Leo and Celise stayed in the fairy forest for over an additional month.
The Fairy Forest was a great place for knights and wizards to spend their training.
Abundant mana, a clean environment that helps you always maintain your best body.
The longer I lived, the better I felt.
Leo, who has a dull body, felt the same way, so Celise must be feeling a much bigger change.
However, Celise was not at ease.
“Lowering. You’ll be worried about it in the royal castle.”
“I can’t help it. But we can’t just throw away this great opportunity.”
Leo shrugged at Celise’s words.
Originally, he should have returned to the capital from Hydra’s dokji.
But somehow I ended up going through the two territories to the fairy forest.
Due to that, the time spent has already been close to two months.
‘My father and the Marquis of Merverde are looking for me blindly, but… I’ll have to go back later and say I’m sorry.’
Still, he occasionally went out of the fairy forest and communicated with Gawain.
He asked me to deliver a note instead, saying that he was well and not to worry.
Gawain, the head of the secret information guild, asked how to do such a thing, but he cut off the communication with encouragement to do well.
The superior only gave orders, and it was the responsibility of the subordinate to carry out.
“And Celise, you like being here too.”
“… It is.”
Sellies scratched her cheek as if she was embarrassed that her true intentions were revealed.
She ate well, slept well, and immersed herself in the practice for the past month.
I literally ate really well.
– Pretty human! Try this! Freshly picked herbs today!
– This too! It’s a rainbow-colored mushroom, and if you eat this, your strength will surge!
The fairies brought them to Celise, telling her to eat them whenever she could.
She declined at first, but after eating several times, Celise’s expression changed.
All the things the fairies handed over were medicinal herbs given to them.
“Because I ate the things the fairies gave me while I was here, the amount of mana increased dramatically.”
“It deserves it.”
Leo nodded.
Selise had reached the advanced level of Sword Expert, but the amount of mana was low compared to her level.
It was because it hadn’t been long since he had grabbed the sword in the first place.
No matter how good your talent is, time is an absolutely important factor in accumulating mana through Simbeop.
Besides, Selise’s father and head of the family didn’t like her holding the sword.
Because of this, she did not receive support from her family like other nobles, and she could only drink the elixir that King Biden gave her as a prize.
Leo felt sorry for that.
‘Since Sellies is my driver now, I have to take care of her.’
If I had to make an excuse, there were too many places to put money in as if I had raised an information guild.
Where do you get the elixir from when you dig?
Of course, Leo knew a few places where he could dig, but he had already been to places that were easy to get to when he was young.
Because of this, he had to pay money to buy it, but until recently, he had invested all of his pocket money in the information guild, and Leo was broke.
‘But I can’t give you the heart of a hydra.’
The heart of the hydra itself is an S-class elixir, but there could be side effects if you just ate it.
It had to be neutralized by adding other ingredients, or it had to find a different use altogether.
So, I was unable to provide any support.
“thank you.”
Then Celise said.
“Being with Jeoha, I also get this opportunity. It’s something I often think about, but being able to serve you is probably the greatest luck of my life.”
“What so far? I’m also glad that Sellize is my driver.”
Leo and Celise looked at each other and smiled slightly.
“But don’t neglect training just because the amount of mana has increased.”
“of course. In fact, from my point of view, an increase in mana is not necessarily a good thing.”
“yes?”
“Yes. If you have a lot of mana, you can use the sword for a long time and it’s good, but even then, you can’t beat someone stronger than me. It is important to focus on training rather than elixir to reach a higher level. Especially since I have to defeat my father.”
Then, Celise clenched her fists.
A sparring bet five years later that Leo and his father had promised.
Time flies, so now it’s only a little over 4 years left.
By that time, Celise had to rise to the level of a sword master.
“great. I can’t lose either. I will follow the example of Sellies and work harder.”
“… The growth rate of the current decline is also unbelievable to others, so can you work harder there?”
“then. People are like iron. The more you roll, the stronger you become.”
Especially in Korea, there are so many people with that perception.
“… Sometimes when I see you, you don’t care about making really scary noises.”
Celise shook her head as if she couldn’t understand.
* * *
Learned space-type magic ＜fairy walk＞.
Leo decided to classify this as arcane magic.
Unlike other visions, there is only one magic included, but the difficulty was to the point that it was more difficult than learning all the other visions.
The proficiency of fairy walking could not be raised quickly, even if it was Leo.
The distance that had traveled about 2m at first had only increased to about 2.5m after a month.
But Leo wasn’t in a hurry.
There were more important things now.
‘I’m almost there.’
The wall blocking the way was now infinitely thin.
I could already see the horizon beyond.
Leo meditated and focused on his image.
I’ve been through a lot since coming here.
The inner experience was filled to the point where it was sufficient.
In the meantime, he met and received instruction from strong people such as the Marquis of Merverd and the Duke of Lyant.
