The former dean of the Blue Light Academy originally imprisoned Alistair.

Doris had no idea how, and Alistair wouldn't tell her, but he somehow managed to take some control of the rank 9 protection formation and free himself.

His control over the formation exceeded that of the dean, so he used it to imprison her and took over the dean's position.

He told everyone else that he had been sent on a secret mission and that the former dean had died during her meditation. Virtually no one believed him, but with control over the formation, everyone simply nodded their heads and accepted the situation.

Alistair used a lot of the academy's resources and broke through to rank 5. That and having control of a significant chunk of the protecting formation solidified his position.

The rank 9 protection formation was an amazing feat of the fragment 'law of formations.'

If someone controlled all of it, they could easily defend against even rank 9 mages.

One of the abilities of the formation was the 'ambassador' ability.

The person who controlled the formation could use it to send specific people to hell or heaven without subjecting them to the laws of those places.

That means if someone controls the formation entirely, they could go to hell without being enslaved, even if they are below rank 7.

But that ability comes if someone has complete control, which Alistair didn't have.

He could only use the ability on himself, and worse, if he sent himself to hell, then he couldn't come back.

From the mage world to hell is easy; however, from hell to the mage world is nearly impossible for rank 7 mages.

If he had complete control of the formation, he could have returned.

That's because the formation uses some loopholes within the rules.

It doesn't technically send anyone to hell; it just creates an avatar and keeps the mage on the border, without them going to hell.

But the avatar ability cannot be used without fully controlling the formation, and even if Alistair somehow managed to control the formation fully, an avatar takes a massive amount of pure energy, which the academy doesn't have.

As a result, the ability is almost useless.

"Alistair, why don't you consider it again? The benefits outweigh the loss!" Doris said.

Alistair snorted and said, "You want to banish me to hell? As I said, I won't do it. You can go there yourself if you want to. You are already rank 7, so it's easy for you."

Alistair was only rank 5, but with the formation, he could defeat even rank 7 mages if they fought within the formation, so he spoke to Doris like this.

And after thousands of years, they were considered friends. After all, they were of the same family.

"Why are you always so unhelpful?" Doris complained. "Why are you so bossy?" Alistair said.

Doris just disconnected the call and took a deep breath.

"With Alistair not helping, I just have to increase my focus on expanding the empire to other continents in addition to fully controlling this continent," she thought.

She had already negotiated a deal with all of the academies. The deal was that she would control every mortal kingdom, no matter where they were.

In return, she would let the academies take as many disciples as they wanted and give them a share of resources.

Of course, the academies weren't pleased, but with her being a rank 7 mage, and the Invisible Light, the only force that had a rank 7 mage as its head remaining neutral, they had no choice but to concede.

Doris called the prime minister.

A woman who appeared to be in her 30s entered and bowed. "Your Majesty?" she said.

Doris nodded and asked, "Alivia, how are things going in the south?"

Alivia was originally a mage who controlled a city near the Robels Kingdom.

Doris had met her a long time ago and appointed her to the position of prime minister.

While democracy looked good on paper, Doris didn't like it, so she dismantled the elected prime minister role and made it an appointed position again over 10,000 years ago.

As a result, people today have no concept of what an election was.

"The expedition teams had been sent, and the work of setting up a city is nearing completion. At this rate, the city would be ready in less than 20 years." Alivia said.

Twenty years for high-level mages like them is like blinking.

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Doris nodded and said, "Increase our presence on other human-dominated continents. Take as many resources as needed. Also, I want another meeting with the deans, so set it up." Alivia bowed and obeyed.

Doris dismissed Alivia and started reading a novel written by one of the best writers in the Robels Empire.

At this point, without high-level resources, mage meditation is almost useless.

She has no idea what the rank 7 mage of the Invisible Light is doing that she has not come out in hundreds of thousands of years.

But Doris doesn't plan to just meditate hopelessly.

One of her hobbies is reading story books.

As she had already finished reading every science book that is worth reading, fiction is the only thing that she enjoys. Technically speaking, she can read all fiction books in a moment with spells, but that wouldn't be fun, would it?

She smiled and turned the pages one by one.

...

The second day of the sixth month in the year 999905

Daniel was sitting on a chair with his eyes closed.

Today will be the day he breaks through to become a great knight!

After more than 3 months, he used more than 100 'vigor' pills.

It took more than he expected.

Fortunately, just as his pills were emptying out, the container made 100 more.

He still has no idea how it works.

His body is now much stronger than before, and his internal energy is at the peak of a knight.

However, some pills create resistance when one uses them too much.

The 'vigor' pill is one such pill, which is why it took more than he expected.

He openned his eyes and smiled bitterly. "Failed! It wasn't enough for a breakthrough! My resistance to this pill is too high! I should wait for a while for my resistance to come down," he thought.

He opened the pill container to put the remaining pills back but saw something unexpected.

"What are these?" Daniel picked up around ten weird-looking pills and smelled them. "They... are 'vigor' pills? But why are they like this?" he thought.

