As the sun rays gradually illuminated his room, Ronan woke up with a yawn. Coming back from Dr.Virat’s office, Ronan decided to follow his advice and stop overthinking. He cleared his mind and thought about his immediate goal. Official wizard.

 

The world was never ideal and, every winner had to overcome problems. Instead of wondering if he can achieve his goals, Ronan decided to tackle them one step at a time. 

 

An acolyte had little mana in his body. The advancement into a wizard required one to amass enough mana to cast a wizard-level spell. Acolytes could use mana to cast simple magic, but a wizard spell was much more powerful.

 

There were two ways to advance.

 

Either way required one to amass sufficient mana.

 

Each acolyte starts off with a magical capacity of one unit of mana. This is basically the bare minimum that can be measured by a measurement rune. All the other numbers are based on this amount as the standard.

 

To become an official wizard, one had to amass at least one hundred units of mana within their body. At least is the keyword. The pathway one chooses influences the requirement of advancement.

 

The methods involved using either a preexistent spell or creating a new magic system.

 

A preexistent spell was created by another wizard based on his understanding of magic and could be used for advancement. As long as one amasses the required amount of mana for the spell model of their choice, they can then advance by using that specific spell.

 

The advancement into a wizard required luck and willpower as the body would undergo a qualitative change when a wizard-level spell is utilized.

 

This change will trigger the evolution of a body, forced by one's mana,  which will then surpass human limits. An Evolution is said to trigger intense pain, and the failure to complete the advancement will lead to severe injuries at best, and the worst would be death.

 

It is for this reason, many acolytes fail to advance. The pain and the fear of death kept several people trapped at the peak of acolyte level despite achieving the mana quantity requirement.

 

The pain and the chances of failures are inversely proportional to the acceptance rate of a specific spell. Each spell model is different, and each acolyte had a different affinity to various elements.

 

An acolyte with a high affinity for fire would receive less backlash if he uses a fire spell and vice versa. The process of using such spells results in backlash as the acolyte hasn't made the spell model based on his understanding. He is simply transplanting someone's magic system onto his body.

 

Such a backlash is not seen among wizards because their bodies are evolved enough to ignore the rejection. Thus giving them the ability to master various spells of different systems.

 

The other method which had no such rejection involved creating a personal spell model. It would have to be based on a unique magic system created by an acolyte through his understanding of the laws of nature.

 

It was harder to create a spell model from scratch. The more complex the spell, the more mana is required to cast it. If one uses a preexistent spell, one hundred units of mana are enough as several spell models can be used with such an amount.

 

Personal spells had no such limits. Several acolytes who chose this path had to accumulate several times the mana requirement. It takes time, and their magic system had no guarantee of success.

 

Since the model itself is based on an acolyte’s understanding of laws. He might be left with an incomplete spell model that cannot be advanced later.

 

The spell used in the advancement is imprinted onto the body of a wizard and becomes his innate spell. He can easily cast it at any time and can exert absolute control.

 

As such, wizards take time to choose or develop the best spell. An innate spell is usually the differentiating factor among the wizards of the same rank.

 

An incomplete model based on a flawed magic system would be wasted as it cannot be advanced further since it was flawed from the beginning.

 

As such, many end up choosing a preexisting spell model even though it is not the best possible innate spell for them. These models are already proven by generations of wizards, and they are usually complete.

 

For taking the easy route out they are willing to suffer through the pain and the chance of failure resulting in death. In return, those who created their own spells had a far less chance of failure during their advancement.

 

Since the nature of the spells is clearly understood by the person who created them, the rejection of the mana flowing in the determining pathway is said to be minimal.

 

Ronan thought about it the whole night and decided on his path.

 

Getting rid of his rigid mentality he decided to hack his way through this world. If he didn't have the best talent, he could find a way to simply sidestep that requirement.

 

The solution to many problems can often be found by just changing the perspective of a mind. Earlier, Ronan felt hopeless because he would never be able to climb to the top of this world as he had mediocre talent. But what if he could cheat his way to the top of this world?

 

Ronan might not be a genius, but he came from the earth, which had a lot of geniuses throughout its history. From gunpowder to electricity, he could make spells models based on many things not of this world. All they required is the simple physics and chemistry taught in high school.

 

But Ronan decided to aim for the stars. Literally.

 

A simple equation that changed the face of the earth and created the power feared by every country.

 

E=mc2

 

The famous energy-mass equation.

 

That equation showed the relation between energy and mass.

