Chapter 48
-Six Months Later-
Timothy was now fourteen years old and many small events had passed since the day he had won that tournament and obtained a Flame Sword in which was high enough quality for even rank three cultivators to covet for themselves. Andrew's father told him that once he reached rank four as a mage, that he would feel comfortable enough to give Andrew the position as Quartermaster within the Rising Tides Merchant Group. The quartermaster was a position given to successors of the merchant group and all merchant groups in general because the quartermaster was responsible for clearing all forms of business while always keeping track of inventory and new travel routes among other areas that every leader of a merchant group would have to know.
Not only that, but Ian was told when he reached age eighteen, that he would no matter what rank he would be, forced by his family to join the military so that he could begin his long career of military service. It was normal for sixteen year old teens who were in military families to begin their careers at that age, but since Ian was attending the Grey Imperial Academy and pursuing the path of a mage, his family made the decision to allow him to attend until the age of eighteen since he was showing promise of breaking through as a rank three mage in about one more year. If he was able to, there was a good chance he could come close to breaking into the fourth rank as a mage before his eighteenth birthday even though it was unlikely with his current potential.
As for Timothy, right now he was circulating the mana in his body while using a medium sized mana stone he purchased from the marketplace for a total of one thousand gold coins. Today according to the artifact, would be the day that Timothy would breakthrough and become a rank three mage. He was still far from becoming a rank three warrior, but becoming a rank three mage would allow Timothy to receive even more benefits from the academy!
In a very calm and meditative state, Timothy's surroundings had become very hot as if the entire room was on top of a volcano that was about to erupt. Luckily before starting, Timothy had told his two roommates to not enter for the day which was fine with them since they had their classes they had to attend for the entire day. Due to the surroundings in the room being such a high temperature, it was clear that in several minutes or hours, Timothy would finally find that moment he needed to advance.
One minute passed after another as Timothy had begun to visibly sweat nonstop as the heat in the entire room started to zone into above his head creating a small spark of a golden flame. Every mage's advancement in every rank was different depending on their overall potential given to them by the heavens as well as the element they had a high level of understanding in using. Technically, one could advance even if they did not focus on using an element, but for those of rank two and above, it was common for cultivators to have done so even if they were solely independent of any force.
The spark slowly turned into a wisp of a golden flame, into a small flame, and then into a palm sized flame. At this point Timothy let out a groan followed by a loud roaring sound as the flame went from floating above his head to merging with his body. Once this occurred, all of the energy stored in the medium sized mana stone was depleted and Timothy finally opened his eyes. To him it took a very long time and much longer than Nora who had broken through six months ago, but now, he too was a rank three mage!
After taking a long cold shower and putting on a fresh uniform, Timothy was feeling as if he took an incredible leap forward when it came to the level of power he was able to unleash and he felt as if he was completely reborn as a brand new person compared to how he felt previously. Every three ranks for a mage and even a warrior, one would go through a drastic change and would enter an entirely new realm compared to the one that they were in before. If rank one and two were considered an elementary realm, rank three and four would be considered an introductory realm.
Not only was Timothy excited that he finally broke through as a mage and could tell the obvious differences between how he was now compared to how he was at the second rank, but now it was time for him to make a decision when it came to picking up a trade to look into on the academy's dime. Once a student reached rank three as a mage, the academy allowed them to use their resources to pursue one potential trade or career path of their choosing since according to the Grey Imperial Academy, majority of drop outs came from those of rank one and two mages.
In order to make sure that each student had every advantage of reaching a higher rank as a mage, the academy only allowed those of rank three and above to split their studies and to pursue any of the many non-cultivator related career paths and trades. This included running a small business, becoming a blacksmith, becoming an inscriptions master, and even pursuing paths such as alchemy so that a student could earn gold by making medical pills which every successful pill made could be sold back to the academy for a small profit.
During these six months, Timothy had no real way to make any money in order to support himself outside of the academy giving a small monthly allowance in resources which each student had to use to keep up with their peers. He had friends like Nora and Andrew who would help him obtain little things here and there, but he already racked up over two hundred gold coins of debt with Andrew and fifty gold coins of debt with Nora just so that he could purchase the medium sized mana stone. This meant that the next three months of his allowance he would have to use to pay them back completely unless he had other means to make some gold other than doing something like competing at the coliseum which was now not a good idea since he ranked up.