Lawrence gazed at Arryn who was seated at a cracked stone throne covered with leaves and plantation. There was hostility behind her gentle smile as Lawrence gulped. He briefly looked around only to find that it was a separate dimension with no way out unless he kills Arryn. Still, it’s impossible to even touch her. Time mages have the ability to stop time for a couple of seconds to minutes depending on their mana. By that time, killing Lawrence would be nothing but trivial work.

“You can rack your head however you want. It isn’t gonna save you. No one can.” Arryn chuckled upon noticing Lawrence’s expression.

“Of course, killing you is quite simple. You know that right? It’s better to fess up rather than get subjected to torture. It would be a swift painless death if you tell me.” Arryn added as tendrils of plants started emerging from everywhere. As it slowly wrapped Lawrence who stood still.

“Do you think I can destroy the Yggdrasil? I don’t have the strength to do it and I haven’t stepped a single foot on the elf continent. It is simply impossible.” Lawrence replied

“You’re right. But as an elf, it is my duty to eradicate those who have the mark of Yggdrasil. Sorry, but it isn’t enough to save you” Arryn chuckled yet again as Lawrence only saw his chest getting blasted as blood, guts, and flesh were smeared everywhere. Painting the nearby flowers and herbs red. Lawrence coughed up blood as he can feel the primal sin throbbing and releasing an indiscernible aura.

When he was about to lose consciousness, he found himself fully heal as if what happened was just an illusion yet the pain and the weakness he felt were too real for it to be a mere illusion. He turned his head to find that all of the blood and flesh vanished from the flowers and herbs. He touched his chest to find that even his clothes has been restored.

“Interesting. No wonder you didn’t feel any fear. That arm of yours, or specifically. That material covering your arm is special. It seems that it can revive you, I peeked into your future to find you clad in black armor and clearly still alive despite what I did to your chest. Interesting…..That material. Can you tell me what it is? I will let you go if you do.” Arryn inspected Lawrence’s right arm. She turn and twisted it gently but it didn’t react. The pupil in her eyes rolled and changed color with a distinct mark in the iris as she stared at the black material.

Lawrence sighed, he can only bet on this information to survive. He opened his mouth before speaking “It’s the primal sin born from the death of the progenitor of origin. It’s one of the five primal sins and i was able to acquire this from the auction house in the Swordwin Empire.”

Arryn smiled deeply before taking a couple of steps back. There was an indiscernible look on her face. Lawrence doesn’t know what she will do next as she already killed him once. She only reverses the time by a couple of seconds to undo everything. Still, he noticed that the part of the primal sin has reached his shoulder. He wondered why it seems to be growing larger but Arryn clicking her finger caught his attention.

“There are actually 8 primal sins but I’m not here to teach you. Anyway, that primal sin seems to be connected deeply in your soul. I don’t know how it happened but it’s simply a shame that I cannot rip your right arm to take the primal sin to my lab to investigate it.” Arryn sighed

“Well, I guess I just have to kill you. The primal sin is too dangerous to be in the hands of a human” Arryn pointed her opened palm in the direction of Lawrence as he gulped. He immediately used the necklace of invisibility before running off only to find himself standing still in front of Arryn. As if time was reversed without him knowing. He tried using it again but it was already on a cooldown.

Lawrence doesn’t know what to do, he doesn’t have anything that he can do against Arryn as she can simply reverse a time and return Lawrence to his spot a couple of seconds ago.

“Any last words?” Arryn smirked

“Wait..” Lawrence summoned the Gungnir as Arryn widened her eyes before the relic vanished in Lawrence’s hands to find it floating a couple of inches away from Arryn’s hands.

“How did you get this?” Arryn asked in a low voice.

“In the Notmus cemetery, there was a black spear emanating a deathly aura and I was teleported into a dimension where there was a black sun in the sky and a black mountain oozing with black mud-like liquid. There were probably a million live corpses screaming in pain. It’s the black sun dimension where a demon creates a trial for mortals to pass. In exchange for finishing the trial, they were given a relic.” Lawrence answered honestly. If this can stop his death, he doesn’t care what information he has to give.

“What kind of demon give mortals a trial? Well, this relic is already bound to you so it’s pointless for me to steal it. I can kill you but relic like this usually doesn’t allow the killer of their former wielder to use them. Also, it explains why you have the mark of the Yggdrasil since this relic requires the root of the Yggdrasil to awaken further. " Arryn just throws the Gungnir back to Lawrence who immediately grabbed it and returned it to his space ring.

“There are two things you can do. Swear that you will never hurt a single elf and help the elf continent when needed or die in this dimension. Pretty easy answer right? Also, I’m not that strict and see great talent in you. Talent that will be needed in the future.” Arryn smiled while Lawrence nodded.

“So how about it? Deal” Arryn added

“Deal..” Lawrence sighed.

“Great! Lend me your hand” Arryn grabbed Lawrence by the wrist before a cut appeared on his palm. She whispered something that Lawrence doesn’t understand as a green glow appeared around Lawrence. Slowly, the palm started to heal as a green-shaped cross manifested in it.

“There. Done” Arryn smiled confidently at her work as Lawrence grabbed his palm before inspecting it. The marking isn’t familiar and he has never read anything in the novel about this. He didn’t feel anything suspicious and the green glow around his body vanished. He glanced at Arryn with confusion on his face but he was only met with a deep smile.

“There’s no need to fret over the small stuff. Now that you are my apprentice, we can start with the training!” Arryn said excitedly.

“Apprentice?”

