《Reborn into the Magus World》


 Chapter 1

    ''My everything hurts...'' Were Ron''s first thoughts upon waking up. His body felt heavy and cold, and he absolutely hated it. With a high-pitched groan, he begrudgingly got up, rubbing his eyes and letting out a mighty yawn.


    Then, he froze up. Something felt wrong. Very wrong. He wasn''t in his old room, but instead, he was stuffed in a small, wooden room that bumped up and down every now and then.


    Furthermore, as his eyes wandered downwards, horror filled his mind. His old body, one that, while admittedly quite a bit past it''s prime, he''d always taken good care of, was gone. Instead, pale skin and thin arms greeted him.


    In an almost wonder-filled state, he raised those fragile-looking arms and held them in front of him, shock blocking him from doing something he''d regret.


    He wanted to scream in fear and confusion, however, he blocked himself. Instead, he scrambled to get up, tearing the strangely luxurious yet antique-looking clothes off his body and examining himself.


    As he was doing so, his head began to pound harshly. Biting back a yelp of pain, Ron fell back on his bed, grasping his hurting skull as he wiggled around on the bed, information filtering into his mind.


    A couple minutes later, his head finally stopped attempting to kill him. With heavy breaths, Ron crawled back to a standing position, only to fall back on the bed with a yelp when the room shook again.


    "Everything alright, princess?" A voice came from outside. Panicking, Ron yelled back, "Y-yes! D-don''t come in!"


    Until the day he died, he would forever refuse to admit that his voice was shrill and crybaby-like at that moment.


    No further questioning came from whoever was driving the carriage, allowing Ron to heave a sigh of relief as he filtered through his newly acquired information.


    Princess Alice Rosenstar, daughter of the renowned dukeof the Rosen Dukedom. Her father, an accomplished warrior, had carved out the realm through blood and tears, meaning he was no weak and ineffective man.


    Despite that, he only ever had one offspring: Alice, who he doted on like crazy. Since young, despite the sneers of the other nobles who looked down on his daughter due to her gender, he spent most of his time training her and showing her the ropes of how to be a duchess, obviously hoping for her to inherit his lands.


    However, naught but a year ago, fortune struck in the form of a wounded beggar. Alice had taken a look at the man who''d been bleeding to death on the street and begged her father to help the man.


    The duke had reluctantly agreed, carrying the dying man back into his castle and letting the maids attend to him as he recovered. Unexpectedly, when the man did recover, he turned out to be someone extremely powerful and mysterious: a legendary magus.If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.


    Thankful for the rescue, he''d bestowed Alice with a strange necklace and gave her some words of wisdom before vanishing.


    "Young girl, if you wish to seek the truth, then come to the Great Hollowed Plains. There, using this, you may get a chance to become someone relevant in the world."


    The girl''s father, awed by the strange man, had immediately sent Alice out despite her protests and reluctance. He spent huge amounts of money securing a timely trip for her, one that would last over 8 months.


    Not expecting to ever see his daughter again, the duke had cried as he held his daughter in his arms before forcing her on the carriage, and sending her on her merry way.


    ''Thus, we return to the present. Me.'' Ron smiled bitterly, having absolutely no clue just how in the world he ended up in this situation.


    He was in the body of a girl of only 9 years of age, who was currently being sent to god-knows-where, to people who had a reputation for being mysterious and extremely dangerous. Ron felt as though he might actually cry.


    Carefully opening the rough curtains that covered the small window on the carriage, Ron looked out at the dark sky. Evidently, it was still night, no matter if this was a completely different world or not.


    Although Ron harbored a secret hope that this was all one big, bad dream, he wasn''t delusional enough to fool himself with nonsense.


    Besides... The idea of magic made Ron''s little mouth salivate at the thought of it. However, it was soon damped from the realization that he still had no idea if that was truly what he was being sent to do, even if all the clues pointed to such.


    Still, feeling his eyelids grow heavier and heavier on him, Ron promptly decided that everything else could go fuck itself, he was tired, and he wanted to sleep.


    Thus, he threw himself on the bed, crawledunder the uncomfortable sheets, and fell asleep faster than one could shout "Penis!"


    The next morning, Ron was woken to a soft knocking sound. Feeling much calmer and more refreshed than the previous night, he carefully left the bed and went to open the door. When he did, he was met with a middle-aged man with a harsh frown facing her.


    "Y-yes, Mr. Unger?" Ron nervously asked, looking at the much larger man in front of him. He unconsciously adapted the poise Alice always held whenever she interacted with others, adhering to her father''s etiquette training.


    Meanwhile, he secretlythanked the gods that his father had a keen eye for personality and had assigned someone who was completely reliable, even while being alone for weeks on end with a defenseless young girl.


    The man''s brows smoothed out and he let out a long-suffering sigh. "Princess, you promised you''d be up at dawn today in order to train in your father''s technique. It''s already far later than that. Excuses?" He glared, and Ron sheepishly looked down.


    He couldn''t exactly explain that he''d just stolen someone else''s body, and he was much too lost to remember about such a minor detail.


    "Sorry..." He mumbled, ashamed. The man just stared before harshly biting out with venomous words. "Princess, you must neverneglect your training. If you don''t even adhere to such a simple schedule, what will you do when you go to those Lords? Will you be late then? They may kill you for such a transgression." The man glared, and Ron trembled under the harsh gaze, regardless of the fact he was already a grown and experienced man.


    "500 repetitions today, 1000 squats, and 800 push-ups by the end of the day. You better not fail." He gave out his death sentence, causing Ron to go pale.


    ''I''m so going to die...'' Ron despaired, but still obediently nodded and ate his breakfast, before starting his hellish training.

 Chapter 2

    By the time night rolled around, Ron could have sworn his body had never before felt so damn tired. His respect for Alice had grown to immense levels just from knowing that she had been training like this since she was but a toddler.


    Still, it was a bit embarrassing to know that this new body, one that was only 9 years old and female, was leagues superior to his old body.


    As he laid there, pathetically complaining in his own head about all sorts of irrelevant things, he didn''t notice as Mr. Unger delivered a cold meal to her before once again sitting at the head of the carriage, whipping the horses to make them start marching.


    Ron eventually did notice the food, and when he did, it took very little time for his stomach to remind him just how hungry it was. It doesn''t need to be said that the food vanished quite quickly.


    Satisfied, albeit still filled with cramps all over his body, Ron threw himself onto the bed with a sigh escaping from his childish lips.


    He didn''t know why or how he got here, but as each moment passed, it became clearer and clearer that he probably wouldn''t find the answers to those questions so easily. Hence, with noother choices left, Ron resigned himself to this new and hopefully better life of his.


    "Princess, don''t forget to practice your breathing technique before going to sleep!" A shout came from in front of the carriage, and Ron immediately perked up.


    "Yes, Mr. Unger! I won''t forget!" She promised, and indeed, she immediately and eagerly began to try out this ''breathing technique''.


    From the memories he''d inherited from Alice, she''d once seen her father easily smash a large boulder to pieces with a single strike. Then, he''d explained to her about how certain techniques could make her as strong as this, and she''d been fascinated with it ever since.


    It also helped that Alice had a natural flair for ''knight techniques'' as her father had called them. However, that was in the past.


    Ron carefully seated himself cross-legged, only blushing slightly at the feeling of having a new type of genitalia. Forcefully blocking off any and all thoughts related to that can of worms, he instead focused on properly utilizing the breathing technique.


    One breath in, two short breaths out. Soon enough, Ron found himself getting more and more comfortable with the technique, actually finding it quite easy. It involved a lot of concentration with his abdominal and hip muscles, as well as proper positioning, however, between it''s ''easiness'' and Alice''s memories, he soon found himself quickly powering through the exercise.


    An hour later, he let out the last breath, finally opening his eyes. He''d already been tired beforehand, but now, his entire body just felt numb. It wasn''t necessarily abad feeling, but it was definitely a strange one.


    Then, his body decided that since Ron was being an idiot and not properly getting the proper amount of sleep, it more or less shut down on Ron, causing him to fall forward on the pillow, eyes closing and sleep coming to him within mere moments.


    The following days were all more or less the same. Wake up, eat, get assigned a certain amount of exercise by Mr. Unger, and then do said exercises. On certain days, they would never even get off the carriage, traveling the entire day.


    A week later, Mr. Unger observed as Ron went through his exercises, his young and undeveloped body glistening with sweat.


    When he was finally finished with the last complex sword exercise, which was done with a short wooden training sword, Ron eagerly looked at Mr. Unger, eyes shining in hope.Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.


    The man smiled kindly and gave a few words of praise. "You''ve improved tremendously in such a short amount of time, princess. Your father would be extremely proud of you."


    Seeing the young girl''s smile shine even brighter as she ate up all the praise he gave as though it was the sweetest nectar before running off to the carriage, Unger couldn''t bring himself to say his true feelings.


    Not that they were negative. Far from that, in fact. The girl had always been hailed as somewhat of a genius by her father and all those close to her. However... This wasn''t just being a genius. This was actually monstrous.


    He had no idea when the change happened, but the princess had gone from a reluctant genius who only trained when she absolutely needed to, to one that trained every moment she could.


    Her inner life force had actually shown signs of awakening today, proving that she was at the cusp of becoming a true knight. While that in itself wouldn''t be a huge deal, her age, however, made it a terrifying prospect.


    Had he not been absolutely loyal to the Duke, he might have had thoughts of killing her here and there to prevent her from advancing. However, he''d specifically been sent out alone with her exactly because of his loyalty, hence, such thoughts didn''t even cross his mind.


    Instead, what did make him scratch his head in confusion was that the young princess, who had always been a bit bratty, had suddenly become so obedient and taciturn. Still, this change could only be a welcome one, so all he did about it was shrug his shoulders and carry on his duty as a martial instructor and carriage driver.


    Meanwhile, Ron was once again sitting down cross-legged on his bed, peacefully training in his breathing technique. After a long while, he let out the last breath of the technique, wrinkling his little nose at the smell of his body.


    Creaking his neck, he enjoyed the feeling of strength within this body. For a man who had always been rather weak and nerdy, this feeling was nothing but ecstatic for him.


    Within the first few days in this strange new world, Ron had quickly discovered that he was an absolute training maniac. Perhaps it was Alice''s influence on him that made him so, or perhaps the rush akin to that of taking drugs whenever he felt his power increase was responsible. Nevertheless, Ron didn''t mind it too much.


    He wasn''t naive. He knew this world was far crueler than the previous one he was in. It was bound to be, with power being so unevenly distributed. His previous world had already been extremely unfair, but in a world where certain people could crush millions with a flick of their finger? Yeah, it was a complete law of the jungle hellhole.


    Still, he wasn''t discouraged. He wasn''t happy about it either, but at least he was luckier than 99.99% of the population, getting the chance to train in such strange yet powerful techniques, and being delivered over to some even stranger and more powerful people.


    Thinking so, he couldn''t help but silently clutch the necklace on his neck. Alice''s father had ordered her... him... to keep it on at all times and to never, ever, lose it. Alice hadn''t disobeyed, and neither would Ron.


    The next morning, Unger stopped the carriage at the side of the road and allowed Ron to step outside. They ate together in relatively peaceful silence before it was broken by Unger''s sudden words.


    "We will arrive within the month. However, we are still two months early compared to when we need to be there." He gave a pointed look at the attentive and obedient princess who was seated cross-legged in front of him.


    "It won''t be long before you awaken your inner energy and become an official knight. However, even when you do, you must never slack off! Those lords to whom we''re going are not like us mortals. Even your father, a grand knight, can only tremble before them." He explained, his voice slow and smooth.


    Ron nodded along, already aware of this information. Alice''s father hadn''t just trained her in the martial arts, but also in culture, history, and everything else useful to nobles, which included information about magi.


    "You must learn properly there, and become someone who can truly call herself strong. What you''re doing now is peanuts compared to what you will be doing there... not that I can tell you the specifics. I''m just as ignorant as you are on this." At this, the man revealed a bitter smile, and yet, his eyes never lost their shine.


    Ron bit his lips at yet another female pronoun coming from Unger but didn''t say anything. He wasn''t willing to risk making himself seem suspicious at such a crucial moment for something as measly as gender pronouns.


    "I will try my best..." Ron murmured, his high-pitched voice that was a mixture of girly and childish sending cold shivers running down his spine.


    Unger nodded with a small smile before his harsh expression returned once more. "Good. That is all I ask... Not! Go do your daily repetitions, and don''t you dare slack off!"


    "Y-yes!" Ron bobbed his head up and down, eyes wide at the sudden change of tone. Without a moment of delay, he bravely ran away (but not too far) and started doing squats and push-ups.


    Unger snorted silently, shaking his head. "Kids these days, I swear." He mumbled with a pleased smile on his lips.

 Chapter 3

    As predicted by Unger, Ron did indeed awaken his inner energy that day. He''d been once again sitting cross-legged and doing the breathing technique when he''d suddenly felt a fire erupt within him.


    Energy surged into his muscles, bones, blood, brain, and intestines, strengthening them all. He could immediately tell that his eyesight and reaction time had greatly increased, and for a moment, he felt all-powerful.


    Then, the rush died down. He was still left trembling from the whole thing, and he felt quite a lot more powerful than before, but the illusion of invincibility had left him.


    Then, he felt it. A sticky, slimy substance clinging to all of his skin. Man or woman, regardless of gender, he did not like feeling dirty. Usually, he''d wait before taking short and quick sponge baths, but this was too much to handle.


    Thankfully, Unger had been both proud and understanding of Ron''s situation and even predicted this issue from occurring. Hence, during the time Ron had been lost in meditation, he''d already prepared a nice bath.


    Well, it wasn''t even one-hundredth of the standard of which Ron was used to, but it would have to do. Feeling refreshed after the thing, he went back to sleep, reluctantly leaving the dirty yet comfortable water behind.


    For the following month, the days continued on in a monotonous yet comfortably tranquil way. Due to Unger''s skill in driving and his good map-reading skill, they were able to evade more or less every busy street, only stopping once in a while to resupply.


    Having become an official knight, Unger had decided that Ron''s training had to be taken up a notch. Unger himself was also a knight, and one at the very cusp of breaking through to the Grand Knight realm. Hence, he took it upon himself to constantly spar with Ron, albeit never too seriously. After all, despite being an incredibly smart girl who never made the same mistake twice, she was still only a nine years old child.


    Having spent many months together, Ron''s relationship with Unger was naturally good, albeit he still felt quite awkward around the man. Still, Unger didn''t hesitate to teach Ron whatever he could in his skills.


    Obviously, with only a month of serious training together, the things he could teach were limited and they also still had to travel for most of the day, but it was still very helpful, and Ron understood it and appreciated it for what it was: A selfless gift.


    Thus, as the day of their arrival loomed closer and closer, Ron spent more and more time with the large man. He even forsook staying in the interior of the carriage and instead sat next to Unger on the driver''s seat.


    Then, at long last... They arrived.


    Standing at the gates of a small, yet still quite large by this world''s standards, city, Ron gazed up with sad eyes at the man he''d spent the past month with. The man''s eyes landed on her own, and his lips curled upward, yet he was obviously also quite sad, as he knew he would have to leave very soon.


    He accompanied him all through the city, bringing him all the way to the town center, where instead of the usual lively atmosphere had been replaced by a mysterious one. They kept walking all the way to a large gate. What was behind it was hidden by what could only be an illusion, as all Ron could see was darkness behind the gate.


    Here, Unger kneeled down in front of Ron, and with a large hug, took his still thin yet tough body into his arms. He said no words, and neither did Ron. Nonetheless, as he watched the knight''s back vanish amidst an endless sea of people, he couldn''t help but clench his hands to stop the tears from coming out.If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.


    He''d known this was coming, and to a certain extent, he looked forward to it. However, thinking and doing are two very different things.


    He took a couple of minutes to calm down, clutching the hidden necklace inside his shirt. Then, when his eyes opened once more, a resolute look had appeared in them.


    He tried his best to appear calm as he entered into the gate, and when he did, he saw a whole different world.


    It still looked quite deserted, with very few people. It was akin to a large camp with various tents and barracks thrown around, each of them quirkier and weirder than the previous.


    "Oh? An early one, aren''t you?" A voice suddenly spoke up behind Ron, sending shivers down his spine. He whirled around, eyes wide as he saw a large, half-naked man with weird tattoos all over his skin.


    "I''m in a good mood now, brat, so I''ll explain a bit. You''re a bit early, so you''ll have to wait a bit for some of the farther representatives to arrive. Still, you can go ahead and take your aptitude test." The man said, eyes twinkling with mirth.


    "Y-yes, my lord!" Ron obediently said as he bowed at the waist, just like he''d been instructed to do. The man just snorted at his actions. "Hmph. You''re young, but if nothing else, you know respect. Follow me, since you don''t have any guides, I''ll help you out just because you''re pretty cute."


    Ron felt a dark shiver run down his spine at the man''s words, disgust rising within him, but he soon suppressed it. He really needed to have a reality check with himself with the whole gender thing, and fast.


    The man walked away, and it was almost as if he was floating instead of walking with how graceful his steps were, no matter his beastly appearance. Ron quickly followed, not daring to be complacent. He''d heard of the terror of these magi, and there was little doubt in his mind that this was one of them.


    "These are all the magi academies. On the left here are the ones up in the north, and they are all dark magi organizations. On the right are the light magi, and most of them are in the south. Take my word for what you will, but if you wish to live a life of comfort and mediocracy, then join the light magi. If you want to become someone... Keke, well, the dark magi are your best choice, girlie." The man said in rapid succession, with Ron nodding along.


    A funny fact that Ron had noticed during sparring and just, in general, was that his memory, which had usually been pretty bad, was now more or less flawless. It took almost no effort to memorize things and recall them, which... he had no idea why. Probably some magic-voodoo or some shit, he told himself.


    Hence, it took little effort to keep up with the constant stream of information coming from the large man. To summarize in caveman words:


    Dark magi kill everyone. Light magi love everyone, except when they don''t, then they also kill everyone. Ooga booga.


    It was a bit more complicated than that, and he was also given large amounts of information on some of the academies, complete with some personal suggestions and comments from the man, ranging from ''respectable training area'' to ''shithole nobody wants to live in''. His suggestions were very... direct.


    "L-lord?" He cautiously asked during a lull in his explanation.


    "Hm?" The man hummed, turning back to face the short girlie. She was young, but he wasn''t an idiot. A knight at 9? Either she was some sort of escaped experiment, which was unlikely, or she was at the very least someone talented. That, combined with his good mood and free time, had led him to help out this early comer.


    "You keep saying acolytes, my lord... But, what exactly is an acolyte?" She asked, her large eyes staring up at him. He paused for a moment, idle thoughts about asking her about her background filtering through his mind before he expelled them. It wasn''t really worth the effort.


    "Since you asked, I''ll just explain the whole way. Acolytes are basically the stage before becoming an official magus, and it''s divided into rank 1 acolytes, rank 2, and rank 3. After that comes the rank 1 magus realm, then rank 2, rank 3, etcetera. Each rank has a massive, unsurmountable gap between each, and to be honest, the highest I''ve seen was a rank 2 lord magus. His might still fills me with both awe and dread at the mere thought." The man laughed honestly even as he said this, not feeling the least bit embarrassed.


    "I... I see. Thank you!" The cute little girl bowed. The man just hummed uncaringly.


    "We''ve arrived. This is the testing area for aptitudes. Go in and the old hag will do the rest. Also, what is your name, girlie?" He asked, almost as if it was an afterthought.


    She stiffened, a conflicted expression on her inexperienced face flashing momentarily. Then, with a resigned look, she said, "My name is Alice Rosenstar, my lord..."

 Chapter 4

    Ron silently sulked as the weird man nodded to him with a slight smirk before literally vanishing. Honestly, if he hadn''t been so self-depressed at that moment, Ron might have gaped at the sight.


    Silently crying in the safety of his own mind about being forced to admit that he was, indeed, not the old Ron anymore, he walked forward and into the rotting shack. There was nobody inside save for a very... ancient... lady staring at a crystal ball with a bored expression.


    When Ron entered, the old lady looked up, her abyssal and hollow eyes staring straight into Ron''s, giving him the impression that she was looking directly at his soul.


    He was definitely creeped out, but he forced the shivers that wanted to shake his body to disappear through sheer force of will, then, he put on an awkward smile.


    "So you''re the early brat Krakkus sent over. Come here and don''t waste my time." She said, her voice sharp and concise. Ron obediently did as told and came up to the woman, standing in front of her with the crystal ball between them.


    "Good. Now put your hands on the ball..." She said, her voice strangely enchanting. Ron''s eyes turned unfocused as he did as he was told.


    The old lady silently waited and stared as Ron calmly kept his hands on the ball, her eyebrows gradually rising. Finally, after almost an entire minute, Ron yanked away his hands from the crystal ball, groaning as he held his head in his hands.


