"Uh, mom, dad, I can take those tests now. I already finished studying books related to primary, secondary, and tertiary education 3 years ago. I've also studied collegiate levels of books, and began reading different higher-level research papers since two years ago."
"..."
"..."
His parents and their friends were all dumbfounded.
To check if Xander was just pulling their legs, making a joke of a heavy situation, they began asking basic questions that only a grade school, high school student would know. Basic knowledge of calculus, trigonometry, biological processes, cellular processes, chemical reactions and products, chemical theories, questions of physics, mechanical physics, classical physics, and even quantum physics.
Xander answered them all completely and even added his own ideas towards the question. His answers were clear and on point, there weren't any flaws in his reasoning. It wasn't mere rote memorization, but digesting the information and adding his own understanding into the topics. Xander's parents and their colleagues believed him at that point and couldn't help but think, is this a what a monstrous genius looks like?
The following week, he took the tests.
The week after, the results were out. It was a perfect mark for all 3 levels of tests.
Xander wanted to purposely make mistakes but didn't do so in the end. After all, he had to prove his parents that his self-taught education was perfect and without flaws.
Xander had a clear outline of what his life would be in the next few years.
1. Make connections with other people, increasing my sphere of influence. However, I must be able to completely trust them - maybe create a magic binding contract? A modified one, perhaps?
2. Publish at least 3 scientific papers in a span of 3 years in college. It would be great if it was at least 1 per year.
3. Get a source of raw materials that can easily be duplicated and replicated by his power, as a source of funding for his future ambitions.
4. Improve his Magic level to at least Legend class on or before graduating.
5. Time travel to the 2000-3000 years to the future and get futuristic augmentations if possible.
And finally, ensure the continuation of his family's bloodline. Which means he needs to have another sibling by the time he graduates. After all, he didn't believe in a nuclear family unit.
Of course, after thinking for a bit, he added a small note in his mental note:
"…all are subject to change depending on strength development."
_______________________________________
Time passed by quickly.
It was already summer. The events that happened last spring was already fading in the minds of Xander's parents.
Xander, on his spare time when not reading books or questioning the tutors, would disappear into his room and play around with ideas concerning time and space magic. He would test out hypotheses and theories on space and time, checking whether it is true or not.
It was at this point, his understanding of the space-time elements increased from 0 to 1%. That small increment had a difference between heaven and earth, with all his basic applications and understanding of space-time growing tremendously.
His space magic could already tap on the multiple dimensions overlapping in the physical dimension, and he could even steer some dimensions and pocket spaces into the physical dimension, creating a form of a gate between dimensions. He was already able to transcend the physical dimension to the other dimensions completely, not just his time. After learning about the different dimensions and planes of existences, Xander was able to create a defensive layer to coat every part of his body.
Originally, he thought about transcending his body to a different dimension but ultimately decided against it. It would be better if he could use different dimensions to cover every part of his body, forcing anything that targets him be lost within different dimensions forever.
He briefly looked in the near future about it. If he transcended his body to a different dimension, then his body would ultimately have to adapt to that dimension, causing his body to look like a monster from a B-level horror film, due to the physical universe unable to completely encapsulate his new form.
Xander visibly shivered. How could one even have such a mutilated thing that's 2 meters long? And one with suckers on the surface. Ugh. It looked like a parasite, not a sexual organ. Not only that, his face grew tentacles? and his hair turned into eyes??
Going back to his time magic, in the meantime, was already at the point that he could affect other living beings, just by staring at them, or even having contact with them once.
Although it didn't seem different from what he was doing in the past 6 years with time acceleration, his control over time could already force characteristics of living beings to accelerate or even reverse, up to their predicted timeline. However, he could still not change the predicted timeline of the living beings characteristics.
For example, if he was to use it to himself, he could reverse his cultivation level permanently, or force it to forever stagnate in the same level, or accelerate to the predicted timeline his body had. He could do the same with other living beings.
If he could combine it with space magic, basically anything can be penetrated by his time power; true immortality, where one is indestructible and forever young, wouldn't be a far-off situation if he could simultaneously modify biological functions such as genetic structures, protein sequences and linkages to exist, collapse, or loop itself.
Sadly, like what the system said, combining the two elements required sufficient strength, as well as a certain understanding concerning the two elements. For now, what Xander could do is enclose a space, and in that space, change the time, ensuring the manipulated time does not affect the surrounding space.
His idea concerning a spatial dimensional barrier brought him to discover a problem: He was still human, through and through. How can he breathe then? How can he eat? Originally, he wanted to ensure that every particle of his body was situated in a different dimension and space location, but it was quite taxing for him to do so, almost losing his legs in the process.
Unless he transcends the need to breathe, which he assumes is the stage of Mythic or Demigod magicians, he needed to do these things, or ultimately die. He also guessed that if he wanted to implement his more extreme plan, he would have to at least be at God class to do so, as he had never seen anyone survive with all the molecules of their body scattered in various dimensions and spaces. If he applied the time loop in every biological structure and function in his body, he could solve this, but he immediately rejected the idea.
He LOVED food. He enjoys it. He considers it as one of his guilty pleasures, with him willing to taste different cuisines and dishes every day. He felt that enjoying delicacies such as food is fundamental of living, not just being alive.
