The Era of Gods

Chapter 618: Chapter 618: Promotion to Official Wizard

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PS: Only two chapters for Mid-Autumn Festival….

He had come here during this time precisely because of the massacre in Laisson County, knowing that a large number of souls would inevitably come.

At the same time, the slaughter of that village wasn’t his handiwork. As he had said before, although he needed souls, he wouldn’t deliberately slaughter mortals. The souls he had collected before were mostly from various monsters or Other Races.

Furthermore, he had decided to head to the Northern Empire in some time, to specifically target and collect the souls of Other Races while taking revenge.

Of course, although he wouldn’t slaughter humans on a large scale, he wouldn’t be so naive as to decline souls that came his way. Thus, this powerful vengeful spirit created by a Black Wizard’s intentional massacre of several villages was collected by him along with the Black Wizard.

This powerful vengeful spirit, along with the Black Wizard, provided him with the equivalent of more than twenty thousand qualified souls, accomplishing one-fifth of the requirement in one fell swoop.

At this moment, Lin Xiao already had enough strength to deal with an average Official Wizard, although strictly speaking, he had not yet been promoted to an Official Wizard.

But when he had previously fought desperately with Julian, deliberately fusing a large amount of Titan Ancient God Bloodline, he had not died, and the fused bloodline didn’t vanish. In the end, when he completely assimilated the activated Titan Ancient God bloodline, his Constitution surpassed twenty-five points in all aspects. This was comparable to a formidable Rank 2 Wizard or creature, with enough power to effortlessly suppress almost all Rank 1 Wizards.

If he were to encounter Julian again…

He would still have the ability to flee, and there was also a possibility of winning, though not great. After all, Julian had been alive for so long and had many tricks. Moreover, Julian had his own trump cards—the power he had previously used to escape was borrowed from a Son of the Divine Realm’s progenitor. Without understanding this matter thoroughly, Lin Xiao didn’t dare to act rashly, lest he be vanquished in one move by Julian, with no chance of encountering someone like the Lord of Mysterious Valley to save him again.

Fortunately, Lin Xiao was in no rush. He would wait until he completed the ten-thousand-soul transaction to gain his freedom. In the meantime, his own strength would also grow stronger. It wouldn’t be too late to act once he was ready.

A gentleman’s revenge is not too late, even after ten years.

Currently, Lin Xiao had not yet been promoted to an Official Wizard. However, he had largely met the conditions for promotion. His spiritual power had already accumulated to more than thirty points, and his Mana had also reached more than thirty points. All he had to do was prepare a suitable Wizardry Model to solidify as his Innate Wizardry, and he could begin the promotion.@@novelbin@@

His main purpose for coming to Buzz, a city with many freelance Wizards, was to purchase a suitable Spell Model.

Without the support of a School, he could only rely on himself to make his way.

What’s known as solidifying a Wizardry Model is the process of anchoring a Wizard’s Model into the Psychic Sea constructed by an Official Wizard during promotion, making this Spell one’s Gifted Spell.

A Gifted Spell is akin to human instinct, not only powerful and low in Mana consumption, but also critical in casting speed. Directly anchored to the Psychic Sea, any Gifted Spell is instant, usable at the mere thought.

This is why Official Wizards are far more powerful than Apprentices. While an Apprentice needs to prepare materials and chant incantations to cast a spell, taking five or six seconds just to cast a Level 1 Spell, an Official Wizard can instantly cast a more powerful Level 1 Wizardry in the blink of a thought—it’s clear who is stronger at a glance.

The majority of Official Wizards choose Defensive Spells as their Gifted Spells because self-preservation is always paramount.

Lin Xiao has no intention of being unconventional; he is preparing to solidify a Level 1 Defensive Spell as well.

The next morning, Lin Xiao went to the city’s trading area. He sold all the spoils of war he had collected over the years, earning a total of sixty-six Magic Stones. Added to what he had saved earlier, such as the spoils looted from Julian’s lover, he had a total wealth of around one hundred Magic Stones.

Using these Magic Stones, he purchased a total of five First Level Defensive Spells, spending fifty-three Magic Stones, averaging about ten stones each.

The five Spell Models were Water Shield, Water Shield, Stone Skin, Force Field, and Magic Armor. Coupled with the Air Shield he had learned on his own, he had six Defensive Spells in all.

He first spent some time learning all these Defensive Spells, constructing them in his Psychic Sea using runes, and becoming adept at them.

Then, his consciousness entered the Creation Magic Cube, where he used his spiritual power to rebuild these Spell Models within the Cube. Afterward, using what he knew, he began to analyze these Spell Models.

An individual Wizard only gains one Gifted Spell upon leveling up. Theoretically, even the most powerful Wizard can only have eight Gifted Spells, making the choice for each Gifted Spell extremely important.

Lin Xiao planned to analyze all these Defensive Spells first, then use the advantages of these Spells combined with the miraculous capabilities of the Creation Magic Cube to derive a new Defensive Wizardry that combined the strengths of all the Defensive Spells to be his Gifted Spell.

It didn’t need to be too perfect, just needed to draw on the advantages of these Defensive Spells.

After all, if Wizardry becomes too powerful, it risks becoming a Level 2 Spell, making it unsuitable as a Gifted Spell for a Level 1 Wizard.