    "Grade 5 talent? And a peak one at that? Very impressive. I suppose you won''t have much trouble getting recruited, then." The old hag murmured to herself. Never before had she seen such a high talent, but even then, it failed to arouse her interest.


    After all, while talent was definitely important for magi, it also wasn''t everything. Grade 1 talents could still rise to prominence with luck and resources, after all.


    Continuing with the test, she told the still misty-eyes young girl to tell her what she saw within the crystal ball. The child peered into it, squinted a bit and then spoke, her voice flat and somewhat strange.


    "I can see a lot of red motes in a huge circle at the center, and there''s also a big ring all around it colored black. I can also see some brown particles floating around the very edges."


    "Hm. Good, the test is over." The old woman said as she snapped her finger. Ron blinked once, then twice, and then her eyes shot up as she looked around in a panic, obviously confused.


    "Calm your tits, brat. You just did your test. You''re a grade 5 talent with very good affinity with both the shadow and fire element, as well as a minor affinity with the earth. You''re quite the catch, I''ll admit." Ron could only stare at the old woman in confusion as she spoke.


    Test? He took a test? When? All he remembered was speaking to the hag, and then suddenly, she said the test was over? What the hell?


    Then, insecurities began to crop up. He knew very little about stuff related to magi, and to be honest, he hadn''t even known affinities were a thing. "Um... May I ask if grade 5 is good or bad?" He asked nervously.


    "It''s the highest talent I''ve seen throughout my entire career." The lady curtly answered as she took out some papers, ignoring Ron''s fidgeting. She looked through them and then picked out a couple of them and threw them away, the papers combusting when they hit the ground and disappearing within moments.


    "You won''t need to take the more boring paperwork, but you still need to sign a couple. Here, take them." She said as she handed over a couple of papers over.


    "Is... is that allowed?" Ron nervously asked, confused as to why he suddenly didn''t need to do more paperwork. He knew that most organizations like schools and universities never allowed students to skip out on paperwork, so why was he being let off?If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.


    "You mean those useless papers? Don''t worry about it. You''re a grade 5 talent, I''d be surprised if the representatives won''t drool all over you, fighting with each other. Now get out of my sight, if you want more information, just go to the little library in the building next door. It''s where all the country bumpkins go when they come here."


    Ron nervously thanked the lady, took the stack of papers and fled out of there. There was an excited fluttering in his stomach as he thought back on the hag''s words.


    ''I''m the highest talent she''s ever seen? That''s so damn cool!'' He thought to himself, feeling more and more giddy.


    Nonetheless, he quickly calmed down as he began to think it over rationally. He''d already known his talent couldn''t have been too bad judging from Mr. Unger''s words and the strange changes to his memory and thinking pattern.


    As he was thinking over this, he arrived at the location indicated by the old hag. He tip-toed into the desolate place, looking around for someone to help him out.


    He eventually spotted an old, wrinkly man working behind a counter, taking long drags from a smoking pipe with one hand and holding an old book with the other.


    Apparently, the man had known he''d entered, because the moment Ron saw him, the man stared back for a moment before waving him over, which Ron quickly did.


    "Give me your identification paper." The old man said, his cold eyes not even bothering to look at Ron. Still, Ron didn''t dare say anything as he tried to find the ''identification paper''. Not that he even knew if he had one.


    After a couple of panicked moments, he eventually found a paper resembling the old I.D papers from his old world. He quickly handed it over to the old man, afraid of making him angry.


    The man looked it over, and when he did, his eyes brightened. "Peak grade 5? Not bad. Not bad at all. You may read whatever you wish, for free. Oh yeah, did the hag tell you where you should go sleep?"


    "N-no, sir. She did not..." Ron responded, feeling somewhat out of it. The man''s attitude had taken a 180 the moment he''d read his ''talent grade''.


    Ron had the feeling that if his talent had been trash, he might very well have gotten the boot and forced to leave. He didn''t know whether he should be glad that his talent was high or be angry at the obvious favoritism.


    Oh well, it worked in his favor. Why look at a gifted horse in the mouth?


    "That old slut. I wonder why she doesn''t just drop dead already." The old man''s eyes darkened as he looked up, lost in thought. Ron didn''t dare say anything, having already decided that until she understood more about this weird place, he''d just do whatever he was told and not complain.


    "Anyways, just go to the house with the number 65 in front of it. The entire house is yours to do as you please. There''s still a month before the official recruitment begins, but I''d still suggest you go check out the various academies that have already arrived. Whether you heed my suggestion or not, is your problem. Now go." The man said, handing back the identification paper and then returning to his book.


    Ron carefully took the paper and put it back into the folder. He bowed to the man and then retreated back to behind the large shelves.


    There, he finally allowed himself to relax and look around. There were books of all shapes and sizes, with some of them even looking as though it was made out of skin... human skin... He''d just ignore that one.


    As he was perusing the various books, a feeling of nostalgia washed over him. He''d been a bookworm in his past life, but ever since mysteriously appearing in this new and female body, he hadn''t held a book.


    After half an hour of searching, he found what he was looking for. A conveniently named book titled ''Introduction to magus culture''


    Along with it, Ron picked up many similar books, such as one on affinities, one on magi cuisine, and even one on history.


    "Sir, may I bring these out of the library?" After building up his courage, he once again came in front of the man. He just looked up, glanced over the books and then waved his hand uncaringly.


    "You''re not supposed to, but nobody will care. As long as they come back by the end of the month, it''s fine. If you lose or damage them, you''ll have to pay a fee equivalent to their value."


    Nodding excitedly, he bowed once again before quickly skedaddling out of the small yet surprisingly large library. After a bit of searching, he eventually did find the house numbered 65.


    It wasn''t anything special compared to the standard of his previous world but compared to the other buildings next to it, it looked a lot cleaner and well-made.


    He went to its door and tried to open it, only for a blue light to shine out of the handle. At this point, he''d already become numb to things like this, so he wasn''t even surprised.


    "Identification! Identification!" A voice resounded from within the light as it formed into a panel. Ron quickly fished out the I.D and put it in front of the light.


    "Accepted. Identification confirmed! Alice Rosenstar, peak grade 5 talent! Take, take!" The voice kept chanting as a small key somehow popped up from the light, landing in Ron''s palm. Then, the light vanished, leaving behind only a faint giggling noise. It too slowly vanished.


    Ron just felt tired at this point, and hearing the name Alice just made him even more mentally tired. He put the key into the lock, and with a single, sharp twist, the door opened, and Ron stepped inside.

 Chapter 5

    Ron was pleasantly surprised upon seeing his temporary home. It wasn''t large by any means of the word, but it was also by no means small. It had a bedroom, a bathroom, a kitchen, a living/work area, and even a small basement.


    After exploring around enough to satisfy his curiosity, Ron hid his all-important papers under the bed for later use and then immediately threw himself at his newly acquired books with eagerness only matched by addicts who are about to get their fix.


    Reading had always been one of Ron''s favorite pastimes. While he did prefer fiction, he didn''t mind reading these informative and well-written books at all. In fact, the more he read them, the more he liked it.


    While the books didn''t offer any secret information, it did give him information that, quote, ''every magus worth their spiritual force should or already does know''.


    When night rolled around, Ron discovered that, somehow, the four 10-cm thick books that he''d planned on reading all through the month had all been consumed by him already.


    "What the fuck?" He murmured to himself. Although he was fully aware of himself during the entire reading, he hadn''t actually realized he''d read so much. Furthermore, he could recall every word on every page of the book. He silently repeated the entire first 5 pages with total ease, and he knew that he could finish it if he wanted.


    "Am I even myself anymore...?" He bitterly said out loud, before sighing and flopping down onto the bed. It was far, far more comfortable than the one he''d had to live on for the entire trip to this place.


    With a sigh, he closed the books and carefully put them away. Then, he opened up the wardrobe, originally intending to throw in it the clothes on his body and just sleep naked. However, he was dumbfounded to find several sets of clothing, many of which consisted of robes, all neatly laid out in his closet.


    His cheeks turned bright red when he also noticed a very... low cut... skirt. Biting his lips, he tore his eyes away from the heretical clothes and instead carefully put his own clothes away.


    Afterward, as he went to try out the bathroom, he was suddenly very, very glad this world was elitist. Having a toilet to do his business in was leagues ahead of just doing it every time on the side of the road. Also, the shower was very nice.


    As the water ran down his body, cleaning all the dirt and grime that the sponge baths just couldn''t get out, he was suddenly made once again very aware of the fact he wasn''t much of a ''he'' anymore.


    Cupping his own breasts, he found them, well, lacking. With a self-deprecating smile, he reminded himself that he was only 9. They would, unfortunately, grow.


    ''Alright, let''s be honest here, me. I''m in a land filled with people who can kill me just by breathing too hard. Whether you have a dick or a vagina really shouldn''t matter.'' He told himself.


    Taking a deep breath, he calmed himself down as he started rinsing his hair in the water. There was no shampoo, unfortunately, but that was okay. It had grown quite long since he didn''t really bother cutting it through his journey, and besides, he quite liked the look of it on himself.


    After drying his hair with a fluffy towel, and god did he miss these little commodities, he threw himself onto the bed. After a moment of thought, he sat down cross-legged and began to utilize the breathing technique.


    After all, while knights were nothing but shit in front of a real magus, at least it was still something. Besides, Ron liked the feeling of calmness it brought him.


    When it was done, he more or less fell asleep immediately, crawling underneath the covers for some warmth.


    The next day, after eating a small breakfast consisting of soft bread that had appeared on the dinner table overnight, he dressed himself up with grey robes and a skirt with shorts underneath. He could literally feel embarrassment washing over him as he did so, but at this point, he really didn''t have the time nor will to care about it.


    Then, after confirming he looked nice and proper, just as Alice''s father had taught him... her... to do, he picked up the books as well as his I.D paper and went back to the library.


    There, the old smoking man was still there, reading just as casually as he had done the last time Ron was here. When he saw the young girl dressed in much better clothes than the day prior, he looked up at her.


    "Should I... just put these back?" She asked quietly, looking anywhere but at his eyes. His lips curled into a smirk. "Have you finished reading them?" He asked instead of answering her question. She looked up, a nervousness in her eyes that was quite rare amongst those wishing to become academy students.This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.


    "Y-yeah..." She answered in a whisper. "I read all of them" She continued after a moment, some confidence returning to her.


    His eyes narrowed as he stared at the girlie. Usually, he wouldn''t give a rat''s ass about some random, useless brat coming in, but considering she was a peak grade 5 talent, he was quite curious. "Oh, really? Then do tell me what happened in the year 3619 that was considered important?"


    She looked up at him, her blue eyes narrowing. After a moment, she responded. "The first war between light and dark magi." She said, confidence beginning to shine in her eyes.


    "Indeed. What about..."


    As the man asked question after question, making them increasingly harder, he was secretly dumbfounded. The girlie never answered wrong to the questions that had answers within the books she''d taken, even some of the more complex questions were easily answered by her.


    After a while, she began to ask questions of her own, which he answered. Soon enough, it had turned into an impromptu lesson.


    By the end of it, when the time for lunch was beginning to roll around, Ron had found himself seated in front of the old man as he kept on talking about various topics, jumping from one subject to the next. Ron had very little problems keeping up, and when the man wrapped up his lecture, he looked at him with a strange eye-smile.


    "You know, kiddo. If I wasn''t so old and weak, I''d have thoughts about taking you as my own student. It''s a shame that I probably would get murdered if I did." He said, letting out a sigh.


    "Murdered? Why?" Ron asked, curious. The man just laughed at his question. "I''m but a newly-advanced magus in terms of strength despite my age. It''s why I''m stuck in this god-forsaken shithole. You''re practically guaranteed to become an official magus given a couple of years, brat. I wouldn''t be surprised if even rank 2 magi would have their eyes on you."


    "I... I see..." Ron muttered weakly. From what the man had told him, there was an immense gap between each rank. For example, even the weakest official magus, a.k.a rank 1 magus, could slaughter countless acolytes with ease. The same held true for rank 2''s, as in they could easily slaughter rank 1 magi.


    Although the books had been helpful, the old man''s insight and his views had really opened up Ron''s eyes to the reality of this world. It was obvious from how he spoke that death and murder were practically an every-day accordance, and from him subtle warnings, Ron knew he would have to be especially careful, or he might just find himself a slave or worse.


    He stood up, bowed deeply to the man before retreating from the library after gathering up some suggested books from the old man.


    He''d laughed when Ron asked if he knew what topics the academies covered and if he should get a head start on them, before promptly telling him that he should wait for the harder topics until he actually arrived at whatever academy he chose.


    Choosing to heed the old man''s words, Ron left alone topics like spell theory and other such topics, instead simply learning magi history and customs. For the following two weeks, Ron''s life revolved around reading silently in the library, occasionally training as a knight in his lent home, or just sleeping.


    It was very relaxed, in Ron''s opinion. Every topic just sort of came to him very easily, and he had to put extremely little effort into actually learning. Of course, that didn''t mean he slacked off. Far from it.


    In fact, the more he learned, the more fervent he became. Not because of any noble reason, but simply because the more he understood, the more he knew just how dangerous magi truly were. It was basically the law of the jungle on steroids.


    Finally, on the 21st day of his stay at the camp, the academies started to arrive. Or, well, their representatives did.


    The old man, who still hadn''t told Ron his name, listened as Ron laid out his concerns.


    "The lady at the talent examination said my best affinity is with fire, followed by a large shadow affinity, and then a little bit of earth. Therefore, I''m not really sure which academy would be better, Flame Mausoleum or the Underground Labyrinth Academy," Ron explained. He''d naturally long since understood that it would be better for him to go to an academy that matched his affinities, but he hadn''t yet found one that had both shadow and fire.


    "Don''t ask useless questions, brat. It''s obvious you should go to whichever academy gives you the best conditions!" The man answered, not beating around the bush at all. Then, he turned and glared at a couple of 12-years olds that had gathered nearby, listening to their conversation.


    People had started to arrive now, and while it was far from crowded, it didn''t feel like a ghost town anymore. Ron didn''t say anything about the man''s treatment of the kids, as he didn''t really care.


    With a sigh and a nod, Ron gave back the books he''d borrowed the previous day. Then, after bidding the old, grumpy man a farewell, he headed back to his home, lost in thought.


    Wherever he walked, the students would all stop whatever they were doing and whisper to each other about him. His knight''s hearing allowed him to hear some of what they said, which usually consisted of things like ''Wow, that''s the young genius everyone is talking about!'' ''She''s so young though!''


    It wasn''t pleasant. In fact, Ron hated it. He hated the attention, and he hated people talking behind his back, but there was very little he could do about it.


    With a huff, he shoved the door close, escaping from the curious or calculating gazes of the other student-hopefuls. Then, he sat down on a chair in the living area, silently pondering over his plans.


    ''Thanks to the old bastard, I basically already know the basics of how things around here work, which definitely gives me a leg up over the competition. Still, I haven''t gone to look at any of the academies yet, which I probably should have done...'' He grimaced at the thought.


    ''Whatever. I just need to narrow down my choices as much as possible, since it''s basically guaranteed whatever academy I choose will accept me.'' He thought to himself as the small spark of pride in his heart that had been growing ever since finding out just how special he was only continued to grow.


    He carefully read through the description of each academy, crossing out those that were either too weak in terms of prestige and power, and also those that didn''t match either of his affinities.


    By the end of it, he was left with four choices. Giving each one of them a look-over, Ron smiled slightly. The names of this world were really... something.


    ''Flame Mausoleum? Underground Labyrinth Academy? Shadow Palace? Vulcan''s Temple?'' He silently repeated the names in his head. They all sounded so lame...

 Chapter 6

    In the end, Ron did go look at all four of his preferred academies. He didn''t do or ask anything though, simply observing from a distance and not daring to go directly to them. After all, while the people he''d met so far had all been friendly, he wasn''t sure if the academies would respect his choices or simply seize him.


    Hence, it took him three entire days to silently observe the academies. He didn''t really get as much information as just straight-up asking did, obviously, but it still gave him a general idea.


    For example, Vulcan''s Temple was apparently, as the name might suggest, a semi-religious academy that focused on an ancient magus, Vulcan, who apparently was considered a god by them. Hence, it was immediately crossed off the list.


    As for the other three choices, they all had their ups and downs as far as Ron knew, but the one that really stuck out to him was the Flame Mausoleum. Firstly because, while it was indeed famous for its fire spells, it also had a reputation for bringing up capable shadow magi.


    Hence, 5 days before the official selection began, which would also be when all the escortees coming from continents away would arrive, Ron made his choice.


    Nervously fiddling with the robe he''d put, he stood in front of a building that had the words ''Flame Mausoleum'' on its entrance, the words glowing as if they had been written directly with fire.


    After hesitating for an entire minute, he finally forced himself to enter. The inside of the building was, as expected, hot. However, strangely enough, it actually felt rather comfortable for Ron.


    There was only a single room here, and it was rather bland and empty, which surprised Ron. There were a couple of posters on the walls showing a huge volcano, but other than that and a desk and a couple of chairs, there was nothing.


    Ron felt lost for a moment. Should he shout out or stay silent? Would it be soon as rude to try and gain the attention of whoever ran this place, or would he be seen as weak for not saying anything?


    Thankfully, that problem was taken out of his hands as a voice spoke out of nowhere. "Hey, kiddo. Over here."


    Startled, Ron''s head whipped around, trying to find the source of the voice, but to no avail. "Uh... Excuse me, but where?" He said after a moment.


    A sigh resounded through the room. Then, Ron''s eyes bulged out as he saw a very... endowed... woman walk out of one of the volcano posters. Her face had a certain bewitching charm to it, and just by entering the room, it felt as though it had become even hotter.


    She looked at Ron, her eyes observing every inch of his body with an almost perverted gaze. Suddenly feeling very, very uncomfortable, Ron took the risk and spoke up.


    "I... I''m here to apply for the Fire Mausoleum. I have the necessary paperwork with me." He said rapidly, taking out a folder containing his I.D card as well as some other papers necessary.


    The woman just laughed. "Brat, the Fire Mausoleum isn''t a place just anyone can enter. If your talent is poor, I won''t hesitate to teach you a lesson and kick you out." Her eyes darkened at the end, her tone turning dangerous.


    Ron nodded, but he didn''t back down as he held out the papers. He''d been warned by the old man that some of the representatives liked to toy with their prospective students, and considering the reputation of fire magi as somewhat hot-headed, the Fire Mausoleum was likely to be amongst the top of the ranking for the meanest magi around.The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.


    The lady leisurely took the papers, fished out the I.D and glanced at it. Then, her gaze turned solemn as she actually focused on what was written there.


    Her eyes turned back to Ron, the mirth from before having completely disappeared. "Not bad. A peak grade 5 talent? Do forget what I said before, there''s no need for payments. Just give me your application paper and I''ll have you registered in a flash!" The woman said, and Ron didn''t hesitate to hand over everything.


    "I have... this. Are you sure I don''t need to give it?" He asked after a moment as the lady walked back to her desk, putting Ron''s papers on it. She looked back and glanced at the necklace in her hands.


    "Hm? That''s a nice toy you got there. If it were anyone else, then yes, but since you chose to join the magnanimous Fire Mausoleum, we''ll naturally not treat you badly." After saying that, she proceeded to ignore Ron, who was left feeling awkward.


    While the lady hadn''t said it directly, Ron wasn''t dumb enough to miss the underlying message. Firstly, if he chose to back out now, he probably wouldn''t live past the next day, and secondly, if his talent had been any worse than it was, they wouldn''t have hesitated to take the necklace... which Ron didn''t really care about, to be honest.


    He didn''t see it as anything other than a cute necklace, but for the lady to call it a ''nice toy'' meant it probably was quite precious. In his heart, Ron silently thanked the magus that he''d technically saved, even though it wasn''t really him who did.


    After a couple of minutes, the lady stood up from where she''d been toiling. "All good. Now, I would ask you if you''d like to be my personal apprentice, but unfortunately, after this assignment, I''m going to have to leave for a couple of years. A shame, really." The lady sighed, and yet, Ron really couldn''t see any regret in her actions as she sat her butt on one of the chairs, motioning for him to sit on the chair in front of her.


    "Unfortunately, the academy is really quite far away from this place. Otherwise, I would have just sent you back immediately. Still, that doesn''t mean the Fire Mausoleum doesn''t treat it''s geniuses well. Here." She said, and suddenly, a small, dark red flame came out from her forehead.


    In the next instant, it had already reached Ron, who despite being a knight and having a much better body than ordinary people, couldn''t react in time as the flame expanded and engulfed his head.


    He wanted to scream in surprise and fear, but his voice wouldn''t come out. The world around him faded away, and only that flame remained.


    The fire stretched on all around him, his body seemingly fading away as only his thoughts remained, stuck within the flames surrounding him.


    ''No...'' A feeble voice said within him. ''NO!'' the voice said again, this time with more strength. He realized it was his own voice, and yet, it felt far away.


    Then, the world of flames faded away, and he found himself back in the room with the big-breasted devil in front of him, who was sporting a giant smirk on her face.


