Level Four

Level Four "Three runes, including a non-universal Fireball rune. Judging by the usual prices of low-tier zero-rank magic implements sold at Wizard Market stalls, it should be worth at least several dozen Low-Level Magic Stones."

Ronan silently appraised the Fireball Ring in his hand. As for the intermediate magic implement ring with two Protection runes, he had no idea how much it was worth.

It was too high-end. He would have to visit a professional magic implement shop like Welling Workshop.

"This guy just drank a potion. He might still have..."

After stripping the rings, Ronan no longer had much of a mental barrier toward looting the corpse. Perhaps the enormous haul had outweighed his fear of the dead.

This time, he crouched beside the corpse and searched it all over with both hands.

He quickly found something—beneath the robe on its right side, Ronan found a black waist pouch decorated with exquisite patterns.

He hurriedly opened it, only to find very little inside.

Aside from a dozen or so Low-Level Magic Stones, there was only a potion and a round brass badge.

Ronan was a little disappointed.

But that was normal. No wizard would carry all their possessions on them at all times.

He picked up the potion and examined it. Ronan, who had not even begun studying Magic Potion Studies, could not tell what it contained.

"I'll compare it at a potion shop later and find out."

He set down the potion and picked up the brass badge.

A tiny green owl was imprinted on its surface.

It looked like the exclusive membership emblem of some organization or faction.

At that thought, Ronan's heart immediately tightened again.

Having an organization meant having backing.

Now that the man had died here, would someone come looking into it later? What if they found him, the "murderer"? Could the dead man's companions already be on their way?

Pursuit, revenge, blood for blood. All sorts of scenes he had seen in movies, television shows, news reports, and novels in his previous life began churning uncontrollably through his mind.

Ronan could not help shuddering lightly. The aftereffects of killing someone came rushing back.

He immediately dared not linger here any longer.

He hastily gathered up all the valuables, tossed the badge and waist pouch back onto the corpse, then turned and left at a rapid pace.

He had originally intended to return to where the first corpse lay and take another look.

Now he completely abandoned that idea. He only wanted to get away as quickly as possible.

Worried that someone might come looking for him, Ronan did not dare return to his tree house for three days straight.

He wandered the wilderness, sleeping rough and living off the elements, almost stopping all daily activities aside from meditation.

Three days later.

Dusty and exhausted, Ronan returned to his little house.

After carefully taking out his key and pushing open the door, he looked around cautiously.

Inside the dim, cramped room, everything was more or less the same as when he had left.

The first thing he did was check the storage box in the corner.

When he saw that the several inscribed [Cleaning] and [Shine] runes, along with the Magic Stones he had saved up, were still there and had not been stolen,

Ronan finally let out a long breath and dropped into a chair.

Over those three days, Ronan had sorted through the matter and thought it through.

The wizard he had killed had also been a "murderer."

He had chosen a killing spot deep in the wilderness near the forest. After being seen by Ronan during the murder, he had been desperate to silence him. Clearly, he had been doing something shady from the start.

Someone like that was bound to act in secret. Once he died, with two corpses left in a dense forest full of wild beasts, the scent of blood would attract predators, and within two hours at most, everything would be "cleaned up" without a trace.

Other than Ronan, no one in the world would ever know what had happened there that day.

All his previous worries had truly been a little unnecessary.

However.

Though that was what he told himself, over the following Moon Cycle, Ronan still lived like a startled bird.

It was as if he had returned to the state he had been in when he had first transmigrated here.

It was not until he took the Magic Stones he had saved and found time to visit the market, bought another low-grade Spirit Concentration Potion, drank it, and successfully advanced to a Level Four Wizard Apprentice that he gradually settled down.

Splash!

A figure burst from the calm lake surface.

It was a slender youth.

His skin was fair, his eyes lake-blue, and his medium-length chestnut hair clung wetly to his shoulders. He possessed a handsome, masculine wildness.

Ronan ran a hand through his hair, flinging out a spray of water droplets, then walked step by step onto the grassy shore.

Beneath a lush green Walnut Tree, Ronan sat down casually and let the breeze dry the water from his body.

"Nothing has happened for more than a month... There's probably really nothing to worry about."

Ronan murmured softly.

Just yesterday, he had even secretly returned to that place deep in the forest.

He discovered that the dead wizard's body had long since vanished, while the traces of both battlefields had been covered and buried beneath newly grown weeds.

"Even if there are spells for tracking things down, under these circumstances... it would probably be difficult."

As Ronan thought, he pulled two rings from his waist, one black and one red.

They were the two magic implement rings he had stripped from that wizard. During this period, Ronan would take them out from time to time to fiddle with them.

"With my current Spiritual Power, activating the two Protection runes on the ring at the same time is still a little difficult. To do it with ease without affecting the use of my other methods, I'd probably need the strength of a Level Six Wizard Apprentice..."

From this, Ronan judged that the wizard's strength had been at the level of a Level Six Wizard Apprentice, perhaps even Level Seven.

That such a powerful fellow had ended up dying at his hands made it feel like pure luck when he thought about it.

"Carelessness, poor condition, and severely underestimating my combat strength... all of that ultimately led to his defeat and death."

Ronan reviewed the battle in his mind, silently treating it as a classic negative example to remind himself from time to time.

Ronan had also gotten used to the other magic implement enchanted with Fireball.

This thing really was useful. With only a simple guidance of Spiritual Power, it could trigger a Fireball. Its power was about the same as normal casting, but its release speed was incomparably faster.

After one activation, its cooldown was roughly twenty seconds. It seemed that in a single battle, he could use it two or three times at most.

Ronan had also figured out the other two low-grade runes on the ring. They were a type of non-universal rune called Acceleration, which slightly increased the speed at which a wizard cast spells and recited incantations.

It was very useful during the low-level apprentice stage, but became rather useless at higher levels.

Ronan did not dare wear either magic implement ring, but he kept them on him at all times in case of emergency.

After carefully putting the rings back into the waist pouch he carried with him, Ronan stood up, shook himself off, and put on his robe.

It was comfortable to wear it directly without an inner lining, especially after bathing.

However, Ronan's only two robes were rather old and worn. The one he had on even had several holes in it. If he ran, the wind would howl straight into the robe.

"I need to buy a new one."

Ronan touched one of the holes in his robe. After thinking for a moment, he decided, "I might as well buy a wizard robe directly."

Ronan could now be considered to have a modest amount of savings.

The Magic Stones he had earned from Rune Inscription over the past month, the ones he had saved before, and those he had looted from the dead wizard, minus the cost of a low-grade Spirit Concentration Potion, left him with more than thirty Low-Level Magic Stones.

The most ordinary wizard robe could be bought for just over ten Low-Level Magic Stones. A secondhand one would be even cheaper.

Unfortunately, Ronan did not have much money. If he had sufficient funds, he would definitely consider buying a set of magic implement leather armor outright.

Over the past month, his Ascetic Body Forging proficiency had risen considerably, and his physique had improved greatly. If he could change into a set of magic implement leather armor, he could make much better use of his physical advantages.

But with the Protection rings... it was not an especially urgent need.

Ronan headed toward the forest.

As he walked, he casually summoned his Character Panel.

Name: Ronan Damien

Age: 16

Talent: Non-attribute Affinity

Strength: Level Four Wizard Apprentice (5%)

Skills: Basic Meditation Technique (Expert 2/800)

Energy Missile (Expert 531/800)

Charged Weapon (Mastery 14/400)

Rune Inscription—[Cleaning] (Proficient 102/200), [Shine] (Beginner 56/100)

Ascetic Body Forging (Beginner 87/100)