《Oswald the black wizard》 Robin the apprentice Year 18123, Dark Forest Academy. In the ground floor of the academy an apprentice wearing gray robe walking across the corridor. He suddenly stops in front of the room with numbered 420. He then takes a key with the same number on it from his robe and unlocks the door then goes inside. After closing the door he takes off his hood covering his face revealing an immature but ordinary face. He is about 15 years old but unusually bulky and with calluses on his hands. ¡°Finally back to the room¡±. The boy in the apprentice robe is Rabin Oswald. This is his first day as an apprentice in dark forest wizard academy. He is the second son of Oswald family, a declining noble family. His father wanted his elder brother to inherit the family because he was tested to have wizard talent, even though it is of low level one. In this world having talent for wizard is pretty rare even if it is a low level talent. Wizard talent is divided into five levels where fifth class being the lowest and first class being the highest. He has fourth class qualification and his chances of becoming an official wizard if about 20%. For fifth class it is 10%, third class 40%, second class 80% and for first class qualification as long as nothing unexpected happens they can become official wizards. In his entire batch there is no student with first class qualification and only one person with second class qualification. That person is prince of the kingdom he belong to, he was accepted as a student by the wizard Henry who conducted talent test on the spot. Well, this has nothing to do with him, if he fail to become third class apprentice before 40, then he will be expelled from the academy and become a loose wizard with no resources for continuing the wizard path and finally die of old age. While thinking of his situation he let out a helpless sigh, then after finishing his work took out bunch of notes from his table and stated reading and summarizing the notes he took from the morning free lecture. The academy provide free lectures for the basic courses but advanced courses are to be paid with magic stones. After that he took out new note and started writing what he understood and questions and doubts. This is a technique he used when he was a college student on earth while preparing for semester exams. You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author. Yes. This not his first life, in his previous life he was undergraduate in aerospace engineering , due to scarcity of job in the filed he majored in he had no choice but to become programmer in a startup company for modest sum. When he was exercising on gym he died of heart attack at the age of 24. Pity he not even got enjoy his first month salary. After finishing the work he stared at the blue screen only he could see with his fully three dimensional body on it. User Name: Robin Oswald Race: Human??? Occupation: Knight Physique: 2.59 Strength: 2.06 Agility: 2.16 Spirit: 1.99 This is his cheat that passed through with him, it was health monitor app that was he used him. Somehow it passed through with him and he don¡¯t know how this happened but he was able to control it to some degree and found out he could change the way it showed information and the result of his tinkering is the blue screen now he is looking. With it he can monitor his body in real time, he became knight at the age of 15, even though he is only been practicing family¡¯s ancestral breathing method 3 years. Even though he cannot practice breathing method before age of 12 he have been in contact with those who practice breathing method since he was a child, then after years of observation and with the help of the health monitor which he conveniently named as Ace, he was able to optimize the breathing method that is suitable to his physique by how it affects his body. Only then he was able to become knight in just three years after started training. In this world knights are considered pseudo extraordinary profession. Why pseudo? You ask, well only first order and above creatures are known as true extraordinary creatures. Wizards (level 1 and above) in a way also considered extraordinary creatures. Even though knights were considered superhuman among the mortal creatures they still nowhere near the top of the food chain, a low level demonized beast can take on a knight effortlessly. To kill a low level demonized beast at least 3 to 5 knights with full armor is needed. And first level apprentice spell is stronger than both of them. But that doesn¡¯t mean knights are weak if it is in sneak attack knight can theoretically kill an apprentice even though that is pretty rare but there are instances in which low level apprentice killed by group of knights in a siege. But no apprentice would be stupid enough to allow a knight to get that close. So the power ranking being knight < demonized beast < wizard apprentice. Above knight there is great knight, whose strength rivals stronger than first class apprentice and equal to weak second class apprentice. While thinking this he took out notebook from the table with title ¡°Oswald book of knight¡±. And started reading it, this book contains his understanding about the knight profession that he summed up from childhood to now and he plans on further adding content later he breaks through great knight. He loves taking notes and writing his understanding of things in books before he was in middle school in earth, all people relied on his notes for revision during exam, even though his handwriting sucks. Relic of the ancestor Generally the knight cultivation is divided into three stages. The first stage is when a person trains his/her body to the limit, in this stage they are called apprentice knight, after fully developing the human potential with the help of corresponding breathing method they become knight by sensing life energy by pushing themselves to the limits. Life energy has various uses, the main one being direct doubling of strength. Even though a knight can partially control life energy only by becoming a great knight you can release it outside. After his years of observation human being in this world has an average attribute of 1, but this may vary according to individuals for example for a particularly strong man strength attribute may greater than 1 and for a particularly agile man agility will be greater than 1. For spirit attribute as for as he knows it always less than 1. Only for formal knights he observed that it is greater than one but it is not much greater. As for formal knights any one of the attribute greater than 2 and for great knight generally it is greater than 4 some peak great knight even has it is around 7, this may not be accurate because when he started knight training his physique attribute was greater than 1, it is around 1.39 and most of all he had highest spirit attribute among all his family members that is around 1.63, well this may be due his soul being fused with his predecessor make his spirit inherently stronger. He also noticed a phenomenon that whenever any of his attribute increases it also increases other attributes for example when he break through to knight apprentice his spirit increased up to 0.32 but when broke through to formal knight it only increased 0.4 making his spirit 1.99 infinitely close to 2 but not much compared to when he broke through to knight apprentice, seems like stuck in a bottleneck. He also doubts he may not be a pure human being because he noticed that his physique attribute was greater than normal human, he has physique attribute around 1.39 when he was 12, which is greater than some veteran knight apprentices. He also has abnormally tall body , so guesses that not only he himself may not be a pure human his family members also may be same as himself, because he noticed the same thing from his father and elder brother. While thinking of this he took out a worn out bag from his inner pocket, this bag is given to him by his father day before he set off with wizard and he said to him solemnly that this bag was the relic of his great grandfather Robin Oswald founder of the Oswald family. If you are wondering about the name, yes, he and his great grandfather has the same name and it is not a coincidence, his grandfather¡¯s name is also Robin Oswald. The Oswald family has serious lack of creativity when it comes to naming people, so his full name is Robin Oswald III. Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere. Well back to my solemn father, he said about how founder was a powerful third level wizard apprentice and our family being unable to produce wizard talents after him and then he being the first person to have wizard talent after the founder. This puzzled Robin more because even though wizard talent is rare but for descendants of wizards it may not be too rare, after all probability of a person having wizard talent increases exponentially when his ancestor is a wizard. He even maliciously speculated that his great grandfather might be cucked, then he denied this idea because he had seen his great grandfather¡¯s painting and he is looks too similar his father and him. Enough with the side tracks, well back to the bag. This his grandfather¡¯s relic and only wizard can open it, this is was at least my father told me, I tried to open it but failed. He thinks only by becoming a wizard apprentice he can open it. He didn¡¯t dare to show it other people for fear of getting killed for the treasure. In today¡¯s class apprentice taking lecture said tomorrow he will teach basic meditation. To become a wizard apprentice you first learn the basic meditation method. Basic meditation method is same for all those who want to become wizard apprentice, the meditation method contains total 9 primary runes. To become first level apprentice you must have to outline at least one primary rune and spirit greater than 2, for a second level apprentice you must outline at least four primary rune and spirit greater than 4 and for third level apprentice you must outline at least seven primary rune and spirit greater than 8. The process of outlining rune temper and increase your spiritual strength and the increase in spiritual strength vary person to person depend on the person¡¯s talent, for a person with first class talent increase in spiritual strength for outlining a rune is huge compared with pitiful increase in spiritual strength for a person with fifth class talent and that¡¯s why students with high qualifications are valued. For a person with low talent even if he outlines all the 9 primary runes he may not be able to reach the threshold for promoting to the third class apprentice due to insufficient spiritual strength. With his fourth class qualification it may very difficult to promote to third class apprentice only with the help of regular meditation. Thinking about the difficulties he let out a helpless sigh and gave a one last look at the bag and put it in a wooden box then let it slide under the bed. Nobody will enter his room without his permission so it is pretty safe here. Wizards take personal space seriously, it is a huge taboo to pry on other wizard''s secrets. After putting the bag in a safe place he went to sleep in the bed, after becoming a wizard apprentice he plans on trying again. Level 1 Apprentice In the next morning after finishing his morning workout Robin take look at the attribute panel before him. User Name: Robin Oswald Race: Human??? Occupation: Knight Physique: 2.61 Strength: 2.09 Agility: 2.18 Spirit: 1.99 Knight Breathing Method: Shadow Snake breathing method. Both agility and physique increased by 0.02 and strength by 0.01, he become a knight just before coming to the academy, so he is still in the period of rapid growth and due the existence bottleneck, before breaking through he accumulated so much potential and after he broke through the accumulated potential is fully being unleased, so he may break through to become great knight earlier. To break through to become a great knight according to his observation at least any of the physical attribute have to exceed 4 and due to his accumulated potential during apprentice knight stage this accumulation time greatly shortened. May be within 2 or 3 months he may have a strength of a veteran knight and the shadow snake breathing method he practicing mainly focuses on physique and agility. It said that it was created by his great grandfather by observing high level demonized beast shadow snake. An adult shadow snake strength rivals a third level apprentice and some outstanding shadow snake even have strength rival¡¯s some weaker peak apprentices. And that answers the question of how his family noble crust has a giant snake black snake on it and it said that no one can practice this breathing method without having the blood of Oswald family. After getting ready Robin put on his robe and went straight to his classroom to attend his second class. Today he is going to learn how to meditate primary rune. In a blink of an eye, time flies, it has been half a month since Robin attended his first class and he learned all about wizard meditation and the process of outlining primary rune, apprentices started outlining their first primary runes and some geniuses like Patrick Austin with second class qualification already became an level 1 apprentice. And by the way Patrick is the one who got accepted as student by wizard Henry. Even though many people are already ahead of him, he really didn¡¯t care and he slowly learning the knowledge about the meditation in his own phase and today he thinks he is ready to get promoted to become a wizard apprentice. Stolen story; please report. Robin directly went to his room after the class and after taking a shower he take one last look at his attribute panel. User Name: Robin Oswald Race: Human??? Occupation: Knight Physique: 2.73 Strength: 2.16 Agility: 2.28 Spirit: 1.99 Knight Breathing Method: Shadow Snake breathing method. During half month his agility increased by 0.1 and physique by 0.12 and strength by 0.7. It is starting to slow down but he thinks accumulated potential is still not exhausted, spirit on the other hand stuck in a bottleneck there is no increase but just like in knight bottleneck he can fell even though spirit has not increased that much when he broke through to knight, he can feel potential accumulating in his body. If he broke through become a first level wizard apprentice he feels the accumulated foundation will tremendously increase his spirit. Then putting the distractions away Robin sat cross-legged on his bed and started outlining his first primary rune in his mental space. ¡°Here goes nothing¡± Even though he know the process perfectly