    "You almost struggled out of the illusion on your own? Very impressive. Your stuff has already been sent here, thus, you won''t need to go back to your assigned house to get it. Your room is over there, I do hope you use the time until we set off wisely." The lady said, pointing at a door that Ron knew for a fact hadn''t been there before.


    He had so many questions he wanted to ask, but they all just died down in his throat before he could express them due to the woman literally vanishing on him, leaving behind small trails of fire that quickly consumed themselves.


    Sighing, he suppressed the surge of annoyance he felt. He knew he wasn''t qualified to go against the wishes of these magi, and yet, despite being treated very well by everyone, he felt like a caged rat, his life and death out of his own hands.


    Then, he noticed something that made his eyes go wide once again. In his memory, detailed steps and information regarding a mediation technique gently rested, despite him never having learned of it.


    ''Oh... I see. It was the fire thing!'' A lightbulb went off metaphorically as Ron thought of it, the confusion at the woman''s actions somewhat fading away, quickly replaced by fascination as he recalled everything concerning the meditation technique.


    ''Ten Sacred Flames? What a cliche name...'' He silently thought, not yet knowing just how important of a gift the woman had bestowed upon him.

 Chapter 7

    The next five days went by extremely quickly, with Ron holing himself up in the room provided to him, only occasionally coming out of it to eat food brought to him by weird rock-goblin things or to go pick up books at the library. He was far too distracted to even care about them though.


    This was because he was completely engrossed in the Ten Sacred Flames meditation technique. The first time he''d used it, he''d felt as though he''d been lit on fire, and yet, that fire somehow had been pleasant.


    He could only use the meditation technique four times per day, and that was already pushing the limits, but Ron didn''t care. He''d genuinely enjoyed the feeling meditating brought him even more than the breathing technique.


    During the pauses between cultivation, he entertained himself by reading or sleeping. It wasn''t comparable to his life before coming to this world, but Ron was already quite satisfied with it.


    Sitting cross-legged on his bed, Ron followed the technique''s instructions perfectly as he began to pull in the energy particles in the air into his body, just as he had done all the previous times. He could barely sense them when he was deep in cultivation, and yet, they always seemed to be rather eager to respond to his commands.


    These particles began to enter his body through his nose, ears, mouth, eyes, and every pore on his skin. They trickled in, slowly causing Ron to begin to grow uncomfortable. He ignored the feeling and instead concentrated on pulling in even more particles.


    After a moment, there was a sudden snap within him that left Ron gasping as the original trickle of particles turned into a small stream as they rushed into his body. He almost let out a moan but thankfully he was able to stop himself before doing such an embarrassing thing.


    After a minute or so, the feeling ended, and Ron was left exhausted in its wake, and yet, he was oh so very satisfied because he knew what he''d achieved.


    He could sense the many energy particles floating leisurely all around him, and since he was inside the Fire Mausoleum''s building, the fire particles were much more abundant here. They felt even clearer than when he''d been neck-deep in meditation.


    Feeling giddier than he''d even been in probably his entire life, he held out his palm face up and called upon his spiritual energy to gather there.


    Miraculously, a small yet definitely real flame appeared above his palm. Despite it being completely useless and barely keeping itself alive, Ron still gaped at it, a huge smile forming on his face.


    "This is so cool..." He whispered in awe, willing the flame to change shape, size, and even color. It was difficult, and yet, at the same time, it was also exhilarating.


    After a while though, he felt his spiritual energy run out, causing the flame to die out and his head to begin throbbing. With a groan, he threw himself on the bed, waiting for over thirty minutes before the headache finally subsided.


    Still, during the entire time, he was still grinning like an idiot. Really, who wouldn''t be happy at becoming an actual wizard? Sure, he was more akin to a party trickster than anything else, but it still felt as though the world had suddenly become a whole lot brighter for Ron.


    He laid on the bed belly up, forcefully suppressing the happiness in order to think more rationally. He knew that tomorrow morning, the various academies, some of which had literally arrived that afternoon, would all depart, including the Flame Mausoleum.


    He''d already returned all the books he''d borrowed from the old man, who still hadn''t told him his name. Actually, nobody had so far. He smiled bitterly, knowing full well that those people thought that a mere mortal wouldn''t even deserve to know their name, genius or not.


    Hence, he was free for the rest of his time at this place. Considering that further meditation would probably not be the best way to spend his time, he decided to go take a look at the fellow students of his academy. Make some friends, maybe, although he inwardly knew this was unlikely.


    They''d be jealous of him. Hell, even he was sometimes jealous of himself and considering the treatment he received from the higher up, the brats joining alongside him would likely see him as an enemy, or worse, as a target to use as a stepping stone.Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.


    While Ron knew this inwardly, having both already experienced another life as well as having read plenty of books on this kind of thing, the spark of pride, perhaps even arrogance, within him refused to give in to the pressure of his peers.


    He was already a knight, and while he''d never held a weapon in his entire previous life, in this one, weapons felt as natural to him as his own hands did. Furthermore, he was even a rank 1 acolyte now, which while by itself wasn''t exactly all that grand, it was still an amazing achievement for one his age and taking into account the overall time spent cultivating.


    In fact, from what he knew, most people would take up to several months to become rank 1 acolytes, although that was the more extreme cases. It usually took around a month for most semi-talented students to do so.


    With his mind set on his next course of action, Ron took a quick shower before getting out of the room. He didn''t see the lady in the room there, but then again, other than the time he registered, he never saw her again, so it wasn''t too surprising.


    Getting out and into the streets was still just as annoying as before, if not more. There were tons of aspiring students in the place now, and wherever Ron passed, they would all turn and look at him, whispering to each other like little children.


    Ron''s mood instantly plummeted, and he hurried along. Finally, after five minutes of quick walking, he reached the gathering area for the academies.


    Unlike the recruitment centers, this place wasn''t an actual building. Rather, it was an airstrip of sorts, where a giant dirigible that had arrived a couple of days beforehand rested, many acolytes and magi tending to it, shooting dark glares at anyone that got too close.


    Feeling self-conscious, Ron slithered his way across the sea of students and onto the reserved area with the large sign ''Fire Mausoleum'' next to it.


    In it, there were 7 students, all doing their different things. Five of them were male, and there were two girls, all of them older than Ron''s body was.


    Trying his best to suppress the nervous excitement he felt, Ron approached them, putting on a small smile. While he hadn''t yet come to terms with the fact that he was now a girl, and a rather cute one at that, he wasn''t afraid of using what he had to his advantage. Like the fact that he was cute. And a girl.


    Rolling his eyes inwardly, Ron observed the group as they all turned towards him. As he expected, the group itself was divided into two groups, the larger and more seemingly dominant one consisting of three boys and one girl, with the rest all huddling together some distance away.


    He approached the larger group first to get a feel for the power dynamic there. Immediately, one of the boys came up to her, eyes sparkling while the rest just watched.


    "Hello there! Are you a fellow student going to the Fire Mausoleum?" He asked, his voice overly loud and exuberant. Ron felt actual goosebumps run down his spine at the gaze of the brat, somehow instinctively knowing that going into a dark room together with him would be a bad idea.


    Well, that probably wasn''t true. She could feel that he wasn''t an acolyte yet, and he lacked the musculature that knights had, which even Ron had, even if it was subtle.


    "Yes, I am." He answered curtly, not wanting to give the boy any more rope than necessary. He tried to slip around him and towards the others, who were all looking on with either apathy or pity.


    However, the boy stopped her by blocking her with his body. "Now, now. You still haven''t introduced yourself. Do tell us your name, please. Oh, and also your talent... Because I don''t allow trash to be associated with me." The boy''s eyes gradually darkened, and in the end, he actually growled.


    If it had been the previous Ron, the one before coming to this world, he would have been intimidated into submission. However, now...


    He looked like a kitten trying to show off its measly claws. Faster than he could react, Ron swept him off his feet and landed a heavy punch on his ribcage, careful not to hit too hard.


    The boy went down with a pained huff, and within an instant, Ron was on top of him, holding him down with one hand while a flame appeared in his other hand.


    Gasps resounded from the spectators nearby, but Ron ignored them. He did not want to deal with this shit, and he would show the stupid child his place in one fell swoop.


    The boy''s eyes were wide open as he stared up at the much smaller girl who effortlessly kept him pinned, while at the same time trying to get away from the small but scary flame in her hand.


    "You want to know my name? I don''t feel like telling you. You want to know my talent? All you need to know is that, compared to you, I am a god, and you are nothing but a dog. Bark away all you want with your idiotic friends, but if you try to pull this shit one more time, I won''t be so nice." He whispered, his voice intentionally taking a very dangerous tone.


    He let go of the brat, watching as he scuttled backward on his butt, retreating as much as he could while trembling. Ron cast one last heavy look at the group that he''d originally intended to meet and talk to, but now, his mood had been thoroughly ruined, and knowing that the kids wouldn''t lift a finger to help him had the boy decided to attack him didn''t help their standing in Ron''s eyes.


    He turned away from them and marched back to his room to pack up his things. He didn''t even want to look at those idiots, feeling absolutely disgusted by them.


    Suddenly, cultivating alone while hidden deep underground didn''t sound so unappealing anymore.

 Chapter 8

    The day of departure arrived quite quickly after that. Ron wore a hooded jacket that hid her features, which, while still far from being fully developed, were already easily distinguishable in a crowd if one were to look for them.


    With it, he waited by the dirigible as streams of students made their way into it, going into groups based on which academy they joined. Despite having read all about how dark and light magi despised one another to the point of waging endless war, the people here didn''t seem too bothered.


    Not that it bothered her. Anyways, the academies were entering in an order based on prestige, and soon enough, the Fire Mausoleum''s turn arrived.


    Ron made his way into the group at the last moment, receiving fearful looks tinged with both envy and hate by his fellow students, but there was also admiration in their gaze. Of course, to Ron, their gazes were worth less than dog shit.


    He knew that the bastard boy from yesterday probably wouldn''t have gone too far, but his gaze back then before he subdued him had shocked him in ways he didn''t know possible. While it wasn''t the gaze of a true rapist and criminal, it was still the look of one used to abusing and using people unwillingly.


    And, as much as he hated to admit it, he was a woman now. A girl, to be more correct. He knew enough about rape to never put himself in a situation where it might befall him.


    And the only way to achieve that was by having strength, which was basically the only thing in this dog-eat-dog world that granted people the power to make decisions for themselves and hold by them.


    As Ron and his fellow students entered the airship, he looked around with great interest, banishing the dark thoughts from his mind. The interior was divided into many areas and corridors, all of it seemingly high-class. It truly was a work of art, despite lacking the technology of his previous world.


    Ron wasn''t overly surprised when a man dressed in butler clothes approached him, wearing a subservient smile on his face as he spoke. "Please, follow me. The lady is waiting for you."


    Ron nodded and followed after the man even as another one led the rest of the students away to their own rooms. Ron spared them one last glance, taking off the hood that had now become redundant, allowing the golden waves of his hair to flow out.


    Eventually, after a minute or so of walking, the man stopped in front of a door with the words ''professor'' stamped on a sign directly next to it. The man gave a curt nod to Ron before dismissing himself.


    Taking that as his cue, Ron gently opened the door, poking his head in. The room was quite bare, and yet still gave a homely atmosphere, something that shouldn''t have been possible, and yet it was.


    The lady that had allowed Ron to finally start his journey as a magus rested leisurely on the only couch in the room, slowly sipping away at a weird substance from whom Ron could feel fire particles moving about.


    "Professor." Ron took the initiative to start the conversation as he bowed as deeply as he could, both out of expectation and also genuine gratitude towards the woman.


    "Brat." The woman said back, still sipping away at her drink. After a bit, she finally put it down, eyeing Ron with great interest. "An acolyte within less than a week? That''s truly groundbreaking. I''m glad my expectations weren''t let down." The woman said slowly, causing pride to bloom within Ron.


    "It wasn''t too difficult thank''s to Professor''s kind gift." Ron humbly replied, causing the woman in front of him to chuckle, which caused her comically large breasts to shake a bit. Ron spared them a glance, briefly wondering if they had been surgically enhanced, before returning his eyes to her own.


    Thankfully, the woman didn''t seem to notice his lapse in attention, or at least she didn''t mention it. "Hehe... You''ve got it all wrong, brat. That ''gift'' I gave you has extremely stringent requirements on the person using it. In fact, rather than a gift, I would almost call it a curse. You may not understand now, but that cursed thing is the reason I cannot advance at all." Her eyes glazed over for a moment but quickly regained their focus.The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    "I may not be able to take you in as a disciple, but that doesn''t mean I cannot pass on my own legacy." The woman waved Ron to come closer, which he did without daring to take his eyes away from the woman''s own, having been completely enthralled by her words.


    "You''re uniquely suited to inheriting my meditation technique, which I myself received back when I was a mere brat by a complete stranger. Hence, it could even be called a tradition." At the mention of this, the woman''s lips curled up in amusement as Ron''s eyes lit up with slight understanding.


    "You see, talent and affinity are both required, but there are also much subtler and stringent requirements that even I cannot completely understand. Originally, I only gave you the initial part, not expecting you to actually succeed in it. However, seeing as you are now, I suppose I can dispel my worries. Take this."


    Ron flinched slightly when the woman took out a small box and threw it at him, scrambling to catch it. Its surface texture felt smooth, and it had a small yet firm lock keeping it tightly closed.


    "In there is the remainder of my meditation technique. As you are now, you may not survive. I made it so you will be able to open it when you become a rank 3 acolyte, and not a moment sooner. Otherwise, I fear you may just turn to ashes." Her wry yet serious smile told Ron enough. While she could be lying, he really didn''t see a reason for her to do so.


    With a final, drawn-out sigh, the woman waved him away without saying anything else. Ron stood up, bowed as deeply as he could, and putting as much emotion he could into his words, he spoke. "Thank you, professor. I swear I shall never forget this kindness you have bestowed upon me."


    The woman just snorted at his words. "Brat, leave already and get some strength before speaking such big words." Still, despite using cruel words, there was an unmistakable tinge of satisfaction behind them.


    Ron did leave quickly after that, and even though he didn''t say anything else, he still felt more than willing to prove to the woman that he could and would one day repay this kindness. In a world that was so clearly brutal, rare acts of selflessness like this were rarer than treasures.


    Ron was about to head towards the area where he''d last seen his fellow students go to, but before he could do so, a maid rushed up to him. "My apologies, miss! I''m Erika, and I''ve been assigned as your personal attendant. Perdon my tardiness, I wasn''t expecting your talk with mistress Fiona to go so quickly! Please, follow me." The woman said in rapid-fire, bowing at the end then quickly running off.


    "H-hey! Wait up!" Ron panicked slightly when he saw the maid running off, and he instantly followed after her, feeling slightly flustered at the strange woman''s behavior. Personal attendants? Maids?


    He''d read about that kind of thing in all the books he''d read, but seeing it in person was just... It left him speechless.


    After half a minute of panicked running, one of them seemingly thinking that rushing through an otherwise calm airship was a good idea while the other one not wanting to be left behind, it made for a comical sight.


    Finally, Ron caught up to the deceptively fast woman, and grabbed her arm, pulling her to a screeching halt. Then, although he would forever refuse to admit the fact he screeched... Well, he screeched at her. "Are you crazy!? Slow down for the love of god!"


    Flustered, the maid began to splutter out apology after apology, even going as far as to tremble, as if afraid. "M-my apologies, miss! I-I wasn''t thinking! I made the miss look bad!" The woman then began to wail, causing Ron to feel as though his ears would begin to bleed.


    At this point, Ron''s cheeks were completely scarlet out of embarrassment of even being seen together with this crazy woman.


    Despite Ron being 9 years old, at least in this body, and the maid being around her mid-twenties, it looked comical as Ron scolded her.


    "L-let''s just go to my room, alright?" Ron asked, glaring at the maid, although it wasn''t very intimidating. Erika nodded repeatedly, making a deliberate attempt at acting in a calmer manner now, although judging by the various people that had gathered around them during her crazy run, the whole affair hadn''t gone unnoticed.


    Ron wanted to hide in a hole and never emerge, but he held his head up nonetheless, glaring at anyone that looked at him funny. It was a bit surprising when people actually looked away when he did, people quickly making themselves scarce after a few rounds of glaring.


    As Ron was digesting what had just happened, they quickly reached an individual room. Ron looked around quizzically for a bit before silently asking his supposedly ''assigned servant''. "Where is the rest of my group?"


    "My lady! You do not have to worry about that trash. Compared to you, they are nothing but trash. Naturally, you do not have to live amongst such low-lives." Erika quickly answered, her usual nervous stutter vanishing as lines of flattery flowed out of her so smoothly it briefly stunned Ron.


    "O-oh... I see. Ahem! Thank you, Erika. You may retire now." Ron coughed into his hand, his childish and still very-much high pitched voice trying to take an authoritative tone, which apparently worked as the weird maid curtsied before retreating... only to turn back and rush back a moment after.


    "U-um, wait, my lady! What do you like for breakfast? When do you wake up? What and when should I bring your meals?" She fired off in rapid succession, her cheeks dusted pink with embarrassment.


    Ron didn''t know if he should laugh or cry at the woman''s absurdity.

 Chapter 9

    After informing the very clumsy maid about his eating and sleeping habits, Ron holed himself up in his little room, where he proceeded to lightly bash his head against one of the walls.


    For the remained of his time in the airship, Ron refused to leave the room. Instead, he entertained himself by both cultivating and also playing around with his rather meager spiritual energy. While his findings weren''t that great and he lacked more or less all the basic knowledge acolytes had, he still found it rather fun.


    He also didn''t relent on his knight training, even if the airship wasn''t a suitable place to do it in. He couldn''t exercise before using the breathing technique, which meant it''s effectiveness was reduced by well over a half. Still, at least it was better than nothing.


    With Erika bringing him breakfast, lunch, and dinner, he didn''t even have to worry about food or water. He even had his own little bathroom complete with shower, which just boggled Ron''s mind. How the hell did a fucking airship have running water?


    In the end, he just chalked it up as ''weird magi voodoo stuff''. During his monotonous days, he would also som sometimes chit-chat with the maid, although she wasn''t really the sort of person to carry out intelligent conversations with.


    Still, he could at least hear some gossip from her. Apparently, there had been some scuffles going on between students, and their professors were too lazy to care. Hell, they even rewarded the winner at the end with some small benefits.


    Not that this had any impact on Ron, though. He was nice and secluded.


    After an insufferable month of mind-numbingly repetitive and dull cultivation, the airship landed at the stop for the Fire Mausoleum.


    Ron hadn''t had any breakthroughs in his cultivation during that time, however, he was now at the very cusp of both the Grand Knight realm and the rank 2 acolyte level. Both were so close he could practically taste it.


    Under Erika''s coaxing lead, Ron at long last reluctantly left his little nest, going back out into the big, bad world outside.


    It only took a couple of minutes after the arrival announcement for the group of students belonging to the Fire Mausoleum to gather, Ron included.


    Although he refrained from saying anything, Ron still gave them all the stink-eye, which served it''s purpose well enough in blocking those filthy peasants from approaching him.


    ''Careful there, princess. Your inner royalty is showing'' Ron said to himself in a very much self-mocking tone, well aware that he''d more or less forgotten and forgiven the kids. Sure, he wasn''t someone that forgave easily, but at the same time, he also wasn''t a particularly vengeful guy... or girl.


    Sighing as he tried to once more banish those thoughts, well aware that puberty was once more slowly creeping closer, he perked up when the airship landed with a dull thump, and slowly, a small bridge came out from the airship and extended down towards the sweet, sweet ground.


    As Ron and his group descended, led by Professor Fiona, the lady that had so kindly blessed Ron with her treasured meditation technique, Ron couldn''t help but be awed by the sight before him.


    An absolutely massive building with large, fiery red arches that interweaved with one another, with the highest point towering in the skies and the lowest going deep underground. While he was still quite a distance away from it, he could still feel the oppressive might the building radiated.


    "Wow..." One of the girls in Ron''s group let out at the sight, and Ron spared a glance at his fellow students.


    They all had dreamy expressions on their faces, some of them filled with ambition, some with awe, and some with hope. Despite all of them being children, it was quite strange to see them look so... mature.


    ''Well, not that I can say anything about age not corresponding with maturity...'' Ron mocked himself once again, although he too was very much looking forward to learning as much as he could. It was almost like going to college all over again.


    When they reached the ground, the group of students and the single professor were quickly accosted by a middle-aged man with a long, long beard walking around with a fancy staff in his arms.


    He gave a pleasing smile as he spread his arms out wide. "Professor Fiona! What a pleasure it is to see you. Your beauty truly leaves me breathless, my dear." The man said, his grin splitting his face in almost two.Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.


    "Professor Oxon." Fiona curtly replied, not saying anything more. Still, that didn''t deter the man from fawning over her as he spoke endless praise of her beauty, all the while his eyes never left her breasts, ass or hips.


