William was glad for the timing he had come to this world. It was very convenient for him. Specifically, since he had been reborn here shortly after the Demon King had been defeated, he didn’t have to worry about that. Instead, he was in an age of peace. Though from what he had seen, that might not last forever. Based on the history he had studied, wars between nations happened more often when there hadn’t been a Demon King lately. After a few dozen years of peace, countries might go to war with each other. This almost made the Demon King a good thing. However, all appearances of the Demon King caused much more death than any of the wars between nations. So, even though the nations were united temporarily when one appeared, it still cost more lives than constantly fighting each other.

In summary, peace was likely to last for some time longer. This allowed William to just live in this new world, and not fight for survival. Though, that didn’t mean that training in combat magic was useless. It was important so that future generations could be strong. After all, the Demon King always returned.

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Over the course of time, William finally came to be a man. At least, by the technical definition of the age of his body. In summary, he was eighteen years old. Although there were no technical age requirements for any of the classes offered at the Ostana Wizard’s Guild, the general age at which one graduated and went from being a student to a full fledged wizard was at this age. William had completed all the required courses two years before, though he didn’t think it was that impressive of a feat, since he’d previously gone through university. That was a higher level of education, except for the fact that it didn’t involve magic. Still, William had been able to apply what he already knew to continue to stay ahead of his age range.

The last two years, he had been taking some higher level classes, which mostly went over theoretical aspects of magic. As they were highly complicated, William would consider them an equivalent to university courses. He couldn’t say they were practical, since they wouldn’t help with daily life, or even combat. Instead, they were classes with titles such as “The Origin of Mana” and “Knowledge of the Soul”. Though they were called that, there wasn’t actually much information to be had. Instead, they had various theories that were consistent with observed data. William still enjoyed the classes, as he was interested in the topics. Sadly, there was nothing about reincarnation, which he had a personal interest in, since he had experienced it.

In addition to classes, he worked on improving himself, continuing to exercise and practice combat with Chris. Though some aspects of Chris were still a mystery, even to Chris himself, William had learned a few things. As previously observed, Chris was unbreakable. At least, in a practical sense. Nothing had caused even the slightest amount of damage to him, even when William tried. Chris could also change size somewhat. He’d discovered that after he realized that Chris had been to big for him, at least when he was younger. However, it was only a short change, from approximately anywhere within five to seven feat. In addition, it wasn’t a quick change, taking a few minutes per inch in length. That somewhat ruined some of the cool ideas William had, but it was still good information to learn.

However, he still had the fortune to come up with a secret technique. Though he said that, nobody else would consider it something special upon seeing it. Still, he was certain it would work as a trump card against Lila in their upcoming duel. Probably. He still hadn’t won a duel with her yet, but he would. That was his current goal. He and Chris had been practicing for almost a year on the new technique. William was disappointed it had taken him so long to think of it, since the potential could be seen from the very first combat with Chris. Chris had blocked a lightning bolt. Well, deflected it, but the point stood. Eventually, William realized the potential behind that. He just hoped he could pull it off in real combat, though it was actually mostly on Chris.

Well, whether he could win or not, he had to think about his actual future. Personally, he wanted to be a researcher. Studying magic, the soul, mana, and possibly reincarnation. Whether or not he could actually make any advancement would remain to be seen. Especially on the topic of reincarnation, since if people couldn’t remember their previous life, which he expected was normal, then it would be very hard to find anyone else reincarnated. Even if there were some who remembered, it would be difficult to find them, and also very hard to determine if they were genuine. Still, he had an idea to try. Though, he would have to have a bit more status, not to mention actually having a job as a researcher first. Though, in the worst case, he would make money as a merchant or something, and research on the side. Thinking of coming up with something unknown to magic, actually having some kind of accomplishment, was an exciting thought.

Though, in terms of something unknown, perhaps the fact that the words in a chant didn’t have to be specific was a great discovery. He even knew what the factors were, now. However, he didn’t feel like he wanted everyone to have the ability to do that. He had taught Marius, and Lila already knew. Other than that, he would be willing to teach others if something critical came up, but for some reason he felt that it was something that shouldn’t be made known widely. Maybe he was overthinking things, but Lila and Marius had also felt that it should be a secret. Therefore, they would only teach it to those they could trust completely. At the very least, William didn’t want Geoff to find out. That may have just been prejudice speaking though.