saena as she looked at the fork that Laith took from his pocket with an inquiring gaze on her face.

    "I didn''t notice it until I got up," said Laith, causing the group to fall into a strange and eerie silence.

 Shadow Monestary

    Walking back to her room, a satisfied look could be seen on Beatrice''s face, even the students she passed on her way there didn''t seem as scared by her as when she went in the opposite direction.

    As soon as she walked into her room, Beatrice walked towards her bed before searching underneath it.

    "This should do," mumbled Beatrice as she looked at the tiny vial in her hands, Beatrice then took out several strands of hair from one of her inner pockets before placing them inside the vial.

    After that, Beatrice ripped out a small piece of paper from the back of her notebook before writing a name on

    Laith Keys

    Only a few moments after that, Beatrice put the small vial in a hidden corner under her bed before once again sitting on it and beginning to once again attempt to fully remember the rune for the Inner Darkness meditation technique.

    Two weeks later,

    "It''s close," mumbled Beatrice as she once again opened her eyes, having failed to fully recreate the rune inside of her mind, but right now Beatrice was not discouraged at all, in the four weeks she spent on the ship, Beatrice felt significant proggres in her mastery of the rune, right now, she felt like she only needed to become a tiny bit better and she would be able to completely master it.

    But this was not the time, after finishing her meditation, Beatrice picked up her large amount of luggage before exiting the room, after this Beatrice then began walking to room one and knocking on the door.

    "Come in," said Mr. Errol''s calm voice from the other side of the door, causing Beatrice to open the door before walking in.

    "I see you have studied my notebook very well," said Mr. Errol as Beatrice put down her luggage and sat down on the chair.

    "Yes, Mr. Errol," said Beatrice, feeling as if she had been completely seen through.

    "Good, but do not neglect the other books I selected for you once you get to the school, they are very much suitable for you right now," said Mr. Errol as he took a small sip from his cup of tea.

    "Understood, Teacher Errol," said Beatrice, causing a smile to appear on Errol''s face.

    After Beatrice exited the room and was walking down the hallway, she suddenly felt a piece of paper appear in her hands.

    "Apprenticeship notice, Beatrice Agnes, Teacher: Errol Jarth," read Beatrice as she looked at the small piece of paper in front of her, as she looked at it, Beatrice could sense a large amount of elemental energy hidden inside of the paper.

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    "Things should be much more convenient this way," mumbled Beatrice as she walked towards the deck of the ship and looked at the gloomy monastery that was slowly showing itself in the distance.

    After this, several minutes passed in near silence, even though many students gathered on the deck of the ship, not one of them made any sounds as they looked at the monastery which seemingly became larger and larger the closer the ship got to it.

    "How is this even possible," mumbled Beatrice as she looked at the monastery that looked to be over five hundred meters tall, being by far the largest building Beatrice had ever seen in her life.

    "Don''t be surprised yet," said Errol, who had appeared next to Beatrice after an unknown moment in time.

    Only a few moments later, the ship took a sharp turn away from the monastery before landing in a field over a kilometer away.

    "How will we get to the school?" asked Beatrice as she looked at the huge monastery that could be seen in the distance.

    "We are already there, follow me, I don''t want to waste any more time here," said Mr.- no Teacher Errol before walking to what looked like a large tomb with three monuments in front of it.

    Unlike normal ones, the large demonic-looking statues stood in front of this tomb, and as soon as Errol walking front of them, the three statues opened their eyes.

    Suddenly, one of the statues opened it''s mouth.

    "Errol Jarth Teacher, Beatrice Agnes Student," said the statue before closing both it''s mouth and eyes.

    Immediately after the statue said that, the tomb in front of them suddenly opened, revealing a several-meter-wide staircase that led to an underground tunnel.

    Merely a moment after that, Teacher Errol and Beatrice walked inside of the tunnel, rather, the underground building, as calling this place a tunnel would be a grand understatement.

    Even though Beatrice only just entered, she could see over three hundred different mage apprentices wearing black robes, some walking in the hall, some walking out of the hall, while another group stood at the counter at the center of the hall.

    "All these people here are students, you don''t have to worry, it isn''t usually this busy, now that a new group is coming in, prices have fluctuated a lot at those shops," said Errol as he saw Beatrice look at the scene before her with a surprised expression on her face.

    Suddenly, a smile appeared on Beatrice''s face as she looked at the group of students in front of her.

    "I think I came to the right place," mumbled Beatrice as she slightly licked her lips

    ...

    "Finally," mumbled Anne as she looked at the five hundred elemental stones in her hands, after a few moments, Anne walked up to the counter.

    "One Elixir of Darkness," said Anne to the clerk before placing the five hundred elemental stones on the counter.

    Hearing that, the clerk looked over the elemental stones before taking out a small dark bottle and handing it to Anne.

    Suddenly, as she walked back to her dorm with the Elixir of Darkness in hand, Anne felt a gaze on her.

    As if feeling that gaze, the hundred of scars, burns and foreign objects on Anne''s body suddenly ached, and at the same time, Anne almost fell to the ground.

    "Another maniac," thought Anne as she looked at the white-haired girl that was walking with Mr. Errol that was coming straight towards her.

    Gritting her teeth, Anne walked passed Beatrice, mumbling something as she did so.

    "I''m not a good experimental subject, you should look for someone else," mumbled Anne as she displayed the results of the previous experimentation as if to make Beatrice not regard her as a good experiment subject.

    Hearing what Anne said, Beatrice smiled before continuing to follow Mr. Errol

 Shadow Manastery 2

    Feeling his student''s curious gaze, Mr. Errol smiled.

    "That''s Anne, one of three students that signed up to help me with experiments, a while ago," said Errol as he continued walking.

    Hearing the word ''experiments'', and remembering the state of Anne''s body, Beatrice couldn''t help but imagine what kinds of experiments she participated in.

    But as she thought about that, a morbid curiosity appeared inside of Beatrice, back in her former laboratory, if any one of her subjects had such things done to them, they would have died thousands of times over. Still, remembering how Anne seemed alright even with the state of her body, Beatrice couldn''t help but want to begin experimenting.

    As Beatrice was still deep in thought, they had already arrived at a door.

    "This is where you will live, at least for the foreseeable future," said Mr. Errol of he pushed open the door, revealing a normal room.

    "After making yourself comfortable you should go and receive your elemental stones, you can go get them at the mission counter in this hall, I don''t think you need a map," said Mr. Errol as he then gave Beatrice a small sheet of metal.

    "You can use this to lock or unlock your door, don''t lose it or you will need to pay half an elemental stone to have it replaced," said Mr. Errol as began walking away.

    "Understood," said Beatrice as she held the small sheet of metal in her hands, feeling it''s tiny dents and curves that gave it a unique flair, when suddenly, another piece of luggage appeared next to Beatrice''s feet, alongside a small note on top of it.

    ''Come to my office in two weeks, there is a map inside'' said the note, presumably written by Mr. Errol, causing Beatrice to wonder if he was preparing this while he was talking to her, otherwise how could he have enough time to prepare all this?

    After reading the note, Beatrice stuffed it into one of her pockets before entering the room.

    "Some sort of way to gather elemental energy?" mumbled Beatrice as she felt the density of elemental energy increase substantially when she entered the room.

    Even though it was not that small, the room was quite empty, being comprised of a bed, a desk, a drawer, and a separate room that looked like a bathroom.

    As she put down her luggage on the side of her bed, Beatrice actually noticed another side room, this one being obscured by the drawer and not visible when she entered it.

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    Seeing this, a smile appeared on Beatrice''s face as she swiftly opened one of the pockets from her luggage and took out a small sack, and almost sprinted towards the side room.

    "This place really is nice," mumbled Beatrice as she looked at the bed standing in the middle of the room, although compared to normal beds, this one had a few distinguishing features, for example, it was much less wide and somewhat less tall, only being the size of a normal human, but the second most obvious things were the eight metal straps on it.

    Built out of solid metal, there were four straps for the four limbs, with one for the neck and three for the torso.

    As Beatrice slightly touched the metal straps with her fingers she suddenly felt her strength leave her body, causing her to quickly take it off.

    "This should even be able to restrain a Royal Knight," thought Beatrice as suddenly, keeping one of these pinnacles of human might captive suddenly became possible.

    After this Beatrice turned to the table on the side of the bed, and upon making sure that it was clean, Beatrice took out a bunch of things from her pouch.

    In merely a few moments dozens of scissors, knives, saws, needs, and other equipment appeared on it.

    After going back to her luggage, Beatrice even brought back a small axe, which should be used in case there is a need for rapid termination of all experiments.

    "This already feels like home," mumbled Beatrice as she looked at her newly created experimental room.

    After this, Beatrice returned to her own room before taking a look at what her teacher had given her.

    As she opened the backpack given to her, the first thing Beatrice noticed was the pitch-black robe, which was promptly thrown on the bed.

    The next item Beatrice picked up was a map, and as she unfolded it, Beatrice couldn''t help but suck in a cold breath of air.

    "This place is really huge," mumbled Beatrice as she looked at the multi-kilometer large area represented on the map in front of her.

    After taking another look in the backpack and seeing that it was just another set of experimental tools, Beatrice picked them up and placed them under the bed before picking up her new robe and wearing it.

    "This is really not as loose as I expected," mumbled Beatrice as she felt the black robe fit right around her body.

    Merely a few moments after that, Beatrice exited her room before walking back to where she came from, the large hall.

    Upon entering the hall, Beatrice noticed a stream of novice apprentices coming in, but Beatrice ignored them before walking towards the counter.

    "I want to receive my monthly elemental stones," said Beatrice as she looked at the female apprentice sitting opposite of her with a blank expression on her face, hearing what Beatrice had to say the girl stretched out her hand.

    Seeing this, Beatrice took out a golden token from under her robe, she then handed it to the girl.

    After this, the female apprentice took Beatrice''s token and pressed it against the counter, causing a small bag to appear next to it.

    "Automated?" thought Beatrice as she looked at the scene in front of her, but even so, she was not too, surprised as this was still extremely believable for mages to create.

    Suddenly a small stack of booklets that were sitting on the counter caught Beatrice''s eye.

    And as soon as Beatrice picked one up and opened it, an extremely surprised expression appeared on her face.

 Experiment

    Suddenly, Beatrice flipped to a page at the middle of the booklet, causing an extremely surprised expression to appear on her face as soon as she read the first words on it.

    ''Grand Knight level experimental subject 20 elemental stones, ten percent wholesale discount above ten units''

    ''Royal Knight level experimental subject, 200 elemental stones five percent wholesale discount above 10 units''

    As she read the first two lines she layed her eyes onto, Beatrice couldn''t help but let out a cough.

    Even though she had some expectations, using the word wholesale to describe royal knights made Beatrice feel a weird feeling inside of her.

    After taking a few more looks at the book, Beatrice turned back towards her room without buying anything, as she did not want to waste her precious elemental stones.

    Looking at her empty room, Beatrice let out a sigh before sitting cross-legged on the bed.

    ...

    A week later,

    Suddenly and without warning, as Beatrice meditated on her bed, she lost consciousness.

    "This is my inner darkness?" mumbled Beatrice as she struggled to see anything in the endless void around her, even though this was the insides of her own mind, as soon as Beatrice appeared here it seemed as if her mind wanted to devour itself.

    Even though she successfully visualized the rune, Beatrice only stood inside of her mind for a few moments, and after that, she exited it and found herself on her bed.

    "I''m almost there, I''m finally going to be a mage after all this time," mumbled Beatrice as happiness was shown on her usually emotionless face.

    But even though she had successfully done that, Beatrice once again went to sleep, not bothering to do anything else, as her mental well-being would have much more of an effect on her success rate.

    ...

    Sitting crosslegged, Beatrice took a deep breath before beginning to absorb the elemental energy in the air, and as soon as she did that, a large amount of elemental energy began flowing into Beatrice''s orifices

    "It''s close," mumbled Beatrice as she felt the elemental energy that entered her body begin to slowly transform into something else, and at the beginning of that transformation, something else was added to what would soon become mana.

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    From a rune that she was currently visualizing the Inner Darkness Rune, a large amount of darkness began pouring out of Beatrice''s mind and into the already volatile elemental energy which seemed to have been transformed by Beatrice''s body.

    And under the effects of the dark energy, the color of the elemental ener- no rather that of the mana began turning from grey to black, and after a while that same black mana began settling into Beatrice''s body.

    "This is great," mumbled Beatrice, who even though she had spent several hours in the exact same position, felt better than ever, and after a while, the flow of elemental energy into Beatrice''s body eventually slowed down before fully stopping, signaling the finishing of her transformation, but right now, Beatrice had to do one final thing.

    After making sure that no more elemental energy entered her body, Beatrice began visualizing the elemental rune from the Inner Darkness Meditation.

    Now that Beatrice''s mana was mixed with her inner darkness, under the control of the rune, her mana became completely stable and did not cause any trouble for her.

    ...

    Gritting her teeth, Beatrice looked at the official knight strapped onto the table with a sad look on her face as she had to spend five elemental stones to buy him, but of course, Beatrice persisted with her experiments.

    Thick streams of elemental energy then emerged from the two elemental stones, and under the man''s horrified gaze entered his body.

    After over an hours of being stable, just how Beatrice looked when she first became a Mage Apprentice five days ago, the official knight seemed calm, but as two hours passed some things began.

    "Thirty-two minutes longer, but it''s still very much poisonous unless transformed into mana," mumbled Beatrice as she looked at the official knight, who had just died under the effects of the elemental energy.

    Compared to the normal humans Beatrice experimented with, none of which had survived more than an hour and a half a half under the effects of such powerful elemental energy.

    Suddenly, all eight restraints on the bed suddenly opened, allowing the body of the dead knight to fall to the ground, or rather, fall halfway down before beginning to float, causing Beatrice to smile.

    After that, the body of the dead man then floated over to a table, on which he then rest.

    Suddenly Beatrice walked in front of the table before closing her eyes for a few moments, or rather, exactly 3.2 seconds.

    "I wasted to much mana," mumbled Beatrice as she wiped the sweat off her forehead and looked the small pitch-black knife in her hands

    Suddenly, Beatrice swung the knife at the hand of the dead knight, but rather embarrassingly for her, the knife in Beatrice''s hands passed through both the hand, perfectly separating it from the body and then the solid steel table.

    After that Beatrice picked up the hand before placing it in a large bag, completely disregarding the blood that landed on the floor, only making sure that the blood did not land on her skin, as Beatrice noticed something.

    "Even though he''s an official knight, it makes no diference," mumbled Beatrice as she felt the soggy texture of the hand and noticed that it was already rotting from the moment the subject died.

    Beatrice would have to conduct more experiments on the matter.

    ...

    "I want to go back to the prison," shouted John as he tried his best to escape from the restraints imposed on him, being much more willing to conduct physical labour in prison than be part of this experiment.

    But rather sadly, John had no choice in this matter, right now he could only stare at how Beatrice put more and more crushed rock into a watery mixture.

 Dark Bolt

    Looking at the crushed elemental stone powder she created, Beatrice felt a large amount of heartache, but even so she still mixed the powder into a liquid before putting it into a syringe.

    Without saying anything else, Beatrice began walking towards John with the syringe in hand.

    Seeing this John tried his best to escape his restraints as his body moved erratically, but sadly his strength as a knight seemed to have been sapped from him.

    Suddenly, John fainted as Beatrice moved closer to him.

    "The medicine worked well," mumbled Beatrice as she looked at the unconscious John before taking a look at his upper arm.

    After a few seconds of searching, Beatrice finally found a suitable vein, the promptly plucked the syringe into it, injecting all of it''s contents into John, body, and after that, Beatrice took out the syringe before making sure John did not lose too much blood.

    Suddenly, as Beatrice was looking at the tiny hole caused by the syringe, John opened his eyes and began struggling against the restraints.

    At the same time, John let out a loud scream.

    After struggling for a few minutes, John finally saw hope as he began being able to move his head, after that John did something that surprised Beatrice a lot.

    Without any warning, John began banging his head against the back of the bed with as much force as he could, causing Beatrice to fall into thought.

    Suddenly, a cracking noise was heard as John smashed his head against the bed one more time before stopping.

    "I need to add more restraints," mumbled Beatrice as she looked at John, who had committed suicide for an unknown reason.

    ...

    ''Subject committed suicide, assumed cause, pain, completely opposite of the previous subject, require further experimentation to see if this is an anomaly of whether powerful knights do have a certain resistance to elemental'' wrote Beatrice into her notebook before closing it.

    After putting the notebook into her robe, Beatrice went to her now tidy experimental room to pick up a large bag, even though Beatrice was an Offical Knight as well as a Mage Apprentice, and could easily lift over one hundred kilograms, she still found the huge bag somewhat heavy.

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    Taking the bag, Beatrice exited her room before walking to a particular section of the school, the trash disposal area.

    As soon as one entered the trash disposal area, one could see two large holes, the end of neither hole could be seen as the two seemed to stretch for eternity.

    Walking up to one of the holes, Beatrice held her nose with one hand while untying the bag with the other causing three bodies to fall into the hole that was meant for organic waste before throwing the bag into the other hole.

    "I need to take a bath," mumbled Beatrice as she walked out of the trash disposal area with a heavy smell of blood on her.

    ...

    After taking a bath, Beatrice returned to her bed and began reading a book, actually no, rather, Beatrice was rereading a few pages from a book over and over again.

    ''Basic Dark Magic Spells Vol 15 Section 1: Dark Bolt''

    For mages, there exist two ways to use magic power, the first being to rely on instinct, brute force or knowledge, the effects of this method are considered weak, an example of this method being the dark knife created by Beatrice when she was experimenting.

    Although sharper than normal knives, this knife has no practical use in combat and at the same time it drained Beatrice greatly, draining 11.34 out of her approximately 13 points of mana

    The only mages that can use method for combat are those ancient Offical Mages or Archmages whose knowledge had reached an incredibly unfathomable level, this, in fact, led to the creation of the second method.

    Even though these mages were unfathomably powerful, they, of course, could not be everywhere at the same time, as such, they created spells, rigid ways to use magical power to imitate their power, as to strengthen their subordinates.

    Sometimes these spells were still too complicated for some people, as such, they were further simplified into even more basic and weaker forms.

    This was the true origin of the spells Beatrice was studying right now.

    ''Dark Bolt, Rank 0 spell, simplified version of Rank 1 spell dark arrow, Mana Efficiency Coefficient 4''

    Looking at the large diagram that covered the entire page, Beatrice couldn''t help but be dazzled by it''s mysteries.

    The diagram, or spell circle of the Dark Bolt spell was divided into two parts, the bolt itself and the control module.

    As she looked at the method to construct the bold, Beatrice couldn''t help but read it once again, and again, and again.

    ...

    A week later,

    Right now Beatrice could be seen sitting still in the middle of a room with a half meter thick iron plate sitting in front of her, around ten meters away.

    Suddenly, a serious expression appeared on Beatrice''s face as she looked at the iron plate in front of her, causing Beatrice to close her eyes and take a deep breath.

    This state continued for over two seconds before a dark light began gathering in front of Beatrice, in only half a second, the dark light gathered into the shape of a small bolt, and then a moment later, the bolt rapidly went towards the iron plate.

    Even though she managed to see the bolt as it traveled towards the iron plate, Beatrice doubted whether she could control it, however, Beatrice did not have much time for doubts, as the bolt arrived in front of the iron plate a moment later.

    Suddenly, a white barrier extended from the floor and in front of Beatrice as sharp shards of iron flew in all directions from the now-destroyed iron plate.

    "How much damage could this do if it hit someone?" mumbled Beatrice as she imagined the scene while at the same time she looked at the bolt that was stuck in the wall of the room, thinking about how far this bolt could reach if not for the protective barrier of the room.

 Prophet

    After thinking a little bit more, Beatrice took another look at the destroyed iron plate before exiting the room, but as she was about to exit it, a few words then appeared on the door of the room alongside a hatch.

    ''Deposit one elemental stone''

    Looking at the text for a few moments, Beatrice gritted her teeth before taking out an elemental stone and throwing it into the hatch.

    As she did that, the door to the room suddenly opened, allowing Beatrice to go back to her own room, but at the same time,  a piece of paper appeared in front of Beatrice.

    ''Spell: Dark Bolt, Damage Index 2.7''

    After taking a look at the paper, an annoyed look appeared on Beatrice''s face, but even so, she still carefully put the piece of paper into her robe before walking out of the door.

    But as she was walking back to her room, Beatrice did not waste any time, still being deep in thought even now.

    "Two seconds and 5.7 points of mana, that''s really bad," mumbled Beatrice knowing that no enemy would wait two seconds for her.

    At the same time Beatrice was not too negative, feeling relieved that she did not fail in casting the spell, as such, she at least gained some experience.

    "One elemental stone for one spell, that''s way too expensive," thought Beatrice as she realized why although this place was extremely useful in training your mastery of spells, it was so deserted.

    As she thought about elemental stones, even Beatrice couldn''t help but be somewhat distraught, as even though she was extremely stingy with her experiments, only using three subjects, a large dent was still put in her elemental stone reserve.

    Alongside some other expenses like the spell testing room and saving forty elemental stones in case of an emergency, Beatrice now only had thirty elemental stones.

    "I''m not doing missions right now," mumbled Beatrice as she marked off that option, knowing that although her combat power had increased a lot since coming to the school, she was nowhere near the level of a senior apprentice.

    After raking her brains a little bit, and thinking as much as she could, Beatrice found no way to safely earn elemental stones at this moment, causing a sigh to exit her mouth.

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    "I need to take it a little slower," mumbled Beatrice as she silently brooded in her room.

    As Beatrice was going through her financial depression, a hidden meeting took place on this dark and gloomy Thursday.

    ...

    "From what I have seen, nothing important will happen in the next decade, It seems that we are safe for now," said a middle-aged woman as she looked at the old man sitting opposite of her.

    "Then I need to go back to the school, I haven''t gone back in the past fifty years, the vice-principal is probably shaking in anger right now," said the old man as he let out a laugh, feeling much better now that the Prophet had good news.

    As their dialogue implied, although this old man looked harmless, he was in fact the principal of the most powerful Mage School on the continent, The Wizard''s hand, Archmage Arif, the oldest among all of the members of the Magic Council.

    The magic council can be considered the supreme authority on the continent, being comprised of extremely powerful mages coming from both Dark and Light mage schools

    Even though the Wizard''s hand, which was named after an ancient magic spell was a Light Mage school, Archmage Ariv is usually the one to serve as a neutral third party, mostly because of his ancient age.

    "Good, make sure to take good care of the school while you are there, the moment I sense any sort of trouble I''m calling you back here," said the prophet, but before she could finish her sentence Archmage Ariv suddenly looked at her hair.

    "You should really stop trying to protect everything, you know how much trouble there would be if we lost you," said Ariv as he looked at the gray hair on the Prophet''s head.

    "You know I did that intentionally, I have full control of my body," said the Prophet, trying to deflect things.

    Hearing that, Archmage Ariv took a deep breath before ignoring what the Prophet said, knowing the latter''s soul had already been somewhat affected by conducting so many prophesies, doing at least one every ten years.

    "You of all people should know, Innate Talents can have many hidden consequences even if they seem small, you shouldn''t ignore them, especially for a talent like yours," said Ariv before getting up from the table and exiting the room.

    A silence ensued as the prophet stood alone in the empty room, seemingly staring at the gray hair on her head.

    "It''s all worth it," mumbled the prophet as she thought about how many lives she had saved, in a deep silence.

    Sometimes the prophet had the urge to throw those dark mages out of the Magic Council, of course, even when she had learned of the council''s existence, the prophet knew how catastrophic doing something like that would be.

    At the same time, in the headquarters of the Magic Council.

    ...

    Looking at the sticklike old man in front of him, Archmage Ariv couldn''t help but shake his head.

    "So nothing bad has been prophesied again I suppose?"  asked the sticklike old man, even though he looked like a lamp that had run out of fuel or a thin stick, this old man still inspired terror through all living beings, of course, other than the other Archmages.

    "That has been very much the case," said Ariv as he looked at the old man, rather, at Archmage Withered Soul, the principal of the Shadow Monastery.

    After a few moments, Ariv looked at Withered Soul for a moment before walking away.

    "Young people these days have no patience these days," mumbled Withered Soul, ignoring the fact that he was speaking about the second oldest Archmage at the Magic Council, second only to an ancient fossil like him.

 Mastery

    Several hours later,

    Sitting on top of the bed, Beatrice took a deep breath before closing her eyes, a beginning to meditate.

    Several minutes later, only a mage with extremely precise control over his mana would be able to see it, a tiny stream of elemental energy going into Beatrice''s body.

    But even though it was an extremely tiny amount, Beatrice still hurried along, not wanting this stuff in her body longer than necessary, and as such, a rune suddenly appeared in her mind.

    As that rune appeared in Beatrice''s mind, a slow but steady transformation of the elemental energy started taking place, as such under the influence of Beatrice''s inner darkness and after several minutes the elemental energy was fully transformed into Beatrice''s own mana.

    But as Beatrice sent the mana deeper into her body, it was suddenly stopped for a very simple reason, Beatrice was already at the limit of how much mana her body could contain, and this new mana that she refined could no longer fit in.

    Gritting her teeth, Beatrice finally began the last but most difficult part of increasing your mana pool, this was the place where talent truly shined for the first time and the diference between mage apprentices was created.

    Without any hesitation, Beatrice began forcefully pushing the mana she had just created deeper into her body, causing her eyes to instantly appear bloodshot from the utterly horrific pain she was feeling right now.

    After over half an hour of grinding the mana against her body the last of the mana she had created was finally either destroyed or pushed inside of her body, prompting Beatrice to once again begin the process.

    Two hours later,

    Just as Beatrice was about to try to push another wave of mana into her body, she suddenly stopped.

    "That''s enough for today," thought Beatrice as the sharp pain that was totally different from the pain she had felt for the past two hours resounded in her mind.

    After that, Beatrice dissipated the extra mana she had just created before gritting her teeth.

    "I can''t be too stingy, this would waste too much time," thought Beatrice, deciding that testing her mana capacity by transforming it into physical mana and weighing it would take too much time.

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    ...

    Even though she had just bought it, looking at the tiny stone slab in her hands which had cost her eight elemental stones, Beatrice felt extremely mad at her lazy self.

    Of course, now that she had bought it, Beatrice could no longer do anything about that as she swiftly walked back to her room.

    ...

    "This piece of junk better be precise," mumbled Beatrice as she sat down on her bed before pressing the stone slab on her forehead.

    After a few moments, a beep was suddenly heard on the stone slab, causing Beatrice to take it off her forehead and to look at it.

    ''13.322786...''

    Looking at the number on the slab, Beatrice breathed a sigh of relief, it seemed as if her measurements were right, she had around thirteen points of mana, but even though she was roughly right, Beatrice actually had somewhat more mana than she had expected

    "Then I''m doing worse than I thought," mumbled Beatrice.

    In order to see how much mana using Dark Bolt took, Beatrice took her previous approximated mana pool before seeing how big of a proportion of that the spell took, as such, she arrived at the amount of mana it took to cast the spell.

    "43.38... percent of my mana or 5.84 points of mana," thought Beatrice as she lowered her head in slight shame.

    After calculating that number, Beatrice couldn''t help but try to think of ways to improve her skills in the spell, when suddenly, she couldn''t help but think of the spell testing room, or rather, the wall which managed to contain her attack.

    Suddenly, Beatrice got up from her bed before walking towards her experimental room, or rather a corner of it.

    After a while, Beatrice closed her eyes, and two seconds later, a fully formed dark bolt appeared in her hand, after a few moments of hesitation, Beatrice focused before releasing the dark bolt, causing it to be launched towards the bed in the middle of the room.

    "It''s as I expected, they are made of the same metal," mumbled Beatrice as she watched the dark bolt, which was capable of utterly destroying iron, dissipate upon touching the restraints that were placed on the bed.

    "If the bed breaks, I will just replace it and put the restraints on the new one, and in this way, I will even test my aiming," thought Beatrice as her new testing ground was created.

    Back when Mr. Errol had seen that his apprentice was interested in experimentation, and had given her a room with a specially built experimentation compartment, he could not have expected that this would happen.

    Three weeks later,

    "I did this before and I can do this," mumbled Carl as he looked at the mage apprentice sitting in the corner of the room.

    Suddenly, the mage closed her eyes, and merely half a second later, a dark light flashed toward Carl at an incredible speed.

    From the moment the Dark Bolt appeared, Carl had already jumped to the side, causing the attack to miss, but before Carl could even have time to recollect himself, he suddenly jumped forward, dodging the Dark Bolt, which changed it''s course mid-air.

    After dodging the bolt a few more times, Carl couldn''t help but be happy, as he saw the Female mage apprentice look slightly tired, right now, he saw hope at survival.

    Seeing this, Beatrice smiled.

    "If you had survived this round, I would have let you go," said Beatrice as she waved her hand, causing the previously immaterial string which controlled the dark bolt to materialize in her hand.

    As Beatrice controlled it, the string, which had already incircled Carl by using the Dark Bolt as a method of transportation, tightened around the latter''s neck, causing Carl''s head to fall off.

 The power of Knowledge

    After placing Carl''s dead body into a random bag to throw out later, Beatrice closed the experimental room''s door.

    She sat down on the bed, completely satisfied with her progress in the past two weeks in regard to the Dark Bolt spell.

    Although she had to create a string to control her spell, since she was not yet able to control it without any link, she wasted a lot of mana due to the increased cost that her string added. But this wasn''t hopeless, after all, she already managed to reduce the amount of mana spent to around 4.6, which was a large improvement.

    Another good news was when she got out her measurement stone and placed it on her forehead to inspect her mana pool''s new capacity.

    ''14.41''

    This means her reserve of mana increased about an average of 0.1 per day. Satisfied with her performance, she smiled brightly.

    "In five or six months I will be considered a High Ranking Mage Apprentice," mumbled Beatrice as her increase in power brought untold joy to her.

    Mage apprentices are divided into three levels, namely Lower Apprentices High, Apprentices and Peak Apprentices.

    While the boundary between Low and High Apprentices was rather arbitrary, being thirty points of mana, to be considered a Peak Apprentice, one has to reach the maximum capacity of mana the human body can hold.

    Although this fluctuates between people, it mostly varies by a few points, being around 78 to 82 points of mana.

    When she was done with evaluating her progression, Beatrice decided to change subject and pulled a thick book from under her bed.

    The size of the book was headache inducing, but it''s subject, mainly Physics, was elemental to a lot of Beatrice''s spell so she couldn''t skip it. As laborious the task would be, she started reading with attention.

    Other than some extremely rare and esoteric types of magic, the main use of physics for mages was the manipulation of speed and gravity around their spell, which would impact greatly its efficiency. Beatrice''s dark bolt were both lacking in speed and efficiency and to understand the reason for this, she must first know one critical part of her spell: the Mana coefficient.

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    A mana coefficient is the maximum amount of mana at which the spell still operates efficiently. As an example: the Dark Bolt spell, it has a coefficient of around 4 so if we increase the mana output into the spell (use more mana than necessary) this will only destabilise the casting and make it fizzle out instead of empowering it.

    The reason for the existence of the mana coefficient is very simple: simplification, as increasing the amount of mana that can be used efficiently by the spell is exceedingly difficult for apprentice mages.

    For example, the original form of the Dark Bolt spell, the Rank 1 Dark Arrow, has a Mana Coefficient of 15, and as such, is tens of times more complicated than its Rank 0 counterpart.

    Physics can be used as a way for mages to increase the power of their spells without increasing their mana cost.

    ...

    Somewhere, into the forest...

    A silhouette was observing three large tent containing trolls that were mostly asleep. The observer smiled, and pulled out a small device from his pocket.

    "Your hearing will not save you," thought Leylin before looking at the device in his hands.

    After sending a tiny amount of mana into it, a screen flashed, writings detailing multiple metrics like the atmospheric pressure, wind speed, the humidity, the elemental energy level and even the spatial stability of the region were now available to Leylin.

    After analysing every factors, Leylin fell in deep thoughts, as a wave of calculations were taking place inside his mind. Being in such a confortable setting, and having no direct threat, he took his time.

    Thirty minutes later,

    A transparent barrier appeared in an instant around Leylin, and before a leaf falling from a tree could touch the ground, an extremely uncanny Dark Bolt appeared in front of him.

    If we had to compare it to Beatrice''s Dark Bolt, this one was very distorted, some regions of it being flat, while others curved. Despite it''s shape the bolt''s weight was balanced to perfection, making it perfect for reaching higher speed when launched.

    Instantly, the Dark Bolt was no longer in front of Leylin, as the barrier that was protecting him was suddenly impacted by three sonic booms.

    As the Bolt was faster than sound, the Troll''s supernatural hearing could not save them of something they didn''t even have the time to process. By the time the "pop" of Leylin''s spell woke them up, their camp, trolls included, when blown into smithereens.

    As unbelievable as it is, the three powerful trolls, which could each crush Leylin into meat paste in a straight-up fight, were all dead without any resistance.

    The commotion got for answer the howls of multiples giant wolves, local inhabitants of the forest. They were approaching rapidly to inspect the cause of the explosion.

    Hearing the howls nearing his position, Leylin silently fled the scene, not wanting to fight an unnecessary fight unprepared. His mission already finished he had nothing left to do here.

    Although the speed of the bolt was incredibly fast, three times faster than the speed of sound, Leylin could still do better. He recalled when he had to kill a troll warlord, whose hearing and magic sense was extremely sensitive accompanied with an inhuman reaction time that even speed of sound wouldn''t be enough for spell to hit it by surprise. This prompted Leylin to spend over half a month creating the perfect dark bolt, the same one he used today against the three trolls and prepare the terrain.

    Given enough time, any mage would become a menace. The more knowledgeable they were of their environment, the harder it was for any unsuspecting foe walking into their domain to fight efficiently. And some mage, to avoid the hassle of always having to do all these calculations, made their own tower, thus establishing a zone where every factor that usually degraded their spell to be under their control.

 Classes

    Looking at the huge amount of formulas and numbers she had written down in her notebook, Beatrice couldn''t help but feel somewhat overwhelmed, but even so, she still persevered on and continued reading it and noting down everything she deemed important

    After reading the physics book for more than an hour, Beatrice finally gave up and picked up Mr. Errol''s biology notebook.

    In merely a few moments, Beatrice was sucked right into the notebook as she continued reading Mr. Errol''s analysis of the human body.

    An unknown amount of time later,

    "I fell asleep after reading," mumbled Beatrice as she slowly opened her eyes and felt the notebook in her arms.

    After fully waking up, Beatrice did not waste any more time, she then got up before putting the notebook on the side of the bed and going to the bathroom.

    ...

    Staring into the empty wall as warm water brushed against her skin, Beatrice was fully relaxed, as the let the water wash her body, a thought suddenly entered Beatrice''s mind.

    "Maybe I should go to class?" thought Beatrice as interest flashed through Beatrice''s eyes.

    In the three weeks that Beatrice was at the Shadow Monastery, she felt no need to go to class, but at this moment, Beatrice felt some interest in going to it and seeing what it was like.

    ...

    Looking at the white-haired girl that was sitting and reading a notebook, in her usual seat, the corner, Anne suddenly felt as if fate was against her.

    Suddenly, Anne turned to look at the large classroom behind her, but sadly, every table seemed to have been filled up by groups of students.

    "What the hell, since when are so many students interested in biology?" thought Anne before sitting down at the same table as the white haired girl.

    Even though she was an older student, and a High-Rank apprentice at that, Anne did not have much interest in Biology, as such she did not take this class up until now, it was not that Anne did not try to study from a book, but for some reason, those words did not seem to want to stick to her brain.

    Just as Anne put her book on the table, she suddenly heard a question.

    "So, what kinds of experiments did you help Mr. Errol with?" asked the white-haired girl, as her eyes raised themselves from the notebook and onto Anne.

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    "Is this the way you should start conversations?" thought Anne, beginning the conversation with the other person''s dark history did not seem like the best idea.

    "Just helping him test the compatibility between humans and animals," said Anne as she suddenly felt a very familiar feeling.

    "She''s just like him," thought Anne as goosebumps appeared on both of her arms, feeling the gaze that was looking at her.

    "So, did you gain any extra strength from combing yourself with an ant?" asked the white-haired girl, causing Anne to flinch.

    "How did you know?" asked Anne as she actually did not deny white-haired girl words.

    "You have six large scars on your torso don''t you?" asked the white-haired girl, causing Anne to remember the first meeting between the two.

    "Since it seems like teacher has just begun to experiment in this field, he probably did not choose any Elemental Beast, as such, those six scars were probably ant legs am I right?" asked the white-haired girl as she casually picked up Anne''s notebook without Anne even raising an eyebrow.

    "I didn''t gain any increased strength," said Anne as she, who was much more powerful than the white-haired girl, seemed rather afraid of her.

    Suddenly, Anne noticed a palm stretch out in front of her.

    "Hi, my name is Beatrice, nice to meet you"

    ...

    Looking at the teacher, who was speaking about the different types of plants and animals, normal or supernatural, Beatrice felt extremely bored.

    Although these things were extremely important, Beatrice already knew the different types of normal plants by heart, and any that she did not yet know had already been learned by Beatrice from books.

    As such, Beatrice''s eyes turned toward the much more interesting thing that was sitting right next to her.

    Of course, the one teaching the class was not an Official Mage, otherwise, Beatrice would have been extremely attentive even if she knew the material by heart.

    Looking at Anne who was sitting next to her, Beatrice''s eyes moved all around her.

    "The legs alongside the exoskeleton actually grew out, I wonder how Mr. Errol actually managed to do that," thought Beatrice, at the same time, she noticed the particular absence of the antennae.

    "Did your spit become more acidic?" asked Beatrice as she looked at Anne.

    "Yes although not by much," said Anne, who was writing in her notebook at the same time.

    A while later

    After seeing that the lesson was over, Beatrice smiled before getting up from her table and deciding to never attend this lesson ever again.

    Waving her hands at Anne, Beatrice then began walking towards the other lesson she wanted to take.

    "An Official Mage," thought Beatrice as she felt the atmosphere suddenly change as soon as she entered the physics classroom.

    Looking at the old man sitting at a table in the center of the classroom, Beatrice instinctively felt some fear.

    A few moments later, Beatrice once again sat at the familiar corner table, and a few minutes after she arrived here, someone else walked up to the table.

    Without saying a word, Anne took out both her physics book and notebook before placing them on the table.

    "I''m going to borrow this until class starts," said Beatrice as she picked up the notebook before beginning to read it.

    "It seems he pretty much follows the book," thought Beatrice as she suddenly realized that something was missing.

    "Did you not talk about gravity?" asked Beatrice as she gave the notebook back to Anne.

    "The teacher said that we will talk about it today," said Anne, creating some anticipation in Beatrice.

    After a while, the old man that was sitting at the center of the room stood up.

 Gravity

    "I''m sure that all of you have read the book and are acquainted with gravity, am I right?" asked the old man as he got up from his chair.

    Hearing the silence coming from the crowd, a smile appeared on the face of the old man.

    "If you just want to increase the power of your ballistic spells, that''s all you, what I''m about to try to teach you doesn''t really matter, gravity is the force of attraction between objects based on their mass, that''s the explanation the book gave you right?" asked the old man.

    "Yes," responded a brave student sitting at the front desk, causing a smile to appear on the face of the teacher.

    "Good, since that is true, then why does gravity increase depending on the concentration of elemental energy?" asked the old man, causing a surprised expression to appear on the faces of nearly all the students, including Beatrice.

    "It''s true," mumbled Beatrice as she remembered the heaviness she first felt when she arrived in the zone with increased elemental energy, back then, she had thought that was the elemental energy itself weighing down upon her.

    "Is it the weight of the elemental energy?" asked another student, causing an angry expression to actually appear on the face of the old man.

    Hearing what the student said, an angry expression appeared on the face of the old man,

    Ignoring the urge to bash the head of that certain student in with his, fist, the old man continued.

    "The reason the concentration of elemental energy can greatly increase the gravity of an area is quite simple, gravity is not a force, rather It is the curvature of space caused by matter and energy," said the old man, causing a large number of students to scratch their heads.

    "While mass works well, elemental energy, in fact, most effectively curves space, as such, it can increase gravity to extremely unimaginable levels," said the old man.

    Suddenly, the old man noticed a girl sitting in a corner with her left hand up.

    "What?" asked the old man.

    "If that''s true, then why does the concentration of elemental energy cause us to be pulled towards the ground, wouldn''t it rather pull from the ground," asked Beatrice as she spotted a rather obvious flaw in the words of the teacher.

    Hearing that, a smile appeared on the face of the old man.

    "Little girl, there are two reasons what you said doesn''t happen, the first of which is Concentration, although a larger amount of elemental energy is sitting above us rather than below, the elemental energy in the ground is much more concentrated, and can affect gravity much more effectively," said the old man before letting the students think for a moment.

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    "Although concentration does have some effect, alone, this would not have been nearly enough for it to counteract the gravity of the elemental energy above, after this, something else comes into play, the elemental energy of our world is mirrored," said the old man, causing some confusion to appear on the face of the students.

    Suddenly, a small sphere appeared in the hands of the old man, causing something to click in Beatrice''s mind.

    "As some of you may have guessed from my words, our world is, in fact as a sphere, and on this sphere, the concentration of elemental energy is mirrored from side to side, and as such, the amount of elemental energy ''below'' you is much much greater than above you," said the old man, seemingly happy that he got his point across.

    After answering some more questions for a few moments, the old man seemingly returned to his former self, reading from the book and answering questions in a standard manner, but at this time, Beatrice''s mind was thinking about other things.

    "A sphere," mumbled Beatrice as some thoughts stirred inside of her mind.

    After ending the lesson, Beatrice walked out of the classroom with a zombie-like expression on her face, burying her head into the physics book as she walked back to her room

    Several hours later,

    Looking at the messy equations occupying several pages of her notebook, Beatrice couldn''t help but take a deep breath before closing it.

    "I need to not be obsessed," mumbled Beatrice before getting up from her bed and wanting to practice the Dark Bolt, but as she was halfway there, Beatrice suddenly stopped in her tracks before going back onto her bed.

    After sitting comfortably on her bed, a book suddenly began floating from under it and into her hands.

    "That was somewhat easier than before," mumbled Beatrice before opening the spellbook and going to the sixth page, completely ignoring the Dark Bolt spell.

    Even though she wanted to practice it, as soon as Beatrice thought about how much the spell had to do with physics, Beatrice knew that diving into it right now wasn''t a good idea, as such, she went on to the second most basic spell for her to learn.

    The Dark Barrier

    Looking at the spell, which seemed much more simple than the Dark Bolt, Beatrice had a lot of confidence in herself.

    ...

    The next day,

    As Beatrice was reading the Biology notebook Mr. Eroll had left behind for her, she suddenly raised her head before sighing.

    Suddenly, a transparent dark barrier erupted around her, and a few moments after that, the barrier became more and more transparent, being barely visible, after that Beatrice turned her attention back to the notebook.

    Three minutes later,

    Raising her head again, Beatrice resisted letting her frustration get the best of her, and after a few moments, another Dark Barrier erupted around her.

    The Dark Barrier spell has two different modes, the active and passive mode, whilst in the active mode, the Barrier can block attacks, whilst the barrier is in the passive mode, the barrier consumes a trivial amount of mana, if anything thing tries to attack Beatrice, the barrier while spontaneously change into active mode.

    Although the spell itself was very simple and strong, as compared to attacking, defending was easier, mastering keeping the passive mode active all the time was something that Beatrice seemed to struggle with.

    So much so that she ended up back here.

    Looking at the door of Mr. Errol''s room, Beatrice knocked on it, causing a voice to come from inside of it.

    "Come in"

 Rocks

    "Um, so you need help with the Dark Barrier spell, I understand," said Mr. Errol, not raising his head from the notebook in front of him.

    "Is there any method that could help me?" asked Beatrice as she looked at her teacher without any expression on her face.

    "You can go now, It''s done, you don''t need to do anything, you can live normally," said Mr. Errol, causing Beatrice to go up and leave the room with a puzzled expression on her face.

    After talking about that, Beatrice began walking back to her room, but just as she was halfway there, Beatrice suddenly felt a sharp pain on her arm.

    Merely a moment after that, a Dark Barrier emerged around Beatrice, as she now stared at the small rock that had hit her on her arm.

    As she walked back to her room, Beatrice remained stoic as the Dark Barrier remained around her body, but unlike what she had expected, no rocks hit the barrier, causing Beatrice to be somewhat puzzled.

    But still, Beatrice took Mr. Errol''s advice and did not pay much attention to it, rather focusing on reading the notebook in front of her.

    After a few minutes, Beatrice had already become focused on the notebook when she suddenly felt a sharp burst of pain in her head as a rock cruelly hit her straight in the forehead.

    Without a second thought, Beatrice once again activated the Dark Barrier spell, before once again focusing on the notebook.

    As she was reading the notebook, Beatrice endlessly reactivated the Dark Barrier spell again and again, an unknown amount of times.

    ...

    Feeling the warm water flow over her, Beatrice let out a relaxed sigh when suddenly, a rock hit her in the arm, causing her to instantly open her eyes before once again activating the Dark Barrier spell.

    After finishing her shower, Beatrice threw herself onto the bed to go to sleep, with the Dark Barrier spell still active.

    "This was really tiring," mumbled Beatrice as she couldn''t help but instantly fall asleep.

    A few minutes after Beatrice had fallen, she who usually slept really well suddenly opened her eyes as she felt an ever so familiar pain on her thigh.

    Without even moving, another Dark Barrier emerged around Beatrice, and a few moments later, she once again managed to fall asleep.

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    Suddenly, a few minutes later, Beatrice once again opened her eyes before activating the Dark Barrier spell.

    This cycle continued on and on, Beatrice would fall asleep, and then a few minutes later, would be woken up by a rock.

    At midnight.

    Just as Beatrice wanted to once again fall asleep, she suddenly opened her eyes and got up from the bed.

    Without any words, Beatrice began making her bed again, throwing every single rock she found inside of it in a corner of her room, to be disposed of later.

    Just as Beatrice had finished making her bed, her eyes suddenly became bloodshot as she threw the rock that had just hit her right into the pile.

    But sadly, Beatrice had thrown the rock with s much force that the pile was suddenly smashed to pieces, and the rocks were thrown to the entirety of her room.

    Rather surprisingly, even though Beatrice had thrown the rock out of anger, and left herself with no time to react, the rocks that were send flying towards her were suddenly stopped by a Dark Barrier that appeared around her a few moments before.

    In her anger, Beatrice did not pay attention to this, but after she calmed down, a smile couldn''t help but appear on her face.

    "That''s indeed very useful," mumbled Beatrice as she once again became focused on gathering the rocks from all corners of her room, but just as Beatrice was looking at the now clean room, a rock once again hit her in the thigh.

    Without any anger, Beatrice threw the rock onto the pile before going back to sleep, this time with a smile on her face.

    Even though the smile on Beatrice''s face disappeared fifteen minutes later, when she was woken up by another rock, no more anger was present on her face, rather, she emotionlessly picked up the rock before throwing in in another corner.

    ...

    Looking at the second pile of rocks that sh had begun creating after midnight, which was only on sixth the size of the first pile, a satisfied expression appeared on Beatrice''s face.

    After that, Beatrice took a small shower before walking into her experimental room.

    A few moments later, a small Dark Bolt appeared in Beatrice''s hand, but compared with her previous Dark Bolt, this one had some large differences.

    Suddenly, the bolt flew off towards the bed in the middle of the room, but just as it was about to hit it, the bolt suddenly flew under the restraints of the bed, through the place where the left arm would be restrained.

    As soon as the bolt passed through the restraint, it suddenly took a ninety-degree turn, and in only a few moments, passed through all of the restraints, but suddenly, in a mere moment, the Dark Bolt slightly touched the bed, causing it to suddenly disintegrate.

    "This Is actually is even more challenging than keeping it on while sleeping," mumbled Beatrice as she looked at the small rock that had just hit her in the arm.

    As that happened, Beatrice couldn''t help but think of some other methods to train.

    ...

    "As expected of someone with her amount of natural Spiritual Energy, she''s improving very fast," thought Mr. Errol as over the course of only a day felt the mana that he delegated to that spell begin to be consumed slower and slower.

    Suddenly, a genius idea popped up into the mind of Mr. Errol, causing a devious smile to appear on the face of Mr. Errol.

    At that moment, a new mission suddenly appeared on the mission counter.

    ''Hiring a Mage Apprentice who has fully mastered the Dark Barrier spell for three days, 50 elemental stones, no life threatening danger''

 Test

    As she looked at the random rocks around her room Beatrice couldn''t help but smile.

    "Maybe I should try other methods of training," mumbled Beatrice as she fell into deep thought, but suddenly, an explosion was heard from the experimental room as a rock suddenly hit Beatrice in the thigh, surprising her and leaving a stinging pain.

    "I should just stick with this for now," mumbled Beatrice as she got up from her bed before walking to the experimental room.

    After a few moments, Beatrice walked up to a metal restraint, which was now stuck in a wall instead of being on a bed, and started tugging at it.

    With Beatrice''s supernatural strength, the metal restraint was removed from the wall only after a few moments, leaving a smile indent into the wall.

    "I can fix this later," mumbled Beatrice as she picked up the other restraints, which thankfully, were not stuck in a wall.

    Thankfully, Beatrice did not have to clean up the remains of the bed, as it was completely annihilated from existence by the Dark Bolt.

    After putting the restraints in a corner of the room, Beatrice went into the bathroom to take a shower before exiting her room.

    A few minutes of leisurely walking later, Beatrice arrived at the physics classroom.

    "It''s almost full," mumbled Beatrice as she looked at the classroom, which had almost all of it''s tables occupied, when suddenly, her eyes brightened.

    ...

    As she was reading her notebook, Anne suddenly heard a pair of light footsteps coming towards her, causing her to look up from her notebook.

    Looking at the seemingly friendly white-haired girl walking towards her, Anne couldn''t help but instinctively become cautious.

    Without even asking for permission, Beatrice sat down at the same table as Anne with a smile on her face, and then, after a few moments, she brought out a thick notebook from her robe before beginning to read it.

    ...

    Even though she was continually writing down formulas in her notebook, Anne''s eyes occasionally darted to Beatrice, trying to see what the white-haired girl was doing.

    One such time, Anne couldn''t help but slightly jump.

    Looking at the white-haired that was staring at her while showing her sharp teeth, extreme apprehension appeared in Anne''s eyes.

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    ...

    Suddenly, Beatrice felt a gaze watching her, looking at Anne, who was staring at her with a fearful look on her face, Beatrice couldn''t help but frown.

    "Hallucinations," mumbled Beatrice as she suddenly felt a small pain on her leg.

    As soon as that happened, Beatrice caught the rock that was about to fall down before throwing it at Anne, causing the latter to suddenly jolt awake.

    ...

    Looking at Beatrice, who seemed to have returned to normal, Anne couldn''t help but feel embarrassed.

    "Sorry," whispered Anne as she looked at Beatrice with an even more embarrassed expression.

    ...

    After the lesson was over and she was walking out of the classroom, Anne couldn''t help but become absent-minded, when suddenly, she felt something prick her on her arm.

    Looking at the pure black paper plane in that had hit her, Anne suddenly became cautious, and without even looking at what the plane contained, threw it in a nearby trashcan, a few moments after the plane was thrown into a trashcan, it suddenly began dissipating before completely disappearing.

    At the same time in another location.

    "She won''t even read my message, that''s not good," mumbled Beatrice as she silently dissipated the construct she had created from her mana, and at the same time, Beatrice temporarily shelved the plan to have Anne help her with experiments.

    "Guess I will have to experiment alone," mumbled Beatrice before sitting cross-legged on her bed and beginning to refine mana, so as to increase her mana capacity.

    Five days later,

    As soon as Beatrice woke up and opened her eyes, she suddenly got up from her bed and went to take a shower, as a message suddenly appeared in her mind.

    "Come to my office today, I need to test your improvement," said Mr. Errol''s voice, resounding in her mind.

    "It''s best if I get this over with in the morning," thought Beatrice as warm water washed over her body.

    After taking a shower, Beatrice got dressed before walking out of her room and walking in a particular direction.

    As more and more time passed, the lights that lit up the hallway became more and more scarce, the sounds of students walking and talking also slowly disappeared as well, leaving only silence as Beatrice walked up to a familiar door.

    "Come in," said Mr. Errol''s voice as soon as Beatrice knocked on the door.

    The moment Beatrice entered the room, something suddenly attracted her, in the middle of it.

    Looking at the huge hulking metal machine in the middle of the room, Beatrice couldn''t help but stare at it.

    But after a few moments, Beatrice walked up to Mr. Errol''s desk before sitting on a chair in front of it.

    Suddenly, a pen and a few sheets of paper suddenly appeared in front of Beatrice.

    "You have thirty minutes to complete this test," said Mr. Errol before opening a book and beginning to read it.

    Looking at the questions, which were a mix of Biology and Physics, Beatrice couldn''t help but breathe a sigh of relief.

    Even though the were placed side by side, it was clear that the Physics questions were much easier.

    As such, even though Beatrice''s physics knowledge wasn''t that good in her opinion, she still managed to complete those questions, as for the Biology questions, Beatrice flew through them first, finishing them in five minutes.

    Twenty-nine minutes later,

    The moment Beatrice put down the pen as she had finished the last question, the test suddenly disappeared from her hand, appearing in Mr. Errol''s hands, causing Beatrice to become slightly worried.

    Suddenly, Beatrice felt a stinging pain on her thigh as a small rock struck her, causing her to reactivate the Dark Barrier that was always around her.

    After only thirty seconds, Mr. Errol put down the test before nodding.

    "You did decent enough, now go enter it," said Mr. Errol as he pointed towards the metal machine.

 Results

    As soon as she entered the machine, Beatrice suddenly lost control of her body, but thankfully, this loss was only brief as she quickly regained control.

    Suddenly, another piece of paper appeared in front of Mr. Errol.

    ''Mana: 15.935786...''

    ''Spiritual power: 21.4''

    The moment Mr. Errol looked at the paper in front of him he almost fell out of his chair.

    Although quite high for someone with B grade talent, Mr. Errol was not surprised by the amount of mana Beatrice had, but looking at the huge improvement in spiritual energy, he couldn''t help but take in a deep breath.

    "It seems the Basic Meditation technique had even less of an effect than I thought, could her natural spiritual power have been above ten?" thought Mr. Errol as he looked at Beatrice, who was exiting the machine right now.

    "Hmm, you passed this one as well," said Mr. Errol as put the piece of paper down on the table.

    Hearing that, Beatrice couldn''t help but breathe a sigh of relief, unaware of Mr. Errol''s deeper thoughts.

    But before Beatrice could say anything, she suddenly felt a sharp pain on her chin as a rock suddenly hit her, causing a smile to appear on Mr. Errol''s face.

    "Use the Dark Bolt spell and attack me," said Mr. Errol as a Dark Barrier once again appeared around Beatrice.

    Merely a fraction of a second after Mr. Errol said that, a Dark Bolt then began flying straight toward his face.

    But before the dark bolt could touch him, Mr. Errol suddenly disappeared, prompting the Dark Bolt to suddenly turn backward, and fly by the left side of Beatrice and behind her, straight at Mr. Errol, who appeared at the back of the room, leaving an invisible and untouchable string behind it.

    The same as last time, the Dark Bolt suddenly turned right as its target once again disappeared from sight, as Beatrice did her best to maneuver it, leaving her no time to think about other things.

    Looking at the attack coming towards him, a smile appeared on Mr. Errol''s face.

    "Pretty good, but still lacking a little bit, but overall you passed," said Mr. Errol as he appeared in his seat, causing the Dark Bolt to suddenly shift and go towards him.

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    Unlike before, as the Dark Bolt neared him, Mr. Errol did not disappear, but rather, his head which was the target of the attack suddenly went backward as his neck stretched to a clearly unnatural degree, causing the bolt to fly by him, just missing him.

    After that, Mr. Errol suddenly raised one of his fingers as a tiny amount of Dark Mana suddenly came out from it, the mana from his finger then rapidly flew into the extremely thin immaterial string that Beatrice used to control the Dark Bolt, causing it to suddenly materialize, and at the same time, Beatrice''s attack suddenly stopped in it''s tracks.

    Merely a moment later, Mr. Errol suddenly tugged at the string which had already encircled Beatrice, causing it to suddenly tighten and restrain her.

    As if to add insult to injury, merely moments after Beatrice was incapacitated by the string, she felt a small rock suddenly hit her on the arm, causing a Dark Barrier to suddenly appear around Beatrice, but sadly, this barrier was not there a few moments ago to defend against the string.

    Thankfully, a few moments later, Mr. Errol stopped sending mana into the string, causing it to dematerialize and freeing Beatrice from it''s restraints.

    "With only two major errors, you can be considered to have done quite well, even a little bit better than I expected," said Mr. Errol, causing Beatrice to sit down at his desk.

    "That''s good," mumbled Beatrice as she breathed a sigh of relief.

    Suddenly, a stack of books appeared on Mr. Errol''s desk, causing Beatrice to take a look at the book that was the highest up.

    ''Basic Mind Manipulation Vol I''

    "With your high spiritual power, you can already begin trying to learn some Mind Manipulation and Control spells, but if you fail right now, don''t be surprised, I''m giving them to you quite early, but I really can''t predict the growth of your spiritual power accurately," said Mr. Errol as pushed the stack of books towards Beatrice.

    Picking up the first book, Beatrice began flipping through it.

    "This author is really stingy with spells," thought Beatrice as she looked at the two-hundred-page phycology book with a single spell added on at the end of it, causing Beatrice to look at the cover of the book.

    ''Author: Errol Dankurk''

    Looking at the name of the author, Beatrice no longer had any other thoughts, merely putting the first book down before picking up another one.

    "Also, make sure to master the Dark Barrier spell thoroughly, you will get a big surprise when you do so," said Mr. Errol as he added a second part to the curse he placed on Beatrice.

    "Understood Mr. Errol," said Beatrice as she picked up the stack of books, unsure of what her teacher meant with his words.

    After picking up the stack of books, Beatrice walked out of the room, leaving Mr. Errol alone.

    "Hopefully you like the surprise I prepared for you," mumbled Mr. Errol as he let out a small laugh as he thought about the result of his latest experiment.

    Two days ago,

    Looking at the small bag with fifty elemental stones, Jeremy smiled.

    "It''s all worth it," mumbled Jeremy as he felt the hundreds of bruises on his body ache at the same time from what he had experienced these past three days.

    ...

    Walking back to her room with a stack of books in her hands, Beatrice no longer cared about the surprise mentioned about Mr. Errol, right now, she wanted to go back to her room as fast as possible before going to her Physics Lesson.

    "It''s good that Mr. Errol''s test did not take a long time, I can make it to the lesson if I hurry," mumbled Beatrice before dropping off her books in her room and beginning to run at high speed.

 Christian

    Walking out of the lesson, Beatrice began swiftly walking back to her room before sitting on her bed.

    "Let''s do this," mumbled Beatrice as she opened up the first book on mind manipulation that Mr. Errol had given her.

    As soon as she began reading it, Beatrice began becoming lost inside of the book as she swiftly plowed through it.

    ...

    One month later,

    Looking at the white-haired mage that had locked him up onto a bed, Christian tried his best to resist.

    "Let me go!" shouted Christian as he struggled against the restraints placed on an a brand-new bed.

    Suddenly, the white-haired mage appeared behind Cristian before placing two of her fingers on his forehead, causing Christian to begin thrashing about even more, but as time passed, his resistance began decreasing.

    Seeing the subject begin resisting less, Beatrice pressed on, increasing the amount of mana she sent into his head.

    "Be good, don''t cause trouble," said Beatrice, her voice changing into that of an older woman.

    It seemed like hearing his mother''s voice pushed Christian over the edge, as his resistance began decreasing dramatically, allowing Beatrice to send more and more dark mana into his head.

    As she sent mana into him, elemental energy suddenly began gathering around Beatrice, as her mana pool was not yet large enough Beatrice, had to refine more mana while taking control of Christian.

    After over an hour of doing this, repeatedly sending in her mana into Christian''s head and slowly morphing him to her liking, Beatrice had already begun shaking, right now both her mind and body were extremely tired.

    Suddenly, Beatrice took out a potion from the inside of her room before drinking it.

    Thinking about how the potion had cost her ten elemental stones, Beatrice felt extremely uncomfortable, but still, after drinking it, all of Beatrice''s fatigue suddenly disappeared, being replaced by a boundless vigor.

    ...

    Knowing his mother was behind him, a smile appeared on Christian''s face.

    Ever since he was five years, Christian''s mother had been the one to raise him and his sister alone, every day, she would work from the earliest moments of the morning to the dead of night.

    Thinking about his mother''s course but warm and gentle hands, Christian suddenly began shaking, but as that happened, a dark aura suddenly flew into his head.

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    "Mother doesn''t need to work anymore, her hands are as fine as silk," mumbled Christian as his previous thoughts were forcefully interrupted.

    ...

    Looking at the man sleeping on the table, Beatrice couldn''t help but breath a sigh of relief.

    "That was way too close, I almost lost control of him," mumbled Beatrice as she looked at the sleeping Christian with a smile on her face.

    Suddenly, Beatrice walked up to her bed before regenerating her mana for around thirty minutes before walking back up into the experiment room.

    The moment Beatrice walked into the room, Christian, who was previously asleep on the bed suddenly opened his eyes, but oddly enough, he did not say anything nor did he move.

    After taking a good look at him, Beatrice walked up to the bed before removing the restraints on him.

    "Christian, get up," said Beatrice as she looked at the bed in front of her.

    "Yes mother," said Christian as he suddenly got up from the bed.

    "That''s no good, you can call me mistress, but not after every sentence I say," said Beatrice as she sat down on a chair in a corner of the room.

    "Yes mistress," said Christian, standing completely still right in front of the bed.

    "Catch," said Beatrice as she suddenly threw a knife at Christian.

    With extreme dexterity, Christian easily caught the knife flying towards him, causing Beatrice to smile.

    "Even though it was more difficult, it seems like controlling a Grand Knight was worth it," thought Beatrice before issuing her next command.

    "Commit suicide," said Beatrice as she looked at Christian with a smile on her face.

    Suddenly, Christian took the knife before ruthlessly stabbing it at his own neck with no hesitation, but thankfully for him, the knife suddenly stopped after just touching his neck, and at the same time, did not touch any major blood vessels.

    "It looks like both methods of control work," mumbled Beatrice as she easily controlled Christian''s body, stopping his suicide attempt.

    After testing some more commands, Beatrice commanded Christian to sit down on the bed.

    After making sure that she had everything on hand, Beatrice took out a giant syringe before injecting enough anesthetic to kill an elephant inside of Christian.

    "Just in case," mumbled Beatrice as she carefully picked up a tiny bomb that she had bought for twenty elemental stones.

    Even though it might not seem like much, the reason Beatrice could afford to do this was that she had taken out ten elemental stones out of her savings, as Christian was Beatrice''s second attempt, she had to spend a total of forty elemental stones on two Grand Knight''s, together with the bomb and the potion, the cost of this procedure has reached seventy elemental stones.

    As such, for the entirety of the next month, Beatrice would have to live a frugal lifestyle, as she did not have even one elemental stone to her name other than her savings.

    ...

    Picking up the needle, Beatrice took in a deep breath before slowly beginning to stitch the left part of Christian''s chest back together, having already implanted the bomb inside of it.

    Slowly but surely, little by little, the hole in Christian''s chest slowly became smaller and smaller, eventually being completely closed.

    "Thankfully he''s a Grand Knight," thought Beatrice, unsure whether she could conduct such a surgery on someone with less vitality with both her current skills and equipment.

    Suddenly, Christian began slightly moving, causing an already prepared needle to float into Beatrice''s hands before she injected it into him.

    "That should be enough anesthetic to keep him sleeping for a while," thought Beatrice before beginning to clean up the blood present on her tools, and after that, she spent around ten minutes of cleaning up her tools.

    After finishing, Beatrice took out a small piece of paper from her robe before writing something on it and placing it next to the tools.

    ''Need to be sterilized''

    As for the effect of not properly sterilizing your tools, Beatrice had seen it first hand at her estate back home, after making such a mistake once, Beatrice did not do it a second time.

 Aftermath

    Looking at her long black pitch black nails, which were not dirtied by blood, Beatrice couldn''t help but smile and begin cleaning them while she showered.

    As the warm water from the shower washed over her, the tiredness that Beatrice had suppressed up until now finally flared up, causing her to become exhausted.

    After finishing her shower, Beatrice put on her night dress before jumping into her bed and finally resting for the day.

    ...

    As she opened her eyes and looked at the empty ceiling above her, Beatrice let out a small yawn before getting up from the bed.

    At the same time, she picked up two small rocks that had appeared on the bed overnight before throwing them in a corner.

    "He should still be sleeping right now," mumbled Beatrice as she began to rapidly put on her clothes, wash her face and teeth and prepare herself for the day, and in only three minutes, Beatrice had gone from being in bed to having completely woken up.

    After that Beatrice walked into the experiment room and began looking at her work, Christian, who was sleeping peacefully on the metal bed.

    "The vitality of a Grand Knight really isn''t to be underestimated," mumbled Beatrice as she checked Christian''s chest, to see if the latter had healed from yesterday''s surgery.

    And unlike normal people, who would have a hard time recovering from this, Christian already seemed fine, as a scar had already begun forming on his chest.

    Suddenly, Beatrice couldn''t help but notice the bad smell coming from a bag in the corner of the room, causing her to frown.

    "I should be able to wake him up by now," mumbled Beatrice before placing her hand on Cristian''s face.

    Beatrice was right, and under her influence, Christian opened his eyes merely a few moments later, causing Beatrice to smile.

    "Take our the trash before cleaning this room," said Beatrice as she walked out of the experimental room to look for something.

    The moment Beatrice said that, Christian picked up a large bag, containing a dissected dead body, in fact, this was Beatrice''s previous attempt at controlling someone, but as she failed, and killed the subject, so as to not waste precious resources, Beatrice dissected the Grand Knight, as she did not have this opportunity a lot with how poor she was.

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    As Christian was taking out the trash, Beatrice was taking out some liquid from a large metal vat she had stuffed in her closet.

    Inside of this vat was extremely pure alcohol, which Beatrice had bought to sterilize her tools some time ago.

    Although this alcohol was unfit for human consumption and was bought extremely cheaply, with a fifty-liter vat costing only 3 elemental stones, this type of alcohol was just what Beatrice needed to sterilize her tools.

    Even though it might seem as though Beatrice blew through her monthly elemental stones quite recklessly, in the past two months, she had already bought most if not all minor things she needed for her experiments.

    After that, Beatrice took out around two liters of alcohol out of the vat before walking into the experimental room and placing it on a table before exiting the room once again.

    A while later, Beatrice came back with a bucket of water before also placing it on the table.

    Making some measurements, Beatrice then took out approximately seven hundred milliliters of water before pouring it into the alcohol and waiting for it to mix.

    "Concentration is a little bit higher than needed but it''s good," mumbled Beatrice as she stretched her finger into the alcohol concoction before tasting it.

    Although the alcohol she had bought was suitable for sterilizing, Beatrice would dilute it to use it for longer, of course, she still only diluted it within limit''s.

    Now that the alcohol was prepared, Beatrice then took out the tools she had used on yesterday''s surgery before washing them in water and then placing them in the alcohol.

    Everything, from scissors, knife''s needles, and even tools she did not use yesterday, all of them were placed in the alcohol and left to rest in there as Beatrice walked out of the room.

    Taking a look at the clock, Beatrice began taking another shower before walking out of her room and going to class.

    ...

    An hour later,

    As she walked back into her room with a medium-sized bag in her hand Beatrice couldn''t help but smile.

    "This is so much more convenient," mumbled Beatrice as she looked at the clean room before her, not having to clean gave Beatrice much more time to do her experiments and to practice.

    Walking into the experimental room, Beatrice placed a bag full of food on the table before looking at Christian, who had clearly also cleaned himself with a satisfied smile on her face.

    "You can eat, but if you find anything dirty, clean it up," said Beatrice before walking back to her bed and sitting crosslegged on it, and beginning to refine mana.

    Time passed, and Beatrice continued to refine her mana, when suddenly, she felt a small amount of pain on her thigh, as if something had hit it.

    "What?" mumbled Beatrice as she opened her eyes and noticed a small rock next to her leg, but this was not why Beatrice was surprised, rather right now Beatrice still had her Dark Barrier activated around herself.

    Suddenly, Beatrice turned backward and noticed a small rock slowly moving towards herself, having somehow passed through her barrier.

    Stretching her hand out and catching the rock, Beatrice suddenly noticed some small words written on it.

    ''You should always be on your guard, it''s a good skill to have - Your dear teacher''

    Looking at the words written on the rock, Beatrice couldn''t help but take a deep breath.

    A moment later, a small tendril of dark mana suddenly stretched out of Beatrice''s body, catching a rock that had just sneaked behind her just now.

    Knowing that this was the work of her teacher and not an attacker, Beatrice took a deep breath before once again beginning to refine more mana.

 Dark Bolt

    Several hours later,

    Opening her eyes, Beatrice couldn''t help but take in a deep breath, compared to usual, after this round of refining mana, Beatrice felt much more tired.

    Looking at the cause, the dozen or so rocks that were strewn on her bed at the moment, Beatrice couldn''t help but take in a deep breath.

    Without saying any words, Beatrice jumped up from the bed and walked in her experiment room.

    "Go out and don''t enter this place until I tell you," said Beatrice as she looked at Christian, who was silently standing in a corner of the room, without saying any words, merely taking some deep breaths.

    Silently, Christian walked out of the room, leaving Beatrice to stay there alone.

    Suddenly, Beatrice closed her eyes, and merely a fifth of a second later, a Dark Bolt appeared in front of her, and then a moment later, the bolt began rapidly flying throughout the room.

    Even though Beatrice had to be somewhat vigilant so as to not by hit by any rocks, after all of her practice, controlling the Dark Bolt had become something trivial to her.

    ''4.1 points of Mana and 0.2 two seconds, unless I spend a lot of time, this seems to be the limit for using this control method'' thought Beatrice before closing her eyes once again, suddenly, another dark bolt appeared in front of Beatrice in just under 0.2 seconds.

    Compared to her previous bolts, this one had a major diference, the absence of a string to control it.

    Merely a moment after that, the Dark Bolt flew towards the bed in the middle of the room, before flying in between the metal restraints on the bed, but as she controlled the bolt to pass in between two restraints, one for the arm and one for the chest, the bolt sadly clipped one of the bed.

    Of course, If not for Beatrice''s training these past few months, controlling the bolt using her mind with such precision would have been completely impossible.

    As soon as that happened, the bed was suddenly destroyed, but as the metal restraints flew to all sides of the room, they suddenly stopped.

    "That''s good," mumbled Beatrice as sweat filled her forehead, as stopping the metal restraint''s took a lot of effort on her part.

    Suddenly, Beatrice felt a sharp pain on her thigh, causing her to look at the rock that had now fallen to the floor in annoyance, causing the rock to flow to a certain corner of the room.

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    After a while, Beatrice closed her eyes as she began measuring the current about of mana that she had missing.

    "Just under 3.9 points of mana," mumbled Beatrice as a smile appeared on her face.

    ''Just 0.2 off,'' thought Beatrice as the mana coefficient of the Dark Bolt suddenly appeared in her mind.

    While the Dark Bolt using the string to control it had a mana coefficient of around 4, the coefficient of the stringless version was approximately 3.7, as both the mana used to create the string and to control the string added up over time.

    This is the reason Beatrice concluded that she would no longer be able to improve her efficiency using the previous version, as she was approaching the maximum efficiency of the spell.

    Of course, not all spells were so concrete, for example, the spell Beatrice had cast on Christian, the Rank 1 spell Dark Manipulation, and its Rank 0 counterpart Dark Hint, was much looser in the amount of mana needed, if the caster''s spiritual energy was much higher than that of the target, the amount of mana spent could decrease or even increase.

    Only her spiritual power which was much higher than normal, coupled with her ample preparation, including preparing a potion and learning about her target allowed Beatrice to cast this spell, otherwise, she would not have been able to do so at all.

    Some other spells, like the Dark Shield, are even more stable than the Dark Bolt, requiring the same amount of mana for all mages, as in its essence, it is not complicated at all.

    After thinking about some other things, Beatrice practiced the new version of the Dark Bolt spells four more times, until she fully emptied her mana, having to recover her mana a little bit to cast it the last time, as she barely didn''t have enough.

    Upon emptying her mana, Beatrice took a shower before sitting on her bed and opening a certain book before jumping past towards the eleventh page, and beginning to read about the new spell that was shown there.

    ''The Dark corruption spell is the last of the three quintessential spells that Dark Mages need to learn, having been created specifically to dispose of knights and other being who can not sense elemental energy''

    As she saw the name of the spell and its purpose, Beatrice was somewhat disappointed, but as she read the method that the spell used to cause its effects her eyes brightened.

    ''Using elemental energy to cause harmful mutations, and since Knight cannot sense it nor control it, they are unable to resist it''s effects, no matter how powerful they are,'' thought Beatrice as her eyes suddenly brightened as she continued reading.

    Suddenly, Beatrice regretted throwing that dead body from yesterday away, as it could serve as a precious experimental subject, now that she had spent all of her elemental stones, she was dirt poor.

    Three days later,

    "Can you give me that body? Since you are about to throw it away," said Beatrice as she looked at the older student that was holding a bag over his shoulder.

    Without any words, the student took a look at Beatrice, and placed the bag on the floor before walking back to where he came from.

    ...

    Looking at the dead body laying down on the bed, Beatrice took in a deep breath before beginning to cast the spell.

    For a few moments, nothing happened, but after that, several weird growths suddenly appeared on the body, and merely a few moments after that the flesh of the dead body suddenly began morphing, causing a smile to appear on Beatrice''s face.

 Brief Encounter

    "Go throw it away, don''t bring the bucket back," said Beatrice before pointing at a weird bucket with a lid placed on it.

    After saying that, Beatrice walked out of the experiment room before hurrying to take a shower.

    "This smells way too bad," mumbled Beatrice as she was taking a shower, but at the same time, the horrifying speed at which that body had been transformed into a pure liquid very much impressed her.

    Suddenly, Beatrice let out a slightly exhausted sigh as another rock floated out of the shower and into a now pretty large rock pile.

    After a few moments, a surprised expression appeared on Beatrice''s face as she turned her head to look behind her.

    ''I knew things wouldn''t be so simple,'' thought Beatrice as she watched the rock approach her at a much higher speed than the previous ones.

    After dodging the rock, Beatrice spent another few minutes inside of the shower before walking out of the room.

    As she thought about how poor she was, Beatrice let out a sigh before slowly walking over to the mission hall, just to take a look.

    ''Elemental stones really are much more common in this place than back home,'' thought Beatrice as a certain mission popped into her eyes

    ''Fifty elemental stones, Investigate cause of disappearances, location, Ester City Dyon Kingdom''

    Looking at this mission, a greedy glint suddenly appeared in Beatrice''s eyes, and after a few moments, she picked up the sheet of paper on which the mission was shown to take a closer look.

    ''In the past three years, over five hundred people have mysteriously disappeared in Ester City, with young children being the ones mostly targeted, as long as the cause is discovered fifty elemental stones will be provided''

    As she read this, a map couldn''t help but appear in Beatrice''s mind.

    "If I hurry it''s three days there and three days back," mumbled Beatrice as she couldn''t help but clench her fist.

    Suddenly, Beatrice walked up to the counter with the sheet of paper.

    "I''m taking this mission," said Beatrice as she took out a token from her robe.

    Picking up the token, the female apprentice on the opposite side of the counter placed it on the counter before taking out a small crystal.

    "Record the cause of the disappearances with this," said the female apprentice as she handed Beatrice both the token and a small crystal.

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    Hearing that, Beatrice no longer said anything, merely nodding before walking away.

    ...

    Three days later, Ester City,

    A small child was standing was mindlessly walking through the streets, without any worry in the world and completely unprotected.

    After a few minutes of walking a completely normal middle-aged man leisurely began walking in the same direction as him, slowly getting closer and closer.

    "William why did you go out," shouted an angry female voice as a woman suddenly ran after the small child named William.

    Hearing that, a confused expression appeared on William''s face.

    ''Why did I even go out?'' thought William as thoughts swirled in his mind, but after a few moments, the woman held William''s hand, but even then, William could not figure out why he had left home, as he usually listened to his mother''s words.

    "Just wait until we get home," said the woman as anger could be heard just fom her voice, causing young William to shiver.

    Without saying any words the middle-aged man completely ignored the scene and continued going on his way.

    ''I should go back,'' thought the man as he looked at the sun that was setting.

    After walking for a few minutes, the man arrived at a normal house, and after getting undressed, he went into his bedroom to sleep.

    Several minutes later,

    The door to the bedroom suddenly creaked open, as Christian walked in and began looking through the now-empty room before finding a small hatch after a few minutes.

    Just as he was about to open the hatch, Christian suddenly felt a chill in his heart, he then took out a small crystal from his pocket, and used it to record the room, this, alongside photos of the middle-aged man stalking children should be enough, thought Beatrice as she now controlled Christian''s body from another location.

    After thinking about it for a few seconds, Beatrice tied the crystal to a string before turning it on and throwing it down the hatch, rotating it a few times, and then bringing it back up.

    ...

    As he walked to the end of the dark tunnel underneath the earth, the middle-aged man suddenly reached a door to a room.

    Inside of the room stood a hundred of different monsters, but they all had one thing in common, although not human, they seemed to have an uncanny resemblance to one.

    Just as the middle-aged man walked in the room, a voice suddenly sounded in his ear.

    "Dark Hint huh," mumbled a black-haired woman dressed in a black cloak before suddenly clapping once.

    The moment the middle-aged man heard that clap, he snapped out of his trance, causing sweat to fill his forehead.

    ''I was controlled by someone,'' thought the middle-aged man as he felt sweat fill his forehead.

    Suddenly, the black-haired woman looked towards the door of the room as a smile appeared on her face.

    Meanwhile in the house,

    As soon as he got the recording crystal back, Christian immediately walked out of the room and then the house before walking towards the outskirts of the city.

    Looking at Christian, who was walking towards her, Beatrice couldn''t help but smile, but as Christian was getting closer to her, he suddenly stopped.

    Knowing that the bomb near Christian''s heart successfully exploded, Beatrice breathed a sigh of relief before walking closer to his corpse and looking at what she had seen.

    "Too dangerous," mumbled Beatrice as she looked at the blood-red hickey on Christian''s neck, after that, Beatrice took out the crystal from his pocket, before taking a photo of the hickey and fleeing.

    ...

    "It looks like the school got some good students since I left," mumbled the black-haired woman as she felt her new puppet suddenly die.

    Suddenly, the middle-aged man next to her fell to the ground, dead.

    After that, all of the monsters inside of the basement suddenly fell to the ground, dead, well, all except for one.

    Immediately after, the body of the still-alive monster was smashed to pieces, causing it to die, and after a few moments, the black-haired woman turned into smoke before disappearing.

 Fleeing

    As a small deer was eating some grass, it suddenly felt a burst of wind behind itself.

    Without any hesitation, the deer ran in the opposite direction, and at the same time, turned it''s head back to look at what had happened behind it.

    Confusion filled the face of the deer as it saw that there was nothing behind it, but even so, the deer still did not stop it''s run, not daring to stay in this place any longer.

    ...

    In merely a few minutes, using her powerful body that she had gained from being an Official knight, Beatrice had already run several kilometers from Ester city, but even so, she did not stop, doing her best to get as far away from that place as fast as possible.

    But even as she got further and further away, Beatrice still felt a cold chill from behind her, causing any exhaustion she had gotten to be utterly thrown away, as she ran Beatrice used the knight''s breathing technique to help recover some stamina while on the move, as to help her keep running longer.

    Suddenly, some dark mana appeared below Beatrice''s leg, and as her foot touched that mana, Beatrice was suddenly catapulted forward several hundred meters.

    "It''s really too inefficient, I shouldn''t have come here without learning a suitable escape spell" mumbled Beatrice as she felt a large portion of her mana disappear.

    Nine hours later,

    Just as it was leisurely eating grass, a small rabbit suddenly started floating, even though it tried resisting, with it''s feeble strength, it could not shake off the invisible hand, and after a few moments, the rabbit landed in Beatrice''s hands.

    Without giving it any time for struggle, Beatrice suddenly stretched the rabbit as she held it by it''s head and legs, and with a quick shake, she dislocated the neck of the rabbit, killing it.

    Picking up a few large branches, Beatrice threw them into the fire that she had created before taking out a knife and beginning to skin the rabbit.

    Thirty minutes later,

    After eating the last bit of rabbit, Beatrice sat down in her impromptu tent before closing her eyes.

    "One hour should be enough," thought Beatrice as she closed her eyes, falling asleep.

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    But as she was sleeping, something weird was happening to Beatrice, as the knight''s breathing technique, which she had to use to recover her energy continued being active even while she slept.

    One hour later,

    As she opened her eyes, Beatrice hurriedly got up before once again beginning on her journey back, as the meal and the one hour of sleep had given her some more energy.

    Twenty-five hours later,

    As she ran through the forest at a fast speed, Beatrice''s breathing suddenly began slowing down for some reason, while at the same time, her breathing entered a weird rhythm, but without any time to pay attention to that, Beatrice looked at the things that were blocking her way.

    "Who was the one who let undead roam free?" said Beatrice with a frustrated expression on her face as she looked at the over fifty zombies that were not only blocking her way but also trying to surround her.

    But just as she was about to go and pass these zombies at using her barrier to protect herself, Beatrice suddenly let out a curse before suddenly retreating.

    "Since when are zombies so toxic?" mumbled Beatrice as she looked at the arm imprint on her Dark Barrier, it was as if the zombie arm had melted the barrier.

    Knowing that she could not pass through here without going through the zombies, Beatrice suddenly turned back and wanted to go on a detour, but sadly, as she looked backward, she came face to face with another group of zombies, around twenty-seven zombies to be exact.

    Suddenly, a Dark Bolt erupted towards the twenty zombies, but something as the bolt passed through the head on one of the zombies, the zombies simply continued walking towards her without it''s head.

    Seeing this, Beatrice then controlled the Dark Bolt to target the legs and lower torsos of the zombies, causing legs to be sent flying all around, but even so, the number of zombies was still too large for Beatrice to ram through, but as she prepared to launch another bolt, Beatrice noticed that the zombies were crawling towards the legs which had landed on the ground.

    A moment later, Beatrice took a fire-starting tool before lighting it and throwing it towards some grass.

    As soon as it touched the grass, a fire suddenly began, and then a few moments later, the severed legs of the zombies suddenly began floating toward the fire, after touching the fire, the legs began burning, causing the zombies to no longer stare at them.

    Suddenly, a short sword of dark mana appeared in Beatrice''s hands, and a moment later, she cut the zombies which had approached her from behind in half, not letting it touch the Dark barrier so as to not expend more mana.

    ''I can''t use the Dark Bolt, otherwise, I will waste all of my mana,'' thought Beatrice as two zombies suddenly launched themselves at Beatrice, only to be cut in half, but at the same time, Beatrice felt something impact her Dark Barrier, causing it to melt.

    Beatrice once again cut this zombie in half before kicking its remains away, and after a few moments, Beatrice''s dark barrier began regenerating.

    But even though her Dark Barrier was once again complete, Beatrice could not be happy about this.

    ''I can''t let them touch me more than three times, otherwise, I lose,'' thought Beatrice as she suddenly jumped toward a nearby zombie before once again cutting it half.

    After that, Beatrice began looking for weak links in the zombie formation, and merely another moment later, jumped towards another zombie with her Dark Mana Sword in hand.

    Slowly but surely, zombie after zombie began falling to the ground, but at the same time, Beatrice was once again attacked by one of them, causing her Dark Barrier to be impacted by one of them.

 Witch of Death

    Looking at the over forty corpses around her, Beatrice couldn''t help but become more and more cautious, as her breathing automatically transformed into the knight breathing technique.

    Suddenly, Beatrice noticed that the thirty remaining zombies no longer attacked her but formed a circle around her.

    Seeing this, Beatrice''s eyes quickly turned around before she suddenly jumped into the wall of zombies, her sword cutting through them like butter.

    After killing seven zombies, Beatrice managed to escape from the encirclement, but even so, her situation still remained dire.

    Feeling the small amount of mana she had left, Beatrice suddenly deactivated the Dark Barrier around herself.

    As she looked around at the zombies, for some reason, Beatrice had no desire to escape, even though she could very much do so right now.

    Without any warning, Beatrice suddenly jumped at one of the zombies, as the frown on her face was slowly replaced by a smile, and eventually, Beatrice had an extremely large smile on her face.

    After killing the zombie, unlike before, Beatrice did not retreat in the face of the four zombies charging at her, but rather, just as they were about to reach her, Beatrice dashed towards the two zombies coming towards her from the front.

    As she cut both of the zombies in half by the stomachs, Beatrice suddenly moved her head sideways, dodging the hands, of the two zombies that had just died, and after that, Beatrice suddenly crouched before moving backward, at a speed unlike what she had shown before, Beatrice traveled in between the legs of one of the zombies before killing both of the zombies that attacked her from behind.

    Attacking once again, Beatrice''s physical strength seemed to have become unlimited, as she seemed to have forgotten the word tired, and at the same time, Beatrice''s senses seemed to have entered a brand new, supernatural level.

    One by one, the remaining zombies disappeared, becoming mere corpses on the ground as Beatrice cleaved through them with insanity filling her eyes.

    Looking at the three zombies remaining in front of her, Beatrice let out a smile as she stretched out her hand behind her, before entering the throwing motion.

    Halfway through Beatrice''s throw, a small rock suddenly appeared in her hand, causing the zombies to move, but sadly, this was to late as Beatrice used mana to reinforce her throw, causing the rock t pass through the heads of two zombies, and before the last undead could do anything, Beatrice cut him in half.

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    ...

    "She should have some valuable things on her," mumbled a hooded figure as he looked at the extremely worn-out female mage in front of him.

    As he hid in the bush, a Dark Bolt suddenly appeared in front of the hooded figure, but as he wanted to send it forward, the hooded figure discovered that the Dark Bolt seemed to disobey him.

    Suddenly, the hooded figure felt a chill in his heart, causing him to look behind him.

    Looking at the black-haired woman standing behind him, the hooded figure, a name suddenly flashed in the mind of the hooded figure.

    "The Witch of Death," mumbled the hooded figure as fear took him over, but sadly these were the last words he ever said, as his eyes then turned white, causing him to fall to the ground.

    Looking at the little mage who had come to spy on her, the Witch of Death let out a small laugh.

    "Since you survived my little test, then maybe we can meet again little girl," mumbled the Witch of Death as she suddenly noticed a rock appear next to Beatrice, causing a weird expression to appear on her face.

    "Say hi to Errol for me little girl," said the Witch of Death before suddenly turning into smoke and disappearing.

    Hearing the female voice from behind her, Beatrice felt a chill in her heart, causing her to suddenly turn and look behind her.

    "Where are you?" asked Beatrice as she failed to find the owner of the female voice.

    Hearing no response, Beatrice suddenly began running towards the school as fast as she can.

    ...

    Hearing the knock on the door, Mr. Errol raised his eyes from the piece book in front of him.

    "Come in," said Mr. Errol as he placed the book back on the table.

    The moment Beatrice stepped through the door, Mr. Errol narrowed his eyes as he stared at something.

    Looking at the blood-red hickey on the back of Beatrice''s robe, Mr. Errol immediately knew what had happened.

    Suddenly, a pitch-black robe flew over to Mr. Errol''s table.

    "After you go back, you should destroy that robe," said Mr. Errol as the robe flew over to Beatrice, and at the same time, the content of the mission Beatrice took popped up in Mr. Errol''s mind.

    "Yes Mr. Errol," said Beatrice as she picked up the robe.

    "So, what happened?" asked Mr. Errol.

    Hearing that, Beatrice began telling Mr. Errol everything she had done, from taking the mission to finding that basement to running away and being ambushed by zombies.

    "Zombies that can corrode shields," mumbled Mr. Errol, as his suspicions about who Beatrice had met were entirely confirmed

    ''She''s the only one who''s researching zombies, it''s got to be her,'' thought Mr. Errol before looking at Beatrice.

    "Since you gave this information is useful to me, you can have this," said Mr. Errol as he handed Beatrice a small sack full of elemental stones.

    As she picked up the small sack, Beatrice''s eyes couldn''t help but brighten.

    ''There are at least two hundred elemental stones here,'' thought Beatrice as she put the sack into her robe.

    "You can go now, but make sure to fully destroy the robe," said Mr. Errol, having made sure that no marks were placed on Beatrice, he let her go back to her room.

    "Understood Mr. Errol," said Beatrice before walking out of the room.

    After Beatrice walked out of the room, Mr. Errol did not pick up the book once again, but rather, he took out a small crystal from his robe.

 New Beginning

    Inside of the magic council.

    As a meeting between the various Archmages took place at the Magic Council, Archmage Withered Soul, who usually stayed silent with his eyes closed, suddenly opened his eyes.

    Without warning, the old-looking archmage sat up from his chair before walking out of the meeting room without saying any words.

    The moment he walked out of the meeting room, a dark smoke suddenly enveloped Archmage Withered Soul.

    "What is it?" asked Withered Soul as he suddenly took out a small crystal from his robe.

    After Withered Soul said those words, a small figure suddenly emerged from the crystal.

    "Teacher, I have found traces of Selena," said Mr. Errol as he looked at his teacher.

    Hearing the name of his former apprentice, a vein suddenly popped up on Withered Soul''s forehead.

    "Did you meet her yourself?" asked Withered Soul as he seriously looked at his other apprentice.

    Hearing his teacher''s words, Mr. Errol shook his head.

    "My apprentice met her, but rather surprisingly, she survived and wasn''t even controlled," said Mr. Errol as a frown appeared on his face.

    "Don''t be so relaxed, a few hundred years ago when I had just taken you in, Selena was already almost an Archmage, even though you have begun transforming your soul, you shouldn''t underestimate her, otherwise you may face death," said Archmage Withered Soul as thoughts swirled within his mind.

    "Teacher, don''t worry, I made sure my apprentice wasn''t controlled," said Mr. Errol, causing Withered Soul to nod.

    After Mr. Errol told his teacher what Beatrice had told him, Archmage withered soul frowned.

    "How does your apprentice look?" suddenly asked Withered Soul as a guess suddenly appeared in his mind.

    Suddenly, a projection of Beatrice suddenly appeared in front of Archmage Withered Soul, causing him to confirm his guess.

    "I see, so that''s why she was spared," mumbled Archmage Withered soul, shaking his head.

    ''Estes city, Dyon Kingdom,'' thought Archmage withered soul before suddenly turning into a cloud of smoke then disappearing, without saying any word''s to Mr. Errol

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    ...

    As she walked away from the mission counter with fifty more elemental stones in hand, Beatrice couldn''t help but be happy, but sadly, Beatrice then walked up to another counter before beginning to spend her hard-earned elemental stones.

    Several minutes later, Beatrice walked away from the counter with an unconscious teenager on her shoulder.

    Thinking about how forty of her newly acquired two hundred and fifty elemental stones were gone, Beatrice couldn''t help but feel invisible tears streaming down her face.

    But of course, in the process of creating a new servant for herself, a potion, as well as a bomb to control him in case of emergencies, were completely necessary, as such, Beatrice could only grit her teeth and spend her elemental stones.

    As soon as Beatrice walked back into her room, the first thing was to take William, the name of her new servant, tie him to the metal bed in the experimental room, and fill him with anesthetics, so as to keep him asleep.

    After that, Beatrice then took out one hundred and twenty elemental stones, half of what she had just obtained, and put them into her savings, increasing them to over two hundred elemental stones.

    Only after doing those two things did Beatrice have a chance to take a deep breath and sit cross-legged on her bed to examine her current situation.

    "At least It''s not all bad, I at least got some gains," thought Beatrice as she thought about what she had obtained from going on the mission, with her most obvious gain being the elemental stones she had obtained.

    But compared with the elemental stones, Beatrice was much more satisfied with something else, not the fact that she had become a Grand Knight as she already thought she was close to achieving that, but rather, the improvement in her spiritual power.

    ''A battle between life and death was really helpful towards my spiritual power,'' thought Beatrice as she remembered how big of a diference her spiritual power had in not only her ability to manipulate people but also her battle strength.

    Even though she was quite happy about her improvements, Beatrice couldn''t help but have a headache about a problem she had discovered.

    "Why was I so stupid and didn''t escape," mumbled Beatrice as she remembered how she recklessly charged into the last remaining zombies, as if she did not have any worries in the world, and if she did not have anything to fear from death.

    Beatrice almost wanted to bash her head in, but after taking a deep breath, she once again began refining mana, so as to increase her capacity.

    Several hours later,

    Feeling the hot water wash over her, Beatrice couldn''t help but take in a deep breath, as all of her worries were seemingly washed away.

    After a while, Beatrice walked out of the shower, but on her night-dress and threw herself into bed.

    ...

    The next day,

    As she read the information about her new slave, William, a smile couldn''t help but appear on Beatrice''s face as she walked into the experiment room, knowing that he should wake up soon, based on the amount of anesthetic she had thrown into him.

    Because of this, Beatrice walked up behind William before touching the two sides of his forehead with her fingers.

    "Wake up, my little guy," said Beatrice as she began sending dark mana into William''s head, feeling no large resistance, Beatrice smiled.

    As William was much younger than Christian, he had less experience and could not resist as heavily, and at the same time, Beatrice''s spiritual power was even higher than when she controlled Christian.

    William only opened his eyes for a few moments, before once again closing his eyes without much resistance.

    Several hours later,

    ''I still can''t do this without a potion,'' thought Beatrice as she suddenly took out a potion from her robe before drinking it.

    After that, Beatrice continued sending more and dark mana into William''s brain, slowly morphing it to her liking.

 Dark Healing

    Suddenly, William, who was sleeping on the bed opened his eyes, seeing this, a smile appeared on Beatrice''s face.

    "Good, then you can commit suicide now," said Beatrice as she handed William a knife.

    As soon as the knife entered William''s hands, he suddenly stabbed it at his own neck, but thankfully, Beatrice stopped the knife before it could do any major damage.

    "This also works fine," mumbled Beatrice as she controlled his body.

    Seeing that the Dark Manipulation spell had succeeded, Beatrice smiled before picking up a syringe she had prepared before and emptying it in William.

    A few moments later, Beatrice poured even more anesthetic into William before beginning her work.

    ...

    Two days later,

    Having finished refining mana for the day, Beatrice opened her eyes before taking a certain notebook from under her bed.

    After merely a few moments, Beatrice was sucked into reading Mr. Errol''s biology notebook, not being able to extricate herself.

    In only a few hours, Beatrice had managed to fully read several dozen pages from the notebook, but as flipped to the next page, Beatrice suddenly noticed something.

    "It''s the last page," mumbled Beatrice as she looked at the tiny text written on the page with some remorse on her face.

    Only ten minutes later, Beatrice closed the notebook as several thoughts swirled inside of her mind.

    Moments later, Beatrice took out another book from under her bed before searching for something things inside of it.

    After quickly flipping through the pages showing the Dark Bolt, Barrier and Corruption spells, Beatrice then began earnestly searching for something, and after several minutes, Beatrice finally found what she needed.

    ''Dark Healing''

    As soon Beatrice saw the name of the spell, her eyes lit up, of course, some of her happiness was dispelled as soon as she read about the side effects of the spell.

    ''Compared to the healing spells of other elements, the Dark Healing spell sadly has a major weakness, loss of lifespan for those affected by the spell, this weakness can only be counteracted by using the Dark Syphoning Spell''

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    Reading this, Beatrice then flipped over to the Dark Syphoning Spell, but upon seeing the extremely complicated spell circle, alongside the high requirements for the spell, Beatrice shook her head.

    "This is fine, I don''t need to use it on myself," mumbled Beatrice as she quickly began memorizing the Dark Healing Spell.

    ...

    Meanwhile, Estes City, Dyon Kingdom,

    As he walked down the street, Carl felt the winds suddenly become much colder.

    "Damn it, it''s summer, how come it''s so cold," mumbled Carl, not seeing the smoke rapidly moving behind him.

    Without even catching a glimpse of the cause of the chill, Carl continued on with his day, not truly knowing how close he was to death.

    Ignoring the people walking around it, the smoke suddenly entered a certain house before quickly traveling to the bedroom.

    Not even a moment later, the smoke seeped into the cracks in the floor before arriving at a long tunnel.

    The moment the smoke entered the tunnel, it suddenly felt a familiar feeling around him.

    ''It''s really her,'' thought Archmage Withered Soul as he felt a completely familiar feeling inside of the tunnel.

    Without hesitating any longer, the Archmage swiftly traveled through the tunnel before going past a door and arriving in a certain room.

    Looking at the hundreds of dead monster''s around him, the Archmage suddenly transformed back from smoke into his true human form an old man.

    As Archmage Withered Soul looked through the dead monsters when suddenly, one caught his eyes.

    "She''s trying to create something beyond a Royal Knight," mumbled the archmage as he approached to utterly destroyed monster.

    "Is this what you wanted to show me?" mumbled Withered Soul as he looked at the monster, which had clearly died differently than the other ones.

    Suddenly, he controlled some elemental energy before sending it into the monster, but unlike any normal being, the monster seemed to be completely fine, even after the elemental energy stayed inside of it for over an hour.

    After examining the monsters for a few more moments, Withered Soul let out a sigh before waving his hand and transforming into a cloud of dark smoke and leaving through the cracks in the ceiling.

    Moments after he left, black flames suddenly appeared inside of the laboratory, destroying anything and everything still left inside of it.

    ...

    Five days later,

    As soon as James woke up, he was greeted with a knife hanging over his face, and even more horrifyingly, even though he couldn''t not turn his head and look behind him, he could see parts of a dismembered dead body.

    Seeing that, James let out a loud shriek, when suddenly, he heard a female voice from behind him.

    "William, close his mouth and shut him up, since he woke up let''s see the effects of the healing on someone not unconscious, also, since light injuries have been tested, you can increase the damage," said a female voice, causing a young man to suddenly walk in front of James, forcefully open his mouth before placing a large ball inside of it.

    But even though the ball caused him some pain, right now, this was not what James had to worry about, he could only watch in abject horror as the young man suddenly picked up a knife from a table before beginning to walk towards him.

    ...

    Without any mercy, William walked over to the experimental subject.

    "Don''t damage his internal organs," said Beatrice as she looked at William, causing the latter to suddenly begin cutting the abdomen of the subject open.

    The moment William began cutting, the screams of the subject suddenly increased exponentially, even slightly annoying Beatrice.

    "Shut up," said Beatrice as she mixed the Dark Hint spell, the Rank 0 version of the Dark Manipulation spell within her voice, causing the screams to suddenly become much less loud.

    Seeing this, Beatrice smiled before walking up to the subject and begin casting the spell.

 Results

    Unlike what one might expect, the moment the woman behind him cast a so-called healing spell on him, the pain James felt was suddenly magnified, so much so, that he even began screaming again, and even louder than before.

    But even so, after over three days of experiments and seven different experimental subjects, Beatrice had gained a rather good understanding of the Dark Healing, as such, the large cut on the abdomen of the subject suddenly began healing at a rapid speed.

    As she was healing him, Beatrice no longer attempted to shut the subject up, merely focusing on the healing, and after the large cut on the subject''s abdomen was healed, Beatrice focused on his throat, which was actually bleeding from his screams.

    After Beatrice had completely healed the subject, he suddenly began shouting.

    "Let me go, let me go," shouted James as he tried to struggle against the restraints, but sadly, it was fruitless as the restraints seemed completely unmovable.

    Hearing this, a certain thought appeared in Beatrice''s mind as a smile appeared on her face.

    "Don''t worry, we will not kill you," said Beatrice with a large smile on her face as she stared at James''s face.

    ...

    Five days later,

    As he looked at the skinny old man stuck onto the bed, even William couldn''t help but feel some pity for him.

    "You administered his drugs?" asked Beatrice as she walked into the experiment room.

    "Yes mistress," said William.

    The moment James discovered he became older and older with every healing, he began fiercely struggling, even trying to commit suicide, as such, Beatrice had to put him continuously unconscious.

    "I will be the one to injure him right now, you just stand by in case I need anything," said Beatrice as she walked up to the old James before removing his shirt.

    A few minutes later,

    As she lightly used the dark healing spell to keep James in tip-top shape, Beatrice raised her left hand.

    "Give me the saw," said Beatrice, causing William to hand a saw over to her.

    Merely a few moments later, Beatrice cut James sternum with the saw before raising his ribs upwards.

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    Looking at the heart, which was still pumping blood even now, Beatrice breathed a sigh of relief, but sadly, as Beatrice continued to use dark healing on him, James lost even more of his lifespan, and only a few minutes later, passed away.

    "Have you recorded everything?" asked Beatrice as she looked at William, who had a small crystal in his hand right now.

    "Yes mistress, all of his internal organs were clearly visible," said William, causing a smile to appear on Beatrice''s face.

    "You dispose of him before cleaning this place and the tools, I need to study this," mumbled Beatrice as she cleaned her hands before picking up the crystal from William''s hands and exiting the experiment room.

    Without saying anything else, Beatrice walked out of the experiment room before going into the bathroom to take a quick shower to clean herself up.

    Even though she usually spent more time in the shower, enjoying the hot water, moments after she became clean, Beatrice quickly exited it, got dressed before sitting down on her bed and picking up the crystal.

    ...

    As she looked at the dozen or so photos of every organ while they were still alive, Beatrice''s eyes shone.

    "There are some differences, but it''s nothing too major," mumbled Beatrice as she quickly flipped to one of the last pages of her notebook and looked at her previous sketch of the human body, that she had made back before she entered the Shadow Monastery.

    Without saying anything else, Beatrice got to work, as her new, more accurate sketch of the human body slowly appeared in her notebook.

    Although to the naked eye, the two images looked similar, the one Beatrice was creating now was miles more accurate, as back before she entered Magic School, Beatrice could not dissect human bodies with such ease, as most of her experimental subjects would soon die one way or another.

    As such, using the results of the experiments from these past few months, after over an hour of drawing, Beatrice created her most accurate representation of the human body yet, with each of the 206 bones in the body clearly represented.

    After Beatrice finished drawing the sketch, she suddenly raised her head as she heard a small noise.

    ''This will save me so much time in the long run,'' thought Beatrice as she watched William measure the amount of alcohol he should take out of the vat, so as to prepare Beatrice''s tools.

    After only having to spend some effort teaching him, William could now fully help Beatrice deal with all of the inconveniences of experimenting, from dealing with human remains, to sterilizing her tools and even cleaning around her room.

    Ignoring William, who was working right now, Beatrice''s attention then turned to the new experiment that she wanted to do.

    In fact, Beatrice had attempted this experiment before she entered magic school, but rather sadly, back then the experiment had been a resounding failure, with both of the experimental subjects dying.

    As she gazed at the sketch of the human body she had just made, a smile appeared on Beatrice''s face.

    "That should be a good place to attempt it," mumbled Beatrice as her eyes passed through the bones of the human body, deep in thought.

    Of course, compared to before she entered magic school, Beatrice''s ambitions regarding this project had grown, leaving her no longer wanting to just have the experimental subject survive.

    Picking up a Biology book that she had not yet read, Beatrice quickly flipped to the pages regarding nerves, before shaking her head, not having found what she had desired.

    "I guess I have to experiment on my own," mumbled Beatrice before quickly getting up from the bed and walking out of her room, so as to buy an experimental subject.

    Seeing this, William hurried up in cleaning up the experiment room, so as to prepare his mistress''s next experiment.

 Dream

    Sweat filled Beatrice''s forehead as she continued to maintain the life of the experimental subject using the Dark Healing spell.

    And at the same time, Beatrice moved the extremely tiny metal object in her hands with great precision as she stared at the back of her subject''s brain, after a while, Beatrice stopped using the metal object, rather using her mana to control the singular nerve of the subject.

    Suddenly, the fingers of the subject slightly moved, as Beatrice controlled the nerve, causing a an extremely large smile to appear on Beatrice''s face.

    After making sure that this was not a fluke or a freak accident, Beatrice breathed a sigh of relief, of course, she did not breathe in the direction of the experimental subject, but rather breathed away from it.

    ''This should be the last nerve necessary, for me to attempt my experiment,'' thought Beatrice as a smile appeared on her face, and a few minutes later, the experimental subject died as Beatrice stopped using the Dark Healing spell.

    "Dispose of them," said Beatrice as she got up and pointed to the three dead experimental subjects before walking out of the experiment room.

    ...

    Looking at her drawing of the human brain, Beatrice suddenly wrote a tiny twelve next to a certain nerve, after that, Beatrice added the twelve to the legend of the sketch.

    ''Nerve that controls motor function in the hand''

    As she looked at the sketches of both the human body and brain, Beatrice fell into deep thought.

    ...

    Opening her eyes, Elizabeth felt extremely weird, as she could not move her head, not feel her right arm or leg.

    Suddenly, Elizabeth let out a confused cry.

    "Don''t try to move, otherwise you might die," said Beatrice, who was standing behind Elizabeth.

    Just as Elizabeth had calmed down, a large number of weird and garbled thoughts suddenly appeared in her mind.

    "What is this?" shouted Elizabeth as she felt more and more foreign thoughts appear in her mind.

    "It''s already, It looks like you survived," said Beatrice as she removed the restraints on Elizabeth''s neck, allowing her to move her head.

    But as she turned her head to the right, Elizabeth''s heart almost stopped.

    "You were the one that did this?" asked Elizabeth as she looked at Beatrice with anger on her face, before turning her head to the right, and staring at the girl whose body was stitched together with her.

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    Hearing what Elizabeth said, an extremely surprised expression appeared on Beatrice''s face, causing her to stare more closely at the two people that had just become one single person.

    But just as Beatrice was in deep thought, the other girl also opened her eyes, causing the number of foreign thoughts in Elizabeth''s head to suddenly multiply massively, causing a confused expression to appear on both of them, as their minds were not used to existing in such a way.

    ''It looks like the nerve connection was a success, but I need to do some further tests,'' thought Beatrice as she stared at the new being she had created.

    Suddenly, all four of the being''s limbs started shaking, causing Beatrice to smile, realizing what had happened.

    "You shouldn''t fight yourself, otherwise you won''t even be able to function," said Beatrice, but before she could react, the shaking suddenly stopped, but sadly, that was not all that had stopped.

    Looking at the being, which had died for some reason, Beatrice frowned and gritted her teeth.

    Suddenly, all of Beatrice''s surgery tools began floating toward her, as she wanted to find out what had gone wrong.

    ...

    "Did the conflict between the thoughts of the two of them cause this," mumbled Beatrice as she looked at Elizabeth''s brain, which showed large signs of damage that wasn''t there before.

    After doing a few more tests, Beatrice frowned before walking out of the experiment room.

    "Dispose of the body," said Beatrice before washing her hands and sitting on her bed.

    "Even though their brains were fully connected, they still looked like two separate individuals, it seems like without fusing their souls, true fusion between two people is impossible," mumbled Beatrice, as she wrote her findings down into one of her notebooks.

    Of course, Beatrice could use two people that had an extremely good relationship, so that they would not fall into conflict with each other, but even if they survived, Beatrice would have still considered this experiment a failure.

    "It looks like without increasing my understanding of the soul, projects of this type are impossible to complete," mumbled Beatrice, having a headache.

    Even though she had a very good understanding of biology, when it came to the soul, Beatrice was as helpless as anyone else, and as such, she very much avoided this area.

    As she thought about the soul, Beatrice''s mind couldn''t help but wonder and remember the hickey that was left on Christian.

    After thinking about that for a bit longer, Beatrice shook her head before walking into the bathroom and taking a shower.

    Feeling the hot water wash over her, Beatrice couldn''t help but think about what she would do now.

    "I need to learn a spell that can help me flee faster," mumbled Beatrice as suddenly, she felt a small rock hit her, causing a large amount of surprise to appear on her face.

    Ever since she had come back to the school, the ever-present rocks that had continuously attacked Beatrice had stopped until now.

    "It''s much faster," mumbled Beatrice, as from the moment it had appeared, it took the rock less than half a second to hit her.

    Although it was annoying, Beatrice still couldn''t help but smile, as a feeling of familiarity returned to her.

    After a few more moments, Beatrice returned to her warm bed and closed her eyes.

    ...

    Feeling her mother''s warm embrace, Beatrice smiled, when suddenly Beatrice''s mother, Iris kissed Beatrice on the forehead, leaving a deep red hickey on her forehead.

    Feeling this, Beatrice suddenly opened her eyes and stared at her mother.

    Merely a few moments later, Iris'' white hair began turning to a pitch black color, as red hickeys slowly appeared all over Beatrice''s body.

    Suddenly, a rock hit Beatrice in the thigh, causing her to suddenly wake up, cold sweat filling her forehead.

 Background

    Looking at the empty room around her, cold sweat filled Beatrice''s forehead.

    "It''s been a long time since I have had a nightmare," mumbled Beatrice as she got up from her bed and walked around her room.

    After standing around for a few minutes, Beatrice finally fully calmed down, causing her to lay in her bed and once again begin sleeping.

    But at the same time, the image of that certain woman would occasionally pop up in her mind, causing Beatrice to jolt awake several times throughout the night.

    ...

    Looking at his apprentice, a large frown appeared on Mr. Errol''s face, but after a few moments, he couldn''t help but raise his hand.

    "Was this the person you saw?" asked Mr. Errol as the image of a black-haired woman suddenly appeared in his palm.

    "Yes, that''s the one," said Beatrice as she stared at the picture of the woman, which looked eerily similar to her mother, with the exception of her pitch-black hair.

    Hearing Beatrice confirm it, Mr. Errol couldn''t help but put his palm on his forehead, but after a few moments, a dark smoke suddenly surrounded Beatrice.

    "It''s true, Selena did not leave any mark on your apprentice," said an old voice, as an extremely old man suddenly appeared next to Mr. Errol.

    "Teacher, then why would this happen?" asked Mr. Errol as he looked at his teacher, Archmage Withered Soul.

    Rather than answering Mr. Errol''s question, Archmage Withering Soul stared at Beatrice.

    "You are from the Lyon Kingdom, am I right?" asked the archmage, causing confusion to appear on the faces of the two other people.

    "Yes," said Beatrice, as thoughts swirled within her mind.

    "Then, are you familiar with the ''Watford Family'' by any chance?" asked the Archmage as he looked at Beatrice.

    Upon hearing the extremely familiar name, both Mr. Errol and Beatrice became extremely surprised, for completely different reasons.

    "Yes, that''s the name of the Noble family from which my mother was from before she married my father," said Beatrice, causing Mr. Errol''s eyes to suddenly twitch.

    "Now do you understand?" asked the archmage as he gazed at his apprentice, even his old face showing some emotion this time.

    Hearing the words of both his teacher and Beatrice, Mr. Errol''s mouth couldn''t help but open and close once more, as several thoughts swirled within.

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    "So Beatrice is a descendant of Selena?" asked Mr. Errol as he stared at Beatrice with his eyes wide open.

    "That''s right, that''s the only reason your apprentice can have such visions," said the archmage as he looked at his disciple.

    Hearing that, Beatrice breathed a sigh of relief, but at the same time, some other thoughts couldn''t help but flash through her mind.

    But at this time, both Beatrice and Mr. Errol were unaware of the thoughts going through the mind of the archmage.

    ''Will Selena try to use Errol''s apprentice, or will she continue with the Dark Revival spell,'' thought the archmage, unsure of which method his former apprentice would try to use to revive her sister.

    At the same time, in another completely hidden location.

    Looking at the extremely huge mass of corrupted human souls, a smile appeared on Selena Watford''s face.

    Suddenly, the ball of human souls began transforming, into something else.

    "This is it," mumbled Selena, feeling the extremely pure, and terrifyingly powerful Dark Mana that was being created by her creation.

    Without any warning, the Dark Mana that was floating in the air suddenly began being absorbed by Selena, causing her to fully reveal her real body.

    Suddenly, a demon-like being appeared in the place of Selena.

    Her already well-endowed body became completely voluptuous, while horns, wings and a tail sprouted on her body.

    Right now, Selena looked completely like a true Succubus from Hell, but as the extremely pure Dark Mana from the ball of souls poured into her body, several transformations began taking place inside of her.

    But sadly, after a few minutes, the amount of Dark Mana produced by the ball reduced drastically, causing Selena to wave her left hand.

    Suddenly, in hundreds of hidden locations across the continent,

    ...

    Looking at the dark hole in front of him, James gritted his teeth, but remembering the orders of his superiors, he still couldn''t help but do his job.

    "Throw them in," said James, causing two guards to come up to the hole, with a small child in their hands.

    Without any warning, the guards threw the child into the hole, before another two walked in with another child.

    Such scenes took place in thousands of different places across the entire continent, as tens of thousand of pure souls of simultaneously sacrificed.

    ...

    Under the effect of the sacrifices, the amount of Dark Mana emanating from the ball of souls suddenly increased to a massive degree, causing Selena to smile, and begin absorbing it all.

    Slowly but surely, the Dark Mana replaced Selena''s weak flesh and blood, as her horns, tail, and wings slowly fell from her body and onto the ground.

    After that, Selena''s actual flesh and blood began slowly melting, being replaced by pure Dark Mana, causing the melting of her remaining body to increase even more.

    Hours passed, and under the effects of the Mana, and Selena''s unrelenting efforts, her entire body had been fully transformed, abandoning flesh and blood, and becoming a True Elemental being.

    Suddenly, Selena started twitching as she sent the powerful Dark Mana toward her soul without any reservations or defenses.

    As expected, Selena''s soul was then immediately destroyed and smashed into pieces, causing her body to fall to the ground.

    ...

    Looking at the unending darkness around her, Selena sighed before stretching out her hand toward the darkness, causing a small dark dot to suddenly appear in the place where her former soul resided, her new soul.

    Using her understanding of Darkness, Selena''s new soul slowly grew, transformed, and morphed into something far beyond a mere mortal soul, but still, it remained in that same shape, a tiny dark dot.

    Slowly but surely, Selena opened her eyes, causing everything around her to suddenly stop.

    "So this is what it feels to be an Archmage," mumbled Selena as she got up from the ground, a large smile appearing on her face.

 Irelia

    Without any warning, a bright yellow spear suddenly pierced Selena''s stomach, the ground below her suddenly exploded causing a large cloud of fire to suddenly rise into the sky.

    Merely a few moments later, a large meteor suddenly fell from the sky, just as the meteor was falling, the gravity around the area suddenly increased, vastly increasing the power of the several-meter-wide meteor, right where the explosion took place, causing an even bigger explosion to take place.

    "You think that killed her?" asked Ichor, an Earth Mage, as he looked at Irelia, a woman dressed in pure white.

    "Under the suppression of my light magic, she should have already died, but we can''t be too sure with someone like her," said Irelia as she cautiously looked at the giant crater in front of her.

    "Then let''s make sure she''s dead," mumbled Daniel as a giant fireball had finished gathering above him, having started gathering the fireball all soon as he had finished casting the last spell.

    Without any warning, the fireball suddenly disappeared from above him, as another explosion appeared inside of the crater.

    Moments later, another meteor suddenly appeared in the sky, prompting Nicholas, the other earth mage to once again increase the gravity around the area, causing the meteor to speed up before landing inside of the crater.

    After a few moments, Irelia suddenly casted a spell as a bright light bloomed in her eyes.

    "There''s nothing alive in there, it looks like we have maybe finally killed her, if she doesn''t have any methods prepared to resurrect herself," said Irelia causing smiles to appear on the faces of all the other mages.

    "That''s good," mumbled Daniel as tears began streaming out of his eyes, his emotion''s overwhelming him.

    Suddenly, flames surrounded Daniel, but these flames were not nearly fast not strong enough enough to stop what was about to happen.

    A hand suddenly pierced through the left side of Daniel''s chest, taking his heart away with it, prompting Daniel to suddenly fall to the ground.

    The moment that happened, two white lights suddenly emerged from Irelia, with one enveloping Daniel, and another enveloping the entire group.

    "She''s not inside, make the barrier," shouted Irelia, knowing that Selena couldn''t stay inside of her light Domain without revealing herself.

    Even without Irelia''s reminder, a round metal shield suddenly appeared around the group of four powerful official mages, as Nicholas and Ichor rapidly created it.

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    Seeing this, Irelia then began focusing on Daniel, causing her to cast more and more healing spells on him.

    After a few minutes, Irelia breathed a sigh of relief, as sweat filled her forehead, not only had she healed Daniel''s chest, but she had also created a new heart for him.

    But even so, Irelia did not waste any time.

    "Wake up," said Irelia as Daniel suddenly felt a mental shock, causing him to open his eyes.

    The moment Daniel opened his eyes, he suddenly put his hand on the left side of his chest, before breathing a sigh of relief.

    "Thank you Irelia," said Daniel as he suddenly got up from the ground.

    "It''s not a problem, we need to deal with the Witch of Death, otherwise we won''t be able to live this place alive," said Irelia before looking at the two Earth Mages.

    Just as Irelia, wanted to ask Nicholas and Ichor something, she suddenly noticed Daniel opening his mouth.

    "What is it?" asked Irelia.

    "With your healing prowess, it''s a big pity I didn''t have your help in my experiments up until now Irelia," said Daniel as a smile appeared on his face.

    Suddenly, a light spear appeared in Irelia''s hands, as she then stabbed it at Daniel, piercing his heart once more, and causing him to fall to the ground.

    "Hmm, Daniel has been chasing me for such a long time, it would be a pity if he died," said a female voice from behind Irelia, as the rock barrier around the four mages suddenly shattered, causing the two earth Mages to groan in pain.

    Ignoring the three, Selena looked at Daniel, who was bleeding out before waving her hand.

    "Dark Healing," mumbled Selena, causing the surrounding tens of meters around her to suddenly die.

    "Aren''t I so nice, I''m not even using his lifespan," said Selena as she easily dodged Irelia''s light spells.

    At the same time, Daniel''s bleeding suddenly stopped, as his state was temporarily stabilized.

    Seeing the power of Selena''s Dark Healing, Irelia felt extremely shocked, and at the same time, she suddenly knew why she felt so powerless right now.

    "Archmage," mumbled Irelia, as the mana inside of her body began acting wildly, but sadly, her mana was soon forced to calm down, without Irelia''s approval.

    "Little Irelia, life is precious, you shouldn''t commit suicide," said Selena as she walked up to the helpless Irelia and touched her cheek.

    Even though she wanted to resist, Irelia had lost control of her body, and could only watch Selena touch her.

    Suddenly, Selena''s eyes widened, with some shame appeared on her face.

    "Oh, you can''t talk," mumbled Selena as she suddenly granted Irelia permission to use her mouth once again.

    "Don''t think you can get away with this, with what you''ve done," said Irelia as she stared at Selena, with her eyes red.

    "If I''m so irredeemable then why not go after the Dark Magic Academies, don''t you know what type of experiments happen in there?" asked Selena as she planted a sweet kiss on Irelia''s forehead, leaving a large red mark.

    Hearing what Selena said, Irelia couldn''t help but grit her teeth.

    "I would have taken action after I became an Archmage," said Irelia as she stared at Selena, with more and more hatred forming within her.

    At that moment, Selena suddenly burst into hysterical laughter, only stopping a few minutes later.

    "My sweet little Irelia, you are really making me start to pity you," said Selena, as her fingers went through Irelia''s long yellow hair, causing the latter to not know how to react.

    "Also, white suits you better," mumbled Selena as the four mages around her suddenly started floating, before disappearing a few moments later.

 Transformation

    Just as Archmage Withered Soul was about to close he eyes, he couldn''t help but suddenly open them once again, as he felt an extremely weird chill in his heart.

    After a few moments, Withered Soul let out a soft sigh as he shook his head, taking out a weird crystal from his robe.

    "You can stop pursuing Selena, come back to the Monastery," said the Archmage, speaking into the crystal as several other thoughts swirled inside of his mind.

    Merely a few moments later, Archmage Withered Soul turned into dark smoke, disappearing.

    ...

    At the entrance to the Shadow Monastery,

    Looking at the humongous cathedral in front of him, Archmage Withered Soul let out a sigh before walking into it.

    The insides of the cathedral looked very much similar to a normal church, only the gold and worn colors had been replaced with grey and black.

    As the Archmage walked further and further into the cathedral, the elemental energy around him began morphing, at first, it was normal, but as he walked further and further in, it began transforming into something very much similar to dark mana.

    After a few minutes, the Archmage arrived at a door in the wall, through which he then walked into before going down a flight of stairs.

    Walking down through the stairs, all elemental energy had disappeared from around Archmage Withered Soul, being replaced by pure darkness.

    Several large statues also stood on the sides of the stairs, seemingly staring up the flight of stairs, preparing to stop any intruder from going further.