 

Mass was nothing more than a state of energy. This equation led to the creation of nuclear weapons and nuclear reactors.

 

However, this world had mana. A state of energy that is all-encompassing and the source of all things, living or not. Most people just have a tiny amount of mana and cannot control it. This bent the laws of the universe.

 

The spell Ronan envisioned didn’t directly create a nuclear weapon. Such a task would be exhausting and would be uncontrollable.

 

Even if he could create the spell of an atomic bomb, it would be unusable. 

 

The reason why nuclear weapons were powerful was because of the uncontrollable neutron emission creating a chain reaction. Such a weapon was all-powerful but was not selective. It had limited value as it is destructive to friend or foe.

 

Besides, it didn't solve Ronan's problem in the beginning. A spell of such power would surely require immense amounts of mana, and he had none. It would perhaps take him decades to accumulate the required amount of mana.

 

Ronan had a medium-level affinity, which is said to have a tenth of sensitivity to mana compared to a high-level affinity. The mana affinity is innately decided, and there is no way to increase this value. Ronan would thus have to work for ten years to get the same result as those with high affinity working for a year.

 

Dr.Virat told Ronan to have patience. Ronan agreed but decided to find ways to remedy his situation. He then remembered the rune formation of awakening, which had over ten times the atmospheric mana density.

 

Ronan was sure that his training speed was much faster under that formation.

 

He looked at it like this.

 

Training speed = Mana sensitivity aka affinity * mana quantity

 

If he had a sensitivity about the tenth of a high-level acolyte, then all he needed to do was to increase the mana quantity by ten times.

 

Ronan thus envisioned a plan.

 

Two spells to solve his problems. Utilizing the established physics, he would create a spell model that would replace the function of a nuclear reactor. This would generate massive amounts of energy which he would then convert to mana by using the second spell.

 

The idea looks ridiculous at a glance. Nuclear reactors are complex systems and cannot be simply made into a spell. But this world was far away from his reality from the beginning. The laws of men didn't apply here, and the limits of Ronan's imagination were limiting his future. Anything and everything was possible in a world of magic.

 

This would forever solve his problem with affinity. But a question arises. Why not just use the rune formations instead of going through all this hassle?

 

The answer to that question was simple. Cost.

 

Rune formations can increase the mana density by a factor of two to ten times, but they required high-quality mana crystals to function.

 

Each high-quality crystal was worth a hundred medium-quality crystals.

 

Each medium-quality crystal was worth a hundred low-quality crystals.

 

Each low-quality crystal was worth about ten gold coins.

 

Each gold coin was worth ten silver coins.

 

Finally, each silver coin was worth ten bronze coins.

 

Servant salaries were typically around ten bronze coins per month.

 

An apprentice salary was around a few silver coins per month.

 

A senior apprentice's salary was around ten silver coins per month.

 

From this, it could be seen just how valuable high-quality crystals are.

 

No wonder so many nobles and even the royal family are interested in the high-quality crystal mine discovered in the Laplace mountains.

 

Ronan used up ten high-quality crystals in just an hour of using the rune formation. If he trained for a day using the formation, he would use 240 crystals. Calculating yearly, it would be a ridiculous amount.

 

However, the main problem was the efficiency of rune formation would rapidly decrease when he advances to a wizard. A wizard had a great capacity of mana, and such rudimentary formation won't be able to sustain his training, not to mention the classes above wizards.

 

Thus the costs would increase in the order of thousands of times per advancement if he chooses to use a formation. Such exorbitant costs cannot be paid by even nobles.

 

Ronan, however, wanted an innate spell that would supply him with extra mana for his training. He would have unlimited mana and the convenience to train anywhere. The spell can function in the background and replenish his mana even in the middle of a battle.

 

As Ronan advances further, the spell would also be advanced. This was a permanent solution to his problem. The problem with mana sensitivity would be solved, and his strength would rapidly rise.

 

Coming up with a solution to his problem solved all of Ronan's worries. There were a lot of unknowns in his future, and he would have to be careful in not letting anyone know about his plan.

 

Ronan wanted to activate not one spell but two spells during his advancement and get a combination spell. He named it 'Star Domain.'

 

Flexing his muscles, he took a deep breath and readied himself for the day. It would be a long one as he would have to go to the noble quarters and meet Count Glen August, his new master.

 

As he stepped outside his room, he met Dr.Virat along with the six leaders who appeared to be waiting for him.

 

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