    At this point, the entire student entourage was blushing red, Ron included, as they followed after the weird duo. They passed through pillars of flames rising into the skies, buildings made out of bright red materials, and the deeper they went, the hotter the air around them became.


    To be honest, although Ron had been gradually growing to be more comfortable in higher temperatures, he still found himself sweating buckets. The other students fared even worse judging by the pained expressions on their faces.


    They walked for a total of thirty minutes, none of the students daring to let out a single noise. Finally, they reached the main academy, which was the towering mausoleum at the center of this hell of heat and flames.


    As they entered through the main gates, the stream of students passing through was immense, but nonetheless, they all made way for the professors. However, the gazes they sent towards the new students were anything but friendly, with some bordering on being predatory.


    Ron kept his head low as he followed after the two professors while the rest of his group looked around with ever-increasing wonder, even if they felt as though they were being boiled alive.


    "Miss, we''re almost there." Erika silently whispered into Ron''s ears, her breath cold compared to the air around them, causing Ron to shiver a bit, feeling very uncomfortable.


    "I can tell." He curtly whispered back, pushing Erika away from him. Her smile didn''t fade though as she kept on following.


    A minute later, they had arrived. They entered en masse into the room they were directed to, with only Ron being kept back by the middle-aged professor, who waved for him to come over to him, which Ron did without much fuss.


    "Wait here. The director wants to have a one-on-one chat with you." He said to her, his voice serious... only for that seriousness to evaporate as he then turned and began to once again fawn over professor Fiona.


    Ron tried to look away from the show but found that she couldn''t tear her eyes away from the comical sight of a grown man throwing himself to his feet and begging to be allowed to lick his crush''sfeet.


    Nonetheless, Ron said nothing. He didn''t know the relationship between the two, and besides, they were both official magi. While they might be allowed to banter with each other, he, as a mere acolyte, would be putting himself inserious risk if he dared interrupt, genius or not.


    Finally, the door to the office opened after a while, and Ron was called in. It wouldn''t be fair to call what Ron did afterward as fleeing, but, well... It came pretty close.


    The director looked, surprisingly, quite young. Less surprising was the perennial-looking scowl on his face as he stared at a huge stack of paperwork with clear hate in his orange eyes.


    However, he visibly perked up when Ron entered the room. He waved his hand, and immediately, the door shut close with a loud bang, startling a yelp out of Erika, who''d been about to follow Ron in.


    Ron too flinched at the noise but kept his gaze firm as he stared back into the man''s eyes. After a moment, the man let out a smirk, and Ron looked away, a slight blush on his cheeks.


    ''Weirdo. His eyes have gotta be some sort of magi spell-thing...'' Ron silently told himself, berating his stupidity for not seeing the obvious. It was obvious those pretty eyes of his were enchanted, and yet he''d actually stared.


    The director was the first to speak, breaking Ron out of his internal monologue. "I see you''re about to break through to rank 2, correct? For having cultivated for only a little over a month... Extremely impressive." The man spoke, his voice causing shivers to run down Ron''s spine.


    "Y-yes. Thank you." Ron answered timidly, bowing at the waist. The man chuckled before waving his hand, causing a scroll to magically float up in the air in front of Ron.


    "That is a list of all available teachers within the Fire Mausoleum. There have been quite a few who''ve been clamoring and generally causing a ruckus in order to get their hands on you, but the rules are strict here. The students must be the ones to choose the teacher." He spoke as the precious parchment landed in Ron''s hands.


    "Of course, there is a name not listed there. If you were to choose that name, I would certainly not mislead you." He added after a moment, the smirk on his face fading away into a poker face.


    Ron peeked up from the paper in front of him, looked into his eyes, and then quickly looked back at the scroll. It listed all the names of the teachers, their strongest subject, as well as some lines of praise for themselves. It even listed some benefits that they would be willing to give out, such as free lessons or materials.


    One thing they all had in common, however, was the little note next to each name with a 1 on it. Ron wasn''t one to choose a teacher based solely on strength, but he knewthat, in this world, strength was indeed everything.


    "May I ask for more information on the... name... not written here?" Ron asked carefully, trying to keep her eyes away from the director''s beautiful orange ones. The man smiled leisurely, reaching underneath his desk and pulling out yet another piece of paper, which then floated over to Ron.


    He caught it easily and quickly began to read it. Still, he couldn''t help but gulp slightly at the larger note next to the name with a 2 on it.


    The paper wasn''t actually very descriptive, but it did clearly state that ''the student will not be mistreated nor shall he or she be left unattended and uneducated'', and while it wasn''t exactly the clearest of descriptions, it was still much better than some of the descriptions for the weaker professors.


    In the end, Ron just bowed his head, and with a small smile on his young face, he spoke. "Thank you for the opportunity... Teacher."


    The man just smiled widely at him, causing Ron to suddenly feel as though the room had turned even hotter than before.

 Chapter 10

    Upon accepting the director as his teacher, Ron had an incredibly smooth going as his new teacher directly finished up all of his paperwork before walking with him over to his own room.


    "Alright, Alice. You may call me Teacher, or Teacher Loki. I do not care. Now, I am a busy man, but I will try and make as much time as possible for you, as I promised. However, I expect you to never be late, never slack off, and never disappoint me. I am not a merciful person." He said, his eyes not even looking at Ron, who still nodded anyways.


    Behind them, a certain clumsy maid tried her best to keep up while carrying a large luggage, looking rather flustered.


    "Teacher, I was wondering what I should focus on learning first. I do not mean to brag, but I believe myself capable of focusing on more than just a single topic." Ron chose his words carefully, trying his best not to sound as though he was bragging, which he wasn''t.


    Loki''s eyes turned towards him art last, and they took a pensive look. "Hmm... Well, at the end of the day, it does not truly matter. I personally of the opinion that studying the myriad things gives one a lot more room to maneuver than simply studying one thing to its limits. Anyways, I can sense you''ve already received a meditation technique. Is there a story behind that?"


    Ron blushed slightly, looking away while mumbling. "It was a gift by Professor Fiona. She said it''s because she wants someone to carry on her legacy.


    Loki just hummed, as though he didn''t care. "I see. Well, I''d get angry at Fiona for giving you such a dangerous toy, but I can sense that it''s extremely compatible with you."


    Hearing this ''compatible'' story again, Ron took a deep breath for some courage and then asked, "Teacher... I thought everyone needed a meditation technique to become a magus? Is there something wrong with the Ten Sacred Flames?"


    As she was speaking, they''d already reached her room, which was numbered as #4819. It wasn''t anything special, but the moment Ron stepped foot into it, he immediately loved it.


    It was practically brimming with fire energy as well as some hints of shadow elements. It had a large, soft-looking bed in one corner, a desk with a comfy chair, a refrigerator, a stove, a couch, as well as a bathroom on one side.


    Ron couldn''t help but gasp in amazement, completely bamboozled at the fanciness of his room. Compared to his old college room, the one in his previous life, this was practically a 6-star hotel room. He quickly got around to poking at everything as Erika silently began working to put everything in the luggage into the large wardrobe.


    "You haven''t seen the best part yet, my lovely student. Follow me." Loki spoke up after a bit, interrupting Ron as he was poking his head out of a window showing the view of the land below from a terrifying height.


    Ron blushed in embarrassment yet again, realizing he''d accidentally ignored his teacher. He quickly bowed and came to obediently stand by his side.


    They walked together toward a door near an empty corner of the room, and Loki motioned for him to open it, which he immediately did. He allowed his teacher to enter first before also coming in, his eyes going wide when he entered.


    Now, Ron had never been much of a sci-fi person or even a science lover in general, and yet, what rested before his eyes really did look like something out of a movie. Test tubes, beakers, substances, warnings, labels, thousands of perfectly clear bottles, and even a small stand that held lab coats.


    "Usually, only professors are allowed to have their own labs. However, I pulled some strings behind the scene, allowing you to get one right from the start. I do hope it''s to your liking." Loki joked as he casually walked around the lab, inspecting the equipment with an eye only a true expert of science and magic could have.


    "It''s... Perfect. Thank you, Teacher." Ron said, and he truly meant it. It was a luxury for even official magi to have their own private laboratory, and although he''d never before truly done anything science, he knew how important it was.


    "Don''t worry about it. I did say I wouldn''t mistreat you, after all. Now, as for your previous question... Well, the simple answer is no. What you received isn''t a common meditation technique, but rather, a high-grade one." Loki said, quickly changing the subject, to which Ron could only obediently go along with.Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.


    "Now, high-grade meditation techniques have some severe drawbacks, but also some massive benefits. For one, if you cultivate one that doesn''t fit you, it will only hinder you. However, if you do chance upon one that does fit you... Hm, perhaps I am getting ahead of myself. We''ll talk about this again when you become a rank 3 acolyte, which won''t be far off in the future anyway if your speed of advancement continues as it is."


    Ron silently cursed in his own mind, a bit sad he didn''t just tell him outright. But, then again, it probably didn''t matter much if Loki didn''t seem too concerned.


    They stayed silent for several minutes afterward as Ron explored the lab on his for a bit, before Loki began to explain some of the parts to him.


    Within minutes, Ron was completely engrossed. Loki''s voice just had a certain ring to it to which he could listen for days on end without feeling bored. Perhaps it was the fact his rank was so high, perhaps it was his natural charisma, or perhaps it was just the fact he was really nice to look at.


    ''Wait, what?'' His thoughts came to a screeching halt the moment he thought of that. Loki seemed to notice his lapse of attention, setting down one of the objects he''d been in the middle of explaining. "Something wrong, dear student?"


    "N-no! Nothing''s wrong!" Ron eeped out, knowing full well his words were incredibly obvious and even an idiot could tell he was lying.


    Nonetheless, Loki resumed his monologue, explaining everything within the lab, how it worked, and what it was used for, along with any miscellaneous information that was useful. He was a treasure trove of knowledge, and Ron didn''t want to seem like an idiot again. Hence, he took his heretical and disturbing thoughts and shoved them in the deepest recess of his mind to deal with later (read: never).


    Finally, around an hour later, the impromptu lesson began to wind down as Loki wrapped the thing up, explaining some parts of the academic curriculum and lessons.


    "Now, as you might or might now know, magi believe in equivalent exchange. This academy reflects that, as do many others. There are free lessons every day at both 9 in the morning and 4 in the afternoon, free of charge. However, those lessons do not follow any set pattern and most students who attend them come out empty-handed most of the time."


    Ron nodded, the idea that this place was nothing like her old college only reinforcing itself within her mind.


    "Anyways, most students can only rely on themselves in order to acquire knowledge, either by trading it with other students or with their professor. You know what magic crystals are, yes?"


    Ron quickly nodded. "Yes. They are a rare material very useful for experimentation and many other things, hence, they are the preferred form of currency for the vast majority of magi through the world." She spoke, recalling the exact words from a definition she''d read on a book some time ago.


    Loki nodded with a smile. "Perfect definition, well done. Anyways, students often work at the academy or outside, doing missions or taking odd jobs to earn them and then trade them for information. I believe that this system is a good one, but it''s not perfect. Furthermore, it is not appropriate for such good little seeds such as you to be put in danger so early." Ron became even more attentive at his words, knowing that whatever came next would most likely determine his future.


    "As I already promised on my little advertisement paper, I will not mislead or misinform you. Although I have my own duties as a director, they are ultimately just a thing I do for fun. I can easily delegate to some of my direct subordinates. Hence, from now on, you will come and be my assistant in experiments Monday, Wednesday and Friday. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, I''ll personally teach you whatever I deem relevant or important that day. Saturdays and Sundays... I don''t know. I guess we''ll see when the day comes."


    Ron couldn''t stop himself from smiling even if he wanted to as he nodded frantically. "Yes, professor. I won''t let you down."


    Loki snorted. "So I hope. I''m taking a big risk for you, brat. Your talent alone is not what defines a magus, but rather, if they can actually use that talent well. I have high hopes for you, so don''t turn lazy on me. Anyways, I''m done here. Come to my office tomorrow at 6 and we''ll begin right away." He lazily said as he got up from the table he''d been sitting on before vanishing, causing Ron to just stare dumbly for a moment before a strange surge of disappointment traveled through him.


    He cursed himself for the feeling. ''Ok, real talk here, me, putting aside the fact I was male in my last life, and most certainly not gay, you''re a fucking nine years old. Don''t try to get into the pants of your teacher, you dumb slut''.


    He never thought he''d one day call himself a slut. He immediately regretted it too, feeling horrible right away. After a minute of moping around, depressed at life and yet still strangely happy with his situation, he eventually just let out a long, insufferable sigh as he left the lab to return to his main room.


    There, Erika was waiting with a bright smile. "Lady Alice! You''re back! Okay, my time with you is over, but if you ever need me again, I''ll be at your service. Bye-bye!" The hyperactive maid said before scuttling out the door, slamming it close on the way out.


    Ron could only smile wrily before throwing himself on the very hot bed and rolling around in it for a little while. Then, after a moment, he sat up.


    ''Oh well. No time like right now to do some good old meditation''. He said to himself and then began to do just that.

 Chapter 11

    The next day, Ron turned up right on time at his teacher''s office. He didn''t bring anything with him, already knowing that Loki probably had far better equipment than he had.


    Lightly knocking on the door, he only had to wait a moment before the door automatically swung open, revealing the same room he''d met his new teacher for the first time.


    The man was busy scribbling down on some papers, but obviously, he''d long since known of Ron''s arrival. When his newly acquired student entered, he raised his head and showed him a large smile.


    "You advanced to the rank 2 acolyte level already? Color me surprised. I thought it would take you a bit longer than that." The man said, nodding in approval.


    Ron blushed a bit at his praise, but still answered modestly. "It was nothing... It''s all thanks to Teacher that I was allowed to advance so quickly."


    "So you say, so you say. I suppose the much higher energy concentration was beneficial, then?" Loki asked as he put away his paperwork and then sat up.


    "Mhm." Ron nodded, feeling quite happy. Although the heat of the academy had been bothering him beforehand, now that he was a rank 2 acolyte, it actually felt really nice.


    He hadn''t yet had the time to thoroughly explore his new capabilities after advancing, but from what he knew so far, he at least understood that the fundamental difference between rank 1 and rank 2 acolytes was that the first rank could only store their affinity''s energy particles and move them around clumsily, while rank 2 acolytes had quite a lot more spiritual energy as well as the ability to both control the energy in a much more refined manner. Furthermore, rank 2 acolytes had the ability to cast rank 0 spells, which was the real game-changer.


    As Ron thought over all of this, he followed after his teacher as the man led him out of the room and into the busy walkways.


    For the rest of the day, Ron and Loki spent their time together in one of the empty classrooms. Loki first squeezed all the information that Ron already knew out of his mind through an intense bout of quizzing and then began working from that.


    It was painfully obvious to the rank 2 magus that his student had very little knowledge of almost every topic, being only barely passable in arithmetics, history, and human biology. However, in everything else, he completely lacked even the most widespread knowledge.


    Ron was initially stumped when Loki explained this to him, however, he didn''t let him pull him down. He calmly explained to his teacher that he came from a family that, while considered of high nobility, lacked any contact with the world of magic.


    "Do not worry, princess. I''ve already looked up your background when I decided to take you in as my student. I was simply testing the waters." The man gently explained, causing Ron, who''d started getting defensive, to deflate.


    The rest of the day was spent with Loki talking about several topics, ranging from the biology of various creatures to spell theory. Although he talked fast and he gave Ron a lot of information to digest, the transmigrator didn''t actually have all that much trouble keeping up with his teacher.


    He did eventually ask for a notebook to take notes on, which was easily given to him.


    "Go slow, remember to not use too much or too little spiritual force, and do not forget the pattern. If you do all of these, you won''t have much difficulty. It is an easy spell." The man gently coaxed as Ron held the notebook close to his chest.


    "Alright... Here I go..." Ron said, a bit unsure. He gently put the notebook down on one of the tables, and then held his hands over it.The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.


    "Kursha Mudap Biodar, Jklerrs Buyo..." Ron spoke, trying his best to remember the difficult words of the Byron language, which was also nicknamed as the language of magic. He''d just began learning it, but for whatever reason, Loki already believed him capable of using it.


    A small, silver light escaped from his hands. After a couple of seconds, chains started to form from said light and began to weave around Ron''s fingers.


    "Good, good! Now, remember the second part. Be careful not to mess up the target lock." Loki encouraged, standing behind Ron, far enough not to disturb his student, but also close enough to provide moral support.


    "Shaa Krils Mika!" Ron ended his chant, and with a slight shake of his hands, the chains dislodged themselves from him, rushing towards the notebook.


    They surrounded it, coiling tightly around it like snakes hunting for prey. Once the entire length of the chains was wrapped around the book, they shone brightly for an instant and then disappeared.


    Ron was sweating slightly, both the concentration required as well as the considerable amount of spiritual energy required taking its toll on him. Still, he had a wide smile on his face as he picked up the notebook and carefully observed it.


    "I... I did it! Teacher, I did it! Look!" He excitedly said, showing Loki the notebook. At first glance, the notebook looked remarkably normal, with no signs of it having been tampered with. Still, Loki was a rank 2 magus, and he would never be fooled even by a spell a thousand times better than this one.


    He laughed heartily, patting Ron on the head. "Indeed, good job. I''m very proud of you. Despite having just advanced yesterday and only beginning to learn spell theory today, you already cast a rather difficult spell. Even rank 3 acolytes would have a bit of trouble dislodging this lock." He praised.


    At the same time, he observed the notebook in closer detail. The spell wasn''t optimized at all and even had several deficiencies, as well as a general weakness to it that made it rather simple to brute-force through. However, despite that, it was still rather well-done considering this was his student''s first spell ever.


    Generally, it would already be considered a very good result for the spell not to implode immediately at first. To cast a spell sloppily in the first try could be considered the mark of a true genius.


    Satisfied with his observation, and even more so with his student, Loki handed the notebook to a very excited Ron, who was basically bouncing in happiness.


    Still, he didn''t forget to bow to his teacher and heartfully thank him for his time, to which the man just waved him off, saying something along the lines of ''just don''t be late tomorrow'' before disappearing.


    Before, Ron had not been qualified to understand just what the various professors had done to achieve this. However, he was a rank 2 acolyte now, and while he wouldn''t truly be able to understand it, he could see that it wasn''t actually teleportation. He barely saw a blur, and then his professor was gone.


    He mulled over that small realization for a bit before shrugging it off, not caring all that much. He was too excited at the moment.


    ''I just cast magic. Magic! That was so cool!'' Ron''s eyes sparkled, remembering the feeling of the magic being cast. It felt as though, for an instant, he could bend the world to his will, and although it was just an illusion, it had still felt awesome. Furthermore, it had also looked extremely cool.


    Ron rushed back to his room, ignoring the looks some of the older students gave him. Some held hidden jealousy within, and others were outright hostile to him. There was a minority that even looked at him like one would look at a juicy piece of meat.


    Ron glared back at these people, causing them to quickly turn away and walk away just a bit faster than before. Acolytes didn''t really give off energy waves the same way official magi did, and thus it was not possible for other acolytes under rank 2 to be recognized, by other acolytes. This allowed Ron to still keep his advancement a secret.


    Not that he really cared about that. All that was in his mind at the moment was the large amount of information he''d absorbed during the day.


    While Loki couldn''t exactly be called the best of teachers, he was nonetheless very effective, and his vast knowledge bank was also a very useful addition.


    The moment Ron reached his room, after quickly locking the door, he immediately began reviewing everything he''d learned, jotting down some things he''d missed.


    While it wasn''t all that necessary considering his borderline eidetic memory, writing things down on paper helped him understand it more clearly. After doing so, he quickly checked the time. It was only 7 pm, so he still had plenty of time.


    First, feeling a rumbling from his stomach, he utilized a message-sender, something akin to a telephone but a bit more simplistic, and ordered for a large dinner to be delivered directly to his room. Then, he descended down into his private laboratory.


    He was no scientist in his past life, but as he threw on a lab coat, careful to put it on the way Loki had taught him to, he found himself looking forward to becoming one in this new life.

 Chapter 12

    Ron''s days at the Fire Mausoleum passed by slowly, and yet, they also seemed so fast. It felt strange, but as Ron lounged casually on a chair, sipping at a sweet drink, he found himself not really caring.


    His tutelage under Loki had been going far better than he would have ever expected. He was soaking up everything his teacher, as well as several other professors during public lessons, taught him. Despite it only having been a little over a month in this academy, he already considered it home.


    His only real regret was that he basically didn''t socialize with anyone outside of his teacher. Firstly, he was always busy, and secondly, even when he could talk to people, he''d always end up feeling awkward and just act as though they didn''t exist.


    And god forbid for anyone to take the initiative to talk to him directly. Despite being only 9 years of age, soon to be 10, he was already considered the genius of geniuses to ever grace the Fire Mausoleum, and while many people absolutely despised him for it, there was also a growing number of people who took the opposite route.