he is still pretty nervous during the process but the process of out lining the rune is unexpectedly smooth, in fact it so smooth he started felling uneasy. Suppressing his unease he slowly finishes outlining the rune and just after he outlined the last stroke he seems to hear a boom. Then he slowly looked at the panel his spirit attribute started increasing crazily¡¯ His accumulated foundation during his knight break though now fully unleased it had not slowed down until it reached 2.4 roughly 0.4 points and it still increasing until it reaches 2.47 and his other attributes also increased, he looked at his stats. User Name: Robin Oswald Race: Human??? Occupation: Knight Physique: 2.79 Strength: 2.21 Agility: 2.32 Spirit: 2.47 Knight Breathing Method: Shadow Snake breathing method. His physique increased by 0.06, his strength by 0.05 and agility by 0.04 and he feels this might not be the end, he might experience this kind period of rapid growth for some time before slowing down. After an hour of rapid growth in spirit his mental space started stabilize¡¯ he the stated to meditate on the primary rune, he seems to be surrounded by void and light particles of different colors floating around some seems repel him and some actively attracted to him. He started using his mental strength to attract the light particles around him. The light particles attracted to him were mostly of black in color followed by silver and finally some red colored particles. These light particles were the elemental particle present in the surroundings. The black particle represents the shadow, silver represent space and red represent the fire elemental particle present in the surrounding. He attracted these colors because of his elemental affinity. A person¡¯s elemental affinity represents his sensitivity to corresponding element. Even though a person¡¯s elemental affinity make particularly sensitive to the element corresponding to his affinity, this does not mean he cannot cast spells of other element, elemental affinity just makes it easier to cast spells in the element you are sensitive to little easier. Even though elemental affinity means little but having rare elemental affinity has also has perks in learning spells of certain domain, take Robin as an example because of having rare space affinity, it is easier for him to learn spells belong to space domain. That doesn¡¯t mean there is only advantages, rare element mean finding spells belongs to those domain also rare. For him there aren¡¯t many space element spells available during apprentice period, so he mainly plan on focusing on shadow element as his main during apprentice levels and keep space element as support, after all when he was tested for wizard talent his elemental affinity is 60% shadow, 40% space and 10% fire. Sky blue potion After completing his first meditation Robin felt very refreshed his spirit attribute increased by 0.0002, this may not sound a lot but the numbers eventually add up, thinking of this he take out the box containing ancestor¡¯s relic which he kept under the bed. After opening the box he revealed the bag inside it, he learned lot in this span half month during his time in the academy. Compared to when he first came to academy, he dare not say he know all about wizard world but he feels less ignorant than before. The bag he is now holding in his hand is called a space bag, a magic item used by wizard apprentices to store items in it. Why only wizard apprentice what about the official wizards? Well, they use something called a space ring which contains far more space and convenient to use. Even though all apprentice can use space bags, generally only third level apprentice and some strong second level apprentices can afford to have it because, first of all space bag itself is pretty expensive (around 100 magic stones) and your average first and second level apprentice cannot afford it, secondly even if some can afford it, without strength to keep it buying a space bag is just sending free gift to others. Thinking of this a chill ran towards his spine, luckily he didn¡¯t show it to anyone otherwise consequences must be disastrous but on the bright side of things, to own a space bag means it is confirmed that his great grandfather must be at least at the level of third class wizard apprentice. Thinking of holding the relic of third class apprentice his eyes flashed with greed. After reconfirming no one is around even though he is pretty sure he is the only one in the room. He chanted the incantation for opening the space bag. After chanting the incantation the bag slowly opened, he then hurriedly take out the items in the bag. It contained four items, a box with seals on it, book with the picture snake similar to Oswald family logo on it, a black orb and lastly a thick worn out diary. Robin first examined the diary, it looked like the pages were made of some kind of leather and seemed like the owner of the diary must have used this lot to produce this kind of wear and tear on the tough leather. After examining the diary he started reading it. Flash forward three hours later, after closing the book Robin gave a complicated look at the other items on the table. The diary indeed belong to his great grandfather, in it he describes about up and downs he faced during his lifetime. This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it It is more of an autobiography than a research diary but it also answers many of his questions. From the diary he got insight into his great grandfather¡¯s life and actually his great grandfather is not from this region at all, he came from a faraway place called Under Dark domain. It controlled by an academy called Tower of shadows. The domain he is currently in is called Thunder domain and it is controlled by the Austin family. To control a domain at least fourth level great wizard is needed and the strongest person in the dark forest academy, the dean is only a third level wizard. It is described in the diary that tower master of tower of shadows was a fifth level great wizard. His great grandfather was a student at tower of shadows and unlike him, his great grandfather had first class qualification. He was destined become an official wizard but when he and his fellow apprentice were exploring a wizard ruin, he was backstabbed by his fellow apprentice. Even though he managed to kill the apprentice, he was seriously injured and also damaged his foundation and worst of all, the apprentice he killed happened be a descendant of second level wizard, so in order to escape from the pursuit of second level wizard he faked his death and fled to Thunder domain. The box with the seal he took from the space bag is one of the things his great grandfather got from the wizard relic, it contains something called spirit burning potion. The owner of wizard relic, he and his fellow mate happened to be a pharmacist, at first they thought this as a regular wizard relic but after knowing that it belong to a pharmacist they turned against each other, which resulted in his great grandfather fleeing the domain. The owner of the wizard relic was researching on a potion capable of reversing the effect of sky blue potion. To become an official wizard an apprentice has to sublimate his soul, in simple terms, spirit attribute greater than 10. To increase spirit, there are many ways, safest