In the bright, oppressive Kerrosby Oasis, a layer of fog prevented the weak magical beasts from wandering too close to the tower. It was one of the wondrous magic formation inscribed on the walls of the huge magical tower of Great Master Rayleigh, one which had always amazed Drodosis.
The latter had lived an out-of-ordinary childhood where he was taught etiquette, geography, sciences, and magical theories at a young age, with iron discipline. Coming from a decaying adept family whose last adept died twenty years ago, Drodosis could be considered lucky to have been tested with magical talent. He had been given magical crystals, and more importantly, a spot in one of the greatest magical academies of the wasteland region, escaping from the political whirlpool in his family.
This school was the Heister Family Tower Academy, called Ivory Tower.
In this place, as long as you had enough magical crystals, you could become stronger. With a ratio of 1:1, you could exchange magical crystals for knowledge points, and thus turn your fortune into knowledge, a necessary step to become stronger.
As he showed magical talent, he was sent in this tower at the age of 8. For five years, he suffered from scorn because despite coming from a so-called adept family, he had yet to break through the beginner acolyte realm. People usually took two to three years in order to do so, yet Drodosis had spent five years to achieve it! He was no one in this tower. This is a life lesson which was deeply engraved in his heart.
In the past 13 years, Drodosis not only adapted to this world, but he also had to learn everything from scratch! Be it the language, the magical theories or the spells, he had to understand everything with his brain only! However, a miracle happened upon his breakthrough into the beginner acolyte sub-realm.
It was said that in order to become an adept, one had to reach 20 points of spirit, which could be tested with attribute stones. However, the path was long, and harsh. Reaching such a high standard was impossible for most of apprentices, and because of that, four sub-realms were delimited. From 4 to 8 points of spirit was the realm of beginner acolytes. From 8 to 12 was the realm of intermediate acolytes. From 12 to 16 was the realm of advanced acolytes, and from 16 to 20, was the realm of peak acolytes. The higher your spirit was, the stronger your spells would become, the faster you would think, learn and memorize, and the more spells you would be able to cast thanks to your larger mana pool.
Breaking through the beginner acolyte realm was just the beginning of a long, difficult and hazardous path towards greatness.
A miracle strengthened his confidence.
[Beep! Host's brain has been detected. Merging process has ended! Initializing body scan…11%...]
'Alpha! My biochip! Did it reincarnated along with me, but needed 13 years to completely merge with me?'
[Beep! Name: Drodosis Thornfield (13-years-old, 5 months).
Beginner Acolyte
Evolution points – 324
HP – 19
Strength – 4 (+2) | Agility – 4 | Physique – 5 (+2) | Spirit – 4| Magic Power – 4 | Mana – 12
Status: Healthy.
Perks: → Preparatory Knight Physique (+2 Strength and Physique).
Skills: → Acid Spear (Deals [Spirit*3] points of damage, cost 3 points of mana).
Items: 12 magical crystals.]
'What the hell is this thing? Am I in a game, or what?'
Strength referred to muscular and body strength, while physique represented Health, constitution and resistances. Agility, on the other hand, defined flexibility, balance, body control and reflexes. Spirit was the core attribute of acolytes, since magic power and mana were interlinked with spirit. Increasing one's spirit would increase both mana and magic power proportionally.
[Beep! After 13 years of accommodation and adapting, I managed to create a very special interaction with the plane's consciousness. In Alphen, beings cannot grow as strong as they want. This way, a certain balance is achieved and maintained by the plane's consciousness. It allows those who are favoured by the world consciousness to progress faster, while decreasing the speed of improvement of evil beings. Of course, evil beings cannot be judged from a human's mind standard. Evil beings are people who harvest and spread negative energy.]
'So…what are these evolution points?'
[Beep! What you see is an interaction system. People favoured by the world consciousness usually only see their speed of improvement increase, because they lack the mean to interact with the plane's consciousness! However, you can accumulate evolution points by completing feats, and spend them to evolve one of your attributes for a set price (scaling as your attribute go higher), to breakthrough or comprehend spells near-instantly. Some items, such as wyvern eggs, also require evolution points to fetch.]
