One year later. I'm 40.

Bertram made a full recovery and couldn't be happier with his success. We sat in his garden and chatted about different things.

- Now even the kings will show me respect. What is some lord of the city to me? - Bertram snorted.

- Yes, yes, you're great. Can you show off your power? - I asked.

- Hmm, look. - answered Bertram with his nose up to the sky.

Bertram summoned a white flash of lightning between his hands. It crackled and writhed like a snake, the power of the spell was evident. Then he directed the lightning towards the tree. An explosion sounded, at the point of collision, part of the tree evaporated, and charred along the edges. The tree fell to the ground.

I shook my head to myself. The lightning looked great, but the casting speed of the spell, the speed of the lightning itself, and even its strength were not that impressive.

- Well, what do you think? - asked Bertram smugly.

- Powerful. But why lightning? Isn't your element should be wind? I also don't understand why the lightning speed is so low. Well, compared to real lightning.

- Lightning looks more impressive and intimidating. I don't know powerful enough wind spells. Another reason to remind you to find them for me. But I have no idea about speed. Obviously, real lightning and magic are different, that's the whole reason. - Bertram answered.

- No matter how hard I try, in this part of the continent we can only get a part of the knowledge, there are still quite a few elements for which I do not have spells and may not find any. - I shook my head.

- So can we go to the Southern Continent?

- Already thought about it. However, I haven't heard of anyone being able to use the teleporter other than the youths during recruitment.

According to my information, old people like us can be useful to the organizations of the Southern Continent only as cannon fodder. At best, we will do some dirty work unsuitable for talented acolytes and True Mages. Even if we manage to get into one of these organizations, we will not get much for nothing, we have to pay for everything. If we are going to continue the life of free Mages, then there are no guarantees that we will get more there than here, given my capabilities in this kingdom. But there is a high probability that we will become servants, slaves, or be killed by some True Magician with a bad mood.

If we had a chance to become True Magicians there, I would certainly go there without hesitation. However, apparently this is not the case.

There was a short pause, after which Bertram spoke.

- To be honest, I never really expected to become a True Mage. A rank 3 acolyte has always been my main target. Moreover, I feel that the meditation technique has almost no effect on me after the breakthrough. Maybe I will also try to give life to a talented heir and send him to study. - said Bertram thoughtfully.

But I didn't want to stop there. If, after reaching the 3rd rank acolyte, I still can’t find any clues here, then I’ll have to try to get into the teleport somehow.

After chatting for a while, we parted ways.

The Sonic Sword spell was a major revelation for me. The weapon was covered with brightly shining waves shimmering with great speed. It seemed that in my hands I did not have an ordinary sword, but some kind of magical weapon of light.

These light waves were a manifestation of sound vibration. I was struck by the very fact that the sound can be closed in this way. The sound waves seemed to move back and forth around the sword at their incredible speed in a custom-made cycle. The sound effect of the spell was rather quiet.

I decided it was worth spending more time experimenting with the sonic element using this spell model as a base.

I had full and partial knowledge on various topics, however, for the most part, I devoted my time to spell formations and spell creation.

Having discovered the footprints of Merik, I soon found his residence. He lived in seclusion in a rather luxurious estate, although it seemed that even his servants did not realize that he was a Mage.

In the basement, I used the summon shadow servant spell to disable the traps, after which I found his laboratory. There were various records of his research, as well as records that he obtained from somewhere else. They were mainly concerned with the study of souls.

Mages often referred to mortals as "Soulless". Apparently, ordinary people were not too different in their eyes from cattle and did not even have something remotely resembling a soul. Even a Great Knight was not too different in this regard, and a rank 3 acolyte was only on the path of forming his soul. It was believed that the soul was fully formed only at the moment of a breakthrough to the True Mage.

For this reason, the possibilities of conducting experiments on souls were extremely limited. Mortals could not help the Mages in this matter, no matter how many of their lives were taken. In a way, it was a blessing to the common people.

However, there were still traces of obvious experiments in this basement. Judging by the records, over other acolytes. Given the already extremely low number of acolytes in the surrounding kingdoms, I was extremely surprised by what I saw.

There were also records about mixing of the elements, although the records referred to this as transmutation.

Even among mortals there were alchemists and scientists of various stripes, although not all of them were famous. I found similar people and forced them to share their knowledge and skills. Apparently, all the elements like earth, air, and so on were in turn made up of other smaller elements. In any case, I have never heard of anyone being able to do something like turning dirt into gold.

The transformation of the elements was dedicated to turning water into ice, wind and water into hail, earth and fire into lava, and so on. For me, some information was useful.

This acolyte, as surely as many others, was trying to find some way to advance to the True Mage. His method involved turning into the undead. However, this study did not seem particularly reliable to me. An extremely illusory probability of success, and most importantly, that there are no obvious prerequisites that the Magician will retain his mind. Even if he somehow miraculously succeeds, the soul will at least be seriously defiled and distorted.

