"Finally reached the First Rank? Not bad! You show some of my style from back in the day!"
"I am proud of you, my child!"
At breakfast the next day, at the long white table, Duke Carrot was the first to praise Anvis, and Duchess Elena also offered her congratulations.
"Thank you, Dad! Thank you, Mom!"
Receiving praise and blessings from his parents, Anvis naturally expressed his gratitude smoothly.
"Congratulations on advancing to the First Rank, Brother."
After the Duke and Duchess, sitting across from Anvis, a small girl in a light blue dress trimmed with white wave-like lace, her light golden hair hanging to her waist, spoke cutely.
She blinked her clear blue crystal-like eyes and looked at Anvis happily, her face flushed with a hint of excitement, as if it were she who had just advanced.
"Thank you for your congratulations, Fei.①"
With a warm, sun-like smile, Anvis nodded to Fiona to express his thanks.
He planned to use his every move in daily life to build himself a reputation as knowledgeable, gentle, humble, and graceful—shaping himself into the image of a traditional noble scholar.
Compared to his eldest and second brothers, who were each lords with their own private forces, and his third sister, who was the leader of the Frostwind Knight Order.
A scholar focusing his energy on learning and research always seemed more harmless.
Fiona did not know Anvis' thoughts; she simply admired her brother very much.
He could understand all types of course knowledge upon hearing it, and could even deduce new content from the knowledge he had learned previously.
His everyday manners were very elegant, and he could handle anything with ease, as if he were born with a noble manner.
After daily courses, he would quietly sit in the Book Collection Room, reading thick books with tiny dense text, even able to recite them when their father asked!
In contrast to herself, compared to her brother, her learning speed was much slower, and she would occasionally forget some etiquette...
She wanted to read together, but could not settle her mind. Wow! Those books were both profound and boring; she didn't know how Anvis Brother managed to get through them!
Hmm... it seemed her talent was the only thing stronger than Anvis Brother's, as she had advanced last year... except the advancement process was kind of hazy.
The initial spells Brother mentioned didn't seem to be constructed, except for the two magic models that appeared during her advancement... that should count as initial spells, right...?
Counting with her fingers to the end in her mind, Fiona couldn't help but feel a little discouraged, her cute little nose wrinkling.
...6…
When the day's courses ended, it was rare for Anvis not to go to the Family's Great Library; instead, he went to the Magic Test Field in the castle, intending to test his post-First Rank Strength.
The Test Field was set in an open area. Given the variety of magic types, different test environments and target objects were set up in the Test Field.
There was a Black Shining Crystal Tablet for testing spell power, living Magic Beasts of various tiers, Demon Crystals, magically altered items, and common objects like stones and wood, for testing spell effects.
Because Anvis wanted to experiment with spells, Leonard had cleared the field earlier, so it was empty at the moment.
Anvis cautiously activated the High Rank defensive and binding Arrays inscribed in the field, to guard against any damage from potentially out-of-control spells if casting failed.
Every year, there were many wild novice mages who often fortuitously obtained a meditation method or a mage's notes.
Then, they squeezed into the ranks of official spellcasters with several times more effort than ordinary spellcaster apprentices through their hard work.
But due to insufficient heritage and heads muddled by the excitement of breaking through, these Wild Mages often impatiently tested spells without any defenses.
Mages from the Magic Council have done experiments, showing that the probability of spell collapse during initial casting in such an excited mental state is as high as 70-80%!
And when spells collapse in such a just-advanced, yet-to-stabilize state, the results are disastrous. In light cases, the Spirit Sea is severely damaged, while in heavy cases, one might die on the spot, which is one reason why there are so few spellcasters from civilian backgrounds.
Upon entering the field, Anvis did not directly activate that ball of fog but cautiously started with other spells first.
After weighing his options, he chose Wind Blade Technique as the first spell to test.
As a First Rank spell with a very simple model, the power of Wind Blade Technique is only moderate among spells of the same tier, but its speed and stealth are very impressive.
After confirming that the Defensive Magic Array was operating normally, Anvis leaned on his Magic Wand and spoke in a low voice, chanting a long string of obscure ancient Gumanian syllables in a peculiar intonation.
The wand was a standard family-made wand. After he officially advanced to the First Rank, the Duke gave him an ordinary Magic Book and a standard wand to get familiar with their use.
"Ao, ф~Jacn! do--ho--Avij! fl~Ogk, dor..."②
Accompanied by Anvis' chanting, the colorless Crystal Stone on the top of the wand glowed faintly, and a faint blue transparent Wind Blade swirling with a spiral airflow formed before him.
"It's been a while..."
Looking at the quietly hovering Wind Blade in front of him, Anvis felt a peculiar sense of contradiction in his heart, as if extremely excited yet seemingly exceedingly calm.
From the perspective of his identity as an ordinary person in his previous life, this was the ecstasy of possessing unprecedented power.
From the standpoint of a Seventh Rank Master Mage, it was nothing more than an instinct akin to eating and drinking.
Shaking his head to dispel his complex emotions, Anvis' thought moved slightly. The Wind Blade accelerated instantly toward the semi-transparent Seven-sided Crystal Column in the field.
With a bang, the Wind Blade hit the pillar and disintegrated, turning into a whirlwind.
The Black Shining Crystal Tablet flickered slightly, and a crimson light column quickly rose from the transparent black body of the stele, stopping its ascend at a position near the two-thirds height of the tablet.
This type of Crystal Tablet was crafted by a Ninth Rank within the Magic Council, capable of relatively accurate measurement of spell damage below Ninth Rank.
Among them, a light column in red represented the spell power at the First Rank. Ascending further, it was orange light, yellow light, green light... up to the white light of the Eighth Rank.
Meanwhile, the height of the light column represented the level of power within the same rank—the higher the height, the stronger the power. If the light column reached the top of the Crystal Tablet, it indicated the spell's power had reached the Peak within the same tier.
"Close to the power of a High Level First Rank? Not bad."
Anvis nodded slightly, feeling quite satisfied.
At the same rank, the Wind Blade released by young Anvis, consuming the same spiritual power, could only reach a level close to Intermediate First Rank power.
Compared to the same period in the previous life, Anvis' Magic Affinity and quality of spiritual power were much higher.
This was closely related to his high absorption rate of various treasures during his youth.
Due to the memory advantages brought about by transmigration and rebirth, even at a very young age, Anvis had been able to consciously control his body, guide and absorb the power from various resources to better strengthen himself.
Rather than being like ordinary children, who could only passively accept the nourishment of resources, allowing most of the power to be wasted.
.
.
①: Nickname for Fiona
②: Spell phonetics will appear only once; thereafter they are omitted.