'Can you estimate how many evolution points breaking through the beginner acolyte realm earned me?'
[Yes. It earned you more than 70 evolution points, while your preparatory knight breakthrough earned you 30 evolution points. The rest of your points was earned through daily training, meditation and studies in the library.]
Drodosis was quite shocked, but he didn't let his emotions get the better of himself. Thirteen years of absence, and overnight, his biochip reappeared in his life!
'Am I walking the adept path the most suited to me?'
[Beep! Host's talents are pretty average, be it in water elemental affinities or mana pool. Host should thus walk the path of a Water Body refinement adept, which would combine the might of a close-quarter body refinement adept with the flexibility of a water elemental adept. Normally, doing so would decrease your speed of advancement, since walking two paths consume large amount of resources and time, but with evolution points, comprehension can be achieved in a matter of seconds! Note that it is possible to improve spells as well, but the cost is quite high.]
'Mm, it makes sense…Is my slow growth rate compared to the other people my age because of my low talent? You said I was average, but I took 5 years to break through the beginner acolyte realm, and a few teenagers around my age only took 2 years to do so.'
[Beep! Reincarnating hurt your soul. After 13 years, you finally recovered. From now on, your talent will be re-established as 'average'. In fact, acolytes in the tower do not seem to be so talented. Compared to the majority of them, your water elemental affinity is slightly better, but based on the world consciousness standards, you're only average.]
'Alright!'
Not asking anymore questions, Drodosis saved his thirst for knowledge for later, in order to test this world consciousness interface of his! Running to the library, he paid 12 knowledge points – his savings from the past few years of patrolling missions – for a 24-hours pass in the library. Few people actually bought it, since it was useless to spend 24 hours straight studying. Your efficiency would gradually decrease, and it was usually to spend 4-hours passes, despite the fact it was more expansive, as it cost 3 knowledge points.
Yet, it was based on normal people's views. Drodosis wasn't actually going to study. For the next 24 hours, Drodosis didn't sleep, as if he were possessed by the devil. Taking a book after another, flipping the page at lightning speed, he would have truly been mistaken as a mental deviant, if not for the fact he was alone. The library was so costly to enter that few would spend knowledge points to buy passes, instead preferring to buy books directly or rent them. This privacy allowed Drodosis to be extremely efficient.
Twenty-four hours later, Drodosis came back to his room, grinning like a devil.
Back in time, he needed to copy books to save money, but he would never have this kind of problem from now on. After all, he was now a walking library, having scanned the 2336 books about magic within the library!
As he looked at an item, a small blue screen would appear next to it, should he wonder what it was, with an exhaustive description. It was a result of his biochip's absorbing the knowledge from the books it had just scanned. In fact, it had done much more than just absorbing it, it had actually refined it, and erased what seemed to be wrong, unclear or unprecise! The only remaining information was a synthesized, clear and concise knowledge, useful and suited to Drodosis' pragmatic mindset!
As if Drodosis had a computer in his mind, he could access to these 'filtered' pieces of information directly! Of course, he would make sure to properly understand and digest this knowledge later on, but at least, he wouldn't have to pay knowledge points for it!
Drodosis looked at a statue in the hall. A small blue screen confirmed him that he had struck it rich!
[Beep! Statue of Great Adept Rayleigh Heister! Born in a commoner family, he rose grade by grade to become a respected adept, walking the path of Earth element. Creating the Ivory Tower by himself, he also spent centuries developping arrays which are known throughout Alphen. Great Adept Rayleigh is a master among masters, and he created a friendly environment for acolytes to study and progress, something rare to encounter nowadays.]
It wasn't overly long. The 'doubtful' pieces of information weren't showed. There was only a clean and pedagogic blue window!
Drodosis started to imagine how great it would be outside the tower! Every single resource of value, some of which he would have never recognized otherwise, would be harvested by him, and him only! His time of glory had finally come! His years of sufferings had come to an end!