In the Ivory Tower, there were a myriad of acolytes, and few walked conventional paths. For example, Ellan Hawfea was about 14, just a year older than Drodosis, and yet, he was already known as one of the strongest intermediate acolytes within the tower. The surprising thing in the story is that Ellan Hawfea was actually not coming from an eminent adept family. Such cases were not rare in the tower. Most of the acolytes studying in the tower were coming from the Phuinem Kingdom's high nobility circles, with their families having ties with the Heister family.

The Hawfea family was one of the many counties of the Phuinem Kingdom, and Ellan thus entered the school at the age of 8, which was the youngest age at which you could start meditate, and thus begin your cultivation path. He was not especially talented, and he didn't have wealth to spend either. Yet, he had already broken through the intermediate acolyte realm after transplanting a Sand Bear Heart in his body, allowing his spirit to grow tremendously in the process. From then on, he walked a strange path of semi-elemental adept path, combined with bloodline adept methods.

Ellan Hawfea was just one of the many abnormalities in the tower, and Drodosis had just joined their ranks, as he decided to walk the path of a Water Elemental and Body Refinement Adept.

In the market floor, thousands of mortals who didn't have talent to cultivate spirit were trading goods for gold coins and magical crystals. While magical crystal was the main currency of adepts, most of low-quality adept goods weren't worth as much as one magical crystal. Hence, people used the parity of gold coins and magical crystals to balance offer and supply.

In good times, one could exchange one magical crystal for one hundred gold coins, which was definitely a huge fortune, considering that most of commoner families only made slightly more than 50 copper coins a day, and one gold coins was worth 100 silver coins and 10 000 copper coins.

From a distance, one could see an old man, who looked like a dwarf because of his short height and immense red beard. He had scars on his body, and his insanity was well-known within the tower, so much that his violent outbursts had caused his reputation shattered in a matter of days. Only a few handfuls of people, who had known Old Foxy for years, still came to the 'shop of madness', or so was it called.

"You want to buy a water-element spell, Mister Beginner Acolyte?", the old man said in a cheering voice, obviously happy for his younger friend.

"Haha! Thank you for noticing, old man. I don't know why I took so long, but I finally broke through. However, judging from my advancement speed, I will need years to reach the intermediate realm.", Drodosis answered. Old Foxy's shop was one of the few places in the tower where he felt truly safe. The man was brutal, and mentally unstable, but he was straightforward and quite generous to his friends, so Drodosis enjoyed the old man's presence. He was more of a friend than a shop owner to him.

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"Well, don't worry about it. I also took 4 years to break through the beginner acolyte realm, and a lifetime to reach my current strength. I am no genius, I know that, but I can consider myself in the top 20 among acolytes in this tower if we're talking about combat prowess, despite the fact that I'm only an intermediate apprentice", the man bragged, before continuing, "Well, here are the water element spells I have gotten my hands on: water barrier, ice wall, ice drain.."

"Don't you have something like a Water Body Refinement spell?", Drodosis said, "I once heard of Earth Giant, the advanced apprentice who leads the Arcane Order. The man mastered a spell called Stoneflesh, which strengthened his flesh and acted as a defensive spell, except that it is permanent and it doesn't consume mana! Moreover, it also increases his strength, making him a true Earth Giant!"

"Mm..Such spells are not rare, but they are expansive. Unlike normal spells, they are body refinement techniques. Earth Giant had to spend a crazy amount of Earthcloud gems in order to cultivate the skill to this point, and even though the effects are extremely envying, there are a lot of downside as well: pain, agility loss..", the old man shared what he knew, "I happen to have the spell Blackwater Blood. It's quite different from Stoneflesh, it replaces your blood with Blackwater, providing your body with huge regeneration speed!"

"Oh? Why do you look so grim?", Drodosis was surprised at the old man's grave face.

"The process is lethal. All of the people I sold this spell to died in the process. Moreover, it's not like you can afford the spell, much less the precious blackwater belonging to the gnoll underground tribe!"

"How much does the spell cost?", Drodosis asked, not willing to give up

"Look, it's not like I don't want to sell it to you, but without blackwater, knowing the spell will not do you any good! Come back to me when you managed to get your hands on 40 litres of blackwater, and then, we will be able to talk"

"Fine, fine! Show me your Water Orb Spell, then!"

"It costs 8 magic crystals. If you just want to rent it for copying purpose, it will only cost you half the amount."

"What if I just want to borrow it for one hour?", Drodosis asked, as if he was suddenly struck by a genius streak.

"Well, I guess I can lend it to you for free, if it's just an hour!"

Drodosis needed no more to be happy. He had just saved 4 magic crystals!

One must know that even though Drodosis came from a decaying adept family, he still received a few magic crystals from his family every month. In the past five years, Drodosis mainly used them to cover his daily living expenses and provide for his knight training.

Originally, Drodosis didn't want to walk the path of Body Refinement. However, as time passed, his breakthrough to the beginner acolyte realm was less and less probable, and he didn't want to give up his dream of strength. Hence, he knew that in Alphen, there were many human freaks who could contend with adepts, without cultivating spirit. They were highly respected and almost superior beings called Grand Knights.