    Just thinking about it made him shiver. He could still remember when one particular student thought it a good idea to throw herself at his feet and beg to be stepped on. Literally.


    Still, he didn''t actually mind the trouble that came with being considered one of the ''geniuses'' of the school. Sure, it was risky, and he might just be assassinated, and he knew there were always people watching him, but for all the disrespect of his privacy this brought, it also had plenty of benefits.


    For one, he was never asked to take up missions. The library, all of it, was always open to him for free, the labs were also all free for him, and there were a great many other subtler benefits, such as being able to order food directly to his room or, on the odd day where he went to buy it himself, people would always just move to the side and allow him to get what he wanted first.


    As he thought of this, Ron could only smile wryly. While people would normally feel crushing pressure under these expectations placed on someone, especially a child so young... He really didn''t mind.


    For one, everything he did always came extremely easy to him. Cooking? Piece of cake. Complicated math questions that could make his old world''s professors get a headache? Easy as piss. Memorize spells and the theory behind them? Walking took more effort than that.


    ''Alright, let''s not exaggerate here. It''s not that easy''. He thought to himself, reining in his arrogance. Still, as Ron put away his glass and headed towards his lab, he knew that tonight, he would solidify his status once and for all.


    The Ten Sacred Flame technique, while he still lacked a greater understanding of it, thrived on absorbing fire particles. And the one thing the Fire Mausoleum did not lack one bit was, well, fire particles. Hence, one sitting of meditation here was basically equivalent to 10 days outside.


    Hence, it wasn''t surprising that he flew up to the stars in terms of cultivation. He was at the very cusp of becoming a rank 3 acolyte, and tonight, he would finally achieve it.


    As for his knight rank? He''d long since broken through to the Grand Knight realm, and then promptly stopped bothering with it. While knights were powerful, in front of magi, they came up a bit lacking.


    Still, it had been an almost overwhelming experience breaking through. While he''d been expecting it, the feeling of life energy flowing through his veins like a river and constantly changing his body had been... pleasurable. Very much so. The revolting smell afterward? Less so.


    Being both a grand knight and a rank 2 acolyte, most acolytes were simply not his match at all, regardless of their rank. Sure, he lacked real-time combat experience, but that could be easily acquired by venturing out... Or he''d just get assassinated. Who knows.


    Sighing, he flexed his thin arms, and with an ease that would have boggled the mind of his previous self from the other world, he grabbed onto a rock and crushed it. With his bare hands.This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.


    Smiling wryly at his obvious show-off attempt, he threw the stone into the trash. It was his day off for the week, and while he''d usually just do some experiments by himself, testing out the various things he learned during the week, he decided to dedicate this entire day to breaking through at long last.


    ''Technically speaking, most acolytes can live up to 150 years, and rank 1 magi can go up to 300. A couple of months is kind of insignificant...'' He told himself, once again feeling a conflicted at knowing that immortality really was a possibility in this world.


    He liked living, of course, but he''d always done so under the assumptions he would one day inevitably die. To suddenly know that there was a possibility of not doing so... Really didn''t stir him all that much.


    After all, he thought as he sat himself down in an isolation ward that prevented contamination, he would probably die way before ever reaching his old age. 95% of people in this world did, after all, and that was a very conservative estimate.


    Taking a moment to clear his mind of all of those odd and useless thoughts, he focused the entire might of his improved mind on one thing alone: The Ten Sacred Flames.


    Taking a deep breath, he fell into a trance as he began to perceive his sea of consciousness, or also called the spiritual sea, which was where every magi''s spiritual energy and soul rested.


    His own sea of consciousness only contained a single, very small flame that lightly sat atop the small puddle that was his spiritual energy. Compared to official magi, rank 2 and especially rank 1 acolytes really were nothing but jokes. Their sea of consciousness, as the name might imply, truly were seas incomparable to Ron''s meager puddle.


    As instructed by the Ten Sacred Flames, Ron began to pull in the vast amounts of fire particles around him into his body, feeding it all to the small flame. In fact, this flame had only appeared very recently, signifying that he was indeed beginning to truly start cultivating the technique. Beforehand, all he did was roughly absorb the energy, slowly accumulating it.


    However, with the small flame helping him out, the energy was purified by the flame and then absorbed by his sea of consciousness, strengthening both. After all, while the amount of energy being taken in directly wasn''t as big, it was leagues ahead in terms of purity.


    As each minute passed, Ron began to sweat slightly as his body temperature gradually increased, and the flame only became hungrier and hungrier for more. His little puddle was also expanding at a rate almost visible to his naked ''eye'', and he could tell that he was about to reach the critical point.


    After several more minutes, the moment did indeed arrive. The little flame suddenly expanded, immediately consuming every single fire particle Ron sent it. Then, when Ron couldn''t keep up with the sudden surge, it tried charging towards Ron''s puddle of spiritual energy.


    However, he''d long since prepared for this. Ron had been slowly accumulating fire particles at the side, not yet consuming them and simply keeping them close. With the fire''s insurgency, the time came for those particles to play their part as he quickly absorbed them and sent them to the flame.


    It swallowed them all up hungrily, and when the small tide of energy finished, the flame looked as though it had been satisfied for now, decreasing in size.


    Despite the danger, the benefits had been immense. Ron struggled to keep up with both feeding the flame and absorbing the wonderfully pure energy that it gave off, allowing his little puddle of spiritual energy to take the final step and breakthrough.


    He let out a small moan at the sensation, feeling as though his soul itself was expanding. He shivered in excitement as the warm reaches of his new and improved spiritual energy began to weave itself into his veins and distribute throughout his body.


    His strength that had been stagnating ever since he became a Grand Knight increased by a substantial bit once more, although it wasn''t really enough to be called a breakthrough in that regard. However, his little puddle was a whole other story.


    While it wasn''t even close to being a sea, or even just a lake, it was still far, far bigger than it had been beforehand, and it felt far purer than before.


    Finally, after almost ten minutes of just sitting, Ron was at last able to shake off the remaining shock out of his system. He shot up, grinning.


    "Fuck yes! I did it! Rank 3, you''re MY bitch now!" Ron happily shouted to himself, only to instantly feel his cheeks turn crimson at what he just said and immediately shut up.


    ''Fuck. I forgot people are probably watching me right now...'' Ron felt humiliated, but it wasn''t even close to enough to ruin his amazing mood.


    Unlike his knight breakthroughs, becoming a rank 3 acolyte hadn''t caused him to smell worse than the worst sewer in existence, which was a welcome change.


    He paused for a second as he was putting back on his regular clothes. Perhaps he should go visit his teacher? The man did promise to tell him more about his meditation technique when he broke through, and Ron was sure he''d be happy about Ron''s success too.


    With the next course of action decided, Ron grabbed the small box given to him by his benefactor, Professor Fiona, which he''d always kept safely locked away, and headed out into the crowded walkways of the academy.

 Chapter 13

    "Haha, really? He pissed his pants right in front of everyone?" Shira laughed loudly at the retelling of Jack''s story. For his own part, Jack just kept up his storytelling.


    "Yeah! I couldn''t believe it at first, but he actually did. I was like ''What the hell man? It''s just a puny bear. You''ve got me already''. Guy couldn''t believe someone would be able to take out that thing, and yet, here I am!" Jack boasted, his little circle of friends laughing uproariously.


    He''d advanced to become a rank 1 acolyte after five months of intense struggling, trying his best to juggle classes, helping out his mentor, and occasionally taking on missions for some pocket money. Of course, he also didn''t dare skip out on making contacts with his fellow acolytes.


    "You''re really amazing, Jack..." His ''friend'' Shira said, stars in her eyes. While he himself was a mere grade 3 talent, Shira had it even worse, only being a grade 2. Hence, him taking her into his little group of friends and bringing her along on missions might just have been the only reason she even becomes a rank 1 acolyte after an entire year. Of course, she was more than willing to repay the favors with her body.


    Jack laughed silently, scratching his chin at her words. They were all walking along the walkways together, thus, he refrained from saying anything inappropriate.


    Although his face remained friendly, deep inside, his mood darkened. If he was a rank 1 official magus, forget doing all of this dancing around with the girl, he could just kidnap her and use her as a toy for his desire whenever he wanted, and nobody would say anything about it. Hell, if he was a magus, any acolyte would be nothing but trash in front of his eyes.


    As he fantasized about this, he suddenly knocked into someone, letting out a grunt. He felt as though he''d just hit a wall, and a particularly hard one at that.


    A curse came up to his lips as he rose up, staring at the offender. "What the hell, man-" The rest of his words died right there and then in his throat as he realized just who he''d accidentally walked into.


    His friends had all scuttled a large distance away, including Shira, who''d been previously fawning over him, and honestly, Jack didn''t even have the heart to blame them for it.


    Standing in front of him was a little girl, one that, by logic, should have absolutely no place in this academy at such a young age. Her soft, golden locks and bright blue eyes were a tell-tale sign, both being rather rare traits.


    Alice Rosenstar, the genius of genius, personal apprentice of a legendary rank 2 magus, and someone who was basically guaranteed to advance further in life than any other student could ever hope for. The entire academy always seemed to bend over for her wishes, if what Jack had heard was true and not just wild rumors.


    "Hm? My apologies. I must have not been paying attention." The cute little girl said, and although her tone wasn''t offended nor aggressive, it also held no actual apology in it. At most, it was a little flustered.


    "I-it''s nothing! My apologies for not being more aware." Jack quickly scrambled upwards and bowed as deeply as he could before shamelessly fleeing back to his friends.


    Her eyes followed him for a second, causing shivers to run down his spine as her eyes narrowed. Then, she shrugged to herself and continued on, the crowd parting in awe at her passing.


    Jack looked at her disappearing back as he rubbed his aching shoulder and chest, still feeling a lingering fear. To think he''d just been thinking such heretical thoughts. If she could have read his mind and saw what he was thinking, he would have been dead within the second.


    After all, even official magi didn''t dare treat the girl with too much carelessness, with most keeping a respectful distance from her, likely afraid of her teacher. Which, yeah, Jack could sympathize. If the girl herself was this terrifying, what must her mentor be like?


    As he mulled over his thoughts, his group returned to surround him, now talking in much more hushed whispers, as if afraid the genius princess would overhear them and smite them for their supposed sins.


    <hr>


    Ron silently mulled over the little accident beforehand. It was the first time he''d ever accidentally crashed into someone in this life, but, in hindsight, it might have been inevitable. While she knew theoretically that rank 3 acolytes had much more mystical senses than rank 1 and 2 acolytes, not to speak about regular humans, he didn''t expect it to be so drastic.


    She could slightly feel the mood of everyone around him, feel their very existence with his spiritual energy. It was aking to having a little radar inside of his brain, and it was confusing as hell.


    It hadn''t been all that big of an issue back in the safety of his personal laboratory, but now... Well, it had been a bit overwhelming.Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.


    Still, with each passing minute, his control and familiarity with his newfound senses improved drastically. In fact, after a while, it had even become something that could be considered fun.


    Still, losing himself within his new senses might not have been the best idea, especially while walking amongst the busy hallways of the academy. Not that he''d been hurt in any real way. The kid had felt as though he was more akin to a twig than a 15-year old that was quite a lot taller than him.


    He''d also felt strangely repulsive. At least, that was what he could gather from his newfound senses. He''d have to ask his teacher about it.


    Which, coincidentally, was exactly what he''d been planning to do all along. After taking a few more useless turns just to familiarize himself with his new senses a bit more, he finally arrived at his sexy teacher''s office.


    ''Shut up, stupid perverted mind. Stop thinking of hot, sexy guys as being hot and sexy. You''re nine. Nine!'' He cursed in his own mind, but after so much time living here, he''d long since understood that fighting his own body wouldn''t work out well for him. Hence, despite not really wanting to, he did allow himself to at least make small jokes like these.


    He was about to knock on the door, but before he could do so, the door swung open by itself, taking Ron by surprise. While he knew that his teacher always knew when he was coming, he usually waiting for Ron to knock before opening the door.


    However, any questions that he might have had in his throat died down before they could come to light as his teacher looked down at him from directly behind the door, a shit-eating grin on his face.


    "Well, well. Would you look at this? It seems my favorite little genius has just solidified her status." Loki said as he put one hand on Ron''s head, scratching her like one would with a cat.


    And, like the good cat he was, Ron almost purred. Thankfully, he had enough control of himself to prevent such a humiliation... But that didn''t stop his cheeks from turning a red more crimson than his inner flame.


    "Mhm... It was nothing... did I do well?" Ron asked, attempting to act modestly, but failing miserably as he ended up sounding more like as though he was begging for praise.


    "Yes, dear student. Very well. I suppose you''ve successfully cultivated the pseudo-flame now?" Loki asked gently as he led his student away from his office and to their shared laboratory.


    "Yes. It was... intense." Ron admitted while trying to ignore the looks all the acolytes gave the passing teacher and student. Of course, amongst all the acolytes, the rank 3 acolytes had far different expressions on their faces.


    After all, only they could begin to truly sense other magi spiritual energy, and many of them would be able to instantly tell that Ron had advanced.


    Although he disliked the attention, Ron didn''t hesitate to glare at anyone that dared to look at him a second too long. Even when he''d been a rank 2 acolyte, everyone, except official magi, would look away immediately upon seeing his glare. Now, they did so even more quickly.


    Once they arrived at their personal lab, Loki proddedRon for information about his breakthrough experience, looking quite interested, and judging from the questions afterward, Ron was confident that he was indeed curious.


    After a while of ping-ponging questions back and forth, Ron finally arrived at the question he''d been dying to ask all day.


    "Teacher... Will you now tell me more about high-grade meditation techniques?" Ron asked, looking up at his teacher with puppy eyes. Of course, he hadn''t actually intended doing them, nor was he aware he was doing so.


    Loki looked thoughtful for a moment before speaking, "Hm... Yes. I suppose I did promise I would explain. Well... In short, what do you know about breaking through to becoming an official magus?"


    Drawing upon hisknowledge base, which had practically exploded ever since he''d started learning under Loki, Ron answered. "To become a true magus, one needs to first have enough spiritual force to form a small sea inside their sea of consciousness, and then... I don''t know..." Ron finished lamely. For some reason, every source he''d ever read never actually stated the second requirement for advancing.


    Loki looked at Ron with a small smile on his face. "What''s this? The all-knowing princess actually doesn''t know something for once?" He taunted teasingly.


    "S-shut up..." Ron grumbled out, feeling his cheeks heating up. He made a lot of mistakes during his lessons, and he wasn''t afraid of owning up to them, but apparently, Loki had taken to making this joke every time he got something wrong.


    "Alright, alright. Anyways, while this isn''t usually how it''s done, all rank 3 acolytes of the academy will eventually learn the final requirement: Using reactive elixir. It is a very expensive and hard to obtain treasure that is often hoarded by magi families since it''s necessary to advance acolytes to becoming rank 1 magi... However, there is another method that is even more hidden to acolytes."


    Ron''s genius mind worked it''s magic as hundreds of thoughts weaved themselves together, constantly trying to find an answer. Finally, after a couple of moments, he understood. "You... You don''t mean, high-grade meditation technique?"


    Loki smiled the smile that meant ''I''m proud of you'' at Ron''s guess. "Indeed. High-grade meditation techniques are incredibly hard to obtain, often only accessible through miraculous opportunities or through inheritance. The way you yourself obtained yours is... uncommon, to say the least. Even I myself had to risk my life countless times to obtain my own high-grade meditation technique back when I was a little, weak acolyte."


    Loki seemed to reminiscence about the past for a bit before continuing. "Anyway, high-grade meditation techniques are truly game-changers. They allow magi to obtain innate spells that actually fit them, unlike the trash that the reactive elixir can grant. Furthermore, they allow magi to further progress down their own path, possibly achieving rank 2 or 3. To be honest, had you not obtained the Ten Sacred Flame, which seems to truly be as though it was created specifically for you, I might have even imparted my own technique to you."


    "Teacher..." Ron said, unsure of what to say. He was overwhelmed by his kindness and wasn''t sure how to deal with it.


    "Don''t act all emotional now, princess. I''m sure you''ll repay me in the future somehow. Now, are you going to open the little box you''ve been hiding all this time?" Loki teased, garnering a blush from an embarrassed Ron.


    ''Bully...'' Ron thought to himself, but despite that, he couldn''t wipe off his smile.

 Chapter 14

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

 Chapter 15

    After chatting with his teacher for a little while more, asking some questions that he hadn''t yet been able to answer himself regarding some other subjects, Ron bowed out of the conversation and made his way out of the fancy restaurants, ignoring the jealous looks of the nearby acolytes.


    ''I need to go buy some ingredients... I''ve already got all the equipment I''ll ever need, and Teacher already showed me the basics. Oh, right, I also need some potion formulas. Don''t forget those.'' Ron silently made a list of all the things he needed in the safety of his mind.


    A grimace appeared on his lips. Everything he needed was at the acolyte market, where there were sure to be tons of people.


    While he could technically ask someone to go buy them for him, he needed to be there himself to inspect the bought ingredients. He''d been saving up the allowance the academy gave him since he arrived here, giving him a modest sum of 30 magical crystals to work with. It wasn''t little, but it wasn''t a lot either. In fact, for a rank 3 acolyte, he could be considered quite poor.


    But it was enough. Letting out a sad sigh, he made his way through the convoluted hallways and areas, walking for well over 20 minutes before finally reaching his destination.


    The acolyte market could be considered the loudest, harshest, and most obnoxious area in the entire Fire Mausoleum. Scammers and thiefs ran rampant in here, robbing the weaker students of everything they could get their hands on, either through sweet lies or with violence.


    Honestly, Ron was kind of glad he was regarded so highly by the higher-ups of the academy. It shielded him from practically all of the harsher reality of the magus world and also allowed him to ignore some of the parts he really wished didn''t exist. Like this place, for example.


    Nonetheless, Ron sighed, he knew that he wouldn''t be shielded forever. With a mix of resignation and determination dominating his inner feelings, Ron made his grand debut into the market.


    Only for everyone to ignore him, probably not recognizing him or being too busy to do so. Which made sense, in a way. He was very famous in the section of the academy he lived in, but for the other sections, they probably had only heard of a ''child genius''. The market was one of the few places that all sections converged in, which allowed him to go incognito.


    Still, his distinctive golden hair that had only been growing longer and more luscious ever since coming to this academy attracted some attention. After all, the products of some backwater mortal country simply could not compare to the stuff magi had access to, and as much as Ron loathed to admit it, he was starting to love his beautiful hair.


    Looking around with interest, Ron passed by the stalls fearlessly, curiously browsing some of the items while having no intention to actually buy any of them. He recognized a great many of the things being sold here, with most being common items that acolytes could get through missions or outside markets.


    Still, they garnered very little real interest from Ron. After all, he already had access to most things held here, most being given to him by his mentor, and they were obviously leagues ahead compared to the rabble being sold here.


    He did spot a couple of the things he needed here and there, but he didn''t bother buying them. After all, although he disliked crowds, it was still an interesting experience browsing through all of the various stalls and listening to the sellers describe their things as though they were ancient artifacts crafted by the gods themselves.


    "Hm? What''s this feeling?" Ron murmured to himself, feeling a jolt of electricity run through his body. It wasn''t a bad feeling at all, rather, it was the opposite. He could feel something calling out to him through his spiritual force, and he could tell the nascent flame inside his sea of consciousness trembling in excitement.


    Ron quickly followed the feeling, arriving in front of the stall manned by a bored-looking student that had no body hair or nose. He was carelessly smoking a cigarette, something that made Ron''s sensitive nose wrinkle from the bad smell it gave off.


    The student noticed that Ron was in front of his stall and looking at him and, instead of greeting him, he just glared. "What do you want, brat? Did you lose your mommy? Get lost, you little shit."


    Ron was taken aback by the aggressiveness of the student, and for a second, something inside of him demanded this insolent idiot''s head. However, he suppressed it. "I''m sorry, sir. I''m just here to buy something." He said, careful to keep his voice as polite as possible.


    The student just sneered. "I don''t sell to brats. What are you even doing in the prestigious Fire Academy? You one of those slaves? Where''s your master?"


    And, with those words, Ron''s control flew out the window. The student was a mere rank 1 acolyte, hence, he couldn''t even register Ron dashing forward and grabbing him by the neck, slamming him through his shitty stall and slamming him to the ground.You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.


    "Now, listen here, scum. You think I''m a slave? You call me a piece of shit? You think I''m a brat? You''ve got guts, weakling." Ron sneered in return, literal smoke emerging from the sides of his mouth as the student struggled desperately, unable to breathe or speak as Ron had him by the neck with one hand and covered his mouth with the other.


    He tried to hit Ron''s smaller body, but all it did was hurt him. He even tried to stab him with a hidden dagger, but it shattered before even touching Ron''s skin, courtesy of the spell he''d been preparing. "Now, now. Attempting to kill me? That could land you a lot of trouble." Ron commented, not relenting as his hands only tightened around the student''s neck.


