Just as Archmage Withered Soul was about to close he eyes, he couldn't help but suddenly open them once again, as he felt an extremely weird chill in his heart.
After a few moments, Withered Soul let out a soft sigh as he shook his head, taking out a weird crystal from his robe.
"You can stop pursuing Selena, come back to the Monastery," said the Archmage, speaking into the crystal as several other thoughts swirled inside of his mind.
Merely a few moments later, Archmage Withered Soul turned into dark smoke, disappearing.
...
At the entrance to the Shadow Monastery,
Looking at the humongous cathedral in front of him, Archmage Withered Soul let out a sigh before walking into it.
The insides of the cathedral looked very much similar to a normal church, only the gold and worn colors had been replaced with grey and black.
As the Archmage walked further and further into the cathedral, the elemental energy around him began morphing, at first, it was normal, but as he walked further and further in, it began transforming into something very much similar to dark mana.
After a few minutes, the Archmage arrived at a door in the wall, through which he then walked into before going down a flight of stairs.
Walking down through the stairs, all elemental energy had disappeared from around Archmage Withered Soul, being replaced by pure darkness.
Several large statues also stood on the sides of the stairs, seemingly staring up the flight of stairs, preparing to stop any intruder from going further.
Finishing walking down the flight of stairs, Archmage withered soul encountered a barrier, a transparent barrier that separated the two sides of the room.
"It seems quite angry right now," mumbled the Archmage as he suddenly stepped through the barrier and onto the other side of the room.
The moment he did that, several large tentacles suddenly appeared around the Archmage, attacking him.
But thankfully, the tentacles stopped as several chains suddenly restricted them, causing them to lose their strength and fall to the ground.
Without paying any more attention to the tentacles, the Archmage walked towards the end of the room, where a door stood.
As he opened the door, Archmage Withered Soul was greeted by something rather magnificent on the other side.
Looking at the several hundred-meter large monsters, with tentacles emerging from all around it's body, the Archmage smiled.
Suddenly, thousands of chains materialized around the monster, restricting it's movement and not allowing it to do anything, only with one single exception.
Looking at the exception, a broken chain that was now laying on the floor, Archmage Withered soul couldn't help but shake his head.
"I'm sorry, I can't let you do that, can a Monastery even exist if its God is gone?" said the Archmage as he began slowly rebuilding it's chain.
Every single one of these chains that were restraining these beasts was powerful enough to shackle an Archmage, having been created and increased in number by past Archmages of the Shadow Monastery.
As such, Archmage Withered Soul had much less work to do, only having to maintain them, and not let God roam free.
...
Opening her eyes, having just finished refining mana, Beatrice couldn't help but take a deep breath/
"Annoying," mumbled Beatrice as she suddenly realized she once again had cold sweat on herself, causing her to get up from the bed and walk into the shower.
...
Feeling the warm water wash over her, Beatrice couldn't help but let out a relaxed sigh, but even so, she could not waste much more time, getting out of the shower after a few more moments.
As she moved her hands through her still slightly wet hair, Beatrice couldn't help but sigh.
"I shouldn't think about these things," mumbled Beatrice, deciding to follow through on her words.
Three months later,
For the past three months, Beatrice no longer focused on things she could not solve, rather, trying to increase both her strength and her knowledge as much as possible.
In the past three months, Beatrice had taken two more missions, but compared to her first mission, these were both much less dangerous and much worse paid, only gaining her a total of eighty elemental stones.
As such, Beatrice focused much more on increasing her knowledge rather than becoming richer.
Well of course, after some more accumulation, Beatrice's savings had reached a total of over three hundred and sixty elemental stones.
On a very normal day three months later, something more interesting finally happened.
As she refined more and more mana over these past three months, Beatrice's increase in mana followed a liniar pattern, increasing around 0.1 points per day, as such, after three months, Beatrice's mana finally reached a certain milestone.
Refining mana, Beatrice kept her eyes closed, but suddenly, she couldn't help but open them as her body began slightly shaking,
Unbeknownst to her, as her mana reached around thirty points, it's weight began pushing it even further into her body, beginning to transform it into something more than a normal human in a way that Knight Training could never copy.
After around an hour, the shaking of Beatrice's body stopped, but after a few moments, Beatrice instinctually began refining more mana, and a moment later, began doing so consciously, pushing more and more mana into her body, replenishing what had been lost.
Because of this, it took several hours for the shaking of Beatrice's body to stop.
Opening her eyes, Beatrice couldn't help but be shocked.
As she was already a Grand Knight, Beatrice did not become much stronger, but even so, a large smile couldn't help but appear on her face.
Suddenly, Beatrice noticed that she did not feel hungry at all, even after refining mana for three hours and achieving her breakthrough for five hours.
"My mana has begun transforming my organs," mumbled Beatrice, knowing that this was the sign that showed she had become a High-Ranking Mage apprentice.
As he body adapted more and more to mana, Beatrice's internal organs not only became stronger, but also were able to sustain themselves with her mana.
And as mana was an extremely powerful energy source compared to most other things, Beatrice now no longer needed to eat, even her need was water was somewhat reduced.