Chapter 23: Spring Passes, Autumn Arrives (Part 2)
“Linley, can you feel it?” Doehring Cowart’s voice gently echoed in Linley’s mind.
“Grandpa Doehring, I can feel them. So many earth-yellow specks of light, so many… too many, densely packed, thousands upon thousands. Just on the back of my hand, there are over a hundred floating earth-yellow specks. There are so many.” Linley felt the vast number of earth-yellow specks floating around him, and his heart was filled with joy.
Upon hearing this news, Doehring Cowart was overjoyed.
“Excellent. Now, slowly, do as I say. Don’t think about anything else. Quietly…” Doehring Cowart spoke as if hypnotizing him, and soon brought Linley back from his meditative state. At the same time, Doehring Cowart released his hold on those earth-element particles, and the concentration of earth-element energy around them returned to normal.
Coming out of his meditative state, Linley felt refreshed and completely different from before. Even in his waking state, he could sense some fluctuations in the earth-element energy around him, though not as clearly as during meditation.
“Grandpa Doehring, I can even feel the fluctuations of those earth-yellow specks now. Really, it’s not clear, but I can vaguely sense them.” Linley was extremely excited at this moment.
Stepping into the world of mages for the first time, Linley’s heart was pounding with exhilaration.
“What did you say? You can sense them even now?” Doehring Cowart was very shocked, because the concentration of earth-element energy had already returned to normal. And Linley wasn’t in a meditative state right now… being able to sense them while awake meant Linley’s elemental affinity was…
“Grandpa Doehring, why aren’t you saying anything? How is my elemental affinity?” Linley asked worriedly.
Linley didn’t know whether his performance was good or bad.
“Excellent, very excellent. Your elemental affinity is extremely high.” Doehring Cowart’s face was full of smiles. “As far as I know, it’s hard to find even one mage out of a thousand whose elemental affinity can match yours. Truly.”
Linley felt his heart leap, and he was too excited to know what to say.
“Of course, elemental affinity is only one part. Spiritual energy is the most important! After all, given enough time, magical power can always be increased. Only the limitation of spiritual energy is the greatest obstacle to a mage’s advancement.” Doehring Cowart said seriously.
Linley took a deep breath and nodded.
“Now for the second test: your level of spiritual energy.” Doehring Cowart looked at Linley seriously.
Linley also knew that spiritual energy was very important.
“Grandpa Doehring, what do I need to do?” Linley looked at Doehring Cowart, ready.
“Nothing at all.” Doehring Cowart laughed.
“Uh…” Linley was stunned.
“I am the spirit of the Coiling Dragon Ring, and you are its master. I can fully sense the strength of your spiritual energy. There’s no need for a test… I can tell you right now!” Doehring Cowart smiled at Linley.
“How… how is my spiritual energy?” Linley held his breath.
The strength of his spiritual energy would determine his fate.
“Your spiritual energy is about ten times that of an average person your age.” Doehring Cowart said with a smile.
Linley’s heart filled with joy. Ten times!
That was no small number.
But Doehring Cowart continued, “Generally, only one in ten thousand people becomes a mage, mainly because of the high requirement for spiritual energy. The baseline for a mage is to have five times the spiritual energy of an average person their age. Having ten times is only considered average among mages.”
Linley’s initial excitement immediately dampened.
“If an ordinary person were teaching you, you’d at most reach the level of a fifth or sixth-rank mage. But… if the person teaching you is me, that’s a different story.” Doehring Cowart raised his white eyebrows, a hint of confidence in his eyes.
Linley suddenly realized.
That’s right. Doehring Cowart was a Saint-level Grand Magus.
“As long as you, Linley, are willing to work hard, I am absolutely confident you can reach the eighth-rank mage level. Whether you can become a ninth-rank mage, or even a Saint-level mage, will depend on your own insight and opportunities.” Doehring Cowart said sternly. “If you don’t work hard yourself, you might not even reach the sixth-rank mage level, and then you’ll have no one to blame.”
Having a good teacher was one thing.
The most important thing was still oneself.
“Grandpa Doehring, rest assured. I won’t let you down, and I won’t let my father or the Baruch clan down.” At this moment, Linley’s mind was filled with the countless memorial tablets in the ancestral hall, and the great deeds behind those tablets.
Restore the glory of the Baruch clan!
Linley’s chest burned with heat!
“Excellent. Starting tomorrow, I will formally begin teaching you.” Doehring Cowart looked at Linley, his gaze blazing. At this moment, Doehring Cowart once again exuded the confidence of a Saint-level Grand Magus!
