Chapter 170 Another Breakthrough

The maid was not waiting in the room, and Shaoke did not call for her either. Instead, he hurriedly sat down to begin meditation and recover his expended energy. The complex three-pointed star magic array spun rapidly with the assistance of the silver light, drawing in large amounts of mental and magical power before releasing even more. This recovery rate, three to five times faster than that of other mages, allowed Shaoke to quickly restore his expended energy. Of course, the consumption of some vigor due to the calming work of the silver light was unavoidable. However, Shaoke wasn't too concerned, as years of meditation had given him significantly more vigor than ordinary mages.

After recovering his expended energy, he first took out his spell record and began meticulously documenting the events he encountered during his mission using a black quill pen inlaid with blue gold. Finally, he once again recorded his mental unease. Of course, such matters were only recorded in a rather obscure manner.

In the silent room, only the rustling sound of writing could be heard. Occasionally, Shaoke would take some paper made from various animal hides and attach it to the end of the entire spell record to support his continued writing.

After an unknown amount of time, Shaoke temporarily stopped his writing work due to hunger.

Rubbing his somewhat swollen eyes, Shaoke pulled the red velvet rope in front of the writing desk to call for the maid.

While waiting for the maid, Shaoke rested briefly to recover the small amount of mental power consumed by writing. After the three-pointed star magic array operated several times without causing spatial turbulence, all expended energy was restored. At this moment, the maid also arrived promptly with the food Shaoke needed.

Shaoke did not notice the maid's weary appearance. Instead, he sat at the low dining table and began carefully savoring the exquisite food. It had been a long time since he had eaten such properly cooked meals. Delicious meat porridge, slightly bitter medicinal porridge, soft bread slices, various delicate pastries, a small barrel of high-quality aperitif wine, and a small barrel of pine wine. Of course, slices of high-level magical beast meat were also indispensable. Faced with these foods, the mage indulged in a bout of unrestrained eating and drinking—a situation that occurred every time he returned from a long mission. Therefore, the maid serving and guarding Shaoke would not attempt to stop the mage before her, as she had previously tried such futile interventions.

"What's wrong? You look a bit thinner," Shaoke said when the maid refilled his wine glass. Only then did he notice that the maid before him had become slimmer than when he left, so he inquired. "How long have I been away?" Shaoke wanted to confirm the time spent on this mission, and the maid quickly gave him an answer.

"Mage Xueye, it will be a month in six more days," the maid replied, delighted by the mage's concern. After Shaoke finished his meal, she quickly took several letters from within her robes and handed them to him. "These arrived not long ago."

After drinking the last bit of wine in his glass, Shaoke took the letters handed by the maid and sat at the writing desk to read them. The maid who had been serving Shaoke quickly cleared the leftovers from the dining table and returned behind Shaoke, gently massaging his shoulders and head. She knew this was the service he appreciated most from her.

There were letters from Mage Roland, Mage Roman, and Physician Eno. As for Francis Walton and Mage Feiyi, Shaoke did not receive their letters this time, but he did not mind. After all, not everyone had enough time to reply to letters.

Mage Roland, as usual, wrote extensively in his letter, mostly mentioning his affairs within the Blue Feather Legion. This time, he also mentioned encountering a female mage in the Blue Feather Legion and successfully becoming familiar with her. Of course, the extent of their familiarity was only briefly mentioned without going into too much detail. Finally, he mentioned that they were about to change garrisons again, this time leaving the imperial capital to be stationed in a territory in the western part of the empire with a large number of nobles.

Compared to the lengthy narration in Mage Roland's letter, Physician Eno's letter was much simpler. On ordinary letter paper, he briefly wrote about recent events in the common language of the continent. The most important matter Eno mentioned was his marriage to a female physician, and he hoped Shaoke would bless him. Of course, some congratulatory words were generously written in the letter. Finally, he mentioned that his clinic had relocated to a small town not too far from the imperial capital, and his father, the elder physician, had left his hometown to help him.

