The History Recorded by the Mage

When Donald saw Master Messer again, he already wore a blank badge on his chest. This was the standard credential for mage apprentices across the continent, invented a millennium ago by the magical Bannai Empire. If he could advance to a Black Iron rank mage, a spell-formed pattern would appear upon the badge.

"Master Messer!"

Though he lacked extensive social experience in his past life, he understood that courtesy cost nothing. In this world where the strong were respected and hierarchy was rigid, one had to remain respectful toward those of higher status, even if they were enemies.

Dressed in the casual attire common among nobles, Master Messer sat on the sofa like a kindly neighbor.

"Sit! Don't be so formal!"

Donald complied without hesitation, taking a seat opposite the master.

"Apprentice Donald, I invited you here today to offer some personal advice. But before I speak, I have prepared a few small things as a gift from a senior to celebrate your becoming an official apprentice. You must accept them!"

Hearing the old mage's firm tone and seeing the genuine care in his eyes, Donald felt a warmth in his heart. He set aside his reservations and took the tray resting on the coffee table.

"Thank you for your kindness, Master. I am truly grateful!"

The tray held three items: a roll of parchment, a small pouch, and a copper ring inlaid with a crystal.

The old mage pointed to the three seemingly ordinary objects and smiled. "The parchment contains the incantations and detailed casting guides for first-circle spells I've compiled. The pouch holds a few elementary Elemental Crystals. The ring is a piece of equipment I used in my youth. It's just a trinket, but for a caster below the Bronze rank—especially an apprentice—it should be quite helpful!"

"It possesses a certain degree of mental amplification, allowing you to master some first-circle spells ahead of time. With this white crystal ring, you can begin learning the first three spells on the parchment without worrying about spell backlash. This should aid your journey toward becoming an official mage!"

Donald was overjoyed. This was far more than just "helpful"—it was a massive boon. Equipment that could enhance mental strength and allow one to cast spells above their rank was essentially a divine artifact for low-level mages and apprentices!

Realizing the immense value of the gift, Donald hesitated to accept it.

Noticing his hesitation, the old mage smiled and said:

"Do not worry. While this equipment is decent, it is of no use to someone of my current rank. Our Kingdom of Selt has been isolated from the center of the continent for centuries, and our strength is relatively weak. In terms of the number and rank of mages, we are far behind the mage kingdom of Polin, the successor to the Bannai Empire. In terms of the number and strength of warriors, we cannot compare to the swordsman kingdom of Kort, or even the small Siren Duchy. With so many powerful nations on the continent, the people of Selt must strive to improve their strength to avoid being annexed. Any mage in the Kingdom of Selt would provide assistance to an outstanding apprentice like you to help your generation grow, so you need not feel burdened by my gift!"

After hearing these words, Donald's respect for the old mage soared. Perhaps there were many patriotic mages, but few were as upright, noble, and selfless as Messer.

"Actually, I have a selfish motive for doing this. In the decades since I became an official mage, I have only taken two apprentices, but both unfortunately passed away before me. I had originally lost the desire to teach, but your appearance changed my mind. Donald, would you be willing to become my official student?"

Donald was stunned, unsure how to respond. He had never imagined that the North Shire's premier mage—the most powerful master in the Mage Association—would want to take him as a student.

Seeing his reaction, Messer's expression dimmed. "If you are unwilling, that is fine. You may still come to me for guidance at any time."

"No, Master, I am just overwhelmed with joy! I would be honored to become your student!"

He performed a formal bow to Messer, and the old mage laughed heartily as he helped Donald up.

After receiving his gifts and some advice regarding the promotion to a Black Iron mage, Donald was sent by Master Messer to the library of the Giant Stone City Mage Association.

According to the old master: "The collection at the Giant Stone City Mage Association isn't vast, but it is sufficient for apprentices and mages below the Bronze rank. If you have the chance, you should visit the Mage Tower at the Royal Capital's Mage Association; it will broaden your knowledge and horizons, helping you grow faster."

Anyone who becomes an official apprentice can use their badge to enter this library. However, aside from the first free visit which has a time limit, all other visits require a fee. Most mage organizations in the kingdom follow this rule, a practice stemming from the theories of the magical Bannai Empire a millennium ago.

Only by mastering knowledge can one become a more powerful mage. The even more ancient Arcanist Empire once held a saying: "If everyone could become an Arcanist, the world would have no need for gods."

Of course, such blasphemous "heresy" would not appear in the records of various races, except in books left behind by ancient mages who were dedicated to pursuing the truth of the world's existence rather than worshipping deities.

Thanks to Master Messer's favor, Donald was not restricted by a time limit this time.

Upon entering the library, he did not rush to look at the spell books. Instead, he was more interested in browsing the historical records and mage journals. To understand a subject, one must first understand its history. This was an experience Donald brought from his past life.

