Currently, the Five Apprentices of Darius had made great progress into the Journeyman stage. They had long developed their own systems of spells, starting from their base spell to its accompanying ones.
Every Journeyman Mage worth their salt had to, at least, do this much. It was impossible to go far in the realm of magic if one did not systematically create their own personal system and relied on the spells of others all the time.
The first step to this was to choose a theme for your system based on your elements. It could be 'speed', 'damage', 'defense', 'attrition', 'cost reduction', 'close combat enhancement', etc.
So for Ash who had the elements of Gravity, Water, Earth, Life, and Lightning. His chosen Main Element was Lightning, and he had shown startling proficiency in Gravity.
He opted to go for the 'Speed' theme, where he would use Gravity to increase his speed and reduce that of his enemies while firing quick, unavoidable magic using Lightning.
Then there was Reina, who had the elements of Water, Light, Wind, Wood, and Spirit. Her chosen Main Element was Spirit while her secondary was Wind.
She opted to go for the theme of 'Control', where she would use her Spirit element to subdue the mind of the enemy, or at least hamper them, while using her Wind element to disrupt their physical movements. So Spirit for mental and wind for physical crowd control.
Next was the caustic Jonathan, whose elements represented his personality as they included Death, Gravity, Metal, Explosion, and Fire. His chosen Main Element was Fire and his secondary was Death.
He hadn't hesitated to go with the theme of 'Damage'. With his Fire magic, he could bombard his foe with rapturous heat endlessly, while his Death magic would either summon troops to enforce his actions or directly damage the enemy and reduce their life.
After him was James, whose elements were Poison, Psychic, Ice, Sound, and Darkness. His chosen Main Element was Darkness and his secondary was Sound.
Naturally, his theme was 'Untraceable Death'. All of his elements gave him the means to theoretically kill someone without being seen or without even being there! However, the Darkness element granted him a level of invisibility that was not easily detectable, reinforced by his control over the Sound and Psychic element.
With Poison, he could stand in stealth and watch an enemy die slowly, unable to even tell where he was. He could also stab them in the heart with an ice spike, which would melt when the corpse was found, leaving no evidence behind.
Finally, there was the mighty Anthony, who had the extreme elements of Space, Time, Order, Chaos, and Aether. His chosen Main Element Space and his secondary was Time.
He decided on the theme of "Close Combat Enhancement" after careful contemplation. His physical prowess was the highest among the apprentices and was still growing crazily due to his bloodline.
Not to mention, fighting with his Somersault Cloud and Bo Staff was extremely important to him, while his magical elements either had a high price, were tough to use, or had unique uses.
As such, a typical magical battle would be awkward, so he chose to use them to enhance his fighting skill, which was the best possible choice.
With his Space Element, he would strike the air, cutting the distance between him and his prey to have the end of his weapon appear behind you. With his time control, he could suddenly accelerate like a speedster and appear before you, not giving you a chance to dodge.
Or he could slow you down right before he was about to attack, rendering you naked to his strike. With his Aether element, he could turn your attack into energy for him to absorb, forming the ultimate defense.
At the same level, Anthony was unbeatable. The only way to defeat him was to have far better stats than he did, at least double.
Speaking of stats, their current status was as follows;
[Name: Ash Spencley || Race: Human || Stage: Journeyman || Jobs: Mage, Multi-Elementalist.
HP: 47,460/47,460 (15,128) || MP: 18,000/18,000 (6720) || STA: 9,040/9,040 (3968)
Level: 40 (32) || P-Status: Healthy || M-Status: Calm
Power: 210 (122) || Speed: 127 (79) || Constitution: 226 (124)
Magic: 450 (210) || Will: 899 (500) || Luck: 50.
Skills: Omitted.
Spells: Omitted.]
[Name: Reina McNickles || Race: Human || Stage: Journeyman || Jobs: Mage, Multi-Elementalist.
HP: 13,407/13,407 (7743) || MP: 15,880/15,880 (6336) || STA: 4,360/4,360 (2784)
Level: 40 (32) || P-Status: Healthy || M-Status: Calm
Power: 123 (89) || Speed: 146 (109) || Constitution: 109 (87)
Magic: 397 (198) || Will: 1205 (450) || Luck: 55.
Skills: Omitted.
Spells: Omitted.]
[Name: Jonathan Black || Race: Human || Stage: Journeyman || Jobs: Mage, Multi-Elementalist.