…
Starting the next day, Linley began a grueling period of hard training.
Because he couldn’t tell his father about Doehring Cowart’s existence, Linley continued his warrior training in the early morning and evening. In the mornings, he still had to study politics, religion, etiquette, military strategy, geography, art… and various other subjects in front of his father.
Only in the afternoons, which were originally free time, would Linley run to Mount Wu in the northeast of the town. Hiding in a quiet place, under Doehring Cowart’s guidance, he absorbed magical knowledge, diligently studied magic, and meditated to refine magical power.
Also, every evening after dinner, Linley spent a great deal of time meditating.
Every day, Linley only slept for six hours. The rest of the time was spent on warrior training, academic study, magic training, meditation… and so on. Don’t think six hours of sleep was enough. In reality, daily meditation to train spiritual energy was very exhausting, much more tiring than normal activities. Linley’s six hours of sleep each night were extremely deep.
Fulfilling, extremely fulfilling.
In this kind of life, days passed one by one. Linley’s progress was obvious, even amounting to a transformation!
During these hardworking efforts—
There was the joy of absorbing earth-element energy into his body for the first time and refining it into magical power;
There was the first time he meditated too much, consuming too much spiritual energy and nearly fainting;
There was the excitement of casting his first real earth-element magic, even if that first spell only made a tiny, twenty-centimeter-long Earthen Spike grow from the ground;
…
Effort, time and again…
Linley’s perseverance and speed of progress also earned the admiration of Doehring Cowart, the Saint-level Grand Magus of the O’Brien Empire from five thousand years ago.
Because of his uninterrupted daily warrior training, Linley’s body grew stronger and stronger. Because he absorbed earth-element energy to refine magical power and meditated frequently, Linley’s entire demeanor became calm and steady. Linley’s changes greatly surprised and delighted his father, Hogg, and Hillman, among others.
******
Spring passed, autumn arrived. In the blink of an eye, it was already autumn.
There was less than a month left until the magic test enrollment.
In the backyard ancestral hall of the Baruch clan estate.
“Whew, all cleaned up. Time to go practice magic. Yesterday, I actually managed to successfully cast the Trembling Earth spell! That’s great.” Linley was in a very good mood. He walked out of the ancestral hall and closed its doors.
Walking along the moss-covered stone path, Linley moved lightly and steadily, making almost no sound.
This was an ability that almost all earth-element mages possessed. Because the earth was the source of power for earth-element mages, they could walk without making a sound.
“Huh?” Linley frowned.
His ears twitched. Linley turned his head and looked toward an old courtyard house in the distance. “A sound?” He quietly moved in that direction. Linley’s steps were very light; normally, he could walk almost silently, and now, deliberately doing so, he made no sound at all.
Step by step, he approached.
When Linley reached the courtyard entrance and looked inside—
“What is that?” Linley’s eyes widened.
He saw a black rat, nearly twenty centimeters long, gnawing on a piece of rubble. Then, with a flash, the black rat appeared over ten meters away at another spot where a piece of bluestone lay, and it gnawed on that a few times too. The black rat had soft fur all over, its eyes were darting around, and it had a fluffy tail. It was extremely cute.
What’s more, this black rat even stood up on its two hind legs and hopped around playfully.
“What a cute little rat. And such an astonishing speed.” Linley, hiding at the courtyard entrance, was shocked.
Rats generally couldn’t be this big. Ordinary rats were annoying, but this one was endearing, especially its eyes, which were very lively, as if they could speak. Most importantly… this rat was too fast.
“At this speed, even Uncle Hillman, a sixth-rank warrior, probably couldn’t keep up. How can it be so fast?” Linley watched the cute black rat move over ten meters in a single flash. It was terrifying.
Doehring Cowart flew out of the Coiling Dragon Ring and stood beside Linley, looking at the black rat with some surprise. “Shadowmouse. It’s a magical beast, the Shadowmouse. Judging by its size, it should still be a juvenile Shadowmouse.”
“Shadowmouse? The magical beast Shadowmouse? This big, and it’s still a juvenile?” Linley looked at Doehring Cowart in surprise.
Aside from the Bloodthirsty Iron Bull, Griffin, Velociraptor, Black Dragon, and a few other magical beasts he had seen some time ago, this was the first time Linley had seen another magical beast. This cute little rat was actually a magical beast? A magical beast that could cast spells?