12 Riley and Julia

"Have you heard?", a youth said in a frenzy

"What?", the other answered

"Riley and Julia, the two grade 4 talents who joined Merficura academy, will fight on the deck soon"

"Let's go and see this...We might get the chance to witness magic!"

A month passed already, and the alliances built upon the region you came from collapsed under the influence of the two leaders: Riley and Julia, both gifted with grade 4 talent. They also happened to receive the meditation technique from Magus Nocturne in exchange for a favour in the future, since they were likely to become magi.

However, this also stemed a rivalry between the two geniuses.

Riley, a young man with dark hair and eastern features, constrasted with Julia's elegant green hair and voluptuous body. Both of them were already fifteen years old, yet the harsh living conditions of this world made them appear older, something Ourin had realized as soon as he transmigrated.

Ourin followed the crowd that had gathered on the deck

Just like Ourin, Riley seemed to train in the way of the knights, but less successfully so, as he still was a preparatory knight. However, the dark-steel armour he wore as well as the golden sword he wore made it clear that he came from a wealthy family, and the quality of his gear was much better than his, despite the fact that he came from the Ironguard Family, known for its abundance of iron and blacksmiths.

This just went to show how vast the world was.

Julia was different. She was always reading a book and gave off a weird sense of wisdom and could reveal a death stare that would make anyone uncomfortable, preparatory knights included, to the point that they would have headaches just by looking into her eyes.

After experiencing the pain himself, being misunderstood as too probing, Ourin realized that she had already reached the rank 2 acolyte realm.

Riley charged towards Julia, overconfident in his ability since he received knight training from the youngest age and already reached the preparatory knight realm. He had never lost a duel against boys his age, much less an untrained girl like Julia.

Drawing his sword and charging, he began to smile in a frenzy, seeing that Julia did not even unsheathe her dagger. However, the scene that was displayed in front of everyone was just too shocking.

As Riley came under a two-meters radius range, he tried to draw his sword and realized that he could not move his arm. Due to the shock and lack of body coordination, he fell on the ground, unbalanced.

*BOOM*

Taking out her dagger, Julia casually walked towards him, but the more Riley struggled, the more he realized that he was actually immobilized. The crowd's look of horror made him realize that there was something wrong with his body.

Struggling with immense effort to look at his arms and legs, he realized that they had turned into stone. Or more accurately, the skin had been petrified, something that usually only appeared in myths and legend.

Julia crouched and stabbed his hand

"Is it painful?", she asked

But before Riley could scream his lungs out, she petrified his mouth, causing him to just widen his eyes in horror.

She then proceeded to cut one of his finger and started to laugh like a mad witch.

Before she could slit his throat, Magus Nocturne intervened and sheltered the butchered Riley in a veil of shadows: "That's enough, Julia. You had your revenge. You must not harm the asset, as per our contract"

Julia said reluctantly: "Tsk...Understood"

Just like that, the crowd of apprentices realized the depth of magic. In just one month, Julia had not only reached the level 2 acolyte realm, she had also learnt a complex spell that rendered a preparatory knight helpless.

Seeing how one-sided the fight had been, Ourin smiled bitterly, knowing that if he had been in Riley's place, he would not have fared much better, even if his physical attributes were slightly better. Was the gap between knights and acolytes really so big?

'What am I even training my body for?', Ourin asked himself, feeling that his efforts were in vain after seeing such an overwhelming display of strength

However, he did not let this incident discourage him. With his talent, there were many magus paths that would make it pretty difficult for him to undertake. The classic elemental path was filled with many difficulties, as his grade 1 talent would make it difficult for him to reach the level 2 acolyte realm. As for reaching the magus realm through conventional methods, it would take immense amounts of resources.

The warlock path that Leylin undertook was also filled with limitations. For one, Ourin knew that there was a limit to the rank a warlock could reach, and Ourin was not one to limit his potential growth, knowing that if he wanted to break the shackles, the most realistic way to do so would be by destroying and rebuilding one's foundations. He was not ready to do so in the future, so this only left a couple of magus paths.

Among them, one was very compatible with him: the body refinement path, a magus path in which its neophytes would strengthen their bodies past their limits using knight training techniques, mana and toxin exposures as well as the use of magical ingredients to become so strong and durable physically that they would manage to go toe-to-toe with some of the strongest magical creatures existing in this world.

As it required hard work and knight physique, this made the path quite suited for Ourin, and one of his motivation to train on a daily basis.