Reading Physician Eno's letter, Shaoke involuntarily recalled past events in the Misty Forest. Thinking of this, he decided that when replying to the letter, he must mail some of his magical cultivation insights to the small town in the Misty Forest where he had once stayed. This would help the mages there better protect the ordinary soldiers, as the impulse to protect ordinary people was most prevalent among mages during that stage.

After reading the letters from the two, Shaoke quietly turned over the envelope in his hand, which was adorned with some patterns. This type of envelope was typically used by female mages. The letter inside was written by Female Mage Roman. He was unsure whether he should open and read it now, as in her previous letter, she had mentioned a third-tier mage who had recently arrived at the military camp pursuing her. Now, he was worried that the female mage might have accepted the pursuer. Of course, Shaoke still read the letter in detail. Only when he saw that Female Mage Roman had rejected the third-tier mage's pursuit did he let out a long sigh of relief.

In her letter, Female Mage Roman expressed her longing for Shaoke and hoped he could quickly advance in the Death Mage Corps to leave there as soon as possible and return to the Blizzard Legion.

After reading the letters, Shaoke carefully stored them in small boxes in a specific order. He then gestured for the maid to approach, leaned against her soft chest, closed his eyes to rest briefly, and continued his important work of writing the spell record. The maid quietly curled up by the fireplace, covered with a thick goose-down quilt, leaning against a low soft stool while greedily reading a book. Of course, the book the maid read was only recorded in ordinary text.

The writing and recording work did not go smoothly. Often, Shaoke had to ponder for a long time to summarize his combat experience before detailing it in writing. The task of replying to letters was temporarily delayed by Shaoke, as it was not the most urgent matter, was it?

When the maid was preparing the second meal, a familiar guest interrupted Shaoke's work. "Mage Xueye, this is the reward for your mission this time. I believe it will satisfy you," the guest said as soon as he was welcomed in, handing Shaoke a piece of white paper listing the reward items. Of course, after the second-tier mages placed the precious magical items at the location specified by Shaoke, they turned and left his room, as they had not received permission from the host to stay.

Shaoke did not meticulously check the items in the reward. After only glancing at the large quantity of auxiliary drugs, he nodded to the mage, thanking him for preparing the ample supply of auxiliary drugs. Of course, the third-tier mage did not stay long at Shaoke's place either, as he already knew that Shaoke was always quite busy after each mission return. Such busyness would persist until the writing work was completed.

However, before leaving, he accepted several spellbooks handed to him by Shaoke. These spellbooks could still bring some merit to this mage. After that mage left, Shaoke temporarily set aside the writing and recording work, instead carefully examining the items delivered. Upon discovering that the third-rank auxiliary drugs were more abundant than the previous batch, Shaoke secretly sighed in relief. He felt he was nearing the peak of the third tier and thus had to increase his drug intake to accelerate this process.

On this day, Shaoke finally completed the spell record. The mage also brought the spellbooks permanently disarmed of traps by high-rank mages and delivered them to Shaoke. Following the usual practice, he once again handed Shaoke a sheet of paper filled with his own writing, listing some mage professions available for transition, awaiting Shaoke's choice. Yet again, Shaoke declined. However, the mage was not angry; he merely twitched the corner of his mouth to show understanding before bidding farewell and leaving once more.

After that mage left, Shaoke resumed his practice. He condensed the mental power within his spiritual space into a fine thread, then merged it into the silver light connecting to the magical power space, allowing it to permeate the three-pointed star magic array in the magical power space. This was done to increase familiarity with the two arrays, thereby reducing spellcasting consumption to some extent. He then performed the same process within the magical power space, repeating this tedious permeation exercise repeatedly.

Just as this practice was about to end, Shaoke suddenly felt a slight turbulence in his meditation space. However, the silver light did not actively calm this turbulence, which puzzled him. He quickly stopped the practice and began carefully observing the changes in his meditation space.