The spirit rubbed his forehead, feeling exasperated.

‘Maybe I should explain a bit clearer. Anything above ten seconds means you have no future as a Mage. Exactly ten seconds means you can at least be passable as a Mage, but you would be better suited to switch to another Class in the future.

‘Between nine to five seconds, my advice would be about the same. But, if you’re closer to five, if you grit your teeth, you can become a Deacon if you’re willing to pay the higher cost of Blessings. Unfortunately, even then, the prices will be obscene. So, unless you never plan on surpassing the Deacon Level, don’t bother.

‘From four seconds to about one second, this is a more comfortable range to take on the Mage Class. The prices will have a small bump upward, but nothing that can’t be handled with some grit.

‘Finally, at sub one second, you can have a small chance at surpassing the Deacon rank and becoming a Priest-Level Mage.

‘I don’t have anything beyond that. As I said before, the test is crude and unrefined.

‘As for the room, it should be able to finetune an answer for you. As long as you can see a few meters around you, you can pick the Mage Class without many worries until at least Level 7.

‘Do you understand now?’

“…”

Leonidas didn’t know what to say. He had understood the first time. Maybe not to this level of detail, but he had understood.

“Like I said before, the time lag was too short for me to give you a number on how long. As for the room, I can see all of it.”

‘Oh my goodness, I’ve really stumbled into a fool. Don’t tell me you don’t know how to count to ten? How is the time frame too short? And, just because you can see beyond that black fog doesn’t mean you can see all of the room! What is so hard to understand?!’

Leonidas' frown deepened.

“I know how to count to ten. I’m telling you I felt no lag between deciding to enter this place and appearing here, it was less than a fraction of a second. I couldn’t even blink twice in that time.

“As for the room, I can see all of it. I can see the walls, I can tell it’s five by five meters, I can even see the window and a whole city outside. I’m not confused about anything, I think you are.”

The spirit froze.

‘Repeat what you said again.’

Leonidas shook his head. If this man didn’t want to help him, then just don’t. He didn’t understand the point of these theatrics.

‘Describe the city.’

This time, the spirit was more forceful, so Leonidas did so.

‘Ha. Seems you’re not so useless after all.

‘Now that I think about it, I’ve made a mistake. This test would be quite difficult in the past because seeing the city would also require seeing all the people that were in it as well. But, since the city is now abandoned, seeing the horizon is much easier.’

The spirit shook his head. ‘Still, the fact you can see it means that you shouldn’t have a problem in the Missionary and Deacon levels.’

Leonidas nodded. He didn’t feel one way or another about this. Instead, he was more curious about something else.

“This is the third time you’ve mentioned Deacons, what are they exactly?”

‘Deacons are Apostles a step above Missionaries. Level 1 to 3 Missionaries, Level 4 to 6 Deacons, Level 7 to 9 Priests and so on.’

“I see.” Leonidas nodded. This was the first time he had learned about what was beyond Missionaries.

‘But don’t think about such matters too much. Let alone a Priest, a Level 3 Missionary would be like a God to you.’

While the spirit continued to explain things, Leonidas had no idea the apparition had a bright smile on his face and a light of fascination in his eye.

‘Interesting, interesting, interesting. For a Red Fox, Lower Ogre half-breed to have such high Intelligence. I really want to dissect him…’

The spirit had to take several breaths to calm himself down. Intelligence had always been the tallest mountain to climb in his profession, and after so many years, he had still yet to reach the very top.

But, he had to leave these things be. He was a dead man now, there were some ambitions he needed to let go of, especially when there was something greater at stake.

The fact that Leonidas had entered that space in less than a fraction of a second and his mind could bear loading the view of the entire city… The spirit couldn’t help but feel like he had found a diamond in a pile of shit. However, he had no intention of telling Leonidas any of this. What a joke, he finally found a humble Fallen Disciple, he didn’t need this brat getting a big head.

“Then if I choose the Mage profession, what do I choose from this list?”

‘The most important thing for a Mage is their Intelligence. The more connections their mind can make, the more topics they can draw from, the greater their store of knowledge, the higher Intelligence they will have.

‘Everyone is born with a base level of Intelligence, but this doesn’t mean that it cannot be improved. If you want to take the path of the Mage, learn as much as you can, read as much as you can, embrace as many doctrines and philosophies as you can handle.

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‘But, as you might expect, you don’t need to buy these things. The Knowledge Well has more than enough for you to pull on. And, until you are accepted by your God, you won’t be learning any of the abilities of a Mage.

‘In that case, what you should spend your Blessings on is whatever would fix your greatest weakness.

‘The best choice is to strengthen your flesh so that you can unseal your hearts one by one.’

“But don’t my hearts only help with physical combat? Do Mages do that?”

The spirit chuckled. ‘What, did you think that Mages only sat in the background and shot fireballs all damn day?’

Leonidas subconsciously nodded. In the work of fiction he had read with the basilisk, that was indeed all they did.

The spirit shook his head. ‘I admit that some Mages are like this. But, like I said before, there is an extremely wide variety. Depending on the God in question, there may even be unique paths not available to others as well.

‘The Mage path that would be best for you is one known for their close combat prowess…

‘The Warlock.’

The word alone seemed to make something within Leonidas tremble. In his mind, bits and pieces of information suddenly came together, those dark, barred-out lines replaced by this singular word.

‘There are many Classes one can Evolve to upon becoming a Deacon Mage. There’s the Sorcerer, the Elementalist, the Wizard, the Summoner, the Druid… The list is long. One can’t truly be considered a Mage until becoming a Deacon for this reason.

‘Each of those Classes have their own special introduction. Obviously, the same goes for the Warlock.