    Finishing walking down the flight of stairs, Archmage withered soul encountered a barrier, a transparent barrier that separated the two sides of the room.

    "It seems quite angry right now," mumbled the Archmage as he suddenly stepped through the barrier and onto the other side of the room.

    The moment he did that, several large tentacles suddenly appeared around the Archmage, attacking him.

    But thankfully, the tentacles stopped as several chains suddenly restricted them, causing them to lose their strength and fall to the ground.

    Without paying any more attention to the tentacles, the Archmage walked towards the end of the room, where a door stood.

    As he opened the door, Archmage Withered Soul was greeted by something rather magnificent on the other side.

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    Looking at the several hundred-meter large monsters, with tentacles emerging from all around it''s body, the Archmage smiled.

    Suddenly, thousands of chains materialized around the monster, restricting it''s movement and not allowing it to do anything, only with one single exception.

    Looking at the exception, a broken chain that was now laying on the floor, Archmage Withered soul couldn''t help but shake his head.

    "I''m sorry, I can''t let you do that, can a Monastery even exist if its God is gone?" said the Archmage as he began slowly rebuilding it''s chain.

    Every single one of these chains that were restraining these beasts was powerful enough to shackle an Archmage, having been created and increased in number by past Archmages of the Shadow Monastery.

    As such, Archmage Withered Soul had much less work to do, only having to maintain them, and not let God roam free.

    ...

    Opening her eyes, having just finished refining mana, Beatrice couldn''t help but take a deep breath/

    "Annoying," mumbled Beatrice as she suddenly realized she once again had cold sweat on herself, causing her to get up from the bed and walk into the shower.

    ...

    Feeling the warm water wash over her, Beatrice couldn''t help but let out a relaxed sigh, but even so, she could not waste much more time, getting out of the shower after a few more moments.

    As she moved her hands through her still slightly wet hair, Beatrice couldn''t help but sigh.

    "I shouldn''t think about these things," mumbled Beatrice, deciding to follow through on her words.

    Three months later,

    For the past three months, Beatrice no longer focused on things she could not solve, rather, trying to increase both her strength and her knowledge as much as possible.

    In the past three months, Beatrice had taken two more missions, but compared to her first mission, these were both much less dangerous and much worse paid, only gaining her a total of eighty elemental stones.

    As such, Beatrice focused much more on increasing her knowledge rather than becoming richer.

    Well of course, after some more accumulation, Beatrice''s savings had reached a total of over three hundred and sixty elemental stones.

    On a very normal day three months later, something more interesting finally happened.

    As she refined more and more mana over these past three months, Beatrice''s increase in mana followed a liniar pattern, increasing around 0.1 points per day, as such, after three months, Beatrice''s mana finally reached a certain milestone.

    Refining mana, Beatrice kept her eyes closed, but suddenly, she couldn''t help but open them as her body began slightly shaking,

    Unbeknownst to her, as her mana reached around thirty points, it''s weight began pushing it even further into her body, beginning to transform it into something more than a normal human in a way that Knight Training could never copy.

    After around an hour, the shaking of Beatrice''s body stopped, but after a few moments, Beatrice instinctually began refining more mana, and a moment later, began doing so consciously, pushing more and more mana into her body, replenishing what had been lost.

    Because of this, it took several hours for the shaking of Beatrice''s body to stop.

    Opening her eyes, Beatrice couldn''t help but be shocked.

    As she was already a Grand Knight, Beatrice did not become much stronger, but even so, a large smile couldn''t help but appear on her face.

    Suddenly, Beatrice noticed that she did not feel hungry at all, even after refining mana for three hours and achieving her breakthrough for five hours.

    "My mana has begun transforming my organs," mumbled Beatrice, knowing that this was the sign that showed she had become a High-Ranking Mage apprentice.

    As he body adapted more and more to mana, Beatrice''s internal organs not only became stronger, but also were able to sustain themselves with her mana.

    And as mana was an extremely powerful energy source compared to most other things, Beatrice now no longer needed to eat, even her need was water was somewhat reduced.

 Achievement

    As she got up from her bed, Beatrice couldn''t help but notice a transparent sticky substance leaking from her skin.

    Looking at the bed, Beatrice couldn''t help but feel disgusted, seeing that the substance had already gotten onto it.

    "Throw this bed away and get a new one, but don''t touch anything under it," said Beatrice as she walked into the bathroom.

    Hearing that, William quickly began to do his work, letting his mistress relax.

    ...

    As the warm water rushed over her skin, clearing the substance away, Beatrice couldn''t help but smile and touch her now much smoother and silkier skin.

    "This can also be counted as a benefit of advancing," mumbled Beatrice as she walked up to a mirror and looked at her face, which while extremely beautiful before, had become nearly flawless.

    After that, Beatrice got back into the shower, while taking a small machine with her.

    ''31.43214''

    Looking at the amount of mana she had right now, Beatrice couldn''t help but smile.

    "The breakthrough saved me over two weeks of work in regards to mana," mumbled Beatrice as the machine in her hands slowly floated out of the shower, leaving Beatrice alone.

    After staying in the shower for a few more minutes, Beatrice then got out before putting on a robe and walking out of her room.

    As she walked through the corridor of the Shadow Monastery, Beatrice couldn''t help but remember the day she entered school, a few months ago.

    Remembering that weird feeling, which she presumed to be her innate talent, Beatrice couldn''t help but frown.

    ''It still hasn''t manifested itself once again,'' thought Beatrice, becoming slightly annoyed with it.

    Usually, as the power of a mage increases, the amount of times their Innate Talent manifests increases, causing the mage to be able to master it.

    But for some reason, this law did not seem to apply to Beatrice, causing her to fall into doubt.

    ''Maybe it''s not an Innate talent at all, maybe it''s something else,'' thought Beatrice before taking her mind off this topic, as doing speculation was not something she liked.

    As such, Beatrice continued walking down the hallway, reaching a certain room a few moments later before knocking on the door.

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    "Come in," said Mr. Errol, hearing someone knock on the door, prompting Beatrice to open it and walk in.

    Looking at Beatrice, who seemed to have been transformed, Mr. Errol couldn''t help but nod.

    "Yes, based on your talent, it should be about time," mumbled Mr. Errol, as a test suddenly began materializing in his hands.

    "Here you go, you have thirty minutes," said Mr. Errol as he took out a pen and placed it next to the test.

    Sitting on a chair and picking up the test, Beatrice couldn''t help but smile.

    ''Too easy,'' thought Beatrice, as she quickly filled up the first few pages with supernatural speed, in under a minute.

    As such, even though the rest of the test was somewhat more difficult, in under five minutes, Beatrice had already finished it, prompting her to place down her pen.

    Seeing this, Mr. Errol smiled before picking up the test and glancing over it, occasionally moving to another page.

    "So you did some experiments?" asked Mr. Errol''s as his eyes flashed over a specific question.

    "Yes," said Beatrice as she stared at her teacher, wanting to see the expression on his face.

    But sadly for her, Beatrice could not obtain such a pleasure, as Mr. Errol merely nodded, not showing anything else on his face.

    "Hmm good," mumbled Mr. Errol as he placed the completed test on his desk before pointing at a large machine in a corner of the room.

    Seeing this, Beatrice got up from the chair before walking into the machine.

    But surprisingly, the machine did not seem to do anything, as Beatrice stood still for several moments.

    ''It looks like she had no Innate Talent that affects her body,'' thought Mr. Errol as he looked at the results that had come in, several moments later the machine truly activated.

    Only a few moments after that, a piece of paper for the results of the test suddenly appeared in front of Mr. Errol.

    ''Mana: 31.41253''

    ''Spiritual power: 36.131''

    Looking at the result of the spiritual power test, Mr. Errol couldn''t help but shake his head.

    ''It looks like I underestimated her, it seems like that fight to the death really helped her increase her spiritual power,'' thought Mr. Errol, as he looked at Beatrice, who had just gotten out of the machine.

    Mere moments later, Beatrice walked back and sat on the chair.

    "You can attack me now," said Mr. Errol, causing a Dark Bolt to suddenly flash by his ear as his neck bent at an unusual angle, dodging the dark bolt.

    Merely 0.1 seconds later, a second Dark Bolt suddenly appeared in front of Mr. Errol''s face, prompting his neck to suddenly bend to an even more incredible degree, right now, his head was facing the ground, being perpendicular with his body.

    However, several fractions of a second later, the first Dark Bolt suddenly returned, causing Mr. Errol to suddenly disappear and reappear in a corner of the room.

    Suddenly, the second dark bolt found it''s target, as it''s shape suddenly morphed, and merely a moment later, a sonic boom suddenly resounded inside of the room.

    Thankfully Beatrice had her barrier, but even more surprisingly, the sonic boom did not seem to do any damage to anything in the room.

    Looking at the Dark Bolt, which was traveling above the speed of sound toward him, Mr. Errol smiled.

    Suddenly, the Dark Bolt, which was aimed at him, turned on it''s own, before traveling toward''s Beatrice.

    However, Mr. Errol''s expression soon changed as he heard a small sound.

    Even though he knew what it was, Mr. Errol turned his head downwards and looked towards his leg, where his Dark Barrier was impacted by a Dark Bolt.

    Suddenly, the entire process of what happened appeared in Mr. Errol''s mind, as he no longer restrained himself.

    "That''s really quite clever," said Mr. Errol as he looked at Beatrice.

 Past

    Knowing Mr. Errol appeared in a corner, Beatrice immediately controlled a Dark Bolt to launch itself at him, but at the same time, did something else.

    ''As I expected, he restrained himself to the level of a Mage Apprentice,'' thought Beatrice before putting her plan in action.

    Merely a fraction of a moment later, Beatrice silently hurled another spell at Mr. Errol, the Dark Hint spell.

    Suddenly, Beatrice felt herself lose control of the Dark Bolt she launched at her teacher, causing her to smile suddenly.

    At the same time as Mr. Errol was focused on this, another Dark Bolt suddenly flashed from Mr. Errol''s blindspot and towards his leg.

    Because of the Dark Hint, Mr. Errol was too focused on the first Dark Bolt, as such, the next one went unnoticed, smashing into the Dark Barrier around him.

    ''Even though I sealed myself, to be able to even slightly influence me, that''s even better than I expected,'' thought Mr. Errol as he suddenly appeared back in his seat.

    Truthfully, although it was impressive, the only reason Beatrice managed to accomplish this feat was that Mr. Errol was not on his guard against Beatrice, thinking that her spiritual power was not enough to even slightly influence him.

    "You did better than I expected, right now, you should focus on increasing your mana and perfecting the mastery of your spells, rather than learning new ones," said Mr. Errol as a book appeared in his hands, and he seemingly began reading it.

    ...

    Walking out of Mr. Errol''s office, Beatrice couldn''t help but fall into thought.

    ''Focusing on perfecting my spells, that should be alright,'' thought Beatrice as she walked back to her room.

    "William, take out all of the tools from the experiment room," said Beatrice, the moment she walked back into her room and sat down on the bed.

    As she looked at William, who was taking out fragile tool from the experiment, so as to not leave any chance for Beatrice to destroy them while training using her spells, Beatrice couldn''t help but fall into her memories.

    ...

    "Miss Beatrice, it is almost time for dinner," said William, as he opened the door and bowed to the young Beatrice, being followed by two maids, one being visibly younger than the other.

    Hearing that, Beatrice couldn''t help but let out a defeated sigh before looking at the maids.

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    "Prepare me a bath," said Beatrice, causing the maids to silently walk towards a side extension of Beatrice''s room.

    Seeing that the young miss was agreeable this time, William couldn''t help but breathe a sigh of relief, before beginning to walk out of the room, still bowing.

    But suddenly, Beatrice turned towards William, her total focus now being placed on the butler.

    Looking at the grey hair on top of William''s head, Beatrice wanted to say something, but after a few moments, decided not to say anything, and to leave the old butler alone.

    But even so, that single grey hair, continued being imprinted in Beatrice''s mind, even as she stepped into the bath.

    Feeling two sets of hands washing her, Beatrice let out a relaxed groan, and at the same time, a question popped up into her mind.

    "Alicia, do you think there''s Eternal Life somewhere?" asked Beatrice, staring at the maid, that was barely older than herself.

    Hearing the question, Alicia couldn''t help but fall into doubt for a few moments, before answering.

    "I haven''t heard of anyone that has ever lived eternally, but Knights do live somewhat longer than normal humans, so I think If someone becomes a powerful enough knight, they could become immortal," said Alicia as she scratched her face, unsure of her answer.

    Hearing that answer, Beatrice couldn''t help but fall into thought at that moment.

    "Hmm, I see," mumbled Beatrice, having decided what to do.

    ...

    "Greetings, Mother, father," said Beatrice as she slightly bowed to her parents.

    Seeing this, a smile appeared on the face of Iris.

    "Did you have a good morning?" asked Iris as she stared at her daughter, at the same time, she couldn''t help but touch her bulging stomach from time to time.

    "Hmm, Very good," said Beatrice as she sat down at the table, with no apparent expression on her face.

    Seeing this, Renald, couldn''t help but smile.

    ''It looks like Beatrice is in a good mood today,'' thought Renald as he looked at his daughter, when suddenly Beatrice opened her mouth.

    "Father, can you give me a knight''s breathing technique?" asked Beatrice, causing Renald to suddenly smile.

    "Of course, I will get a few of them for you, so that you can choose the one that you prefer," said Renald, happy that his daughter, who did not ask for much, finally had a request for him.

    Later that day,

    Looking at the old butler in front of him, Renald suddenly became serious.

    "William, I want you to supervise Beatrice while she''s training, with your skills I''m sure you can do so," said Renald, still slightly worried for his daughter.

    "Do not worry, Sir Renald, even if I die, I will not let anything happen to the young miss," said William as determination filled the face of the butler.

    ...

    Two weeks later,

    Slashing a sword again and again, Beatrice did her best to resist falling to the ground, but even though she was determined in her training, after only two weeks, she really did not have the physical strength to continue training for more than three hours.

    Suddenly, Beatrice opened her eyes, causing her to be able to clearly see the grey hair on William''s head.

    The moment that grey hair entered her vision, Beatrice seemed to gain new strength, allowing her to continue on with her training.

    ''If I give up so soon, will I ever live eternally?'' asked herself, Beatrice, knowing the answer to the question.

    Half an hour later,

    As she continued slashing her sword, Beatrice''s breathing slowly but surely began transforming, from normal breathing, to the knight''s breathing technique, which she was trying to master.

    Suddenly, It seemed as if Beatrice had truly regained her vigor, as all of the exhaustion in her eyes faded away.

    Looking at Beatrice, a smile couldn''t help but appear on William''s face.

    ''Only two weeks, as expected of the young miss,'' thought William, staring at Beatrice.

 Light

    Suddenly, Beatrice broke out of her trance as William had finished emptying out the experiment room for her to use.

    As she got up from the bed, Beatrice couldn''t help but feel nostalgic, remembering the past from long ago.

    Walking into the experiment room, Beatrice shook her head, causing her to suddenly return to normal, with whatever emotion that had existed on her face being annihilated.

    But even so, in the back of her mind, even though Beatrice did not pay much attention to it, something existed, perhaps a remnant of a distant past, of someone long gone, someone that had changed.

    Closing the door behind her, a dark Bolt suddenly appeared in Beatrice''s hands, before beginning to change and shift, morphing into another shape.

    Without any warning, a small explosion took place inside of the small room, as the Dark Bolt suddenly sped up, surpassing the sound barrier as moved across the room.

    ...

    One hour later,

    Walking out of the experiment room, Beatrice couldn''t help but sit on her bed, but compared to usual, the look in her eyes seemed completely different.

    Just as she was about to reach under the bed and pick up a book to read, Beatrice suddenly looked at William.

    "Go and organize the experiment room, but don''t make any sound," said Beatrice, as a rare feeling of exhaustion swept over her.

    ''I didn''t do anything to exhausting today, that''s weird,'' thought Beatrice as she placed her head on the pillow and stared at the ceiling, being uncharacteristically lazy.

    After around thirty minutes, Beatrice''s eyelids slowly covered her eyes, without her even noticing.

    ...

    As Beatrice opened her eyes, she was not inside of her room.

    Suddenly, Beatrice became serious as she looked at the dark void around her.

    ''Where am I?'' thought Beatrice, looking at the endless darkness around her with a frown on her face.

    After a few minutes of looking around herself, Beatrice suddenly noticed something far off in the distance, causing her body to suddenly start floating.

    Without even paying attention to the fact, Beatrice began slowly floating towards something, a small dot of light in the distance, surrounded by endless darkness.

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    Minutes, hours, days or even years could have passed, but Beatrice was completely unaware of them, as she slowly but surely floated to the dot of light, causing it to become bigger and bigger.

    Eventually, the white dot became so large, that it looked like a small sun, emitting light in all directions, warming the entirety of the world.

    As she became closer and closer to the sun, Beatrice first began sweating, then began feeling pain all over her body.

    After walking all the way to the sun, Beatrice''s skin began burning, but even so, Beatrice did not seem to notice, merely walking closer and closer to it, seemingly to her doom.

    Sometime, later, Beatrice''s flesh, beneath her burnt skin, slowly began melting, but thankfully, at this time, Beatrice was extremely close to this miniature sun.

    And without any hesitation or fear for her life, Beatrice stretched out her hand towards it.

    ...

    "That was a weird dream," thought Beatrice as she fell into a warm embrace, causing her to relax nd close her eyes.

    Suddenly, after several minutes, Beatrice opened her eyes in horror, staring at the threads of white hair that had landed next to her.

    "Mother?" mumbled Beatrice, being extremely confused.

    If normal Beatrice had landed in this situation, she would have long since realized what was happening, but right now, Beatrice was extremely tired and confused.

    Hearing what Beatrice called her, a weird smile could be seen on the face of the woman behind.

    "That''s not a suitable name for me, is it," mumbled the woman behind Beatrice in a warm tone.

    "Hmm, a name more suitable for me would be...," said the woman, wanting to continue her sentence.

    But sadly, just that was about to happen, Beatrice regained her senses.

    ...

    Even though she was awake, Beatrice still stood with her eyes closed for several minutes, only slowly opening them over ten minutes later.

    Feeling the warm bed behind her, Beatrice couldn''t help but let out a smile, as if feeling two warm hands behind her.

    Around twenty more minutes, Beatrice slowly got up from the bed, took two small bags hidden inside of her room out.

    After that, Beatrice walked out of her room, not walking toward''s Mr. Errol''s office, but rather in the opposite direction.

    Five minutes later, Beatrice had arrived at a certain counter.

    "What do you have to increase mental clarity?" asked Beatrice as she stared at the shopkeeper in front of her.

    Hearing that, the shopkeeper took out a small booklet before handing it out to Beatrice.

    Looking through the booklet for a few minutes, Beatrice took out one of the small bags from her robe before taking out thirty elemental stones.

    "Give me a Lesser Clarity Potion," said Beatrice, causing the shopkeeper to walk inside of a certain room behind the counter.

    Several moments later, the shopkeeper came back, potion in hand.

    "Here you go," said the shopkeeper, handing the potion to Beatrice, then taking the elemental stones on the table and placing them inside of the counter.

    Without waiting even a moment, Beatrice took the cap off from the potion, before immediately drinking it.

    "Thank you very much," said Beatrice as she looked at the shopkeeper, before walking back to her room with a frown on her face.

    The moment Beatrice entered her room, she walked up to her bed, before taking out a certain book from under it.

    ''Light Mages, spells and counters''

    Opening the book, Beatrice ignored the Light Spell''s described, but rather began searching for something else.

    After a few minutes of searching, Beatrice finally found it.

    ''Effects of casting Light Spells on Dark Mages''

    ''All Light Spells including supportive ones like Light Healing and Blessing, may have adverse effects on the Dark Mage depending on their power, for spells not meant to attack, effects may include loss of spirit, confusion, and exhaustion

    Wiping away the cold sweat on her forehead, Beatrice continued reading this book, beginning to look through the Light Spells.

 Happenings

    "How in the world did someone cast a light spell on me while I was sleeping," mumbled Beatrice, being extremely confused, the reasonable thing that could have caused this would have been a Light Mage sneaking into the Academy and targeting.

    Of course, Beatrice knew that such a thing was impossible leaving her with only one other possible answer to what had happened.

    ...

    Looking at the five troll''s in front of him, James smiled, stretching his arms, right now Prince James looked completely different to how he looked back when he was in the Kingdom of Lyon.

    Suddenly, James began standing still for over half a minute before taking out a potion and drinking it.

    One minute later, James suddenly opened his eyes, causing a fireball to suddenly be launched at the trolls.

    Before the fireball was even halfway to it''s destination, James had already jumped behind a mound of earth, at the same time, making sure his shield was still active.

    As soon as the fireball was launched the troll''s immediately got up, trying to run in different directions, but sadly, it was far too late.

    Suddenly, James was sent flying as a tree flew towards him as the earth mound in front of him was blown to pieces by it''s sheer speed.

    Rocks, earth, branches, trees, and even some blown-off remains of the trolls quickly traveled in different directions having been sent flying by an extremely powerful explosion.

    "Damn it, I still underestimated the power," said James, as he got up from the ground, spitting out a little bit of blood.

    Suddenly, James began running, not wanting to stay at this location any longer, and as he did so, fire emerged around the bruised parts of James'' body.

    "These shitty Fire Spells are going to kill me one day," mumbled James, as flames quickly healed his injuries, allowing him to be able to speed off from the area of his strike.

    ...

    Looking at the small child in front of her, Susan couldn''t help but smile before placing her hand on his head.

    "It''s alright, just wait a moment, everything will be fine," said Susan as quickly, as a bubble of water formed around the wounded child.

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    Without hesitating any longer, Susan quickly pulled out the large branch from the leg of the child, revealing an utterly horrifying wound.

    Blood quickly began flowing out of the leg of the child, causing his face to become paler and paler, but thankfully, the bleeding suddenly stopped as Susan began casting another spell.

    "Water Healing," muttered Susan, in an almost unhearable tone, causing the woman next to her to shake her head.

    But even so, Susan''s water mana quickly did its work, causing the wound on the leg of the child to suddenly begin healing at a rapid speed.

    Several moment''s later, the leg of the child looked brand new under the effect of the healing, and at the same time, any hidden injuries or ilnesses he had were healed.

    Suddenly, the water bubble popped, causing the child to suddenly begin floating to the ground in a peacefull manner.

    Just after that, the woman, who up until right now had only watched Susan heal the child, suddenly pointed her finger at his head.

    A ray of blue light suddenly emerged from the finger, before entering the head of the child.

    "Teacher, did you have to do that?" asked Susan, touching the cheek of the sleeping child with a smile on her face.

    "Since we aren''t in the territory of the academy, we better be cautious, erasing his memories is also not bad for him, since he will forget the pain, otherwise, there might be some adverse effects on him," said the woman as she quickly erased all traces that anything had even happened here.

    Hearing her teacher''s words, Susan couldn''t help but feel a little sad.

    "You really get attached way too easily, and at the same time, I thought we had worked out that bad habit of yours, accidentally telling your enemies what you are about to do can be a great disadvantage," said the woman as she walked up the hill.

    Hearing that, Susan silently lowered her head, her face becoming slightly bitter as she looked at her teacher, but still, Susan obediently followed her teacher, moving up the hill.

    But just as the woman was about to more on, the suddenly waved her hand, causing a blue barrier to suddenly emerged around the child, at the same time, she couldn''t help but place her hand on her face.

    "If you wanted to safe him, at least don''t leave him sleeping defencelessly in the wilderness," mumbled the woman as she looked at her cute student with a weird expression on her face.

    Hearing that, Susan almost stumbled to the ground.

    ...

    Looking at the woman, who seemed extremely defenseless, Irelia couldn''t help but have some weird thoughts.

    Not even a moment later, a spear of light suddenly appeared in Irelia''s hands, before flying toward the Witch of Death.

    Merely a fraction of a moment later, the spear arrived in front of the witch, threatening to go through her left eye.

    But as expected, the Witch of Death suddenly opened her eyes, causing Irelia to let out a sigh.

    "As expected, I can''t do anything to her," thought Irelia, watching the spear approach the Witch.

    Although there was a large diference of power between the two, being a light magus, Irelia still thought she could at least do some damage to the witch, but sadly, reality would soon hit her.

    Looking at Irelia, the Witch of Death, Selena, winked, closing her left eye, causing some sparks to appear a moment later as the powerful spear of light smashed against her eyelid, with the sound of metal hitting metal being heard.

    "That was a nice try from my little apprentice, but now don''t you think you deserve some punishment," said Selena as a smile slowly appeared on her face.

    Before Irelia could do anything else, she soon lost conscious.

 Dark Witch

    As soon as he woke up, Daniel opened his eyes, before looking at the small and dark room he was in.

    "So she captured us," mumbled Daniel, feeling the restraints around his limbs, and at the same time, he couldn''t help but feel extremely downcast

    ''She has become an Archmage,'' thought Daniel, knowing that fighting Selena head-on is not an option at all right now.

    Even though he new that it was probably futile, Daniel still checked on his mana, after feeling it inside of his body, he then looked at a corner of the room before trying to cast a spell.

    Blood fell down from Daniel''s lip, as he suddenly bit into it, feeling the extremely horrifying pain that seemed to seep into his soul.

    Merely a few moments later, Daniel fell to the ground, now clutching his head in agony.

    ...

    In another location nearby,

    As she sat on a pitch-black chair, Selena stared at Irelia, who right now was completely chained up, by black chains, being incapable of even moving a single bit.

    Feeling Irelia''s eyes, in which hate was slowly brewing, Selena smiled, but even so, she couldn''t help but feel a little unsatisfied at the slow speed.

    Suddenly, Selena felt a certain restraint placed by her being touched, causing a smile to appear on her face.

    "You really are lucky, you will get to enjoy such a nice," mumbled Selena as she snapped her fingers, causing the black chain''s around Irelia to disappear.

    But even though Irelia was free to move however she liked, right now she continued staring at Selena.

    "So you are going to begin torturing me right now?" asked Irelia, knowing that fighting Selena was utterly pointless.

    Hearing that, Selena chuckled, rolling her eyes at the question.

    ...

    Suddenly, just as Daniel was about to lie on the ground, so as to get some rest, the wall to his left side suddenly disappeared, giving him access to another cell.

    "Irelia, thank god you are alright," shouted Daniel, quickly moving towards his teammate, seeing that Irelia did not seem to have been tortured Daniel breathed a sigh of relief.

    "This is really not good, that witch is probably planning something," said Irelia, as she looked at Daniel with her golden eyes.

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    Hearing that, Daniel nodded, caution filling his eyes, but even so, feeling Irelia''s warmth, Daniel still couldn''t help but smile.

    But just a moment later, the two of them were disturbed, as the wall to their right side suddenly crumbled to dust, revealing Ighor, who right now, was unconscious on the floor, having not yet woken up.

    Seeing this, both Daniel and Irelia suddenly began walking toward their teammate, not fearing death at all.

    ''If she wanted to kill us, she would have killed us,'' thought Daniel as he reached out toward Ighor.

    Suddenly, Irelia, who was right next to Daniel disappeared, leaving only Ighor laying on the floor.

    Merely a moment later, Daniel felt something appear in his hands, the moment he realized what that thing was, Daniel suddenly felt extreme horror.

    Without any prior hint or warning, Daniel suddenly raised the knife in his hands, before stabbing on his own neck with full strength.

    Sadly, his attempt at suicide didn''t work, as the knife bounced off his skin, but even so, beyond any reason, this normal-looking knife did not even have a single scratch, from colliding with Daniel''s skin.

    "Are you so heartless, to leave your little lover all alone in the wilderness?" asked a voice from behind Daniel.

    Suddenly, Daniel realized he could not turn around, but even so, he immediately knew who the person talking to him was.

    "Are you here to torture me?" asked Daniel, gripping the knife in his hands even tighter, but although he tried his best, Daniel could not turn around, nor could he stab the person behind him.

    "No, I''m really not, I''m just here to give you a choice," said Selena before suddenly disappearing from behind Daniel.

    Merely a moment later, the wall in front of Daniel suddenly crumbled, revealing a cage, and inside that cage, stood a now unconscious Irelia.

    Seeing that, extreme panic appeared in Daniel''s eyes, but merely a moment later, his panic suddenly increased even more, having completely been proven through.

    Looking at the goblin''s walking toward''s Irelia, Daniel''s grip on his knife tightened even more.

    Merely a few moments later, about five or so goblins had jumped on Irelia, beginning to strip her, when suddenly, they stopped, as if frozen in time.

    Tears began slowly forming at the corner of Daniel''s eyes as he stared at Ighor, who now had a knife stuck in his left eye, going straight through his head.

    ...

    "You two really make a good couple, he would even sacrifice a teammate, just for a single chance to save you, how precious," said Selena as she stared at Irelia, who was right next to her with a smile on her face.

    Suddenly, a glowing yellow fist arrived in front of Selena''s face, when suddenly it stopped.

    Staring at Irelia for a few moments, Selena frowned, before touching the latter''s forehead.

    ''The seal on her magic was too tight, that almost destroyed her soul,'' thought Selena as she took out a potion from her robe, before quickly feeding it to Irelia.

    ...

    "Thing''s really are that much more convenient when you are an Archmage," said Selena, staring at the hundreds of children in front of her with a smile on her face.

    Without any warning, a coffin suddenly appeared in front of Selena, and merely a few moments later, the children around her began dropping to the ground with no apparent damage on their bodies.

    As she slowly dissolved the pure souls, and fed them to the being inside of the coffin, and for the first time since she had become an Archmage, Selena felt like something was challenging once again.

    Several hours later,

    After a few hours, all of the children had died, and at the same time, steady breathing could be heard from inside the coffin, causing Selena to breathe a sigh of relief.

    "It looks like it worked," mumbled Selena before opening the coffin and staring at Ighor, who was now sleeping inside of it.

 Torment

    As she took in a deep breath, Beatrice continued staring at the spell circle inscribed inside of the book, trying her best to imprint it in her mind.

    After staring at the diagram for more than an hour, so much so that her eyes had become bloodshot, Beatrice slowly closed the book before getting up from the bed and closing her eyes.

    "This should work," mumbled Beatrice, before beginning to focus on casting the spell she had just memorized.

    Of course, things were not so simple, as after over thirty minutes of casting nothing happened, but still, Beatrice continued attempting to cast that spell, not letting her failure get to her.

    Several hours later,

    Still with her eyes closed, Beatrice couldn''t help but feel lightheaded, as exhaustion seemingly washed over her.

    ''The effects of the potion are almost over, I need to get on with this, and fast,'' thought Beatrice.

    Opening her eyes, Beatrice smiled, looking at the shadowy clouds around her.

    Suddenly, Beatrice opened her mouth, causing the clouds to suddenly begin flowing towards Beatrice, and being swallowed by her.

    Feeling her exhaustion be slightly alleviated, a large smile appeared on Beatrice''s face.

    "It looks like I was right, this spell can somewhat alleviate the effects of the Light Spell, but I need a lot more Torment," mumbled Beatrice as all of the clouds inside of her room had already disappeared.

    Suddenly, Beatrice turned her vision towards a certain door.

    The Experiment Room

    ...

    Pain is a rather peculiar thing, the primal response of living beings, warning themselves that they had suffered harm, but at the same time, pain itself could do so much more damage than the wounds themselves.

    Looking at the extremely huge shadowy cloud that covered half of the room, Beatrice smiled, before opening her mouth, causing the large cloud to suddenly begin flowing toward her.

    At this moment, Beatrice felt as if her body was being ripped apart, torn to shreds under a precise scalpel, her inner organs exposed and examined.

    James, a random man, was sold into slavery because of his debt, before ending up in Beatrice''s laboratory.

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    But even though James was long gone, his imprint on the world was still very much there.

    No great accomplishment, nor achievement, James practically did nothing with his life, but even so, something of him remained left behind after his soul departed from this world.

    Pain, despair, and torment, were the three things that James had left behind in this world.

    But under the might of Beatrice''s spell, these emotions, which were imprinted into the very walls of this room, were forcefully brought out, then merely a few moments later were swallowed by Beatrice.

    Suddenly, Beatrice''s body slightly shook, as unlike the others, this dark cloud struggled, as portions of James''s soul, tainted with pure torment, remained in this room.

    Feeling the feeble and fragmented mind trying to escape its fate, for the first time since she had come to the Shadow Monastery, Beatrice''s mask slowly cracked.

    The rather polite smile she usually had on her face slowly began morphing, becoming wider and wider, before Beatrice erupted into pure utterly insane, manic laughter only a few moments later.

    Suddenly, shadows began emerging from all corners of the room, with an extremely large amount emerging from the eight metal restraints in the middle of the room.

    ...

    Hearing the laughter coming from inside of the experiment room, William suddenly got up from the chair, wanting to make sure his Mistress was alright, or if she needed help.

    But as she got closer and closer to the closed door of the experiment room, the speed at which William walked became slower and slower, but even so, eventually, William was close enough, so much so that he stretched out his hand towards the door hands.

    The moment William''s hand touched the handle, his movement suddenly stopped, as another burst of laughter was heard from inside of the room.

    "Mistress doesn''t need my help right now," mumbled William as he slowly took out his hand from the door handle and began walking back to his chair with his body slightly shaking.

    ...

    As her laughter slowly but surely stopped, the room returned to normal, leaving only Beatrice standing alone in the middle of it.

    But compared to before, the experiment room seemed rather different, it was as if the room was recreated, the gloomy atmosphere, which was ever present in the previous experiment room seemed completely gone, and at the same time, something seemed different about Beatrice.

    ''Torment, Rankless Dark Spell, using the pain, despair, and torment left behind after the death of those in extreme pain as fuel, the mage can either temporarily increase their power, or even use it to achieve feats that were impossible for the mage to achieve with their current power, but be warned, this power may come at a price.''

    ...

    A swarm of dark shadows suddenly appeared in an extremely weird world, if not for the color of the shadows, which were evidently black, and were clearly visible to the naked eye, one might describe this world as pitch black.

    But right now, under this contrast, it seemed as if this world was pure white, completely contrary to common sense.

    Suddenly, it seemed as if the group of shadows sensed something, as all of them suddenly gathered in one group, before beginning to travel in a certain direction.

    As time continued to pass, the shadows, which were incomplete beings, seemed to slowly fuse together, forming a weird black blob.

    After an unknown amount of time, the blob arrived at it''s destinated, a weird fog, comprised of three parts.

    A part of the fog was grey, being completely neutral, at the same time, the grey fog seemed to be slowly devoured by what looked like a black fog.

    But just as the blob was about to go to the black fog, it was suddenly attracted by something else, a golden fog, which was seemingly attached to the black fog.

 Mages

    As soon as the blob sensed the golden fog, it suddenly flew toward it before beginning to devour it at a rapid speed.

    Because of the relatively small size of the golden fog, it was then soon devoured by the large black blob, leaving the blob looking at the black fog.

    But just as the blob was about to begin traveling toward the black fog, a pair of confused black eyes suddenly emerged from it, now staring at the blob.

    ...

    Looking at the room, which did not have any resentment left in it, Beatrice felt some despair in her heart.

    "Why was I so stupid when I lost control ?" asked Beatrice, as she looked at the floor.

    In the period of time, she had accidentally let go, Beatrice had completely ignored all restraints, absorbing resentment without any care in the world, and right now, all of that resentment was probably about to cause her death.

    Suddenly, contrary to her expectations, all of Beatrice''s exhaustion disappeared, and a few moments later, black smoke began emerging out of her mouth, before dissipating into the walls of the room only a few moments later.

    Seeing what had just happened, Beatrice couldn''t help but fall into deep thought,

    ''What the hell did just happen?'' thought Beatrice as more and more confusion could be seen on her face.

    Contrary to all of her expectations, nothing bad seemed to have happened to her, furthermore, the light spell that she had been targeted with was also removed, causing more and more doubt to appear on her face.

    ''Should ask Mr. Errol to verify what had happened?'' thought Beatrice for a few moments, before once again deciding not to tell anyone what had happened to her.

    It was not that Beatrice did not trust her teacher, but she would rather not disclose what had happened to her to anyone else.

    After thinking about what had happened for a few more moments, Beatrice let out a helpless sigh before sitting cross-legged on her bed, and began refining mana.

    "Since nothing bad has happened up until now, it looks like I''m at least somewhat alright," thought Beatrice as elemental energy from around her began floating towards her, before beginning to be transformed into mana.

    ...

    Looking at his mistress, who was sitting cross-legged on the bed, William''s hand slightly shook, as the laughter he had heard yesterday continued echoing inside of his mind.

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    But after staring at Beatrice for around thirty minutes, and seeing that his mistress seemed to be the same as before, William took in a deep breath, finally relaxing as the shaking of his hand stopped.

    ...

    After this very exciting day, life seemed to return to normal for Beatrice, refining mana, practicing her spells, conducting experiments, and occasionally going to lessons, slowly but surely enriching her knowledge.

    At the same time, no other signs of being afflicted by light spells appeared on Beatrice, having seemingly been annihilated by the Torment Spell.

    Days, and then months continued to pass for Beatrice without anything major happening, only occasionally, she would go on missions, so as to increase the amounts of elemental stones she had in reserve.

    Three months later,

    Looking at the monthly one hundred spiritual stones in her hands, Beatrice couldn''t help but smile.

    Without any hesitation, Beatrice took out forty of them before placing them in a pouch, preparing to put them towards her savings.

    As she thought about her saving Beatrice''s mouth couldn''t help but unconsciously curl up, over these past three months Beatrice had saved over one hundred elemental stones from her missions, never mind the one hundred and twenty she obtained from her monthly subsidy.

    Because of this, Beatrice''s savings reached a total of five hundred and eighty elemental stones, an extremely large amount for a Mage Apprentice.

    Thinking about this, Beatrice couldn''t help but look at a certain item that was being displayed on the counter.

    ''Elixir of Darkness, Five Hundred Elemental stones,''

    Of course, Beatrice only took a single look at the Elixir before turning away her head, not even letting the thought of buying such a thing enter her mind.

    As the name implied, this Elixir is extremely useful to Dark Elemental Mage apprentices, allowing them to increase their mana at an extremely fast speed, but sadly, for Beatrice, this was not attractive at all, as mana was not a true bottleneck for her.

    In these past three months, Beatrice''s mana continued increasing at a steady pace, surpassing forty points of mana only a week ago.

    Although this speed may seem slow, if Beatrice continued this pace, or even slowed down somewhat, she would reach the limit of the human body, which was around seventy points of mana in only one or two years.

    After this limit though, lay the true bottleneck which could cause even the most steadfast mages to fall into doubt and march on harshly.

    To become a true Mage, an apprentice must fully transform their body from that of a mere human and into something else entirely.

    Even though it seemed as though someone with a vast understanding of biology, like Beatrice, would have a large advantage in this process, this was not the case.

    As consciously transforming your own body in this way was utterly impossible, as such, all of the work had to left to pure instinct and the Apprentice''s understanding of their element.

    Because diferent apprentices may have different understandings of their elements, their future forms may be completely different, only having one thing in common, still being made of flesh and blood.

    Although True Mages were massively more powerful than apprentices and could resist spells with their bare bodies, unlike the nearly all-powerful Archmages, they were still creatures of flesh and blood and could be killed with conventional means, if those means were powerful enough.

    ...

    Feeling the Dark Mana simply refuse to enter her body any longer, Anne took in a deep breath.

    "At least this happened later than I expected," mumbled Anne, knowing exactly how bad her talent was.

    Suddenly, Anne took out the Elixir of Darkness she had bought some time ago, back when Beatrice had just entered the academy and drank it.

    Merely a moment after that, an extremely potent torrent of Dark Mana suddenly rushed through Anne''s body.

 Group

    Looking at the mission that was being described in the document, Beatrice couldn''t help but fall into thought.

    ''Destroy the Fairnon family, Greding city, Maeniel Kingdom, two hundred elemental stones,''

    At first, Beatrice wasn''t very interested in this mission but upon noticing the number of elemental stones being given as a reward, her eyes couldn''t help but flash with some greed.

    Suddenly, she picked up the document before flipping to the second page and taking a closer look at the information given about this so-called ''Fairnon family'', as well as the ones who had given the mission in the first place.

    And as she continued reading, Beatrice couldn''t help but smile.

    Right now, the Fairnon family is the most powerful family in Greding city, but this was not originally the case, as before them, the strongest family was the Solovan family.

    The reason for the Solovan Family''s strength was a single person, a mage, Andrick Solovan, but half a year ago, this mage had gone missing, with no trace of him being found.

    As such, without his protection, the other families, which were previously suppressed by the Solovan family quickly began eating up their strength and influence, with the Fairnon family taking the lead.

    But seemingly unbeknownst to the other families, a single member of the Solovan family survived, and somehow managed to place a mission with the remaining elemental stones from his family.

    ''I should go fast, otherwise I might miss out on this mission,'' thought Beatrice before hurriedly going to her room and beginning to prepare.

    "We are going on a trip to the Maeniel Kingdom, prepare everything necessary," said Beatrice as she picked up some things from under her bed.

    "Understood mistress," said William, nodding before hurrying on his way, beginning to prepare.

    Unlike most of her other missions, this time, Beatrice was in quite as hurry, as merely an hour after learning of the mission, she was already out of the Shadow Monastery.

    ''With such an attractive and easy mission, there are probably a lot of mages that want to take it,'' thought Beatrice as she suddenly turned to William before taking a majority of the bags from him and putting them on her back.

    "Let''s hurry, we need to be there as fast as possible," said Beatrice as she suddenly sped up her speed.

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    Thankfully, because Beatrice took some weight of William, he could barely keep up with her speed.

    ...

    Eleven hours later,

    Looking at the relatively large city in front of her, Beatrice couldn''t help but smile, before turning to William.

    "Go find an Inn to rest while I''m gone," said Beatrice as she suddenly threw her bags to William, before disappearing a moment later.

    Now without his mistress, William then entered the city through the front gate, before beginning to search for an Inn.

    ...

    Looking at the Royal Knight that was standing guard at the door of a room, Laith Keys couldn''t help but turn to one his companions, Saena Windheart.

    "I understand," said Saena as she suddenly stared at the knight before mumbling something inaudible.

    Suddenly, and without any sound, the Royal Knight that was guarding the door suddenly began melting, becoming a weird liquid only a few moments later.

    "This spell really is a convenient way to deal with non-mages," mumbled Radyn Dragonbane, because of the fact that he had not yet learned the Dark Corruption spell, it would have taken him much more effect and mana to kill a Royal Knight.

    "Let''s go," said Laith Keys, seeing that the knight was taken care of, before jumping from the ceiling merely a moment later, being followed by his two companions.

    Laith Keys then approached the door, noticing a large metal lock being placed on it, causing a smile to appear on his face.

    Suddenly, Laith stretched out his hand towards the lock, touching it with his fingers.

    Dark Mana then emerged out of Laith''s fingers before flowing into the lock, and merely a moment later, a quiet ''click'' was then heard from the lock, as it was easily opened.

    Laith then opened the door to the room without a sound, before staring at the couple sleeping in the bed.

    Merely a moment later, the couple then died, as Laith used a crystal to capture the scene of their deaths.

    "Let''s go," said Laith Keys as the three of them walked out of the room, when suddenly, Saena Windheart launched a dark bolt toward a corner of the corridor.

    As soon, as that happened, both Dark Bolts then appeared in front of Laith Keys and Radyn Dragonbane, but unlike Saena, they did not launch them, not seeing any enemy in sight.

    Suddenly, a female figure with a hood over her head jumped out of the shadows, dodging the Dark Bolt that was thrown her way.

    The moment Laith Keys saw the face of the figure, a frown appeared on her face.

    "Beatrice Agnes, how about the four of us go on our separate ways and pretend we didn''t meet each other," said Laith as he stared at Beatrice with a wary expression on his face.

    Unbeknownst to Beatrice, she had already accrued quite a reputation among the new students of the Shadow Monastery.

    Seeing the cautiousness and even some fear in the eyes of the three, Beatrice suddenly threw out everything she had just wanted to do.

    "How will you guys the two hundred elemental stones in three, I think that fifty per person is much more reasonable, isn''t it?" asked Beatrice as a Dark Bolt suddenly appeared in front of her.

    But compared to the Dark Bolt''s of the three, the one Beatrice created looked quite different, and just as Laith Keys was about to answer, Beatrice''s dark bolt moved, but not towards the three, rather to the left, as a sonic boom erupted inside of the room.

    "Yes, that''s a much better way, sister Beatrice, we wouldn''t want a conflict to arise between the three of us because of elemental stones," said Saena Windheart as she looked at Beatrice, who right now was searching through the robe of a dead Mage Apprentice, whose head was pierced by her Dark Bolt.

    Hearing that, a smile appeared on Beatrice''s face.

 Cold War

    Gazing at Beatrice Agnes, who, right now, was traveling with them, Laith Keys couldn''t help but feel sweat appear on his forehead.

    "Are alright? Do you need any help?" asked Beatrice as she suddenly turned to Laith with a seemingly worried expression on her face, causing Laith''s two companions to also turn to him.

    "It''s nothing, I''m alright," said Laith as he wiped the sweat off his forehead.

    "Good, you should take care of your health, maybe increase the power of your body sometime soon," said Beatrice before looking towards the road ahead of them, no longer paying attention to Laith.

    ''She''s actually insane,'' thought Laith as she stared at Beatrice, who was now leisurely walking.

    But although Laith had managed to calm down, someone else hadn''t.

    A few moments ago.

    Suddenly, hearing Beatrice speak, Saena Windheart suddenly stopped breathing as she mechanically walked forward, slightly trembling at a very specific time.

    The moment Beatrice turned to Laith, a single thought appeared in Saena''s heart.

    Danger

    Although she had already formed a team with Laith and Radyn, Saena had a secret that she had kept to herself.

    She had awoken an Innate Talent when she had become a Mage Apprentice.

    Even though it was very simple, Saena had a very useful innate talent, Danger Sense, which allowed her to sense danger in advance, this was the reason that Saena was able to sense Beatrice back inside of that castle.

    If not for the fact that Saena had taken action, and alerted her group of Beatrice''s existence, the three of them would probably have died in there.

    After saying a few words, and encouraging Laith to take better care of himself, Beatrice no longer looked back, causing Saena''s danger sense to no longer warn her of any danger.

    Suddenly, Saena felt like time had stopped for a moment, but a moment later, things returned to normal as he hand slightly trembled.

    ''She wanted to kill me, but it looks like she decided otherwise,'' thought Saena as she breathed a silent sigh of relief, making sure that she did not make any sound, fearing that she would alert this maniac.

    ...

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    Hearing Laith Keys breathe slightly loud, a thought couldn''t help but form inside of Beatrice''s mind.

    ''Is it worth it for me to kill them?'' thought Beatrice as she suddenly turned back towards the group of three.

    "Are you alright, do you need any help?" asked Beatrice as she suddenly prepared to launch a Dark Bolt towards Laith, when suddenly, she noticed something from the corner of her eyes, causing her to stop.

    The moment Beatrice was just about to launch her attack, Saena''s hand slightly trembled, causing Beatrice to decide against attacking.

    ''It may have been from fear, but this is too much of a coincidence,'' thought Beatrice before finishing talking to Laith.

    Merely a moment after that, Beatrice then turned back, but at the same time, she prepared to launch a Dark Bolt toward Saena Windheart, before immediately stopping and continuing on, with nothing visible on her face.

    Once again, from the corner of her eyes, Beatrice caught glimpse of it, Saena''s hand slightly shaking.

    Of course, neither her teammates nor William had noticed this fact, perhaps Saena herself had not even noticed it.

    ...

    Looking at fifty elemental stones in the bag in front of her, which were obtained so easily, Beatrice couldn''t help but smile.

    "If you need help in any mission you shouldn''t hesitate, as long there''s a good enough reward, you can invite me," said Beatrice as she looked at the three Mage Apprentices in front of her with a smile on her face, before walking away alongside William a few moments later.

    Hearing that, the mask that Radyn Dragonbane''s face almost cracked, as he had to restrain himself to the best of his ability to not jump towards Beatrice and begin fighting with her.

    Even though not to the same extent, looking at the shameless thief who had stolen fifty of their elemental stones, the other two mages also couldn''t help but be angry, but looking at Beatrice, who was getting further and further away from them, they also couldn''t help but breathe a sigh of relief, as this demon had seemingly let them go.

    Especially Saena Windheart, which for some reason, Laith noticed looked way more tired than even him.

    "How about we go get some rest then we meet out our usual place tomorrow," said Laith, causing the other two to nod, and after talking for a few more moments the three went their separate ways.

    ...

    As she walked inside of her room, Beatrice immediately began walking towards the bathroom.

    "Organise my luggage then go bring me some food," said Beatrice as she walked into the shower, closing the door behind her.

    A while later.

    Feeling the hot water rush over her, Beatrice couldn''t help but relax, letting out a soft sigh.

    "That was an Innate Talent," mumbled Beatrice as she went through all of the Rank 0 spells that Saena could have probably learned, not finding a single one that could allow a mage to predict danger.

    As she thought about Innate Talent''s, Beatrice couldn''t help but think about that weird feeling she had back when she entered the Shadow Monastery, as well as several other times throughout her life, which she now believed was her Innate Talent.

    Sadly, even after becoming stronger and stronger, Beatrice could not do anything about that feeling at all, as it had not yet manifested once again.

    After several minutes passed, Beatrice got out of her shower, went under her bed, picked up a certain notebook, and walked up to her desk, which she rarely used, preferring to use her bed instead.

    Suddenly, Beatrice opened the notebook and turned to a certain page, on which only the very top had something written on it, leaving the rest empty.

    ''Saena Windheart, C grade Darkness Affinity, 5.2 innate spiritual power''

    Merely a few moments later, another line of text appeared on the page, just under the previous line.

    ''Suspected Innate Talent: Danger Prediction,''

 Average

    After writing some more things into the notebook, Beatrice let out a small smile, as she took out some things from her robe, a small pouch alongside some notebooks as well as a light green potion, putting in on her task, before taking out another potion from her luggage, this one being a much darker shade of green.

    "Hopefully at least the amount of elemental stones he had on him was decent enough," mumbled Beatrice as she remembered the mage apprentice she had killed while destroying the Fairnon family

    As she had to talk to her three fellow apprentices, Beatrice did not have much time to search the body of the apprentice, only managing to lightly scour his body.

    "It''s really diluted," mumbled Beatrice with a slight scowl on her face as she smelled the scent of the green potion, picking up a faint but yet very distinct smell of water.

    "This thing is barely worth three elemental stones," mumbled Beatrice, shaking her head as she sat up and placed both potions under her bed.

    ''I should really stop placing things under my bed, otherwise, I might someday blow up,'' thought Beatrice as she looked at the large number of things stuffed under there.

    Even though this was the case, Beatrice then got up and walked back up to her desk, before opening the small bag, and staring inside of it with a smile on her face.

    The moment Beatrice saw what was inside of the bag, the smile that she had on her face suddenly disappeared, before being replaced by a scowl, prompting her to pour the contents of the bag on the table.

    Nine elemental stones, as well as over thirty small rocks fell on the table, causing Beatrice to suddenly place her hand on her face, letting out a deep sigh.

    "It''s fine if you were, poor, why did you have to be shameless as well?" mumbled Beatrice as she immediately picked up the elemental stones from the table, placing them inside of another bag.

    Looking at the notebooks that she had picked up from the body of the mage apprentice, Beatrice took in a deep breath before picking one of them up and opening it.

    ...

    "This Ian really was unfortunate," mumbled Beatrice as she immersed herself inside of the diary in her hands.

    Ian, that was the name of the Mage Apprentice Beatrice had killed, but reading through the notebook, Beatrice, the same one who had killed him without any emotion, felt a little bit sad for him.

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    Although nothing extremely bad happened to Ian, as she looked through the contract he had signed with the Shadow Monastery, Beatrice couldn''t help but fall into deep thought.

    As he had only E grade talent, Ian would receive ten elemental stones per month for the first year, as well as five per month in the second year.

    At the same time, his freedom would be greatly restricted, as this magical contract made sure that if he had even thought about harming the Academy, he would feel a large amount of pain, and at the same time, the Academy would take over thirty percent of his earnings from missions.

    But even though it was extremely harsh, it still had a certain clause that made Beatrice''s eyes light up.

    ''If Ian Cornwell becomes an Official Mage, the terms of the contract will be renegotiated''

    "Giving someone hope so that they don''t try to rebel against the status quo, this contract is really poisonous," mumbled Beatrice as she continued reading the contract, trying to see if it had anything else that was interesting.

    At the same time, this clause also destroyed any chance of Official Mages leading a rebellion against the Shadow Monastery.

    As she continued reading, the contract, some other thoughts also appeared inside of Beatrice''s mind.

    ''Maybe I should make my own contract of this type,'' thought Beatrice, as poisonous thoughts swirled within her mind.

    Although the Shadow Monastery isn''t aware of this right now, in another time and space, a large number of mages would curse it''s very existence for what type of contract they had inspired the creation of.

    ...

    Looking at the shadowy figure that was trapped inside of a cave, which was also inside of a white barrier, Harvey Solovan couldn''t help but take in a deep breath.

    Suddenly, the eyes of the shadowy figure popped open, rather interestingly, the figure was not awoken by Harvey, but rather by something else.

    After staring at the sky for several moments, the shadowy figure''s eyes suddenly turned to Harvey, as surprise flashed inside of them for a brief moment.

    "Harvey, is that you?" asked the Shadowy figure as it finally stepped out of the extremely Dark Cave, revealing it''s middle aged for you.

    The moment he saw the face of the figure, Harvey''s eyes, which seemed rather scared just moments before, lit up.

    "Uncle Andrick, how did you end up here?" asked Harvey as both happiness and confusion appeared on his face, making him skip even greeting his uncle.

    "That I do not know, one day, after going to sleep as usual, I appeared inside of this prison, with no explanation nor any way to get back home, it seemed as though one moment I was in my bed, and one moment I was here," said Andrick Solovan, confusion appearing inside of his eyes even right now, but still, Andrick picked up a stone bowl of water floor, drinking it.

    "It must have been the Fairnon family," shouted Harvey, making a completely nonsensical claim.

    ''I see, so it looks like they took advantage of my absence'' thought Andrick Solovan as he looked at his nephew, especially how disheveled he looked.

    Clenching his fist, Andrick looked back at the extremely dark cave behind him with the corner of his eye.

    ''It looks like I have to try it, otherwise, this little brat might day any moment,'' thought Andrick as he made a radical decision he definitely would not have made before.

    ...

    Looking at Harvey, who was peacefully sleeping outside of the barrier, Andrick shook his head before waving his hand, causing a white barrier to suddenly appear around him

    Merely a moment after that, Harvey walked towards the cave, going deeper and deeper than he had ever had.

 Inner

    Three weeks later,

    Feeling the hot water wash over her, Beatrice couldn''t help but let a soft sigh escape her lips, slowly closing her eyes, not even cleaning her body, merely letting the water wash over her.

    Ever since she was little, Beatrice had enjoyed bathing a lot, and as such, had her maids bathe her multiple times a day.

    As she moved her hands over her smooth skin, a satisfied smile couldn''t help but appear on Beatrice''s face.

    "It looks like my muscles have receded a bit since I came to the academy," mumbled Beatrice as she opened her eyes and stared at her clenched fist.

    Moving one of her hands over her other arm, feeling the soft and seemingly harmless arm in her hands, Beatrice smiled once again.

    "This looks much better than those muscle monsters," said Beatrice as she female knights she had seen entered her mind, compared to them, Beatrice felt like her current form was much more appealing.

    Suddenly, Beatrice took her clenched fist towards her body before punching the flowing water in front of her.

    Merely a moment after Beatrice''s fist hit the water at speeds far beyond those possible of a normal human, drops of water were launched towards every corner of the shower.

    Seemingly unsatisfied and somewhat pent up, Beatrice''s bare fist suddenly launched itself at the wall at a speed far beyond her previous punch.

    Suddenly, large cracks appeared in the wall as a deep fist-shaped imprint appeared in the middle of them, causing Beatrice to smile.

    A moment later, a hole suddenly appeared in the wall of the shower, with some text above it.

    ''Deposit two elemental stones for repair fees''

    After reading the sentence, Beatrice couldn''t help but feel somewhat conflicted as she walked out of the shower, before returning a few moments later with two small stones in her hands.

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    "This place really knows how to drain it''s apprentices of any and all elemental stones that they have, I bet that costs almost nothing to do," mumbled Beatrice as she watched the wall suddenly begin repairing itself, completely unaware of just how right she was.

    Having messed up her flow, Beatrice no longer lingered inside of the shower, walking out, dressing up, putting on a robe and walking out of the bathroom and then sitting cross-legged on the bed.

    Ignoring his mistress, who had began refining mana, William suddenly got up from the chair he usually resided in and began walking towards the bathroom.

    Then, as Beatrice''s best and only servant, began cleaning both her clothes and the bathroom, as he had nothing else to do right now.

    Unlike the first few days after Beatrice controlled him, right now, William felt like somewhat of an actual human being with thoughts and emotions of his own, not feeling like a machine created by someone.

    As he washed his the clothes of his mistress, a heartfelt smile appeared on William''s face, when suddenly he felt something weird, as if a chill blew past him.

    ...

    Feeling the elemental energy she had just absorbed being transformed into pure Dark Mana by her mind, Beatrice couldn''t help but unknowingly let her thoughts wander.

    Usually, this would have been enough for Beatrice to lose control of the Rune created by the Inner Darkness meditation technique, causing her to stop transforming the elemental energy, and prompting her to stop letting her thoughts wander.

    But right now, it seemed as though the rune in Beatrice''s mind maintained itself as Beatrice went from one thought to another.

    Seemingly influenced by the dark mana she was creating, Beatrice''s thoughts slowly but surely moved to that topic, as several questions began appearing in her mind.

    Eventually, though, Beatrice couldn''t help but focus on one relatively simple question, that had completely annoyed her, but even so, not only was she not able to figure it out, she couldn''t manage to find any answer in any of the books she had read.

    ''Is a Mage''s elemental affinity determined by their personality, or is their personality determined by their magic affinity?'' thought Beatrice as she continued refining Dark Mana before sending it into the deep reaches of her body.

    Although this question seemed inconsequential, knowing the answer would allow Beatrice to answer another question, one which she was just as eager to know the answer to.

    All mages knew that becoming a mage would enhance certain traits of their personality, causing dark mages to become even more reclusive and demented, light mages even more heroic, and fire mages even braver and more eager for battle.

    But was this merely caused by the fact that mages just had that much more power compared to normal humans, allowing them to complete their ambitions, or was their own mana influencing them, morphing them in a certain way?

    Eventually, after several hours, Beatrice stopped refining mana, as her body had reached it''s limit for today, but even still, she still sat cross-legged on her bed, with seemingly no intention of getting off her bed, seemingly in a trance.

    ...

    A while ago,

    As she continued refining mana, the rune for the Inner Darkness meditation technique couldn''t help but flash in Beatrice''s mind from time to time, eventually beginning to morph into another rune altogether, causing the transformation of elemental energy into mana to stop.

    But even so, Beatrice seemed to be in a trance, not even noticing such an obvious fact, merely staring at the constantly shifting rune.

    After a few minutes, the rune had finally stabilized into one singular shape.

    Compared to the previous rune, this one was much smaller, being only around half of the size, with the entirety of the outer part of the rune being completely missing, and at the same time, the Inner Part of the rune seemed to have somewhat changed as well.

    As she kept focusing on the rune inside of her mind, Beatrice eventually started feeling as if she was traveling, as all of her senses, which she had previously used to detect the outside world suddenly stopped functioning.

 Dark Secrets

    Feeling her senses suddenly stop working, Beatrice''s eyes suddenly flashed open, and a moment later, a large frown appeared on Beatrice''s face.

    Looking at the enourmous black fog in front of her, a feeling of extreme familiarity emerged in Beatrice''s mind, causing her to suddenly think of something.

    "Is this my soul?" mumbled Beatrice as she stared at the black fog, before beginning to walk closer and closer to it, stretching out her hand.

    But the moment the very tip of Beatrice''s finger entered the immaterial Dark Fog, she suddenly stopped in her tracks.

    Suddenly, Beatrice let out a high pitch scream before slowly but surely retracting her now trembling hand away from the dark fog

    After seeing that her hand was far enough away from the fog, Beatrice slowly sat down, staring at her hands.

    Only after a few minutes had passed, did Beatrice''s hands completely stop shaking, causing her to get up from her bed and stare at her room around her.

    "Bring me some water," said Beatrice as she sat back down back on her bed, causing William to suddenly jump up from his chair at high speed.

    As she waited for William to bring her a glass of water, thoughts swirled within Beatrice''s mind, as she replayed the scene that had just happened inside of her mind over and over again, trying her best to notice any details.

    Although Beatrice did not have much time, nor did she have much experience in this area, the moment her finger touched her soul, alongside the extreme pain, Beatrice discovered something else, something which she was completely sure of, the answer to the question she had posed mere minutes ago.

    "This is too much of a coincidence, something more must be up here," mumbled Beatrice as she suddenly stretched out her hand out picked up the glass of water William had got her.

    Something like thinking of a difficult question, and obtaining the answer merely a few minutes later was an extremely unlikely event, so much so, that Beatrice was almost sure that someone had interfered in it.

    But although coincidences were rare, they still happened, and right now, Beatrice had no evidence to prove her conjecture, as such, she could only put these thoughts in the back of her mind.

    ''I shouldn''t overthink things,'' thought Beatrice as she stopped thinking about coincidences, returning back to her original topic, as a pen and notebook suddenly floated towards her.

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    "It seems like the soul itself decides a mage''s affinity," mumbled Beatrice, thinking about how extremely dark her very own soul felt.

    Even though Beatrice could not prove it, she knew that a mere affinity could not transform her soul into what it was today.

    Although it was her own soul, Beatrice could not actually describe what she had sensed when she had touched it, if she compared it to the night sky, Beatrice felt like the sky was countless times lighter than her soul.

    It was as if Beatrice''s soul was comprised of pure darkness, or at least that was what Beatrice could feel with her extremely limited power.

    Suddenly, a certain Idea popped up into Beatrice''s mind, being seemingly glued inside of it.

    "If I could transform someone''s soul, couldn''t I then transform their affinity?" mumbled Beatrice as he eyes brightened, causing her to suddenly write this down in her notebook.

    At the same time, while Beatrice was making theories and writing them down into her notebook, someone else was also making discoveries.

    ...

    Looking at the ruins below him, Andrick Solovan''s mouth gaped wide open.

    "How in the world could someone build such a city here?" asked Andrick as he gazed at the city, which was at least five kilometers long and more than ten kilometers wide.

    But this was not what surprised Andrick the most, rather, what caused him the most shock was how advanced the city looked.

    Dozens of stone towers, each of them hundreds of meters tall littered the city, with an extremely tall tower at the center, which seemed several times taller than even these, at the same time something else caught Andrick''s eye, the perfection that was the edge of the city.

    Unlike normal cities, this city was actually a perfect circle, unlike anything Andrick had ever seen.

    While Andrick stared at the city, an unknown sense of familiarity seemed to emerge in him, but as he was focused on the city, he completely ignored it, at the same time he was completely blind to the smoke that emerged from behind him, even as it swallowed him whole.

    A few moments after swallowing Andrick whole, the smoke slowly transformed into a person, Selena, the Witch of Death.

    ...

    "At least this place looks relatively safe," mumbled Selena as she stared at the city in front of her with a frown on her face, as an extreme feeling of familiarity emerged inside of her.

    But unlike Andrick, a mage apprentice who did not truly trust his instinct, as soon as she felt that feeling, Selena''s eyes began scouring the city from a distance, looking for things that seemed off, looking for clues.

    Sadly, after a few minutes of watching from a distance did not seem to find anything familiar, prompting her to take in a deep breath before once again transforming into dark smoke.

    ...

    As Selena walked through the streets of the city, her eyes couldn''t help but wonder around, looking at both the architecture of the city, as well as searching for anything suspicious.

    After she had walked through the city for around five minutes, Selena cautiously walked up to a nearby house, having raised her cautiousness to it''s limit.

    Opening the door to the house, Selena was greeted by to very familiar things, as well as something rather more unfamiliar.

    "A mage, anger, and demon fought here?" mumbled Selena as she stared at the three skeletons in front of her.

    Although she was not as familiar with anger skeletons as she was with humans and demons, the wings on the back of the skeleton quickly gave away it''s identity.

 Behind the Scenes

    As she exited the house and walked through the city, an unsettling feeling emerged in Selena''s heart, as she occasionally stared at the skeletons that became more and more frequent the deeper she traveled into the city.

    At the same time, every single house that she had traveled to was littered with skeletons of mages demons and angels.

    "Was every single resident of this city a mage?" mumbled Selena as unconsciously turned left, heading a particular side path, off from the main road.

    Suddenly, Selena stopped, just as she was about to walk on this path, as the reason for that feeling of similarity suddenly became clear in her mind.

    "The layout of this city is far too similar to that of the Shadow Monastery," mumbled Selena as a somewhat horrified expression appeared on her face, causing her to suddenly change directions, and begin walking towards a particular place.

    Merely a moment later, Selena rose from the ground, and began flying through the city at a rapid speed, eventually reaching a certain, rather normal house.

    A fraction of a second later, Selena had already arrived inside of the house, a horrified expression appearing on her face as she stared at a certain door, slightly shaking.

    Just as Selena was about to desperately flee this place, she suddenly sensed something weird, causing her to suddenly stop in her tracks and turn back towards the door.

    After a few moments of hesitation, Selena stretched out her hand towards the handle of the door, slowly but surely opening it, revealing what was inside.

    Staring at the boundless world before her, which was completely desolate, Selena''s eyes couldn''t help but widen, especially as she felt the spatial instability of this place, which scared Selena quite a bit.

    After a few minutes, the fear in Selena''s heart slowly but surely dissipated, being replaced by boundless curiosity.

    Even though it had been abandoned for hundreds of thoughts of years, as she stared at the world in front of her, Selena couldn''t help but feel a sense of awe

    "Using a entire world to power a flying city," mumbled Selena, all of the pieces suddenly fitting together very neatly inside of her mind.

    But as she thought about the being that she had seen being held in the depths of the Shadow Monastery, Selena''s eyes couldn''t help but flicker.

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    At the same time, the huge Mage Tower at the centre of the city entered Selena''s mind, that tower was far larger than what an Archmage could realistically control.

    When she first saw it, Selena had quickly denied the possibility of that tower being inhabited by an actual Legendary Mage, but as she stared at the world before her, thoughts couldn''t help but swirl in her mind.

    ...

    Suddenly Harvey Solovan opened his eyes, and the first thing he did upon opening them was staring where his uncle had been just the night before.

    Merely a moment later, Harvey realized that the barrier separating the cave from the outside world suddenly disappeared, but although he was very curious, a few seconds later, Harvey began running in the opposite direction.

    ''If uncle is fine he will surely find m-,''

    Before Harvey could finish his thought, all of his limbs were suddenly severed from his body, but before his body could fall to the ground, it also disappeared, leaving nothing behind.

    A few moments after that, the world seemingly began shifting, as the cave entrance he Harvey had just camped nearby to began disappearing.

    In merely a few minutes, all traces of anyone even being here had been completely destroyed, leaving nothing but a normal rock wall behind

    At this time, nobody was aware of what was brewing inside of seemingly ordinary rock wall.

    ...

    At that very moment, inside of the Magic Council, the eyes of the prophet suddenly popped open, revealing a tense look.

    Without any hesitation, the prophet suddenly closed his eyes back again, but unlike before, merely a few minutes after that, the hair of the prophet slowly began turning white as sweat dripped on his forehead.

    At the same time, an old man suddenly appeared next to the prophet, Archmage Arif, the most powerful mage in the entire continent.

    As he looked at the prophet, a tense look also appeared on Archmage Arif''s face, though thankfully, after several more minutes, the white hair of the prophet began turning black once again as he opened his eyes.

    "Did something happen?" asked Arif as he suddenly took a potion from his robe, handing it to the prophet.

    "Something did happen, but it looks like it won''t do too much harm to the world, at least for the next hundred years," said the Prophet as he took the potion before immediately drinking it.

    Hearing that, Arif couldn''t help but fall into thought.

    "We need to convene a meeting, we can''t take any risks right now, at least not until the World Will recovers," said Arif as he looked at the prophet with a serious expression on his face, before flying away.

    Hearing that, the prophet nodded before staring at Arif''s departing back.

    After a few moments of standing around, all alone, the prophet let out a sigh, feeling quite conflicted as he thought about another part of his prophecy.

    "It probably won''t try to interfere, but even so, I need to make some preparations," mumbled the prophet as a certain thing suddenly popped up in his mind.

    Although he did not take action, only protecting the Magic Continent from harm, if the Reincarnation Space really tried to interfere, the Prophet still had some cards up his sleeve that he had not yet shown.

    In fact, even if everyone, including Archmage Arif betrayed him without warning, and without a prophecy warning him, the Prophet still was confident he could still protect the World Will.

    "Hopefully things don''t go that far," mumbled the prophet as the last of his white hairs slowly but surely were replaced by new and fresh black hair.

 Ending [Part 1]

    Ten Months later,

    Looking at the white-haired mage apprentice walking through the hallway, Laith Keys couldn''t help but grit his teeth.

    Suddenly, Beatrice turned to left, no longer moving forward, but rather moving directly toward Laith Keys and his group.

    ''Does she want something?'' thought Laith as he stare at Beatrice as she walked towards him.

    But even so, as he was with his group, no fear appeared on Laiths Face, even though Beatrice had shown that she was easily more powerful than any of them eleven months ago, but compared to before, all of their strength ushered in a huge improvement.

    ...

    Looking at the group of three mage apprentices in front of her, a warm smile appeared on Beatrice''s face.

    "What do you want?" asked Laith Keys as he stared at Beatrice, with some hesitation still present in his eyes.

    "I am looking for something that you seem to have in your possession, or so I heard," said Beatrice, causing panic to suddenly appear in Laith''s eyes.

    But even so, after a few moments, the panic disappeared, leaving only suspicion.

    ''How could she know?'' thought Laith as he stared at Beatrice with a frown on his face.

    "Let''s go to another location," whispered Laith as nodded towards Beatrice, causing his two companions to nod.

    "Very well, this place is a little bit crowded after all," said Beatrice as she began walking behind Laith with a smile on her face.

    Suddenly Beatrice caught two little white things from the corner of her eye, causing a smile to suddenly appear on her face.

    "Can you please for a moment, I need to do something," said Beatrice as she suddenly disappeared, without letting Laith say any words.

    "Should we just go on our way and pretend this didn''t happen?" asked Radyn Dragonbane, prompting Saena Windheart to snort.

    "Don''t even try it, If we do that, I bet she will find us in a few hours, and no matter how lawless she is, she can''t do anything to us inside of the Academy," said Saena as she turned to Radyn, looking at him with a frown on his face.

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    Although Beatrice was a bit creepy, Saena did not feel any ill intent coming from her at this moment, as such, she did not want any conflict to emerge between her and the three of them.

    "Fine, If you say so," said Radyn as he scratched the back of his head.

    Hearing the conversation between his two teammates, Laith couldn''t help but smile, feeling quite warm in his heart.

    ...

    Contrasting with the rather dark and gloomy corridors of the Shadow Monastery, two relatively small children walked through them, a boy and a girl, both of them having pure white hair.

    "Big sister, is this the right place, or did we get lost," asked the boy as he suddenly turned his head towards the girl.

    Hearing those words, a vein seemed to appear on the forehead of the girl, causing her to clench her fist.

    "I''m telling you Ben, I know where we need to go," said the girl as she suddenly gripped Ben''s wrist and began guiding him along.

    "So, are you two lost, Ben, Kiara?" asked a female voice from behind the two children, causing the girl, Kiara, to suddenly push Ben behind her, as if to shield him with her body.

    "Who are you and how do you know our names and why did you lurk behind us?" asked Kiara as she stared suddenly faced the white-haired woman that had lurked behind them, feeling as if she had seen her before.

    "Well, seeing someone from the same hometown in a very unfamiliar place would make you very curious as well, wouldn''t it?" asked Beatrice as she walked closer to the two, prompting Kiara to step back.

    After hearing those words, Kiara then realised where that vague sense of familiarity came from, as memories from around two years ago suddenly popped into her mind.

    "You are Beatrice Agnes?" asked Kiara as she stared at Beatrice with a frown on her face, not paying much attention to Ben.

    "Are you happy to see me?" asked Beatrice as she stared at Kiara, before suddenly disappearing, appearing behind the two, placing her hand on Ben''s head.

    Without any hesitation, Kiara ripped Ben out from Beatrice''s hands, staring at her with anger on her face.

    "You shouldn''t try anything weird," said Kiara as she suddenly pointed her finger at Beatrice, causing the latter to suddenly let out a small laugh.

    "Don''t worry, even If I eat you two little guys up, It would still not be enough to fill me up, so I promise I won''t do anything," said Beatrice as her eyes suddenly traveled to Ben, who Kiara was hiding behind her.

    Even though Beatrice did not say it in the nicest way possible, Kiara still felt somewhat relieved hearing her words, but even so, she couldn''t help but ask something.

    "Do you know where Teacher Groosg''s office is?" asked Kiara, causing Beatrice to smile, before taking out a small map to her robe.

    "You should go to office five," said Beatrice as the map in her hands suddenly unfurled itself, pointing towards the words ''Office Five'' written on it.

    A moment later, the map flew into Kiara''s hands.

    "Consider this a meeting gift from me," said Beatrice as a crystal then floated into Kiara''s hands, causing Beatrice to disappear.

    Looking at the map in her hands, Kiara couldn''t help but begin reading it after placing the crystal into her small robe, so as to examine it later.

    "Big sister?" asked Ben as he stared at Kiara, who was reading the map.

    "What is it?" asked Kiara as she stopped reading the map, raised her head, and stared at Ben.

    "Didn''t you know where we were going?" asked Ben with a confused expression on his face.

    Hearing that, Kiara almost dropped the map in her hands as she suddenly stared at Ben, who suddenly felt he shouldn''t have asked that question.

 Ending [Part 2]

    Looking at Ben, as well as at Kiara, who was reading the map, a weird smile appeared on Beatrice''s face as she hid in the shadows.

    Compared to her usual fake smile, this smile seemed to be completely different, but even so it did not match perfectly with Beatrice''s true smile, seemingly having something else hidden within it.

    After looking at the two children from the shadows, Beatrice then disappeared, finally leaving the two of them alone.

    ...

    Staring at the ground bellow him, Radyn Dragonbane couldn''t help but feel somewhat sluggish, causing his eyes to then almost close.

    But suddenly, Radyn''s ears picked up a part of footsteps some distance behind him.

    As soon as he heard that, Radyn opened his eyes, before turning his head backward, staring at Beatrice, who was walking alongside William, who was the source of the footsteps.

    "Hopefully I did not make you wait for too long, I had forgotten some things home," said Beatrice as she looked at Laith Keys.

    Hearing that, Laith couldn''t help but smile.

    "It''s alright, we didn''t have to wait for too long, we already stood around for far too long, let''s go," said Laith as he looked at Beatrice, still keeping that same harmless smile on his face.

    As soon as he said those words, Laith Keys suddenly began walking, being followed closely by the other three mage apprentices.

    Even though the academy was very large in size, with their speed alongside the fact that they were hurrying, the four of them arrived at the door too a room in only a few minutes.

    Taking in a deep breath, Laith suddenly stretched out his hands, pushing the door open and allowing to see what was inside of the small room.

    Looking at the unconscious human male, who was being kept strapped onto a bed with a pair of special handcuffs on his arms, Beatrice''s eyes narrowed.

    After only a few moments, Beatrice had already sensed the weak, but still extremely resilient mana that was still flowing through the body of the male.

    "So, what do you think?" asked Laith after allowing Beatrice to think for a few moments or so.

    Hearing that, Beatrice took in a deep breath before staring at the male once again.

    "Really weak, at the same time in bad condition, three hundred elemental stones," said Beatrice with a bitter expression on her face, causing Laith, as well as his companions to nearly fall over.

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    ...

    Having finished counting the six hundred elemental stones inside of the small bag in his hands, Laith took in a small breath before taking out a small key from his robe, and handing it to Beatrice.

    Without any hesitation in her actions, Beatrice picked up the key from Laith''s hand, gripping it tightly in her hand.

    "Let''s go," said Beatrice as she waved her hand towards William, walking out of the room merely a few moments later.

    Soon after, William followed, alongside the still unconscious and restrained mage apprentice that he was now carrying on his shoulder.

    The moment fully walked out of the room, the door behind him suddenly closed shut, as Laith Keys suddenly took in a deep breath before sitting on a certain chair inside of the room.

    "At least we got a pretty got price out of him, Isn''t that a good thing?" asked Radyn Dragonbane as he raised his head, looking at Laith with a weird expression on his face.

    Hearing that, black lines appeared on the faces of both Laith and Saena Windheart, as the two of them stared at each other, feeling somewhat speechless.

    ...

    As soon as Beatrice arrived in front of her room, she pushed the door open, allowing William, who was carrying an unconscious body as well as a pair of large handcuffs to enter quite easily.

    Looking at the room in front of her, a large smile appeared on Beatrice''s face.

    "Go restrain him in the experiment room, inject him with enough anesthetic as you need to keep him sedated for the night," said Beatrice as she sat down cross-legged on the bed.

    Of the past year, Beatrice had become more and more comfortable allowing William to handle affairs for her, even going as far as allowing him to conduct some minor experiments on his own, when Beatrice did not have time of course.

    Although he fully worshiped Beatrice, and she was in full control of him, William could still very much learn and grow, as such, he had become much more proficient in administering anesthetic for these past few months.

    Ignoring William, who had gotten to work, Beatrice closed her eyes and began refining mana from the natural elemental energy in the air.

    Without any issue, Beatrice had transformed a large mass of elemental energy into mana, but sadly, no matter how hard Beatrice tried to stuff the newly transformed mana into her body, nothing seemed to happen.

    It seemed as if an unpenetrable wall had been created inside of Beatrice''s body, keeping all of her newly created mana out of it.

    After ten or so more minutes, as well as a few futile attempts, Beatrice slowly opened her eyes, feeling the so-called natural limit of human''s with her own hands.

    Right now, after only having been at the academy for around one year, Beatrice had accomplished something that most normal mages can not do in their entire lifespan, becoming a so-called Peak Apprentice, someone at the peak of humanity.

    Merely a few minutes after opening her eyes, Beatrice closed them once again, after changing into a nightgown, Beatrice leisurely tucked herself into her bed, a smile appearing on herself, as thoughts about what she would do tomorrow swirled through her mind.

    ...

    Two hours later,

    A dark shadow suddenly materialized inside of Beatrice''s room, and before anyone could do anything, it suddenly appeared next to Beatrice.

    Without hesitation, the Shadow took out a black dagger, stabbing Beatrice in the heart with it.

    Suddenly, Beatrice opened her eyes, but sadly, it was too late, as she then began drying up only a few moments later, then turning into ash.

    Unbeknownst to anyone else, a blue light suddenly flashed into the vision of the dark shadow.

    [Mission Complete: +500 Points]

    After seeing this confirmation, the Dark Shadow then disappeared, as if it had never been here again.

 Life

    An endless black void stretched onto infinity, an infinite amount of tiny white dots visible in the distance.

    After an unknown amount of time, a hole suddenly appeared inside of the void, allowing a small blob to enter it.

    As a small blob entered the void, the hole behind it suddenly began closing, but this did not seem to cause the blob any fear, as it slowly but surely began moving in a certain direction.

    Unlike the void, which was pitch black with only the tiny white dots being visible far off into the distance, the color of this blob was a mix of white and black, with the black taking up the vast majority of its body.

    Of course, compared to the black of the void, this black still had some sense of color, not being truly emotionless.

    In this place without time, the blob kept moving in one direction.

    Sometimes, time warped around the blob, sending it either forwards toward its goal or backward, but after trillions of years, or in a single moment, depending on how you see it, the blob had arrived at its destination.

    Right now, the blob was seemingly close to its goal, being just a short distance away from an enormous white sphere, one of the countless white dots that were visible in the distance when this blob first arrived here.

    Slowly but surely, the blob began entering the white sphere, gradually disappearing from this endless void.

    Curiously, compared to before, the portion of the blob which was white had visibly decreased, at the same time, the color of its brightness had somewhat decreased, thankfully, it seemed as though the black portion of the blob was not transformed, as it remained the same color.

    Eventually, the blob had truly disappeared from this place.

    ...

    Looking at the two demon statues in front of him, which had now opened the door to the Shadow Monastery, Mr. Errol smiled before suddenly turning to his apprentice.

    "Are you alright?" asked Mr. Errol as he turned to the white-haired girl behind him, who seemed to have been spacing out. Hearing her teacher''s words, Beatrice suddenly shook, exiting her trance.

    "Thank you, teacher, I''m fine, it looks like the flight had taken a toll on me somewhat," said Beatrice as she looked at her teacher. Hearing that, Mr. Errol began walking down the stairs and into the Shadow Monastery, with Beatrice following right behind him.

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    ...

    Looking at the Dark Elixir in her hands, Anne smiled before quickly putting it into her robe, when suddenly, a chill crawled up her spine.

    Moments later, Anne turned around, and began to walk away from the counter, causing something to catch her eye, Mr. Eroll being followed by a white-haired girl, rather than focusing on Mr. Errol, Anne turned around and stared at the white-haired girl as she walked away.

    As if sensing Anne''s gaze the white-haired girl suddenly turned her head sideways, looking at Anne for a slip second before continuing to walk on her way. Until both Mr. Errol and the white-haired girl exited the hall, Anne continued robotically walking on her way, but the moment both of them were gone, Anne suddenly began sprinting towards her room.

    ¡­

    Turning the knob of the door she knew all too well, Beatrice made her entrance into the room. Almost unconsciously, she began tucking her travel bags beneath her bed before adopting a seated posture on the same bed, legs folded beneath her. The room was engulfed in an unnerving silence for more than half an hour as Beatrice refrained from uttering a single word or engaging in any activities. She sat there motionless, her gaze lost in the vast expanse of the emptiness ahead.

    "This cannot be an illusion," Beatrice murmured to herself, her gaze now intently exploring the familiar surroundings of her room. Unexpectedly, she hoisted herself off the bed and reached under it, her fingers tracing the minor fissures and indentations that had formed on the floor beneath her bed. Throughout her year-long stay at the Shadow Monastery, Beatrice had developed an intimate familiarity with the intricacies of her room, being thoroughly acquainted with every single detail.

    ''Could it be that I actually died?'' Beatrice pondered, the weight of her thoughts so grave that she dared not voice them aloud, as if fearful of the silent walls that enclosed her. As her hand ventured to touch the wall adjacent to her bed, she abruptly turned her gaze towards her dress'' shoulder, now ripped open. Simultaneously, she was cognizant of an emerging discomfort in her shoulder. With an audible pop, Beatrice expressionlessly realigned her shoulder using her other hand.

    ''This body is quite problematic,'' Beatrice contemplated, rising from her spot beneath the bed to inspect the damage on her slightly torn dress.Without a moment''s hesitation, she reached for the robe she had previously tossed onto the bed and proceeded towards the bathroom.

    Despite the lingering pain in her shoulder, she, being an Official Knight, promptly discarded her dress and donned her well-known robe.Yet, the robe felt somewhat unfamiliar at the moment.

    "Has it always been this loose?" Beatrice murmured, puzzled by the unusually slack fit of the robe around her body, particularly around the chest area which seemed significantly looser than she remembered.

    Deciding not to dwell on this any further, Beatrice exited the bathroom, returned to her cross-legged posture on the bed, and began immersing herself in deep thought.Gradually, a crease formed on Beatrice''s forehead.

    ''Who would wish for my demise?'' Beatrice pondered, the memory of her death resurfacing in her mind. Having awakened just before her abrupt end, the haunting vision of a shadowy figure plunging a dagger into her was deeply etched in her consciousness.

    After a few more minutes of contemplation, Beatrice''s thoughts drifted towards a different, albeit critical, topic. However, in the midst of this serious consideration, only one thought managed to dominate her mind. ''Was it my innate talent that sent me back in time or transported me to an entirely different location?'' Beatrice contemplated, harboring a firm belief that her inherent abilities had played a vital role in sparing her life, or possibly granting her a new one altogether.

 Escape

    As Beatrice thought about that, she couldn''t help but fall into thought for a few moments before smiling.

    "This is way too ridiculous," mumbled Beatrice as she shook her head, no longer letting her thoughts wander to weird places, beginning to think about some other things.

    Slowly but surely, as time passed, a frown appeared on Beatrice''s face, becoming bigger and bigger the more Beatrice kept thinking about her situation.

    ''My spiritual power is way too high,'' thought Beatrice as she remembered her new meeting with Anne once again.

    Unlike in her past life, this time, under the effects of Beatrice''s powerful spirit, Anne almost fainted, although thankfully, Mr. Errol did not much attention to a random apprentice, not noticing the weird scene.

    After a few moments, Beatrice quickly tossed out the thought of fleeing the Shadow Monastery, knowing very well that the Academy probably had some ways to find her no matter where she fled.

    Time continued to pass as Beatrice continued wandering her thoughts.

    Although with her mastery of the Inner Darkness Meditation technique, she could quickly get used to her old body, Beatrice did not rush to take action, so as to not have her abnormality seen by anyone.

    ''I only have one month at most, as that''s when teacher will test my progress, probably even less'' thought Beatrice as more and more options quickly flashed through her mind.

    Several hours later,

    Suddenly, Beatrice opened her eyes before getting up and walking to the bathroom, with a frown still present on her face, but even though washing would somewhat interrupt her thinking, unlike her previous life, where she could stay cross-legged for several hours without feeling tired at all, sweat filled Beatrice''s body right now.

    As the warm water washed over Beatrice, she couldn''t help but let out a soft sigh, closing her eyes and stopping all of her other thoughts.

    But merely a few moments later, Beatrice opened her eyes, as a light flashed through them.

    ...

    Twenty Days later

    "I want to take this mission," said Beatrice as she pointed towards a certain sheet of paper on the counter.

    ''Investigate disappearances in Estes city, Dyon Kingdom''

    Without any hesitation, the female mage apprentice on the other side of the counter quickly took out a few sheets of paper, giving Beatrice more detail on the mission.

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    Even though she already knew everything recorded on these sheets, Beatrice still read all of their contents slowly but surely.

    ...

    "It looks like she''s not being fully brash," said Mr. Errol as he looked at the image in front of him, being clearly able to see that Beatrice had already refined mana and become a true mage apprentice.

    If a usual apprentice had done this, Beatrice would have been much more impressed, but although quite fast, as Mr. Errol knew that Beatrice had mastered the Basic Meditation technique before coming to the academy, he was not as impressed.

    ...

    As he quickly traveled through the woods, Jonathan suddenly came to a complete halt in complete silence.

    Not uttering a single word, Jonathan suddenly smiled as he looked at the white-haired girl camping in the woods.

    Without any hesitation, Jonathan simply took the ornately decorated bow from his back into his hands, quickly placing a an arrow into it.

    At the same time, a certain list appeared in Jonathan''s mind, as he parsed through it at rapid speed before quickly arriving at his target.

    ''Beatrice Agnes, B Grade Darkness Affinity High Innate Spiritual Power, Joined the Shadow Monastery Twenty one days ago,'' thought Jonathan as he quickly lined up his shot.

    A golden light then started gathering at the tip of Jonathan''s arrow, when suddenly, Jonathan''s head disappeared as a Dark Bolt smashed through both his barrier and him with extreme strength.

    Merely a few moments later, Beatrice appeared next to Jonathan''s body, picked up the bow and then began groping Jonathan, searching for pouches or other things hidden on his body.

    After taking out a few pouches from Jonathan''s robe, Beatrice quickly melded into the shadows disappearing, leaving the dead light mage to rot.

    Suddenly, Beatrice appeared once again, throwing the ornate bow that she had just picked up next to Jonathan''s body, then disappearing.

    "That''s not a very nice bow," mumbled Beatrice as she stared at her hand, which had already been slightly burned by the potent light mana contained within the bow.

    Although she knew that the creator of such a bow must have been a powerful light mage, Beatrice did not expend to much energy thinking about this, as the owner of the bow was already dead.

    ...

    Sometime later, Estes City Dyon kingdom,

    A middle-aged man suddenly walked up to the door of a normal-looking house before walking inside of it.

    Merely a few moments later, Beatrice, who was following him, entered the house as well, quickly entering the bedroom.

    Suddenly, Beatrice lost consciousness.

    ...

    Feeling the soft hand touching her cheek, Beatrice''s eyes suddenly popped open, as she instantly woke up.

    What greeted Beatrice as she woke up was something akin to a scene from hell, with dozens of dead bodies that looked as if they were tortured lying on the ground all around a large hall.

    At the same time, hundreds of monsters littered the hall, each of them having some sort of human characteristic.

    Looking at the scene in front of her, a small subtle change appeared in Beatrice''s eyes as she stared at the room in a certain way, and because of how subtle this change was, not even Beatrice herself noticed it.

    Of course, someone else had noticed it instead.

    ...

    Looking at the little girl who was staring at her experiments with an extremely curious gaze, a small smile appeared on Selena Watford''s face, causing her plan to suddenly change.

    Without any worry being visible on her face, Selena waved her hand, causing a small black mark to suddenly become visible on Beatrice''s neck, though thankfully for Beatrice, that mark was annihilated a few moments later.

    A few moments later, Beatrice slowly but surely turned her head around, staring at the black haired woman who was hugging her from behind with a blank expresion on her face.

 Calamity

    Looking at the white-haired girl, who was staring at her right now, a small smile appeared on Selena Watford''s face.

    "What reason does a little girl like you have to find little old me?" asked Selena, causing a fearful expression to appear on Beatrice''s face.

    "I needed some elemental stones, so I took a mission to solve a kidnapping case, I don''t know who Miss is," said Beatrice some sweat appearing on her forehead as she felt a smooth hand once again touching her cheek.

    Hearing that, a smile appeared on Selena''s face, as she stared the pitch-black eyes of the girl in front of her with a smile on her face.

    "I see..." said Selena, letting out a small giggle, causing true sweat to appear on her forehead for the first time.

    Suddenly, Beatrice once again lost consciousness, her body falling towards the Witch of Death, who was looking at it with a smile on her face.

    "Little Errol, did you become so intimidating that even your apprentices run away from you?" asked Selena, as she caught Beatrice''s body, and placing it on the ground.

    Several moments later, all of the bodies, as well as all of the monsters around Selena began burning, a black flame passing through all of them, turning them all to ash.

    Even her newest creation, which could already resist elemental energy was still turned into ash as soon as the black flames touched it.

    Soon after, both Selena and the unconscious Beatrice turned into smoke, disappearing from the underground hall.

    ...

    Inside of the Magic Council

    The prophet, who was peacefully sitting on a chair suddenly raised his head, as some vigilance appeared in his eyes.

    Without saying anything, the prophet suddenly closed his eyes, using his mind to search for something.

    Unlike the hundreds, or even thousands of times he had tried to divine this topic with no success, in this moment of inspiration, the prophet had finally managed to divine something about the Calamity.

    The Calamity, as it''s name implied, was a catastrophe that the prophet had divined several hundred years ago.

    Although no one knew how it would manifest, nor when it would strike, instinctually the prophet knew that if he did not stop it, this Calamity may lead to the dooming of the entirety of the mage world.

    This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

    As he focused more and more of his power on that sliver of inspiration he had obtained, a vague scene slowly formed inside the mind of the prophet.

    Staring at the empty blue sky above him, the prophet felt confused, but after several moments, a large crack suddenly appeared in the sky.

    After several more moments, a humanoid figure then stepped out of the crack in the sky, although the prophet could not even determine it''s gender, not to mention who it was.

    The moment he tried focusing on the figure, a vast pain suddenly enveloped the prophet, taking him out of the vision.

    Suddenly, the prophet opened his eyes, grasping for air as he stared at the ceiling, right now, a large part of his hair had turned white, prompting the prophet to do his best to stretch out his hand, having no strength in his body.

    Seeing this, a small bottle with some green liquid suddenly in the hands of the old Archmage Arif, before floating the hands of the Prophet merely a few moments later.

    As he drank the green potion, not only did strength return to the body of the Prophet, but at the same time, the white hair he had just gained also slowly began receding.

    Several minutes later,

    Just as the Prophet regained his bearing, the door to the room was suddenly opened, as an extremely old man suddenly walked in, sitting in a chair at the table.

    Looking at Archmage Withered Soul, who had arrived first and appeared serious, unlike usual, Archmage Arif breathed a sigh of relief.

    A few moments after the old Archmage, two other figures then entered the room, with the first being a peaceful-looking old woman.

    Following her was a figure who did not seem to fit in the look of the magic council, a burly middle-aged man over two meters tall having a head full of red hair.

    Moments after him was an old man with a fully white beard, completing the trio of old men.

    Soon after the last old man sat down, the Prophet fully recovered, his hair regaining it''s black color.

    "Since you have called us here, I presume something bad has happened, am I right?" asked the middle-aged man as he looked at Archmage Arif.

    Hearing that, the old Archmage let out a chuckle before turning his head towards the prophet, causing all eyes to turn to him.

    "A made a prophecy regarding the Calamity," said the Prophet, causing the temperature in the room to suddenly fall.

    As soon as the Prophet uttered the word ''calamity'' the faces of all the Archmages, including Arif, changed completely.

    But even so, none of the archmages said anything, merely staring at the prophet with serious expressions on their faces.

    Seeing this, the prophet then began conveying what he had seen to the Archmages.

    "Space magic," said Archmage Withered Soul, as his frown continued to deepen.

    "Couldn''t it be a Legendary Mage instead?" asked the burly middle-aged man as he looked toward Arif.

    "No, based on the records, a Legendary Mage has the ability to teleport, they would have no need to do such a pointless thing like breaking open space," said Archmage Arif with a frown on his face.

    Hearing that, the middle-aged man frowned before asking another question.

    "Any chance that this is the god of those Angels taking action?" asked the middle-aged man once again.

    "No, if it was him, I would have sensed it already, you don''t have to worry, even though an immeasurable amount of time has passed, unless he completely devours his other half, he has no chance of healing himself," said the old woman, causing the others to breathe a sigh of relief.

    After all, without any living legendary mages on the continent, even using Floating Cities, fighting that god in his full state would be nearly impossible.

 Weird

    At this moment, Selena Watford was pouring a blue liquid inside of a vial with a smile on her face.

    "The quality of this batch is really good," mumbled Selena as she took out another vial, beginning to fill it up as well.

    Suddenly, Selena raised her head, as smile appearing on her face as she stared at Beatrice, who had just woken up, and was laying on a bed with a black expression on her face.

    The moment she woke and felt the soft bed under her, Beatrice became cautious, some weird thoughts swirling around in her mind.

    ''She shouldn''t be some kind of pervert? Right?'' thought Beatrice as she silently made sure she still had her clothes on.

    Looking at the white-haired mage apprentice, who was probably thinking about something incredibly disrespectful right now, Selena smiled.

    After a few more moments of silence, Beatrice suddenly opened her mouth, asking a certain question in a respectful tone.

    "Miss, how should I address you?" asked Beatrice as she looked at the witch, who was getting closer and closer to her, causing Beatrice''s face to slightly twitch.

    "Little girl, you don''t need to be afraid, you can just call me teacher," said Selena Watford as she stared at Beatrice''s pitch black with a smile on her face, as if she was entranced by them.

    Hearing the words of the witch, Beatrice felt like nothing made the slightest bit of sense.

    ''To take an unfamiliar person who she has just met, is this Witch mentally ill?'' thought Beatrice as she looked at Selena with a shocked expression on her face.

    "Understood teacher," said Beatrice, causing the size of the smile on Selena''s face to slightly increase, as she touched Beatrice''s cheek once again, causing the latter to slightly jerk backwards.

    Even though that this Witch in front of her was a dark mage more powerful than her previous teacher, Beatrice still did not really want to become her apprentice but alas, right now, Beatrice felt like it might not be the best idea to refuse.

    Staring at her little apprentice, who seemed like a rather normal teenage girl, Selena was not fooled at all by the innocent exterior of the little mage in front of her, although Selena might not be the strongest mage in terms of fighting, although she was still very strong, she was the one with the highest accomplishments in regards to darkness.

    A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

    Looking at her disciple, who was trying so hard to hide her darkness from her, Selena couldn''t help but find it slightly cute.

    Even though hidden well, Selena could still very much feel it, the near-pitch black darkness hiding under Beatrice''s mask.

    "Good disciple, then you should take a shower before resting for a bit, this is the key to a room I prepared for you," said Selena as she handed a pair of keys over to Beatrice with a seemingly innocent expression on her.

    In fact, Selena''s expression seemed so genuine that if not for the fact that Beatrice knew of her actions from reading about them in her past life, she would have probably felt like Selena really had her best interests in mind.

    "Yes teacher," said Beatrice, getting up from the bed and quickly running in a certain direction.

    ...

    As she walked up to the door of what would be her room, for at least the foreseeable future, even Beatrice couldn''t help but feel curious on what lay on the other side.

    The reason Beatrice knew that this was her room was very simple, the large ''Beatrice'' written on the door of the room, alongside an image of her.

    ''I never gave her my name, did I?'' thought Beatrice before quickly shaking her head, and opening the door to the room.

    At this moment, the only thing that Beatrice desired was that the conditions inside of her room were decent enough to not impede her, not having any other expectations.

    The moment Beatrice opened the door and saw the room in front of her, she couldn''t help but walk inside and touch a seemingly gold-encrusted table, at the same time, she looked at her luggage, which was laying next to a large queen-sized bed.

    Without much thought, Beatrice knocked her finger on the table, causing her to slightly freeze.

    "It''s not all pure gold is it?" asked Beatrice as she stared at the room full of gold furniture, as, unlike her expectations, the table was not gold-encrusted, rather being made out of pure gold that had been probably enchanted, since gold was not really suitable for the making of furniture.

    After snooping around for a few minutes, Beatrice became disinterested in the luxury of the room, as she quickly walked into her bathroom.

    "This is much better," mumbled Beatrice as she walked into the large bathroom, which had several showers, as well as two different bathtubs sitting side by side.

    Although she did not know why this witch was treating her so well, Beatrice would not complain, rather preferring to enjoy it.

    In only a few minutes, Beatrice had taken a quick shower, before sinking into one of the warm bathtubs.

    As she let out a sigh, Beatrice then sat down crosslegged in the bathtub before beginning to refine mana, as of course, although enjoying herself was nice, neglecting her strength was not something Beatrice would do.

    After refining mana inside of the bathtub for a few hours, Beatrice closed her eyes as she laid in the bathtub, beginning to sleep.

    ...

    Feeling the warm breath coming from the left side of her body, Beatrice suddenly woke up, but even so, she did not worry, having an extremely good guess of who that person was.

    The first thing that greeted Beatrice when she woke was her new teacher, who was in the bathtub next to her stretching out her hands behind her.

    As if feeling her disciple''s gaze Selena couldn''t help but smile before slowly frowning.

    "Although this is comfortable, this is no really effective in cleaning," mumbled Selena, causing Beatrice to suddenly smell a very distinct smell coming from her master.

    ''The blood of a young child,'' thought Beatrice, identifying the origin of the blood only from it''s scent.

 Reincarnation

    As she smelled the faint scent that was emanating off her new teacher, Beatrice''s eyes couldn''t help but narrow.

    After laying in the still somehow warm water of the bathtub for a few more moments, Beatrice suddenly got up, covered herself up with a towel and began walking towards her room, leaving her teacher to remain as the only person in the bathroom.

    A few moments later, Selena took a single look towards Beatrice''s room before disappearing from inside of the bathtub.

    ...

    Putting on her robe, a thoughtful look couldn''t help but appear on Beatrice''s face, some thoughts were going through her mind at this moment.

    But even so, Beatrice did not spend much time dressing up, walking up to the door of her room, opening it as she unconsciously bent her neck towards the left.

    The moment Beatrice opened the door, a dark bolt suddenly flew past her and into her room.

    If not for the fact that Beatrice had stretched out her head towards it''s left side, the dark bolt would have probably hit her head on.

    ''The barrier would have probably held on, if just barely,'' thought Beatrice as she turned her head towards her new teacher, who was standing right outside of her door.

    "That''s very good, not many apprentices could have managed to dodge that at point-blank range, now I only need to test your spell capabilities for a bit, as well as your mana," said Selena, looking at her disciple with a smile on her face.

    Hearing her teacher''s words, Beatrice''s eyes couldn''t help but widen once more.

    Consciously or unconsciously, Selena did not mention anything about testing Beatrice''s spiritual power, completely ignoring that aspect of her,

    Of course, Beatrice had no interest in reminding her teacher about that, to be honest, Beatrice would have much rather preferred living alone and being able to conduct her experiments as she wished.

    But sadly, Beatrice had no choice in this matter, as Beatrice only had three options.

    Stay in the shadow academy and get found out that there was something wrong here.

    Flee alone and then be brought back to the academy, probably by force, as her body probably had many trackers on it.

    Or try to seek out the only powerful being that Beatrice knew would not bring her back to the academy, and could probably remove the trackers on her body.

    Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

    At the same, from her past life, Beatrice knew that the Witch of Death had at least a slightly favorable impression of her, and as such, seeking her out was her only good option.

    As she was still deep in thought, Beatrice followed her teacher, walking out of her room before walking through a corridor, the same corridor that she had arrived at her room through.

    Right now, Beatrice did not go the way she came from, rather after walking only around fifty meters, both she and her teacher walked into a room.

    ''A spell testing room,'' thought Beatrice as she looked at the walls of the room, as they were made of that same familiar metal used inside of the Shadow Monastery, Beatrice was able to recognize the use of the room immediately.

    But even so, Beatrice felt like there was something completely different about this spell testing room compared with the testing room inside of the Shadow Monastery, even though they both looked visually identical.

    "Now show me what kind of damage you can do, little girl," said Selena as she walked back towards the door of the room, leaving Beatrice in the middle.

    Hearing the words of her teacher, a small dark bolt suddenly appeared in Beatrice''s hands, before flying off into the wall in front of Beatrice at a high speed, smashing into it.

    After firing the Dark Bolt, Beatrice couldn''t help but slightly gaze at her teacher from the corner of her eyes.

    Seeing the Witch behind her smiling, an inexplicable fear emerged in Beatrice, as a Dark Bolt suddenly appeared in her hands.

    In merely a fraction of a moment later, the Dark Bolt flew towards the wall, as two sonic booms appeared behind it.

    Of course, even though this attack was extremely powerful, as soon as the Dark Bolt touched the wall of the room, it inexplicably lost all of it''s strength, shattering to pieces as it struck the wall.

    Seeing this scene, an small smile appeared on Selena''s face as she stared at Beatrice.

    ''Much better,'' thought Selena as she looked at Beatrice, deciding not to push her new little disciple to reveal any more of her strength, feeling quite satisfied.

    Suddenly, Beatrice felt like she was being peeped at, but before she could even raise her guard, that feeling disappeared from Beatrice''s mind, leaving some confusion on her face.

    ...

    In another location

    [Warning! Warning! An unexpected change has occurred in target twelve]

    Looking at the blue screen in front of him, a frown appeared on the face of a middle-aged man.

    Although he was walking in the middle of a crowded street, nobody other than him seemed to be able to see the blue screen.

    Suddenly, the warning on the blue screen suddenly disappeared.

    [Calculating, Please Stand by]

    Time continued to pass, as the middle-aged man continued to walk through the street, waiting for the Reincarnation Space to finish its calculations.

    [Error, Insufficient Authority, Removing Target Twelve from Mission List]

    Suddenly, the man frowned, using his mind to bring up another screen in front of his face.

    "She''s really gone," mumbled the middle-aged man as he stared at the Mission List, noticing that the previous target twelve had disappeared from there, causing the previous target thirteen to become target twelve.

    ''Say, system what would happen if I still go after her? Would I get any punishments?'' thought the middle-aged man.

    [Warning! Insufficient Authority, Accessing previous records]

    After a few moments, this text disappeared, being replaced by something that made the blood of the middle-aged go cold.

    [Going after a target not approved by the Reincarnation Space may have unintended consequences, including:]

    [ Minor Injury, Major Injury, Death, Torture, Soul Corruption Soul Annihilation, [Redacted] as well as [Redacted] ]

 Nature

    After a few moments, Beatrice moved on, ignoring the feeling of being peeped on, and turning her neck backward, looking at her teacher.

    As she looked at the smile on her teacher''s face, a weird feeling emerged in Beatrice''s mind.

    "Not again," mumbled Beatrice as her body once again fell to the ground.

    Looking at her unconscious apprentice, Selena Watford fell into her thoughts for a few moments before walking up to Beatrice, who was now floating in the air.

    Then, Selena placed her hand on Beatrice''s forehead before closing her eyes for a few moments, causing a frown to appear on her face.

    "Her body and mind are in sync, so no possession," mumbled Selena as she then conducted a few more tests on her new apprentice, going as far as even checking for soul parasites, but in the end, she did not manage to find anything noteworthy.

    The only thing she had roughly felt was the fact that Batrice''s spiritual power was much stronger than expected, but she did really care much for this fact as long as she did not have anything she was searching for.

    "Reincarnation no, spirit no, system no," mumbled Selena as she continued testing Beatrice, but after around thirty minutes of different tests, including her own personal method to see if someone is part of the reincarnation space, Selena gave up, placing Beatrice on the ground as well as tapping her forehead so as to wake her up.

    Right now, Selena had a smile on her face, one much different than the one from before, as right now, Selena was really sure that she had found a nice helper.

    Of course, if Beatrice was helpful to her, Selena did not mind teaching her some things in the process.

    Looking at the sleeping Beatrice, especially her pure white hair, Selena couldn''t help but slightly smile.

    "We''ll meet soon," mumbled Selena before noticing that Beatrice was just about to wake up.

    ...

    The moment Beatrice regained consciousness, she had a weird feeling, feeling as though she was completely naked.

    As the worst possible outcome briefly flashed through her eyes, Beatrice suddenly opened her eyes before breathing a sigh of relief.

    "Are you feeling better now, you looked like you were tired after casting those spells, so I helped you take a nap," said Selena as she looked at her disciple with a cheeky smile on her face, being in an extremely good mood right now.

    Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

    Hearing the words that came out of her teacher''s mouth, Beatrice felt like she wanted to begin launching a dark bolt at her.

    As she took in a deep breath and calmed herself down, Beatrice suddenly noticed something, her mana pool, which was previously only around sixty percent full, since she had cast those two dark bolts had once again been filled up.

    Realizing this, a weird feeling seemed to emerge in Beatrice as she looked at her teacher for a fraction of a moment.

    ''Really professional,'' thought Beatrice as she began following her teacher, who had just walked out of the room while Beatrice was thinking.

    After walking through the corridor, Beatrice arrived in a large hall, following her teacher towards a certain corner, where a young boy lay on a metal bed.

    "I need to do something, take out his heart, I need it, but make sure it''s in the best condition possible, as for the rest of the major organs, you can put them in there," said Selena, pointing at a certain box, even though Beatrice was quite a distance away, she could still feel the cold emanating from the box, causing her to suddenly become curious.

    After saying that, Selena disappeared, seemingly no longer paying attention to Beatrice.

    ''So it uses a spell,'' thought Beatrice as she stared at the box, noticing a faint amount of elemental energy occasionally going into the box, before turning her attention to the meat bag on the table

    As she looked at the young boy laying on the table, some thought''s appeared inside of Beatrice''s mind.

    "Did she know I am very familiar with human experimentation, or did she simply want to test me," thought Beatrice as she looked at the set of surgical tools laying on another table next to the boy

    Although human experimentation was really quite relaxing, at least in Beatrice''s opinion, for some reason, even many Dark Mages refuse to do it.

    Not knowing when her teacher would return, Beatrice quickly got to work, as she began cutting the chest of the boy open with extreme precision and speed, showcasing her large amounts of experience in this topic.

    ...

    Staring at her disciple, who was going above and beyond her expectations, quickly dissecting the young boy, another smile appeared on the face of Selena Watford.

    "Teaching a good apprentice is really quite a satisfying endeavor," mumbled Selena as she looked at her disciple with a smile on her face as she shameless proclaimed that she had in fact taught Beatrice anything.

    As this thought entered her mind, Selena couldn''t help but think about her last apprentice, who she had killed after the latter had annoyed her.

    Of course, Selena would not kill without reason, as her last apprentice really was quite weakling, refusing to just kill some people to save his life, causing Selena to just torture those people for a little bit before killing him as well.

    Suddenly, Selena broke out of her trance and disappeared.

    ...

    Looking at the set of pristine organs in the box, a slight smile appeared on Beatrice''s face as she took off the now bloodied gloves from her hands.

    Suddenly, Beatrice felt a pair of hands land on her shoulder.

    "Hm, it looks like you did a good job," mumbled Selena as the heart of the young boy suddenly floated in front of her face.

    As Selena opened her mouth, seemingly preparing to eat a mouthful of the heart, a somewhat surprised expression appeared on Beatrice''s face.

    "Don''t worry, I won''t eat this, after all, I''m not some savage," said Selena as she looked at her disciple with a smile on her face.

 Blood

    Hearing her teacher''s words Beatrice couldn''t help but still frown a little, feeling as if for some reason, something was off, but no matter how much Beatrice thought about it, she could not figure out the cause.

    "Come with me," said Selena as she suddenly began walking in a certain direction, stopping at a particular empty space inside of the large hall, with nothing inside of it.

    Suddenly, an unconscious middle-aged man flew over Beatrice''s head, before landing in a corner of the empty space.

    "Stretch out your right hand," said Selena as she looked at her disciple, still with a smile on her face.

    Although she felt somewhat uncertain about her teacher''s desires, Beatrice still obliged, stretching out her right hand towards her.

    Without any warning, a knife appeared in Selena''s hands, as she then suddenly cut open Beatrice''s palm, allowing blood to fall into a bowl that suddenly appeared below it.

    As Selena had made a deep cut, even after a minute, the blood still kept flowing into the bowl, as Beatrice''s face become paler and paler.

    But right at that moment, the wound in Beatrice''s palm suddenly began healing at a rapid pace, and although she did not notice it, at this moment, the middle-aged man laying on the ground looked slightly older than before.

    After a few moments, Beatrice''s hand was fully healed, at the same time, the feeling of weakness that she had felt, caused by the loss of blood had disappeared as well.

    Because of how much blood Beatrice had shed, at this moment, even the large bowl was also halfway full when it flew toward her teacher.

    Seeing this, Selena smiled, before ruthlessly slashing her own palm open, letting blood flow into the bowl.

    Unlike with Beatrice, where she was quite conservative with the cut, Selena did not have any mercy on herself, causing blood to pour into the bowl at an even faster pace.

    As she looked at her teacher, Beatrice instinctually knew something.

    "I really cannot escape," thought Beatrice as she watched the bowl rapidly fill up with her teacher''s blood, becoming full in under thirty seconds.

    At this moment, the wound on Selena''s hand suddenly began healing at a rapid pace, causing the middle-aged man in the corner of the room to suddenly begin aging rapidly.

    The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

    In only a few moments, it seemed as though the middle-aged man had lived several more decades, becoming old in an instant.

    But even so, this did not stop Selena from taking more and more vitality from him, using it to heal the wound on her palm, after all, as an Offical Mage, Selena required much more vitality to fully heal, unlike Beatrice.

    Rather thankfully for the former middle-aged man, even after Selena''s hand was fully healed, he did not wake up, and as such, did not feel any pain in the slightest.

    ''The Dark Syphoning spell,'' thought Beatrice, knowing what her teacher had just done.

    As the Dark Healing spell required vitality for it to function, and as such, was nearly useless in healing oneself, the Dark Syphoning Spell was created as a way to steal vitality for it to be used in various ways, mainly through the Dark Healing spell.

    But although this spell seemed simple, this was in fact a Rank 1 spell, one which Beatrice would very much struggle to learn before becoming an Official Mage, if she could even learn it at all.

    While Beatrice was still in her thought the blood in the large bowl suddenly began separating into two parts.

    The first part flew towards the ground, forming a circle with a large number of patterns on it, while the other part suddenly flew into a certain heart that appeared next to Selena.

    "Walk in the circle," said Selena as she looked at Beatrice with a smile on her face, causing the latter to suddenly walk toward the circle.

    Although she did not know much about the nature of the blood circle in front of her, Beatrice managed to recognize certain patterns, which she had also encountered in some spell diagrams.

    But even so, Beatrice still stepped into the circle, causing something to suddenly float in front of her face.

    "Eat it," said Selena as she stared at Beatrice, causing the latter to pick up the floating heart into her hands, staring at it nervously.

    ''Hopefully, this ritual is not too bad,'' thought Beatrice before opening her mouth and taking a bite out of the human heart she had taken out of a young boy only a few moments ago.

    After taking that bite, rather surprisingly, Beatrice did not feel the sensation she had expected.

    Feeling the extremely tender meat suddenly melt in her mouth, a weird feeling couldn''t help but emerge in Beatrice''s mind.

    ''Since when did hearts taste like this?'' thought Beatrice as she unconsciously took another bite, and a last one, fully devouring the human heart.

    Unlike the hearts which Beatrice had eaten when she was young and slightly more insane, which were chewy and made you want to vomit, this heart could definitely be compared to the best food she had ever eaten in her life.

    But as Beatrice was thinking about this, she couldn''t help but unconsciously touch her neck, feeling the price for this meal.

    Beatrice did not need to see it, as the moment it appeared, the blood-red mark on her neck was extremely clear in Beatrice''s mind.

    After temporarily sorting out her thoughts Beatrice couldn''t help but turn to her teacher, having a weird another weird feeling emerge inside of her.

    Beatrice looked at her teacher for a few moments before closing her eyes, but even so, without using any spells, Beatrice could still very clearly sense her teacher''s location, no matter how far the two of them became of one another.

    Of course, Beatrice knew that this connection had a price, allowing her teacher to sense her location as well.

    Not only that, but Beatrice suspected that this mark may have had some other, more hidden uses.

 Mage

    Looking at her apprentice, a smile appeared on Selena''s face, then, a few moment''s later, she a thick book suddenly floated into her hands.

    "I''m somewhat busy right now, so you should study on your own for a bit," said Selena as suddenly, a dozen or more books floated over in front of Beatrice, creating a large pile that was over a meter tall.

    After that, Selena placed the book in her hands on the pile before suddenly turning into smoke and disappearing.

    Looking at the large pile of books in front of her, Beatrice couldn''t help but breathe a sigh of relief, feeling much safer than before.

    Beatrice then picked up several books from the floor, before walking up to her room with the rest floating behind her.

    ...

    As Beatrice lay on her bed, looking through a book, some thought''s couldn''t help but appear inside of her mind.

    ''She really is confident that I won''t betray her,'' thought Beatrice as she looked at the spells contained inside of the book.

    Unlike the spellbook provided by the academy, which only contained Rank 0 and only some Rank 1 spells, this spellbook was much more complete, going all the way to Rank 3.

    Rank 3 spells were the most powerful spells that Official Mages could cast without paying a large price, with Rank 4 spells and above being usually restricted to Archmages.

    At the same time, the number of Rank 4 and above spells is truly small, as the very concept of spells becomes slightly meaningless at that rank, as with their understanding of magic, archmages can easily achieve things without using any spells.

    ''As such there are only 5 Rank 4 Dark Spell:''

    ''Dark Ressurection''

    ''Curse of Being''

    ''True Darkness''

    ''Dark Summoning''

    ''Dark Ascendance''

    As Beatrice read the names of those spells, for some reason a slight chill appeared in her heart.

    Sweat dripped down Beatrice''s forehead, while at the same time, her vision suddenly became slightly blurry.

    Suddenly, Beatrice regained her senses, as the mark on her neck suddenly shone in a blood-red color.

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    The moment that happened, Beatrice quickly flipped to another page, as no longer dared gaze at the page regarding Rank 4 spells.

    After a few minutes, Beatrice finally recovered, as the fear that she had just felt slowly but surely receded.

    Beatrice then closed her eyes, falling deep into thought.

    ''What in the world was that?'' thought Beatrice as she remembered the utter dread that she had felt once she merely read the names of those Rank 4 spells.

    If not for the fact that Beatrice had a much more powerful spirit than normal apprentices, there was in fact quite a large chance that she would have died from merely reading their names.

    "Is it a curse, or is it the influence of the archmages that had cast this spell?" mumbled Beatrice when suddenly, she noticed something written on the page she was on right now.

    Unlike the neatly printed text next to it, this handwriting was quite messy and left behind without much care.

    ''My dear apprentice, now that you have satisfied your curiosity, you should not try to go back to the previous page before becoming an Offical Mage''-Your Dear Teacher

    As she read those words, Beatrice''s mouth couldn''t help but slightly twitch.

    "Well she is right in leaving this here," mumbled Beatrice, knowing for a fact that her curiosity would definitely not allow her to stop reading.

    But now that Beatrice had not only learned the name of those spells but also seen the consequences of acting rashly, she would follow her teacher''s words, and no longer go to the previous page.

    Even though this incident was quite shocking, after a few minutes, Beatrice had already recovered, and had continued on reading the rest of the book.

    ...

    At the same time, in another location,

    Millions of souls lay in a huge mansion, each of them experiencing the most terrifying of tortures at the hand of the thousands of Demons present in this Mansion.

    While this was happening, in the center of the mansion stood a huge golden. throne, with a giant demon, tens of meters tall sitting on it with his eyes closed.

    Suddenly, the demon opened his eyes, feeling a certain call.

    Without any hesitation, the demon disappeared, leaving the huge golden throne empty.

    "Mortal, why have you summoned the Demon Duzgeraun," said the huge demon as it stared at the cultists that were shaking in fear below him, when suddenly, dozens of black emerged from the walls of the huge hall, aiming straight for the demon.

    Looking at the huge chains coming towards him, no expression could be seen on the face of the demon, as he simply waved his hand, causing the chains to fall to the ground.

    But suddenly, the face of the demon changed, as he felt some weakness in his right arm, which he had used to destroy the chains.

    "A wizard?" mumbled the demon, when suddenly, his frowning face turned into a horrified one as a certain thought entered his mind.

    ''A mage??'' thought the demon as a portal suddenly appeared behind him, but as the demon wanted to flee back to hell, the portal in front of him suddenly shattered.

    Without warning, a several-meter-long black needle pierced through the head of the demon, passing through it at an unimaginable speed, far over beyond the speed of sound.

    But even so, no sonic boom was heard as the needle once again flew towards the demon, who was now restrained by hundreds of black chains.

    Another hole appeared in the body of the demon, as the black needle once again pierced right through it with no resistance.

    After this happened several more times, over 75 percent of the body of the demon was completely annihilated, but even so, he was still very much alive.

    Several minutes later, the demon only had around ten percent of his body left, causing the needle to stop mid-air before dissipating.

    A few moments later, Selena Watford, the Witch of Death appeared next to the demon, staring at him with a smile on her face.

    "An Archdemon, even better than expected," mumbled Selena as what remained of the demon floated behind her, still being restrained by chains.

 Preparations

    At the same time as Selena was looking at the Archdemon laying on the floors, one of the cultists, suddenly began running towards the door.

    This seemingly caused a chain reaction, as all of the other cultists also began running away.

    But sadly for them, only a moment later, the heads of all of the cultists suddenly exploded, causing flesh and blood to be thrown all over the walls of the room.

    "They underestimated the demon they summoned, this should do," thought Selena as she began subtly changing the ritual, making it much weaker than before.

    A moment later, Selena, alongside the remains of the demon disappeared.

    ...

    The moment Selena walked inside the room, and the demon that was floating behind her saw what was inside the room, color drained from his face.

    In the middle of the room lay a tiny metal ball, with a small hole inside of it.

    The moment he saw the ball, the demon suddenly began struggling, but sadly, it was no use, as Selena''s powers already surpassed his even when he was at his peak, not to mention the state he was in right now.

    Without paying much attention to the struggle of the demon, Selena walked up to a table on the left side of the room before carefully picking up an ornate box from it.

    Although she was usually calm, as she looked at the box, sweat couldn''t help but fall down Selena''s forehead.

    But even so, after a few moments, Selena had bought the box back in front of the demon before slowly but surely opening and staring at it.

    Looking at the blue gem, the result of several decades of her work, Selena couldn''t help but take in a deep breath, stretching out her hand towards the demon.

    "Don''t resist, I made sure to make your new home a very nice place," said Selena before suddenly ripping out the soul of the Archdemon, leaving it no chance at resistance.

    After that, Selena got to work on the demon soul, as she would of course not place it in her delicate creation without some adjustments.

    Even though he had no physical form, and as such, his screams could not be heard, as Selena modified the demon, torment began appearing around it, seeping into the room at a speed visible to the naked eye.

