In the meantime, Abium returned to his room and started pondering what to do next.
'I still have more than five days to attend the Royal Banquet.' Although no one had invited him to that banquet, Abium had a different plan in his mind.
First, he took out the basic alchemy book and started reading.
After that, he activated his [Eidetic Memory] ability, read the book for the next few minutes, and quickly finished it.
Then, he opened the status bar and checked his body status.
...
[Name: Abium
Age: 16
Race: Half-elf (???)
Health: normal
Class: Apprentice mage
Attributes
Strength: 3.4
Agility: 3.4
Vitality: 3.4
Mana: 34.0
Spirit: 17.0
Skills: Master Swordsmanship, Advanced Sword Aura.
Spells
Zero-tier: Blink, Red Orb, Blazing Shield, Mirage, Dark Bind, Storage.]
...
'Hm? All that is left is to improve my spirit power to 20 and advance into the realm of Official Mage.' He muttered inwardly.
'Who said that? You have long entered the realm of the official mage, lad. When you touched the nether pond in the undead world, the first shackle got broken and strengthened your soul. That's how I woke up from the dormant state.' Azolla said in a calm tone.
Meanwhile, Abium got startled inside and tilted his head in confusion.
'If so, why did Mage Zivior and others still consider me an apprentice mage?' He couldn't help but ask.
'I think the time has changed, and so have the mage customs, lad. Unlike before, the people of this era have changed the rule and made 20 spirit points the threshold for becoming an Official Mage. Moreover, humans of this time also appear pretty weak.' Azolla's words made more sense to him.
'That's why you didn't change the apprentice mage class to Official Mage in the status?' Abium asked with a frown.
'I have no control over the status bar, lad. The wisdom skill in my core is responsible for this. It more like my core artifact's skill than my ability to analyze.'
'Although I don't quite understand your words, I will think of it as a separate magic skill.' Abium nodded his head and added.
'I should focus on improving my spirit power from now on.' He didn't dare to waste any more time and sat in the meditative posture before entering the astral plane.
…
Four days passed quietly.
During this time, Abium spent most of his time exploring the strange astral plane and absorbed more than 12 white clouds!
At that moment, his spirit power had already reached 19 points!
Two days ago, he also attended an alchemy class and learned a few things about potioning. Not only that, but he also paid ten chaos crystals and attended Mage Ubius's Rune Crafting class yesterday.
'I must enter the Official Mage realm as soon as possible and return to the Royal Capital.' Abium sat quietly on the mattress in his living room and closed his eyes before reciting the secret chanting method.
He then entered astral space and began moving towards a nearby white cloud. Like the last time, he spent more than five hours in the astral space and finally managed to absorb it.
The next instant, Abium felt that something had exploded inside his mind.
Simultaneously, a few mysterious runes appeared out of nowhere and started to move towards the deepest part of his head. The mysterious runes then shrunk to a molecular level and entered his mind.
Abium soon felt that something had entered his consciousness.
Eventually, the mysterious rune characters finally formed into a very small hexagonal spell model and floated inside his mind like a colorless crystal.
Even though he noticed something was there, he was unable to identify what it was.
It appeared more like a small invisible dot than a spell model.
'What is it? A new spell model? How did I create it?' Questions whirled in his head.
He hurriedly left the astral space and opened his eyes.
But the next moment, he felt a burning sensation all over his body.
A few notifications also popped up in front of his eyes and caused him to widen his eyes in surprise.
[Host's body is undergoing a strange mutation.]
[Vitality increased by 0.6]
[Vitality increased by 0.7]
[Vitality increased by 0.2]
[Strength increased by 1.0]
[Strength increased by 0.5]
[Agility increased by 1.0]
[Agility increased by 0.5]
[Spirit increased by 0.1]
[Mana increased by 0.1]
...
Abium got startled by the sudden notification.
Unfortunately, his thoughts were interrupted by a wave of pain in his mind and body.
At that moment, an immeasurable amount of pain appeared all over his body and caused him almost to curse loudly.
It remained for the next fifty seconds and only disappeared when the strange mutation finished.