However, the newly minted apprentice Donald did not know that this action greatly satisfied Master Messer, who was observing him through a scrying spell. Many new apprentices would rush to the library and immediately flip through spell books beyond their rank, obsessed with powerful offensive magic. This was a sign of an unstable temperament; early exposure to such things was detrimental to an apprentice's future development.

Yet, this student—the most talented he had ever seen—did not do so. Instead, he focused on the truth of history and the origins of mages, the precious heritage left by predecessors. These were the invaluable insights that helped establish a correct worldview and professional conduct, helping them become truly powerful mages. This proved that Donald was not only talented but also steady in temperament, making him a student one could feel at ease with.

A satisfied Master Messer withdrew his scrying spell, while Donald became immersed in the vast and heroic history of this world.

The materials here were quite different from the history books Donald had read before, which was within his expectations. Compared to church scriptures that centered everything on gods, or kingdom epics that perfectly defined the term "flattery," only the rigorous mages recorded the truth of history objectively, free from subjective beautification or malicious distortion.

Through these documents, Donald finally gained a rough understanding of the world he now inhabited.

This was a world where gods existed. Powerful dragons and ancient magical beasts once ruled the continent. Countless years later, High Elves were born from the World Tree, and their extraordinary wisdom soon made them the new masters of the world.

Eons passed, and the newly born High Elves gradually regressed from their initial demigod strength to a starting point of the Gold rank. Humans, Orcs, Dwarves, Goblins, and other intelligent races appeared one after another, yet the High Elves remained the undisputed masters of the world. They established a powerful Elven Empire that ruled everything on the continent and soon conquered the vast oceans.

However, the High Elves' mother, the World Tree, had to dissipate into energy to support the plane barrier of the main world as it expanded, preventing her children from being invaded by other planes. Although the Tree of Life, a branch of the World Tree, existed to sustain the High Elves, there was only one such tree, and it could not support the High Elves scattered across the continent and oceans, causing their fertility to decline sharply. Thus, the Tree of Life sacrificed its strength to nurture ten thousand seeds of Ancient Elf Trees. Once these were cultivated by High Elves across various regions, their descendants—the Elves—were born.

Since then, apart from the Elven Holy Land where the Tree of Life resided, no other High Elves could be born in other Elven tribes. Unlike inherently weak races like humans, the souls of Elves were condensed from nature by the Ancient Elf Trees. High Elves were born with Gold-rank strength, but the Ancient Elf Trees could not compare to the Tree of Life or the World Tree of their ancestors. Therefore, even if both parents were High Elves, they could only produce ordinary Elven offspring. Even so, the soul strength of an Elf at birth was at least comparable to a Black Iron rank caster. Thus, although the Elven race was small in number, every individual was a powerful warrior or mage, which was why they once ruled the continent and still maintained a certain status even in this era of human prosperity.

Here, one must mention the Arcanist, a profession recognized by the gods as the most powerful since the birth of the main world, excluding the True Gods themselves.

The ancient Arcanists were the source of today's mages; one could say that modern mages are merely a branch of the original Arcanists.

The earliest Arcanists could be traced back to the ancient era tens of thousands of years ago, initially founded by the High Elves, though it was humans who truly carried Arcane magic to its peak.

Ten thousand years ago, due to population issues, the High Elves had to step down from their position as rulers of the continent. Humans, Dwarves, and Orcs began to rise. Among them, the creative and studious humans quickly stood out. They inherited the Arcane tradition from the High Elves, and some exceptionally gifted human Arcanists, despite their short lifespans of less than a century, achieved the same feats as the top High Elven Arcanists, with a few even becoming Great Arcanists, a rarity even among the High Elves.

Consequently, the High Elves took note of the human race's characteristics. Having retreated behind the scenes, they actively befriended humans and recognized human Arcanists as equals. Many arcane studies were completed in collaboration with humans, and the collision of different ideas led to the rapid development of the Arcane system. They created countless wonders of wisdom, such as Sky Cities, Magic Crystal Cannons, Domain Barriers, and Artificial Intelligent Golems, reaching a height that even the gods marveled at.

Unfortunately, this brilliant civilization met its end because some Arcanists, in their whimsical research, set their sights on the realm of the gods, inciting divine dissatisfaction and leading to the downfall of the Arcanist Empire.

The gods required faith to increase their power, while the kingdom led by the Arcanists pursued Arcane magic and truth. Fearing that if this continued, the Arcanists might reach the level of the gods within a millennium, the gods decided to weaken the Arcanists' strength and impose restrictions on mortals to ensure they would worship them more devoutly.

Facing the hostility and suppression of the gods, the freedom-loving Arcanists would not sit idly by and be enslaved. They rose in rebellion, but aside from the top-tier Great Arcanists, few could contend with divine power.

For the sake of human victory, the Arcanist leaders made a fatal decision: they opened the plane gate of the main world and summoned an army of demons from the Endless Abyss, the dark and evil side of the universe.