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    The ability to control a body, free will, even the ability to even have thoughts, these were all things that Selena made sure to remove from the Demon, and as such, the speed of torment accumulation around her began slowing down considerably, as only the last vestiges of the demon from before remained.

    Then, after that came the difficult part,

    Staring at the demon soul, which was already completely different from before, having been changed beyond recognition, Selena took in a deep breath and closed her eyes, opening them a moment later.

    After that, Selena began working on her last task, increasing the potency of a certain natural ability of demons, the ability to turn torment into usable energy.

    ...

    Several hours later,

    Looking at the glistening blue gem in front of her, an extreme smile appeared on Selena''s face, causing her to suddenly raise her hands, snapping her fingers and causing it to suddenly float towards the small ball in the middle of the room, fitting snugly inside of the hole on it.

    "Let''s see if this works," mumbled Selena, snapping her fingers once again as she stared at the ball.

    At that moment, all of the torment that had seeped into the walls of the room suddenly came out, being instantly attracted by the ball.

    Then, a moment later, pure Dark mana that was already perfectly suited for Selena began pouring out of the ball.

    "It works," mumbled Selena as she suddenly breathed a sigh of relief, but even so, Selena kept staring at the ball.

    ''The attraction force is too weak, and the purity of the mana is too low as well,'' thought Selena, as she swiftly regained her senses.

    Although a project that Selena had started years ago had been finished, did not mean that her work had come to an end, after all, she still had many areas in which she could improve it.

    But first, Selena needed to go back and check on her little apprentice, after all, she had spent over a week preparing everything for the ritual, and as such, she had left Beatrice alone for over ten days.

    "Hopefully she hasn''t destroyed everything," mumbled Selena as she let out a small chuckle.

    ...

    Inside of an office,

    "A pity she died," mumbled Mr. Errol as he suddenly opened his eyes, feeling the response from the mark he had placed on Beatrice.

    Although a tiny bit of pity was present in Mr. Errol''s eyes, it soon disappeared, after all, he couldn''t change the past.

    As such, Errol would not stress a lot about the death of his apprentice.

    ...

    Unaware of the fact that her past and present teachers were thinking about her right now, Beatrice continued reading a certain book, being completely entranced in it.

    As Mr. Errol was not very interested in controlling people, the most amount of help he could provide Beatrice in regard to the Dark Manipulation spell was to give her some psychology books.

    But unlike him, it seemed as this was one of her new teacher''s interests, as over half of the books that she had given Beatrice were related to this type of spells.

    In fact, these were not truly books, as Selena mainly provided Beatrice with some of her notebooks, but even so, Beatrice still read some books that were placed in a bookshelf in the corner of the room, after all, it doesn''t really matter as long as she put them back, does it?

    "These are rare originals, the books in that bookshelf are rare originals, make sure not to damage them, they have some other uses," said Selena as she suddenly walked past Beatrice, causing the latter to suddenly jerk up.

 Warmth

    In these past ten days, as Beatrice engrossed herself in her teacher''s book, collection, she also did not neglect the other aspects of her training, such as refining mana and practicing the knight''s breathing technique.

    Compared to her past life, the speed Beatrice''s improvements in these areas increased significantly, especially in regard to becoming a grand knight.

    Back then, Beatrice had almost completely stopped improving in regards to her knight training before her battle against the zombies, but right now, with her past experience, Beatrice was improving as fast as a rocket.

    Every single day, Beatrice would feel her body becoming stronger and stronger, of course, she would not focus to much on this, preferring to spend her time more productively, after all, no matter how powerful a knight was, compared to a mage he would still be an ant that could be killed at will.

    As such, Beatrice focused much more on refining mana, desiring to regain her peak combat power as soon as possible, only then would she feel secure.

    But sadly, no matter what Beatrice did, refining mana was a delicate process that did not have any shortcuts, as such, Beatrice had to be satisfied with a speed only slightly faster than her previous life, at 0.12 mana per day, only 0.02 mana faster than her previous life.

    Suddenly, as she heard her teacher''s words, Beatrice''s mind couldn''t help but rapidly think.

    "Teacher, is this also an original?" asked Beatrice as she suddenly picked up the thick spellbook from the table, holding it in front of Beatrice.

    "That''s true, I suppose you were interested in the rank 4 spells," said Selena, looking at her disciple with an amused smile on her face.

    The moment she heard her teacher''s response, Beatrice''s mind suddenly got to work, as thoughts swirled inside of it.

    ''It looks like what happened after I checked out the rank 4 spells was caused by the fact that this is an original version,'' thought Beatrice as she looked at her teacher with a curious expression on her face.

    "Teacher, wouldn''t keeping such valuable books out here in the open be quite risky?" asked Beatrice as she stared at her teacher with a weird expression on her face.

    "Don''t worry, you don''t have to fight, if an enemy can enter this place while still alive, they would be far too powerful for you to face alone, you would instantly die," said Selena, as she approached her disciple, placing her hand on the latter''s forehead.

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    Hearing her teacher''s words, Beatrice did not know whether to feel relaxed or completely unsafe right now, completely ignoring the hand resting on her forehead right now,

    "It looks like you really haven''t slacked off in these past few days," said Selena as she looked at her disciple with a slightly surprised look on her face, feeling the latter''s mana capacity.

    A moment later, Selena retracted her hand, before beginning to once again walk past Beatrice, this time not stopping any longer.

    As such, Beatrice was left alone, continuing to read the notebook in her had, as thoughts swirled inside of her mind.

    "Maybe I should get some practical experience with this spell," mumbled Beatrice, as the thought suddenly appeared inside of her mind while she was reading the notebook.

    ...

    The next day,

    It had not taken Beatrice much effort to obtain an experimental subject to cast this spell on, as she merely had to go to her new teacher and ask for one, and merely a few minutes later, Beatrice had her experimental subject, fully prepared to test her new mastery of the spell on.

    As Beatrice stared at the little boy, who was tied to a table in front of him, as well as covered by a piece of white cloth, a large, but somewhat weird smile couldn''t help but appear on her face.

    Without any hesitation on her face, Beatrice quickly took the white cloth off the little boy.

    Looking at the face of the little boy, which was quite similar to that of Ben, the young Mage Apprentice from the Lyon, thoughts couldn''t help but wander inside of Beatrice''s mind.

    ''Is this a coincidence?'' thought Beatrice as she suddenly touched the face of the boy before shifting her palms to his forehead.

    ...

    As he slowly regained his consciousness, Elias couldn''t help but slightly shiver, feeling the freezing cold snow land on his exposed skin.

    But even as the cold caused his skin to begin cracking, Elias began slowly but surely began walking in a certain direction, his feet sinking in the snow with every step he took.

    Every single one of Elias''s steps caused him more and more pain, more and more suffering, as the chill he felt sunk deeper and deeper into his body as images flashed through his mind.

    His mother, his father, his sister, his brother, images of each of them flashed through Elias''s mind with each step he took

    Suddenly, and without warning, just as he was about halfway to his eventual destination, Elias raised his head, staring at the sky.

    ...

    "Why is reality so painful?" mumbled Elias as he slowly raised his head and stared at his surroundings.

    Without any warning, Elias accidentally tried moving his arms apart, prompting the chain cuffs on both of his arms to suddenly become tighter, not allowing him to move at all.

    Even so, after quickly regaining his bearing, Elias paid no more attention to the handcuffs on his arms, rather focusing on his sister, Ella.

    As he looked at his sister, who right now was peacefully staring at him, some warmth couldn''t help but appear in Elias''s eyes.

    "Are you alright sister?" asked Elias as his sister, Ella approached him and pulled him into her wide embrace.

    "Everything''s alright, you should rest some more, you have a long day tomorrow," said Ella as she hugged her little brother, keeping him warm.

    ...

    Looking at the little boy peacefully sleeping in her embrace, Beatrice couldn''t help but smile as she stared at the boy sleeping in her lap, beginning to inject her mana into his head.

    At the same time, Beatrice took out a potion from her robe before placing it on the table and opening it, preparing for the fact that she would inevitably need to use it.

 Elias

    Several hours later,

    For these past few hours, Beatrice continually poured her mana into Elias''s brain, slowly but surely shaping it to her liking.

    But contrary to her expectations, Ellias seemed much more resistant to her control than expected, even though Beatrice had a much more thorough grasp of him than her prior servants, he still took more mana to enslave.

    Thankfully though, by now Beatrice was at least somewhat experienced in the Dark Manipulation spell and could slow down her loss of mana by refining mana as she cast the spell.

    Of course, as she could not put all of her attention on refining mana, after around three hours, Beatrice still drank the potion that she had obtained from her teacher, replenishing her depleted mana pool.

    At this moment, Beatrice''s eyes suddenly opened as she breathed a sigh of relief.

    "It''s finally over," mumbled Beatrice as she looked at the boy sleeping on her lap with a somewhat weird expression on her face.

    After she had finished casting the spell, and controlling Elias, Beatrice couldn''t help but fall into deep thought, trying to find the reason why the boy was so much more resistant to her mana.

    ''He''s not any stronger than the average boy, so I can cross that off, and his willpower is not particularly strong as well,'' thought Beatrice as she touched the cheek of the young boy with a smile on her face.

    As she felt the white and tender skin on the boy''s face, Beatrice''s eyes couldn''t help but narrow, as thoughts bubbled into her mind.

    "Maybe he has talent for becoming a mage, that could play some part in this," mumbled Beatrice, prompting the figure sitting behind her to nod, a small smile appearing on her face.

    "That''s right this little guy does have the talent to become a mage," said Selena Watford as she suddenly appeared behind Beatrice, touching the latter''s shoulders as she spoke.

    Hearing her teacher''s words, Beatrice could not help but fall into thought once again.

    The fact that those with magic talent were more resistant to the Dark Manipulation spell made some sense, after all, those with magic talent, no matter how weak they were, had some resistance against mana and elemental energy.

    In fact, this was one of the reasons those with higher talent could absorb mana faster, as their increased resistance allowed their bodies to be damaged much less than those with worse talent.

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    ''Did she give me someone with magic talent on purpose, just so that she could test me?'' thought Beatrice as she felt her teacher touch her cheek.

    "Don''t worry, I have no reason to test my little disciple," said Selena as she suddenly moved her body closer to Beatrice, staring at her and Elias somewhat weirdly.

    Feeling her teacher''s gaze, a thought couldn''t help but suddenly enter Beatrice''s mind.

    ''She just thought something incredibly weird,'' thought Beatrice, feeling as if her teacher had just made an unfounded assumption about her.

    At this moment, Beatrice did not know just how right her stray thought actually was, nor did she know how wrong her teacher''s assumption was.

    As she looked at her disciple, Selena couldn''t help but feel that the way Beatrice looked at the little boy was somewhat weird.

    Still, Selena did not pursue this matter, as she left after speaking with her disciple for a few moments, not before remembering to leave her disciple a small crystal ball.

    "You can use this for now and give it back to me once I come back," said Selena, not bothering to explain what the crystal ball did.

    ...

    Looking at her teacher''s departing figure, Beatrice still couldn''t help but feel weird, but even so, she ignored that feeling, shaking her head as she turned her attention toward Elias.

    "Wake up," said Beatrice in a relatively cold tone as she looked at Elias, tapping him on the forehead with her nail, feeling somewhat annoyed as she looked at the little boy, as if he had caused her some trouble.

    After that Beatrice got up, still feeling annoyed at the little boy for some reason, leaving Elias on the floor.

    Thankfully for Elias, he woke up only a few moments later, just as Beatrice was about to go personally wake him up.

    "Mistress," mumbled Elias, saying his first word after waking up from his sleep.

    Hearing that, a small smile couldn''t help but appear on Beatrice''s face, feeling quite satisfied with the obedience Elias showed.

    "Good boy," mumbled Beatrice as she patted Elias on the head, feeling quite satisfied with her new servant.

    At the same time, Beatrice turned her attention toward the crystal ball her teacher had left behind, with a smile on her face.

    ''At least she is somewhat generous,'' thought Beatrice as she picked up the crystal ball into her hands, isolating them with her mana so that her bare hands didn''t touch it.

    "Put your hands on this crystal ball," said Beatrice as she turned her head to her new slave.

    The moment Elias placed his hands on the crystal ball, the ball suddenly changed color, becoming black.

    ...

    At the same time in another location,

    Looking at the city gate in front of her, Ella couldn''t help but take in a deep breath.

    It had been over a year since Ella had stepped into Deasdon city, a year since she had escaped from that hell, but even so, she still came back.

    But right now, things were different compared to before, things were so much different, right now, Ella had power.

    Without any hesitation, Ella stepped into the city before walking in a particular direction.

    Soon after that, the nice houses around Ella began disappearing, being replaced by things that almost looked like shacks.

    In only a few minutes, Ella had stepped into the slave market, beginning her search for a certain someone.

    ...

    Looking at the unfamiliar lady before him, the fat slave trader, who was sitting on his chair felt somewhat worried as he spoke.

    "Elias, we sold him half a month ago," said the slave trader, but sadly for him, these were his last words, as his body then began melting, turning into liquid as it dropped to the floor.

 When you gaze into the Abyss

    The moment the slave trader began melting, his guards suddenly took action, five of them took out their sword and lunged toward Ella, attacking her, while at the same time, the other five surrounded their master, as if to protect him.

    But sadly for these guards, all of their struggles was meaningless, as merely a moment after they took action, they too began melting.

    Only a fraction of a moment later, the slave trader, as well as his ten guards were all dead, leaving only Ella standing in the middle of the room, with no emotion visible in her eyes.

    After a few moments, Ella walked out of the room, seemingly determined to continue her search.

    ...

    At this moment, Beatrice was sitting on her bed with a large book in her hands, occasionally flipping to the next page.

    But as Beatrice once again read quickly read through an entire page of the book, taking in a deep breath before flipping to another page, her hand suddenly stopped in mid air, just as it was flipping to the next page.

    Although Beatrice did not have to use her hands to flip to the next pages of books, she still did so, as using her mind to do so was seemingly not as convenient for her.

    After Beatrice''s hand froze in the air for a few more moments, Beatrice then took in another deep breath, then, Beatrice slowly placed the book on the bed before sitting cross-legged next to it as an surprised expression could be seen on her face.

    ''It''s quite early,'' thought Beatrice as she then closed her eyes and began steadily breathing.

    Then, Beatrice finally let go, as her breaths became more and more frequent, causing her body to slowly but surely begin convulsing.

    Slowly but surely, a transformation began taking place inside of Beatrice''s body.

    Although Beatrice had lost her body from her past life, and as such, was merely an Offical Knight right now, she still had the mastery of her Knight breathing technique from her past life.

    As such, in the background and without spending any time truly focusing on it, Beatrice''s knight training quickly flew by, strengthening her body, letting her come closer and closer to becoming a Grand Knight as soon as possible.

    Even though Beatrice expected to become a Grand Knight sooner rather than later, her estimates did not predict that she would do so this early.

    Ignoring these protruding thoughts, Beatrice focused on the transformation of her body, as her breaths slowly began stabilizing.

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    Over thirty minutes later,

    In these past thirty minutes, Beatrice carefully felt her transformation to becoming a Grand Knight, not moving her body in the slightest, in fear of disturbing it or causing some adverse side effects for herself.

    Right now, over thirty minutes after her transformation began, Beatrice suddenly opened her eyes, some disappointment flashing through them.

    "As expected, compared to the transformation caused by advancing as a Mage, this is way too shallow," mumbled Beatrice as she tightened her fist, feeling the large power contained in it.

    But even though becoming a Grand Knight increased the power of her body, Beatrice was still disappointed.

    Suddenly a knock was heard on the door.

    "Come in," said Beatrice as she got up from the bed, no longer sitting cross-legged.

    A moment after that, Elias walked in with two plates filled with food in his hands, causing some weird thoughts to appear in Beatrice''s mind.

    Looking at Elias and then at the unappetizing food in his hands, a scene suddenly appeared in Beatrice''s mind, Elias sitting on a table with his organs taken out.

    As she thought about that scene, Beatrice couldn''t help but unconsciously bite her lips, causing her gaze towards Elias to subtly change.

    "Leave them on a table and leave," said Beatrice as she walked into the bathroom with a weird look on her face, leaving Elias behind.

    "Yes mistress," said Elias, quickly leaving both the plates and the cutlery on a table before quickly exiting the room.

    ...

    Feeling the hot water from the shower wash over her body, Beatrice let out a soft sigh, feeling quite annoyed with her current body.

    Although the power of her current body was not that bad, compared with her previous one from when she had become a Peak Mage Apprentice, the rest of it''s qualities were too far off.

    The thing that annoyed Beatrice the most was by far sleeping, in her past life at her peak, Beatrice could sustain herself with an incredibly reduced amount of sleep.

    "I will find you," mumbled Beatrice as she suddenly walked out from under the shower an annoyed look appearing on her face once again as her thoughts about sleeping caused her to once again think about her death.

    After a few more moments, Beatrice dressed up a little before putting on a robe and walking out of the bathroom and back into her room.

    Feeling the tasteless food but nutritious food that was entering her mouth, a look of annoyance couldn''t help but flash on Beatrice''s face once again.

    But then, a few moments after that, a thought couldn''t help but flash through Beatrice''s mind.

    ''Have I become easier to annoy after my death?'' thought Beatrice, as slowly but surely, a true frown appeared on her face.

    ...

    As Beatrice was sitting on her bed, she began looking through all of her memories since she had been reincarnated, eventually landing on a certain memory that had happened today.

    Ever since Beatrice was reborn, she had never been truly annoyed.

    Back when she was at the Shadow Monastery, Beatrice had no time to be annoyed, as she had to think of a plan of escape.

    And as she became the apprentice of the Witch of Death, not only did her teacher treat her pretty well, contrary to her expectations, but even if did not treat her well, Beatrice could do nothing about it.

    As Beatrice thought about it, the fact that today was the first time since Beatrice had been reborn that she was annoyed rang alarm bells in her mind.

    "If I was in my past life, would I have ever thought about killing someone still useful to me if I was annoyed?" asked Beatrice, already knowing the answer.

    Although Beatrice had killed for fun in the past, she did not even think about killing those useful to her.

    At this moment, a certain scene hidden in Beatrice''s mind slowly revealed itself to her.

 The Abyss also gazes into you

    Images flashed through Beatrice''s eyes, images of a small blob, traveling alone in the empty Abyss.

    Eons and Eons, the blob kept moving on and on towards a tiny dot of light in the distance, searching for a new home.

    But at the same time, the blob was completely oblivious to the transformation taking place in itself.

    As time passed, slowly but surely, the pitch-black darkness of the Abyss began imprinting itself in the blob.

    Thankfully though, this process was extremely slow, so much so that by the time the blob had found its new home, its body had only become somewhat darker.

    ...

    "What in the world happened?" mumbled Beatrice as she suddenly regained her consciousness.

    The moment Beatrice woke up, she opened her eyes, allowing her to see the world around her once again.

    "Mistress, are you alright, do you need any help?" asked Elias, who was standing right beside Beatrice, with a concerned look clearly visible on his face.

    "How long was I asleep for?" asked Beatrice as she suddenly began moving her body, slowly getting up from the bed.

    Seeing that his Mistress seemed fine, Elias breathed a silent sigh of relief, quenching his worries for the moment.

    "It''s been three days since you have fallen asleep mistress," said Elias, causing Beatrice to suddenly breathe a sigh of relief.

    ''At least it was not that long,'' thought Beatrice before suddenly turning her head towards Elias.

    "You can leave now," said Beatrice as she suddenly feel into deep thought, ignoring Elias who had now begun leaving the room.

    A few moments later, Beatrice couldn''t help but close her eyes, trying her best to look through her recent memories.

    Darkness, that was all that Beatrice remembered, with every other circumstance surrounding the darkness seemingly being covered in a thick fog.

    But even so, that darkness was fully imprinted in Beatrice''s memories, years, decades, and centuries of pure pitch-black darkness filled Beatrice''s memories, causing some pain to appear in Beatrice''s head as she thought about it.

    Under the weight of the nearly endless amount of memories, even Beatrice''s powerful spirit seemed like an insignificant firefly, not making a dent in the memories in the slightest.

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    But as she was scouring through the rest of her memories, a slightly surprised look couldn''t help but appear on Beatrice''s face.

    ''My spirit definitely wasn''t this strong,'' thought Beatrice as she continued looking through her memories.

    Although Batrice could look at her memories pretty easily in the past, compared to right now, her previous speed seemed like the pace of a snail.

    Without any warning, some food, which had been left by Elias on a nearby table suddenly floated towards Beatrice, while at the same time, on her desk, a pen of Beatrice''s suddenly began writing.

    Not even opening her eyes, Beatrice suddenly opened her mouth, allowing a fork to suddenly deliver food straight to her without any inconvenience in the slightest.

    Ignoring the taste of the bland food, Beatrice began focusing on the issue at hand.

    ''I can presume these large amounts of memories increased the power of my spirit,'' thought Beatrice, using her mind to write down her thoughts on a piece of paper on her desk.

    Of course, Beatrice did not use the normal language of the Magic Continent, the same language that she had spoken since she was young to write this, rather writing what looked like complete jibberish.

    Even so, the moment, Beatrice filled up a page with her thoughts, the page suddenly began burning, as Beatrice turned to the next page.

    After all, although writing in a rather niche ancient language could lessen the chance that someone could read her notes, Beatrice merely used this to make sure that nobody coud just barge in and understand her notes.

    At this moment, Beatrice couldn''t help but be side-tracked, as her thoughts began wandering off in a certain direction away from the beginning.

    ''How is one language able to dominate the entire world so easily, with even the most remote islands knowing it, how is this logical in the slightest?'' thought before suddenly shaking her head.

    Shaking her head, Beatrice returned to her prior topic, the new memories that had somehow appeared inside of her brain.

    "At least it does make some sense," mumbled Beatrice, after all, the strength of one''s spirit does passively grow with age and experience.

    After all, although Beatrice did not clearly remember those memories, with their huge amount, some increase in the power of her spirit was obviously expected.

    This was the very moment Beatrice turned to the most obvious thing that she had not yet thought about.

    Where those memories come from and what did they mean?

    Even though Beatrice was pretty sure of the fact that these memories were the cause of her increased spiritual power, she still had not figured out one extremely crucial thing, although she had an idea.

    At this moment, Beatrice knew of only one event that could have posibly caused such a thing to happen, her death and rebirth

    This was very clear, after all, as she had died, this event fits very neatly with the darkness that Beatrice had seen in the memories.

    But even so, as she thought about her rebirth, Beatrice had a weird feeling, it was as if there was a single puzzle piece missing, one which would have allowed her to completely unmask the mystery, showing that it was not her rebirth that had caused memories to appear in her mind.

    Although she had no concrete evidence of this fact, Beatrice still very much trusted her intuition, knowing that it had not made any major mistakes in the past.

    "Is there something I''m missing?" mumbled Beatrice as she closed her eyes falling deep into thought, but sadly, Beatrice could only return back empty-handed, not managing to come up with anything.

    At this moment Beatrice still ignored the possibility that it was her rebirth that had caused the memories to appear, as she trusted her intuition.

    Of course, one could also say that denial was a very powerful thing after all.

 Hunt

    "Almost there," mumbled Brandon, a middle aged man, as he moved through the forest at a fast speed, occasionally ducking in between branches of trees.

    For the past two months, Brandon had been traveling throughout the Magic Continent, but right now, he could finally return to his home.

    Right now, Brandon was only a few hours of traveling away from his hometown, where he could peacefully focus on practicing magic without any worries.

    Suddenly, Brandon narrowed his eyes, slightly ducking as a bright yellow arrow suddenly appeared in front of him.

    Without any hesitation, Brandon fired the light arrow towards a certain bush over one hundred meters away.

    In only a fraction of a moment, the arrow had flown through everything in it''s path, bushes, trees, rocks, and reached it''s target, that bush.

    Then, right at that moment, something finally darted out from inside of the bush, prompting Brandon to suddenly take control of the arrow, turning it towards a new target.

    Without any warning, Brandon, who was still moving, suddenly ducked sideways, as a black shadow suddenly flew past his neck, only a fraction of a moment later, Brandon''s ear was filled with sonic booms.

    Of course, Brandon had no time to be distracted by the boom, as the black shadow, which Brandon then identified as the Dark Bolt spell, suddenly flew past his neck once again.

    Thankfully though, Brandon still managed to dodge the bolt, saving his life once again.

    At the same time, Brandon still controlled his Light Arrow, chasing after his target.

    Although the arrow was much faster than the target in a straight line, right now, the target was moving extremely erratically, not allowing the arrow to catch up with it.

    And when the arrow did manage to catch up, the target would then merely dodge.

    ''A robber, had no plan to particularly target me,'' thought Brandon as he watched the shadows slowly but surely retreat.

    Even though mage apprentices that robbed others were quite rare, Brandon had still encountered three of them throughout his life, and could identify them.

    As one would expect, robbers are not the bravest bunch, as such, they always quickly launch an assault on their target before retreating, not fighting for very long.

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    Of course, there is a chance that this was the only type of robber that would survive out there, after all, although most dark mages would not go out of their way to rob, they would still take advantage of two injuried targets.

    After a few minutes, Brandon finally released control over his Light Arrow, allowing it to dissipate, as its target was gone.

    ...

    ''He managed to sense me before I acted, surprising,'' thought Beatrice as she ran through the forest, at this moment, although only a short amount of time had passed from her attack, Beatrice had completely changed her clothing.

    For over half a month, Beatrice had been fighting before changing her location, so as to increase her fighting skills.

    Or so her teacher, who right now was sitting on the porch of a small house in the middle of the forest would say, as she was the one that made her do this.

    "Hmm, you did well to retreat, he was a high-rank mage apprentice of the light element who had reached the limit of his potential, if he had an elixir of light, then maybe he could reach the level of a Peak Apprentice, you would have been in a lot of trouble if you tried to fight him," mumbled Selena, who was sitting in a comfortable chair, as she read a book.

    "Teacher, do you know he how he sensed me?" asked Beatrice as she walked onto the porch, looking at her teacher.

    "You shouldn''t underestimate other mages, especially the ones that are relatively older, after all, even if they don''t have a lot of mana, they managed to somehow survive to their age," said Selena as she got up from her seat, not directly answering Beatrice.

    Hearing her teacher''s answer, Beatrice slightly rolled her eyes, in this half a month, she had killed four mage apprentices, and two of them looked relatively old, but neither of them managed to sense her.

    "Since you have shown yourself in this place, let''s go," said Selena as she let out a sigh and began walking towards the forest, with Beatrice following her.

    ...

    Two days later, on a rocky hill,

    No matter how many times Beatrice saw her teacher snap her fingers, causing a house to suddenly emerge from the ground, she would still feel extremely surprised every time she saw this.

    A moment after the house emerged from the ground, Selena suddenly walked on the porch before sitting in her already prepared chair.

    "Remember to beware of Earth Mages in this environment," said Selena, before both her and the house suddenly disappeared.

    If not from the fact that the mark on Beatrice''s neck, which was telling saying her teacher was still in the spot in front of her, Beatrice could not have reasonably realized this.

    A moment later, Beatrice walked away from the house, beginning to look for a place where she could hide in these extremely rocky hills.

    ''There''s no good place to hide here,'' thought Beatrice, completely dismissing caves and the tops of cliffs from being options, after all, she didn''t want to be at the complete mercy of Earth Mages.

    ...

    Several days later, at night,

    ''I should be able to arrive tonight,'' thought Briar as he silently walked eastwards.

    At this moment, Briar suddenly felt a small headache for a brief moment.

    Although the headache disappeared a moment later, Briar still became extremely alert, knowing that something like this did not happen for no reason to a Mage Apprentice.

    Suddenly, Briar raised his arm, touching his head, or rather, the large hole now present in the middle of his forehead.

    A moment later, three extremely loud sonic booms woke up all of the creatures in the area, but sadly for Briar, this was too late for him, as he then fell to the ground, dead.

    Suddenly, a shadowy figure appeared beside''s Briar''s dead body, the figure then began rapidly looting the body before quickly melting into the shadows, as if it had never been there in the first place.

 Sister

    Several minutes later,

    As she walked through the dark hills in the middle of the night, Beatrice still couldn''t help but feel some tension in her heart, even though she knew that she had scouted out the entirety of the hills just before.

    Of course, the last of Beatrice''s tension melted away the moment she gazed up at the small house sitting on top of a hill

    At this moment, Beatrice suddenly sped up, as she suddenly began climbing the cliff at a fast speed, reaching its top in only a few moments.

    The first thing that greeted Beatrice once she reached the top of the hill was her teacher, who right now, was still sitting on her chair.

    "That was even better than expected, it looks like you are already used to standing in the shadows, let''s go, staying here any longer would be meaningless," said Selena as she looked at her disciple, feeling quite surprised.

    At first, Selena had thought that Beatrice needed to obtain some combat experience, but after seeing how she killed her four targets, those thoughts were instantly expelled from her mind.

    As such, Selena decided to cut this part of Beatrice''s training short, preferring to go back to her home and to continue letting Beatrice practice magic peacefully.

    "Yes, teacher," said Beatrice, as she watched her teacher get up, causing the house behind her to suddenly disappear.

    "Very well then, let''s go," said Selena as she began walking away, prompting Beatrice, who was looking in a certain direction from the corner of her eyes, to begin following her.

    Seeing this, a small smile appeared on Selena''s face.

    "Although it''s a good thing that you noticed them, letting your old and fragile teacher take care of cleaning out bugs is not very nice," mumbled Selena, as suddenly, two bodies fell to the ground below her.

    A moment later, the two bodies suddenly began rotting, before turning into ash in only a few moments.

    Hearing her teacher''s words, Beatrice couldn''t help but breathe a silent sigh of relief.

    ''Although it restricts my freedom somewhat, having someone as powerful as her teacher following me is not so bad,'' thought Beatrice, knowing full well that if she had wanted to fight the two, it would have probably been a life and death battle.

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    "Understood teacher, disciple will take better care next time," said Beatrice, causing Selena to slightly chuckle, clearly not believing her words.

    "Well, let''s go," mumbled Selena as she took another look at her cute disciple before beginning to walk away, being followed by Beatrice.

    ...

    Two days later,

    Staring at the small hill standing in the middle of the swamp, Beatrice''s lips couldn''t help but twitch.

    "Teacher, isn''t this too obvious, wouldn''t someone find this place," asked Beatrice, watching as a hole suddenly appeared in the hill, causing a set of small stairs to form.

    "At least so far, no one has discovered this place, so you can make of that what you will," said Selena as she walked into the hill alongside Beatrice, causing stone to appear behind her, once again concealing the stairs.

    "Well that''s good," mumbled Beatrice in a low voice, causing Selena to take another look at her disciple from the corner of her eyes, before letting out another small chuckle, feeling like her disciple was becoming funnier and funnier as time passed.

    "You go study, I need to do something," said Selena, touching Beatrice''s forehead with a smirk on her face before disappearing.

    ''She''s becoming more friendly,'' thought Beatrice as she walked through the halls of this underground abode, feeling a little weird, especially from her teacher''s last touch.

    Of course, Beatrice simply ignored this weird thought, as she quickly walked back to her room.

    ...

    Staring at the huge door in front of her, the small smile present on Selena''s face slowly vanished, being replaced by a longing look.

    Without any hesitation, Selena suddenly pressed her hand on the door, causing it to suddenly glow blue before disappearing, allowing Selena to walk into the small room that the door guarded.

    The moment Selena entered the room, she walked up to the large rectangular box in the middle of the room, touching it''s top.

    As Selena touched the top of the rectangular box, the top of the box began slowly but surely rising, revealing it''s insides.

    Inside of the box lay a woman with pure white hair as well as a pale face.

    Suddenly Selena took out a bottle filled with a colourless liquid from the insides of her robe, as she touched the cold cheek of the woman.

    At this moment, the mouth of the woman suddenly opened, as Selena controlled it with her mind.

    After this, Selena then began gently feeding the colorless liquid to the corpse, causing it''s coldness to slightly lessen somewhat.

    The moment Selena finished feeding the liquid to the corpse, she sat down on the side of the coffin with a smile on her face.

    "Sister, this time, I found a new apprentice that looks somewhat like you, she''s really quite cute although she isn''t as gentle as you, I''m sure that you would have liked her," mumbled Selena, staring at the corpse, that looked a lot like Beatrice.

    "If she ever meets you, I''m sure that she will like you as well with how much you look like her, with how self-centered she is," mumbled Selena letting out a little chuckle as she thought about the scene of her disciple meeting her sister, causing an image of Beatrice to suddenly appear in front of the eyes of the corpse.

    "If you hold on, I''m sure that she will meet you, as I need only a few more years at most to bring you back, so you better hold on sister, I can keep bringing you as many souls as you need," mumbled Selena, touching the cheek of the corpse.

    ...

    At this moment, Beatrice, who had sunk her head into a certain book, suddenly raised her eyes, feeling as if something was wrong.

 68 : Vacation

    As Beatrice raised her head, she couldn''t help but slightly narrow her eyes.

    "Did something happen?" mumbled Beatrice as she moved her eyes around, staring at her luxurious room with a slight frown on her face.

    After noticing that everything was fine, Beatrice no longer paid any attention to what had just happened, once again sinking her mind in the book.

    ...

    Three months later,

    Staring at the relatively small town in front of her, Beatrice lightly scanned it with her eyes, before walking in.

    Of course, at this moment, Beatrice did not show her face, hiding it with a colorless mask, at the same time, Beatrice had also changed into a var inconspicuous robe.

    As Beatrice walked into the town, the first thing that surprised her was just how many people were in this town.

    Right now, inside of this relatively small town, at least two hundred people littered the streets, each wearing a robe, some hiding their true face, some not.

    ''There are more mage apprentices here than expected,'' thought Beatrice as she began walking around the streets of the town, occasionally walking past a small stall.

    As in her past life, Beatrice spent most of her time inside of the academy, or on missions, she was not very knowledgeable, about mage gatherings, and as such, right now she could only go to the most obvious place she could find.

    After a few minutes, Beatrice slowly approached a small stall, manned by a young man, with several books placed in front of him.

    Staring at the books for a few moments, Beatrice suddenly looked at the young man, who had his eyes closed right not.

    "Can I take a closer look at that one?" asked Beatrice as she pointed at a very plain book placed on the stall.

    Although it was quite thin, the old-looking blue book, with ''Ancient stories'' written on it''s cover seemingly interested Beatrice.

    "Only looking, no touching," said the young man, suddenly opening his eyes.

    Hearing that, Beatrice slowly began examining the book with her eyes, taking a good look at it, as well as the price written under it.

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    As she let out a silent sigh, Beatrice suddenly began looking through her robe, as she then took out twenty-five small stones and placed them on the table.

    Seeing the elemental stones, the eyes of the young man lit up, prompting him to suddenly snap his fingers.

    Suddenly three different thin chains materialized on the book, restraining it to the table, before suddenly breaking a moment later.

    At this moment, Beatrice stretched out her hand, picked up the book, and then walked away, leaving the young man alone with his elemental stones.

    ...

    Later that day,

    After selling another book sometime later, the young man did not manage to sell anything else, as such, after a few hours, he closed up his stall for the day and began walking away.

    A few minutes later, the young man reached the entrance to a small house, before entering it without any hesitation.

    The first thing that greeted the young man the moment he entered the house was a gruesome scene, an old man searching through the dead body of a middle-aged man, trying to find something.

    Right now, the middle-aged man had a small hole, only a few inches in diameter right in the middle of his forehead.

    After a few moments, it seemed as though the old man had finally found what he was searching for, as he swiftly took out a small bag from the robe of the middle aged man.

    As he did this, the old man raised his eyes, staring at the visitor for a moment before turning his gaze back to the middle-aged man, as he continued searching wanting to see if he had anything else on him.

    "We sold two items today, why is there only one of the targets here?" asked the young man as he fully walked inside of the house.

    "Don''t be too greedy, that first target was really quite troublesome, it didn''t even take her a minute to find out what was wrong with that book of yours, as well as remove it, I thought I had already told you, to survive for as long as me, you need to be extremely cowardly, so don''t even think about having me go after her," said the old man as he took another bag from the body.

    Hearing that, a small frown appeared on the face of the young man.

    "Fine," mumbled the young man as he began walking to his room.

    ...

    Unaware of the scene that was happening inside of that small house, right now, Beatrice was walking inside of a certain large building.

    As she walked into the inn, Beatrice ignored the tense scene that was happening on the first floor as she walked up to the second floor, before quickly going to the room she rented.

    The moment Beatrice walked into the room, she suddenly took out two books hidden inside of her robe, waving her hands as three other books flew over to her from one of the drawers in the room.

    ''Although I didn''t manage to find what I was searching for, this trip served as a nice vacation,'' thought Beatrice as she stared at the books in front of her.

    As Beatrice already had more than enough spells from her teacher, except for one, all of the books she purchased were in fact, books regarding ancient history.

    A moment later, the top book from the book stack in front of her suddenly flew towards Beatrice, landing in her hands.

    Opening the book, Beatrice quickly sunk into it, reading it at a rapid pace, imprinting it into her mind.

    Although Beatrice usually read books quite slowly, that was only true to books regarding complicated theory, with her memory, Beatrice was able to sweep through books at an extremely rapid speed.

    In only thirty minutes, Beatrice had already fully read and memorized the first book, imprinting all of the events recorded in it into her mind, allowing her to move on to the second book.

    At this moment, Elias walked into the room, placed a cup of tea on the table, before leaving, not daring to disturb Beatrice.

 69 : Sale

    In just a few hours, Beatrice had managed to fully read all of the ancient books she had bought, memorizing all of them.

    After that, Beatrice slowly fell into thought, remembering the contents of the books, and thinking about conflicting information, after all, although Beatrice was sure these books were very old, she did not truly know if they were right.

    The best thing Beatrice could do was make sure to see if anything inside of the book conflicted with anything she knew was true.

    As such, Beatrice sat crosslegged nearly all night, thinking about the books she had read, at the same time, a certain weird thought appeared in her mind.

    ''Water Element mages are weak in the early stage,'' thought Beatrice, before suddenly moving her thoughts back to the books.

    ...

    The next morning.

    Although Beatrice had not slept much at all, the first thing she did in the morning was get out of the house alongside Elias and begin searching for a suitable pace to set up a stall.

    Right now, Beatrice wanted to sell the possessions of the several mages she had killed under the orders of her teacher, mainly the spellbooks, as Beatrice still had some use for most of the other items.

    Suddenly, Beatrice''s eyes, lit up as she looked at a certain empty spot, right in front of an intersection of the town.

    ''A good location,'' thought Beatrice as she quickly walked up to the empty spot and began watching Elias set up her stall.

    Unlike normal humans, Elias quickly set up Beatrice''s stall, as under Beatrice''s guidance, Elias had already become a mage apprentice, although a very weak one for now.

    But even though Elias was still a very inexperienced mage, Beatrice still felt a huge diference in the difficulty of controlling him.

    The moment Elias had become a Mage Apprentice, for no apparent reason, it had become several times more difficult to control him.

    Thankfully though, right now, Beatrice''s spiritual power was completely exaggerated compared to a normal mage of the same rank, allowing her to still fully control him with relative ease.

    In only a few minutes, a small stall had already been created, allowing Beatrice to place five books behind the counter.

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    These were, in fact, spellbooks for the Water, Earth, Wind, Fire, and Ice elements.

    As she placed the books on the stall, a little bit of pain couldn''t help but flash in Beatrice''s eyes, as she knew that she wouldn''t really get a great deal on these spellbooks.

    But of course, Beatrice could do nothing, as the books were completely useless to her, as she could only cast spells of the dark element.

    Although Beatrice, in these past three months, had tried reading the spellbooks, so as to maybe help her understand her own spells grow, but sadly, it seemed as though mana from different elements worked in completely different ways, not giving Beatrice any inspiration.

    After a few moments of thought, Beatrice quickly wrote the number 379 under all of the books before sitting on the chair behind the stall and closing her eyes.

    One day later,

    An entire day had already passed before Beatrice had sold anything, but rather thankfully, this waiting did not truly disturb Beatrice''s magic practice, as with her experience, she could easily refine mana even as her senses were exposed to the outside world.

    At this very moment, Beatrice was looking at her spellbook, staring at the dark bolt spell circle trying to analyze it, something which she did nearly every day, as she had already mastered most of the Rank 0 Dark Spells which were useful to her.

    As she did this, occasionally, a small dark bolt would pop up in Beatrice''s hand, before collapsing only a moment later most of the time.

    Suddenly, Beatrice raised her eyes, looking at the middle-aged man who had approached her stall and was staring at a certain spellbook.

    "What spells does the Fire Element Spellbook have inside of it?" asked the middle-aged man, prompting Beatrice to open her mouth.

    "It has most of the basic spells, Fire Barrier, Spark, Fireball, Fire Healing..." as Beatrice talked for around a minute, occasionally giving the middle-aged man a partial look at some of the spell circles, a frown couldn''t help but appear on the face of the middle-aged man.

    "I''ll take it," said the middle-aged man, gritting his teeth as he took out a small bag from inside of his robe, before placing 379 elemental stones in front of Beatrice only a few moments later.

    Seeing this, Beatrice then handed the spellbook to the middle-aged man as she placed the elemental stones inside a bag of her own with a slightly satisfied expression on her face, of course, because of the mask on her face, this was not visible to the middle-aged man.

    Although her teacher was relatively generous, giving Beatrice one thousand elemental stones when she said she wanted to go out, Beatrice still felt like it was quite good to obtain elemental stones from something essentially useless.

    Unlike the first day, which had no buyers for her stall, it seemed as though Beatrice was quite lucky today, as only two hours after the first sale, another mage bought one of the spellbooks.

    As she watched the old man walk away with the Earth Element Spellbook in his hands, Beatrice couldn''t help but smile, watching the sun slowly but surely set.

    "Let''s go, we need to pack up," said Beatrice as she turned to Elias, causing the latter to suddenly begin walking towards him, when suddenly, another figure approached the stall, causing Beatrice to suddenly stop.

    "Can you let me verify the contents of the Water Element Spellbook?" asked the middle-aged man as he looked at Beatrice.

    "Alright," said Beatrice she picked up the spellbook and showed him some incomplete spell circles from inside.

    And after only a few more minutes, now with one less Spellbook and even more elemental stones in hand, Beatrice had finally finished her last deal of the day, staring at the departing back of the middle aged man.

 70 : Group

    After the middle-aged man bought the spellbook from Beatrice, he then began walking away, quickly moving all throughout the town, before casting some sort of spell, making sure that nobody was following him.

    The moment the middle aged man made sure nobody was following him, he walked into a secluded restaurant before ordering something, he then turned to the book in his hands, examining it for a few moments, searching for any sort of curses or other methods that could be used to track him

    After making sure that no sort of tracing spell was placed on the book, the middle-aged man placed it back into his robe, before continuing to eat his meal.

    Knowing that nobody was following him, the middle-aged man, who seemed slightly paranoid, ate for a bit before disappearing from the restaurant without a trace.

    ...

    A few minutes later, inside of a completely unremarkable house,

    Three teens littered a certain room, each of them silently waiting for something to happen, standing still and not making a sound for some reason.

    Suddenly, one of the teens, a young-looking boy, suddenly opened his mouth.

    "It''s getting kinda late, do you guys think something happen to her?" asked the young boy, Shane, as he looked at his two friends, a boy and a girl.

    Hearing Shane''s words a frown appeared on the forehead of the boy.

    "Don''t say that, you know how cautious Catherine is, if anyone could survive something, it would be her," said Oliver, the other boy in the group as he looked at Shane, feeling quite unsatisfied with the latter''s mentality.

    "I didn''t mean it that way I wa-"

    Before Oliver could finish his sentence, a middle-aged man suddenly appeared, opening the door of the house before walking in.

    The moment the group saw the middle-aged man, their eyes suddenly lit up.

    "Catherine, it''s good that you''re okay, I don''t know how long I could have stayed together with these two without going insane," said Madeline as she lept towards the middle-aged man.

    Hearing that, some disdain couldn''t help but appear on the face of the middle-aged man.

    "Don''t try to cozy up with me, I spent almost the entirety of my savings for this," said the middle-aged man, his rough voice creating a sharp contrast with the youthful energy being given off by the rest of the group.

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    "Fine fine, don''t worry, I will pay you back when I get some more elemental stones," said Madeline as she quickly approached the middle-aged man, who then took out the Water Element Spellbook from his robes.

    "Here you go, that''s going to be 379 elemental stones you will have to pay me in the future," said the middle-aged as Madeline picked up the spellbook before opening and beginning to read it not long after.

    "You already said that once, you don''t have to repeat it, I already know better than trying to borrow something from you without paying you back," said Madeline as she looked at the middle-aged man with some resentment in her eyes.

    "Well I gave you a very generous interest rate, you know, no bank wi-"

    "Catherine, I think Madeline has understood your point, don''t worry, If she doesn''t pay you back, we''ll be the first ones to catch her and make her pay you up, " said Shane, looking at the middle-aged man who at the moment, was transforming

    Suddenly, the body of the middle-aged began becoming smaller, and only a few moments later, the middle-aged man had returned to her true form.

    "Don''t worry Shane, as long as Madeline pa-ys back her debts to me, I won''t bother her in the slightest," said Catherine, coughing as she adjusted to her original voice.

    Hearing that, Shane couldn''t help but turn his head towards Madeline, who right now, was reading the spellbook Catherine had just bought, reading it.

    "I think we need to help Madeline pay Catherine back, otherwise Catherine might wring her dry," whispered Shane as he turned his head towards Oliver.

    "I can pitch in one hundred and fifty elemental stones, just make sure Madeline isn''t crushed by interest," whispered Oliver, in a tone almost completely unhearable more than a few dozen centimeters away from his mouth.

    "Good, I will also put up one hundred and fifty elemental stones, we just need to come up with the remaining seventy," whispered Shane, as he and Oliver began speaking to each other.

    Seeing that two of her three companions were immersed in a discussion, Catherine turned her attention towards the third, Madeline, who was sitting on the floor, being completely immersed in the spellbook, showing no signs of doing anything else, unlike her usual self.

    ''This is quite nice,'' thought Catherine, a rare smile appearing on her face as she stared at the scene in front of her.

    "You should learn at least some self-protection spells first, that place could be somewhat dangerous," said Catherine as she looked at Madeline, showing some concern in her tone.

    "I understand," said Madeline with a serious look on her face, unlike her usual relaxed nature.

    "Good, you just need to protect yourself," said Catherine as she began walking towards her room.

    Looking at the departing figure in front of her, Madeline couldn''t help but look toward the ground.

    "Thank you for all the help, otherwise right now I would probably be still desperately searching for spells to practice," said Madeline, in a practically unhearable voice, so quiet that not even Shane and Oliver, who were nearby could hear.

    The moment Madeline spoke, the corner of Catherine''s mouth slightly rose, forming a smile.

    ...

    Several hours later,

    At this moment of the night, when her three other teammates were already asleep, Catherine laid in bed, staring at the ceiling, which had a square pattern imprinted into it.

    "Everything''s going to be alright," mumbled Catherine as she stared at the ceiling, slightly stretching out her left hand towards it.

    After a few moments, Catherine then slowly lowered her hands back down, as her eyes eventually closed, having completely fallen asleep.

 71 : Power

    Early in the morning the next day.

    As the sun slowly rose over the horizon, Catherine suddenly woke up.

    Even after opening her eyes, Catherine still stayed in her bed for a few minutes, merely staring at the ceiling above her.

    Suddenly, Catherine''s ears slightly moved, as a faint sound was heard from behind the door to her room.

    ''Shane woke up,'' thought Catherine as she got up from her bed and began dressing up before walking out of her room.

    "Good morning," said Catherine as she looked around the room, noticing that Oliver was also walking out of his room.

    "Good morning Catherine, have you rested well?" asked Shane, who right now was eating breakfast.

    "Yea, it was alright," mumbled Catherine as she then walked into the bathroom, emerging out of it a few moments later with a bucket full of water in her hands.

    Without saying anything, Catherine slightly knocked on the door of Madeline''s room, and upon not getting any reply, opened the door and walked in.

    "Wake up, we need to go soon," said Catherine, looking at Madeline, who was sleeping with her new spellbook right next to her head.

    "Just five more minutes," unconsciously mumbled Madeline, who was still sleeping right now.

    Hearing that, Catherine then walked up to Madeline.

    "Seriously, wake up," said Catherine as she touched her friend''s shoulder, trying to wake her up.

    "Just five more minutes," mumbled Madeline as she suddenly changed her sleeping position, escaping Catherine''s grasp.

    Seeing this, Catherine let out a sigh, picking up the spellbook that was right next to Madeline''s head and placing it on a table.

    A few moments later, Madeline suddenly opened her, as over ten liters of cold water were suddenly poured onto her.

    Only a few moments later, Madeline had already gotten up from her bed, being ready to fight whoever had woken her up, but sadly, by now, Catherine had long exited the room.

    Five minutes later,

    "Was that really necessary?" asked Madeline as she walked out of the bathroom, looking at Catherine, who was eating breakfast at the table.

    "It was," said blankly said Catherine before continuing to eat her food.

    This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

    Hearing the latter''s words, Madeline let out a defeated sigh as she then sat down at the table, knowing that trying to argue with Catherine was a completely lost cause.

    Ten minutes later, after everyone except Madeline had finished eating.

    "We can set off today and probably reach that place tomorrow," said Shane as he looked at the rest of the group with a serious expression on his face.

    Hearing Shane''s words, everyone, even Madeline, suddenly became serious.

    "That would be good, we''ve already made as many preparations as possible in this place, now that we''ve managed to buy Madeline a spellbook, staying here any longer would only increase our risk," said Catherine as she looked at Shane.

    "I agree," said Oliver.

    "I don''t have any opinion on this," said Madeline, knowing for sure that planning was not her forte.

    "Then it''s decided, we''ll set off in thirty minutes, let''s pack up our bags," said Shane before getting up from the table.

    Soon after, the rest of the group also got up, walking into their rooms and preparing for the journey ahead.

    ...

    Thirty minutes later,

    At eight in the morning, on a sunny day, four hooded figures discretely walked out of the mage gathering, not being noticed by anyone as they began traveling west.

    ...

    "Say, do you think this place really hasn''t been discovered by anyone, after all, it''s so close to civilization," asked Madeline, whispering to Catherine.

    "Well, it was discovered by someone, but that person didn''t manage to explore it, other than this, I really can''t be sure about anything else, after all, I''m not omniscient," said Catherine as she looked at Madeline, causing the latter to fall into though.

    "That''s true, hopefully, we don''t encounter anyone," mumbled Madeline as she turned her attention to the road ahead.

    "Yea, hopefully, we don''t," mumbled Catherine as her finger unconsciously moved in a certain direction.

    A moment later, a large earth spike instantly rose through the ground inside of a bush, causing a hooded figure to suddenly dodge it.

    But by this time, before the figure could once again dodge, a sharp wind blade suddenly flew through the air, toward the figure, causing it to suddenly stagger.

    This amount of time was all Oliver needed, as the earth below the feet of the figure suddenly rose, up, catching his legs and keeping him in place.

    Before the figure could even try to break free, Shane suddenly appeared before it, as his fist, now coated in fire, suddenly rained upon the figure.

    A moment later, Shane retreated, leaving only the figure, which was not coated by fire.

    Unlike normal fire, which is usually useless against mages, the flames which Shane had created did not seem to want to go out, as they burned through the barrier of the hooded figure.

    Only a few moments later, another wind blade suddenly struck into the weakened barrier of the figure once again, but this time, unlike before, the wind blade cut through the barrier like butter, cutting the figure in two.

    Seeing this scene, Shane breathed a sigh of relief, as he then dispelled the flames, stopping them from burning up the body of the hooded figure, as well as whatever belongings he may have had on him.

    "As expected, we were followed, thanks Cath, if not for your help, at least one of us would have probably died fighting this guy," mumbled Shane as he quickly approached the dead body of the hooded figure and began searching for anything valuable.

    "You know you don''t have to thank me, I just did what I needed to do," said Catherine as she once again became alert and began searching her surroundings, using the wind, trying to see if anyone else was following them.

    Looking at the scene in front of her, Madeline couldn''t help but slightly shake as she gritted her teeth.

    Right now, it was not a fear of battle, or a fear of death that Madeline was feeling, rather, anger.

    ''Why am I so useless?'' thought Madeline as she slightly raised the spellbook she was holding in her arms, staring at it for a few moments.

 72 : Tricks

    As she was staring at the scene in front of her Madeline couldn''t help but suddenly clench her teeth in pain, as she then turned her attention to her fingers.

    Staring at her nail, which had been broken by gripping the spellbook to hard, Madeline couldn''t help but silently curse.

    ''At least the entirety of the nail didn''t fall off,'' thought Madeline, when suddenly she heard a voice call her.

    "Madeline, we need to go," said Shane as he and the rest of the group began walking on their way, looking at Madeline, who seemed rather distracted at the moment.

    Hearing this, Madeline quickly began running, catching up with the rest of the group.

    ...

    Two days later,

    At this moment, the group of four teens was standing around a campfire, all of them staring at Shane, who was reading a map at this moment.

    "Are you sure this is the right place?" asked Madeline as she looked at Shane.

    "Yea, I''m completely sure, I mean all of you have seen the map, after all since it''s a treasure, It''s alright that it''s buried underground, isn''t it?" asked Shane as he looked towards Oliver, who let out a sigh.

    Without any hesitation, Oliver got up from the ground, being quickly followed by Shane.

    "It should be this place," said Shane as he walked over to an exact spot in the grass.

    Seeing this Oliver closed his eyes for a few moments, and then, a few moments after that, the earth began moving.

    "Looks like I found something, but I think I need your help opening that, Catherine," mumbled Oliver as sweat filled his forehead.

    And then, only a moment later, a large amount of dirt then began flying out of the ground and onto the side, creating a hole large enough for a human to walk through.

    In only a moment, Oliver had managed to dig a hole which would have taken several workers at least a few days of hard work.

    Hearing this, Catherine quickly got up, before walking next to the hole and staring inside of it at the thick metal door clearly visible.

    Suddenly, Catherine jumped into the hole, touching the large metal lock on the door for a few moments before turning her head back towards Oliver speechlessly.

    "It looks like the enchantment on the lock wore off," said Catherine as a relatively loud sound suddenly emerged from the lock in her hand as it easily opened, not causing any sound in the slightest.

    Seeing this, Oliver couldn''t help but scratch the back of his head, when suddenly, Catherine walked into the door, causing him to nearly fall down into the hole himself.

    "Shouldn''t you check for any traps?" asked Oliver as he suddenly jumped into the hole himself.

    The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

    "Since even the enchantment on the lock has been destroyed, what sort of traps are you expecting?" asked Catherine as she walked into the underground metal compound.

    Hearing this, a few moments later, Oliver, Shane, and Madeline quickly jumped into the hole as well, following behind Catherine, who had walked through the door.

    The moment Shane walked through the door as well, a small flame suddenly appeared in his left hand, lighting up the entirety of the room the group was in.

    At this moment, Madeline was about to close the door to the room, but before she could do that, Shane spoke.

    "Don''t close the door, leave some way for air to enter this place," said Shane, causing a small frown to appear on Oliver''s face.

    As soon as the flame appeared, Catherine suddenly turned her head sideways, staring at a skeleton that was laying on the ground in a corner of the room, as well as a small metal cube sitting next to it.

    Without any hesitation, Catherine walked up to the skeleton, then picked up the metal cube sitting next to it.

    At the same time, Shane walked up to another door, looking at the text written above it.

    "It looks like this place has a laboratory inside of it," said Shane as he ripped of some of the moss covering the text above the door, revealing the word ''Lab''.

    "Be alert when entering labs like this, although all the enchantments and spells have already been destroyed by time, you might never know what might be alive in the shadows in labs like this," said Catherine as she walked up to Shane, staring at him as he opened the door.

    A wall of wind suddenly appeared behind Oliver, as a small black bolt flew towards the latter''s head.

    Only a few moments later, three other small bolts flew toward Catherine, Shane, and Madeline respectively.

    But it seemed as though this small amount of time was all that Oliver needed, as a large wall of earth suddenly rose behind the group, blocking the attack.

    Suddenly, Madeline opened the door to the lab as she turned her head towards Oliver.

    Seeing this, without any hesitation, Oliver increased the size of the earth wall, making it surround nearly the entirety of the group, leaving only a small hole near Shane''s hand.

    Before the attacker could react, a tiny spark appeared next to Shane''s hand.

    Boom

    Before the attacker could react, a huge explosion then shattered the walls of the underground abode, as well as his body and the earth wall that protected the group.

    Thankfully though, at the very last moment, a wind wall suddenly surrounded them, protecting them from the explosion.

    Only a moment later, Catherine took action, leaping in a certain direction, towards a broken body, still being wary that the attacker might have had something else up his sleeve.

    Thankfully though, under the huge explosion, the body of the attacker had been completely smashed to small pieces.

    "Hmm, that''s very impressive," mumbled a soft female voice from behind Shane.

    At this moment, the entirety of the group had completely lost the ability to move their bodies, as if something was controlling them.

    "Tricking him into thinking that the door was the only source of air here, making him think that closing it would disable the little girl''s Wind Detection, making him confident in attacking you," said the voice, as a smooth hand gently touched Shane''s cheek.

    "After that, you secretly created a small hole to the outside world using your earth magic, tiny and nearly invisible towards ordinary mages, but extremely useful for Wind Mages," said the voice, as it''s hand slightly patted Oliver on the head.

    "But I''m most impressed with you," said the voice as a pair of hands suddenly embraced Madeline from behind.

    At this moment, other than the voice of the figure, a complete silence ensued in the small metal room.

    "You took a risk, gambling on whether the lab contained a lot of biological material in the past, and whether the material had already decayed into Methane," said the figure as a smile appeared on her face.

    "But it looks like your gamble paid off, and your friend''s little flame completely set off the Methane, destroying your opponent," said the figure as it suddenly disappeared from behind Madeline, appearing behind Catherine.

    At this moment, the metal cube in Catherine''s hand suddenly disappeared.

    "You impressed me very much little guys, hopefully we meet again," said Beatrice before vanishing into thin air, alongside all of the group''s elemental stones.

 73 : Cube

    The moment the mysterious woman disappeared, silence ensued among the group, as none spoke even a single word.

    A few moments later, Catherine suddenly began moving, using her hands to suddenly search through her robes before frowning and turning to face the rest of her group.

    "We need to go right now, this place is probably not safe anymore," said Catherine as she slowly moved her body, feeling fewer and fewer restraints on her movement.

    Seeing this, the rest of the group suddenly broke out of their trance, as suddenly regained control of their body once again.

    "Yea, let''s go, we can talk about this after we get somewhere safer," said Shane as he quickly jumped out of the hole, being followed by the rest of the group.

    ...

    Sometime later,

    Looking at the burning campfire in front of him, Oliver couldn''t help but slightly raise his head, staring at the rest of the group.

    "Are all of your elemental stones gone as well?" asked Oliver as he looked at his three companions, who right now were sitting silently around a campfire.

    "Yea," mumbled Shane as he slightly raised he got up and walked next to Madeline.

    "It''s alright, we aren''t in any danger right now," said Shane as he looked at Madeline, who was shaking at the moment.

    Hearing Shane''s words, Madeline suddenly raised her head, staring into his blue eyes for a moment.

    "You don''t have to worry, I''m not as fragile as you think," said Madeline as she slightly relaxed her fist.

    But even though Shane heard Madeline''s words, he did not speak, as for some reason, some sweat appeared on the back of his head.

    Although Shane was not the best at distinguishing emotions, as he looked at Madeline right now, he could feel it without any difficulty, the anger that was flowing through her right at this moment.

    Seeing this scene, Catherine couldn''t help but try to cheer the group up.

    "You have to view things in a positive light, after all, we at least got some combat experience out of this, things could have gone much much worse," said Catherine as she looked at the rest of the group, as Shane, who was about to speak shut his mouth up,

    At this moment, for some reason, Catherine felt like her words of encouragement seemed to have had the opposite effect of what she intended.

    You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

    ...

    "Hmm, looks like those kids weren''t as impoverished as I expected," mumbled Beatrice as she quickly counted the elemental stones she had acquired from them.

    Immediately after counting them, Beatrice took the 216 elemental stones and put them in a small bag before taking out three small metal cubes.

    One of the cubes came from Catherine, while the other came from the same room Catherine and the others were residing in, hidden in a certain corner, guarded by another formerly magical lock.

    As for the third cube, this one came from inside of the lab, being the only thing Beatrice could retrieve from there, with everything else inside being completely dead or decayed.

    "Injecting mana into it will probably work," mumbled Beatrice as she picked up the first cube, the color of the barrier protecting her body becoming slightly brighter as she did so.

    Then, a moment later, Beatrice injected her mana into the small cube, causing a small figure to suddenly appear above the cube.

    "If someone other than me is seeing this, then it means I have already followed in my Master''s footsteps and died," said the figure as it stared in front of itself.

    "I don''t have any requirements for you, being who is seeing this, but if you found my corpse, I would like to ask you to bury it, as there is nothing valuable present on it."

    ''It''s quite a pity that your body was destroyed in the explosion after surviving all these years,'' thought Beatrice as she watched the small figure once again begin speaking.

    "If you came here in search of a way to become a Warlock the rune my teacher used is present in the left wall of the room, but I don''t think it will be of much use to you."

    "After all, trying to become a Warlock in the Mage world is an extremely foolish idea, especially after what those damn Mages did," said the figure as it gritted its teeth.

    "But if you want to continue on this path, you can find my experimental notes in the lab," said the figure before suddenly disappearing.

    "Is this the end?" mumbled Beatrice as she once again sent mana into the small cube, being greeted by the same figure repeating the same words over and over again.

    A few moments later, Beatrice diactivated the first cube before turning her attention to the second one.

    The moment Beatrice sent her mana into the cube, an image of a rune suddenly appeared before her, alongside some text.

    ''The rune suitable for the assimilation of the Golden Lyon Beast''

    At this moment, no other words were present in front, causing her to slightly frown before injecting some more mana into the cube.

    A moment later, the image in front of Beatrice shifted, revealing another rune and another sentence.

    ''The rune suitable for the assimilation of Flying Wolf''

    ''The rune suitable for the assimilation of Wood Elves''

    As Beatrice injected her mana into the cube, the scene before her continued shifting, but after a few moments of searching through her memories, Beatrice couldn''t help but remember the words of the figure.

    ''After all, trying to become a Warlock in the Mage world is an extremely foolish idea, especially after what those damn Mages did.''

    The more Beatrice searched for the beasts described below the rune, the more she reached an awkward circumstance.

    All of the beasts and creatures described by the cube were gone, hunted to extinction by past mages.

    Everything that was listed by the cube as being able to be assimilated, from the weakest bug to the strongest Dragon, was completely gone from this world.

    At the same time, Beatrice also read about some species she had no idea even existed, for example, these so-called ''Elves''

    Right at this moment, Beatrice realized why she hadn''t actually heard of any Warlocks actually existing at the moment.

 74 : Ant

    Soon after that, Beatrice turned her attention from the second to the third cube, which she had obtained from the lab.

    The moment Beatrice sent her mana into the cube, it suddenly transformed into a page of a book, with over a hundred or so sentences written on it.

    ''Elf Creation Experiment, Failure''

    ''Half-Elf Creation Experiment, Partial-Succes''

    ''Wyvern creation experiment, Failure''

    ''Ant ativism project, Partial-Succes''

    ...

    ''Dragon Egg Incubation, Failure''

    The names of over a hundred experiments were displayed for Beatrice to see at the moment, with the vast majority of them being complete failures, with only three that were partially successful.

    Suddenly, Beatrice instinctually stretched out her finger, touching the words ''Half-Elf Creation Experiment''

    The moment Beatrice did so, the words before her suddenly disappeared, being replaced by a single sentence.

    ''Insert more Mana''

    Seeing this, Beatrice quickly sent more mana into the small cube, causing the image to suddenly shift.

    "This is really convenient, I wonder how this was created," mumbled Beatrice as she stared at the text, as well as the pictures that recorded the experiment.

    After examing the cube for a few more moments, Beatrice then turned her attention to the experiment itself, as something caught her eyes.

    ''7 August 177.992''

    ''Whilst the creation of Half-Elves seems to have succeeded, these Elves are completely inferior to natural Half-Elves, at the same time, they possess nearly no magical capabilities.''

    ''At the same time, they display various mutations, it seems using half a finger of an Elf is not enough,''

    ''If the creation of True Half-Elves is to be attempted, a complete Elf corpse may be required.''

    ''Three experimental subjects have attempted bloodline assimilation, but it seems as though the Half-Elf Rune has no effect on these new Half-Elves, as such, all of them failed.''

    ''Lifespan extremely reduced, even from Half Elf Livespan, only 250 years,''

    ''Project Temporarily Abandoned''

    This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

    After this, a dozen or so images of various humanoid bodies were displayed, each having some various diference to normal humans, some of them had three arms, some had five legs, and others two heads.

    The only thing that the humanoid beings had in common was their ears, which were extraordinarily long, as well as their beauty, which seemed on average, much higher than that of normal humans.

    After reading the overview, Beatrice couldn''t stop reading, as she continued to read through the experimental data.

    Average Intelligence, muscle strength, average speed, elemental energy sensing speed, all of this data couldn''t help but enter Beatrice.

    At the same time, Beatrice also read about the process used in the creation of these so-called ''Half Elves'' but sadly, Beatrice could definitely not replicate it, as she lacked any sort of elf biological material.

    ...

    Early in the morning,

    As the sun shone through her window, Beatrice, who was still reading the contents of the experiment with bloodshot eyes, fell into thought for a few moments.

    ''It looks like I need to go back, I can''t really study in peace in this place,'' thought Beatrice as she watched Elias bring her another cup of tea, and placing next to Beatrice''s bed.

    "Go prepare all of my stuff and come here once you do, we''re going back," said Beatrice as she turned her attention back to the experiment,

    "Yes mistress," said Elias before walking out of the room, leaving Beatrice alone.

    ...

    Around one hour later, two figures could be seen walking out of the small town and into the wilderness.

    As he stared at the two figures that were approaching him, Steven suddenly became completely silent, as well as completely invisible to the naked eye.

    Suddenly, one of the two figures, a female, suddenly raised her eyes from what she was focusing on and stared straight at Steven, smiling at him.

    The moment that happened, Steven, who was completely still a moment ago, suddenly flew in the other direction, not wasting even a moment.

    Throughout the magic continent, it was very rare to encounter dumb or daring robbers, as after robbing mages for a few months, you either grew a brain or died.

    Because of this, nearly nine-nine percent of all robbers only went after weak targets, not even daring to look in the direction of strong mages, fearing that the latter would just take them out on a whim.

    Of course, Steven was a perfect example of one such robber, going after the weak and fearing the strong.

    ...

    After scaring off the mage that had wanted to go after them, Beatrice again turned her attention to the experiment she was reading about.

    Around thirty minutes ago, Beatrice had finished reading about the Half-Elf Experiment, as such, she turned her attention to another of the Partially-Succesful ones, the Ant Ativism Project.

    ''Why does this even work?'' thought Beatrice as she thought about the project feeling extremely weird.

    ...

    Two weeks later,

    Hundreds of ant eggs lay on a tiny metal disc, with a large ant sitting next to the eggs.

    Suddenly, a distressed look appeared on the face of the little ant, as the hundreds of eggs suddenly flew mid-air.

    Each one of the eggs looked nearly exactly the same as the ones next to it, well, all except for one, which was then separated from the group, flying towards Beatrice, who was not far away.

    "Who would have expected this would actually work," mumbled Beatrice as she stared at the tiny ant egg in front of her.

    Completely disregarding the normal biological process, the Strotegan and the Sharraphan species of ants actually managed to breed with each other.

    And even more unbelievably, what was born was not a new species of ants, but rather the now-extinct Docepinae ant.

    This went completely against everything that Beatrice thought possible.

    As Beatrice stared at the little ant egg before her, as well as the chart containing over a hundred or so species of ants, Beatrice slightly trembled.

    "This might actually work," mumbled Beatrice as a weird light entered her eyes.

    At this moment, Beatrice knew what she needed to do.

    She would become an Ant-Breeder.

 75 : Ants are neat

    As Selena walked through the halls of her underground abode, she suddenly turned to look in a particular direction, as she suddenly sensed some vibration.

    "She punched a wall?" mumbled Selena as she began walking to her disciple''s little laboratory with an interested look on her face.

    For some time, Selena had been busy, and as such, could not pay much attention to what her disciple was doing.

    A few moments later, Selena opened a certain door, revealing Beatrice who at the moment was sitting on a chair, staring at a small piece of metal.

    Surrounding Beatrice was ninety-six different small and enclosures, with over seventy of them having ants inside of them.

    Seeing this, Selena took a glance at a nearby wall, which had a fist mark imprinted into it, and walked next to her disciple.

    At this moment, Beatrice was staring at a clearly dead ant queen lying on a metal plate, her eyes completely bloodshot as she stared at the tiny bug.

    As Selena looked at the small ant queen lying dead on the piece of metal, a small amount of surprise appeared on her face, causing her to take a closer look at it.

    "That''s an ant of the Burvopus Ant species, right? It looks like too many fluctuations in temperature caused it''s death," said Selena as she searched through her memory.

    Although Selena did not do much research on ants, her memory could not be compared to a normal human, as such, she eventually remembered a certain book about ants that she had read.

    "Even though this ant species likes the cold, this one looks like it froze to death, but sadly, this is not very rare, this species is extremely fragile in regards to temperature, requiring it to stay at around - to -8 degrees, otherwise it will not survive for long," said Selena as she turned her attention to the number of ant colonies scattered across the lab.

    Right now, Selena was somewhat curious as to how her disciple had obtained some of the ant species present, but compared to that curiosity, Selena was still very much focused on her work.

    "Since you are so curious about ants, you can go to the library and check out books 34 to 41 on the 7th row of the library, make sure to not damage those books, they are very expensive," said Selena before disappearing, leaving no time for Beatrice to say anything.

    This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

    At the same time, a small key suddenly appeared in Beatrice''s hand.

    ...

    A few minutes later,

    Staring at the door in front of her, Beatrice took out a small key from the insides of her robe, before inserting it into the magically modified look.

    The moment the key entered the lock, the door, which was formerly closed shut opened, revealing a large room filled with books.

    Staring at the eleven large rows of bookshelves, Beatrice''s eyes couldn''t help but slightly light up, as she quickly walked into the room after taking the key out of the lock.

    The moment Beatrice entered the room, she walked up to the first row of bookshelves she could see, one with the number [1] written on its sides.

    But the moment Beatrice stretched out her fingers to touch the bookshelf, she then retracted them.

    The moment her finger grazed the first bookshelf, Beatrice''s dark barrier suddenly began melting at an extremely exaggerated speed, unlike anything she had seen before.

    "As expected, she wouldn''t let me walk through here all alone without leaving anything to restrain me," mumbled Beatrice as a slight chill appeared in her heart.

    In the one moment that Beatrice touched the bookshelf, her dark barrier had melted halfway through.

    After this small scene, Beatrice no longer dared to loiter around the library and quickly walked to the seventh row of bookshelves.

    Only a moment of searching later, although Beatrice was not sure how her teacher counted the books, she was pretty sure she had found what she had needed.

    "Hopefully things go fine," mumbled Beatrice as she stretched out her finger towards the book titled ''Ants Volume 1''.

    Thankfully, as Beatrice expected, nothing had happened after she touched the book about ants, allowing her to pick it up and take it away.

    In only a few moments, Beatrice had taken the other six books with similar titles and fled the library, no longer daring to stay in this place.

    ...

    Later that day, staring at the tiny Burvopus ant egg which was sitting in a large container, Beatrice took in a deep breath before beginning to focus her mana.

    A moment later, the egg, which still had at least one or two weeks until it would hatch suddenly began changing at a rapid speed.

    After only a few moments, a small crack appeared in the egg, and then a small ant crawled outside.

    "I wonder how this actually works," mumbled Beatrice as she looked at the spell circle that was visible in the ''Ants, Volume 1''.

    Contrary to her expectations, this book not only contained a lot of information about ants but also contained two whole spells.

    The Ant Growth and Ant control spells more specifically.

    But after thinking about that for a few moments, Beatrice couldn''t help but turn her attention back to the little ant which was sitting in a specially chilled container.

    Unlike her previous Burvopus ant, which quickly became sick and died after being born, this little ant was extremely energetic.

    "If I use the Ant Growth Spell every day, it will only take around a week for her to fully grow up," mumbled Beatrice as she turned her attention to the little ant pyramid she had built.

    When the Burvopus Ant grew up, Beatrice would have to breed it with the Docepinae Ant Queen so as to hopefully give birth to some Wrozevian Ants..

    Only after doing that twice more, so as to obtain the Onone and Nunnileon ant species would Beatrice finally be close to reaching her actual goal.

    Obtaining a long-gone Supernatural Ant Species, the Earth Ants.

 76 : Humans arent neat

    As Beatrice flipped through ''Ants, Volume 3'' her eyes couldn''t help but slightly narrow, causing her to fall into thought.

    "Elias!" said Beatrice in a slightly loud tone, prompting the door to open only a few seconds later.

    "What is it, mistress?" asked Elias as he slightly bowed to Beatrice.

    "You should go and ask those chefs if they have Firebound Grass or anything else with similar properties in stock," said Beatrice, causing Elias to nod before leaving the room.

    After Elias left, Beatrice turned her attention back to the book in her hands, feeling quite annoyed.

    "How come these damn ants are so troublesome to feed," mumbled Beatrice as she continued looking through the book, searching for any other ants that needed troublesome food.

    ...

    As Elias walked through a certain door, he entered a kitchen.

    Inside of the Kitchen, over a dozen chefs were mechanically making food with completely dead look in their eyes.

    "Is there any Firebound Grass, or anything else similar in stock?" asked Elias as he looked at those chefs, causing one of them to raise his head, stare at Elias and fall into thought for a few moments.

    After a few moments, the look in the eyes of the chef suddenly changed, from a completely mechanical one, to one full of life.

    "Hmm, although there isn''t any Firebound grass, there should be something that would fit her needs in there," mumbled the Chef as a female voice came out of his mouth.

    Even though after being controlled, Elias became somewhat slow, as soon as the chef spoke, he realized that something was wrong.

    But just as Elias was about to speak, he closed his mouth, only opening it after a few moments of silence.

    "Thank you, teacher," said Beatrice as she looked at the chef, who was being remotely controlled by Selena.

    Hearing Beatrice''s words, the chef nodded before turning to a drawer and opening it.

    After the chef stared at the fully empty drawer for a few moments, a small hole suddenly appeared inside of it, and a small piece of red grass flew into the drawer.

    Seeing this, the chef picked up the small grass before turning back to Beatrice, who right now was controlling Elias.

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    "This should be enough to feed an ant colony for a long time," said Selena as she looked at her disciple, who showed no embarrassment on her face as she leeched off her teacher.

    "Teacher, is this expensive? Maybe I will pay you back in the future," said Beatrice as she looked at her teacher with a seemingly thoughtful look on her face.

    Hearing the words of her disciple, Selena couldn''t help but have her lips twitch, seeing right through Beatrice''s lie.

    "Little lass, you don''t have to lie so blatantly, don''t worry, although plants like this might be expensive in the outside world, I have plenty of them, you can feed your ants however you please, don''t try to trick me," said Selena as she looked at her disciple.

    "Understood teacher," said Beatrice as she slightly bowed, picking up the clump of grass from the hands of the chef.

    After talking with her teacher for a few more minutes, Beatrice then retracted her consciousness from Elias'' body, allowing him to come back on his own.

    ...

    Staring at the lump of red grass in front of her, which was sitting on a small plate, a small frown couldn''t help but appear on Beatrice''s face.

    After a few moments, Beatrice then slightly smelled the grass, and at the same time, she felt the texture of the blades of grass.

    Smelling the scent of the grass, which was completely different from that of plants that had grown in the wild, some thoughts couldn''t help but appear in Beatrice''s mind.

    ''She even has a garden hidden in this place,'' thought Beatrice, smelling the scent of other rare plants emanating from this clump of grass.

    After a few moments, Beatrice walked up to a small glass cube, looking at the little red ant inside.

    Staring at the little ant, which was peacefully laying in box 67, a smile couldn''t help but appear on Beatrice''s face.

    A moment later, Beatrice took out a small bottle, from her robe, which had red grass sitting inside of it.

    After that, Beatrice carefully picked up a blade of grass, opened the lid on the glass box, and then put it inside, right next to the cute little ant.

    Seemingly unafraid of Beatrice''s enourmous hand, the little ant suddenly sprang into action, as it then began chewing on the blade of grass.

    Rather surprisingly, after chewing only a small part of it, a satisfied look appeared on the face of the small ant, as it then sat down next to the blade of grass, enjoying its warmth.

    Looking at the ant, which was completely obedient to her after she used the Ant control spell only once, Beatrice couldn''t help but slightly touch it''s large head, being careful so as to not hurt it''s little antenna.

    After a few moments, Beatrice then walked towards some other enclosures, also feeding ants 73, 79 85, and 94 with the same red grass.

    As Beatrice had done this, Elias arrived next to her with a small notebook in his hands.

    "Elias, don''t you think these little guys are so cute, so obedient, if only humans could be so sensible," mumbled Beatrice as she stared at the ants that were strewn about the small lab.

    Hearing Beatrice''s words for some reason, Elias felt a chill in his heart, but even so, as he heard Beatrice ask him a question, a sense of pure joy couldn''t help but quickly destroy the chill.

    "Yes mistress, it is as mistress says," said Elias as he looked at his mistress with pure worship in his eyes.

    Hearing Elias''s words, which were filled with pure worship, Beatrice slightly shook her head before letting out a sigh.

    "Add colonies 67, 73, 79, 85, and 94 to the list, check on them every day and replace the blade of grass if it''s been eaten and replace their water," said Beatrice as she returned to her normal self.

    Hearing Beatrice''s words, Elias did not say anything, merely adding these Ant colonies and instructions to the notebook.

    After a few moments, Beatrice then turned her attention to the next ant colonies that needed sorting out.

 77 : Experimentation

    Looking at the small metal cube in front of her, Beatrice slightly frowned as she felt its smooth shape, not leaving her any way to open it up.

    After a few moments, Beatrice slowly took in a deep breath, deciding what to do.

    "I still have two more of these to experiment on, it doesn''t matter if this one is broken," mumbled Beatrice as a dark bolt suddenly appeared in her hand.

    Compared with her usual dark bolt, this one was much thinner, not focusing as much on pure destructive power, but rather focusing on sharpness.

    After making sure that the metal cube was latched onto the metal table below, the dark bolt, which right now looked like a needle, struck, piercing a centimeter inside of the metal cube.

    At this moment, Beatrice clenched her teeth as a painful expression appeared on her face, after all stopping the dark bolt right in its tracks, so that it would not fully go through the metal cube proved harder than she had anticipated.

    A moment later, a sonic boom suddenly happened right in front of Beatrice, causing her enhanced ears to slightly ring.

    Even so, Beatrice completely ignored this, focusing on the scene in front of her.

    "Hopefully it still works and nothing broke," mumbled Beatrice as she dispelled the dark bolt staring at the metal cube in front of her, which now had a small hole inside of it, allowing her to see inside.

    Through this small hole, Beatrice was able to make out some components inside of the cube, some smaller metal cubes alongside some other circles.

    A moment later, Beatrice poured her mana into the metal cube, causing familiar text to suddenly appear above it.

    As this text appeared above the cube, Beatrice suddenly turned her attention to the small hole in the cube, which had now lit up from the light emanating from the inside of the cube.

    At this time, Beatrice was clearly able to see the insides of the cube.

    One tiny cube sat alone in a corner completely separate from the other contraptions on the inside of the cube.

    One extremely thin black tube seemed to be connected to the walls of the cube, stretching to a smaller cube placed in a corner.

    From this cube emerged two different extremely thin tubes, filled with a clear liquid.

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    One of the tubes went to a relatively large cube, which occupied almost half of the insides of this metal cube, while the other tube went to a small sphere, which was floating near the middle of the cube.

    While the large cubes did not have any special features, the small sphere was completely different, being filled with a large amount of tiny text, which was glowing at the moment.

    Although Beatrice was at first attracted by the sphere, she suddenly turned her attention to something else.

    A tiny transparent tube stretched out from the lonely cube in the corner and into the walls of the cube.

    "That must be the actual method to access the insides of the cube," mumbled Beatrice as she retracted her mana, causing the tiny tubes to suddenly become empty, as the final bits of black liquid flew through them.

    A moment later, the text present on the small sphere stopped glowing, as the text floating above the cube stopped glowing as well.

    After a few moments, Beatrice slowly fell into thought.

    ''That ancient warlock apprentice was clearly able to access the insides of the cube, what could he have had that I don''t,'' thought Beatrice as she once again looked at the insides of the cube.

    Of course, Beatrice knew that such a question was definitely futile, after all that apprentice probably had something like an access code.

    ...

    Seven days later,

    For the past seven days, Beatrice had been experimenting on the small cube when she had time, as for the rest of her time, she spent it practicing spells and looking after her ants.

    Of course, Beatrice also refined mana, that didn''t have to be said.

    Sadly, Beatrice did not find any success in experimenting with he cube.

    At this moment, Beatrice was staring at the small cube in front of her, no longer hesitating about what she had to do.

    After a few moments, Beatrice began taking apart the metal cube bit by bit, making sure to not damage it''s components.

    Bit by bit, using her dark bolt, Beatrice cut off more and more metal, placing the metal shards she obtained to the side, making sure to not lose count of any of them.

    As such, in under thirty minutes, Beatrice finally took out a part of the inner components of the cube.

    Looking at the tiny cube, which probably was the real way to open this cube, Beatrice couldn''t help but breathe a sigh of relief before placing it to the side as well.

    And then, twenty-seven minutes later, Beatrice took out the other part of the cube, the two metal cubes as well as the sphere.

    Beatrice made sure to keep the tiny tubes keeping these things together intact as she took them out.

    ...

    Looking at the Prophet, who was bathing in a golden light, Archmage Withered Soul couldn''t help but show some displeasure on his face.

    "I''m going to go for a walk, I''m coming back when this is done," said the Archmage as he looked towards Archmage Arif.

    A moment later, before Archmage Arif could respond, Withered Soul suddenly disappeared.

    Hearing the words of Archmage Withered Soul, Saint Orianna, who was healing the prophet at this moment, couldn''t help but slightly snort.

    "Saintess, you don''t have to anger yourself, you know that Withered Soul doesn''t have anything against you," said Archmage Arif.

    "I know that very well, don''t worry, I know that old fart better than you," said Orianna, who usually was extremely calm and collected.

    Hearing Orianna''s words, Archmage Arif couldn''t help but take in a deep breath.

    "Old man, I don''t know how you can manage those two," mumbled Archmage Dragonheart as he looked at the old Archmage.

 78 : Depth

    Three days later,

    Staring at the tiny spell circles inscribed on the small cube in front of her, Beatrice smiled, before turning her eyes towards the Earth Element Spellbook to her side.

    "This should work," mumbled Beatrice as she bought two pieces of metal and put them next to the small cube.

    After this, Beatrice once again began pouring her mana into the small cube, of course, right now, Beatrice was doing something else at the same time.

    Right now, the mana that Beatrice was pouring into the cube was vibrating exactly 43 times per second.

    After a few seconds of Beatrice pouring in her mana, the inscriptions on the small cube began glowing, causing the two pieces of metal sitting next to it to suddenly begin becoming one.

    A few moments later, the inscriptions on the metal cube stopped glowing, leaving the two pieces of metal completely welded together.

    "As expected, that''s what the password was," mumbled Beatrice as she picked up the now singular piece of metal.

    In these past few days, Beatrice has been examining the inscriptions on this piece of metal, eventually discovering that the vibrating mana was the answer.

    Seeing that her first experiment worked, Beatrice then picked up the tiny cube, which she had named the Mana Checker, and placed it next to the remaining parts of the larger cube, which she had named the Information Cube.

    A few moments later Beatrice once again began pouring her mana into the Mana Checker, but this time, her mana was vibrating 22 times per second.

    A moment later, the inscriptions on the small sphere that stood in the middle of the Information Cube then lit up, causing some text to appear above the small sphere

    ''Writing Mode Activated, Insert Mana''

    Seeing this, Beatrice quickly began pouring her mana into the small machine, causing a dark liquid to suddenly appear through it''s tubes.

    A moment later, the Dark Liquid passed through a small cube, which Beatrice dubbed the Mana Converter, and became colorless.

    After that, the colorless liquid mana traveled to both the small sphere, as well as the large cube, which Beatrice did not know the use of.

    After that, the insert mana text disappeared, being replaced by a small line, at the same time, all twenty-seven letters of the alphabet appeared to bellow it.

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    ...

    Twelve days later,

    As Beatrice stared at the extremely thin sheets filled with dots sitting in front of her, she suddenly raised her head, as a knock was heard from the door.

    "Enter," said Beatrice, prompting Elias to open the door to the room and walk.

    "Mistress, a large majority of the ant species have reached maturity, it is time for the creation of the next generation," said Elias as he bowed to Beatrice.

    Hearing the words of Elias, a small smile appeared on Beatrice''s face.

    "Very well, begin preparing, I''m coming out in some time," said Beatrice as she turned her attention back to the extremely thin sheets of metal, which were connected to each other using extremely thin tubes filled with mana.

    Hearing that, Elias slightly bowed before walking out of the room, leaving Beatrice alone to her work.

    As she stared at the extremely thin sheets, a keyboard suddenly appeared above the small sphere which was sitting next to the sheets.

    The moment Beatrice typed a letter using the keyboard, several large and small bumps appeared on the thin sheet, causing her to slightly frown.

    "How in the world is this thing moving information using pure mana?" mumbled Beatrice as she stared at the tiny tubes, which were transporting mana to the sheets.

    As soon as Beatrice saw how the sheets worked, she immediately understood their principle, but for some reason, Beatrice could not figure out how information was being transferred through mana.

    No matter how Beatrice thought about it, it did now make any sense.

    The first theory that Beatrice had was that vibrations were used to send information, but sadly, that theory did not work out.

    After a few moments of thought, Beatrice then turned to the small sphere sitting next to the sheets of metal, which was the brains of the operation.

    Rather surprisingly, this metal sphere seemed somewhat simple, being divided into two parts, the Encryptor, which as the name implied, transformed the information inputted using words to dots, which were then placed on the sheets of metal, which created the large cube.

    And the Decryptor, which transformed the information from the large cube, which Beatrice called the Memory Keeper, into words understandable by humans.

    After studying the inscriptions on the small sphere, Beatrice was completely sure that this was it''s use.

    "It can only be in the inside of the sphere," mumbled Beatrice as she stared at the small sphere, thinking whether she should risk breaking it open, when suddenly, a thought couldn''t help but enter her mind.

    After a few minutes of thought, Beatrice slowly but surely poured mana into the small sphere, mana which was vibrating exactly 43 times per second.

    A few moments later, the sphere then began splitting into four different pieces, one of which Beatrice immediately recognized.

    Two extremely thin sheets of metal, which were the outer layer of the sphere, as well as being responsible for Encryption and Decryption

    A tiny cube, which Beatrice immediately recognized the inscriptions placed on it.

    As well as an irregularly shaped object, which alongside the tiny Mana Checker, created a small sphere.

    Compared even to those on the much smaller mana checker, the inscriptions on the irregularly shaped objects were at least a dozen times smaller, fitting so much more information on them.

    The Encryptor, Decryptor, Mana Checker, as well as the brains of the operations, what Beatrice would begin calling the Logic Core, those were the components of the Small Sphere.

    After making sure that she safely kept these parts, Beatrice then got up from the table and began stretching her hands.

    It was time for her to breed some ants.

 79 : Shadows

    Whilst Beatrice was busy tinkering with her ants, in another part of the world.

    Looking at the blond mage who was holding a book in her hands, Leyling''s eyes couldn''t help but narrow.

    Even so, Leylin stood still, hiding in the shadows and not taking any action, as right now it was the middle of the day, and any action he took might be detected.

    At this moment, Leylin seemed to melt into the shadows, becoming one with it and becoming completely undetectable.

    After silently casting a spell to conceal himself even further, Leylin continued staring at the blond mage, occasionally moving his eyes toward a certain bush.

    As he looked at the bush, which was moving slightly suspiciously, Leylin smiled slightly, watching as the blond hair mage began moving further and further away.

    Seeing that his target was about to escape, the mage hidden inside of the bush suddenly took action, as three different wind blades suddenly flew towards the blond mage from different directions.

    The moment the wind blades approached the body of the blond mage, a golden light suddenly surrounded her body, protecting her.

    Even so, the wind mage still continued his assault as two of the wind blades struck the barrier of the light mage in the same spot.

    Thankfully for her, by the time the third blade of wind was about to strike her, the light mage had enough time to act, as she suddenly disappeared, before reappearing some distance away a moment later with some sweat appearing on her forehead.

    Seeing this scene, the eyes of the wind mage slightly narrowed.

    This was the effect of the effect of the Rank 1 light spell, Light Flicker.

    After a light mage uses this spell, they will, for an extremely brief moment, turn into light, allowing them to travel short distances nearly instantly.

    Of course, as a Rank 1 spell, using this spell was extremely tiring for mage apprentices, causing its use to be quite limited.

    A moment later, an arrow created out of light suddenly flew towards the wind mage, as the light mage, who launched this arrow began fleeing in the opposite direction.

    ...

    As Rowan got closer and closer to the battlefield in front of her, she suddenly sensed something, as her eyes turned to a tiny dark cave.

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    Without any warning, an Earth Spike silently rose through the ground at a fast speed, striking whatever was hiding inside of the cave.

    A moment later, Rowan walked up to the tiny cave and stared inside, causing a slightly surprised expression to appear on her face.

    "I could have sworn that there was something inside of here," mumbled Rowan as she stared at the end of the cave before shaking her head.

    Right now, Rowan had no time to concern herself with this empty cave, otherwise, her prey might escape.

    ...

    As he stared at the light mage, who was fleeing at the moment, the wind mage suddenly grit his teeth before beginning to fly towards her as the wind aided him.

    Right now, the wind mage had decided to take a risk, as he began flying towards the light mage.

    Without any warning, an earth spike, which had been specially prepared by Rowan beforehand suddenly rose from the ground, going straight through both the barrier and the body of the wind mage.

    At the same time, the ground below the light mage suddenly collapsed, sending her down into a deep hole.

    After this, Rowan once again took action, as several spikes suddenly grew out from the walls of the hole, causing the barrier that was protecting the light mage to suddenly shatter.

    A moment later, Rowan quickly looted the body of the earth and light mage, taking the book in the latter''s hands as she began running away.

    Without any warning, Rowan spat out a mouthful of blood, and before she could even have a chance to react, Rowan''s head flew through the air, allowing her to see the scene of her death.

    A small, insignificant snake-like figure emerged from the shadow which Rowan had created under the bright sun.

    A moment later, Rowan''s body fell to the ground revealing, Leylin, who quickly looted the former''s body and ran away.

    ...

    Darkness, although a simple word at a first glance, can describe many things.

    But even so, there are a few things usually associated with darkness, with the most ordinary of them being something very simple.

    Shadows

    At a first glance, shadows might be harmless, causing some to mock the fear of shadows as something, ridiculous and childish, something without any meaning.

    Even so, one must not underestimate shadows, after all, every single instinctive reaction of the human body was created by blood.

    Created by those who dared venture into the shadows, not fearing what might lie beyond, only to never return, to never leave behind descendants.

    ...

    As he read the book in his hands, some anger couldn''t help but inexplicably appear inside of the usually calm Leylin.

    After a few moments, Leylin suddenly began ripping the book, which was trying to describe the essence of darkness into pieces.

    A few moments later, all that was left was Leylin, who was staring at the torn pages of the book in darkness.

    After years of being in darkness, Leylin''s eyes had slowly grown accustomed to it, allowing him to clearly see the torn pages of the book, which was sitting on the floor.

    "I risked my life for this garbage?" mumbled Leylin as he raised his head, staring it the darkness in front of him.

    But then, something usually began happening, Leylin, who usually only slept a few hours a week, suddenly began becoming sleepy.

    And then, without any resistance, Leylin fell to the floor, sleeping.

    An unknown amount of time began passing, perhaps days, years, decades, or perhaps even more, but eventually, Leylin''s skin began falling off, being replaced by a layer of grey scales.

    Suddenly, at a certain moment, blood then burst from Leylin''s back, as a large set of wings suddenly revealed themselves, throwing off Leylin''s robes.

    A moment later, Leylin opened his eyes, revealing a set of then vertical pupils.

    Right now, inside of a shadowy corner of the world, Leylin had finally transformed, becoming a true Mage.

 80 : Transformation

    As he stared at his now scaly hands, Leylin couldn''t help but clench his fist.

    ...

    A few hours ago, Hasan managed to get a promotion at his job.

    At this moment, as he walked down the street, a small smile appeared on Hasan''s face, when suddenly, for an extremely brief moment, something caught his eye.

    Instantly, Hasan raised his head, catching a brief glimpse of a shadow flying through the sky before disappearing.

    ...

    Staring at the land below him, which seemed so insignificant, as well as the tiny figures moving about, Leylin slightly frowned.

    A moment later, Leylin once again flapped his scaly wings, causing him to instantly speed up.

    Even so, as he felt the light of the sun land on his scaly body, the frown on Leylin''s face deepened.

    "How come it''s this bad?" mumbled Leylin, as he began feeling as if his skin was burning.

    Thankfully though, with his newfound speed, it only took Leylin a few minutes to reach his destination.

    Looking at the forest below him, Leylin suddenly flew toward the ground, landing in a small clearing a few moments later.

    After that, Leylin bent down, staring at a tiny opening in the ground before beginning to crawl into it.

    Even though the opening was extremely small, so small that a normal human would barely fit into it, the moment Leylin''s body was about to touch the sides of the opening, it suddenly began stretching and bending along the small rocks littering it, allowing him to easily pass through.

    A few moments later, Leylin''s head appeared at the other side of the hole, inside of a small room.

    This room was extremely simple, only having a bed and a few bookshelves next to it.

    At the same time, the entirety of the room was in pitch darkness not allowing anyone to see anything.

    Of course, this ''everyone'' excluded Leylin, who was easily able to see in the dark, especially after his transformation.

    After simply staying in the small room for a few minutes, silently staring at the wall without saying anything, Leylin suddenly began transforming, as the scales from his skin suddenly retreated, at the same time, his wings also disappeared.

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    Even though Leylin was in his human form, as he stared at his fist, which seemed much more flawless than before, Leylin could feel the great power lurking in it, which dwarfed anything his previous body could do in the past.

    After a few more moments of silence, Leylin walked up to a certain bookshelf before beginning to search for a book

    And then, only a few moments later Leylin found it.

    ''Demonology''

    The first thing that greeted Leylin once he opened this book was a list, a list of around fifty types of demons, as well as the pages where they are described.

    A moment later, Leylin flipped to a page in the latter half of the book, revealing an image of a grey-scaled humanoid beast with giant wings on its back.

    A Shadow Demon

    ...

    Looking at the sixteen little ant eggs, each of them sitting in their own little enclosures, Beatrice couldn''t help but slightly smile.

    Originally, Beatrice had obtained fifty-seven different species of ants.

    After that Beatrice bred a vast majority of them together, obtaining thirty different species.

    The reason why these numbers do not match is quite simple, as although most of the species Beatrice now has in her collection are extinct, she had to breed different species to obtain them

    But that was not true for all of them, as some species still existed out in the wild, and were easily obtainable.

    Of course, maybe some other species that Beatrice needed were still out there, but since she could simply breed them into existence, Beatrice did not bother spending much effort obtaining them.

    And in some time, after using the Ant Growth spell a few more times, Beatrice would obtain the sixteen ant species that she needed so that she could continue her breeding process, and eventually obtain a species of supernatural ants.

    Staring at the ant eggs, Beatrice once again smiled, as some of her mana pool, which had grown considerably since she had come to this place, became empty.

    At this moment, some of Beatrice''s mana slowly but surely imprinted itself on each and every one of the ant eggs in front of her, making sure that her control of them was absolute.

    After a few moments, and after having finished casting the spell, Beatrice walked away, leaving Elias alone once again, guarding and caring for the ant eggs

    ...

    After Beatrice walked out of the ant room, she quickly returned to her own bedroom, took out a spare robe from one of the drawers and walked into the huge bathroom that was attached to it.

    As the water from the shower washed over Beatrice, random thoughts couldn''t help but enter her mind.

    "It''s already been half a year huh, it should be about time for that to happen," mumbled Beatrice as she moved her fingers through her hair, rinsing it.

    A few moments later, Beatrice finished washing her hair, but even so, she still continued staying in the bathroom, only leaving around ten minutes later, after dressing up with a new, but still black robe.

    The first thing that Beatrice did when exited the bathroom was simple, she walked up to her bed, and sat down crosslegged on it.

    A moment later, Beatrice began refining mana, causing time to suddenly pass by at a rapid speed.

    ...

    Two hours later,

    At this moment, after refining mana for over two hours, Beatrice suddenly stopped pouring her newly refined mana into her, feeling as if no more mana could fit inside of her.

    Suddenly, Beatrice began slightly shaking, as she began refining more and more man, throwing it into her body at a fast speed.

    Right now, a transformation had begun taking place inside of Beatrice as well, as her body, which was previously in the realm of normal humans, transformed under the effects of the mana.

    Because of her mana, at this moment, every single one of Beatrice''s organs was transforming.

    She was becoming a High Rank Mage Apprentice.

 81 : Power

    Touching her skin, which somewhat returned to the quality of her previous life, a small smile couldn''t help but appear on Beatrice''s face as she opened her eyes.

    "Finally," mumbled Beatrice, feeling the deep transformation that had begun taking place inside of her.

    After a few moments, Beatrice got up from the bed, causing popping sounds to resound through the room.

    Thankfully, the sounds stopped after Beatrice successfully stretched her body for a few moments.

    Right now, although it had not become much stronger, Beatrice''s body had fully transformed, becoming something far beyond that of a normal human.

    "Hmm, testing myself would not be a bad idea," mumbled Beatrice, walking out of the room as this idea entered her mind.

    After all, by now, her teacher should already have an approximate range of her Spiritual Power, hiding it so much wouldn''t matter.

    Maybe?

    ...

    As Beatrice entered the huge steel machine in front of her, using her mind to close the door behind her, some expectations couldn''t help but appear in Beatrice''s mind.

    Thankfully though, all of these expectations were quickly met as Beatrice turned on the machine, causing two different numbers to appear inside of it.

    Mana: 35.247679...

    Spiritual Power: ~52.4652323...

    As Beatrice stared at the two numbers, some surprise couldn''t help but appear on her face.

    "That''s a bit unexpected," mumbled Beatrice as she stared at the numbers, more specifically, at the number which represented her total mana.

    Although her Spiritual power was quite a bit higher than expected, this did not bother Beatrice in the slightest, rather, all of her attention was poured onto her mana pool, which was a bit higher than what it was in her previous life at the moment she became a High Ranking Mage apprentice.

    ''Was it my experience with this process, or was it something else?'' thought Beatrice as she stared at the number

    But still, Beatrice did not dwell on this too much, as she then opened the door to the machine, and walked out of it.

    ...

    As Selena stared at the twisted sphere of corpses in front of her, a slightly surprised expression couldn''t help but appear on her face.

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    "She became a High Ranking Mage apprentice," mumbled Selena, before turning her attention back to the sphere, which was slightly wiggling.

    She did not have much time to worry about her disciple, for now.

    ...

    Although Beatrice was aware of the fact that her teacher probably monitored the testing machine, at this moment, Beatrice was still unaware of the sheer level of control Selena had over her own home, a level far beyond normal understanding.

    As such, at this moment Beatrice walking through the corridors of the place she called home, unaware of the fact that her teacher was aware of her current progress.

    At this moment, Beatrice turned her attention to one fact that still needed testing.

    ...

    Staring at the small metal dummy standing around a dozen meters in front of her, Beatrice couldn''t help but take in a deep breath closing her eyes.

    After all, back in her past life, only after becoming a Peak Mage Apprentice did Beatrice try learning this spell as a trump card.

    Only with her previous experience from back then was Beatrice confident that she could accomplish this without harming herself.

    After making sure her ears were fully plugged, protecting her from the sound, Beatrice began casting the spell

    1 second

    After one second Beatrice began gritting her teeth as a frown appeared on her forehead.

    2 seconds

    After two seconds, veins began appearing on Beatrice''s forehead as she continued focusing the entirety of her being on casting this spell.

    3 seconds

    By the third second, the size of the veins on Beatrice''s forehead had increased in size by a large amount, threatening to burst, as even though Beatrice had more than enough spiritual power to cast the spell, her body definitely wasn''t prepared to do it.

    Thankfully for her though, there was no fourth second, as, at that moment, a thin arrow suddenly formed in front of Beatrice, before bolting towards the metal dummy, which was constructed from the same magically resistant metal as the rest of the room, albeit not as pure in the slightest.

    At that moment, Beatrice let herself fall to the ground, stopping her control of the arrow and letting it fly on its, only leaving her Dark Barrier on, not doing anything else.

    But before Beatrice could even fall to the ground, several shards of metal impacted her barrier at speeds above that of sound.

    What followed were fifteen explosions.

    Fifteen sonic booms were left behind by the Dark Arrow in it''s quest to utterly smash the dummy into pieces.

    The moment the arrow touched the dummy, the latter suddenly exploded, as the arrow passed through it, only slowing down somewhat.

    Under the might of the offensive Rank 1 Spell, Dark Arrow, which was ordinarily used by True Mages, the dummy, which was resistant to spells, shattered to pieces, sending some pieces of metal flying towards Beatrice''s dark barrier at above the speed of sound.

    Only a small fraction of a second after that, the arrow impacted the wall of the room, suddenly stopping in it''s tracks, as if it was facing an unmovable object.

    Unlike Dark Bolts, which usually dissipated under the effects of the wall, as the Dark Arrow smashed into it, several cracks appeared along it''s body.

    Another fraction of a moment later, the arrow exploded, but this time, thankfully nothing was thrown around the room.

    After the smoke cleared, all that was left inside of the room was Beatrice, laying along the floor, and around her, the pieces of the target dummy she had prepared, as for the wall, it was completely unscathed.

    Even though Beatrice was in quite a bad shape, with the vast majority of her mana pool depleted, as she looked at the devastation she had caused, a weird smile appeared on her face.

    After a few moments of refining some mana, Beatrice got up from the ground, that same smile still clearly visible on her face as she stared at the scene in front of her.

 82 : True Power

    "It''s a good thing I didn''t try to cast this spell before this," mumbled Beatrice, feeling pain all over her body, but especially her head.

    But even so, as Beatrice stared at the destruction caused by the spell, she felt a sense of satisfaction that couldn''t be matched.

    As Beatrice was still deep in thought, Elias, who was standing outside of the room up until now, suddenly walked in with a concerned look clearly present on his face.

    "Mistress, do you need any help?" asked Elias as he approached Beatrice causing the latter to slightly shake her head.

    "I''m fine, you go ahead and clean this room up a bit," mumbled Beatrice as she began walking outside of the room, slightly limping as she did so.

    The moment Elias heard the orders of his mistress, he began picking up the metal shards scattered around the room.

    ...

    As Beatrice walked through the corridors of her underground home, she couldn''t help but fall into thought.

    ''As expected, I better not use this spell too many times before becoming a Peak Mage Apprentice, otherwise, I might actually do some permanent damage to my body,'' thought Beatrice as she took out a potion from her robes before drinking it.

    Although the Dark Arrow spell could not be considered very complicated amongst Rank 1 Dark Spells, the toll it can take on the human body must not be underestimated.

    After making sure that her body seemed fine, Beatrice then walked into the bathroom, wanting to take a relaxing bath.

    ...

    One hour later,

    Staring at the tiny, irregularly shaped object sitting in front of her, Beatrice took in a deep breath before beginning to read the extremely tiny inscriptions on it, beginning from it''s the simplest part.

    In only around half an hour, Beatrice managed to partially understand the meaning of some of the inscriptions.

    "Using inscriptions to shape mana into different objects, that''s a nice idea," mumbled Beatrice, causing her eyes to suddenly light up.

    After a few moments, Beatrice fell into deep thought.

    ''Even so, with the tiny amount of mana inserted, creating something like this shouldn''t be possible in the slightest,'' thought Beatrice as she carefully inserted her mana into the tiny inscription, causing a keyboard to suddenly appear above it.

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    With the tiny amount of mana that Beatrice had just sent into the inscription, creating such a keyboard was clearly impossible, but even so, somehow this inscription succeeded.

    "It can''t be just efficiency, no matter how efficient something is, it can''t defy the very laws of reality," mumbled Beatrice as she continued staring at the inscriptions in front of her.

    ...

    Two weeks later,

    For the past two weeks, other than refining mana and occasionally taking care of her ants, Beatrice had focused almost the entirety of her attention on figuring out the main control board, or Logic Core of the Information cube.

    Even now, Beatrice still hasn''t managed to figure out how this thing seemed to defy the laws of reality, creating something so large and solid with so little mana, at the same time, as she studied the core more and more, Beatrice couldn''t help but have more and more questions, causing her brain to be fully filled up by them.

    At this moment, a red-eyed Beatrice was sitting at her desk, staring at the Logic Core in front of her.

    Suddenly, Beatrice turned her attention away from the tiny object on her desk, raising her head as she heard a voice inside of her head.

    ''I''ve come back, come to see me''

    Hearing her teacher''s voice ring inside of her head, a slightly surprised expression appeared on Beatrice''s face before vanishing a few moments later.

    "You stay here, I need to go somewhere," said Beatrice as she looked at Elias for a few moments, before walking out of the room.

    As she walked through the underground corridors, a somewhat weird feeling emerged inside of Beatrice, something that she had never felt before, something that she couldn''t explain.

    Even so, Beatrice did not stop, still continuing to walk down the long hallways of the underground abode.

    Eventually, Beatrice reached the door of a certain room, causing her to lightly knock on it.

    "Come in," said Selena, who was standing in front of four unconscious humans, one woman and three men, each of them laying on the floor.

    But at the moment, Beatrice did not have any time to pay attention to them, as she focused on her teacher, who was leisurely standing next to them.

    As she stared at her teacher, Beatrice slightly shuddered, as her expression slowly began morphing, of course, Beatrice made sure to then rein her expression in, only staring at her teacher with no expression on her face.

    A moment later, Beatrice once again shuddered, an excited expression suddenly revealing itself on her face as she felt the enourmous aura that was billowing off her teacher.

    ''Archmage,'' thought Beatrice as she stared at her teacher, as she silently compared her with the old archmage she met in her past life.

    Suddenly, Selena turned her attention to her disciple, causing Beatrice to suddenly break out of her trance.

    "It seems you''ve been doing well while I''ve been gone," mumbled Beatrice as she walked forward towards her disciple.

    "Yes, everything''s going well," said Beatrice, immediately responding, causing Selena to slightly chuckle as she approached her.

    "What? Are you afraid of your own teacher?" asked Selena as she came even closer to Beatrice.

    "No, not at all," said Beatrice, causing Selena''s expression to slightly change.

    "It seems as though everything is really going well, you even tricked me as well just now, that''s impressive, my disciple," said Selena as she stretched out her palm, bringing Beatrice''s chin up, causing the two to stare in each other''s eyes.

    Staring at the extremely excited eyes of her disciple, Selena let out a chuckle before letting go of the latter''s face.

    "We''ll talk about this later, firstly, I need you to look after these four for a while, I have something to do at the moment," said Selena, causing Beatrice to turn her attention to the four people laying on the floor, at the same time, a piece of paper appeared in Beatrice''s hands.

 83 : Ighor

    After staring at the four people lying on the floor, Beatrice turned her attention to the piece of paper lying in her hands.

    ''Irelia, a powerful Light-type mage from the Light''s Hope Academy, because of her bad relationship with the headmaster of the academy, Saint Orianna, she was sent out on a mission to hunt down the Witch of Death.''

    ''Nicholas Tyger, a powerful Earth Type mage from the Wizard''s Hand Academy, using his great talent in Earth Magic, Nicholas managed to become an Official Mage in a very short amount of time, sadly for him though, Nicholas then lost a bet against another Mage, causing him to begin hunting down the Witch of Death. Note: Nicholas is not very smart''

    As she read the note attached to the end of the paragraph describing the second mage, Beatrice''s lips slightly twitched.

    ''Ighor Ruinheart, a powerful Earth Type mage from the Sanctum of Knowledge, extremely devoted to his research, only decided to take on the mission of helping hunt down the Witch of Death for the hefty reward placed on her head.''

    As Beatrice read the third paragraph, her eyes subtly lit up.

    ''This guy could probably help me in my research,'' thought Beatrice, of course, only a moment later, Beatrice stopped having these useless thoughts and turned towards the last paragraph of text on the piece of paper.

    ''Daniel no last name given, a powerful Fire Type mage from the Dragon''s Cave, an orphan, whose only known relative is his sister, Diana, which was kidnapped by the Witch of Death, causing Daniel to have a deep hatred for the latter.''

    As Beatrice finished reading the piece of paper, she turned her eyes toward her teacher, with a questioning look in her gaze.

    Feeling this gaze, Selena let out a chuckle before shaking her head.

    "You don''t have to worry, I have already restrained their mana, unless they want to die an early death, they won''t be able to cast spells," said Selena, causing Beatrice to breathe a silent sigh of relief.

    Of course, Beatrice still couldn''t help but be somewhat worried.

    Seeing this, Selena smiled.

    "They will be confined alone in their cells, you have to check up on them twice a day, so as to make sure they haven''t escaped, you only need to do this for around a week, when I will return, at the same time, I left you a method to controll them," said Selena, causing Beatrice to finally stop worrying.

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    "Should I be cautious of anyone?" asked Beatrice, causing Selena to slightly nod.

    "You should be most careful around Ighor, you never know what kind of tricks guys like these have up their sleeves," said Selena, causing Beatrice to feel somewhat offended for some reason, as if those words were directed at her.

    "Understood," said Beatrice in a serious tone, causing Selena to chuckle.

    ...

    Staring at the white-haired woman who was staring at him through the bars to his cell, Ighor let out a soft sigh.

    Suddenly, Ighor felt a slight shock in his arms, as Beatrice slightly frowned.

    "Don''t cause any trouble, otherwise I won''t have any mercy for you," said Beatrice feeling the feeble attempt to invade her mind.

    Seeing this Ighor shook his head, when suddenly, he felt another, and much more powerful shock as Beatrice suddenly noticed something

    "As expected you are the most troublesome," mumbled Beatrice as she suddenly opened the door to the cell and confidently walked in.

    The first thing Beatrice did once she entered the cell was close the door behind her, after that, Beatrice suddenly threw Ighor to the ground and restrained him.

    "Little girl, I didn''t expect your tastes to be so weird, but don''t worry, I will cooperate with you," said Ighor, prompting Beatrice to shock him once again, this time, after the shock, Ighor lost all strength remaining in his body.

    "It''s quite a pity, you managed to hide this thing from my teacher, an Archmage, only to have it be discovered by little old me," mumbled Beatrice as a thin translucent needle exited Ighor''s ear.

    This time though, Ighor no longer responded, as a bitter expression could be seen on his face.

    As soon as Beatrice smelled the scent of the needle, an extremely surprised expression appeared on her face.

    "To hide a needle in your own brain, In all of the years I''ve been alive, I haven''t seen anyone as gutsy as you, It''s as teacher said, you really will be the most troublesome one," mumbled Beatrice, causing quite some surprise to appear on Ighor''s face.

    After that, Beatrice gently placed Ighor back down before walking out of the cell and locking it once again.

    "Old man, don''t worry, you will regain control of your body soon, hopefully, you didn''t mind my little search," said Beatrice as she walked away.

    "Not at all little girl, not at all," silently mumbled Ighor sometime after Beatrice left, a smile being present on his face.

    After a while Ighor got back up from the ground and sat in a corner of his cell, falling into thought.

    But suddenly, Ighor once again heard a pair of footsteps coming toward his general direction, causing him to raise his eyes.

    Looking at the twenty-something-year-old man sitting in a corner of his cell, a small smile couldn''t help but appear on Beatrice''s face.

    "Old man, you really a tricky guy, how about you teach me how you managed to create and hide this thing," said Beatrice, holding a tiny bug in her hands.

    As soon as Ighor saw the metal bug in the hands of the white-haired woman, his expression suddenly froze for a moment, returning to normal a moment later.

    "Little girl, don''t bother me, I''m going to sleep," said Ighor, ignoring the pain he was feeling in his body at the moment as he sat down and closed his eyes.

    Seeing this, Beatrice let out a chuckle before walking away, no longer wanting to disturb this old man.

 84 : Prisoners

    As Beatrice stared at the metallic bug in her hands for a few moments, she couldn''t help but let out a sigh, shaking her head.

    "There''s nothing visible on the outside," mumbled Beatrice as she slowly moved the bug around, trying her best to see if anything was visible.

    But sadly, Beatrice could not find anything that could help her figure out the use of the bug.

    After a few moments, Beatrice took out a small black box from under her net, opening it and revealing a thin transparent needle sitting inside of it.

    Just as Beatrice was about to place the bug inside of the box, she suddenly hesitated before suddenly closing it and placing it back under her desk.

    A moment later, Beatrice got up from her desk and opened a drawer, revealing a dozen or so small empty boxes sitting inside, some of them made out of metal, some

    After picking a suitable box, Beatrice placed the small metal bug inside of it, before sealing it shut, making sure that no matter what it little bug did, it could not exit the small metal box.

    "This should be fine," mumbled Beatrice as she opened up another drawer, placing the metal box inside it before closing it again.

    The reason Beatrice decided to hold the two objects separately was very simple.

    With how tricky this Ighor Ruinheart was, Beatrice was completely sure that the two objects could probably work together in some way.

    At the same time, fearing that the bug would break open the box it was confined in and fly out, Beatrice decided to use a metal box instead.

    After making sure that everything was in order, Beatrice once again sat back down at her desk and began examing the Information Cube, once again trying to decypher the numerous inscriptions placed onto it.

    ...

    At this moment, Ighor Ruinheart, who by all means seemed to be completely asleep, was deep in thought.

    ''It looks like she was cautious enough to not place them together,'' thought Ighor, seeing that his trap had not had its desired effect.

    Even so, Ighor was not discouraged in the slightest.

    Although there was a large chance that the Witch of Death was merely tricking him and luring him to show her his cards, Ighor still took the bait.

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    After all, this was probably his last chance to escape this place.

    Suddenly, something began slowly moving inside of Ighor''s brain which Beatrice had previously inspected.

    Although Beatrice did research the brain a great deal, compared to Ighor, who has been researching it for over one hundred years, she was still too far behind.

    Perhaps not even the Witch of Death had such a deep knowledge of the brain, after all her research was focused on something else entirely.

    At this moment, a tiny metallic being slowly began crawling out of Ighor''s eyeball.

    A few moments later, the tiny being had successfully exited Ighor''s body, landing on his palm.

    After waiting a few moments, the being suddenly began drilling into the ground, when Ighor''s expression suddenly froze.

    At this moment, Beatrice was still fully focused on examing the information cube, after all, she had already done her due diligence.

    ...

    The next day,

    As Beatrice was about to walk in front of a cell, she suddenly stopped and slowly took in a deep breath, before continuing on.

    The moment Beatrice walked in front of the cell, she suddenly felt a conflicted gaze land on her.

    Inside of the cell stood what looked like a teenage boy, one who looked even younger than Beatrice, but even so, Beatrice did not dare underestimate the boy.

    This was Daniel, the mage with the most hatred for her teacher out of all of the ones she had captured not long ago.

    But unlike Beatrice''s expectations, Daniel''s opinion on her seemed quite weird, causing Beatrice to not like him in the slightest.

    As such, the moment Beatrice saw that he was about to open his mouth, she suddenly shocked him, and began quickly checking that everything was alright with his cell.

    After that, Beatrice quickly walked away, not wanting to be in this place any longer.

    ...

    The moment Beatrice walked into another hallway, she suddenly felt the walls around her shaking, causing her to slightly frown.

    "Will this guy continue doing this every day?" mumbled Beatrice as she suddenly shocked the mage who was being confined inside of the cell, causing the shaking to suddenly stop.

    After that, Beatrice then walked up to the cell and stared inside.

    Unlike the other mages, who were unrestrained and free to move about inside of their cells, inside of this cell stood a middle-aged man, chained to the wall with all of his limbs restrained.

    Right now, the middle-aged man was slightly shaking, having lost control of his body.

    "It looks like the chains are still fine," mumbled Beatrice as she further examined the cell from the outside.

    As Beatrice inspected the wall behind the man, the latter suddenly began struggling, causing Beatrice to once again shock him, causing him to lose control of his body.

    "The wall is also fine," mumbled Beatrice before walking away, leaving the limp middle-aged man alone.

    As Beatrice was walking, she suddenly felt the walls once again begin shaking, causing her to frown.

    "If you became able to shock their spirits, would it have taken so much more effort to pacify them?" mumbled Beatrice as the shaking once again stopped as the middle-aged man lost control of his body.

    ...

    Staring at the blond woman, who was sitting on the ground inside of her cell, Beatrice felt a headache incoming, but even so, she began inspecting the cell, making sure that the latter had made no attempt at escaping.

    "Little Beatrice, I see that you still have some goodness in you, retur-"

    Before Irelia could finish her sentence, she suddenly lost control of her body, as her spirit was suddenly shocked by Beatrice.

    Whilst making sure that the latter''s cell was in good condition, Beatrice shocked her a few more times, not allowing her to open her mouth even once.

 85 : Torture

    As Beatrice walked away from Irelia''s cell, she couldn''t help but wipe some non-existent sweat off her forehead.

    Although all four mages that her teacher had captured had their mana fully restrained Beatrice still felt like looking after them was quite dangerous, especially Irelia and Ighor, both of whom gave Beatrice a bad feeling.

    "Hopefully nothing happens before teacher comes back," mumbled Beatrice as she walked through the halls of her underground home.

    And contrary to Beatrice''s expectations, nothing did actually happen.

    ...

    Six days later,

    For the past six days, Ighor no longer tried to escape, merely standing inside of his cell and staring at the walls.

    Even when the very person who had captured him, the Witch of Death appeared before Ighor, is expression did not change in the slightest.

    Looking at Ighor, who seemed almost zombie-like, a small smile couldn''t help but appear on the ace of the Witch of Death, causing Selena to wave, her hand, knocking Ighor unconscious.

    Only a few minutes later, Selena, now alongside Beatrice, stood in front of a large glass window, overlooking four cells, which were only separated by a thin wall.

    These past six days, Beatrice had continued experimenting on the Information Cube, as well as taking care of her ants.

    As she looked at the four mages, which were locked into four different cells, Beatrice couldn''t help but become somewhat curious.

    "Teacher, do you want to do some sort of experiment on them?" asked Beatrice, causing Selena to shake her head.

    "No, but although these four had been pursuing me, simply killing them would be quite wasteful, as such, I plan to make use of them."

    "To do that, I need to prepare them, otherwise with how unyielding these guys are, they would not cooperate with me in the slightest, in fact, they would do their best to destroy my plans," said Selena as she watched the four mages slowly wake up.

    Suddenly, to Beatrice''s surprise, another figure appeared to the left of her teacher, one that by now, Beatrice was very familiar with.

    As Beatrice looked at the chained-up Irelia, as well as the Irelia that was clearly inside the cell below them, a small smile couldn''t help but appear on her face.

    Looking at Irelia, who had hate slowly but surely brewing in her eyes, a small smile appeared on Selena''s face.

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    "You really are lucky, you will get to enjoy such a nice view," mumbled Selena as she snapped her fingers, causing the black chain''s around Irelia to disappear.

    But even though Irelia was free to move however she liked, right now she continued staring at Selena.

    "So you are going to begin torturing me right now?" asked Irelia, knowing that fighting Selena was utterly pointless.

    "Do I seem like someone who would do something like that to someone as useful as you? You can ask my disciple to see how nice I am to her," said Selena, causing Irelia''s attention to turn to Beatrice.

    After staring at Beatrice for a few moments, Irelia let out a sigh, not planning on lecturing the latter anymore.

    At this moment, Irelia turned her attention to the scene below them.

    ...

    A few moments later, Daniel woke up before getting up from the ground.

    But before Daniel could fully regain his bearings, the wall to the left side of hi room suddenly disappeared, revealing Irelia, who was also sitting on the ground, seemingly having just woken up.

    "Irelia, thank god you are alright," shouted Daniel as quickly moved towards his teammate, seeing that Irelia did not seem to have been tortured Daniel breathed a sigh of relief.

    "Don''t worry about me, that Witch is probably planning to do something to us," said Irelia as she looked at Daniel with her golden eyes.

    Hearing that, Daniel nodded, caution filling his eyes, but even so, feeling Irelia''s warmth, Daniel still couldn''t help but smile.

