"Hmm? Is he about to break through to the realm of a Great Mage?"
Seeing the situation, Romo immediately knew that Norton was trying to break through to the realm of the Great Mage.
He had not expected his accumulated reserves to be so steep. In the past few days, he had advanced several levels in a row, and now he was even trying to advance directly to the realm of the Great Mage.
As expected, Norton could be seen slowing down the magic runes around him and starting to arrange them in a certain order, finally forming a hexagram.
For a Mage advancing to become a Great Mage, he had to arrange all the magic runes, which he had previously condensed, in a certain order to build a magic formation. To cast a magic spell, a Mage would have to arrange the magic runes in his body into a temporary magic formation before he could unleash the magical power. However, after one had advanced to the Great Mage realm, all the magic runes in his body would have already been arranged into a powerful magic formation. As such, he could save the step of the temporary magic formation and directly unleash the magical power. Moreover, as the magic formation was a permanent one formed by all the twelve magic runes, its power would also increase by several folds. For the same magic spell, the power released by a Great Mage would be at least five times that of a level-12 Mage.
It could be said that after reaching the realm of a Great Mage, one had just touched the threshold of magical power. Before that, the person could only be said to be familiar with magical power.
Therefore, this was a very important hurdle. If he could not condense the twelve magic runes currently in his body into a magic formation, then the twelve magic runes would likely go berserk, or even be utterly shattered. Then the situation would be like Ron's case. The person would be seriously injured, and he might not even be able to restore magic runes again, becoming a complete invalid.
As he thought of this, Romo watched Norton condense the magic formation. He was also a little worried. Romo would think that Norton should have at least continued to build up his strength for a period of time, and wait till he had enough strength before attempting to break through to the realm of the Great Mage. By that time, he would certainly be able to advance to the realm of the Great Mage with ease.
But now, he had advanced several levels in a row, and this had already consumed most of his previously accumulated reserves. It would be a little risky for him to continue to tackle the most difficult Great Mage level.
However, Norton could not be faulted for this. After all, although his family clan had Romo's protection, as head of the family clan, Norton had continued to feel constantly threatened by the Grimm and Campbell family clans. He wanted to strengthen himself as soon as possible so that he could protect his family well.
Because of this, Norton was trying to charge directly toward the realm of the Great Mage despite the lack of adequate preparation.
Romo fixed his gaze on Norton as he was setting up the magic formation. He saw that the twelve magic runes had occupied many critical nodes. In the beginning, these magic runes were separate and did not have any direct connection with each other. However, under Norton's control, the magic runes connected up with each other. If he could connect up all the magic runes and fused them together, then he would have successfully advanced and become a Great Mage.
After connecting five to six magic runes, there was a problem connecting to the seventh magic rune. This was because the first few magic runes had all been condensed by Norton using the Waterfall Meditation Technique, but the current magic rune had been condensed using the Wave Meditation Technique, although they were all water-based magic runes, and there were no conflicts between them.
However, there was still a difference. The magic rune condensed subsequently using the Wave Meditation Technique was more profound. By analogy, if the original magic runes were junior high school students, the latest magic rune was an undergraduate. The gap between them was too great, and it was impossible for them to work together.
The current situation was such that when the magic rune condensed from the Wave Meditation Method was connected with the earlier magic runes, the energy of the magic formation instantly became unbalanced and turbulent. As such, the magic formation immediately started to become unstable. Even those magic runes which had already been connected earlier by Magic Threads showed signs of breaking up. Norton had also clearly sensed this. He had to quickly exert all his strength before he managed to stabilize the magic formation, but fine beads of sweat had formed densely on his forehead. It could be seen how risky this tackling attempt had been this time. He almost failed. Romo too was very worried for Norton.
This won't do. If this continues, Norton will certainly fail in his attempt to become a Great Mage. When this happens, not only will it be difficult for him to save his current cultivation base, he may even become an invalid. This will be a huge blow to the family clan which is yet to rise up. I can't let this happen. I must help him advance.
As Romo thought about this, he immediately summoned the System.
"System, is there any way to help him advance?"
[Ding… With reference to the host's request, the System recommends that the host use the Realm Upgrade Protection Talisman.]
Soon, an item appeared on the System interface. Romo took a look at it.
[Realm Upgrade Protection Talisman: Upon use, the success rate of realm advancement can be increased by 50%. It can be used for all realms. However, the consumption of Faith Points will correspond with the advancement realm and difficulty level of the user. If there are insufficient Faith Points, the success rate will be reduced accordingly.]
Impressive, it could actually increase the success rate by 50%.
The success rate of Norton advancing on his own should be around 50%. If coupled with this Realm Upgrade Protection Talisman, the success rate will immediately increase to 100%.
"Buy!"
"System, how many Faith Points will this Realm Upgrade Protection Talisman cost?"
[Host, please specify the user first. The price differs for persons of different levels.]
"The target is Norton Nicholas."
[Ding… Confirmed target for use: Norton Nicholas. Advancement target: Great Mage. Requires 10,000 Faith Points.]
The System had specified the price. After seeing the price, Romo's heart bled immediately.
Damn, another 10,000 Faith Points. This was almost all the Faith Points he had accumulated over the past few days. If he were to buy this Realm Upgrade Protection Talisman, he would become a pauper again.
However, the family head Norton must not fail in his advancement and even end up as an invalid at this time. He must buy this Realm Upgrade Protection Talisman.
"Buy a Realm Upgrade Protection Talisman for Norton Nicholas!" Romo made up his mind and bought it.