Roan arrived at the adventurers guild his mind still replaying the encounter he just had with a magus whose name he had forgotten to ask. He hadn't ever thought that he would meet a real magus this soon. And a rogue one, no less. But after learning that the magus could see his ether ball or rather the ether pool and recognize him as a necromancer, Roan wished that he hadn't met that man. Fortunately, Magus were rare in this town. Otherwise, he would have been discovered by the church or some other magus already without him knowing.

'I guess, I got lucky'. Roan thought as he quickly submitted the herbs and mission receipts. Ressa quickly checked the herbs and gave him his reward for the mission-two silvers. Not a lot considering that he had to go to Mervielle but it was easy money as long as you didn't run into any beasts while searching for the herbs just like he had run into the magus today.

Roan couldn't guess what the magus' motives were. He talked about some duty as a rogue magus but who was he fooling? Rogue Magus were called rogue for a reason-They were free of any duties.

He had left a book of unknown content and a strange warning about someone named Cassandra. He didn't know someone named Cassandra. So, how he was going to remain away from her, Roan didn't know. She might be some noble ruler of some neighbouring town or even a prostitute. She could be anyone.

'I know nothing '. Roan thought as he walked out of the guild with his rewards for the herb-gathering mission. He truly felt clueless and lost. With no one to guide him, Roan felt like he was swimming against a raging river.

Roan swiftly walked through the streets and arrived at the slums. He hadn't achieved his original goal but it wasn't a bad day at all however strange it may have been.

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Roan arrived at his hut, exhausted and his eyes barely open. He plopped down on the bed and fell asleep as soon as he closed his eyes.

When Roan's eyes cracked open, morning sunlight spilt through the ceiling. He blinked a couple of times, giving his eyes some time to get used to the bright light. He rubbed his eyes as he sat up making him realize that his body was in shambles. It hurt everywhere and his stomach was grumbling in hunger.

He got up and quickly washed. He prepared breakfast with a smile on his face as he made plans for the day. Visiting the Guild once a day was a routine at this point after two years of adventuring. He also had some reading to do, especially the black book that he had gotten from the magus.

He quickly gobbled up the vegetable gruel, the only viable food that he could conjure up with a pot, fire, some vegetables and a pinch of salt as the only condiment. Spices and condiments were expensive as they had to be imported from other towns or even kingdoms which caused the price of dishes made with a variety of spices to skyrocket. But they were the pleasure that a human needed in their life. So, despite the high price, Roan still visited taverns for some nice food.

He washed the dishes and made himself comfortable on the straw bed and pulled out the book he had hidden beneath his only table in the whole room. He wriggled his fingers in anticipation as he brought the book to his lap.

' Let's see if it's any good. '

The book was pitch black with no writing in the front or the back. It looked ominous. He opened the cover revealing its first page. It read' A Book on Necromancy by Kohul. '

He flipped to another page and he quickly went through all the pages as he sat there on his bed.

Roan could feel the sun directly above his roof as he closed the book. It had taken him around three hours just to finish the book. A lot had been learned and his head was busy processing all the new knowledge he had just gained.

The book had records of necromancy and some basic spells and was written by a Necromancer whose name was kohul. A treasure to the current Roan who was clueless about his abilities other than the ones he could instinctively use. It also mentioned an important aspect of being a Magus which was meditation. A process by which every magus grew their ether pool and their mastery over the ether. Thankfully, this book had a basic meditation technique which Roan could immediately use. Otherwise, he would have to search for it and he didn't know where to even start.

The book also mentioned the ranks of magus and their meanings. It started with Neophytes who were just a beginner learning how to control their ether. And then came the Magus rank or official magus which was bestowed upon those who could fully control their ether and have managed to grow their ether pool by meditation. This rank was then followed by Grandee. Grandees were rare. More than Official Magus. To become one, a magus had to grow his ether pool and solidify it to form an ether core in their heart which was a feat that few magus manage to achieve. And Even above Grandees were Virtuosos, a Magus capable of controlling ether outside of their body and using it to empower their spells. A rank even rarer than Grandee.

