Chương 484: Chapter 482 – Future Plans

Damion was up to the fourth day of the Magic System applying slow upgrades to his magic power. The slowly increasing amounts had pushed his magic power to over 3, 000, 000, but he was still shy of achieving SS Rank. However, Mage Parivar had returned from her scouting mission, and the S Ranks had devised a strategy to move forward. Unfortunately, that strategy required him to wait for a few more days before he could do anything. Though, he was quite surprised when Mage Teft told him the plan.

Not just because it was a gamble, but because it caused an old quest to complete. Coming Together, granted him 1, 000 experience and 1, 000, 000 credits for the store. He supposed it was a good bit and would help him pay for the increase in his own artifacts once he hit SSS Rank and could upgrade them all again. For now, he waited and practiced his magic. Since he had achieved S Rank, a number of his spells were able to advance.

On top of the ones that had been ready to advance, with the help of Visneer's training area Damion was able to push most of his spells up at least one Rank, some rising by several. He especially worked on his domain spells and the various spells from Mage Harris' repository. Even with the effort he was putting in, only a few of his spells advanced to S Rank. With only his two most used spells active spells, Ice Shard and Ice Sword, and a single passive spell, Concealed Aura, advancing to SS Rank.

Still with every spell that advanced, Damion felt more confident in the upcoming battle. They had agreed on two more days before the start of the battle, which meant he would be SS Rank, but still short of achieving SSS Rank. He guessed that meant he would just have to do the best he could, though there was still a good chance that he would reach SSS Rank by the time he reached the seal. With two days left he spent the first day continuing his training with plans to rest the second day.

He felt it was best to make sure his body was fully recovered, even going as far as shutting off most of his passives off to minimize his mana use. In the fight to come he knew there was the possibility of it lasting for days and potentially reaching the point of mana exhaustion. Every little bit of conversation on his last day of rest meant he would be able to go that much further in the days to come. As Damion grew, so did his familiars.

Not as quickly or as effortlessly as he did, but they were pulled along with him. The Iblis brought his familiars plenty of Demonic Beast flesh and cores to consume which provided the mana to propel them along after him. Phil had not yet reached S Rank and Nyx was not far behind the Blizzard King in strength. The surprise was Peter. The Wind Griffin had shot up through in power and was closing in on Phil and Nyx.

Damion suspected there was some resonance between him, his familiars and the spell that bound them together. However, he had no time to experiment and investigate the matter thoroughly. All he could do was document his observations and guesses and store them in his tablet. Not only was he storing a copy of all his magic seals and artifact designs on his tablet, but he also took the time to record messages for his family.

A backup of everything he knew and thought, with the exception of any mention of the Magic System. The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation. Just before his day of rest was to start, Damion asked the Iblis to temporarily drop the Portal blocking field around Ardnet. Once the field was down he quickly cast Portal and tossed his tablet through. He was sure Elicia would detect the magical disturbance and find the tablet.

He had every confidence he would be returning home to her soon, but it felt foolish to him not to take some precautions. Once the Portal closed, Damion began his day of rest by reflecting on how easy it had been to open the Portal to Nerotath. The Portal that took him home before had required the assistance of an S Rank Iblis as well as one of the Magic System's Mana Potions. This time, he merely used up three quarters of his mana, which was already close to full again.

The combination of higher magic power and increased mana capacity let him open the Portal and aside from the increased cost of mana, felt no different to him than every other time he used the spell. With the confidence that he could easily get home whenever he wanted, Damion laid back and started dreaming of what he would do when he got home. As he lay there and daydreamed, he realized that the next day, the day the assault would begin, was his birthday. It was not the first time he had forgotten his birthday.

In fact, more years than not he had overlooked it. If not for the Magic System displaying his age whenever he checked his status, he had the feeling he would not even be able to keep track of how old he was. With his birthday passing, it also meant Avalon had nearly completed its first school year.

Of course, none of the students were ready to begin practicing magic, but the curriculum laid down called for them to begin feeling ambient mana and to learn to channel it into practice plates as he had done in his first days with Mage Teft. Aside from normal class subjects and basic mana control, the students had a rigorous physical training routine. Though, only rigorous for their age. Each year the magical training and physical training would increase in complexity and difficulty.

The goal was for them to be formidable knights by the time they reached eighteen, competent with handling artifacts and various martial weapons. Once they were eighteen and it was verified their core was fully developed, moving on to the learning of magic seals was the next step. With the gift of grimoires from the Iblis, and Damion's and the other S Rank mages coming up with security enchantments to be built into them, he was confident Avalon's students would quickly rise above students of other magic schools.

That was not to say they were just given a grimoire and pushed out into the world. They still had four years of magical training. Learning about crafting spells and artifacts. Not to mention they had to build their own grimoire, which did not start until the second year. Their first year was more about theory learning and mastering their first tier 1 spell. Their first spell would be determined by their affinity and given to them by the school.

Unlike Silver Spire or the other schools that horded magical knowledge, only providing tidbits to loyal dogs, Avalon was determined to inspire loyalty through action. The school would provide spells, materials for artifacts, even a complete adventuring kit for graduates. All funded by the school's share of the spoils from the Avalon labyrinth. With the wealth the labyrinth brought in, there was not even a need to charge the students tuition. All they had to do to succeed was to be there and be willing to learn.

Though Damion knew that would be easy for some and harder for others, but it was up to the individuals to make something of themselves, his school was just giving them a chance.