"I am very pleased with your progress, and your ability to understand."
"Your bravery is also commendable, it is a good thing to not be afraid of, and to bravely face difficulties,"
"But I must remind you, being brave and being reckless are two different things,"
"One is the ability to challenge difficulties after assessing the danger level, while the other just goes head in into danger without much thought."
"For a mage, being reckless is a bad thing, reckless mages tend to live very short lives."
Although he was proud of her, Matthew still found it necessary to say a few words to Natasha.
After all, she can be considered to 2be his treasure, and given the feelings they had cultivated after so long, he would be heartbroken if anything were to happen to her.
'I must give this little girl a reminder not to do anything too dangerous!'
'Whether or not I can become unparalleled in this life, depends on this little girl, 'so she can't die half way through!'
Matthew was still worried that she would over analyze what he said and loose his actual meaning, but he could say too much, after all, he has to pretend to be an all knowing expert.
"I understand!"
Seeing how quickly she responded, Matthew still felt uneasy so he thought for a while before saying.:
"Us mages pay attention to the trends of the sky and the earth, as we seek fortunes by avoiding misfortunes."
"We do not find it below us to retreat, and as my student, you must have a flexible mind that knows when to advance and when to retreat."
'You should run away next time you encounter danger! Only fools risks their lives just to win a fight, as long as you live longer than your enemy, you are a winner.'
Matthew couldn't say his thoughts in a direct way, lest he ruin the image he had built in her heart so far, so he could only express himself euphemistically.
"In simple terms, don't be rigid, do you understand?"
Natasha thought for a while before nodding her head.
"Yes, I think I understand!"
After responding, she couldn't help lamenting in her heart.
'The teacher's word always have deeper meanings and I can't understand it completely, my initial understanding is probably just the superficial meanings.'
'After all, my level is still too low and I have too little experience.'
'I will just remember the words for now and analyze them later.'
Matthew looked at her doubtfully.
'Do you really understand what I mean?'
'Well, she probably understands, right?'
Suppressing his unease, Matthew started to think about what he should do next.
'I should obviously make up the follow up realm and methods of practice for Natasha.'
'I can't be too casual about it, it should feel well founded as if it has solid theory to it, and it should connect well with her current state.'
Matthew still remembered that he had casually said that the next step was for Natasha to increase her mana, so he had to make sure that it was included in his made up practice methods.
Matthew looked up to the sky while stroking his chin, with a look of nostalgia on his face, but his mind was racing.
When Natasha saw this, she did not disturb him.
'The teacher is probably reminiscing about the time he was still an apprentice mage, it must have been a very long time ago.'
After a few minutes, Matthew had sorted out his thoughts, and so he spoke:
"You have just broken through to become an apprentice mage, before proceeded further, you should take some time to familiarize yourself with your current state."
Natasha expression became solemn, and she nodded to express her understanding.
"Yes teacher!"
Matthew moistened his throat with some tea before continuing.
"Like I have told you before, becoming and apprentice mage is just the start of your journey as a mage."
"Since ancient times, this realm of apprentice mages is also known as level 1, or the ninth order of mage hood."
"The higher you travel in the path of mage hood, the lower the order."
"It is said that a mage at the lowest order would have a whole universe in their bodies, which contains entire civilizations."
Hiss!——
Natasha involuntarily drew a very sharp breath.
She was very shocked!
She had read a lot of fairy tales and story books about mages, she knew that mages could be very powerful, but she had never heard about such shocking things.
Her eyes shone with excitement and her body shook slightly.
Natasha had a lot of questions that she wanted to ask.
'What is a universe?'
'A person can't actually fit in another person's body right?'
'How can a single person have multiple civilizations in his body?'
'Damn! It sounds so cool!'
Before she could ask any questions, Matthew continued in his steady voice, as if what he said before was no big deal.
"Well, this is too far from you, so we should focus on your current state."
Although she felt blocked and reluctant, Natasha could only swallow her questions for now.
"As a level 1 mage, your realm consists of the accumulation mana. "
"Under normal circumstances, you would refine free elemental mana found in nature to convert it into your own mana to quickly complete this level."
"But as you know, this place is barren of free flowing elemental mana."
"Of course this does not mean you won't be able to complete the level, it just means you will take a longer time."
Hearing this Natasha let out a sigh of relief, she was afraid that she would be told that her path as a mage was cutoff.
"You have refined your whole body and it is no longer the same as that of an ordinary mortal."
"As long as you eat more, and carefully refine your food, you will gain more mana that will gain your unique signature.."
"The ultimate goal is to accumulate as much mana as your body can possibly handle…"
"The mana will be used as a foundation to reach the next level, where you will use it to create a mana core and use it to access real mana."
Natasha was very excited when she heard this, and she felt like everything made sense.
'So that is why I had to refine my body? So that my body could hold more elemental mana, and this will be important in the next level?'
Matthew felt that what he said was not impressive enough, so he added:
"I didn't want to tell you this because your level is too low, but it is also a good thing to have a goal in mind when working."