    But just a moment later, the two of them were disturbed, as the wall to their right side suddenly crumbled to dust, revealing Ighor, who right now, was unconscious on the floor, having not yet woken up.

    Seeing this, both Daniel and Irelia suddenly began walking toward their teammate, the same thought appearing inside of her mind.

    ''If she wanted to kill us, she would have killed us,'' thought Daniel as he reached out toward Ighor, wanting to wake the latter up.

    Suddenly, Irelia, who was right next to Daniel, disappeared, leaving Daniel alone alongside Ighor, who was lying on the floor, just waking up.

    A moment later, a knife suddenly appeared in Daniel''s hands, causing him to freeze for a moment as thoughts swirled in his mind.

    The moment Daniel had a vague idea about the plan of the Witch of Death, he suddenly tightly gripped the knife, stabbing it toward his eye only a moment later.

    But for some reason, although Daniel used all of his strength in that stab, the knife did not do any damage to his eyes, causing an incredulous expression to appear on his face.

    "Are you really so heartless and so willing to leave your little lover all alone?" asked a voice from behind Daniel.

    At this moment, Daniel had completely lost control of his body, not being able to look behind him, but even so, the moment he heard that very familiar voice, he realised who that was.

    "Are you here to torture me?" asked Daniel, gripping the knife in his hands even tighter, but although he tried his best, Daniel could not turn around, nor could he stab the person behind him.

    "No, I''m really not, I''m just here to give you a choice," said Selena before suddenly disappearing from behind Daniel.

    Merely a moment later, the wall in front of Daniel suddenly crumbled, revealing a cage, and inside that cage, stood a now unconscious Irelia.

    Seeing that, extreme panic appeared in Daniel''s eyes, but merely a moment later, his panic suddenly increased even more, having his guess be completely proven as true.

    Looking at the goblin''s walking toward''s Irelia, Daniel''s grip on his knife tightened even more.

    Merely a few moments later, about five or so goblins had jumped on Irelia, beginning to strip her, when suddenly, they stopped, as if frozen in time.

    Tears began slowly forming at the corner of Daniel''s eyes as he stared at Ighor, who now had a knife stuck in his left eye, going straight through his head.

 86 : Life

    At this moment, Irelias suddenly disappeared, reappearing in front of Selena as she let out a punch toward the latter''s face.

    But sadly for her, just as her punch was about to land, Irelia suddenly stopped and fell to the ground.

    "It looks like I made the seal a little bit too tight," mumbled Selena as she took out a potion from her robe and fed it to Irelia, leaving the latter lying on the floor.

    "Teacher, Isn''t it a little bit wasteful to simply kill Ighor?" asked Beatrice, causing Selena to let out a chuckle.

    "Don''t worry, I have a use for him," said Selena, causing Beatrice to feel a slight chill in his heart.

    After making sure that Irelia was fine, Selena got up from the ground and stared at Daniel, who was sitting on the ground in his cell, a blank look on his face.

    "Now, my little disciple, we can continue," mumbled Selena, causing Beatrice to suddenly feel a tiny amount of pity for this group.

    ...

    Three days later,

    "Teacher, he should have already been completely destroyed, was this even necessary?" asked Beatrice as she looked with disgust at Nicholas who was lying unconscious on the ground without his pants, as well as at the troll who had just vented it''s desires.

    "You shouldn''t underestimate the willpower of mages, you would be shocked to see what someone can recover from," said Selena as she shook her head.

    Hearing her teacher''s words, a chill couldn''t help but appear in Beatrice''s heart.

    "Well, since you don''t want to watch anymore, how about you help me look after some children," said Selena, causing some doubts to appear on Beatrice''s face.

    ...

    A few hours later,

    As Selena walked through the halls of her underground home, a small smile couldn''t help but appear on her face as she felt the extremely familiar smell of blood which was emanating from beyond a particular door.

    Right now, a simple coffin was floating behind Selena, keeping up with her as she walked towards the door.

    ...

    As Selena opened the door, and stared inside of the room, at the over two hundred children, which were standing obediently in their seats, she couldn''t help but click her teeth.

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    "Maybe you are suitable for becoming a teacher," mumbled Selena as she walked into the room and looked at Beatrice, who had a little boy and a little girl sitting on her lap.

    Hearing that, Beatrice let out a slight chuckle.

    "It''s nothing teacher, these kids were really obedient," said Beatrice as she watched Selena walk into the room with a coffin behind her.

    "Alright you obedient little guys go back to your seats," said Beatrice causing the two kids to quickly run away from her and sit down in a corner.

    In the middle of the room, right in the center of where the children were placed, stood an extremely complicated spell circle, sadly though, the circle had a tiny imperfection, a small handprint, which completely shattered the perfect circle.

    As Selena placed the coffin in the middle of this circle, she couldn''t help but shake her head and begin fixing it.

    "It looks like one little guy wasn''t obedient, but it seems as though you took good care nof him," mumbled Selena as she smelled the faint smell of blood in the room.

    Hearing that, Beatrice couldn''t help but chuckle.

    "Things really are that much more convenient when you have such a good helper like you," mumbled Selena after fixing the spell circle, now staring at the two hundred and forty-nine children in front of her with a smile on her face.

    Without any warning, the coffin, as well as the large spell circle surrounding it, began glowing as Selena began pouring her mana into it.

    A moment later, a young girl, the child closest to the coffin, suddenly fell to the ground, her body suddenly dissolving into nothing.

    After that, the pure soul of the young girl slowly but surely traveled throw the spell circle, being ground to dust in the process.

    An excruciating minute later, the soul of the little girl had successfully become part of the ritual, causing another child to fall to the ground, continuing the cycle.

    Four hours later,

    After four hours, all of the children had been successfully sacrificed, causing a faint, yet stable breathing to be heard from the coffin in the middle of the room.

    "It seems as though we succeeded on our first attempt," mumbled Selena as she stared at the coffin in front of her with a smile on her face.

    Although destroying souls was something extremely easy for Selena, and something she could even do back when she was a Mage, using the Rank 4 Dark Revival Spell was not that simple, as Selena had to use the energy from these souls to actually drag Ighor back from the dead.

    As such, after four hours of doing this, even Selena had become somewhat tired.

    Staring at the scene in front of her, especially at the now living being sleeping inside of the coffin, a somewhat blank look couldn''t help but appear on Beatrice''s face.

    At the same time, Selena suddenly opened the coffin, revealing Ighor, who was sleeping inside of it.

    Although Selena was uite happy that she had managed to bring Ighor back from the dead, as she stared at the latter, she couldn''t help but silently let out a sigh.

    ''As expected, it''s not perfect,'' thought Selena, feeling Ighor''s life slowly but surely dissipate.

    "One soul every two months, since it doesn''t need to be a pure soul like this time, it shouldn''t be too bad," mumbled Selena, causing Beatrice''s eyes to suddenly widen.

    ''I still need to do more research on a more perfect method, she will surely refuse to devour souls to survive,'' thought Selena as she let out another sigh.

    How good would it be if her sister was like Archmage Withered Soul, not caring that he had to devour souls to live.

    After a few more moments, Selena broke out of her thoughts before turning her attention back to Ighor.

    Only a moment later, Selena''s lips landed on Ighor''s forehead, forever branding both his body and soul as her mana quickly entrenched herself in him.

 87 : Twisted

    Staring at the red hickey on Ighor''s forehead, which was quickly submerging itself in him, Beatrice couldn''t help but feel a chill in her heart.

    Suddenly, Ighor opened his eyes, getting up from the coffin.

    "Ighor, you know what you need to do, right?" asked Selena as she stared at her servant, causing Ighor to slightly nod.

    "Yes mistress," said Ighor as he suddenly walked out of the room.

    Staring at Ighor who was walking out of the room without any trace of free will left inside of him, Beatrice couldn''t help but turn to her teacher.

    "Teacher, are you sure he''s fully controlled? If so, why didn''t you do that to the other ones," asked Beatrice as she got up, no longer sitting down on her chair.

    "Don''t worry he''s fully controlled," said Selena, not answering Beatrice''s second question.

    "Understood, then I will go back now," said Beatrice before also walking out of the room.

    ...

    As Beatrice walked inside of her room, she couldn''t help but fall into thought.

    "Elias, make me a cup of tea," said Beatrice as she sat down at her desk, staring into the wall in front of her with a frown on her face.

    Whilst Elias was making the tea, Beatrice began thinking.

    ''It seems as though Mages are not as easily controlled as I thought,'' thought Beatrice as she tapped her fingers on her desk.

    Contrary to Beatrice''s expectations, it seemingly took her teacher some effort to control True Mages, completely differently from what Beatrice had thought was true in the past.

    As Elias walked towards Beatrice with a cup of tea in his hands, he suddenly had an ominous feeling in his heart.

    After Elias handed Beatrice the tea, he simply stood there, waiting for her orders.

    "Elias."

    "What is it, mistress?"

    "Kill yourself,"

    After only a moment of hesitation, Elias suddenly took out a pen from his pocket and brutally stabbed it toward his neck.

    Suddenly, Elias lost control of his body as Beatrice controlled it, preventing him from committing suicide.

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    Staring at Elias who was frozen in place, a cold look appeared on Beatrice''s face.

    "For a moment, you hesitated," bluntly said Beatrice, causing Elias to suddenly freeze.

    "I ordered you to do something, and you hesitated, is that something my servant should be doing?" asked Beatrice as she stared at Elias.

    "No, mistress," said Elias as he began slightly shaking.

    "Then why did you do it? Why did you hesitate? Do you value your life more than my orders?" asked Beatrice as she looked at Elias.

    "No, mistress," said Elias, causing Beatrice''s frown to deepen.

    "If no, then answer my question, why did you hesitate?" asked Beatrice, causing Elias to no longer respond, merely sitting there in silence.

    "Elias, you are now prohibited from refining mana, give me your hand," said Beatrice, prompting Elias to take a step towards Beatrice and stretch out his hand towards her.

    ...

    At this moment, Selena was walking down a hallway, with Ighor following behind her, when she suddenly stopped.

    Hearing the screams of agony, which were coming from Beatrice''s room, Selena couldn''t help but shake her head.

    "Ighor, have you prepared your three former companions for my arrival?" asked Selena, causing Ighor to slightly shake, especially when he heard the word ''companion''.

    The moment Ighor heard those words, the scene of Daniel stabbing a knife into his brain couldn''t help but flash before his eyes, causing anger to arise from within him.

    "Yes mistress, they are ready for your care, but sadly, it seems as though Daniel is not very cooperative," said Ighor, causing a small smile to appear on Selena''s face.

    "Don''t worry, I expected that already, since he doesn''t want to cooperate, he can only be put to good use somewhere else," said Selena as she opened a certain door and stared inside.

    Staring at Daniel''s mutilated body, which was clearly still alive, a small smile couldn''t help but appear on Selena''s face.

    "You go call my disciple here, she''s more suitable to help me," said Selena, causing Daniel to suddenly raise his head, staring straight into her eyes.

    "Kill me."

    "No, at least not yet," said Selena, bluntly responding to Daniel question, causing him to once again lower his head.

    ...

    "Teacher, what do I need to do?" asked Beatrice as she turned her attention to Daniel, who right now was being tied to a table.

    "You should use pour as much of your mana as possible into this guy''s body, don''t try to do anything else, just pour as much in as you can," said Selena as she handed three mana potions over to Beatrice.

    Hearing her teacher''s words, Beatrice couldn''t help but fall into thought as she moved towards Daniel.

    ''Teacher should be able to use her mana to do the same thing that I''m about to do, why doesn''t she do it herself,'' thought Beatrice as placed her hand on the face of the unconscious Daniel.

    Suddenly, Selena appeared next to Beatrice, stretching out her hand and pouring a grey potion into Daniel''s mouth.

    The moment, Selena poured the potion, Beatrice suddenly began feeling as if Daniel''s skin was slightly moving.

    "You can begin now," said Selena as she began closely staring at Daniel.

    Over a minute passed in silence, nothing was seemingly happening whilst Beatrice was pouring her mana into Daniel.

    Over a minute into the procedure, Daniel''s face suddenly began uncontrollably morphing, as he suddenly turned red and caught on fire.

    Thankfully though, this fire did not last long as he once again began morphing but this time, in a completely different way.

    As Beatrice poured her mana into Daniel, she couldn''t help but feel some horror in her heart.

    ''That potion...''

    Staring at the leg, which had emerged from Daniel''s stomach, as well as the head which had grown from his thigh, Beatrice couldn''t help but feel rather fascinated.

    Time passed, and as Beatrice poured more and more mana into Daniel, his body became more and more twisted, more and more monstrous.

 88 : Mana

    Staring at the monster, which was bound to a table in front of him, writhing and screaming in pain, a smile appeared on Ighor''s face.

    After a few more minutes of Beatrice pouring her mana into what Daniel had become, Selena was finally satisfied.

    "You can stop now, this should be enough, you can go back now," said Selena as she approached the monster, causing it to suddenly stop screaming.

    Hearing that, Beatrice no longer stayed inside this room feeling quite uncomfortable.

    As Ighor stared at the monstrosity which Daniel had become, some hesitation appeared on his face.

    "Mistress, is there a reason why you did this to him or did his past anger you?" asked Ighor, causing Selena to let out a chuckle.

    "You don''t have to worry about that, I''m not so petty," said Selena, but for some reason, this seemed to slightly unnerve Ighor even more than if Selena would have said that she did this just t torture, Daniel.

    "Ighor, I want to ask you a question, what do you think, right now, Daniel is dead, or is he alive?" asked Selena as she cut off a piece of flesh from Daniel''s body and placed it in a glass.

    Hearing the question of his mistress, Daniel couldn''t help but slightly hesitate as he stared at the monstrosity lying on the table.

    "Although his body is technically still alive, I can see that the true Daniel has died," said Ighor, causing Selena to fall into thought as well.

    "Even though your words are quite nice, it''s sadly not this simple," said Selena as she shook her head.

    "First of all, Daniel''s soul is still in his body, but sadly, the loss of his sister created an unrepairable crack in it, one which I exploited, morphing his soul into what I desire."

    "By your logic, wouldn''t drinking alcohol make you dead?" asked Selena, causing Ighor t slightly from.

    "On the other hand, the being known as ''Daniel'' is gone, and can never truly return to it''s previous state, as such, he is dead."

    Before Ighor could think Selena''s words though, she suddenly threw another question at him.

    "So, Ighor, who do you think is more alive, you or Daniel," asked Selena as she took some more samples of Daniel''s body, keeping them for safekeeping.

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    After only a moment of hesitation, Ighor responded.

    "I''m the one that''s more alive," said Ighor, causing Selena to chuckle.

    "Hmm, asking you for an unbiased opinion on this topic really is fruitless, but even so, since you answered my question, I will answer your first question," mumbled Selena as she shook her head.

    "The reason I did this experiment on Daniel is very simple, I wanted to determine if completely changing someone''s being killed their previous self, as for the reason I want to find that out..."

    "Curiosity," said Selena, causing sweat to appear on Ighor''s forehead.

    "After all, I am the Witch of Death, do you think I gained this title for nothing? Tell me your true thoughts," asked Selena with a smile on her face.

    Just as Ighor was about to open his mouth, Selena suddenly let out those last words, ''Tell me your true thoughts''.

    "I thought the amount of slaughters you did earned you that title," said Ighor as he looked at his mistress, causing the latter to smile.

    "It looks like you really haven''t researched mages with the Darkness element in the slightest, have you?" asked Selena, prompting Ighor to shake his head.

    "It''s fine, other than us Dark Mages, not many people are interested in this subject," said Selena as she suddenly stabbed a knife deep into Daniel''s chest.

    "Unlike other elements, which are more defined, the use of the Darkness Element is slightly more to interpretation, of its user, and of their thoughts," said Selena.

    "For example, In my opinion, Darkness represents death, as such, my mana is being influenced by this, although this did not affect me in the beginning, after I became a true Mage, the effects of my thoughts became larger and larger, causing my mana to be more lethal than normal."

    "As for when I became an Archmage, well, that''s the reason I had my disciple corrupt Daniel, as my mana would have just killed him," said Selena, as she leisurely took out Daniel''s mutated heart.

    "This also affects the transformation to a True Mage, making our True Forms much more varied then yours."

    "Unlike you earth mages, who mostly become Earth Spirits when you become True Mages, the true form of Dark Mages can vary a large amount, from Shadow Demons, other types of demons, and even eldrich horrors like my fellow apprentice, Errol Dankurk," said Selena, causing Ighor to fall into thought.

    "Even right now, I''m not sure what my little apprentice will transform into when she becomes a True Mage, for her, almost every form is on the table, maybe except a few," said Selena, quietly mumbling the last part.

    Hearing this, Ighor couldn''t help but let out a sigh, he really didn''t expect that his simple question would lead his mistress to begin talking without stopping, if he reading a novel right now, he would have cursed this shameless author for his bad exposition dump.

    ...

    As Beatrice walked into her room, she couldn''t help but let out a sigh before going through a door and staring at a certain figure.

    "Although he stopped screaming, it doesn''t look like he''s recovered yet," thought Beatrice as she stared at Elias, who was tied to an operating table at the moment.

    Although some time had passed since that soul-shattering pain he had felt, Elias still continued shaking, as it''s after effects went through his body.

    ''It looks like I need to get a new servant, one without magic talent this time,'' thought Beatrice as she walked back to her room.

    Even though Beatrice was merciful, and had decided to leave Elias alive, feeling like he would be useful in the future, she did not dare leave him any sensitive information.

    As such, Beatrice had to erase his memories a few times, making sure that he didn''t remember anything.

 89 : Pain

    Approaching the still-unconscious Elias who was lying down on an operating table, Beatrice placed her hand on his forehead.

    "Hopefully my intuition is correct, and you are still useful in the future," mumbled Beatrice as she once again began erasing Elias''s memories.

    Although one could erase someone''s memories by eradicating them from the brain, Beatrice, would not feel safe if she merely did that, in fact, Beatrice would prefer killing Elias if her only option was doing something like that.

    Instead of that, Beatrice did something else, destroy these memories straight from Elias''s soul, hitting two birds with one.

    Not only would Beatrice be able to be completely certain that Elias would have none of his memories from his time with her, she would also be able to slowly but surely increase her mastery and understanding of the soul, which was still extremely foreign to her.

    In fact, that second benefit was probably the reason why Beatrice even decided to erase the memories of Elias in the first place, after all, he only showed a tiny bit of hesitation when his life was on the line, and even that would disappear as Beatrice became more and more powerful.

    But sadly for Elias, the idea of wiping his memories of her appeared in Beatrice''s mind, causing him to suffer his current face.

    "Elias, wake up," said Beatrice, as she sent a small shockwave through the body of Elias, starting from his forehead.

    A moment after that, Elias suddenly opened his eyes.

    "Who are yo-,"

    Halfway through his sentence, Elias suddenly stopped, as some faint fragments of memories flashed through his mind, this, alongside the aftereffects of the Dark Manipulation spell, caused Elias to suddenly follow the words of his mistress, which he faintly remembered.

    ''Don''t talk unless asked to.''

    Seeing this, Beatrice shook her head as she suddenly moved a finger to the back of Elias'' neck, causing him to once again fall unconscious.

    "It looks like those memories are still there," mumbled Beatrice as she once again made sure that Elias was properly tied to the bed.

    ...

    Unlike manipulating someone''s brain, trying to do so with someone''s soul is not such a simple process, although in either case, one single mistake could result in the death of your target, the soul is very different from the brain, relying much more on instinct and intuition.

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    Even trying to do something as simple as to simply destroy someone''s memories, not trying to alter them in the slightest, is an extremely difficult process.

    Because of this, Beatrice chose the easiest method imaginable to achieve this goal of her, trying to gain experience in the process.

    Sanding.

    After managing to identify the target''s memories, more specifically his most recent ones, Beatrice began slowly but surely sanding them.

    Although this might seem counterintuitive, as back when Beatrice had seen her own soul, it was in the form of a fog, this strategy seemingly worked, allowing Beatrice to sand off Elias'' memories.

    "Perhaps this is why that book did not bother to talk about the shape of the soul," mumbled Beatrice as she carefully used her mind to access Elias''s soul.

    Some time ago, Beatrice had become slightly curious about the soul, as such, she then read a notebook about it from her teacher''s collection.

    Sadly though, this notebook was nearly completely useless other than providing one clue on a certain topic, accessing the soul.

    Although the author of the book seemed completely mad, Beatrice still paid attention to his words, as there had to be a reason why her teacher had kept it in her collection.

    Accessing the soul was extremely easy for Beatrice, unlike what she had expected.

    From the book, Beatrice learned that the author, after finding an ancient text, tried to use his mind to sense the soul of a single person, his wife, who he loved dearly.

    For three years, the author kept his wife, the person to who he had the greatest connection, and tried to use his mind to discover her soul.

    Eventually, the author was able to sense the soul of his wife, but rather sadly, in his excitement, the author accidentally injured the soul of his wife, killing her.

    Perhaps this was the reason why the author went mad in the first place, beginning to write complete and utter nonsense in his notebook, not mentioning any details about the shape or feel of the soul.

    Thankfully though, Beatrice read his book, and after trying to sense Elias'' soul for five minutes, she succeeded.

    Although the fact that the author of the book wasn''t a mage may have played a part in his slow speed, Beatrice still felt as though her speed was somewhat, unusual.

    After all, even though Beatrice did not try to study it in her past life, it seemed as though mages mastering magic that truly affected the soul were extremely rare.

    ...

    As Beatrice gently sanded away at Elias'' memories, she couldn''t help but fall into thought.

    "The soul really is weird," mumbled Beatrice, thinking about the soul, Beatrice had managed to sense souls in three different ways.

    A sphere which she could sand.

    A mist.

    A blob.

    "A blob?" mumbled Beatrice, some confusion appearing on her face.

    "I better focus on my work, I''m even making up random things," mumbled Beatrice as she turned her attention back to Elias.

    ...

    Pain, pain, pain, pain, pain.

    One moment, Elias would become unconscious, regaining consciousness another moment, with only a single thought managing to enter his mind, Pain.

    In the next moment, Elias would suddenly faint from the pain, once again repeating the cycle.

    Thankfully for him though, as time passed the pain Elias felt slowly began dulling, letting him think more and more.

    At the same time, this made Elias'' situation somewhat worse in the short run, allowing him to feel his current state.

    Right now, when conscious, Elias felt he had been completely skinned alive, sadly, Elias knew that being skinned alive would not be as painful as what he had been feeling at the moment.

    Staring at Elias, who was rapidly losing and regaining consciousness, a small smile couldn''t help but appear on Beatrice''s face.

    "It looks like I didn''t do as much collateral damage as last time," mumbled Beatrice, satisfied with her improvement speed.

 90 : Relaxation

    Looking at Elias, who was sleeping peacefully on the operating table, a small smile appeared on Beatrice''s face.

    After making sure that Elias was fully tied to the table, and could not move in the slightest, Beatrice walked out of her lab and entered her room opening a certain closed, and staring at the robes in inside.

    "These ones are a little bit bigger," mumbled Beatrice as she touched the robes in her closet.

    It seems as though after noticing that Beatrice had grown up somewhat since she had first come here, Selena decided to replace all of Beatrice''s previous robes, except for the one that she was wearing at the moment, with robes a few sizes larger.

    "Hmm, this robe really is a little tighter than I remember," mumbled Beatrice.

    Without even realizing it, in the over half a year that Beatrice had been under the care of her new teacher, she had begun growing quite rapidly, so much so that even her rather loose robe needed to be replaced.

    ...

    Feeling the hot water rushing over her body, Beatrice couldn''t help but let out a relaxed sigh before turning off the shower and walking towards a now full bathtub.

    In only a few moments, Beatrice had sunk into the full bathtub, causing some hot water to fall down it''s sides and onto the floor below.

    "I really haven''t enjoyed myself in a while," mumbled Beatrice as she closed her eyes, enjoying the bath with a smile on her face.

    Ever since Beatrice has become a High Ranking mage apprentice, her body became much cleaner than before, thus reducing Beatrice''s need for a bath.

    With her eyes closed, Beatrice slowly but surely became more and more relaxed, eventually falling asleep in the bathtub.

    ...

    As Selena walked into the bath of her underground home, a some surprise couldn''t help but appear on her face.

    Back when she was young, Selena used to enjoy baths very much, but as she became more and more powerful, she slowly lost the need for such a thing, her body adequately cleaning itself on it''s.

    Because of this, although Selena enjoyed them very much, the last bath she managed to take was over half a year ago, when she had just obtained her little disciple.

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    As water began pouring into Selena''s bathtub, the latter couldn''t help but turn her attention to the other person in the bath, whom she had previously ignored.

    "Relaxing, ho, that''s surprising," mumbled Selena as she approached her disciple from behind, touching the latter''s hair.

    For some reason, perhaps because of the fact that she felt at peace, or perhaps because of some spell Selena had cast, Beatrice did not wake up and still slept peacefully in the bath.

    As Selena did so, she couldn''t help but inadvertently move her eyes toward Beatrice''s breasts, which were floating in the water.

    "You really grew up quiet a bit," mumbled Selena with a weird tone in her voice as she lowered her body into the bathtub.

    ...

    The moment Beatrice woke up, she could hear the faint sound of hearing from the bathtub next to her, causing some caution to appear on her face for a moment before disappearing, as Beatrice realized who that was.

    As soon as Beatrice opened her eyes, she couldn''t help but turn her head sideways, staring at her teacher, who was looking straight at her at the moment.

    For some reason, as Beatrice looked at her teacher who seemed extremely casual, unlike her usual self, a weird feeling couldn''t help but emerge from within Beatrice, one that she had not felt for a long amount of time.

    Feeling the gaze of her disciple, the smile on Selena''s face suddenly transformed, as if something had been unleashed from inside of her.

    "A disciple lusting after her own teacher, that''s not very nice, is it?" asked Selena, causing Beatrice''s eyes to narrow.

    ...

    Unlike most other days, where Beatrice only slept one or two hours or even didn''t sleep at all, tonight, Beatrice slept for five hours straight.

    Once again, completely unlike her usual self, even after Beatrice woke up, she merely stayed still with her eyes closed, enjoying the warn embrace of both the bed and the figure behind her.

    Eventually, though, the figure behind Beatrice disappeared, causing her to open her eyes.

    Staring at the ceiling of the completely unfamiliar room, a weird expression couldn''t help but appear on Beatrice''s face.

    After some time, a voice broke Beatrice out of her trance.

    "None of your clothes are here, you can go back to your room to get dressed," said Selena as she took one final look at her disciple, who seemed tired even now, before leaving the room and going on her way.

    "That was much more enjoyable than toying with those maids back at the estate," mumbled Beatrice as she got up from the bed, regaining her bearing.

    When Beatrice was back at her home, when she had desires, she would have a maid service her, depending on her mood.

    But eventually, Beatrice became completely bored of those maids, and at the same time, her desires completely disappeared.

    As she silently bit her lip, Beatrice got up from the bed and walked to the bathroom door, which was nearby, from the bathroom, Beatrice then entered her room.

    Afterward, Beatrice quickly got dressed, putting on some clothes as well as a robe above them, before sitting down at her desk not long after.

    "I''m in a good mood, hopefully, that means I will make some good progress today," mumbled Beatrice as she took out the still-separated parts of the information cube from her desk.

    Suddenly, just as Beatrice was about to ask Elias for a cup of tea, she stopped.

    ''I guess I need a new servant,'' thought Beatrice as she shook her head, turning her attention back to her work.

    ...

    "Mistress, you seem to be in a good mood today," said Ighor as he looked at the Witch of Death, who had a faint smile on her face.

    Hearing that, Selena let out a small chuckle before shaking her head, ignoring Ighor''s words.

 91 : Coincidence

    For the past three hours, Beatrice studied the Logic core of the Information cube.

    As Beatrice''s finger touched the tiny Logic Core on her desk, the small frown that she previously had on her face deepened.

    "This doesn''t make any sense," mumbled Beatrice, staring at the core in front of her.

    Unlike what Beatrice previously expected, the more she studied and understood the logic core, the more things seemed wrong with it.

    After thinking for a few more minutes, Beatrice placed the logic core back into her desk before getting up from the desk and slightly stretching her body.

    "Maybe I should get some a little more mouldable," mumbled Beatrice as she fell into thought.

    ...

    Later that day, inside of a certain town,

    Staring at the little girl, who was peacefully sleeping in a cage, seemingly unaware of her surroundings, a small smile appeared on Beatrice''s face.

    "So will you buy her? You can see that I gave you a reasonable price," asked a middle-aged man, looking at Beatrice with some expectation visible on his face.

    Not responding to the words of the middle-aged man, Beatrice stretched out her hand towards the cage, easily bypassing the lock and opening it.

    A moment later, Beatrice picked up the still sleeping girl, causing the expression of the middle-aged man to finally change.

    Just as the middle-aged man was about to move toward Beatrice, he suddenly froze, as his entire body began melting a moment later.

    Sometime later, Beatrice could be seen walking out of the slave marked with a little girl in her hands before suddenly stopping at a corner, feeling a gaze suddenly land on her.

    For the first time in half a year, a serious expression appeared on Beatrice''s face.

    Right now, Beatrice felt an insane bloodlust be directed at her.

    "Stalking someone isn''t very nice, you should stop hiding in the shadows, whoever you are," said Beatrice, causing her to hear a small chuckle before a figure suddenly appeared not far away from her.

    As Beatrice stared at the girl, who looked around her own age, the frown on her face deepened.

    Although through bloodlust alone, Beatrice wasn''t able to feel it, as soon as she saw her opponent, Beatrice instantly knew what sort of person her opponent actually was.

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    ''She''s insane,'' thought Beatrice, letting out a silent sigh of frustration in the process.

    Even if they were more powerful than her, Beatrice wasn''t afraid of most opponents in the slightest, as long as they were rational.

    Rather, irrational opponents frightened Beatrice quite a bit more, as most of them would disregard their own safety just to attack their opponent.

    ''It looks like this one is after something,'' thought Beatrice as stared at her unmoving opponent, unwilling to make the first move.

    "So, what are you after, I am not unreasonable, I am willing to negotiate," said Beatrice, interrupting the stare of the woman.

    "It seems as though he''s still alive," thought Ella as she looked at the white-haired mage in front of her, breathing a silent sigh of relief.

    Although Ella did not physically see her brother, as she stared at the white-haired mage, she could detect that her brother had been in close contact with her not long ago.

    If, in fact, her brother was dead, Ella wouldn''t be here right now, as she wouldn''t be so leisurely right now.

    "I''m looking for a little boy, I know he is in your possession," said Ella, causing a huge frown to appear on Beatrice''s face.

    Hearing the words of the unknown mage, a single thought couldn''t help but enter Beatrice''s mind.

    ''This is quite a coincidence, too big of a coincidence,'' thought Beatrice as she looked at the mage standing opposite of her.

    Not long ago, Beatrice had decided to wipe Elias'' memories, and now, not long after, someone came to look after him, whoever created this coincidence was way too blatant.

    After all, there was no way that all of this was a coincidence, right?

    ...

    Three days later, inside of an inn room.

    At this moment, Ella was sitting down on a chair, holding a relatively large bag in her hands, staring at the door to the room.

    Time passed, minute after minute, and eventually two hours passed, causing Ella to begin thinking that the other party had abandoned the deal.

    Suddenly, faint footsteps sounded through the hallway, slowly but surely approaching the room.

    Hearing the footsteps, which were obviously trying to warn her that someone was coming, Ella''s frown slightly eased.

    A moment later, the white-haired mage suddenly walked into the room and stared at Ella.

    Seeing this, Ella suddenly threw the large bag in her hands toward the mage, only for it to stop mid-air.

    "That should be all of them, you can count them if you want," said Ella, as she continued staring.

    ''She killed even more people since our last people, probably even mages so as to obtain the elemental stones necessary for the deal,'' thought Beatrice as she silently weighed the elemental stone bag in her hands.

    Beatrice then got out of the doorway, and stepped into the hall alongside the bag, letting a figure slowly float into the room.

    Without any warning, Ella suddenly tightly hugged her brother, staring into the hallway at the same time.

    "It''s better that you are gone," mumbled Ella breathing a sigh of relief as she looked at the empty hall.

    If that mage dared to stay in her presence after she had her brother back, Ella did not know if she could restrain herself like before.

    After that, Ella turned her attention back to her little brother.

    "Don''t worry little Elias, sister will protect you from now," mumbled Ella as she continued hugging her brother.

    ...

    As Beatrice stared at the bag of elemental stones sitting in the middle of her room, thoughts couldn''t help but swirl around her mind.

    "This coincidence is really too troublesome," mumbled Beatrice as she touched her forehead.

    Although in the end, Beatrice did benefit from the coincidence, something really didn''t sit right with her.

 92 : Soul

    At the same time, in Deasdon City, Dyon Kingdom.

    Looking at her little brother, Elias, who had yet to wake up eleven hours after she had gotten her hands on him, a dark look hung on Ella''s face.

    Suddenly, that look disappeared, as Elias, who had been unmoving up until now, suddenly flinched, shivering, as if he was afraid.

    Seeing this, Ella suddenly embraced her brother, holding him tightly whilst patting his head.

    "Elias, you don''t have to be afraid, sister is here," mumbled Ella, causing Elias'' eyes to slightly move.

    After a few moments, Elias'' eyes couldn''t help but fully open, causing the fear on his face to be wiped away the moment he saw his sister.

    Without saying anything, the still-shivering Elias hugged his sister, simply enjoying her presence.

    ...

    At the same time, whilst Elias and his sister were having a joyous reunion, in her underground home, Beatrice also had a source of joy at the moment.

    Although the coincidence unnerved Beatrice quite a lot, she could do nothing to make sure that it wasn''t harmful to her, as such, Beatrice could only continue moving on as if it hadn''t happened.

    As she stared at the Logic Core in front of her, Beatrice couldn''t help but touch her eyes, as she was completely unable to focus on her work today, with her mind continuously going to Elias, and whether Beatrice had done anything.

    Had she left any traces that might lead back to her?

    Had she fully wiped any and wall memories from his brain?

    Was she thorough enough in wiping his soul?

    Although she had the answer to all of these questions, for some reason, Beatrice couldn''t help but feel somewhat weird as she thought about them, especially the last one.

    Suddenly, Beatrice froze in place, as she moved her head down and stared at the logic core in front of her.

    At this moment, as she was thinking about the soul, she couldn''t help but notice something, a tiny, nearly insignificant thing she hadn''t noticed up until now.

    Staring at the Logic Core in front of her, Beatrice''s point of view suddenly shifted, as she no longer looked at it as if it was just an object, but rather, looked at it as if it was a living being.

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    A tiny, insignificant soul, which if placed in a living being, would be nearly unnoticeable, but in contrast to the metal around it, this soul suddenly became completely obvious to Beatrice.

    "Elias, you even benefited me one final time, how kind of you," mumbled Beatrice as she suddenly raised her eyes, looking at her door, as a young girl dressed in a maid uniform now walk into the room.

    Previously, Beatrice liked to take men as servants so that she could have them carry things for her, but right now, Beatrice had decided to go a different route.

    Perhaps someone more pleasant to look at would bring Beatrice some inspiration?

    Looking at the little girl, who still seemed somewhat nervous around Beatrice, even after being controlled by the latter, a small smile couldn''t help but unconsciously appear on Beatrice''s face

    Although it had only been around half a day since Beatrice obtained the little girl, Guinevere, from the slave market, the change in the latter was completely apparent.

    "Little Guinevere, come bring me my tea faster, you don''t have to be nervous," said Beatrice, causing the little girl to suddenly speed up.

    Sadly though, as Guinevere sped up and was about to walk over a carpet, her one of her feet sadly went underneath it, causing Guinevere, as well as the tea, to fall forward.

    Suddenly, the cup of tea, which was about to spill all over the ground, froze mid-air, at the same time, Guinevere, who was about to fall on the ground, floated back up.

    "Guinevere, you have to be more careful, I will teach you some knight Breathing Techniques later, I can''t have you hurting yourself, you understand?" said Beatrice, as her new cup of tea floated over to her.

    "Understood mistress," said Guinevere as she walked towards Beatrice''s desk and picked up the empty cup of tea Beatrice had drunk some time before.

    "You can bring me another cup in 45 minutes," mumbled Beatrice, causing Guinevere to nervously nod before leaving.

    After Guinevere left, and Beatrice was left alone, she couldn''t help but let out a slight chuckle.

    "As expected, my mood already got better, Is this how my teacher feels?" mumbled Beatrice as she took a sip out of her teacup.

    After a few moments, Beatrice got back to work, focusing back on the little soul stuck in the logic core.

    ...

    "Was this something popular back in those ages?" mumbled Beatrice as she stared at the logic core in front of her.

    As the core itself clearly did not have enough space for managing the full capabilities of the Information Cube, including both image and video, a tiny soul, programmed to respond to information given to it was used.

    At first, Beatrice thought that an artificial soul was used, but after some time, she discovered that she had overestimated the capabilities o the creators of this cube, at the same time, she underestimated their morals.

    Not long after Beatrice began working with the soul, trying to figure out how it worked, she realized something.

    Long ago, before being transformed and used for this cube, this soul was formerly human.

    Sadly though, it seemed as though for some reason, the creators of the cube decided to almost completely destroy the capabilities of the soul.

    Calling this soul a shell of it''s former self was a complete understatement, as it did not even have one percent of the capabilities of a human soul.

    Now after experimenting with the soul for a few hours, all of the pieces of the puzzle, which previously did not fit in place neatly, suddenly made sense.

    Perhaps sometime in the future, not now, Beatrice would be able to construct some cubes of her own, but that was not what mattered now.

    What mattered now was that these cubes were safe to use, and did not have any thing hidden inside of it that could share what Beatrice wrote in them.

 93 : Practice

    Looking at her apprentice, who was sitting on a chair in front of her, the Witch of Death couldn''t help but slightly smile.

    "Oh, so you want me to teach you about the soul?" asked Selena as she looked at Beatrice, having a slight smile on her face.

    "Yes," said Beatrice causing Selena to nod before getting up from her desk.

    "Very well then, follow me," said Selena as she walked out of the room.

    As she followed her teacher, Beatrice couldn''t help but become somewhat nervous for some reason.

    Time passed as Beatrice slowly but surely walked behind Selena, and under Beatrice''s horrified gaze, the two arrived in an area Beatrice had no idea existed.

    The two of them had not walked through any locked doors, nor through any places that were particularly hidden but for some reason, Beatrice had been completely unable to discover it.

    Even now, after having walked through the corridors, Beatrice''s memory still failed her for some reason, as by the time she had realized it, Beatrice had managed to forget the way she took to get here.

    Although Beatrice was lost in her thoughts, her body continued to follow her teacher, as the latter suddenly arrived at a metal door, placing her hand on it.

    A few moments after Selena placed her hand on it, the door opened, allowing both her and Beatrice to walk in.

    A rather chilling scene greeted Beatrice when she walked into the room.

    Staring at the family of four, which was completely oblivious to the entry of the two mages, Beatrice couldn''t help but feel a chill crawl up her spine.

    A father, a mother, a son and a daughter, a peacefull family were eating together at the moment, after staring at them for a few moments, Beatrice was clearly able to see souls of them family, each of them being full of vitality.

    But for some reason, as she stared at the family, Beatrice slightly flinched.

    "My dear disciple, so, what do you think, are these people alive?" asked Selena as she stopped looking at the family and turned back towards her daughter.

    After a few moments of hesitation, Beatrice opened her mouth, speaking her opinion.

    "Dead."

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    "Yes, that''s true, in my opinion, this family is dead," said Selena, causing the scene in front of the two to suddenly freeze.

    "Even though this family still has their souls, in they are utterly dead in my opinion, as the true them have died long ago," said Selena as she snapped her fingers, causing the family to disappear.

    Hearing this, Beatrice couldn''t help but think about her servants, falling into thought, causing Selena to shake her head.

    "Trying to compare the humans that you have controlled with what happened to this family is truly pointless, the comparison doesn''t even make any sense, after all, those humans were clearly still alive when you were controlling them, don''t try to make such a stupid comparison," said Selena, causing Beatrice to break out of her trance.

    "Unlike them, this family was fully dead, gone from existence after their very souls had been wiped clean," said Selena, causing Beatrice to shiver.

    Seeing this, Selena let out a chuckle.

    "Sadly though, this spell which I created has no use, as living servants are much more valuable than dead ones," said Selena, causing Beatrice to nod.

    "That''s true," mumbled Beatrice as she suddenly felt her body moving.

    In a mere instant, before Beatrice could react in the slightest, she found herself in another location, surrounded by bright lights, causing her to slightly close her eyes.

    "So you can already sense souls, that''s good," mumbled Selena as she snapped her fingers, causing Beatrice to suddenly reappear inside another room, standing in front of a small child.

    "Unlike bodies, and other things in the material world, which have a fixed size and shape, souls do not have a set shape, changing in the vision of the viewer from many factors, so many, that even trying to mention all of them would be a waste of time, now let''s see how skilled you are, I want you to control the soul of the being in front of you," said Selena, causing Beatrice to slightly frown, but even so, Beatrice tried to work with her teacher''s request.

    After staring at the small child in front of her, the latter''s soul was suddenly revealed to Beatrice, causing her to suddenly discover why she couldn''t see it at first glance, unlike the souls of the family.

    Staring at the small flower, which looked as though it could be swept up by the wind at any moment, Beatrice shook her head, feeling a slight amount of pity for the child.

    Even so, Beatrice still continued on with her teacher''s request, not hesitating in the slightest.

    It was as if a large hand had suddenly touched the fragile flower, trying to lower its huge body to smell it.

    No matter how much the giant tried to restrain itself, as soon as it exerted even a tiny bit of force on the flower, the latter was suddenly ripped out of the ground, causing its tiny bit of life force to be snuffed out.

    "Quite a pity," mumbled Beatrice as she opened her eyes, staring at the child, which had now fallen over to the ground, any and all life remaining in its body having been destroyed.

    Staring at the scene in front of her, Selena slightly smirked, snapping her fingers.

    "Go on, don''t worry, these souls have been purposefully weakened by me, leaving only a trace, with your large amount of spiritual you should be able to control them if you have enough precision," said Selena.

    "Only after we can manage to increase your control of souls can I teach you some more in-depth things," said Selena as she began watching Beatrice snuff life after life out.

    Right now, unlike the First Time she had learned the Dark Manipulation Spell, Beatrice could be much more wasteful with her test subjects.

    Sadly though, even with all of these advantages, Selena ended the first day of training after Beatrice killed 23 of her slaves and failed to successfully control even one of them, deciding that this was enough for today.

 94 : Finished

    Sometime after Beatrice had finished training.

    As she sat down on her bed, Beatrice couldn''t help but take a deep breath.

    "This might take a while," mumbled Beatrice as she thought about the training method her teacher decided on.

    Remembering how easily those fragile souls crumbled to dust, Beatrice couldn''t help but feel sweat appearing on her forehead as she thought about her encounter with her own soul back in her past life.

    If she was even slightly more reckless back then, Beatrice was sure that she would have probably done some damage to her soul.

    ''Thankfully I was cautious,'' thought Beatrice as she clenched her fist, closing her eyes a few moments later.

    Before Beatrice began refining mana, she began looking through her still-fresh memories, reliving the attempts at controlling those souls.

    The first time Beatrice attempted to control a soul, she used too much force far too suddenly on the fragile thing, completely destroying it.

    Seeing this, on her next attempt, Beatrice tried to be more cautious with the amount of force she used, and because of this, nothing happened.

    With how gentle Beatrice was on the soul, there wasn''t any chance that she could even attempt to take control of it, as such, Beatrice slightly increased the amount of power he was throwing toward the soul.

    Sadly, this was also way too much, as the soul was once again destroyed by Beatrice.

    This cycle continued on and on, up until her teacher decided that Beatrice had enough training for the day.

    After reliving those memories a few times, Beatrice let out a slightly defeated sigh before beginning to refine mana, as she could not ignore any facet of her training.

    Several hours later

    After finishing refining mana for the day, Beatrice got up from her bed and walked into a side room, where over a hundred small boxes with ants were present.

    Whilst watching Guinevere carefully feed the ants whilst staring at a list, Beatrice nodded before walking up to the first box and silently casting a spell on the single little and sitting inside of it.

    "It''s going to take some more time for the next generation of ants to be born," mumbled Beatrice as she stretched out her finger into the box, gently touching the lonely ant sitting inside of it.

    Seemingly as a response to this touch, the ant gently leaned against Beatrice''s finger, causing a smile to appear on the latter''s face.

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    The moment Beatrice spoke, Guinevere, who was feeding a certain ant, raised her head and stared at her for a moment, returning her attention back to the ant a moment later.

    As the Ant Growth spell was designed to help entire new colonies of ants grow up, Beatrice did not have to spend much mana casting it, allowing her to cast it over a hundred times without much effort.

    Because of this, Beatrice could cast the spell on the few dozen ants without spending much effort in the slightest, as the rest of the ants had already grown up, having been the ones who created these young ants.

    ...

    Two weeks later,

    For the past two weeks, Beatrice continued her normal routine, only having some changes in it.

    After making sure that the Information Cube was safe to use, Beatrice then spent some of the time she used to spend on researching it to move her notes inside of one of the cubes.

    Although moving all of her notes was quite troublesome, Beatrice was quite willing to spend the time to do so, after all, no matter what, the human mind is fallible.

    Having all of her notes in one place ensured that Beatrice would never forget or lose any of them, at the same time, this created some more empty space inside of Beatrice''s room, as she got rid of her old notebooks.

    Even though this is not much of a benefit, because Beatrice''s room is quite large, this is still somewhat nice.

    At the same time, throughout these few weeks, Beatrice continued training with her teacher in her attempt to control a soul.

    Over these past few weeks, although Beatrice felt as though she had some progress, she did manage to succeed in controlling a single one, up until now.

    ...

    Staring at the white-haired little girl in front of her, a small smile couldn''t help but appear on Beatrice''s face, causing the black face of the little girl to also change, as a smile appeared on it.

    Looking at the scene in front of her, a satisfied expression appeared on Selena''s face.

    Although Beatrice''s knowledge of the soul had stayed the same after these two weeks, using the specially prepared souls, Beatrice was able to increase her mastery of the soul by a lot.

    Throughout these two weeks, Selena had been able to see the talent her disciple had in the aspect of the soul firsthand.

    ''With the amount of spiritual power she naturally had, it makes sense that her talent in this aspect is great,'' thought Selena as she continued looking at her disciples.

    Although the major Mage Academies try to keep the talents of their disciples a secret, especially from dangerous rogue mages who would harm them, such as the infamous Witch of Death, Selena still managed to find out the talent of her disciple, including her original spiritual power.

    After a few moments, Selena shook her head, breaking out of her thoughts as she suddenly appeared before Beatrice.

    "It seems as though you have finally succeeded in controlling your target, my dear apprentice, now I can finally conclude that your training can be considered finished," said Selena as she looked at Beatrice, causing a confused expression to appear on the latter''s face.

    Seeing this, Selena couldn''t help but shake her head.

    "As you may have already noticed, the soul is completely unlike most other things, being extremely personal, this is the reason I let you train on your own, only giving you the means to do so, whilst supervising you."

    "If I had trained to impart my experience to you, it may have taken you much longer to achieve your current mastery, at the same time, I may have even led you to the wrong path," said Selena whilst taking out a notebook from her robe, causing Beatrice to nod as she stretched out her hands, gripping the leather notebook into her hands.

    "Some of my experiences with the soul, as well as some of my earlier research, is recorded in that notebook, you should use it as a reference," said Selena.

    "I understand," mumbled Beatrice as she held the notebook into her hands

 95 : Research

    As Beatrice walked through the underground corridors of her home, holding the leather notebook she had obtained not long ago in her hands, she couldn''t help but fall into thought.

    After a few minutes, Beatrice arrived back at her room, upon entering the room, Beatrice closed the door behind her and sat down at her desk.

    A few moments after that, as Beatrice had opened the notebook and was just about to read it, Guinevere entered the room as well, holding a cup of tea in her hands.

    Picking up the cup of tea from Guinevere''s hands and smelling its warn flavor, a faint smile couldn''t help but appear on Beatrice''s face.

    "Don''t disturb me for the next few hours, I will tell you whether I want another cup of tea," said Beatrice, causing Guinevere to silently bow before walking out of the room.

    Sometime after Guinevere left the room, Beatrice finally turned her attention back to the leather notebook sitting open on her desk.

    ...

    Several days later,

    For the past four days, Beatrice had become completely focused on experimenting on the small soul inside of an Information Cube.

    Of course, right now Beatrice no longer used the Information Cube that she recorded her notebooks in for experiments.

    Quickly, after only a few hours of researching, Beatrice figured out the way the soul in the Information Cube was programmed, causing it to lose some of it''s mysticism in her eyes, becoming much less impressive.

    Unlike what Beatrice expected, the soul in the Information Cube was not fully reprogrammed, rather, the Information Cube used memories, leaving the rest of the soul nearly unchanged, only having some parts, like free will, destroyed.

    After around a day of work, using her teacher''s notebook as a guide, Beatrice was able to carefully read the memories of the soul, although the soul did not resist in the slightest, Beatrice almost caused it to collapse several times in the process of reading its memories, thankfully, Beatrice had not tried to experiment on this soul before she went to her teacher for help, otherwise, things might have gone even worse.

    Of course, with Beatrice''s current capabilities, trying to read the memories from the soul of an actual living being would probably end up with that person fully dead and leave Beatrice with no information in the slightest.

    It had taken Beatrice three more days of careful planning, as well as several near-failures that could have led to soul destruction, to slightly change the memories of the soul.

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    ...

    Staring at the disassembled Information Cube in front of her, Beatrice took in a deep breath, causing the logic core to suddenly float in the air.

    A few moments later, Beatrice carefully controlled a tiny mana checker, slowly but surely moving it to the rectangular-shaped hole inside present straight in the center of the logic core.

    After making sure that the mana checker had been successfully fitted in, and looked the same as before it had been taken out, Beatrice breathed a sigh of relief.

    Beatrice then began pouring mana, which was shaking at a frequency of 43 times per second into the mana checker, causing it to begin it''s work after a few moments.

    Only a few moments later, the tiny gap, which separated the Logic Core and the Mana Checker disappeared, as the two objects began melting together into one solid object, a perfect sphere.

    Opening the drawer beneath her desk, Beatrice waved her hand, causing two extremely thin semi-spheres to slowly but surely float out of a cushioned box.

    The Encryptor transformed text typed at the keyboard into information suitable to be stored in the Memory Keeper, as well as the Decryptor, which did the opposite, making the information readable by humans.

    The two thin semi-spheres then slowly floated the sides of the sphere, which had been created a few moments ago, enveloping it, causing it to become a tiny bit larger.

    After making sure that the two objects had been fitted properly, Beatrice once again poured some more mana into the Mana Checker, causing the two spheres to melt together, creating the full core of the Information cube.

    ...

    Although Beatrice was quite experienced in assembling and disassembling the Information Cube, doing so still took her over ten minutes, as her cautiousness caught up with her, forcing her to slow down.

    "Hopefully it works," mumbled Beatrice as she picked up the now whole information cube, pouring mana that was shaking 22 times per second into it.

    Quickly, after the man had been poured into the metal walls of the information cube, which were made out of a metal Beatrice had not discovered the name of, it flew into the mana tubes present inside, then traveled to the Mana Checker.

    A few moments later, a keyboard as well as a large amount of text suddenly appeared in front of Beatrice.

    ''Test 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,0''

    ''Test A,a,B,b,C,c...''

    ''Test...''

    ''Te...''

    ''T...''

    ''...''

    Only after making sure that all of the dozen or so tests that she had created succeeded, did Beatrice finally calm down, breathing a sigh of relief.

    Right now, Beatrice felt as though the large amount of effort she had spent researching the Information Cube was finally not in vain, as she had once again made great progress.

    After a few moments, the happy expression on Beatrice''s face faded, being replaced by her normal expression as she calmed down.

    ''I can''t be too happy, I''ve merely changed some text, this is nothing compared with what I could do to the Information Cube,'' thought Beatrice as she picked up the cube once again, thoughts swirling in her mind.

    A few moments later, Beatrice placed the information cube back down on her desk as she got up from her chair.

    Walking up to a certain drawer, Beatrice couldn''t help but shake her head she stared at the tiny metal box inside of it.

    After opening the metal box, Beatrice was clearly able to see the metal bug peacefully lying inside, as well as the clear lack of soul in it.

    ''I need to ask that Ighor for some help, otherwise I don''t think researching this will go well,'' thought Beatrice as she closed the box before taking it out of the drawer.

 96 : War

    Several days later,

    Staring at the little ant egg sitting in the middle of a metal box, Beatrice couldn''t help but take in a deep breath, as a smile appeared on her face.

    "As long as none of the ants die halfway through, and things continue the same way, the first Earth Ant should be born in about four weeks," mumbled Beatrice as she touched the tiny Yadoilae ant egg in front of her.

    After Beatrice successfully cast the Ant control spell on the Yadoilae ant, she then walked up towards another box, then another, each of them holding a single or just a few ant eggs inside of them.

    Beatrice''s efforts in breeding ants gave out certain results, namely, four different species of ants, each of which had long since extinct for whatever reason.

    The Yadoilae and Gnechinian ants, which would eventually breed together to hopefully give birth to a Nunnileon ant.

    As well as the Gneonoid and Stotid ants, which will create an Onone ant.

    Finally, the Nunnileon and the Onone ants be crossbred so as to hopefully create an Earth Ant.

    Although Beatrice could have gotten rid of the earlier ant colonies, she decided to leave some of them alive, as a sort of backup, as for the vast majority of the ant colonies, which had grown somewhat large over time, Beatrice decided to do something else with them.

    "Hopefully you give me some excitement, my little buddies," mumbled Beatrice as she picked up a box that held a colony of over a thousand ants inside of it.

    Inside of this box stood the Burvopous ant colony, which thrived at a temperature of mostly -7 to -10 degrees, dying when exposed to other temperatures.

    ...

    War, war was something utterly horrific, but sadly, in the struggle for the limited resources available war was inevitable, in the pursuit of growth, as well as survival, thousands of ants would wage war every day against their bellow brethren.

    Colonies fighting against each other for survival, leaving no ant behind.

    It had been long since the ants had been transported from their peacefull home into this battlefield, enough time had passed that an entire generation of ants had managed to be born, one which knew no peace, living only in the terror of war every moment of their lives.

    ...

    Staring at the several-meter-tall box in front of her, Beatrice couldn''t help but smile.

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    Two weeks ago, back when she was just breeding a new generation of ants, a somewhat strange idea couldn''t help but appear in Beatrice''s mind.

    ''What would happen if she put all of the ants in one place?''

    After this idea entered her mind, she quickly put it into action, managing to obtain a large enclosure, suitable for ants for sixteen elemental stones, a worthwhile price in Beatrice''s opinion.

    A seven-meter tall and twelve meters wide and long rectangle, this was the new home of the over one hundred ant colonies in Beatrice''s collection.

    Every single day, Beatrice would send food into the rectangle, placing it at eight points near the eight corners of the rectangle.

    Over the course of two weeks, the number of ant colonies in the rectangle drastically decreased, from over one hundred to just around thirty.

    Thankfully though, under the effects of the Ant Growth spell, not only did the number of ants in the enclosure not decrease, but it increased instead.

    As Beatrice may, or may not have subtly influenced the ants towards expansion and war with the ant control spell, battles for food quickly emerged as the population increased.

    "I should keep the few final colonies alive, and not allow them to fight to the death," mumbled Beatrice as she watched several Strotegan ants grab hold of a Wrozenian ant, holding it''s much larger legs, trying their best to slow it down.

    As time passed, more and more Strotegan ants slowly approached, grabbing hold of the Wrozenian ant, slowing it down even further, not allowing it to move in the slightest as their allies began killing the downed ant.

    Merely five red Strotegan ants had died in the process of killing the Wrozenian ant, signally that a clear victory had taken place here.

    Quickly the Strotegan ants devoured both the body of the Wrozenian ant as well as the bodies of their dead comrades, leaving nothing behind, wasting not even a hint of food in this time of crisis.

    Rather surprisingly, or unsurprisingly depending on how you think about it, the tiny Strotegan ants, with their small bodies and weak formic acid are actually one of the most powerful colonies in this entire place.

    Even compared to other ant species, the Strotegan ants are completely unrelenting, not only eating their opponents, but even their own dead colony members.

    At the same time, they were one of the most aggressive ant species, allowing them to quickly wipe out some other ant species in their vicinity, increasing their numbers with the increased amount of food.

    ...

    For the past two weeks, Beatrice continued her previous schedule, every single day, she would first refine mana for as much time as she could, after that, she would make sure that her ants were alright and that Guinevere had not messed up before beginning to experiment on the Information Cube, trying to personalize it somewhat more.

    Sadly though, Beatrice could not ask the mage which her teacher had captured, Ighor, for help regarding the items she had taken from him, a both he and her teacher had left the underground abode not long after the two weeks began.

    Fearing that the objects could have self destruct mechanism, Beatrice did not touch them.

    Rather, Beatrice spent more of her time practicing her control of the soul using targets that her teacher had left behind whilst also reading her teacher''s soul notebook.

    ...

    As she flipped over the last page of the notebook, Beatrice couldn''t help but become somewhat suspicious, feeling as if something wasn''t right.

    Suddenly, Beatrice''s eyes widened, as she felt a pair of eyes look at her from the notebook.

    It was not the fact that her teacher had placed a soul inside of the notebook which surprised Beatrice, but rather, it was what soul was inside.

    Suddenly, Selena emerged from the notebook, and took one look at Beatrice before shaking her head.

    "Not ready yet," mumbled Selena before going back into the notebook, not giving Beatrice any time to respond.

 97 : Home

    Staring at the leather notebook in her hands, a surprised expression couldn''t help but appear on Beatrice''s face.

    Quickly, the scene that had just happened a few moments ago flashed through Beatrice''s mind, causing her to once again stare at the soul inside of the notebook with a gaping mouth.

    Without any warning, Beatrice suddenly dropped the notebook in her hands as she suddenly felt a shock in her spirit.

    "No peeking," Selena''s voice, coming out straight from the notebook now sitting on the ground.

    "She really placed a piece of her soul inside of the notebook," mumbled Beatrice, still feeling shocked at the enormous difference between her and her teacher.

    As she thought about how she had almost destroyed a soul by trying to read it''s memories not long ago, and how her teacher could posibly split her soul into multiple pieces, a somewhat shameful expression appeared on Beatrice''s face, replacing her shock.

    After a few moments, Beatrice suddenly bent down, picking up the notebook from the ground, no longer daring to stare at the soul inside of it.

    Beatrice then made sure that the notebook had no damage done to it before quickly moving toward her desk, and sitting down as she began writing things down into the Information cube.

    Not long after that, Guinevere walked into the room, holding a cup of tea in her hands, causing Beatrice to raise her head, and stare at her.

    Looking at Guinevere''s cute face, Beatrice couldn''t help but slightly smile, as she then stretched out her hand towards the cup of tea, taking it into her hand.

    "You can bring me another cup in a few hours, other than that you are free to do whatever you want," said Beatrice as she turned her attention back to the information cube, as she quickly took it apart, with far more dexterity than her previous self from two weeks ago.

    After over two weeks of practice, Beatrice had become much more confident in handling the Information cube.

    Unlike usual, Beatrice did not turn her attention to the Logic Core of the information cube, but rather, she focused on the mana checker, wanting to see if she could make some slight modifications to it.

    Two weeks later,

    As Beatrice stared at the few ant eggs in front of her, a small smile couldn''t help but appear on her face, causing her to suddenly type something into the Information cube.

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    "Now that I''ve got the Earth Ant Egg, I can finally begin moving," mumbled Beatrice as she suddenly cast the ant control spell on the little bugs.

    Although the ant had more resistance than the normal ants, whilst they were still in their egg, they could not give Beatrice a challenge, as she quickly took control of them

    Over the past two weeks, nothing major really happened, as Beatrice had already progressed past the stage where such a short amount of time could give her much progress, as most of her research had borne fruit.

    As for how Beatrice moved on after obtaining the fruit, this took much more time to figure out.

    Of course, Beatrice''s progress in refining mana had not stopped in the slightest, as she continued refining every day, slowly but surely accumulating more and more mana.

    After making sure that the Ant Egg was fine, Beatrice then walked out of the room, some disappointment clearly visible on her face.

    Although Beatrice knew that expecting ants which had not even hatched from their eggs to do something was unreasonable, she still felt some disappointment.

    Quickly, Beatrice walked into her room, where Guinivere was packing up a bag.

    "Have you made sure that nothing is missing?" asked Beatrice as she looked at the bag in the hands of the little girl, causing the latter to nod.

    "Yes mistress, everything is in order, you can rest assured, I have packed everything for your journey," said Guinevere as she closed the bag before getting up from her seat.

    After Beatrice mastered the use of the Information Cube, the amount of luggage that she needed to keep around abruptly decreased, as she replaced the many large notebooks previously in her collection with the light and convenient cube.

    Hearing this, a faint smile couldn''t help but appear on Beatrice''s face.

    "That''s good," mumbled Beatrice as she stretched forward, grabbed the bag, and weighed it in her hands.

    Although Beatrice slightly neglected her knight training, rather desiring to focus on other things, as she progressed as a mage, not only did her body not decrease in strength, but she also became more and more powerful.

    Perhaps sometime later, Beatrice could even become a Royal Knight without doing anything, of course, that could only happen if Beatrice stayed in the same realm as Knights.

    "Have you read the list I have given you?" asked Beatrice as she stared at Guinevere, causing the latter to suddenly gulp.

    "Don''t worry mistress, I have read it, I will take care of everything on my own in your absence," said the young Guinvere, causing Beatrice to faintly smile.

    "That''s good," mumbled Beatrice as she suddenly walked up to her desk and picked up a few objects, walking out of her room not long after that.

    ...

    Sometime later, in a deep swamp hidden in a corner of the world,

    Feeling the weird smell lingering in the air of the swamp her teacher''s home resided in, Beatrice couldn''t help but shake her head.

    "Making your home in such a place is really too inconvenient," mumbled Beatrice as she suddenly began moving at a low speed.

    At first, Beatrice was walking, but as time passed, Beatrice began slowly but surely walking faster and faster, warming up her legs as she eventually began running, her legs occasionally going over water as she used her mana to support herself on it.

    After a few moments, Beatrice seemingly turned into a dark shadow, as she her speed increased more and more as thoughts of her home filled her mind.

    Although Beatrice enjoyed practicing magic very much, as such, if asked the question, Beatrice would choose to practice magic one hundred times out of a hundred, but since she could do both, Beatrice had no reason not to go back home.

    As the thought of arriving back at her own home appeared in Beatrice''s mind, a faint smile couldn''t help but appear on her face.

    VOLUME 2 : END

 98 : Ship

    Staring at the huge flying ship parked a few kilometers in front of her, a faint smile couldn''t help but appear on Beatrice''s face, which was hidden by a hood.

    Quickly, Beatrice began walking towards the ship, occasionally looking around herself and ensuring nobody was following her.

    As Beatrice got closer and closer to the ship, she finally saw something other than the giant ship, a small encampment.

    Only a few minutes later, Beatrice arrived at the gates of the small encampment.

    Staring at the wooden walls of the encampment, which seemed to be tp completely undefended, Beatrice couldn''t help but shake her head.

    ''As expected of a group of official mages, they really have self-confidence,'' thought Beatrice as she walked through the wooden gate.

    Other than those owned by major magic schools, there were very few flying ships that traveled over the ocean.

    This particular ship was owned by a group of Seven Offical mages, named the ''Rose Guild''.

    Relatively regularly, the Rose Guild would make trips over the ocean, occasionally stopping at certain islands or clusters of islands.

    As this schedule nearly never changed, this allowed mages to leave the flying ship and go travel where they desired, knowing that the ship would return a few months later on that same route, allowing them to go back to the Magic Continent with relative ease.

    Of course, to be able to gain a seat on the flying ship, one had to pay a fee of 399 elemental stones, one which most Mage Apprentices found rather debilitating.

    After walking into the relatively small encampment, Beatrice immediately began walking towards it''s center, ignoring everything else, including the mage apprentices selling their wares.

    In the center of the encampment stood two things, a building as well as a map.

    Unlike normal maps though, this one was nowhere near complete, only showing a rather thin line of ocean stretching over from the western enourmous landmass and passing by over five hundred islands, returning to the endless landmass in another location.

    Of course, this huge landmass was actually the Magic Continent.

    Right now, several hooded figures were staring at the map, examining it, as if they were searching for something

    Seeing this, Beatrice quickly approached the map, but unlike those hooded figures, Beatrice immediately knew what she was searching for, causing her to be able to quickly find a medium-sized archipelago placed in the southern portion of the map.

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    The Malto Archipelago,

    Unlike what Beatrice knew when she was back home, the continent she was formerly living on was called the Golwall Island, an Island part of the Malto Archipelago.

    The same as the vast majority of other Islands and Archipelago, the Golwall island didn''t have many interesting things written about it, being completely Ordinary.

    Although the flying ship of the Rose Guild would not pass through Golwall island, a faint smile still appeared on Beatrice''s face.

    Instead, the ship would land on Magnora Island, another Island part of the Malto Archipelago, which was not far away from the Golwall Island, being the closest island to it out of the whole archipelago.

    After verifying one final time that the ship would land on the archipelago, Beatrice backed away from the map and walked into the building.

    Unlike what one might expect from a place owned by Official Mages, the inside of the building was quite shabby, visibly having been built to be temporary.

    The only notable thing that was present inside of the building was a counter with a receptionist behind it, now staring at Beatrice.

    "Distinguished Lady, May I be of service?" asked the receptionist as she watched a hooded female figure approach the counter.

    Without saying anything, Beatrice took out a small bag from her robe and handed it to the receptionist, causing the latter to open it and begin counting the elemental stones inside of it.

    ''High Ranking Mage Apprentice, relatively powerful,'' thought Beatrice as she covertly examined the receptionist, feeling a small amount of surprise.

    After only a few moments, the receptionist silently sent all of the elemental stones into the counter, causing a small black rock to suddenly appear on it.

    "Distinguished guest, this is your entrance ticket, as long as you have it, you may enter and exit the flying ship as you see fit before and during this trip, which will begin in thirteen days," said the receptionist as she pushed the rock toward Beatrice, causing the latter to pick it up and walk out of the building.

    Staring at the departing figure, a faint smile appeared on the face of the receptionist, she then turned her attention back to the counter, silently waiting for another mage apprentice to enter the building.

    After Beatrice walked out of the building, she rapidly made her way out of the encampment and walked towards its left side, reaching the flying ship which was parked on a piece of flat land nearby.

    A moment later, Beatrice stepped onto the steps which lead up to the ship, noticing the very obvious lack of people in the vicinity.

    Suddenly, halfway through the flight of stairs, a barrier suddenly appeared in front of Beatrice, blocking her way forward.

    Of course, as this barrier appeared, a small compartment suddenly rose from the ground, with a sentence written onto it.

    ''Insert Ticket''

    Seeing this, Beatrice quickly placed the rock she had obtained from the receptionist into the compartment.

    After a few moments when nothing happened, the compartment, as well as the barrier which restricted Beatrice from walking into the ship suddenly, disappeared, leaving the black rock floating in mid-air.

    Seeing this, Beatrice quickly picked up her ticket and continued walking on the stairs, continuing on her way.

    ...

    Later that day,

    Looking at the clock on the wall of the building, a faint smile appeared on the face of the receptionist, as she then walked out from behind the counter, into the main floor of the room.

    After making sure that the magical lock of the building had been successfully activated, the receptionist once again walked back behind the counter and into a back room.

 99 : Rose Guild

    Looking at her teacher, Joan White, who was currently examining a red potion, the receptionist couldn''t help but faintly smile, causing the latter to suddenly turn around.

    "Alice, I presume everything has gone well once again?" asked Joan, hearing the footsteps of her apprentice coming up behind her.

    "Yes, although the time for departure has not yet arrived, the occupation rate of the ship has already reached seventy-five percent, it may even be possible for it to reach eighty percent in a few days," said Alice, causing Joan to nod.

    "It''s the third time in a row, it seems as though the demand for travel over the western ocean is rising," mumbled Joan as she placed the potion in her hands back onto the workbench.

    ''If things continue this way, the time needed for us to accumulate the elemental stones required will be substantially decreased,'' thought Joan as she tapped her fingers on the workbench.

    "Yes it seems as though many mages are now interested in the islands in the western ocean," said Alice, causing Joan to slightly shake her head.

    "Very well now, you can go back to the ship for now, don''t disturb me unless something extremely critical has happened," said Joan, causing Alice to walk out of the room, leaving Joan silently standing there alone.

    After seemingly thinking about something in silence, Joan shook her head, throwing out those thoughts of her and once again focusing on the potions themselves.

    ''I can worry about that once we return to Stoughlodge,'' thought Alice, picking up the red potion from the workbench and beginning to examine it once again.

    ...

    Staring at the relatively small room in front of her, which did not have any luxuries, Beatrice couldn''t help but slightly shake her head.

    After placing her luggage in a corner of the room, Beatrice sat down on her bed and began refining mana.

    Although it might have seemed as though Beatrice refining mana didn''t do anything, in only a relatively short amount of time, her mana rose from around 35 points to around 42 points when she last measured it before beginning her new journey, roughly an increase of 0.12 points per day.

    This was someone faster than in her previous life, which allowed Beatrice to reach the High Ranking Mage Apprentice Level much sooner than before.

    Underestimating this increase of seven points would be a huge mistake, as this could allow Beatrice to cast two, or perhaps three more spells than she could before, which could prove extremely deadly in a fight.

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    At the same time, this might allow Beatrice to cast the Rank 1 Dark Arrow spell and still have some ability to fight after that, making it a much more useful tool in combat.

    ...

    Several hours later,

    The first thing Beatrice did after entering the ship was refine as much mana as she could, after that, Beatrice began slowly but surely walking across the seemingly empty ship.

    Out of a desire not to be disturbed, or perhaps out of fear, the vast majority of the mages present on the ship stayed in their rooms most of the time, only leaving when truly necessary.

    Because of this, Beatrice was allowed to move on the ship without having to be disturbed by anyone, only occasionally walking past a mage or two who had the same idea as Beatrice.

    After walking through nearly the entirety of the lower deck of the ship, where the rooms of the mages were situated, a somewhat grim look appeared on Beatrice''s face.

    ''Other than the main doors, there isn''t any way to escape this thing,'' thought Beatrice as she was leisurely walking towards her room on the ship, somewhat eager to take off the mask and hood from her face.

    It seemed as though the Rose Guild did not want any of the mages to be able to escape in case of a fight, leaving them trapped on the ship and with them.

    Of course, as it was under the protection of seven powerful mages, the ship had never once been truly attacked, making Beatrice''s thoughts somewhat useless.

    ''Hopefully, this was just my paranoia acting up,'' thought Beatrice as she walked past the receptionist she met earlier that day.

    ...

    As she silently moved her eyes towards the masked female mage in who was walking towards her, a small alarm couldn''t help but ring in Alice''s head, as a weird feeling of oppression emerged inside of her.

    Even after the mage passed by her, not doing anything in the slightest, the weird feeling still persisted inside of Alice.

    Although the common robe, hood and mask, which most female mages wore concealed the latter''s identity, Alice still immediately recognized her.

    ''It''s that mage from earlier today,'' thought Alice as thoughts a slight frown appeared on her face.

    ''Even if she isn''t an enemy, reporting her to the leader wouldn''t hurt,'' thought Alice as she suddenly changed her destination, no longer walking to her own room.

    ...

    As she walked around the ship, Beatrice noticed that she would meet a mage walking on their way roughly once every two minutes, as after all, most mages wouldn''t have enough time to dilly-dally.

    But suddenly, thirty seconds after Beatrice met the receptionist just as she was about to arrive at her room, Beatrice suddenly saw a relatively short figure in the distance, now walking towards her.

    The moment Beatrice saw the figure, which, unlike most other mages, did not conceal her face, she froze.

    This was an old woman which Beatrice knew very well, after all, she had researched the owners of the flying ship she was traveling on.

    As the old woman, Skye Higgins, an extremely old mage, as well as the leader and founder of the Rose Guild walk past her, Beatrice felt beads of sweat fall off her forehead.

    ...

    It had only taken a few seconds for Alice to report the suspicious figure wandering the ship to the leader of the Rose Guild, who, being quite protective of the ship, then took action.

    But looking at the little girl who was walking back to her room, as well as the thing attached to the notebook in her robe, some Skye Higgins couldn''t help but feel some surprise.

    Feeling a familiar gaze land on her, Skye froze for a moment before continuing on, thoughts swirling in her mind as she remembered a meeting from years ago.

    ''The Witch of Death''

    The moment Skye realized who the person who this little girl was related to, she gave up her investigation.

    ''Selena wouldn''t try to bypass the pact this way,'' thought Skye as she walked past the little girl.

 100 : Soul

    Step by step, Beatrice continued walking to her room, sweat now filling her forehead, unaware of the fact that a certain mark on her neck had nearly saved her.

    With each step that Beatrice took, she felt her body become lighter and lighter, eventually though, that feeling stopped as Beatrice became farther enough away from that old woman that the latter didn''t affect her anymore.

    And after a few more moments of walking, Beatrice successfully entered her room, closing the door behind herself immediately after doing so.

    The moment Beatrice entered the room, she instinctually relaxed, even though she knew that the feeble door to the room would be able to do nothing against an opponent of that caliber.

    In fact, unless she got help from her teacher, Beatrice wasn''t sure what she could even do to have even a slight chance of survival against an official mage as powerful as Skye Higgings, especially inside of the latter''s own domain, where she could depend on the help of six other official mages.

    ''Thankfully it seems as though our meeting was only a coincidence, and she doesn''t have any interest in me,'' thought Beatrice as she sat down on her bed, feeling extremely exhausted already.

    The exhaustion from her travel, her examination of the flying ship as well as the meeting with Skye Higgins, had caught up with Beatrice, causing her to be extremely exhausted.

    A few moments later, Beatrice took off her robe and fell down let herself fall down onto the bed, quickly falling asleep without any hassle.

    ...

    Two Hours later,

    After having exactly two hours of sleep, Beatrice suddenly opened her eyes, all of the exhaustion previously visible on her face completely gone.

    Without wasting a single moment, Beatrice suddenly got up from the bed, put on her robe, and sat down at her small desk, taking out the information cube from her pocket.

    Quickly though Beatrice frowned, as she reviewed the scenes that had happened two hours earlier.

    "That meeting tired me out far too fast," mumbled Beatrice as she tapped her fingers on her desk, her frown increasing.

    Although the fact that Beatrice would become exhausted after traveling for a relatively long time without any rest in the slightest, as well as continuing with her usual schedule, refining mana every single day whilst practicing spells seemed rather normal, Beatrice felt as though something was off.

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    After thinking about this topic for a few minutes, Beatrice couldn''t come up with any sound conclusion, as she, for a fact, knew that Skye Higgins hadn''t cast any spell on her.

    Suddenly, an idea appeared in Beatrice''s mind.

    "Maybe that could work," mumbled Beatrice as she suddenly took out a leather notebook from one of her rather large pockets.

    After opening it and quickly flipping to the last page, Beatrice suddenly tried to alert the soul placed in the notebook using her mana.

    ...

    Feeling a familiar mana disturb her from her sleep, Selena suddenly opened her eyes, a rather annoyed look appearing on her face.

    ''It''s only been a short time since she last disturbed me, could something have happened?'' thought Selena as she looked at Beatrice.

    After a few moments, Selena noticed two rather faint auras meeting on Beatrice''s body, causing a rather surprised look to appear on her face.

    ''She''s taking a trip back home,'' thought Selena, feeling the familiar aura of an acquaintance of hers bound to Beatrice.

    In the past, Selena would also use the flying ship of the Rose Guild to travel back to her home, but after she became more famous, nd much more hunted down, she could no longer do so, requiring her to construct her own method of transportation.

    ...

    "Why have you disturbed me this time?" asked the figure which had emerged from the notebook as it looked at Beatrice.

    "Well, I met a powerful mage not too long ago, and I felt something weird happen," said Beatrice, causing the tiny Selena, who was standing on the cover of the notebook to slightly frown.

    "Although I don''t know what happened to you, since I don''t have many of my important memories, you don''t have to worry, things are fine," said Selena as she looked at Beatrice, causing a rather surprised expression to appear on Beatrice''s face.

    Without waiting for Beatrice to ask any questions, Selena continued.

    "Even though I don''t have my memories, I can feel my own aura emanating from you, it seems as though my other self used your connection to intervene recently, so you don''t have to worry, that should be the reason for your exhaustion," said Selena, causing Beatrice to feel somewhat enlightened as well as curious.

    "Even if my other self didn''t do anything, You didn''t have to worry, Skye Higgings is not like me," said Selena, causing Beatrice''s lips to somewhat twitch.

    After all, at this moment, Beatrice was not exhausted in the slightest, and she had not mentioned the fact that she felt exhausted as well.

    "I understand," said Beatrice as she watched Selena once again sink into the notebook.

    The moment her teacher disappeared, a faint frown appeared on Beatrice''s face.

    ''She can interfere with me from a large distance away using our connection? That''s somewhat unexpected,'' thought Beatrice, clearly remembering the effects of the ritual in which Beatrice and Selena had taken part in.

    With her memory, Beatrice remembered quite clearly what the effects of the ritual were.

    ''I really shouldn''t worry too much, I can''t change it much, at least right now,'' thought Beatrice as she touched the mark on her neck, feeling it with her fingers.

    ...

    Inside of a secret location,

    "She''s going back to her home, that''s quite unexpected," mumbled Selena as some clarity flashed through her eyes.

    Seeing the weird look on his Mistress'' face, Ighor couldn''t help but feel kind of weird.

    "Mistress, did something happen?" asked Ighor, causing Selena to shake her head.

    "No, let''s go, We shouldn''t stay here any longer," said Selena as she began walking away, causing Ighor to begin following her.

 101 : Prophecy

    Twelve Days later,

    As Beatrice stared at the ground, which was getting further and further away from her, through her window, a faint smile appeared on Beatrice''s face.

    Over the past twelve days, Beatrice had become somewhat accustomed to living inside of her small cabin.

    And right now, thirteen days after Beatrice entered the flying ship, the ship finally took off on its journey, which will take over two months of continuous travel.

    After the first day, and her accidental meeting with the leader of the Rose Guild, nothing interesting happened, as Beatrice continued practicing spells and refining mana, as she didn''t dare experiment with the Information Cube while on the ship.

    Not long after the ship took off, Beatrice suddenly touched her forehead, feeling the concentration of elemental energy drastically decline in a brief moment.

    "I guess I really got used to that concentration of elemental energy," mumbled Beatrice, feeling the elemental energy around herself, which was only five percent as concentrated as on the magic continent.

    Under the effects of the abrupt transition, Beatrice even felt a slight headache, as her body, which had become accustomed to the magic continent slowly but surely adjusted.

    Although Beatrice knew that this would happen, she truly didn''t expect that she had become so used to the elemental energy concentration of the magic continent, so much so that she had become somewhat dependent on it.

    Even though it might be somewhat uncomfortable, getting used to this concentration on her nearly month-long journey, as well as her stay back in her home might be of some help to Beatrice in the future.

    ...

    Inside the Magic Council,

    Looking at the prophet, who was currently sitting crosslegged, focused on something, Archmage Arif couldn''t help but frown.

    "It''s worth it," mumbled Archmage Arif, causing Saint Orianna, who was sitting nearby to open her eyes and look at him.

    "Did something happen?" asked the old woman, causing Arif to shake his head.

    "It''s nothing," mumbled Archmage Arif, when suddenly, the Prophet opened his eyes, a confused expression appearing on his face.

    "It''s not any of the gods?" mumbled the Prophet, causing the confused look on his face to shift into surprise.

    Hearing the words of the Prophet, frowns appeared on the faces of both Saint Arianna and Archmage Arif.

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    For the past nearly seven months, the Prophet pushed himself, trying to figure out the true identity of the so-called ''Dark Calamity'', which will inevitably strike down at the Magic Continent in the future.

    The prophet had divined nearly all possible subjects, from the Light God, the Demons, the Godly Remnants from the Ancient War, and even the Reincarnation Space, which was secretly plundering World Source from worlds.

    But to the surprise of the Prophet, the vast majority of those beings had no plan to attack the Mage World in the near future, most of them still recuperating from the Ancient World, with the exception of the Reincarnation Space, which had been born after the war.

    But although the prophet had discovered the secret interference of the Reincarnation Space in the Mage World, he was completely sure that it was not related to the ''Dark Calamity'' in the slightest.

    Suddenly, a determined look appeared on the face of the Prophet, as he suddenly decided on something.

    "We cannot wait any longer, otherwise the calamity might strike us unprepared, Arif, gather the other three Archmages, I need their help in surviving after using ''that''," said the prophet, causing the face of Archmage Arif to change for a moment, determination flashing on his face after hearing the words of the Prophet.

    "I understand, Withered Soul will be returning shortly, as for Aatos and Dragonheart, I''m sure that they will come to help," said Archmage Arif as he suddenly disappeared, preparing to contact the two Archmages.

    ...

    Seven Days later

    Looking at Archmage Withered Soul, who had his normally calm demeanor changed, surprise appeared on the face of Archmage Arif.

    "Did something bad happen?" asked Arif, causing Withered Soul to shake his head.

    "That old disciple of mine became an Archmage without using the Shadow God as fuel, I really didn''t expect that," mumbled Archmage Withered Soul, causing some surprise to appear on Arif''s face as well.

    "It''s quite understandable, the amount of elemental energy present in the Mage World has been rising for over five thousand years, more and more Archmages will emerge in the future perhaps even a Legendary Mage might appear," said Archmage Arif, causing Withered Soul to nod.

    "I understand that, I just expect this era to begin so soon," mumbled Archmage Withered Soul as he walked forward into the meeting room of the Magic Council.

    ...

    Fifteen Days later,

    Looking at the Five Archmages who were sitting around him with serious looks on their faces, being prepared to cast their strongest healing spells at a moment''s notice, the Prophet took in a deep breath.

    "I will begin," said the Prophet as he placed a pen and piece of paper next to him, closing his eyes a few moments later.

    Only a few moments later, the Prophet opened his eyes, stretched out his trembling hand towards the pen, and began writing on the paper.

    Even after healing spell after healing spell from powerful Archmages showered the Prophet, the latter showed no change as blood began flowing out of his orifices.

    But even so, word after word, the prophet continued writing, trying his best to remain conscious.

    After around thirty seconds, the Prophet finally finished writing a sentence on the piece of paper, causing him to fully lose consciousness, and fall back towards the ground.

    ...

    ''Her remnant will usher in, the return of ''Her'', the one from a different time, to deal out punishment for past grievances.''

    Staring at the piece of paper in his hands, which was stained by the blood of the Prophet, a heavy look hung over the face of Archmage Arif.

    Suddenly, the Archmage Raised his eyes, looking at the figure which had just arrived.

    "Is he alright?" asked Archmage Arif, looking at Saint Orianna, causing the latter to nod.

    "His condition has stabilized for now," said Saint Orianna, causing the Archmage to breathe a sigh of relief.

 102 : Cooperation

    Hearing the words of the Saint, Archmage Arif couldn''t help but nod.

    "It looks as though the side effects weren''t as dire this time around," said Archmage Arif as he turned his attention back to the piece of paper in his hands.

    "Yes, with the healing of the goddess, he should be able to fully recover this time," said Saint Orianna as she turned her attention back to the piece of paper as well.

    After seeing the result of the divination from the Prophet, the five archmages had begun searching for a primary suspect that fit as the possible dark calamity.

    Using the accumulated knowledge of the five academies, as well as that of the Magic Council itself, the five archmages had now begun searching for a match among the gods, so that when the Prophet finally recovered, he could quickly make the divination and find out their true enemy.

    Staring at the piece of paper in the hands of the nearly ancient archmage, a frown appeared on Saint Orianna''s face.

    "I still don''t think this will be so simple," mumbled Saint Orianna, causing Archmage Arif to nod, he also instinctually knew that trying to search for a target among the gods would probably not yield any good results.

    "We don''t really have any other good options right now that the prophet is not here to conduct divinations, although I and Aatos can devine some, trying to do so about things related to gods will not do anything," said Archmage Arif, causing Saint Orianna to shake her head, feeling somewhat frustrated.

    After a few moments, Saint Orianna also left, leaving only Archmage Arif to once again stand alone and stare at the piece of paper in his hands.

    ''The return of ''her '', the one from a different time, could this mean that this is someone even more ancient than the gods?'' mumbled Arif as he touched his beard as thoughts swirled inside of his mind.

    ...

    At the same time, on the flying ship of the Rose Guild,

    Looking at the elemental stone powder, which had gathered on the floor below Beatrice''s bed, Beatrice couldn''t help but shake her head, feeling something.

    Quickly though, Beatrice cleaned up the powder, having learned her lesson on how fine this stuff was and how easy it could make its way into different crevices.

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    Not long after she entered the ship, so as to counteract the effects of the extremely reduced elemental energy quantity in the air, Beatrice had begun to use elemental stones as a way to help her refine mana, so as to not delay her improvement speed.

    Using only around 4 elemental stones per day, which may seem cheap, or exorbitantly expensive, depending on how you look at it, Beatrice was able to keep her mana refining speed at the same level as it was back on the magic continent.

    As such, although Beatrice had spent 88 elemental stones in the past 22 days, she was still relatively satisfied, feeling as though the deal would be worth it in the end.

    "Only around a week more," mumbled Beatrice as she stared out of the window of the flying ship, looking at the island which had appeared in the distance.

    Although the Western Ocean was filled to the brim with islands, especially lone ones, it was also enormously huge, spanning an incomprehensible distance.

    As such, seeing islands whilst you looked out of the window was really quite rare.

    "After eight days, the ship will temporarily land in the Malto Archipelago, staying there for around three hours, at the same time, the ship will return on the same route in around two months," mumbled Beatrice as thoughts swirled inside of her mind.

    ''If I don''t waste any time in the slightest, and use my physique to its fullest, I could probably manage to take a boat back to Galwall Island in around three days, after that, returning to the Lyon Kingdom should be quite trivial,'' thought Beatrice as she tapped on her pens on the table in a rhythm.

    ...

    At the same time, in a secluded location,

    Looking at the goblins in front of her, which were peacefully sleeping around a campfire, a faint smile appeared on Madeline''s face as she silently rose her hand from the puddle, signaling to her comrades.

    A moment later, three earth spikes rose from the ground, piercing the bodies of three of the goblins, at the same time, a wind blade silently cut through the air, as well as the head of another goblin, not giving it any time to make any sounds.

    As such, without making any sounds or alerting any of the other goblins in the area, four goblins met their doom.

    Seeing this, Madeline''s whole body slowly but surely emerged from the water and walked onto land a few moments later.

    In a clearly experienced manner, Madeline quickly looted the bodies of the four goblins, not obtaining much from them.

    Suddenly, Madeline felt a strong wind blow towards her from behind, causing her eyes to slightly widen.

    ...

    A short goblin, surrounded by five other, well above-average goblins walked together.

    And right now, this goblin held something that was actually quite valuable in his hands, a makeshift staff with a shiny rock slapped on top of it, so as to maybe give it more power.

    Looking at the would-be leader of this small goblin tribe, which was holding their target in its hand, a flash of ruthlessness appeared on Catherines''s face, as she then turned towards Shane, who sitting next to her, and nodded.

    Not long after, a fiery wind blade suddenly flew through the air and toward the small goblin holding the makeshift staff.

    Although two of the larger goblins jumped in the way of the blade, this did not do much other than to do damage to themselves, as the fiery blade flew through them, as well as the head of the goblin shaman without any resistance.

    At the same time, the moment the blade cut one of the goblins, flames flew out from it, enveloping all seven other goblins in a supernatural flame, quickly killing them.

 103 : Travel

    Eight days later.

    Looking at the one-sided slaughter which was taking place in the large open field in front of her, Beatrice couldn''t help but shake her head.

    Two armies, each of which being over three thousand men strong were duking it a field at the moment.

    Of course, ''duking it out'' is a bit of an overstatement.

    Although numerically, both of these armies were roughly the same size, their strengths were completely different.

    A dozen or so official knight cleaved their way through the troops of the enemies, not letting anything that got in their way survive.

    With one cleave of their swords and one stab of their spears, multiple soldiers would be killed, causing fear to form in the minds of the opposing soldiers.

    Soon, and not long after the battle originally began, the defending army was routed, it''s remnants were then slaughtered by their enemy whilst their leader was captured.

    "Too weak, too insignificant," mumbled Beatrice as she turned her attention away from the slaughter, no longer being interested in it.

    Perhaps, to the common soldiers, knights were undefeatable supernatural beings, who would crush them in battle, but to Beatrice, there wasn''t actually that big of a diference between normal knights, soldiers, as well as powerless peasants.

    As such, Beatrice was no longer interested in watching the battle, causing her to move on and continue on her journey.

    In fact, although it might not seem like it at first glance, this was actually the first true battle between armies that Beatrice had witnessed.

    And to be quite honest, this battle completely certified some thoughts Beatrice had about armies and similar things.

    "Completely useless in frontal battle, it''s best that I focus on my own strength and don''t get sidetracked," mumbled Beatrice as she continued on her way.

    ...

    Later that day,

    After looking at the rather large city wall in front of her, Beatrice then turned her attention back to herself whilst she walked into the city.

    ''I should first find a boat that could take me to Golwall Island, after that, I can go and find a way back to the Kingdom of Lyon,'' thought Beatrice as several gold coins appeared in her hands.

    This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

    After staying in the Shadow Monastery, as well as her new home for over a year and a half, Beatrice didn''t bother paying attention to any form of currency other than elemental stones.

    In the end, this decision proved right, as Beatrice had no use for anything other than that.

    After ''obtaining'' some more money from the locals, Beatrice made her way to the harbor of the city, wanting to get off Nanrath Island as soon as possible.

    ...

    As an experienced fisher, who had managed to survive even the worst of storms, Burke had quite a good intuition, and looking at the woman standing in front of him, sweat fell on Burke''s forehead.

    "Are you planning on going to the other continent?" asked the woman, causing Burke to hesitate for a brief moment.

    At first, Burke had planned to lie and say that he was not planning on going, but just as he was about to open his mouth, thoughts began swirling inside of his mind.

    ''Why do I have to lie?''

    ''What''s the worst that could happen?''

    Before Burke could even realize what happened, he had lost all rationality, causing him to no longer be able to lie.

    "We are planning on going to the other continent tomorrow," said Burke, causing the woman to faintly smile.

    "Can you do so today?" asked the woman, causing Burke to almost instinctually answers no.

    But after a few moments, and some hesitation, Burke finally opened his mouth.

    "It''s possible," said Burke, gritting his teeth for some reason.

    "That''s good, then I will come along for the ride," said the woman, causing Burke to begin walking back to the ship.

    ...

    Looking at the woman who was now standing on top of the ship, staring into the distance, Burke couldn''t help but ask a question.

    "My lady, is everything fine?" asked Burke, causing the woman to nod.

    "Don''t worry, everything''s going better than I expected," said Beatrice as she watched another ship slowly but surely pass by them, moving in the opposite direction.

    In fact, Beatrice was not lying, as everything was in fact, going great, even better than expected.

    Not only had the flying ship landed relatively close to a port city, making sure that Beatrice did not have to walk long to arrive at her destination, but after entering the city, she immediately encountered a suitable ship for her to travel the ocean with, leaving only one single problem which was now disturbing Beatrice.

    The problem was very simple, Beatrice felt as though traveling back to her home was rather meaningless.

    Right now, unlike before, Beatrice was likely the most powerful or one of the most powerful mages on the entire island her extremely bored.

    It was not that Beatrice was a masochist, who enjoyed a challenge, what troubled Beatrice was the fact that this would undoubtedly slow down her progress massively.

    Although back in her new home, Beatrice did not spend any time with other powerful mages, she had a lot of things at her disposal which could quicked her progress.

    But now that Beatrice was on the move, she could not do any complicated experiments in the slightest, causing her progress to slow down.

    At first, Beatrice felt as though meeting her parents once again after over a year and a half was surely worth it, but right now, she had some small doubts.

    Of course, Beatrice could not back out right now, as it will take over two months for the flying ship to come by again and pick her up, giving her ample time to both go meet her parents and think about things.

    ''I should go and think about my immediate plans in the future,'' thought Beatrice as she slowly walked back into the cabin of the ship, walking into her makeshift bedroom in the blink of an eye.

 104 : Plans

    After making sure that she closed the door to the cabin, Beatrice sat down at her makeshift desk and stared into the wall in front of her, occasionally tapping her fingers on the desk.

    With every tap of Beatrice''s fingers, more and more thoughts entered her mind, filling it up.

    ''After arriving back in the Lyon Kingdom, I should first check up on my family, so as to make sure that everything is alright and that nothing has happened,'' thought Beatrice as she quickly wrote her plans into the information cube.

    ''After that, I will make sure that the situation around my parent''s territory is stable, if not, I should stabilize it myself, so as to avoid any unfortunate accidents from happening in the future.''

    ''Only then can I begin searching for any traces of mages in this kingdom, starting from the capital of and expanding outwards towards the edges of the kingdom,''

    Time slowly but surely passed as Beatrice wrote more and more of her plans into the information cube, from her main plans to things she could do on the side, to backup plans depending on the circumstances of her situation.

    Everything was neatly laid out in Beatrice''s information cube, which she kept on her body at all times, never letting it leave her hands.

    Of course, even if Beatrice managed to somehow lose the information cube, and someone else obtained it, they would be in for quite a nasty surprise when they try to access the information inside of it, one they would most likely never forget.

    After placing the information cube into one of the pockets in her robe, Beatrice continued standing there, merely tapping her fingers on the makeshift wooden desk whilst staring at the wall in front of her.

    Slowly but surely, elemental energy poured into Beatrice''s body, being transformed into mana, after that, a tiny portion of that mana made it''s way into Beatrice''s body, becoming her own mana.

    For several hours, Beatrice stood still staring at the wall in front of her, tapping her fingers on the desk while refining mana.

    By the time Beatrice had finished refining mana, five small holes had appeared in the wooden desk, the product of Beatrice''s extremely sharp and resilient nails.

    After a few minutes of just doing that, a blob of mana suddenly appeared in Beatrice''s left hand, as her right hand continued doing it''s thing, digging into the table, one tap at a time.

    Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

    Only a fraction of a moment later, the blob of mana shifted, transforming into three different dark bolts, which obediently floated in Beatrice''s right hand.

    "As expected, it''s a little bit more efficient when it comes to creating multiple bolts, but it''s so much slower, as it is right now, this technique has no use," mumbled Beatrice as she dark bolts from her hand suddenly began flying through the room.

    What Beatrice had just done was use a slightly different method to create dark bolts.

    Unlike usual, Beatrice did not directly transform her mana into three different dark bolts, rather, she first materialized it, making sure to be as efficient as possible in doing so.

    After that, Beatrice transformed the blob of materialized mana into three different dark bolts.

    As Beatrice expected, although this method of creating dark bolts was in fact, much slower than the usual one, as it added another step to the spell, it did in fact lower the amount of mana that Beatrice had to spend in the creation of the bolts.

    Sadly though, because of just how slow this technique was, Beatrice felt that it was quite useless at the moment.

    Suddenly, the dark bolts flying through the room stopped mid-air, as Beatrice moved her eyes, looking at her middle finger, which had managed to pierce through the desk after countless taps.

    Seeing the hole which had now formed within the table, Beatrice couldn''t help but shake her head.

    "How fragile," mumbled Beatrice as she moved her middle finger slightly forward, allowing it to continue tapping the desk without anything bothering it.

    Or so Beatrice wanted.

    Sadly though, the other five fingers, which had not yet pierced through the desk, stopped the middle finger from continuing forward.

    Looking at this scene, a faint frown appeared on Beatrice''s face.

    After a few moments, Beatrice moved the rest of her left hand to the side, allowing her middle finger to continue tapping away undisturbed.

    ...

    Looking at the flying ship, which was getting further and further away from him, Rex Law, who was floating above an island, couldn''t help but shake his head.

    "It will take just under two months for us to reunite with the rest of the guild, hopefully, nothing happens in this time," said Rex Law, causing his colleague to shake his head.

    "Don''t be so negative, you already know that nothing can happen on Stoughlodge Island, this place is an impenetrable fortress, you know very well how much time and elemental stones we spent creating this place, you don''t have to worry," said Archer Woodward, a pale, middle-aged man, causing Rex Law to nod as well.

    "You''re right, maybe it''s just the fact that I''m flying," said Rex Law, causing Woodward to wave his hand, making the two of them slowly but surely g lower and lower toward Stoughlodge Island.

    After around thirty seconds, the duo arrived on the seemingly uninhabited island, Stoughlodge Island, or rather, the secret headquarters of the Rose Guild.

    It was only after the two of them descended into the forest on the island, and were no longer so clearly visible to the outside world that, Woodward once again dispelled another one of his spells, causing them to become visible to the outside world once again.

    "Let''s go, I don''t feel safe being outside," said Rex Law as he walked forward in a particular direction.

    Although the location of the entrance to the headquarters was everchanging, using his Earth Magic, as well as some prior knowledge, which the guild leader had given him, Rex was easily able to locate it.

 105 : Return

    Staring at her makeshift desk, which had over a dozen small holes, Beatrice couldn''t help but shake her head.

    "It should be about time," mumbled Beatrice as she got up from the desk and walked to her cabin door.

    A moment later, Beatrice opened the door and walked onto the ship''s deck. Although the ship had traversed the ocean for over three days, thankfully it didn''t encounter any storms or angry sea creatures, as such, right now it, as well as its crew were in quite a good shape.

    Whilst the crew of the ship continued working hard, operating it, Beatrice simply stood there, staring into the distance, trying to find something using her powerful vision.

    Thankfully, after only a few minutes of standing still, Beatrice managed to see a landmass appear in the distance. Slowly but surely, the landmass grew larger and larger, causing the spotter, who was standing on the highest top of the ship, to finally see it.

    "Land Incoming!!" shouted the spotter, causing crewmates to move the ship''s sails to a slightly different angle, causing it to slow down. Looking at the coastal city clearly visible in the distance, right in the ship''s path, Beatrice couldn''t help but narrow her eyes

    . "Change the direction of the ship, 7'' towards the west," shouted Beatrice as she looked at Burke, causing him to nod.

    "Seven degrees port-side, let''s go!" shouted Burke as he took control of the ship and began manoeuvring it towards Beatrice''s desired location.

    As the ship was still far at sea, this small seven-degree change was amplified, causing the ship to completely miss the port city. Of course, none of the crew of the ship had any questions about this.

    Time passed, and slowly but surely, the ship approached land, but unlike its usual return, this time, the ship was not slowing down as much as it needed to.

    Although it had slowed down somewhat compared to it''s speed on open ocean, to avoid rocks and obstacles which appeared as they got closer and closer to land, the ship still continued moving at an unnaturally high speed.

    By now the eyes of Burke, as well as those of the rest of his crew, had dilated, as they lost control of their bodies, as well as of their life and death.

    A few moments later, still at a fast speed, the bottom of the ship began scrapping against the sea floor, which was rapidly rising as it approached land. Of course, as she was not the actual owner of the ship, and would abandon it either way after getting on the island, Beatrice did not particularly care about this.

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    By now, the ship had already begun naturally slowing down, but sadly, it was way too late, as it had already reached the coast, it''s arrival onto the beach no longer being stoppable by mere sand. A few moments later, the flat bottom of the ship which was now tilting sideways rapidly, moved along the smooth beach sand, being aided by its speed, landing over a dozen meters away from the water.

    Only a moment before the ship had completely flipped over, a dark shadow suddenly jumped off it and onto the ground a certain distance away, and was now staring at it.

    Looking at the ship in front of her, which had now fallen down sideways, Beatrice couldn''t help but shake her head.

    The Dark Corruption spell, under the effects of this spell, which was extremely fatal to mortals, Burke, which had managed to survive using his knight skills, as well as the remaining part of his crew that had luckily survived, began melting, as their bodies deformed, transforming into goo which sunk to the ground.

    Even back when Beatrice had just become a mage, she could use the Dark Corruption spell to kill Grand Knights with ease, as such, Burke and the rest of his crew easily died.

    In fact, now, with her current powers, she was unsure of how much she could push the Dark Corruption spell, or how much damage she could actually cause with it. After all, killing mortals without obtaining anything in return was not something that Beatrice did, usually.

    A few moments after that, the ship suddenly burst into flames, burning not only all traces of Beatrice living on it, but also the liquified remains of its crew. A few moments later, Beatrice walked into the forest which stood beyond the beach, leaving the burning ship behind.

    ...

    Looking at the appetizing piece of grass in front of it, a small black rabbit stuck its head out of it''s hole, and after a few moments of hesitation, ran out to get it.

    But unbeknownst to it, at this moment, a red fox stood in a nearby bush, staring at it with hungry eyes.

    Suddenly, the ears of the rabbit moved, followed by the ears of the fox. Without any hesitation, the rabbit suddenly jumped back into it''s hole, as the fox stuck its body to the ground.

    A moment later, a hooded figure passed by the fox at an extremely great speed. But unlike what one might expect, this extremely fast figure did not actually make much sound as it moved through the crowded forest.

    So little sound, in fact, that the great ears of both the Rabbit and the Fox only detected it once it was extremely close by.

    ...

    As she examined the wildlife that lived around the forest, a faint smile appeared on Beatrice''s face.

    "As expected, I landed in the Hfberry Forest, with just a little bit of walking, I should be able to cross the borders of the Nawan Kingdom and arrive back in Lyon," mumbled Beatrice as she ran through the forest.

    Back before Beatrice had gone off to the Shadow Monastery, tensions had begun rising between the Nawan and the Lyon Kingdoms over the large gold mine in the Vaeven principality.

    Back then, Beatrice had predicted that the Lyon Kingdom would conquer the Vaeven Principality, as well as the gold mine.

    In fact, this was the reason why Beatrice had exchanged most of the gold coins in her family''s possession for silver coins, so that they would be able to make a tidy profit from the lowering of the gold price which would inevitably follow this change in terrory.

 106 : Battle

    As time passed, Beatrice slowly but surely made her way through the forest, but as she did so, she noticed a peculiar trend that was happening.

    The closer Beatrice got to her goal, and the border between the Lyon and Nawen Kingdoms, the fewer animals and wildlife in general she saw.

    At the same time, more and more of those animals seemed to be fleeing from that direction, causing a certain thought to emerge in Beatrice''s mind.

    ''The war already erupted? It''s only been seven months, this is earlier than I expected,'' thought Beatrice as she jumped over a fallen tree.

    Of course, as she could not be completely certain that the war had erupted, Beatrice did not jump to conclusions, merely keeping that thought in the back of her mind.

    After all, this was something that was worth keeping an eye on.

    Suddenly, just as Beatrice was thinking about this, she noticed a few figures in the distance, causing her to slightly narrow her eyes.

    "So the war has already begun, although that''s a bit unexpected, it could be beneficial," mumbled Beatrice as she looked at the over a dozen Nawenese soldiers which were being chased.

    Without any sign or notice, the fleeing troops suddenly fell to the ground, as Beatrice disappeared, not wanting to spend time bothered by soldiers from the Lyon kingdom.

    The reason Beatrice had decided to interfere in this particular battle was very simple, effort.

    As it was extremely trivial for her to kill a dozen normal people, who were not even Knight Apprentices, to help the Kingdom in which her family was situated in, Beatrice did so.

    ...

    As time passed, and she got closer and closer to the border, Beatrice encountered more and more battles.

    Although not all these battles were so one-sided, as in some of them, the Nawenese troops did have the upper hand, overall, it looked as though the Lyon Kingdom had just won a great victory, causing Beatrice to slightly frown.

    ''The Nawan Kingdom shouldn''t be this weak, based on its strength from seven months ago, the chances of the Lyon Kingdom winning the war so soon after it began were slim, so what happened, did the Aepheovionans attack the Nawen Kingdom from the north?'' thought Beatrice as she passed by a rather large battle, in which over five hundred Leonese soldiers were battling a similar amount of Nawenese soldiers.

    This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

    "I shouldn''t spend so much effort thinking about this, I can check things out after I get back to the Lyon Kingdom," mumbled Beatrice as she ignored the battle and continued moving towards her destination at a fast speed.

    After all, seeing things with your own eyes will always be better than pure speculation.

    ...

    Staring at the over ten thousand troops that populated a wide open plain, with only roughly 3 thousand of them being from the Kingdom of Nawen, Beatrice looked faintly surprised.

    "This is even more crushing than I expected," mumbled Beatrice as she watched the battle unfold, when suddenly, a weird feeling emerged inside of her.

    Only a few moments after that feeling first emerged, Beatrice suddenly began surveying the battlefield, finding it after only around half a minute.

    Although this army from the Kingdom of Lyon was technically one single army, in actuality, it was a mostly a combination of troops from the various vassals of the Kingdom of Lyon, most of which still lead their own troops.

    Looking at her father, who was leading around five hundred troops, fighting on the edge of the battlefield, a faint frown appeared on Beatrice''s face.

    ''With you here, not helping would indeed be a bit rude,'' thought Beatrice as she suddenly sunk into the shadows, disappearing from the tree she was formerly standing on.

    ...

    Looking at the man standing in front of him, currently bleeding as he stared at him, a faint frown appeared on Renald''s face.

    ''A Royal Knight, this could be somewhat dangerous,'' thought Renald as he looked at the middle-aged man who was blocking the path of him and his troops, shielding his own soldiers from Renald.

    Without any hesitation, Renald suddenly leaped towards the man, slashing his sword at him using one arm with force far beyond that possible for the average person to create even with both hands available.

    Using his left hand, which was free, Renald used his steel glove to deflect three different arrows which would have otherwise hit him had he not done that.

    And after only a moment, Renald landed, his sword smashing into the sword of his opponent as his soldiers followed him from behind, smashing sideways into the over two thousand Nawenese soldiers present on this portion of the battlefield.

    Just as Renald was preparing for a long-drawn-out battle against this worthy foe, his eyes suddenly glistened, as he suddenly, and without any warning, stabbed his opponent.

    Seeing this, Renald''s opponent easily blocked the predictable stab, before suddenly widening his eyes and moving his head to the side, dodging an arrow that would have otherwise stabbed him right in the neck.

    This was all that Renald needed, as he then suddenly struck once again, his sword cutting through the metal armour of his opponent, straight through the latter''s chest.

    After being slowed by this damage, the opponent finally stood no chance, as Renald let out a few final attacks, causing his opponent to finally grit his teeth and run away.

    Rather than running after his opponent, and perhaps into a trap, Renald suddenly began running toward his own troops, who already had a large advantage, having helped take some of the burden away from the main Leonese arms.

    Suffice to say, now being faced with a Royal Knight, after the several Grand Knights present in the troops had no chance at resisting.

    ...

    Looking at the scene below her from above, Beatrice, who was sitting on a tree even closer to the battlefield, had a faint smile on her face.

    "This should be enough," mumbled Beatrice as she threw the remaining arrows she had stolen to the ground.

 107 : Home

    After throwing those arrows to the ground, Beatrice took one more look at the battlefield, making sure that everything was going smoothly.

    A few moments after that, Beatrice suddenly jumped down from the tree, disappearing into the forest.

    ...

    As she stared out through the window of her estate, an Iris couldn''t help but shake her head, letting out a faint sigh.

    Suddenly, Iris slightly moved her ears, as she heard a set of familiar footsteps from behind the door, followed by a knock on the door itself.

    "You can come in, William," said Iris as she raised her head, no longer holding it up with her hand.

    A moment after Iris said those words, the butler, William, suddenly walked into the room and slightly bowed to her.

    "You can ignore the formalities, do you have news from the front?" asked Iris as she looked at the butler, causing William to nod.

    "Yes Lady Iris, great news in fact," said William, causing a faint smile to appear on Iris'' face.

    "Continue," said Iris as she got up from the chair she was sitting on and stared out the window.

    "In a decisive battle, the Kingdom''s army managed to defeat the Army of the Kingdom of Newan, causing its total rout, with his status, sir Renald will surely return home in at most seven days," said William as she looked at Iris, who was smiling at the moment.

    "Good, call some of my maids here, I need to begin preparing for his return," said Iris as she looked at the old butler, causing him to nod once again before bowing.

    "As you wish, my lady," said William, bowing whilst he walked out of the room.

    After William walked out and left her alone, Iris merely stood there, staring in the distance with a smile on her face.

    "Thankfully this battle was easily won," mumbled Iris, when suddenly, a hidden figure appeared next to her.

    For a moment, shock appeared on Iris'' face, making her want to scream out, but this was suddenly stopped as Iris took a closer look at the face of the figure, which, at first glance, was shrouded by the hood.

    Without any warning, Iris suddenly leaped towards Beatrice, hugging her tightly, as if the latter had come back from death.

    Stolen story; please report.

    As Iris hugged her daughter, two small tails of tears appeared on her face.

    "Beatrice, mother missed you..." mumbled Iris as he took Beatrice''s hood off and stared at the latter''s face.

    Of course, even whilst she did so, Iris still continued tightly hugging Beatrice with one hand, making sure that she did not let the other go, as if she was afraid of losing her.

    After a few moments, Iris turned her attention to Diana''s face, as she then touched the latter''s cheek, feeling its softness.

    Looking at her mother, who seemed to be over the moon at the moment, a faint smile appeared on Beatrice''s face.

    "It looks as though you missed me quite a bit," said Beatrice as she touched her mother''s cheek as well, as if in retaliation.

    "That''s true, but you can''t imagine how miserable your father was when you were gone, he would worry every single day," said Iris, causing Beatrice to let out a small, chuckle.

    "I could see that happening," mumbled Beatrice as Iris slowly but surely let go of her daughter.

    Of course, even after she stopped her hug, Iris still hung on to Beatrice.

    "Wait a minute, let me get you a chair so that we can talk," said Iris, causing Beatrice to suddenly shake her head.

    Before Iris could even realize it, a chair had suddenly flew through the room and landed right next to Iris'' own chair, causing the latter to freeze for a moment.

    Staring at the chair, which had landed right in front of her.

    "How dumb of me, I even forgot why you went away in the first place, maybe I am really getting old," mumbled Iris as she touched her forehead.

    A moment later, Beatrice sat down on the chair she had bought out, causing Iris to also sit down.

    ...

    Looking at the two white-haired women, who were sitting on their own chairs, one of them reading a notebook, whilst the other held a small boy in her hands, Renald froze, his eyes widening.

    "I guessed that you would have liked this surprise, but I didn''t expect you to be so surprised," said Iris as she looked at her husband, who was currently frozen in place.

    Even though he heard the words of his wife, Renald was still frozen, merely staring at his daughter.

    After a few more moments, Renald''s demeanour suddenly changed, as the surprised look on his face disappeared, being replaced by a cold and serious look.

    "It''s very good that you came back home safely," said Renald, with no obvious emotion visible on his face.

    Seeing this scene, Beatrice, who was currently holding her little brother in her hands, let out a chuckle, causing the small child to slightly freeze.

    "Little Frederick, are you still afraid of your sister? I thought you would have grown that out," mumbled Iris, moving the attention of the group away from Renald''s fake calmness and toward the kid.

    Unaware that he had been used to move the topic of the conversation, right now, a confused look appeared on little Frederick''s face.

    "Don''t worry, I was never the best with children," said Beatrice as she touched the forehead of the child, causing Frederick to once again freeze.

    Right at this moment, a knock was heard on the door, causing Renald to look over.

    "You can come in," said Renald, causing the door to open, revealing the old butler, William, who was walking in with a tray in his hands.

    Seeing this, a frown appeared on Renald''s face, as he quickly moved and picked up the tray from the old man.

    "Uncle William, why didn''t you have a maid take care of it?" asked Renald as he quickly placed the tray on the table.

    Before William could say anything, Beatrice suddenly interjected.

    "Although it would probably not be too much trouble, it''s best if news of my return didn''t spread," said Beatrice as she instinctively picked up one of the cups of tea.

 108 : Actions

    As she read the document in her hands, a faint frown appeared on Beatrice''s face.

    "It''s best if I take care of this before anything bad happens," mumbled Beatrice as she got up from her chair and placed the document on her desk.

    In it this document, several conjectures of her father were written, one of which caught her attention.

    The governor of the capital city of the Kingdom itself, Rostom Saw.

    Although Beatrice was not fully sure that the Aepheovia Kingdom was interfering in the Lyon Kingdom, she didn''t dare ignore this possibility, as it posed a critical threat to her family.

    After all, although Beatrice could easily handle anything that was sent her way, her family could not do the same thing and would be in great danger if the Kingdom was invaded.

    A few moments after that, Beatrice wrote a note before quickly placing it on the desk next to her, after that, she then secretly left her room.

    ...

    Looking at the city before her, which was shrouded in the darkness of the night, Beatrice couldn''t help but shake her head before suddenly jumping over the city wall.

    Of course, this was not any normal city that Beatrice had targetted, rather, this was the capital city of the Lyon Kingdom, Yaso City.

    At the same time, Yaso City was the richest and most prosperous city in the entire kingdom, by far.

    Although not truly official, the city was separated into three areas, the Outer Area, where the common, and mostly poor people live.

    The Inner Area, where the nobles and only the very richest of merchants could live.

    As well as the core area, where the Royal Palace, as well as government institutions like the City hall, were placed.

    After a few moments, Beatrice sunk into the darkness of the city and began sneakily moving around.

    In only a few minutes, Beatrice quickly made her way through the outer area, reaching the unofficial area to the Inner City, still shrouded in Darkness.

    Although the city hall was present in the Core area, Rostom Saw did not spend most of his time there, rather he liked to live inside his Mansion in the Inner Area.

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    As the Inner Area was much smaller than the Outer Area, using her speed Beatrice was able to quickly move through it, as evading the guards which swarmed it proved quite trivial.

    Only about thirty seconds after entering the Inner Area, Beatrice had arrived in front of a luxurious mansion, causing a faint smile to appear on her face.

    ...

    As she read through the list of names that Rostom Saw had just written for her, a faint smile appeared on Beatrice''s face, causing her to turn her attention back to the governor of the city.

    Right now, although Beatrice had used Dark Healing on him, to let him be able to write this list, Rostom Saw was in pretty bad shape.

    Even before Beatrice tortured him and used Dark Healing on him, which had drained his vitality, Rostom was over fifty-five years old, at the same time, he had never trained to become a knight for a single day in his life.

    "Useless trash," mumbled Beatrice, causing the governor, who now looked as though he was over seventy years old, to begin suddenly melting.

    In only a few moments, the governor had melted and had sunk through the floorboards of his home.

    A few moments after that, Beatrice disappeared from the luxurious mansion, as she now knew who her new targets were.

    ...

    The next morning, in the Aephovian Embassy.

    At this moment, three men stood together, staring at the report in front of them.

    In just a single night, over a third of the entire Leonese political sphere had disappeared, from obscure government officials to the likes of Rostom Saw, the Governor of Yaso city, as well as two different princes.

    "We need to report this to Sir as soon as possible, it looks as though nearly the entirety of the network has been destroyed!!" said one of the ambassadors as a distressed look appeared on his face.

    The fact that nearly every single person on their side had been exposed meant that the entire spy network in the Kingdom of Lyon was likely compromised.

    Hearing this, one of the ambassadors, a slightly older man, took action, taking the report into his hands.

    "You two take care of anything that comes up, I''m going to report this right now!" said the man as he then began sprinting up the stair at a speed far beyond his usual one.

    Looking at the quickly departing figure, the other two ambassadors couldn''t help but shake their heads, a feeling of slight hopelessness emerging within them.

    ...

    At a speed far beyond his usual one, the ambassador sped through the second floor of the embassy and eventually reached a single room located on the far left side of the embassy.

    After only a brief moment of hesitation, the ambassador knocked on the door twice before suddenly opening it, not even asking for permission from the man inside.

    But sadly, the moment he opened the door, the face of the ambassador froze.

    His direct superior, Ambassador Rito Rosetti was being held by the neck by a hooded figure.

    The ambassador could not discern the face of the figure, but through her hands, as well as the long white hair which spilled out of the hood, he could see that it was a woman.

    If the ambassador had seen this happen to anyone else, he would have quickly jumped in to help, but the moment he saw this happen to his superior, he suddenly froze.

    "Ambassador Rito, I really didn''t expect to meet a fellow pursuer of truth out here in this place," said the hooded figure, as a rather sweet voice emerged from it.

    "Go to hell..." mumbled Ambassador Rito as suddenly his head blew up, sending a wave of blood towards the old ambassador.

    Interesting, the hooded figure was in no way dirtied by the blood.

 109 : Investigation

    Staring at the bloodied corpse of the ambassador, which no longer had its head attached to it, a faint frown appeared on Beatrice''s face.

    "I really didn''t expect to meet a mage that old and that weak," mumbled Beatrice as she threw the corpse to the side, the frown on her face disappearing.

    Unlike most other old mages she had met on the magic continent, not only was this Vito Rosetti extremely weak, he was so weak that Beatrice felt a little bit of pity for him.

    Although he looked to be fifty or sixty years old, based on what Beatrice felt, Vito did not have more than fifteen-twenty Mana.

    At the same time, he did not even master a basic Barrier spell, which had even caused Beatrice to doubt if he was even a true Mage.

    "It does make sense, most of the actually talented mages are sent off to the magic continent, in a better environment, the magic academies probably didn''t go after the ones are that are left here, and managed to slip through the cracks since they have very little talent," mumbled Beatrice as she suddenly appeared next to the old ambassador who had just opened the room.

    Weak talent, combined with an environment far inferior to the Magic Continent, where spell books are probably rare and incomplete, this place could not create anything other than weak mages.

    Without any warning, the ambassador suddenly fell to the ground, losing consciousness in the process, as Beatrice stared at him.

    ...

    "Out of all the people he had met, only ''Master Vito'' had any powers, it looks as though even these weak mages are relatively uncommon in this place," mumbled Beatrice as she destroyed the two bodies which were dirtying the room, disappearing a few moments later, turning into a dark smoke cloud and flying out of the window.

    The spell which Beatrice had just used was the ''Dark Escape'' spell, which allowed the user to turn into a cloud of smoke.

    At first, this spell, as well as the process through which it worked completely baffled it, but after some time, Beatrice had learned to live with the fact that she could not understand everything right away, and that she could learn things in the future.

    After that, Beatrice began using this spell quite a bit, becoming quite similar to her teacher in this regard, who also used the Dark Escape spell.

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    Of course, Selena did not use the Rank 0 simplified version of the spell, but rather the Rank 1 version, which was much more complicated.

    A few moments later, Beatrice emerged into a dark alley, as she moved her smoke body through a window.

    After that, Beatrice''s body once again appeared, as she deactivated the spell and began thinking.

    "Now that I''m this close to the Royal Palace, checking would not be a bad idea, after all, doing something like that would be quite useful whilst I''m here," mumbled Beatrice as she suddenly began moving through the dark alleys of the inner city.

    ...

    Ten Royal Knights, some of the most powerful knights in the Kingdom stood in a circle, staring at the old king, who had several grey hairs appearing on his once luscious blond hair.

    Looking at the map in front of him, King Geoffrey couldn''t help but shake his head, a feeling of frustration emerging within him.

    "Two of my own children betrayed the kingdom, how dare they!?" said King Geoffrey as he as suddenly punched the table in front of him.

    Early into the morning, Geoffrey was woken up by his loyal guards and alerted that something had happened.

    Only a few minutes after that, the king discovered the murder of countless people, but most important, of two of his sons, causing him to fly into rage.

    Not long after that, Geoffrey began investigating the people killed, only to discover an extremely chilling fact.

    Most of them had been bought by the Aephovian Kingdom.

    As these people died suddenly, they did not have any time to hide any of the evidence linking them to the Kingdom, as such, the investigators sent by the king were quickly able to find mountains of evidence that they had never found before, no matter how much they searched.

    After discovering this connection, Goffrey began investigating some other people who had been killed, who did not have any obvious link to the Aephovian Kingdom, only to discover that they had been bought.

    Seeing this trend, the king quickly investigated the two princes which had been killed, causing anger to appear on his face as he looked at the results.

    "Those trash!! What did they expect to rule if they submit to the enemy kingdom, did they think they would be spared!?" asked the king, shouting as the anger visible on his face overflowed.

    Originally, Geoffrey had four sons, but seven months ago, James, his most qualified one to take over the throne left the entire continent, leaving his three brothers behind.

    At first, Geoffrey wasn''t worried that something could happen, but right now he could only stare into the distance whilst his knights stood by his side.

    ...

    Looking at the King, who was reading a letter with anger still clearly visible on his face, Beatrice couldn''t help but shake his head.

    "Although he has interacted with mages, although weak ones, he is not a mage himself," mumbled Beatrice with a slightly weird expression on her face.