one being with the help of advanced meditation method but most organization actively restrict knowledge related to advanced meditation method. Even his great grandfather who was a student of tower of shadows only heard about advanced meditation method and not actually seen it himself, which shows the preciousness of it. It said that some high level advanced meditation method even has effect of increasing spirit for third level wizards. Since many cannot afford advanced meditation method, so they set their sights on the next best alternative, which being the sky blue potion. The sky blue potion has the effect of increasing spirit by burning the vitality. But using of sky blue potion has also has many disadvantages, first of all if you failed to become an official wizard, you directly reduced to ashes due to burning of vitality and even after becoming an official wizard, unless there is an great opportunity it is harder to make up for the lost vitality. It is harder make progress in wizard way after using sky blue potion unless you use precious potion to make up for the lost vitality. Many wizards stuck on first level due this problem. Spirit burning potion The owner of the wizard relic happens to be a wizard who got promoted to official wizard by using sky blue potion. His vitality was seriously exhausted due to the usage of the sky blue potion and his wizard path came to a halt. Unwilling to give up on the wizard path and him being an experienced pharmacist, he set out to create a potion capable of restoring the vitality lost due to the usage of sky blue potion. To nobody¡¯s surprise he failed. After all sky blue potion has been used since thousands of years and it undergone innumerable number of refining, the formula is already very mature at this point. To formulate a potion capable replenish the vitality lost, you have to at least have to be a third level or even fourth level pharmacist. And the owner of the relic being only a first level pharmacist, it¡¯s no surprise he failed but even though he failed in his quest, he still managed to create a potion called spirit burning potion. The effect of spirit burning potion is exactly opposite of the sky blue potion. Unlike the former, instead of burning the vitality the spirit burning potion burns spirit to increase vitality. Robin¡¯s great grandfather mainly got three things in that exploration. First one being the spirit burning potion in the box, second one being notes containing pharmacist¡¯s experience which he attached to his diary and finally a first order shadow snake without a soul. The shadow snake is the experiment material of the pharmacist. Generally shadow snake can grow up to high level demonized beast, which is roughly equal to third level wizard apprentice and some strong ones can even up to peak apprentice but peak of apprentice stage is genetic limit of the species. But after being experimented on by the pharmacist using spirit burning potion it broke through the genetic limit and further evolved to become a first order creature but due to the repeated usage of the spirit burning potion the soul of the snake was essentially annihilated in the process. Even though the snake became a first order creature, without the soul it become vegetative, just like brain dead patients on earth. Due to being kept inside nutrient solution and generally magical beast being able live longer, it survived. After taking these things from the relic, his great grandfather fled to the Thunder domain, the in the Thunder domain he started to looking for ways to heal his injured foundation. After failing to find cure for his injury he came up with a crazy plan. That is, using the shadow snake to become an official wizard. After being in the wizard world for so long, he know that, there are many different genre even among wizard profession. A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. The term wizard refers to a person who pursues the truth, the increase strength is just the bi-product of the process. There are many ways to pursue the illusory truth and likewise there many types of wizards, with each having its own advantages and disadvantages. Bloodline wizard or sometime refer to as bloodline warlock is branch of wizard profession that gains strength by fusing with blood of magical beasts. It also among genre that is easier to gain strength and due to this, it is very popular among wizards. If you have blood of some strong magical beast, you can theoretically grow to the same level of strength as the magical beast that the blood belong to. When this genre was first introduced in ancient times, total wizard world went crazy, nearly all the magical beast population in the wizard world went extinct due to excessive hunting and after that these wizards set their sights on other worlds. At the time wizards were just starting to explore other worlds and most of the contact with other worlds were pretty peaceful, after all those other worlds had also have strongmen among them and wizards had no incentive to go to war with other strong men with similar strength but if those world had no strength to fight back that¡¯s another story, so wizards mostly traded with those people in other worlds for resources. The famous term equivalent exchange was coined around at that time. But the situation quickly changed when the supply of extraordinary blood cannot keep up with demand, after all nearly all the magical beasts on wizard world were already hunted to extinction. So now wizards have the incentive to fight with those strongmen in other worlds, after all those strongmen themselves were, in a way sources of extraordinary blood and thus began the bloody conquest. Wizards joined forces with other wizards and started plundering and ravaging the other worlds. Resources were mined recklessly and natives were turned into slaves for plundering the resources. The strongmen among the natives were hunted for their blood, their dead bodies were turned into undead and their bones were made into magic items. Even though bloodline wizards were not the only reason for the bloody conquest, they indeed played a major part it starting it. And during that time some bloodline wizards discovered that their strength become stagnant and stopped progressing, and not only that their descendants also starting to suffer strange diseases. These were later came to be known as bloodline shackles and the disease were known as bloodline diseases. Bloodline shackles occur when a bloodline wizard¡¯s bloodline reaches the theoretical limit, that being the level of the ancestor of the bloodline. To further progress there are only two ways: First one being, replacing bloodline with higher level bloodline of same origin. For example, imagine if you have bloodline of some kind giant and since the limit of giant bloodline is level three, you can progress upward by replacing the giant bloodline with titan bloodline of the same attribute, like replacing the bloodline of cloud giant with bloodline on thunder giant, since giant is a sub-species of titan, they have same bloodline origin and titan have high upper limit of level six. Since, theoretically titan can reach level six, by replacing giant bloodline with titan bloodline, you can have growth limit of level six thus moving the upper limit of the bloodline shackle. To be continued¡­ Chapter-6: Bloodline