The Abyss demons dealt a heavy blow to the gods, causing many True Gods to fall. Most of the current gods only ascended after that catastrophe, with only a few ancient True Gods still existing today.

Although the Arcanists won, it was a pyrrhic victory, and the demons caused incalculable disasters to the main world. Many Arcanist legacies were buried under the ruins of history, causing the strength of subsequent Arcanists to decline with each generation, until the Bannai Empire split a millennium ago, and the title of "Arcanist" vanished from the world entirely.

The ancient magical Bannai Empire could be considered the final swan song of the Arcanists in world history. At that time, humans, Elves, and Dwarves shared a common enemy: the Orcs.

Although orcs lack the intelligence of races like humans and elves, their immense reproductive capacity and omnivorous nature have ensured their numbers are always on the rise. This massive population base provides the Orc Pantheon with a vast reservoir of faith. Just like the orcs on the ground, their gods are equally possessed of a beast-like aggression.

Sensing that the orcs were encroaching upon the lands of all races, attempting to rule the entire continent and establish a powerful empire just as humans and elves had done, the gods of humanity and other races found this intolerable.

While the flames of war raged upon the surface, the gods, led by those of humanity, engaged in a great war against the Orc Pantheon in the starry skies above.

The strongest human kingdom at the time was Bannai, ruled by the descendants of Arcanists. Supported by their numerous combatants who had transcended the Gold-tier, the orc tribes—lacking in spellcasting ability—were quickly defeated and driven to the bitter, cold western plateaus of the continent.

The Arcanists of Bannai successfully unified the entire continent, establishing the second empire dominated by Arcanists. They gathered and organized the remnants of arcane knowledge, creating a new profession: the Mage.

Originally, when arcane arts reached their zenith, they were divided into eight major schools, encompassing nearly every ability of spellcasters in the world. However, the Mage profession, based on incomplete arcane legacies, only possessed a limited number of branches, such as Elemental Mages, Alchemists, Summoners, and Witches skilled in souls and curses.

Regrettably, the ancient magical empire of Bannai had only just reached its glory before it dissipated like a firework.

Because the human gods had defeated the Orc Pantheon, the spatial rifts caused in the Prime Material Plane allowed the Abyss demons—who had once destroyed the ancient Arcanist empire—to descend once more. This was the origin of the Second Demon Calamity recorded in the continental chronicles.

After the disaster, to prevent the emergence of a second Arcanist empire, the Bannai Empire was fractured through the deliberate machinations of the gods. It was thought that the world would be at peace thereafter, but due to the influence of various forces, multiple stable spatial rifts formed between the Prime Material Plane and the Abyssal Plane. Through these rifts, every so often—be it a decade or a century—Abyssal creatures would slip into the Prime Material Plane to wreak havoc. Some larger rifts even saw a small number of demons emerge year-round, harassing the living beings of the world. Although these rifts were small and fragile, unable to withstand the passage of powerful demons, even the lowest-level minor demon was stronger than an adult human and possessed innate spell-like abilities, making them a malignant tumor threatening the life of the Prime Material Plane.

Fortunately, the human kingdoms and the various racial factions, supported by powerful professionals and the churches of the gods, successfully quelled the several large-scale demon calamities that erupted over the past millennium. As for the small-scale incursions, they were quickly extinguished once they drew the attention of the various powers.

In this world, wars are constantly erupting—not only between human nations, but also between humans and other races, and between the living beings of the Prime Material Plane and the evil creatures of other planes. It is likely that this is why, despite the world's civilization having developed for at least ten thousand years, it remains similar to the medieval era of his past life. This is not merely the result of the gods' control; the incessant wars between these various races are at least partially to blame.

Upon learning these historical truths, Donald felt not a shred of panic regarding the orc incursions or the demonic disturbances; instead, he felt a surge of excitement!

He still remembered a famous fantasy novel he had read in his past life, written by a legendary author, where the protagonist, after transmigrating to another world, relied on the merits earned during a demon calamity to climb step by step to the pinnacle of power, eventually even succeeding in becoming a god.

"Doesn't that mean if I can earn military merit in the battles between the human nations and the orcs, or during the demon calamities against abyssal creatures, I will inevitably be granted new fiefs, restore the glory of the Merlin Family, and perhaps even go further to become a true high noble?"

Relying on the abilities granted by the Book of Truth, Donald believed he would certainly be able to make a name for himself.

Although demons are powerful, those capable of reaching the Prime Material Plane through spatial rifts are surely not of the powerful variety. Furthermore, according to the research of mages, the orcs have not produced a single professional above the Gold-tier since the fall of their gods.

"Even if a war with the orcs breaks out, those orc experts will naturally be handled by powerful human professionals. As long as I focus on picking the soft targets and rely on the power of my summoning army, earning enough merit to exchange for rewards will be easy and effortless."

Donald had no doubts about this, and he was filled with confidence.