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At the moment, they all were still practicing at Lord Izta's palace. The combat magus champion had given them access to the training facilities of his home, letting them use them as they saw fit. He even provided a quarter for Emery and the others to live in during their time there.

Seeing how much effort and trust Lord Izta had placed on them, the group was doing their best to increase their strength, so as to not disappoint the magus. There was no way they would let Lord Izta hear the news of them losing when he came back from his task.

All of them had been currently practicing with the level 6 combat puppets. The one in the lead was still Thrax, who completely exceeded his friends and had been practicing with the level 7 puppet for a while now. Each stage of the puppet was much harder than the previous one.

This time, Emery decided to start practicing using the battle art he picked as the reward: [Battle Art - Heroic Slash]. Since it was a sword-based skill, Emery decided to practice it with two swords: a longsword and a short sword, as he fought the puppet.

The sensation and feeling he felt when he used two swords was truly different compared to when he used sword-dagger combination.

After fighting against the puppet for a while, Emery found out the [Heroic Slash] skill was apparently not easy as he thought. It took him quite some time to be able to perform the skill, and the moment he managed to do so, the strength the slash produced did not appear to be as much as he hoped. However, Emery didn't become dispirited, as he knew it required a lot of practice to master the art.

When Emery was being pushed back by the fierce attacks the puppet displayed, courtesy to its better mastery and technique, he tried to use the [7 Immortal Gates Technique] to suppress it using raw power. Alas, his attempt was backfired at him because the moment his battle power increased, so did the puppet's.

After practising the whole day, even though they had tried their best, none of them were able to advance to another level of the wooden puppets. Emery finally took a rest from the training and decided to reflect on what he needed to prepare for the game.

Thinking about what he had on his plate now, Emery couldn't help but feel a bit overwhelmed. The battle art body technique, the sword skills, his 4 elements; plant, earth, water, and darkness. There was still his bloodline and apothecary he also wished to explore. In short, there were just so many things he had learned along his way to become a magus. Learning them all one by one, Emery didn't realize these things could be so addictive.

With the eight days they had left, and combined with the no-item rule imposed in the game, it meant he could cross out the apothecary from the immediate things he had to do. After all, the advancement exam would not be held until he finished the second stage of the Magus Games. So, he still had enough time and could put apothecary on the side for the moment.

The rules made it obvious the secret, or rather, the requirement of winning the second stage was raw battle power and powerful spells due to the lack of equipment that usually boosted the acolytes' strength.

Emery opened his palm and checked his personal information

[Emery Ambrose]

[16-year-old]

[Battle power: 34]

[Spirit force: 110]

[Plant Spirit - early foundation]

[Water Spirit - early foundation]

[Earth Spirit - early foundation]

[Spirit Core of Darkness - stage 1]

[Fey Bloodline - stage 2]

[Acolyte Rank 6]

Emery imagined that in eight days, he would have defeated the level 6 wooden puppet and would have increased his [7 Immortal Gate Technique] to the third stage. Coupled with his increase in strength when he transformed in his fey form, Emery thought he would have enough battle power for the second stage of the games.

As for the spells, Emery currently had dozens of them. However, he clearly remembered Lord Izta's advice about specialising in a few spells. Hence, he decided he needed to start choosing his main spells.

Among his dozens of spells, he already had one strong defensive spell, the [Granite Skin]; and one strong auxiliary spell, the [Dark Root Binding]. Therefore, he was currently lacking one dependable offensive spell. The most dependable offensive spells he had right now should be the [Enfeeble Blade - Tier 3 Darkness].

To cast a more powerful spell, he would need more spirit force, a lot more than what he had right now. Therefore, the spirit force should be the first thing he had to hone.

Emery wondered if he could reach rank 7 in eight days. If he managed to do so, that would give him and his friends the confidence boost they greatly need. Thanks to Grand Magus Zenoia, Emery now had a 110 spirit force.

Thus, Emery decided his goal would be to attain 150 spirit force and reach rank 7. More importantly, He also needed to increase his understanding over his four elements.

The fastest way to increase spirit force Emery could think of was the spirit serum, while the origin stone rooms were the most optimal place for him to increase his understanding of the elements.

Fortunately, Emery had quite a lot of spirit stones and contribution points saved up.

[Contribution point 10650]

[Spirit stone 16800]

With that amount of stones, Emery could buy 16 spirit serums. It was stated a spirit serum would give a rank 6 and 7 acolyte one to three spirit forces.

With a quick mathematical calculation, he hoped the 16 serum would be enough to increase his spirit force. If it was still not enough, he could only resign to his luck and spend all his contribution points into the stone origin rooms. Emery thought that should do the trick.

With a stronger spirit force, he could cast stronger spells and pass, or even win, the Magus Games. Without further due, later that evening, Emery spent all his spirit stones to buy 16 spirit serums.

Emery entered the place prepared for him in the quarters provided by Lord Izta and started injecting the spirit serum into his body.

Just like before, Emery could feel a wondrous sensation when the serum entered and flowed through his body.

[Increased spirit force by 1]

[Spirit force 111]

"Only one point?" Emery said, stunned. He suddenly had a bad feeling about this. Emery took a deep breath and injected another one

[Increased spirit force by 1]

[Spirit force 112]

Again, only one spirit force.

"Maybe I'm just unlucky. Don't worry, Emery. There's still 14 more." Emery said to himself, as he tried to calm down.

[Increased spirit force by 1]

[Increased spirit force by 1]

[Increased spirit force by 1]

Bewildered by the information he received, Emery tried to check the information of the spirit serum again.

[Spirit Serum]

[Pure spirit stone essence that can increase spirit force of one to three. For rank 6 and 7 acolyte only]

[Increased spirit force by 1]

[Increased spirit force by 1]

Emery's expression fell when he saw the continuous stream of one spirit force. It looked like this result was probably affected by his B aptitude. As if things couldn't get any worse, after a while Emery even started needing to inject two serums to increase just one spirit point. In the end, Emery ended up only obtaining 13 spirit forces out of all his 16 spirit serums.

[Emery]

[Battle power 34]

[Spirit force 123]

"Looking at my situation now... I definitely won't make it to rank 7 before the second stage" Emery said, while sighing deeply.

Alone in his room and late into the night, Emery felt like reality just gave him a slap on the face again. He was once again reminded that from the start, he was not the same as the other acolytes.

Reflecting on everything that had happened, Emery then realized he had been so fortunate: Killgragah, the lady of the lake, Magus Xion, Lord Izta, and of course, his four friends. These people had been helping him so much, without them he would have failed long ago. And then, here he was, thinking he was hopeless.

Emery remained himself he needed to work harder than everyone to become a magus. His shortcomings won't be the reason he failed.

Suddenly, to his surprise, the crest in his hand shone and showed a notification with two messages on it.

[You are invited to take the exam for the Destiny Path institution]

Reading the first part, Emery was both joyful and confused. These kinds of letters were normally received last year, after the power analysis. So, why now?

But then, Emery paused on his track when he saw the second part.

[Destiny Path - The Institute of Bloodlines]