wizard The second way being, defeating the progenitor of the bloodline and devouring the origin, thus permanently breaking the bloodline shackles. Even though in theory it sounds like a simple solution, it is anything but simple. To implement this method, the first difficulty you are facing is finding the damn thing, after all tracking a single target among the nearly infinite number of planes is almost impossible. Even if you find the plane that the progenitor belong to, your odds of success is pretty slim, after all of the term progenitor generally refers to the strongest of the species and due to bloodline shackles, you will never be strong as the progenitor. Thus any act of you confronting the progenitor of your bloodline is simply delivering food. Unless some miracle happens this method is just a suicide mission. Because of this stronger the bloodline, harder it is to break the bloodline shackles. For example, if you have bloodline of titan or any of its sub-species like giant, to permanently break free of bloodline shackle, you have to face the ancestor all the titans and devour its origin. You must know that, the Ancestral Titan is a powerhouse at peak of level 8, just a step away from becoming level 9 Supreme. There is only handful of people capable of going toe to toe with the Ancestral Titan across the entire universe and you are not one of them. Unless your peak level 8 or even level 9 Supreme, forget about getting the origin of Ancestral Titan, then again, if you are that strong, why would you need the origin anyway? This does not mean that there is no hope for permanently breaking the bloodline shackles. Since stronger the bloodline, harder it is to break the bloodline shackle, in the same way, weaker the bloodline, easier it is to break the bloodline shackle. Here the term easier is used because, when compared with strong bloodlines, it is indeed relatively easier to break the bloodline shackles but it does not mean anyone can do it. Former is easier only when compared with the latter, it still a near impossible task. After all even with weak bloodline, you will, still be weaker than your bloodline ancestor. Without external help it is pretty much impossible. Even with this much disadvantages bloodline warlock still to this day remains a popular genre among the wizard population. And what does bloodline wizard have to do with Robin¡¯s great grandfather¡¯s crazy plan you ask? Plenty, because his plan was to become a bloodline wizard by using the blood of the first order shadow snake. This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. After all, even though the shadow snake has physical attribute greater than 10, without a soul, technically it is not a complete first order creature and to become a bloodline wizard, the blood used must come from a true extraordinary creature. That being, the creatures with strength first level and above. Due the snake being evolved beyond its genetic limit, it is in a way considered as a progenitor of a species and by using its blood for the fusion, he plan on becoming the progenitor of this new species. Since the shadow snake is an incomplete first level creature, it is pretty risky to use its blood for the fusion, but he had no other options. Since his injury was already started getting worse and he cannot delay any longer. So he started preparing for the blood fusion ceremony, generally to be on the safe side, at least first level wizard is required for conducting the ceremony but he had no capability to invite a first level wizard, since he is no longer a student of tower of shadows and he know no one in Thunder domain. Unsurprisingly he failed become a first order bloodline wizard, he still underestimated his injury and overestimated the level of the shadow snake blood. The feedback obtained by the blood fusion only enough for him to heal his physical injury and strengthen his physique. Since the snake had no soul, he does not get any feedback in terms of soul, so his soul still remain damaged and due to this he lost his first class talent. Even though the plan had not gone according to his way, he still unwilling gave up his pursuit. From the pharmacist notes he got from the relic he knew that not only normal wizards use advanced meditation but bloodline wizards also have something called something called bloodline meditation method. Since magical beasts generally have longer lifespan than humans, it would take hundreds, if not thousands of years for an extraordinary creature to grow and reach its full potential. So the bloodline meditation is the technique used for essentially speeding up the process by shortening the long bloodline maturity period. After all, even though bloodline wizards inherit the strength of the magical beast and have longer lifespan compared with normal wizards, this does not mean they themselves become a magical beast. Essentially they themselves are still remain a human being and, unless they give in to the instinct of the beast and become enchanted, their lifespan remain same as normal wizard, albeit little longer. Thus bloodline meditation come in to play, when you meditate on innate spirit rune in the bloodline mediation method, it increase your spirit and accelerate the maturity of your bloodline. Every extraordinary species has at least one innate ability and some strong species have more than one ability. For example, an average dragon born have at least three innate ability: elemental resistance, dragon breathe and the dragon might. The innate ability of extraordinary species is the derivative of the innate spirit rune of the species and by meditation on the innate spirit rune belong to the bloodline, you make your spirit move closer towards the ancestor, thus quickly reaching the bloodline maturity. Even though the shadow snake was an incomplete first order creature, due its essence being at level one, its innate spirit rune was relatively remained complete. Robin¡¯s great grandfather¡¯s next plan was to create a bloodline meditation method using the innate spirit rune he obtained from the body of the snake. Chapter-7: Shadow cloak He reasoned that, since the bloodline limit of the snake is first order, then by using the bloodline meditation, he might be able to promote to become a first order bloodline wizard. But creating a bloodline meditation method is no easy task, even with the innate spirit rune. Even though innate spirit rune is the core of the bloodline meditation method, for a complete meditation method it needs more than that. Then comes a problem, to arrange the blood fusion ritual, Robin¡¯s great grandfather already emptied his total net worth. To create a brand new meditation method, even with the innate spirit rune, it require massive amount of experiments. So he founded the Oswald family to conduct experiments and to study the effect of the bloodline on his descendants. After all the bloodline he fused belong to a brand new creature that broke through genetic limit due to a series of coincident. Years later when his first child was born, he discovered that, even though the child was abnormally strong but bloodline concentration of the child was nowhere near the level that a second generation bloodline wizard should have. Even after years of experiments he failed to find what caused this and he was unwilling to further experiment on his child. It is