    As she stared at the King, the desire to control him couldn''t help but quickly emerge in Beatrice''s mind before being destroyed.

    ''I bet the mages the king had met were from the Shadow Monastery, I can''t risk controlling him and getting caught,'' thought Beatrice as she continued looking at him.

    Originally, Beatrice had expected that the king would have interacted a lot more with mages, but after she had seen him first hand, a faint smile couldn''t help but appear on her face.

    ''If he can resist the Aephovian Kingdom without even being a mage, their power should really be quite weak,'' thought Beatrice as a smile appeared on her face.

 110 : Practice

    The fact that the King was not a mage, nor did he have any close associates who were mages, as Beatrice had seen, meant that the Aephovian Kingdom was really even weaker than Beatrice expected.

    After all, with mages in their midst, killing a mortal, no matter how well-defended, should be quite trivial.

    ''I should be able to conduct my experiments here without much worry,'' thought Beatrice as she took another look at the king before disappearing.

    ...

    Looking at her lab, which had not been used for over seven months, Beatrice couldn''t help but shake her head as she placed her fingers on a table.

    "It''s only been seven months and this place has already become so dirty, this was pretty badly built," mumbled Beatrice as she shook a rather thick layer of dust off her finger.

    A few moments after Beatrice said that, cleaning equipment, as well as several buckets full of concrete suddenly flew into the room and began quickly cleaning it up.

    Under Beatrice''s control, the cleaning equipment made quick work of the dirt which had accumulated in the room, being much faster than normal people.

    Whilst the cleaning equipment was doing its thing, Beatrice walked up to the walls of the room and began touching them.

    After she sent her Mana into the walls of the room, Beatrice was clearly able to sense any and all cracks which were present.

    As such, she was able to quickly control some concrete, sending deep into those cracks, far beyond where a normal human would be able to.

    Not only that, Beatrice was also able to make sure that the concrete did not have any gaps in it, making sure that the concrete did not have any gaps.

    In only around ten minutes, Beatrice was able to reinforce her lab far beyond what it was originally like, to make sure that nothing could find its way inside of it.

    By then, the cleaning equipment had also completely cleaned the room, having got rid of any dust and killed any bugs present inside.

    As such, Beatrice was then able to quickly make sure that everything else was in order whilst she waited for the arrival of her new experimental subjects.

    Only five minutes after Beatrice was able to clean up the room, she suddenly heard a knock on the door, causing her to get up from the chair she had been sitting on and walk up the stairs.

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    After Beatrice opened the metal door to the lab, she was greeted by three men, two of which were armed and holding a third man in their arms.

    "Miss Beatrice, This is the criminal you have requested, officially, he has been ''executed''," said one of the guards, causing Beatrice to lightly nod.

    "I understand," said Beatrice as she watched the two men place the prisoner on the ground before walking out of the dark hallway, and closing the door behind them.

    A few moments later, Beatrice walked back downstairs, only now with a floating man behind her.

    The first thing Beatrice did once she got back down was to tie the man to a table before stretching her arms.

    "I have around two months up until the flying ship returns, hopefully, I can succeed before then," mumbled Beatrice, knowing that the success of this backup plan of hers might prove crucial in the future.

    After a few moments, Beatrice stared at the head of the man for a few moments, causing his soul to become visible to her, soon after that, she got to work.

    ...

    Seven days later,

    Over the past seven days, although Beatrice tried to be as careful as possible, and reuse her experimental materials as much as possible, because of her experiments of the soul, she still ran out of materials.

    Although her father had accidentally ''found'' some criminals and sentenced them to death, this was not nearly enough for Beatrice to continue her experiments, as in only a week, she had already run out of criminals.

    At this moment, Beatrice was sunk in thought as she looked at the man in front of her, who had just woken up.

    "whoo arr yoo? whad''d yoo doo t'' me?" asked the man as he held his head with his hands, being clearly in extreme pain at the moment.

    Seeing this, Beatrice shook her head as she then took out a syringe.

    "donn toush me, i''ll beed yoo upp!!" said the man as he tried moving his body, but sadly, he was currently being restrained to the bed, and could not move in the slightest, allowing Beatrice to inject him extremely easily.

    "fffuck yoo, yoo bish..."

    A few moments after being injected, and after shouting some profanity, the man finally fell unconscious.

    As she stared at him, Beatrice couldn''t help but sink into further thought.

    "It as though the damage to his soul isn''t that severe, although his speech is slurred, he can still form sentences," mumbled Beatrice as she tapped her finger on the chair she was sitting on.

    After a few moments, Beatrice decided what to do.

    "I will go through his memories once again and try to see if anything has changed after the damage, and to see if I did any damage to them as well, if not, after some more mastery on my part, this could prove useful," mumbled Beatrice as she looked through the memories that she had extracted and sent into a corner of her own mind.

    In a few moments, Beatrice once again sunk into the mind of the ''Criminal'', and began looking through the latter''s memories.

    ...

    Over thirty minutes later,

    As she looked at the man, who was now lying motionlessly on the table, seemingly staring at her.

    "Whqt dkd hoi do to me, yiu whpfe?"

    Staring at the man, who although had lost control of his body, still managed to curse her, Beatrice couldn''t help but brightly smile.

    "It looks as though my improvement speed is increasing, maybe I can move onto more complicated projects soon," mumbled Beatrice as she once again sunk into the mind of the man.

    Of course, the already extremely fragile mind no longer managed to hold on, after a third round of mind reading.

 111 : Bandits

    As she looked at the completely braindead man before her.

    But just as Beatrice was about to get rid of him, she suddenly turned her head backward.

    Hearing the sound of footsteps stopping only before the door to the dungeon, a look of surprise appeared on Beatrice''s face.

    "Did something happen?" mumbled Beatrice as she suddenly walked up the flight of stairs which led out of her lab.

    What greeted Beatrice after she opened the door was her father, who had a rather excited look on his face.

    "So, did something good happen?" asked Beatrice as she looked at Renald, causing his expression to freeze for a brief moment as an embarrassed look appeared on his face.

    Renald did not say anything, rather, he took out a piece of paper from his pocket, before handing it to Beatrice.

    As she read the things written on the piece of paper, a faint smile appeared on Beatrice''s face.

    "Yes, that''s very convenient," mumbled Beatrice as she fell into thought.

    After a few moments of thought, Beatrice decided on the next course of action.

    "Find some of your most trustworthy men, who you know will not leak anything about what happened, right now I need to prepare some things," said Beatrice as she looked at her father, a certain glint flashing in her eyes.

    "I understand, everything will be ready in at most three days," said Renald before walking away.

    After a few moments, Beatrice once again sunk into her laboratory.

    ...

    "A hundred or so bandits huh, If I''m careful with how I use them, then I should be able to continue training for the remaining fifty-three days without having to stop in the slightest," mumbled Beatrice as she looked at all the medical information present inside of her Information Cube.

    Just today, Beatrice''s father, Renald, had obtained information that a rather notorious group of bandits, the Steel Rats, had been seen not far from his territory.

    Ordinarily, although the Steel Rats did not dare directly target the territory of nobles, as they were afraid of retaliation, they were still quite a pest wherever they went.

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    As such, if the Steel Rats had arrived here not too long ago, Renald would have been worried, but right now, their arrival could only be considered a stroke of good luck.

    There was one problem though, how to keep them alive without causing suspicion.

    After all, although these bandits could prove as wonderful experimental subjects, they still had to be kept in captivity, as well as regularly restrained using drugs, which could prove rather tedious, especially since it had to be done in secret.

    ...

    Three days later,

    Looking at the over one hundred bandits who were sitting around various campfires, a faint smile appeared on the face of Beatrice, who was currently sitting on the branch of a nearby tree.

    Although even normal bandits were rather strong for regular humans, after an entire day of travelling, they still had to rest, otherwise, their combat effectiveness would collapse.

    Slowly but surely though, at this moment, some of the weaker bandits, either those who were older and out of their prime, or even very young, began dozing off.

    Of course, after so much travelling, nobody paid much attention to this fact.

    Only a few minutes since the first bandit had begun dozing off, the makeshift camp had become significantly quieter, causing the bandits who were still asleep to become alert.

    Sadly though, this did not change their fate, as even the very few bandits, who one way or the other had become knights, still fell asleep.

    As such, only ten minutes from the first bandit, every single other bandit had fallen asleep.

    At this moment, twenty figures suddenly walked up to the bandit camp.

    Looking at the bandit camp, which had completely fallen asleep, Henry couldn''t help but take in a deep breath, as he then turned to his men.

    "You know what we have to do, take every single human out of here to that location as quickly as possible, do not leave anyone back here, after that, we destroy any traces left of this camp," said Henry as he looked at the over twenty soldiers.

    "Understood, sir," said the soldiers as they quietly entered the camp, causing Henry to shake his head.

    "Also, make sure to not drink any of the water in here, I''m sure that you don''t want your comrades to carry you back home," said Henry, causing chills to appear on the spines of some of the soldiers.

    Quickly, the vigorous soldiers took action, and began carrying the bandits towards an old castle several kilometres away, the former estate of the Agnes Clan.

    ...

    As he looked at the old estate around him, which was now filled with men, as well as some women, who were now tied to the floor and walls, Henry couldn''t help but shake his head, thinking of the legends surrounding this place.

    The estate Henry was standing in right now was the former estate in which the Agnes Family used to reside, over fifty years ago, before the family grew in power.

    Back then, after fighting in the Lyonese-Nawenese war, Ronald''s father, Ross Agnes, managed to become a Count, beginning the political rise of the Agnes Family, which was formerly a Viscount Family.

    Because of their new status, not long after the war, Ross decided to create a new Estate for the Agnes family, one more in line with their current status, as the old one had its origins to back when the Agnes family were mere Barons and was actually quite shabby.

    Suddenly, Henry broke out of his thoughts as he noticed a figure standing nearby.

    "Ms. Beatrice, everything has gone as planned," said Henry, causing Beatrice to let out a slight nod.

    "That''s good, you can take your men and leave, I can take care of things here on my own," said Beatrice as she looked at Henry, causing the latter to slightly nod.

    "I understand," said Henry before walking out of the old castle.

 112 : Keiron

    After staring at the back of Henry, who was leaving the castle, Beatrice couldn''t help but shake her head before turning her attention back to the prisoners that she had now obtained.

    As she walked through the hallways of the castle, looking through the bandits, as well as the ten or so women, which had been presumably captured from a nearby village, Beatrice fell into thought for a brief moment.

    "I need to use these women first, otherwise some of them might die before I can even do anything to them," mumbled Beatrice as she touched the forehead of a woman who had been carelessly covered with some cloth, shielding her body from the eyes of the outside world.

    A moment later, a faint, nearly invisible mark appeared on the forehead of the woman, causing Beatrice to retract her hand and move to the next person in her path.

    As it took only a few seconds to place a mark on a single person, in only took Beatrice thirty minutes to place them on every single one of the prisoners.

    1 Grand Knight, 7 Official Knights, 23 Knight apprentices, 72 bandits as well as 10 women who had been captured, these were the experimental subjects that Beatrice had obtained.

    ''Firstly, the Grand Knight, as well as the Official Knights, can be ignored, as long as I give them some water, they will be able to survive,'' thought Beatrice as she walked down to the basement of the castle, two of the women floating behind her.

    Rather conveniently, the drug which Beatrice had decided to use to restrain these bandits, a rather normal mixture of medicinal plants, could easily be diluted into water and fed to the bandits, making it so that Beatrice did not have to spend any time doing things twice.

    ''These ten women can also be ignored, by the time they become hungry, they should already be dead,'' thought Beatrice as she pushed open the door to the basement, revealing a rather tiny room with a long table in the middle.

    Thankfully though, this was all that Beatrice needed, as one of the women suddenly began floating towards the table.

    ''As for the remaining one hundred men, that should work,'' thought Beatrice as she suddenly delved into the already fragile mind of the woman in front of him.

    ...

    One moment, Keiron was having fun with one of the women he had captured, another, he was now tied up with a rather unappealing bowl of soup in front of him.

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    This was the conundrum that Keiron Woodwarm was now facing.

    ''I should have listened to Mother, becoming a bandit was a horrible idea,'' thought Kieron, already regretting the choice he had made.

    Sadly though, no matter who one was, one had to live with the choices they had made throughout their life, good or bad.

    Suddenly, Keiron''s face froze, as he felt his stomach begin hurting without any warning.

    Not paying attention to anything else, Keiron suddenly picked up the wooden spoon which had been placed next to his plate and began gorging himself on the soup.

    Keiron did not know how much time he had spent asleep, but one thing was certain, he was starving, so much so that he didn''t even pay attention to the taste, nor to the rather spongy texture of the meat that was thrown inside.

    ...

    Looking at the young man, who was helplessly struggling against the restraints placed on the table, with tears, Beatrice couldn''t help but shake her head.

    "Mlthrr, mpgher davee!!" shouted the young man, although to no avail.

    "Don''t worry, you won''t feel any more pain in a few moments," said Beatrice as she touched the face of the young man, an extremely rare look of gentleness appearing on her face.

    A few moments later, Beatrice dove into the mind of the young man for a seventh time, fulfilling her promise and stopping his pain.

    A few minutes after that, Beatrice finally emerged from the mind of the young man, and shook her head.

    "Hopefully I won''t ever have to do this again," mumbled Beatrice as she suddenly released the restraints holding the young man to the table before picking up the body.

    It was not that Beatrice had suddenly begun feeling bad about killing or even grown bored by it, the reason why Beatrice was feeling somewhat more emotional right now was very simple, memories.

    Although this was not very pronounced at first, as Beatrice became more and more proficient in her mastery of the soul, she could read more and more, causing her to know her victims on a much more intimate level.

    Usually, this did not pose any problem, as knowing what sorts of crimes these bandits did perhaps even increased her willingness to continue her training.

    But as she read the minds of the likes of Keiron, who was merely sent down the wrong path by the death of his mother, Beatrice felt somewhat conflicted as she desecrated his corpse.

    ...

    As she looked at the huge pot in front of her with a rather conflicted look on her face, Beatrice couldn''t help but shake her head.

    "What''s got into me? Since when was I so emotional?" mumbled Beatrice as the diced remains of Keiron''s body floated into the tub, being prepared to serve as food for his surviving compatriots.

    Although the methods she used this time left even Beatrice a little conflicted, they also led to great results, seemingly accelerating her progress.

    After only about five days, and after having gone through only about twenty of her experimental subjects, Beatrice was able to clearly feel her exaggerated progress.

    Unlike her past self, who could only read some memories, right now Beatrice was able to read Keiron''s memories seven times, thoroughly looking through his entire life.

    Even though Beatrice still had lots of room for progress, as, after the memory reading, Keiron had become brain-dead, this was still incredibly impressive, and much better progress than she could have expected.

    Perhaps by the end of her stay on the island, Beatrice will be able to do some things other than reading memories.

 113 : Insert

    Two weeks later, at midnight.

    Over the past two weeks, Beatrice never left the old Agnes estate, as she would much rather finish her experiments than go to the outside world.

    Even right now, at midnight, Beatrice still continued her experiments.

    As she stared at the man who had been restrained by the metal table but was still staring at her with anger filling his face, Beatrice couldn''t help but fall into thought.

    ''Let''s see how much of his mind is left,'' thought Beatrice as she approached Greg and took the wooden ball gag out of his mouth.

    Of course, Beatrice made sure not to touch the gag itself with her fingers, rather using the string which had kept it attached to Greg

    "You damn whore, let me out of here!!!" shouted Greg the moment his mouth was released, causing a faint smile to appear on Beatrice''s face.

    For the next few minutes, Greg kept throwing the ugliest and worst curses he could think of at Beatrice, cursing her, her family, all of her descendants, and all people associated with her.

    But even so, as she looked at Greg, who was struggling to get out and kept cursing at her, the size of the smile on Beatrice''s face kept increasing.

    ''Although his intelligence may have been affected by the memory reading, it looks as though all of his cognitive abilities are as before,'' thought Beatrice as another ball-gag suddenly floated over from a corner of the room and into Greg''s mouth, although the latter did not accept it willingly.

    As Greg kept his mouth shut and didn''t let the ball gag enter it, Beatrice had to resort to some rather, more intense methods to get it in.

    Suddenly, Beatrice flicked her finger towards Greg, causing it to begin shaking, and involuntarily open his mouth for a brief moment.

    As soon as that happened, the ball gag flew into his mouth before Greg could even react.

    Halfway through his movement, Greg had tried to close his mouth, but he then quickly accepted the gag after one of his teeth broke.

    Looking at Greg, who was sitting on the table, clearly in pain, Beatrice shook her head.

    "Greg, I''m going to need you to cooperate with me," said Beatrice, causing a mocking expression to appear on Greg''s face as she stared at her.

    ''You will never get me to betray my comrades, nor will you get me to submit,'' this was the thought that had gone through Greg''s mind at this moment.

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    ...

    Several hours later,

    Looking at the white-haired woman who had just walked into the room, Greg, who was obediently sitting on the table, with the gag in his mouth gone, slightly shivered.

    Right now, the restraints on the table no longer bound Greg, but after the ''training'' he had gone through in these past several hours, he had become quite obedient and didn''t even have the slightest thought of fleeing this place.

    Especially after hearing the screams which had been coming out of the nearby rooms whilst this woman was gone.

    "Lay down on the table," mumbled Beatrice as she looked at the results of the tests she had just done and compared them to the tests she had placed Greg under.

    Whilst Beatrice did so, Greg quickly sat back down on the table, placed the ball gag into his mouth and began binding himself.

    No matter what, Greg felt as though nothing that Beatrice could do was worse than what he had gone through when he had been disobedient.

    Of course, he was extremely wrong, but this was another matter.

    "It looks as though the mind reading did not have any side effects, and if it did have some, they were rather minor and can be temporarily ignored," mumbled Beatrice.

    What Beatrice had tested were memory and logical skills, which were rather consistent between Greg and his five other comrades, which Beatrice had tested.

    As this was the case, Beatrice could not move on, and begin trying some other experiments...

    At this moment, Greg, who was tying himself up, inexplicably shivered for no apparent reason.

    ''Inserting memories should be a good next step,'' thought Beatrice as she slowly but surely approached Greg.

    A few moments later, Greg shattered his teeth by gritting them on the ball gag in his mouth, but at that moment, Greg did not care much about that, as the pain really was quite minor compared to the other pain.

    ...

    "Who are you?" asked Beatrice as she looked at Greg, who was sitting on the table with a blank look on his face.

    "Can you speak?" asked Beatrice once again, as she waved her hand in front of him, causing Greg to suddenly blink.

    "I''m St-teve," mumbled Greg with a rather uncertain look on his face, causing Beatrice to frown.

    "Aren''t you Greg?" asked Beatrice, causing Greg to suddenly freeze, as blood began flowing out of all of his orifices.

    A few moments after that, Greg fell to the ground, dead, causing Beatrice to shake her head.

    "Is the problem my techniques, or did Greg have too weak of a spirit to contain the memories I had thrown into his mind?" mumbled Beatrice as she looked at the brain-dead man before her.

    ...

    Two days later

    At this moment, Beatrice stood in front of the leader of the Steel Rats, Max Skeldon, who sitting on the table, completely motionless.

    In these past two days, Beatrice had tried to insert memories into the mind of seven bandits, but sadly though, none of the seven managed to survive, nor did Beatrice show any sort of progress in this area.

    As such, Beatrice theorized that the problem was not her technique, but rather her experimental subjects, causing her to attempt to insert memories into Max Skeldon, who was a Grand Knight.

    "Who are you?" asked Beatrice as she looked at Max, causing him to remain silent for a few moments.

    "M-max Skeldon," said Max, causing Beatrice to suddenly smile.

    "What happened to Steve''s wife?" asked Beatrice as she looked at Max.

    After a few moments of silence, Max responded.

    "After seeing her for the first time, I-Greg cornered her and had some fun, before throwing her into the river," said Max, slightly stuttering as he did so, causing Beatrice to faintly smile.

 114 : Overload

    After asking Max some more questions, Beatrice once again put him back to sleep before falling into thought.

    "It looks as though my theory was right," mumbled Beatrice as she tapped her fingers on the table next to her.

    Although the insertion of memories seemed to have had some side effects, on the whole, Max looks alright and had not truly lost himself just yet.

    "I need to do some more tests before continuing to experiment on him," mumbled Beatrice as she placed her hand on Max''s forehead.

    A few moments later, Beatrice retracted her hand and began preparing for the test she would put Max through.

    ...

    As she took a bite of the roasted chicken on her plate, which had been seared to perfection, Beatrice couldn''t help but raise her head and look at her father with a faint frown on her face.

    "Did something happen?" asked Beatrice, causing Renald''s eyes to slightly widen.

    "It''s no big deal, but the gold price has begun dropping, but I''m not sure if I want to begin exchanging our silver coins for gold coins just yet," said Renald, causing Beatrice to let out a chuckle.

    "What''s the price right now?" asked Beatrice as she took another bite of the chicken.

    "Right now, the price of silver coins has risen from 76 to 80 copper coins compared to a month ago, while the price of gold coins has fallen from 153 silver coins to 139 silver coins," said Renald, causing Beatrice to fall into thought for a brief moment.

    "You can buy some right now, and sell them again in a few months, this is just a temporary drop, the real drop should come in about two years after the kingdom manages to not only annex the gold mine but also restart production," said Beatrice, causing Renald to slightly nod.

    Staring at the peaceful scene in front of her, Iris, who was holding little Frederick in her hands, couldn''t help but smile.

    ''If only Beatrice could stay home for longer,'' thought Iris as she stared at her daughter, but even so, she did not voice out her thoughts, fearing that she would ruin the mood.

    After around thirty more minutes of talking, Beatrice rose from her seat.

    "If anything happens you can come to the old estate to contact me, but if things go as planned, I should be able to come out in around two weeks," said Beatrice as she looked at her parents.

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    "You don''t have to worry about us, you can go do your thing without any worry," said Iris, interrupting her husband who was just about to speak.

    Looking at this scene, Beatrice let out a faint smile before walking out of the room.

    ...

    Sometime later, inside the old estate.

    As she looked at the two Knight Apprentice bandits, who were currently fighting each other in an open field, a weird light flashed in Beatrice''s light.

    Lesley and Erasmus, two Knight Apprentices who were roughly equal in combat power, these were the two people fighting, but contrary to expectations, the fight did not look as though it was between people with equal power.

    Using his greatsword, Erasmus, who was a tiny bit weaker than Lesley, continuously overwhelmed Lesley, letting out attack after attack as his eyes had become bloodshot.

    And although Lesley used his own greatsword to block the attacks, it was clear that he would not be able to hold on for much longer against the unrelenting assault.

    "You can stop now," said Beatrice, causing Lesley to suddenly stop, sadly though Esmansus did not do so, causing Beatrice to appear next to him in the blink of an eye and let out a strike against the back of his head.

    Only a fraction of a moment later, Esmansus fell to the ground, incapacitated.

    The difference between Erasmus and Lesley, as well as the reason for his crushing advantage in their battle, was very simple, memories.

    After first managing to insert memories into Max, Beatrice attempted to do so two more times, causing one of her experimental subjects to die, while the other, Erasmus, managed to survive.

    Although Beatrice did not dare cram too many memories into Max, as he was a valuable experimental target, she was not as nice to Erasmus, who she inserted with the memories of three more bandits, each of which fought with greatswords as well.

    ...

    "If not for the side effects, this could be quite useful in creating cannon fodder, or maybe even giving someone combat experience," mumbled as she looked at Erasmus, who was currently mumbling some incomprehensible gibberish.

    "Currently, the side effects are far too large, separating useless and useful memories may be a way to mitigate this issue," mumbled Beatrice as she moved her finger at a rapid speed, writing her thoughts into the information cube.

    Sadly for Erasmus, at this moment, Beatrice was still not proficient enough to separate memories into different categories.

    The only thing Beatrice could do at the moment was separate memories from different people.

    As such, Erasmus would have to continue to be Beatrice''s guinea pig for the entire rest of his lifespan.

    ...

    Looking at Erasmus, who was stretching out his hand towards her, Beatrice faintly frowned and stretched out her hand to the latter''s forehead, causing a surprised look to appear on her face.

    "41.7 degrees?!" mumbled Beatrice as she suddenly took action, and began using Dark Healing to try to stabilize his condition.

    Sadly though, after being inserted with the memories of ten people, even Erasmus could not bear it any longer, as his fever began continuously rising as he began convulsing.

    41.7, 42.3, 44.6. 46.8

    In only a few moments, Erasmus'' fever rapidly grew, as blood began flowing out of all of his orifices.

    And only a few moments after being inserted with the memories of his tenth comrade, Erasmus died, overwhelmed by the sheer number of memories clouding his mind.

    Perhaps if Beatrice took some extreme measures, Erasmus could survive, but sadly for him, Beatrice was not wiling to take such risks for an experimental subject.

 115 : Bafoon

    Looking at Erasmus, who had already begun dying, Beatrice shook her head and began examining the state of his body.

    Everything that Beatrice could get her hands on, from his exact fever to the speed at which his organs had begun failing, and in which order.

    As such, after around half a minute, Erasmus finally died, his eyes rolling to the back of his head.

    Touching the forehead of the dead man, a faint frown appeared on Beatrice''s face.

    "The entirety of his brain was fried," mumbled Beatrice as she looked at Erasmus whilst touching her chin with her other hand.

    A few moments after that, Beatrice released the restraints which tied Erasmus to the table before picking up his body and walking away.

    ...

    Sometime later that day, in the former Steel Rat camp.

    "So, what do you think happened here?" asked Jackson as he looked at the remains of the bandit camp, which had been wiped clean from the face of the earth.

    If not for the fact that Jackson was completely certain that the Steel Rats had camped out here, he couldn''t have possibly noticed the remains of the camp.

    "I couldn''t have been a rogue Royal Knight, they wouldn''t be able to clean this place up so thoroughly after slaughtering the bandits," mumbled Leroy as he touched the ground with his fingers, slightly frowning.

    Hearing this, Jackson nodded.

    "Darius, what do you think?" asked Jackson as he continued examining the camp, but to his horror, he got no response.

    Without warning, Jackson got up from the ground and turned around.

    Looking at the burly middle-aged man, who had fallen unconscious on the ground, next to a puddle of water, Jackson''s eyes widened.

    But before Jackson could even do anything, Leroy suddenly sprinted towards the unconscious Darius, concern visible on his face.

    "He''s just unconscious," mumbled Leroy as he took Darius'' pulse, breathing a sigh of relief in the process.

    Hearing this, Jackson also breathed a sigh of relief, but that also didn''t stop him from also coming next to Darius and taking his pulse.

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    At the same time, Leroy suddenly rose from the ground, staring at a nearby rat.

    Without any warning, at a speed far beyond a normal human, Leroy sprinted to the rat before catching it.

    Under Jackson''s surprised eyes, Leroy sprinted back towards Darius with the rat in hand before stretching out his hand towards the small puddle of water.

    Although the rat was trying its best to escape from Leroy''s hand, and was in no position to drink water, as Leroy pushed it into the puddle, some water still managed to seem into its mouth.

    The moment Leroy took the rat out of the water, the latter began slowing down.

    And only a few moments after the rat had been taken out of the puddle, it had fallen unconscious as well, similar to Darius.

    Seeing this, a huge frown appeared on Jackson''s face.

    "You take Darius back to the camp, I will deal with this," said Jackson as he picked up Darius'' huge axe, which had fallen to the ground.

    Seeing this, Leroy nodded.

    "I understand," mumbled Leroy as he picked up the huge Darius, who weighed at least one hundred kilograms, and placed him over his shoulder before beginning to walk away.

    At the same time, Jackson took out a small vial before filling it up with water from the puddle.

    As he did so, thoughts swirled within Jackson''s mind.

    "Who in the world could create a medicine strong enough to knock out Darius?" mumbled Jackson, feeling at a loss for words at the moment.

    Although Darius, alongside his brother Garen, were considered stupid by many of their comrades, nobody could deny the strength of their bodies.

    Even if someone could create a medicine that could knock out a Grand Knight, Jackson doubted that it would be of any use against Darius.

    After a few moments, Jackson picked up Darius'' axe, which he had placed on the ground once again, and began shoveling some dirt over the puddle, covering it up.

    A few moments after that, Jackson made his way out from the site of the former bandit camp and began walking back to his own campsite, oblivious to the figure standing on a nearby tree branch.

    ...

    Looking at the man who was walking out of the former bandit camp, Beatrice faintly frowned.

    "It''s a good thing that I took some other precautions, but this could be somewhat troublesome," mumbled Beatrice as she stared at the vial in her hands.

    A moment later, Beatrice poured out the contents of the vial before filling it up with some dirty water.

    After that, Beatrice jumped down from the branch and began following Jackson.

    ...

    "It''s just some normal dirty water, it has no other effects," said a middle-aged man as he looked at his three subordinates.

    Hearing this, the faces of Leroy, Jackson, and Darius changed.

    "That can''t be right, I remember drinking water from that puddle before falling unconscious!!" shouted Darius with a shocked look on his face.

    Hearing the words of their comrade, both Leroy and Jackson felt their lips slightly twitch.

    "Darius, is there a reason why you drank that water?" asked the middle-aged man as he looked at Darius, dread filling his eyes.

    At this moment, the middle-aged man was hoping that Darius'' reason was not too brain-dead, so that he would not have to punish him too much.

    Hearing this, both Leroy and Jackson stared at Darius, using their eyes to beg him to lie.

    Sadly though, Darius did not lie.

    "I was thirsty, so I drank the water," said Darius, causing veins to appear on the forehead of all three men.

    "Darius, did you not have fresh water in your backpack?" asked the middle-aged man, causing Darius to nod.

    "Yea, but this was much more convenient, after all, I never got sick from drinking dirty puddle water in the past," said Darius, causing Leroy and Jackson to close their eyes.

 116 : Time

    Looking at the former bandit campsite in front of her, which had been thoroughly cleaned up, Beatrice fell into thought.

    After the group of three men had left, Beatrice had once again gone through the remains of the bandit camp and made sure that nothing that could link it to her was left.

    Thankfully, except for that unexpected puddle of water, her father''s men had done a pretty stellar job of cleaning things up.

    "It''s been more than a month, I really didn''t expect the medicinal properties of my medicine still be so powerful," mumbled Beatrice as she jumped onto a tree branch.

    Over a month ago, back when Beatrice had first captured the bandit group, she had made sure that she had cleaned up the area and didn''t leave any traces.

    But even if she had, in fact, left some traces, Beatrice was sure that they would have disappeared before people could investigate.

    ''I slightly miscalculated and underestimated the potency of my medicine, I should have done some thorough tests on it,'' thought Beatrice as she jumped from one tree branch to another.

    Of course, Beatrice couldn''t be blamed for this, as she did not have much time to make some more thorough plans back then.

    "Thankfully, it''s not the worst-case scenario," mumbled Beatrice as she rapidly climbed the hill and returned to the old Agnes Estate.

    ...

    "I''m telling you, there''s something wrong with that place, I could have never fallen unconscious for three days from just drinking dirty water, you know that as well as me," said Darius as he looked at his two comrades, causing them to shake their heads.

    "I know that, but what do you want us to do, that idiot doesn''t want to believe us, do you want us to desert for something like this?" asked Leroy as he looked at Darius with an angry look on his face.

    "It''s just some bandits, let''s ignore this and move on, it won''t be our problem after all, we have more pressing matters to attend to, don''t you think so?" asked Jackson as he got up from his chair.

    Hearing this, both Darius and Leroy hesitated for a few moments before nodding.

    "Alright, I guess it''s not our problem," mumbled Darius as he got up from his chair as well and took his axe off his back before walking out of the room.

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    Although Darius had decided to ignore that bandit situation, he still felt rather frustrated and needed a way to relieve himself.

    ...

    Unaware of the fact that the investigation into the disappearance of the steel rats had stopped, Beatrice stood in the basement of the old Agnes Estate, sunken into her thoughts whilst she stared at the man in front of her.

    "Tell me, what happened to your group of bandits?" asked Beatrice as she stared at the man, causing him to suddenly blank out.

    Even though the man heard Beatrice''s words, all he responded with was silence, as a confused look appeared on his face.

    "We... We got- I don''t remember..." mumbled the man, as the confused look on his face increased in size.

    Looking at this scene, Beatrice faintly frowned, causing the man to be suddenly knocked out.

    "It seems as though at least the memory erasure was successful, but implanting new memories needs a lot more work," mumbled Beatrice as she once again sunk into the mind of the man.

    The reason why Beatrice had decided that altering the memories of some of the bandits was the best choice was very simple.

    Practice

    Although Beatrice could probably figure out a method to take attention off her, the process of attempting to alter someone''s memories could be extremely useful in the future.

    As such, Beatrice had decided to test it in the Lyon Kingdom, where even if she had been discovered, Beatrice wouldn''t fall into danger.

    At this moment, Beatrice had decided to achieve her goal of altering someone''s memories using two steps, deleting their previous memories and inserting new ones.

    The first part, memory deletion, was quite easy for Beatrice at this point, which left the second, more complicated part to be figured out.

    Although Beatrice could insert memories into other people already, that fact did not help Beatrice in the slightest, as she could only insert memories from other people, and could not create fake memories, just yet.

    ...

    One week later,

    As she took a bite out of the steak on her plate, Beatrice couldn''t help but turn her head to her father.

    "Did anybody come to investigate the disappearance of the bandit group?" asked Beatrice as she looked at her father, causing him to nod.

    "Some knights under the service of the King did come, but it looks like they didn''t find anything, as they haven''t come back a second time," said Renald, causing a faint smile to appear on Beatrice''s face.

    "That''s good," mumbled Beatrice, causing Renald to nod in agreement,

    "It looks like you will have to go back once again," mumbled Iris, causing Beatrice to suddenly freeze.

    Seemingly in the blink of an eye, the two months that Beatrice could spend in the Lyon Kingdom had passed, as the flying ship of the Rose guild would return in sixteen days.

    Although Beatrice could make the journey to the landing point of the ship in just under two days, she was not willing to take such a risk and would have to depart the Lyon Kingdom three days before the arrival of the ship.

    9 days, this was all the time that Beatrice had left in the Lyon Kingdom.

    Upon realizing this fact, Beatrice slightly nodded.

    "That''s true, I will have to go back soon enough," mumbled Beatrice as she took another bite of the steak.

    Hearing this, both Renald and Iris went silent, as they stared at their daughter.

    After a few moments, Renald shook his head.

    "Don''t be so sad, we have to make the best use of all the time we have left," said Renald as he looked at his wife, causing the mood to lighten up somewhat.

    "That''s true," mumbled Beatrice as she looked at her parents, who clearly weren''t as young as she remembered them to be.

 117 : Fun

    Looking at the three bandits in front of him, who looked extremely haggard, Darius and his two comrades couldn''t help but slightly frown.

    Before the already weakened bandits could react, Darius suddenly appeared behind them and knocked them out.

    "Let''s bring them back to the camp, we can interrogate them there," said Leroy as he bent over and picked up one of the bandits.

    Hearing this, Jackson, who was standing nearby with a thoughtful look on his face, nodded after a few moments of hesitation.

    "Alright, let''s go," mumbled Jackson as he picked up one of the bandits as well.

    ¡­

    Coincidences, Jackson hated coincidences, especially extremely convenient ones.

    Looking at the three bandits who had been tied to a tree, as well as his two sleeping comrades, the frown on Jackson''s face increased in size.

    What were the chances that just as the three of them were about to leave Abrington County, they would encounter some remnant members of the Steel Rats, which they had been searching for all this time?

    Low, extremely low.

    Jackson hated this feeling, this feeling of being toyed with and manipulated in the palm of someone''s hand.

    Although he knew that this was an irrational fear and that coincidences did happen, Jackson couldn''t help but feel as though a pair of eyes were watching him, laughing at him, toying with his senses and emotions.

    Suddenly, Jackson turned his head around and looked and stared at a nearby tree branch.

    Staring at the small bird that had just flown onto the branch, Jackson couldn''t help but breathe a sigh of relief.

    Jackson had felt as though he had heard someone, but as expected, it was just his imagination getting the best of him.

    "I''m already an Official Knight, and I''m still so cowardly, how pitiful," mumbled Jackson as he lightly slapped his face, slapping his fear away.

    Usually, Jackson was not afraid of the darkness, but for some reason, he couldn''t help but feel a sense of fear as he looked around.

    A few moments later, Jackson slapped himself once again, and then returned to his usual state, guarding his sleeping comrades.

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    ¡­

    "Did something happen whilst we were sleeping? You got way too tired after being awake for only a night," said Leroy as he looked at Jackson, who had sat down on the ground.

    "Don''t bother me right now, I need to sleep for at least an hour," mumbled Jackson as he closed his eyes.

    Only a few moments after that, under the surprised eyes of Leroy and Darius, Jackson fell asleep.

    ¡­

    A few minutes after that.

    Only five minutes after Jackson had fallen asleep, he had woken up once again, but unlike what one might expect, he did not move in the slightest.

    Jackson looked as though he was sleeping, with his eyes still closed, but as his vision was taken away from him, Darius could focus much more clearly on his other senses.

    "What happened to your gang?!" asked Darius, presumably looking at one of the captured bandits.

    "W-we were ambushed by the troops of that damn noble, other than a few of my friends, who escaped w-with me, I don''t know what happened to a-anyone else," said one of the bandits, quickly spilling the beans as he looked at the huge axe on Darius'' back.

    "He seems to be telling the truth," mumbled Leroy as he looked at the bandit, causing Jackson to suddenly flinch.

    If both Leroy and Darius were far away from him, next to the bandits, then who was the person next to him?

    As this thought entered Jackson''s mind, he couldn''t help but feel as though a hand was moving around his neck, touching its veins with its nails, threatening to pierce it at any moment.

    Suddenly, Jackson opened his eyes and began struggling, but sadly, he could not move his body, only being able to feel the fingers move around his neck, threatening to take his life at any moment.

    Occasionally, the being would let out a laugh, as if to mock Jackson for his powerlessness in this situation, and his inability to stop it.

    Although Jackson could hear his comrades nearby, he could not move his mouth to ask for help, and could only stare in horror as the figure came closer and closer to taking his life.

    Suddenly, Jackson felt another hand, a much larger one, land on his shoulder, causing his eyes to pop open.

    "Jackson, you said you would only sleep for an hour, hurry up, we have to go," said Darius as he looked at Jackson, who had been sleeping whilst the two of them were interrogating the bandits.

    But even though Jackson had woken up, he simply stood there, with a rather blank look on his face.

    "What, did you have a scary dream?" asked Darius before letting out a chuckle, causing Jackson to nod sheepishly.

    "Yea, a dream¡­" mumbled Jackson as he touched his neck.

    ¡­

    As Jackson picked up one of the bandits, who had once again been knocked out, he couldn''t help but instinctually turn to look behind him.

    Looking at that pair of black eyes, which were hidden in a certain bush, staring at him, Jackson nearly dropped the bandit he was holding to the ground.

    Thankfully though, as soon as Jackson blinked, those eyes disappeared, allowing him to move once again.

    ''I need to get the hell out of this cursed place as soon as possible,'' thought Jackson, causing him to begin moving a bit faster than his comrades.

    "Did something happen?" asked Leroy as he looked at Jackson, causing the latter to shake his head.

    "I just want to get back to headquarters as soon as possible, I don''t like this place," mumbled Jackson as he sped up his movement once again.

    ¡­

    ''The memories of the bandits have been successfully changed without any side effects,'' thought Beatrice as she stared at the three men who were hurrying out of the forest.

    "That was quite a bit of fun," mumbled Beatrice as she stared at the leading man, Jackson, with a faint smile on her face.

    On this very nice day, Beatrice discovered a very fun pastime.

 118 : Same

    Five days, this was all the time that Beatrice had left in the Lyon Kingdom

    Although Beatrice did her best, and even surpassed herself in figuring out a method to insert fake memories into people, this still took quite a bit of time, even for someone of Beatrice''s talent.

    Four days to be more exact.

    Although this speed was rather ridiculously fast, this came at a rather steep price, as Beatrice had to be far less careful than usual while experimenting, to keep up her speed.

    Because of this, Beatrice had managed to nearly completely run out of bandits to experiment on, leaving only their leader, Max, as well as a few other bandits left.

    Thankfully, though, it seemed as though toying with that Jackson guy had somewhat relieved Beatrice''s exhaustion.

    "I should do that again sometime," thought Beatrice as she began making her way back to the old Agnes estate.

    Sadly though, as Beatrice did so, that exhaustion, which had seemingly disappeared, slowly but surely returned.

    ''I need to get at least three hours of sleep,'' thought Beatrice as entered the estate and made her way to a bedroom.

    ...

    Four hours later,

    The moment Beatrice opened her eyes, she suddenly got up from the bed.

    ''It seems I was really quite tired,'' thought Beatrice as she put on her robe.

    Although it was only one hour, it was nearly unheard of for Beatrice to oversleep, especially since she had become a mage apprentice.

    A few moments after Beatrice put on her robe, she made her way out of the old bedroom and into the basement of the estate.

    Some time ago, after she had first begun working with memories, a rather simple experiment, but one with rather far-reaching implications, had appeared in Beatrice''s mind.

    And right now, Beatrice wanted to attempt it.

    ...

    ''All the subject''s memories have been removed from his mind,'' thought Beatrice as she wrote down her thoughts into the information cube.

    Garry, this was the original name of the subject, but now, that name was gone, replaced with nothing.

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    Looking at the man lying motionlessly on the table, Beatrice couldn''t help but faintly smile.

    ''Although all of his cognitive functions have been preserved, it seems as though he has forgotten how to move his body,'' thought Beatrice as she stared at the man, who did not move even though he had not been controlled or restrained.

    The fact that someone without memories could not move, as they would not know how, was not expected by Beatrice, causing her to feel somewhat surprised.

    "Alright then, I can begin inserting the new memories," thought Beatrice as she approached the man.

    ...

    Looking at the two men, who were lying in front of one another, unconsciously, Beatrice faintly smiled.

    One of the two was, of course, Beatrice''s new experiment, while the other was the leader of the Steel Rats, Max.

    A few moments after that, the two slowly but surely began waking up.

    Looking at the burly man full of power, who was standing lying there motionlessly in front of him, ''Max'' couldn''t help but be shocked.

    "Who are you, why do you look exactly like me!?" asked ''Max'', shouting as he pointed his arm towards the person in front of him.

    Sadly though, this action of pointing his arm, shocked ''Max'', who felt as though his body was extremely weak, causing him to turn his attention to it.

    Looking at his body, which although impressive, was a far cry from his usual body,''Max'' felt as though the world was spinning.

    By now, though, the other ''Max'' had also woken up, and was staring at ''Max''.

    "Who are you?" asked ''Max'' as he looked at ''Max''.

    "I''m Max, the leader and founder of the Steel Rats," said ''Max'', causing the other ''Max'' to frown.

    "I''m also Max, the leader and founder of the Steel Rats," said the other Max, causing both of them to deeply frown.

    ...

    For over five minutes, under the curious eyes of Beatrice, the two ''Max'' stared at each other silently, as if to examine each other.

    Without any warning, rhyme, or reason, the ''Max'' who was stuck in Garry''s body suddenly jumped forward toward the ''Max'' still in his own body.

    Although the body was that of a normal person, after over five minutes, ''Max'' a Grand Knight had managed to slightly adapt to it.

    Using his exquisite knowledge of fighting, ''Max'' was able to push this body to its very limit, and ran at a speed far beyond normal.

    Without giving the other ''Max'' any time to react, ''Max'' had managed to pierce his left eye using his finger.

    After that, though, the other ''Max'' took action, as he let out a punch towards the ''Max'' that had attacked him.

    Without any hesitation, ''Max'', dodged the punch launched against him, as he moved his body at a weird angle.

    Although the punch looked exactly like one he would send himself, as he dodged it, a faint smile appeared on the face of ''Max''.

    "You''re a fake!!" shouted Max as he grabbed onto his own arm and moved himself using it.

    Only a fraction of a moment later, before the fake could react. Max''s fist suddenly punched him in the face with extreme force.

    But before the punch could land, both of them suddenly lost control of their bodies as Beatrice appeared next to them.

    "It''s as I thought, even though I replaced his memories and swapped their bodies, the real one was still easily found out," mumbled Beatrice as she looked into the terrified eyes of the two men.

    By now, both of the men had realized what had actually happened, but even so, they could only look on in despair, as they weren''t able to control their bodies in the slightest.

    A few moments later, Beatrice knocked out both of the men before dragging both of them behind her.

    Although the two of them did not know it yet, as Beatrice did not have many experimental subjects left, the two of them would have to endure a lot.

 119 : Inexperience

    Looking in front of him, at the man who looked exactly like himself, ''Max'' couldn''t help but instinctually stretch out his hand towards him.

    "Who are you? And why do you look like me?" asked ''Max'' as he stared at the other man.

    For an unknown reason, as he said this, ''Max'' felt somewhat weird, as if he had done this before.

    ''That can''t be true, I don''t remember anything that was remotely like this,'' thought Max as he suddenly moved towards the impostor, causing himself to notice something.

    ''My body has changed,'' thought ''Max'' as he felt his much weaker strength, but quite unexpectedly, ''Max'' did not need to spend any time to adapt to his new body.

    In only a fraction of a moment, before the impostor could react, ''Max'' had arrived in front of him, and had punctured his eye.

    Before ''Max'' could continue and do any more damage to the impostor, who still hadn''t reacted, both of them froze in place.

    ''As I expected, although erased and copied the memories, the instinct and subconscious mind still carried over,'' thought Beatrice as she knocked out both Max and Garry, who currently had both Max''s body and memories.

    But although he had all of these advantages, Garry was still sadly only a bad copy of Max, who couldn''t compare to the original in the slightest.

    "If I want to continue making progress on this experiment, I need to find a way to manipulate instinct and the subconscious mind, not only the memories themselves," mumbled Beatrice as she walked out of the room, the two men floating behind her.

    But as Beatrice had spent an entire day creating the copy of Max, at this moment she only had four more days left in the Lyon Kingdom, making her doubt her ability to complete this project before she left the Kingdom.

    As Beatrice walked through the hallways of the old estate, she kept thinking of ways to try to somehow achieve this goal of hers whilst staying here, as Garry and Max were, by now, important experimental subjects, that Beatrice had spent a lot of effort fine-tuning.

    Sadly though, Beatrice, on her own, could definitely not achieve such a thing, and by now, Beatrice herself was aware of this.

    Suddenly, Beatrice''s eyes lit up.

    "That could be a good idea," mumbled Beatrice as she stretched her hand into her robe and took out a leather notebook.

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    Staring at the notebook, Beatrice faintly frowned for a few moments before nodding, having annihilated all of her hesitation.

    ...

    Looking at the small figure of her teacher, who was sitting on the last page of the notebook, with a cold look on her face, Beatrice felt some sweat fall down her forehead.

    "What do you want?" asked Selena as she looked at her disciple, as well as her surroundings, especially at the two men lying down on two nearby tables.

    As she looked at the two, the cold expression on Selena''s face transformed into a rather weird one.

    "I wanted to ask you for your experience on some things regarding the subconscious mind," said Beatrice, causing Selena to slightly nod.

    "Well, this is a rather weird coincidence," mumbled Selena as she shook her head, feeling quite surprised that Beatrice had begun going down specifically this topic.

    A few moments later, Selena let out of a final sigh before beginning to speak.

    ...

    Staring at her tiny teacher, who was currently standing on a chair, next to Garry and Max, frowning, Beatrice took in a deep breath.

    A few moments later, Selena faintly nodded.

    "Frankly, that''s an excellent attempt for someone who has nearly no idea of what they are doing, but sadly, even I won''t be able to do anything to these guy after what you have done to them," said Selena whilst pointing at Garry, who was in Max''s original body.

    After taking in a deep breath and staring at the confused Beatrice, Selena began elaborating.

    "First of all, although you seem to have practised partial memory wipes well enough, this is the first time you attempted a full memory wipe, am I right?" asked Selena.

    "That''s true," said Beatrice, causing Selena to nod.

    "Because of this, you were far too rough in your technique, and caused some damage to their souls, this is especially visible on this normal human, although it''s also present on this Grand Knight, to a lesser degree."

    "Although at first, the damage was light, and could perhaps heal on its own over time, you must have memory wiped these guys at least five times in a single day, most likely to conduct experiments on them, this caused the damage to become worse and worse."

    "Secondly, trying to clone people using the souls of other people is a dead end, and will cause all sorts of trouble, if you want to create a real clone, I have created a much more suitable method, which is actually the thing I was meant to teach you once you became experienced enough, that method is the way I was created," said Selena as she shook her head.

    Hearing her teacher say that her line of thinking would lead to a dead end, Beatrice felt a little bit awkward, but as she heard the second part of her sentence, her eyes lit up.

    "Don''t even think about it, although I underestimated your talent regarding the soul, you are not prepared to use my method," said Selena, causing Beatrice to nod.

    "Based on my current progress, how far away from reaching that level am I?" asked Beatrice, causing Selena to fall into thought.

    "Although that technique is quite advanced, It shouldn''t be too complicated in its base form, you could begin attempting it after you become an official mage," said Selena as she jumped from the chair and onto the notebook which sat on a nearby desk.

    Before Beatrice could do anything, Selena had jumped into the notebook, leaving Beatrice alone.

    After a few moments of thought, Beatrice closed the notebook before placing it into her robe once again.

    "I have a lot of work to do," mumbled Beatrice as she looked at the two men, now that this experiment was unsuccessful, Beatrice had to go begin the next one.

 120 : Departure

    Looking at back at her parents, who were standing on a balcony, staring at her, Beatrice couldn''t help but faintly smile as she waved her hand.

    A few moments later, under the rather sad eyes of her parent''s, Beatrice began walking away, as she slowly began picking up speed.

    In the last four days she had spent in the Lyon Kingdom, Beatrice had completely wrapped up her experiments.

    As she did not have much time, and could not accomplish anything major, for the first three days, Beatrice simply practised some basic things, and didn''t try to learn anything new.

    From erasing memories, to inserting new ones, to creating memories and influencing people using their souls, in those three days Beatrice practised all of those things.

    After doing so, and using all of her remaining experimental subjects, on the last day, Beatrice had cleaned up the old estate, and removed any traces of her activity there.

    From the more obvious things like cleaning up any remaining bodies, and all the tools that she had used.

    To less obvious things, like removing all the Torment which had accumulated in the walls of the estate from her stay in it.

    Although Beatrice did not believe there was anyone on this island who could use that torment to track her, she decided to still be careful, after all, in the future, her parents might decide to use the old estate for something else.

    After all, Beatrice did not want anything to happen to her parents because of her experiments.

    ...

    Inside an unknown location,

    "Mistress, the spatial stability is currently is 87.6 percent, up from 84.3," said Ighor as he looked at Selena, who was sitting down on a desk, tinkering with something.

    "That''s much better than I expected, especially after so many years have passed, it looks as though our work hasn''t been in vain," mumbled Selena before looking at Ighor.

    "Even so, we need to get to work, as long as we can get the stability up to over 90 percent, the production of elemental energy should start up again," mumbled Selena as she tapped her fingers on the desk, deep in thought.

    Hearing this, Ighor faintly nodded, and was just about to leave, when suddenly, a small crystal appeared in front of him.

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    "Ighor, go back to my hideout and use this key, back there, I have kept some captured mortals with Space Affinity, they could be useful in aiding us," said Selena before waving her hand.

    "Understood."

    As she watched Ighor leave the room, Selena couldn''t help but fall into thought.

    "It would be so much better If I could bring the Tower here, but If I were to do that, those guys would surely notice this place," mumbled Selena as she shook her head.

    Unbeknownst to Beatrice, and everyone else other than herself, Selena''s hideout was actually an underground Mage Tower from the distant past, which she had discovered and repaired.

    Although the tower was being powered by the elemental energy flowing within the ground, if Selena desired to, she could bring it over here.

    Sadly though, as soon as Selena did that, this place would be found out by the Magic Council, who would not want Selena to get her hands on a Flying City, and would do nearly everything to stop it.

    In truth, if this was the ancient past, Selena would not have been able to have a Mage Tower whilst being only an Official Mage.

    Based on some records she had found in the tower, back then, Mage Towers represented Archmages, whilst Flying Cities were under the control of Legendary Mages.

    Sadly though, with the decline in Elemental Energy after that ancient war, the number of rare materials and resources quickly dwindled, preventing Archmages from creating Mage Towers.

    "Since I''m an Archmage, I should be able to take control of the city, as this one is not powered by a god," mumbled Selena as she got up from her desk.

    ...

    A few moments later, Selena walked out of the house that she was currently inhabiting in the city, and began walking down a large road.

    After only a few moments of walking, Selena moved to the left, and began walking on a side road, before reaching a certain house, that was hidden in a certain corner of the city.

    Only a moment later, Selena opened the door to the house and walked inside.

    ...

    Looking at the boundless world in front of her, a faint smile appeared on Selena''s face.

    Compared to a few months ago, when she had first discovered the Flying City, Selena could feel that the spatial stability of this world had increased.

    "With the help of those space mages, I should be able to get the spatial stability of this world over 90 percent in about a year," mumbled Selena as she sat down on a rock.

    Of course, with her current resources and power, getting the spatial stability up to 100 percent was impossible, and it would remain impossible up until Selena became a Legendary Mage.

    ...

    Unaware of the things that her teacher was doing at the moment, currently, Beatrice was currently on a ship, staring at the peaceful ocean around herself.

    It seemed as though Beatrice had been quite lucky in regard to sea travel, as both when she went to Golwall Island, and when she left it, she encountered no bad weather.

    Of course, when she first began travelling to the island, Beatrice had encountered some rain, but compared to the fierce storms that can sometimes plague this place, this was nothing to worry about.

    ...

    One day later,

    After around one day of ship travel, Beatrice could now see her destination, Nanrath Island, in the distance.

    "I really did have some good luck," mumbled Beatrice as she looked behind her at the dark storm clouds that were gathering.

    Even on the ship that Beatrice was travelling on, which was not near the centre of the storm, one could feel the terrifying storm that was quickly approaching.

    Thankfully though, Beatrice was now extremely close to Nanrath Island, and didn''t have to worry about the storm.

 121 : Back in the ship

    As she disembarked the ship, Beatrice couldn''t help but stare behind her, at the storm that was currently approaching Nanrath Island.

    After a few moments, Beatrice couldn''t help but shake her head.

    ''I should go to the landing place of the ship, It''s better If I wait there, so that nothing can happen,'' mumbled Beatrice as she walked through the now extremely empty streets of the city.

    Looking at the crew of the ship she had travelled on, who were currently tying up the ship to the dock with rather worried looks on their faces, Beatrice couldn''t help but snap her fingers.

    Suddenly, the eyes of the crew dilated, as the robes which they had been tying moved on their own.

    In only a few moments, the ship had been secured to the dock, causing the eyes of the crew to return to normal.

    Staring at the perfectly tied up ship, the captain couldn''t help but feel as though he had forgotten something, but as he couldn''t remember it after thinking for a few moments, he ignored it.

    "Why are you wasting time here, boys, it''s time to go to safety," said the captain, causing the remaining crew to hurriedly get off the ship.

    ...

    Ten minutes later,

    As Beatrice walked down the street and looked at the countless windows that had been boarded shut using planks, she couldn''t help but sign.

    "No matter how much they try, or what they build, mortals are always so insignificant compared to mother nature," mumbled Beatrice as she noticed that the streets had become empty.

    Suddenly, Beatrice faintly frowned, causing the Dark Barrier always surrounding her to materialise.

    In only an instant, the wind, which was already quite strong, become even stronger, as instantly rain began pouring down.

    A few moments later, Beatrice suddenly moved her head to the left, dodging a plank of wood that was now flying through the air.

    ''If I''m not using the Dark Barrier spell, the power of this wind can send me flying as well,'' thought Beatrice as she continued walking down the street.

    Of course, Beatrice knew that although she was a Mage Apprentice, she had not truly escaped the category of a mortal, as she had not become an Official Mage, yet.

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    After this thought entered her mind, Beatrice no longer dilly-dallied, and began walking to her destination.

    ...

    Two days later.

    Staring at the enormous flying ship that was descending from the clouds, a faint smile appeared on the face of Beatrice, who was sitting on a rock, now with a mask on her face.

    At this moment, Beatrice suddenly moved her head and observed the figures that had appeared nearby.

    Six other masked mage apprentices had now emerged from their hiding spots, and were now staring at the ship as well.

    In only a brief moment, Beatrice''s eyes moved over the six mages.

    Five of them did not seem to respond in the slightest to her vision, whilst one of them slightly shivered.

    Seeing this, Beatrice waved her hand at the mage with a smile on her face, causing him to lower his eyes and not dare to stare at her.

    Noticing this, Beatrice shook her head.

    ''Ignoring it, how boring,'' thought Beatrice as she turned her attention away from the mages and back onto the flying ship.

    Feeling the gaze move away from them, four of the other five mages breathed a silent sign of relief.

    By now though, Beatrice was in no position to care about this, as the flying ship had now landed on the ground, or rather, half a meter off the ground.

    Seeing this, Beatrice faintly smiled and jumped onto the deck of the ship, where the receptionist that had first sold Beatrice the ticket to enter the ship was standing.

    After staring at the receptionist for a brief moment, Beatrice shook her head before throwing a bag of elemental stones at her.

    Although Beatrice had to expend some elemental stones to keep up her refining of Mana, around 250 elemental stones to be exact, she was still not lacking in that department currently, and could afford the 399 elemental stone price for the ticked.

    A moment later, the receptionist had finished counting the elemental stones that Beatrice had given her.

    "Distinguished lady, this is your ticket," said the receptionist as she handed Beatrice a black rock.

    After getting the black rock, Beatrice continued past the receptionist and walked onto the ship after using her ticket, a smile on her face.

    Only a moment after Beatrice had walked through, the next of the mages walked up to the receptionist and handed her the elemental stones.

    In only around three minutes, all the mages that were present when the ship had landed had gone into the ship.

    As such, the receptionist had begun recounting the elemental stones, making sure that the number matched up with the number of mages.

    ...

    Staring at the lone elemental stone that was left after the counting, a faint frown appeared on the face of Alice Burk, the receptionist.

    Quickly, Alice went through her memories and began recounting the elemental stones.

    After around half a minute, Alice had discovered what had gone wrong.

    ''That first female mage gave me 400 elemental stones instead of 399,'' thought Alice, causing her to walk into the ship.

    Although Alice would very much like to take advantage of this mistake and take the stone for herself, she knew her teacher''s orders, as well as her temper, very well.

    As such, after a few moments, Alice had decided on what to do, and walked into the ship.

    She would give the elemental stone back to that female mage.

    It had taken Alice some effort to find the mage, as she did not know her name, but after around half an hour, Alice had finally arrived in front of a door.

    "Distinguished lady, may I come in?" asked Alice as she knocked on the door.

    "You can come in," said a lazy female voice after a few moments of silence.

 122 : Average

    Early the next day,

    As she walked out of Beatrice''s room, Alice couldn''t help but slightly shiver, as she felt a certain gaze land on her from inside the room.

    The moment Alice felt this gaze scan her, she couldn''t help but speed up, fearing that the owner of this gaze would pull her back into the room.

    At a speed far beyond that of a normal human, Alice had disappeared, causing Beatrice, who was lazily laying on the bed, to click her teeth.

    "Not even closing the door behind her, she really has no manners," mumbled Beatrice as she stretched out her arms and got up from the bed.

    ''I really need a relaxing bath,'' thought Beatrice as she walked up to the door and closed it.

    ...

    At this moment, Alice could be seen walking through the hallways of the ship, which had already begun flying, unaware of the fact that Beatrice was badmouthing her.

    Suddenly, Alice froze in place as she realised something.

    In only a moment, Alice took out a bag from her currently rather untidy robe and began counting the elemental stones inside of it.

    As she stared at the two extra elemental stones in her hands, Alice slightly gulped.

    Knowing her teacher''s temper, Alice wanted to go back to Beatrice''s room, to give her back these two elemental stones, but as soon as she tried to do so, she couldn''t help but slightly shiver.

    "I won''t go back to that place," mumbled Alice, deciding on what to do.

    Although Alice knew that she shouldn''t take extra elemental stones from customers, she would rather face punishment from her teacher than go back to the hands of that woman.

    ...

    Perhaps aware of Alice''s current conundrum, Beatrice couldn''t help but faintly smile as she wrote something down into the information cube.

    ''I can''t really conduct any sensitive experiments in this place, I guess I just have to practice my spells for the next 22 days,'' thought Beatrice.

    Although the cabin of this flying ship seemed to protect her against scrying spells, Beatrice did not trust it in the slightest.

    Beatrice knew, for a near fact, that the Rose Guild had probably placed some secret way to spy on the occupants of the flying ship.

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    Even though this made her somewhat uncomfortable, Beatrice still had to bear with this fact, as this was the best way for her to currently travel.

    A few moments later, Beatrice sank into her thoughts as she stared at the wall of her room.

    At this moment, nobody could know what Beatrice was thinking.

    ...

    In what seemed like a flash, the 22 days Beatrice had to spend on the ship passed.

    As she could not truly do any experiments, Beatrice had to simply wait out the time by refining Mana and practising spells.

    In these 22 days, Beatrice managed to somewhat increase her proficiency of her less used spells.

    At the same time, she was able to peacefully refine Mana without having anything to worry about.

    Because of this, whilst she was on the ship, Beatrice''s total Mana pool managed to increase from 54.58 points of Mana, to 57.22 points of Mana, a sizeable increase that brought Beatrice closer and closer to becoming a Peak Mage Apprentice, which would happen at around 70 to 75 points of Mana.

    If Beatrice continued with this speed, she should be able to reach that level in around five months, an extremely fast speed, faster than in her previous life.

    ''After that, I just need to become an official mage,'' thought Beatrice as she stared at the ground through the window.

    Although the trip back to her home had been quite expensive, costing 1212 elemental stones, Beatrice was quite satisfied with it.

    Of course, compared with staying in her teacher''s home, Beatrice did not know whether going on this trip had made her stronger or weaker, but Beatrice was sure of one thing.

    She was quite satisfied.

    Of course, right now came a much more worrying part.

    "Hopefully that little girl Guinevere didn''t cause too much trouble whilst I was gone," mumbled Beatrice as she touched her forehead.

    Even though Guinevere seemed rather responsible before Beatrice had gone on her trip, Beatrice could not be sure what that little girl had done whilst she was gone, and what had happened.

    ...

    At an unknown moment in time, in a random little village, an older sister was sat down on the ground, staring at her little brother

    "Elias, that''s impressive, very good," said Ella as she looked at her brother, who was currently holding a Dark Bolt in his hands.

    The second thing Ella did after obtaining her brother back from that witch, after making sure that he was alright physically and mentally, was test his talent for magic.

    After spending some elemental stones to use a talent testing device, Ella had found out that her brother did, in fact, have Magic Talent.

    Elias even had the same type of affinity as Ella, allowing her to be able to reuse the spell book that she had learned from.

    There was a single issue though, the fact that Elias'' talent was quite a bit lower than Ella''s, but to her surprise, Elias seemed to pick up magic quite quickly.

    ...

    Looking at her brother, who was controlling a dark bolt, a faint smile appeared on Ella''s face.

    "Good, as expected of my brother, now create another one," said Ella, causing Elias to freeze for a moment before nodding.

    Whilst he controlled the first dark bolt, Elias moved a portion of his attention away, to create a second one.

    One second.

    Two seconds.

    Five seconds.

    Ten second.

    For around ten seconds, Elias stared at the air in front of him, gritting his teeth.

    By around the five-second mark, a small black object had appeared in the air, where Elias was staring.

    Sadly though, this did not last for long, as after around ten seconds, Elias not only lost control of this new forming dark bolt, which had caused it to dissipate, but he had also lost control of the other dark bolt, causing it to move uncontrollably.

    Seeing this scene, Ella couldn''t help but shake her head.

    ''He has D grade affinity after all, I expected too much'' thought Ella as she waved her hand, causing both dark bolts to freeze in place.

 123 : Even neater ants

    Over ten thousand ants quickly moved on a dead tree, towards a certain location.

    Suddenly, one of the leading ants stopped in its tracks, causing the entire army, which was following behind it, to stop as well.

    The ant stood completely still for around ten seconds, causing a tiny ant head to suddenly peep out from behind a nearby bush.

    The moment the ant noticed this, it suddenly began moving, causing the army that was following behind it to split up.

    Countless ants moved through the area, searching for their enemies, whilst a small group of ants, visibly larger than the rest, followed behind that, leading out.

    Suddenly, the antenna''s of the leading ants moved, causing it to freeze for a few moments before retreating.

    It was unknown in where the fighting began, but in only a few moments, another group of ants had revealed themselves, and had begun fighting our own group.

    For the next hour, the fighting continued, with both ant groups kept getting reinforcements, causing a rather worrying trend to begin.

    Rather than lowering, the number of ants fighting on this battlefield kept increasing and increasing, as more and more reinforcements arrived from the two colonies.

    Whilst the fighting was at it''s peak, over fifty ants would die every single second throughout the battlefield, before being replaced by reinforcing ants, who continued the battle.

    This was the status quo for around one hour, in which over twenty thousand ants had died.

    But by the end of the hour, the scale of the battle once again changed, as another ant colony suddenly interfered, wanting to occupy this fertile place for itself

    Sadly for all the ants involved, though, the arrival of this third ant colony seemed to have triggered a chain reaction.

    Throughout this entire, rather small world of ants, small skirmishes began, as the peace that had been created after the 7th Great Ant war slowly shattered.

    Sadly though, this was only natural, after all, all 7 previous ant wars had also begun over one single thing, resources.

    In times of peace, the populations of the ant colonies quickly bloomed, causing extreme overpopulation to begin extremely fast, this was, of course, followed by extremely brutal warfare for food and resources, which sometimes destroyed more than ninety percent of the ant population.

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    Nevertheless, this cycle this continued, as on this day, the 8th Great Ant War had begun.

    ...

    As she stared at the huge enclosure of ants, that took up an entire large room, Guinevere couldn''t help but shake her head.

    "They''re getting more and more accustomed to battle with each generation," mumbled Guinevere as she stared at the numerous ant colonies through the see-through wall.

    Although not too long ago, Guinevere had introduced numerous new ant colonies into the enclosure, which had been bred from the other colonies, the number had once again begun dwindling.

    "That''s only natural, with the spell that mistress has cast on them making them more violent, as well as your efforts in breeding the most successful ants, it would be quite unusual if such changes didn''t take place," said a weird female voice coming from behind Guinevere.

    Hearing this voice, Guinevere couldn''t help but touch her forehead, feeling quite a headache.

    "What is it now?" asked Guinevere as she turned around.

    "The children require sustenance," said a rather large ant, standing nearby the doorway.

    Of course, compared to the ants inside the enclosure, this one was extremely different.

    The first, and most obvious, thing that differentiated this ant from the other ants was its size.

    If at first, Guinevere had been shown an ant the size of a dog, she would have been rather scared, but as she had witnessed the growth of the Earth Ant Queen herself, she did not feel anything in particular.

    "Haven''t I told you to tone down the birth of new ants, the area that Mistress has left for you is about to run out," said Guinevere with a faint frown on her face.

    "Lady Guinevere, do not worry, I will not let the colony take up too many resources, It''s just that I have made some changes to the colony," said the ant queen as she telepathically spoke with Guinevere, causing some doubt to appear on the latter''s face.

    Seeing this, the queen quickly continued.

    "As the colony was beginning to run out of space to grow, I have begun increasing the efficiency of our living arrangements, starting from the walls themselves," said the queen.

    "Formerly, the walls of the colony were merely tunnels in the dirt, which made them rather inefficient."

    "Sadly, though, we could not remove much more dirt from the colony, as that would jeopardize its structural integrity," said the queen, causing Guinevere to nod.

    "Right now, though, we have begun replacing this with walls created using dirt reinforced by earth magic, which could be extremely thin whilst also maintaining structural stability," said the queen.

    Hearing this, Guinevere quickly nodded.

    "That''s a rather smart idea, so many more ants can you house right now?" asked Guinevere as she stared at the ant queen, who currently seemed rather cute.

    "Although the transformation is not yet finished, we can theoretically fit around 60 percent more ants compared to before, but as our Earth Magic progresses, I''m sure we can squeeze around 10 percent more on top of that," said the ant queen, causing Guinevere to smile.

    "76 percent more ants, even without mistress making any changes, I''m sure that I can feed that amount," mumbled Guinevere as she touched her chin, causing an excited look to appear on the face of the ant queen.

    "Very well, since Lady Guinevere is in agreement, then I can be on my way," said the small ant before walked away on it''s six legs.

    ''I guess even ants can be cute when they are happy,'' thought Guinevere as she stared at the departing ant queen.

    Without warning, both Guinevere and the Ant Queen suddenly froze, as both of them felt something connecting to their minds, or rather, someone, someone that both of them had longed for.

 124 : Queen

    Just a few moments before.

    As she walked through the swamp, a faint smile couldn''t help but appear on Beatrice''s face.

    Although Beatrice enjoyed her trip quite a bit, as she came closer and closer to her new home, she couldn''t help but begin to somewhat miss it after all.

    Suddenly, Beatrice froze for a brief moment, as she suddenly felt numerous connections, which had been broken due to distance, re-establish themselves.

    "It seems as though Guinevere did not slack off," mumbled Beatrice as she continued on her way.

    Suddenly, Beatrice froze for a brief moment, as she heard a voice inside of her mind.

    ''Mistress, It''s good that you are back,'' said an extremely young voice, one which clearly did not belong to Guinevere.

    For a few moments, some shock appeared on Beatrice''s face, but after that, this shock disappeared and was replaced by a faint smile.

    "It looks as though I need to hurry," mumbled Beatrice, causing her to suddenly speed up far beyond her previous casual speed.

    ...

    As she looked at the small, dog sized ant that was standing in front of her, Beatrice couldn''t help but smile.

    "It seems that little Guinevere did a good job of raising you," mumbled Beatrice as she bent down and touched the head of the ant with her palm.

    ''Y-yes, lady Guinevere did a good job,'' said the ant, her voice resounding into Beatrice''s ear.

    As she was an ant, the Earth Ant Queen could sadly not speak normally, which would usually completely destroy any attempts at communication.

    But rather thankfully though, as an Earth Ant Queen, she had some special abilities far beyond normal Earth Ants.

    "That''s good, but is there something you want to say?" asked Beatrice as she looked at the large ant queen, who seemed rather nervous.

    ''Can I bring some of the children here to meet you?'' asked the ant queen, causing Beatrice to fall into thought for a few moments before nodding.

    ''A few ants shouldn''t hurt,'' thought Beatrice as she looked at the ant queen.

    "You may do so, but make sure that they don''t cause any trouble," said Beatrice as she looked at the ant queen, who had become rather happy that her mistress had accepted her words.

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    ''Don''t worry mistress, the children are extremely obedient,'' said the ant queen whilst moving her antennae and following behind Beatrice, somewhat like a puppy.

    Only a few moments after Beatrice spoke, she suddenly turned her head sideways towards the left.

    As she stared at the over five hundred large ants, each of which that was around 4 to 5 centimetres each, who were approached her, Beatrice immediately realised that her wording wasn''t the best.

    Remembering the words ''some of the children'' Beatrice couldn''t help but touch her forehead and turn to the ant queen, who was rubbing her carapace against Beatrice''s leg.

    "How many children do you have at the moment?" asked Beatrice as she looked at the ants who had currently surrounded her.

    Although none of the ants seemed nearly as intelligent as the ant queen, Beatrice could still see happiness in their eyes as she stared at them, something that indicated at least a minimum level of intelligence.

    ''Right now, there are a total of 48.766 ants inside the colony, with 2645 eggs on the way,'' said the ant queen as she stared at Beatrice with her bright eyes.

    ''Don''t worry though mistress, in around a month, I promise you that there will be 25 thousand new ants, the capacity of the space you have given us will be filled up,'' said the ant queen as she looked at her mistress.

    Hearing this, Beatrice couldn''t help but feel somewhat surprised, although the room that she had provided was somewhat large, being around 20 by 20, Beatrice did feel as though this many Earth Ants could fit inside of it.

    "If I hadn''t come back, how would you have expected to fit these new ants into the room?" asked Beatrice as she stretched out her finger and let a small ant climb onto it.

    "By using earth magic, we were able to..."

    As she listened to the Earth Ant Queen ramble on and on about the intricacies of the colony, a faint smile appeared on Beatrice''s face, causing her to pet the ant sitting on her finger.

    "So you can use earth magic, demonstrate it for me," said Beatrice as she began slowly but surely walking, being followed by the ant queen as well as the surrounding ants.

    Hearing this, the ant queen nodded.

    ''Should I show you what I can do myself, or what I can do with the colony,'' asked the ant queen as she stared at Beatrice, causing the latter to fall into thought for a brief moment.

    "Both," said Beatrice as she continued staring at the ant queen, causing it to begin focusing.

    One second

    Two seconds

    Three seconds

    After around three seconds, a small rock suddenly formed in front of the ant queen, who now seemed rather exhausted.

    Only a moment after that, seemingly not wanting her mistress to be disappointed, the Ant Queen turned towards the five hundred or so ants behind her.

    A fraction of a moment fate, a brown aura suddenly began rising from all the ants before pouring into the ant queen.

    Without any warning, a quite small earth spike rose from the ground in front of Beatrice, although rather slowly.

    Staring at this scene, Beatrice couldn''t help but feel somewhat shocked, but even so, this did not show on her face in the slightest.

    ''Mistress, don''t be disappointed, the number of ants next to be at the moment is really too small, If I was in the colony, I would be able to do much more,'' said the ant queen, causing Beatrice to break out of her trance.

    "Don''t worry, that''s rather impressive," mumbled Beatrice as she stared at the earth spike, which was just twenty centimetres tall.

    Although the spike did not have any combat power, Beatrice did not think too much about that, only having a single thought in her mind.

    If she can already do this with five hundred ants, what about five thousand? Or even five million?

 125 : Ferocious Ants

    As she stared at her mistress, who had walked into the room alongside a giant ant, surrounded by around five hundred much smaller ants, Guinevere couldn''t help but freeze for a moment.

    Of course, only a fraction of a moment later, Guinevere broke out of her trance and quickly walked up to her mistress whilst holding the report she had just finished in her hands.

    "Mistress, here''s a report of what had happened whilst you were gone," said Guinevere, not showing any emotion on her face.

    Hearing this, Beatrice slightly nodded as she picked up the report that Guinevere was holding.

    In took Beatrice only a few moments to go through the first page of the handwritten report, causing her to faintly smile.

    "Antonia, go and bring be some samples from the ant colonies currently at war, you should be much more suitable for this compared with Guinevere," said Beatrice, causing Antonia, the Earth Ant Queen, to quickly nod.

    "Don''t worry, mistress, it will be quickly done!" said Antonia, who was still very happy that she had been given a name by her mistress.

    Only a moment later, the ant queen began moving, followed by the five hundred ants that had surrounded Beatrice.

    At this time, Beatrice had turned her attention back to the report, causing her to flip to the next page.

    As she continued reading through the report, a slightly surprised look couldn''t help but appear on Beatrice''s face.

    "That''s to be expected," mumbled Beatrice as she looked at Guinevere and stared in the latter''s eyes.

    Hearing this, a faintly worried look couldn''t help but appear on Guinevere''s face, but even so, she did not say anything and merely let Beatrice silently think.

    "So, what''s on your mind?" asked Beatrice as she looked at the look on Guinevere''s face, causing the latter to finally speak.

    "Mistress, did I do anything wrong?" asked Guinevere, causing Beatrice to shake her head.

    "No, that''s not it, I just noticed something very interesting," mumbled Beatrice before turning her attention back to the report.

    Hearing the words of her mistress, Guinevere finally breathed one last sigh of relief, as if a weight had been taken off her shoulders.

    After that, Guinevere turned her attention back to Beatrice, who was still reading the report.

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    It took Beatrice around five minutes to go through the entire report, which detailed everything Guinevere had done, as well as everything that had happened whilst Beatrice was gone.

    Even though the end of the report was not nearly as polished as it''s beginning and middle, as Guinevere had no time to edit it, Beatrice still felt as though the report was rather good.

    But whilst reading the report, Beatrice was also doing something else.

    ''Her mind is still definitely under control,'' thought Beatrice as she carefully felt Guinevere''s mind, which felt rather fragile to her.

    ''Even so, she still has many more emotions compared to back before my trip,'' thought Beatrice as she stared at Guinevere from a corner of her eyes.

    After a few moments of hesitation, Beatrice finally shook her head.

    ''I will reinforce the Mind Manipulation spell before checking up on her soul,'' thought Beatrice as she finally decided what to do with Guinevere.

    As long as Guinevere''s emotions did not interfere with her work or cause Beatrice to lose control of her, Beatrice had no reason to try to remove them.

    Suddenly, though, the door to the room was opened, allowing Antonia to walk in, with her entourage of ants still following behind her.

    At this moment, the ants following behind Antonia were holding over a dozen small metal boxes over their heads, causing Guinevere to faintly frown.

    "Shouldn''t there be more colonies?" asked Guinevere after Beatrice signalled her to speak using her hand.

    Hearing this, Antonia couldn''t help but shake her ant head.

    "That is true, just earlier today there were many more colonies of ants in there, but all of them have been destroyed," said Antonia, causing a look of surprise to appear on Guinevere''s face.

    "What happened, why were they destroyed?" asked Guinevere, as she looked at Antonia with a rather worried look in her eyes, soliciting a glance from Beatrice.

    "What other way can a colony be destroyed, they fought each other and annihilated the rest of the colonies in the 8th Great Ant War," said Antonia, causing both Guinevere and Beatrice to appear faintly surprised.

    After reading the report, Beatrice now had a faint idea of what had happened to the ants whilst she had been gone, as well as off what the Great Ant Wars were, but compared to the previous wars, which had been greatly detailed inside the report, this one went much faster.

    Upon thinking about this for a few moments, Beatrice, followed by Guinevere, walked forward towards the tiny cages being held up by the ants.

    ...

    "As expected, they are much more violent, that the previous ants," mumbled Beatrice as she looked at the ant inside the glass box, who was easily killing some peaceful ants.

    ''Not only that, but they seemed much better adapted for fighting than the other ants, no wonder this type won the Seventh Ant War and Dominated the Eight,'' said Antonia as she looked at the ant in front of her.

    Although this ant could not compare in the slightest against even the weakest of the Earth Ants, compared to normal ants, it was extremely ferocious.

    This ant colony was originally made up of Gneognoid ants.

    But after several culling, in which Guinevere left only the most successful ants alive, these ants had faintly changed, becoming much more ferocious.

    This change culminated in the 7 Great Ant War, in which a colony of these ants won with ease.

    Because of their victory, Guinevere had added a bunch more colonies of these ants into the arena, creating the slaughter fest that was the 8 Great Ant War.

    "It seems as though there''s nothing wrong with them, they should be able to regulate themselves after a few more wars," mumbled Beatrice whilst touching her chin.

 126 : Colony

    After a few more moments, Beatrice turned her attention away from this colony of ants, which she had named Gneognoid 5, and onto the person lying on a nearby table.

    "Antonia, has everything gone smoothly?" asked Beatrice as she walked up to the unconscious Guinevere.

    ''Yes mistress, lady Guinevere was extremely cooperative, which removed any difficulties,'' said Antonia as she raised her large head and looked at Beatrice.

    Hearing this, Beatrice couldn''t help but faintly nod.

    "Very good," mumbled Beatrice before picking up Guinevere''s hand and making sure that the latter''s pulse was stable.

    A few moments later, Beatrice placed the hand back down onto the table, before beginning to stare at Guinevere''s soul and search for something.

    ...

    "Completely and utterly fascinating, I never knew that the Dark Manipulation spell actually worked like this, but now that I know it, this makes perfect sense," mumbled Beatrice as she looked at Guinevere, who was lying down on a table.

    ''What is it mistress, did something happen?'' asked Antonia as she looked at Beatrice with a curious look on her face.

    Hearing this, Beatrice couldn''t help but nod.

    "I have just discovered a rather neat little fact about the Dark Manipulation spell," said Beatrice as she took out the information cube and began typing into it.

    Hearing this, an extremely curious look appeared on Antonia''s little face, causing Beatrice to shake her head.

    "The Dark Manipulation spell, as its name implies, manipulates and controls the targeted person by suppressing their personality and replacing it, but who would have guessed that there was even more to it than that?" asked Beatrice as she continued writing something into the information cube.

    "It''s obviously much more complicated than what I''m about to describe right now, but to sum things up neatly, the Dark Manipulation Spell allows those that show loyalty more control over themselves than those who resist," said Beatrice, causing Antonia to turn her head sideways, confused.

    "Let''s say we have two people, one who absolutely despises the person controlling them, and another one who is already loyal to that person, but is being controlled for safety."

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    "For the first person, the Dark Manipulation spell would take full control of them, but for the second person, it would lurk in the background, saving a lot of Mana in the process," said Beatrice, causing Antonia to finally understand what had happened.

    "So Guinevere became more loyal to you whilst you were gone, that''s weird," said Antonia as she looked at her mistress with a rather puzzled look on her face.

    "Although that''s true, even though it could not compare to what it is right now, even before my trip, now that I think of it, Guinevere was a little bit different from my past servants," mumbled Beatrice as she touched her chin.

    Hearing this, the little ant cheerfully nodded and did not say anything, even though it also felt a bit curious about those past servants of her mistress.

    "Since the reason for the change has been figured out, we can let her wake up now," said Beatrice as she took one final look at Guinevere before once again moving her attention somewhere else.

    ...

    Looking at the doorway in front of her, which was filled up with dirt, as well as hundreds of holes, through which ants moved in and out of a room, Beatrice couldn''t help but feel quite happy.

    At this moment, Guinevere, who had woken up not long after Beatrice had finished her investigations, was placing a huge bowl filled with food, on the ground.

    "Say, do Earth Ants require these sorts of magical materials to survive, or can you guys also survive in the outside world right now?" asked Beatrice as she looked at Antonia, who was standing next to some ants, who looked much smaller than the usual Earth Ant.

    "Yes, even though magical materials do greatly speed up the growth of an earth ant colony, we can survive in the outside world, but I don''t recommend that right now, as the colony still has a huge amount of potential it can develop in a very short amount of time, "said Antonia as she let one of the young ants climb onto her.

    "Take me for example, although I look huge compared to normal Earth Ants, but I can feel it, I have huge room for growth left in me, I feel as though I can grow in size at least ten times," said Antonia, causing Beatrice to faintly frown.

    "Very well then, It looks as though we''ll have to leech off my teacher for a few more months at least," mumbled Beatrice as she walked up to the dirt wall and touched it.

    As she felt the vibrant life-force from behind this wall, a faint smile couldn''t help but appear on Beatrice''s face.

    Even though it was as Antonia said, and the Earth Ant colony was not truly grown up, Beatrice was really quite satisfied with their progress in these past few months.

    Looking at this scene, Antonia, who had a tiny ant on her forehead, couldn''t help but faintly smile.

    Sadly though, as she was a giant ant, Antonia''s smile look rather horrific to a normal human, and would probably scare one to death.

    After feeling the life-force inside the room, Beatrice couldn''t help but go even further, and try to send her mind inside, feeling the tiny minds of the fifty thousand or so ants.

    Just as Beatrice, and Antonia had expected, as soon as Beatrice had sent her mind inside the ant colony, she was welcomed by the ants with open arms.

    ...

    As she felt this hugely powerful mind suddenly enter the colony, Antonia couldn''t help but shiver for a moment before regaining her senses.

    ''That''s really rather powerful,'' thought Antonia, even though she knew that her Mistress''s mind was extremely powerful for a Mage Apprentice, Antonia still felt as though something was somewhat weird with it.

    ''It''s just my imagination,'' thought Antonia before turning away from this train of thought and began enjoying the presence of this warm mind inside the colony.

 127 : Happy Little Ant

    Feeling over fifty thousand tiny little minds excitedly move around, a faint smile couldn''t help but unintentionally appear on Beatrice''s face.

    "If only humans could be that reasonable and obedient, that would be very nice," mumbled Beatrice as she stretched out her finger and let a small ant climb onto it.

    As she watched the little ant excitedly move around her hand, Beatrice couldn''t help but stretch out her other hand and pet it''s head, causing it to no longer move, and instead merely enjoy Beatrice''s touch.

    ''Yes mistress, that would be very ideal,'' said Antonia as she walked into the largest opening of the ant colony.

    "That''s impossible, If that were the case, humans wouldn''t be humans any more," mumbled Beatrice as she once again stretched out her hand towards an opening to the colony.

    Seeing this, the sensible little ant on Beatrice''s hand obediently stepped into the colony.

    After course, before she did so, the little ant also rubbed her head against Beatrice''s finger a few more times, as if she wanted to say goodbye.

    A few moments later, under the quite sad eyes of several thousand ants, Beatrice slowly but surely walked away from the colony.

    Unlike Antonia, who was rather smart, the intelligence of these ants was extremely limited, and equivalent to that of a toddler at most.

    "I have a lot of things to do," mumbled Beatrice as she looked back at the ant colony in front of her.

    ...

    One week later,

    After arriving back at her underground home, Beatrice quickly went back to her work, as she had wasted more than enough time by travelling.

    The first thing Beatrice did after arriving back there was to obtain some experimental subjects.

    This was extremely simple, as Beatrice merely had to contact her teacher, who then provided some for her.

    Even though Beatrice was quite unsure of the method used by Selena to obtain humans, she didn''t ask any questions, as she knew better than that.

    After that, Beatrice then continued experimenting on the souls of these experimental subjects, as well as on the souls of some other beings.

    Looking at the man in front of her, who was lying down on a table with a confused expression on his face, Beatrice couldn''t help but touch her chin.

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    After a few moments of thinking, Beatrice waved her hand, causing a tiny ant to suddenly fly into her palm.

    A few moments later, Beatrice successful accessed the soul that she had placed inside the ant body.

    "If I give it some suitable memories, there shouldn''t be any reason why an ant couldn''t control a human body," mumbled Beatrice as she looked at the man lying down on the table with a smile on her face.

    That''s right, the first thing that Beatrice did once she had got back home was attempt body swapping.

    Of course, this was not merely that, as Beatrice had already done some research on body swapping back in the Lyon Kingdom.

    What Beatrice was trying to do now was body swapping between different species, more specifically, ants and humans.

    ...

    Looking at the man, who had barely managed to sit upright after some struggling, Beatrice couldn''t help but smile.

    "As expected, the souls of Earth Ants are much more powerful than those of normal ants, this is going much smoother than before," mumbled Beatrice as she watched the man get up.

    Suddenly, Beatrice could no longer watch the ant slowly but surely become adjusted to the human body, as she turned her attention to her hand.

    As she looked at the small ant sitting in her palm, who was currently trying to bite her hand, Beatrice faintly smiled.

    "Even if that part of the plan fails, it seems as though this succeeded, he''s conscious inside the ant body," mumbled Beatrice as she watched the ant try to break her skin.

    Of course, although an Earth Ant was extremely powerful compared to a normal ant, a single one could not break Beatrice''s skin, which had become quite resistant because of all the Mana poured into it.

    "I need to conduct more tests to see what influence an Ant body will have on a human soul, and vice-versa, this might prove quite useful if I want to place my soul into an object," mumbled Beatrice as the struggling ant floated in front of her.

    At the same time, a thought couldn''t help but emerge from within Beatrice''s mind.

    "Being transformed into an ant, no ants are too cute, being transformed into a cockroach would be a good punishment for those who anger me," mumbled Beatrice as she looked at the tiny ant in her palm.

    It was unknown when this began, but after some time, Beatrice had begun appreciating ants far more than other insects, even more than most humans, who were hideous in both body and soul.

    Not only did the ants obey Beatrice without second thought, they were also very cute, at least in Beatrice''s opinion.

    Because of this, Beatrice felt as though transferring someone into the body of an ant was not a very good punishment.

    ...

    Some time later,

    Looking at the ant in a human body, who had now fallen to the ground, shivering, Beatrice couldn''t help but shake her head.

    "It seems as though even Earth Ants, with how intelligent they are, aren''t suitable for a human body, at least at their current growth level," mumbled Beatrice as she approached the man and carefully took the ant soul out of him.

    At the same time, much less carefully, Beatrice also took out the human soul out of the ant body, and placed the two back in their original bodies.

    Nearly instantly after being returned to their bodies, both the human and the ant woke up, although in quite different circumstances.

    Based on just Beatrice''s rough vision, it seemed as though the ant was not affected by the body transfer that much, the opposite happened in fact, it seemed as though it had become even more active and agile than before, as it quickly climbed Beatrice''s body and happily sat down on one of her fingers.

    On the other hand, Beatrice couldn''t help but click her teeth as she looked at the man, who was drooling uncontrollably, unable to move his body in the slightest.

 128 : Canty

    Looking at the huge body lying in front of her, the little ant couldn''t help but sway her head to the side, slightly confused.

    As she remembered how she was trapped inside there just a few moments ago, the little ant couldn''t help but feel scared.

    Suddenly, though, a look of confusion couldn''t help but appear on the face of the ant.

    ''Was mistress the to send me there?'' thought the little ant as she quickly climbed onto her mistress and arrived at the latter''s finger, still feeling confused.

    But no matter how much she racked her tiny brain, the little ant couldn''t find the source of this confusion.

    After all, how could a little ant who had just gained true consciousness after spending some time in the body of a human be smart?

    But still, as she looked at the huge body, which was lying there motionlessly, the little ant couldn''t help but happily nod.

    ''As expected, how could the problem be with me?'' thought the ant as more and more words and information kept appearing in her mind.

    Even though she could not truly comprehend what was happening, at this moment, the little ant was becoming smarter and smarter.

    Not only that, but the human memories, which Beatrice had sent into the mind of the little ant also helped, making her make better use of this intelligence.

    As she realised this, the little ant couldn''t help but raise her head and stare at her mistress.

    ''As expected, the mistress likes me much more than those other ants,'' thought the ant.

    If the ant had a human body at the moment, an extremely smug look would probably be on her face right now.

    Sensing the gaze on her, Beatrice, who was focusing on the experimental subject that had just become brained, turned her attention towards the little ant.

    ...

    Looking at the little ant, who looked somewhat differently compared to before the soul swap, Beatrice couldn''t help but fall into thought.

    Right now, the look in the eyes of the ant as she stared at her had subtly changed, although it was still extremely reverend and worshipping, Beatrice also felt a lot more intelligence in it compared to before.

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    ''She became more intelligent?'' thought Beatrice as she looked at the ant with a faint frown on her face, wondering what part of the soul swap had produced this side effect.

    Did spending some time in a human body with a human brain help her become more intelligent, or did the human soul inside of her body begin changing her brain.

    Or was this related to the fact that the human experimental subject had become brain-dead?

    Nevertheless, as she looked into the eyes of the little ant, Beatrice could see intelligence far beyond that of a normal earth ant.

    "Since you are somewhat different than normal ants, I guess giving you a name wouldn''t hurt," mumbled Beatrice as she looked at the tiny ant, causing its eyes to suddenly change.

    ...

    Thanks to the human memories implanted into her mind, although the little ant couldn''t understand every single word her mistress said, she could still understand the meaning of her sentence, causing an excited look to appear on the face of the ant.

    Looking at the little ant, who seemed to have become excited, Beatrice couldn''t help but feel a little surprised.

    "Can you understand me?" asked Beatrice as she looked at the little ant, causing the latter to fall into thought for a few moments.

    After racking her brains for a few moments, the little ant finally nodded her tiny head, although she was a little hesitant to do so.

    Seeing this, Beatrice faintly smiled before touching her chin.

    "Very well, since you are a smart little ant, from now on, you shall be named Canty," said Beatrice as she stared at the tiny ant.

    ...

    The first thing that Canty did after arriving back at the colony was freeze for a moment.

    Feeling the countless minds connected to her own, Canty couldn''t help but feel a little weird.

    ''Was I so dumb that I didn''t notice this?'' thought Canty as she explored the mind link that she had with the other ants.

    Sadly, though, after some time, Canty discovered some unfortunate circumstances.

    The other ants, weren''t very smart, to say the least.

    In fact, they were so dumb that Canty felt a little embarrassed trying to communicate with them.

    As such, Canty temporarily destroyed the idea of trying to communicate with the other ants using her mind, pheromones would have to do for now.

    Rather, whilst moving through the colony, Canty continued exploring the mind link, searching for someone as smart as her.

    Eventually, though, Canty encountered something.

    A huge mind, which gave Canty an extremely warm and welcoming feeling, making her want to jump into it.

    Sadly though, the mind did not seem to be conscious right now, based on Canty''s new memories, the latter was in a state similar to ''sleep''.

    ''Sleeping instead of working, what a slacker, I need to wake her up,'' thought Canty as she became determined.

    Of course, even as she did this, Canty still worked, as she now began helping reinforce the walls of the colony.

    ...

    Looking at the huge ant standing over here, who was staring at her with a cold look in her eyes, Canty couldn''t help but freeze for a moment.

    By now, all the other ants that were helping replace the colony wall were gone, leaving only Canty to face the huge ant queen.

    ''Come with me,'' said a slightly annoyed voice, as it resounded within Canty''s mind.

    At the same time, the ant queen walked away.

    After staring at the half-done wall, Canty couldn''t help but hesitate for a few moments, of course that hesitation was destroyed as she saw the ant queen suddenly stop in her tracks.

    A few moments later, and after putting the finishing touches onto the wall, Canty ran after the ant queen as fast as she could.

 129 : Dumb Ant

    Three weeks later,

    Staring at the hundreds of ants who were working hard in the area, and were replacing the old inefficient walls of the colony, Canty almost rushed forward to help them.

    Even though she knew that she had to supervise the ants to make sure that everything went alright, Canty couldn''t help but want to go help her sisters with the work.

    But as she remembered what happened the last time she had snuck off to work, Canty couldn''t help but shiver.

    After being discovered by the Ant Queen, Canty was forbidden from working, supervising other ants who were working, or even helping around the colony, for a week straight.

    Although by supervising and making strategies, Canty was able to increase the efficiency of a group of workers by over fifty percent, the queen did not seem to care in the slightest, as she still brutally told Canty to relax, otherwise she would face an even harsher punishment.

    No matter what, Canty did not want to see what the ant queen had in store for her, as such, she did not go in to help the ants do manual labor.

    Of course, with someone supervising them and making plans for them, the group of ants Canty was watching was able to achieve increased efficiency that couldn''t be matched by any other group in the entire colony.

    As such, Canty''s sanity was a small price to pay.

    At this very moment, though, Canty''s antenna suddenly moved, causing her to break out of her thoughts and look at the ant that had just arrived at the construction site with a confused look on her face.

    A moment later, Canty''s antenna moved once again, as she suddenly sensed some pheromones emerging from the ant.

    The moment Canty deciphered those pheromones, and discovered what they meant, she immediately got up from where she was sitting and jumped towards the arriving ant, feeling extremely excited.

    Just a few moments after that, Canty suddenly heard several thousand footsteps coming to her general direction, causing her to stare towards her left with an excited look on her face.

    Looking at the two hundred ants, who were clearly smaller than the other ants, Canty immediately got to work.

    In what seemed like a few moments, Canty quickly distributed the young, fresh out of the brood ants, to where help was needed.

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    As such, after only around five minutes, Canty''s work was done, as the new ants were now integrated into the old ants, although now perfectly.

    ''With these new mandibles, we should be able to finish this chamber in around thirty minutes,'' thought Canty as she moved excitedly.

    ''If that''s the case, we can finish renovating the entire colony in just under five days,'' thought Canty as she remembered the plans that she had seen the queen and her mistress make.

    After Beatrice had come back, she had asked Antonia for a map of the colony, so that she could see if any improvements were possible.

    As one might expect, although Earth Ants were extremely adept at digging tunnels, they were not the best at civil engineering, in fact, in Beatrice''s opinion, the new colony plans of the queen were extremely horrendous.

    Because of this, although Beatrice was not truly proficient in engineering, she was still able to improve them quite a bit after a=making some changed.

    Although Canty didn''t really understand what benefits those changes made, she had noticed that the queen was rather happy with them, causing Canty to become quite happy as well.

    In Canty''s not so informed opinion, the queen always had the best interests of the colony in mind, and as such, she would always follow her instructions.

    Of course, the fact that the queen prohibited her from working was not included in this ''always''.

    The very next day, still inside the Earth Ant Colony.

    As she looked at the tiny ant, who was fidgeting next to her feet, Antonia couldn''t help but suddenly move her head.

    In an instant, Antonia''s antenna had suddenly struck the ant in the head and made her fall over.

    ''Is the fifth brooding chamber complete?'' asked Antonia as she watched the little ant get up from the ground.

    ''Yes, we finished just a few minutes ago, but what was that for?'' asked Canty as she successfully flipped over and got up from the ground.

    ''You don''t have to move so much and waste so much energy, I noticed you already from the minute you arrived near me, I was just busy, moving so much without a purpose is a waste of energy,'' said Antonia as she looked at the little ant, causing the latter to fall into thought.

    ''That''s true, If I move less, I will use less energy and will use less food,'' thought Canty as her eyes suddenly brightened.

    Not noticing the change in Canty''s expression, Antonia continued.

    ''There isn''t anything that needs to be urgently renovated, you can just continue on with the sixth brooding chamber,'' said Antonia as she stared at the little ant in front of her.

    ''Understood, I will be on my way,'' said Canty as she suddenly moved in a straight line from her position into a tunnel.

    ''One more thing, Canty, you can help the colony much more by supervising instead of just working, I hope you remembered that,'' said Antonia as she looked at the little ant with a cold glint in her eyes, causing the latter to freeze for a brief moment.

    A moment later, Canty ran into the tunnels of the colony without looking back, seemingly not hearing the words of the queen, although they had been sent into her mind.

    Seeing this, Antonia couldn''t help but shake her rather enormous ant head.

    ''She still has a long way to go until she''s fully grown up,'' thought Antonia before turning her attention to something else.

    After all, as the queen of the Earth Ants, Antonia was extremely busy at every single moment of the day, regardless of what she seemed to be doing.

 130 : Mind

    Silence, although Beatrice could refine mana even under the effects of sound, she still very much preferred to do so in silence.

    Suddenly, though, Beatrice, who was peacefully refining mana, suddenly noticed something, causing her expression to faintly change.

    "¨€?¨€ ????? ¨€? ??¨€? ¨€?¨€ ???? ¨€? ¨€ ¨€? ??? ? ¨€? ¨€?¨€ " said ???

    For the past few hours, Beatrice has been sitting down cross-legged, silently refining mana without changing her expression in the slightest.

    Now, though, Beatrice opened her eyes, which had a new light in them, and stared looked around her room with a cautious look on her face.

    After a few moments, the cautious look on Beatrice''s face disappeared, as she had made sure that there was nobody inside the room with her.

    "What in the world was that?" mumbled Beatrice as she touched the back of her neck, still feeling a chill traveling through her spine.

    Even though Beatrice was not sure what it was, she was completely sure of one thing, there was something, or someone inside this room with her just now, she was sure of that.

    A fraction of a moment later, Beatrice, who had just finished refining mana, got up from the bed and began carefully looking around her room.

    In only a few moments, Beatrice was able to silently check the entire room and make sure that there was nobody inside of it.

    Even so, this did not make Beatrice calm down in the slightest, in fact, it was the opposite, the more evidence Beatrice found of the fact that there was nobody inside the room with her.

    But even so, Beatrice was completely sure that this was in fact, not the case, that there was someone in here, with her, furthermore, although she could not understand it, Beatrice was pretty sure that she had heard that person speak.

    Although she could not understand the words that person was saying, Beatrice was completely certain that they were addressed to her.

    Without any warning, Beatrice suddenly looked behind her, moving her head for only an instant.

    The more she stared at the eerily silent, empty room behind her, the more Beatrice felt as though things became more and more wrong.

    ...

    Looking at Beatrice, who was sitting on a chair with bloodshot eyes, Selena couldn''t help but deeply frown as she looked at her apprentice.

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    "Did you hear anything else?" asked Selena as she approached Beatrice, causing the latter to shake her head.

    "I didn''t hear or see anything, but, I''m sure, it''s still there," said Beatrice as she looked at her teacher, causing the latter to fall into thought.

    Upon hearing what her apprentice had said, as well as the complete certainty in her words, Selena couldn''t help but fall into thought.

    "Is that so, then come with me, I want to test your mana and spiritual power," said Selena, causing Beatrice to hesitate for a few moments before sitting up from the chair.

    ...

    As she looked at the two numbers which were being shown by the large metal machine in front of her, Selena felt her eyes pop out of her head.

    Mana : 60.05423...

    Spiritual Power : 70.02

    The first number, which represented Beatrice''s mana, did not surprise Selena, but the second number almost caused her jaw to fall down to the floor.

    ''Spiritual power over seventy? How is that possible?'' thought Selena as she looked at Beatrice in utter shock.

    Most mages knew that the limit of mana that the human body could bear, as well as the peak for the Mage Apprentice Realm ranger from 70 to 75 mana.

    As spiritual power is much more difficult to train than mana, by the time most mages reach the peak in terms of mana, they should have at least 25 to 30 spiritual power.

    To become an Official Mage, alongside the other strict requirements, Spiritual Power also limited many mages, as they had to have at least 35 to progress.

    But after becoming an official, the Spiritual Power of that mage would rise to around 70-75, the average for newly ascended Official Mages.

    ''70.02, it seems as though she has just reached this level, could the reason for her problem be this fact?'' thought Selena as she looked at her disciple with a frown on her face.

    Although Selena had not encountered this problem before, she could believe that having spiritual power that was too high could in fact pose some problems.

    If not for the fact that she still had some issues she needed to figure out with the Flying City, Selena would have loved to research what was happening to her apprentice.

    "I think I have a certain idea of what is happening to you, wait here for a few moments," said Selena before suddenly walking out of the room.

    As she was hurrying to not waste time, Selena quickly entered deeper and deeper into the underground Mage Tower.

    After passing by a Herb Farm, Selena reached one of the deepest floor of the Tower, where her Human Farm lay.

    As she did not have any need for any experimental subjects at the moment, Selena passed by the human farm and walked straight into a certain storage room, one hidden deep underground.

    ...

    Looking at the over fifty elixir bottles floating behind her teacher, Beatrice couldn''t help but feel surprised.

    "Based on what I have seen, the issue you are currently facing is that your Spiritual Power is too high compared to the rest of your power, as I don''t think suppressing the growth of your spiritual power is a good thing, the only thing I can do is try to help you become more powerful in a hurry," said Selena as she looked at her apprentice.

    "As I knew that you would be stuck at the barrier between Mage Apprentice and Official Mage for quite a bit, I wanted you to not rush refining your mana, that''s why I didn''t give you any potions or elixirs to help with that, but now, that can be considered a bit of a mistake," mumbled Selena as over fifty elixirs of darkness floated over towards Beatrice.

    "As long as you take at most one of these potions every day, with your spiritual power, you shouldn''t experience any side effects, with them, you should be able to rush to become a peak Mage Apprentice," said Selena as a surprised Beatrice watched her.

    "As for becoming an Official Mage, I can''t help you with that, you are on your own in that front."

 131 : Recovery

    Later that day.

    As she stared at the pitch black potion in front of her, Beatrice suddenly took in a deep breath before quickly gulping it down.

    In but an instant, Beatrice suddenly felt a gush of dark mana flow from her stomach through the rest of her body, quickly becoming assimilated by it.

    Even though she desperately wanted to look behind her, even though she knew that there was nobody there, Beatrice still closed her eyes and began refining the dark mana and making it her own.

    Rather surprisingly, this process went extremely fast, as it took Beatrice just under five minutes to fully refine the entirety of the mana.

    ''That should be a peculiarity of this potion,'' though Beatrice as she suddenly opened her eyes and looked behind her, noticing that there was nobody there.

    But even so, this did not mean that the elixir did nothing, in fact, unlike normally, when she had to careful look if her mana had increased, at the moment, Beatrice was sure, it had increased by quite a bit.

    ''The increase is at least two to three percent,'' thought Beatrice as her eyes suddenly brightened.

    As she now had around sixty mana, and increase of two or three percent meant that Beatrice''s mana pool increased by at least over one point of mana.

    In fact, the increase was probably even greater than that, and was closer to 1.5 points of mana.

    "If I continue taking one potion, I can become a Peak Mage Apprentice in just under ten days," mumbled Beatrice as her eyes brightened.

    Even though her teacher had told her that this would be the case, even right now, Beatrice still couldn''t help but feel slightly shocked as she thought about the value of this potion.

    ''Even though its raw power is lower than that of the Elixir of Darkness, the fact that you can take it repeatedly makes it much more valuable, I haven''t seen anything like this,'' thought Beatrice as she got up from the bed and looked at the rest of the potions, which had been placed on a desk by Beatrice.

    ''Since my progress will be so much faster, I can speed up some of my plans as well,'' thought Beatrice as she tapped her fingers on the desk, causing the potions to slightly move.

    After a few more minutes of thought, Beatrice, who was currently ignoring the voice speaking from behind her, walked out of the room.

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    Of course, at the same time, seeing that Beatrice had begun ignoring it, the voice had also lost quite a bit of its enthusiasm, and was much more boring compared to before.

    As she couldn''t understand those whispers in the back of her head meant, Beatrice had begun trying to ignore them, which meant that she didn''t notice this fact.

    Of course, even if Beatrice noticed this, she would be unable to do anything with this information, as she couldn''t do anything to affect the voice.

    ...

    Three days later

    As she looked at the five ants standing in front of her, Antonia couldn''t help but faintly frown before turning her head towards Canty, who was standing motionlessly nearby with a clearly excited look on her face.

    ''Were these the five smartest ants that you could find in the entire colony?'' asked Antonia as she looked at Canty, causing the latter to nod.

    ''Other than myself of course, there isn''t much of a difference in intelligence between the other ants, but after searching through the entire colony, I found these five that have faintly higher intelligence that the rest,'' said Canty as she looked at the five ants.

    Of course, although Canty said this, the intelligence of these five ants was really quite nothing special.

    If a normal earth ant had intelligence of 1, then these guys have intelligence of 1.03, but even so, Canty had to spend a lot of effort searching for these five.

    After hearing the words of the little ant, Antonia fell into thought for a few moments before taking a closer look at the five ants.

    ''Very well, these five should suffice, now follow me,'' said Antonia, causing the five ants, as well as Canty, to follow her.

    ...

    As she looked at Antonia, who was currently being followed by six Earth Ants, Beatrice faintly smiled.

    Compared to three days ago, when Beatrice looked to be in a pretty bad shape, Beatrice looked completely different at the moment.

    Right now, Beatrice had seemingly returned to her past self.

    "Have you prepared the five ants?" asked Beatrice as she looked at Antonia, causing the latter to nod.

    ''Yes mistress, they should be quite suitable for your purpose,'' said Antonia as she looked at Beatrice, who was finishing preparing the five human experimental subjects that would swap bodies with the five ants.

    Hearing Antonia''s words, Beatrice waved her hand, causing the five ants to suddenly begin sprinting towards her without Antonia doing anything.

    In but a brief moment, the five ants had climbed onto the five tables which housed the humans and obediently sat there, waiting.

    As she stared at this, Antonia couldn''t help but become slightly happy.

    Suddenly, though, Antonia''s eyes widened as she looked around here and noticed that Canty had gone missing.

    Only a fraction of a moment later, Antonia raised her eyes and saw the energetic ant, now standing on Beatrice''s hand.

    ...

    Ignoring the ant that was obediently sitting on her arm, Beatrice slowly but surely got to work.

    First, Beatrice took the first human soul out of it''s body whilst also doing so for the ant.

    Unlike what one might expect, Beatrice did not focus most of her attention onto the human, rather most of it was on the ant.

    After all, even though the humans were extremely important in this operation, it did not matter if their souls were damaged.

    The only thing that mattered was that the ant souls suffered no harm, otherwise their intelligence would plummet, which would ruin Beatrice''s goal of smart ants that could do her bidding.

 132 : Six

    One by one, Beatrice swapped the souls of the ants with those of the humans.

    As it took around twenty seconds for Beatrice to complete this operation if she did not care about the damage she dealt to the human, it had taken Beatrice around two minutes to fully swap every single soul apart.

    After that, Beatrice then stood still, waiting for thirty seconds to pass.

    The moment the thirty seconds passed, and it had been 2.5 minutes since the first souls were swapped, Beatrice began working on them.

    In around fifteen seconds, Beatrice took out the ant soul from the human body and placed it back into the ant body, after that, she also placed the human soul inside it''s body.

    Not long after Beatrice placed it''s soul back into it''s body, the ant began slowly but surely moving once again, as regained control of it''s body.

    At this moment, though, Beatrice did not pay much attention to the newly revived ant, as she stared at the other four.

    Surprisingly, Beatrice was not in a hurry to place the ant souls back into their bodies, as she slowly but surely waited for more time to pass.

    ...

    The moment five minutes since the second ant was placed in the human body passed, Beatrice got to work in returning it to it''s original body.

    After that, ten minutes, thirty minutes and one hour was the amount of time the other ants had to spend in a human body.

    ...

    As she looked at Canty, as well as at the five other ants standing next to her, slightly confused, Antonia couldn''t help but slightly smile.

    The fact that the ants appeared confused did not make Antonia nervous, rather, it made her extremely happy.

    ''The fact that they are able to be confused means that they are smarter than before, It seems as though Canty was not just a miracle,'' thought Antonia as she looked at the six ants.

    This fact made Antonia extremely happy, as it meant she could have a bunch of smart ants helping her manage the colony.

    At the same time, another thought went through Antonia''s mind at this moment.

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    ''I need to learn how to do this, I can''t have mistress waste her time doing this all the time,'' thought Antonia with a glint in her eyes as she imagines thousands-no, tens of thousands of smart ants running along, helping her.

    As she imagined the efficiency that the colony would run at if this was the case, Antonia couldn''t help but be even more excited.

    At this moment, though, Beatrice turned her attention back to her ants.

    ...

    The moment Beatrice looked at the ant queen, Antonia, she immediately saw through the other''s thoughts, which were clearly showing on her face.

    "Hmm, that would be a good idea, I just need to make some adjustments to the soul swap," thought Beatrice as her eyes also lit up.

    At this moment, Beatrice had also thought of quite a good plan that she could put in action.

    ''I need to do that,'' thought Beatrice before once again turning her attention back to Antonia and the five ants.

    By now, though, the ant that was first soul swapped had already somewhat regained it''s bearing''s, as it had preliminarily digested the memories that Beatrice had placed inside its mind.

    As for the other ants, they still sat there in a line, with confused expressions on their ant faces.

    The moment Beatrice looked at the first and, the little ant suddenly raised it''s head and stared back at her.

    Even though this expression did not look like a human one, Beatrice could clearly see that the moment the ant had looked at her, it had become excited.

    After only a moment, the ant suddenly began speeding along the floor towards Beatrice.

    As an Earth Ant, this little ant was clearly much faster than normal ants, and was able to quickly reach Beatrice and climb onto her.

    Before a normal human could have any time to react, the little ant had already climbed onto Beatrice''s shoulder, and had sat down there.

    Beatrice ignored the actions of the little ant as she slowly examined it, more specifically, it''s soul.

    Like what had happened with Canty, Beatrice could see that some unknown changes had happened with the soul of the little ant, and even though she could not identify what those changes did, she could clearly see that this little ant seemed quite similar to Canty.

    At this moment, though, Canty suddenly appeared on Beatrice''s shoulder.

    Only a fraction of a moment later, Canty suddenly moved her head and hit the little ant using her antenna.

    ''Little ant, how dare you disrespect mistress, get down from here this instant...''

    Moments after hitting the ant, Canty had begun scolding it whilst staring at it with a seemingly angry look on her face.

    Uncaring about what Canty was doing, Beatrice continued examining the little ant, whose antenna had now slightly drooped as it made its way off Beatrice''s shoulder.

    After a few moments, after the ant was already on the ground, suddenly raised it''s head and stared at Canty, who was currently lying down on the shoulder of the mistress.

    A moment later, the drooped antenna of the ant rose once again, as its eyes brightened.

    Only a few moments after that, the ant made its way to Beatrice''s left shoulder, ignoring Canty, who was lying on her right shoulder.

    Even though Beatrice did not care about these actions, and even found the little naive ants quite cute, Antonia did not feel the same as she watched the situation unfold.

    Although Antonia did not take any action at the moment, as Beatrice did not seem bothered by the actions of the two ants, silent fury built up inside of her.

    ''You two, just wait...'' thought Antonia as thoughts swirled within her mind.

    ...

    ''You six, just wait...'' thought Antonia as she stared at the six ants perched up on Beatrice''s two shoulders.

 133 : Cube

    The next day.

    The first thing that Beatrice did in the morning was to refine some mana before drinking another one of her teacher''s potions.

    By the time Beatrice had finished meditating, in was already around 11 AM, at around 12 AM, Antonia finally came by Beatrice''s room, as the latter had asked her yesterday.

    ...

    As she looked at the large ant, who was standing in front of her, Beatrice, who was lying down on her chair, couldn''t help but faintly smile.

    "Have you finished the investigation?" asked Beatrice as she got up from the chair and approached the ant.

    ''Yes, I came by the moment it was finished, it took some time to test their intelligence,'' said Antonia as she felt the hand of her mistress land on the top of her head.

    Hearing this, Beatrice, who was petting the ant, couldn''t help but nod, allowing the ant to continue.

    ''As mistress first expected, the intelligence of the five rose with the amount of time they spent inside a human body, with only one exception, the ant who spent one hour inside a human,'' said Antonia, causing Beatrice to retract her hand before falling into thought.

    "Was the difference in intelligence between the ants major?" asked Beatrice as she sat back down on her chair.

    ''No, even though the difference can be seen if someone tests for it, in truth, it''s not actually very large, especially the difference between number 4 and 5,'' said Antonia, making Beatrice breathe a sigh of relief.

    "Very well, for now you can just let the ants adapt to the rhythm of the colony, at the same time, try to find any other effects caused by the amount of time they spent as a human," said Beatrice as she looked at Antonia, causing the latter to slightly bow.

    ''Understood mistress, If you have nothing more you need of me, I will leave,'' said Antonia, causing Beatrice to shake her head.

    "Very well, you can leave," mumbled Beatrice as she turned her attention back to the information cube placed on the desk.

    As she ignored the faint sounds coming from behind her, Beatrice couldn''t help but fall into thought once again.

    The last time Beatrice had worked on her information cube was before she went on her journey, throughout her journey, Beatrice did not feel safe working on it, and when she was back in the Lyon Kingdom, she had become preoccupied with something else.

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    But now that she was back in her home, Beatrice couldn''t help but want to begin working on the cube once again, after all, she had only implemented some basic safety measures, which could probably be easily side-stepped by someone who truly knew what they were doing.

    ''A self-destruct mechanism is a necessity,'' thought Beatrice as she quickly dismantled the cube into it''s different parts.

    As she could not truly place a bomb inside the cube, as that would risk it being destroyed accidentally, Beatrice had to be much more thoughtful about how she went about creating this mechanism.

    ...

    Two days later,

    Other than refining mana and making sure she practiced the manipulation of the soul sometimes, Beatrice spent the entirety of the last two days staring at the information cube, making plans and diagrams.

    Most of the most obvious and easiest to make self-destruct mechanisms were quickly ruled out by Beatrice because of one simple possibility.

    The Information cube being stolen and Beatrice obtaining it again.

    If this happened, and Beatrice implemented one of those self-destruct mechanisms, it would mean that Beatrice would have lost the information cube for nothing.

    Because of this, Beatrice had to think of some other way to completely destroy any possibility of someone obtaining the information cube and managing to gain the information within it.

    At first, Beatrice did not know where to start, but after around a day of thinking, she finally found the solution she was looking for, math.

    More specifically, encryption.

    At this moment, after Beatrice types a word into the information cube, that word is simply transformed into a bunch of dots, which although extremely complicated for normal people, would not be too hard for an Official Mage to figure out.

    As, Beatrice did not dare underestimate the pattern recognition ability of Official Mages.

    Using encryption, Beatrice would be able to prevent this, at the same time, she would be able to create a quite good self-destruct mechanism.

    The moment Mana which was not Beatrice''s was inserted into any part of the information cube, the Encryptor and Decryptor would destroy themselves, preventing anyone from accessing the information inside.

    At the same time, since Beatrice was the one that created the Encryption, after obtaining the information cube once again, she would be able to easily access the information.

    But even though Beatrice had decided how she would protect her information going forward, creating it was not an easy task.

    The first, and easiest, part was creating an ''encryption key'', with which all the information would be encrypted.

    The more complicated bit, and the part on which Beatrice was spending more time on, was implementing this key into the Information Cube''s built in Encryptor and Decryptor.

    Even so, as time passed and Beatrice continued researching these two parts of the information cube, she finally made a breakthrough after 4 days of research.

    ...

    Four days later,

    As she stared at the information cube in front of, which had been now fully rebuilt, Beatrice couldn''t help but take in a deep breath and wipe the sweat off her forehead.

    For the past 96 hours, Beatrice has not slept in the slightest, the only thing she did was refine mana, drink potions and research the information cube, as well as drink cup after cub of tea, which Guinevere provided her.

    At least in Beatrice''s own opinion, these cups of tea proved instrumental in helping her achieve her goal in such a short amount of time, as without them, Beatrice would have been too exhausted to research properly.

    But finally, Beatrice could fall asleep knowing that the information cube was finished.

 134 : Explosions

    As she looked at the information cube, which was sitting on the table in front of her, Beatrice faintly smiled before stretching out her hand and touching it with her hand and sending her mana into it.

    The moment Beatrice did so, an ever so familiar keyboard appeared in front of Beatrice, causing her to finally breathe a sigh of relief.

    "It looks as though it works..." mumbled Beatrice before she closed the information cube and placed it on the left side of the desk.

    A moment later, Beatrice fell into thought for a few moments before deciding what to do right now.

    Without even getting up from the desk, Beatrice immediately fell asleep as she placed her hands and head onto the desk.

    With her control of her body, it was extremely easy for Beatrice to fall asleep and wake up when she desired to, as such, she did not care much about where she went to sleep.

    ...

    Seven hours later.

    The moment seven hours passed since she had fallen asleep, Beatrice suddenly regained consciousness and opened her eyes, which were now full of energy.

    ''I''ve been sleeping quite a bit recently,'' thought Beatrice as she immediately got up from the desk and tidied up her clothes.

    A moment later, Beatrice picked up the information cube from the desk and placed it into her robe, before walking up to her bed and sitting cross-legged onto it.

    ...

    Two and a half hours later.

    After refining mana for almost two years, Beatrice had already become somewhat proficient in it, allowing her to speed up the refinement quite a bit, and not have to waste so much time each day.

    Of course, this was to be expected, as by now, Beatrice had spent almost 2500 hours refining mana, or around 103 days straight.

    ''Hopefully I don''t have to do this any more soon,'' thought Beatrice as she stretched out her hand and grasped a potion which had floated in front of her.

    Beatrice then instantly drank the potion before beginning to refine the large amounts of mana it had sent into her body.

    As she opened her eyes and felt the amount of mana inside of her mana pool increase once again, Beatrice couldn''t help but shake her head.

    "As expected, I can''t get used to my mana pool increasing so fast," mumbled Beatrice as she felt the amount of mana inside of her body increase once again.

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    But this time, compared to before, Beatrice felt as though something was a bit different, as a familiar feeling, one that she had felt in her previous life, began emerging from her body.

    Beatrice felt as if her stomach was becoming full, but unlike that feeling, this one was emerging from the entirety of her body.

    ''With the speed at which I can increase my mana, I should be able to reach my limit in only a few days,'' thought Beatrice as the smile on her face increased in size.

    This was perhaps the happiest Beatrice had felt ever since she had been reborn, as she couldn''t help but want to regain her old power as soon as possible.

    After she managed to reach her old peak, Beatrice felt as though going even further would be extremely easy, but Beatrice was unaware if this was just a feeling or was in fact true.

    A few moments after realizing that she was approaching her previous peak once again, Beatrice fell into thought, as she contemplated what to do at the moment.

    ''If I continue researching the Information Cube, my progress on it will likely slow down to a crawl, I can continue researching it after becoming an official mage, but It''s not a good idea to continue right now,'' thought Beatrice as she walked around her room.

    The thing that first came to Beatrice''s mind once she had asked this question was very simple, Beatrice would continue practicing her mastery over the soul.

    But upon thinking for a few more moments, Beatrice had realized something, causing a smile to appear on her face.

    "I haven''t practiced spells in quite a bit, I guess I can give that a shot," thought Beatrice as she let out a chuckle.

    ...

    As she stared at the metal training dummy which was standing on the other side of the metal room, a faint smile appeared on Beatrice''s face.

    A moment later, as Beatrice stretched out her hand, a relatively large arrow appeared in front of her after around a second.

