Chapter 141 What’s Lost Must Be Reclaimed

Hearing Shaoke's answer, the female mage finally regained some of her smile. "When are you leaving here? I think I should make some preparations for your departure." As she spoke, she gently grasped Shaoke's arm. "I'm just not used to you leaving so suddenly."

While there were still few mages around, Shaoke carefully slipped his hand under the female mage's cloak, wrapping it around her slender waist. "We will have to part eventually—life and death are things no one can resist. Besides, we're only separating for a few short years." At this point, Shaoke asked Mage Roman with some confusion, "Will you still stay with the Blizzard Legion after your promotion?"

Mage Roman was quite pleased with Shaoke's subtle gesture. After secretly glancing around the surroundings, she relaxed her body and leaned against Shaoke. "Yes, I will continue serving in the Blizzard Legion until I reach the seventh tier, and then I'll consider other options." She sighed softly. "If everything goes smoothly, perhaps a seventh-tier mage will be my limit. By then, I..." She trailed off with another low sigh. "You know, it's been over a decade since I was promoted to third-tier mage."

"Mmm," Shaoke murmured, feeling an inexplicable sadness upon hearing her words. He wasn't sure whether he was saddened by her long stagnation in rank, by the mage profession itself, or by the choices he would have to make in the future. "Don't worry. Isn't it said that advancing from third tier to fourth tier takes over twenty years? I believe you'll manage to advance easily within that time." As he spoke, he tightened his grip around her waist, hoping to offer her some comfort.

"I feel like I'm about to advance. In three or four years, I will definitely become a fourth-tier mage." Roman tilted her head back to look at Shaoke, her hood slipping down her smooth, long hair to reveal her fair, flawless forehead. Unable to resist, Shaoke leaned down and gently kissed it, causing her to blush deeply. She quickly pulled her hood back on and put some distance between them, because mages were starting to come and go from the tavern.

After conversing softly with Mage Roman for a while, Roman finally couldn't hold back her fatigue. She carefully stretched and whispered, "Let's go rest." Then she waited silently for Shaoke's response.

Although Shaoke wasn't entirely comfortable letting her leave now, seeing the slight weariness on her face, he knew she needed sleep to recover her energy. With that in mind, he nodded, agreeing to her suggestion.

After escorting Roman to the barracks entrance, Mage Roman handed her own cloak to Shaoke and refused to wear it herself. Instead, she carefully helped him fasten the ties and brushed off nonexistent dust from it. "Remember, don't cover your head with the hood anymore. That way, I can see your face clearly." As she spoke, Roman shyly glanced at the mages coming and going at the entrance before suddenly embracing Shaoke and kissing him on the lips.

Encouraged by her initiative, Shaoke held her tightly, not bothering to check their surroundings, and fully immersed himself in this unexpected kiss, savoring her soft lips.

After what felt like an eternity, the two finally separated briefly due to lack of breath. Roman, her face flushed, whispered, "I'll head back first." Then, under the watchful eyes of the surrounding mages, she shyly ran toward the barracks, leaving Shaoke alone at the entrance under the curious stares of the female mages.

One by one, the female mages approached the still-dazed Shaoke to offer their blessings. A few of the more bold ones even hugged him and kissed his cheeks. Though unsure why these onlookers were blessing him, Shaoke maintained proper decorum and didn't try to break free from their circle. After thanking the well-meaning female mages, he took up his staff and headed toward his quarters.

The following days passed slowly as Shaoke waited. After completing his daily studies, he would go to the tavern alone to spend some intimate time conversing with the female mage before returning. This was mainly because ever since Mage Roland obtained the insights into third-tier advancement from him, Roland had stopped frequenting the tavern. According to him, he wouldn't set foot in the tavern again until he fully understood those insights. Of course, whether this resolution would be fully upheld wasn't something to be discussed here.

One day, after parting with Roman at the barracks, Shaoke returned to his room and began his evening routine: continuing his meditation and strengthening the connection between the three-pointed star magic arrays within the two spaces.

In the expanded mental space, the light particles floating in the air were quite sparse, and the two three-pointed stars floating within the space had finally stopped growing.