"They are rank 1 'vigor' pills," Rachel said.

"Rank 1 'vigor' pills? Where did they come from..." Daniel's eyes widened, and he immediately took out his sword, looking around with vigilance.

"Don't worry, it's me!" Rachel said.

She had been watching Daniel for months, and with the condition to be recognized as a host completed, she decided to reveal herself.

One reason was that looking at Daniel being so clueless was painful!

She wanted him to stop wasting so much time on knight training and start stepping on the mage path, but he was completely ignorant about anything mage-related.

"Who are you?" Daniel looked around, ready to strike.

"Relax, I am the one who gave you all of these pills! Be grateful a little!" she said.

Stunned, Daniel looked at her hand and dropped the container.

"If I wanted to harm you, you'd be dead by now! So think rationally and listen to me," she said with a commanding tone.

"What are you? Why are you helping me?" He wasn't a person who believed in people just doing charity.

"I'm a magic treasure who can talk, and what I want is for you to break through rank 3 mage rank! As for why, it's because I can be promoted to rank 3 magic treasure if you get promoted to rank 3," she said.

"You can be promoted?" he thought and found it logical.

While Doris made a lot of historical information public, she didn't let mage secrets spread far and wide. For this reason, Daniel had no idea that a magic treasure getting promoted to a higher rank is unheard of.

"But you miscalculated! The academy has already tested me, I have no mage talent!" Daniel said.

"That's fine," Rachel said with a smile.

She had remained awake for hundreds of years and did nothing but to save pills.

One of the rare pills Alistair gave Owen was a rank 0 ''mage talent' pill.

It was a useless pill, purely theoretical, because a rank 0 mage talent is not much different from having no mage talent.

A person with no mage talent can reach the peak of the first-grade mage apprentice.

If they take a rank 0 'mage talent' pill, practically nothing changes, as they would still be unable to reach rank 1 mage.

But for Rachel, who can fuse pills, it was priceless!

She collected 100 and fused them to create a rank 1 mage talent. Then collected 100 rank 1 and fused them to create rank 2.

Today, she has some high-ranking pills in her storage. One is a rank 4 mage talent pill!

Of course, she doesn't plan to give it to Daniel. It's the result of decades of saving!

Instead, she plans to give a rank 3 mage talent pill.

"Open the container," she said. Daniel cautiously took the pill container from the ground, opened it, and took out the most impressive pill. It was shining with a golden light!

The entire room bathed in golden light when the pill emerged. "This is a 'mage talent' pill! Take it, and then you can..." as Rachel was saying, Daniel had already swallowed the pill.

Every instinct in his body was screaming for him to eat it, so he couldn't resist it at all.

A few minutes passed, and nothing happened.

"Now what?" Daniel asked.

"Now, you should have rank 3 mage talent," Rachel said doubtfully.

She expected him to feel something, but it appears that the pill doesn't trigger any reaction.

"Now, take out the 'root mana' pills I gave before and start meditating as I tell you," she said.

After being with Owen for so long, she knew a lot about mage training.

Daniel did exactly as Rachel instructed, and after a while, he felt some changes.

"I feel some other energy within my aperture. It doesn't interact with my internal energy at all," he said.

"Yeah, root mana is entirely different from internal energy. They are in the same place on the surface, but in fact, they never interact," she said.

"What if they combine?" Daniel asked.

"They just won't, okay? Now, you are technically considered a third-grade mage apprentice, as anyone with any root mana is considered to be one."

"But with that little amount of mana, you may as well not be! Continue using 'root mana' pills to increase your root mana. I'll teach you some spells when you have enough mana," Rachel said.

"But I want to break through to become a Great Knight!" Daniel said.

"You idiot! Even 100 legendary knights are nothing more than walking corpses in front of an official mage! Just drop knight training and focus on mage training!"

"But I'm being sent back to Eversun City in a few days, and becoming a Great Knight can help me defend myself. Can I safely use the rank 1 'vigor' pill?" he asked.

Rachel used her 'prescription' skill and said, "It should be fine." Daniel nodded and sat at the table, taking the pill and swallowing it.

A sensation of fullness, as if he had eaten too much, emerged, similar to the first time he had taken the pill.

However, it wasn't overwhelming, as his resistance to the pill was too high.

After a minute, his body shook. The internal energy had crossed the barrier that separated a knight from a great knight!

He smiled and started moving around.

"It feels so good, like I'm weightless! I feel like I won't ever get tired, no matter how much I fight!"

Rachel said, "Now sit down and meditate!"

"I have to collect my stuff! They are sending me back to Eversun City," he said.

"Where is Eversun City?" she asked.

"It's the biggest city in the south!" he said.

"Why are they making so many cities?" she asked.

"Her Majesty King Doris wants to spread the light of justice to everyone!" Daniel, who was a fan of hers, said.

"Light of justice? What nonsense!"

"Don't disrespect her," Daniel warned.

Rachel was speechless. She changed the subject and said, "Just collect your stuff."

Daniel began, and after finishing, he went straight to bed.