The Magic of Decisive Victory

From that night of the sect gathering onward, for a full two and a half days.

Guter's deep-seated hunger, triggered by his first mana oscillation, finally reached its peak and began to gradually recede.

During this time, the "Desperately Ravenous" foraging duo he formed with his junior disciple Gumi had, in just two short days, carved out a fearsome reputation in the dining scene of Oysaster.

Every restaurant the pair "graced" left its owner sighing and its kitchen staff questioning their life choices, but regardless of their roles, everyone had their understanding of gluttony thoroughly rewritten.

In this special period, Guter felt that any food entering his mouth required no time at all for digestion.

His stomach and intestines would instantly refine it into pure nutrients, absorbed by every limb and bone.

With such a massive supply of nourishment, how could his body fail to grow?

There was no need for precise calculations.

Over these days, even from rough daily observations, Guter could clearly feel a comprehensive enhancement in his physical abilities—strength, explosive power, and speed all far surpassing before.

Just as Teacher Serie had described, once the hunger in his body began to fade, a cultivator's physique would undergo a phased growth spurt.

Though this phase was relatively minor and not enough to be transformative, it absolutely crushed the tiny gains from daily training.

Even better, this phased burst in physical ability also benefited from the system's [Daily Quest] bonuses.

Although the daily reward could only stack for up to three hours.

And the [Physical Enhancement Period] was expected to last a while longer—stacking these days' quest rewards together would likely amount to a considerable boost.

Another two and a half days passed.

The deep hunger in Guter's body had completely vanished, and his daily rhythm finally returned to normal.

At the farewell meal of the "Desperately Ravenous" foraging duo, Guter reached out and pinched his junior disciple Gumi's cheek, studying her slender figure. For a moment, he couldn't quite figure it out.

How could she eat so much and not gain any weight at all?

Truly mysterious.

Another five days passed.

In a training ground within Oysaster.

Guter threw punch after punch into the air, each one occasionally producing faint cracks.

Thus, Guter moved erratically through the training ground with a chaotic boxing style. When he reached a wooden post, his punching motion halted instantly, and a sharp kick shot out, landing solidly on the post.

With a "Bang!" the solid-wood training post snapped under Guter's kick, its upper half flying off, spinning two and a half times in the air before thudding to the ground.

"Whew—"

"My body now has really been elevated to a pretty formidable level."

Guter clenched his fist, feeling the explosive power within his frame, utterly satisfied.

Too bad the phased physique boost from his first practice of the [Body Tempering Method] had now been fully released by Guter.

From here on, improving his physical strength would rely solely on the gradual accumulation of daily training.

But even with this much improvement, Guter was already quite content.

After letting loose in the training ground just now, he had a fairly precise understanding of the total physical enhancement since the hunger began to fade.

The physique boost from the first oscillation, combined with the system's daily quest rewards, was roughly equivalent to a year and a half to two years of hard training.

And the benefits of the [Body Tempering Method] didn't stop there.

Just now, as Guter squeezed out the last shred of improvement from his body, the long-silent system suddenly chimed with a notification.

[Ding!]

[Congratulations, host, for unlocking [Talent Trait: Transcendent Body] through your own effort.]

Guter withdrew his fist and sat down, taking a deep breath to calm himself before summoning the system interface to check.

[Personal Interface]

[Host: Guter]

[Activated Traits: Transmigrator (Gold), Otherworldly God of Cooking (Blue), Worldly (Blue), Disciple of the Mythical Archmage (Blue), Great Fortune (Blue), Transcendent Body (Green), Atheist (White)]

[Trait Effect Details:]

[Transcendent Body (Green)/(Upgradable)]

[Your body has surpassed its original limits due to a special Body Tempering Method. Continued cultivation may yield even greater effects.]

[Talent Trait Effect: Slight increase in all physical limits, slight increase in lifespan, slight increase in injury recovery speed, slight increase in endurance.]