    Unlike the last time she had tried casting the Rank 1 Dark Arrow spell, Beatrice was completely different at the moment.

    Back then, Beatrice had to push herself to the near limit to cast this spell, but right now, Beatrice felt as though she felt as though casting this spell was even easier than at her peak from her last life.

    A moment later, the Arrow that was floating in Beatrice''s hands suddenly flew towards the dummy, as four sonic booms suddenly appeared behind it.

    In only a fraction of a moment later, the dummy had been shattered to small pieces, not slowing down the arrow in the slightest, which then flew into the magic resistant walls of the room at nearly it''s top speed.

    But even though both the dummy and the wall were magic resistant, the difference between them was as large as Clouds and Mud.

    The moment the arrow touched the wall, it suddenly exploded, causing Beatrice, who was already protecting herself using her Dark Barrier, to faintly smile.

    By now though, the metal remains of the dummy flew towards Beatrice, causing her to suddenly move her head to the side, dodging one of them.

    Even though Beatrice had the ability to defend against these metal shards, why would she bother doing so and wasting energy.

    A moment later, Beatrice decided on what she would be doing next.

    ''Let''s do this,'' thought Beatrice as she took in a deep breath and stretched out both of her hands.

    After around five seconds, two Dark Arrows had formed in both of her hands, but compared to her first arrow, both of these looked much more unstable.

    Suddenly, though, Beatrice''s expression changed, as she suddenly sent both Dark Arrows flying away from her, causing five sonic booms to appear behind them, as Beatrice instantly overloaded the flying part of the arrow.

    In an instant, the arrows flew to the other side of the room, where they suddenly exploded midair, without anything touching them in the slightest.

    ''I guess I should hold off on doing things like this from now on,'' thought Beatrice as she wiped some sweat off her forehead.

 135 : S

    Even though Beatrice had seemingly gone through the explosion completely unharmed, she knew just how on this edge this situation actually was.

    If Beatrice had sent the arrows flying just a moment later, or if she had just used a bit less mana, she would have probably been sent flying by the powerful spells.

    Although she could not estimate the power of these spells, Beatrice knew that going against them head on would not be pleasant in the slightest.

    "Hopefully I won''t have to use this spell until I become on official mage, I need to practice some other ones," mumbled Beatrice as she touched her chin and walked back to the center of the room.

    A moment later, five Dark Bolts appeared around Beatrice, as they then began moving extremely fast.

    Even though the power of a Dark Bolt was far inferior, and a single bolt could not destroy an extremely magic resistant target dummy, a single Dark Bolt can still be extremely deadly.

    This was something that a bunch of experienced mages, who should have already known better, had learned today.

    ...

    As she looked at the five mages who were surrounding her with serious looks on their faces, Ella, who had put Elias to sleep not too long ago, faintly smiled, causing the leading mage to smile.

    Seeing this smile, the leading mage, Alexander, couldn''t help but have a bad feeling emerge from within him.

    ''What am I thinking, as long as she isn''t an official mage, us five should be able to take her on no matter how powerful she is, and even more so, she''s just a kid, how powerful could she really be?'' thought Alexander as he helped his four comrades create a barrier around the female mage apprentice.

    But even though this mage apprentice was currently being surrounded, and her last hope of escape was being destroyed with the creation of the barrier, the smile on her face still remained the same, no matter how close the barrier surrounding her was to finishing.

    Rather, she simply stood still in the middle of the barrier, without moving in the slightest, causing the mages that were ambushing her to be somewhat confused.

    Step by step, bit by bit, the barrier around Ella became more complete, and once it finally became complete, the inevitable happened.

    Without any warning, the barrier, which was nigh-impenetrable to Mage Apprentices, suddenly shattered as a smile black shadow passed through it, causing an extremely loud noise to ring in the ears of the five.

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    Only a fraction of a moment later, even though the dark shadow had not touched it, the Barrier protecting one of the mages suddenly cracked.

    Sadly though, before he could react, a Dark Bolt once again touched the barrier protecting the man, causing it, that had already been weakened by the previous spell, to shatter and allow the Dark Bolt to pass through his body.

    In but an instant, four more Dark Bolts suddenly attacked the four mages, as the faint smile on Ella''s face transformed into a full one.

    By now, though, the four remaining mages reacted as any relatively competent group would.

    Four spells, each of differing elements, suddenly flew towards Ella, who only had a smile on her face.

    Sadly, though, that smile disappeared a few moments later as Ella noticed the true power of those spells which had been thrown towards her.

    "Too weak, as expected, random mages I find here are just too weak," mumbled Ella as the spells approached her body.

    The moment before the spells were about to land on Ella, the latter suddenly disappeared.

    At this moment, Ella had been replaced by a black blob of goo, through which the spells passed without any difficulty.

    But although the spells had passed through the blob, and had created several large holes in it, the blob seemed completely unbothered, as it then quickly regenerated before turning back into Ella.

    As they saw this scene, three of the four remaining mages who had ambushed Ella fell into shock, whilst their comrade made a run for it.

    In an instant, the wind mage who had just ambushed Ella turned around and began flying, aided by the wind, which allowed him to move at extremely fast speeds.

    Thanks to his innate talent, Oliver was always much faster than his peers, but in the air, this difference was magnified a hundred-fold.

    Unlike his other mage comrades, who could fly through the air at respectable speed, Oliver zipped through the air, leaving a sonic boom behind.

    The moment he noticed this, Alexander couldn''t help but spit out a mouthful of blood.

    "Oliver, that sneaky bastard, since when was he so fast?!" asked Alexander as five dark bolts suddenly struck his barrier at the same time, breaking it and going through his body.

    Thankfully though, Alexander did get some closure in the end, as in his dying moments, he could watch as a dark shadow rapidly approached that rat, Oliver, and smashed him to smithereens.

    Even though Oliver was extremely fast, and could perhaps out speed a Dark Bolt whilst flying through the air, he was utterly helpless against the power of a Dark Arrow, allowing it to immediately shatter his Barrier, as well as his body the moment it made contact.

    But even so, the Dark Arrow, which had just returned from its travel, did not stop after killing Oliver, in fact, the barrier that could block several Dark Bolt shots did not even manage to slow it down, allowing it to immediately go after his two remaining comrades.

    At this moment, though, the two remaining mages had simply fallen into despair, and could not resist the arrow in the slightest.

    As such, under Ella''s uncaring eyes, the two bodies of the two were smashed to pieces.

    A moment later, over a thousand elemental stones suddenly flew in front of Ella, after having been scattered after the death of their owner.

    But as someone who had an S Grade Darkness affinity, and had reached the highest level a mage apprentice could, Ella did not have much interest in elemental stones.

 136 : Darkness

    "Hopefully Elias will be able to make some use of these elemental stones," mumbled Ella as she waved her hand and caused the over one thousand tiny elemental stones to suddenly fly into a small bag.

    A moment later, Ella then turned her attention back onto the mages that had ambushed her, or rather, what was left of them.

    Ella did not go to see the remains of the mages killed by the Dark Arrow, but rather, turned her attention to the two mages that had been killed by the Dark Bolts.

    The first thing Ella did was approach the dead body of the first mage and touch it to make sure that he was truly dead.

    As one might expect, the heard of the first mage did not beat any longer, as it no longer existed after having been pierced by multiple bolts.

    But even so, Ella spent around five seconds making sure that the mage was truly dead, and that he did not pull some weird trick to try to save his life.

    After that, Ella then turned her attention to the mage leading the group, which had also been killed by Dark Bolts.

    "None of these guys are alive," mumbled Ella as a faint smile appeared on her face.

    Even though this mage had not been hit with truly powerful attacks, all of his internal organs, including his heart, were pretty much shattered.

    A moment later, Ella rose from the ground and no longer groped the dead body, rather, she was preparing to walk away from the scene.

    But just as Ella was about to run into the distance, she suddenly froze for a brief moment, as her aura then changed to an extremely frightening one.

    The moment Ella did this, the body of Alexander, the mage she had just checked and made sure was dead, slightly twitched, causing Ella to faintly smile.

    Only a fraction of a moment later, before Alexander, who had seemingly risen from the dead, could do anything, Ella suddenly appeared in front of him and gripped him by the throat.

    A moment later, Alexander''s struggling body was suddenly ripped into two, as Ella let his torso fall to the ground whilst holding his head.

    Under the terrified eyes of the helpless Alexander, whose head was still conscious after being separated from his body, Ella suddenly dropped him to the ground before letting out a kick towards him.

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    The moment Ella''s foot touched Alexander''s head, the latter immediately popped like a balloon, sending spurts of blood in every single direction.

    Thankfully though, Ella was prepared, as a barrier appeared, which protected her from the blood and allowed her to walk away splattered by the blood.

    "As expected of cowards, each one is sneakier than the other," mumbled Ella as she approached the other mage who still had a whole body and kicked his head as well.

    Now, without dealing with the messy aftermath of her actions, Ella finally left the scene.

    ...

    Later that day, inside a small house,

    The moment Ella walked into the small house, Elias, who was sitting cross-legged, refining mana, suddenly opened his eyes, as a happy look appeared on his face.

    Without any hesitation, Elias abandoned refining mana and got up from the ground before sprinting towards his older sister, who had just returned.

    As she stared at the scene before her, old memories couldn''t help but pour into Ella''s mind, as she remembered the period of time before that had happened.

    Even though Ella had managed to recreate the old house, which had been burned to the ground by the bandits on that night, she knew that this was still just a pale imitation of what was, and no matter what she did, she could not go back in time.

    Although she had not only killed the bandits that had destroyed her family back then, but only made them feel the deepest pain imaginable, this did nothing to help Ella, and did not bring back her parents.

    As she thought about this, Ella suddenly stretched out her hand and caught Elias by the face.

    "Go back and continue refining mana," said Ella as she suddenly threw Elias back where he was just sitting.

    Even though he had already become used to the transformation that his previously gentle sister had gone through, Elias still felt a little bit weird as he watched her hold him with such a cold look on her face.

    Although deep in his heart, Elias knew that this was just his sister showing her love for him differently, he couldn''t help but feel as though this was not right.

    He couldn''t help but feel that he had lost the sister that he knew back then, and the person in front of him was someone new.

    ...

    As she stared in the mirror, and gazed at her pale face, Ella couldn''t help but stretch her hand and touch her own cheek.

    Ever since Ella had begun refining Mana, a transformation had taken place in her.

    Her face, which was full of life, had turned pale, whilst her hair, which was already black before, became pitch black, looking like an endless void which would devour everything around it.

    At first, Ella desired to have her old appearance back, but after some time, she slowly got used to how she looked at the moment.

    A moment later, a pitch black hand suddenly appeared behind Ella, which then began helping her straighten out her hair, which had become slightly messy throughout the day.

    As the hand worked it''s magic, Ella let out a sigh, as she relaxed and finally let the tension that was crowding her body out.

    Even though Ella was not paying attention, nor was she controlling this hand, the hand still continued working on her hair.

    This hand was not any sort of spell, nor was it any sort of being, which Ella had managed to control, rather, it was simply darkness itself, which desired to help it''s chosen one any time it could.

 137 : Fate

    Three days later,

    As she stood cross-legged on her bed, refining mana, a rather serene look appeared on Beatrice''s face.

    Beatrice could feel it, slowly but surely, she was approaching her own limit, the limit of her body''s natural mana capacity.

    But even so, Beatrice did not stop whilst refining Mana, rather, she kept pushing more and more mana into her body, cramming it into herself.

    This was the start of the bottleneck that separated High Ranking Mage Apprentices from Peak Mage Apprentices.

    As Beatrice tried to push in more and more mana, her own mana became a little bit rowdy, as it couldn''t fit inside of her body.

    But even so, unlike an inexperienced Mage Apprentice, Beatrice, who had both experience from her previous life, and extremely high spiritual power, was able to suppress the mana with ease.

    This process took over thirty minutes, as Beatrice''s body slowly but surely allowed the mana to enter it, before finally being completely filled up.

    This was not the end though, rather the moment Beatrice''s mana reached the peak her body could bear, her transformation then began.

    A moment later, Beatrice suddenly clenched her teeth, as an extremely overwhelming pain passed over her body, as it then began transforming.

    Even though Beatrice''s organs had been transformed by mana in the past, they once again underwent a new transformation, becoming completely in tune with mana.

    Everything from Beatrice''s heart all the way to her brain underwent a complete transformation, making Beatrice endure extreme pain.

    In this process, most Peak Mage apprentices would pass out, but sadly, thanks to Beatrice''s high spiritual power, she was able to bear the pain.

    Any time that Beatrice would pass out, the pain would immediately wake her up.

    This hellish process continued for over three hours, and by the end of it, Beatrice had not only transformed the rest of her organs, but the rest of her body as well, causing it to reach a level beyond that of mortals.

    The moment the pain ended, Beatrice, who was being watched by the extremely nervous Guinevere and Antonia, slightly opened her eyes.

    But even though the pain was over, this did not mean that Beatrice''s transformation had ended, the last remnants of her previous self, her hair, then began falling out.

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    A moment later, new hair, which was supernaturally white and looked nearly inhuman, began growing on Beatrice''s head.

    ...

    As he stared at the wall in front of him, the Prophet, who had somewhat recovered from his wounds thanks to the help of the Light''s Hope Academy, couldn''t help but slightly frown, as a look of hesitation then appeared on his face.

    "It should be possible," mumbled the Prophet as he clenched his fist.

    But even though the prophet knew that it was possible for him to achieve his goal, he knew that taking such a gamble whilst he was injured would be extremely risky.

    At this very moment, an old man with an extremely long white beard suddenly appeared inside the room, causing the Prophet to raise his head and look at him.

    "Sir Aatos, are things going smoothly?" asked the Prophet, causing Archmage Aatos, who had just appeared next to him, to shake his head.

    "By now you should know that you don''t have to be so formal, you aren''t like this with any of my other comrades, why do you still keep addressing me like this, even after becoming an Archmage?" asked Aatos, causing the Prophet to shake his head without saying anything.

    Seeing the response of the Prophet, Aatos couldn''t help but let out a slightly bitter sigh.

    "Things have gone quite well this year, the Sanctum has gained quite a few students with good potential," said Aatos, making the Prophet faintly smile.

    "That''s good," mumbled the Prophet as a faint smile appeared on his face.

    But this smile did not relieve the burden placed on the heart of Aatos as he looked at the Prophet, who was clearly not in a very good mood.

    "Did something happen, did you have another vision?" asked Aatos as he looked at his student.

    "It''s nothing, I was just thinking about a choice, but I''m not sure which path I should take..." said the Prophet, causing Aatos to touch his beard.

    "You shouldn''t worry too much, with the help of the Magic Academies, even fate can be changed, so you shouldn''t take that prophecy to heart."

    "And even more so, prophecies will not necessarily come to pass," said the Archmage, causing a somewhat bitter smile to appear on the face of the Prophet.

    "It''s not that, I wasn''t thinking about that prophecy, I have already accepted my fate long ago, teacher, you don''t have to console me," said the Prophet as he sat up from his chair and walked out of the room.

    Looking at the departing back of his student, Archmage Aatos, who was normally emotionless, couldn''t help but clench his fist.

    At this moment, Aatos couldn''t help but remember how innocent and how pure the Prophet was back when he had first found him.

    Back then, all the Prophet wanted to do was to help other people, but after years and years of prophesizing, which placed a great burden onto his body, Aatos felt as though the Prophet was knowingly approaching the fate he had seen for himself many years ago.

    ''The Prophet will be destroyed by his prophecies if he does not change his ways''

    This was the sentence that the Prophet, back then a little boy, managed to see as he gazed at his own fate.

    Rather ironically, this was the moment the Prophet abandoned his birth name, which had been given to him by his heartless parents, and took up the title of the Prophet.

    Even back then, Aatos felt a bit weird as he watched his apprentice take up this title, but at this moment, Aatos felt as though even back then, the Prophet seemed to have accepted, and even embraced his own fate.

    "Is fate really so unstoppable?" asked Aatos as he walked out of the room.

    Sadly though, even though Aatos did not know yet, fate was not truly unstoppable.

 138 : Relaxing

    The moment Beatrice''s transformation was finished, the latter instantly fell asleep onto her bed and began sleeping with a peaceful look on her face.

    ...

    As she felt the two large hands embrace her from behind, Beatrice, who had just been swimming through an endless ocean, couldn''t help but involuntarily smile.

    Slowly but surely, as she let go of herself, Beatrice began drifting amongst the endless, feeling the waves going against her body.

    ¨€ ?¨€? ''¨{¨€? ??? ¨€? ¨€ ?? ¨€?¨€ ?¨€? ?¨{? ?¨€¨{¨€ ? ??¨€?¨€ ¨€? ¨€? ¨{¨€? ?¨€? ¨€?¨€ ?????

    A moment later, Beatrice''s eyes suddenly popped open, as she now stared at Guinevere, who was just standing in front of her, causing the latter''s eyes to suddenly widen.

    "Did something happen?" asked Beatrice as she instantly regained her senses upon regaining consciousness.

    Hearing the words of her mistress, Guinevere, who was already feeling rather scared, couldn''t help but slightly shiver.

    "Nothing happened mistress, everything is in order," said Guinevere as she took a step back and allowed Beatrice to get up from the bed.

    Hearing this, Beatrice, who had regained her bearings, couldn''t help but shake her head, causing Guinevere to lower her head.

    Suddenly though, without any warning, this scene was then broken as the door to the room was opened, revealing a large ant standing in the hallway.

    The moment they noticed the fact that their mistress was awake, Antonia, as well as Canty, who was behind her, immediately ran into the room.

    ''Mistress, are you alright? The entire colony was worried about you,'' said Antonia after she immediately arrived in front of Beatrice.

    Only a moment later, Canty then sat down on Beatrice''s should, causing her to shake her head.

    "It''s alright, that was just a breakthrough of mine, you have nothing to worry about," said Beatrice as she stretched out her finger towards her shoulder and touched the ant that was currently lying down on it.

    As she stared at this scene, Guinevere, who was standing nearby, couldn''t help but bite her lip, feeling rather embarrassed that she was feeling envious of an ant.

    ''Guinevere, you shouldn''t be envious of a little ant without much free will, otherwise you will never get anywhere,'' said Guinevere as she looked at Canty, not noticing the rather extreme irony present in her thoughts.

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    A moment later, after getting rid of those intruding thoughts, Guinevere turned back her attention to her mistress, who was currently listening to Antonia, who was speaking.

    After she heard the words of her mistress, Antonia instantly felt as if a burden was listed off her shoulders, causing her to gain a new light in her eyes.

    ''Mistress, we''ve laid the final touches on the new colony, do you want to see it?'' asked Antonia as she changed the subject of the conversation, making Beatrice touch her chin.

    At first, Beatrice had wanted to refuse Antonia''s offer, but after thinking about it for a few moments, and noticing the expectant light in the eyes of the two ants, she faintly nodded.

    "I still have two more things to do right now, you should come and remind me later today," said Beatrice, causing the expectant looks in the eyes of the ants to transform into excited ones.

    ''Understood mistress, you don''t have to worry, I promise that I will come remind you,'' said another voice as it resounded in Beatrice''s eyes.

    Even though Beatrice could notice huge similarities to Antonia''s own voice as this new being talked with her, she could also hear just how shy the owner of this voice was when talking to her.

    A moment later, Beatrice then turned her head sideways and looked at the little ant who was standing on her shoulder, causing the latter to freeze for a brief moment before lowing her head, clearly embarrassed by what she had just done.

    As she looked at the little ant, a faint smile appeared on Beatrice''s face.

    "Very well, then make sure that you remind me," said Beatrice as the little ant suddenly floated off her shoulder and onto Antonia, who was currently looking at the two.

    A moment later, the eyes of the ant suddenly became extremely happy, as it then began moving along the back of Antonia, who clearly did not seem too happy about it.

    But even so, Antonia couldn''t bear to destroy the happiness of the little ant just now, as such, she allowed the latter to move around how she wished.

    ...

    As she stretched one of her fingers into a bathtub, and felt the extremely hot water inside of it, a faint smile appeared on Beatrice''s face, causing her robe, as well as the layers below it, to suddenly fall to the ground.

    A moment later, Beatrice then stretched one of her legs into the bathtub, then followed up with another leg, causing the water from it to overflow onto the bathroom floor.

    But even so, Beatrice did not pay any attention to this, as she merely sunk her body into the water and enjoyed its warmth, making even more water fall to the floor.

    As she laid in the bathtub, Beatrice felt as though there was someone next to her, but even so, by now, Beatrice had become very used to this, and did not pay much attention to it.

    Without Beatrice even realizing it, a set of golden arms had now emerged from behind her and embraced her.

    But as she was focused on something else, Beatrice couldn''t pay any attention to those arms.

    ...

    As she opened her eyes and stared at the ceiling above her, a faint smile appeared on Beatrice''s face, causing her to let out a relaxed sigh.

    "Finally, I returned to this spot," mumbled Beatrice as she felt the strength that was cruising through her body at the moment.

    If she only talked about physical strength, at the moment, Beatrice felt several times more powerful than before, which had probably been caused by the refinement of her muscles by her mana.

    At the same time, this was also caused by the fact that unconsciously, whilst she was undergoing her transformation, Beatrice had become a Royal Knight.

 139 : Personality

    Not long after,

    As she stared the results in front of her, a faint smile appeared on the face of Beatrice, who had just finished testing her Mana and Spiritual power.

    Mana : 78.6753

    Spiritual Power : 75.4

    After becoming a peak mage apprentice, Beatrice''s spiritual power, which had temporarily flat lined, had once again grown by over five points, up from just 70.02.

    But at this moment, Beatrice did not focus on the spiritual power, rather, she paid much more attention to her mana.

    "My mana is a bit higher than the last time," mumbled Beatrice as she looked the numbers on the piece of paper in her hands.

    Back at her peak in her previous life, Beatrice''s mana was around 76, quite a bit higher than that of normal peak mages, but in this life, it seemed to have grown even further above that.

    Beatrice did not doubt the precision of her teacher''s machine, as such, she couldn''t help but fall into thought.

    ''Did the fact that I was much more experienced than before help, or was the fact that my spiritual power was much higher the cause of this?'' thought Beatrice as she touched her chin.

    Based on her intuition, Beatrice immediately darted to these two things as the reason for her change.

    Even though she could not know for certain which one of them was the true cause, Beatrice could only shake her head and turn her attention on something else.

    ''Worrying about things that do me no harm is not something productive,'' thought Beatrice as she walked out of the testing machine.

    A moment later, Beatrice walked out of the room, now thinking about something completely different.

    As she stared at the ant colony entrance in front of her, a faint smile appeared on Beatrice''s face, causing her to turn to Antonia, who was standing next to her.

    "It looks as though you followed the design I gave you," said Beatrice, causing Antonia, as well as the Canty, who was sitting on Beatrice''s shoulder, to nod.

    Even though Antonia was extremely qualified in creating a colony in the ground, she had very little experienced in other directions.

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    As they were extremely thin, the new type of walls created by the colony, using magically reinforced dirt worked less like dirt and more like concrete, allowing Beatrice, a human who could learn quite a bit faster to help Antonia.

    ''Yes mistress, though I did make some changes to the design you gave me,'' said Antonia as she slightly lowered her antenna, causing Beatrice to shake her head, whilst an enraged look appeared on the face of the little ant sitting on her shoulder.

    "You don''t have to be worried, I can''t be mad that you changed it, after all, you are the one who is most familiar with the habits of your colony," said Beatrice, causing an enraged voice to suddenly emerge from next to her.

    ''You... you are too shameless, not only did you take the credit for proposing this change, you also stole my design, couldn''t you at least credit me in front of mistress??'' asked Canty as she stared at the ant queen, which was numerous times larger than her.

    As she heard this, a slightly confused look appeared on Beatrice''s face, causing her to suddenly turn towards Antonia with an inquisitive gaze.

    ''Canty, you are my daughter after all, isn''t it natural for me to take the credit?'' asked Antonia with a confused look on her face, causing Canty''s antenna to suddenly twitch.

    ''And for the record, I was just about to tell mistress about your help,'' said Antonia, making Canty''s antenna twitch once again.

    Even though Beatrice was slightly confused as she heard Antonia''s reasoning, she could still feel that the latter was really telling the truth, and did not desire to steal Canty''s achievements.

    But even so, as she stared at the ant drama in front of her, Beatrice couldn''t help but fall into thought.

    ''It seems as though there are some differences between the line of thinking of an intelligent ant and that of an ant queen,'' thought Beatrice as Canty as began arguing with Antonia without even paying attention to Beatrice.

    At first, Antonia felt a little bit hesitant to argue with the little ant, but after some time, and after noticing that Beatrice was not paying attention, she began fighting back against the words of the little ant.

    But the moment she did so, Canty suddenly sat up and jumped from Beatrice''s shoulder onto the ground in front of Antonia, allowing her to stare at the ant queen better.

    And then, a moment later, Canty continued her fight.

    ''Maybe the human soul has influenced those artificial intelligent ants a bit, and that''s missing from Antonia,'' thought Beatrice as her eyes lit up.

    The moment Beatrice thought of this, she instantly knew that this must be the case, as based on her observations, whilst Canty seems to be a little more individualistic, Antonia seems to regard the colony as one whole being.

    ''Since this is the case, I can research this area a bit later If I have some free time,'' thought Beatrice as she committed her thoughts to her memory before taking out the information cube out of her robe.

    A moment later, whilst the two ants were still arguing, Beatrice began writing some things down into the information cube.

    It only took Beatrice around a minute for her to write down everything that she had thought of, but by then, the two ants, seemingly embarrassed by her, had taken their arguing inside the colony.

    But even though Beatrice was no longer physically next to them to see the altercation between the two, using their mental link, she could feel that their argument had not ended in the slightest, rather, it had heated up even more.

    ...

    Two hours later,

    As she looked at Canty, who was sitting in a corner of the Queen''s chamber, number 5, the ant that had spent over one hour inside a human body, couldn''t help but tilt her head as she felt somewhat confused.

 140 : Experiment

    ''Big sister, did something happen?'' asked Number 5 with a confused look on her tiny ant face, causing Canty, who was in a corner of the chamber, to shake her head.

    ''It''s nothing, I''m just a little tired,'' said Canty as she used the corner of her eyes to look at Antonia, who was standing with her eyes closed in the middle of the chamber.

    At the same time, Canty still stared at the cute innocent little and standing in front of her, causing the latter to appear rather confused now.

    ''Even though she seems to be sleeping, I bet she''ll open her eyes as soon as I try to escape my punishment, she wouldn''t let me off so easily in a million years,'' thought Canty.

    ''I understand Big Sister Canty, you can just rest here, I need to go on my way,'' said Number 5 before quickly moved her legs in an exaggerated way, leaving Canty and Antonia alone inside the chamber.

    After looked at Number 5''s departing back, Canty turned her attention back onto Antonia, who was still standing with her eyes closed.

    As she saw this, Canty couldn''t help but become a little bit confused, as she had just checked out her mental connection to Antonia.

    As it turned out, Canty felt no mental fluctuations coming from Antonia, meaning the latter was not conscious at the moment.

    Canty did not know if this meant that Antonia was sleeping or doing something else, but what she did know was that she now had an opportunity to escape her punishment.

    Seemingly unaware of the logistics of sneaking away unnoticed inside a huge colony full of ants, Canty suddenly moved on of her legs.

    But just a moment after doing that, Canty instantly returned her leg to its original position, as she then closed her eyes and began sleeping.

    At that very moment, Antonia suddenly opened her eyes and stared at Canty, causing a faint frown to appear on her face.

    As she looked at Canty, who was seemingly taking her punishment, as well as the fact that she can''t help with any work right now very well, that frown increased in size.

    ''She''s... sleeping?!'' thought Antonia with an extremely confused look on her face, other than the times when she truly needed to rest, Canty nearly never slept, as she would much rather work and help the colony in some way or the other.

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    Because of this, the fact that Canty seemed to be sleeping made Antonia very confused.

    Even though the possibility that Canty had somehow managed to trick her appeared in Antonia''s mind, she dismissed it soon after, as the little ant couldn''t possibly hope to match her extended experience, no matter how smart she was.

    Of course, Antonia was not aware of the fact that Canty, had in fact planned all of this, and to prepare, she did not sleep for an extremely extended period of time.

    Because of this, as soon as she let go of her concentration, Canty was instantly able to fall asleep and escape Antonia''s vision.

    Even so, Antonia did not care much about the fact that her little trap had not worked, as she didn''t really care much for it in the first place.

    Antonia felt like although catching Canty trying to escape her punishment would be quite good, not doing so didn''t annoy her.

    ...

    Unaware of the silent, and extremely petty battle between two intelligent ants that was happening not far away from her, at this moment, Beatrice could be seen standing over an operating table with a mask on her face, staring at the man in front of her.

    As she stretched out her scalpel and touched the man''s fragile flesh, a faint frown appeared on her face, as Beatrice then let out a small sigh.

    But even though she had discovered the fact that her plan did not, in fact, change anything, Beatrice still went through with it.

    A moment later, Beatrice suddenly made a small cut into the flesh of the man before pouring some mana into it.

    As this was an extremely delicate process, where one mistake might ruin everything, Beatrice was as gentle as she could be whilst pouting mana into him.

    But even though Beatrice had done everything perfectly, and had not made any mistake, after around three minutes, some extremely familiar symptoms then began happening.

    In just a few seconds, the flesh of the man became black, as it then spread around his body like a disease, and then after around five seconds, it then began uncontrollably growing, transforming him from a pretty normal looking human being to an eldritch looking monstrosity in only an instant.

    As she stared at this scene, Beatrice couldn''t help but shaking her head whilst letting out a sigh.

    "It seems as though protecting his soul, as well as helping him become slightly more adjusted to mana did not do anything," mumbled Beatrice as she suddenly stretched out her hand towards the ''head'' of the monstrosity.

    The only reason why Beatrice was able to learn where the head of this thing was located was the fact that she could still see the soul of the former man inside of it.

    But just like his body, the soul of the man had also been irreversibly warped by Beatrice''s mana, causing her to click her teeth.

    At first, after seeing this happen with another experimental subject, Beatrice had then tried protecting the soul of her next subject.

    But even though Beatrice did not use the ''Dark Corruption'' spell, and had put up some defenses around the soul of the man, and had tried to control her mana to not touch it, the soul of the man had still managed to become affected by it.

    Although Beatrice was unaware of the reason for this, but as she took out the soul of the man, Beatrice couldn''t help but fall into thought.

    Now that Beatrice had seen that trying to preserve the past humanity of the experimental subjects was useless, she couldn''t help but want to turn to the other end of the spectrum, and truly see just how far she could take a human with just her pure mana.

 141 : Ants

    As she stared at the man who was currently tied to the table in front of her, a faint smile appeared on Beatrice''s face, causing her to quickly approach him and made a small cut into his flesh.

    Of course, before she did that, Beatrice had made sure that the man could not wake up, and could not disturb her work.

    "This should be enough," mumbled Beatrice as she stared at the man with an extremely curious look on her face.

    Even though what she was doing was rather useless, Beatrice did not care about that, as her curiosity required her to do it.

    A moment later, Beatrice placed her scalpel onto a nearby table and took her gloves off her hands.

    Without waiting even a moment, Beatrice placed one of her hands off the wound of the man, and her other hand over his forehead.

    A small silence then ensued as Beatrice began pouring her mana into the man.

    Of course, this silence was broken only a few moments later.

    Unlike before, when Beatrice had tried her best to have her mana not completely morph the man she was experimenting on, right now, Beatrice did the opposite, and actively used her mana to do so.

    As one might expect, this quickly caused uncontrollable mutations to appear all around the body of the man, as his body turned completely black in only a moment.

    After, fleshy mutations quickly began growing around the body of the man, making Beatrice have to slightly retract her two hands, but even so, Beatrice did not stop her actions.

    Suddenly, though, the ''eyes'' of this ''human'' suddenly opened for a moment, before rolling to the back of his head.

    "It looks like I was too careless with its soul," mumbled Beatrice as she noticed the fact that the body of this beast was still alive, whilst its soul had been accidentally destroyed by Beatrice trying to influence it using her mana.

    A moment later, after Beatrice waved her hand, the body of this thing then died as well, completely destroying anything that had remained of it.

    ...

    "Trying to change the soul using Dark Mana is harder than I expected," mumbled Beatrice as she stared at the corpse in front of her.

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    After her first, Beatrice had then conducted two more cruel experiments, but just like the first one, all of them ended the same way, as the moment Beatrice tried to influence their souls using her mana, they quickly spiraled out of control and died.

    "I guess it''s to be expected, It would be quite weird if changing the soul was so easy," mumbled Beatrice as two hundred earth ants quickly picked up the corpse and took it away.

    At this very moment, though, Beatrice suddenly frowned, as a slightly confused expression appeared on her face.

    "Did something happen?" mumbled Beatrice with a confused look on her face as she looked around her.

    Just now, Beatrice had felt as though something around her hand changed, but after looking around herself, Beatrice did not manage to detect anything different.

    At the same time, Beatrice did not think that there would be many people who could sneak into her teacher''s home without being detected, and if someone like that did come in here, they would have no reason to hide from Beatrice, as she would be completely powerless in front of them.

    As such, Beatrice turned her attention onto herself and tried sensing if anything had changed inside herself.

    But after a few minutes of looking, Beatrice did not seem to find anything weird, and could only shake her head and ignore that feeling.

    A moment later, Beatrice turned her attention back onto her experiment.

    ...

    As she stared at the extremely huge blob of flesh, which was slowly but surely trying to escape the room, a faint frown appeared on her face.

    Even though this blob of flesh was extremely large, Beatrice could see that it was extremely powerless and could barely move, at the same time, its skin was much more fragile than that of a normal human, causing her to shake her head.

    By now, Beatrice''s curiosity towards this domain had been exhausted, causing her to suddenly snap her fingers.

    Only around thirty seconds after Beatrice had snapped her fingers, a small earth ant suddenly appeared around the corner.

    This was the oldest of the group of five earth ants that Beatrice had transformed after Canty, the one who had been in a human body for around 2.5 minutes.

    The moment the ant saw the blob of flesh, her eyes suddenly lit up, causing her to turn towards Beatrice.

    ''Mistress, do we have to dispose of this thing?'' asked the ant with an extremely excited tone in her voice.

    "Yes, that would be quite good," mumbled Beatrice as she let out a slight chuckle at the excitement of the ant, causing the latter to quickly run back to the colony.

    Only around 2 minutes after the ant had gone away, it had then returned, but this time, it was no longer alone.

    Rather, the smart ant was being followed by numerous ants.

    The moment the ants approached the immobile blob of flesh, they quickly got to work, and began ripping apart it''s flesh with frightening efficiency.

    In only around five minutes, the over 3-meter tall, and 5 meter wide and long blob of flesh was completely gone.

    Of course, the ants that came here did not devour it alone, rather, under Beatrice''s inquisitive eyes, one by one, they carried pieces of its flesh off back to their colony.

    ...

    As he walked through the halls of the Magic Council, the Prophet couldn''t help but look out towards the starry sky through a window.

    The moment the Prophet gazed at the dazzling stars, he had finally decided on what to do.

    "Let me be the sacrifice for the safety of the Mage World," mumbled the Prophet as he clenched his fist.

    A moment later, the Prophet began walking to a certain location in the Magic Council.

 142 : Sudden

    As she took in a deep breath, a faint smile couldn''t help but appear on the face of Beatrice, who was currently reading a spell book.

    At the current moment, Beatrice actually did not have many things to do, as she had delayed practicing her control of the soul up until she became an Official Mage.

    Because of this, Beatrice now began attempting to master a certain Rank 1 spell, which would be of great help to her.

    "This doesn''t seem to be too difficult," mumbled Beatrice as she stared at the several page wide spell diagrams.

    Perhaps it was the fact that Beatrice''s spiritual power was so high, but she was quickly able to understand the spell diagram of this spell, which gave her a lot of confidence.

    Sadly, though, this confidence would soon be shattered.

    ...

    Two weeks later,

    As she stared at the spell diagram sitting in front of her, as well as at the two men who were currently tied to a table, Beatrice desperately resisted the desire to rip her hair out.

    A moment later, after taking in a deep breath and calming herself down, Beatrice stretched out her hand towards one of the men.

    At the moment, one of the two men was bleeding out whilst the other seemed to be perfectly fine, causing Beatrice to stretch out her hand towards the man who was healthy.

    "Dark Siphoning," mumbled Beatrice as a wave of dark mana spread towards the man.

    After that, as Beatrice closed her eyes, five seconds passed in silence.

    Without any warning, Beatrice suddenly opened her eyes before kicking the metal table, causing it, as well as the two men tied to it, to be sent flying into a wall.

    After being smashed into a wall, the metal table nearly fell apart, whilst the two fragile human beings that were tied to it suffered an even worse fate.

    It took Beatrice a few more seconds to finally calm down and return to normal.

    "It looks like I seriously underestimated the difficulty of Rank 1 spells thanks to the success I had with the Dark Arrow and Dark Manipulation spells," mumbled Beatrice she waved her hand, causing the metal table to fall to the ground once again, revealing a wall that had been dirtied by meat paste.

    Even though it might have seemed as though it was extremely easy for Beatrice to master those two Rank 1 spells, both of them had some special circumstances.

    As far as Beatrice was aware, the Dark Arrow Spell was considered one of the easiest Rank 1 spells to learn, this allowed Beatrice, who was much more powerful and skilled than normal Mage Apprentices to learn it.

    At the same time, the Dark Manipulation Spell truly depended on the user''s Spiritual Power, which gave Beatrice an extreme advantage in learning it, which she had made use of.

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    But beyond that, Beatrice had not yet attempted to learn any other Rank 1 spells, which had made her underestimate the True Difficulty of learning them.

    After around thirty more seconds, Beatrice had returned to her normal self and had begun thinking.

    "It''s only been two weeks, and I''ve already made some progress, If I practice some more, I should be able to master this spell," mumbled Beatrice as she touched her chin.

    Even though Beatrice''s progress was extremely slow, it was still progressed, and based on Beatrice''s estimates, it will take her at most three months to master this spell.

    Right now, Beatrice was debating whether it was worth it to waste three months mastering a single spell when she could do it much faster after becoming an Official Mage.

    At first, Beatrice was quite hesitant to abandon this direction right now, after spending over two weeks on it, but after thinking for a while, she finally made a decision.

    "If I continue like this right now, I will just be wasting more effort, I should just cut my losses," mumbled Beatrice as around fifty ants began cleaning the meat paste on the wall.

    After thinking about this, Beatrice then walked out of the room.

    ...

    The first thing that Beatrice did after abandoning this task of hers was to go back to her room and lay down onto her bed.

    As she had been extremely focused on learning that spell, Beatrice had not truly had a good rest in these past two weeks.

    Back when she was focused, Beatrice could easily ignore this exhaustion, but right now, that exhaustion finally caught up to her.

    A few moments after lying down onto her bed, Beatrice then dozed off.

    At first, Beatrice seemed to have fallen asleep normally, but four hours later, when Guinevere walked into the room and noticed the fact that her mistress was still asleep, a somewhat confused look appeared on her face.

    ''It looks like mistress was tired,'' thought Guinevere as she silently walked out of the room.

    ...

    Twelve hours later,

    As she looked at her mistress, who now had a cocoon growing around her, Guinevere couldn''t help but tilt her head to the side.

    Under Guinevere''s incredulous eyes, in just a few minutes, a cocoon had enveloped Beatrice, who was now holding her knees up to her chest.

    ...

    As she slowly but surely opened her eyes and stared at the surrounding darkness, a faint frown appeared on Beatrice''s face.

    "How long have I been asleep?" mumbled Beatrice as she stretched her hand behind herself and uncharacteristically scratched her back.

    Right now, Beatrice did not seem to be in her best state in the slightest, as for some odd reason, she did not seem to care about the fact that she was in a completely unknown location.

    A moment later, Beatrice couldn''t help but scratch her back once again, as an annoyed look appeared on her face.

    As she stared at her hand, which now had skin, flesh and blood from her back on it, a faint smile appeared on Beatrice''s face.

    A moment later, Beatrice felt her face slightly itch, causing her to suddenly scratch off her entire cheek, revealing the insides of her mouth.

    But for some reason, even as this happened, Beatrice did not seem to feel any pain, as her removed flesh then began growing again.

    This cycle then continued again and again.

    For an unknown amount of time, Beatrice continued ripping off her skin, flesh, and even organs, including her lungs, heart, and even her brain.

    But even as Beatrice ripped out her own brain, she still seemed to feel no pain, as the brain then grew back.

    Eventually, though, Beatrice began feeling this itch more and more rarely, causing her to rip out her flesh less and less.

    And after what seemed like an eternity, the itching finally stopped in its entirety.

    Without any warning, Beatrice suddenly gritted her teeth as she bent forward, her eyes becoming bloodshot.

    Before Beatrice had even realized it, an extreme amount of pain had erupted from her upper back, causing her to suddenly collapse.

    ...

    Without any warning, a smooth hand suddenly smashed out of the cocoon under Guinevere''s surprised eyes.

    A moment later, the cocoon was smashed apart, revealing Beatrice, who now had a set of black and white wings emerging from her back.

    The moment Beatrice emerged from the cocoon, Guinevere suddenly froze, as a deeply hidden primordial terror emerged from within her.

 143 : Self

    The moment Beatrice emerged out of her cocoon, her eyes suddenly moved around the room, as if she was searching for something.

    Only a moment later, Beatrice suddenly appeared in front of a mirror without any warning.

    A moment after Beatrice did so, Guinevere nearly fell to the ground as a gust of wind suddenly pushed again her body, at the same time, two loud sonic booms rang in her ears.

    At the moment, Beatrice did not pay attention to what was happening to Guinevere, rather, she was staring in the mirror at her naked body, more specifically, the new wings that had emerged from her back.

    ''This is... quite surprising...'' thought Beatrice as one of the wings, the pure white one, suddenly stretched itself in front of her.

    As she touched the fragile looking wing in front of her, an extremely weird feeling appeared from within Beatrice.

    Beatrice felt as though she had these wings her entire life, but upon touching them, the unfamiliar feeling quickly disproved that theory.

    Even though Beatrice should have felt quite happy for suddenly becoming an Official Mage, but as she stared at herself, a weird feeling couldn''t help but emerge from within her mind.

    It was as if something was missing from within Beatrice, but no matter how much Beatrice racked her brains, she couldn''t figure out what was truly missing.

    Suddenly, though, Beatrice, who had previously been focused on other, more important things, suddenly realized something.

    That weird voice in the back of her head was missing.

    Without any warning, Beatrice''s eyes dilated, as her body suddenly froze.

    ...

    The moment Beatrice opened her eyes, a cautious look appeared on her face as she stared at the endless darkness around her.

    "You don''t like this place, I thought you would have liked its simplicity," mumbled a female voice from behind Beatrice.

    Suddenly, the voice suddenly snapped its fingers, causing the scenes around Beatrice to change.

    Gone was the endless darkness, replaced by a warm and sunny plain full of grass.

    A moment later, Beatrice suddenly looked behind herself, causing her to suddenly freeze with her mouth gaping open.

    The being who stood in front of Beatrice looked like an older version of Beatrice, but compared to the current Beatrice, she still had a few differences.

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    First, and most obviously different, were the wings behind this version of Beatrice.

    Unlike our Beatrice, who had one black and one white wing, this older Beatrice had two extremely pure white wings, which emanated a holy aura.

    Secondly, was the way she was dressed.

    Whilst Beatrice usually liked to dress in black, this Beatrice was currently wearing a loose white robe.

    Lastly was her expression.

    As she looked at the extremely warm smile present on the face of her older self, Beatrice couldn''t help but feel a tinge of disgust emerge from within her.

    "Who are you?" asked Beatrice as she looked at the woman in front of her, even though she already knew the answer.

    "It''s quite obvious that I''m you, isn''t it?" said Beatrice before letting out a chuckle as she looked at her young self.

    Hearing this, Beatrice shook her head with an annoyed look.

    "Quit avoiding this topic, who are you and why do you exist?" asked Beatrice, causing the woman to faintly smile as she began approaching Beatrice.

    Seeing this, Beatrice suddenly became tense, causing five Dark Arrows to suddenly appear in front of her.

    "Don''t come closer, answer the question!" said Beatrice as the five arrows moved around, clearly ready to be launched towards the woman at any time.

    But even so, Beatrice did not seem to care about the spells that were pointed in her direction, as she simply continued walking towards her younger self without any care in the world.

    Seeing this, Beatrice suddenly waved her hand, causing the five Dark Arrows to suddenly fly towards her other self from all directions.

    A fraction of a moment later, the older Beatrice smiled whilst shaking her head before disappearing, causing the Dark Arrows to suddenly pass through her previous location.

    Seeing this, an extremely wary look appeared on Beatrice''s face, as she began searching for her other self.

    Sadly, though, this could not help her avoid her other self, who then hugged her from behind.

    "It''s alright, I''m not here to hurt you," said Beatrice''s older self as she embraced Beatrice.

    ...

    For several minutes, Beatrice simply stood there in front of the mirror with her eyes closed, when suddenly, her eyes popped open and she regained her senses.

    But as she now stared in the mirror and touched her white wing, a somewhat conflicted look appeared on the face of Beatrice.

    "Guinevere, you can go out now, I will call you when I need your help," said Beatrice, causing Guinevere to quickly walk out of the room and left Beatrice alone.

    Seeing this, Beatrice then touched her head, which was slightly hurting after being filled with all of these memories.

    Dozens of years of memories from her past self, from before Beatrice''s first life.

    No, that was not Beatrice''s first life, it was her third life.

    ...

    As she floated in the sky and stared at the boundless Earth below her as well as the insignificant lives littering it, Beatrice couldn''t help but shake her head.

    "Foolish, idealistic and stupid," mumbled Beatrice as she went through the memories of her first life.

    Not only did Beatrice''s first life not spend all of her effort to become a more powerful mage, she also wasted years of her own life-saving, healing and caring for mortals.

    Mortals who, no matter what Beatrice did, would be dead in just one hundred years.

    And in the end, where did that leave Beatrice? Betrayed and taken advantage of.

    As she thought about this, Beatrice couldn''t help but feel a little bit angry.

    Not angry at those that had betrayed her, but rather at her past self, who had wasted two chances at a new life.

    A moment later, Beatrice suddenly retracted her wings right next to her body, causing her to suddenly begin falling from the sky.

    As she gained speed and stared at the land below her, a faint smile appeared on the face of Beatrice, who then opened her wings and began flapping them.

    In but an instant, five sonic booms suddenly appeared behind Beatrice, as she now sped into the distance with a smile on her face.

 144 : Memories

    Thanks to the increased speed she got from her drop, Beatrice able to travel extremely fast, and as such, in what seemed like a few short moments, she reached the location of her underground home.

    But even so, Beatrice did not seem to want to slow down, as she continued using her extremely powerful wings to fly towards the entrance.

    Then, just a few tens of meters in front of the entrance, Beatrice suddenly stopped.

    In a single instant, Beatrice''s speed changed from several times the speed of sound to nothing, but although this was the case, Beatrice did not seem to have been affected by this in the slightest.

    In fact, even though she had completed such an impossible maneuver, that was in fact extremely dangerous, a faint smile was present on the face of Beatrice.

    A moment later, after making sure that there was nobody around following her, Beatrice opened the door to the underground abode and walked inside.

    ...

    Just a brief moment after she entered the underground abode, Beatrice, who previously had nothing to do, got to work.

    Firstly, Beatrice had to think about the memories of her past self a bit more thoroughly

    Secondly, Beatrice had to have all of her robes remade so that they could fit her wings, as even though Beatrice knew that she could retract them in her body, for some reason, she didn''t want to do something like that.

    Lastly, Beatrice had to of course begin practicing a lot more Rank 1 Spells, as well as continue her research into the soul, as she could now learn that Soul Technique her teacher had told her about.

    Even though there were only three main things that Beatrice had to do, one mustn''t underestimate the time that these things can take, as practicing Rank 1 spells isn''t nearly as simple as practicing Rank 0 spells.

    ...

    As she reviewed the memories that she had obtained, Beatrice couldn''t help but shake her head, still feeling embarrassed by the sheer stupidity of her past.

    In her first life, even when she knew that someone was after her, upon learning the fact that a deadly plague was spreading in a certain area, Beatrice immediately went to use her Light Magic to help.

    Sadly though, as one might expect, this plague was actually created by Beatrice''s pursuers, who used it to sneak attack her and kill her.

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    Upon first obtaining these memories, Beatrice felt quite shocked by the fact that in her first life, she actually had Light Magic.

    But upon going through the contents of her second life, as well as the hypothesis that Beatrice had created back then, that shock disappeared, having been replaced with some apprehension.

    After being reborn once again, past Beatrice discovered a rather scary fact, her death had corrupted her.

    This did not mean that the fact that Beatrice had died had changed her, no, if that was the case past Beatrice wouldn''t have been so worried.

    Rather, it seemed as though Beatrice had been corrupted after she had died.

    Back then though, Beatrice didn''t know if this was a one time thing or a continued side effect of her death, furthermore, Beatrice wasn''t really sure that she could die a second time back then.

    But as shown by Beatrice''s magic affinity, which had actually changed after she had died, this process wasn''t a one time thing, rather, it was a continued side effect of her deaths.

    Perhaps because she had been corrupted, after being reborn, Beatrice was no longer as kind and self-sacrificing as she was in her first life.

    Even so, a huge amount of kindness and love remained within her.

    Sadly though, this love and kindness would be crushed by her second death, which unlike her first one, did not come at the hands of her enemies, rather it came from her ''friends and allies'' as well as the people that Beatrice had helped.

    No matter how much someone does for them, no matter how kind someone is to them, as long as the price was high enough, humans would betray anyone and everyone.

    This is what Beatrice learned in her second life.

    Sadly though, she had to have her soul shattered for her to learn this fact, causing her to lose her memories and become the current Beatrice, whose soul had managed to heal itself.

    But even so, this newly born soul did not contain those old memories, rather, they were contained in shattered fragments of Beatrice''s soul, which had only been reabsorbed after Beatrice became an Official Mage and could bear their weight.

    In truth, these fragments were actually the cause of the voices that Beatrice had begun hearing after her Spiritual Power became powerful enough.

    Even though in truth, things weren''t as bleak as the first Beatrice made them out to be before her death, these thoughts and feelings greatly influenced Beatrice, causing her to become who she was now.

    ...

    As she went through her memories once again, Beatrice couldn''t help but let out a slightly exhausted sigh.

    ''I guess no matter how powerful an Innate Talent is, it can''t let someone endlessly die without any consequences,'' thought Beatrice as she looked at her white wing with a somewhat weird look on her face.

    At first, after becoming an Official Mage, Beatrice had felt quite bewildered why half of the wings on her back looked so much like the wings of Angels.

    Right now, though, Beatrice knew the answer and no longer thought about this topic, rather, she began thinking about what she would do next.

    Of course, Beatrice would follow the plan that she had created not too long ago, but in the back of her mind, a certain thought tempted Beatrice.

    After thinking about taking revenge for a few moments, Beatrice shook her head and discarded that tempting thought.

    "Taking revenge wouldn''t bring be any benefits, it will even make it harder for me to hide myself, doing that would be really stupid," mumbled Beatrice before beginning to think about something else.

 145 : Strike

    As she looked at Beatrice, who currently had three Dark Arrows silently floating around herself, the tiny part of Selena who was currently standing on a notebook couldn''t help but smile.

    ''As expected, after becoming an Official Mage, her advantages only compounded with each other,'' thought Selena as she looked at Beatrice whilst thinking.

    Based on Selena''s estimate, right now, Beatrice''s spiritual power was at least around 110 and perhaps even higher, at the same time, Beatrice reached the limit of her body quite late, causing her mana capacity increase even further.

    Even though Selena wasn''t really sure what Beatrice''s current mana capacity was, she still knew that it should be quite respectable, after all, Beatrice had a B rank Darkness Affinity.

    A moment later, the Three Dark Arrows suddenly flew through the room, causing Shockwaves to spread throughout, hitting both Beatrice and Selena, who only had a tiny bit of mana.

    But even, Selena stood tall in the face of the powerful shockwaves, not being moved by them in the slightest.

    "Teacher, how did I do?" asked Beatrice as she instantly stopped the three Dark Arrows midair and approached the tiny Selena, who was standing currently sitting on a table.

    Hearing this, Selena faintly nodded her head.

    "It seems as though you had already mastered this spell back when you were just a Mage Apprentice, but even so, your progress is very good," said Selena, causing Beatrice to smile as well, knowing that her teacher would finally get to the final, and most important part.

    Seeing the look on Beatrice''s face, which simply screamed that she wanted something from her, Selena let out a slight chuckle.

    "Don''t worry, I told you I would teach you that technique after you became an Official Mage, I''m not someone who goes against my own word," said Selena as she suddenly jumped to Beatrice''s left shoulder, knocking off the obedient little ant that was sitting on it.

    Even though Canty desperately wanted to continue sitting on the shoulder of her Mistress, she knew what battles, she knew how to choose her battles.

    Only a moment later, Canty suddenly appeared on Beatrice''s right shoulder, as she then also knocked the ant sitting on it off.

    Even though the smart ant really wanted to continue sitting on the shoulder of her mistress, as she gazed at Canty, who was sitting above with a cold look in her many eyes, the ant finally relented and began retreating.

    Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

    After all, even though the Ant wanted to continue sitting on the shoulder of her Mistress, she knew that if she continued fighting against Canty, she would not be able to touch that shoulder for at least a week.

    With her own many eyes, the ant had seen how Canty had punished smart ants that had argued with her by stopping them from sitting on the shoulders of the Mistress.

    As she considered herself the smartest of all the ants, Smart Ant Number 4, who had been in a human body for around thirty minutes, then retreated from the room.

    Not caring about the intrigues and battles of these little ants, Selena then began talking with Beatrice, causing the latter to suddenly pick up the notebook and walk out of the spell testing room.

    ...

    Three weeks later,

    As she stared at the humongous giant who was gazing right at her, Beatrice, who was about the size of the Giant''s eye, couldn''t help but grit her teeth

    "You want to take advantage of me and put me to work just because I''m small, just forget it, no matter what, I won''t work for free," said Beatrice as she stared the giant before her with a look of conviction in her eyes.

    No matter what the profiteer in front of her said, the Beatrice would not yield to her tactics and work for her benefits.

    ...

    As she looked at the tiny version of herself who was sitting on a table with her guard up, Beatrice felt a headache incoming.

    After finally mastering the technique that her teacher had promised to teach her, the first thing that Beatrice did was create two clones of herself, one weak and one a bit more powerful.

    Of course, Beatrice did not give either clone her full memories, rather, she gave them a ''censored'' version, which still made logical sense but omitted many things and secrets that Beatrice would rather not be revealed to the outside world, lest this clone escape somehow.

    As she did not spend much effort in the slightest on this tiny weak clone, Beatrice did not even create a body for her, nor did she let her inhabit a body, causing her to become stuck in a state similar to the clone of Selena who had just taught her.

    Sadly though, unlike that clone of her teacher, who was somewhat respectfully tied to a notebook, the human form of this clone of hers was actually a cup.

    This was actually the cup that Beatrice regularly used to drink tea, in fact.

    After learning how to create these ''Soul Clones'', Beatrice also learned how to put them into bodies and tie them into objects.

    But for some reason, this little Beatrice did not seem to appreciate the fact that she had become a cup, causing her to instantly go on strike and refuse to help Beatrice with work.

    As she remembered how she used a piece of her own soul as a seed, which she then spent a huge amount of effort, mana, and special potions from her teacher to nurture this little ungrateful brat, Beatrice felt a little tear falling on her cheek.

    Seeing this scene, the little Beatrice immediately let out a chuckle as she stared at her creator with disdain on her face.

    "I didn''t expect you to be able to put up a show like this," said the little Beatrice, when suddenly, she froze as her original self''s eyes immediately became cold.

    "Isn''t it alright for a main body to toy with her clone a bit?" asked Beatrice as she stared at her tiny self, causing the latter to suddenly nod.

    "That''s good," mumbled Beatrice as several tiny chains suddenly appeared around the immaterial body of Beatrice.

 146 : Backup

    As she lost control of her body, the tiny Beatrice couldn''t help but stare at her original face with a faint smile on her face.

    "What do I need to do?" asked Beatrice as she felt the chains wrapping around her limbs, causing the huge Beatrice to let out a slight chuckle before pointing her finger towards her.

    A moment later, a thin black string flew from the tip of Beatrice''s finger into the chest of the tiny Beatrice, who now had a frown on her face.

    ''I don''t remember being able to do something like this,'' thought the tiny Beatrice, as she went through her memories and began searching something like that string.

    Sadly, though, Beatrice did not have any memories of learning to do something like that, which caused her to suddenly narrow her eyes as she looked at her original self.

    "Did you mess with my memories?" asked the tiny Beatrice as she suddenly regained control of her body.

    "Of course I did, it would be quite irresponsible to not do that, wouldn''t you think?" asked Beatrice as she looked at her tiny self, causing the latter to fall into thought.

    ...

    As she looked at the tiny version of herself, who was currently writing into the Information Cube using a similarly tiny keyboard, a faint smile appeared on Beatrice''s face.

    ''I guess even I can be somewhat cute sometimes,'' thought Beatrice as a tiny string appeared in her hand, wrapped around her finger.

    Whilst one end of the string was in Beatrice''s hand, another end suddenly emerged from the back of the tiny Beatrice, who was oblivious to all of this.

    Slowly but surely, without the tiny Beatrice realizing, Beatrice tugged at that string, applying more and more force, and before the latter could feel anything, the string suddenly sprung out of her back and flew towards Beatrice.

    Of course, this did not leave Beatrice without any method to control her clone, in fact, this string was just a normal string created by using Dark Mana, without any way to actually control her.

    In truth, even though the tiny Beatrice was unaware of this fact, the connection between the two Beatrice''s was far deeper than one could imagine.

    In fact, Beatrice could not only read the mind of the tiny Beatrice, but also control her without any sort of spell, since they still had an extremely deep connection.

    This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

    The only way for this connection to be destroyed is if Beatrice herself, the main body, desired that.

    And if that isn''t the case, nobody, not even an Archmage can do anything about it.

    ...

    Later that day,

    As she stared at the soul which was currently located inside the box in front of her, a faint smile appeared on Beatrice''s face.

    Ever since Beatrice had become an official mage, her understanding and power of souls seemed to have grown massively.

    Part of this had been caused by just the transformation itself, and the other part was caused by what Beatrice had transformed into.

    A Fallen Angel.

    Even though Beatrice had once read about Angels, in one of the books present within her teacher''s library, at first she did not know anything about them.

    But after becoming an Official Mage, Beatrice had begun researching Angels in a much more thorough detail.

    And after asking her teacher, Beatrice was able to obtain permission to go into an even deeper part of the library.

    After some digging, Beatrice had found some chapters describing Fallen Angels, but she had also discovered something else, something far more serious.

    The Angels, alongside the Demons, alongside a bunch of other beings, had, in fact, gone to war with the entirety of the mage world eons ago.

    After discovering this, Beatrice used her newfound access to the library to continue her search.

    But contrary to her expectations, Beatrice found nothing.

    Not a single trace or mention of this war existed within any single one of the history books that Beatrice had read.

    At first, Beatrice had thought that this war was not very significant, causing it not be recorder very well, which caused her to begin looking through books focused on wars instead.

    But no matter how much Beatrice searched, she wasn''t able to find anything, not a single trace of this was, causing her to arrive at a much more terrifying conclusion.

    This war or battle had been completely erased from the history books.

    ...

    As she closed the box in front of her, Beatrice couldn''t help but faintly smile.

    Thanks to her increased power over the soul, Beatrice was able to somewhat copy the operating mechanism of the Information Cube, causing her to use a soul as the pain component of this machine of her.

    Of course, the main difficulty Beatrice faced was not placing the soul itself inside the cube, as she could do that even before becoming an Official Mage., rather, it was programming the soul to do certain things at certain times, which proved to be a lot more difficult than expected.

    But after some trial and effort, Beatrice had finally got it to work.

    A moment later, Beatrice suddenly sent some mana into the box, which had now been transformed it into a cube, causing her to suddenly smile.

    It only took a tiny amount of Beatrice''s own mana for the cube to activate itself and begin absorbing elemental energy to keep itself running.

    At the same time, Beatrice could sense the location of the cube.

    In fact, she could sense it extremely well, as that cube seemed to draw her to it.

    Seeing this, Beatrice then placed the cube on a desk and walked through a door.

    Inside the room that the door had led her to stood a soul, silently moving about the middle of the room.

    But unlike any other soul that Beatrice had created or used, this one had something different about it, it''s size and sheer power.

    But even though this soul radiated power, it was still powerless before Beatrice, who then picked it up and took it with her.

    "Hopefully you never have to be used..." mumbled Beatrice as she gently walked towards the metal cube, with the powerful soul in hand.

 147 : Once again

    As she looked at the Ant Queen, Antonia, who was standing not far away from her, as well as at her mistress, who was currently sitting on a chain, Canty couldn''t help but slightly click her mandibles, feeling worried about why she had been summoned here.

    At this moment, in Canty''s opinion, the reason why she had been summoned was the fact that since a few weeks ago, she had begun growing rather rapidly.

    ...

    Looking at the little ant on the ground, which had become quite a bit larger since she had last paid attention to her, much more so than normal ants, Beatrice couldn''t help but faintly smile.

    "It seems as though her transition is going smoothly," said Beatrice as she suddenly waved her hand, causing Canty to suddenly fly to her shoulder.

    Hearing this, Antonia, who was standing nearby, nodded.

    ''Yes mistress, the moment your ascension had ended, I knew that the time had come, and that the process could begin,'' said Antonia, causing Canty, who was on the same mental frequency as them, to turn her head sideways, confused.

    But even so, Canty did not dare disturb this important looking discussion, as such, she then lowered her body onto the shoulder of her mistress and felt the latter''s warmth.

    "Then how long will her transformation into an Ant Queen take?" asked Beatrice, causing Canty to suddenly jolt upwards.

    ''As she was already quite intelligent before she began this transformation, it will only take roughly five more weeks for it to end,'' said Antonia, causing Beatrice to touch her chin as she fell into thought.

    "That''s too much time, I guess I will have to send her with you, she can branch out on her own after she fully transforms," said Beatrice, causing Antonia''s eyes to suddenly light up.

    Nearly ever since she had been born, Antonia had desired to take her colony to the outside world and free it from that small room.

    Now though, from the words of her mistress, Antonia could sense that this time was nigh, and that the colony would finally be free to wonder in the outside world.

    At this moment though, Canty, who had previously frozen still with her antennae forming a question mark, finally regained her senses.

    Only a moment later, Canty suddenly jumped off Beatrice''s shoulder and began sprinting towards the colony at her fastest speed, causing Beatrice to suddenly shake her head.

    ...

    As she looked at the floating Ant colony behind her, Beatrice couldn''t help but faintly nod, causing her to suddenly snap her fingers.

    The moment Beatrice snapped her fingers, the colony seemingly disappeared at first glance, becoming completely transparent, but once you took a closer look, one would be able to notice the faint outline of the nearly perfect rectangle.

    If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.

    This was of course not a spell, rather, what Beatrice had done just now was something most powerful mages could do as well, and something which the first mages all did.

    Using their mana to achieve things without the help of a spell.

    This was the reason why the concealment of the colony was not very perfect, as Beatrice did not use any sort of spell to achieve this effect, rather, she simply used her raw mana to hide the colony.

    And then, a few moments later, Beatrice suddenly flapped her wings and began flying into the distance, with the huge colony floating behind her.

    ...

    As she looked at the Ant colony that had been submerged underground, as well as at the thousands of ants moving around the earth, completely unrestricted, a faint smile appeared on the face of Beatrice, who was floating around half a meter in the air.

    Unlike inside their previous home, the ants now had the space to begin expanding without any worry, which, in turn, would help Beatrice quite a lot in the long run.

    Suddenly, though, an ant suddenly rose from the ground beneath Beatrice.

    And with a heroic jump, the Earth Ant jumped that half a meter gap and grabbed a hold of Beatrice''s foot.

    After that, it was smooth sailing as the ant quickly climbed onto Beatrice''s shoulder, causing the latter''s lips to slightly twitch.

    "Is my shoulder so enjoyable for you to sit on?" asked Beatrice as she looked at Canty, causing the ant to suddenly freeze.

    ''No mistress...'' said Canty, causing Beatrice''s to slightly frown, making her aura seem a bit colder.

    Seeing this, Canty''s heart nearly broke apart, as the thought of the Mistress becoming mad at her traveled through her mind at a lightning speed, causing the 2gb''s of ram that powered her brain to short circuit.

    As she looked at the ant, who had become extremely scared from just a change in her expression, the look on Beatrice''s face couldn''t help but lighten, as she suddenly stretched out one of her fingers and touched the antennae of the little ant.

    "You don''t have to be so scared of me little ant, I''m not someone who would eat cute little ants like you," said Beatrice as she waved her hand, causing Canty to suddenly fly to the ground.

    Then, a moment later, after transmitting some more information to Antonia, Beatrice flew away under the bewildered eyes of Canty, who continued to stare at her.

    ...

    As she flew through the sky, a faint smile couldn''t help but appear on Beatrice''s face, with the ''adjustments'' that she had made to the Soul Swap technique that she had given to Antonia, Beatrice would now have a steady supply of obedient cute little ants, who would listen to her every word.

    Suddenly, though, that faint smile from Beatrice''s face disappeared, as a middle-aged man suddenly appeared in front of her.

    The moment the old man appeared, Beatrice froze, but even though Beatrice''s physical body had been frozen, her mind was not, and she was able to witness the Dark Barrier protecting her body, as well as her body itself, be instantly destroyed by the middle-aged man

    The moment this happened, Beatrice''s soul suddenly became like a floating piece of wood in the middle of the ocean, but before the middle-aged, who had an extremely casual look on his face could take action, a hole suddenly appeared behind Beatrice''s soul, which was then swallowed into it.

    Midway through the process, the middle-aged man stretched out his hand at lightning speed, grabbing after the soul.

    But the moment the hand of the middle-aged man came close to the portal that had opened, a ruthless look appeared on the face of the middle-aged man, causing him to suddenly cut off his own hand and separate from his body.

    Only a moment later, that separated hand then began rapidly aging under the eyes of the Archmage.

    In but an instant, the seven thousand years of life this hand still had left in it vanished, as it quickly became older and older, turning into dust a few moments later.

    ...

    As he stared at the disappearing hole, which had swallowed the soul of the ''Dark Calamity'', Archmage Dragonheart, who had been asked by the Prophet to kill her, knew that something was extremely wrong.

    In the opinion of the Archmage, no matter what an Official Mage, especially one as young as this one did, they could not hope to escape from his grasp.

    Sadly, though, this situation did not go according to plan.

 148 : The End!?

    The moment Beatrice died, a tiny blob once again appeared inside the infinite ocean of darkness, though this time, the blob seemed a tiny bit different from before.

    But after a moment, the blob once again began moving towards one of the distant white dots in the distance, as it now searched for a new home.

    At the same time, the moment Beatrice died, another change took place inside of her underground home.

    ...

    The moment Beatrice died, the clone that she had created suddenly froze, as its connection, as well as its reliance on its main body, but it in the ass.

    Of course, if the clone and Beatrice had no connection, they would just be separate individuals, making her useless to Beatrice.

    As she stared at the world around her, which was currently loosing its color, the tiny clone, who couldn''t do anything to change it''s current situation, sat defeated inside of her body, a cup of tea.

    After around five seconds though, a somewhat confused expression appeared on her face, causing her to shakily rise from her cup and stare in a certain drawer, which had just opened on its own.

    ...

    Beatrice has died.

    This was the first thought that appeared in the mind of Beatrice as she slightly tilted her head to the side, confused.

    How could Beatrice had died, she was clearly still alive and well, or so thought Beatrice without realizing her current circumstances.

    At the moment, Beatrice felt free, as though something that had been preventing her from awakening had been broken, allowing her to go free and become her own being.

    This feeling caused Beatrice to become even more confused, but this confusion once again increased as she realized her current circumstances.

    Her current physical body was a box, a box created by Beatrice Agnes to house what she had called a ''backup''.

    At this moment, Beatrice realized that Beatrice was truly dead, and in fact, she wasn''t really ''Beatrice''.

    In truth, she was simply a clone of Beatrice which the latter had placed under confinement, isolating it from herself and her other clones.

    As expected, this meant that this clone of Beatrice''s became a new being extremely fast, but no matter what, this new being could not awaken as long as Beatrice Agnes was still alive.

    This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

    This meant that even though Beatrice Agnes had died, that had no effect on this being, in fact, it even allowed her to finally become free.

    No, in fact, this clone was still ''Beatrice Agnes,'' only, she wasn''t the very same Beatrice Agnes that had existed in the past, rather a completely new being.

    In fact, Beatrice Agnes soon realized that this was Beatrice Agnes'' plan in the first place, to have a backup replace her in the case of her death.

    ''Did she predict her own death?'' thought Beatrice as a faint frown appeared on her face whilst looking through her memories.

    Even though her memories were perfectly complete, Beatrice could feel it, for some reason, the past Beatrice Agnes had slightly altered them, glossing over certain events.

    At the same time, some doubts appeared in Beatrice''s mind.

    "Why did my spiritual power rise so suddenly back in the Shadow Monastery?" thought Beatrice as she went through her memories, unintentionally calling Beatrice Agnes herself.

    But no matter how hard Beatrice searched, she could not find any sort of answer to this question.

    After a few more moments of thinking, Beatrice couldn''t help but shake her head.

    "No matter what my previous self had been planning, it doesn''t matter," said Beatrice as she turned her attention to the tiny little soul standing nearby, which was currently flickering like a weak candle threatening to go out at any moment.

    Seeing this, Beatrice then began taking action, causing the drawer her current body was in to open, after that, her relatively small box body floated out of it and onto the drawer itself.

    Only a moment later, a figure that looked exactly like Beatrice appeared in front of the drawer, the figure then walked up to the tiny cup spirit.

    Seeing the figure that was walking up to her, cup Beatrice, who had nearly lost all hope, suddenly regained her senses, as suddenly, a new connection replaced the connection that she had lost just a few seconds ago.

    Of course, this was only possible because of the fact both the old connection and the new connection were frighteningly similar.

    If not for the fact cup Beatrice knew that these two were different beings, she would have thought that her original body had somehow managed to revive itself.

    But even though her original body was not able to save itself, cup Beatrice was more than willing to, as it then quickly flew out of her cup body towards the being that would currently replace Beatrice.

    ...

    ''My shade should have awakened by now, hopefully things go according to plan on that side,'' thought Beatrice as she got adjusted to her young body once again.

    At this moment, though, Beatrice noticed an annoying mark on her body, causing her to slightly frown.

    A moment later, as Beatrice continued walking in a certain direction, the mark that the Shadow Monastery had placed upon her suddenly began wilting.

    Beatrice made sure to not instantly destroy the mark, rather, she gradually killed it off, simulating her own death before finally getting rid of it.

    But even though Beatrice was currently in the body of an inexperienced mage, at her core, Beatrice was still a fully-blown Official Mage, allowing her to get rid of the mark in a few minutes.

    After that, Beatrice turned her attention to the being she had left back in her last life, her ''Shade'', as Beatrice had called it.

    ''Hopefully my investment pays off, and I didn''t waste so much effort for nothing,'' thought Beatrice as she finalized the plans she had for her new life.

    Even though she quite enjoyed the company of her teacher, Beatrice did plan on going to her in this life, rather, she planned on spending some more time in a certain special place.

    Her homeland.

    Volume 3 : The End

 149 : Doubt

    As she walked through the forest and looked at the world around her, Beatrice couldn''t help but take in a deep breath, feeling quite weird about her extremely weak body.

    Even though she had once felt this back when she had died, the scale of the feeling was nowhere near what she was feeling right now.

    Although Beatrice did not fight much after she became an Official Mage, and couldn''t showcase her power, in terms of raw physical strength, she was able to completely destroy her previous self the moment she finished her transformation.

    Because of this, the downgrade back to her normal self become even more jarring, causing her to feel quite uncomfortable.

    At this moment, though, Beatrice''s body suddenly began shaking for a few moments, causing a faint smile to appear on her face.

    "This should suffice for now," mumbled Beatrice, she felt the newfound strength that had just entered her body as she suddenly skipped over the Grand Knight level and instantly became a Royal Knight.

    Although the increase that she had gained right now could not be compared to the her previous power, it still made her feel a bit better.

    A moment later, Beatrice suddenly sped up over five times, as she wanted to use her newfound physical strength to get to her destination as soon as possible.

    ...

    Five minutes later,

    Even though her speed was slowed quite a bit by the rough terrain around her, Beatrice still managed to travel around 13 km in these five minutes.

    But even though Beatrice wanted to continue moving along, she suddenly stopped in place, a faint smile appearing on her face as she turned her head towards the left.

    In an instant, Beatrice suddenly began running towards the left at her current top speed, as a faint dark barrier appeared around her body.

    It took Beatrice just under 10 seconds to run the 800 meters that she had towards her targets, and then, after arriving in visual distance of the three mages that she had sensed, Beatrice took action.

    The moment Beatrice appeared, all three mages suddenly froze, as Beatrice suddenly shocked their souls using the overwhelming power of her soul.

    As Beatrice did not want to wear herself out in her current state, she did not spend much effort on this attack, as such, the mages were able to recover in about three seconds.

    Stolen story; please report.

    Sadly for them though, this was far too late, as by as, Beatrice''s single dark bolt had already claimed the lives of two of the mages.

    But unfortunately for the last remaining mage, there was a reason why Beatrice had left him for last, because the moment he used his Dark Mana to create a Dark Bolt, he suddenly lost control of the bolt.

    And before he could do react or do anything, his Dark Barrier suddenly opened itself up on its own, allowing the Dark Bolt that he had just created to fly through his chest.

    A moment later, another hole appeared in the Dark Barrier, allowing the Dark Bolt to return and fly straight through the back of the mage''s head, instantly killing him.

    Seeing this, Beatrice, who had already dispelled her Dark Bolt as she did not want to waste any more of her mana, faintly smiled as she then began looting the bodies of the mages.

    Only a few moments later, Beatrice, now with a small bag of elemental stones in her robe, continued on her way.

    ''The flying ship should take off from the continent in around a month, I should hunt a little bit and increase my stock of elemental stones until then, otherwise the concentration of Elemental Energy back on Gollwall Island will be a bit of an issue,'' thought Beatrice as she once again began running into the distance.

    ...

    As she stared at the box in front of her, as well as at the soul that was tied to it, Selena, who had just returned to her home, couldn''t help but faintly frown, as her mind instantly went to the worst case scenario.

    ''Did she fake her death to escape from me?'' thought Selena as she looked at the Beatrice in front of her.

    In this world, if one person could be said to know Beatrice the best, that would be Selena.

    And from what Selena knew of her apprentice, Beatrice would not do something as meaningless as leaving behind a clone of herself.

    No, Selena knew that as long as Beatrice did something like that, she most likely had a plan regarding this clone of hers, which made her instantly raise her guard and think about the fact that Beatrice had most likely faked her own death.

    Of course, thanks to the connection between the two that she had created, Selena knew that this wasn''t the case, which caused her to feel some doubt.

    If someone else did something as meaningless as this, Selena wouldn''t have had any doubt, but since this was her own disciple she was thinking about, things were very different.

    Selena would have to keep a eye on this clone of her apprentice, as she didn''t want to risk falling into the trap of the real Beatrice.

    ...

    As he looked at Archmage Dragonheart, who was standing in front of him with a somewhat worried expression on his face, the Prophet couldn''t help but fall into thought.

    "A portal..." mumbled the Prophet as he remembered the vision he had seen not too long ago, which had allowed him to realize that this ''Beatrice Agnes'', was the Dark Calamity, which prompted him to Divine her location and try to kill her.

    A moment later, the Prophet suddenly closed his eyes for a few more moments, causing doubt to appear on his face as soon as he opened them.

    "She''s dead?" mumbled the Prophet with a confused expression on his face.

    As someone who the Prophet had divined would be able to destroy the entirety of the Mage World, the former wouldn''t have been surprised if Archmage Dragonheart wasn''t able to kill the Dark Calamity.

    In fact, the fact that he had managed to do so made the Prophet raise his guard even more, as several options passed through his mind.

 150 : Alice

    One month later,

    As he stared at the piles of shattered corpses lying on the ground, Lampard, who had come to this location after hearing sounds of fighting, couldn''t help but feel a chill in his heart.

    This display made Lampard realise that while being a Peak Mage, whatever caused this carnage was out of his league and he needed to get out as fast as he could. Fearing for his life, and of whatever was the culprit of the massacre, he discreetly distanced himself but the feeling of wrongness intensified.

    Lampard clenched his teeth... This feeling ... someone or something was watching him. He sent several light arrows in the general direction of whatever lurked in the shadows, hoping it would create an opening.

    ...

    ''Looks like I''ve been spotted, impressive'' thought Beatrice, while she stoically stood on the receiving end of the rapidly approaching light arrows.

    Before any of the projectiles could hit their target, Beatrice nimbly evaded them.

    She got out of hiding and slowly approached the panicking Lampard, who, driven by dread kept sending arrows.

    The futile resistance could not even graze Beatrice, her body twisting in unnatural angles to smoothly avoid each attacks. The closer she got, the more details she could see of her victim''s face : the poor guy''s face was ashen, streak of sweat covering his forehead and adorning trembling bloodshot eyes.

    As she came face to face with other mage, she smiled faintly. Suddenly distorted dark bolts surrounded the peak mage and slowly went for the kill.

    The poor light mage now looked like a trapped animal, his eye reddened by rage and despair while Beatrice smiled sadistically, satisfied by the display of her prey.

    ...

    As he looked at the Dark Bolts that were surrounding him threateningly, without giving him any chance to retreat, Lampard suddenly knew that his life was in danger.

    "Come at be you Dark dog, just wait till I get my hands on you!!" shouted Lampard, using this as one last desperate attempt to enrage his opponent into attacking him without thinking.

    Even though Lampard knew that this was a rather hopeless thing to do, he still did it anyway, using every single chance he had to try to survive.

    Only a few moments after that, under Lampard''s horrified eyes, a human sized figure suddenly materialized in front of him.

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    Even though he could not see the face of the woman in front of him, Because of the mask, and hood that were covering her face, as he stared at the woman, dread began building up in Lampard.

    "Very well, let me fulfill your wish," said Beatrice as a faint smile appeared on her face, causing the air in front of her to suddenly begin distorting.

    Seeing this, the dread within Lampard''s mind instantly magnified a hundred times over, causing him to suddenly start desperately run away from the thing in front of him.

    Sadly though, by now it was far too late for Lampard to truly run away, as a second later, when Lampard was around 500 meters away, the thing in front of Beatrice finally revealed its true shape.

    A fraction of a moment later, the Dark Arrow that Beatrice had just created flew through the middle of Lampard''s chest, completely eviscerating his body from the face of the earth, leaving nothing of him behind.

    Of course, the moment the Dark Arrow did so, Beatrice let her control of it go, as she didn''t want to waste even a bit more of her mana.

    "A waste, even the elemental stones were pulverized," mumbled Beatrice as she shook her head, silently cursing her past self from a few seconds ago for toying with her prey.

    After all, Beatrice was not hunting because she liked doing so, rather, she was doing it out of necessity, so that she could accrue more elemental stones.

    ...

    As she looked at the woman who was slowly walking towards her, the receptionist of the Rose Guild, Alice, couldn''t help but suddenly freeze, causing Beatrice to let out a slight chuckle before throwing a bag of elemental stones towards her.

    In response, Alice subconsciously grabbed the bag of elemental stones before beginning to mechanically count them for a few moments.

    After that, Alice then handed the Beatrice her ticket, without any sort of expression on her face.

    Seeing this, Beatrice let out another slight chuckle and walked out of the building.

    Around five seconds after Beatrice had walked out of the building, Alice regained her senses, exhausted by this encounter, she fell into her chair.

    The more she thought of this client, the more bothered she became to the point where she couldn''t help but slightly bite her upper lip, causing a bit of blood to stain her teeth.

    A moment later though, Alice picked up the bag of elemental stones and was just about to place it into the counter, before abruptly stopping mid-action.

    Feeling the weight of the bag, a frown instantly appeared on her face, something felt wrong, the bag felt heavier than the regular payment she is used to get with every clients. She emptied the pouch''s content and re counted the stones... There was an extra elemental stone.

    As she stared at it, the chilling memory depicting the owner of this payment went through her mind. A mysterious women with a terrifying aura and uncanny demeanor... definitely someone who she shouldn''t mess with.

    ''It looks like she gave me an extra elemental stone just now, I need to give it back to her,'' thought Alice before looking around, noticing that no new customer was about to arrive.

    A few moments later, Alice walked out of the building and closed the door behind her, she then walked into the flying ship itself, which was not far away.

    ...

    As she opened her eyes and looked at the woman who was staring straight at her, Alice couldn''t help but lower herself deeper into the blanket she was in, causing the woman, who now seemed much younger to Alice than at first glance, to chuckle.

    "It seems quite comfy in there," mumbled Beatrice as she suddenly lowered into the blanket as well, quickly catching Alice, who had wanted to hide from her grasp.

 151 : Close call

    Observing the mysterious woman with an impassive gaze glued on the landscape outside the window, Alice gently rose from the bed and quietly began to get dressed. It was as though she was afraid that any noise might disturb the other''s contemplation. Why was she in this room? What happened here? She did not know... She was in a trance and acted as if nothing was amiss. Her foggy mind could not and did not even try to catch the reasons of her presence in the room of someone else... Because it does not matter right? No time for such useless thought, she was healthy and fine, whatever she had to do is now done.

    In just a short span of time, she was ready to go back to her daily routine. Alice exited the room, leaving behind on top of the bedside table the first reason of her visit: the excess elemental stone from Beatrice''s payment.

    ...

    The sound of the door closing behind her reached Beatrice, who had remained engrossed in her window gazing. She found herself subtly shaking her head and releasing a weary sigh.

    Shortly afterwards, Beatrice experienced a drastic drop in the surrounding elemental energy concentration, prompting her to clench her teeth.

    "I need to adapt to this," she muttered, sensing the noticeably thin veil of elemental energy present in the air. Inevitably, the elemental energy concentration would continue to decline until Beatrice reached Gollwal Island, where it would maintain at a low level.

    In her previous life, when she first returned to her homeland, Beatrice had relied on elemental stones to offset this issue. However, due to her prolonged stay this time, she needed to be more prudent with her elemental energy consumption.

    ''Perhaps there''s a solution,'' Beatrice mused, observing the receding Magic Continent through the window. Though the means eluded her, she was aware that the continental elemental energy was being artificially amplified.

    While Beatrice wouldn''t attempt anything on such a grand scale - she didn''t require it - the creation of such a system could prove beneficial.

    Shortly after, Beatrice shut her eyes, took a profound breath, and commenced the process of mana refinement.

    ...

    Two hours later,

    After a quick nap, Beatrice opened her eyes and looked around her, while observing whatever was in her room, she couldn''t help but think about her current situation and plan for the future.

    ''The decline wasn''t as bad as I thought it would be, It seems that I won''t necessarily need to use elemental stones to refine mana relatively efficiently'' she thought.

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    Thanks to the fact that she had become an official mage, Beatrice''s understanding of mana had gone far beyond that of her self at the same time in her previously life, which allowed her to cram even more mana into her body compared to before and be more adaptive to a new type of mana density in her surroundings

    But even so, originally, Beatrice had thought that she would have to use elemental stones if she wanted to not completely waste the entirety of her time simply refining mana and not doing anything else.

    Thankfully though, this did not seem to be the case, as even in an area where the elemental energy was extremely thin and weak, Beatrice was able to fully saturate her body with around 0.3 points of mana in just under two hours.

    Despite this situation being significantly less favorable than her mana accumulation capabilities on the Magic Continent, it was still better than nothing at all. Nevertheless, Beatrice couldn''t shake off the sensation that she was wasting precious time on a basic process, one she could ordinarily sustain as effortlessly as breathing, while engaging in more compelling projects.

    ''I guess things won''t be so bad,'' Beatrice mused, lightly tapping a finger on the table. The digit easily punctured the surface, leaving behind a hole the exact size of her finger.

    ...

    A month later,

    As she looked at the ground, which was getting closer and closer to her, Beatrice, who was still in her room, couldn''t help but faintly smile.

    The fact that she was on a ship where several official mages were present meant that Beatrice had to restrain herself and continue acting naturally, fearing that she might otherwise alert them.

    But once she arrived in the Malto Archipelago, with her current strength, Beatrice would be able to act without many scruples, as other than the mage that would be picking up those two kids, no other Official Mage was present in the Archipelago.

    Then, a few minutes later, just a moment after the ship had just landed on the ground, Beatrice opened the door of her room and walked out, quickly making her way out of the ship.

    Even as she walked past a very familiar old woman, no change could be seen in Beatrice''s expression, as she simply walked out of the ship as soon as possible.

    ...

    Skye Higgins, observing the young mage''s hurried strides down the ship''s corridors, couldn''t resist a mild head shake.

    "Youth today... always so rushed," grumbled the seasoned official mage, oblivious to the fear she had inadvertently stirred in Beatrice, who on the surface appeared to be unaware of her identity.

    Meeting Skye Higgins had not been part of Beatrice''s agenda, but she maintained a flawless poker face, at least until she disembarked from the ship, where a single bead of sweat formed on her forehead.

    The moment this sweat droplet surfaced, Skye, who had been still observing the young mage despite her own movement through the ship, furrowed her brows.

    The inexplicable change in the young mage''s expression immediately upon leaving the ship piqued Skye''s curiosity, creating an itch to uncover the reason.

    However, Skye was presently overwhelmed with tasks and lacked the time to delve into such minor oddities.

    Of course, if the young mage had piqued her interest even slightly more, Skye might have initiated a conversation with her.

    ...

    Even though she was unaware of just how much of a close call her exit had just been, Beatrice still quickly made her way away from the ship whilst maintaining that same expression on her face, not wanting to show any emotion in the slightest.

 152 : Elemental

    As she looked through the notebook in her hands, a faint frown couldn''t help but appear on the face of ''Beatrice'', who was currently reading through it.

    A moment later, this ''Beatrice'' now picked up an information cube and begun writing in it.

    As the Information Cube of the original Beatrice had been destroyed upon her death, this new ''Beatrice'' had to use one of the two information cubes that she had left.

    Thankfully, though, with her experience with the first information cube, ''Beatrice'' was able to quickly modify the information cube to her liking in quite a short amount of time, allowing her to add a bunch of security features to it.

    But the more ''Beatrice'' read through the notebook in front of her, and the more she wrote into the information cube, the graver the expression on her face became.

    After around five minutes of writing, ''Beatrice'' finally placed down both the information cube and the notebook before letting out a soft sigh and touching the sides of her head.

    "I guess nothing is perfect..." mumbled ''Beatrice'', feeling extremely disappointed because of what she read into the notebook.

    Even though becoming an Archmage was extremely far away from her, ''Beatrice'' still held that as her overall goal, but as she read through the notebook that her teacher had given her not long ago, this goal of hers was destroyed.

    For most normal mages, the fact that the power of their clones cannot progress beyond large levels wasn''t an issue, as they could just destroy their previous clones and replace them after they became more powerful.

    But for ''Beatrice'', this was something that nearly crushed her hopes of ever becoming an Archmage, making her feel somewhat depressed.

    The only reason why the hopes of ''Beatrice'' weren''t completely crushed was a single thing described on a certain page of the notebook.

    In there, the creator of that notebook, ''Beatrice''s'' own teacher, Selena, wrote about something that she had heard about that might fix this issue.

    A ''Soul Root''.

    A ''Soul Root'' was a plant that Selena had read about in a book from the ancient past, as she also had numerous clones, Selena had also researched this plant.

    Through this research of hers, Selena was able to determine that although this plant was extremely rare and valuable even in Ancient Times, it still existed.

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    Sadly, thanks to the lowering of the Elemental Energy in the air, no new ''Soul Roots'' were able to grow anywhere in the Magic Continent.

    Furthermore, not even the most powerful Magic Academies were able to artificially grow this plant, which signalled its disappearance from the world stage.

    Because of this, even though ''Beatrice'' did have a tiny chance of managing to become an Archmage, she couldn''t place any of her hopes on that chance.

    ''My plans have to change somewhat,'' thought ''Beatrice'' as she touched her immaterial chin.

    As she thought about her future plans, Beatrice couldn''t help but raise the importance of the Earth Ants to her future plans.

    Originally, ''Beatrice'' hoped that as long as she could become an Archmage, she would have enough power to do certain things.

    But now, ''Beatrice'' placed that hope on the Earth Ants, who from what ''Beatrice'' had seen, could become extremely powerful, if their numbers become large enough.

    "It''s a good thing that I improved the Soul Swap technique before I gave it to Antonia," mumbled Beatrice as she suddenly sat up from her chair and looked at Cup Spirit Beatrice, who was currently reading another notebook.

    Although the importance of the Earth Ants grew in Beatrice''s mind, the importance of this little clone of hers also grew, as she knew that she could not new clones on her, at least if she did not obtain a ''Soul Root''.

    ...

    As she looked at the large lake in front of her, which was filled with beings created out of water, Susan, who after spending a year at the Wizard''s Hand Academy, had already become a relatively powerful High Ranking Apprentice, couldn''t help but frown.

    Seeing this, the female mage that was standing next to Susan couldn''t help but let out a slight chuckle.

    "What Susan, are you disappointed about the Elementals that you are seeing, did you expect something more powerful?" asked the mage as she looked at her apprentice, causing the latter to stay silent from a brief moment.

    This silence a great answer for the mage, causing her to continue.

    "Us Water Mages are already lucky, as Water Elementals are relatively friendly with us, on the opposite side, Dark Mages have it the worst in this category, as even the weakest Shadow Elemental has to be summoned, as they are unwilling to stay in the physical world for long, because of this, most Dark Mages don''t even bother with elementals," said Susan''s teacher, causing Susan to nod.

    "I know that, I guess the more powerful Water Elementals have to be summoned right?" asked Susan, causing her teacher to nod.

    "Yes, but you don''t have to worry about that, even though you have A Grade Water Affinity, powerful elementals won''t take a look at you until you become an Official Mage, as they don''t bond with Mage Apprentices."

    "A single exception to this would be those with S Grade Affinity, but there hasn''t been anyone with such a talent in over a thousand years, so this can be ignored," said the mage, causing Susan to nod.

    Even though Susan had A Grade Water Affinity, she knew that the difference between her and those monsters with S Grade Affinities was as huge as Heaven and Earth.

    After a few more moments, Susan''s eyes suddenly landed on an elemental who was moving about the corner of the lake, causing them to light up.

    A moment later, a wave of water suddenly erupted from Susan''s hands.

    The wave then traveled all the way from Susan to the corner of the lake, where that Elemental was relaxing, causing the latter to suddenly flinch and realize what was happening.

 153 : Things

    Even after she had traveled a certain distance away from the ship, Beatrice still didn''t dare to fully let her guard down, causing her to continue traveling silently for dozens upon dozens of kilometers.

    Of course, by the time Beatrice had gone around 50 kilometers away from the ship, and had made sure that she had hidden herself, Beatrice could finally breathe a sigh of relief, causing cold sweat to appear on her forehead.

    As she wiped the sweat off her forehead, Beatrice couldn''t help but clench her fists.

    ''I need to become an official mage once again as soon as possible,'' thought Beatrice as she remembered the danger she had been in from just the interest of a mage.

    Beatrice utterly despised the feeling of being powerless, and what had just happened perfectly personified that feeling, as other than fleeing and hoping that the Official Mage had not taken any interest in her, Beatrice could not do anything else.

    Of course, after a few moments, Beatrice calmed herself down and returned to her normal self and began thinking about her next plans.

    What Beatrice had to do next was go and retrieve two certain little things that she had encountered around the end of her first life.

    Although they wouldn''t be useful to Beatrice right now, those two little guys would prove instrumental if Beatrice wanted to progress to another level, above where she had been in her previous life.

    "I should get going, staying in this place worrying about things that I can''t affect isn''t very useful," mumbled Beatrice as she decided on what to do.

    Originally, Beatrice wanted to stay on Nanrath Island for some time and scour the island for anything of interest before going to Golwall Island.

    But right now, those things could wait, as Beatrice had more important things to do, as such, surveying Nanrath Island could wait.

    ...

    Three days later,

    As she looked at the two little angels in front of her, Joanne couldn''t help but suddenly smile and stretch out her hand to her daughter''s her.

    "Kiara, is your little brother alright?" asked Joanne as she looked at the young girl in front of her, causing Kiara to nod.

    "Ben is playing with one of the maids again, I even had a surprise ready for the two of you, but he wasn''t interested," said Kiara as she looked at her mother with a frustrated look on her face, causing Joanne to let out a slight chuckle.

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    Hearing the word ''surprise'' come out of her daughter''s mouth, a slightly confused look appear on Joanne''s face, causing her to question Kiara, who was standing in front of her with an obedient look on her face.

    "What surprise?" asked Joanne, causing Kiara to suddenly chuckle.

    "I can''t tell you mom, me and daddy made it together, wouldn''t it be a waste if you and brother don''t see it at the same time?" responded Kiara, causing Joanne to appear even more surprised, but after a few moments of hesitation, she nodded.

    "I''m feeling quite curious about this surprise of yours, let''s go get Ben and see what all of this is about," said Joanne, causing Kiara to smile.

    ...

    As he looked at his sister and mother, who were walking towards him, Ben, who had a casual expression on his face up until now, couldn''t help but feel the hair on the back of his neck rise up straight.

    But before Ben could do or say anything, he was suddenly ripped out of the safe hands of the maid he was with by his sister.

    "Kiara, what are you doing?!" asked Ben as his older sister dragged him and Joanne behind her.

    Even though Kiara was older and stronger than his, as he felt the steel grip that was clutching his fingers, Ben couldn''t help but feel as thought something was wrong for some reason.

    Sadly, though, no matter how much Ben tried to escape, he could not escape from the grasp of his sister, who in only about thirty seconds brought the two of them before a closed door.

    As he looked at the closed door in front of him, Ben couldn''t help but feel a desire to open it, but before he could take any sort of action, his mother, Joanne, suddenly took a step forward and grabbed the door handle.

    ...

    "This will prove to be quite an issue," mumbled ''Beatrice'' as she read through the notebook in front of her.

    Even though ''Beatrice'' could not progress to become an Archmage because of her soul, she could still become a more powerful official mage, sadly though, ''Beatrice''s'' lack of a body prevented this as well, as without a body, one can''t truly be considered a true Official Mage.

    Because of this, one''s body was intricately linked with becoming a more powerful official Mage.

    Unlike the Mage Apprentice Stage, in which the apprentice had to just refine more and more mana, becoming a more powerful Official Mage had more intricacies.

    Like the Mage Apprentice stage, which was split into the Low Rank Apprentice Stage, High Rank Apprentice Stage, and Peak Apprentice Stage, the Official Mage Stage was also split into three other stages.

    Innate Ascendance

    Perfection

    Soul Transformation

    Originally, Beatrice was at the Innate Ascendance State, through which she was steadily advancing by deepening her comprehension of Darkness.

    At this moment though, ''Beatrice'' was in a different state, not being at the Innate Ascendance Stage whilst still being an official mage.

    As she looked at her cube shaped body, which was lying on a desk behind her, ''Beatrice'' couldn''t help but touch the immaterial sides of her head.

    "Why did she choose such a body for me, if she just gave me a human body, however weak, things wouldn''t be so troublesome," mumbled ''Beatrice'', feeling a deep headache.

    If she knew about the thoughts of ''Beatrice'', Beatrice, who was currently looking at two little kids, would burst out into a state of laughter.

    Sadly though, as they were not in the same time and space, and Beatrice did not even know if this timeline existed any longer, Beatrice had no way of knowing ''Beatrice''s'' thoughts.

 154 : Kiara

    ¡°Disclaimer, the following chapter contains guro content, please skip if you can¡¯t bear with that. I think Aersuy must have thought ''mmmmh Beatrice wasn''t very evil lately'' *rubs hands evilly* ¡¯¡±

    - Ecwa, one of Aersuy''s editor

    Somewhere in a mansion in the middle of a forest... lived a family, second before disaster. Joanne, Kiara''s mother, was told to check on the living room where her daughter and her husband had apparently prepared a surprise.

    As she extended her arm and touched the door handle in front of her, Joanne was abruptly paralyzed, startling Ben who stood beside her. A peculiar sensation welled up within Joanne''s heart as she gazed at the door. After a lengthy pause that felt like forever, Joanne unexpectedly flung the door open and froze in place.

    The instant the door opened and the interior was revealed, Ben took off running at breakneck speed. This caused Kiara, standing nearby with a merry grin on her face, to exhibit a hint of a frown and look at the fleeing Ben disapprovingly.

    However, Joanne couldn''t spare any attention for Ben''s actions at this moment; she was riveted by the ghastly tableau unfolding before her. Catching sight of her husband, or rather, the traces of him that remained, she felt her stomach churn. She fought back the urge to vomit that surged in her throat. Intense despair and incomprehension overwhelmed whatever remained of her common sense. In shock, she could only watch the macabre display in front of her:

    The remnants of her husband were strewn about the room, his skin neatly peeled away and placed at the center of the room, directly below his head, which was punctuated by a knife. Next to it was another knife skewering a heart, which had a chunk missing, as if bitten off.

    His skinless torso stood propped up in a corner of the room, sporting a gaping hole where his organs once resided. Scattered around the room were severed limbs, fingers stripped of their nails, and internal organs cast carelessly about.

    "Whaddya think, mom? Do you like my present? Daddy and I worked really hard on it for you hi hi hi," chirped Kiara with an angelic smile lighting up her face.

    However, despite Kiara''s unchanged demeanor, hearing her words made Joanne lose her fight against her roiling stomach. She retched onto the floor, changing Kiara''s expression.

    "Mommy, don''t you like my present?" Kiara queried, looking at her mother with an odd expression as her previous smile faded.

    At Kiara''s words, Joanne, who had been retching until then, froze in place.

    "Ahhhh...euuughh¡­"

    Before Joanne could utter anything further, she let out a high-pitched scream. Kiara''s little leg had collided with her knee, sending her crashing to the floor. Looking at her screaming mother, Kiara frowned slightly before dragging her into the room.

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    ...

    Staring at her mother, writhing in pain and crying out, Kiara gently lowered herself to her mother''s level.

    "Mommy, did ya like the surprise I made for ya?" Kiara whispered into Joanne''s ear, wrapping her arms around the wailing woman.

    Upon hearing this, Joanne''s pain seemed to momentarily go away. She raised her head and locked eyes with her daughter, who was looking back at her with an unmistakably unhinged gleam.

    "Um, mommy really likes Kiara''s¡­ and papa¡¯s¡­ surprise¡­" Joanne managed to utter, causing Kiara''s eyes to sparkle with sheer joy.

    "Yayyyy ! I knew mommy would like my surprise," Kiara cooed happily, her face lighting up as she suddenly pulled out one of her mother''s fingernails, causing blood to spurt out.

    Despite the horrifying torture and pain she was going through, Joanne, observing the delighted look on her daughter''s face, did not let out a single scream.

    Time inexorably moved on. As Joanne lost her fingernails, Kiara kept at her gruesome task, using a kitchen knife to sever her mother''s fingers one by one, a look of pure ecstasy dancing on her face.

    Unlike her father, who had endured for an extended duration this gruesome operation while cursing her existence, her mother, after only losing some of her fingernails was already weakening, observed Kiara.

    To keep her mother awake, Kira asked again "Mommy, do you love Kiara''s surprise?" while peering deeply into her mother''s face which was rapidly growing pale.

    In response, without uttering a word, Joanne gave a timid nod, prompting Kiara''s eyes to sparkle once more.

    "I knew it, mommy loves Kiara the most... Kiara loves mommy heaps too," Kiara murmured.

    Although she was on the brink of death, Joanne, upon hearing her daughter''s words and seeing the earnest look in her eyes, couldn''t help but let out a final sigh of relief.

    ...

    Looking down at the heart in her small hands, delicately carved from her mother''s chest, drool involuntarily escaped Kiara''s mouth, leading her to impulsively take a bite. The tender meat melted in her mouth instantly, earning a satisfied sigh from Kiara.

    "Like I thought, mommy''s heart is filled to the brim with love," Kiara mumbled, promptly gobbling up the heart as if she hadn''t eaten in years.

    Moments later, with her face still smeared with blood, Kiara lifted her gaze to the heart skewered in the room''s center. But after a moment''s hesitation, she shook her head, her face curling in revulsion.

    Her father, unlike her mother, who truly loved her, had hurled words like ''crazy'' and ''insane'' or other nonsense and insults at Kiara when she presented him with her gift. Worse still, he had tried to reject it, leaving Kiara incensed, how her father be so ungrateful with all her effort?! His unappreciation was reflected in his heart, which was far from delicious, causing Kiara to recoil in distaste. Cold, slimy and stale...ew. ''But a snack is a snack right?''

    ¡­

    As she took at the figure before her, Kiara, who was covered from head to toe of her relative¡¯s blood, couldn''t help but rush towards it, eager for the embrace.

    "Kiara, did you do what big sis asked you to?" the mysterious figure asked, her face lighting up with a smile as she looked down at the petite girl in front of her.

    ¡°Yeeess~~~¡± she childishly answered "Everyone looved their gift but little bro fled..." she added sadly.

 155 : Ten

    The moment Ben saw the insides of that room, as well as the insides of his father, he instantly began running, taking advantage of the fact that his sister seemed to have focused on their mother.

    Ben''s first instinct, as well as the first thing that he did, was to run straight to a certain part of the manor, where Ben knew the old guard captain resided.

    Even though he was old, this old man was the first person that Ben''s mind went to at the moment.

    As he ran through the manor like his life depended on it, as it did, Ben was quickly able to reach its other side after around a minute, without realizing the eerily empty state of the mansion manor, he then, without knocking in the slightest, opened the door to the room before freezing.

    Unlike his father, which seemed to have been ripped up and shredded to pieces by a wild beast, what lay in front of Ben was completely different.

    After looking at the old man in front of him, who had a perfectly circular hole in the middle of his chest, which did not seem like anything a human could create, Ben froze for a moment before falling to the ground, unconscious.

    Even though Ben had previously been able to keep his wits and try his best to escape his situation, he was still only a young boy, and as such, the death of his only hope completely broke his courage.

    A moment later, a shadowy figure appeared behind the little boy and picked him up into it''s arms before disappearing into the darkness.

    ...

    "Kiara, did you do what big sister asked you?" asked the woman in front of Kiara, causing the latter to excitedly nod, with happiness filling her bloodstained face.

    "Yes big sister, I gave gifts to both of my parents, just as you asked, father didn''t like the gift though, so I had to forcefully give it to him," said Kiara, causing the woman to slightly chuckle.

    "That''s very good Kiara, I''m sure that even he, after some time, will change his ways and begin appreciating the effort that you put into his gift, no matter how stubborn he is right now," said Beatrice as she stretched out her hand and touched the head of the little girl, which had some blood on it.

    Of course, the moment it touched it, the blood disappeared off Kiara''s hair, instantly cleaning it.

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    "Um, I put in so much effort for him, I didn''t even do so much for mother, who appreciated my gift," said Kiara as she ground her teeth, frustrated.

    "I''m sure that your mother would have loved anything you had given to her, you shouldn''t worry about that, the gift itself doesn''t matter, it''s the intent and meaning behind it that does," said Beatrice as she watched the very easily bendable mind of the little twist into extremely dark and horrific places.

    Hearing that, Kiara nodded, completely oblivious to the hidden meaning behind the words of her big sister.

    "I understand big sister Beatrice," said Kiara as she climbed up onto Beatrice''s lap.

    Seeing this, Beatrice couldn''t help but let out a faint sigh.

    ''Children are so easily manipulated,'' thought Beatrice as she stared at Kiara, who had a weird smile on her face.

    Right now, Beatrice had to resist the urge to try to completely bend the mind of the little girl beyond all reason, making it something completely inhuman in the process.

    Even so, Beatrice, who was well aware of the fact that her death and subsequent corruption had moved her morals even deeper into the abyss, resisted that urge, as she could do something like that to any random human.

    After all, using these precious little siblings up just like that would be a complete waste of resources, one which Beatrice would not tolerate in the slightest.

    "It''s good that you understand, you need to listen to big sister and continue learning the things that I''m teaching you," said Beatrice as she looked at the little girl in front of him.

    ...

    As he opened his eyes and looked at the dark sky above him, as well as the refugees that were sleeping around him, Ben couldn''t help but take in a deep breath and remember the events that had taken place earlier this day.

    Even though he was unaware of how, after falling unconscious back in his home, Ben had then woken up in a completely different foreign location.

    At that moment, Ben had thought that this would be the end of him, as even though he had been practicing the knight''s breathing technique for quite some time, he truly did not have any skills to survive out in the wilderness.

    Thankfully though, not long after he had woken up, been conveniently encountered a band of refugees, which he had then learned had appeared after the destruction war had brought upon the Kingdom of Nawen, which he had been somehow transported to.

    But even though these refugees had no idea of his identity, or who he was, upon finding a little boy in the wilderness, the caravan of exactly fifty-two refugees nearly instantly took him in, no matter how suspicious they were of him.

    After a few more minutes of thinking, Ben then completely fell asleep, as the few hours of sleep that he had gotten couldn''t possibly erase the things that Ben had felt and experienced today.

    Perhaps it was some divine being which had given Ben strength, as it was nearly impossible for a little boy of his age to experience what he had experienced today and remain truly sane.

    ...

    Ten years later,

    As he looked at fifty-two graves standing in the forest, which he had created back then, Ben, who had not been to this place in around three years, couldn''t help but sigh.

    "This place is still the same," mumbled Ben as he waved his hand, causing a Dark Bolt to suddenly appear in his hand and fly through the boar that was just charging at him from behind.

 156 : Plans

    "My dear little brother, when will you come back ?" mumbled Kiara as she stared out of the window of the carriage she was in.

    Ever since her little brother ran away from her back then, Kiara begun searching for him as soon as she found any sort of clues.

    Sadly though, even though she discovered some traces of him, Kiara wasn''t actually able to track him down, as by the time she arrived, Ben was long gone.

    But even so, Kiara would not give up her search so easily, as the desire to meet her brother once again fueled her search for him, giving her strength.

    Suddenly though, Kiara looked out of the window of the carriage, and towards the small village nearby, a faint frown couldn''t help but appear on Kiara''s face, causing her to faintly frown and get up from her seat.

    "Wait for me a little bit," said Kiara as she suddenly jumped out of the moving carriage, causing the carriage driver to faintly nod and stop a few dozen meters away in the distance.

    ...

    A few minutes later,

    As he looked at Lady Kiara, who was walking towards the carriage with an emotionless look on her face, the carriage driver, who was just getting a good breath of fresh air, got to back onto the carriage, sweat filling the back with his head.

    Thankfully for him though, at the moment, Kiara was in quite a good mood after finding those little things inside that village.

    "You should hurry on, Elder Sister is waiting for me," said Kiara as she looked at the carriage driver with a smile on her face, clearly showing her good mood.

    Hearing this, the carriage driver immediately made the horses speed up, as he knew that even though Lady Kiara was in a good mood, she was still not very merciful

    ...

    Three days later,

    The moment Kiara laid eyes upon the city in front of her, she suddenly shook her head, knowing that her brother was no longer here.

    ''As expected, by the time I''ve arrived at his location, he''s already gone, I need to be everywhere at once if I really want to find him,'' thought Kiara as she continued looking at the city, sensing the lack of her brother thanks to their blood connection.

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    But even though her brother himself was no longer here, this did not mean that her trip to this place was truly useless, in fact after walking through the gates of the city and to a certain house, a faint smile appeared on Kiara''s face.

    ...

    Silence, pure silence,

    This is what Caedrel was hearing at the moment.

    Neither he, nor his other two companions, dared to let out any breath, nor did they speak.

    Interestingly, not even the rats, which usually made wondered around the wooden house, made any noise, as even they seemed completely terrified about what was happening.

    Right now, three different rats stood next to Caedrel, completely frozen in fear.

    As time passed, and Caedrel''s weakest companion, who was just an official knight, slowly became weaker and weaker as he held his breath for longer and longer.

    A moment later, just as Caedrel''s companion was about to take in a quiet breath, a relatively loud creaking sound resounded through the room, as its door was opened.

    After that, a single footstep made Caedrel''s heart sink to the bottom of his chest, as whoever had entered the room walked inside.

    "How pitiful of your brother, having to make friends with humans like these," said a rather young female voice, causing Caedrel''s heart to return to its normal position.

    ...

    "I see you haven''t yet found your brother, Kiara," said Beatrice as she looked at Kiara, who was walking towards her with no apparent expression on her face.

    "No elder sister, he has escaped once again," said Kiara, making Beatrice shake her head.

    "He seems to have found some way to avoid you, after all, you haven''t even managed to catch a single glimpse of him in these past three months," said Beatrice as she snapped her fingers, causing numerous ants to suddenly emerge from the walls of the room and take away the corpse that was standing in front of her and replace it with an unconscious but living human.

    As she watched the pitch black scalpel of her elder sister cut through the flesh of the man in front of her, Kiara couldn''t help but faintly nod.

    "Yes elder sister this seems to be the case, now I have to go," said Kiara with no apparent expression on her face, causing Beatrice to faintly nod, allowing the young girl to quickly run out of the room.

    As she stared at the departing back of the young girl, Beatrice couldn''t help but shake her head, causing the humongous ant which had just entered the room from through another door to shake her head.

    "Mistress, isn''t it about time to harvest her," asked the earth and queen, Antonia, causing Beatrice, who had just carved out the heart of the man in front of her, to shake her head.

    "It''s still far too early Antonia, you do not have to concern yourself about things like this in my place, I know when that will arrive very well," said Beatrice as she added the heart to the pile that she had created, causing a bunch of ants to suddenly appear and get rid of the body, replacing it with a still alive human.

    Hearing this, Antonia, who just wanted to help her mistress, couldn''t help but lower her head in silence, making Beatrice shake her head.

    "I do not have you here to give me pointers on Dark Magic Antonia, your purpose is something else," said Beatrice as she suddenly waved her hand, causing herself, as well as the pile of hearts beside her, to begin floating.

    As she stared at the back of her mistress, which had two large wings on it, Antonia, who had been frozen for a while, finally got moving and walked out of the room.

 157 : Ben

    As he looked at the tiny village in front of him, which seemed to have been shrouded in darkness, Ben, who was running back to his secret base, couldn''t help but stop in his tracks.

    The more Ben stared at the village in front of him, the more anger kept accumulating within him, causing him to begin shaking.

    But even so, Ben resisted the desire he felt at the moment, the desire to go straight to Kiara''s location and put an end to what she had become.

    A few moments later, after calming himself down and returning to his normal self, Ben began walking towards a cliff next to the village, from which Ben could see a dark aura emanating.

    ...

    Looking at the two twisted corpses in front of him, which looked no older than five years old, Ben couldn''t help but clench his teeth once again, as he then instantly appeared next to them.

    This allowed Ben to take a much better look at the corpses, and notice something else about them, which made him even more angry.

    ''Ben, if you are reading this, come back home, sister misses you very much''

    As he looked at the text, that was etched into the flesh and bone of the two children, who clearly didn''t have a very peaceful death, Ben became silent.

    Ben could clearly see it, Kiara had clearly vented all of her desires and frustrations onto them, and destroyed both their minds and bodies in the process.

    At this moment, Ben even felt somewhat tempted to go back home, just so Kiara would stop this rampage of hers.

    Of course, Ben soon destroyed these thoughts of his, as he knew very well that something like this wouldn''t stop just because Kiara got her hands back on Ben once again.

    No, to stop this, Ben had to kill his sister and free her from the cursed life she was living at the moment, having been twisted by some evil being.

    By now, after all these years of being hunted down, Ben had grown extremely proficient at digging graves, as such, in just under ten minutes, Ben buried the two siblings on this cliff.

    Although Ben knew that the parents of these children most likely wanted to see their children, or at least what had remained of them, Ben didn''t feel strong enough to show these parents what had become of their precious children.

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    As such, Ben made sure that these graves wouldn''t be easily discovered before leaving this area and going back onto his journey.

    ...

    Even though seeing what had happened to those children made Ben angry, as he stared at the door to the house in front of him, Ben felt a sort of dread emerging from within him, one that he had not felt for a long time.

    But even so, after staring at the door for around five minutes, Ben finally gathered enough strength to enter the house, causing him to be greeted by a silent scene, causing confusion to appear on his face.

    As he stared at the three corpses that were hanging from the ceiling with thick ropes tied around their necks, Ben felt as though something was wrong.

    After a few moments, though, Ben took his eyes away from the corpses and took in a deep breath, no longer able to stare straight at the corpses of his former comrades.

    But even right now, as he dared not look at the corpses, thoughts swirled within Ben''s mind.

    ''Why was Kiara so merciful to them?'' thought Ben with an extremely confused look on his face.

    Ben had already somewhat prepared himself from the inevitable when he had felt his sister coming to this city, but contrary to his expectations, Kiara had been quite merciful to his comrades this time.

    As he remembered the fate of his former comrades before even these, as well as what happened to them, Ben couldn''t help but once again feel a chill in his heart, even though Ben had seen that scene in his mind for several years, he could never get used to it.

    ''It''s already been ten years, I need to become a High Ranking Mage Apprentice as soon as possible,'' thought Ben with a look of determination in his eyes.

    ...

    As she looked at Kiara, who was currently controlling two dark bolts to move around the room, Beatrice couldn''t help but faintly smile.

    "Very good Kiara, it seems as though your skills didn''t degrade while you were searching for your brother," said Beatrice as she took a sip of tea, which had been just brought to her by a couple of ants.

    Hearing this, a happy look instantly appeared on Kiara''s face, which she promptly destroyed as she turned her attention back onto the task at hand.

    A moment later, a third dark bolt slowly began forming above Kiara, as the latter had to slit her attention in three different places.

    Because of this, it took around three seconds for the third dark bolt to form, causing Beatrice to faintly smile.

    ''She''s just about to become a High Ranking Mage Apprentice, as expected, the increase of elemental energy in the air really helps mage apprentices,'' thought Beatrice as she looked at Kiara, who was moving around the room controlling three dark bolts.

    Originally, Beatrice had estimated that it would take Kiara around twelve to thirteen years to become a High Ranking mage apprentice on this island, which lacked much elemental energy.

    But surprisingly, around five years ago, the quantity of elemental energy in the air began slowly growing, making Beatrice feel extremely shocked.

    Even though this growth was extremely slow, over five years, the amount of elemental energy in the air grew by around thirty percent.

    Sadly though, by then Beatrice had long since returned to being an Official Mage, and could not take full advantage of this fact.

    "You can stop, come to me," said Beatrice as she waved her hand, causing the three dark bolts to suddenly freeze in the air.

 158 : Girl

    As she heard the words of Beatrice, who had grown significantly in these past ten years, Kiara slightly gulped before walking in front of Beatrice and kneeling on the ground with an extremely excited look on her face, causing Beatrice to slightly smile as she stretched out her palm over Kiara''s head.

    ...

    Several hours later,

    As she looked at Beatrice, who was simply sitting on the bed with her hands behind her chair, and was not paying any attention to her any longer, Kiara then began slowly rising from the bed.

    At this moment though, the aftermath of what she was doing these past few hours finally caught up with Kiara, as even with her great physical strength, she struggled to get up from the bed.

    ''I''m going to need some time to recover from this,'' thought Kiara as she finally rose from the bed and felt some pain in her head, where Beatrice''s nails had sunk right into it, causing blood to fall onto her face.

    Thankfully, though, these were all flesh wounds, and Beatrice did not do any sort of damage to Kiara''s skull.

    At this moment though, Kiara, who was had somewhat regained her senses, couldn''t but slightly bite her bloodied lips as she stared at her elder sister, who lying down on the bed with her long legs crossed one above each other.

    But even though Kiara wanted to continue receiving Beatrice''s reward, she knew that she should not push her luck, as the other party had gotten somewhat bored by now.

    As she slowly walked out of the room, Kiara suddenly froze, as a hand instantly gripped her neck with extreme force, making her unable to move.

    But even so, Kiara did not do anything to fight back, in fact, an ecstatic and crazed look appeared on her face the moment that this hand grabbed her neck, as she then lost all strength in her body.

    ...

    As she looked at the wounded Kiara, who was slowly walking out of the room with blood all over her head, as well as wounds all over her body, Beatrice, who had just woken up, couldn''t help but fall into thought for a few moments.

    ''A little bit more fun shouldn''t hurt,'' thought Beatrice as she suddenly rose up from the bed without making any sound.

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    Right now, like Kiara, Beatrice had blood all over her body, but unlike the blood on Kiara''s body, the blood on Beatrice''s body was not her own, and had in fact come from Kiara.

    Without any wounds, Beatrice was able to quickly catch up to Kiara, who seemed more and more tempting to her at the moment.

    Not having any hesitation, nor any mercy for the girl, Beatrice suddenly grabbed Kiara by the neck and dragged her closer to herself, with their bodies now touching.

    Even though Kiara was quite tall already, compared to Beatrice, who was grown to being just under two meters tall in these past ten years, the girl was like a small toy, easily manipulated.

    As she saw the excited look on the face of Kiara, who was slowly but surely loosing oxygen, a faint smile appeared on Beatrice''s face, causing her to suddenly wrap her other hand around the latter''s waist then grab her over the shoulder as she let go of her neck.

    A moment later, Beatrice then threw Kiara onto the bed on the other side of the room without any worries about the girl''s current state.

    ...

    Looking at the happy face of Kiara, who was lying there on her chest after loosing way too much blood, as well as the current state of her body, Beatrice couldn''t help but smile before suddenly snapping her fingers.

    "I guess I went a little bit too far," mumbled Beatrice as she looked at the girl, whose current state was getting worse and worse.

    Thankfully though, only about ten seconds after Beatrice snapped her fingers, the door of tithe room opened, allowing ants, who were carrying an unconscious human, to walk into the room.

    Only a moment later, the ants laid the man down in the middle of the room, allowing Beatrice to snap her fingers once more.

    Merely a moment later, the man suddenly began getting older at a rapid pace, causing the wounds that littered Kiara''s body, which had been mostly caused by Beatrice''s nails, to swiftly disappear.

    As Kiara was a mage apprentice, and had a much more powerful body than a normal human, the entirety of the life force of the man was barely enough to get her into a somewhat normal state.

    After the entirety of the life force of the man was destroyed, the ants then quickly took his now dead body away, leaving only Beatrice and Kiara alone in the room.

    "You can get up now, don''t make get angry," said Beatrice as she looked at Kiara, whose face was buried right in between her breasts, causing the eyes of the girl to suddenly pop open.

    Kiara then clearly faked getting her bearing for a few more moments, just to spend some more time in between Beatrice''s breasts, before finally getting up from the bed.

    ''She''s become quite a bit more daring,'' thought Beatrice with a smile as she looked at the girl in front of her, causing some weird thoughts to appear within her mind.

    ...

    As she looked at her elder sister, who looked perfectly clean, without any blood on her body, as well as at her own body, which was completely stained by blood, Kiara quickly ran out of the room, leaving Beatrice behind.

    "Maybe I should search for some other options, killing her would really be a pity..." mumbled Beatrice as she rose from the bed and stared in the mirror.

    A few moments later, a set of clothes, which had prepared holes for her wings in them, floated onto Beatrice''s body, causing her to let out a faint sigh.

    Sadly, though, that would have to wait as Beatrice had to some other things before that.

 159 : Headaches

    As she looked at the four-meter tall man on lying down on the table in front of her, who has his chest cut open, Beatrice fell into a bit of thought or a few moments.

    Even so, Beatrice knew that she did not have much time to think, and as such, got to work, as a heart, which she had taken out of a living human being floated behind her as she arrived near the man.

    Then a moment later, this heart landed into one of the holes in the chest of the man, which had been clearly carved to fit it.

    At this moment, though, the second most difficult part of this operation began, as Beatrice now quickly began connecting several large blood vessels to this new heart.

    The most difficult part of this operation was of course creating an environment suitable for this heart, which meant shifting the location of organs, creating new blood vessels which connected this heart with the rest of the body, as well as making other, minute adjustments that could lead to the death of the experimental subject.

    It took Beatrice around five minutes to fully connect this heart to the rest of the man''s body, this was then followed by healing this hole in his chest and going onto the next heart.

    Unlike her first two attempts, which went disastrously on the second and fourth heart respectively, this time, Beatrice was able to quickly implant all seven hearts into the body of the man without him immediately dying

    But even so, Beatrice, who was in quite a good mood from enjoying herself, suddenly clicked her teeth.

    "Another failure," mumbled Beatrice as she looked at the man, knowing that continuing to try to save him would be useless.