Then, Abium sucked a mouthful of air and noticed that his body had undergone some transformation.
His ears elongated much longer, and his face became leaner.
Currently, he looked more like a true elf.
'What the hell is this? How did you become a pure Royal Elf without consuming any bloodline strengthening potion?' Azolla shouted in his mind. She was more shocked than Abium and even started to think of possibilities.
Meanwhile, Abium hurriedly moved towards the nearby mirror and checked the changes on his face.
'Would there be a problem if others saw me in this condition?' He knew that his teacher would notice this anomaly and felt troubled.
'What should I do now?' A troubled expression appeared on his face. Soon, though, he sighed deeply and realized he had to face reality. He had some trust in his teacher and decided to meet him now.
Before doing so, he quietly clenched his fist and studied his overall strength.
His senses became sharper, and he also noticed the evil energy hiding inside his nape.
Unknown to him, his breakthrough was already noticed by multiple academic mages.
Spirit waves appeared from different parts of the magic tower and scanned his body.
'So, shall I head over and inform teacher Zivior?' While he was pondering, a knocking sound came from outside.
'Who is it? Mage Ron?' He abruptly stood up, walked towards the wooden door, and opened it.
But instead of a blonde-haired young man, what appeared in front of his face was the same pitch-black eye. Soon, Mentor Zivior's voice came from the black eye.
"Congratulations, Abium. But you didn't face any shackles?" The black eye suddenly froze for a moment, and soon its pupil constricted.
"You became a Royal Elf? Interesting. Come closer for a moment," Zivior said.
Meanwhile, Abium quietly nodded and stepped closer to the hovering black eye.
At that moment, a shadowy ripple came from the eye and scanned his body.
'A skill?'
While Abium was in muse, the eye blinked twice, and Zivior spoke in confusion.
"It's no use. I didn't find any abnormality in your body, so I think this must have something to do with bloodline, lad. Your parents must have made some preparations when you were born. Anyway, when you rank up next time, let me know." He paused for a moment and added.
"Also, from now on, you are qualified to become a permanent member of this magic institute. You will also get more privileges if you sign another contract and become an official member like Berold."
Meanwhile, Abium nodded his head in understanding and asked.
"What are those privileges, sir?"
In truth, he knew of these privileges long ago. One of the reasons he decided to attend the magic institute was mainly to get these privileges.
"First, you'll receive a monthly payment of 500 white gold coins. And if you are interested in serving the Peral kingdom, the kingdom will honor you with a lesser noble title and might even reward you with a small territory. In return, you must protect the kingdom's Royal Family at all costs." The eye flapped its wings, flew a bit higher, and added.
"If you want to know more about the privileges, ask Mage Berold. He will tell you those things in detail later."
'Finally,' Abium couldn't help but feel satisfied inside.
At that moment, Zivior made a throat-clearing noise and asked.
"What is your answer? Yes or No?"
'Of course, yes!' Abium muttered to himself in excitement.
Who would say no to becoming a noble?
It was every commoner's dream!
In the past, even after becoming a seven-tier warrior, he couldn't earn the noble title and died a peasant.
But now, he would earn the Noble title within six months!
He soon calmed down his mind and spoke in a polite tone.
"I agreed to those conditions, teacher. I'm willing to become an official member of the Kaummiths institute."
"Good. I will send Berold to tell you the details in a while."
Once Zivior finished those words, the bat-winged eye suddenly turned into a puff of black smoke and vanished from there.
Meanwhile, Abium let out a deep sigh and closed the door from inside.
But within a few minutes, another knocking sound came.
Abium hurriedly moved towards the door, opened it from inside, and noticed that the guest was Mage Berold.
"Please come inside, Mage Berold." Abium gave him a respectful bow and invited him inside.
Meanwhile, Berold showed a shocked look on his face and hurriedly nodded.
In truth, he had never heard of an apprentice mage entering the Official Rank within seven days and was shocked.
'What a monster. Now that I think about it, did Abium join our institute to get the Shackle Potion?' His mind whirled with such a thought.