Chapter 248: Chapter 236: Future Plans, Mage Trial Completed, Integration Seal

And yet, when he was away from Reya and with Xia and Xina, she didn’t give off that same feeling.

Taking all this into account, Jon was almost certain that the Moon Thief who adopted Dolores must have exerted some kind of influence on her, causing her to become this way.

As for why Reya, who was clearly the Sun God’s Divine Favored, could also be subject to the moon’s influence, that was also easy to understand. The sun and moon were like family; it was only natural for the moon to take a liking to its "brother’s" Divine Favored.

To further understand or even resolve Dolores’s problem, he would have to find a Priest from the Moon Church to consult with.

Unfortunately, the Moon Church wasn’t as keen on spreading its influence as the Sun Church. They hadn’t established a church in Birch Town; in fact, the only contingent of Moon Believers in all of Heta County was stationed in Heta County City—and they were even crammed in together with the Sun Church.

And Heta County City was currently in the throes of war...

’I’ll have to ask Joyina to take a look at her first. If that doesn’t work, I’ll just have to wait until the dust settles in Heta County.’

Having laid out his plans, Jon immediately began to tackle them one by one.

—

[Advancement Trial: Enlightenment (Special, Class Quest)]

[Mage, you have walked the path of creation and condensation. Now, it is time to break through the limits of your wisdom!]

[Quest Objective: Improve the magic you created during the ’Advancement Trial: Creation’ and increase its quality.]

[Basic Reward: 6 Intelligence, 6 Spirit, 6 Free Attribute Points, opens the Talent Illusion Realm, unlocks Official Level Power.]

Note: You can improve the magic multiple times. Only your most satisfactory result will be recorded.

—

Compared to the simple, brute-force "kill, kill, kill" style of the Warrior’s advancement trials, a Mage’s trials were more focused on using wisdom to overcome obstacles. In terms of difficulty, however, they were by no means easier.

For instance, just improving an Excellent-grade magic to Rare Level was enough to stump many people.

For Jon, upgrading a Rare Level magic to Perfect Level was even more difficult.

Fortunately, as a "veteran" with foresight, he’d already had a plan to integrate them when he first created his own Three Dharma Seals—Balance, Order, and Anti-Magic—based on the Stasis Seal.

Later, on the way back to Birch Town after completing the second stage of the trial, he had already finished most of the preliminary work. All that remained was to continuously adjust the magic model and complete the "Three-in-One Dharma Seal" he had envisioned.

Now was the time for those final adjustments!

Jon lay back in a soft rocking chair, his fingertips tracing patterns in the air as he sketched and adjusted the runes within the magic model, all while contemplating how to achieve the best possible result.

’Balance, order, the struggle between ordered and chaotic energy...’

’These concepts are similar, yet distinct...’

These concepts collided and permeated one another in his mind, like a tangled ball of yarn. Every attempt to sort them out only revealed new, complex knots, and that perfect "Three-in-One" Dharma Seal always seemed to be missing one final, crucial step of integration.

The massive Intelligence bonus from his [Body of Chaos] made his mind race like a supercomputer, constantly calculating and considering every possibility.

And in the midst of this high-intensity deduction, a thought surfaced as naturally as a trout leaping from a stream.

’When I created the Perfect Level skill [Dragon Flame Dance], what was the most important factor?’

’Was it Flame Enchantment? The Heart of Balance? Or was it that wondrous sensation of gathering my entire body’s power into a single point, which the Heart of Balance brought me?’

In truth, it was none of those—

Jon’s gaze subconsciously shifted to the most inconspicuous first row of his skill list.

’Of course... it’s Magic Mastery...’

—

[Magic Mastery - Apprentice LV7: Consume Magic Power to strengthen an attack. A single attack can consume a maximum of 14 Magic Power to deal an additional 70 Magic Damage.]

—

This basic skill, which came with the Mage Apprentice class, was as plain and unadorned as a stepping stone—utterly unremarkable.

