Planning the Road Ahead

Planning the Road Ahead

Over the following days, his brothers and sisters, far away in their respective territories, gradually sent letters of congratulations.

At present, Anvis and his siblings had a good relationship, which was related to the Olyvendi Family's inheritance rules—

As one of the Four Great Duke Families, candidates for Head of Olyvendi Family could be of either gender, but their strength had to reach the Ninth Rank.

Maliciously harming talented descendants of the family was absolutely forbidden, as that would shake the very foundations of the family.

Once anyone was discovered to have maliciously harmed a family member, they would be severely punished. Both they and their descendants would forever be barred from competing for the position of family head. This was the greatest deterrent against anyone harboring crooked thoughts.

Ensuring the enforcement of this rule were two Ninth Rank Limit elders within the family.

Both had lived since the early days of the Gloria Empire. Their direct bloodlines had passed down through countless generations, and nearly all familial affection for their descendants had long since worn away, leaving only their feelings for the family itself.

No one dared guarantee that their methods could evade the eyes of Ninth Rank Limit beings.

After that, Anvis continued as usual with his daily routine of study—reading—meditation. He strictly maintained the persona of a noble scholar, displaying it for certain watchful eyes lurking within the castle.

It had to be said that after officially becoming a Spellcaster, the speed at which meditation absorbed Mana to enhance Spiritual Power was worlds apart from that of the zero-rank stage.

If a formal Spellcaster's speed of absorbing Mana through meditation was like drawing water from a pond through a pipe, then a zero-rank apprentice was using a tiny straw.

Moreover, the various advantages of a top-tier Meditation Technique—such as increasing the purity of Spiritual Power and improving magical affinity—could only be fully brought into play after becoming a formal Spellcaster.

During the apprenticeship stage, the only difference between a top-tier Meditation Technique and an ordinary one was that it raised Spiritual Power somewhat faster.

At the same time, there was another piece of good news.

His two Construct Factories had finally begun making profits from outside sources! They were no longer relying solely on internal family orders just to barely avoid losses.

Previously, all their orders had been for laying tracks across the family's provinces, increasing the prevalence of Construct Trains.

However, the family had actually built several large Construct Factories responsible for manufacturing trains.

The only reason his two small factories had received any orders was the Duke's special consideration for him.

But as time passed, Anvis had used an opportunity to tour the factories to reveal a forward-looking Power Furnace design from his memories to the factory manager, under the guise of discussing a hypothesis.

The structural modifications themselves were not complicated. They merely adjusted the energy-conversion inscription structure inside the furnace, increasing its efficiency by roughly fifteen percent.

The manager was astounded upon seeing it. He then spent three days modifying the inscription-engraving equipment on the production line to manufacture the new Power Furnaces.

Once the new Power Furnace was introduced, it was immediately widely adopted.

Greater conversion efficiency meant lower Magic Crystal consumption, which also meant lower annual expenditures.

As a result, a large number of orders for the new Power Furnaces came their way, including from the family's own manufacturers.

It was not as if no one had considered studying and imitating them.

However, the new Power Furnaces sold by Anvis had anti-disassembly mechanisms. The moment anyone tried to take one apart, the inscriptions inside would melt away directly.

Perhaps High-Ranked Professionals could see through its exact structure without disassembling it, but these new Power Furnaces came from an Olyvendi Family factory.

Anyone hoping to copy them and steal their business had to consider the consequences of Ninth Rank experts paying them a visit.

That night, Anvis returned to his room and sat with his eyes closed as he did every day.

However, he did not enter meditation that night. Instead, he carefully planned his direction of development after reaching the First Order.

In his previous life, relying on his bloodline and background, the somewhat overconfident Little Anvis had chosen to develop across the entire Change School.

—That was normally a choice only Great Mages of the Eighth or Ninth Rank would make.

In the end, he had indeed become a learned Magister, but the vast amount of magical research and experimentation had also slowed the progress of his bloodline growth to a certain extent.

As a result, when the family later declined, Little Anvis's own strength had only reached the Seventh Rank.

If he had chosen to specialize in a single sub-school of the Change School, he could probably have reached at least the Eighth Rank before the crisis arrived.