    A crowd had long since formed, watching the brutal, one-sided slaughter unfold. Nobody made a move to help the downed student, and instead, some were even cheering Ron on. Evidently, someone amongst the crowd was from his section of the academy, because people were soon whispering things about him.


    The student was as pale as it could get at this point and looked as though he would faint and likely die soon from the lack of air to his lungs. When he was at his limit, Ron finally released him.


    He had no mercy for idiots like these. Perhaps he''d been indoctrinated, or perhaps it was just the law of the jungle showing itself. Or, god forbid, he''d always been like this, just with the chains of a peaceful society holding him down. But now, he only felt elation at this violence.


    "I think... All your belongings are a good apology to me. Sparing your life can already be considered kind of me." He harshly sentenced out before landing a punch in the trembling student''s chest. He held back a lot, only causing him to fall down and wheeze.


    Ron roughly shoved his hands into the student''s pocket, and when they came back out, he held 8 magic crystals in them. "Not bad. Now, scram."


    The abused and beaten student didn''t dare say anything as he immediately fled. Snorting in contempt, Ron returned to his stall and began to take anything and everything of value.


    The stall wasn''t anything impressive. It was a little cart with some goods on display, most of them worthless to Ron, but there were some goodies hidden underneath as well, and Ron quickly began checking them out.


    His eyes brightened when his gaze landed upon a box hidden deeper than any other. He could tell the thing that his very soul seemed to be hungering for was hidden in there.


    Originally, he wouldn''t have minded giving away all his crystals for it. After all, he could always borrow more from his teacher. However, it seemed that it wouldn''t be necessary after all.


    The crowd had been observing his rampage since it began, and it showed no signs of dispersing. Ron graced them with one of the harshest glares he could muster, causing those who''d stubbornly stayed to quickly flee like rabbits.


    Although he wanted nothing more than to open the damned box and find out what was inside, he knew it was better to do so in a safer area. Hence, with great reluctance, he stored the box in an inner pocket of his robe. Strangely enough, although the box wasn''t small, it didn''t even cause a bulge to appear.


    With his business with the place done, and with loot that should have been worth around 15 crystals in total, not counting the mysterious box, Ron had basically increased his wealth by half. Still, he disliked this method. Plundering fellow students just didn''t sit right with him.


    He tried to rejoin the crowd but quickly found that everyone was now giving him a wide berth, not daring to even fart in his presence. Even fellow rank 3 acolytes kept their distance, eyeing him with either wariness, fear, or outright admiration.


    Sighing in annoyance, Ron retraced his steps back to a stall that specialized in potion ingredients. The owner looked outright terrified when he appeared, but Ron did his best to act polite, not wishing to alienate the rest of the student body like this.


    Thankfully, when Ron showed his magic crystals, the rank 2 acolyte seller quickly changed his tune, showing him all sorts of ingredients and fawning over him, giving him great discounts.


    In the end, he only spent 10 of the planned 30 crystals that he''d set out with, and gained 15 more along the way. Furthermore, he now had the recipes of the common strength and healing potions, along with a slightly rarer bug extermination potion, along with over a dozen sets of ingredients for each.


    ''Although I trashed and robbed a student, these guys really don''t care, huh...'' Ron thought to himself. He noticed that, as word of his deed spread, the people who''d been eying him like a piece of candy now gave him reverent looks instead.


    Strength truly was the ultimate symbol of status in this cruel world. You''re rich? What does it mean if I can just kill you and take all your stuff? You''re the son of a noble? It doesn''t change the fact I can murder you with my pinkie.


    In a way, it made sense. In a society where a common person could potentially obtain the power to shatter worlds with a fart, equality was a pipe dream for the delusional or the absurdly strong.


    ''I guess I''ll just have to make sure I''m always the stronger one then...'' Ron smiled wryly to himself as he thought this. He didn''t think of himself as a bad person, but in this world, only truly ''bad'' people could live and thrive.


    Shaking his head to get rid of these dark thoughts, Ron finally reached his apartment. When he entered it, he was surprised to find that it had been changed during his absence.


    It had already been high-class before, but now, it truly looked like a V.I.P room. There were even some of the dishes he''d enjoyed from the restaurant sitting on a new table that was exquisitely carved from expensive-looking wood.


    It wasn''t the only addition, either. Ron explored his residence, finding that more or less everything had been upgraded. In the end, Ron could only guess that his status amongst the higher-ups had probably just taken a massive leap upward, thus leading to more benefits.


    He went down into the lab to store the ingredients and his spoils and found that it too had been upgraded, and in a much more significant way than before. Although it still couldn''t compare to his teacher''s private lab, not even close, it was still leagues ahead in terms of before, with shining new equipment having been brought in.


    He ignored it, for now, having more important things to focus on. After doing the menial work of storing everything away, Ron turned to the box that his very soul seemed to be craving for.


    "Now... Just what''s in you?" Ron asked the box as he carefully took the lid off.

 Chapter 16

    Inside the box, there was a rather small fruit. It had the shape and size of an orange, but it was colored a bloody red and had markings that resembled burning trees.


    The moment Ron took it out, he almost lost control. It was as though something within his soul demanded he for him to eat the damned thing.


    ''This... Impossible! I thought this was extinct!'' Ron shouted within his own mind, doing his best to resist the soul-wretching allure of the fruit.


    If Ron''s memory served him correctly, the fruit was nicknamed the Blazing Tree Pomelogram. It was, in ancient times, popular amongst fire-attribute magi, especially those of rank one and two.


    It was extremely beneficial to the consumer''s spiritual force as well as soul, but that was all that the short mention in the book he''d read said. And yet, Ron couldn''t fathom just what made this fruit so alluring to him. After all, while it was very beneficial to magi, nothing was said about this crazy hunger Ron felt.


    Still, Ron was by no means weak-willed. It took a lot of effort, but he succeeded in putting the fruit back into the box, which he then hid in a secret compartment underneath his bed.


    ''If I eat it now, It''ll be very beneficial to me. However, if I eat it when I become an official magus, it will be of even more help. Ugh...'' Ron encouraged himself, trying his best to look at the big picture and ignore the almost physical pain that this unsatisfied craving of his was giving him.


    ''God, if this is how drug addicts feel, I''m never touching those things...'' Ron grumbled inwardly, feeling quite depressed. Still, he cheered up after a bit and threw himself into learning about potions.


    He spent the remainder of the day setting everything up and practicing a bit without using any of the more expensive materials. He failed every time, obviously, but that was alright to Ron. He was just familiarizing himself with the tools and techniques.


    Unfortunately, for the entire following week, he was forced to abandon his potioneering plans, as his sexy teacher decided that since Ron had already advanced to be a rank 3 acolyte, he was now qualified to truly help him in his non-crucial experiments, as well as some other things he''d withheld previously.


    Thus, saying that he was just busy would have been a colossal understatement. At one point, he just decided to sleep in his teacher''s lab since he was basically working 18 hours per day there anyway, and the rest of the time was spent sleeping.


    Nonetheless, despite the terrifying amount of work Ron had to do, which usually consisted of keeping records of the experiments and organizing the ingredients, sometimes even being allowed to do the experiments himself, Ron actually found it all to be fun rather than stressful.


    "Careful there with the Hateful Root, Alice. Remember to stir it the correct amount of times, not one more, not one less." Loki directed from the side as Ron danced around a table filled to the brim with equipment, trying his best to handle over three different parts of the experiment at once.


    "Good, good. Keep going. You''re almost done." Loki encouraged from the side, not lifting a finger to help the obviously tired princess.


    Finally, Ron gathered up the two boiling tubes and the strange, screaming root that had a face on it and put them all together in one of the cauldrons at the side. Then, he chanted in the Byron language, something that he''d been doing so often as of late that sometimes he''d even think in it rather than the Common language.


    "Hyrrs Mukles Nya Nya Lobbsta!" She whispered, causing the root stuck inside the cauldron to scream even louder as the various substances within converged around it, fusing into it.


    A dozen seconds later, it was over, and Ron collapsed on his bum, not even having the energy to speak. He''d been working an entire day nonstop, and although he''d succeeded, he was tired.


    Loki carefully picked up the brownish-green pearl that had appeared inside the cauldron, examining it with a critical eye before giving Ron a huge grin. "Congratulations. It''s perfect. I knew you had it in you." He praised, truly impressed by his student.The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.


    She''d crafter something that, normally, only official magi and above could even think of making: The Thousand-Emotion Pearl, something that was coveted by illusion magi so much that it was basically guaranteed to be sold for well over a thousand magic crystals.


    Still, while she''d done a perfect job, he''d been the one giving out instructions and occasionally preventing her from making mistakes. Thus, he was the one to pocket the pearl.


    He gave her a wide smile as she wheezed on the ground, wiping away the sweat that covered her face and bare arms. "Since I gave you the materials and everything, I''ll keep the pearl. Still, you deserve a reward for doing such a good job. Is there anything you wish?"


    When Ron registered his teacher''s words, he thought for a moment before asking, "Could we work onpotions next week? I''m planning on doing it independently, but if Teacher could help me, I''d be happy."


    "Of course. Since you''ve been such a diligent little student, I''ll go ahead and pay for the materials myself. Still, I''ll be keeping the potions we make. If you wish to make some profit, you''ll have to do it on your own, understood?" Loki said even as he worked to store away the precious pearl.


    "Yes! Thank you!" Ron said, excited. He bowed to his teacher before retreating away from their lab, massaging his temples in the meanwhile.


    ''Ugh! Teacher really doesn''t know the meaning of rest, does he...'' Ron felt a little speechless. If this was his old world, Loki would have probably have been sent to prison for using child labor, but in this world, he was only praised, with countless children willing to work for him if he just asked.


    Still, Ron was satisfied. It had been a busy week, and despite it only having been a month and a half since his arrival at the Fire Mausoleum, he''d already caught up to his peers that had been working and studying here for much longer. In fact, with his teacher''s help, he may have even surpassed many.


    ''Thankfully, he still allowed me time to practice my Ten Sacred Flames technique.'' Ron thought to himself, knowing full well that, without some sort of impossibly lucky event, it would take him quite a bit of time to reach the necessary foundation to attempt to advance. Even with his heaven-shaking talent and the sheer amount of resources being poured into him, it would still take a significant amount of time to become an official rank 1 magus.


    Nonetheless, Ron didn''t mind. He wasn''t in any particular hurry, and he was of the firm belief that as long as he tried his best, everything else would come around eventually.


    After arriving back in his room, he first took a quick power nap that lasted until dawn before throwing himself into potions by himself. His teacher had kindly given him some of his own notes regarding potion techniques, which Ron happily made use of.


    Ron''s tongue stuck out of his mouth as his eyes narrowed, gauging how much of the Blood Apple''s powder he should put into the mixture. In a split second, he decided and put his decided amount in.


    Unfortunately, his decision turned out to be an incorrect one as the tube he''d been working on exploded in his face, showering his white coat with sizzling acid and landing quite a bit on his face.


    "Fuck!" Ron cursed, quickly picking up a towel that glowed with a golden color and using it to wipe his face. He quickly took off the protective coat he''d been wearing and threw it into the trash.


    Touching his face, he made sure he was unharmed by the acid. Thankfully, it had been a rather weak mixture, but it had still stung a bit. His recovery speed was leagues ahead of normal people though, so he was fine in the end.


    "Damn... This is the third fail in a row..." Ron murmured, pursuing his lips in annoyance. Without his teacher to prevent him from making dumb mistakes, he was quickly realizing just how annoying some of the procedures were.


    It wasn''t even that he didn''t know what he had to do, but rather, it was purely instinctual. The bug extermination potion he''d attempted to brew just now should have come out perfectly, he''d followed the instructions to a T after all. And yet, it failed miserably.


    ''Huff... It''s just as Teacher said. I just need more experience...'' Ron sighed to himself. Since the morning, he''d made a total of 8 attempts at brewing different potions, and yet, only two had come out successfully, and even then they were rather poorly made.


    Still, Ron wasn''t discouraged. He checked the time real quick and noticed that it was already 8 pm, and the sun had long since fallen beneath the horizon. He attempted one more brewing, trying to make a strength potion, but it melted in his hands, ruining itself.


    "Fuck, this is so annoying! What am I doing wrong!" Ron shouted out, frustrated. One of the potions he''d succeded in had also been a strength potion, and he''d did the same he did then for this potion, meaning they both had the same exact fucking procedure.


    And yet, one failed, and one succeeded. It made sense for Ron to start getting angry.


    ''Calm down, I''ll just ask Teacher tomorrow'' Ron consoled his aching pride, well aware that the fact that he''d been able to brew two potions out of 9 attempts was already considered a spectacular result for a beginner like him.


    Still, he''d gotten used to doing everything perfectly. To suddenly fail so many times in a row left him frustrated, but he could ignore it, knowing he''d eventually get better.


    Huffing in irritation, Ron ran a hand through his long locks, tucking them behind his ear. ''I should probably get myself a hairpin or something...'' He silently thought to himself before cleaning and putting everything he''d used in his experiments away, careful not to damage anything. Then, after calling for someone to come clean up the mess on the walls and floor, he returned to his bedroom, ready to sleep away his worries.

 Chapter 17

    A loud explosionresounded from within Ron''s lab. Ron stared at the smoking vial in his hands with indifference before throwing it into the trash.


    It had been over 2 months since Ron''s advancement to rank 3, and to be honest, the days all passed by in a blur for him.


    He really enjoyed what he did, and there was never any time in which he wasn''t doingsomething. 6 days a week, he would learn or experiment with his professor, doing all sorts of things, ranging from attempting to breed a four-eyed, 6-meter tall monkey with a dog the size of a horse to gardening for precious plants.


    Then, in his free days and during the night, he would usually carefully work on his potions, trying his hand at hundreds of different recipes.


    While he wasn''t quite at the level of being able to make up his own recipes, he had definitely become much, much better after almost two thousand attempts, regardless if they failed or succeeded.


    Ron shook his head in disappointment before cleaning up and heading back to his room. There, he crouched next to his bed and pulled out a crate filled with neatly lined up potions.


    He''d arranged them by type, hence, strength potions were on one side, speed potions on another side, etc. Ron hummed a little tune to himself as he carefully checked over everything just to make sure there were no problems before storing them away once more.


    ''I''ll go sell them all tomorrow. My work of over 3 months... I wonder how much I''ll end up making?'' Ron looked forward to it. Despite him not truly needing any cash with everything he had access to for free, he still felt happy about the prospect of getting his own money. Well, crystals, in this case.


    He''d even ended up buying some crystals off of his teacher in exchange for some of his potions, which he then used to buy more materials. His teacher had looked at him humorously when he''d asked to do so, knowing full well that his student could have just gone to the market and sold them at a higher price there.


    But that was not Ron''s plan. After all, if he was going to be hailed as a potioneering genius as well, as his teacher had once commented, then he was going to do so in style. And what better way to do so than to start off with a bang?


    Perhaps it was misplaced pride, but Ron really didn''t see much problem with it. Ron visited the market once every two weeks, give or take a few days, and he''d usually buy his ingredients at thattime.


    Apparently, he''d become infamous through the entirety of the mausoleum. Whenever he was away from the safety of his room or lab, people would be watching him like hawks, observing his every move. He''d even spotted some official magi eyeing him as of late, but they would always quickly leave.


    Actually, Ron suspected that his teacher had done something to cause most official magi to avoid him. He was quite thankful for that, as he had little wish to speak to such people without the safety of a clear and stable relationship like the one he had with his teacher.


    Ron''s cheeks reddened at the thought, quickly discarding the thought. He and his teacher''s relationship was purely a student-teacher one, and nothing more... Which was a real shame, Ron thought, wistfully.


    ''Get your head out of your ass, you slut. You''ve got more important things to worry about than your little crush.'' Ron mocked himself with a wry smile before beginning his meditation for the day.


    His sea of consciousness was growing along nicely, getting bigger and purer each day. After having formed his pseudo-flame as well as a small lake in it, his rate of cultivation had greatly increased, now being able to attract many more energy particles and much more quickly. Furthermore, the purity of the particles after being chewed on by the ever-growing flame was also much better than before.


    An hour later, Ron was finished with his meditation, feeling quite tired. Still, seeing that he still had some time before his self-set bedtime, he decided to do some knight training, something that he''d been doing less and less lately.


    After all, while the stronger body and sheer strength and speed his Grand Knight rank gave him were great, it wasn''t as important as his magus realm was.Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.


    After doing some light exercise and cultivating his breathing technique, Ron was finally ready to sleep, which he promptly did.


    The next day, as planned, he made his way over to the acolyte market, carrying a large chest with him. Ignoring the usual looks he received from the swarm of bootlickers surrounding him, he looked around before finding his favorite stall.


    Walking up to him, he saw the bored acolyte manning it perk up when he saw Ron coming, and with some goodies in his hands, too. Unlike Ron, these acolytes lived and died for magic crystals, as without them, they would have no future.


    Hence, for profits, these acolytes wouldn''t hesitate to slash each other''s throats. Honestly, had Ron been any less pampered than he was, even he would likely not have been so uncaring regarding his crystals, or rather, his lack of thereof.


    "Good morning, princess! Have you come to do business at my stall? Come, come! I am very happy to see you here!" The acolyte, a thin man who must haveat least been in his thirties, quickly and politely allowed Ron to drop his crate on the stall''s counter.


    "Yes, yes. Give it a look and tell me how much you can give me." Ron said, not bothering to pay the acolyte too much attention, instead taking his time to glare at anyone who''d been watching him like he was some sort of TV show star.


    The acolyte''s eyes were shining, and drool almost seemed to be coming out of his mouth as he opened the crate and stared inside. He gulped down his saliva before carefully picking up one of the vials and examining it.


    "These... So many of them! And they''re so well done! I don''t think I can even afford this many..." The acolyte''s face scrunched up, obviously unhappy at the prospect. Ron just raised an eyebrow at him, looking at him weirdly as he muttered things to himself, giggling like a man possessed.


    ''Weirdo...'' Ron thought, but he didn''t actually feel too unhappy. The man had become his to-go person for his potioneering ingredients, seeing as he was a rank 3 acolyte as well, and a rather strong one at that. Hence, he was more appropriate to trade with than the weaker acolytes, since they would often lack what he needed.


    "I''ll accept payment in shipment. I just want this off my hands so I have more space to work with." Ron said casually, causing the acolyte in front of him to grin widely.


    "Great! If you weren''t such a celebrity, I''d ask to marry you, but unfortunately, I''d probably get executed if I did! Haha... That was a joke, please don''t kill me." The man said jokingly, and Ron could tell from his tone that he was lying through his teeth. He rolled his eyes internally, having known the man for some time now, he could tell that the man wasn''t at all interested in Ron, but rather, his sweet, sweet money.


    "How about this, princess. I''ll hand over all of my crystals to you, and in a month, you can come back to pick up the rest I owe you. As an apology, any ingredients in this shop are 50% off for you. How about it?" The man offered, to which Ron just shrugged. He treated potions as a hobby, and maybe as something that could make him money. He didn''t really care that much in the end.


    "Sure. Whatever. Oh, by the way, have you found any of those things I''ve asked for?" The man''s face scrunched up at Ron''s words, and with an apologetic look, he shook his head.


    "My apologies, princess. I asked all my contacts, and they asked all of theirs,but unfortunately, the feathers of a Flaming Flamingo are simply too rare. Even with the rewards you promised, it''s not something acolytes can obtain this easily." The man explained, cold sweat forming on his back.


    Thankfully, Ron didn''t look offended. Instead, he just shrugged. "Oh, well. I knew I was unlikely to obtain any. What a shame. They would have been quite helpful to my cultivation. I guess I''ll just buy them off of teacher for a higher price." Ron said, murmuring the last part to himself, although the man likely still heard him.


    After completing the transactions and receiving all of the acolyte''s magic crystals, Ron made his way to his teacher''s lab. In there, Ron found the sexy man tinkering with some sort of scalding metal, holding the thing up using his spiritual force.


    "Oh, good. You''re here. I suppose you didn''t find what you were looking for?" His teacher asked, and Ron had totear his eyes away from the man''s bare chest to redirect them at his eyes, and even then, he struggled not to take little peeks.


    "O-oh, yes! I mean, no! I didn''t find it. Do you... have it?" Ron asked, stuttering a bit as his cheeks reddened. The man rolled his eyes, albeit good-naturedly, and replied with a ''duh'' tone. "Of course. A friend of mine had some in stock, and I bought them off of him. Although you''re my student, I do not wish to spoil you too much, hence, you''ll need to pay me an equivalent price, but I''m going to guess that''s not a problem anymore, is it?" Loki asked, a slight smile forming on his face.


    "Yeah. I''m rich now." Ron joked, showing his teacher his 30 medium-grade magic crystals, which in total amounted to 3000 common ones. The man nodded and plucked 12 of them away, causing Ron''s face to dim a bit.


