NOVEL WEB Chapter 14: Rank 2 Mage
The first day of the fifth month of year 989968
It has been ten years since the war.
Since then, the Royal Faction got stronger and stronger.
Today, many of Owen's reforms have been completed.
The prime minister's office was significantly weakened.
Many of its powers were separated and given to independent ministries.
Today, the king chooses all of the ministers directly.
The prime minister only supervises, ensuring the king's orders are correctly followed.
Today, Owen believes the king's office got too powerful.
However, weakening the king is dangerous.
It must be done with great caution.
If he takes too much power away from the king, he might make the future kings only figureheads.
After all, not all of Owen's successors would be official mages.
And without an ancestor, any loss of power might be permanent.
All these years, he heard no news from the Blue Light Academy.
It's as if they forgot about him and the Robels kingdom.
It seems that until the academy gets another deputy dean, the Robels kingdom will remain as it is.
As for when the academy would get another rank four mage, it might take a really long time.
The average time between each rank four mage is 8,000 years.
The last rank four mage appeared less than 1,000 years ago.
It might take thousands of years before another rank four appears.
Owen thinks that he might be the person who reaches rank four before anyone else.
…
Owen was sitting on the throne.
His face was similar to 10 years ago.
After all, official mages live up to 500 years.
However, his subordinates were ordinary people.
Tristan and Josef were visibly much older looking.
In the throne room, there were more people than before.
There was a prime minister, minister of the army, minister of foreign relations, minister of finance, minister of law, minister of construction, minister of administration, and minister of mages in the room.
Each was handpicked directly by him.
Prime Minister Josef said," Your majesty, your plans regarding appointing governors and mayors in nobles's territories are going well."
"The minister of administration has appointed people loyal to the crown as regional governors and mayors. With them there, nobels are limited in exercising their powers."
Owen nodded his head.
Anything weakening nobles is always welcome.
Owen listened to the kingdom's problem for 1 hour.
Before leaving, he appointed Josef as protector of the crown.
He is going away for a while.
He plans to break through rank 2!
…
When trying to break through a great realm, one must have a clear mind without any disturbance.
Otherwise, they will likely fail to break through.
Owen did the same.
He spent a lot of time relaxing, and then, on a night with a full moon, he went to a quiet meditation room far away and closed his eyes.
"It's the time," Owen said in his mind.
"Yep, it's finally the time!" She was more excited than Owen.
Breaking through rank two means she gets a new skill!
Owen looked at his aperture.
His mana core was as big as his aperture, with no further room for progress.
Owen's magic core was very dense!
Among rank-one peak mages, he is the strongest!
He took out a lot of pills.
Rank 1 'root mana' pills x100.
In breaking through to rank 2, a lot of pure energy would be needed.
Rank 1 'concentration' pills x100.
Concentration pills have two effects.
One, it makes the mana denser.
Two, it makes the mind more concentrated.
At this moment, Owen needed both of these effects.
Rank 1 'dissipate' pill x20
It would dissipate the excess mana.
This pill would be helpful in the event of failure to break through.
Rank 1 'freezing' pill x50
This pill was his last resort.
His mana core might crack when trying to break through.
In that event, he uses 'freezing' pills to stop it from spreading.
Using 2 rank instead of many rank 1 pills would have been ideal, but he didn't have any rank 2 'freezing' pill.
He started concentrating, taking one 'concentration' pill in the process.
Breaking through is actually very simple.
When the mana core reaches the same size as the aperture, it can no longer expand.
So what happens if one absorbs more root mana?
1-The aperture might rupture, killing the mage!
2-The mana core might crush, killing the mage!
3-The mana core might contract further, becoming smaller than the aperture. In this case, the breakthrough fails, and the mage survives.
4-the high pressure in the core might make the rank 1 root fuse and advance, becoming rank 2 root mana!
Owen has already used a lot of aperture shell-strengthening pills.
There is little chance that his aperture would rupture.
And he used a lot of concentration and consolidation pills.
There is nearly zero chance his mana core might break or contract!
He took a deep breath and took ten ranks 1 'root mana' pills, swallowing them all in one go!
A massive amount of pure energy entered his meridians.
With the help of 'concentration' pills, Owen controlled his meridians.
He quickly guided all of the pure energy towards his aperture.
The pure energy gathered around his aperture, not going in.
After all, his aperture had no space.
However, at this moment, Owen swallowed ten 'concentration' pills!
With the help of the 'concentration' pills, the enormous amount of pure energy went into his aperture.
The pressure of his aperture increased.
However, the size remained the same, and his aperture remained unharmed.
After seeing this, Owen smiled!
He successfully got promoted to rank 2!
"It was too easy!" Owen said to Rachel.
"Yeah, be careful; take more 'root mana' pills," Rachel said while distracted.
She was checking her new skills.
Owen took 'more root' mana pills.
As long as a mage produces one bit of rank 2 mana, they are considered a rank 2 mage.
Owen took more and more 'root mana' pills, increasing the concentration more and more.