The book had nothing on any upper ranks above Virtuoso.

But the most important knowledge the book provided was the meditation technique and the spells of necromancy. It also talked about the types of undead. It was truly a treasure trove of information.

'I have to try these '. Roan thought as he stared at the book. Trying out the spells required materials like dead bodies or something called ether stones. And he had none of those. So, the only thing he could try was the meditation technique. It seemed pretty simple to Roan.

Roan put the book on the table and sat cross-legged on the bed. He closed his eyes and tried to free his mind of thoughts. The first step of meditation was to achieve a still mind. Easy to say but hard to achieve.

Roan sat there as he tried not to think about anything. It was hard. It was his first time trying to meditate. Who had time to meditate when you could be hunting beasts in Mervielle? Roan chuckled but then shook his head. He had to still his mind not make some lame jokes.

A couple of minutes later, Roan blew out the breath he had been holding and shook his head. It was a failure. He was just too distracted. It was probably not the time to be meditating. He had been through a lot in the past few days. Keeping his mind free of thoughts was like asking him to fight a dragon. An impossible endeavour.

'But I can't give up this easily. ' Giving up after failing once wasn't a virtue of a man bound to succeed. Roan hyped himself with some motivational quotes he had heard from Ruth and opened the book again hoping to find some tricks to help in his meditation. And he found one.

Focusing on breathing seemed to help according to the manual. So, he again straightened himself and evened his breathing, putting all of his focus on it.

Thankfully, the slum was pretty deserted on the day. Otherwise, it would have been impossible for Roan to focus on one thing.

He tried to ignore the various questionable smells and the sound of scurrying rats. And a couple of minutes later, only the sound of him inhaling and exhaling remained on Roan's mind.

And at that moment, Roan could feel or rather see a lump in his chest. It was dark but not black. Almost grey. It sat in an empty chamber in his heart and slowly rotated pulling Roan into its rhythm. He had succeeded. But he couldn't distract himself. He kept his focus on his breathing.

Roan followed the instructions from the manual and forced some of the outer gas of the rotating disk to disperse around his body, controlling it with his mind. The gas slowly exited the chamber. Roan wanted to follow and suddenly his vision seemed to glide with the black gas as it travelled all around his body. Roan at first saw his full heart after exiting from its empty chamber. He saw the lungs, contracting and expanding and his numerous blood vessels connecting to his heart. The black gas travelled through his blood and entered every nook and cranny of his body. And a couple of seconds later, The gas returned with Roan's vision back to the heart.

Roan opened his eyes. He felt no different but he could feel the lump in his chest had gotten noticeably heavier which meant that he had successfully managed to increase his ether pool.

Roan was surprised. Rightly so, as the book had said to master the meditation technique a normal person needed almost a week. Only those with immense talent were able to master the technique and grow their ether pool in just a single day. And Roan hadn't even known about the technique for six hours. Even awakening naturally shouldn't cause his speed to increase that drastically. Or had he underestimated the extent of what awakening naturally entailed? Did that mean he was a prodigy? Roan did not know and it didn't matter. All Roan cared about was that he now had a way to increase his abilities and he was going to use it as much as he could.

Mastering the meditation technique meant that he was now halfway through becoming an Official magus. He just now had to learn to fully control his ether and not waste it while using spells. Easier said than done.

" If one is wasting ether, He/She can feel it. " It was written in the book but Roan had no clue how he was supposed to feel. What feeling and when? There were just too many questions and few answers.

'Could it be that I don't waste ether? ' Roan thought. It was a reasonable thought as he had just experienced such a situation while meditating. And if it were true, he was a true talent. Or he was just too insensitive to even feel himself wasting ether. Either could be true.

He put all his thoughts in the back of his mind and stood up from the bed. His left leg had gotten numb. He extended the leg and pinched it as he wobbled out of the hut. He had to visit the Guild for some jobs in town this time. Resting is for the losers. And he was no loser.