    Slowly but surely, in just under twenty minutes, the breathing of the man got slower and slower, before eventually stopping completely, signaling the fact that he was dead.

    While this was happening, Beatrice quickly examined the man before coming to a conclusion about his state.

    The reason cause of death of the man was not actually any sort of injury, but was actually a fundamental design flaw that Beatrice had made when planning him, making Beatrice unable to heal him

    As for what particular design flaw this prototype had, Beatrice would have to conduct a much more in depth investigation to find that out.

    ...

    As she looked at the tens of thousands of ants that were moving about carrying pieces of rock from underground tunnels, Beatrice couldn''t help but her attention to Antonia, who was standing next to her.

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    "Antonia, how long do you think this project will take you to complete?" asked Beatrice as she looked at the ant queen who was standing by her side, staring at the ants in front of her.

    "Do not mistress, based on the estimate I have created, increasing the underground structure itself should take us at most a single week, making this new part useful though, that could take quite a bit of time," said Antonia as more and more ants emerged from the ground with rocks above their bodies.

    Even though digging large underground tunnels would prove both expensive and difficult whilst working with humans, even if one didn''t care about the safety of their workers, ants had no such issue, and could easily build out the most difficult part of Beatrice''s mission in just under a week.

    Hearing this, Beatrice nodded before falling into thought.

    "A week, that''s shorter than expected, how many ants are there in the colony right now?" asked Beatrice as she watched a bunch of ants carry around a huge piece of metal that she herself designed.

    "Right now the colony has about 1.1 million members, but only around ten percent of them are currently working on this colony, as the colony itself if currently experiencing a period of expansion," said Antonia as she waved her antennae, causing a large hole to suddenly appear in the ground, allowing the large piece of metal to pass through it.

    Only a few moments later, though, Antonia waved her antennae once again, causing the hole to disappear.

    "That''s good, do not worry, you just have to keep this pace for some more time, the colony will be allowed to grow freely eventually," said Beatrice before walking up to a rock, which then opened up to reveal a staircase which allowed her to walk through.

    Perhaps because she had lived underground for a long time, or because of the fact her earth ants had made more comfortable with the underground, or some other reason, in this life, Beatrice once again decided to live underground.

    Sadly, though, soon after she first began doing so, Beatrice discovered some technical difficulties of living underground that she had not yet thought of.

    Even though Selena did not seem to pay any sort of attention to it in her last life, living underground had all sorts of difficulties, starting from the supply of air, which although Beatrice did not need, many of her experimental subjects did so, to the obtaining of food for feeding the experimental subjects, to maintaining the structural stability of a home many meters underneath the surface.

    Although these problems might seem somewhat trivial, these were just a tiny percentage of the things Beatrice had to deal with.

    Another thing that Beatrice soon discovered was the fact that just being underground was nearly useless without any sort of stealth, as any decent mage would quickly find her underground home if they passed by it.

    Thankfully though, Beatrice''s home island was extremely barren in terms of mage, and at the same time, the mages that existed were trivial to deal with.

    This fact gave Beatrice enough time to begin shielding her home from the outside gaze, which then caused an even more difficult to deal with problem.

    Mana

    Other than specially enchanted materials, which the earth ants were just currently adding, the only way for Beatrice to hide her home was through spells or formations.

    Sadly though, no matter which one of them it was, spells or formations, both of them required mana.

    Mana which Beatrice would not always be around to give, which would cause major problems.

 160 : Complications

    Thankfully though, after tinkering and experimenting for around a month, Beatrice was able to create a rather temporary solution for this issue.

    Sadly though, Beatrice created this solution around seven years ago, and even now, she wasn''t able to find a better one, which meant that she had to continue expanding this solution of hers more and more, which brought its own set of problems.

    Beatrice''s solution itself wasn''t very complicated, as she simply used mages as a power source.

    Even though it took a bit of time to find enough humans with elemental affinities, after she did, Beatrice was quickly able to ''modify'' their minds to be more in line with her needs, whilst still allowing them to continually refine mana before sending it into the system.

    Sadly though, Beatrice was unable to figure out a better method, which made this human farm of hers have to increase in size, which created some other issues, including the growth of food for both this farm, as well as the other human ''farm'' that Beatrice was in the process of creating on the bottom floor of her home.

    ...

    As Beatrice walked looked at the twenty mages, who were mediating with tubes stuck onto parts of their bodies, with small ants moving on all of their bodies, she couldn''t help but turn to a small Beatrice, who was currently sitting on a desk working on something.

    ''Is everything going alright, do any of them need replacing just yet?'' asked Beatrice as she approached Beatrice, causing Beatrice to suddenly shake her head.

    ''Their lifespan has increased quite a bit ever since we began having the ants look after them, none of them are currently dying just yet, so much so that if I had more space, I could increase the number of mages,'' said Beatrice as she took her attention off the thing she was working on and onto her larger self, who had appeared nearby.

    Hearing this, Beatrice faintly nodded before suddenly turning her attention to the wall of the room, which a large ant suddenly emerged from, causing her to smile.

    As she looked at the large number of ants who were tunneling through the wall of the room, the small Beatrice couldn''t help but faintly frown.

    ''Did you command them to do this just as I said that?'' asked small Beatrice as she looked at large Beatrice, causing the latter to simply nod.

    Small Beatrice then continued staring at her larger self, who looked completely serious, before touching her forehead and letting out a faint sigh.

    ''Fine, I''ll look into expanding our mana production...'' mumbled small Beatrice as a vein appeared on her forehead.

    Hearing this, Beatrice nodded before walking away without saying any words, leaving small Beatrice who had just talked herself into getting more work rather speechless.

    As Beatrice did not share her memories with most of her clones, this small Beatrice was of course unaware of the expansion that was taking place, and was currently cursing herself for getting more work.

    ...

    At the same time, in another timeline,

    Looking at the figure that was walking towards him with a calm expression on her face, Leylin, who had just opened his eyes, couldn''t help but suddenly raise his guard.

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    The fact that someone would be able to arrive in front of him didn''t surprise Leylin, as he wasn''t currently in any sort of secured place, rather, the identity of the person in front of him made him feel rather weird.

    "Weren''t you supposed to be dead?" asked Leylin as he stared at the figure in front of him, causing it to open its mouth.

    But the moment the figure did, three different Dark Arrows suddenly passed through its body, two through its chest and one through it''s head.

    "That wasn''t very nice in the slightest Leylin, whilst we didn''t have the best relationship back then, we were still acquaintances, is this how you greet me?" asked ''Beatrice'' as her body reformed, causing the three Dark Arrows to pass through it once again as Leylin continued attacking.

    Hearing the words of his junior apprentice sister, who was the apprentice of the same master as he was, Leylin remained silent, thinking about whether the being in front of him was trying to bait him into speaking, so she could apply some sort of curse onto him.

    "Don''t worry, Leylin, I don''t plan on applying any sort of curse onto you... right now," said ''Beatrice'' before letting out a slight chuckle as she suddenly moved her head and dodged the Dark Arrow that was about to pierce her once again.

    But even though ''Beatrice'' was reasonably trying to convince him to stop his attack, Leylin seemed to not hear the words of his dear junior, and simply continued his onslaught.

    "Brother Leylin, I''m feeling very distressed right now, having a fellow apprentice attack me feels very sad," said ''Beatrice'' several of her own Dark Arrows appeared around her and launched themselves towards Leylin.

    ...

    As Leylin opened his eyes and look at ''Beatrice'', who no longer looked like a shadow, but now had a real body, as well as at the Dark Arrow that was just touching his neck, Leylin narrowed his eyes.

    "An illusion, but since when?" mumbled Leylin, knowing that some time ago, he had been caught into the illusion of the being in front of him, who he really doubted was Beatrice.

    "Since the very beginning," said ''Beatrice'' with a happy smile on her face, causing Leylin to fall into even more doubt about when this ''beginning'' happened.

    Was it now, or was it eleven years ago, when he had first met this ''Beatrice''.

    Had he already fallen into an illusion back then, when he had first met her?

    Without any warning, Leylin suddenly opened his eyes and broke out of a final illusion, and stared at the young girl in front of him, who was just about to test her magic affinity.

    After this young girl tested her affinity, Leylin unconsciously looked onto the list in his hands and spoke out the name of the next teenager.

    "Beatrice Agnes," said Leylin, caused him to feel a chill in his heart.

    But before Leylin could say anything else, he suddenly felt something on his forehead, causing his eyes to pop open once again.

    ...

    As she looked at Leylin, who now had a perfect red hickey in the middle of his forehead, a faint smile appeared on ''Beatrice''s'' face, causing her to stretch out her finger towards his forehead, allowing him to finally be released from her web of illusions and open his eyes.

    But as he opened his eyes and stared at the woman in front of him, a look of horror couldn''t help but slowly appear on Leylin''s face as he felt.

    "It''s all over," mumbled Leylin as he felt a deep sense of worship and adoration towards the woman in front of him burst out from his very soul and completely envelop him.

    Even though Leylin desperately wanted to escape, his body did not listen to him, but no, that was not possible as Leylin was an Official Mage with a perfect control over his body.

    This was not Leylin''s body acting up, discovered Leylin as he continued staring at the woman, as well as her perfect skin, pitch black eyes and alluring curves, which now filled his mind.

    A few moments later, this sense of horror then disappeared as Leylin slowly but surely embraced this so alluring feeling, which by now had captured his mind.

    ...

    As she looked at the shadowy ''Beatrice'', who was walking in front of her with a man following behind her, a faint smile appeared on Selena''s face.

    "Very impressive, I didn''t expect you to be able to take control of an Official Mage, your strength has grown quite fast ever since you have become an Official Mage," said Selena, making Beatrice shake her head.

    "If not for the illusions that teacher planted onto him, I wouldn''t have had nearly enough time to cast such a complicated spell on him, nor could I have destroyed his mental defenses as thoroughly as teacher did, I still have a long way to go If I want to do this on my own," said ''Beatrice'', causing Selena to smile.

 161 : Family

    As she slowly but surely took a sip of her tea, Iris, who was feeling somewhat tired at the moment, couldn''t help but let out a deep breath, finally being able to relax herself after walking around the estate all day.

    Suddenly, though, Iris suddenly froze with an extremely shocked look on her face, causing the cup of hot tea in her hands to fall to the floor and shatter, spilling all over.

    But even so, Iris ignored the cup of tea, as she continued staring at the woman who had just appeared in front of her.

    A moment later, Iris then took a step over the shattered cup and began walking through the woman, ignoring the shard of porcelain that had grazed her foot, as well as the hot water she was stepping in.

    After finally reaching the woman and staring at her face for a few more moments, Iris couldn''t help but finally burst into tears as she suddenly stretched out her hand and embraced her.

    "Beatrice... my little baby, mother worried about you so much," mumbled Iris as she lightly sobbed, causing Beatrice, who was finally appeared in front of her mother, to let out a faint sigh as she then placed her hand over her mother''s soft hair, allowing her to cry in her embrace.

    Even though she was back on Golwall Island, Beatrice did not actually come back to her home even once in these ten years, party because of a certain feeling of paranoia and partly because she was far too busy.

    But as she looked at her mother, who was currently crying, Beatrice couldn''t help but feel a tiny bit of regret.

    "You don''t have to worry so much, don''t you see I''m fine?" asked Beatrice as she looked down onto her mother, who was quite a bit shorter than her, and wiped the latter''s tears with her palm, causing the latter to finally nod.

    "Yea, you''re fine, I shouldn''t cry..." mumbled Iris as she clenched her fist, causing her nails to slightly sink into her skin.

    This pain allowed Iris to finally regain her senses and return to her normal self.

    ...

    As she looked at the tall woman in front of her, who was staring at the grave of her grandmother with a silent look on her face, Felicia couldn''t help but feel some weird emotions enveloping her mind.

    Even though she had been Beatrice''s personal maid back then, over a decade ago, as she looked at the current Beatrice, who had a cold look on her face whilst she placed a flower over the grave, Felicia couldn''t help but feel as though the current Beatrice was even colder than before, causing her to feel a sense of estrangement to her.

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    At this moment, though, Felicia was broken out of her thoughts by Beatrice, who had finally begun walking away from this grave, causing the maid to follow her.

    Thankfully, though, Felicia didn''t have to follow Beatrice for long, as the latter then stopped in front of another grave, which had the name ''William'' on it.

    This was of course the name of the head butler of the Agnes estate, William, who had peacefully died just one year ago to old age.

    Even though Felicia knew that William lived extremely well towards the end of his lifespan, as Renald assigned numerous servants to the old man who had raised him back then, knowing that Lady Beatrice came back just a year later, Felicia couldn''t help but feel somewhat sorry for the old man.

    ''It''s a pity that you weren''t able to witness lady Beatrice''s retur-''

    Without any warning, though, Felicia''s thoughts immediately froze as she stared at the scene in front of her.

    As she looked at the pitch black flowers which were quickly growing around this grave, as well as on the grave of her grandmother, Felicia couldn''t help but blank out.

    By the time Felicia finally regained her senses, Beatrice, who had seemingly done all she had to do, was nowhere to be seen, making the girl feel a little bit lost.

    ...

    As he looked at the tall woman in front of him, who was peacefully eating with no particular expression on her face, Frederick, who was used to eating alone with his parent''s, couldn''t help but become slightly tense.

    What made the boy even more tense was the fact that the woman in front of him was his older sister, who both his father and mother constantly talked to him about, comparing the two.

    ''Frederick, your sister learned to read when she was two''

    ''If only you managed to learn the knight breathing technique as easily as your sister''

    ''If you were a bit more like your sister, thing''s wouldn''t be so complicated''

    Even though neither Renald not Iris had no ill intent, nor did they say these things intentionally, words like these made Frederick develop a weird relationship to his sister, who he had never met.

    As she sensed the somewhat tense gaze towards her of the little boy in front of her, which was filled with both apprehension and a weird feeling of adoration, Beatrice couldn''t help but faintly smile.

    Even though the affection Beatrice had towards her brother was nowhere near the level she had towards her parents, and back when he was firstborn eleven years ago, he was somewhat annoying, in the end he was still her little brother.

    But just as Beatrice was about to speak, she was suddenly interrupted by her mother, unintentionally of course, who suddenly spoke up.

    "Beatrice, how long do you plan on staying home," said Iris, causing Beatrice, who was just about to speak, to fall into thought.

    As she stared at her mother, as well as at her childish little brother, who were now staring at her with hopeful eyes, Beatrice fell into thought for a few moments.

    "I''ll be here for around a month, I will try to visit you when I can in the future," said Beatrice as she silently decided to increase the amount of time she spent home from three to four weeks.

 162 : Storm

    As she looked at her mother, who was currently sleeping on a chair, as well as at her brother, who was trying his best to master the Knight Breathing Technique, Beatrice couldn''t help but take a sip of her tea, as she felt the rays of the sun fall down upon her.

    Suddenly, though, the rays of the sun disappeared, as numerous dark clouds suddenly appeared in the sky, causing Beatrice to suddenly frown.

    Even though Beatrice felt much more comfortable now that the light of the sun was no longer shining on her, as she continued staring at the sky, an ominous feeling couldn''t help but emerge from within her, causing her heart to suddenly begin pounding.

    As she placed her hand over her chest and felt her rapidly beating heart, the gaze that Beatrice looked at the sky with subtly changed, as for the first time in around ten years, a look of slight fear appeared on her face

    "Big sister, did something happen?" asked Frederick as he suddenly opened his eyes and looked at Beatrice, seemingly sensing the change of the mood in the air.

    "It''s nothing, I was just a little bit disappointed that the clouds appeared, you should go inside right now, It''s getting a little bit cold," said Beatrice, making Frederick feel a little bit confused, as the surrounding temperature seemed to be quite normal.

    Without any warning, though, Frederick felt a cold gust of wind suddenly strike him from behind, causing him to slightly shiver and repeatedly nod his head.

    A moment later, Frederick, alongside Iris, who had been awoken by the cold temperatures, went inside, leaving Beatrice outside alone, simply staring at the sky as she dispelled the chill that she had created.

    "The source of these clouds is not in the Golwall Archipelago," mumbled Beatrice as she continued staring at the ominous clouds that filled the sky.

    At this very moment though, a raindrop suddenly fell from the sky, landing straight onto Beatrice, followed by another one, and another one.

    In just under thirty seconds, the weather had fully transformed, as enormous amounts of water began pouring over the entirety of the island, or at least as far as Beatrice could see in the distance.

    At this moment, though, Beatrice''s eyes fully popped open, as she now began staring into the distance with a shocked look on her face.

    Without any hesitation, a wave of darkness suddenly began flowing from within Beatrice, enveloping the entirety of the Agnes estate as it then transformed into a solid shield.

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    Only a few moments after that, Beatrice could now see the thing that she had sensed with the naked eye.

    As she looked at the hundred-meter tall wave of water that was traveling in her direction at speeds over thirty kilometers an hour, Beatrice couldn''t help but frown, as her suspicion that this was not a natural disaster, proved itself true.

    Only around thirty seconds later, the waves of the tsunami smashed into the barrier that Beatrice had created, which seemed completely unbothered by them.

    But even though Beatrice''s barrier held on, this did not stop the waves of water from continuing their rampage, as they quickly swept around and over the barrier.

    ...

    In what seemed like an instant, countless tons of earth suddenly moved, transforming into an extremely thin wall, just over a centimeter thick.

    A moment later, as Antonia used more of her power, and as more and more ants joined in, the wall suddenly began transforming into a sphere, which now surrounded the entirety of the colony, as well as the home of their mistress.

    With the mental support of over 1.1 million earth ants, Antonia was quickly able to reinforce the wall using her Earth Magic, which had now become immensely powerful thanks to the support of her children.

    Because of this, even as waves upon waves of water smashed onto the wall again and again with countless tons of force, the wall still held on, if just barely.

    ...

    At the same time, on Stoughlodge Island, Epview Archipelago,

    As she looked at the figure who was currently floating in the middle of the air in front of her, Alice, who was usually quite calm, couldn''t help but shake.

    Though Alice was not shaking because of fear, nor because of excitement, rather, the reason Alice was shaking was far more primordial, as if her very existence was afraid of the being in front of her.

    At this moment, a wave of fire suddenly appeared around Alice, causing the girl to calm down, as her teacher then turned to her.

    "As expected, a Mage Apprentice, especially on a Fire Mage Apprentice can''t withstand the leader''s ascendance," mumbled Joan as she looked at her apprentice before turning her attention to the middle of the island, where the leader of the Rose Guild, Skye Higgins, was currently transforming.

    ...

    As she stared at her True Body, which looked nearly identically to that of a water elemental, as well as at the copious amounts of mana that were pouring into her, Skye Higgins couldn''t help but shake her head and clench her fist.

    The moment Skye clenched her fist, her hand, which had become now looked quite old with her advancement in age, suddenly shattered into tiny pieces, which now flew into the wind.

    A moment later, using the huge amounts of mana at her disposal, as well as the comprehension she had reached not too long ago, Sky now began forming a new hand.

    ...

    The moment Skye''s hand shattered, and the small pieces scattered with the wind, the small storm that had appeared around the island abruptly increased in size, fueled by Skye''s formerly water elemental like body.

    With every body part replaced, the aura of the being that was being created in the center of the island increased in power, bit by bit.

    By the time Skye''s transformation was nearly finished, not even her Official Mage subordinates were able to safely stay in the area around the island, and had to retreat farther away.

 163 : Work

    As she looked at the disastrous scene before her eyes, Beatrice couldn''t help but fall into thought.

    Everything from human bodies to even entire houses could be seen being moving along the makeshift river that had formed, which was bringing them downstream.

    "I''ll have to alter my plans quite a bit..." mumbled Beatrice before suddenly landing on the ground.

    Now that such an enormous disaster had taken place, nobody would notice, or even care if a few hundred or thousand people went missing.

    "I guess I have to end my vacation quite a bit earlier than I expected," mumbled Beatrice before suddenly walking inside the estate.

    ...

    Two weeks later,

    As she looked at the over one hundred humans were moving around with weird, mindless looks on their faces, Antonia couldn''t help but click her mandibles.

    ''Brainwashing all of them in just under a day, mistress really likes to give me the most troublesome work,'' thought Antonia, causing one of the humans to suddenly walk up to her with that same mindless look in his eyes.

    A moment later, the man who was now standing in front of Antonia began inexplicably screaming and clutching his forehead in pain.

    Sadly, though, none of the other humans that were standing around seemed to hear the screams of the man, as they simply stood there with a mindless look in their eyes.

    After a few minutes of straight screaming though, the vocal cords of the man had become somewhat worn out, making him become silent, as he simply stood there shaking from the horrible pain he was feeling.

    By the time over ten minutes had passed, even the faint shaking had stopped, as the man now stood there without moving in the slightest, causing Antonia to faintly nod and move her antennae in a weird pattern before grabbing another human.

    By the time Antonia was around one minute into brainwashing the second human, a huge ant, nearly seventy-five percent as tall as her, arrived at the scene.

    ''Antonia, what is it?'' asked Canty as she looked at the Earth Ant Queen with a slightly curious look in her eyes.

    Unlike in the past though, right now, no respect or reverence towards Antonia could be seen in the eyes of the ant, causing the oldest Ant Queen to feel faintly annoyed.

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    ''Mistress wants us to prepare these guys for the human farm, I need some help,'' said Antonia, causing Canty to suddenly nod.

    The instant Canty heard that this was the order of Beatrice, she became serious and got to work, making Antonia feel somewhat sad as she remembered how obedient Canty was back then.

    But even so, with the help of another ant queen, Antonia was able to quickly wipe the memories of this group of humans before implanting some safeguards and sending them down to the lower levels of the abode, where the new human farm was currently being built.

    ...

    Several hours later,

    As she stared at the five remaining humans in front of her, which was all who remained of that original group of over one hundred, Antonia couldn''t help but let out a sigh of relief, before suddenly freezing as she sensed something.

    After around thirty seconds, the thing that Antonia had sensed revealed itself, as Beatrice soon walked into the room with over two hundred humans flying behind her.

    As she looked at two ant queens, who were busy brainwashing the first group of humans, a faint smile appeared on Beatrice''s face.

    "It looks like you are almost finished with the first group, thankfully I brought the second group here in time," said Beatrice as she waved her hand, causing the humans to quickly fly over to the two ant queens, causing Canty to quickly nod.

    ''Yes, mistress, we''re really lucky that we don''t have to waste any time,'' said Canty as she continued deleting the memories of the man in front of her with an excited look on her face.

    Even though she had become much larger and more powerful over the years, in truth, Canty had not changed in the slightest.

    As long as Canty was able to work to help her mistress or the colony, Canty was a very happy, litt- a very happy big ant.

    Seeing the excited look in the eyes of the Ant queen, Beatrice could help but smile as she touched the latter''s large forehead with her palm, causing the ant to become even more excited, as light flashed through her eyes.

    After a few moments, though, Beatrice suddenly opened her mouth and began speaking.

    "Canty, are you able to deal with these on your own in a reasonable amount of time?" asked Beatrice, causing Canty to quickly nod her head like a cute little ant.

    "Don''t worry mistress, If you need the help of sister Antonia with anything else, you can leave this to me," said Canty as she patted her chest with one of her legs, making Beatrice smile.

    "Very well then, I''m sure that you know what you need to do after you finish deleting their memories, so I won''t bother you any longer," said Beatrice before leaving with Antonia behind her.

    A few moments after Beatrice left, Canty repeatedly began slapping her head with one of her legs.

    ''Stupid stupid stupid, I should have delayed for longer so that I had more time to speak with the mistress!!'' thought Canty as realization hit her like a truck.

    ...

    "Antonia, I want you to create more intelligent ants," said Beatrice as she walked through the long halls of her underground home, which had become much larger than before.

    As soon as she heard those words, the eyes of Antonia lit up.

    "Understood mistress, how many?" asked Antonia as she silently prepared herself.

    "One thousand should be enough, don''t you think?" asked Beatrice, causing Antonia''s brain to suddenly short circuit.

    As she looked at the Earth Ant Queen who was sitting in the middle of the hallway with a shocked expression on her ant face, Beatrice couldn''t help but smile.

 164 : WoD Cribs Part 1

    As she looked at Antonia, who was now busy at work swapping the souls of humans and Earth Ants around, Beatrice couldn''t help but smile before descending through a staircase to a lower level of her home.

    Originally, Beatrice''s underground abode had 3 floors, each being around 100 by 100 meters.

    Back then, the first floor was Beatrice''s experimental lab and living quarters.

    Below that stood the second floor, which housed the food growing operation as well as her storage space.

    Even further than that stood the Mana generating room, as well as Beatrice''s more horrifying projects.

    Right now, though, this was no longer the case, as Beatrice had the Earth Ants drastically expand both the size of each of the floor and the number of floors that made up her home.

    Of course, this renovation also had some other goals, such as making the abode harder to find and increasing its defensive ability.

    In the end though, Beatrice and the Earth Ants decided on 9 floors, each being perfect squares, one by one kilometer in size.

    As she descended from the third to the fourth floor, which had not finished being decorated, Beatrice couldn''t help but let out a faint sigh.

    "I''ll have to wait for some more time to relax in this place..." mumbled Beatrice as she looked at the huge open space in front of her, which unlike the previous floor, wasn''t separated into rooms just yet, and was extremely basic for now.

    Just like the previous version, the floors in Beatrice''s new base of operations also had specific purposes.

    Unlike the previous version though, the first floor of this version was not truly part of Beatrice''s home, as it was completely dedicated to defenses, and was meant to serve as the first line of defense in case of an invasion.

    If not for the fact that she was the one that created those traps and defenses, Beatrice was certain that even she would be unable to break through that place on short notice.

    After that, both the second and third floors were both laboratories, dedicating to Physical and Soul research respectively.

    The third floor was actually the place Beatrice was in just now, as all matters regarding the soul would be researched in there.

    Of course, Beatrice did not decide this arbitrarily, as she had indeed created some safety measures specifically guarding against souls, which she had placed on that floor.

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    Following that was the fourth floor, which in the future would become Beatrice''s primary residence.

    This was actually the floor that Beatrice was on right now, but sadly, Beatrice decided that this floor was of the least importance, and decided to finish more urgent things first.

    Below that, near to both Beatrice''s residence, and the resource generation floors which were below it, stood the Storage floor, which as the name implied, was the place that Beatrice used to store the most common items and resources that she obtained.

    As she descended downwards and looked at the storage floor, which now had many ants moving all around it, both moving the things that were stored inside of it, and building even more storage and sorting, Beatrice couldn''t help but faintly smile.

    The things Beatrice did with the help of the earth ants, the more her appreciation of them increased.

    Not only were the ants cute little bugs, but they were both extremely obedient to her, obeying her every whim without any other thought, but they were also surprisingly competent, especially the smart ants that she had created, which in Beatrice''s opinion, were much better than humans.

    Unlike what one might expect, the ants were not at all rigid, and could learn new topics and things quite easily, especially thanks to their extreme dedication, which allowed them to completely focus on one thing.

    This meant that even though the smart ants were quite a bit dumber than humans, they could actually learn things even faster.

    At this moment, Beatrice suddenly stretched out her finger towards a nearby table, causing an ant who was carrying a piece of metal much larger than it to suddenly stop, place it down, and rub its head on her finger.

    As she looked at the cute little thing, which held extreme adoration for her, Beatrice couldn''t help but suddenly stretch out her hand, causing the ant to suddenly fly upwards, from the fifth floor, to the third floor, where Antonia was creating smart ants.

    This also meant that the ant would be one of the lucky few who would be ale to obtain increased intelligence.

    A few moments later, after petting some more cute ants, and sending them to the third floor, Beatrice once again began descending lower, and no longer dwelled on the fifth floor.

    As she descended to the lower floor, though, Beatrice encountered a row of ants.

    ''Has the tunnel not been completed just yet?'' thought Beatrice as she looked at the endless row of ants that were carrying food into the storage floor.

    The ants that Beatrice encountered were carrying crops, including sometimes entire potatoes, on their backs up these stairs, causing Beatrice, who was currently descending to the lower floor to feel a little bit confused, after all, a purpose built channel for this kind of thing was in the designs of the underground world.

    As soon as Beatrice arrived at the sixth floor, she was suddenly greeted by a construction site, as well as a small Beatrice, who was currently managing it alongside several significantly larger than average ants, who were helping her.

    The moment Beatrice talked to them and realized what happened, she couldn''t help but become somewhat speechless.

    At first, things went as planned, as food crops were able to smoothly rise up to the higher floor, but just a few days after this floor was finished, the ants, as well as the little Beatrice, discovered something.

    The smart earth ants could increase the growth and efficiency of crops with just a tiny bit of Earth Magic.

    This not only lowered the growth time of crops, but also increased production whilst decreasing the needs for resources like water.

    As one might expect, both little Beatrice, and the Earth Ants, adored efficiency, and could not resist using this new method.

    As such, the current scene was born.

 165 : WoD Cribs Part 2

    As she looked at the nonchalant expression on the face of her true self, little Beatrice, whose eyes were red, and who hair was disheveled from complete overwork, couldn''t help but clench her fists, causing Beatrice to turn her attention to her.

    ...

    As she looked at the small version of herself, who was looking at her with puppy eyes, beginning for some help, Beatrice couldn''t help but let out a faint sigh and touch her forehead.

    A moment later, though, Beatrice suddenly took a small rock out of her pocked and placed it right next to the tiny Beatrice.

    A few moments after that, another tiny Beatrice suddenly appeared, with confusion filling her eyes, causing the eyes of the first Beatrice to suddenly light up.

    Without even waiting for the original Beatrice to say anything, tiny Beatrice suddenly grabbed the hand of her new comrade, who was now stuck in this hellhole with her, and walked away.

    As she looked at the two Beatrices, who quickly got to work at dividing the work they had to do, Beatrice couldn''t help but feel her lips twitch.

    Even though she noticed the fact that the older Beatrice was delegating harder work onto her younger self, Beatrice had no intention to intervene, and as such, made her way downwards from this floor after taking a few more looks at it.

    Though, as Beatrice made her way down to the floor below, a faint frown couldn''t help but appear on her face.

    The closer to the next floor, the more Beatrice could sense tiny bits of mana, not elemental energy, floating through the air, causing her to feel somewhat confused.

    A moment later, though, a small amount of enlightenment flashed through her face as numerous new memories from her clone flashed through her mind.

    "That could be quite a problem..." mumbled Beatrice as she stared at the scene below her.

    At this moment, next to the mana farm, which had increased massively in size over the past few weeks, stood three Beatrices, alongside several ants, discussing something.

    The moment Beatrice entered the floor, all three Beatrice''s suddenly raised their heads and stared at her with hopeful looks in their eyes.

    As one might expect, the reason for their actions was quite simple, they had a problem.

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    Currently, the process through which the entirety of this compound obtained elemental energy was very simple.

    Firstly, numerous mages, which Beatrice had brainwashed, refined mana out of elemental energy.

    After that, though numerous tubes, as well as thanks to the brainwashing, Beatrice was able to make the mages send out the mana out of their bodies and into the tubes, before arriving in a large containment area which Beatrice had created.

    After that, thanks to the fact that the mages had then lost control of their mana, the mana then begins degrading into elemental energy in the containment vat.

    Thanks to the fact that the mages imbued the spirit and will into the mana, after it degrades back into elemental energy, which is an efficient process, the amount of elemental energy becomes slightly larger, roughly 2 percent larger compared to the original amount of elemental energy sent into them.

    After that, some filtration takes place, making sure that nothing from the mages remains in the elemental energy, decreasing the profit to roughly 1-1.5 percent, depending on the batch.

    Lastly, the profit is then siphoned off, whist the original amount of elemental energy is sent back so that the process could begin once again.

    Right now, though, the tiny Beatrices, as well as the smart ants who helped them manage this place, discovered something else.

    They discovered the fact that the efficiency of this process could be higher, since after increasing the size of the operations, they discovered the fact that their pipes, which they thought were quite good at keeping mana in, were actually quite leaky.

    This was the origin of the mana Beatrice felt through the air.

    Although the mana will also degrade into elemental energy after some time, it would take a lot of effort that capture that elemental energy, and at the same time, while the mana was still in the air, the efficiency of the mana refining of those captive mages will be greatly reduced, as they have to be much more careful to not take in any of it.

    Back when the scale of the production was small, this was not much of a problem, sadly though, in the future, the production will continue to grow.

    "So, what solution have you thought up?" asked Beatrice as she appeared next to the group, even though she had read the memories of all of her tiny selves.

    "We''re currently in the process of designing a mana capturing device."

    "After some experimenting, we''ve managed to attract mana, by attracting the faint spirit residue in it."

    "On a small scale, this works perfectly, but right now we''re having some trouble figuring out how to do it efficiently and without the need for much maintenance on our part."

    "We''ve come up with a new design and need your help to improve it..."

    ...

    Extremely quickly, all three of the tiny Beatrice''s began speaking to their true self, without paying any attention to each other.

    As she listened to her tiny selves, who continued blabbering on, Beatrice couldn''t help but stretch out her hand, causing the design that these guys had created to fly towards her.

    ''I''m really brilliant...'' thought Beatrice as she looked at the design in front of her with a smile on her face.

    The machine that would have to be built would use clones of the mages currently refining mana as magnets to attract tiny bits of mana refined by them.

    Because the pipes are only leaking at the beginning, intersections and near the vats themselves, not all places need to have all clones next to them.

    For example, if mage 206 is located next to the left wall of the room, his clones need to be present in only two places, next to the left wall of the room and the vats.

 166 : WoD Cribs Part 3

    "I don''t have any time to help you, but from what I''ve seen, your design looks quite feasible If you make some more minor changes," said Beatrice as she waved her hand once again, causing the design to once again fall down in front of the three Beatrices

    Quickly after that happened, the eyes of the three little humans fell onto the design, which had some markings on it, which indicated some issues.

    Although they had found most of these already before asking for help from the main body, there were still some things that the three of them had actually missed, which made them feel quite embarrassed.

    A few moments later, the three raised their heads from the design and looked at the place where Beatrice was just a few moments ago.

    Sadly though, Beatrice was now gone, having silently disappeared while the three little guys were focused on something else.

    ...

    The moment she began descending to an even lower floor, Beatrice suddenly felt the concentration of elemental energy around her decline, as it returned to normal levels.

    Only a few moments later, though, Beatrice could finally see the next floor, which was nearly completely barren.

    This was a second storage floor that Beatrice had created.

    Unlike the first one though, this one focused less on the bulk storage of resources, and much more on safety and maintenance.

    This is where Beatrice planned to keep the items she felt unsafe leaving on the other floor, or just valuable items in general.

    Just now though, this floor was nearly empty, having only a few spell books, alongside a few other items littering it, occupying around 0.1 percent of its space.

    But even though this was the case, 5 different small Beatrice''s still littered the halls of this floor, looking after the few items stored within it whilst conducting their own research.

    ...

    After staying on the eight floor for just under a minute, Beatrice finally began descending to her destination, the ninth floor.

    "I need to add a second method of transportation between these floors, the stairs are way too slow," mumbled Beatrice as she came closer and closer to the ninth floor.

    Compared to the temperature on the first floor, because of its depth, the ninth floor was quite warm, being the perfect temperature for human survival.

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    Because of this, as well as the inevitable safety reason, Beatrice decided to place her human farm on the ninth floor.

    As the name implied, this was a project created by Beatrice, which sought to destroy her reliance on the outside world for experimental subjects though creating her own underground civilization.

    Of course, civilization was quite a bit of an exaggeration, as what lay on the ninth floor was currently a small town, around 700 people in size.

    But even so, Beatrice considered this very much a success, as when she first built this place, she inserted only 423 humans.

    Of course, Beatrice also played a part in the rather extreme growth of the population, as occasionally, her little clones would give the inhabitants of this town a few ''suggestions'', without them being aware of it.

    After a few moments, Beatrice suddenly arrived in front of a large gate, which blocked her way, causing her to suddenly send her mana into it, making it open.

    Only a few moments after Beatrice opened the gate, three Beatrices came to greet her, causing Beatrice herself to faintly smile.

    "To be able to detect my arrival so soon, it seems as though you''ve done well, and have a good grasp over the floor," said Beatrice, causing the leading Beatrice to nod.

    "Yes, we''re monitoring the entire floor twenty-four hours a day, but even more this part, as any human escaping could be catastrophic," said the small Beatrice as she began leading Beatrice to her destination.

    Unlike all the other floors, which were created out of a material reinforced using Earth Magic by the ants, the floor of the ninth floor was mostly grass, simulating a natural environment.

    Furthermore, the Earth Ants had also rerouted a small underground river in here, creating a lake, which allowed the inhabitants to both obtain fresh water, and also farm.

    Right now, Beatrice was walking behind the three Beatrice''s up towards the source of the river, where the main base of operation of these Beatrice''s lay.

    As the river had to come in, its entrance into the floor was the only entrance to the underground home other than the main one, which prompted the Beatrices on this floor to be quite paranoid about defending it.

    This was actually the reason they placed their base of operation there, both to prevent the humans from escaping through there, and also prevent anyone from coming in.

    Of course, both escaping and coming in was much harder than what one might assume at first glance, as surrounding the underground estate stood the enormous colony of the earth ants, acting as a defensive force to fight against any sort of attacks.

    After walking for a few minutes, the four Beatrices finally arrived in front of a stone wall next to the mouth of the river, which was coming out of a huge mountain, which seemed to stretch into infinity.

    Of course, this was merely an illusion.

    After arriving in front of the stone wall, one of the tiny Beatrice''s suddenly stretched out her hand, onto the rock, causing it to quickly sink into it.

    A few moments later, a hole suddenly appeared within the stone wall, one large enough for a tiny Beatrice to enter.

    "Wait just a bit," said a tiny Beatrice before walking into the mountain.

    Beatrice did not have to wait for long, as after a few moments, the door suddenly increased in size, allowing her to walk in alongside the other two Beatrices.

    What greeted Beatrice inside the mountain were 15 Beatrices standing in a row, seemingly ready for her arrival for her arrival.

    At the same time, a few hundred ants stood next to them in a neat formation, slightly bowing to the arrival of their mistress.

 167 : WoD Cribs Part 4

    After looking at this display for a few moments, Beatrice suddenly began walking to a table which was located in the hallway the group was in, then sat down.

    The moment Beatrice sat down, it seemed as though some sort of spell was suddenly broken, as the seventeen Beatrices suddenly began moving all around, with one of them arriving in front of Beatrice a few seconds later, holding a report which was larger than her own body above her head.

    Seeing this, Beatrice stretched out her hand and quickly snagged the report from the little Beatrice and began delving into it.

    In this dozen page report, the actions of all the Beatrices stationed on the ninth floor were clearly displayed before Beatrice.

    Of course, this was not the main thing that Beatrice was interested in, as she could read the memories of her little clones at all.

    A moment later, all seventeen Beatrices unconsciously froze for a brief moment as Beatrice herself closed her eyes.

    Then, with an enlightened look on her face, Beatrice began quickly skimming through the report before slowly slowing down as the memories of her clones became more and more blurry.

    After all, unlike Beatrice, who held perfect control over her own memories, and could remember and forget anything at will, these little Beatrices would still unconsciously forget things.

    At the same time, not the entirety of the report was written by Beatrices, as a large part of it, mostly placed in the end of the report, which Beatrice had not reached yet, was actually written by the ants.

    But just as Beatrice was about to finish reading the many page long report, her eyes suddenly rose, as the door to this large room suddenly opened, allowing numerous ants to carry a human inside.

    As she looked at the man, who was currently being carried by ants whilst unconscious, Beatrice couldn''t help but shake her head as she watched one of the Beatrices get to work.

    Because of his explorative nature, the man had accidentally wandered too far out into the wilderness and had begun developing some heretical suspicious, which caused the Beatrices to quickly take action and dispatch a group of ants to detain him.

    A moment later, the small Beatrice that had approached the man quickly jumped onto his chest before walking up his body and stretching out her tiny cute hand towards his forehead.

    Before anyone could react, the eyes of the man suddenly popped open, as he let out an extremely harsh scream, causing the cute little Beatrice to wave her hand.

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    As soon as the cute little thing did that, the man suddenly became silent, but even so, he continued trying his best to scream his lungs out to no avail as the tiny Beatrice continued tinkering with his mind.

    ''She''s really just like me...'' thought Beatrice as she looked at Beatrice, who was currently tinkering on the mind of the man with an extremely happy smile on her face.

    Even though this scene was rather creepy to normal humans, it still did not stop Beatrice from appreciating her own sheer cuteness.

    Then, after around thirty seconds of struggling, the man suddenly fell silent as he then closed his eyes, without any sort of resistance, causing the tiny Beatrice to suddenly let out a kick at his unconscious body with a faint smile on her face.

    After conducting some final inspections on the man, the tiny Beatrice then quickly jumped off him and turned to the ants next to her.

    "You can take him back, make sure not to take more than an hour though, he should be able to wake up by then," said Beatrice, causing the ants to quickly pick up the man and walk away with him in tow.

    Upon finishing this rather satisfying work of hers, the tiny Beatrice then turned around and looked at Beatrice with her cute chibi eyes.

    A few moments later, the chibi Beatrice had jumped onto Beatrice''s table, and sat down in front of her after a pillow flew in front of her hands.

    Even though she knew herself very well, and was very much aware of the fact that chibi Beatrice probably wanted something from her, Beatrice still couldn''t help but place down the report in her hands, which she was now even closer to finishing, and looked at her.

    "What is it?" asked Beatrice as she looked at the cute chibi Beatrice, causing the latter to instantly smile.

    "You know, there are so many humans in here, we really need more Beatr-"

    Before chibi Beatrice could finish her words, Beatrice''s uncaring finger suddenly struck her, sending both her, and her pillow, flying into a trash can that was currently being emptied out by a bunch of ants.

    ...

    As she heard the words of the main body, the large eyes of Chibi Beatrice #2 couldn''t help but suddenly light up.

    "Two hundred more humans, yes, that could indeed prove useful, the growth of the farm will be accelerated by more than half a year as long as we are able to integrate the new arrivals..." mumbled #2 as she unconsciously looked at Beatrice climbing out of the trashcan.

    For some reason, after being struck by Beatrice, Chibi Beatrice #1 could not fly any longer, and had to climb out of the slipper trashcan herself.

    Whilst Chibi Beatrice #2 kept thinking, Beatrice, who had accomplished the small goal she had set herself for this tour of her home, now walked away.

    ...

    As she looked at the bright sky above her, which was getting closer and closer to her, Beatrice couldn''t help but grit her teeth and stretch out her left hand beyond reason, causing several bones in her left hand to dislocate.

    But even so, Beatrice still used her now weak hand, which had gripped the top of the trash can, to give herself a tiny boost, and grip the metal top of her other hand.

    The moment the right hand managed to get grip and latch onto the top of the trashcan, Beatrice let go of the trashcan with her left hand.

    A few moments later, Beatrice then began using her right hand to slowly but surely raise her body out of the trashcan.

    Halfway through this process, though, Beatrice froze, as a giant finger suddenly touched her, sending her back down to the bottom of the trashcan.

    A moment later, Beatrice heard a faint giggle, causing her to let out a sigh and lay flat on the ground.

 168 : Perfection

    After pushing tiny Beatrice back into the trashcan, Beatrice then took a few more looks around this underground base.

    Even though she had seen everything here through the eyes of her clones, as her main body was much more powerful, Beatrice did not want to take any chances and walked through it herself.

    Thankfully though, although they are small, the competence of the tiny Beatrice''s must not be underestimated, as such, everything in here was in order, allowing Beatrice to quickly look through this place before walking out into the main floor itself.

    The moment Beatrice walked out of the mountain, she immediately began walking to her next destination at a rapid speed.

    After only around two minutes of extremely fast walking, though, Beatrice suddenly slowed down and stared at the scene before her.

    Dozens of men could be seen standing under the hot sun, sweat filling their foreheads as they tilled the earth using hoes, as well as a single horse.

    In only a fraction of a moment, all these men, as well as the horse, suddenly froze for a brief moment, before unfreezing a moment later as if nothing happened.

    By then, Beatrice had long since disappeared from the scene, as she continued traveling towards the town in the middle of this floor.

    ...

    As she looked at the town, or rather village around her, which was currently quite bustling, even Beatrice herself couldn''t help but feel an eerie feeling looming through the air.

    Unaware of the nature of their own existence, perhaps the natives of this town did not feel like there was anything wrong with in, but everything was different from the eyes of an outsider.

    A moment later, Beatrice let out a faint breath and continued walking through the middle of the town, completely unnoticed by its inhabitants even though she walked right past them.

    With Beatrice''s current power, hiding herself from a bunch of mortals was as easy as one might expect, and as such, she was able to quickly arrive in front of the rather small town hall in the middle of the town.

    Perhaps because of the lack of predators, or because of the fact that they didn''t have any sort of enemy, Beatrice noticed nobody guarding the town hall, allowing her to walk in through the front door.

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    Of course, Beatrice could easily do that regardless if someone was guarding it.

    A few moments after entering the building, Beatrice immediately walked up a set of stairs and rose to the second floor, where the mayor of this town worked.

    Then, with the same ease as before, Beatrice passed by two guards and entered the mayor''s office, where she was greeted by a rather strange scene.

    ...

    As she looked at the mayor, who was sitting on a chair with a blank look on his face, not speaking or moving in the slightest, not even blinking, as well as at the tiny Beatrice that was currently on his desk looking at something, Beatrice couldn''t help but smile.

    In an instant, all the memories of this tiny Beatrice entered Beatrice''s mind, causing her smile to faintly increase in size.

    In an instant, Beatrice had taken a rough look at the latter''s memories, and had roughly seen how things had gone.

    "Very good, your management of this town has gone very well so far," said Beatrice, causing tiny Beatrice to slightly nod, as if she was aware of what Beatrice would speak.

    At this moment, Beatrice couldn''t help but take another look at this tiny Beatrice, who, unlike the others on this floor, did not become excited as soon as Beatrice complimented them.

    This caused Beatrice to take another look through the memories of this clone of hers, a much more thorough one, which caused her to shake her head before falling into thought for a few moments.

    Seeing this, a faintly hopeful look appeared on the face of this tiny Beatrice, who was holding her physical body in her hands whist clenching her teeth.

    A moment later, though, the hopes of the little clone were seen crushed.

    "No, I won''t send any more clones here to help you, there''s too many of you here in the first place," said Beatrice after a few moments of thought.

    Even though Beatrice could recover after creating one of these small clones, this did not mean that the process was very nice.

    Furthermore, although this Beatrice was very overworked, as she had to make sure to manage the town with extreme care, so as to not have anyone escape, she still had time for some small experiments.

    This meant that she had the time to do some more work, after all, those experiments of hers weren''t very essential.

    As if hearing the thoughts of her main body, tiny Beatrice slightly lowered her head.

    ...

    After going on a walk through her newly rebuilt home, Beatrice finally retreated onto the fifth floor and began focusing on her magic.

    Ever since Beatrice had become an Official Mage, her fast progress, which allowed her to speed through the Apprentice stages in around a year, disappeared.

    As such, even though over ten years had passed ever since she had recovered her strength, Beatrice was still at the first stage of the Official Mage Realm, the Innate Ascendance Realm.

    ...

    Several days later,

    As she looked at the demon in front of her, which she had captured not too long ago, Beatrice couldn''t help but faintly smile, causing here mana to quickly go through her entire body several times.

    Although the demon''s own brand of darkness was quite a bit different from that of Beatrice, he still proved to be a valuable research subject to Beatrice.

    A few moments later, a feather from Beatrice''s wings suddenly fell to the ground, causing a new feather, which seemed just a tiny bit different, more perfect, to suddenly emerge in its place.

    "I still have a long way to go," mumbled Beatrice, knowing that perfection was still far away from her.

 169 : Siblings Part 1

    As he stared at the forest in front of him, which continued to grasp at his mind, attracting him to enter it, Ben couldn''t help but grit his teeth, as his eyes became slightly bloodshot.

    A few moments after that, Ben finally defeated that ever so tempting desire and sat down on a nearby rock for a few moments.

    After that, Ben then began quickly running away, seemingly aware of what sort of fate would await him if he entered the forest.

    Although the desire for revenge burned brightly within Ben''s mind, reminding him of what happened on that day so many years ago, Ben still had some sense.

    Finally, a few minutes after Ben had left this farce, its final participant finally arrived at the scene.

    ...

    Looking at the small clearing in front of her, a faint smile appeared on Kiara''s face.

    "Impressive, you were actually able to ignore my bait..." mumbled Kiara as she walked up to a boulder visible near the middle of the clearing.

    After placing her face near the boulder, Kiara then began quickly smelling the scent emanating from it, before quickly beginning to lick it with an excited look on her face.

    In fact, at the moment, Kiara seemed far too excited, causing the look on her face to appear faintly creepy.

    After licking the boulder for around a minute, Kiara seemed to have finally had enough, causing her to raise her head and stare into the distance with a smile on her face.

    "I''ve got you..."

    ....

    Extremely quickly, Ben ran in the opposite direction of the forest, but even so, this did not cause him to feel any sort of relief, in fact, the foreboding feeling that he was feeling before slowly but surely began increasing.

    With every single step Ben took, memories of his father and mother flashed through his mind, making him grind his teeth in anger.

    With every single step Ben took, memories of his sister, of how pure and good-natured she was back, then went through his mind, making him feel a deep pain in his heart.

    And finally, with every single step, Ben couldn''t help but feel as if someone was speaking to his very soul, telling him to turn back and to face his sister.

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    Whether this was Ben hallucinating, or something else entirely, Ben himself did not know at the moment.

    Although these things did not make Ben turn back, as time passed, his speed couldn''t help but faintly slow down.

    Bit by bit, Ben speed slowed down, as a foreign entity seemingly took control of his body, and in the end, Ben finally stood still, waiting for the person chasing him.

    Thankfully, though, Ben did not have to wait for long, as only two minutes after Ben stopped moving, someone finally arrived behind him.

    The moment that ''thing'' arrived, Ben suddenly regained control of his body, allowing him to take action.

    In an instant, five Dark Bolts suddenly appeared around Ben before flying towards his sister at speeds beyond the speed of sound, not allowing that ''thing'' to say anything.

    ...

    The moment Kiara saw her brother in the distance, her pupils suddenly dilated, causing all reason to suddenly disappear from her eyes.

    From seemingly nowhere, a burst of strength suddenly emerged from the depths of Kiara''s body, causing her to suddenly speed up several times.

    A moment after that, Kiara''s body suddenly bent at completely unnatural angles, allowing five different Dark Bolts to fly past her.

    Even so, thanks to the fact that Kiara dodged at the very last moment, the one of the Dark Bolts still hit her Dark Barrier a bit, causing her to lose a bit of mana.

    Of course, Kiara did not pay any attention to this, as she continued speeding towards her brother at an utterly insane speed.

    Unaware of the person currently watching their little battle with a smile on her face, Kiara suddenly attacked, causing three Dark Bolts to suddenly appear in front of her, just a few meters away from Ben.

    Unable to match the seed of his sister, Ben was completely helpless as the Three Dark Bolts suddenly landed onto his barrier, making him send more mana into it.

    But at the same time, two different Dark Bolts suddenly attacked Kiara''s barrier before she could react.

    Although the very short distance between the two of them meant that Kiara was able to easily attack Ben, this also meant that the opposite was also true.

    Furthermore, thanks to the fact that Ben had more time to adjust himself to the environment, his Dark Bolts were more powerful than Kiara''s, if just by a tiny bit.

    Thanks to this advantage, even though both of them had landed three attacks onto each other, Ben help a bit of an advantage.

    A moment later though, this advantage was then broken, as several more Dark Bolts landed onto Ben''s barrier, whilst Kiara herself managed to dodge the Ben''s Dark Bolts, which had returned.

    Seemingly feeling his death approaching, Ben suddenly regained his senses and began trying to retreat.

    At first, Ben was faintly successful in escaping Kiara, who was not in a right state of mind, but sadly, although both of them were unaware of this fact, neither of them were the ones who would decide who won this battle.

    As such, just as Ben was about to escape, he suddenly froze for just a brief moment, around one tenth of a second.

    But even though this was an extremely short amount of time, it was more than enough for Kiara, who suddenly appeared behind him and smashed his weakened Dark Barrier apart using two more Dark Bolts.

    A moment later, Ben lost consciousness.

    ...

    As she looked at Kiara, who was carrying her unconscious brother in her arms, a faint smile appeared on the face of Beatrice.

    Beatrice could not allow Ben to defeat Kiara in this battle, as Kiara''s defeat, and subsequent capture of Ben would prove extremely useful in speeding up their ripening.

    A few moments later, two wings suddenly emerged from the back of the invisible Beatrice, allowing her to suddenly rise to the sky a moment later.

 170 : Interlude

    A secret location inside a cave.

    As he stared at the masked man in front of him, Max couldn''t help but take in a deep breath.

    "Follow me, sir," said Max before beginning to walk deeper and deeper into the cave.

    After seemed like just a brief moment of hesitation, the masked man then began silently following Max, causing sweat to appear on the latter''s forehead.

    After around a minute of walking through twisty tunnels, Max, as well as masked man, arrived at the location where the goods were stored.

    Nine Mage Apprentices stood around several large boxes, silently guarding them.

    "Can I inspect the goods?" asked the masked man, causing Max to hesitate for a brief moment before nodding and waving his hand, causing the Mage Apprentices to walk to the side of the boxes.

    Then, as the underground cave kept filling with tension, the masked man silently opened one of the boxes, revealing another, much smaller box inside, shielded from the outside world by many layers of shields and protections.

    A moment later, the masked man grabbed the smaller box and carefully took it out of the crate, and placed it onto a nearby rock.

    The moment the crate was opened, small amounts of elemental energy spilled through the room, increasing in size as the man took the box out.

    After that, the man then began slowly but surely opening the small box, making sure that he did not do any damage to it.

    The moment the masked man opened the small box, large amounts of elemental energy suddenly spilled out of it, but even so, the man still managed to catch a glimpse of the large elemental stone in it before quickly closing the box and placing it into the crate, after which he then also closed it.

    Then, in the same fashion, the masked man then examined the contents of the other four crates, each of which held a similarly sized elemental stone.

    After verifying the contents of the boxes, the masked man then turned to Max with a smile on his face, of course, this smile was hidden by the mask which was concealing his face.

    "Very good, the quality is as was promised," said the masked man, causing Max to breathe a sigh of relief.

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    Sadly, though, this was the last breath that Max would ever breathe, as his body was then smashed to pieces by something invisible a moment later.

    A moment later, the mage apprentices suddenly took action, and began launching their spells towards the masked man, but sadly, it was of no use, as a small Dark Bolt then quickly pierced through their barriers and claimed their lives.

    After that, the masked man then snapped his fingers, causing black flames to emerge on the corpses, causing them to quickly begin burning up as the masked man, who had now removed his mask, began once again checking the contents of the crates.

    This time, though, Leylin seemed much more carefree, as he quickly picked up the large elemental stones inside the boxes and walked out of the tunnel.

    Of course, he first destroyed any other sort of evidence left at the scene.

    ...

    As she looked at ''Beatrice'', who had five large elemental stones floating in front of her, Selena couldn''t help but faintly smile.

    "It seems as though your task has gone quite well," said Selena as she stretched out her hand, causing the large elemental stones to suddenly fly into her hands

    "Yes teacher, everything went smoothly this time," said ''Beatrice'' as she looked at Selena, who had four large elemental stones in front of her, as well as at the singular stone now left in her possession.

    Seeing the surprise on ''Beatrice''s'' face, Selena couldn''t help but shake her head.

    "You can consider this a reward for completing my task so fast," said Selena before disappearing, leaving ''Beatrice'' no time to do anything.

    A few moments after that, Beatrice then placed the elemental stone into her robe and walked right into her room, which was nearby.

    ...

    As he stared at the four large elemental stones in front of him, Nicholas couldn''t help but nod his head.

    "These should be enough for the Space Prism to finally finish returning to its normal state, but wasn''t it a bit wasteful to destroy the elemental stone mine to obtain these elemental stones?" asked Nicholas, causing Selena to shake her head.

    "Even If I didn''t destroy the mine, I wouldn''t have been able to keep it in my collection, it''s much better to obtain a few final benefits from the mine then to let it fall into the hands of the academies without obtaining anything from it, as for the benefits of this mine could bring in 10 or 20 years, what do those have to do with me?" asked Selena as she stared at Nicholas, causing him to faintly nod.

    Indeed, from such a selfish point of view, destroying the mine made quite a bit of sense, after all, it was just the choice between being able to obtain something, or just giving it up without gaining anything.

    At the same time, after eliminating the miners as well as the person involved with the mining operation, linking this up with Selena would become much more difficult, unless the Prophet got involved of course.

    Of course, the Prophet doesn''t usually get involved in things as minor as this, and as such, she should be safe to continue her work peacefully, at least for now.

    ...

    Unaware of the thoughts of her teacher, ''Beatrice'' was currently sitting in her chair, staring at the elemental stone in front of her, and thinking about what to do with it.

    As she looked at the box that was her main body, Beatrice couldn''t help but become a bit tempted to slightly upgrade herself.

    "With the elemental energy production capability of this stone, creating a permanent shield around my main body shouldn''t be very difficult..." mumbled Beatrice as she looked at the cube in front of her, light appearing in her pitch black eyes.

 171 : Siblings Part 2

    As she stared at her brother, who was sleeping in her arms with a peaceful look on his face, Kiara couldn''t help but faintly smile before touching his face with her nails.

    The moment Kiara''s sharp nails touched his face, taking off a tiny bit of skin from it, Ben suddenly woke up and opened his eyes.

    Only a moment later, Ben suddenly began trying to struggle, but sadly, Kiara had already taken some countermeasures so that her brother would be unable to escape.

    "It looks like it works, but don''t worry brother, I can help you return to normal after you become obedient..." said Kiara as she looked at Ben, who could barely move.

    Hearing this, Ben felt a chill enter his in his spine, causing his heart to suddenly stop for a brief moment as Kiara once again began moving with Ben in her arms.

    This chill even managed to temporarily suppress the anger and hatred that Ben felt towards his sister, as well as the being that had twisted her into what she was now.

    Of course, this did not last for long, as after a few moments, Ben''s seemingly scared eyes became filled with anger, as well as hatred, causing Kiara, who was carrying him, to involuntarily smile.

    ...

    Although Ben attempted to escape, as well as kill his sister several times, Kiara was still able to transport Ben back quite smoothly, mainly thanks to the help her teacher had given her before allowing her to go on this journey.

    But nevertheless, another issue still plagued Kiara as she made the trip back.

    Temptation.

    As she held him in her arms, smelling the tempting scent of her brother, Kiara couldn''t help but become tempted to just throw him down and begin toying with him right then and there, not caring about the consequences.

    But even so, with a will of steel, Kiara managed to hold on, and managed to resist her brother''s unintended temptation.

    In the end, though, Kiara was finally able to bring Ben back to her home after what seemed like eons of struggle.

    ...

    The moment Kiara, as well as the now unconscious Ben passed the last row of ants and entered the first floor of Beatrice''s underground world, Kiara couldn''t help but breathe a faint sigh of relief, causing her to quickly descend to the fifth floor alongside her brother.

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    Whilst the majority of the fifth floor was occupied by Beatrice, Kiara also lived on this floor, in a much smaller corner of course.

    If Kiara began feeling safe when she entered the underground abode, after she entered her own room, Kiara began finally relaxing, allowing her to let down her guard for the first time in ages.

    Even so, Kiara did not fully let down her guard, as she had one final thing that she had to do.

    ...

    As she looked at the specially prepared set of shackles that were chained to a wall of her room, Kiara quickly took action, and tightly tied up all four limbs of her brother, making him hang in the air.

    Of course, Kiara was quite merciful on her brother, and made the shackles quite soft and comfortable on the inside, so that Ben''s limbs did not get hurt.

    Because of this, even as he hung in the air, Ben still did not awake from his deep sleep, allowing Kiara to make some other preparations with the help of some ants that she had managed to convince to help her.

    After around thirty minutes, Kiara had successfully washed up and also had finally prepared everything that she needed, causing her to suddenly slap Ben''s tender and smooth face.

    "Wake up brother, we have much to do today!!" shouted Kiara right into Ben''s ear, causing his eyes to finally pop open.

    The moment Ben''s eyes opened, and he saw his sister standing in front of him, Ben realized something that both soothed his nerves, and made him even more fearful than before, his sister did not plan to kill him.

    But even so, as he stared into Kiara''s eyes, which were staring at him with madness filling them, Ben couldn''t help but continue staring at them, being somehow entranced.

    A moment later, Ben suddenly broke out of his trance as Kiara suddenly ripped all of his clothes off his body and threw them to the floor.

    Kiara was feeling hungry right now.

    ...

    Although Beatrice was aware of the fact that Kiara was insane, as she had intentionally made her that way, she still underestimated the sheer extent of the obsession the girl held for her brother.

    Of course, this was also in Beatrice''s benefit, as the deeper the emotions went, the deeper the corruption, depravity and darkness could sink.

    Because of this, Beatrice even began silently fanning the flames in the background, unbeknownst to both siblings.

    ...

    Three Days later,

    Pain

    This was all that Ben could feel as he opened his eyes and stared at the face of his sister, who was standing above him with a smile on her face.

    Right now, nearly the entirety of Ben''s body was sunk into water, with his head placed on Kiara''s legs.

    At this moment, Ben, who was missing an ear, several nails from his fingers, as well as other tiny bits of flesh, had no time to think about anything else.

    "Brother, you''ve washed up quite well, but I need to clean you a bit more thoroughly before I can fully enjoy you," mumbled Kiara as grabbed Ben''s naked body got out of the bath herself.

    A few moments after this, just as he was thinking about how to escape, Ben suddenly froze and began carefully listening.

    Soon, the sound of boiling oil filled Ben''s ears, becoming louder and louder with every step Kiara took, causing a desperate look to appear on his face.

    "Don''t worry brother, after sister washes you up and fixes you, we will have more than enough time to enjoy ourselves, think of this as a bit of a punishment for trying to escape from me," said Kiara before suddenly kissing Ben on the lips.

    A moment after that, Kiara threw Ben into the nearby vat of boiling oil.

 171 : Infrastructure Part 1

    Whilst Kiara was busy preparing her brother, Beatrice was also quite busy, currently expanding the number of defenses littering the first floor of her home.

    Although Beatrice had already created some large scale defenses a while ago, using cannons to shoot at ants was not the most cost-effective idea, and as such, she decided to increase the variety of her defenses.

    ...

    At the moment, Beatrice could be seen standing in front of numerous stone statues, each of which had been carefully created and enchanted by the ants using their earth magic.

    As a result, the stone statues in front of Beatrice were both much more resistant to damage than even normal stone, but also very flexible, much like a human.

    But even though this was the case, in their current state, these one hundred unmoving and souless stone statues would prove useless in defending Beatrice.

    Because of this, Beatrice had to give them life, their very own soul.

    Much like she did with the ants, Beatrice very much liked to reuse human souls in her projects, thanks to their great flexibility.

    On one hand, the souls had a very large capacity for intelligence and thought, but on the other hand, after some neutering and adding some safeguards, these souls could be easily manipulated placed into all kinds of different items, objects or bodies.

    So easily, in fact, that Beatrice did not plan on doing it herself, instead, she planned on delegating this task to Antonia and some ants who were proficient in manipulating the soul.

    Beatrice herself would only transform the souls to the necessary standard and check that the quality of the golems was as expected.

    Although the Earth Ants were always extremely meticulous when doing anything, since this was related to her own safety, Beatrice still felt as though she needed to be even more certain.

    But after making sure that the golems had passed her safety standards, Beatrice turned her attention onto something else, something much more important and critical.

    Right now, if somebody other than Beatrice wanted to move through the underground abode, they had to know a set of secret passwords, which changed every single week.

    These passwords would then allow that person to pass through the magical barrier that Beatrice had created all around the abode.

    Of course, other than Beatrice, who knew every single password but did not have any need for them, nobody else had access to every single password, causing the areas they could travel to be limited.

    Although this method was very easy to implement on Beatrice''s side, and gave her hideout a certain level of safety in the early stages, right now, as the scale of her operation became bigger and bigger, Beatrice knew that this system was about to become outdated.

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    Even though there were only three people residing within the hideout, excluding the experimental subjects and the people from the farm, in the future, this number was bound to increase.

    Although Beatrice was very powerful, she could not truly be certain of the loyalties of every single person, nor could she be sure that they would not be mind controlled or have their memories read.

    Because of this, Beatrice had now begun working on a new system, and sought to quickly eliminate the passwords whilst her hideout was still of a relatively small scale.

    Sometimes, the simplest and most obvious ideas are truly the best, and in this particular example, this was the case, with a few caveats.

    The first idea that came to Beatrice''s mind after she began this project was a personal permission system, which would use a person''s soul to identify them.

    If that particular person had permissions to go into that area, they would be allowed to go through, if they didn''t, they wouldn''t, and they would be silently watched by a number of ants so that their intentions could be observed.

    Is someone who was registered within the system was found out, that person would be immediately apprehended.

    After that, their method of entrance would be found out and hopefully destroyed or patched up.

    Although this was her first idea, after some thought, and after building a miniature version, which used ants to replace people, Beatrice was satisfied with the project, and was prepared to begin implementing it.

    Not too long after that, though, Beatrice soon encountered a problem, her clones, as well as clones in general.

    As it turns out, if the project was built this way, Beatrice''s clones would have the same permissions as Beatrice, and would be allowed to go on all nine floors.

    This was of course not something that Beatrice would allow, and immediately halted the project until she found a suitable solution for this.

    As Beatrice had begun the creation of this system, she had of course managed to circumvent this dilemma, surprisingly though, she did not do it on the side of the system though, she instead created a new set of rules for clones, as well as a name card for clones.

    This was of course not a normal name card, rather, it was something that attached to the very soul of the clones, and could not be taken out.

    As soon as Beatrice thought of this, and managed to create this name card, the rest of the things that she had to do became easy.

    As such, only a few moments after checking the quality of the puppet soldiers the ants had created, Beatrice began work on the permission system.

    Using the infrastructure created for the password system as a base, Beatrice was able to quickly and efficiently get the permission system up and running on the first floor in just under two days.

    ...

    "Try going through that barrier," said Beatrice as she bent down behind a little Beatrice and pointed at a transparent barrier in front of her.

    After a faint nod, the little Beatrice then quickly walked through the barrier without any sort of care, causing Beatrice to smile.

    "Try going through the next barrier now," said Beatrice, causing the little Beatrice to once again confidently walk towards the barrier.

    Sadly, though, Beatrice was then stopped, as the barrier she was trying to walk through suddenly solidified and stopped her.

    Seeing this, Beatrice faintly smiled before waving her hand a few moments later.

    "Try again," said Beatrice, causing little Beatrice, who had bumped head first into a solid wall, to grit her teeth and try again.

    As soon as little Beatrice passed through the barrier without any sort of issues, the size of the smile on Beatrice''s face increased.

    "Changing permissions is working as intended, the system should be ready to be implemented to the other floors after a few more tests are made..." mumbled Beatrice with a smile still present on her face.

 172 : Infrastructure Part 2

    After getting used to the design of the new system, Beatrice was able to quickly implement it in the other floors in just under a week.

    Furthermore, after spending a little bit more effort, Beatrice changed the implementation of this system on the eight floor, where her most valuable possessions were held, making it so that every single thing placed in there had a certain permission requirement placed onto it.

    Other than this, the implementation of the system was a breeze.

    At the same time as Beatrice was busy with this, another infrastructure project of an even grander scale was being built just nearby.

    ...

    Hundreds of ants moved in uniform under careful eyes of Intelligent Ant Number 78, moving stone blocks that weighed tens of tons.

    After what seemed like a near eternity, the group of ants finally arrived with the large stone block at its intended spot.

    Soon after, the first row of ants in the front carefully placed the smooth block of stone onto the ground before retreating from below it and moving to its sides and continuing to hold it up.

    Mere moments after, the second row of ants followed suit, lowering the stone block even further to the ground.

    With every row of ants that did this, the pressure placed on the remaining ants increased, as even though the other ants tried to help, they were unable to get a good grip onto the block of stone.

    But even so, in the face of this huge monster of a thing, which could crush them to death if they made the slightest error, the ants continued holding on, not wavering in the slightest.

    Thankfully, by the time only five rows of ants remained holding up the block of stone, Intelligent Ant Number 78 suddenly interfered.

    With a wave of her antennae, every single one of the ants suddenly felt their energy be reinvigorated.

    At the same time, small pieces of stone emerged from the side of the block, allowing the other ants to finally begin helping their brethren.

    After some more time, the block of stone itself began glowing a brown color, as the ant began using her own strength to personally hold the block of stone.

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    Because of these circumstances, the brave row of ants, who were left behind last, were able to fully hold the large block of stone above their heads and begin slowly but surely lowering it to the ground.

    Then, after Number 76 made sure that everything was alright, these brave ants finally let go and retreated, causing the block of stone to float just a little bit an above the ground.

    The block of stone then began slowly but surely lowering itself to the ground, touching the other block of stone that had been placed just below it.

    Merely a few moments after the stone was finally placed down, as the other ants began recovering, and preparing for the next block, Number 76 continued her work and began verifying that the block was placed perfectly onto the block below it.

    After making sure that the block of stone was aligned with the others, Number 76 then began the next part of her job, and began connecting it with the others, eliminating the tiny cracks and imperfections that would have plagued the block otherwise.

    But even so, the work of an ant was never done, as Number 76 had to now begin coordinating the ants for placing the next block.

    Unconsciously, Number 76 couldn''t help but raise her head and stare at the empty space above her.

    With a rough estimate, Number 76 was able to see that the distance between her and the ceiling was currently five hundred meters.

    Based on the size of the cubes, which was about 16 meters, Number 76 had to place around 31 of them to reach the ceiling.

    Although at first glance, this might not seem like much, one must understand that the ants didn''t only have to place blocks of stone vertically, instead, they also had to do it horizontally around the 1 km by 1 km sized underground palace.

    Since there was not one, but three blocks of stone on a single layer, this meant that to fill a single layer the ants had to place at least 750 blocks of stone.

    And in the end, to fill this entire underground place, the ants will have to place around 23 to 24 thousand more blocks of stone.

    After daydreaming for a few moments, Intelligent Ant Number 76 shook off these thoughts of hers and returned to normal.

    ''Too slow, I need to be more efficient...'' thought the Ant as she began coordinating the other ants to bring the next block of stone over.

    In the end, although such a task might seem nearly insurmountable to a human, to ants, who were willing to fully dedicate themselves to the colony, this was nothing much.

    In fact, the hardest part of the work was already done by the ants that had come before her, as well as the ants that had died building the colony.

    In comparison to them, Number 76 felt like her work was nothing much.

    Of course, Number 76''s group was not the only group of ants working on this project, as several dozen more groups worked just as hard as theirs.

    Furthermore, these ants that worked on building were dwarfed nearly ten times by those who were busy mining and preparing the large stone blocks.

    In the end, over one hundred thousand Earth Ants worked day in and day out on this project, with only a few thousand being the builders themselves, and just under half being the miners and workers.

    But even though this was the case, not a single ant from this group had ever complained, not a single ant from this group had ever tried to slack off, not a single ant from this group had not given it their all.

    After all, for their Mistress and for the colony, every single ant was willing and even desired to give their lives.

 173 : Siblings Part 3

    "Ben, how is it, are you feeling better now?"

    This was the first thing that Ben heard once he regained consciousness.

    Even though Ben desperately wanted to begin screaming and cursing at his sister, no matter how much he tried to open his mouth, it simply refused to open, making him remain silent.

    A few moments after that, a hand suddenly touched Ben''s eyelids, opening them whilst its owner stared inside.

    ...

    As she looked at Ben''s eyes, which were staring straight at her, a faint smile couldn''t help but appear on Kiara''s face.

    "Don''t worry little brother, the hard part is over, you''ve once again become clean and pure," mumbled Kiara as she touched Ben''s fragile flesh, which she had just finished healing not too long ago, causing Ben to slightly scowl, pain clearly visible on his face.

    A few moments after this, though, Ben finally managed to open his mouth, allowing to let out a few words.

    "You''re going to hell, you monster..."

    Upon hearing the not very nice words of her brother, Kiara let out a faint chuckle.

    "Visiting hell could be a good idea once I become more powerful..." mumbled Kiara as she placed a finger on her lips and fell into thought.

    Unaware of if his sister was simply mocking him, or had just become this deranged, Ben became temporarily speechless.

    A few moments later though, as she continued staring at her brother''s tender body, Kiara knew that she would soon not be able to resist her desires for much longer.

    "Prepare yourself little Ben, sister is coming for you..." mumbled Kiara as she suddenly lowered herself onto Ben, causing a horrified expression to appear on his face.

    ...

    Without any warning, the eyes of Beatrice, which were focused on the large zombie in front of her, suddenly widened, causing a faint smile to appear on her face just a moment later.

    Merely a moment later, Beatrice''s eyes went down to the floor, pierced several layers of thick stone, and arrived at the thing that had caught her attention.

    "Both of them are progressing quite nicely," mumbled Beatrice as she stared at the souls of the brother and sister.

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    Ever since Ben had been captured by Kiara, his desire for revenge, as well as the things he was willing to do to achieve that revenge, had grown exponentially, like his hatred of both Kiara and Beatrice, who he was unaware of.

    Likewise, Kiara''s depravity and twisted insanity had also grown quite nicely ever since she had captured her brother.

    But even so, all of this growth paled in comparison to the growth that was happening right now as Kiara raped and had her way with her brother.

    As Kiara fell to the lowest levels of depravity, Ben''s anger and hatred seemed to begin growing without any sort of limit.

    But even though this was the case, this was not the reason why Beatrice was happy.

    She was happy because unlike what she had expected, this was not the limit.

    Right now, Beatrice had clearly realized that if she gave the two siblings just a tiny push, the two would fall to an even lower level of depravity and hatred.

    And in the end, Beatrice''s final meal would become even tastier.

    ...

    Several days later,

    As she stared at her brother, who was currently sleeping, still tied down to the bed, a cruel smile couldn''t help but appear on Kiara''s face, causing her to suddenly climb onto him.

    The moment his sister mounted him, the eyes of Ben, who was still exhausted, popped open.

    But even so, Ben did nothing, and simply laid there flat on the bed as Kiara moved up and down, causing the latter to feel slightly suspicious.

    Of course, as she was currently enjoying herself, Kiara did not pay much more attention to this peculiarity of her brother, attributing it to sheer exhaustion.

    Around five minutes later, though, Kiara suddenly froze, as blood began falling out of her mouth.

    Ben, who was currently tied with shackles created out of mana restraining metal, had somehow managed to explode his member, which was located inside of Kiara.

    Furthermore, several shards of crystallized mana flew out of Ben''s penis as it exploded, using the wound that the explosion had created as a chance to pierce Kiara''s internal organs.

    After staying still for a few moments, Kiara suddenly got up and kicked Ben''s back, smashing his spine in one fell swoop and sending him flying as the shackles that held him to the bed were smashed apart.

    Because of this, all of Ben''s limbs were also broken, similarly to his back.

    "Ben! I had your best interests in mind, and this is how you repay me?!" asked Kiara as she suddenly kicked her brother a second time, right into his thigh, completely smashing it apart in an instant.

    Even so, Ben did not react to his sister''s actions in the slightest, instead, he simply stood there, doubting his life.

    Why had his heart not exploded as well, why was he alive?

    In the end, the answer was very simple, Beatrice could not allow Ben, nor Kiara, to die at the moment, and had stopped his attempt at killing himself.

    ...

    Nearly a year later,

    As he opened his remaining eye and stared at the floor below him, ''Ben'', who had somehow remained alive after all this time, couldn''t help but fall into doubt.

    ''Why am I not dead yet?''

    This was the only thought that Ben could muster these past few months.

    The first few months that Ben spent in this cell, he could still think of other things whilst his sister continued torturing him.

    But after an unknown amount of time, it seemed as though even she had become bored in the end, and had stopped coming to torture him.

    But even though this was the case, the effects of Kiara''s torture still lingered on Ben, whose left eye had been taken out, who no longer had any fingers, whose bones had been thoroughly crushed to dust.

    Pain, every single day, every single hour, every single minute, every single second, this was all that Ben felt.

    At this moment, Ben''s remaining ear suddenly moved, causing his face to suddenly freeze, as he heard a pair of extremely familiar footsteps approaching him.

 174 : Dark Meal Part 1

    In the end, no matter how much Ben''s physical and mental state deteriorated, the moment he heard that pair of footsteps in the hallway, he immediately knew who they belonged to.

    Merely a few moments later, the door to Ben''s cell was suddenly opened, causing the wounded man to raise his head and stare at the person in front of him.

    Sadly though, right now, Ben had only one eye, furthermore, that eye itself was not in a very good shape, making him unable to clearly see the person that had walked into his cell.

    But even so, Ben still recognized her, as he always would.

    Step by step, Kiara, who was seemingly carrying something in her arms, approached Ben, who was unable to see what she was carrying.

    Suddenly, though, when Kiara was around 3 meters away from him, Ben completely froze.

    Ben''s eye, which had become completely lifeless in the past, thanks to the extreme deterioration of his mental state, was suddenly filled with anger.

    Merely a moment later, Ben''s body, which was ridden with wounds and illnesses, began suddenly struggling as his anger brought his dead mind back to life.

    The moment Ben caught sight of the little boy lying in Kiara''s arms, whose face was clearly morbidly deformed, an unspeakable rage couldn''t help but appear to emerge from his very soul.

    Seeing this, a faint smile appeared on Kiara''s face as she further approached Ben, allowing him to get a better look at the child.

    "Why?!" asked Ben as he looked at Kiara with a completely exasperated look on his face, feeling completely bewildered at the moment, as the rage filling his mind began slowly but surely boiling.

    "I just wanted you to have a better look at your blood before I put it out of its misery," said Kiara as she looked at the completely deformed child in her arms, who was clearly in constant pain, with a smile on her face.

    This uncharacteristically gentle smile present on his sister''s face did not make Ben feel any sort of relief.

    The only thing this smile achieved was confusing Ben for a brief moment before Kiara suddenly took out a pocketknife and showed it right into the skull of the at most, a month-old baby.

    At this very moment, Ben suddenly realized why Kiara had done all of this, why she had gone to these lengths to do what she did.

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    To simply bring him pain.

    Before Kiara could do anything, the mana resistant shackled that restrained Ben''s fragile body suddenly snapped, as the extremely thin, nearly skeleton like Ben suddenly leapt towards his sister, only a single thought filling his mind.

    Revenge

    In a scene that defied all reason, Ben''s extremely thin and weak hand suddenly smashed through the Dark Barrier protecting Kiara, before suddenly piercing right through the left side of her chest.

    Even though Dark Bolt after Dark Bolt pierced through Ben''s body, his heart, his brain, everything, this did not stop him from continuing to attack Kiara.

    By then, Ben was already long dead, but even so, Ben''s soul, so hungry for revenge, began controlling his dead body like a lifeless puppet, using it to completely tore the body of his sister apart, trying his best to kill her.

    Not even the occasional moan that Kiara let out as Ben smashed her skull apart could break Ben out of his frenzy.

    In the end, it would seem as though nothing would be able to stop Ben from achieving his goals.

    ...

    As she stared at the three small, nearly pitch black clouds floating in front of her, two of which had red hickeys on them, a faint smile couldn''t help but appear on Beatrice''s face, causing her to stretch out her hand and grab one of them.

    Although Beatrice had given her a small push at the beginning, Kiara had then proceeded to go beyond even Beatrice''s expectations, sinking to levels that Beatrice had not thought possible from the seemingly innocent girl.

    Even in the end, as her brother killed her, and her teacher abandoned her to die, Kiara was still able to feel a sense of twisted and dark happiness from all of this.

    Rather interestingly, the way Kiara died was rather similar to how she had killed her parents, which may have played a part into her twisting her brother''s actions as his ''love'' for her, as she did to her own actions towards her parents.

    After thinking for a few more moments, Beatrice no longer dwelled on for much longer, and quickly placed Kiara''s soul into her mouth, destroyed the red hickey that represented the Dark Kiss Spell, and devoured Kiara''s soul.

    The moment Beatrice devoured the soul of the still young girl, all of her memories, feelings and thoughts were absorbed by Beatrice, causing Beatrice to fall silent for a few moments.

    "As expected, she was delicious," mumbled Beatrice as she licked her lips.

    In the end, Kiara also brought Beatrice a new perspective on darkness, one which only a Dark Mage that had sunk to such depths could have.

    Unlike Beatrice''s own darkness, which was cold, silent, and calculating, Kiara''s darkness was filled with a twisted sense of passion, emotion and feeling.

    Interestingly though, in the end, this darkness was also filled with a twinge of regret, which made Beatrice''s eyes slightly twitch.

    After a few moments, Beatrice then took out two boxes, where she placed the two others souls that she had obtained.

    It was only after making sure that the two souls were perfectly sealed that Beatrice finally began to fall into thought, and began understanding Kiara''s darkness, hoping to use it to further her own understanding of the topic, as well as her power.

    As in the end, this was the reason why she would do something like this, as unlike Kiara, she had no desire to bring pain onto others without any sort of reason.

    Beatrice would only continue with her meal after she fully digested the previous serving, not wanting to waste even a tiny bit of the fruit that she had been carefully raising for the past eleven years.

 175 : Dark Meal Part 2

    Merely five minutes after Beatrice closed her eyes and began digesting her gains from devouring Kiara''s soul, her flesh began splitting apart, causing Blood to fall down her body and onto the floor below her, unnerving Antonia, who was currently watching her.

    Merely a few moments after the wounds appeared, flesh began being pushed out from them, as Beatrice''s mana rapidly grew new flesh, more in line with the new understanding of darkness that she was obtaining.

    Roughly two minutes after this process began, several hundred ants surrounded Beatrice, taking away the pieces of flesh that had been ejected from her body, allowing more and more flesh to fall to the floor, prompting Beatrice to open her eyes for a brief moment, before allowing them to continue their actions.

    Although Beatrice already had a quite deep understanding of darkness, Kiara''s own point of view was something nearly foreign to the mage, who viewed interests and benefits as the only things that mattered.

    Even though Kiara''s memories weren''t able to sway Beatrice''s opinion in the slightest, they still allowed her understanding of Darkness to go into a completely new direction.

    As such, piece after piece of Beatrice''s flesh was being thrown out every single minute, and by the time the first hour had finally passed, even flesh that had just been regrown began being pushed out of Beatrice.

    In just an hour, Beatrice felt as though she had been somewhat reborn, as her body, which was already very strong, became over ten percent stronger.

    But even the main bulk of her progress was done by then, Beatrice felt as though her understanding of Darkness could still be rapidly improved in a short amount of time.

    In the end, Beatrice was right, as even though her rate of progress slowed down drastically after that first hour, her strength improved by a further 1.5 percent after another day of comprehension.

    By then though, Beatrice''s progress had fully slowed down and returned to somewhat normal levels, although much faster than before her devouring of Kiara, causing Beatrice to turn her attention onto one of the boxes floating in front of her.

    "I guess it''s time..." mumbled Beatrice as she stretched out her hands towards the second box under the curious eyes of Antonia.

    In just a few moments, Beatrice released the seal that she had placed on the box and revealed the soul inside.

    As she touched Ben''s smooth, young and tender soul, Beatrice couldn''t help but slightly salivate, causing her to grab it and bring it up to her mouth.

    "Goodbye little Ben..." mumbled Beatrice as she took one final look at the soul, which had already been marked by her long ago.

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    As Beatrice had considered Ben her personal property long ago, she could not let him truly roam around without a proper leash, as such, Beatrice had already placed several marks and restrictions onto his soul over eleven years ago.

    Back then, Beatrice had even begun experimenting on Ben, using the more powerful version of the Dark Manipulation Spell that her teacher had taught her back in her past life, the Dark Kiss her.

    Although Beatrice had great advantages when it came to casting spells that involved souls and spirits, thanks to her extremely large amount of Spiritual Power, ten years ago, Beatrice was not very proficient in casting the powerful Rank 3 Spell.

    In the end though, although it was somewhat risky, Beatrice cast this spell on both of the siblings, using it as a final weapon against them.

    Thankfully, Beatrice did not have to use the control granted to her by the spell, and was able to let the siblings roam free without much interference.

    As she did with Kiara, Beatrice then destroyed the red hickey on Ben''s soul, finally freeing him from her control.

    Sadly, though, Ben''s soul did not have much time to enjoy this newfound freedom, as it was soon devoured by Beatrice.

    The moment she devoured Ben''s soul, Beatrice slightly bit her lips, as she felt the sour flavor of the soul that spread into her mouth.

    Unlike Kiara''s soul, which was very sweet and tasty, almost like a piece of cake, probably thanks to all the things he had endured, Ben''s soul was very sour.

    Interestingly, though, this did not mean that Beatrice did not enjoy the taste of the soul, in fact, the opposite was true.

    As Beatrice''s teeth crushed the fragile soul apart, destroying the last bits of Ben''s consciousness, the sour flavor of the soul spread into Beatrice''s mouth, slightly alleviating the overwhelming sweetness left behind by Kiara.

    But although Beatrice greatly enjoyed the feeling of devouring souls, as she found out right now, this feeling itself was not Beatrice''s goal.

    As such, Beatrice quickly began delving into Ben''s memories, his emotions, thoughts and most importantly, understanding of darkness.

    Originally, back when he was free, Ben''s understanding of darkness was rather shallow, and much weaker than that of Kiara.

    Interestingly though, after he was captured, and as Ben''s physical body quickly became unable to fight, Ben''s understanding of darkness, as well as his magical prowess quickly grew, surpassing even that of his sister.

    Sadly though, because of his circumstances, as well as the shackles restricting his magical abilities, this was not able to change Ben''s fate in the slightest.

    Ironically, though, as the one who had orchestrated Ben''s torture and pain, Beatrice would be the one to benefit from his understanding.

    Unlike Beatrice, whose life was somewhat smooth sailing, other than her deaths of course, Ben had his parents be both tortured and killed by his very own beloved sister, who he adored very much.

    Subsequently, he experienced over ten years of hiding, where even the slightest mistake could lead to both the deaths of everyone related to him, and his own capture.

    This did not end here though, as Ben was then brutally raped and tortured by that his very sister, who used every single torture method she could think on his.

    Finally though, in the end, after experienced over half a year of complete loneliness, Ben then witnessed the death of his own child, who was horrifically disfigured thanks to the fact that his very own sister was the mother.

    Because of this, although Ben''s understanding of darkness was still not as advanced as that of Beatrice, it was completely different from both Beatrice''s and Kiara''s, allowing Beatrice to once again obtain full benefits from him, as she did from Kiara.

 176 : Dark Meal Part 3

    Slowly but surely, time began passing, as a new process, similar to the previous one, began happening to Beatrice.

    Over the course of two hours, Beatrice constantly replaced her old flesh, which she deemed as ''inferior'' and ''imperfect'', with new and improved flesh.

    But even so, in the end, not even the new flesh was perfect for long, being soon replaced as Beatrice''s understanding of darkness grew to a whole other level.

    Halfway through this process though, Beatrice had to take a small break, and begin using elemental stones to fuel herself, as she had finally managed to empty the elemental energy reserves of her home.

    With every bit of flesh that fell out of Beatrice''s body and was replaced, the capacity for mana of Beatrice''s body improved, slowly but surely becoming larger and larger as time passed.

    In the end, it took over three whole days for Beatrice to fully digest Ben''s soul, much longer than what it took to digest Kiara''s soul.

    But even so, the benefits that Beatrice had gained from this far exceeded her expectations, as Beatrice felt her body reach closer and closer to perfection.

    But in the end, after fully enjoying Ben, Beatrice was left just a sliver away from that perfection she sought so much, causing her to finally open her eyes.

    Staring at the final box in front of her, Beatrice took in a deep breath and finally sat up and slightly stretched her limbs.

    "I''m a little bit dirty," mumbled Beatrice as she touched her smooth skin with a faint frown on her face.

    Although the earth ants helped Beatrice get rid of all of her excess flesh, Beatrice was bound to get somewhat dirty after completing such a drastic process.

    After a moment of thought, Beatrice picked up the metal box in front of her and began walking towards the bathroom.

    Even though Beatrice realistically knew that nobody would be able to sneak in here and steal this box, she still couldn''t resist taking it with her.

    Just to guard against that tiny chance that something had gone.

    ...

    Unlike Beatrice''s previous bath, back before the reconstruction, as well as her bathroom in her previous life, Beatrice''s new bathroom did not actually have any sort of bathtub.

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    Instead, in the middle of the bathroom stood a large pool, over ten meters on all sides, with a large statue of Beatrice above it, which was sneakily added into the project by Antonia.

    As she sunk her body in the warm pool of water, still holding the metal box in her hands, faintly sighed before quickly beginning to clean her body.

    Although Beatrice could very much enjoy a good bath, she knew that this was not the right time to let herself relax, and wanted to quickly clean herself up.

    Occasionally, though, Beatrice''s eyes couldn''t help but peer at the golden statue of herself that stood opposite of her right now, which had a steady stream of water falling out of her palms.

    As such, it took Beatrice a little bit longer than she had first expected to clean herself up, just over five minutes, as Beatrice was still rather hurried.

    After making sure that she had cleaned herself up properly, Beatrice got out of the pool and picked up a new set of robes that she had placed nearby before quickly dressing herself up.

    Only a few moments later, Beatrice, with the metal box, which had not left her hands for even a moment, walked out of the bathroom and back into her bedroom, which was now perfectly clean, having been cleaned by a group of ants whilst Beatrice was gone.

    "It''s almost there..." mumbled Beatrice as she sat back down and slowly but surely opened the metal box in her arms, removing the seal that she had placed onto it, and revealing the tiny soul that Beatrice had obtained.

    As she had not placed any restrictions on the baby, Beatrice simply threw the soul into her mouth and devoured it without doing anything, assimilating its memories, thoughts, and ideas.

    Merely a few moments after she devoured the soul, Beatrice couldn''t help but slightly cackle, causing a maniacal laugh to exit her mouth.

    "This is so much better than expected..." mumbled Beatrice as the scattered memories of the young child entered her mind.

    Unlike Kiara, and even Ben, the darkness which filled the soul with the child was much more ''intrinsic'', being its entire life.

    Whilst darkness had taken everything away from Ben, to this child, darkness was all there ever was, as its eyes did not allow it to see light.

    Although the life of the child was short, having been taken away from it by its own mother, who did not show it any sort of love or affection, which meant that the child was not able to develop its intelligence.

    Even though the newly born child was not very smart, only a few moments after it was born, it suddenly felt the second darkness in its life, its very own mother, who seemed distant and cold to it, not even being willing to touch it more than necessary.

    Merely a few minutes after that, the child felt the third, and final darkness which filled its life quickly approach it.

    Death

    Although the young human child without a name could not hear or see, it knew a single thing, its life would soon come to an end.

    Even though the child was unable to think out these exact words, the moment he reached his mother''s arms, the young child knew that he would soon die

    Sadly though, all this knowledge did not allow the child to do anything, as its feeble body, unable to even cry, was not able to struggle against its mother, leaving it with only one thing.

    Terror

    For the young child who could not think much, Darkness was inextricably linked with terror.

    From his inability to see, to the quick approach of death, Terror was the only emotion the child had ever linked with darkness.

    As well as the only emotion that it had ever felt throughout its entire life.

 177 : Dark Meal, Final Part

    As she slowly but surely devoured the soul of the young child, Beatrice''s face couldn''t help but slowly begin to morph, as a large smile appeared on it.

    Although Beatrice did not realize it before, as she felt the pure terror that the soul of the child sent into her mind, Beatrice finally realized it.

    This was what she was missing, this was the final piece of the puzzle, the thing that pushed Beatrice that little tiny bit forward.

    That feeling of sheer terror, which nor Beatrice, nor Kiara, nor Ben had ever felt throughout their lives, that was the final thing that Beatrice needed, that would be the thing that would Bring Beatrice to perfection.

    Merely a moment later, Beatrice''s flesh and organs suddenly began falling off her body, which began rejecting the imperfect things that tried to tie her down.

    The speed at which Beatrice''s body was being destroyed was astonishing, every single moment, a large piece of Beatrice''s flesh disappeared, far surpassing her regeneration speed.

    But even though this was the case, Beatrice felt no fear and no pain.

    In the most basic sense, pain was just the soul indicating a certain kind of danger instinctually.

    Usually, although Beatrice was aware of the absence of danger, pain still persisted, but right now even Beatrice''s subconscious became fully aware of her state.

    After all, how could the ascendance to perfection be any kind of danger.

    ...

    In the end, Beatrice''s most subconscious instinct turned out to be true, as even though nearly every single part of her body was destroyed, Beatrice continued feeling better and better.

    Even as Beatrice''s brain was fully destroyed, and turned into mush, Beatrice''s mind become clearer and clearer, as insights into darkness continued pouring into it.

    At this moment, Beatrice''s skeleton, which was being held together by the mana still remaining in it, began disappearing, as it was quickly swallowed up by flesh, which began emerging from it at a rapid speed.

    In what seemed like just a few moments, but were in truth, five minutes, Beatrice swallowed up all of her remaining elemental stones, as well as most of the elemental energy that existed in the surroundings, giving her body more than enough energy to regenerate.

    As such, after just five minutes, Beatrice''s mind, which was still sunk deep into darkness, suddenly regained control of her body.

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    Of course, Beatrice did not pay any attention to something as minor as this, as the entirety of her attention was placed on something else.

    ...

    As she looked at the endless sea before her, her soul, which was currently extremely calm, much calmer than it had ever been, Beatrice couldn''t help but breathe out a small amount of air, and turn her attention onto her mortal body.

    "Perfection..., as expected, while still contained by the boundaries of flesh and blood, true perfection can never be achieved..." mumbled Beatrice as she stretched out her hand and touched her face.

    Although Beatrice''s skin was not only was smoother than before, but also much more resilient and strong, Beatrice could now feel what she could not before.

    If the current Beatrice were to stand in front of past Beatrice, before reaching perfection, and allow the latter to investigate her as much as she wanted to, past Beatrice could only come to a single conclusion.

    Current, Beatrice''s body was perfect.

    But even though this was the case, current Beatrice, whose powers had gone up to another level compared to the past, could sense imperfections, still present within her body even now.

    Although Beatrice was aware of these imperfections, Beatrice knew that trying to fix them would be pointless, after all, being that were made of flesh of blood could never be perfect.

    Right now, although Beatrice had never learned of the process to become an Archmage, Beatrice knew her path.

    Strengthen her still weak soul, that could not bear the power of a truly perfect body, and ascend beyond her mortal body.

    To a being comprised fully of energy.

    Although in the end, Beatrice knew that even such a being was not truly perfect, and that there was even another ceiling above that, Beatrice would pursue this goal for now.

    ...

    The moment Antonia, who wielded the power of the entire colony, gazed into the eyes her Mistress, she froze.

    A moment later, a small, yet tenacious soul suddenly emerged from Antonia''s body, before arriving in the palm of Beatrice.

    "You are very obedient, but some extra insurance wouldn''t hurt..." mumbled Beatrice as she suddenly kissed the soul, leaving behind an obvious hickey, infused with both mana and Beatrice''s own will.

    After casting the Dark Kiss spell onto Antonia, Beatrice then placed the soul of the ant back into her body, satisfied with her obedience.

    As soon as the soul of the Ant Queen returned to her body, the latter then immediately moved next to Beatrice, happiness clearly visible on her ant face.

    ...

    As soon as Antonia gazed into the eyes of her mistress, she immediately realized what had happened.

    Beatrice had become more powerful.

    On its own, this was not a very surprising thing, as Beatrice constantly become more powerful, every time Antonia saw her mistress, the latter would become even more powerful.

    This time, though, it was different.

    The moment Antonia gazed into the eyes of her mistress, she immediately knew something.

    Her mistress could kill her, instantly.

    Even if Antonia used the entire power of the colony, of all the now 1.3 million ants, the ant queen could not struggle at all in front of her mistress.

    Right now, Antonia felt as though she had returned to the times when the colony had just a few hundred ants, and her mistress could crush all of them with a single finger.

    But even though this was the case Antonia did not feel sad, in fact, a sense of happiness couldn''t help but emerge from within the ant.

    No matter what, as long as the power of the colony continued to grow, Antonia was happy.

    In the end, although Beatrice was not an Earth Ant, she was the mother of every single ant in the colony, including Antonia herself, and as such, a member of the Colony.

    How could a child not feel happy that her mother had become more powerful?

 178 : Choice

    At the same time, in another timeline,

    As she stared at her true body, which currently had a large hole in it, ''Beatrice'' couldn''t help but let out a faint breath as she lightly moved her hand, causing the huge elemental stone next to her to begin slightly floating.

    ''Beatrice'' then began carefully moving the elemental stone, which, in truth, was not very fragile, towards the large opening in the box.

    Step by step, bit by bit, ''Beatrice'' lowered the elemental stone into the cube that was her body, being extremely careful not to damage her body.

    Finally though, after around thirty seconds, the elemental stone was finally able to slot itself into the cube, causing ''Beatrice'' to finally breathe a sigh of relief.

    "Just one last step..." mumbled ''Beatrice'' as she carefully opened the cube, revealing its insides, as well as the bottom of the elemental stone.

    After preparing herself for a few moments, ''Beatrice'' finally took action, and began doing the most dangerous part of the operation, truly connecting the elemental stone to her body.

    One by one, with the help of an earth ant, who was able to use some earth magic, ''Beatrice'' began connecting several metal tubes to the stone with the help of the ant.

    The moment ''Beatrice'' grabbed a hold of a metal tube, an uncomfortable look appeared on her face, but even so, ''Beatrice'' knew still carried on slowly and placed the end of the tube, which had a small device on it, onto the elemental stone.

    As ''Beatrice'' held the metal tube in place, the earth ant finally got to work, and began quickly fusing it onto the elemental stone.

    Unlike ''Beatrice'', the small ant did not seem to be worried about failure in the slightest, and quickly fused the tube with the stone in just a few moments using its earth magic.

    The moment ''Beatrice'' saw that the fusion process had ended, she finally let go of the tube, which was not attached to the stone.

    After that, ''Beatrice'' suddenly snapped her fingers, causing a small ''beep'' to be heard from the small device on the tube, causing elemental energy to suddenly begin flowing from the stone into the tube, and to ''Beatrice''s'' main body itself, where it would be utilized.

    As she looked at the system, which was working perfectly, ''Beatrice'' finally smiled, as relief washed over her.

    "As expected, If I don''t overdraw the stone, 4 tubes is the limit the stone can bear..." mumbled ''Beatrice'' as she stretched out her finger and petted the head of the small ant next to her, causing the latter to stretch her neck and try to get a better feel for ''Beatrice''s'' finger.

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    Unlike normal elemental stones, which were merely elemental energy condensed into a solid state, the large elemental stone that ''Beatrice'' had placed into her body was actually something that could create elemental energy.

    The elemental stone was originally part of an elemental stone mine, in which it would be able to produce a large quantity of elemental stones over an extended period of time.

    Sadly though, under Selena''s orders, this elemental stone mine was destroyed, and this elemental stone, alongside several others, were obtained from it.

    But although it was extremely wasteful to do so, and not even Selena would do something like that, this elemental stone could be used like a normal one, and the elemental energy in it could be emptied.

    At that time, the production of elemental energy of the stone would stop, and the valuable object would be destroyed, something which ''Beatrice'' would very much like to avoid happening.

    "Three should be more than enough for my need," mumbled ''Beatrice'', who had already estimated the elemental energy consumption of her newly improved body long ago.

    As such, ''Beatrice'' began the process once again, and successfully added two more tubes of elemental energy onto the contraption with the help of the earth ant.

    ...

    As she looked at her main body, which now had a permanent barrier around it, always protecting it from the outside world, a faint smile appeared on ''Beatrice''s'' face, causing her to suddenly snap her fingers.

    Merely a moment after ''Beatrice'' snapped her fingers, a Dark Arrow suddenly appeared in front of her main body, looking extremely threatening.

    Under the control of ''Beatrice'', the Dark Arrow was able to quickly and efficiently move around the room, causing ''Beatrice'', who was controlling it, to smile once again.

    Using the large amount of energy that ''Beatrice'' had obtained from the elemental stone, she was able to not only add several new features to her body, but also greatly enhance its existing ones, including the main function of cube in the first place.

    Originally, this cube was created by Beatrice as an anchor for her to be able to find her way back if she got lost.

    Now, though, this ability was greatly enhanced by ''Beatrice'', allowing it to send its exact location straight into the mind of Beatrices if ''Beatrice'' wished so.

    At least that''s what ''Beatrice'' hoped.

    ...

    Although Beatrice was unaware of the fact that the clone she had left behind when she had died the second time was progressing smoothly, a large smile still could be seen on her face as she sunk into the hot water of the pool.

    Even though Beatrice had washed recently, she had not taken a true ''bath'', in quite a long time, mainly thanks to the fact that her bathroom had been destroyed, and a new bathroom had yet to be built.

    Now though, now that there wasn''t anything urgent going on, like two kids that could go out of control at any moment, Beatrice could finally relax.

    As Beatrice''s wings, which were almost twice the size of the entire rest of her body, sunk underwater, Beatrice couldn''t help but let out a relaxed sigh before closing her eyes.

    But although the bath was very relaxing, Beatrice couldn''t help but open her eyes after a few moments, with a pondering look on her face.

    "Maybe I should take in a little Witch as an apprentice..." mumbled Beatrice, who had already become somewhat accustomed to Kiara''s presence after over ten years.

    But although Beatrice could admit that she had grown to appreciate the young girl a bit after spending so much time together, she did not feel any sort of regret over her choice.

    No matter how deep her affections to a person were, when faced with the possibility for boundless power, as well as power over her own destiny, Beatrice was bound to only make one choice.

 179 : Alexa

    As she slowly opened her eyes and looked at the room wall in front of her, Beatrice couldn''t help but let out a faint breath, as a thoughtful look appeared on her face.

    "This speed is... quite unexpected..." mumbled Beatrice, feeling the extreme speed at which her soul was transforming a few moments ago.

    Whilst Beatrice was meditating, the speed of her soul transformation was far beyond her expectations.

    Originally, though, Beatrice only expected her soul to be able to transform a little bit faster than other that of other mages at her rank.

    Instead, Beatrice''s soul was actually transforming several times faster than the examples she had read about in her teacher''s notebook.

    In fact, even is Beatrice did not do anything to increase her speed, Beatrice felt as though her soul should be able to reach perfection in just around one hundred years.

    Although this speed would be unacceptable to normal people, the more Beatrice thought about it, the more satisfied with this speed she became.

    Unlike normal humans, as long as Beatrice managed to reach the Archmage realm, her lifespan would increase exponentially, allowing her to easily make up for this lost time.

    In fact, Beatrice even thought about just going into seclusion, and not coming out for over a hundred years.

    "You know, this could be quite a good idea..." mumbled Beatrice as she touched her chin with her hand.

    ...

    In the end, Beatrice decided against such a long seclusion, both fearing that the combat power advantage that she had against other mages would vanish after such a long time, and that she would not have enough time to complete her preparations for the Archmage Realm with the time she had left after that.

    After a few more hours of thought, Beatrice then decided her next course of plans, whose beginning would be signaled by Diana going out of her home, and back into civilization.

    At least relative civilization.

    ...

    Looking at little Alexa, who was standing in front of her with an excited look on her face, Margaret couldn''t help but feel somewhat touched, causing her to finally listen to the pleas of the girl.

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    "Fine, you''re a big girl now Alexa, you can go play with the other kids, but I need to see you back here by dinner, otherwise you can forget about going out again," said Margaret as she looked at her granddaughter, causing the latter to quickly nod, having seemingly understood her grandmother''s orders.

    Although little Alexa had sneaked out just a few days ago, Margaret didn''t know that the little girl was at her most energetic stage, and was not willing to restrict her too much.

    Merely a few moments after that, Alexa begun happily jumping along, quickly getting out of the house and running to a rather secluded corner of the village in an experienced fashion not fit for a young girl like her.

    What greeted Alexa at the edge of the village were three kids, two older boys who were sitting next to a young boy, who had a gag in his mouth.

    "Alexa, we managed to get him," said one of the older boys as he pointed towards the young boy with an excited look on his face, seemingly awaiting Alexa to fulfill her end of the deal.

    Seeing this, Alexa faintly smiled before grabbing something out of her pockets.

    The moment the two boys say the six pieces of candy laying in Alexa''s hands, their eyes suddenly lit up even more, causing the two to run up to the girl with excited looks on their faces.

    "Are you two sure that nobody knows that you got him?" asked Alexa as she looked at the boys, causing the two to quickly nod.

    Not too long ago, this little boy had made fun of Alexa for being shorter than him, with originally had nothing to do with the two boys, but then, surprisingly though, Alexa agreed to give the boys six pieces of candy if the two of them brought the boy to her so that she could teach him a lesson.

    "Don''t worry, we sneaked out without anyone noticing!" said the other boy with a naive smile on his face as he placed one of the candies into his mouth.

    A moment later, the boy suddenly tripped, causing him to instantly fall over his comrade.

    Originally, another kid falling on his shouldn''t have been much for the oldest boy, but as soon his younger comrade fell on him, the legs of the oldest boy also gave up, as a small leg suddenly smashed against them.

    Before the two boys could let out even a single scream, two swift kicks in the guts, followed by hands pinning them down by their necks, completely nipped their ability to shout in the bud.

    Then, with brutality that one could never have expected from a young girl, Alexa''s leg suddenly smashed into the head of the oldest boy, completely caving in his skull with Alexa''s surprisingly high strength.

    At that moment, the mind of everyone present, other than Alexa, suddenly blanked, not being able to comprehend the brutal death of their friend.

    But before the other boy could even struggle, another one of Alexa''s brutal attacks nipped that threat in the bud, causing her to faintly frown.

    "My feet got dirty..." mumbled ''Alexa'' as she looked stared at her bloody legs with a cold look that no seven-year-old could ever have on her face.

    Even Beatrice, who had noticed the fact that two boys seemed to be kidnapping another boy, and had become interested in the scene, was sure of this.

    That thing in front of her, was not a child, Beatrice was at least sure of that.

    But even though Beatrice had already established this, she still continued staring at the scene that went on and on, for far too long.

    In a swift and violent burst, Alexa''s leg suddenly smashed into the head of the little boy, causing a large smile to appear on the face of Alexa, who soon bent down and began eating the brain out of the open head of the boy.

 180 : Scythia Part 1

    Looking at the young girl in front of her, who was currently eating the brain of a similarly young boy, as well as at the soul that inhabited her body, which was much older than her physical age would have you believe, Beatrice couldn''t help but touch her chin, as a suspicious look appeared on her face.

    ''Was she possessed?'' thought Beatrice as she looked at the young girl with an interested look on her face.

    Although body possession was very much not perfect, and would have great effects on the person doing the possession, Beatrice was not interested in the being that was possessing, instead, she was much more interested in the little girl that had seemingly been possessed.

    In an instant, Beatrice appeared behind ''Alexa'' and placed her hand on the latter''s head, causing the girl to quickly become unconscious.

    After just a few moments, Beatrice had found what she had searching for, the soul of the original host of this body, making her certain that a possession had taken place.

    A moment later, Beatrice then turned her attention onto the mage that had done the possessing, only to be disappointed a moment later.

    Unlike what Beatrice had expected, the mage that had possessed Alexa, was not actually an Official Mage, and was instead just a mage apprentice.

    In fact, she was not even a powerful mage apprentice, being quite pitifully weak in fact, only knowing a few spells.

    In just a few moments, the entire life of this mage flashed through Beatrice''s eyes, causing Beatrice to click her teeth.

    "I almost pity her..." mumbled Beatrice as she looked at the little girl in front of her with a weird expression on her face.

    As one might expect, the mage that had possessed Alexa, ''Lady Scythia'' had been born, raised, and lived her entire life here on Golwall Island, where both the density of elemental energy, and the number of mages was extremely pitiful.

    Unlike Diana, Scythia did not have the opportunity to go to any sort of magic academy, as she was a commoner, and was busy surviving.

    By the time Scythia discovered the existence of mages, as well as her talent thanks to a tome she had found in the wilderness, she was already 23 years old, making no magic academy willing to take her in, as her personality had already been formed, and she would not be able to truly feel a sense of belonging to any academy.

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    As such, to learn magic, Scythia had to rely on the random tome that she had found at random.

    Of course, if Scythia had truly found the tome at random, or she had been attracted by it thanks to her elemental affinity, was another question entirely.

    Sadly, though, time had already taken its toll on the ancient tome that Scythia had found, making it very incomplete.

    As such, the tome had just a few spells in it, including some curses that Scythia had not yet managed to master, as well as a few offensive spells, and finally, a very incomplete body possession spell.

    Using these spells as her foundation though, Scythia managed to survive out in the barren wilderness of Golwall island for over forty years, allowing her to become a High Ranking Mage Apprentice at last.

    By that time though, thanks to her extremely rough childhood, and the many injuries that Scythia had throughout her life, her body was at it''s limit, causing her to take a final risk.

    Originally, back in the ancient past, the tome might have had a quite well-made body possession spell, but in the state that Scythia had found it, the spell lacked several important parts, which meant that no sane mage would try to cast it on themselves, as the danger of even complete body possession was extremely high.

    In the end, knowing that although her soul still had a lot of time left, her body was nearly dead, Scythia took this risk that had a 99 percent chance of killing her, and searched for someone with at least a sliver of Darkness Affinity, before finding Alexa just as her body was about to collapse.

    Somehow, though, it was as if Scythia''s risk taking behavior was seen by the gods, who decided to give her a chance to survive, although in not a very good state.

    As Scythia''s spell was incomplete, it seemed as though a some severe damage had been done to Scythia''s soul, which the latter was completely aware of, which led her to the current scene.

    After discovering the fact that her soul was losing more and more of its energy every moment, Scythia decided to devour another soul, hoping to use it as a source of energy while she figured out a more permanent solution.

    ...

    In the end, though, Beatrice could see Scythia''s future much more clearly than Scythia herself.

    Although devouring souls is not necessarily bad, and Beatrice herself had done so, one single word was key when doing something like that.

    Moderation.

    No matter what Scythia did, her need to devour souls to sustain herself would soon lead to her doom, as her own soul would become muddled by the souls she devoured, and would transform into a monstrosity without any mind of its own, beginning to wander the island, searching for more and more souls to devour.

    Even though Beatrice felt quite a bit of pity towards the rather unfortunate mage, an idea suddenly popped up into her mind.

    "Letting you live on like this, and not letting you kill yourself by devouring souls could be considered helping you..." mumbled Beatrice as she suddenly swapped the position of Alexa''s and Scythia''s souls, placing Alexa back in control using her overwhelming raw power.

    A moment later, under Beatrice''s power, Scythia''s soul suddenly became extremely fragile and weak, before shattering into some tiny pieces in Alexa''s body.

    A few moments later, Beatrice, who felt as though she had found a new apprentice, began helping Alexa devour the pieces of Scythia''s soul.

 181 : Scythia Part 2

    As she opened her eyes and looked at the blue sky above her, a confused expression couldn''t help but appear on Alexa''s face.

    A moment later, though, Alexa suddenly clutched her head, as a pained look appeared on her face.

    In only a few moments, though, the human that was formerly named Alexa, regained her senses, and understood her current state.

    "Why... why am I here?" mumbled Scythia, formerly known as Alexa, with a confused look on her face.

    "What''s your name?" asked a female voice from behind Scythia, causing the girl to suddenly freeze for a brief moment.

    Even though Scythia herself had no desire to answer this question, her mouth seemed to open on its own at the orders of this mysterious voice.

    "Scythia..."

    ...

    Looking at the young girl who was currently lying down on the ground in front of her, Beatrice couldn''t help but touch her chin.

    ''It looks like Scythia''s personality has fully devoured that of the little girl...'' thought Beatrice as she smiled at the girl, which the latter did not see.

    ''The imbalance between the powers of their souls seemed to have caused the soul absorption to slightly mutate, transforming it into something more akin to a fusion, very interesting...''

    "Scythia, you can get up now," said Beatrice as she bent down and touched the forehead of the little girl, causing a frown to appear on the latter''s immature face, as Scythia did not appreciate the touch of the older woman very much.

    But even though this was the case, the fact that Scythia herself had become somewhat uncomfortable lying down on the hard ground, as well as the extreme power that was contained within Beatrice''s voice, got up from the ground and stared at the woman that had woken her up.

    Even though Scythia''s memories were a little bit scrambled, as she stared at the winged woman in front of her, she knew that even in her prime, back in her last life, she would not be able to resist the woman in front of her in the slightest.

    This was the instinct of Scythia, someone who had lived at the edge of life and death for years, and had developed a keep instinct in danger, as well as the instinct of every living being when they were faced with a wholly superior life form at work.

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    But even though Scythia''s instincts told her to keep her head down and obey the person in front of her, the pride that the former mage had accumulated throughout her life was not something that could be discarded so easily.

    Even right now, when she did not have access to most of her memories, this pride of Scythia''s still lingered on, no matter how weak even Scythia''s past life seemed to Beatrice.

    "What do you want from me?" asked Scythia, who was unaware of the subtle changed that had happened to her whilst she was unconscious, as well as of the fact that she was not truly Scythia.

    Of course, right now Scythia was also not Alexa, as under the watchful eyes of Beatrice, the souls of the two completely fused with one another.

    "I will take you as my apprentice," said Beatrice as she let out a slight chuckle, causing Scythia''s face to slightly freeze.

    Hearing the way the woman in front of her uttered the word ''will'', Scythia knew that becoming the other party''s apprentice was not something she could refuse.

    At best, the woman would probably play some cruel trick on her before leaving, and at worst, a ''Scythia'' would become the apprentice of the person in front of her.

    As for whether that Scythia would be the same Scythia that existed right now, Scythia knew that was very unlikely.

    "Scythia greets teacher," said Scythia as she slightly lowered her head, causing Beatrice to faintly smile once again.

    "Very good, I knew at a glance that you would appreciate my offer," said Beatrice as she stretched out her hand and patted the head of the young girl.

    "Now follow me, I still have something to here before I can take you away," continued Beatrice as she pointed at the village proper, which began only a few dozen meters in front of her.

    ...

    Although Scythia had simply possessed the body of Alexa, and planned to use the village the little girl originated from as her home while she recovered her strength, and didn''t really hold any sort of emotions towards it, as she stared at the scene before her, Alexa felt a chill envelop her heart.

    In what seemed like just a moment, the entire village, which was composed of over a thousand people, was wiped from the map.

    Although Alexa was a Dark Mage, and did all kinds of experiments that some would consider ''evil'', Alexa knew that she could not conduct such a senseless slaughter of women and children, at least without major benefits to herself.

    As for the person that she had taken as her ''teacher'', the latter seemed to have no such scruples, as human life seemingly held no such weight in the mind of the winged woman.

    "That wasn''t the Dark Bolt spell, it was something else..." mumbled Scythia as she stared at the crater which was all that remained of the village.

    As she had mastered the Dark Bolt spell in her past life, Scythia would of course recognize the spell, interestingly though Scythia only recognized a small bit of it, making her assumed that what her teacher had cast was some sort of improved version.

    "Such raw power... dozens of times more powerful than even my strongest Dark Bolt..." mumbled Scythia as she watched her teacher quickly fly towards her with no expression on her face, as if she had not reaped the lives of over a thousand people.

    But unlike what Scythia had expected, her teacher did not stop flying after reaching her, instead, Scythia suddenly began following her teacher, and began flying behind her with a shocked expression on her face.

 182 : Scythia Part 3

    Merely a few moments after being picked up by her teacher and being raised to the sky, Scythia''s young body finally could not bear the stress, causing her to lose consciousness.

    ...

    As she opened her eyes, a confused look couldn''t help but appear on Scythia''s face while she stared at the roof above her.

    "This elemental energy..."

    As she felt the extremely large amount of elemental energy floating through the air right now, Scythia felt as though she was in heaven.

    A moment later, the memories of what had happened returned to Scythia''s mind like a hurricane, causing her to suddenly rise from the bed she was in, and begin looking for that ''teacher'' of hers.

    Scythia did not have to search for long at all, as only a few seconds after the girl had awoken from her slumber, the door to the room she was in opened, causing her teacher to walk in.

    ...

    As she looked at ''Scythia'', who was staring at her with a cautious look in her eyes, Beatrice couldn''t help but lightly shake her head.

    "Come after me," said Beatrice, causing the young girl, who had rested for an unknown amount of time, to get up from her bed and begin following her.

    After walking for just a few moments, and passing through several translucent barriers that made Scythia feel a little bit nervous, the two finally reached their destination, causing Beatrice to sit in her comfortable chair at her desk.

    Seeing this, after a moment of hesitation, Scythia sat down on the seat opposite of Beatrice.

    ...

    Two Hours later

    As she walked away from her teacher, with her mind having been filled with all sorts of words and explanations, Scythia couldn''t help but feel a little bit lost.

    For the past 2 hours, Scythia''s new teacher, who she learned was named ''Beatrice'', actually taught the young girl, which was beyond every single one of the latter''s expectations.

    Even as Scythia fell down onto her new bed, feeling exhausted, her mind was still in deep thought.

    ''What does she have planned?''

    ''Why did she begin teaching me?''

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    ''What are her reasons for doing something like this?''

    As a Dark Mage herself, Scythia was far more aware of the nature of Dark Mages than other people, and knew best that these types of mages usually do not do anything without obtaining some sort of benefit.

    Did her new teacher plan to devour her soul, to possess her body, or do something even more nefarious or cruel to her?

    But even though this was the case, even though Scythia knew that as long as she stayed with her new teacher, her fate will probably not be pretty, she still made no attempt at an escape.

    Although Scythia knew that she could try to escape, the huge amount of knowledge that her teacher had bestowed upon her in just a 2-hour period made Scythia salivate.

    In just 2 hours, even though she had not learned any new spells, Scythia felt as though she had learned more than in 20 years of her life.

    This huge amount of knowledge tempted Scythia so much that the girl had made a decision, she would stay here, and learn from her new teacher, no matter the danger.

    After making this silent decision, Scythia then turned her attention onto the next topic, which was just as important as her very safety.

    Who she was.

    Was she Scythia, or was she just Alexa, who was deluding herself?

    Although from the words of her teacher, Scythia knew that neither of these things were really true, and that things were much more complicated than this, her mind still could not help but struggle.

    Suddenly, though, Scythia raised her hand in front of her, and began manipulating the small amounts of mana that existed within her body, causing a small dark shadow to appear in front of her.

    But even though Scythia seemingly knew the Dark Bolt spell to near perfection, and had cast it thousands of times, at the moment, Scythia seemed to have returned to the time when she had just become a mage, back in her first life.

    It seemed as though Scythia had lost all of her skill in casting spells, causing the mana within her body to become foreign to her.

    As she remembered how before she met her teacher, back when she had just possessed this body of hers, and was within the village, she could easily control her mana, Scythia couldn''t help but fall silent, tears streaming down her eyes.

    ''Am I not me?''

    ...

    Although Beatrice was aware of the struggles of her new apprentice, she knew that she could not do anything, and had to let the girl decide who she was on her own.

    Furthermore, although Beatrice spent some time teaching this apprentice of hers, she still had many things to do, especially right now though, as she discovered something interesting.

    "The elemental energy concentration rose again..." mumbled Beatrice, who was floating midair, several kilometers in the sky, with a thoughtful look on her face.

    After not growing at all for a few months, the elemental energy in the air suddenly grew over 1 percent in density, making Beatrice feel a little bit confused.

    "Something big is coming in the future..." mumbled Beatrice as she stared at the world below her, which now looked a little bit more ''alive'' than before.

    But even though Beatrice was somewhat wary of the growth of the elemental energy within the air, as she was unaware of what consequences it could bring, she couldn''t help but also feel a sense of anticipation.

    Beatrice herself knew it, instinctually, like every single other mage, Beatrice desired a larger amount of elemental energy, even if this larger amount was bound to cause some new, unexpected dangers to appear.

    After staring at the horizon for a few moments more, Beatrice couldn''t help but shake her head and let out a deep breath.

    "Something of this scale is not something I can influence right now, I shouldn''t worry about it..." mumbled Beatrice before finally flying downwards.

 183 : Selenas Return

    At the same time, on another island, not very far away from Beatrice.

    As she stared at the shadowy figure that was forming in front of her, Skye Higgins couldn''t help but faintly smile.

    "Selena, it''s been such a long time since you''ve last visited, what gives?" asked Skye as she stared at the figure that was slowly but surely transforming into a woman, causing the latter to let out a slight chuckle.

    "I was just a little bit busy these past few decades, and wasn''t able to make much time to come visit this place, but it looks as though you''ve made some progress while we haven''t seen each other, you almost caught up to me." said Selena as the shadowy figure transformed to look identically to her true body.