“Oh, that mark binds you to me. The little sister of the current elf empress and the greatest mage of all time!” she said enthusiastically and happily. A large smile on her face and a slight tilt of her neck showcased her greatness and proudness of herself. As if Lawrence should be proud of becoming her apprentice.

“Little sister? Wait..apprentice, this mark isn’t a slave mark right?” Lawrence gazed heavily at his palm as Arryn slaps his back with a huge grin, nearly toppling him to the ground.

“An elf putting someone into slavery? That would be a taboo you know. Anyway, now that you’re my apprentice. There are only three rules I have for you. It’s to always help an elf if you can, never kill an elf unless justified, and lastly. Never put the elf continent in danger” Arryn said as the green cross on Lawrence’s palm glowed briefly before returning to normal.

“Now that that’s done. What would you like to learn? You might be a human but I have some tricks to strengthen your mana heart. For example, eating a couple of herbs in this dimension or cultivating on a gravity gathering pool. Of course not for free. You have…let’s say ten leaves.” Arryn revealed ten green jade coins with a leaf symbol encrypted in the middle. She gave it to Lawrence who received it with confusion written on his face.

“These coins are the coins distributed to any apprentices taken by an elf. With 5 coins, they can exchange anything they want. From spellbooks to artifacts to even places where mana is more condensed and powerful. Anything that my royal family has, we are willing to exchange as long as our apprentices have enough leaves or coins.” Arryn explained as Lawrence pondered for a while. This might be the reason why almost every talented mage went to the elf continent. No wonder when the human continent was ripped in half, the elf continent remained safe and wasn’t affected by the demon army. They are basically poaching the talented mages from the human continent that they can get with abundant resources.

“Hmm..don’t worry. We don’t force our apprentices to stay on our continent. They can go anywhere and they will only be called in an extreme emergency.” Arryn shrugged

“How do we get more coins or leaves?”

“There would be missions given to each apprentice from their master and if they do it. They will be rewarded based on how much the master assigned it to be.” Arryn answered

“I see..” Lawrence gave the leaves back to Arryn.

“Now that we are finished with the introduction to an apprenticeship. We will be starting our training. One week outside is similar to four weeks here so you have a month to improve! " Arryn proudly said as Lawrence can’t help but smile. Although he nearly died, what he got in exchange was more than he thought. Besides, there’s nothing better than getting taught by a 7-star mage.

Arryn clapped her hands as both of them teleported near a blue lake. The lake seems to be flowing endlessly to the horizon as Lawrence can feel the mana condensed on the water from the lake. Just standing near it can hasten his progress on strengthening his mana heart by twice the normal amount.

“Swim to that lake and strengthen your mana heart. That is the only training you will have to do for a week.” Arryn said to Lawrence who can’t help but wonder what would happen.

“Since you are a 3-star paragon. It’s better if you can awaken the ability mana absorption physique. Which would make regenerating mana faster and if you can reach a high-grade ability of that type, you can even ignore eating any food for basically forever since mana would be the source of your nutrients.” Arryn explained to Lawrence who nodded.

Abilities are something that would only awaken once someone reaches the four-star stage or the awakening stage as some called it. Abilities are usually given at random but certain prerequisites can be done to increase the chance of getting a specific ability. Abilities are something that doesn’t require any mana, aura, or qi to use. Meaning once someone has an ability, they can use it continuously as long as their body can handle it. Keirenhas a regenerative ability which makes him an enemy that can outlast anyone with his wounds healing at a fast rate.

Each ability has a grade and the higher the grade, the stronger effect the ability has. A low-grade regeneration ability can only heal small wounds and a few broken bones within a minute but a high-grade can heal any part of the body and can heal any wounds in a matter of seconds. Though getting a regeneration ability is a painful process, they have to endure different kinds of unbearable pain just for a chance to get an ability. Someone even took a month to get punctured by small needles to awaken a high-grade regeneration once they reached 4-star.

Lawrence didn’t take off his suit or his black pants as he slowly submerged into the blue lake. He took a large gulp of air before putting his head deep in the lake as he closed his eyes and started strengthening his mana heart. In the second he strengthens his mana heart, and he immediately convulsed as he felt restricted and he felt he was about to drown. Not from the water but from the abundance of mana. His veins trembled as they showed through his skin, throbbing with endless mana. He wanted to leave only to find his ankles chained to the bottom of the lake.

“You won’t die if you keep on strengthening your mana heart. Also, keep using spells to lessen the pain!. Just endure!” Arryn shouted but Lawrence can barely hear it. He wanted to sigh but he can’t since the water might enter his mouth. Gritting his teeth, he returned to strengthening his mana heart. It was painful but what else can he do. He used the spell lighten while simultaneously using repulse and attract as the water spins and flies everywhere since it’s the only thing he can do that lessens his feeling of restriction in his body.

Meanwhile, Arryn was observing everything with trained eyes and making sure that nothing goes wrong. The fact that Lawrence didn’t immediately lose consciousness was surprising but she knows that it was too early to celebrate. Every human apprentice that she took didn’t even last a minute underwater in this lake made of pure mana. Still, Lawrence was already underwater for nearly an hour with the water splashing everywhere where he is chained. Although his heartbeat is turbulent and his veins seem to be about to explode. He still looked calm without an ounce of panic. It seems that he is highly compatible with mana absorption physique which put a small genuine smile on her face.

“I’m really great at seeking talents. Once he reaches 4-star. I can tell my big sis about him.” she said to herself excitedly.