A Tremendous Improvement

Josh did not rush off to find Garen after discovering that notebook.

Garen had nearly blown himself to pieces by forcibly confronting the Void Gate, and he was still unconscious eighty percent of the time. Of course, Josh had no intention of letting the man continue lying in the dungeon. He instructed Frank to move him into the castle, find him a better room, and ensure he received proper treatment. Naturally, guards had to be posted outside.

Although Josh felt Garen would probably be utterly confused even if he woke up, who knew what unpredictable things might happen once he realized he was no longer on his own turf? Necessary precautions still had to be taken.

Thus began Josh's daily routine. During the day, he diligently studied the shelves full of magical notes. Those things had all been acquired for him by his ruler father, so Josh could be said to have abundant resources. Incidentally, Josh's father, Branco, had already entered the ninth rank. Back in the day, he had been one of the foremost figures on the Muya Continent.

There was an unspoken agreement on the Muya Continent: once an empire's ruler surpassed the ninth rank, they had to relinquish the throne. Even after reaching the ninth rank, professionals faced strict restrictions when acting on behalf of an empire, because their destructive power was simply too great.

Ordinary people were no more than ants in their eyes, while they themselves were dragons. They could probably kill countless people with a single breath. That was why such an agreement had come into existence, and it had endured for countless years.

At night, Josh meditated and devoured the uncontrollable Void elements within his body. His rate of absorption was slow, but there was nothing he could do about it. He could not absorb the Void elements that had condensed together at all; only the scattered Void elements outside could be steadily devoured.

Once again, out of boredom, Josh entered the largest region of Void elements within his body. To his surprise, he discovered that he had still underestimated their quantity. He had originally thought he might have devoured five percent during his first attempt, but now he wondered whether it had even been one percent. The Void elements in that region could not even be called individual elements anymore—they might as well have been called an elemental river! The dense mass of Void elements frightened even Josh himself.

"Trypophobia? Do I have that too?"

That densely packed sensation truly made Josh uncomfortable, but it did not matter. Since they were inside his body, he would eventually find a way to conquer every last one of them and make them his own.

Of course, Josh was no fool. He had not neglected the Void Magic inherited within his mind either. Apart from the two foundational spells, he could not even read the others yet. So he carefully familiarized himself with the ones he could use and cast them whenever no one was around.

Perhaps it was a matter of talent, but Josh felt that it had taken almost no time for his use of those spells to progress from clumsy to proficient. Maybe because he had read too many novels in his previous life, he tried out quite a few little tricks that did not exist in this world. The results seemed rather good.

There was no need to mention the Void Shield. It was Josh's ultimate life-saving skill. Its effect was so good that Josh did not even know how to describe it—it could directly nullify attacks of any form! Although the Void Shield shattered after being struck, as long as he continuously supplied it with magic power, the Void Shield would remain in place.

Josh did not actually know where the energy from attacks against him went. Then, one day, he foolishly poked the spell hard with his finger, and his hand went straight into the Void Shield—it did not pass through the shield and touch his body. It simply vanished!

Josh had been terrified at the time, but he quickly pulled his hand back out. After carefully examining it, he was shocked to find that his hand was covered in densely packed purple Void elements. Their quality could not compare to those inside his body, and their color was different as well, but their quantity was terrifyingly vast.

"Could this Void Shield actually be a Void barrier? Does all energy that strikes it go directly into the endless Void?"

With a shake of his hand, the Void elements on it vanished into nothingness, or perhaps merged directly with the other elements of this world. Josh felt his guess was probably correct. After all, this spell had originally been called Void Warp. He had merely changed its name because he felt the original was too misleading.

Naturally, Josh was delighted by the result of that experiment. It meant that no matter how powerful the enemy's attacks were, as long as he still had magic power, they basically could not hurt him.

"Does this count as some new version of an iron turtle shell? Why does it feel so weird?"

Josh really did find it somewhat strange, but he did not care. Even if such a powerful spell felt strange to him, he would not pass it up. So now, he kept the Void Shield around himself every day. Naturally, he did not let the shield's silver glow become too conspicuous. To improve his spell proficiency, he deliberately reduced his magic output and controlled the form of the Void Shield. The results seemed quite good.