I killed two mindless living dead in the cells and shook my head.

The grand prize from this trip was two rank 0 spells, one of which was the sleep spell that Merik used in my city. This spell was unlikely to have a decent effect on someone like me, but against a crowd of mortals, its effectiveness was obvious. This is the first time I've seen a rank 0 spell with such a huge reach. Of course, it also had flaws. Extremely long cast spell duration and high mental energy consumption. Even a rank 3 acolyte would not be able to use it many times.

Returning to Harin, I began to sort out another batch of garbage from pawnshops, now it was real mountains of all kinds of rubbish dumped in one heap in my yard. One crowd of servants painstakingly washed and wiped each item from the pile, after which the second crowd put one item on a tray and carried it to my table. If I did not give any signs, then this item was taken away and the next one was carried.

Although the mental energy of the Mages was good, however, scanning a bunch of junk at once was not an easy task, and I could miss something. In addition, I did not rule out that I could find something interesting even if this thing does not show any magical signs.

Magicians could not spread their mental energy in all directions to scan the area, such use of mental energy was a waste of strength. More often, variations of spells were used for certain types of search.

Merik was extremely focused on casting the spell, besides he was attacked from all sides, so he only noticed me after receiving a stunning blow.

Taking a sip of wine, I glanced at the next item. On the tray lay a small figurine no larger than a little finger. Taking it in my hands, I did not feel anything out of the ordinary. The figurine was rather shabby, but depicted a strange figure in a white cloak with a hood. If it weren’t for the scuffs, the whole figure would have been entirely white, but the inner part of the hood was an exception.

Instead of a face, there was a black spot.

Since figurines among the garbage were not such a frequent visitor, I decided to examine it carefully, trying to influence it with both mental energy and elements.

There was no reaction, however, I gradually increased the onslaught with elements trying to destroy the figurine, but was surprised to understand that I could not harm it. I started trying to use spells and my sword, but no matter what I tried, I couldn't even scratch it.

Although I had no idea what it was, I was still delighted. The material of this thing is clearly phenomenal, so it may come in handy in the future. I hid the figurine in my bosom and gave the command to continue carrying trays with the rest of the garbage.

On the next tray was another stone. In fact, the stones were the vast majority. Considering the number of stones that the impoverished kingdoms supply me, it makes sense to gradually start building walls using these same stones.

Smiling at my thoughts, I looked at the stone, but in response to my mental energy, the stone glowed like a rune and exploded.

I immediately sensed a serious threat. Magic trap!

A small black needle shot out of the stone at high speed, leaving a trail behind it.

Sensing something was wrong, I immediately activated the fire shield and ignited the Knight's life energy while reaching for my bosom.

However, the needle penetrated the fire shield almost without slowing down. The next one out of her path was my left hand, pale green in color, holding a small figurine.

Although it happened instantly, but being a True Knight, I reacted instantly. The needle slammed into the figurine, but as expected, it bounced back impotently, shattering into dust. However, upon collision, a clot of darkness separated from the needle, which covered my hand along with the figurine.

Feeling that the Knight's secret technique could not protect my hand, without hesitation, I cut off my own hand with a sword, stepping back again.

It seemed like it was finally over. My hand on the ground gradually turned black and began to turn into a disgusting black mass, which in turn gradually evaporated. I no longer noticed any anomalies in my body or environment.

The servants naturally made a fuss to which my numerous guards came running.

I moved away and ordered everyone to do the same, stopping the bleeding in the stump of my arm and using the medicine along the way. Unfortunately, the recipe for serious restorative potions did not fall into our hands.

Although I knew that there was a possibility of something like this, however, the power and meanness of this two-level trap caught me by surprise. Only an experienced rank 3 acolyte could definitely be capable of such a thing, most likely his mental energy was quite high.

Perhaps someone decided to avenge Merik, but given the lifestyle of this Magician, this was not necessarily the case.

Information about the garbage, as well as the fact that I killed Merik was known even in neighboring kingdoms. Externally, the stone looked quite ordinary, so anyone could set up this attack. Thousands of such stones go to pawnshops for the poor every day. The likelihood that I could find the culprit was slim to none.

Previously, I was convinced that some kind of trap would not be able to break through my fire shield and Knight's physique. However, now it became obvious how wrong I was, if not for the statuette, everything could have ended even worse.

It is necessary to create a multi-level protective formation and remain under its protection during garbage inspection. I have already created such and had some experience.

When I returned the figurine to myself, I did not notice a drop of damage or remnants of the curse on it. Then I went to work on defensive formations. The rest of the garbage will have to be postponed until better times.

The lack of a left arm was frustrating of course but it wouldn't affect my combat power too much. I will eventually replace my hand with something.