Of course, whether Seventh Rank or Eighth Rank, it would not have made much difference to his circumstances at the time.

But an Eighth Rank Professional would always die with more dignity than a Seventh Rank Professional.

After inheriting Little Anvis's memories, Anvis had obtained all of his previous life's research results, but he did not intend to continue down the same path.

At present, he faced a brand-new and better choice:

The School of Prophecy—

Spellcasters proficient in the School of Prophecy were known as Prophets. In this world, Prophets were a rare and noble profession.

If Spellcasters were considered a noble profession, then an ordinary mage compared to a Prophet was like a Baron compared to a Count.

The vast majority of families of a certain scale would test every descendant who bore their surname.

If possible, Anvis hoped to obtain the identity of a Prophet.

It would allow him to openly reveal the future information in his memories to the Duke and others, while vastly increasing the weight of his words in the shortest possible time.

In the memories of his previous life, the Duke had specifically invited a Prophet to test whether Little Anvis possessed talent for prophecy.

The test had taken place on the seventh day after Little Anvis became First Order. For Anvis in this life, that should be tomorrow.

This kind of test could only be conducted after reaching the First Order, while the seven-day wait was meant to allow him to stabilize his realm.

The specific testing process was very simple. The Prophet would prepare a specially made Crystal Ball. The person being tested would connect their Spiritual Power to the Crystal Ball, then close their eyes and relax.

If you could sense the mysterious power within the Crystal Ball within half a Magic Hour, and use it to Peer into scattered Fragments of the future, then congratulations—you had the talent to study prophecy.

Otherwise, heh.

Naturally, during the test in his previous life, Little Anvis had sensed nothing at all. In the end, he could only declare himself unsuited for the path of a Prophet.

That was simply how the School of Prophecy worked. If you could sense it, you could sense it. If you could not, you could not.

However, after Little Anvis became a Magister in the future, his unwillingness to accept this had led him to specifically study the nature of so-called "prophetic talent."

He consulted countless Books, including ancient tomes from the era of the High Elves and manuscripts left behind by renowned Prophets.

In the end, he concluded that the so-called talent of a Prophet could be divided into the following two points.

First, a powerful soul. Second, affinity with the Web of Fate. A powerful soul was easy to understand—it referred to the strength of one's soul. Unlike the strength of Spiritual Power, soul strength only increased as one's rank rose.

This was also why some High-Ranked Professionals could forcibly use Low-Rank prophecy spells.

Affinity with the Web of Fate, on the other hand, was somewhat abstract.

Simply put, the trajectory of every existence in the world could be seen as a thread. That thread was the existence's fate.

Countless such threads intertwined and tangled together, forming a "web" that enshrouded the entire world. This web was the fate of the world.

A Prophet's prophecy spells were akin to using certain methods to Peer into this Web of Fate, then interpreting the future through the information and feedback obtained.

But not everyone could do this. Even if the vast majority used prophecy spells, they could not sense the existence of the Web of Fate. Only a very small number of people could perceive it.

This ability to sense the Web of Fate was what was known as affinity with the Web of Fate.

And the conditions under which such affinity emerged were as unfathomable as fate itself. It might appear in the child of a grand duke, or in the child of an ordinary peasant woman.

Regardless of whether their Parents were strong or weak, or whether they possessed a bloodline, the probability of this talent appearing seemed to be the same. The most extreme case recorded was that among a pair of twins, the younger sister possessed the talent of a Prophet, while the elder sister did not.

What factors determined the formation of this talent remained without a definite conclusion in the magical world to this day.

"Everything is fate... cough—fate's choice."

Touching the Family Amulet on his chest, Anvis began considering what he should do tomorrow.

As both a transmigrator and a reborn person, the strength of his soul was undoubtedly far greater than that of Little Anvis at the same age in his previous life. He simply did not know whether his affinity with the Web of Fate had changed.

Theoretically, if he could become a Prophet, it would be of immense help toward his goal of saving the Olyvendi Family. That fell within the effective range of the Wish Spell.

But if he still lacked the talent in this life, then he would switch to the Mystery School and use certain special mystery spells as an excuse to make the fullest possible use of his advantage in knowing the course of history.

Gurgle—→Recommended Tickets