However, the most challenging part was already done, so after a few hours, all of his rank 1 root mana was converted to rank 2 root mana.
The mana core shrank to 10% of his aperture's size.
This is a difference in quality.
His mana is much stronger now, yet his mana core is a tenth of what it was before.
It's because rank 2 mana is a higher energy level.
Finally, after 8 hours, Owen opened his eyes, put the surplus pills away, and said to Rachel, "It went so smoothly. It's thanks to you, Rachel!"
"yeah, your right. Now, there is no logical reason for you to stay here.
"What are you talking about?" Owen asked in confusion.
"My new skill. It almost eliminates any need to seek resources actively. Just go somewhere quiet and meditate for 10,000 years." Rachel said seriously.
"What is your new skill?" Owen asked.
"They are called "pill fusion" and "pill defusion" pill fusion can fuse 100 lower rank pills to make 1 higher rank pill, and pill fusion can use 1 higher rank pill to create 10 lower rank pills!" Rachel said.
"That means … problem with lack of rank 2 pills is solved!" Owen said excitedly.
"Exactly, let alone rank 2 pills; you can even get rank 3 pills! Why should you stay here? You have everything you might want for advancing," she said.
"My kingdom, my children, my wife, are they not good reasons?" Owen said with a smile.
"Nope, you can have as many wives, children, or kingdoms if you are powerful. However, if you stay and the Blue Light Academy finds out about me, you and your wife, children, and kingdom are dead!" Rachel said.
"I disagree! Don't mention it again. Let's return; I want to see Rose and the kids!" Owen started flying.
With rank 2 mana, his rank 1 spells got much more powerful.
He reached the royal palace quickly and went to where Rose was living.
Rose, who had rank 5 mage talent, was already a first-grade apprentice mage.
All of this time, Owen didn't give a single pill to Rose.
All of her progress was a result of her hard work.
Owen has 6 children now.
Two are from Rose, and four are from two other women.
With Rose meditating most of the time, Owen, who wanted more kids, could only get more wives.
Rose wasn't happy with this, but her attention was on reaching the official stage, so she didn't care.
Mages aren't good wives or husbands.
Advancing in ranks requires all of one's attention.
Not everyone is like Owen, who can use precious pills every day!
Owen hugged John and rose.
No one can know the news of his breakthrough.
The Blue Light Academy would get suspicious and might investigate.
Not even his family can know.
"Where is Doris?" Owen asked.
Rose said," Like always, training," she said impatiently.
"I'm going to get John and meet her; you go meditate," Owen said.
Rose left quickly.
Owen sighed.
His relationship with her isn't that good!
John walked alongside him, and they reached the training ground after a while.
There, a tall girl was fighting with a great knight.
After watching for a few minutes, the girl defeated the great knight and came to greet Owen.
"Father," Doris said.
She was interested in knight training from a very young age.
Her progress was so fast that at the age of less than 15, she was almost becoming a legendary knight.
Although it might have something to do with her costly daily meals, it still shows her determination.
With her rank 7 mage talent, her future is limitless.
"When can I start my mage training?"
"You should wait for your mind to become stable! Children with unstable minds cannot meditate." He said.
"But I am stable; I feel ready, Father, please!." Doris said.
"Why are you so eager?" Owen asked.
"In this world, personal power is everything!" Doris said while profoundly looking at the sky.
Owen was astonished to hear such a deep sentence from a kid.
"Who taught you that?" he asked.
"I read it in the books," she said.
"Well, don't read that book again,"
"Personal power isn't everything; love and care for family and country is equally important!" Owen said.
He wants to make Doris the next king, so he cannot let her think that only personal power is important.
Rachel was looking at all of this with wide eyes." Can it be that Doris is another transmigrator? She looks so much like those people from the previous world's novels, oh well, except that she is a girl; those protagonists of the prior world were almost unanimously boys!"
"Still, it's possible. I am the living, not really breathing, proof that transmigration is possible!" Rachel thought.
Owen continued teaching Doris some wise words and then left.
He wasn't against a king with good personal strength, so he let her continue training.
Then, he went to visit his other wives.
He took John along because he wanted them to have a good relationship.
After a few hours, he finally returned to his chambers.
"Rachel, can I tolerate their loss?" he asked.
"You mean when they die? You can do it, but you have to start now! Don't get too close to them. Between all of them, only Rose and Doris might survive 100 years from now! Everyone else would die while you survive." She said.
"What is the point of all of this? Me surviving while everything I know dies?" Owen asked in confusion.
"The point is that you survive. Owen, you need to seriously consider not taking the 'Dispell' pill anymore," Rachel said.
'Dispel' pill would counter the effect of pure energy, keeping Owen's emotions intact.
"No, I don't want to lose my emotions!" Owen said resolutely.
"You are in danger of depression, Owen. Normally, only cold people who can tolerate loneliness advance in their mage path, but with my help, you are living like normal while easily advancing. It can go on for now, but once they get old and die, you might not be able to take it. I'm warning you, do something about it while you still have the opportunity!"
Owen sighed, drank some wine, and went to sleep.