After lunch, Abium bid farewell to Mage Ron and returned to his room. There were so many questions in his mind, so he didn't plan on spending more time with an apprentice mage.
Soon after, he entered his dorm, locked the door from inside, and asked.
'Azolla, I have been thinking about something for a while now. Why do these mages never show themselves in public?'
Even in the past, he only met them during official missions or royal banquets.
'Kid, Mages live much longer than normal people. Even an apprentice mage's lifespan should be around 180 to 250 years. As for an official mage, his lifespan should be around 350 to 500 years, so it's normal for you to meet them rarely. Unlike Warriors, Mages mostly spend their time doing meditation and spell building than mingling with mortals.'
'Even an apprentice mage lives more than 180 years?' He couldn't help but get startled inside. Abium always thought that the apprentice mages' lifespan was around the same age as mortals and was shocked by her answer.
Although he knew that Official Mages had a longer lifespan than mortals, he didn't expect it to be this much.
Eventually, he let out a deep sigh and asked.
'This lifespan scale is only for humans, right? What about elves? I heard that they live much longer than humans, though.'
'No, kid. Humans, Elves, Dwarfs, and even Beastkins have the same lifespan. But unlike humans, elves tend to be more aficionados of elements and have many opportunities to become either a Mage or a Druid. That's why almost all elves live longer than humans.'
Before he could ask any more questions, Azolla sighed deeply in his head and added.
'First, concentrate on improving your strength and becoming an official mage.'
'Okay…' Abium moved towards the living room in disappointment, sat on the sofa, and took out the zero-tier spellbook.
Then, he flipped the pages and searched for a suitable spell model to construct.
This time, he chose another dark elemental spell called Dark Bind.
[Dark Bind:
Casting this spell will allow the user to create multiple black chains and help him during battles.
Range: 8 to 10 meters.]
Without any delay, he activated the [Eidetic Memory] ability, memorized the spell model, and then closed his eyes.
Following that, he used his spirit power, created rune characters like before in his mind, and formed a hexagonal-shaped spell model.
As the spell model construction moved towards the final phase, dark-elemental energies gathered inside Abium's room and surrounded his body like a whirling cyclone. Small ripples of black smoke appeared here and there and even caused the magic lamps to shimmer.
The next instant, the whole dorm suddenly turned dark!
But he didn't pay any attention to it and continued to create the final rune character.
As soon as he finished creating the final rune character and attached it to the spell model, the outside dark-elemental energies drew closer to him and assimilated into his body.
At the same time, a three-headed snake tattoo reappeared on his nape and flickered in an eerie reddish light before disappearing.
Following that, everything returned to normal.
Meanwhile, Abium slowly shifted his attention towards his mind and checked the spell model.
Later, he noticed that a pitch-black spell model made of runic characters floated inside like a star and looked beautiful.
He also felt that his understanding of darkness had improved along with his senses.
'Strange! I can see everything clearly, even though it is dark inside.'
While analyzing the changes, he felt a tickling sensation in his nape region and furrowed.
He touched his nape to check if something was there but didn't find anything.
'What is this unsettling feeling?' He narrowed his eyes in suspicion. In the meantime, Azolla noticed the discomfort in his mind and chuckled.
'I forgot to tell you one thing. An enemy had already marked you as his target, lad.' Azolla said in his mind.
'Enemy?' Abium froze as he heard Azolla's words and asked in a hurry.
'Who is it?'
'I don't think it's a good time to learn about the enemy, lad. Some higher beings could get alerted by uttering their names or even thinking about them. It's better to be cautious than to rush into things.' Azolla's words made Abium widen his eyes.
At that moment, a strange sense of urgency appeared in his heart.
'Rest for a while and then construct the next spell model. As for this matter, you can think about it later.' Azolla spoke in his mind.
'Got it.'
Abium nodded his head in agreement and headed to the bedroom to rest for a while.
A few hours later, he woke up and thought of constructing the next spell model.
Unlike other spells, this spell was different and had little to no benefit to him. But Azolla recommended this spell and told him that it would help him in the future. She also said that it was a spell that every spatial affinity holder must construct inside their sea of consciousness.
