Edwyn had heard nobles on the airship mention Mana Stones, but this was the first time he'd actually seen one.
The stone was the size of a thumb, pitch black and diamond-shaped. In the sunlight, it looked like a black gem.
Edwyn probed the stone with his spiritual sense and found that the magic power stored within it far exceeded that of his own mana pool, and was incredibly easy to absorb.
This was a tremendous boon for him.
A wizard apprentice's mana pool was limited. Once depleted, even a wizard had to reabsorb magic power to refill it.
But absorbing magic directly from nature was extremely inefficient. On the airship, it had taken Edwyn two full days just to recover half of what he'd used. With this stone, that time could be cut from two days to two minutes.
"No wonder a single Mana Stone goes for 100,000 gold coins in the Goldengrove Kingdom. With two of these, any apprentice could crush the competition in an exam," Edwyn thought, astonished.
"Which means, unless wizards have some hidden tricks, battles between them might just boil down to who's richer."
With that, Edwyn looked at the Mana Stone with growing desire.
Mana Stones weren't just wealth, they were a part of a wizard's power.
Stowing the stone in his pouch, Edwyn resumed his journey.
But this time, something changed. A shimmer of light flickered across his body before he moved.
Zero-Circle Spell: Feather Foot.
With a Mana Stone as his backup energy source, Edwyn no longer felt the need to conserve his spells.
Once Feather Foot took effect, he felt his body lighten. His steps grew quicker, and even the pouch on his waist seemed lighter.
The spell lasted half an hour, during which Edwyn covered nearly twice the distance he normally would have.
At this rate, he could reach the light pillar's location in just three days.
But just as he was making good time, a sharp whooshing sound sliced through the forest air.
Whoosh!
Edwyn instinctively ducked. An ice spike flew from the woods, narrowly missing his head.
"That was close!"
Staring at the tree trunk now punctured with a hole, Edwyn felt a chill. A second later, and his skull would've been shattered.
"I can't afford to be so reckless. Traveling fast is important, but not at the cost of my life," Edwyn reminded himself.
He raised a hand and fired a mana missile in the direction the ice spike had come from.
If someone attacked him, he'd return the favor.
Blue light burst forth. Without waiting to see if it hit, Edwyn cast Feather Foot on himself again, lowered his posture, and zigzagged toward the direction of the attack.
Whoosh!
Another ice spike flew, but this one missed him by a mile.
"They're panicking," Edwyn thought. "Their ambush failed, and now they're flustered."
Someone like that wants to kill me?
Edwyn sneered. Soon, he spotted the attacker.
It was a petite, well-dressed noble girl with delicate features.
She looked utterly panicked, waving her ringed hand frantically as she tried to conjure another ice spike.
"Don't come any closer! Stay away! I said stay away!" she screamed, eyes shut tight, blindly launching another spike.
But the gods showed her no mercy. This one missed Edwyn by an even wider margin.
"You should have thought this through."
Edwyn stood just a few meters away, expression cold. A flicker of blue light sparked at his fingertips.
He had no interest in mercy.
Bang.
Red and white splattered.
Edwyn coldly approached the girl's corpse. Two pouches lay beside her, likely looted from an earlier victim.
He pulled the ring from her finger. It was made of gray metal with a setting designed to hold a Mana Stone, and it looked ancient.
"So this is what the nobles call an Arcane Artifact, the real reason the Medici Alliance was able to form."
Inspired, Edwyn tried to feed the ring into the Infinite Forge to see if he could learn how it was made, but the furnace didn't react. Apparently, the item was too low-grade to be worthy.
After taking the ring, Edwyn searched the girl's body.
He found three more Mana Stones and a magic dagger, but again, the Infinite Forge ignored it.
"Nobles are loaded. If they're all this dumb, I might just become a noble hunter," he muttered.
He examined the dagger. Its hilt had a slot for a Mana Stone. When Edwyn inserted one, a glowing rune immediately appeared on the blade.
He swung the dagger twice, the blade slid cleanly into a nearby tree trunk, a tree that looked to be over a hundred years old.
"Sharp as hell!"
He was impressed. His mind drifted to the Wind Crow Sword Style he had obtained from the first Baron of Black Forest.
Even as an apprentice wizard, if someone got in close, he would revert back to being a powerless farmer's son.
But this dagger, while short, was deadly, enough to let him unleash at least part of the Wind Crow Sword Style.
Three points of Wind Crow Sword paired with a blade that cuts like butter, this was a massive upgrade to his melee capabilities.
Suppressing the urge to laugh out loud, Edwyn removed the Mana Stone from the dagger.
A good blade deserved the best edge, but he couldn't afford to waste precious Mana Stones just yet.
He pocketed the stone, slipped the ice spike ring onto his finger, sheathed the magic dagger at his waist, and continued on.
The rest of the girl's belongings were of no use to him and would only weigh him down. He left them behind for some lucky stranger.
This time, Edwyn no longer rushed blindly. He moved cautiously, alert to every sound and shadow.
Though slower, it was much safer.
And so, Edwyn survived the first day of the exam.
That night, insects chirped throughout the forest. Edwyn piled leaves beneath a tree to serve as his bed.
Though the forest wasn't warm, it was nothing compared to the bitter winters of Blackwood. Even at night, he only felt a bit chilly, not freezing.
He uncorked a bottle of nutrient potion and took a sip.
The taste was terrible, a blend of diluted vinegar and fermented grass juice.
But the effect was undeniable.
Warmth bloomed in his belly, and his hunger vanished instantly.
After drinking, Edwyn lay beneath the tree. The day's exhaustion hit him like a wave.
But he didn't sleep. He chose to meditate.
Back on the airship, he had discovered that meditation relieved mental fatigue. Two hours of it worked better than eight hours of sleep. In a forest full of hidden dangers, staying alert was clearly the smarter move.
Plus, meditation helped improve Spiritforce. A win-win.
But just as he slipped into meditation, a strange beast's roar echoed through the forest.