He started with the Air Shield, which was the first Wind-element Spell he learned, and combined it with the strong defenses against water and fire energies of the other two Defensive Spells. The strength of Stone Skin lied not only in its mighty physical defense but also in transforming the Air Shield from an eggshell-shaped Shield into a close-fitting one.

The super strong defense of the Force Field, along with the ability of Magic Armor to shape Defensive Spells into various forms and slightly enhance physical Constitution, all contributed to his final product.

Ultimately, after synthesizing these various Defensive Spells, and combining his understanding of Spells with a certain consumption of Creation Energy, Lin Xiao derived a First Level Defensive Wizardry with exceptionally powerful defense.

Once cast, this Wizardry would summon a layer of protective light membrane that clung to the body like a translucent garment, but granted an incredibly strong defense and amplified physical attributes.

Wrapped in this protective light membrane, his close-combat agility wouldn’t be affected in the slightest; it matched him perfectly.

Lin Xiao named this newly derived Wizardry—Wind Spirit Armor.

Then he purchased several special Spells and derived a few more powerful Wizardry techniques.

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First were the Moon Shadow Techniques, which greatly increased his speed and evasion.

Mage Hand and Scorching Technique were overlaid to create a Flame Hand that dealt additional fiery damage.

Wind Blade Technique combined with Sharpness Technique formed the Qi Blade Technique, which was not only faster but also had greater penetrating power.

And there was the Binding Technique, a combination of Air Binding Technique, Rock Hand, and Root Entanglement Technique, capable of binding an enemy in any environment—the only spell he mastered that could restrict enemies.

All of these spells were Rank 1, their power not only outstanding among their peers but also highly adaptable, effective in almost any environment and situation.

Having prepared everything, Lin Xiao rented a larger house to begin his breakthrough.

Normally, breaking through to become an Official Wizard required the assistance of awakening potions to stimulate the flesh and spirit with magic potions, temporarily greatly increasing spiritual power to force a breakthrough, at the cost of one’s health and lifespan.

If successful, one’s lifespan would significantly increase as a result of transcending life’s limits and the sublimation of the soul.

But if the breakthrough failed, not only would the body weaken due to overexertion, but the consumed lifespan would not be recovered.

Therefore, a wizard apprentice typically had, at most, two or three chances to breakthrough in their lifetime. The older they were, the fewer their chances; apprentices over seventy or eighty usually had only one opportunity to break through, and if unsuccessful, they would rapidly age and die within a few years.

The few common awakening potions available on the market included Water of Yasu, Impact Potion, and Nightmare Potion.

Beyond these, there were some less common magic potions with strong effects and severe side-effects, difficult to concoct.

Lin Xiao did not need magic potions for his breakthrough this time, as he had over 48,000 souls in his possession. He could temporarily use the spiritual power of these souls to make an impact, which had almost no side-effects, and the effect was much stronger than any awakening potion.

After all, even the Water of Yasu, reputed to have the weakest side-effects, would reduce one’s lifespan by at least ten years.

In fact, he could even directly devour these souls to permanently increase his spiritual power, an ability he obtained from bargaining with that unknown bizarre existence, but he had opted not to do so.

Primarily because he did not dare.

Devouring was easy, as the souls had no power to resist in his hands, and the sensation of gaining permanent spiritual power from the act was indescribable.

Yet, devouring souls was like an addiction, unstoppable once started.

Over time, one’s own soul would gradually be mixed with various impurities. These stray thoughts would affect the stability of the soul, and eventually, the person would go mad.

Using the dissipating spiritual power of the souls was also addictive, but not as intensely so, and crucially, it could be stopped, with a strong enough will, one could quit.

How powerful is the force of 48,000 souls?

Even borrowing just a small part of it, the total strength was far more than ten times Lin Xiao’s current spiritual power, easily catalyzing a qualitative change in his spiritual and mana powers, forming a Mana Vortex within his soul, and solidifying his Gifted Spells within it.

After that, there was no ‘after that’—by this stage, he had already been promoted to an Official Wizard.

As the borrowed spiritual power receded, Lin Xiao slowly opened his eyes, and only he could see the screen lighting up in the corner of his eye, with the attribute panel appearing before him.

Lin Xiao/Leng Lan.

Attributes: Constitution 27.2, Strength 28.1, Agility 22.5, Spirit 55.5, Mana 54.3.

Gifted Spell: Wind Spirit Armor.

Bloodline: Unknown.

Spells: Rank 1 Flame Hand, Rank 1 Moon Shadow Technique, Rank 1 Qi Blade Technique, Rank 1 Binding Technique.

Status: Mana Active.

These attributes were already quite formidable, and there was still room for growth.

As spiritual power gassified, then liquefied, and finally crystallized, each advancement in mana refinement would increase his physical qualities. Although the improvements were slight and could not compare with Bloodline Schools, the cumulative effect was significant.

After all, he was just a Rank 1 Wizard for now.

Moreover, he could shift to the path of a Bloodline Wizard in the future. Once he found the method to advance as a Bloodline Wizard, he would immediately switch, for having the Titan Ancient God Bloodline meant a brighter future as a Bloodline Wizard as opposed to the orthodox wizard path.

After ascending to an Official Wizard, Lin Xiao prepared himself and then left Buzz City, heading north.

He planned to go beyond the Northern Empire’s frontier to hunt Other Races, collect souls, seek revenge, and to kill Julian.