In addition, he fought against vampires and had a fight with Countess Hermery, who was said to be a genius of the empire.
Where is that?
Recently, he briefly competed with the Vampire Lord, and although he was a fisherman, he even defeated the Hydra.
The things Leo had been through so far were things that even heroes in mythology couldn’t easily do.
Of course, his inner self had already grown explosively.
All that remains is to melt the knowledge you have learned so far into that inner world and bring your body and mind into harmony!
– Ugh!
The mana that rose from Leo’s body swirled around him.
The mana that rode through his body like a playground constantly came and went.
Leo’s meditation, which began in the early evening, lasted until late in the morning.
Slowly, he was throwing off the limits of one layer.
* * *
the next morning.
“you you… !”
“did you sleep well?”
Vivian, the fairy queen, was startled when she saw Leo early in the morning.
It was because Leo had changed beyond recognition overnight.
“What is this… .”
I wasn’t talking about appearance.
I grew about 1-2cm in height, but it wasn’t enough to tell them apart at first glance.
The important thing was Leo’s surroundings.
Humans naturally spread mana around them, but Leo’s mana held tight to the nearby space.
Instinctively exerting dominance over one’s surroundings.
“Have you grown a step?”
It was proof that he was a 5th class mage.
“Wow… Didn’t you say you were 11?”
“I am 12 now. My birthday passed a while ago.”
Leo shrugged, but Vivian’s expression was still the same.
“That or that. Oh my gosh. I’ve lived a long time and heard a lot about humans, but I’ve never heard of someone who became strong as fast as you.”
Even the 5 heroes who made a big success 300 years ago were not at Leo’s level.
Even if you look at all the childhoods of the three archmages recorded in history, no one became stronger as quickly as Leo.
‘Is this possible?’
Vivian heard her fairy queen instincts whisper.
That you may be watching the birth of history!
“Anyway, I’m hungry because I stayed up all night. Do you have anything to eat?”
“… Wait for a moment. The kids have been making mushroom pies for you.”
When Vivian handed over the pie, Leo gobbled it up.
“Wow. This is really delicious. Who made it?”
“papaw.”
“I’ll have to say thank you when I see Popo later.”
Right now, Leo’s physical strength and mana have been exhausted as he has to break through a new state.
In such a situation, the fairy forest mushroom pie made up for both of them.
After eating as many as four, he stretched to see if he was full.
“Big. I ate well.”
“what are you going to do now? Originally, I was going to tell you a deeper concept of fairy walking today… Seeing that you’ve reached the fifth rank, you seem to understand that completely.”
“yes. I guess I can learn the rest by myself now.”
Leo grinned.
“Vivian. There’s a place I’d like some guidance on today.”
“Guidance?”
“As I said before, the black magician who invaded here. Take me to the place where you fought him.”
“… … ? Why are you there?”
“I’ll go and tell you.”
Vivian was puzzled by Leo’s sudden request, but she quickly nodded.
“Okay.”
* * *
The place where Vivian guided Leo was a little far from the Fairy Village.
At first glance, it looked similar to the surrounding forest, but if you look closely, you can see traces of fine contamination of the ground.
“Here it is. It hasn’t been fully restored yet because he used black magic. Black magic is deadly in the fairy forest.”
said Vivian in an angry voice.
Leo asked.
“Did you say he ran away?”
“yes”
“If you could catch him right now, would you catch him?”
“of course!”
Anger flared in Vivian’s eyes.
“How many of our children died then… As the queen, I must avenge the children.”
“great. Then let’s do it.”
“… … ? But is there no way? He must have gone outside the fairy forest, how can he find someone somewhere in this world? Besides, he covered his entire body with a robe, so I couldn’t even see his face properly.”
Vivian shook her head.
Normally, I would have no choice but to give up here.
However, as Leo rose to the 5th rank, a method was found.
“Whoa. Let me focus for a moment.”
Leo took a deep breath and continued casting.
He moved his hands back and forth, trying to control the mana around him.
After a while.
[Frost Tracing]
Leo’s silver eyes flashed, and a huge tree of ice rose from the ground.
The tree was so thick that it was difficult for several adults to wrap their arms around it, and the branches that stretched out in all directions glistened.
“… what’s this?”
“It’s called Frost Tracking, so I can find out where he is.”
5th class magic built into Frost Breath, Frost Seeking.
It is an arcane magic that can trace back the past through moisture in the atmosphere.
It is said that the great king of Karst was able to find the remnants of the Abyss who had fled with this magic wherever they were hiding.
Also, memories left in the air are not easily disturbed even after several years.
Of course, it was not yet familiar with magic, so it was not possible to trace the long past, but it was possible at least for the black magician who invaded the fairy forest.
“Let’s go visit him with this.”
Leo grinned.
After a while, its location began to appear on the ice tree.