"So there's a green quality among talent traits too?"

Looking at the trait quality column, Guter felt a slight surprise but quickly accepted it.

Based on his own experience and the system's arrangement of talent traits, green was likely a quality between blue and white—its effects weaker than blue trait bonuses, yet unlike white traits, which came with both boosts and drawbacks.

Still, there was no need to fixate on the current quality. After all, [Transcendent Body] was an upgradable talent trait, and one that filled a gap in his physical attributes.

Having gained something like this, Guter was already satisfied.

Besides, the trait effect description's "slight increase in endurance"—what kind of increase was that? How much would it improve? And how high could its growth potential go?

Guter was rather curious about this.

Time flowed as placidly as a small stream.

Another week passed.

[Oysaster], Mage Examination venue.

Lord Serie sat bored on the grand hall, her gaze drifting idly over the three disciples below her.

At that moment, her chief disciple Guter and his junior sister Gumi were huddled together, each with a bread roll stuffed in their mouth, munching away while intently reading their respective Magic Books.

From the hall above, they looked like two adorable hamsters.

As for the remaining Lairn?

That somewhat timid disciple had found a quiet spot far from his senior brother and junior sister.

After sitting cross-legged, he began meditating while maintaining the screening barrier outside the hall.

Well, expecting to find any amusement from this disciple was still too difficult.

With nothing to do, Serie silently watched her disciples below, reminiscing about past events.

Until the long-stagnant atmosphere of the hall was broken by the sound of a door opening.

"Finally. A examinee has arrived, hasn't he."

Serie's closed eyes opened, a glint of excitement flashing in her gaze.

Her scrutinizing eyes fixed directly on the figure standing at the entrance.

It wasn't that Serie was in such a state for no reason; after the fervent examination atmosphere of the first few days had passed, the number of mages participating in the subsequent assessments dwindled day by day, gradually decreasing.

Not to mention the earlier scene where the hall was packed with people before dawn;

the situation had now deteriorated to the point where, over an entire day, there might not even be five examinees who could pass through the magic barrier and enter the second round of screening.

Actually, this situation wasn't hard to understand.

After all, the number of mages was inherently limited, and among them, those with exceptional talent who could stand on their own were even rarer.

Add to that the fact that Teacher Serie had officially announced a month in advance that any mage living in the [Northern Countries] and [Central Countries] who had some confidence in their magical abilities and wanted to give it a try had mostly come in the first few days.

Anyway, whether they succeeded or failed, the result would come quickly.

Thus, aside from some examinees who were delayed due to long distances or special reasons, those who could come had basically arrived.

Although the number of examinees in these few days was small, it would get even smaller after another two days.

So, for this examinee who had broken through the magic barrier, not only was Serie interested, but even Guter and Gumi, who had been studying their Magic Books, stopped their actions and looked in unison toward the entrance.

This time, the arrival was a tall and robust young man.

Under his casually disheveled long hair, he wore a loose set of ordinary clothes, and in his hand, he held a massive wooden staff as thick as an adult male's thigh.

Standing at the entrance, he didn't look like a mage at all; his demeanor was more akin to an unrestrained warrior.

However, when the young man, bearing the direct gazes of everyone, stepped steadily toward the center of the hall without changing his expression, Guter's eyes flickered, instantly overturning his earlier impression of him.

This man came from a military background.

And with this aura, he was highly likely an elite soldier.

On the hall, Serie, sitting cross-legged on her seat, naturally noticed this as well, but she didn't care.

Because when Serie took on disciples, she only confirmed whether they were Demons; aside from that, she never cared about their identities or backgrounds.

After all, even the [Empire], which had nearly unified the entire continent a thousand years ago, had now fallen into a fragmented state, broken into countless nations and city-states, leaving only a remnant of its roots in the northern continent.

And such a massive change had only passed a thousand years—a time far from long for an elf.

Thus, Serie briefly sensed the examinee's magical power, questioned him on his philosophy and courage, and nodded in approval.