Once the connection between the two arrays reached the space's internal limit, Shaoke wisely halted his efforts. Instead, he focused his energy on the three-pointed star magic arrays, striving to familiarize himself with the new, connected structure. After all, the structure had become quite complex by now, requiring a significant amount of time to master.

As his energy drained, Shaoke had to withdraw from the meditation space once more. After some hesitation, he finally decided to take some medication now to accelerate his recovery and progress.

After restoring his energy through meditation, Shaoke decided to redraw and maintain the 'Death Gaze' spell structure in his mental space today. Although he could no longer cast this spell instantaneously as before, he believed he still had sufficient ability to mentally perform the meditation method for this spell before an enemy closed in. Moreover, its advanced spells still required the foundation of this second-tier structure to be drawn.

Leveraging the significantly increased mental power from his promotion, Shaoke relatively easily drew the spell structure for this spell in his mental space. Although it caused some spatial turbulence, he endured the discomfort and poured mental energy into the spell structure to sustain its operation.

As mental energy was infused, the somewhat unstable spell structure gradually stabilized and began to slowly rotate within the mental space. Under Shaoke's control, it moved toward the area below the three-pointed star magic array. He hoped that positioning it here would allow it to receive sufficient mental energy more easily to maintain its operation.

The array stabilized once more, continuing to operate steadily even after Shaoke withdrew his supporting energy. From what Shaoke understood, this spell structure would only dissipate once all the mental energy within the space was exhausted, though that would still cause some turbulence in the mental space.

Just as Shaoke felt everything was in order and prepared to exit the space, the three-pointed star suddenly erupted with a burst of silvery-white light. Restless strands of silver light continuously danced across the three-pointed star magic array, which once again accelerated its rotation.

Under Shaoke's astonished, excited, and agitated observation, strands of silver light suddenly burst apart. Most of the silver light scattered throughout the mental space, dispersing and either merging with the mental light particles or fusing with the inner walls of the space.

A few strands of silver light, however, flew into the vortices formed by the medication, accelerating their rotation.

Finally, a relatively thick strand of silver light, connected to the three-pointed star magic array, shot straight through the mental space and landed directly in the mana space. It quickly located the three-pointed star magic array there and merged with it. At that moment, silver light began to slowly emanate from the three-pointed star magic array in the mana space. Clearly, this light was transmitted through that thin line.

Subsequently, under the influence of the silver light, some of the mana in the mana space quickly condensed into a thin purple line. This line merged with the silver light-formed line, dyeing it purple, and rapidly spread to the three-pointed star magic array in the mental space. It didn't stop until the entire array was covered in this purple light.

Witnessing this series of changes, Shaoke grew even more excited, as everything had reverted to how it was during the second tier. Recalling the recently successfully outlined 'Death Gaze' spell structure, just as happened during the second tier, the spell structure was pulled by the silver light into the three-pointed star magic array, where it began to rotate internally, awaiting its master's use.

The massive consumption of energy caused him to abruptly withdraw from the meditation space during this moment of joy. After feeling a bit of annoyance, he grabbed the medication from the box beside him and tossed it all into his mouth. Overly excited, he wanted to test the special efficacy of the silver light once more.

The result was just as before: the spatial turbulence that arose was quickly pacified by the silver light. However, this consumed a great deal of his energy, and the medication had no additional effect, as the earlier dose was still active and had even been enhanced under the influence of the silver light.

Shaoke didn't have time to ponder the reason for the silver light's sudden appearance. He hurriedly entered deep meditation, as the massive energy depletion prevented him from engaging in complex thought. Of course, there were no issues with proceeding with the meditation.

As time passed, under the combined effects of the silver light and deep meditation, Shaoke quickly recovered his energy. The first thing he did upon recovery was take out his quill pen, lean over the writing desk, and begin revising his study schedule for the upcoming period.

First, he cut nearly half of his meditation time, adding instead more book reading and some experiments on array fusion. He also added a task he could now practice: exercising control over mana and mental energy by using mental power and mana to sustain the burning of the green flame on his staff. Of course, he wasn't worried that prolonged flame exposure would damage the staff.