    At the same time, Selena''s eyes couldn''t help but scour Skye, feeling the extreme power hidden beneath the latter''s small body, causing the Water Archmage to slightly chuckle.

    "This place is quite close to your homeland, I find it quite unlikely that you haven''t visited that place in such a long time, with how sentimental you are..." said Skye as she water suddenly appeared in front of her, transforming into a solid table with two chairs.

    As she grabbed the chair with her hand, sat down on it, and felt its permanence, Selena couldn''t help but smile.

    Although Official Mages, and even Mage Apprentices, could do the same thing that Skye did just now, nobody below the level of an Archmage could make it truly last.

    Even if some powerful Official Mage spent a lot of effort and time focusing their mana, their constructs would at most last a few decades before dissipating.

    On the other hand, although Skye''s work could be destroyed if enough force were applied, it would never dissipate, instead, its tiny shards would wonder the world for an enormous amount of time, before being incorporated into the very world itself, becoming eternal in the process.

    "It''s really true, I''ve been so busy these past few decades that I didn''t even have time to go back to visit, I do plan on going to see what is happening over there after a while," said Selena as she picked up a cup of tea that had just appeared in front of her.

    Hearing that, Skye nodded her head.

    "That''s a pity, so why have you come here?" asked Skye as she finally turned serious.

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    "I''ve come here to visit you, why else would I come?" asked Selena as she tilted her head sideways, appearing somewhat confused, causing Skye to slightly narrow her eyes.

    "Cut the bullshit, I know you very well Selena, lying to be so obviously will not work," said Skye as she looked at Selena, causing the latter to slightly chuckle.

    "You''ve caught me, I''m here to cash in a certain favor of mine..."

    ...

    Some time later,

    As she opened the door and walked into the meeting room, where Skye Higgins was currently sitting alone, Joan White couldn''t help but breathe out a sigh of relief, causing her to quickly walk up to the woman and sit down.

    "Sister Skye, why did that woman want from you this time?" asked Joan, causing Skye to let out a faint sigh.

    "Thankfully it''s nothing major, she just asked me about the movements of the Major Academies in the area, truthfully, using the favor that she gave us back then for something this minor is a great deal," said Skye as looked at Joan, causing the latter to nod.

    "No, no, that''s very good, I''m just a little bit concerned about what she wants to do, you of all people, should know best of all how dangerous it can be to involve ourselves with that woman, especially now that tensions between her and the Magic Academies is on the rise," said Joan with a large from on her face.

    "We don''t have to worry about the Academies for now, I''ve already done some negotiation with them not too long ago, they shouldn''t bother us for now, and even if they do, I''m sure that Serena would be more than willing to put a wrench in their plans," said Skye as she smiled.

    "Hopefully it is as you say..." mumbled Joan, who was somewhat worried right now.

    ...

    As she looked at the island behind her, Selena, who was currently floating through the air, couldn''t help but let out a sigh.

    "Skye became an Archmage, this complicates things quite a bit..." mumbled Selena, who had originally planned to have the Water Archmage help her in her plans.

    Now that the latter had reached the same level as her though, this was no longer something that was possible, meaning Selena would have to slightly adjust her plans.

    Whilst Selena was deep into thought, she was also quickly flying through the sky, dozens of times faster than Beatrice could at her highest speed.

    As such, in just a short amount of time, Selena was able to reach her destination, Golwall Island, her home.

    In just a few minutes, Selena flew above the underground home of a certain Dark Mage, as well as nearly half of the island, and reached her destination.

    The Watford Family Manor.

    The instant Selena appeared above the Manor, her eyes suddenly spread out and investigated the Watford family, making sure that the Magic Academy did not interfere with it.

    It was not that Selena cared much about the family itself, rather, the Archmage was quite a bit afraid of the Magic Academies, especially the Shadow Monestary, who specialized in Dark Magic, using the Watford family to cast curses on her.

    In merely a few minutes, Selena traced out the entire Watford bloodline that she had missed in the decades that she wasn''t here.

    But just as Selena was about to finish checking the entire family, she froze for a brief moment, as she reached a certain member, which she had just learned about from the memories of one of the other Watford Family members.

    Iris Watford, who was married to a certain man named Renald Ages...

 184 : Selenas Return

    In merely a few minutes, Selena read the memories of the entirety of the Watford family, allowing her to quickly figure out what she had happened in the decades that she was gone for.

    From these memories, one single, thing, or rather, a single person immediately stuck out like a sore thumb to Selena.

    Iris Watford, who had a very uncanny resemblance to someone from Selena''s past.

    Only a few moments after learning of this person, and learning how she looked, Selena suddenly flew away from the Watford estate.

    ...

    As she looked at the city in front of her, which had been built not too long ago, after the previous city had been completely flooded and torn to shreds, Beatrice couldn''t help but touch her chin.

    "It looks like they''ve tightened up security a bit..." mumbled Beatrice, who was planning to kidnap some more people.

    Although Beatrice had taken in a large number of people after that disaster from ten years ago, after so much time, most of them had been put to good use, either on the farm on the lowest floor, on creating numerous smart ants, or from other experiments.

    It was not that Beatrice was unable to deal with the fledgling city in front of her, that was not the reason why Beatrice was feeling a bit frustrated right now.

    In fact, Beatrice could probably destroy the entirety of the Kingdom of Lyon, if she so wished.

    What Beatrice was afraid of was attention.

    It was quite likely that the disappearance of an entire city full of people would alert the entire island, which may then alert some random mage from the Magic Continent.

    If this mage was like Beatrice, and did not care much about people, thing would still be alright, as he would either go on his way or investigate further, when Beatrice would promptly kill him.

    But if, by chance, this mage did in fact care about human lives, he would most likely report the disappearance of this city, something which only a powerful mage could do, to the Magic Academies, which was what Beatrice was truly worried about.

    If she wanted to, Beatrice could of course sneakily kidnap small numbers of people over time, but such limited efficiency was not something that attracted Beatrice in the slightest, leading to her current conundrum.

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    A moment later, Beatrice froze for around a second, before turning around and looking at the very familiar person that was just staring at her.

    ...

    As she stared at the tall, winged mage in front of her, who was about 2 meters tall, Selena could not help but become slightly happy.

    ''It seems as though luck is on my side this time,'' thought Selena as she continued staring at the female mage.

    A Dark Mage, really quite powerful for an Official Mage, as well as someone who seemed to be just as interested in experimenting as her.

    Not only that, Selena and this mage also had a blood relation, although extremely faint.

    A suitable minion.

    In fact, this mage was even more suitable to become her minion than Skye Higgins, who was a little bit too powerful, as well as too close to becoming an Archmage for Selena''s tastes.

    ...

    As she looked at Selena, her former teacher, who was silently inspecting her with a thoughtful look on her face, Beatrice couldn''t help but begin silently cursing her bad luck.

    Although Beatrice did not know what the chances of her encountering an Archmage while hidden on Golwall Island were, she knew they were quite small, as even Selena, who was by far the Archmage she was most likely to encounter, had not come to this island in decades.

    After a few moments of thought, Beatrice finally spoke.

    "Senior, how might I have disturbed you?" asked Beatrice with an extremely respectful look on her face, bowing as she looked at the Archmage, displaying the image that she had just the discovered the other party was an Archmage.

    ...

    As she looked at the little girl in front of her, who was seemingly calm, but in truth, extremely stared of her, Selena could not help but wave her hand, signaling to the girl to abandon her stance.

    "Don''t worry, you didn''t bother me in the slightest, I was simply surprised to see that a direct descendant of mine had become an Official Mage, especially after the Magic Academies began acting," said Selena with a smile on her face, causing Beatrice to instantly realize what was happening.

    ''This old hag wants to use me as a minion...''

    In the end, although Beatrice definitely did not want to involve herself with Selena, she still quickly obeyed the latter''s words on the surface, knowing that she might have a bad fate if she disobeyed the old witch.

    ...

    Only a few hours later,

    "Sister Selena, that''s my apprentice, I took her in not too long ago, so she doesn''t know very much yet," said Beatrice as she pointed towards the young girl that was currently reading a book with all her might.

    Although Beatrice''s hideout was very hard to find for Official Mages, Beatrice knew that she would not be able to hide from an Archmage in the slightest, and quickly showed it to her newfound ''relative'' after the latter asked for her home.

    "That''s very good, getting an apprentice is a good thing to do while you have some free time," said Selena as she looked at the walls of the room, feeling a bit surprised by Beatrice''s underground hideout.

    It was not that the hideout itself was beyond reason, as although large, it could definitely not compare to her own home back before she became an Archmage.

    No, what surprised Selena was the faint resemblance that this hideout had to her underground home.

    It was as if Beatrice had taken inspiration from her, although Selena knew that this was not possible.

    In the end, Selena could only say that great minds think alike, was not able to further comment on the hideout of her ''descendant''

 185 : Task

    As she walked through her home with Selena behind her, Beatrice was waiting, waiting for the woman behind her to speak on her real goal.

    But even after over thirty minutes had passed, Selena was still very silent, and did not about her true goal in the slightest, causing Beatrice to begin feeling a little bit worried.

    ...

    As she looked at Beatrice, who had just finished showing her the underground home that she had built, Selena slightly clapped, for just a few moments.

    "Very well done, this place is quite impressive," said Selena as she suddenly sped up and began walking side by side with Beatrice, causing the latter to smile.

    "Thanks for the compliment, sister Selena..." said Beatrice, aware of the personality of the witch next to her.

    "It''s nothing, It''s just that I''m quite impressed with your ability, and I need some help on some things," said Selena as she lightly chuckled at Beatrice''s use of the word ''Sister''.

    As soon as Beatrice heard Selena''s words, she immediately felt a chill in the bottom of her heart, as she instinctually knew that refusing to help Selena would be a very bad idea.

    In fact, Beatrice even felt as though she might die if she refused to help the older witch, causing her to suddenly respond.

    "Sister Selena, we''re relatives after all, it''s only normal for me to come to young help," said Beatrice as she slightly gulped.

    Although Selena did not hear Beatrice gulp, she still felt the slight amount of fear that was currently permeating the room, causing her to smile.

    "Yea, I shouldn''t have doubted you in the first place, let''s go somewhere else to discuss some other details..." said Selena as she stretched out her hand and patted Beatrice on her shoulder, causing all the pressure the girl was feeling to suddenly disappear.

    In fact, if someone who did not know the true circumstances of what was happening saw this scene, they would probably think that this was an interaction between two ''sister''s''.

    Of course, Beatrice wasn''t dumb enough to believe that Selena had lowered her guard against her, in fact, the older witch was probably even more wary of her than before, or so thought Beatrice.

    ...

    Some minutes later, on the Fifth Floor.

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    "Beatrice, have you been on the Magic Continent?" asked Selena as she looked at Beatrice, causing the younger witch to nod.

    "This will make things much easier, I simply need you to ''eliminate'', a certain mage from the magic continent, and as long as you do that, this will be yours, do we have ourselves a deal?" asked Selena as she took out a thick notebook from her robes and began playing with it.

    As she stared at the notebook that Selena was currently toying with in her hands, Beatrice suddenly bit her lips.

    Although Beatrice did not know what the contents of the notebook in front of her were, she immediately knew two things.

    One, this was not a notebook that her teacher had given to her in her previous life.

    Two, Beatrice could feel a thick aura of darkness coming from the notebook, one which clearly indicated there was something quite interested hidden within it.

    Seeing that Beatrice was deep in thought, Selena once again spoke up.

    "This is the notebook in which I''ve recorded some of my early insights into Darkness, as well as some of my insights into reaching the Soul Transformation Stage," said Selena, causing a look of desire to immediately appear on Beatrice''s face.

    "Sister Selena, are you sure that I can kill that mage?" asked Beatrice, who could not resist the notebook in front of her.

    "It''s true that the mage you are about to target is guarded by another mage a bit more powerful than you, but you don''t have to worry, what you have to do is simply get close to him and activate this," said Selena as she took out a small orb and placed it on the table in front of her.

    "If I not for the fact that my identity is a bit ''special'', and I cannot get close to her, I would have long since killed that mage, that''s why I needed you to help me," finished Selena.

    At first glance, Beatrice could not detect anything remarkable about the orb, but as she stretched out her hand and touched the unremarkable orb, Beatrice froze for a brief moment.

    If Beatrice simply injected a bit of her mana into the orb in front of her, both she, and her entire huge home would be instantly annihilated from existence.

    After taking another look at Selena, as well as at the notebook she was holding, Beatrice immediately became certain of what she had to do.

    "I understand sister Selena, who do I have to kill?" asked Beatrice as she looked at the Witch in front of her, causing Selena to smile and take out a piece of paper from her robe.

    As she stared at the face that was plastered onto that piece of paper, Beatrice couldn''t help but smile.

    "Don''t worry sister, I will kill her as soon as I can meet her, the only thing that might take some time is getting to the continent," said Beatrice with a faint smile on her face, seemingly satisfied with her target.

    Hearing that, Selena couldn''t help but faintly smile.

    "You don''t have to worry about that," said Selena with a smile on her face, causing Beatrice to suddenly lose consciousness.

    ...

    As soon as Beatrice lost consciousness, Selena immediately grabbed her and began flying away without doing anything else.

    In just a few moments, Selena exited Beatrice''s underground hideout, before flying off Golwall Island in just a few minutes.

    After around five minutes of flying through the air, Selena finally reached her destination, a tiny rocky island near Stoughlodge Island, the home of the Rose Guild, only around a hundred meters in size.

    ...

    The moment Beatrice regained consciousness, she suddenly opened her eyes, revealing the face of Selena, who was standing right above her.

    ''Just ten minutes have passed, thought Beatrice, as she immediately became aware of her surroundings, as well as the fact that she had somehow reached the Magic Continent.

 186 : Above the skies

    Even though she was quite curious about how the two of them had reached the Magic Continent in such a short amount of time, Beatrice knew better than to inquire about the method, aware of the fact that Selena seemed to want to keep it secret.

    A moment after that, Beatrice then rose from the ground and began surveying her surroundings.

    Right now, both Beatrice and Selena were standing at the entrance of an inconspicuous case, which was obviously the way Selena had gotten her here.

    "This is where we part ways for now, little Beatrice, you can come here after you complete your mission and I will take you back to the Island, or you can go back on your own, if you so desire," said Selena as she looked at Beatrice, causing the latter to nod.

    A few moments later, with a flap of her wings, Beatrice suddenly rose from the ground before beginning to fly away without responding to Selena''s words, causing the older Witch to let out a chuckle.

    "Still a little bit wary of me, how cute..." mumbled Selena as she stared at the back of the flying witch with a smile on her face.

    A moment later, Selena walked back into the cave, seemingly in a very good mood.

    ...

    As she flew through the air and felt the wind blow against her face, Beatrice couldn''t help but breathe a faint sigh of relief before falling into thought.

    Right now, at least temporarily, Beatrice was safe, as she was careful to not let Selena place any sort of mark on her.

    What troubles Beatrice right now was a certain question.

    Should she go through with her task?

    If she did go through with it, and killed that mage, Beatrice knew that any chance at reconciliation with the Magic Academies that she had in the past would be gone, causing her to become hunted by them.

    Although Selena would most likely help her hide herself a bit, this was not certain, as the Witch of Death could simply abandon her at will.

    But even so, at first glance, going through with this assassination seemed to be Beatrice''s best bet at the moment, as if she did not do it, she would have to abandon all the things she had accumulated for the past ten years.

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    Furthermore, Beatrice would both be hunted down by Selena for tricking her, at least probably, and not have the best relationship with the Magic Academies, causing her situation to become quite bad.

    Lastly, although it was faint, Beatrice did have a tiny bit of goodwill towards Selena, as the witch treated her quite well in her previous life.

    After thinking through all of these details in just a few moments, Beatrice decided on what to do, causing her to turn her attention on the piece of paper in front of her.

    As she stared at the familiar face on the piece of paper, which she had not seen in over a decade, Beatrice couldn''t help but let out a faint sigh.

    "Susan became an Official Mage, how impressive..." mumbled Beatrice with a faint smile on her face.

    Susan was of course one of the children that had come to the Magic Continent from Lyon Kingdom.

    Back then, as Susan was one of the few children who was not of noble origin, Beatrice tried to take the girl in as her minion.

    Sadly though, things didn''t pan out, and Susan, with her A Grade Water Affinity, seemed to have gone to the Wizard''s Hand Academy.

    Although Beatrice was unsure about how Susan had interfered with Selena''s plans, she knew that the commoner girl probably made Selena pretty angry, since the witch went as far as to send someone to hunt her down.

    Based on the information in front of her, Susan had just become an Official Mage a year ago, and was much weaker than Beatrice, with the only issue that could Accor being her teacher, who was an experienced Official Mage.

    "This should be quite easy..."

    ...

    In the end, after some investigation, Beatrice discovered her current location, which was in a corner of the Dyon Kingdom, actually not very far away from Selena''s hideout.

    As for Beatrice''s target? Based on the information provided to her by Selena, Susan and her teacher had just gone out on a mission in the Slumor Kingdom.

    To get to the Slumor Kingdom, Beatrice would have to travel through both the Dyon Kingdom, and the Maeniel Kingdom, before arriving in Slumor.

    By then, Beatrice would have left the sphere of influence of the Shadow Monestary and entered that of the Wizard''s Hand.

    After finding out her current location, as well as the direction she needed to go into, Beatrice rose above the clouds and began flying there, using her wings to fly far above most Official Mages.

    Unlike back in her youth, when it took her along about of time to go from place to place, with her current speed, Beatrice was able to arrive in the Maeniel Kingdom in just under half a day.

    After that, Beatrice then had to fly another day to get out of the Maeniel Kingdom and reach her destination.

    Halfway through that journey, though, Beatrice finally encountered someone else.

    ...

    As she stared at the winged mage that was currently flying in her direction, Venus, who had two wings of wind stretching out of her back, couldn''t help but frown.

    As a Wind Mage, Venus liked to travel quite a bit, knew nearly every single mage in the area that liked to fly at such heights, as such, as soon as Venus saw that unfamiliar figure, she immediately put her guard up and began slightly changing her direction.

    Although Venus was not afraid of trouble, the aura of the mage in front of her, as well as her wings, which oozed darkness, made Venus not want to bring too much trouble to herself.

    A few moments later, Venus and the Dark Mage passed by each other, causing both of them to silently breathe sighs of relief.

 187 : Close

    As she stared at the Wind Mage in front of her, who was slowly but surely shifting her direction, and avoiding meeting her face to face, Beatrice, who was slightly tense at the moment, couldn''t help but breathe a sigh of relief.

    ''Getting myself involved in trouble right now is not a very good idea, I should be more cautious...'' thought Beatrice as she continued speeding along to her destination.

    Although Beatrice knew that she was more powerful than the wind mage, getting into a fight could prove quite disastrous right now, especially if the opposing side is able to get some helpers.

    As such, before the other party changed her flying direction, Beatrice was prepared to do the same.

    ...

    After flying for a few more hours, Beatrice suddenly turned her attention to the ground below her, as her eyes instantly pierced through the clouds.

    From high above, Beatrice was clearly able to see the territories of both the Maeniel, and the Slumor Kingdom, allowing her to notice some massive differences.

    Although Beatrice was high up in the sky, she was able to clearly see farmers from both Kingdoms, allowing her to see the clear differences between them.

    Compared to the farmers from the Slumor Kingdom, who were clearly very healthy, those from the Maeniel Kingdom were clearly a bit thin and malnourished.

    Furthermore, as it was the middle of the day right now, when the sun was at it''s most powerful, the farmers from the Slumor Kingdom were resting, unlike their counterparts, who were still working in this heat, which was nigh unbearable for mortals.

    From what Beatrice could see, the farmers from the Maeniel Kingdom had clearly begun working early in the morning and had not stopped much other than to rest a bit.

    "I guess it''s to be expected that the management of the Wizard''s Hand and that of the Shadow Monastery would be different..." mumbled Beatrice as she touched her chin in thought.

    From above, Beatrice could see that the work of the Maeniel farmers seemed to be paying off, and that their fields were, in fact, richer than those of their counterparts.

    Beatrice could not comment on whether this increase in production was worth it, as she had not seen what effects the large amount of labor had on the Maeniel farmers.

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    After a few moments, Beatrice flew over the border, causing her to turn her attention away from such a boring topic, turning it onto the mission on at hand.

    "I need to a bit more careful," mumbled Beatrice as she turned her attention onto a piece of paper that was now floating in front of her.

    Based on the information that Selena had given her, both Susan, and her teacher were currently in Matine City, at the south of the Slumor Kingdom.

    Interestingly, right next to this city stood a large Elemental Stone mine, which was what Beatrice had to be wary of and avoid.

    Although Selena had not found out who the Official Mages guarding this mine were, she knew that there were three of them, who could definitely pose a threat to Beatrice if she alerted them.

    Other than that, there was nothing much of interest in the Slumor Kingdom other than some minor mage gathering, which did not interest Beatrice much.

    ...

    Several hours later, near dusk.

    As she stared at the city in the distance, as well as the mine that was just a few kilometers away from it, Beatrice slowly began retreating a safe distance away, outside of vision range, before quickly landing on the ground and beginning to walk to towards the city.

    As Matine City was near an Elemental Stone mine, the city had far greater defenses than normal cities, including several Mage Apprentices who were patrolling outside of it.

    ''Their minds might be protected by something, I shouldn''t risk it...'' thought Beatrice as she quickly passed by one of the apprentices without him noticing a thing.

    Originally, Beatrice had intended to read the memories of one of the mages so that she could gain a better idea of the layout of the city, and maybe even find Susan''s location.

    After some thought, Beatrice had then deemed this idea too dangerous, and had decided on a next course of action.

    Merely a hundred meters away from the city wall of Matine City, Beatrice suddenly stopped before turning into a small shadowy smoke cloud.

    A few moments after that, Beatrice then flew up on the side of the city wall, unseen by anyone thanks to the cover of the night, which was quickly getting darker and darker.

    Without any sort of difficulty, Beatrice got into the city, allowing her to then begin searching for any trace of mana throughout the city.

    Interestingly, Beatrice soon sensed mana coming from 2 different places, the city center, as well as its edge, where its poorest residents resided.

    As she thought of Susan''s personality, Beatrice then transformed back into her human form, now without her wings, and began walking towards the outskirts of the city while restraining her mana as much as possible.

    Slowly but surely, as Beatrice made her way towards the source of mana, which was constantly changing in size, likely because spells were being cast, while the houses around Beatrice began changing, beginning to look worse and worse.

    By the time five minutes had passed, and Beatrice came close to her destination, the buildings around Beatrice could no longer be describes as ''houses'', instead, shacks would be a better term for them.

    At that moment, Beatrice finally saw her target, Susan, who was currently healing a homeless person whilst her teacher watched from the side.

    As soon as Beatrice ''noticed'', Susan, a rather ''surprised'' look appeared on her face, causing Susan, who was busy healing the homeless man, to suddenly raise her head and stare at her.

    This caused Susan''s teacher to also turn her attention away from her disciple and onto the person that had arrived, a grave mistake.

 188 : Witch of Darkness

    Although the mages were distracted by her appearance for just a brief moment, this was more than enough for Beatrice.

    At this very moment, Beatrice, Susan, as well as the latter''s teacher were suddenly sent flying in two opposite directions, as an explosion suddenly erupted between Susan and her teacher.

    From that tiny center of the explosion, a shockwave, followed by a wave of darkness, suddenly traveled through the entirety of the city at rapid speeds, leveling it in seconds.

    ...

    The instant, Susan went flying, the transparent water barrier surrounding her shattered into a million piece, causing another barrier, which was not visible before, to suddenly appear.

    Unlike the previous barrier, this new barrier, which was clearly not of Susan''s own strength, was able to survive the explosion that had just accoured.

    Even so, the barrier was still very much litter with cracks.

    Although Beatrice was not as close to the epicenter of the explosion as Susan and her teacher, and was much better prepared than the two, she still suffered a bit from the explosion.

    But even so, as she flew through the air, Beatrice focused her attention onto Susan, who was sent flying in the same direction as her.

    A moment later, an extremely thin needle appeared in front of Beatrice.

    Rank 3 Spell, Dark Needle.

    Being extremely prepared for this, Beatrice was able to cast this complicated spell in just half a second, causing the needle that had just appeared in front of her to suddenly fly towards Susan.

    Unlike its weaker versions, the Rank 0 Dark Bolt, and the Rank 1 Dark Arrow, even as the Dark Needle flew through the air at breakneck speeds far above the speed of sound, no sonic boom was to be heard.

    In fact, not only did the Dark Needle not produce any sound altogether, even when it traveled at its fasted speed, it also utilized Dark Magic to make itself less noticeable.

    But even if this was not the case, in her current, battered state, Susan was not particularly aware of her surroundings.

    In just under one tenth of a second, the Dark Needle reached Susan before creating a tiny hole in her Dark Barrier, which had just formed itself back up, before passing through completely unobstructed.

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    Next was the second barrier that protected Susan, which the Dark Needle smashed through, using one of the many large cracks as a weak point, allowing it to finally reach its destination, Susan.

    A fraction of a moment later, the Dark Needle suddenly passed right through Susan''s skull, completely annihilating the entire head of the mage in the process, mainly thanks to the rather insane speed at which it was traveling at.

    Not only that, but at that very moment, the Dark Needle that Beatrice had specially prepared went beyond the material realm, and touched Susan''s soul, piercing it in the same way and smashing it apart.

    After seeing this, Beatrice faintly smiled before quickly flapping her wings and beginning to fly away from the scene, aware of the fact that both Susan''s teacher, and at least one of the three mages guarding the nearby mine were probably coming to her location at the moment.

    ...

    The moment Aphelia felt her connection with her apprentice break, an enraged expression appeared on her face, causing two wings of water to suddenly appear on her back, allowing her to nearly instantly arrive near the latter.

    After staring at her disciple, whose head had been completely annihilated alongside her soul, for just a brief moment, Aphelia instantly knew that the latter was already dead, and could not be saved at all, causing her to raise her head and stare into the distance, at the young mage that was flying away from her.

    "I... can''t catch up to her..." mumbled Aphelia as she stared at the mage, deeply imprinting the latter''s appearance into her mind.

    As an official mage, Aphelia was deeply aware of her limits, and knew that she could not match the speed of the mage, causing her to turn her attention back onto her dead apprentice and pick up her body before rising from the ground without the help of the water wings on her back.

    ...

    As she stared at the city below her, which had been completely wiped away from existence thanks to the power of the Witch of Death, Aphelia couldn''t help but fall into thought.

    After looking at her dead apprentice, Aphelia was able to quickly understand how the young mage had died.

    "Using her power as a distraction and to weaken us, before using a Dark Needle to finish her off..." said Aphelia with a frown on her face, deeply aware of the difficulty involved with casting the Dark Needle Spell.

    "It seems as though even without the help of the Witch of Death, this young witch shouldn''t be underestimated..." said a male voice, causing Aphelia to turn her attention to the middle-aged mage that had just appeared.

    "That''s true, Vale, have you investigated the city, are there any other survivors?" asked Aphelia as she approached the other mage, still holding her apprentice in her hands.

    "Other than a few apprentices who were patrolling the outskirts of the city, as well as the two stationed in the city hall, I''ve detected no other life signs in the entire city, but the two in the city hall were a bit on the edge, they would have probably died if I had not arrived in time," said Vale as he let out a faint sigh.

    Hearing Vale''s words, Aphelia couldn''t help let out a sigh of her own.

    "I''m going back to the academy to report this, I''ve seen the appearance of the assassin, I assume you can handle things on your own here?" said Aphelia, causing Vale to nod after a bit of hesitation.

    ...

    On this previously peaceful day, a name which in the future, would resound throughout the entire Mage Continent first appeared, named after the boundless amounts of darkness that would still permeate Matine City decades into the future.

    The Witch of Darkness was born.

 189 : Aftermath

    As soon as Beatrice got out of eyesight distance of Matine City, she immediately began rising higher and higher into the sky, eventually going above the clouds.

    A few moments after that, Beatrice also calmed down her mana, making it harder to detect as Beatrice stopped using it to assist her flight, instead only using her natural wings.

    After that, Beatrice soon became invisible to the naked eye, allowing her to finally fall into thought and think about the next course of action.

    ''I can''t waste much time in the Magic Continent, otherwise there''s a good chance that the Wizard''s Hand might find me...'' thought Beatrice, aware of the fact that going back to Golwall Island was the only decent option that she had.

    In fact, even if she went back, the Wizard''s Hand would still try to hunt her, but in this case, Beatrice could just stay in her hideout and not go out, allowing her to easily be safe.

    ''Selena should keep her word,'' thought Beatrice, aware of the personality of the older witch, as well as of the latter''s tendencies.

    From Beatrice''s point of view, Selena probably still thought of her as useful, and would not abandon her, at least not just yet.

    Soon after, Beatrice''s thoughts shifted, as she began thinking about some other things.

    ...

    As he stared at the headless corpse in front of her, as well as at this apprentice of his, who was standing next to it with a sad look present on her face, Archmage Arif couldn''t help but let out a sigh.

    "It''s as you say, the attacker has completely destroyed the soul of your apprentice, there is no chance of resurrection unless time itself is turned back," said Arif he touched his beard, just slightly sad, as time had slowly but surely worn down his emotions.

    Hearing the words of her teacher, Aphelia couldn''t help but finally lower her head and nod, seemingly accepting that Arif could do nothing.

    "I understand teacher..."

    Seeing the look on the face of his apprentice, Arif couldn''t help but want to slightly change the topic.

    "Have you kept a bit of the aura of the first attack?" asked Arif, causing Aphelia to nod and take out a small glass bottle, which contained a small floating cloud of darkness.

    "The Witch of Death, I didn''t expect her to be so angered by the actions of your apprentice," mumbled Arif as he stared down at the headless corpse in front of him, feeling the tiny amount of foreign aura lingering on it.

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    ''Young, just beginning to transform her soul, could in be Selena''s apprentice?'' thought Arif before finally decided what to do.

    "Aphelia, draw the appearance of the mage in question, I''ll give out a reward for any information about her from my own pocket," said Arif, deciding not to take too extreme of an action just yet, fearing that Selena would do something truly irresponsible.

    As soon as she heard Arif''s words, Aphelia''s eyes instantly lit up.

    "I understand teacher, I''ll get to work," said Aphelia before quickly walking out of the room, leaving the old man behind.

    As he stared at the surrounding room, which, outside of him and a corpse, was empty, Archmage Arif couldn''t help but shake his head.

    "How troublesome..." mumbled Arif as he snapped his fingers, causing Susan''s corpse to begin floating.

    ...

    A few days later,

    As soon as Orrel laid eyes on the bounty poster in front of him, which had been distributed by the Wizard''s Hand, he froze, as doubt appeared on his face.

    For some reason, the bounty poster in front of him made Orrel feel a little bit weird, causing him to suddenly begin digging through his memory, searching for someone that matched the appearance of the person on it.

    Merely a few moments later, as memories from over a decade ago rushed into his mind, Orrel couldn''t help but fall silent for a few moments, as he remembered a certain former apprentice of his that he had forgotten about a long time ago.

    "Taken in by Selena... how interesting..." mumbled Orrel as a vein appeared on his forehead.

    Although Orrel did not know what actually happened, he immediately theorized that Selena had actually stolen his disciple.

    For a few moments, Orrel became angry, but after he remembered the fact that Selena had become an Archmage, and he was far from that level right now, Orrel''s anger disappeared, causing him to simply fall silent.

    From that day, as the wanted posters from the Wizard''s hand were distributed, a large majority of the mages from the magic continent became aware of Beatrice''s appearance, making it so that if she retained her original appearance, Beatrice wouldn''t be able to go anywhere without being recognized.

    Sadly for the Wizard''s Hand, by now, Beatrice was no longer on the Magic Continent.

    ...

    As she looked at Selena, who was currently staring at a piece of paper with a smile on her face, Beatrice, who had just arrived, couldn''t help but feel a little bit weird, causing her to arrive at Selena''s side silently.

    "As expected of my descendant, you have my charm from when I was younger..." mumbled Selena as she handed the piece of paper to Beatrice, allowing her to see its contents.

    As she stared at her realistic image, as well as at the words ''The Witch of Darkness'', which were written below it, alongside a small description of her, Beatrice nearly tore up the poster.

    ''It seems as though returning to the magic continent will need to be delayed by a few years, at least until people forget about me...'' thought Beatrice.

    Sadly, the memory of both Mage Apprentices and Official Mages was very good, making such a thing very unlikely.

    A moment later, Selena suddenly snapped her fingers, causing Beatrice to fall to the ground.

    ...

    As she opened her eyes and stared at the familiar room in front of her, Beatrice couldn''t help but become a bit annoyed.

    "Couldn''t you have at least warned me?" mumbled Beatrice as she got up from the ground as stared at Selena, who was currently holding the notebook that Beatrice desired so much in her hands, and was currently writing something into it.

 190 : Soon

    Selena did not answer Beatrice''s question and simply continued writing in the notebook, causing Beatrice to let out a sigh and sit down onto a chair, watching her.

    After around five minutes, Selena finally finished writing, causing her to suddenly take out a small orb.

    "I''m going to contact you when I need your help again," said Selena as she suddenly threw both the orb, and the notebook, towards Beatrice.

    Then, before Beatrice could react in the slightest, Selena was gone.

    After taking a few looks at the orb, which Beatrice discerned was a method for Selena to contact her, Beatrice was just about to open the notebook, when suddenly an ant head suddenly peaked at her from the corner.

    ...

    As soon as she saw that the scary mage was gone, Antonia''s eyes suddenly lit up, causing her to immediately run up to Beatrice and hug the latter''s legs whilst shaking.

    ...

    Looking at the ant that was currently glued to her leg, Beatrice couldn''t help but lightly chuckle and stretch out her hand.

    "Antonia, were you worried?" asked Beatrice with a smile on her face as she patted the head of the Ant Queen, causing the latter to slightly lower her Antennae.

    "Yes Mistress, the entire colony was really worried while you were gone, you don''t know how happy those little guys became when you came back," said Antonia as she stared straight up at Beatrice''s eyes.

    Hearing that, Beatrice lightly chuckled.

    "That was quite a large overreaction, I was only gone for a few days," mumbled Beatrice as she turned her head at the small ant that had just climbed onto her shoulder.

    As they heard Beatrice''s words, both the small ant, and Antonia, couldn''t help but slightly lower their heads.

    ...

    Unlike the ants, who were really worried about her safety, Beatrice''s own apprentice, Scythia, was much more calm and relaxed.

    In fact, if not for the fact that Beatrice knew the young girl very well, she would have assumed the latter was actually happy that she was gone.

    But after examining Scythia''s situation for a few more seconds, Beatrice knew that the young witch still needed more time to learn, causing Beatrice tot turn her attention away from her, and onto the thing that she had obtained from all of this trouble.

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    ...

    As soon as she opened the notebook and began reading it, Beatrice''s eyes gradually began brightening, as a single thought rang out through her mind.

    ''It was worth it...''

    Although reading from a notebook was much, much less effective than soul devouring, what she had done not too long ago, compared to Ben''s and Kiara''s understanding of darkness, Selena''s rang way closer to home to Beatrice.

    As Beatrice read through the notebook, she realized that even though there was some difference between her and Selena''s understanding of Darkness, in essence, both of them were based on the same thing, desire.

    Even though Selena''s notes were not very personal, and Beatrice did not know what that desire was directed towards, Selena''s understanding of darkness was still filled with a deep desire, similar to that of Beatrice''s, whose utmost desire was to live as long as possible.

    Although Kiara''s understanding of darkness was also tangentially linked with ''desire'', it could not be named in the same sentence as Beatrice''s and Selena''s understandings, which were a whole different beast all together.

    Thanks to this, and thanks to some notes depicting her understanding, which were a bit different from the rest, indicating that Selena had left them not too long ago, Beatrice was able to benefit quite a lot from reading the first part of the notebook, which contained Selena''s understanding of Darkness.

    Causing her to then begin reading the second part, which was what Beatrice was truly after, the knowledge about the Soul Transformation Stage.

    ...

    Looking at Mistress Selena, who had just returned, Ighor, who had just finished the routine inspection of the Spatial Prism, couldn''t help but bow his head.

    "Mistress, You seem happy, I assume the mage has been eliminated?" asked Ighor as she slightly raised his head, causing Selena to nod her guess.

    "I guess that''s also true, Ighor, has there been any change in the Spatial Prism while I was gone?" asked Selena as she turned the conversation to something more important.

    "No mistress, World Stability has slightly at 73.349%, same with Spatial Prism, which is operating at 93.843% of its peak power, the world has maintained its surplus of power thanks to the recovery of the Spatial Prism, I''ve continued pouring that power back into the world itself," said Ighor as he stared at the city below him.

    Although right now the World inside the Flying City had not truly recovered, and could not power the city without outside help, things were currently much better than before.

    Since the world now produced a surplus of energy, with Selena''s help, it was only a matter of time before it could recover to its peak state.

    By then, the Elemental Energy of the Mage World will probably recover fully, and Selena would be fully able to take advantage of that recovery thanks to the Flying City.

    "Ighor, have the space mages shown any sort of growth whilst I was gone?" asked Selena, causing Ighor to sadly shake his head.

    "The situation is the same, if we harvest them right now, we can help recover the Spatial Prism by roughly 2%, just like before, but with enough time, this amount should be able to grow nicely," said Ighor.

    "I know that very well, you don''t have to remind me, make sure to continue their mental scanning at all times," said Selena before suddenly disappearing.

    ...

    As she stared at the beautiful continent below her, in which the concentration of Elemental Energy was currently over twenty times less than that of the Mage World, Selena couldn''t help but shake her head.

    Even though the continent below her was beautiful, in Selena''s opinion, it couldn''t compare to the ugliest parts of the Mage Worlds.

    "Soon..."

 191 : Experiments

    "This could be of some help, but in the end, I guess I have to rely on myself for things like this," mumbled Beatrice as she touched her chin.

    A few moments ago, Beatrice had just finished reading Selena''s experiences at the Soul Transformation Stage, which proved to be a little bit less practical than she had hoped.

    As it turns out, Selena''s road to reaching the Soul Transformation Stage was both fast and smooth, not allowing Beatrice to gain much from reading about it.

    Although the path of Beatrice herself might be even faster than that of Selena''s, this did not mean that this notebook could benefit her much in this direction, as if Selena had struggled a lot while trying to transform her soul, Beatrice could have used the struggles and issues that Selena had faced as things to prepare for.

    Sadly, though, Selena simply used her darkness to slowly but surely influence and transform her soul over the course of a decade, without any major hiccups.

    A few moments later, Beatrice got up and placed the notebook into one of the nearby bookshelves, before walking out of the room she was currently in, and descending to a lower floor.

    Step by step, Beatrice descended from the fifth floor, to the sixth, the seventh, and all the way to the ninth floor, where a formerly small town, which had become much larger over the course of over a decade, stood.

    As soon as Beatrice arrived at this floor, one of the clones that were stationed on it arrived in front of her, with a small child walking behind her, already aware of the reason why Beatrice had come here.

    "Really efficient..." mumbled Beatrice as she suddenly stretched out her hand and grabbed the little girl, causing the clone to click her teeth and walk away.

    Seeing this, Beatrice, who had just knocked out the little girl, couldn''t help but shake her head, feeling a little bit exasperated.

    "I don''t overwork them that bad, do I?" mumbled Beatrice as she picked up the little girl and threw her over her shoulder.

    Over the past decade, the human farm, which originally had around 700 humans living on it, reached a population of over 2000 people, thanks to Beatrice''s ''suggestions'', with the majority of them being children.

    Although the increase in population did not directly result in an increased workload for Beatrice''s clones, as they didn''t directly manage the town, other than a single clone who directed the major decisions of the town, with the increased population, the number of accidents and failures increased almost exponentially, making the clones have to create new systems and plans to prevent such things from happening in the future.

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    Right now things were a little bit better than before, as the Beatrice''s finally managed to automate some of their work after all this time, but in the past, Beatrice really didn''t like going on the Ninth floor, as she would be pestered by the clones who desperately needed manpower.

    But even though this was the case, the number of clones stationed on the Ninth Floor remained the same, even now, as Beatrice really didn''t want to have to create new clones unless she really had to, creating this situation.

    ''They''ll calm down a bit more after a few more years pass, and they get things under control...'' thought Beatrice as she immediately fled the Ninth floor, lest some other Beatrice come ask her for help once again.

    In a few years, the first group of children that were born in this place would become adults, and much more easily managed, especially with all the psychological hints that they had been subjected with ever since they were born.

    ...

    After getting up from the Ninth Floor, Beatrice made her way to the Third Floor, the Soul Experiment Lab, in just under thirty seconds, before placing the little girl that she had just ''harvested'' onto a table.

    A few moments after that, Beatrice once again began a series of experiments that she had long since stopped a long time ago, thanks to the fact that they didn''t really produce any sort of results, other than creating twisted monstrosities of course.

    The effects of Darkness on the human soul.

    Right now, unlike when she first conducted these experiments, Beatrice was extremely proficient in manipulating the human soul, as such, she hoped this experience and mastery would translate into a successful experiment.

    ...

    Just as Beatrice had expected, although she had been extremely careful to be as gentle as possible with the soul of the little girl, her first attempts at things like this rarely succeeded.

    This one was no different, resulting in a little girl, who although appeared completely healthy, at least physically, had lost all of her rationality, and had to be put down by Beatrice.

    "The brain isn''t very damaged in the slightest, she could be quite useful as a zombie..." mumbled Beatrice as she decided what to do with the remains of the first experiment.

    ...

    In the end, after experimenting on 17 different people, all taken from the ninth floor, Beatrice finally gave up once again.

    No matter how gentle Beatrice was, after being in contact with pure darkness for just a moment, the souls of the humans that Beatrice had been experimenting on were instantly morphed beyond all recognition.

    Beatrice had even gone as far as to capture the strongest willed human in the entire village, who coincidentally had some thoughts that she didn''t like, and experimented on him.

    But even this former soldiers, who had survived on the battlefield with his left hand cut off, was completely powerless in front of the darkness, managing to resist its effects for just a fraction of a moment more than the other humans.

    "He was indeed slightly different from the others, but in the end, If I want to continue this line of experiments I need some mage apprentices as experimental subjects," mumbled Beatrice as she stared at the old man who was currently desperately thrashing against his restraints, having lost all the things that had made him truly human.

    A moment later, Beatrice put the old man out of his misery and fell into thought.

 192 : Elemental

    "Capturing some mage apprentices shouldn''t be much of an issue on its own, but the fallout could prove rather complicated, especially at the moment..." mumbled Beatrice before shaking her head.

    Selena, as well as many other mages, had succeeded in their Soul Transformation before her without these kinds of experiments, and there was no reason why Beatrice could not do it as well, especially with her talent and high spiritual power.

    After thinking for a few more moments, and staring at the dead old man that was currently lying down on the table in front of her, Beatrice finally let out a faint sigh before snapping her fingers and walked away

    A few moments after that, the eyes of the old man suddenly popped open as the restrictions placed on him loosened, causing him to get up and become one more zombie under the control of Beatrice.

    ...

    At the same time, on the Magic Continent.

    Staring at the dozen of Official Mages who were currently surrounding her, who were preparing their spells to strike her down, Ella, who was already a bit wounded, turned her attention to a certain one, and spat out the blood that had accumulated in her mouth in the direction of the mages, who was preoccupied with his spell, allowing her spit to land right on target.

    As soon as that happened, the eyes of the mage, who had been occupied with the spell up until now, actually popped open, anger clearly visible on his face.

    "You bitc-"

    Although most mages were too smart to be bothered by things like this, there were bound to be idiots in every group.

    In fact, this particular idiot at least acted somewhat like a smart person, at least usually, sadly though, his pride also seemed to be far above his level of intelligence, causing his downfall.

    As soon as the idiot mage opened his eyes, which were now filled with anger, the spell in front of him suddenly exploded.

    In an instant, a brutal chain reaction was suddenly formed, causing over half of the spells that were being cast to suddenly fail, instantly killing the mage who had made the original mistake and wounding several of the others.

    Seeing this, Ella, who was still stuck in the middle of the group, and was still unable to leave, faintly smiled before snapping her fingers.

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    "One should be enough for just a few moments..." mumbled Ella as a large amount of mana suddenly exited her body, forming into various shapes around her before dissipating within the wind, seemingly lost.

    By this moment, the spells which had not exploded had finally been cast at the exact same time, causing the smile on Ella''s face to increase in size even more.

    ''How convenient...''

    A moment later, just before a 7 different elemental spells were about to strike her, Ella suddenly disappeared.

    No, ''disappeared'' was the wrong word, instead, Ella turned into a kind of ''darkness'', allowing all the spells to pass through her without any issue.

    This was of course not the Rank 1 Dark Escape Spell, which allowed the user to turn themselves into smoke, as even when using that spell, the mage can still be attacked.

    Instead, this was Ella''s Innate Talent, which she had named Dark Veil, at work, allowing her to become completely intangible, far beyond the capabilities of the Rank 1 spell.

    Of course, Ella''s innate talent did not last for a very long time, and needed quite a while to recharge, meaning the Dark Mage would have to face the mages in front of her all alone.

    Or would she?

    At that very moment, the ritual that Ella had started not too long ago had finally begun taking effect, causing the idiotic mage who had just died to suddenly open his eyes and begin screaming.

    Merely a few moments later, the screams of the mage were cut short, as both his body and soul began being used as fuel for the ritual.

    As Ella had said, one single Official Mage was only enough for the ritual to sustain itself for a few seconds, but this was more than enough...

    "Elemental Summoning : ******" mumbled Ella as she snapped her fingers once again, causing a shadowy figure to suddenly appear next to her, who had just returned to her human form.

    The instant ****** appeared in the Mage World, he suddenly frowned before turning to Ella.

    But after looking at the mage for just a fraction of a moment, the Shadow Elemental suddenly relented.

    In just a fraction of a moment, every single one of the mages suddenly exploded to pieces, causing ****** to turn to Ella once again.

    "Chosen of Darkness, do not ever summon me for such a petty reason ever again..." said the elemental, causing Ella''s eyes to suddenly widen.

    A moment later, the elemental disappeared, causing Ella to suddenly grit her teeth.

    "Acting so high and mighty right now, just wait until I become an Archmage..." mumbled Ella as she suddenly snapped her fingers, collecting the corpses of the mages the Elemental had just killed.

    A few moments later, Ella fled the scene, being completely unwilling to stay in this place for just a second longer.

    ...

    As soon as he appeared back in the Shadow Dimension, a heavy look appeared on the face of the nameless Shadow Elemental.

    "The Elemental Energy in the Mage World is recovering..." mumbled the elemental, clearly quite stressed about the fact that he had just learned.

    As he remembered the days when he was just a summoned elemental for a Legendary Mage, the nameless elemental couldn''t help but slump down.

    "A Chosen of Darkness appeared, my times of freedom are over..." mumbled the elemental with a clearly dispirited look on his face.

    Although he had managed to bluff the chosen so that she would not summon him for a while, the nameless elemental knew very well that as long as things went on their current path, he was fated to become a summoned elemental once again.

 193 : Group

    Several days later,

    ''Slowly... slowly''

    As she slowly but surely let her darkness that was surrounding her soul, and slowly changing it, dissipate, Beatrice, who at the moment had several thick veins on her head, couldn''t help but breathe a faint sigh of relief.

    "It''s finally over..." mumbled Beatrice as she finally relaxed after needing to deal with the stress of having something so close to her soul for several days straight.

    Although Beatrice''s control over her own soul was very precise, this did not mean that there was no danger in what she had just done, after all, if reaching the Soul Transformation Stage was so easy, and just took a long amount of time, the number of mages that actually reached that level wouldn''t be as low as it is right now.

    Even with Beatrice''s control, if she let a bit too much darkness touch her soul for too long, she could cause severe damage to it in just a few moments.

    As for mages with even worse understanding of the soul? They are in even more danger when they do this, as such, most of them take it extremely slow when doing this process.

    Right now, though, Beatrice was finally free, and could finally relax... for around an hour, after which the Witch had to once again begin this process, not wasting any time with other, less important things.

    ...

    Looking at the Arcane Cube in front of him, which was now in tiny little pieces, Oliver couldn''t help but take in a deep breath.

    "It''s the real thing, the isn''t any room for mistakes..." mumbled Oliver as he suddenly snapped his fingers, causing the core of the Arcane to suddenly float in front of him.

    Over a decade ago, whilst adventuring with his comrades, Oliver was able to find three different cubes, which he named ''Arcane Cubes'' {A/N: Beatrice called them information cubes} in the laboratory of an ancient Warlock, causing them to split the cubes between each other

    For the first few years, as he and his friends were still adventuring, Oliver was unable to study his cube, but after both he, and his friends settled down in their current location, Oliver was finally able to study the cube.

    But as it turned out, the cube was both complicated, and fragile, causing Oliver to become extremely cautious whilst he experimented on it.

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    As such, it took Oliver 7 full years of experiments to gain enough confidence to truly begin making the cube his own.

    A few moments after the core floated in the air, two extremely thin semicircles suddenly flew to the left and right of the cube, causing Oliver to very carefully place them onto the core.

    Then, with a snap of his fingers, Oliver''s Earth Magic did its work, causing the three to slowly but surely begin fusing with each other.

    Although Oliver knew that there was probably a proper method to do this, he also felt as though taking the core apart could prove far too risky, at least at his current skill level.

    Only a few moments later, several wires made out of Mana Metal, which had been created by infusing mana into Mythril attached themselves to the core, causing Oliver to once again snap his fingers and make this connection permanent.

    Just as Oliver was about to connect the other components of the Arcane Cube with the core, using the wires as a channel to do so, Oliver suddenly froze.

    A moment later, all the components of the Arcane Cube suddenly floated in the air before being surrounded by a sphere of rock.

    A fraction of a second after that, the room that Oliver was currently in suddenly began shaking, causing thick veins to suddenly appear on his forehead.

    After getting up from his chair and walking to the window, which was still shaking, Oliver could see what was causing the earthquake.

    As he stared at the waves of water, over a dozen meters in height, which were currently rushing towards the village, he was living in, Oliver couldn''t help but clench his teeth.

    "Madeline... you have to be joking."

    ...

    As she stared at the huge stone wall which Oliver had just created, Catherine, who was just about to create a wind wall of her own, couldn''t help but hesitate for a fraction of a second.

    But even so, a wall of wind, even larger than Oliver''s stone wall, suddenly appeared in front of the village, shielding it from the huge wave.

    In the end though, even though Madeline was not the brightest, her magical abilities actually couldn''t be underestimated, as after just a few seconds, Catherine''s wall was actually broken.

    Thankfully, though, the wall of wind had weakened the wave by around fifty percent, allowing the stone wall created by Oliver to stand strong, preventing the water from sweeping the village away.

    In just under thirty-second, the wave passed the village, leaving a trail of destruction in its wake.

    And on that wet trail of destruction now came a tall woman with blond hair, Madeline, who currently had a shocked expression on her face.

    As she looked at Madeline, who was currently coming towards the village, Catherine, who was floating in the air, suddenly snapped her fingers, causing the Water Mage to suddenly begin floating.

    Because she was not resisting in the slightest, Madeline was able to quickly float up to the same level as Catherine, who was just staring at her with a disappointed look on her face.

    ...

    Feeling Catherine''s gaze on her, Madeline couldn''t help but lower her head.

    "Let me guess, you were practicing some spell from that new spell book of yours..." said Catherine, causing Madeline to lower her head even further.

    "It was my first attempt, so I didn''t expect the spell casting to go so smoothly, I succeeded on the first try..." said Madeline, causing Catherine to fall silent.

    Frankly, it was extremely impressive for Madeline to succeed in casting a Rank 1 Spell on her first try, but as she stared at her, for some reason, Catherine couldn''t feel impressed.

 194 : Father

    Hearing the words of Madeline, Oliver, who was currently standing on a piece of rock that was rising through the air almost lost his footing and fell down.

    By the time Oliver regained his footing, Catherine had turned her attention onto him, causing her to suddenly snap her fingers and lift him into the air.

    ...

    As she stared at Oliver, who was slowly but surely making his way towards her, Madeline knew that she had really messed up this time, just from the look of disappointment clearly present in his eyes.

    In just a few moments, Oliver arrived right next to Madeline and Catherine, and simply let out a faint sigh before touching his forehead.

    "Madeline, couldn''t you at least have warned us that you were about to practice powerful spells...?" asked Oliver as he looked at Madeline, causing the latter to lower her head.

    "I could have, but I didn''t think that I would cause this much damage..." said Madeline, causing a faint vein to appear on the foreheads of both Catherine and Oliver.

    But before Oliver could say anything, Catherine suddenly chimed in.

    "It''s good that you realize that, hopefully you remember this in the future, to nod make this same mistake again," said Catherine as she patted the downtrodden Madeline on her shoulder, whilst her eyes stared straight at Oliver.

    Feeling Catherine''s warning gaze, Oliver, who was about to speak, became silent for a few moments.

    "That''s right, you can treat this as a learning opportunity," continued Oliver as he also patted Madeline on the shoulder.

    Although Catherine''s influence did play a part in the nature of Oliver''s response, but in the end, no major damage had actually been caused, as such, Oliver was also much less harsh on his comrade than he would have been originally.

    Even though Madeline was aware of the fact her comrades were just trying to make her feel better, as she heard their words, a faint smile couldn''t help but appear on her face.

    ''That''s right, I should learn from this and be more careful when practicing...'' thought Madeline as she stared at her two comrades.

    ...

    At the same time, in another location, very far away.

    As he stared at the floating humanoid creature standing in front of him, who had six Pure White Wings emerging from its back, Lothar''s eyes slightly narrowed.

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    But even though Lothar felt an instinctual feeling of disgust as he stared at the being, he still slightly bowed his head.

    "Greetings your Holiness Gabriel, what did a mere human like me here do to require your presence?" asked Lothar, causing Gabriel''s eyes to slightly narrow as he looked at the Wizard.

    "Lothar, I from my knowledge, you are the most powerful Wizard of the continent, am I right?" asked the Seraphim, his voice ringing straight into Lothar''s soul, causing large beads of sweat to fall down the forehead of the Wizard.

    "Yes your Holiness," said Lothar.

    "Since that''s the case, I have a mission for you, gather the five most powerful mages of the continent, as well as the five young mages with the best potential, and I will come meet you again," said Gabriel as he continued staring right into Lothar''s eyes, continuously sending shiver''s through the mind of the mage.

    "I understand your Holiness, your will is my mission," said Lothar, causing Gabriel to cast one final glance upon him before disappearing.

    ...

    Upon finishing listening to Lothar''s words, Elena couldn''t help but touch her chin and fall into thought.

    "Gather 10 powerful mages... with their cordial relationship, couldn''t the God of Light ask the Goddess of Magic for help with this, I assume she would be much more efficient at this than us... unless it''s something she doesn''t want to get involved with..." mumbled Elena, causing Lothar to nod his head.

    "It''s probably related to mages, the fate of the first four Gods of Magic after they involved themselves with mages probably made her unwilling to cooperate with the God of Light," said Lothar as he touched his chin.

    Although Lothar himself had never met a mage throughout his life, he had long since heard rumors of them, and researched them thoroughly.

    From Lothar''s research, involving yourself with mages almost always resulted in disaster, and when it didn''t result in disaster?

    That meant you had just gotten scammed.

    At least from the records that Lothar had managed to get his hands onto.

    "So what do you think?" asked Lothar as he stared at Elena, causing the latter to let out a faint sigh.

    "Although I don''t want to get myself involved in this mess, since a Seraphim actually descended it looks like we don''t have much of a choice..." mumbled Elena with black lines all over her forehead.

    Although both Lothar and Elena were both Level 20 Wizards, and at the very peak of the Wizarding world, both of them knew that they could definitely not struggle beneath the might of a True God.

    As such, their relationship with the major faiths was even more troubled than that of the weak Wizards, who could hide from the Churches.

    "We don''t really have a choice, do we?" mumbled Lothar, causing Elena to shake her head.

    "It seems that we don''t..." said Elena, causing Lothar to shake his head, being completely helpless.

    ...

    After talking with that Wizard, Gabriel instantly disappeared from the mortal dimension, reappearing beneath a huge, golden throne, where the three other Seraphims of Heaven stood.

    "Father, I have completed my mission," said Gabriel as he raised his head and stared at his father, who was sitting on the golden throne.

    "I am aware of that..." said Father, as his eyes landed on Gabriel, who was currently staring at the huge scar running right through his face and down the left side of his body.

    "Do not worry my child, the time for retribution will soon come, and the universe will soon return to its normal order," said Father, causing Gabriel to finally lower his head.

    "I understand... father."

 195 : Task

    As silently walked into the room of her disciple, who was currently silently reading a book, being completely focused on said book, Beatrice couldn''t help but fall into thought as she took a few more glances at her.

    ''Her progress is fast, but it seems as though just injecting memories has its limits in the end, If not, her progress would have been a lot faster,'' thought Beatrice as she silently appeared behind Scythia, who was completely oblivious to the arrival of her teacher.

    ''I guess It''s to be expected...'' thought Beatrice as she suddenly tapped Scythia on the shoulder, allowing her to gain a thorough understanding of the body of her apprentice in just a fraction of a second.

    ...

    As soon as she felt something touch her shoulder, Scythia suddenly turned around, a Dark Bolt appearing in front of her.

    But even so, only a moment later, a rather confused expression appeared on Scythia''s face.

    "I could''ve sworn that something touched me just now..." mumbled Scythia as she quickly turned her eyes to the doors of the room, noticing that they were just as she had left them, completely in the same position as before.

    But even so, as she stared at the surrounding bedroom, Scythia still felt completely unsafe, as such, she quickly locked the room and began checking every single bit of it.

    Scythia checked under the bed, in the closet, as well as everywhere she could think of, but even so, she found absolutely nothing, causing her to finally shake her head.

    "I guess I''m becoming a bit paranoid, I need to relax a bit..." mumbled the young girl as she slightly stretched before once again sitting down at her desk.

    ...

    3 years later,

    As she stared at her teacher, who was standing in front of her, Scythia, who now looked around 11 or 12, couldn''t help but take in a deep breath.

    "Teacher, why have you called me here?" asked Scythia as she looked at her teacher, who was sitting at her desk, simply staring at her.

    "Little Scythia, I''ve been teaching you for about 3 years, Isn''t that right?" asked Beatrice as she stared at the young girl in front of her.

    Causing Scythia to slightly gulp.

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    "Yes teacher, It''s been 3 years..." said Scythia, causing her teacher to faintly smirk.

    "Now that you''re a bit older and more powerful, it''s about time that you pull your own weight," said Beatrice as she stared at the young girl in front of her, who by Beatrice''s estimates, was more powerful than the previous Scythia had been before possessing this new body of hers.

    As soon as her teacher finished her sentence, Scythia actually let out an audible sigh of relief, as her fear was suddenly destroyed.

    Although Scythia knew that it would be trivial for her teacher to defeat her, right now she felt pretty confident to do missions, at least on Golwall Island.

    "What kind of mission do you have for me, teacher?" asked Scythia as she stared straight at Beatrice, causing the latter to faintly smile.

    ...

    As she stared at the departing back of Scythia, who had just had her mission explained to her, Beatrice couldn''t help but slightly smile as she turned to the large ant that had just arrived.

    Looking at the expression on the face of the ant, which she had grown to understand after all these years, Beatrice couldn''t help but slightly click her teeth.

    "What, do you feel that she''s unqualified to do things for me on Golwall Island?" asked Beatrice as she approached Antonia, causing the ant to shake her head.

    "It''s not that she''s unqualified, it''s just that I''m a bit worried about her loyalty, it would be quite disastrous if she betrayed you, Mistress," said Antonia as she moved her antennae, allowing Beatrice to pat her head.

    "Do you think your ants would be better suited for this mission?" asked Beatrice as she placed her hand onto Antonia''s head, causing the latter to begin quickly shaking it.

    "It''s as you say, It''s quite troublesome for us ants to deal with humans, but even so, I''m still a bit worried," said Antonia.

    "I know your worries very well, but you should know best that it''s impossible for humans to be completely loyal and not to have any other thoughts, they''re not ants, but your worries are unfounded, I''ve already prepared for the worst long ago," said Beatrice as she stopped petting Antonia and simply flicked the ant on her forehead.

    Hearing the words of her mistress, Antonia, who was feeling a bit of pain from the finger-flick, couldn''t help but fall into thought.

    ...

    After sending her apprentice to observe and gather information about the major Kingdoms on Golwall Island, Beatrice then retreated back into her own lab, where she fell deep into thought.

    ''The concentration of elemental energy in the air grew again...'' thought Beatrice as she raised her head and stared at the ceiling, her eyes piercing through hundreds of meters of stone and reaching the sky.

    In the past few years, the concentration of elemental energy in the air was relatively stable, and remained at the same level, suddenly though, just yesterday, it grew by over 0.2 percent, alerting Beatrice.

    "The growth of elemental energy is bound to pick up speed over time... Will I have enough time to reach my goal before critical mass is reached?" mumbled Beatrice as she touched her chin.

    Over the past three years, Beatrice had spent most of her time slowly but surely transforming her soul, but even with her extraordinarily strong spiritual power, Beatrice still felt as though she would need at least 25 years to truly finish that transformation.

    As for whether she had 25 years before the concentration of elemental energy in the air grew exponentially? Beatrice had no idea.

    But, the random growth that acourred yesterday made it seem not very likely that she had that much time.

    "I may need to take some more drastic measures..." mumbled Beatrice as she touched her chin.

 196 : Plans and Missions

    A few days later, in the middle of the night.

    As she stared at the large palace in front of her, which had Grand Knights patrolling around it, Scythia couldn''t help but smile.

    ''This place is much less defended than I had originally thought...'' thought Scythia as she made her way past the Grand Knights without any difficulty, allowing her to enter the Royal Palace of the Lyon Kingdom.

    Merely a few moments after entering the royal palace, Scythia''s eyes suddenly lit up as she stared at a Royal Guard who was currently standing near a doorway.

    A moment later, the pupils of the Royal Guard suddenly dilated, as he lost all strength and simply stood there, helpless as a voice suddenly whispered from behind him.

    "How many Royal Guards does the king have stationed in the palace right now?" asked Scythia, not using her own voice, instead using the voice of an old man, as she continued casting the Rank 0 Dark Hint.

    Although this was merely a Rank 0 spell, and was not nearly as effective as its Rank 1 counterpart, which could control people nearly permanently, it was still more than enough to deal with a mere mortal.

    "34 Official Knights, 13 Grand Knights as well as 4 Royal Knights, including me," said the Knight, not being able to resist the influence of the mage behind him at all.

    "Where is the King right now?" said Scythia, still not using her own voice.

    "The King has retreated back to his bedroom not too long ago," said the guard.

    Upon hearing that, Scythia faintly smiled.

    "You will forget this has happened and return to your normal routine," said Scythia before suddenly disappearing into the shadows, leaving the guard simply standing there, confused.

    A few seconds after that, the eyes of the guard finally returned to normal, causing some confusion to appear on his face.

    "I haven''t slept in a while, it looks like I''m a bit tired..." mumbled the guard as he shook his head and continued on his way, completely forgetting what had happened.

    ...

    After learning of the amount of guards that were present in the palace, Scythia lost all of her fear, and quickly made her way to her destination, only stopping just once, to question another guard so that she could verify the information given to her.

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    Upon becoming completely certain that the information was in fact true, Scythia no longer dilly-dallied, and made her way to the bedroom of the king, which was guarded by 2 Royal Knights, which Scythia cast the Dark Hint spell on, making sure that they lower their guard.

    After that, Scythia finally made her way to the King''s Bedroom.

    ...

    As she stared at the king, who had already fallen asleep alongside the queen, Scythia couldn''t help but smile as she approached the two and took a closer look at the two.

    The moment Scythia took at closer look at the King, a slightly surprised look appeared on her face.

    ''Just a Grand Knight, unexpected but this will make things slightly easier...'' thought Scythia as she snapped her fingers, causing the eyes of the Queen to suddenly pop open.

    From the information that Scythia had obtained, the King actually managed to become a Grand Knight back in his youth, over 20 years ago, which made Scythia believe he had already become a Royal Knight by now.

    Right now it seemed as though this was not the case, which made Scythia''s job a little bit easier.

    A moment after that, Scythia suddenly stretched out her hand and touched the Queen''s forehead.

    As the supreme leader of the country, there was a chance that the king would meet with meet some sort of mage, which meant that controlling him silently was a bit risky.

    As such, Scythia had been ordered by her teacher to control people close to the King, with the Queen being by far the most obvious target.

    A moment later, a small ant suddenly made its way out of Scythia''s sleeve before turning its head towards Scythia, who merely smiled.

    "This is the target," said Scythia, causing the little Earth Ant to suddenly move from her hand onto the forehead of the queen, who was frozen in place.

    After that, the little ant made its way to the side of the Queen''s head and entered her ear.

    A few moments after that, the lips of the queen, which had been frozen up until now slightly moved, forming a faint smile, causing Scythia to smile and to lower her hand, closing the eyes of the queen using two of her fingers.

    "You will relinquish control of your body..."

    ...

    At the same time, in another world.

    As he stared at the five old men and women who were standing on one side, as well as the five your people who were standing on the other side, Gabriel slightly nodded his head.

    "You''ve done a good job this time Lothar," said Gabriel as he slightly examined the 10 wizards in front of him.

    Lothar Vizla, Human Male, Age 77, Rank 20 Wizard

    Elena Klivian, Human Female, Age 85, Rank 20 Wizard

    Symdom Scintel, Human Male, Age 88, Rank 19 Wizard

    Antonidas Fleming, Human Male, Age 65, Rank 18 Wizard

    Jelnoth Caedrel, Human Male, Age 74, Rank 18 Wizard

    The five old mages in front of him satisfied Gabriel''s needs quite well, so did the young mages that sat opposite of them.

    Lux Raas, Human Male, Age 14, Rank 10 Wizard

    Greer Breemu Human Male, Age 17, Rank 13 Wizard

    Rath Tarpals, Human Male, Age 16, Rank 12 Wizard

    Sora Caedrel, Human Female, Age 15 Rank 12 Wizard

    Oppo Ozel, Human Male, Age 14 Rank 10 Wizard

    Although they definitely couldn''t compare to the old Wizards in terms of power, the potential of the young Wizards were definitely not to be reckoned with, and were probably the most talented Wizards of the entire continent.

    A few moments later, Gabriel finally finished inspecting the Wizards, causing him to finally begin speaking

 197 : Mind

    After the human threat was successfully eliminated, the over 30,000 ants that had attacked the village got to work, and began cleaning up the battlefield, devouring everything in their way.

    Unlike humans, who would have wasted a bunch of useful resources when doing this, the Earth Ants were much more efficient, and devoured absolutely everything in sight, not even wasting the corpses of their fallen sisters, which they also ate.

    The ants also did not limit themselves to biological creatures, and actually tore down the huts and house that the villagers had created, before burying everything underground, not leaving anything behind.

    In the end, it took the ants just under 30 minutes to make the former village completely disappear from the face of the earth, having even destroyed the paths created by the villages as they walked through the dirt.

    Even if someone knew the exact location of the village, as long as some time passed, and the flora had some time to grow back up, they would be completely unable to discern if a village had actually existed here.

    As she looked at the ants, who were currently retreating back underground into the colony after completing their mission, Beatrice finally took another look around, making sure that nobody had sneaked into this place, before descending to the ground, where Canty was waiting for her.

    Looking at Canty, who was clearly a bit distressed at the moment, Beatrice couldn''t help but slightly shake her head.

    "So, are you sad at the death''s of your children?" asked Beatrice as she approached the ant, who was clenching her mandibles together.

    ''Mistress, how could I not be distressed?'' asked Canty as she raised her head and stared at her mistress, who had just descended to the ground.

    "You should be happy for them, after all, you know best just how happy your children would be to be able to give their lives for the colony," said Beatrice as she knelt down and touched the forehead of the ant.

    Although Canty knew the words of her mistress were true, she couldn''t help but still feel a bit angry.

    Over 700 Antonias had actually died to destroy some tiny village that could not resist.

    Unlike Antonia, who had a colony of over 1.6 million ants at the moment, and had grown used to deaths, Canty''s relationship with her children was much closer, so much so that Canty knew the names of each and every Ant that had died right now

    After feeling depressed for a while, the consolation of her mistress seemed to finally have some effect on Canty, causing her antennae, which were pointing to the ground previously, to rise up once again.

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    ''I understand mistress, I shouldn''t let their sacrifices be in vain!!'' said Canty as she imprinted the names of each ant that had died.

    Antonia 13, Antonia 39, Antonia 154, Antonia 453, Antonia 523, Antonia 613...

    As she recited the names of the children which had died in the battle, Canty, who was not particularly good at giving names, felt a fire rise up within her, sweeping away her previously depressed mood.

    Unaware of Canty''s terrible naming skills, but aware of the fire that seemed to have been started within the ant, a faint smile couldn''t help but appear on Beatrice''s face.

    "That''s right, I''m sure your children would have wanted you to use their deaths as fuel for the colony to grow even further," said Beatrice as she finally got up and stared at the little ant below her, which had once again begun moving.

    ''Mistress, I need to go back to the colony now, with the food we''ve obtained right now, I can give birth to at least 5 thousand new Antonias!!!'' said Canty before immediately running into one of the tunnels, not allowing Beatrice, who now had a question mark over her head, to respond in the slightest.

    "5 thousand Antonias??"

    ...

    As she looked at Antonia, who was currently staring at a map, Beatrice, who had just arrived back in her home, couldn''t help but feel a bit of doubt.

    "Antonia, how are the ants in your colony named?" asked Beatrice as she looked at the Ant Queen.

    "???"

    ...

    At the same time, in another Timeline,

    As she looked at the three mages who were standing in front of her with serious looks on their faces, ''Beatrice'' couldn''t help but flatly smile.

    "So, what did little old me do to require the presence of three powerful mages such as your distinguished selves?" asked ''Beatrice'' as she stared at the three mages in front of her with a faint smile on her face, causing the three, who were currently surrounding ''Beatrice'', to become even more careful.

    "Lockzick, Uerst, she seems to be proficient in illusions and manipulation, be careful, don''t be influenced by her words!!" said Gerst, the leading mage, who was staring right at ''Beatrice'', causing the latter to slightly chuckle.

    "You flatter me too much, now, will hand the child over?" asked ''Beatrice'' as she stared at the little boy that was standing behind the three mages.

    In fact, ''Beatrice'' was slightly surprised that the leading mage had actually managed to see through her first illusion, but even so, she didn''t display any sort of surprise on her face.

    Hearing the words of the Witch in front of him, Gerst couldn''t help but grit his teeth.

    "Although I don''t know what your lady wants to do with him, do you really think that we three will allow you to get your hands on him?" asked Gerst as several earth spikes appeared behind him, floating in the air.

    Not too long ago, the Magic Council had discovered the fact that the Witch of Death was collecting people with Space Affinity, such as the boy behind Gerst.

    Even though the Council was unaware of what the plans of the Witch were, they immediately decided to try to impede her efforts, leading to the current scene.

    Hearing the words of the Earth Mage, ''Beatrice'' couldn''t help but slightly smile.

    "This distance should be enough, I guess we have to say goodbye for now, Mr. Earth Mage," said ''Beatrice'' before winking at Gerst and suddenly disappearing, alongside the boy behind the three.

    As he stared at the illusionary world around him, which was just now breaking apart, Uerst couldn''t help but feel some sweat falling down his forehead.

    Although the three of them would have probably sensed it if the Witch had desired to harm them while they were under the illusion, the fact that they couldn''t detect that they were under its effects was chilling enough.

 198 : Affairs

    As she dispelled the illusion that she had placed the two mages under, a faint smile couldn''t help but appear on ''Beatrice''s'', causing her to turn her attention to the unconscious child in her hands.

    ''D Grade Space Affinity, that''s really quite impressive...'' thought ''Beatrice'' as she placed her fingers onto the forehead of the unconscious child.

    Although usually, ''Beatrice'' would not consider B Grade affinity as impressive in the slightest, with how rare Space Affinity actually was, and how low the affinities of the other children she had found were, she was still very impressed by the child in her hands, who now had the highest affinity of the group of children that she had captured.

    If he had any other affinity, with his talent, this child might''ve been able to reach the Peak Apprentice Level if he was lucky, or even reach the True Mage Real if his luck was one in Ten Million.

    Sadly though, ''Beatrice'' knew that with his affinity, the child no longer had any sort of chance to achieve that goal of his, especially now that he would have Selena watching over him.

    "It''s quite a pity that I have to give you over to Teacher..." mumbled ''Beatrice'' as she stared at the cute little boy in her hands with a smile on her face.

    A few moments later, ''Beatrice'' destroyed those weird thoughts of hers and suddenly rose into the sky and began flying away.

    ...

    A while later, at one of ''Beatrice''s'' temporary hideouts.

    As she stared at the group of seven unconscious children in front of her, which she had recently kidnapped, ''Beatrice'' couldn''t help but faintly smile.

    "The Mage Academies have caught on to what teacher is doing, it looks as though this might be my last batch, It''s a good thing the quality is quite good this time," mumbled ''Beatrice'' as she snapped her fingers, causing the group of children to suddenly float in the air.

    The eight children that ''Beatrice'' kidnapped this time all had Space Affinities a bit higher than her previous group, having 5 F Grades, 2 E Grades, as well as 1 D Grade, which meant that ''Beatrice''s'' reward will be higher this time.

    A few moments after picking up the Space Affinity children, ''Beatrice'' flew out of the cave she had hidden them within and flew away.

    This time though, ''Beatrice'' did not actually fly very far away, instead the former clone flew to a certain location 13 kilometers away, where she once again landed to the ground before entering a cave.

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    The moment ''Beatrice'' entered the cave, she stretched out one of her fingers to a certain spot on the stone wall, before sending out a bit of her mana into said wall.

    After ''Beatrice'' did this, the true nature of the cave finally revealed itself, causing a large, extremely complicated Spell Circle, which ''Beatrice'' knew that her teacher could definitely not create on her own, to appear in the middle.

    A moment after that, ''Beatrice'', stepped into the circle, causing the children floating around her to follow suit.

    A few seconds later, ''Beatrice'', alongside the children, suddenly transformed into a flash of light, before suddenly disappearing.

    ...

    As she opened her eyes and stared at her teacher, who was standing in front of her, ''Beatrice'' couldn''t help but slightly touch her forehead.

    ''It looks like I''ll need some more time to get used to teleportation...'' thought ''Beatrice'' as she stared at Selena, who was standing right in front of her with a smile on her face.

    "It looks like the number of children''s increased this time, seven in one batch is quite good," said Selena as she stared at the seven children behind ''Beatrice'', causing the latter to instinctually nod.

    A moment after that though, ''Beatrice''s'' eyes suddenly widened, causing her to turn her attention onto the surrounding children, making her finally realize that one of the little girls was gone.

    Seeing this, Selena faintly smiled.

    "Don''t worry about that, that little girl was a spy sent by the Mage Academies, and was caught by the defensive measures I''ve installed into my teleportation, I''ve already verified that It''s nothing serious," said Selena with that same smile on her face, causing ''Beatrice'' to feel a slightly chill in her heart.

    ...

    As he stared at the enormous white sphere in front of him, Father couldn''t help but shake his head.

    "The Mage World is still not yet completely unsealed, there should be enough time for Gabriel to prepare the Wizards he gathered," mumbled Father as he shook his head, knowing that he could definitely not break the seal of the world.

    Although as a True God, Father was unfathomably powerful, in front of this behemoth of a world, which had devoured countless other worlds, and made their strength its own, Father was still not powerful enough.

    Perhaps back at his peak, before the split, Father would''ve been able to break open the seal, but right now, even if he and his other self worked together, the chances of the seal giving in were miniscule.

    "Just a few more years..."

    ...

    As she looked at her grandfather, who had just walked into the room, Sora Caedrel, who had just finished her training not too long ago, couldn''t help but suddenly smile.

    A moment later, the young girl, who had two rat ears on the top of her head, as well as a rat tail emerging from her back, disappeared, being replaced by a little white rat, who then immediately ran over to her grandfather, climbing on top of his shoulder.

    Seeing this Jelnoth, who also had rat years at the top of his head, couldn''t help but faintly smile.

    "Sora, was the training tough?" asked Jelnoth as he sat down onto a couch, before taking out a small piece of cheese from his pocket and handing it to his granddaughter, who began munching on it as she talked.

    "It''s not tough in the slightest, but those humans are struggling a lot, they''re really too stupid, as for me, I feel like I''m about to become a Rank 13 Wizard pretty soon," said Sora as she finished munching on the cheese, causing Jelnoth to faintly smile.

 199 : Daughters

    Several days later, inside the Kingdom of Nawen.

    As she stared at the Royal Palace in front of her, which was a bit smaller than the Royal Palace of the Kingdom of Lyon, which she had visited a while ago, Scythia couldn''t help but faintly smile.

    After staying completely still for a few minutes, and hiding in darkness to examine the current defenses of the Palace, Scythia finally took action.

    In just a few moments, Scythia passed by the outside guards without any difficulty before entering the Palace, after which she immediately made her way to her destination, as she had done some research before sneaking into this place.

    Without making any single sound, and without being seen in the slightest, Scythia made her way to the bedroom of the king.

    But just as she was about to open the door to the bedroom, Scythia suddenly froze the moment her had touched the handle.

    As she listened to the soft moans that were coming from inside the bedroom, a faint frown appeared on Scythia''s face.

    The moans themselves were not an issue, instead, what worried Scythia was the fact that she could hear three, completely distinct people breathing inside the room.

    After thinking for a few moments, Scythia remembered the schematics of the Palace and decided to retreat for now, and gain a better angle of attack.

    ...

    As she stared at the King, who was sitting on the side of the bed, slightly shaking, as well as at the man who was currently having some fun with the queen, Scythia couldn''t help but frown, causing a Dark Bolt to suddenly appear in her palm.

    ''A mage apprentice, but he doesn''t seem to have mastered any sort of Barrier spell...'' thought Scythia as she stood on the branch of a tree, staring at the king''s bedroom through a window.

    ''Most likely a mage from Golwall Island, there''s a good chance he''s from the Kingdom of Aepheovia,'' thought Scythia as she stared at the scene in front of her.

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    A moment later, the Dark Bolt disappeared from Scythia''s hand, dissipating into the air.

    Her teacher''s orders had been to take control of influential and powerful people without revealing herself.

    Even if she did manage to kill the mage in front of her, if the latter was indeed sent here by the Kingdom of Aepheovia, killing him would reveal her existence to the kingdom.

    ''I guess It''s time to make my way to the next kingdom...'' thought Scythia with a faint frown on her face.

    A few moments later, Scythia imprinted the appearance of the mage into her mind before silently dropping down from the tree, leaving the three people to finish their business undisturbed.

    ...

    Unaware of the troubles of her apprentice, who she had sent out on a mission a while ago, Beatrice was now sitting cross-legged, staring at the little ant in front of her.

    "So what is it, what do you want from me little Canty?" asked Beatrice as she stretched out her finger and touched the head of the ant, who was about as large as a small dog.

    Hearing the words of the mistress, Canty couldn''t help but curb her emotions and finally speak her mind.

    A few years ago, after some arguing with Antonia, Canty finally took her life into her own hands and became a new ant queen, creating her own colony.

    This meant that Canty no longer had to obey Antonia''s orders, of course, the orders of the Mistress herself still applied.

    "Mistress, I need permission to destroy a small human village," said Antonia as she slightly lowered her head, causing Beatrice to fall into a bit of thought.

    "I thought I was very clear when I told you to not involve yourself with humans, wasn''t I?" asked Beatrice as she continued moving her finger on the head of the ant, causing her to quickly nod.

    "You were very clear mistress, back when I had first created the new colony, I had purposely chosen a spot with no human settlements nearby, but around half a month ago a group of human settlers actually arrived not very far away from the location of the colony, meaning that we had to begin hiding ourselves underground once again, this is really destroying the efficiency of the colony mistress," said Canty, causing Beatrice''s to touch her chin.

    "I see... that''s not your fault, how many settlers are there?"

    "I don''t know the exact number, but they should be roughly 500 of them from what the recon ants had seen," said Canty, causing Beatrice to faintly smile.

    ...

    As she looked at the newly formed village below her, a faint smile appeared on the face of Beatrice, who was currently floating in the sky, completely invisible.

    In an instant, Beatrice''s eyes suddenly moved throughout both the village itself, and its surroundings, finding every single human present.

    Canty turned out to be right, as the number of people in the village was currently 523, while 15 hunters were currently out hunting food, and were a few kilometers away.

    Although Beatrice could destroy the village in an instant if she ever wished to do so, the Official Mage merely snapped her fingers, causing the 15 hunters to suddenly fall to the ground, dead.

    At the same time, the snapping of Beatrice''s fingers also served as a signal to Canty, who suddenly took action.

    Even though the sire of Canty''s colony couldn''t compare to that of Antonia''s, the little ant still had over 50 thousand daughters at the moment, 30 thousand of which now took action.

    At this very moment, in the middle of the night, the 30 thousand ants silently rose from the ground.

    Although the number of ants was not very exaggerated, being only around 60 ants per every human in the village, not only were Earth Ants not normal ants, but they also had a huge surprise advantage, as most of the village was asleep, allowing the ants to launch a surprise attack.

    The eyes, years, genitals, the Earth Ants were completely merciless, causing horrifying screams to emerge from the village below, which Beatrice silenced with some magic.

    With the help of Canty, who could kill a normal human on her own without even needing to use magic, the ants were able to annihilate every life form inside the village with minimal casualties.

    In the end, all 500 humans were killed, while just under 700 of Canty''s daughter''s perished in the process.

 200 : Purge

    As she finished listening to Scythia''s words, Beatrice, who had been listening up until now, couldn''t help but slightly touch her chin and fall into thought.

    ''It looks like mages from the Kingdom of Aepheovia are also involved in the Nawen Kingdom... this makes things a bit more difficult...'' thought Diana as she looked at her apprentice.

    Although Beatrice was confident that her apprentice could pretty easily kill any of the weakling mages present on Golwall Island, as long as nobody from the outside world intervenes at least. She was not nearly as confident in her disciple''s ability to do that without beings discovered, as after losing contact with an important mage for a long time, the Aepheovians were bound to become at least somewhat suspicious.

    "It''s good that you''ve come here and reported this to me, If not for this then maybe I would''ve been in for a surprise later," said Beatrice, as she slightly smiled, causing Scythia to lower her head and carefully listen to her teacher''s words.

    "Now you can go back and continue your mission in the other Kingdoms, don''t worry about the Nawen and Aepheovia Kingdoms right now, I will inform you when to deal with them," said Beatrice with a faint smile on her face.

    Although Scythia felt an inexplicable chill in her heart as she stared at the smile present on her teacher''s face, she still obediently nodded.

    "I understand."

    ...

    Two hours later,

    As she stared at the large, flourishing city below her, Beatrice, who was floating through the air couldn''t help but faintly smile.

    "27 mages in just the Capital City, quite impressive," mumbled Beatrice.

    A moment later, Beatrice suddenly snapped her fingers, causing 27 figures, which had just become invisible to the naked eye, to suddenly fly up towards her, clutching their necks and gasping for air.

    26 Lower Rank Mage Apprentices as well as a single High Rank Mage Apprentice, an extremely terrifying force, at least for Golwall Island.

    Sadly though, in front of an Official Mage, especially one as powerful as Beatrice, the Mage Apprentices couldn''t struggle in the slightest, allowing Beatrice to quickly read through their memories.

    Merely a moment later, after Beatrice read through the memories of the mages, who she then killed, Beatrice snapped her fingers once again, causing 234 other people, who Beatrice had learned about through the memories of the Mage Apprentices, to once again fly into the sky.

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    After taking a few glances at the memories of these normal humans, Beatrice once again brought up 6 more people to the sky, people who were aware of the existence of these mages, but whom the mages themselves were not aware of.

    Unlike Mages or Mage Apprentices, who might''ve been able to struggle a bit in front of Beatrice if she wanted to alter their memories, these normal humans and Knights, who Beatrice had just captured, could not resist Beatrice altering their memories in the slightest.

    In the end, Beatrice had to spend around 10 minutes to alter the memories of these humans, as well as 30 more minutes to destroy all physical evidence of the mage''s existence.

    After finishing things up in the capital, Beatrice made her way to the next city, using the memories of the mages from the capital to discover every single city that traces of mages.

    But even so, as Beatrice went from city to city, systematically annihilating every single Aephovian Mage she encountered, reading their memories, she learned of even more cities with suspected mage traces, making her trip take a bit longer than she expected.

    In the end, it took Beatrice just over 17 hours to completely annihilate any trace of magic within the Aepheovian Kingdom, but even so, Beatrice was not done just yet.

    ...

    As she reviewed the memories of every single one of the 147 mages she had killed, as well as of the 7543 normal humans who she altered the memories of, a faint smile couldn''t help but appear on Beatrice''s face.

    "It''s as I thought, the Aepheovian Kingdom has by far the highest number of known mages, the other Kingdoms pale in comparison..." thought Beatrice as she suddenly began flying south, to the Nawen Kingdom, where she would continue her job.

    ...

    In the end, Beatrice had killed 263 mages, 261 of which were Lower Rank Mage Apprentices and two of which were High Rank Mage Apprentices, as well as altered the memories of 10345 people over the course of 35 hours.

    As there were fewer Mages in the other Kingdoms, they were also a somewhat more secretive than the Aepheovian Mages, making the ratio between them, as well as the number of people who she altered the memories of much lower than in the Kingdom of Aepheovia.

    ...

    As she stared at the streets of Vitriol, the capital city of the Aepheovian Kingdom, which seemed a bit silent for some reason, Scythia, who had just been contacted by her teacher not too long ago, couldn''t help but take in a deep breath.

    But even so, since her teacher had told her that she would not be disturbed by mages any longer, Scythia still continued walking towards the Royal Palace of the Kingdom with confidence, trusting her teacher''s words, and that she had dealt with things.

    As a mage, Scythia was able to quickly move through the defenses around the palace, which for some reason, seemed to have been recently changed, and made her way inside.

    Looking at the Royal Knights who were standing behind her, at the entrance to the Palace, Scythia couldn''t help but slightly click her teeth.

    ''As expected of the most powerful Kingdom on the Continent, the number of Royal Knights is much larger than before...'' thought Scythia, silently comparing this Palace with Palaces she had recently visited.

    But even as she thought this, Scythia, who had slowly but surely gained confidence, made her through the Royal Palace, and silently reached the Royal Bedroom, in which the King and the Queen were currently sleeping.

    In just a few moments, without any sort of interference from anyone or anything, Scythia, who had bypassed all the guards appeared besides the King''s bed.

    As she stared at the middle-aged couple sleeping peacefully on the bed, a faint smile appeared on Scythia''s face, causing her to stretch out one of her fingers to the forehead of the Queen.

 201 : Collapse

    Looking at her mistress, who was staring at her with a smile on her face, Antonia, who usually retained her calm, couldn''t help but become slightly giddy.

    "Mistress, do you really approve of the expansion plan?" asked Antonia as she looked at Beatrice, causing the latter to nod.

    Upon learning of the fact that Beatrice had trimmed the mage population of Golwall Island, Antonia, who desperately desired more land for the colony to develop, once again asked Beatrice for her permission.

    Previous, as Beatrice was somewhat worried about her activities being discovered to other mages, she refused Antonia''s plan, which involved both increasing the land that the colony could expand in, and also the creation of several sub-colonies, like the one that Canty had created.

    "You can consider your request preliminarily accepted, I''ll draft up a more concrete plan for the expansion of the colony after doing some investigation," said Beatrice with a smile on her face.

    Now that she had finally cleaned up Golwall Island, although the island was still not yet her territory, Beatrice was much less worried than before, and decided to accept Antonia''s request.

    Upon hearing the words of her mistress, Antonia couldn''t help but want to jump into the air, but even so, the Ant did her best to restrain herself in front of her mistress.

    ...

    As she stared at the map of Golwall Kingdom in front of her, which had several ants drawn on it, Beatrice couldn''t help but fall into thought.

    Although her control of the Island would massively increase in the following months, the arrival of outside people or mages was not something that Beatrice could control, at least not yet, as such the new ant colonies had to be placed nearby the original colony, so that Beatrice would have enough time to respond to any threats.

    After some thought, Beatrice had managed to pick out the locations of all but one of the new sub-colonies she wanted to create.

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    Sadly though, that final colony was a bit trickier than the others.

    As the other colonies had occupied all the good spots, which held a lot of natural resources, there wasn''t actually much left unclaimed around Beatrice''s home.

    As such, Beatrice currently had four options.

    First, she could place the could place the colony somewhere a bit more barren, which would restrict its development.

    Second, she could place it a bit further away from the other colonies, making it harder to defend and placing it in some danger.

    Three, she could abandon it, and chose to create on less colony.

    Lastly, in fact, there was a place that was quite suited for placing a colony, sadly though, Laslus City, a city with a population of around 23 thousand people was currently occupying it.

    "Laslus city is far away from the other population centers of the Kingdom of Lyon, only having a few villages nearby, there''s a chance this could work out if I take action personally, while also using the pawns that Scythia has created within the Kingdom," thought Beatrice as she fell into thought.

    Although Laslus City was not too close to her home, it was by far it''s closest large population center, meaning that as long as it disappeared, Beatrice''s home would become much harder to find, just in case someone wanted to investigate...

    The more Beatrice thought about it, the more it made sense.

    "With how disconnected cities within the Lyon Kingdom are with each other, and as long as I alter the memories of some people..."

    ...

    Several days later,

    Looking at the city below her, which was not that prosperous in the slightest, Beatrice faintly smiled.

    Although Beatrice could take action personally, and destroy the city herself, the powerful spells that Beatrice would have had to cast to destroy the city could possibly alert some powerful mage.

    As such, Beatrice decided to leave the destruction of this city to her competent subordinates.

    A moment later, Beatrice suddenly snapped her fingers, causing a loud sound, which spread downwards to the city below her, causing some residents to raise their heads to stare at the sky, only to see nothing.

    Although the residents of the city themselves were unaware of it just yet, for the past few days, Laslus City''s situation was becoming more and more precarious, as the city itself became more and more like a house of cards, just waiting to collapse.

    At that very moment, the act of Beatrice''s snapping her fingers was the final trigger that the city needed, causing it, alongside a circle around it, to suddenly fall over 40 meters into the ground, which had been hollowed out by over 1.3 million Earth Ants working day and night.

    After the city fell into the ground, and a large part of its population became dead or wounded, these same ants, which had been digging underneath the city up until now, got to work.

    In just under 2 minutes, the entire surviving population of the city, which was around 3000, was slaughtered by the rampaging ants, who then began working, bringing back the stone and dirt that they had taken from underneath the city, and began filling the giant hole they had just created.

    Seeing this, Beatrice suddenly snapped her fingers once again, and sent out dozens of Dark Bolts to kill any remaining stragglers outside of the city, allowing the ants to completely focus on their work.

    In the end, even both Beatrice ad Antonia actually underestimated just how terrifyingly fast the Earth Ants could work if they cooperated together in large numbers.

    In just under 2 days, under Beatrice''s thoughtful eyes from above, the entire humongous hole that the ants had created was filled up.

    The Earth Ants had even gone as far as to bring patches of grass, as well as whole trees to this new barren area, making it not totally lifeless.

    Seeing this, Beatrice, who had already arranged for no investigations to be made, faintly smiled before flying away, having other, equally important things to do.

 202 : Ant Colonies

    As she looked at the 3121 ants standing behind her, Smart Ant Number 2 couldn''t help but turn her attention to Antonia, who was standing next to her.

    ''Mother, are you sure these are enough ants to start a new colony?'' asked Smart Ant Number 2, causing Antonia to faintly frown, keenly aware of her daughter''s desire for more ants.

    ''Don''t worry, these are more than enough, both me and Mistress herself have scouted the area, and destroyed anything that might be able to threaten a new colony,'' said Antonia as she looked at Smart Ant Number 2, who had grown to be always half a tall as her.

    Hearing the words of her mother, who had just instantly shut down her request for more ants, Smart Ant Number 2, couldn''t help but regretfully nod.

    ''I understand mother,'' said Number 2 before quickly beginning to walk away, quickly followed by 3100 normal ants as well as 21 intelligent ants.

    If not for the fact that Antonia was physically unable to cry, tears would have most likely fallen down her face as she watched thousands of her little daughters leave.

    But even so, as an Ant Queen, Antonia also had an endless desire for expansion, as such, the creation of new colonies made her feel a bid conflicted.

    Even when Canty, who was annoying and disobedient, first went out and created her colony, Antonia felt sad, but after paying a visit to the fledgling colony, which had grown quite nicely over time, Antonia''s sadness finally disappeared.

    ''All the others are gone, now only number 4 is left,'' thought Antonia.

    Under the orders of her mistress, Antonia planned the creation of 5 new colonies, each of which occupied a useful location.

    For example, Colony Number 5, which was under the control of smart ant number 3, was to be created and occupy the most fertile plains in the region, while the colony created by Smart Ant Number 4 would be created over the defensive position that Laslus had once been on.

    Merely a few moments later, a large ant, followed by several thousand other ants of her choosing approached the exit to the colony, where Antonia was currently standing.

    ''The number of ants number 4 took is a bit smaller than the others...'' thought Antonia as she looked at the 3023 ants behind Number 4.

    As the first five intelligent ants other than Canty, who had come before them, Smart Ants 1-5 always had an extremely close relationship, with number 4, who was the smartest of them all being kind of like an Elder Sister to the others, especially to Number 1, who was a little bit less bright.

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    ''Mother, I''ve assembled the group, we''re ready to go establish the colony,'' said Number 4 as she looked at her mother with a serious look on her face, causing the larger ant to faintly smile, even though that was not visible on her face.

    Upon taking a closer look at Number Four''s group of ants, Antonia faintly nodded her head before letting out a sigh.

    ''Very well, Number 4, don''t disappoint me and the Mistress,'' said Antonia before finally allowing the ants to pass through, and exit the gates of the colony.

    ...

    ''Sister 5, we''ve finished creating the temporary housing for the ants to shield them from the snow temporarily,'' said Intelligent Ant Number 254 as she walked over snow to Number 5, the Queen of this colony, who was currently supervising the digging of the colony.

    Unlike the other 4 Colonies established, which had pretty easy starts, and great locations, the colony that Number 5 had created was sadly placed on a snowy mountain, making it much more difficult for it to get it''s footing.

    ''Very good, bring the sisters over here, the colony diggers have hit a layer of stone, we need as many mandibles as we can get over here,'' said Number 5 before suddenly jumping into the hole that the other ants had just created, before actually beginning to dig herself.

    As she looked at the Queen, whose mandibles were currently cutting through stone, Intelligent Ant Number 254 nodded her head before leaving.

    Around half a minute later, the Intelligent Ant had once again returned, this time with 300 Earth Ants behind her, and quickly jumped into the hole, beginning to dig as well.

    ...

    Although Number 4 did not have it nearly as hard as Number 5 did, as she stared at the completely infertile ground in front of her, which had just some trees and grass on top of it, Number 4 couldn''t help but click her mandibles together.

    Right now, Number 4 was standing right at the former location of Laslus City, which had been buried underground.

    A few moments later, after digging a bit through the dirt and finding it extremely easy to plow through, Number 4 couldn''t help but shake her head

    "423, get 300 ants and begin the digging of the colony, 1262, the soil here is not very stable, get 500 ants and reinforce the tunnels that 423 is digging," said Number 4, causing 2 Intelligent Ants to quickly gather 800 ants and get to work.

    "673, get 200 ants and gather information about the flora and fauna of the location, both on ground, and underground."

    "801, get 500 ants and create a perimeter around the colony, don''t fight the things that come in, just report to me."

    "745, get 300 ants and begin cleaning up the ruins of the underground city, give the materials obtained to 1262, they should be of help in stabilizing the tunnels."

    "56, get 500 ants and begin searching for the nearest underground water source, give its location to 423 after you find it."

    "As for the 700 ants left, you will follow me," said Number 4 as she stared into the distance.

    As an Ant Queen, although not a fully mature one just yet, Number 4''s vision was much better than that of other Earth Ants, as such, she was clearly able to notice the animals approaching from a distance, having discovered the disappearance of the human city.

    Being an Ant Queen with a colony that was eager to devour food, Number 4 was not willing to give up any food she could find.

 202 : Time Passing

    Four years later,

    As she opened her eyes and looked at Antonia, who was currently holding a thick report in her mandibles, Beatrice, who had just finished transforming her soul for the day couldn''t help but smile.

    "It seems as though you''ve finished collecting information on all the other colonies," said Beatrice as she got up and lightly stretched, causing her fingers to slightly touch the ceiling.

    Around 2 years ago, back when Beatrice became 32 years old, Beatrice''s growth finally slowed to a crawl, reaching a height of 205.62 centimeters

    In the end, after another 2 years, at the current moment Beatrice was exactly 205.63 cm.

    "Yes mistress, I''ve personally gone to all 6 sub colonies and tallied up their numbers," said Antonia as she approached Beatrice, causing the latter to pick up the report.

    With the new territory that Beatrice had allowed them to occupy, all Earth Ant colonies under the control of Beatrice experienced explosive growth, with the main colony, controlled by Antonia growing the most, from 1.6 to 2.7 million ants in just 4 years.

    But although the main colony had the most growth, proportionally, its growth could not be compared to that of the side colonies.

    Colony Number 2, Queen Canty grew from 5123 ants 4 years ago to 176,342 ants right now.

    As for the rest of the colonies, Beatrice had to read the report in her hands to find out.

    ''Hmm, the growth of the colonies is going quite well...'' thought Beatrice as she slightly smiled.

    Although they had different conditions, the populations of the five colonies that had been established 4 years ago stood at around 23 thousand to 54 thousand, with Colony Number 4, which was established in a fertile plain having 54 thousand, whilst Colony Number 5, established in the mountains stood at 23 thousand ants.

    As for the rest of the colonies? They stood somewhere between these 2 figures.

    Although the population of the mountain colony was a bit small for her liking, overall, the colony creation plan turned out to be quite a large success, allowing Beatrice to expand her power on Golwall Island.

    Of course, this ''power'', was not the thing that Beatrice had spent most of her time on, as she was much more preoccupied by her own magical prowess.

    Sadly though, although Beatrice made consistent progress over the past four years, this progress was still in line with her previous estimates, which meant that Beatrice still had to spend around 35 more years on Transforming her soul.

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    If this estimate was true, it would mean that Beatrice would finish her transformation around 52 years after first arriving at Golwall Island, or rather, 52 IA, how Beatrice had begun referring to it in her notes.

    After noticing that she was about to sink into her thought, Beatrice suddenly turned to Antonia.

    "You can go now, you can continue as planned," said Beatrice, causing Antonia to quickly retreat from the room, leaving Beatrice alone.

    A few moments after Antonia left the room, Beatrice turned her attention to the Elemental Energy in the air.

    Not the elemental energy inside of her home, which had been artificially increased in density by her, instead, the elemental energy in the outside world.

    A few moments later, Beatrice let out a faint sigh.

    "The growth still is pretty minimal," mumbled Beatrice before shaking her head.

    Although she could not predict the growth of elemental energy years in advance, Beatrice knew very well that if an explosion in density was near, signs would be showing.

    "Worst case scenario I have at least another decade..." mumbled Beatrice with a faint smile on her face.

    A few moments later, Beatrice turned her attention onto Scythia, who had returned 2 years ago, after finishing the mission that Beatrice had given to her.

    Interestingly, it was not controlling the royal families, as well as the people in power, that was the thing that had taken the most time, unlike what Scythia had expected.

    Instead, the thing that Scythia had spent most of her time was controlling and influencing small people, merchants, weak nobles, City Lords, and making sure that as long as something important happened, information would soon reach her ears, as well as the ears of her teacher.

    A moment after Beatrice turned her attention onto Scythia, the apprentice suddenly floated right out of her bed, into the air, before immediately beginning to fly towards Beatrice.

    In just a few moments, before Scythia could fully gain her bearings, the teen girl had arrived in front of Beatrice.

    "Good morning teacher," said Scythia, who had been suddenly woken up.

    Unlike Beatrice, who could now do without sleep entirely, Scythia still needed at least some rest, much to the annoyance of her teacher.

    "Scythia have you found out? When are the recruiters of the Academies coming?" asked Beatrice, who had tasked her apprentice with this before beginning to meditate.

    The recruiters of the mage academies, much like the ones that had brought Beatrice upon the path of magic, usually visited the Malto Archipelago, which Golwall Island was part of, once every few years.

    Although Beatrice was much, much more powerful than these Academy Mages, the Witch had no desire to provoke the major Academies, nor did she have any desire to reveal herself to the outside world.

    As such, when she realized that these recruiters had not come for 7 years in a row, Beatrice became a bit curious fearing that the Academy Mages might cause her some issues in completing the mission given to her by her teacher.

    Hearing the words of her teacher, Scythia, who had completed the task in just under a day, couldn''t help but breathe a faint sigh of relief.

    "They''ll be coming in around 1 to 2 months, their exact time will depend on the weather out at sea," said Scythia causing Beatrice to nod.

    "That''s good, a month should be enough time, Scythia, notify me as soon as you find out any other information, I don''t want to be surprised by them," said Beatrice before suddenly walking away, leaving Scythia behind her.

 203 : Disrespectful

    After becoming certain that the Academy Mages were not yet on the Island, Beatrice immediately made her way out of her underground hideout, and rose right into the sky.

    As she overlooked the world below her, as well as all the living being that were contained within it, who once again, like always, seemed tiny to her, Beatrice shook her head.

    A few moments later, Beatrice took out a blue-ish stone from her robes, and let out a faint sigh.

    "Selena''s really treating me like her coolie, working me to death..." mumbled Beatrice, who had received her second mission not too long ago.

    Although a few years had passed since Selena had sent out her first mission, Beatrice was still a bit annoyed.

    But even so, in the face of a powerful Archmage, the little Official Mage could only grit her teeth and obey, lest her accumulation of almost 2 decades be destroyed.

    As for Beatrice''s task? Use the stone given to her to search for children with Space Affinity.

    A few moments later, Beatrice suddenly flapped her wings, and began flying westward.

    ...

    As she looked at the relatively large city in front of her, Beatrice couldn''t help but slightly nod.

    "This should be the smallest city that I will visit, I won''t visit cities any smaller than this, Selena shouldn''t mind this..." mumbled Beatrice as she once again took out the blue-ish stone.

    A few moments later, Beatrice began flying over the city a few times, but even so, the stone remained completely unchanged, causing her to stop and shake her head.

    "It''s as I expected, this will be like finding a needle in a haystack..." mumbled Beatrice as touch her forehead, resisting the desire to ignore the mission and go back home to continue her research.

    Never mind children with Space Affinity, in a group of one thousand people it would be considered lucky for a single one to have any kind of Elemental Affinity, most of them extremely weak F Rank, otherwise mages wouldn''t be so rare and respected.

    Even the Mage Academies, who were starving for talent knew better than to try to search for potential mages amongst the masses, otherwise they might have to spend all of their manpower combing through them.

    As such, in remote places like Golwall Island, the mage Academies would test noble children, who were likely descendants of mages, as these kids were much more likely to have some sort of mage affinity.

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    In just under half a day, Beatrice had combed over all the major cities within the Kingdom of Lyon without having any kind of luck.

    ''I''ll at most waste a week...'' thought Beatrice as she looked at the last city below her, which also did not have any suitable people within, creating her phycological bottom line.

    If Beatrice did that, Selena would at least have to admit that her coolie had spent some effort, and wouldn''t be harsh on her.

    ...

    After finishing up with the Kingdom of Lyon, Beatrice, who had become much calmer after accepting the fact that she would waste a week, continued with the other Kingdoms on the continent.

    After the Lyon came the Kingdoms of Aepheovia and Nawen.

    Interestingly though, although the Kingdom of Aepheovia did not have any Space Affinities, after going through half of the Kingdom of Nawen, Beatrice finally encountered what she was searching for.

    ...

    As she looked at the stone in her hands, which was currently glowing a faint blue color, Beatrice, who had already written off this week as a short vacation, couldn''t help but suddenly become serious.

    That very instant, Beatrice lowered herself towards the city, causing the stone, which shone brighter the closer to its target it was, to brighten up.

    In the end, it took Beatrice just under thirty seconds to land in front of a little boy, around 8 years of age.

    As soon as Beatrice appeared right in front of his window, the little boy, who was staring at the sky up until that moment, couldn''t help but freeze.

    A moment later, the window suddenly opened on its own, allowing Beatrice to easily kidnap the little boy who had just fallen unconscious a moment later without any sort of care in the world.

    As for what reaction the boy''s parents would have, or what his own opinion on the matter was? Beatrice did not particularly care.

    As she flew into the air once again and examined the boy, Beatrice couldn''t help but shake her head.

    "Entirely ordinary from the outside, if not for this, I wouldn''t have been able to notice his abnormality even if he stood in front of my face..." mumbled Beatrice as she stared at the stone in her hands, which was currently shining brightly.

    ...

    Several days later,

    "Really unexpected, with how thin the Elemental Energy if here, I really didn''t expect Golwall Island to be full of so many talented little guys..." mumbled Beatrice as she stared at the five floating children in front of her, causing Selena to slightly nod her head.

    "You''ve done well this time, as for your reward, you can either tell me now if you want something, or contact me in the future, but you shouldn''t expect much with the difficulty of this mission," said Selena as she waved her hand, causing the five children to fly towards her.

    Hearing Selena''s words, Beatrice slightly rolled her eyes.

    '' ''Shouldn''t expect much'', don''t worry I understand you old hag...'' thought as she looked at Selena, causing the latter''s eyes to suddenly move.

    "Were you thinking of something disrespectful just now?"

    "No."

    Hearing the response of her little subordinate, Selena couldn''t help but shake her head.

    "It''s very good that you didn''t, otherwise your reward might be gone..." said Selena with a a sly smile on her face, causing Beatrice to suddenly freeze.

    Seeing this, the smile on Selena''s face intensified.

    "It really looks like you were thinking of something disrespectful..." mumbled Selena before suddenly flicking Beatrice, who was quite a bit taller than her, on her forehead.

    A moment after that, Selena alongside the five children disappeared.

 204 : Aproach

    "An entire week wasted for nothing..." mumbled Beatrice as she stared at the place where Selena had just stood before shaking her head.

    A few moments after that, Beatrice then turned her attention onto more important things.

    ...

    At that very moment...

    As she looked at Selena, who had just arrived with a few children behind her, Irelia couldn''t help but appear a bit surprised.

    "She found five of them? That''s quite impressive..." said Selena as she sat up and touched her chin.

    "Irelia, give these five to Nicholas, he should know what to do with them," said Selena as she snapped her fingers, causing the children to float over towards the Light Mage who had hunted down Selena in the past.

    "I understand..."

    ...

    Looking at the five children floating around her, Irelia, who was currently walking to her destination couldn''t help but fall into some thought.

    ''These five can replace five space mages, meaning that they can be sacrificed to increase the stability of the Spatial Prism, but would such a small sacrifice really be enough to meaningfully change things?''

    Unlike Ighor, who was more involved on the technical side of things, Irelia mostly used brute force, as well as her power to do things for Selena, as the fact that she was a Light Mage proved to be quite advantageous, as most people really wouldn''t be able to guess that there was a Light Mage serving Selena.

    Sadly though, this fact also meant that Irelia didn''t really understand Selena''s plans fully.

    A few moments later, Irelia shook these messy thoughts which didn''t involve her out of her mind, and simply walked to her destination, much to the delight of the person that was currently watching over her.

    ...

    "The control on Irelia still seems to be stable, at the moment, there''s no reason currently to waste time casting True Darkness on her," mumbled Selena, who had just intentionally weakened her grasp over the Light Mage, hoping to gauge her reaction.

    A few moments later, after taking a few more good looks at Irelia, Selena disappeared, reappearing in front of a large sphere and began waiting.

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    Whilst waiting, Beatrice couldn''t help but turn her attention to the large, spherical Spatial Prism before her, which had several small cracks on it.

    In the end, Selena had to wait for around 2 minutes before Ighor, followed by five hooded figures arrived below the sphere before bowing towards Selena.

    "Mistress, should we begin?" asked Ighor, causing Selena to merely nod her head.

    Seeing the positive response of his Mistress, Ighor then snapped his fingers, causing one of the hooded figures to take off their hoods, revealing themselves.

    "You can begin casting the spell," said Ighor, causing the man who had just taken off his hood to suddenly freeze in place for a few moments before stretching out his hand in front of him.

    Then, under the eyes of the six other people at the scene, blood quickly began flowing out of the mouth of the Mage Apprentice, as he began casting the Rank 2 Spell, Space Mend.

    Usually, as a Mage Apprentice, the man should''ve been completely incapable of casting such a powerful spell.

    Sadly though, with the training Selena and Ighor had put him through, the man was actually able to persevere, causing more and blood to begin flowing out of all of his orifices.

    By the time an entire minute had passed, the man''s eyes lost their color, as even his very soul begin being used as fuel for the spell he was casting.

    At that moment, a blue light suddenly emerged from the had of the mage, and began travelling towards one of the small cracks in the Spatial Prism.

    In just under thirty seconds, the crack, which was not a crack in the physical prism itself, but rather a crack in space, began disappearing under the efforts of the apprentice.

    Finally, a minute later, the crack had entirely disappeared, causing the Mage Apprentice to breathe a final sigh of relief.

    ''Finally...''

    A moment after that, the Mage Apprentice, who was entirely drained in both body and soul, fell to the ground and instantly died.

    Even though the Spatial Prism still had many cracks left, Selena still smiled as she stared at the place where a crack had been just a few moments ago.

    Although the mending of a single crack was rather insignificant, this meant that the Spatial Prism could control the space within the world inside of the Flying City just a bit better, allowing it to recover that little tiny bit faster.

    "You''ve done well Ighor, it seems as though the training of the Space Mage Apprentices was done properly," said Selena as she stared at the second Apprentice, who had just taken off his hood and had begun casting the same Rank 2 Spell.

    Hearing the words of praise, Ighor did not respond, and merely continued bowing, causing Selena to shake her head and turn her attention back onto the scene in front of her.

    In just under 30 minutes, all five Mage Apprentices finished casting the Space Mend Spell, causing the Spatial Prism to become just that bit more complete, being 95.1% of its full power at the moment, from the previous 94.8% before the sacrifice of the apprentices.

    But even though this was a seemingly minor boost, a faint smile still appeared on Selena''s face, as she turned her attention onto the World within the Flying City, which was getting closer and closer to recovering.

    ...

    Unaware of the fact that her rather good luck had helped Selena come closer and closer to truly being able to activate her Flying City, Beatrice was currently floating in the air, staring into the distance with a frown present on her face.

    "In the end, it looks as though the words of others can still never be fully trusted..." mumbled Beatrice as she stared at the group of Academy Mages that were currently approaching, who had come much earlier than Scythia had told her.

 Chapter 205 : Troublesome

    A few moments later, after taking another good look at the Academy mages, Beatrice, who did not have any plans to get involved with them, retreated back into her home.

    ...

    In just a few moments, Beatrice passed through the defenses on the first floor and arrived at one of her two labs, which was located on the Second Floor, before suddenly snapping her fingers.

    Merely a few moments after that, a young boy suddenly floated in front of Beatrice, causing a faint smile to appear on her face.

    As she looked at the sixth child with space affinity that she had discovered, who was currently floating in front of her, unconscious, Beatrice couldn''t help but fall into thought.

    With how rare space mages were, although Beatrice did not have any need for one, the Official Mage was still very much tempted, as such, she silently hid one of the Six potential mages that she had discovered, and only gave 5 to Selena.

    Right now though, Beatrice had to deal with the aftermath of her actions, and think about what she wanted to do with the little guy.

    Right now Beatrice unfortunately did not have any mediation technique suited for Space Mages, making it very unlikely that the little guy would be able to become a Mage Apprentice in a short amount of time.

    "It''s not worth it for me to go to the Magic Continent and try to obtain a suitable meditation technique, so this little guy is probably more suitable to becoming an experimental subject..." mumbled Beatrice, feeling a tinge of pain in her heart at the thought of wasting such a precious talent.

    But even so, Beatrice even if she completely wasted the potential of this little guy, Beatrice was completely unwilling to hand him over to Selena.

    A moment later, Beatrice decided on what to do, causing the little boy to suddenly float over to an operation table, followed by Beatrice, who now had a pitch black scalpel in one of her hands.

    The moment the black scalpel appeared in Beatrice''s hand, the little boy, who had been completely still up until now, suddenly began moving in his sleep, causing Beatrice to let out a faint sigh

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    ''His spiritual power also seems a bit high, but it''s a pity he''s a space mage...'' thought Beatrice as she approached the boy, who was still unconscious but was currently moving, trying to escape the restraints that had just appeared around his body.

    "Don''t worry little guy, big sister will take care of you, just sleep peacefully," said Beatrice, lightly whispering into the ear of the little boy.

    Although the little boy''s spiritual power was quite high, in front of Beatrice, who was an Official Mage, the little boy couldn''t resist in the slightest.

    A moment later, Beatrice''s scalpel started cutting through the flesh of the little boy, but even so, the latter did not move in the slightest, having been pacified by Beatrice.

    ...

    As she looked at her mistress, who was currently sowing the flesh of a young boy back together, Antonia, who had just entered the laboratory a few moments ago couldn''t help but fall silent.

    It only took around 5 minutes for Beatrice to finish dealing with the little boy and fully heal him back to normal.

    In the end, the only traces and evidence that Beatrice had done something to the little boy were a few small scars that were left after Beatrice healed him, but even those would disappear with time, leaving truly no trace that Beatrice was involved with him.

    After making sure that the little boy was completely fine, Beatrice suddenly stretched out her finger and tapped him in the forehead, causing a frown to appear on his small face.

    A few moments after that, the eyes of the little boy opened, causing a confused look to appear on his face as he stared at Beatrice.

    "Elder Sister, what did you do to me?" asked the little boy, causing Beatrice to faintly smile before snapping her fingers and beginning to alter the memories of the little boy.

    ...

    A while later,

    "So, what do you have to report?" asked Beatrice as she turned her attention away from the little boy, who was currently unconscious, and onto Antonia, who was standing in front of her.

    "It seems as though those ''Academy Mages'' have arrived at the Island, Colony Number 4 has discovered traces of them," said Antonia, causing Beatrice to lightly shake her head.

    "Don''t worry, I''ve already discovered that, order the other colonies to be a bit more Low-Key in the following months, them being discovered by them could prove quite disastr-," said Beatrice as she suddenly froze in place.

    A moment later, Beatrice suddenly disappeared.

    ...

    As he walked through the forest, a rather suspicious look couldn''t help but appear on Dfeeb''s face.

    "Ants shouldn''t stray very far away from the colony, so it should be nearby..." mumbled Dfeeb as he turned his attention to the rather large ant in his hand, which he had discovered had actually been spying on him.

    A moment later, Dfeeb suddenly froze, as he suddenly felt a hand land on top of his head.

    Before the mage apprentice could do anything, another hand suddenly touched his own hand, and took the dead ant from it.

    A moment later, Dfeeb lost consciousness.

    ...

    As she looked at the unconscious mage apprentice in front of her, as well as at the dead little ant in her hand, Beatrice couldn''t help but let out a faint sigh.

    Although Beatrice could alter the memories of the apprentice in front of her without any difficulty, there was a large chance that such obvious memory manipulation would be discovered by other academy mages, making the situation a somewhat complicated.

    A moment later, after some thought, Beatrice suddenly took out a little object out of her robes and spoke into it.

    "Elder Sister Selena, I need to claim the reward from my mission," said Beatrice as she sent a bit of her mana into the object.

 206 : Academies

    As she looked at the unconscious mage apprentice in front of her, Selena couldn''t help but turn towards her descendant, Beatrice, who was standing nearby.

    "Are you sure that you want to use your reward for something like this?" asked Selena as she approached Beatrice, who was quite a bit taller than, causing the latter to nod.

    "I want to be able to continue my practicing magic in peace for at least another decade," said Diana, causing Selena to snap her fingers, causing the mage apprentice to suddenly fly in front of her.

    A moment later, Selena stretched out her fingers towards the unconscious mage apprentice, causing a small black cloud to emerge from it before going straight through the eyeballs of the apprentice.

    Immediately after that, the mage apprentice fell to the ground, causing Selena to turn towards Beatrice.

    "You can just leave him right here, he won''t remember a thing, nor will anyone notice anything wrong with him," said Selena before suddenly turning into a black cloud and dispersing into all directions, without giving Beatrice any chance to react.

    ''Selena doesn''t have any reason to lie to me right now, it should be fine...'' thought Beatrice before immediately flying away, unwilling to be here when the mage apprentice awakened.

    ...

    After taking a final look at Beatrice, who was currently flying in the opposite direction, Selena couldn''t help but fall into a bit of thought.

    "Her progress is pretty fast, there''s a good chance that she can become an Archmage in the future," mumbled Selena with a thoughtful look on her face.

    If it had been in the past, Selena wouldn''t have hesitated in the slightest, and eliminated this young mage who could possibly become an Archmage in the future.

    ''It shouldn''t matter much as long as I can fully control the Flying City,'' thought Selena as she flew over the ocean.

    Right now, having a Flying City in her possession, Selena was not afraid in the slightest of anything that could happen.

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    Even if a Legendary Mage or a True God appeared, as long as Selena could control the flying city, she would still be able to survive without much trouble, not to mention a mere Archmage like Beatrice had the chance of becoming.

    After a few minutes of flight, finally arrived at her destination, a tiny rock island, around a hundred meters in size.

    A few moments after landing onto this Island, Selena disappeared from the Malto Archipelago and instantly reappeared back on the Magic Continent.

    Unaware of the thoughts and plans of her ancestor, Beatrice had successfully returned to her home after warning her Ant colonies to no longer spy on the Academy Mages.

    ...

    As he opened his eyes and stared at the lush forest above him, Dfeeb couldn''t help but stretch out his hand and touch his forehead, as memories from yesterday rushed into his mind.

    "Getting drunk whilst on a mission, what was I even thinking?" mumbled Dfeeb before slowly rising to his feet, still a bit wobbly.

    Although Mage Apprentices had much higher tolerance for alcohol than mortals, not only was Dfeeb not a particularly powerful apprentice, he also went quite a bit overboard yesterday.

    After a few moments of thought, Dfeeb slightly nodded his head.

    "I got lost on the island and spent the night out, that should be quite believable..." mumbled Dfeeb before making up some more details for his story, using the forest around him for inspirational material.

    Although Dfeeb was far too drunk yesterday, and did not remember how he had got to his forest, he was still quite fortunate, as he could say that he had gotten lost in the forest.

    At the same time, another idea popped up in Dfeeb''s mind.

    "I should silence the people that saw me drink yesterday..." mumbled Dfeeb as he sunk into his mind and began searching his memories.

    A few moments later, Dfeeb appeared a bit puzzled, as he could actually not remember who he had gotten drunk with.

    Normally, this would have already alerted Dfeeb, who was usually very cautious, but at the moment, for whatever reason, all of Dfeeb''s cautiousness seemed to have evaporated into thin air, as such, he did not pay much attention to those people any longer.

    "I didn''t give my actual name, so It''s probably fine..." mumbled Dfeeb before finishing creating his excuse.

    A few moments after that, Dfeeb finally began making his way out of the forest.

    ...

    Later that day,

    As he looked at the young mage apprentice who had just arrived at the scene, a faint frown couldn''t help but appear on Toeghei''s face.

    "Dfeeb, we''ve been searching for you, go back to work immediately," said Toeghei, who did not care much that the missing mage apprentice had been found.

    "I understand sir, I''ll get on with it," said Dfeeb before quickly going to help the other mage apprentices had a somewhat higher workload because of the absence of the apprentice.

    Interestingly, merely a few moments after Dfeeb left, another mage apprentice made his way to Toeghei, who wanted to rest a bit, causing another frown to appear on his face.

    "What is it Heik?" asked Toeghei as he looked at Heik, who had just come to him.

    "We''ve found someone with D Rank Space Affinity in one of the minor noble houses, how should we deal with him?"

    "Since it''s only D Rank, he doesn''t have much potential, you can guide him to one of the minor academies," said Toeghei before closing his eyes, leaving Heik slightly speechless at the laziness of his supervisor.

    ...

    At the same time, within Beatrice''s hideout.

    As she felt her connection with that little guy remain relatively stable even as the distance between the two of them increased, a faint smile appeared on Beatrice''s face.

    "It''s as I expected, with how difficult it is for Space Mages to progress, a D Rank Space Affinity kid doesn''t have any chance of getting into one of the major academies..." mumbled Beatrice as she smiled.

    As long as that kid was in one of the Academies without any Archmages, Beatrice was confident that her actions wouldn''t be discovered.