He thought about it for a couple of days before finding a solution: randomized dimensional shifts. If the barriers were actually completely encompassing him, he would have suffocated long ago. What if, however, one would manipulate the barriers within a microsecond, or even less, to allow oxygen to enter by shifting the defense to a different dimension unknown to the user and the opponent?
Another solution he found was to locate a dimension that is only used by oxygen particles and allow it to connect to the space within the barrier. But this carries a risk: what if your opponent finds that dimension and unleashes his or her attacks through the opening?
He was quite imaginative; he foresaw the possibility that someone would be able to utilize such a dimension to launch modified oxygen particles, or even non-rejectable particles to target him.
Actually, at this stage, he was even tempted to already go to the future and get the augmentation he needed, such as not requiring oxygen anymore.
He decided against it for now, thinking that he wasn't able to stay long in the future anyways with the level of comprehension he had of space-time, as well as the possible side effects these augmentations may bring to his improvement as a magician. After all, if he wasn't wrong, those above the demigod realm have surpassed the mundane needs of their bodies, reaching an elevated existence.
Xander began working on creating a spell.
Weirdly, spell creation was supposed to be for Master magicians and above, and also a part of their requirement for advancement. For Xander, however, it felt quite natural for him to create a Master-level/Advanced spell.
He thought about it for a moment and came to a possible answer: it was the aid of the system. The system allowed circumventing class barriers in formulating a spell; it just required me to have the necessary amount of magical power and elemental power to cast them. After all, it kind of makes sense, since a god turned his premonition into a system existing in his mind, and probably boosted it?
After a few days inside the time-accelerated space, he finally succeeded creating 2 spells based of space and time elements. However, he ran into a problem. When he checked the system, the spell slots taken weren't in the advanced magic... it took up space in the Divine and God Magic slots.
For a moment, Xander was dumbfounded. This was not within his expectations.
Creating a Divine and God rank spells? As someone in the Mundane class?
However, this only lasted for nearly a minute before he composed himself and pondered. At this point, he named 2 magic skills he had as Absolute Defense and Absolute Time. After naming them, conveniently, their functions and description appeared in my mind.
[Absolute Defense]: Nothing can penetrate this thin, multi-folded, inter-dimensional space lining. Any attack is shifted to a random dimension where the user is not located in. If the attack is a multi-dimensional attack, the defense breaks, before reforming again with a different set of dimensions folded in a different conformation.
[Absolute Time] (sealed, 1% unlocked): Nothing can go against the flow of time; this can affect non-living and living beings, targeting their characteristics, ranging from, but not limited to:
intrinsic characteristics (molecular and quantum structures, temperature, sharpness, clarity, thickness, roughness, concentration, spatial arrangement, etc.)
biological functions (Age, memories, digestion, regeneration, cell division, tissue and organ formation, etc.) to
extraneous functions (such as magic cultivation, ability to do magic, affinity towards the elements, etc.), causing them to regress, stop, or accelerate permanently.
Limitation for both skills, however, was based on the strength of the target as well as the strength of the attack. As he was currently a Mundane-9, a step away from Elite-1 class, allowed his power to be effective up to the Legendary-9 level. As his class level increases, so does his ability.
This meant that unless the old monsters and supreme young geniuses beyond Legendary class appeared, he could walk around safely and without fear of offending anyone. At the same time, once he reaches Elite-9, He would not fear anyone below the Demigod class.
Huh, no wonder it was ranked that way. I created the foundation for two strong spells?
Xander thought to himself.
He then checked the stats the system provided to him, an easy way for him to visualize and remember his spells.
Xander Cloverfield
Lvl 6
Mundane-9
Str: 25
Vit: ?
Int: ?
Dex: 25
Luck: ?
Skills:
Time Mastery: Max
Space Mastery: Max
Basic Magic Foundation: 9/10
Intermediate Magic Foundation: 10/10
Advanced Magic: 1/10 - [Instant Regeneration (no limit)]
Legendary Magic: 0/?
Mythic Magic: 0/?
Demigod Magic: 0/?
Divine Magic: 1/7 - [Absolute Defense]
Sage Magic: 0/5
God Magic: 1/3 - [Absolute Time]
He had 9 more slots for creating advanced magic spells in his arsenal. Besides the recently made spells, there was [Instant Regeneration (no limit)] spell occupying the very first advanced magic spell slot. Probably, the 2nd spell for God magic is [Absolute Space], based on his elemental affinities. For the third spell… could it be a fusion of the 2 spells?
He also noticed that the development of his stats, as a Mundane-9, was lower than other magicians at the same stage, specifically his strength and dexterity values.
A Mundane-9 should have an optimum value of 40 points in all attributes. his were at 62.5% of the optimal value. Using the information he had gleaned over the past few years, and with the help of the system, he found a possible explanation for this: Since his Intelligence, Vitality, and Luck are at levels that it cannot be quantified, the other attributes of his body must adjust; in the future, due to this situation, his body would overcompensate as a result. Like if he ever reaches the highest rank of God-9, he would have the strength and dexterity of a Sage-9 magician.
Although it was a problem in the future, Xander had no idea of how to fix it for now, and rather focused at the present. With his current arsenal, both knowledge and magic power, he was ready to embark to another place in mind: College.