Lawrence was given an hour to rest as the chains wrapped around his leg loosened and vanished. He walked out of the lake while whipping his wet hair backward. His clothes were sticking up to his body as he’s feeling a little annoyed by it.

Arryn glanced at him with a small smile before waving her hands as Lawrence’s wet hair and clothes turned dry. Even his body was fully dried out. It seemed that Arryn has the ability to turn back the time in his body before he was submerged in the lake. Still, he felt that the air around the forest was clean. He stretched his arm to find traces of mana entering his pores. He can’t directly see it but he can feel the comforting feeling of mana invigorating his body. He didn’t see any changes in his mana regeneration though. It was still the same as before but the feeling of mana passing through his skin and into his mana heart gave him a refreshing feeling. Something that has never happened before

“Are you hungry?” Arryn asked

“No…why are you asking?” Lawrence replied, he gazed at the sky to find the sun still in the middle of it. Providing everything below with sunlight. He felt he was submerged in the lake for merely an hour. So he didn’t feel any hunger or fatigue.

“It has been 24 hours. I’m amazed you can stay there for that long.” Arryn chuckled but Lawrence winced. He didn’t think he spent that much time. He was too busy absorbing the overwhelming mana from the lake since if he doesn’t, he felt he will explode into pieces.

“Hmm..It’s surprising if what you say is true” Lawrence replied with a stone-cold expression. Like he wasn’t bothered by it.

“That’s not a look of surprise I usually see.” Arryn quipped before standing up.

“So how do you feel? Anything weird in your body?” Arryn asked

“I felt refreshed but my mana regeneration remained the same. Other than that, there isn’t anything that felt bizarre to my physique.” Lawrence replied while opening and closing his fist. His muscles and tendons didn’t change nor did his bones get stronger. He always thought that submerging himself in that lake full of mana, something in his body would change since the pain he felt was borderline unbearable.

“Say, would you like to gain some leaves? Let’s call it royal leaves since it might confuse you.”

“How many royal leaves do I receive? Since if I do a mission that would only give me one royal leaf, it wouldn’t be worth it.” Lawrence replied as Arryn touched her chin before looking around.

“I’ll give you 3 royal leaves if you kill a nearby troll. There should be one at the north, a kilometer away.”

“A troll? What kind?” Lawrence asked

“Tsk, you’re quite cautious.” she said quietly and barely audible enough for Lawrence to hear before continuing “Just trust your master and you’ll be fine” Arryn patted Lawrence on the shoulder with a smile. He was about to ask what kind of troll only to find himself standing in a forest surrounded by destroyed trunks and ripped trees off from the ground. Everywhere he saw is simply covered with destruction. There are spots where a pool of blood can be seen yet there aren’t any corpses or carcasses of monsters. It seems that the troll uses the tree trunks as a weapon to hit its enemies since there are small parts of flesh attached to some destroyed trunks.

A loud roar pierced through the forest as Lawrence can estimate from the loudness of it that it was just a few hundred meters north. Not knowing what type of troll it is can be quite dangerous since there are an array of trolls from those living in the mountainous regions up to those who live in the sea and oceans. There are also trolls that were created by the demon king and trolls that are forced to become a slave by the Sanguine Family. Each has different abilities and strengths. Lawrence just hoped that it isn’t a shadow troll who uses their power of the shadow to hide and ambush anyone they see as food.

He runs straight north with the relic Gungnir in his hand. He wanted to summon the clone but it’s the only thing that Arryn doesn’t know. So it’s better to hide that information for now.

Just a few meters away, he stopped and decided to hide behind the trees. To check what kind of troll it was. He peered to find the sound of something chewing and slobbering only to find a troll crouching over and eating a large tiger-like beast who was struggling and wailing in pain. The troll was crouching yet it easily reached the height of three meters and with a width or wingspan of 4 meters from the tip of its right arm to its left arm. The troll has a metal shell embedded into its back and the troll itself is blue in color. Oddly enough, the troll has four arms and two heads.