"The mana core I mentioned that you will gain when you become a level 2 mage is very important!"
"Not only will it hold your true mana in the future, but it will be a carrier for the laws of heaven and earth, and if you can make it that far in the future, it will become the base of a whole world that you will make in your body!"
"And if you can become a divine mage, you might even make it into a universe."
Natasha who was listening at the side had her eyes become cartoonishly big, and even her mouth was wide open.
She felt like her whole view on life was shattered and forcefully widened.
She wanted to ask questions, but her mind was blank, so she could only swallow a mouth of saliva to suppress her shock.
Seeing this scene, Matthew nodded in contentment and continued with his lecture.
"Of course I know that this is all far away from you, but you should work hard to make sure you lay down the best foundation you can possible lay."
'Laws of heaven and earth? What does that mean?'
'A whole world inside the body? '
'Just how high is the teacher's level?'
Natasha could only use her standard response:
"Yes teacher, I understand!"
Matthew felt satisfied with what he had made up on the spot, so he continued drinking his tea.
It took a while for Natasha to fully digest the information she received, after which she asked about something she was curious about.
"Teacher, how does my strength rank in the world? I think I must be strong because I feel like I can easily defeat the best knights in the kingdom with a random blow."
'Really? Is the kingdom's strength so low that you can defeat their best with a random blow?'
'However, judging from the strength of the fire-maned wolf she fought before, that should not be the limit of this world's professions.'
Matthew didn't even know if this world had actual mages, but he felt that caution was always good.
He shook his head and said:
"The world is very big and you come from a small place, so I can't blame you for having a shallow view of the world."
"As your strength improves, you will naturally be able to get in touch with more things."
"You are very weak, if you were to go to a mid level strength kingdom, you might not even be qualified to be Cannon fodder."
Although she was expecting a similar answer. Natasha was slightly shocked.
"Not even qualified to become canon fodder?"
Then she asked curiously:
"Teacher, what is your mage level? What kind of country are you from? Does the country have free flowing elemental mana?"
Matthew just smiled mysteriously, looked to the sky with a forty five degree angle, and said:
"My level? I don't think I have one anymore…"
'The teacher said that there is no end to the path of a mage. What does he mean by this? Could he have surpassed all the known levels?'
Not knowing how much his random words shocked Natasha, Matthew continued answering.
"As for my hometown, it is very, very far away from here."
"Let's just say that the place I come from cannot be measured with common sense."
"There, most people have the ability to communicate with people on the other side of the world while they sit at home,"
"Even kids there have the ability to travel hundreds to thousands of miles in a day."
"There, flying in the air is as common as eating food,"
"Some people can even easily destroy an entire city from half way across the world.."
Matthew shook his head with a reminiscent look on his face.
On the other hand, Natasha was both horrified and excited.
'There is such a place in the world?!'
She couldn't help but start looking at Matthew differently.
'As expected of my teacher, even the place he comes from is not ordinary!'
Looking at Natasha's shocked and vacant face, Matthew felt that he had done enough damage for one day.
He stood up, put his hands behind his back, and said while making his way to his room:
"You should go and consolidate your strength."
"Yes, teacher!"
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The Bidu kingdom, near the capital city.
There was currently a blockade in all big and small roads going out of the city.
"I don't get it, why were told to only block this roads for an hour? If we don't find a trace of him in this period, the blame will still fall on us."
One of the armored soldiers overseeing the blockade asked his companion.
To which the other party rolled his eyes and responded:
"This is the imperial capital! Do you think the king would be happy with us blocking the roads to search for someone?"
"Even if the king turned a blind eye to us, what about the other powerful families and organizations? We are basically disrupting their businesses!"
"Even if the family we work for has some influence, it cannot be compared to the really powerful behemoths."
The person who asked the question was shocked.
"Then what did the person we are looking for do? The family patriarch is actually willing to offend so many people just to get a chance to capture him?"
"He can't stay in the city for long, there is a bounty on him circulating, and many people are looking for him."
"If he wants to escape, he would have to do so within this hour or he will definitely be caught!"
"Besides, it is probably more about what he has, rather than what he did… let's drop this topic before we get into trouble."
As they became silent, another person came in the direction of the blockade.
His face was muddy, his clothes had big holes in them, and he came with a very strong stench.
He rode his donkey up to an uncomfortably close distance to the guards and asked with an irritatingly loud and high pitched voice:
"What are you people doing here? Is this a robbery?"
"Bandits these days are really courageous! You actually dare to rob at the door of the capital city."
The guards gave him a look of disgust and disdain, and some even started throwing rocks at him.
"Did you rub feces on yourself? Why do you smell so bad? I can't stand it!"
"Shoo, get out of here, shitty vagrant."
"What could you possibly have us to rob from you?! Get out of here quickly!"
The man seemed to be frightened and quickly rode his donkey into one of the narrow roads at the side.
"Is it just me or was that guy acting very suspicious?"
"Who cares, as long as he doesn't look like the portrait we were given, he can as suspicious as he wants to be."