And yet, it was this very stepping stone that formed the foundation of all casting—the mastery of magic itself.

’Level 7... What does that mean among the native Mages?’

Lacking any Casters of a similar level around him, Jon had no point of comparison.

But judging from the changes in his [Seal of Light], Level 7 should already mean one was among the best in a specific Domain.

And the difference between Level 7 and Level 10 for Seal of Light was a whole other world.

He, who had personally sealed both Paris’s daughter Emily and Yed Xavier, had every right to say so.

This, in turn, gave rise to an incredibly tempting option.

’What would happen if I put points into Magic Mastery and raised it to Level 10?’

Until now, Jon had always avoided using Skill Points to rush his progress—a classic case of pulling on a seedling to help it grow. He preferred to raise his Skills’ levels through constant practice, thereby deepening his actual command over them.

But now, when he was trying to combine three similar yet distinct Dharma Seals and just couldn’t achieve a satisfactory result, could a maxed-out, Level 10 Magic Mastery give him new inspiration?

’It definitely could—’

At this thought, Jon no longer hesitated.

’Isn’t this what the system’s power is for, anyway?’

It would probably take a very long time to max out this skill through training alone.

Besides, if he wasn’t mistaken, upgrading directly with Skill Points wouldn’t prevent him from comprehending the Mysteries within the skill later on. It would just be a matter of ’boarding the train now and paying for the ticket later.’

It was just like with [Seal of Light]; after learning it, he had barely trained it at all, relying entirely on Experience Points and Skill Points to push it to Level 10. That hadn’t stopped him from comprehending and applying the power of order contained within it to create his very own [Order Seal]!

Right now, breaking through to a new realm of power was what truly mattered!

So...

[Would you like to consume 8,321 general Experience Points to raise ’Magic Mastery - Apprentice’ to Level 10?]

’Yes!’

[’Magic Mastery - Apprentice’ has been raised to Level 10 (MAX)]!

The light faded. The skill was maxed out.

Just as when he had upgraded Seal of Light, the sensation of a vast torrent of information flooding his mind returned.

This time, however, Jon didn’t experience the same splitting headache.

This was naturally because his two core Caster Attributes, Intelligence and Spirit, had improved qualitatively since then. It was also because [Magic Mastery] was, after all, a basic skill and didn’t involve higher-level Power like Seal of Light did.

But the change was nonetheless obvious.

"So that’s how it is... guiding... the power of guiding Magic Power..."

Jon muttered to himself, feeling the incredibly gentle yet rhythmic ripples of Magic Power stirred by his fingertips as they passed through the air.

Now, as he tried to integrate this "sense of mastery" into his adjustments of the Three-in-One Dharma Seal’s model, that subtle feeling of disharmony vanished completely.

’That’s right. I created this magic, so I should be the one to master it. I don’t need to be rigidly bound to the inflexibility of order, the perfection of balance, or the unity of opposition...’

’I should be the one who controls the boundaries between them!’

With that single breakthrough, everything became clear!

The increase in his Magic Mastery level was like opening the door to a new world, allowing Jon to alter the magic model before him at will.

Soon, a new notification chimed.

[Ding! You have successfully created a skill. Level: Perfect]

[Please name the skill you have created.]

Without even looking at it, he confidently submitted the [Advancement Trial: Enlightenment] quest.

—

[Advancement Trial: Enlightenment (Special, Class Quest), Complete!]

[Your wisdom shall bring enlightenment—]

[Completion Reward: 6 Intelligence, 6 Spirit, 6 Free Attribute Points]

[The Talent Illusion Realm has been opened. Please select your Official Level talent.]

[Official Level Power has been unlocked. You may now continue to raise your level.]

—

These familiar notifications didn’t hold Jon’s attention for long. He only lingered for a moment on the line, [Your wisdom shall bring enlightenment—], before turning his gaze to another Perfect Level skill of his own creation.

"Since it’s a skill integrated from three Dharma Seals, I’ll call it [Integration Seal]!"

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