Of course, becoming a Grand Knight was just as difficult as becoming an adept. Moreover, the path and resources were mostly unknown. Luck was also a big factor in becoming one. However, Drodosis was still not progressing in his acolyte path. Knights were human beings who pushed their bodies to the very limits of what was possible, and overcoming this threshold opened new prospepcts. Knights were warriors, who used internal energy to overcome genetic limits. Anyone could become a knight, with enough resource, perseverance and hard work.

Hence, Drodosis purchased and consumed elixirs, magical beast meat and took medicinal baths, spending a fortune in body refinement resources. Combined with the use of a workout programs from knight households and a breathing technique which helped him strengthen the genes in his body, he had reached the preparatory knight realm, which was his worthy perk according to his biochip. Four years of hard work enabled him to not only surpass the physique of the majority of acolytes, but also help him create solid foundations for his body refinement path.

As Drodosis thought about his past, he suddenly realized that a few dozen minutes passed already since he had borrowed the Water Orb Spell, and he had still no idea as how to learn it instantly.

In the five past years, Drodosis read countless books about magic, and after practicing for a very long time, he had finally mastered one spell: Acid Spear, a corrosive-type spell which basically consisted in condensing water elemental particles into an acid spear, which dealt a crazy amount of damage. It helped him gain confidence, and it was probably the main reason why he didn't give up his daily meditation, and survived the few patrolling missions he went through.

[Beep! Water Orb Spell Matrix has been successfully recorded. Do you wish to learn the spell? Cost: 80 evolution points.]

'How much time will it take?'

[Beep! The process will be instant. Your understandings will also be complete, so there might be additional benefits in comprehending new theories. Note that comprehending new theories, and memorizing them are the foundation which will allow your spirit attribute to increase.]

'Mm, so learning spell helps me increase spirit, huh..Well, let's do this! It's quite cheap.'

[Beep! Synchronisation process initialized..58%...]

Drodosis suddenly felt knowledge stuck in his mind, as if he was born with it. How mysterious and grandiose the world consciousness was!

Maybe it wasn't even a being, but a godlike existence which only existed to restore the balance of the world!

[Beep! Name: Drodosis Thornfield (13-years-old, 5 months).

Beginner Acolyte

Evolution points – 244

HP – 19

Strength – 4 (+2) | Agility – 4 | Physique – 5 (+2) | Spirit – 4| Magic Power – 4 | Mana – 12

Status: Healthy.

Perks: → Preparatory Knight Physique (+2 Strength and Physique).

Skills: → Acid Spear (Deals [Spirit*3] points of damage, cost 3 points of mana).

→ Water Orb (Create a water orb around the caster, with [Spirit] layers, each one of them absorbing up to [10+Spirit] points of damage. Cost: 3 points of mana. After ten minutes, the spell is cancelled)

Items: 12 magical crystals.]

Drodosis found it odd. The water orb spell's description made him quite dubious and shocked. With his current spirit attribute, he could absorb up to 56 points of damage! Most of intermediate acolytes lacked defensive spells of this calibre, not to mention that it wasn't a one-time absorption, but it actually depended on his spirit attribute!

'What is the meaning of that?'

[Beep! Host has simply truly mastered the spell. The knowledge you received was filtered. Most of the spells of acolyte-level are actually degraded spells, or inefficient. You can consider the spell you learned as a simplified version of the original one, simpler but more efficient.]

'This is..amazing! Can I have the same thing happen with the acid spear spell?'

[Beep! Affirmative! Cost: 40 evolution points.]

'Why is the cost so low?'

[Beep! The higher your comprehension of the spell, the cheaper it will become.]

'Oh? Well, proceed anyway. I spent 4 years to learn this spell, and yet, I only managed to decrease the cost by 50%. I won't make much progress in the following days anyway, and if I don't use them, what is the use of evolution points?'

[Beep! Initializing synchronisation!]

[Beep! Name: Drodosis Thornfield (13-years-old, 5 months).

Beginner Acolyte

Evolution points – 204

HP – 19

Strength – 4 (+2) | Agility – 4 | Physique – 5 (+2) | Spirit – 4| Magic Power – 4 | Mana – 12

Status: Healthy.

Perks: → Preparatory Knight Physique (+2 Strength and Physique).

Skills: → Acid Spear (Deals [Spirit*4] points of damage, cost 3 points of mana. Projectile's speed scaling with magic power (50 + [Magic Power] *10 m/s)).

→ Water Orb (Create a water orb around the caster, with [Spirit] layers, each one of them absorbing up to [10+Spirit] points of damage. Cost: 3 points of mana. After ten minutes, the spell is cancelled)

Items: 12 magical crystals.]

The acid spear was originally a very strong spell. Now that it had been mastered, it could deal as much as 16 points of damage, at an unavoidable speed! Drodosis felt very strong for the first time in a very long time.

He thought of the scorn and ridicule he suffered in the past five years, the infamous Reynold Chase who once stole him a pouch containing 4 magic crystals and beat him up after he stood up and shouted thief, or Jean, a half-orc who used to do patrol mission with him, and suddenly abandoned him in the middle of a fight after running out of spirit. At this thought, Drodosis suddenly realized that he had many enemies, which he would make sure to pay..dearly.

It was time to show the world what he was made of!