A week passed. The students had long recovered and went back to their usual academy life.
They recently started taking their time reading more magic books in the public library before heading to the training yard and practicing whatever spells or concepts they had learned.
And Jinmu was the most determined and studious of them all. In the case of another person's perspective, that would mean a good thing.
However, Eluard faced it differently. His problem, currently Jinmu who was in front of him, bowed in respect and greeted him.
"Good morning, academy master."
Eluard faced his student. Seeing that he was noticed by Eluard, Jinmu continued.
"Academy master, I would like to ask you some questions with regards to the theory of domain mana synthesis."
Eluard stared at Jinmu's figure. He was clueless as to what the domain mana synthesis was all about.
"Jinmu, I thought you and I have reached an agreement back on the days you were still not a student of this academy.", Eluard mysteriously voiced out before disappearing out of Jinmu's sight.
The latter sighed in disappointment, "As I expected, unless I was academy master's direct disciple, I would've been able to learn much more under his guidance."
"Academy master already gives us public lectures once every week to help us in our cultivation. Maybe I was asking too much from him earlier."
He has yet to do something to repay the academy of the knowledge and power he received. Jinmu shook his head and went back to reading more about domain mana synthesis.
As for Eluard, he was rather interested in the domain mana synthesis that his student stumbled upon. The system immediately listed out several books that contained the concept of the said theory.
Three of them were slashed out.
"Jinmu must be using them.", Eluard thought. He picked the other books instead and left the public library.
He was heading towards his office when Solordo blocked his path. Eluard was getting annoyed by this parade, "What are you up to this time?"
Solordo noticed the impatience in Eluard's tone.
"Ah, academy master. I'm not here to ask for help with concepts in magic. I'm here to request if I could go out and harvest some demon beast's blood to improve my chivalric cultivation."
Eluard checked out Solordo's current attributes.
[ Name: Solordo Luchador ]
[ Age: 16 years old ]
[ Race: Half-human, half-elf ]
[ Status: Alive ]
[ Affiliation: Knights of Aludia, League of Wizardry ]
[ Magic Power: Apprentice Mage (Full Ring) ]
[ Magic Root: Harmonic Duplex Magic Root (Mythical) ]
[ Magic Aptitude: 8.8/10 (Apprentice Mage) ]
[ Magic Affinity: Darkness, Wind ]
[ Chivalric Will Power: Apprentice Knight (Tier 3) ]
[ Chivalric Core Grade: SSS ]
After seeing that he was now on the peak of the apprentice knight and mage, Eluard understood Solordo's current situation.
"I see. To which place do you want to go? Mind you that I will restrict the possible places you could go in Aludia. It is for your safety, after all.", Eluard reminded the hot-headed Solordo.
His student scratched his head in embarrassment, reminiscing the incident he caused a week ago.
"Academy master, I want to go to the Dwarven Mountain Compass. There's a rather interesting demon beast that is a viable foundation for my chivalric core."
Eluard narrowed his eyes, "Don't lie to me. You want to absorb the blood of a divine-rarity magical beast, aren't you?"
Solordo's mouth twitched in disbelief, 'How could academy master see through me?'
Eluard scoffed at Solordo's naivety, 'Boy, I may just be new to Aludia but I sure have studied a lot about the regions around here.'
Dwarven Mountain Compass was an infamous location because it was the birthplace of the legendary creatures, the dragons.
That was why Eluard berated Solordo. Dragons were the most ferocious magical beasts in Aludia.
"If you want me to accept your request with full certainty, you have to start being honest of your intentions, Solordo Luchador."
Eluard's slithered eyes glowed in red.
Magical beasts were very different from demon beasts.
One was a naturally occurring being while the other was artificially 'tampered' by the demons to be used for their plans. The former was more intelligent because their bodies weren't corrupted by the demonic aura from the Otherworld.
Dealing against an intelligent creature was difficult compared to the dumb ones.
Their affinity to mana was also higher, thus, their magic power was greater than the demon beasts. Their physical attributes, however, fell drastically short of their counterparts, except for some with a powerful physical body like the dragons.
Solordo sighed in regret. He should've known that fooling the academy master was a futile attempt on his part.
"Academy master, you really do not have to worry much. Actually, my family and I have this particular pact with one of the dragon tribes in the Dwarven Mountain Compass. Although they… disowned me for a while now, the dragons have a stubborn personality and I know that they would insist otherwise."
Eluard grasped what Solordo was trying to say, "Is that so? A human household forming a pact with the prideful dragons. That is an achievement to boast."
He also realized why the Luchador Household reached and stabilized their position as one of the strongest seclusive families in Aludia.
