Chapter 24 — Becoming a Mage
Magic techniques fundamentally upgraded both the physical body and the soul.
However, not every technique focused on the same thing.
Each technique had its own strengths. Some focused more on strengthening the body, others placed greater emphasis on the soul, while most were primarily designed to improve one's magical abilities. For those techniques, choosing one that matched the practitioner's elemental affinity was especially important.
The Blazing Apex Technique was a Fire Element technique that focused primarily on magic.
At its core, magic techniques worked by increasing one's life level.
Without increasing one's life level, the human body had a natural limit.
Ten times the physical strength of an ordinary human was the absolute ceiling.
That was why having a strong body was a requirement for practicing a magic technique.
The transformation would fundamentally alter the practitioner's body, so a weak body wouldn't be able to withstand the process. Reaching at least five times the strength of an ordinary human was the minimum requirement to safely undergo the transformation.
Ren had already reached ten times the strength of an ordinary human.
He had pushed his body all the way to its natural limit before attempting the transformation.
As a result, everything was proceeding extremely smoothly.
The technique continuously modified his body, transforming his cells and increasing his life level. As his life level rose, his physical strength increased along with it, pushing his body beyond the limits of an ordinary human.
A transformation that normally required a month or more was being completed within only a few hours.
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Several hours later, the transformation finally came to an end.
Ren opened his eyes.
He could clearly feel that his body had changed.
His life level had been successfully elevated.
He had officially entered the ranks of mages.
Rank 1, Level 1 Apprentice Mage.
At the same time, his natural lifespan had increased.
An ordinary human could live for around eighty years.
A Rank 1 mage could live for around a hundred.
However, this increase wasn't simply because his physical body had become stronger.
If lifespan were determined solely by the condition of the body, then immortality would have been discovered long ago.
The soul had its own limit.
No matter how healthy one's body was, once the soul reached the end of its lifespan, the person would still die.
Only by advancing through the ranks could a mage continue increasing the limit of their lifespan.
Ren had lived for twenty-three years in his previous life.
In this life, he had lived for sixteen years.
However, the first five years didn't count.
Although his body had existed during those years, Ren hadn't been the one living that life. He had only inherited the memories of what had happened during that time.
Memories and lived experience were two different things.
A person could theoretically inherit thousands of years of memories, but that wouldn't mean their soul had actually lived for thousands of years.
For Ren, his conscious life in this world had begun when he was five.
That meant he had personally lived for thirty-four years in total.
He had roughly sixty-six years left.
Sixty-six years to advance to the next rank and increase his lifespan.
Otherwise, he would die.
And this time, he would die for real.
"Congratulations, Ren, on becoming a Rank 1, Level 1 mage," Teacher Vance said.
"Thanks, Teacher Vance."
"No, no. It was your own hard work. Students as capable and disciplined as you are rare."
"You praise me too much, Teacher Vance. It was thanks to your help that everything went so smoothly."
"Alright, stop flattering me."
Vance waved his hand dismissively.
"Now that your body has completed its transformation, you should rest for the remainder of the day and allow your body to settle down. Too much of anything isn't a good thing."
Ren nodded.
"I understand. By the way, how much was your fee, Teacher Vance?"
"Alright, you don't need to pay my teaching fee. How could I charge a good student like you? Just pay for the potions. Two hundred and forty thousand Astra."
Ren didn't even flinch when he heard the price.
Magic training was expensive.
Everyone knew that.
It was one of the main reasons why the majority of people chose to remain ordinary humans.
Ren knew what those potions were.
Each one cost around forty thousand Astra.
They were called nutrient potions.
As their name suggested, they contained vast amounts of concentrated nutrients and were commonly consumed by mages to replace food.
Ren had needed six of them.
After all, his body had completed a transformation that normally took a month or more in only a few hours. The enormous energy requirements of the process meant that his body had consumed an equally enormous amount of nutrients.
Ren transferred the 240,000 Astra without hesitation.
The main difference between people, aside from talent, was resources.
Money.
Even someone with excellent talent would progress slowly without sufficient resources, no matter how diligent they were.
Ren had both talent and resources.
More importantly, he was willing to spend them.
He didn't care about the cost.
As long as spending money could make him stronger, he considered it worthwhile.
After bidding farewell to Teacher Vance, Ren left the training room and returned to his apartment.
He had finally become a mage.
After sixteen years of preparation, his journey had officially begun.