very hard for wizards to give birth to children and for bloodline wizards it much harder give birth. Some powerful bloodline wizards even have reproductive isolation. It took many years for him to give birth to this child and he very much cherished the child. The shadow snake breathing method that belong to Oswald family was created by him during his years of experiments. That is reason why people without Oswald family blood cannot practice it. After many years of hard work he finally created a meditation method but he also discovered that, because it took many years to create the meditation method, his spirit is already started to decline due to old age. Even though his lifespan was longer than apprentice wizards, he was still not an official wizard and he did not get any feedback in terms of spirit in the blood fusion ceremony. By the time he realized his mistake he was already in death bed and since his children and grandchildren at the time does not have wizard talent, without no one to pass on his inheritance, he passed away in despair. The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. In the last pages of the diary, he mentioned how unwilling he was to die without passing his lifelong work to a worthy inheritor. He also says in the diary that, if any of his descendant were to read this diary, that means he has wizard talent, if so, all he asks was don¡¯t let his inheritance go to waste. After thinking of his last words in the diary Robin let out sigh. ¡°Don¡¯t worry grandpa, I won¡¯t let your work go waste¡±. After fully reading the diary he now know what are the other two things he got from the space bag were. The black book with Oswald family logo on it is the bloodline meditation method created by his great grandfather. The black orb is called a memory orb, which is a commonly used item by wizards to record spell model. It can directly imprint spell model on mind of the user. Normal memory orb found on the academy can be used only once but the memory orb he has is of higher grade than the normal one and it can be used multiple times. It contains a 0-ring spell created by his great grandfather. It is derived from the innate spirit rune of the shadow snake. The spell is called shadow cloak. Shadow cloak is one of his great grandfather¡¯s proud work. It is spell used for hiding and escaping from the enemy, with the help of this spell you can hide yourself in the shadows present around your surroundings. It can even be called a pseudo first level spell because, unless your opponent is a first level wizard, in the apprentice stage it is difficult find you when you are using the spell. Its disadvantage being, it hard for apprentice to maintain it for long time. Unless you are a first level wizard, it is harder to maintain it for longer duration. It due to its high magic power requirement. Normally it is tasteless spell for an apprentice but for those with bloodline of shadow snake or any other shadow attribute creature it is a lifesaver. Since the spell¡¯s strong connection with the innate spirit rune of the shadow snake, it is easier for those with similar bloodline to learn and maintain the spell for long period of time. Stronger the bloodline, easier it is to learn the spell and also require less magic power to maintain it. After learning this, Robin become excited, if what is written on the diary is true, then, he might get a trump card that can be used throughout his apprentice period. Since he is a level 1 apprentice, he can inscribe one 0-ring spell in his mental space. He plans to inscribe shadow cloak as his first 0-ring spell. For every realm in apprentice stage, volume of the mental space doubles in size and a first class wizard apprentice can learn one 0-ring spell. That means, a second class apprentice can learn total three 0-ring spell and a third class apprentice can learn upto nine 0-ring spell. Generally students in the academy only starts learn spell after becoming a second class apprentice because, first of all there won¡¯t any danger for first class apprentice in the academy, so there is no need. Second reason is, learning spells is expensive and time consuming. To learn a spell, you have master corresponding knowledge of the domain the spell belongs. For example, to shadow cloak, Robin have master knowledge related to shadow domain like, principles of elemental particles and basics of shadow elements so on. To obtain knowledge, you have to spend magic stones, monthly allowance for first class apprentice given by the academy is only 5 magic stones, which is barely enough for daily meditation. Chapter-8: Spell model An average third class apprentice¡¯s mental space can hold up to 6-0ring spell but most apprentice only learn 3 or 4 0-ring spell on average. Most apprentices focus on specialization, since most missions in the academy performed in groups. For example an ideal group composed of a scout with stealth spell, support with recovery spell, control with control spell and an attacker with an attack spell. After calming down, Robin took out the memory orb from the space and held it near his forehead and in next second he felt a complex spell model being imprinted on his mind. It took about a minute form him process the huge amount of information that directly imprinted on his brain and it almost made vomit due to the dizziness. He sat on the floor and gasped for air, after a series of heavy breathing, he started to recover. He clearly overestimated himself and underestimated the difficulty of the spell. Since shadow cloak is a powerful 0-ring spell, the spell model is much more complicated than normal, so it requires twice the amount of space compared to normal 0-ring spell. A first class apprentice¡¯s mental space can accommodate only one 0-ring spell, so in order inscribe the spell in the mental space, not only he has understand the corresponding knowledge, he has to at least be a second class apprentice. So Robin¡¯s dream of challenging across the realm ended before even it began. Even though the spell model and the relevant knowledge is imprinted on brain, without understanding relevant knowledge he cannot learn this spell. Since it is impossible to learn the spell till he reaches second class apprentice, he has to adjust his future plans. First he plans to buy a zero ring spell model from the academy with magic stones given by his father when he left home. An apprentice without a spell and without spell is totally different concept. Even though the academy is a safe place, he only believe in his own strength and he feels uneasy handing his safety over to others. Next day, Rabin went to the academy market after the class was over, after searching around for a little bit, he managed to find the stall that was selling zero-ring spells and he asked the apprentice in charge. ¡°Can I have a look at the spell models available?¡± The apprentice gave Robin a deep look and the he took out a book, which seemed to be a catalog and placed in front of him. This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon. ¡°Suit yourself¡± Robin took the catalog in the hand and started reading it. 5 minutes later, Robin gave the catalog one last look and returned it to the apprentice. After hesitating for a little bit Rabin gritted his teeth and said to the apprentice. ¡°I would like to buy the spell model of the sharpness spell¡± ¡°Are you sure?