Seeing this scene, Jack Merlin was utterly dumbfounded. He stared at his own hands in shock, glanced around warily, and then fled in a panic.
Only after returning home did Jack Merlin stare at his hands in utter disbelief.
My god, what happened to me? I'm only a first-rank mage and I don't even have a staff—how did I defeat Jason Merlin? He's a third-rank mage! How did my casting speed and spell power suddenly become so strong?
Just last month I lost to Jason Merlin, and I couldn't even fight back. This time, why was my Fireball able to shatter his Frost Shield?
Jack Merlin was full of doubts. Only after his routine meditation did he finally show a hint of shock.
Meditation codex! Damn, it's the meditation codex—the one in Master Leon's library! Yes, it must be this, it must be those five core formulas I chose. They say the Firehand Codex actually has more than five core formulas; if you break through to Grand Mage, you can go to the second floor and see two more, and there's even a third floor...
Oh my god, that's not what the notes in the spellbook say. Didn't it say the early stage only boosts fire spells a little, shortens casting time a little, and only after reaching seven core formulas does Firehand Codex show its real power...
So what's going on? I'm still just a first-rank mage—how did I defeat Jason Merlin, a third-rank mage...
Oh my god, could Master Leon have made a mistake? No way, the family head is so powerful, how could he be wrong? He probably just didn't care about this meditation codex...
The next day, Jack Merlin snuck into the library like a thief, once again checking the Meditation Codex he’d chosen. He noticed quite a few other Merlin Family youths tiptoeing around, also re-examining their chosen Meditation Codices.
After confirming that the spellbook’s records matched his memory, Jack returned home, still puzzled, and threw himself even more diligently into gathering mana with his Meditation Codex…
Leon hadn’t misremembered anything. But when he painstakingly wrote those spellbooks, he’d copied them straight from the records in the Desolate Archive in Heather City…
Of course, the standards were set by those records. But it’s easy to forget that this era isn’t the peak of the Northend World. Anything included in the Desolate Archive was, without exception, a masterpiece—even if the evaluation said it only slightly increased spell power or shaved a little off casting time, those ratings were based on the standards of Northend World’s golden age…
This tiny misunderstanding nearly made those who picked a Meditation Codex—kids who hadn’t held out much hope—drop their jaws in shock. They thought they’d stumbled into some legendary encounter, discovering a supposedly overlooked super Meditation Codex…
Leon didn’t bother with these matters. The Merlin Family was now on track, thriving, and everyone’s strength was improving rapidly. Leon even handed out a few mana potions—brewed with pure mana water—to help Merlin Family members cut down the time needed to accumulate mana.
Leon spent his days in the good demi-plane, attuning himself to the power of its rules through the semi-plane. His level had already reached the absolute peak of Ninth-Rank Title Archmage—perfected beyond perfection, pushed to the very limit.
One more step, and he’d reach Sky Rank. All he needed was to complete the Final Transcendental Transformation, and he’d instantly become a Sky Rank powerhouse. But that step was excruciatingly difficult.
For a Title Archmage to cross into Sky Rank is like first constructing a massive gate, then breaking through it to transcend mortality.
The sturdier that gate, the stronger the foundation. But correspondingly, breaking through becomes harder—and the greater the rewards on the other side.