As for the other spells, Josh practiced them every day as well. He had tried the Void Swarm several times, but unfortunately, he could only summon a single Voidling. The Voidling looked rather like a spider, which made Josh's scalp tingle, because he truly had no fondness for spiders.

He had mastered Baleful Phantasm rather well. Josh himself found this spell rather strange. Why did he feel as though he could use it proficiently after practicing it only once or twice? And that feeling was real. He could control Baleful Phantasm into any shape and attach it to any spell. It was simply unbelievable.

As for the Void Blade and Void Orb, he could only be said to have average control over them. The Void Orb was alright. He could control the size of the orb and even cast three or four at once, though that consumed a great deal of magic power. These orbs filled with Void Magic looked similar to Fireball spells, but their power far surpassed such things.

For instance, if a Fireball spell got lucky and killed or burned to death a first-rank warrior, that was already considered very impressive. Yet a Void Orb could make even a third-rank warrior suffer, assuming the warrior was unprepared. This spell differed from the one in the game. In the game, it had been a targeted skill—point and it hit. But in Josh's hands, it had become a non-targeted skill, which gave him quite a headache.

I should have practiced basketball more back then. Why the hell did I play soccer? Still, why do I remember Malzahar's and Kassadin's skills being purple when I played the game? Why did they become silver with me?

That was indeed another thing Josh could not understand. If the spells had not truly been similar to those in his memories and even shared the same names, he would have wondered whether he had inherited some fake legacy. Of course, that doubt had arisen after he foolishly poked into the endless Void.

What Josh did not know was that if he had not inherited the Void's legacy, an ordinary person who rashly entered the endless Void would not even leave behind a corpse to collect—they would be directly devoured by endless Void elements and turned into nothingness, or assimilated into a Void creature.

"Could it be because I was using Snow Day Malzahar back then, while that other guy was using Cosmic Reaver?"

Unable to think of any better explanation, Josh could only attribute it to the skins they had been using back then. Before being transported to this world, the Malzahar he had played had indeed used silver-colored skills because of that skin, and the opposing Kassadin had been the same.

"Fine, silver it is. It's better than purple, at least. If it really were purple, I'd probably be in trouble."

Indeed, purple had been fine in Josh's former country. It was even considered an auspicious color, as in "purple energy coming from the east." However, in this world, purple was not a good color. Beyond the Four Great Empires of the Muya Continent lay many barren lands filled with dense miasma. It was said that humanoid demon races lived there, their minds filled only with destruction and ruin, and their Battle Qi and magic were both purple.

"Actually, don't the beastmen seem pretty similar?"

And so Josh spent every day consolidating and improving himself. He was also waiting for news about Garen. Although Garen had awakened, his injuries were too severe for him to move, so Josh did not visit him. Instead, he continued his cultivation while finding better priests to treat Garen.

Five days later, when Josh felt that the magic power within his body had reached a point of condensation, he chose to break through. He actually could have done so long ago, but he had felt that his control over the power within him was poor, so he waited for a while. He had originally thought it would take a long time to familiarize himself with his spells and magic power.

But he had not expected to master them so quickly. With nothing left to hesitate over, Josh relaxed his body once he felt he had reached a condensation point that could no longer be suppressed, allowing the magic power in his body to move on its own. Then, naturally, he broke through.

"What a strange feeling."

Josh's breakthrough did not appear to bring any obvious changes. As far as he was concerned, he could merely control more magic power, while his spiritual power had increased once again. As a transmigrator, Josh's spiritual power had already been frighteningly high since childhood. Raising it a little more did not seem to make much difference to him.

Of course, there were still changes. He felt that his mastery over magic had improved considerably. Josh soon realized it was not merely a feeling, because after casually casting a Void Orb, he discovered that he condensed magic power much faster than before. Naturally, that was a good thing.

The most interesting discovery was that Josh seemed to have skipped straight past the third rank and entered the fourth. Unfortunately, he still could not tell what exactly had changed.

Just as Josh was puzzling over it, Frank came running in.

"My lord, that assassin you asked me to report on at all times has basically recovered."