‘You have to understand that the Mage Class doesn’t only emphasize Intelligence for the sake of casting spells. Most Mage Classes necessitate research, especially at the highest levels.

‘The Warlock Class is best described as the research of Bloodlines and their applications.’

Leonidas’ eyes glowed. The information he had read before continued to piece itself together. Terms like ‘Harmonic Trait’ floated to the surface of his mind again, putting together the image of an ancient Profession still practiced even to this day.

‘If you want to become a Warlock, you need to set the foundation now. There’s no need to worry about what Bloodlines you’ll specialize in or what Traits you’ll be focused on enhancing. Rather, you need to prime your body first.

‘Following the path of another is for the cowards of the Warlock path. In my eyes, those rats aren’t true Warlocks.

‘Rather than following the safe and tested-out path of a Warlock who came before you like so many of those uppity families, you must prove your own worth.’

The spirit shook his head, realizing that he was getting off-topic again. Maybe he had grown senile in all these years.

‘Priming your foundation requires three things: cleansing your body of impurities, strengthening it, and dilating the pores of your bones. For you, the last will be especially difficult considering their density. But, if this is the path you want to follow, you have no choice.’

Leonidas’ brow furrowed, but it soon relaxed. Wasn’t it just pain?

‘Good.’ The spirit nodded.

‘You will spend 1 Blessing Unit on the ‘Blood to Ash’ Potion. A single drop of this potion may very well turn you to ash. But like a Phoenix, you’ll be reborn, your body flushing away the impurities it doesn’t need. The supply will last you a year.’

Of course, the spirit was exaggerating. However, taking such a potion would truly make one feel as though they were dying. Usually, only Level 3 Missionaries would dare to take such a potion despite the fact it was created for those who had yet to even become Apostles.

The potion was simply far too violent. However, the earlier one dared to take it, the better the results would be in cleansing impurities.

‘You will then spend 1 Blessing Unit on a year’s worth of ‘Bone Needling’ Potion.

‘You will spend another 1 Blessing Unit on ‘Flesh Mending’ Potion.

‘With the remaining 5 Blessing Units, you’ll spend 2 Units on [Man and Beast Calisthenics], 1 Unit on armor, and the last 2 Units will be for a pair of twin sabers and [Twin Saber Foundations]. Since you have been chosen by me, you don’t have a choice in weapon.’

Though the spirit said this last part in a serious tone, his lip was twitching.

Whenever he got to this point in his speech, he would usually get a barrage of defiance. Everything would be fine until he tried to shove his weapon path down their throats.

Dual wielding weapons was notoriously difficult and the geniuses he had come across usually had a preference of their own from the very beginning. On top of that, dual wielding sabers, a weapon made for warlords, and which was made to display great strength, was even more difficult than it would be to dual wield swords which inherently promoted nimbleness.

Yet, Leonidas didn’t say a single word. Whatever the spirit said, he accepted. In fact, his fingers had already moved, his claws twinkling somewhat as he picked out what the spirit asked for.

“Is there a kind of saber I should choose?” Leonidas asked.

At that moment, the spirit was stunned. He couldn’t exactly see what Leonidas was doing, so he hadn’t known that he was already following through on his instructions. When he heard these words, he almost jumped for joy.

“There seem to be both heavy and light sabers. Also, some are long and wide, while others are shorter and narrower.”

After recovering, the spirit snorted.

“There’s only one true saber: the heavy saber. All others are built for women and children. The saber is a man’s weapon.”

Leonidas hesitated. He already had a problem with his weight, should he really also be picking out a heavy weapon?

In the end, he grit his teeth and accepted it. He would likely never be a nimble speedster in his life. In that case, using light weapons created for exactly such persons to begin with was limiting himself. He might as well lean into his strengths, even if they didn’t seem like this to begin with.

Leonidas picked out two identical sabers, both of which were about 1.2 meters long. They had a healthy curve to them and blades that were entirely jet-black.

Though each was only about five kilograms or so in weight, Leonidas still felt the heft. The idea of swinging these weapons around for a long period of time was daunting.

Shaking his head, Leonidas adjusted his mentality. Since he couldn’t wield them now, he would just have to work as hard as he could on it.

The final thing Leonidas picked out was a flexible chest armor. Since it cost an entire Blessing Unit, it definitely wasn’t flimsy. It wouldn’t be able to stop Lady Eve’s sword which probably cost tens of Blessing Units, but Leonidas never expected so much to begin with.

‘Leave the potions here. This is your personal space, you can retrieve them whenever you need.

‘Now scram, brat. This is the most talking I’ve ever had to do in centuries.’

Leonidas opened his eyes, finding himself right back in the very same altar room.

He looked toward the spirit, probably realizing at that moment that this was a turning point in his life.

“Can I ask for your name?”

Names had always been important to Leonidas, even to the point of him having picked out his own. He would only feel right if he knew this man’s name.

‘My name?’ The spirit chuckled. He hadn’t spoken his name in a very long time. ‘One day you’ll find out.’

The spirit waved his hand, suddenly causing Leonidas to vanish.

Silence reigned over the altar room once again. The spirit flickered, his presence dimming considerably.

He didn’t seem to react much to this, at the very least, his expression remained indifferent. But, there was still a light sigh that came from his lips.

As much as he had spoken about how different Leonidas was from the others, he felt that the end result would be the same as every other time…

He had sent another kid to his death.

The only difference was that he might not live to see it this time.

‘My name is Sadon Zylevyre.’ He thought to himself. ‘Hopefully you don’t find this out too soon, because it’s almost assured that the moment you do, your death date won’t be too far away…’