Revered Magus Chapter 46 - Nationwide Tournament

Rio was able to enjoy his peaceful secluded cultivation before someone once again disturbed him

'Is it so hard to cultivate? Why must I be disturbed, don't people have better things to do than disturb me?' Rio said grumpily, he was not normally so emotional but this is getting way out of hand, Rio even informed the council that he would pick up the monthly spirit stones himself, if he didn't, just set them aside for him and let it rollover to next month

Rio sensed a couple of figures outside his gate, so he went to go check through the window for him to find a familiar blonde-haired and blue-eyes girl with a couple of people in purple robes

'Elise? What does she want?' Rio said as he allowed her access into his manor, Rio didn't need to feel so wary as harming him wouldn't really benefit her

Rio went to the door to see Elise and two figures standing behind her, but slightly behind, making her at the front

One had short brown hair and matching brown eyes with a muscular body, yes, it was indeed Luke as he greeted me with a wave and a smile, Rio simply nodded back

Another had short blonde hair and green eyes, with pale skin and a nonchalant look as if nothing bothered him

Rio invited her in, but it seems the other two took it as me inviting all of them in Rio didn't stress and allowed them in

Rio sat down whilst indicating for Elise to sit just opposite him, the other two refused to sit down and just stood behind Elise

"Hey, it's been a while, I haven't seen you in a couple of months, oh, I haven't even introduced you, you probably know Luke already, I've heard you are already acquainted, so the other is Dimitri, Dimitri Lehman."

Dimitri simply looked at Rio then looked straight ahead, stood straight as a statue, but he could tell there was something about him

'System'

[Ding!]

Name: Dimitri Lehman

Class: 1st Rank Mage Master

Subclass: 2nd Rank Kudan Martial Artist

Strength: 167.5

Agility: 192.7

Endurance: 160.7

Mana: 540.0

'Damnnnnn, this…this guy is OP' Rio thought as he scanned him trying not to make any expression…but how could Rio fully hold it in when someone that strong could kill him in a flash acted

A slight expression of worry appeared on my face without even noticing and naturally, Elise caught this

'Don't worry, he is just accompanying me, as you probably know it's dangerous times, so I have to be careful

'That wasn't helpful enough, it was like a big vicious dog looking at you and the owners say "They don't bite"' he thought

"You seem different though, something's changed but I can't put my finger on it," she said while squinting her eyes trying to figure out

Rio ignored her remark and asked what she wanted carefully while constantly checking Dimitri's stoic expression

"I was passing by, to be honest, and realized I haven't seen you in a couple of months," she said with a smile

"That surely can't be the reason you actually came, right," Rio said still watching Dimitri's expression

"Honestly, no, I wanted to tell you that there's a national competition between the academies in the Santos Empire, it happens once every decade, you should have received the message but knowing you and your lack of communication, you probably wouldn't have found out any time soon," she said

"So…what does it have to do with me?" Rio said whilst tilting his head

"Naturally, every core disciple has to attend, of course, there are some exceptions, it too shows our prestige"

"Prestige? So, I must attend?"

"Yes"

…

Rio sighed and asked, "When is it?"

"In the next four years, so I'm informing you now so you can get ready," she said with a satisfied expression

"So…where are the benefits you promised," Rio asked, naturally he wouldn't care before since he was too busy cultivating but now, she's here, might as well ask

From the corner of Rio's eyes, he saw Dimitri move his eyebrows, yes…that slightly startled him, Rio's attention wasn't really on Elise but more on Dimitri

Elise has like 10% of his attention while the rest is on Dimitri and I'm sure all of them were aware of that

"What do you mean, this house is one of them and the monthly stones you are receiving is also one"

"The 50 low spirit stones?" Rio asked bewildered

"50?" She said equally as bewildered "You should be getting 200 low spirit stones per month, so you are able to use them to get resources Rio informed them this around two months ago

'Ahh, maybe it's because I haven't received mine, that I didn't realize the amount increase'

"I'll double-check for you," she said with knitted eyebrows

Rio nodded; the situation will settle itself anyway why correct her

"You can also go to the library and get a free skill book, I already informed them, just show them your token, anyway, I'll get going, I'm expecting results from you, Rio, I hope you don't disappoint," she said whilst she left with both of her bodyguards

Obviously, Lucas had to have his final wave and walked out with Elise

'Sigh, I guess this competition is a chance to show my worth, upper echelon huh?' Rio let out a slight grin.

'System'

[Ding!]

Name: Rio Casmir

EXP - 75,800

Class: 4th Rank Mage

Subclass: 4th Class Hachidan Martial Artist

Strength 85.0

Agility: 83.5

Endurance: 87.3

Mana: 416.2

'Too slow…I need to show tremendous improvement in these four years' a face of resolve showed on Rio's face

One Year Passes

After Hunting for EXP and cultivating and managing to break through to the Mage Master Rank at this moment.

At the moment Rio was trying to break through the 1st rank of Mage Master, after accumulating 500 mana points he felt the condition to breakthrough unlock

There is the Meridian in the body, the Psyche Meridian, The Heart Meridian, and The Conception Meridian

When attempting to break through to the Mage Master Realm, you must have at least 500 mana points and first feel your Heart Meridian, once felt, mana must be put into it causing a massive mana swirl pool in your heart meridian, after compressing the swirl pool as much as possible, stabilizing the mana swirl in your meridian, one becomes a Mage Master, this process takes a lot of mana to stream through and compress.

Forcefully trying to breakthrough without sufficient mana would not only have a high probability of failing it could even result in a devastating backlash, regressing your cultivation and never having the ability to raise it again

After spending half a month trying to accomplish this difficult task the more compressed the mana swirl is, the more it shows a person's talent and future prospects

After compressing it to the utmost limit using pills, potions, and auxiliary herbs Rio managed to compress the swirl to a barely noticeable dot within the meridian

Now Rio was breaking through the 1st rank, using the mana to make the thin mana twirl denser whilst still compressing it.