¡± The apprentice gave Rabin a surprised look, when he sensed mental fluctuations of a first class apprentice from Robin, at first he thought he was just looking, after all apprentices generally learn spells after they become second class apprentice. After getting an affirmative look from Rabin, even though the apprentice is surprised, that doesn¡¯t delay him from taking out a memory orb from the shop and placing it in front of him and quoted the price. ¡°20 magic stones¡± Robin gave a heartbroken look and took out 20 shiny black stones from his pocket. After getting the magic stones, the apprentice said. ¡°You know the academy rules right?¡± For which Robin gave an affirmative nod and took the orb and put in his package. After getting the spell model, he doesn¡¯t stay there on the market any longer, directly went to his room and locked the door. In the catalog he saw many common 0=ring spells used during apprentice stage, prices ranging from 20 magic stones to 50 magic stones. At first he thought of getting the Spell model of elementary fireball, after all, casting a fireball and obliterating the enemy is the standard wizard trope. When he was a child he dreamt of destroying his enemies using an explosive fireball with a flick of his finger but after seeing the price of the spell model, reality gave Robin a huge slap. The spell model for elementary fire ball costs 40 magic stones, highest among the offensive spells in the catalog, for the context, with 40 magic stones you can buy some common defensive spell models. When he left home, his father gave him only 25 magic stones, it is not that he gave little, the total revenue of the territory itself is only 1 or 2 magic stones. 1 magic stone is equal to 1000 gold coins. When his father gave the bag contain the magic stones, his face was like, he was cutting his flesh and giving it. His father felt so heart broken, he nearly cried. Robin chuckled at the thought of the image of a grown man holding back his tears when he gave the bag containing the magic stones. At first, he mistakenly thought he was crying for him but after seeing his look of reluctance when he gave the bag, he know, he was crying for the loss of his precious magic stones. After searching on the catalog for a cheap and useful spell some time, he finally decided to buy the sharpness spell. Sharpness spell is a 0-ring spell belong to rare space element. Like the fire element that is known for its destructiveness, space element known for its sharpness. The sharpness spell, as the name implies, works by sharpening an object beyond it''s limit, using the space element present in the surroundings. It is not a type of spell that is very popular and has limited use cases, that¡¯s why it so cheap, even though it belong rare space element. Robin has his own reasons for selecting this spell. Since he is knight, he mainly battle using the sword and breathing method he practicing mainly focuses develops his agility. He excels at speed and stealth, if he used sharpness spell on his sword when fighting, he might able to do lethal damage to the enemy. Chapter-9 There is no useless spell, only useless wizard, if used correctly, even the most useless spell can play a major role in the battle. He feels that he may promoted to become a great knight sooner than later, if he uses the sharpness spell on the sword after becoming great knight, his strength will further increase. And another reason for choosing this spell is, the sharpness spell perfectly complements shadow cloak spell that he already has by compensating its lack attack power. After becoming a second class apprentice he will learn shadow cloak and combined with sharpness spell and his great knight strength, he might be able to perform sneak attacks, even on third class apprentices. For a person with fifth level qualification, generally it would take three months to become a second class apprentice, six months for fourth level qualification, 12 months for third level qualification, nearly 2 years for second level qualification and 4 years for first level qualification. This is data is only applicable for those do not take meditation potions or any other drugs. Taking meditation potion and other type of potion greatly shorten this time but only apprentice with low level qualifications take supplementary potions during early apprentice stages. This is due the fact that, apprentices tend to develop resistance to the potions they consumed. If you take same type of potion the second time the efficiency of the potion will be reduced by 30% and after 4th or 5th time, you may not even feel the improvement. Most potions can only be taken one or two times, before the body develops resistance and there only so many type of meditation potion available in the market. There are only three types meditation potion available in the academy, they are: Mermaid Tears, Banshee¡¯s wail and the Dark night potion. Among them only mermaid potion has no side effects and highest efficiency but apart from being expensive, it can be taken once before developing resistance. Since it is harder to increase spirit during higher apprentice levels, unless it is absolutely necessary, most apprentices avoid using potions in the early stages. Apprentices with higher level talent only use potions after reaching third class apprentice. Only the apprentices with low level qualifications like Robin would use potions in early stages. But Robin plan on not using potions during early stages and he has his own reasons for doing so. This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report. First reason being, he cannot afford any potions with his pitiful net worth. The second reason is that, due to him having high spirit before becoming an apprentice and feedback from knight break through, he feels he will become a second class apprentice with in 7 or 8 months. This kind of promotion speed is faster than third level qualification and only below genius second class qualification. This of course, if they did not take potions and other supplements. So he plan on using potions after he become second class or even third class apprentice. However, becoming second class apprentice in just 8 months after becoming a first class apprentice without taking any kind of potions is impossible for a person with fourth class qualification. It¡¯s bound to cause suspicion and may even attract the interests of official wizards, who want to dissect him for his secrets. When thinking of this, a chill ran throughout his spine and cold sweat started pouring down from his face. To avoid suspicion and the fate of being dissected in the laboratory, after mastering his first spell, Robin plan on taking a long term mission outside of academy. To apply for an apprentice mission, apart from being an apprentice, you have at least master one 0-ring spell. That¡¯s why he was in a hurry to learn a spell, even though he just became an apprentice. He already has an apprentice mission in his mind, guardian of the Tulip kingdom. Tulip kingdom is the kingdom he was from and mission is just to stay on the kingdom and send monthly reports of the situations. It¡¯s the kind of mission with low rewards and require low effort but pretty safe. Your job is just to monitor the kingdom and send monthly reports to the academy, even if there is a problem in the kingdom, you