    The man snorted when he saw this, and after a moment of thought, he sighed and handed back two of the crystals he''d taken. "Fine... You''ve been very diligent all this time, so I suppose I''ll allow you some leeway. I already had the feathers delivered to your room." Loki said.


    "N-no need, teacher! I''m already very glad that you''ve taken the time to help me!" Ron quickly denied. He liked his crystals, but not so much as to make his teacher unhappy. Besides, although the amount was likely not even pittance in Loki''s eyes, Ron wanted to somehow repay the man for his efforts in nurturing him, even if it was in little things like this.


    "Haha... Well then, I won''t hold back." Loki said, taking back the two crystals before retreating.


    "Well, let''s begin. I''m looking forward to the day you shock the world." Loki casually said, causing Ron''s cheeks to turn blazing red once more.

 Chapter 18

    A month had passed since then, and Ron''s reputation had only continued to rise. Known to possess a peak rank 5, rumored even to possibly be a grade 6, talent, a potioneering genius capable of making incredible potions within months of starting, and also a fearsome fighter despite his young age.


    However, in all honesty, Ron cared very, very little about his reputation. After all, as far as he was concerned, these acolytes who spent their time gossiping and doing nothing useful with their time would soon be left far behind him. What did it matter what they thought of him?


    Ron shook his head and sighed, banishing those useless thoughts behind, instead returning his concentration on the feather in his hand. It had intricate patterns running all over it, and even Ron, who had more or less become immune to normal fire and heat, felt that it was scorching to the touch.


    Nonetheless, Ron didn''t let it go. His Ten Sacred Flames, while it was completely possible to cultivate it without any help, would progress faster if aided by external materials, something that he''d only figured out recently. Well, rather than figured out, it would be more appropriate to say that it only became relevant recently.


    If he was to attempt using external aid without the proper foundation and strength, he might just explode. Thankfully, under Loki''s watchful eyes, Ron wouldn''t be able to do something that stupid even if he wanted to.


    Tucking his long hair behind his ear, something that had become sort of a habit as of late, Ron mulled over some more useless thoughts for a while, allowing his mind to rest before returning back to his meditation.


    Small flames shaped like snakes crawled their way out of Ron''s eyes, ears, mouth and nose, all of them not smaller than a normal worm. They made their way to the feather in Ron''s hands, which upon being touched by those worms, began to sizzle and release an intoxicating smoke.


    The worms let out small cries of joy as they rushed to the smoke, absorbing it into their bodies. This caused them to inflate, but despite that, they did not stop absorbing the smoke right up until they were on the verge of exploding, at which point they crawled their way back into Ron''s body.


    Within his sea of consciousness, the bloated worms obediently waited as they passed one by one through the ever-hungry flame, being quickly devoured by it, their bodies turning into the sweetest nectar that fed both the flame itself as well as the growing lake beneath.


    Once each worm had passed and been consumed, the flame settled down, and Ron awoke from his meditation.


    He breathed out, the air in front of him trembling from the heat of his breath, slight traces of smoke rising from the edges of his lips. He quirked a happy smile, feeling reinvigorated.


    "Using this is thing feels really different from normal cultivation..." Ron murmured to himself, feeling a little speechless. While each feather could only be used a total of five times, it was already quite insane. After all, compared to slowly absorbing the energy around him, taking it from the feather was both faster and easier, and on top of that, the feather''s energy was on a whole level higher compared to the energy in the air.


    Standing up, Ron performed some simple stretches, enjoying the dull burn of her muscles being pulled. With each meditation, while her body appeared to have remained unchanged, at a fundamental level, it was being slowly upgraded. Her mind felt sharper, her body became even more responsive to her wishes, and her spiritual force only became stronger and purer.


    ''I''m about to reach the bottleneck... I think that after two more sessions, I''ll be there.'' Ron thought, feeling giddy at the prospect. He wasn''t stupid, and his teacher had dropped a lot of hints that more or less meant that the moment Ron became an official magus, he would likely be made into a professor and officially be recognized as the academy''s darling, and the resources being poured into him would likely increase by an exponential amount.


    After all, someone becoming an official magus in less than a year? Completely unheard of. If Ron could achieve it, then his life would likely become a lot easier, but also harder. After all, what better way to damage an enemy school than to kill it''s most prominent student?If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.


    Despite that lingering fear of assassination, Ron wasn''t actually all that worried. His teacher had obviously already been acting in the shadows, and with him being a rank 2 magus, the chances of someone slipping by his notice unseen was null.


    Furthermore, although Ron hadn''t yet seen him, the supposed ''Great elder'' of the Fire Mausoleum was a rank 3, and even he had started to take notice of Ron. With all of this attention being directed at him, it could be seen as either the greatest danger or the best shield.


    Ron chose to think of it as a good thing, if only to simply to spare himself the anxiety it would otherwise bring.


    ''Besides, once I become an official magus, I can change my sex back!'' Ron thought to himself, expecting to get cheered up by the thought. However, all he felt was dull indifference at the thought.


    ''Do I even want to change back, though?'' A small voice at the back of his head whispered. Ron bit his lips, but he didn''t flat out dismiss the notion as he would have done when he first transmigrated.


    He wasn''t particularly happy about being a little girl... However, he didn''t find it so bad either. After all, 50% of the human population was female, if he was to start complaining about how being a woman sucked, he''d be offending a lot of people.


    But that wasn''t even the main point. Maybe it was the hormones in him, or maybe it was the fact he had much bigger things to worry about, or hell, maybe he was just a closet transgender without knowing it, but Ron didn''t feel at all like he wanted to change back.


    This wasn''t some sort of grand revelation. Perhaps he''d already started changing before this, and in retrospect, perhaps he had. It wasn''t even some big change, rather, it was a combination of little things. The longer hair, the more time spent on caring for his appearance, his changing tastes in clothing, his sudden desire to look ''girlier'', etc.


    Ron dropped himself on his bed, spreading out starfish-style. With a sigh, he just murmured a "Fuck it.", and just decided to see where it led. Once he became an official magus, while it wouldn''t be easy, changing gender wouldn''t be impossible either.


    He knew he''d started doing it already, but at this point, thinking of himself as a he inside his own mind was starting to feel wrong and weird. Thus, he chose to at least attempt to switch.


    He... she... ugh. SHE let out yet another sigh, feeling quite strange. Still, she wasn''t unhappy, even if it felt weird.


    Getting up from her shameful position on the bed, Ron... fell deep in thought. Calling herself Ron would just create problems, and besides, that was the old him/her. Perhaps it was time for a complete overhaul.


    Hence, Alice made her return. She''d been using that name for the outside world to see since she arrived, hence, the switch wasn''t at all strange for her. She''d long since grown used to reacting to that name rather than the name Ron, after all.


    With all of that drama sorted out, Alice... And wasn''t that weird, calling herself that... Promptly decided that, in order to clear her thoughts, making some complicated potions would be the perfect solution.


    Throwing on the lab coat, she descended down into her lab, immediately immersing herself within the world of dangerous chemicals and ingredients that try their best to kill you. Alice didn''t even find it strange anymore, rather, she even found some of the ingredients funny.


    The next morning, she showed up at her teacher''s lab right on time, as always. Opening the door, she peeked her head in, finding her teacher tinkering away with his things as he always did, looking as unruffled and perfect as he was on basically every hour of every day.


    "Come in, princess. I''ve just got my hands on a new breed of Shining Silk Spiders, and I''m eager to experiment on them." Loki greeted, but unknowing to him, his words caused Alice to feel a pang of regret.


    "Teacher... May I have the week off?" She asked nervously, not even having the time to ogle at him as she usually did.


    The man paused, turning around to face his student. She looked nervous, but there was a feeling of decisiveness within her.


    "So... You''re ready?" He asked, the hidden meaning within his words not lost on the newly minted girl.


    "Not yet, but if I can dedicate a couple of days in their entirety on my cultivation alone, I will be. I hope Teacher understands, and I apologize..." Alice quickly said, but her frantic words were halted as Loki put his large hand on Alice''s head.


    "Don''t worry about it. Go and do your thing. I''ll gladly wait for as long as I have to. Just to make sure you''ve got everything you need, I''ll have some errand-boy deliver some more Flaming Flamingo Feathers to you, just in case." Loki winked at her, causing her frantically beating heart to calm down.


    "T-thank you, Teacher." Alice bowed. She knew the man treated her very well, and she was grateful, but she just could not shake off the knowledge that a single thought from him would be enough to exterminate her soul. It unnerved her.


    After handling a few other matters with her teacher, Alice eventually returned to her room. There, she laid down a comfortable mattress on the floor before sitting on it cross-legged.


    "Alright, here goes nothing..." Alice murmured to herself before falling deep into meditation, a beautiful feather at hand.

 Chapter 19

    Alice let out a long, relieved breath. She''d finally reached the bottleneck after two days wholly focused on meditation, and boy did it feel good.


    Her sea of consciousness now looked like a large lake, and the flame hovering above it only continued to grow bigger and purer, looking as though it was on the verge of becoming something even greater.


    She did a few stretches, getting the soreness out of her muscles. She''d been more or less immersed in meditation for two days straight, and while she knew she could keep going for a bit longer, she was also aware that taking care of one''s body and mind was a priority.


    Hence, she allowed herself to get a good 8-hour long sleep. Then, She ordered some food to be delivered to her room, and while she waited for that, she took a nice bath.


    Like most people in the Fire Mausoleum, Alice had begun to enjoy... peculiar baths, which is a kind way of saying that she enjoyed bathing in waters at borderline boiling temperatures.


    Thus, as she allowed the stress of mediation to be metaphorically washed away by the rising steam, she groped her undeveloped breasts in curiosity.


    Thanks to Loki, Alice wasn''t in the dark regarding her own body. He''d had her research extensively on both the male and female body, even bringing her some real corpses to look through. Hence, she was well aware that puberty was on the horizon, and when the time came, her body would change with it.


    Musing about how uncomfortable she''d be when the time came, Alice just allowed her mind to wander around without aim, which was something she rarely did these days.


    She ended up snorting and inhaling some steaming water when she thought of her teacher in his birthday suit dancing around like an idiot. Blushing brightly, she was forced out of her dreamy state, returning to reality.


    After carefully washing her hair and drying up, she went back to her room and ate up the large, delicious meal that had been brought over to her room. She dug into the tender meat of some sort of bird, enjoying the feeling of the meat literally melting within her mouth and flowing down her throat.


    When she was nice and full, she cleaned up as best she could. Then, after glancing at the clock, she decided that the time had come to shed the chains that still held her back from becoming an elite of this brutal world.


    Smiling wryly at the sudden change of mood, Alice sat back down on the mattress that had become the only thing saving her butt from aching after two days of standing completely still in a wholly uncomfortable position.


    After mentally preparing herself, knowing full well that the chances of success for her first attempt would be low, Alice sank once more into meditation.


    She could feel a wall trying to block her from advancing. However, unlike most peak rank 3 acolytes who encountered it, Alice knew that she could break this wall rather easily, she just needed time and effort.


    Of course, there wasn''t actually any sort of wall, but rather, it was a metaphor. What she needed to do was to have a breakthrough on her sea of consciousness, allowing it to finally and truly form a sea of spiritual energy instead of a mere lake.


    Thankfully, her Ten Sacred Flames had the perfect solution for this. She took in a deep breath, and then her body went completely still, looking as though she''d turned into a statue.


    Then, the six Flaming Flamingo Feathers surrounding her trembled slightly before levitating upwards to her chest level. With an unseen signal, they all began to emit large amounts of energy-rich smoke, which was directly absorbed into Alice from every pore on her body.


    The flame inside of her, feeling the approaching mass of energy, trembled in joy. It automatically expanded to twice its previous size, and as large amounts of smoke entered it, it only continued to grow.


    Below it, the sea of consciousness had reached a limit on its current form. It kept absorbing the leftover energy that the flame gave off, and yet, it didn''t seem as though it was growing any larger.Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.


    ''Now comes the hard part...'' A silent thought echoed within the confines of Alice''ssea of consciousness. The flame that had grown to 5 times its previous size trembled violently, and suddenly, it grew twice as big as it had been, totaling a 10 times increase from its original size.


    The feathers outside her body also began to shake, and with an unhearable cry of pain, they exploded into vast amounts of smoke that congregated around Alice''s body, continuously entering it.


    With such large amounts of energy flowing into her body like a river, the flame that had been struggling to consolidate its size and shape let out feelings of joy and hunger, only visible to Alice herself. Thanks to the vast smoke, it was able to not only fill itself up with energy until it could stabilize, but it also kept growing even bigger.


    Finally, as though it had had enough, the large amount of smoke waiting outside Alice''s body charged into her, causing her previously statue-like expression to show pain.


    Still, she kept going. When all of the smoke finally entered her, a dull, glass-shattering sound resounded within Alice''s mind, and her spiritual lake exploded in size.


    It was as though the chains that had been holding it back finally snapped. Previously, large parts of her sea of consciousness had been empty, but now, the sea filled it in its entirety. Then, the large flame above the expanded sea also broke through.


    Its size increased dramatically, growing until it was akin to a fireball the size of a house. Of course, sizes were relative within the sea of consciousness, but regardless, it had still grown to be at least 50 times its original size.


    Not that Alice noticed. She''d fallen into a state of semi-unconsciousness as her very soul seemed to be baptized by the energy, her body strengthening and improving in untold ways.


    Under the direction of a mysterious force, the fireball within her glowing with fiery rays as strange runes appeared on its surface before gradually fusing into the fireball itself, vanishing from sight.


    Unknown to Alice, Loki had appeared near to her room, surrounding it with his own extremely powerful spiritual energy, which prevented Alice''s berserk spiritual force from accidentally causing hundreds of weaker acolytes to be burned to ashes.


    "How peculiar... I''m pretty sure Fiona''s advancement wasn''t as extravagant as hers..." Loki murmured to himself, observing his student''s advancement with great interest and also some slight worry. While it was true that most advancements amongst official magi would cause damage to their surroundings, if Loki hadn''t acted, the entirety of his student''s room and beyond might have just been burned to nothingness.


    Alice, however, didn''t notice Loki even as her consciousness began to return to her. She could feel that her promotion wasn''t quite over yet, but still, she forced herself to act.


    She willed her spiritual force that had improved drastically to drag a certain box to her, and with a thought, it forced the box open, revealing the strange fruit inside.


    Her craving for her fruit had been harsh, but still manageable before. Now, however, it was irresistible. She lurched forward, snatching the fruit from the air and shoving the entire thing down her throat, her tableside manners getting thrown out the window.


    Her sea of consciousness had already begun to stabilize after the improvement, but the moment the fruit entered Alice''s body, it was as though another explosion immediately happened. Her inner flame that had now officially become her first Sacred Flame charged at the fruit that had somehow appeared in there, engulfing it within an instant. Spiritual force literally gushed out of it, falling into the sea below like a waterfall.


    Immediately after eating the Blazing Tree Pomelogram, Alice could feel a connection to the fire particles around her that completely and utterly dwarfed anything she''d felt before. It was as though she herself had become one with the fire, and it only seemed more and more eager to obey her every whim and command.


    Instead of just giving out pure fire energy as the feathers had done, the Pomelogram worked in more mysterious ways. It''s consumption allowed Alice to experience yet another drastic upgrade in her strength, almost causing her to become intoxicated.


    It took a full hour before Alice was able to stabilize herself from her sudden and drastic advancement. When her eyes opened, the bountiful fire particles within the Mausoleum seemed to shiver in joy, and as her gaze accidentally landed on a random table, the poor thing exploded in a fiery hell, turning to dust within moments.


    Suprised and inwardly panicking a bit, Alice swiftly closed her eyes, and yet, she could not stop the radiations emanating from her body from causing havoc.


    Thankfully, someone else could. "Calm down, Alice. You''re alright. Breathe." A calm and relaxed, yet at the same time, firm voice said in her ears. Instinctively, Alice obeyed, taking deep breaths as her rampaging emotions began to settle down, causing her spiritual force to settle down as well, which in turn, calmed the berserker energy around her to also return to normalcy.


    She could feel two strong arms holding her down by her shoulders, but strangely, they did not feel alien at all, and with her adrenaline draining away, Alice felt more tired than she''d ever been in her entire life.


    Every single cell of her body ached, and despite brimming with untold power, Alice could barely even lift her eyes up to see the gentle face of her mentor.


    "You''ve surprised me, dear student. I''m proud of you, but for now, sleep. I''ll deal with the rest." He murmured his silent voice traveling to her ears. With a small and weak nod, Alice allowed herself to fall into blissful sleep, feeling safe in the arms of possibly the only person she truly trusted within the academy.

 Chapter 20

    The moment thatAlice regained consciousness, her eyes shot open as she immediately got up, eyes wide in surprise. However, she relaxed a couple of moments after as her surroundings registered in her mind and the memories of her promotion returned to her.


    She felt a lot better now. No, scratch that, she felt as though she''d been completely reborn. The world around her was clearer than it had ever been, the energy particles, especially those of the fire type, danced around her, begging to be used.


    Her body felt hundreds of times stronger, faster, and more responsive. Information flowed through her mind as easily as water and as fast as sound. While she still lacked enough experience and understanding of her new powers to fully put them to use, she felt as though she could crush her previous self thousands of times over with her pinkie finger.


    She took stock of her surroundings, finding herself in the familiarity of her teacher''s lab room. She''d slept here multiple times already, hence, she was familiar enough with the environment to come to the conclusion that she was not under any immediate threat.


    Hence, she took the time to check her sea of consciousness. She didn''t even need to meditate anymore to see it, she could simply will herself to look at it, which was helpful enough.


    Her sea of consciousness truly was a sea now, and it was filled to the brim with powerful spiritual force, far dwarfing that of her acolyte self. Her body that had always been stronger than most as a Grand Knight had also received a qualitative change, feeling tens of times more powerful than before.


    Last but not least, within her, she could ''feel'', for a lack of a better word, her innate spell. Each magus would receive a spell during their advancement, one that would be uniquely suited to them, and Alicewas no different.


    Unknown to Alice, though, what she believed to be true wasn''t the complete truth. While it was indeed true that magi could receive an innate spell that matched them, that was only for those who cultivated high-grade meditation techniques or through other methods. Most magi advanced thanks to the Reactive Elixir and Grime Water, which allowed acolytes to fuse a spell and make it their innate spell, but it had the horrific downside of blocking off the path to further advancement.


    Closing her ocean-blue eyes, Alice allowed her senses to identify her innate spell. It had no name as of yet, but still, Alice could immediately tell every detail about the spell, and she knew that, as she herself grew in strength, the spell would as well.


    ''I''ll have to go test it out later in an appropriate location as soon as possible...'' She mused silently to herself, a giant grin on her face. She tensed her leg, and in an instant, she was out of her professor''s lab and had arrived at his office, a trip that would have normally taken a few minutes to complete.


    It was as though the acolytes that she passed moved in slow motion, being unable to see her as she passed by them. Only the stronger rank 3 acolytes even sensed her passing, alarm showing in their eyes as they tensed. Still, Alice didn''t bother dealing with them.


    Loki sat in his office chair, scribbling away on some of his papers. However, when Alice arrived in his office, his hand paused immediately, and his eyes moved up from the paper to stare at Alice''s own.


    "Cheeky student. Already trying to show off to your teacher?" Loki asked jokingly after a couple moments, breaking the silence between them. Alice''s cheeks reddened slightly at being caught red-handed, but she didn''t back down.


    "I have the right to show off." She said with confidence, puffing up her chest in an attempt to look prideful. Her teacher just snorted though, motioning for her to come to sit in the chair in front of his desk, which she happily did.


    "So, have you had a good nap, princess? You were out for four entire days, you know. Even the grandmaster was worried about you, the famous ''Fire Princess''."


    Alice looked at the floor, suddenly finding her shoes much more interesting than the man in front of her. "I have a nickname now? That''s nice, I guess?" She said, not really knowing how to answer the man she looked up to so much.Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.


    There were so many things she wanted to say and ask. ''Are you proud of me?'', ''What will happen now?'', and all sorts of questions tried to force their way through Alice''s lips, but they remained tightly closed. She could tell that her teacher too looked as though he wanted to say something but couldn''t find the words for it.


    In the end, Loki just let out a long sigh, his poker face falling as he revealed a gentle look. "You know, I was worried too. You caused quite a ruckus during your advancement, and forget the world record, you truly shocked everyone this time. Did you know that, based on your energy undulations, you''ve already become a semi-converted magus?"


    Alice blinked in confusion, not understanding the term. Seeing her unasked question, Loki shook his head with a smile, a bit exasperated. "Basically, rank 1 magi themselves have differing levels of strength, from newly-advanced magi to peak rank 1 magi. A semi-converted magus is one who has already converted from 40% to 60% of his or her spiritual force to that of their chosen element. It usually takes many years and resources for this process to occur, and to be honest, what you did makes no sense to me."


    Alice nodded, feeling somewhat weirded out. She didn''t feel ''converted'', but if Loki said that she was, then he was probably right.


