The soul-devouring demon

"I no longer have any use for this meditation method. You'll likely be my last student, so giving it to you means it won't go to waste." Sanderson was pleased to see how Dean could hardly bear to put it down.

"Thank you for the reward, Mentor!" Dean said contentedly.

Sure enough, no profession was easy to get ahead in. With a mentor to guide and "support" him, he could achieve twice the results with half the effort in anything he did. Fortunately, Dean had taken Sanderson as his mentor in time.

Sanderson probably didn't use this meditation method himself. As for its remaining uses, the book had originally offered three opportunities to learn it, but after briefly sensing the mana within, Dean estimated that only one remained.

Perhaps Mentor Sanderson had picked up this spellbook somewhere at a bargain. Still, even with only one use left, this elementary Troll Vortex Meditation Method was probably worth at least fifteen or twenty Gold Coins.

For a Level-One Magic Apprentice, that was an astronomical sum. Even an elite level-two Mage might not possess such a fortune.

Dean currently had only seventy-eight points of mana. He would have to reach eighty to enter the late stage of a Level-One Magic Apprentice and begin preparing to condense a mana vortex. This transition from a level-one apprentice to a level-two Mage was both the easiest and the most troublesome step on a Mage's path.

Dean estimated that, without Mentor Sanderson's help, he would probably have succeeded in condensing a mana vortex after around five failures.

In other words, within five years, before he turned twenty, Dean could become a level-two Mage.

Twenty was a fairly normal age. He couldn't compare himself with those favored children of heaven. Some of them might already be level-four or level-five great Mages at twenty!

With vast quantities of all kinds of resources theirs for the taking, their levels would naturally shoot up.

Still, reaching the level of a level-two Mage by twenty would put him above average even at Bru Magic Academy!

Now, however, things were different. If he could learn the meditation method ahead of time, even without formally practicing it, it would naturally influence his current approach whenever he meditated on his own, laying a foundation for condensing his mana vortex in the future.

This would also let him adapt to the Troll Vortex Meditation Method in advance, greatly reducing the likelihood of failing to condense his mana vortex.

"Little Dean, I've accepted you as my student. Now it's time for you to make a choice. Answer me again: are you willing to become my sole student?" Sanderson asked Dean.

"This time, I won't be like an ordinary mentor. I'll pass on everything I've learned throughout my life. And not just that—everything my own mentor knew, too. I'll teach you all of it within this year." A gleam shone in Sanderson's eyes.

"But I'm already your student, Mentor." Dean was still a little confused. They had only spoken a little more openly, yet his mentor seemed anything but ordinary.

And not merely unusual—he seemed to be hiding some enormous secret. Thinking back to the Memory Crystal he had viewed earlier, Dean realized that no ordinary level-two Mage could have obtained it, however long they had been around.

No, not just level-two Mages. Even level-six or level-seven magisters probably couldn't get their hands on one so easily.

"Don't rush to answer. I'll take you to see something first. Whether it's good or bad is for you to judge. Of course, Little Dean, it's fine if you refuse what I just asked. You'll still be my student."

Sanderson said no more. If Dean refused, then Sanderson would remain just Sanderson, an ordinary mentor. He could continue guiding Dean, but that would be all he could do.

Sanderson left the cottage and headed around the back. Dean hurried after him. Since his mentor offered no further explanation, all he could do was obediently follow.

There was a small bamboo grove in the courtyard where Sanderson lived. Dean knew that much, but only that it existed. What lay inside had never mattered.

Dean would never have believed that this little bamboo grove could conceal some earth-shattering secret—not until today.

He watched his mentor Sanderson bow toward a stone in the bamboo grove that looked remarkably like a gravestone. The stone seemed to come alive.

"Little Dean, let me tell you a little secret. Here lies a tiny spatial node," Sanderson said, pointing at the stone.

A spatial node. Dean vaguely remembered the term. A teacher had happened to bring it up during a magic class once. It was a weak point in the world.

Every world had countless spatial nodes connecting it to all sorts of other worlds. Of course, these were all exceedingly small and could generally transmit nothing more than information. Spatial nodes through which mana could pass were already extremely rare.

The stone before him was one such tiny spatial node. Dean examined it curiously, but without a spatial affinity, and with his feeble mana, he couldn't make anything out.

"Stop puzzling over it. Even I can barely see this spatial node with my full concentration." Seeing Dean stare for so long without discovering anything, Sanderson couldn't help speaking up.

It was something Dean couldn't possibly detect at his current stage, so Sanderson didn't have him try to locate the spatial node.

"Which world does this spatial node connect to? Take a guess, Little Dean."

"Which world? Isn't it our own world?" Dean froze for a moment. A node this small generally connected locations within the same world, yet this one led beyond their own.

For a moment, everything that had happened during these past two days with Mentor Sanderson flashed through Dean's mind. Among it all, the knowledge concerning the Abyss seemed especially prominent. Even the powerful Memory Crystal had contained it.

Moreover, Mentor Sanderson had been in very poor health that morning, as though... yes, as though he had expended a vast amount of mental power. Even now, his mental power seemed not to have recovered.

The answer was on the verge of spilling out.

"M-Mentor, this node couldn't... connect to the legendary Demon Great World, could it?" By the end, Dean had leaned close to Sanderson's ear and lowered his voice almost to a whisper, as though afraid someone else might hear.

"If the Bright Church finds out this node exists, they'll definitely destroy the courtyard, and they'll arrest you too, Mentor!" Dean said urgently.

"Don't worry. This is just a rural backwater. Blue Town only has one tiny Bright Church chapel, with no fighting strength. Besides, I've already sealed off this Zhu Ling Bamboo Grove," Sanderson said without a care.

Perhaps it was because he was already an old man with one foot in the grave, and felt he had little to lose even if he were arrested and executed.

Of course, Dean couldn't possibly report him. He was Mentor Sanderson's student, so even if he did, he was certain to be implicated. There was an eighty percent chance he would never walk out of the Bright Church, and a twenty percent chance he would be sentenced to death as he walked out.

"All right, Little Dean. Next, I'll tell you about the place this spatial node connects to. There is a demon there—a demon who is very true to his word, but also extremely cruel and bloodthirsty."

(End of chapter)