'Storage, huh?'
This spell could let him manipulate space elements, create a separate space, and store things away like a space ring. Azolla also said this was an active spell that would take only a minute amount of mana and permanently open a small space for himself. Although it might not be that useful in battle, Azolla told him that he could create a mini pocket dimension one day!
He again sat in a meditative state and began to construct his next spell.
But this time, small crystalline particles of energy gathered around his body instead of fire or dark elements.
Although Abium couldn't see those particles, he sensed familiar energy.
Abium felt the same way when he constructed the Blink spell model and thought it might be easier than before. It wasn't long before he had trouble building this spell model. What made him a bit anxious was that this [Storage] spell model had 33 rune characters!
He continued to inscribe those rune characters in his mind for hours and felt like time was moving much slower. His every action became much slower, and soon he entered a deep meditation state.
He felt like he had been inscribing those runes for days or even weeks.
On the outside, only two hours had passed.
"Ha! Finally!" Abium opened his amber eyes as he finished inscribing the final spell model and heaved a deep breath.
He managed to create six spells in his mind in a short amount of time and felt excited.
But a moment later, his excited face started to frown as he felt dizzy all of a sudden. His eyes became blurry before he could understand the situation, followed by abrupt tiredness.
The next instant, Abium leaned on the nearby sofa and fell on the floor before sinking into a deep sleep.
He slept peacefully on the ground for nearly two days!
Two days later, a sudden knocking sound woke him up.
He instantly sat up and noticed that he had been sleeping on the floor.
'What happened, Azolla?' In anxiety, he couldn't help but ask.
I think it has to do with the strange divine power ability you have. Apparently, that ability was activated when you created the previous spell model, and it even reduced the construction time to just two hours. But this strange 'Time-Accelerating' ability has a weakness. It consumes your mental power and even pushes you to a coma-like stage. It would be best if you learned more about it, lad. Otherwise, this ability might turn into a double-edged sword.' Azolla spoke in a solemn tone.
At that moment, the same knocking sound came from outside.
Furrowing, Abium stood up from the floor, quickly walked towards the entrance, and turned the door knob before opening it.
Once he opened the door, he saw a pitch-black eye with strange black wings hovering in the air.
Slowly, its small white pupil gazed at him up and down and descended slowly.
Following that, Abium heard a middle-aged man's voice from that eye.
"Young mage, I'm waiting for you at the alchemy laboratory. Come and meet me now."
'Teacher Zivior?'
He was startled by the voice and soon nodded.
Meanwhile, the black eye suddenly flew towards the ceiling and soon disappeared.
'Familiar? Or is it a spell?'
Abium shook his head, turned around before locking the door, and headed towards the fourth layer. He saw many grey-robed and even some black-robed mages along the way and noticed that they were walking here and there while carrying books.
'Are they attending classes?'
As he stepped on the stairs, he thought further,
'I wonder how many apprentice mages are staying here.'
'It's probably around 500 apprentice mages, lad. But among these numbers, only a handful of them would reach the level of 'Official Mage' status.' Azolla spoke in his mind.
At that moment, Abium also noticed something odd.
'Why do most of the mages look older?' What shocked him most was that almost all of their spirit power was only around 8 to 12 points!
'As I said, the more you improve your spirit power, the harder it will be to improve further.' Azolla responded calmly.
Abium listened to her words and walked past several rooms and halls, and finally arrived at the laboratory section.
After that, he recalled the White Tower's blueprint from his memories and started searching for the alchemic laboratory.
After ten minutes of searching, he finally arrived at a closed metallic door, raised his hand, and was about to knock on it but suddenly froze.
At that moment, the door opened on its own, followed by a middle-aged man's voice.
"Abium? Enter!" The voice was authoritative and cold.
Meanwhile, Abium nodded his head subconsciously and entered the experimental laboratory.
A strong smell of alcohol filled the room, mingled with a spicy fragrance that made him furrow his brows.
A huge table took up almost the majority of the space, and placed on top of it were safety goggles, test tubes, funnels, and beakers, which Abium had never seen before.
At that moment, he saw a middle-aged man standing in the middle of the hall and doing an experiment.