Hearing this, the crowd of soldiers instantly went silent as if on cue, and they simultaneously looked to the portrait there were given.
"Does anyone even look like this?"
The portrait was so poorly drawn that the person in the sketch seemed to have a square head.
"They said it was a short notice thing, and they couldn't invite a proper artist…"
The person in charge could only comfort the crowd:
"Well, the person we are looking for has a defining feature, his hair can't grow, and he has been bald since he was a kid."
"Similar to that guy?"
One of the soldiers pointed to a direction and asked.
In the direction he was pointing in, the donkey riding, vagrant like man's 'hair' was stuck on a tree branch, exposing his shiny head.
Collins who was riding his donkey suddenly felt the cold wind, and he subconsciously rubbed his head.
'Shit!'
The moment he touched his head, he realized that he was probably exposed, so he urged his donkey to go faster as he glanced back.
He was not surprised to find that the soldiers were mounting their horses to start chasing him.
"You, you, and you, stay behind to make the smoke signals to show that we found him"
"When the other people come, just direct them in our direction."
The leader quickly gave a few instructions before chasing after Collins.
"Young master of the Morten family! Stop running! We won't hurt you!"
"Then stop chasing me! And I will stop running!"
Collins said as he kicked the belly of his donkey to make it run faster.
Unfortunately a good donkey can't outrun an average horse.
Seeing that the people were about to catch up to him, he ran in the direction of a mountainous area, in hopes of getting rid of them.
To his misfortune, the number of pursuers kept increasing, and his head reflecting the light from the setting sun, was like a lighthouse.
At this moment, Collins had his back to a rather steep cliff, and he was surrounded by soldiers.
As there were at a stand still, two men came from behind, pushing and shoving their way to the front of the crowd.
One of the men had a wrinkled face, half of his hair had turned grey, and he evidently had one foot in the grave.
The other man, was the one doing the pushing and shoving, he looked like a much younger version of the old man, and seemed to be in his twenties.
"Collins, just hand over the things your father left to you and everything will return to the way it was, why do you have to make things difficult for yourself?"
The young man said as he came to the front of the crowd.
"So this is what it's about?"
Collins sneered.
The old man looked at Collins with kindness, trying suppress his impatience and anger.
"You are my adopted son, and I have raised you for more than three years, don't you think that you are being ungrateful?"
Collins finally connected the dots in his head and laughed out loud.
"Ha ha ha, so this is indeed what this is all about."
"Back then, I thought it was weird that you were willing to adopt me, and save me from dire straits, seemingly out of the goodness of your heart."
"So you were plotting for the secrets of becoming a mage…"
"Your lifespan is running out, and you want a way out huh…"
"It is true that my ancestor came here from a place were magic exists, and it is true that he left the methods of becoming mages to us his descendants."
"I am sorry to break it to you, but here, this place we live in, is barren and has no mana."
"That is why my ancestor ran to this place when he was being pursued by enemies."
"No mages are willing to come to this place."
The soldiers were shocked when they heard this, and they started whispering among themselves.
"Could magic actually exist in this world?"
"Nah, he is probably making it up to find a chance to survive."
Collins ignored the popcorn eating crowd and continued to speak.
"But… I know where the place my ancestor came from is, and I know how to get there!"
"On top that…"
When he got here, he reached into his clothes and pulled out a very yellowed and ancient looking paper, and said:
"I have the way to become a mage!"
When he heard Collins words and he saw him take out the paper, the old man was very excited and subconsciously took a step forward.
Seeing this, Collins directly took a step back to the very edge of the cliff.
The old quickly took a step back and said:
"Calm down, calm down, we can slowly talk about this, there is no need to be rush."
"Of course we can talk about it."
Collins showed a very sincere smile before tearing the paper up, chewing it, and swallowing it.
"You, you, you…"
Before the old man could from coherent words, Collins flipped off the crowd and jumped off the cliff.
…
"Teacher, I have been away from home for a long time, so I want to go home and visit my parents."
Natasha knew that if she stayed any longer, her parents might move out an army to search for her, and she didn't want to worry them too much.
Not surprised by the request, Matthew simple agreed
"Ok, you can go ahead!"
Seeing Natasha leave got Mathew thinking.
"I have been in this world for a long time, but I was always trapped in this village."
"Now that I have the strength, I should also go out for a walk and experience this world."
"I wonder if it is any different from Earth…"
"I should also check out the food here…"
"With my strength, can I become a king if I want to?"
"The next time Natasha comes back, I will depart from this village."
After thinking so, Matthew went back to his room with his hands behind his back.
…
Pike city.
Recently, the hottest topic in the streets, restaurants, and inns, was about the incidents whereby the Brande family had a it's goods robbed by bandits.
"Where did these bandits come from?"
"Most importantly, why do they dare to rob the Brande family's goods? I think that there is a conspiracy here "
"Maybe they are just being targeted because their daughter damaged their family's prestige and people just don't fear them anymore?"
"That doesn't make sense! Who doesn't know that their backer is the minister of civil affairs?! "
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