Lawrence gritted his teeth as he didn’t think he would find an abomination troll. A troll that’s twice as strong as normal trolls and has the ability to wield one of the four major elements. Its skin is tougher than metal and it has regeneration. By the looks of it and how it ate its prey, it isn’t that smart which was lucky for Lawrence’s part. Nonetheless, abomination trolls like this are usually low-4-star monsters to mid-4-star-monsters.

“This better be worth it..” Lawrence said to himself. He used the lighten spell on himself before using the demon mark spear art and using every single mark until the spear started glowing with different shades of gray and black. Floating demonic letters continually surround the spear as he used the teleportation ring to immediately appear behind the troll’s back before using reckless.

The spear just vanished before multiplying as it stabbed it in a single spot. The troll was about to turn around only to get blown away by a sudden gravity force. Lawrence jumped forward as his spear continued stabbing.

A large gush of blood pooled on the grassy plains as Lawrence saw a large number of holes in the troll’s back, with black veins throbbing all throughout the body as the red blood slowly tuned to a sickly black. His right arm felt weak as he immediately jumped back upon noticing that the troll is still struggling and making gurgling noises.

Even with the mark of healsteal and mark of weakness, it was still tiring to use the technique reckless in a combination with the Gungnir. Lawrence can estimate that he stabbed the troll in the back about fifty times as the black blood and the pulsing veins are the result of a mark of weakness and healsteal. Since healsteal absorbs the regeneration capability of the creature and instead transferred it to Lawrence, providing him with health and stamina regeneration while the mark of weakness simply weakens the enemy. The reason why the troll isn’t regenerating is simply because of the mark of bleed which creates a wound that cannot be healed and will continually pull the blood from the body. Which further weakens Lawrence’s enemy. Lastly, the troll was hit by the mark of blindness which takes away the sight of a troll.

Still, the troll’s vitality is monstrous as it merely slowed down and immediately turns around and roared at Lawrence. There are signs of weakness as it was slower than the initial turning but is still strong enough to smack Lawrence into a paste.

Now, all Lawrence has to do is to waste the enemy’s stamina so it will slowly grow tired and weak from the ailments caused by the demon marks. Lawrence immediately dashed away from the troll who was charging head first. Its four arms grabbed the nearby trees and ripped the trunks off them. The nearby trees collapsed as Lawrence dodged every falling branch. Turning around, he used gravity control to reverse the gravity where the troll is running, which immediately sends it floating in the air. Roaring with indignant and anger.

Lawrence stretches his left palm forward as a strong gravity pull is starting to emerge in the middle of his palm. He continued supplying it with mana until it implodes and creates a small black hole. It pulsed continuously as it sucked through the air and small matters into it, crashing it into nothingness. Lawrence lets it go before running away as fast as possible only to be stopped by a flash of water in the shape of sharp shards.

It slammed into Lawrence but it didn’t do anything as the gravity barrier was able to block the unexpected attack. It wasn’t strong at all and the water wasn’t concentrated, meaning it’s like someone tried splashing Lawrence with water.

Still, a thundering roar erupted through the forest as entire loads of water started gushing from the ground. Creating a myriad of geysers all around Lawrence. Clicking his tongue, he used the teleportation ring again to get away from the encirclement as seconds after, the geysers exploded and released a vast amount of pressurized hot water. Ripping the ground and destroying the nearby shrubbery and plants. Lawrence doesn’t know if his gravity barrier can stop those from damaging him but he’s clearly not gonna try.

Lawrence continued running away from the troll and the miniature black hole as an earth-shattering explosion nearly destroy his ear drums before a massive shockwave slammed behind his back. He heard an audible sound of cracking as he collapsed to his knees. He touched his back to find some of the bones in it were cracked and fractured.

He slowly turned around and sat on the grass as he summoned a healing potion from the space ring before drinking it. He gazed at the destruction he created as a large part of the forest was blown to bits. There is a large crater in the middle of it where not one bit of blood or flesh was left. All of the trees were disintegrated as the green forest was replaced with the brown displaced soil and overturned roots of a few trees.