"Fine, but know that your absence will have a price to pay. I will give you 3 months to finish this particular business."
Solordo bowed and thanked Eluard for accepting his request. Now, he could finally ascend to becoming an anointed knight and a trainee mage at the same time.
An apprentice knight would drink the blood of a demon or magical beast and mix it with their bodies. The next few days will be torturous as the beast's blood, alongside the knight's chivalric core, would start to fuse with the host. The body would fight back against it and prevent it from happening.
A person would become an anointed knight once the process was completed. They will then share a mysterious bond with the demon or magical beast with whom they drank their blood. The effects vary for each knight and beast, from becoming friendly with each other, noticing their presence from a nearby distance, or in some cases, hating one another instead.
They would also carry some physical characteristics or other special attributes of the said beast. Some knights would become hairier, taller, burlier, or more intimidating without them noticing.
Furthermore, their chivalric will had developed, allowing them to manipulate objects nearby. They can also use their chivalric will to layer their weapons and launch a short-distance attack.
Despite this increase in power, the anointed knights and every realm above it also face a life-threatening disadvantage. Since their chivalric cores are fully fused with their bodies, the destruction of the core meant the death of the said knight.
...
Eluard took Solordo to the main hall and teleported him to the Dwarven Mountain Compass.
"Be safe with your travels and come back as soon as possible.", Eluard reminded.
Solordo nodded to him before closing his eyes as the teleportation circle transferred him to his destination.
When he opened his eyes, he found himself falling mid-air.
"Wha-!"
Solordo's face hit the leaves and branches of the trees down below. His face was wrecked in many ways and his mood became grumpy.
He fixed his appearance before looking at the map, "I'm hundreds of kilometers away from the dragon tribe's location. Doesn't matter. This must be academy master's test this time."
Solordo gripped the halberd tightly with his right hand, plastering a wide smirk on his face, "Just you wait, everyone. This big brother's going to surprise you on his way back."
…
Back at the Heavenly Magic Academy, Eluard put the stack of new books on the edge of his large desk.
Looking at the pile of books before it, he leaned back on his high chair.
"Magical transmutation… magical transmutation…", he repeatedly muttered with a confused tone.
Although his magic root included the ability of magical transmutation, it was easier said than done. He hadn't made any progress the past week and time was running out.
"That's not right. I shouldn't be putting a single magical elemental identity to my mana or else it would remain the same element forever. However, if I do so, I would be unable to change it to another element since nothing else but that particular element remained. But if I don't do that, what use is my mana then anyway?"
His divine magic root forcibly pushed his magical cultivation to be very unique such that he didn't have any sort of relevant references from the existing magic books.
"No, it should be that I have pushed out the rest of the elements in my mana and only picked out what I needed to use."
He thought that his mana was like the color black. Everything was mixed into it and he would pick one out of everything.
"Wait, that's it! I shouldn't follow the normal procedure of gathering mana then conjuring a particular element that has an affinity to my magic root. I already have everything so why would I discard them?!"
"Instead, I'll just suppress the others and then display one element at a time. Then, if I wanted to use another element instead, I should suppress the previous one and change the ratio of elements in my mana!"
The difference was that his first method completely discarded all of the unused magical elements in his mana. Although this was the main system for the mages in Aludia, albeit phrased in a way on how Eluard understood the concept, it prevented him from changing his magical element's nature because only one element remained.
The second method simply limited the presence of the rest of the other elements. In other words, if he used a fire magic spell, the fire element's magnitude is increased while reducing those of the rest rather than completely removing them.
In that way, he would be able to turn the said fire magic spell into another element as long as the said element wasn't removed. All he needed to do was just change the ratio of the elements in the spell he was trying to cast.
Eluard stood up in excitement and immediately carried out his theory.
"Let's test out with two elements for now. How about fire and water?"
He gathered his mana to his right fingertips and slowly eroded out the other magic elements from within.
'Control! Only two! Fire and water!'
As he balanced the ratio of the elements, Eluard saw a ball composed of half fire and half water dancing above his palm.
'To the fire!'
He increased the ratio of the fire elements compared to the water. The flame then surrounded more than half of the ball, slowly removing the presence of the water element in it.
'Then water!'
A war seemed to have raged within when the water suddenly surged like a flood and overtook the position of the flame until it was the only thing that remained.
Eluard could still feel the fire element residing within but its presence was too weak to be noticed if one didn't put much focus on the ball.
Seeing the marvelous result in front of his eyes, Eluard chuckled like a madman and praised himself.
He stopped the spell and held the desk with a weary expression.
"Heh, that really grinds the mind but it seems to work at least."