RESTART

Figuring out who mastermind behind all this won't do me any good. The most important thing is the countermeasure."

"SECOND! Remove all soul weakening runes inside Uriel's books and compare to the original method"

[Affirmative...Scanning... Removing...Task completed! Estimated to have the total of 34.4% reduction of original effect]

"34.4%? That much rubbish in the method Uriel gave me" cold glint appeared in Max's eyes.

While removing over a quarter of the whole method will affect a lot of meditation progress but it also made the method become purer.

"Fortunately I'm still haven't progressed far following Uriel's method. If not, I am already too late to change my condition. SECOND! Search the files for all possible methods for the host to remove problem regarding soul"

[Affirmative! Search complete! Search results - 215 methods]

"So many?" Max paused a while as he thought. "Remove those that take time over a year. Also, add another requirement: The host must be able to carry out the method now. Begin Filter!"

[Affirmative! Filter complete, Remaining methods: 3]

"Show them to me!"

[Method 1: Become a Mage]

[Method 2: Soul strengthening herbs]

[Method 3: Destroy soul weakening runes]

"Tch! Method 1 is not realistic at the moment; at least not until I remove the hidden bomb inside my body. I don't know what else Uriel planted inside my body. There a few methods of promoting to Mage level quickly but the drawbacks are more dangerous than my current condition. Becoming Mage so fast might also benefit her more. As for Method 2?"

As Max muttered to himself, he immediately assigned a new task. "SECOND! Assemble all data regarding soul strengthening herbs. Once it has arranged properly, send it to my mind!"

[Affirmative!]

After the data was directly transmitted to his mind, Max began to review over soul strengthening herbs.

In this world, there are several precious resources created naturally like Buckhorn Coldleaves and Frozen Apricot that Max always consumed previously to speed up his promotion.

These precious resources are ingredients of miracles even for Mage. Some are capable of lengthening lifespan, some can speed up the rate of Mana absorption just like those that Max took and many more magical usage. Among them, the precious resources for strengthening soul is the rarest and expensive.

"There a few souls strengthening herbs sold at Trading Post that is only applicable to apprentice level. Even still, the cheapest of them is priced at 100,000 magic crystals. Even though the herbs can fix my soul issue within a year but to collect that amount of magic crystals will take me at least a decade at this rate."

Only Mage level can afford those amount of magic crystal but Mage won't look at those kind of herbs because it has no use for them.

"Method 2 is too expensive. I might need to sell myself to earn a hundred thousand magic crystal. Perhaps some Mages might even want to buy me for their experiments but that defeats the purpose of all this"

"The only method left is to destroy the runes. It also the most dangerous. Destroying the part of the runes inside my body will cause me to lose my power as rank 2 Mage Apprentice. I will become mortal again."

Mage Apprentice fill their body with runes level by level to enable them to manipulate mana. Without mana manipulation, they cannot cast any magic made them no different than mortal.

"But I'm still rank 2. If I already reached to rank 3 or Mage, this can affect me a lot including my life. SECOND already compile new meditation methods after removing all side effects from Uriel's method. It is now purely ice element meditation technique."

"SECOND! Prepare a plan to remove all runes inside the host body!"

[Affirmative! Task establish!]

[Task completed! Warning! There is a 3.5% life-threatening risk]

"I need to take this risk. I need to start from the beginning,"

"My promotion to rank 3 Mage Apprentice will probably take much longer than expected. I also can not blindly take all of Uriel's resources. Further screening is required. Good thing I'm already becoming rank 2 after less than a year since I'm enrolled in the academy. This should cement my identity as grade S talent. I just need to take care of Uriel's suspicion later"

Promoting to rank 2 Mage Apprentice from common mortal within a year shown how much a genius Max is. The whole academy is stunned over his speed of improvement but the Mages knew that Uriel played a big part on this. Even the other two grade S talent; Minerva and Raynard that came from the same batch with Max still consolidating their promotion to rank 1.

Max returned to his room earlier that day to start his plan. Removing part of runes is more dangerous than removing all the runes. Max decided to strip all the runes inside his body and start from scratch.

"SECOND! Start the procedure of removing all the runes. Display my condition real time!"

[Affirmative!]

A holographic image all Max's body displayed in front of his eyes. His body is filled with blue colored runes.

[Beginning procedure..]

"AHHH!!!! The data never said it hurt!"

Max gritted his teeth to endure the pains. He clenched his fists so hard that his nails start to digged into his skin and he blacked out.