If it wasn’t for the demon marks, Lawrence wouldn’t overcharge the black hole with a copious amount of mana that resulted in it exploding. The troll was fatigued from the weakness and was losing a lot of blood while still being blind and yet it was still able to accurately target Lawrence with geysers. He checked his mana cube to find it completely empty and almost half of his mana reserves were consumed. It was reckless, to say the least as even the shockwave was enough to send him kneeling with a few bones cracked.

He felt a gentle wave of breeze by his side as he found Arryn looking at the destruction with a calm expression. She grasped her fingers into a fist before turning it counterclockwise as the destruction slowly reverted and returned to a thick green forest full of trees and plants on the ground. It was amazing to look at as the surroundings seem to have been reversed in time and return back into their original state.

“That’s amazing…how can you do that?” Lawrence asked but Arryn turned her head to face Lawrence before giving a smile.

“Simple, since I’m the greatest mage in all of the continents!” she said proudly

“That doesn’t answer my question..”

“You have to get stronger to understand how I do it but for now. You’re just cannon fodder. A rough diamond ready to get polished by a great magician like me. Of course, you have competition as I have roughly about ten apprentices working around the five continents. Anyway, here’s your reward” Arryn crouched before handing Lawrence four royal leaves who gazed at her confusedly.

“That’s an extra for a job well done. Anyway, do you have anything that you want?” Arryn answered with a soft smile.

" Can i buy a familiar with this?” Lawrence asked, for the simple fact that having a familiar with a mount will allow him to traverse great distances faster than walking or riding a carriage.

“Well..you have to earn 10 royal leaves to gain a chance of receiving a mythical familiar or a common familiar. Depends on your luck” Arryn stood up while explaining

“It’s gacha!? I mean…does that mean that you can scam your apprentice by always giving a common familiar? That is quite unfair” Lawrence was flabbergasted as gambling is one of his hated concepts back on earth since he knows that his luck during gambling is one of the worse among anyone he knew who gambled.

“No, I requested an elf mage that we have who is great at illusion magic to put great phantasm in every familiar’s egg that I currently have to make it look the same. So even, I don’t know what I give out.” Arryn shrugged.

“Is it only for familiars or?”

“Nope, everything from artifacts to places for cultivation. Basically, everything that I have looks the same but it’s what makes it exciting. It also excites my apprentices when they buy something since there’s always a chance to get mythical items. Though the cheapest thing that I can sell is simply tameable beasts and cultivation places for five royal leaves.” Arryn answered as Lawrence can’t believe what he just heard. Did this mean that he got the worse master to be an apprentice?

“Since it’s your first day. I’ll give you a single royal leaf so it will total into five royal leaves to buy something.” Arryn gives Lawrence a single royal leaf. He pondered for a while about what to do before shrugging and giving every royal leaf that he has.

“I want to purchase a tameable beast” Lawrence answered as Arryn nodded before revealing a glass box full of black jade stones with a certain spiritual magic and soul magic hidden in every jade. The black monster jade is a type of monster catcher or a trap to capture any beasts and store them inside. Lawrence inspected the large glass box only to notice that everything does indeed look the same and he can’t even sense anything peculiar to any of the black jade stones.

“Here” Arryn opened the lid before shaking the glass box and grabbing a random jade stone from the bunch and handing it to Lawrence.

“Now, break it” Arryn added as Lawrence followed the instruction. He grasped the jade tightly before black smoke cascaded from nowhere. Covering Lawrence in a cloud of thick black smoke before a faint neigh can be heard. The smoke dispersed to reveal a dark horse with muscles bulging from its body and a luscious red mane, there are faint flares of fire coming from its hooves as it neighs towards Lawrence.

“Congratulations! You have received a rare Dark Flame Stallion! It’s a breed of monster that can run exceedingly fast and has great fire capabilities. Though it isn’t typically used for fighting since monsters like this are more valued as use of transport than a war horse.” Arryn explained with great enthusiasm.