have just pass the information to the academy and the academy will send apprentices to solve it. Unless there is war between wizard academies, which involve territories under the academy, you are pretty much safe, but due it being safe mission, reward for completing the mission is pretty low, 10 magic stones per month. Even though the reward is pretty low, Robin decided to take the mission after learning his first spell, so after getting the spell model, for the coming weeks, Robin spend most of his time after class on academy library, learning the necessary knowledge for mastering the spell. Four weeks later, in his room, Robin took out the memory orb containing the sharpness spell model and placed it near his forehead. A light flashed across the orb and after that it started disintegrating. Robin started to feel slightly dizzy after using the orb but compared to last time he reacted way better. After calming himself down, without wasting time, he started inscribing the spell model in his mental space. Sweat started to tickle down from his face. Finally, after what it felt like an hour, Robin managed to complete the inscription of the spell in his mental space and let out a sigh of relief. ¡°Finally¡± To test the spell, he took out a metal dummy, that he bought from the market and the he unsheathed his sword from the sheath. He stated casting the spell, the sword started glowing with silver light and the he did a cutting motion on the metal dummy using the sword. The sword passed through the metal dummy like a hot knife passing through butter. Seeing the effect of the spell, Robin gave a satisfied nod. He feels he can cast 2 such spell without emptying his magic reserve. Chapter-10: Map A week later, somewhere along the wilderness and what it seems to be a campsite, a group of people sitting around the campfire, eating and talking, a little girl around 16 years old from the camp, who seems to be noble young lady, sneaking glances at a tall young man in black robe, leaning against a tree. The tall young man is none other than Robin, who is on his way to the tulip kingdom after accepting the academy mission, he is also sneaking glances not at the young girl but women beside her, who seems to be her step-mother. Even though Robin¡¯s mental age is around 36, his body is now belongs to a healthy young man, who is experiencing puberty after all. Even with his extraordinary control over his body, he still cannot fully control the natural desires of this body and he does even want to control these things anyway. As for the curios glances of the little girl, sorry he is only interested in older and big sister type women and not interested in brats. He only got Goosebumps when he the little girl looked at her. But her blonde stepmother on the other hand is a different story all together, she is totally his type but the problem is her fat husband, he seems to be pretty suspicious guy, always keeping her near him. ¡°Damn fatty¡± Robin cursed silently and stopped thinking about it. It¡¯s been a week since he started his journey, after taking the mission, he bought a carriage from the market for 100 gold coins and without any delay he directly set off to the Tulip kingdom. Along the way he met the caravan that, he is currently in and decided to join them. Even though he can reach the destination faster if go by himself but after being regularly harassed by bandits in the wilderness, he decided to join the caravan. Of course, he not afraid of bandits or anything, after all, even the bandit he met during the travel is only an apprentice knight and when he brutally slaughtered his companions before his very face, he literally soiled his pants. The leader of the caravan is man named, Joseph and he is veteran knight. He also got much experience in the wilderness than Robin. So he decided to tag along. According to his estimates, it would at least, take two to three weeks to reach his destination. While he was thinking this, Joseph came to him with a bowl soup and white bread. After handing the bowl and bread to him, he said. Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit. ¡°How are you doing Master Robin?¡± ¡°Doing well, Captain Joseph¡± After some small talk, Joseph started talking about the true purpose of his visit. ¡°Master Robin, do you have miracle potion¡± Even though, Robin does not directly reveal his wizard apprentice status to anyone, it is not hard for experienced people like Joseph to deduce his identity by observing attire and temperament. For which Robin is not surprised but he however, surprised by the guts of joseph. Most mortals don¡¯t dare to actively approach wizards, due fear of being killed or dissected. It may be due to his approachable look, the knight mustered his courage to ask but longer Robin delayed, more nervous he became. After giving his a deep look, Robin answered. ¡°I do have miracle potion, but what can you offer in exchange, you should know, I not short gold¡± The miracle potion is name given by mortals to lesser stamina potion. It is essentially a diluted version of stamina potion. Stamina potion, as the name suggests, used by wizard apprentices to recover stamina and it costs 2 magic stones. The miracle potion is cheap alternative of the stamina potion. It is generally used by apprentices to reward their knight servants. For knights, it has the effect of rapidly restoring physical strength and mild healing effect. Some rich nobles even use miracle potion for enhancing their sexual performances. This is also the reason for its name, ¡°miracle potion¡± but for knights, it¡¯s lifesaver during battles. Since he is going home, when he set off from academy, he bought dozens of ¡°miracle potion¡± for his father and elder brother. Hearing that he has miracle potions, the knight visibly overjoyed. ¡°Don¡¯t worry Mater Robin, I do have something you might be interested in¡± And the Joseph took out, what it seems to be a piece of an incomplete map from his inner pocket. What surprised Robin was the material, which the map was made of, it¡¯s seemed to be from some kind of demonized beast leather. Since it is made of demonized beast leather, it¡¯s most likely, the map has something to do with wizards. Robin instantly became interested in the transaction, but his face remained indifferent. Seeing that his indifferent face, Joseph¡¯s heart sank and hurriedly started explaining the origin of the map. Joseph got this map from an enemy he slain during his early days and the enemy¡¯s ancestor happened to be a knight servant for a wizard apprentice in his time. Seeing that, the map is something to with wizard, he decided to find the place from the map but after years of searching, he failed to find anything, so after seeing Robin, he came up with the idea for exchanging it for miracle potion. After listening to Joseph¡¯s explanation, Robin directly quoted his price. ¡°It doesn¡¯t offer much use to me, how about one bottle¡± After some negotiations, both parties came to an agreement and settled for 2 bottle potion, in exchange for the map. After getting the map, Robin took out two vials from his bag and handed it to Joseph. After examining the material of the map Robin further concluded that the map must be at least from a high level demonized beast. Even if Robin does not find the location in the map, with the material alone, Robin made a profit.