    "Anyways, I know you''re eager to go test out everything you''ve gained, and I too am eager to help you with that. First, however, I have been ordered to give you some papers, and even I was not allowed to check through them myself, regardless of my status." Loki said, taking out a large scroll from under his desk.


    The ancient thing seemed to radiate with power, causing even Loki''s face to show some caution. However, Alice could instinctively feel that the power radiating from the scroll was a friendly one, likely having been purposely made to cause this reaction from her.


    She carefully took the scroll from her teacher''s hands, and after inserting a sliver of her spiritual energy in it, the scroll opened up.


    As she read through it, Alice couldn''t help but be stunned. The grand-elder, a figure who hadn''t appeared in public for multiple centuries, was offering her to become the heir of the Fire Mausoleum, essentially making her the immediate next in line for the title of grand-elder.


    Furthermore, it also clearly stated that, if she accepted, she would immediately be given a position of authority only lower to that of the grand-elder himself. Not only that, but everything within the academy and its surroundings would be made accessible to her, for no cost whatsoever.


    There were a few conditions states, things like ''don''t abandon the academy'' and ''don''t do anything to cause it harm'', but there was very little in terms of meaningful restrictions.


    Instead of choosing something that she might come to regret one way or the other, she instead chose to do the sensible thing and she turned to the man that had become her rock and anchor for answers.


    "Hm... Well, personally, I wouldn''t accept. I only picked up my job as a director because of a favor I owed to the grand-elder from a time long past, however, you''re different. I can tell that you truly like it here, and besides, what you''re being offered isn''t a job, but a position of power." Loki explained, trying to balance his words in a way that wouldn''t influence his student one way or the other.


    To him, a job and a position were two very different things. A job was something a person did to make money, while a position was something given to those who were recognized as key members of a group. If Alice were to accept, there was no doubt in Loki''s mind that she would eventually rise to become the leader of the Fire Mausoleum, but at the same time, she wouldn''t be able to ditch the place until she did so.


    "I... see. Thank you, Teacher. I think you''re not wrong... I like it here. I''ll sign it." She said, and although it seemed like a hasty decision, she''d actually thought over it quite a lot, and her insane thinking speed allowed her to do so extremely quickly.


    She wasn''t an adventure-junkie, nor was she a battle-maniac. All she really wanted was to hole herself up in some laboratory with endless resources and continuously experiment on all sorts of weird and interesting things, and the grand-elder was offering her exactly that.


    Although she''d never done it before, she knew how official magi signed things. After thinking it over for a moment, she put her hand on a specific section of the scroll, and after a moment, a dull, red glow emanated from it.


    When she retracted it, a signature had appeared. However, it wasn''t in words, but rather, it was a symbol. A large, sun-like symbol at the center surrounded by ten smaller suns rested gently within the confines for the signature.


    Every official magus and above had their own personal secret imprint, unique to each one. Through it, one would be able to communicate with that magus even at extremely long distances.


    The scroll floated away from Alice''s hands, and despite being an old piece of paper, it somehow managed to look satisfied. Within moments, it disappeared, flying away towards who Alice could only presume to be the grand-elder.


    "Good, now that''s over with. Follow me, you have a lot to learn before you can truly call yourself an official magus." Loki said, gently leading Alice back to his lab.


    Alice stared at him for a moment before nodding, a smile slowly growing on her face. She''d deal with the rest later, but for now, simply doing what she loved sounded incredibly lovely.

 Chapter 21

    Alice raised her hand, and with but a thought, her spiritual force formed a vortex above her palm. A harsh, extremely hot gale blew out and away from her, causing a random tree some distance away to erupt into flames.


    Above her hand, a giant fireball quickly appeared. It was at least 10 meters in diameter, and the heat it emanated was enough to scorch the ground and turn the grass to dust.


    Standing around a hundred meters away from Alice, Loki stood with his arms crossed, looking at his student with solemn eyes. They were in a training area, meaning that as long as Loki did not utilize any rank 2 spells, there would be no damage caused to the academy.


    After a couple more seconds of charging up, Alice''s eyes shot open, her blue pupils seemingly ablaze. "Roaring Fire!"


    Her hand that had been ''holding'' the giant fireball above her made a throwing motion, and the giant fireball was launched. It left a trail of absolute destruction behind it, and even the reinforced training ground seemed to have trouble resisting the immense heat.


    However, unlike the training ground, Loki did not seem at all troubled. With a snort and a wave of his hand, the mighty fireball was extinguished with ease.


    Alice just looked on with a wry smile and bowed, "I truly still am lacking a lot when compared to Teacher, huh..." He said depressingly, but as Loki walked to him, the man just waved offhandedly.


    "Princess, I''m over 300 years old. The fact that you could cause me to have to even defend in the first place speaks greatly about your skills." Loki praised, knowing that a moody student meant a snarky student. Besides, he meant what he said.


    Despite attempting to act sad, Alice couldn''t help but perk up at his words. It had been a busy week since her promotion to official magus, and she''d spent a lot of the time either meditating to stabilize her powers or learning everything she could about said powers with Loki.


    She''d nicknamed her innate spell ''Roaring Fire'' simply because she lacked any other name for it. After all, naming it ''fireball'' would have been a bit... lame, even if it really was just an oversized and overpowered fireball.


    Loki caressed his chin, falling into thought for a moment before asking, "What''s your conversion level? I assume it should be around 40 to 50%, correct?"


    Alice nodded, "Yes. I was surprised too, but apparently, eating that extinct fruit caused some sort of reaction from my meditation technique, allowing me to directly reach a 50% conversion level." She explained, feeling a bit proud of herself.


    Semi-converted rank 1 magi could easily trounce any newly-advanced magi, and while they weren''t overwhelmingly more powerful, there was still a difference of at least two to three times their strength. The same held true for a peak rank 1 Magus compared to a semi-converted one.


    Despite that, Alice was in no rush to continue advancing. She''d already been told that a new residence was being constructed for her within the innermost section of the Mausoleum, and since she''d already signed the offer to become the official heir of the academy, all of the other troublesome matters were handled quickly and with an ease that surprised even her.


    Loki smiled wrily at her answer. "Incredible. Compared to you, I, who took well over 30 years to become an official magus and over 250 to become a rank 2, I cannot compare at all." Loki said, looking wistfully at Alice.


    "So... are you going t try to speed up your growth?" After a couple of minutes of silence, with both student and teacher thinking about their own things, Loki eventually asked the question.


    Alice blushed a bit, shaking her head. "N-no... I don''t want to risk harming my growth cycle. Puberty is important to the body, and I don''t want to mess it up." She explained, her cheeks bright red. While her 10-year old body did make her cute, it was also a bit problematic at times. Still, Alice would rather allow it to simply grow on its own, even if it meant having to endure being short for a couple more years.


    Loki nodded, "Understandable. As an official magus, even if you''re my student, it is inappropriate for me to scold you. Hence, you can do whatever you want, but I am glad you chose the sensible option." He knew his student disliked being treated as a kid, which he''d learned through subtle observation. It was why he treated her and expected her to act like a mature girl, and so far, she hadn''t disappointed him.


    "Anyways, you''ve improved your spell control greatly. How''s your study of the rank 1 spell models that I gave you?" Loki asked, curious. Perking up, Alice immediately went into a rant.


    "They''re great! I''m very grateful that Teacher showed them to me. I''ve been able to learn a lot from them..." She said, talking about all sorts of theories and ideas that had come to her while studying and practicing the spells.


    Loki listened, very much interested. While he knew most of the things she said, some of them were completely alien to him. In the end, he had to excuse himself from their meeting, as he''d suddenly come up with a sudden surge of inspiration that he needed to test out immediately.


    Honestly, Alice knew the feeling, so she didn''t complain despite the lesson ending a few hours earlier than scheduled. She''d also had those moments where she just needed to throw everything aside and keep ahold of the mysterious feeling of enlightenment, and every time, her teacher would always excuse her and allow her to leave.


    Hence, for the first time in an entire week, she found herself with some free time. Loki had told her that he''d been able to schedule a ''vacation'' for the both of them that would last two months, and not one day more. Apparently, even Loki, with his prestigious status, wasn''t able to keep away the academy''s darling for too long, regardless of the fact that he was her chosen teacher.Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators!


    Running a hand through her hair, Alice sighed in exasperation. Unfortunately, the trip would take place in a year. The grand-elder himself had apparently decreed so, deciding that Alice still needed to be kept at the academy for longer, and despite both hers as well as her teacher''s promise that they would return within the set time frame, their opinions didn''t matter.


    Hence, Alice now had a year to improve as much as she could before she went to visit her father. It hadn''t been stated directly, but Alice knew that the higher-ups in charge wanted to keep her here so that she could improve as much as possible. She hadn''t yet met with these so-called ''higher-ups'' yet, but through Loki, Alice was able to understand their way of thinking.


    Since she would be their next leader, they naturally didn''t want to displease her too much. However, at the same time, there was a growing worry that hostile factions, even those within the academy itself, would attempt to get rid of her, and that just couldn''t be allowed. Hence, they wanted her to get as strong as possible, and as quickly as possible before they loosened the chains holding her.


    While thinking such things, Alice was also concentrating on casting her rank 1 spells. She had been kindly gifted over 10 spell models, 4 of them from her teacher, and 6 of them had been given to her by the academy board. While she could only claim proficiency with them, her teacher had already been impressed, so she guessed she wasn''t doing too badly.


    By the time the sun in the skies fell beneath the horizon, Alice was sweating slightly, the effort needed to cast as many spells as she had wasn''t something she could easily ignore. Still, despite feeling quite a bit sore, she was plenty satisfied. Before, she thought that she could crush her previous self thousands of times over easily, but now, she knew that even that assumption was wrong.


    The power of rank 1 spells could easily sweep aside anything rank 3 acolytes could throw at it, and even just the radiation from her body would be enough to slaughter them. Even if she hadn''t jumped directly to becoming a semi-converted magus, she would still have easily swept aside any number of acolytes.


    After spending a few minutes doing stretches to get rid of her soreness, she began to walk back to her temporary room, the one assigned to her until her new residence finished building.


    However, that was not to be. Her senses alerted her to danger, and faster than even she thought possible, she''d jumped away from where she''d been standing, landing over a dozen meters away.


    Her eyes scanned the training ground, quickly finding the offender. It was a cloaked person that was hiding within the shadows, and he''d just thrown several spears made of darkness at her, and he looked to be charging up even more.


    Alice''s eyes narrowed, feeling that something was amiss. Her mind raced for a bit, and within moments, she came to a conclusion.


    She remembered the hint that her teacher had given her a couple of days before. "Princess, many are worried about the fact that you haven''t truly tasted blood before. You should try it, it tastes great."


    At the time, she''d been suspicious of the statement despite the humor behind it, and if her assumptions about what was happening were correct, then this man was doomed to die from the start.


    After all, Alice could tell that he was a mere newly-advanced magus. Even if she hadn''t dodged the previous attack, it would have hurt, yes, but she wouldn''t have been in any danger of death.


    All of these thoughts sped through Alice''s mind at the speed of light, and within moments, she decided on her course of action. She swiftly rose from her crouch, and with but a thought, her body turned to flames, separating into several equal figures that all rushed towards her attacker from different angles.


    She couldn''t see the man''s face, but she could taste his surprise and fear at the turn of events. The man tried to retreat while throwing those shadow spears of his, but Alice was faster. While a couple of her fakes were hit and vanished, she safely arrived right in front of the man.


    Her hands seemed to transform as they transformed into claws and despite the man having his protective field that all official magi possessed, he was still easily struck, her claws rending a terrifying wound on his torso.


    She lacked experience in real combat, but the sheer difference of power between the two made that factor obsolete. Perhaps, had they been of equal strength, the man would have very likely won, and Alice knew that. Hence, she didn''t hold back one bit, striking with everything she had.


    The man coughed blood, but Alice wasn''t dumb enough to fall for it. She dodged the droplets with ease, barely noticing as the ground they landed on violently sizzled, and instead retaliated by casting yet another spell.


    Flames rose from her body, turning into the shape of a giant snake above her. It opened it''s maw and quickly chomped down on the man, directly crushing the counter-spell that the man had thrown its way.


    The man let out a silent scream as the violent flames scorched him, likely giving him a fifth degree burn all through his body.


    Despite that, he lived, and that was only because of Alice''s wish for him to do so. Had she wished so, the man would have simply turned to dust from that attack, or instead of the snake-flame, she could have just used her innate spell, which was stronger than that attack by a whole level.


    She walked up to the man, her hands returning to normal. Woman, she silently corrected herself, staring at the naked person in front of her, the lack of a penis making her gender obvious.


    "Was my performance... satisfactory?" She said aloud, almost yelling but not quite. As expected, it wasn''t long before a dull clapping could be heard.


    "Bravo! Yes, very satisfactory indeed, Fire Princess. I am thankful for your kindness in sparing my slave, but I''ve been given orders. Please, go ahead and finish your masterpiece." She turned to the source of the sound, but instead of a person, she found an owl with a human face staring at her with far too big eyes.


    ''Finish my masterpiece, huh...'' Alice thought, knowing exactly what he meant. Honestly, she didn''t hold it against him, knowing that his words rang true. He was indeed acting under orders, all the clues so far pointed to that.


    She crouched down to the moaning and writhing woman, who was obviously in deep pain. There was despair in her eyes, and she glared at Alice, trying to at least save her pride.


    "I''m sorry, but we all have different expectations placed on us..." Alice murmured, placing her hand on the woman''s head. Spiritual force raged for an instant, and then it was over. A quick death, a merciful one.


    Alice felt numb, but not the kind of numb she''d expected. Instead, she could only feel a dull acceptance at the fact that, yes, she had just ended another human''s life.


    Her life here had hardened her. She''d long known she''d have to take a life eventually, and honestly, she''d been given a lot of leeways already, and she was thankful for it.


    She closed her eyes and remained silent for a moment, wishing to, at the very least, properly send off the first person to die at her hands. She didn''t know the woman, didn''t know her story, but that didn''t change the fact that she too had tried to kill Alice, and that Alice herself had tried to show mercy.


    She rose to her feet, staring at the strange owl, who had begun to laugh shrilly. "Yes, yes! Run the rivers red, girlie. Make all the blood-people scream as their souls vanish into the skies... Hehehe" The owl laughed mentally, and even as it took flight and vanished to the horizon, Alice could still hear it''s shrill laugh.


    "... Creepy." She murmured. She felt depressed now, and without access to a proper lab, she couldn''t even clear her mind by running some experiments.


    With a sigh and shrug, she decided to just go to sleep, resuming her walk back to her temporary home, something that should have gone off without a hitch, and yet, it had instead gone so strangely.

 Chapter 22

    Alice was left in a rather horrible mood for the remaining week after the training-ground incident. She didn''t feel guilty, but she felt as though she should have. She felt sad about taking a life and yet knew that it was inevitable. Her old life told her that killing was wrong, but this life instead said that life was worth nothing more than dirt.


    The controversy and hypocrisy of it all left her feeling like shit. Thankfully, her Teacher must have known something was off with her, and he tried his best to take her mind off of things by swamping her with work.


    After having advanced to become a rank 1 magus, Alice''s powers now allowed her to use more... risky methods. Before, if she had used them as an acolyte, she might have accidentally hurt herself. Now, it wasn''t a problem anymore, and with her improved brainpower, if it could be called that, a lot of complicated procedures came easier to her.


    Hence, although the guilt and depression at what had without a doubt been the death of an innocent person still sometimes resurfaced, it was easy to suppress it and gradually let it pass by simply having too many other things in her mind at all times.


    Having become an official Magus, Alice was now allowed to visit the reserved areas that she couldn''t before, which were usually the homes of magi and other ''secret'' locations. While she wasn''t very social, she still did the polite thing and greeted and got to know many of the Fire Mausoleum''s magus professors.


    It was through these meetings that Alice soon realized something that left her feeling quite a bit cautious, and that was that most magi, with a few notable exceptions, ranged from being abnormally quirky to full-out insane.


    When she saw Loki the following day, the man explained to his traumatized student that it was actually quite normal for magi to be abnormal. In fact, he even directly told her that it was likely that she herself was developing some sort of mental issues, just that they weren''t manifesting themselves yet.


    He was very open about sharing his experience, and Alice was torn between traumatized at hearing about how some magi were so insane that they had to resort to suicide to end their suffering and curious at just how society even functioned with such powerful and insane individuals running around.


    "Hm?" As Alice was reminiscing slightly while tinkering with a potion, something that she hadn''t done for quite some time, she suddenly felt a short, almost unnoticeable flare of spiritual energy coming from outside her door.


    Her own residence had still not been finished constructing despite the academy''s best efforts, so she still lived in a room that had been kindly leased to her by the academy. It used to be another magus'' home, but the unfortunate person had been found dead some years before her arrival, the cause of said death not being declared to the public.


    But back on topic, she wasn''t expecting visitors today. Or any day, for that matter. She was a rather secluded person, and other than her teacher, few people would dare to come to visit her without an official invitation.


    Her eyes narrowed, her own spiritual energy inspecting the situation outside. She felt that the aura of the magus outside was rather familiar, and with the person, there were also 4 acolytes whose auras smelled of fear.


    She took her time putting all of her tools away before opening the door, still dressed in her lab coat. A short man with feathers instead of hair stood before her, a large grin on his face.This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    However, seeing the man''s eyes confirmed her suspicions as to who exactly this weirdo was to Alice. After all, she only knew of one person with such abnormally large eyeballs.


    "Kekeke, greetings, Fire Princess. I come bearing gifts, as some of my friends told me that you seemed displeased by my actions. I do hope for your forgiveness." The short weirdo said, giggling as he spoke. Alice looked at him with a poker face, but inwardly, she felt slightly disdainful of the man.


    Still, it wasn''t appropriate for her to retain a grudge like this. Besides, she''d come to terms with what had happened, and shooting the messenger wouldn''t solve her problem.


    "I do not require... gifts. I never held a grudge against you, fellow magus." She said directly, glancing at the four trembling acolytes behind the owl-magus, all of them trembling and not daring their heads.


    "Skree, really now? I am very glad about that. Oh well, I suppose my pretties will have a nice dinner tonight, then." The magus said, looking satisfied. He turned to leave, but Alice quickly stopped him.


    "Wait, wait. I retract my statement, I would very much love if you would just leave your ''gifts'' here." She spoke, flinching inwardly at the thought of what might happen to them otherwise.


    She recognized the acolytes. They included the boy she''d smashed to the ground back when she was just registering at the fire academy, and along with him were three girls who had also been part of that group.


    "Oh? Keke, alright then. They''re yours to do as you please, then." The magus screeched, his voice grating Alice''s ears enough to cause her brows to twitch.


    She nodded, watching the magus as he stalked off. When he was sufficiently far away, she turned back to the four idiots who had somehow gotten caught in this mess


    To be honest, Alice had completely forgotten about their existence, and she guessed that the magus had investigated a bit into her past and found that they had ''offended her'' in the past. And apparently, that was excuse enough to basically give these poor idiots the death sentence.


    Letting out a sigh at the unfairness of it all, Alice walked back into her temporary home, motioning for the acolytes to come in with her, which they did with great reluctance.


    Once inside, she sat down on one of the couches and stared at her fellow academy compatriots, as calling them fellow students wasn''t exactly appropriate anymore.


    "So, you idiots landed yourself in a lot of trouble. There are laws against magi abducting students like this, how did he grab you?" She asked after letting the acolytes settle themselves in. Surprisingly, it wasn''t the boy who spoke, but one of the girls.


    Perhaps it was because she looked even younger than them, but she didn''t seem as tense and fearful as she had been when the owl magus was around as she spoke. "He bought us off of our teachers. They willingly gave us to him in exchange for some magic crystals, those bastards!" She spat out, fury filling her eyes.


    The others all silently nodded, with the boy even clenching his fist hard enough to draw blood. Alice stared back at them with a slight surprise. She''d gotten lucky, it seemed, with having such a reliable teacher.


    She thought it was nothing but rumors before this, but apparently, some of the teachers in the academy truly treated their students as nothing more than experimental subjects and property.


    She exhaled loudly, and then, she spoke, "Well, whatever. It''s not my business. If you go out now, you''ll probably just be enslaved by that magus once more. Hence, from now on, you''ll be working for me. If I ever need you to do some errands, I expect you to obey without question." She said, causing the acolytes to perk up happily.


    "Yes, mam!" One of the girls immediately shouted, excitement and hope shining within her eyes. They all knew that Alice was offering them a chance at life, and all of them immediately grasped it, regardless of how they felt inwardly.


    Alice nodded at their enthusiasm, feeling quite indifferent about the whole thing. Rising to her feet, she retreated back to her lab, leaving behind the acolytes to settle themselves into her (temporary) home.


    If she could prevent needless death, she would. However, even as she thought this, she also laughed at herself inwardly, knowing full well that she wasn''t selfless enough to step out of her comfortable life just for some randoms she didn''t know.