Seeing the teacher's approval, Guter's gaze froze in surprise, because this young man, highly likely from a military background, was the fourth disciple Serie had taken on since Gumi.

That's right, after nearly twenty days had passed, counting this one, Teacher Serie had only accepted four disciples.

Hearing the teacher's words, even Lairn, who had been meditating off to the side, opened his eyes and looked over.

"Hm?"

Lairn paused slightly; this newly accepted disciple of the teacher—why did he feel somewhat familiar?

After hearing Lord Serie express her intention to take him as a disciple, the robust young man knelt on one knee. After expressing his gratitude to the great Archmage Lord Serie, he didn't immediately agree.

Under the stunned gazes of Guter and the others, the robust young man began his self-introduction to Serie.

"Lord Serie, my name is Sayidat. I am a mage from a unit stationed in the northern border of the [Empire]."

"Please forgive me for not being able to immediately respond to your approval, because I still have an unfinished matter in the military."

Serie's brow furrowed slightly, a hint of displeasure on her face.

"If that's the case, why didn't you wait until you had handled your military affairs before coming to participate in the examination?"

"Because, right now, I need your help."

Without any concealment, the robust young man spoke his purpose bluntly and laid it bare.

"Next month, the unit I'm in will be sent to subdue a Demon General—the one who destroyed my homeland."

"As a soldier of the Empire, I obey the Empire's orders; as the sole survivor of a ruined home, I bear a blood-deep grudge against that Demon General. I long to shatter its skull with my own magic staff."

"I won't fear crossing blades with it, nor will I regret dying in that fight."

"What I fear is that even if my entire unit gives everything, fighting to the last man, we still won't manage to take that Demon General down with us."

"I fear that my sacrifice and my comrades' will be worthless, and that we'll only bring deeper suffering to the surrounding residents."

"Because the unit I serve in is the only force protecting the people nearby. If we deploy in full and fail to annihilate that Demon General, it will surely exploit the gap in our defenses to rampage through the villages, slaughtering and destroying."

"I'm just a soldier of the Empire, not a general of the Empire."

"I can't grasp tactics, nor do I know whether this attack plan is truly sound."

"All I know is that when the charge sounds in the unit, I have to use the opening my brothers-in-arms buy me with their lives to hurl the most destructive magic I have, with everything I've got, straight into that Demon General's face."

"And now, I wish to beg of you, Lord Serie, a spell that can inflict the greatest possible harm on that Demon General active in the Kastai Region on the Empire's northern border."

"If that happens, perhaps our sacrifice can truly trade for that Demon General's life; if possible, maybe I can shorten the battle. Every second of fighting time reduced means a few fewer brothers risking their lives to create an opening for me."

As he spoke, the burly military man Sayidat shifted from his single-kneeling posture, bringing his other knee to the ground as well, prostrating himself fully before Serie.

"Lord Serie, I dare not agree to become your disciple, because I can't be sure I'll survive the subjugation campaign and return."

"But Lord Serie, I want to become your disciple, because I love magic. I still remember the first spell I ever learned—a folk spell called Magic to Warm the Body. In the bitter cold of the Empire's borderlands, I recall casting it for my parents, and the relieved, proud smiles on their faces."

"Winter on the Empire's border is freezing; but Magic to Warm the Body is warm."

"Lord Serie, I want to kill that Demon General, to use its death as an offering to my hometown."

"If I succeed in that, I'm willing to lay down everything in the military and come to be your disciple."

"So, I beg you to grant me first—this decisive magic."

Hearing this, Serie sighed and descended from the great hall.

"Decisive magic?"

"I think you should know that the more powerful a spell's effect, the longer it takes to learn, right? Even if I gave you such a spell, with your campaign against the Demon General next month, would you have time to master it?"

"I don't know."

The kneeling Sayidat replied, "But I know that if it's Lord Serie, you'll surely find a way."

Apologies for the delay.