Conditions to Become a Mage

"Found it, just as I thought!"

Inside the dilapidated little house, Ul flipped through the notebook in his hands, silently remarking to himself.

This notebook was the same one Ul had found earlier, its contents mainly recording the predecessor's notes on magic. The final page held nothing else but the predecessor's words of encouragement to himself before attempting to break through to "Mage."

And it was precisely because of this notebook that Ul confirmed the predecessor's cause of death: failing to become a Mage, leading to "Magic Backlash" that killed him.

"Tch, this guy was practically asking for it! With a body in this condition trying to break through to Mage, how could he possibly succeed?" After finishing the notebook, Ul couldn't help muttering to himself in amazement.

Through this notebook, Ul finally understood how magic worked in this world!

Everyone in this world had magic power within them, but not everyone could become a Mage.

To become a Mage, at least two conditions had to be met.

First, one needed the aptitude to become a Mage. By this world's standard, magic aptitude was divided into five grades, from low to high: D-rank through S-rank. To become a Mage, one needed at least D-rank magic aptitude.

Second, one needed a certain level of mental talent. The so-called release of magic was primarily a process of concentrating the mind to inscribe a Magic Circle, thereby guiding and unleashing the magic power within the body. Without sufficient mental talent, successfully inscribing a Magic Circle was absolutely impossible.

As for why this wasn't mentioned in the original story, Ul guessed it was because there was no need.

In the original work, the story of "Fairy Tail" revolved mainly around a handful of characters, with most others glossed over. And those few characters each had magic aptitude of at least S-rank, or even higher...

"Tsk... reality is way more screwed up than anime!" After learning all this, Ul couldn't help cursing inwardly.

According to the notebook, this body had only D-rank water-element magic aptitude and a sliver of mental talent. Both barely met the minimum standard for a Mage—any lower, and he probably wouldn't even have the chance to become one...

To be honest!

If it weren't for the cheat ability he still carried, Ul would have given up by now!

After all, unlike this world's chuunibyou vibe, Ul had crossed over from an era of information explosion. He knew all too well that the greater the hope, the greater the disappointment.

There were many things in this world where, unless you tried, you wouldn't even know what despair was.

"But this predecessor was pretty unlucky too. He'd already solved the most important condition for becoming a Mage, yet he fell at the wrong hurdle. Truly, health is the capital of revolution!" Ul couldn't help sighing again.

Normally, breaking through to Mage carried almost no life-threatening risk. All one needed was to successfully construct a Magic Circle and release a basic spell to be considered a Mage.

But the predecessor's physical condition was far too poor!

While Mages didn't need to focus heavily on physical training, they still needed a body stronger than an ordinary person's.

Yet look at this guy... 4 HP.

Ul had no idea what the predecessor had done to drain his body so thoroughly.

With the predecessor's lesson in mind, Ul abandoned any thought of trying to inscribe a Magic Circle for now.

After all, he didn't want to cross over only to go have tea with the Grim Reaper of another world.

Besides these records, the notebook also contained other things. For example, Ul found a Basic Meditation Method for improving Mental Power and magic power, three basic water-element spells, and a few trivial details of daily life.

From these trivial details, Ul confirmed that the predecessor was an exceptionally reclusive person.

According to the notebook, the predecessor didn't have a single friend.

That's right!

Not one.

From earlier events, Ul had thought the predecessor and Natsu had a decent relationship, but in this notebook, the predecessor always regarded Natsu as nothing more than "a very noisy idiot."

Emmmm!

Though Ul felt that description was quite fitting.

After flipping through the notebook a few more times to make sure he hadn't missed anything, Ul began cultivating according to the Basic Meditation Method recorded in it.

This Basic Meditation Method and the three basic spells were all very common fare.

This world was quite open about the use of magic. Aside from some extremely rare spells and the secret techniques of major guilds, most other magic could be traded as commodities.

Though they were common goods, they were more than enough for Ul's current needs.

With this Basic Meditation Method, the magic power this body had lost due to the earlier "Magic Backlash" could be quickly restored.

The content of this Basic Meditation Method was also very simple.

It required the Mage to empty their body and mind as much as possible, thereby triggering the body's instinct to absorb magic power and refine Mental Power...

And this step was, for Ul... overall, much simpler than he had imagined.

So once he started cultivating, an entire afternoon passed in a flash.

In the end, Ul didn't even exit the meditative state on his own—he was driven out by the hunger gnawing at his stomach...

Thanks to Cho'Gath's passive, Void Stomach, while Ul's body recovered much faster, his digestion speed also increased significantly.

He glanced at the sky outside.

Ul reluctantly withdrew from his cultivation state and began walking toward the cafeteria...

For some reason, Ul found cultivation far less difficult than what was recorded in his predecessor's notes—he could almost effortlessly immerse himself in it.

"Could it be because there's a different soul in this body now?"

Ul pondered briefly, only to feel his stomach growl even more urgently.

He quickened his pace...

Soon!

Ul arrived at the cafeteria.

He directly asked the staff for five portions of food and began wolfing them down...

After finishing!

Ul quickly returned to his small room and resumed cultivating the Basic Meditation Method!

Day... after day...