The snoring beside him suddenly rose half a beat, then ended in a long, whistle-like exhalation. Its rise and fall proclaimed just how relaxed its owner was in sleep.
Ruger turned to glance at him, then shifted his gaze back to the scroll in his hands.
The other end of the strange scroll could no longer be unrolled. Clearly, everything that met his requirements and that he was allowed to see was already here.
He roughly estimated the time. Since receiving this unusually wide scroll, he had occasionally drifted off into thought, and before he knew it, more than a day had passed.
Ruger blinked.
He cautiously reviewed the latter half once more. Though it was called reviewing, he was in fact thinking as well.
The Bloodline Hourglass Ascension Ritual—a ritual of ascension that worked entirely to enhance one's bloodline. With every future advancement and transformation, the hourglass could be inverted once. It perfectly met his requirements. The so-called period of weakness would not affect him much either; the spells he excelled at were not founded upon his dragon bloodline. Everything seemed to make it the best possible choice.
In truth, most ascension rituals were merely embellishments along a wizard's path. As a wizard's rank rose, this became even more apparent.
The original—and ultimate—purpose behind the creation of ascension rituals was to make it easier for apprentices to advance into formal wizards.
Wizard apprentices generally fell into three categories when choosing an ascension ritual. The first was like Old Drunkard in Starry City: from the initial selection to the very end, they simply sought advancement, choosing the ascension ritual most likely to help them rise in rank. After considering it, Ruger felt he belonged to the second category—while advancing to become a formal wizard, he would try to choose something