In the ancient hall of the Nefarious Palace, Xavier sat behind a desk with a large book open in front of him. His expression was profound, like a scholar who had just been enlightened beyond mortal comprehension.
His eyes moved through the lines of the fragile pages with an unexplainable thirst for more. Xavier had been so engrossed in reading that he lost track of time in the real world. His intense focus prevented his body from feeling stress or even a hint of hunger.
Unknowingly, he had been reading for more than one hundred hours, yet he still hadn't flipped past the first few pages of the book!
A paragraph read:
Soul whisper spell was developed by me; only my students have been able to learn and activate this spell. You might be able to learn it due to your bloodline, but your efficiency with the spell depends on the amount of practice you put in.
"My first spell!" Xavier's eyes widened with a profound expression, his lips curving into a bright smile.
The souls of beasts, demons, shadowborn, and other beings on earth work the same as humans...
Before detailing the spell, the nefarious monarch wrote a lengthy note about souls, starting with the basic definition and followed by classifications.
Souls are essentially the controller of spirit and body, the central point of humans, akin to a CPU in computers. He classified souls into five ranks: mortal, earth, sky, heaven, and divine.
Every normal being is born with a Mortal-rank soul, basic and prone to capture by a simple soul-snatching spell. Earth-rank souls are rare among mages; based on his description, even Liana might still have a Mortal-rank soul.
According to him, souls can evolve, but some beings are blessed with the highest-ranked souls, Heaven and Divine, at birth. He seemed to despise those who received such blessings without effort.
"I wonder what the rank of my soul is," Xavier whispered as he delved deeper, learning about the other categories.
After thirty minutes of reading, he found himself still on the same page, despite having read over ten thousand words. The book's pages worked in a manner even Xavier couldn't understand. They appeared to be normal pages that could be finished in minutes, yet he spent hours on each one and his reading speed was even way above average.
Though spending hours on a single page was somewhat annoying, Xavier found it precious and advantageous.
'If just these few pages contain this much information, what will the rest hold?' he thought, encouraging himself.
After spending more than six days here, Xavier had learned the basics of magic, the mechanics, certain histories, and more.
Learning all these, he realized the system of magic in this world was more complex and exciting than what he read in novels back on earth. There was no such thing as an easy gain in this world, even for talented mages.
Simply skipping the theory of a spell or its history might result in head explosion, memory loss, or worse, death. Even chanting the wrong incantation for a fireball spell might result in your BALLS becoming red hot!
However, while there were such dangers in the accumulation of magical experience, certain artifacts could prevent and avoid them. Sadly, these artifacts are very uncommon and also very expensive, it might cost a whole family's savings to get even the basic ones.
To find or make one, one must journey through the most dangerous forests, dungeons, and shadowcages.
At this point, Xavier didn't even have his own wealth, so he would have to adhere strictly to the teachings to prevent accidents like head explosions or caged souls.
Xavier spent three more hours reading before finally reaching the spell.
"The soul whispering spell, though a very useful spell, is also very dangerous. Simply activating it the wrong way can cause the soul of the caster to become useless," Xavier muttered to himself.
One can only activate the spell when there is a target, or else they will trap their own soul. At that point, it would only take a true witch like Liana to free the trapped soul.
About ranking, it is divided into three ranks: Apprentice, Senior Apprentice, and True Mage/Witch/Wizard. Each rank is further divided into three stages: Early, Mid, and Peak stage.
After awakening his mana core, Xavier immediately entered the ranks of mages, becoming an early-stage apprentice. Carla and the three women at the pool were senior apprentices. In this facility, only Liana had obtained the rank of true witch.
Each rank is vast, but with hard work and knowledge, one can transcend faster than others.
As Xavier recalled the rank he read about, he became even more determined to transcend faster. He viewed it as a game, with mana as EXP; he would do anything within his reach to level up!
"Without freedom, a mage is just a working prisoner; I need to find a way to escape this damn shithole and enter the real world. Anyone who stands in my way will face the consequences."
With this thought, he placed the red bookmark on the book and closed it before exiting the Nefarious Palace.
...
Carla sat beside Xavier, her weak, sleepy eyes focused on his body when it suddenly moved.
"He's moving," she stood up abruptly.
At that moment, Xavier's eyes opened, staring at the ceiling of the room.
"You're awake!" She cried out joyously, almost hugging Xavier.
'Fuck, just as I expected, my privacy would be stolen by those damn witches,' Xavier grumbled.
Not only his mind, but his stomach also grumbled violently as a strong wave of hunger kicked in abruptly.
Without wasting time, Xavier commanded Carla, "I am hungry, get me food immediately."