HP: 77,778/77,778 (21025) || MP: 9,440/9,440 (4000) || STA: 11,920/11,920 (4640)
Level: 40 (32) || P-Status: Healthy || M-Status: Calm
Power: 261 (145) || Speed: 108 (83) || Constitution: 298 (145)
Magic: 236 (125) || Will: 554 (330) || Luck: 45.
Skills: Omitted.
Spells: Omitted.]
[Name: James Jones || Race: Human || Stage: Journeyman || Jobs: Mage, Multi-Elementalist.
HP: 14,552/14,552 (8091) || MP: 17,680/17,680 (6432) || STA: 4,280/4,280 (2784)
Level: 40 (32) || P-Status: Healthy || M-Status: Calm
Power: 136 (93) || Speed: 325 (138) || Constitution: 107 (87)
Magic: 442 (201) || Will: 1020 (480) || Luck: 70.
Skills: Omitted.
Spells: Omitted.]
[Name: Anthony Sabins || Race: Half-Human, Half-Beastman (Sage Monkey Clan) || Stage: Journeyman || Jobs: Mage, Multi-Elementalist.
HP: 397,528/397,528 (55695) || MP: 35,080/35,080 (14496) || STA: 25,160/25,160 (7520)
Level: 40 (32) || P-Status: Healthy || M-Status: Calm
Power: 632 (237) || Speed: 347 (196) || Constitution: 629 (235)
Magic: 877 (453) || Will: 2340 (950) || Luck: 200 (100).
Skills: Omitted.
Spells: Omitted.]
They had grown quite a bit, with Anthony taking the cake. Whatever this Sage Monkey Clan was, it produced some powerful offspring, enough that it even intrigued Darius. He even considered extracting some of Anthony's blood to make a second group of elite troops, though he ultimately decided against it.
After all, this kind of bloodline that could yield this kind of power was not easily replicated. Even the Phoenix bloodline he was using was the most basic of them all, the Fire Phoenix, and for it to work, he needed the womb of an actual Demi-God which was Medea.
However, she was already well on her way to death with how many offspring she had already spat out. Her body had long-lost its sensual splendor and soft, supple nature, becoming like leather, as her face also became gaunt.
Each child ravenously drained their mother without caring for her life, and she too was under compulsion to do her best. Before, if giving birth had given her some sense of pleasure - due to the insemination method and her strong physique - it was now pure pain.
Each birth felt like the child was scraping the inside of her womb on its way out, like she had an STD that forced her to piss/excrete fire from her genitals. It would only get worse from here though, as Darius had said, she would die in absolute agony after being dried out like a piece of cloth.
Medea was lucky her soul had already been destroyed by Darius, as she would rather die than experience this pain… which she had.
Right now, Darius was thinking of a way to clone her or to find a better sample. He could have if Miranda had not turned Elysium into the dictionary definition of Murican Retribution.
However, he had no means for that yet, though he had some ideas with the help of the system shop, which was why he had sent Luna out on her mission to gather True Coins indirectly.
However, that was for later. Right now, as the lads were at the cusp of the Journeyman stage and had already developed their magic systems, they naturally came to their master asking for his help for a breakthrough.
Darius, who was reading a book quietly smiled and closed it.
"No. Not yet. You are not ready to be Adepts." He declared.
The Five Apprentices were speechless, but didn't dare argue. Darius saw this and decided to be lenient for once.
"You have the stats of a Peak Master Mage or a low Grandmaster, so we'll do this. I will set up an arena in the city for powers all over the continent and beyond to challenge you to a life and death duel." Darius began, tapping his desk lightly.
"Whoever manages to beat you, will be showered in resources, basically everything I ever gave you at once. If they lose, you accumulate one Battle Point. Whoever managed to get 100 Battle points will qualify for Adept Ascension from me." Darius concluded as he went back to reading his book.
Understanding that they had been dismissed, the Five Apprentices filed out of the office with strange expressions. There was a mixture of anxiety, fear, excitement, and confidence.
They knew their power, but they were still kids at the end of the day. This cocktail of emotions churned through them all night, not allowing them to sleep or focus.
Meanwhile, Darius' challenge, thanks to Miranda's help, spread throughout the continents rapidly. When various persons of interest saw the rewards, they immediately moved out.
Killing some brats for these rewards was practically the same as giving them away!
These challengers' main concern now was to be the first one to claim the prize.
After all, there were only five of them to kill!
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