When Michael got back home, he looked through the items he received and other than finding the materials for a life seed, he also found a USB drive.

Michael put the USB drive into his computer and an interface for an account creation popped up. The program didn’t ask for any invasive information, and simply required a username and password, in addition to a few optional information.

Michael finished creating the account and logged in. A welcome screen for the Wandering Mage Network popped up. Michael scanned the menu options and began his research. Other than offering items to trade for, this network also offered Michael much information, either on the forum or even if it was just from scanning the items being offered for trade.

Michael found a few interesting things on the network. There were even slaves offered for sale. Most of these people were criminals or adults who have signed slave contracts in exchange for something, such as to pay off a debt, money for their families, and there were even some tragic stories where someone signed the contract simply to save a loved one. For slave traders, Michael thought they were slightly respectable, at least on the surface. At least they didn’t sell children. But Michael assumed there were darker places for such trades.

Not all of these items required something magic-related as payment. Some of the items simply required a certain amount of money, albeit at exaggerated prices.

After seeing enough, Michael started buying several items with the small amount of money that he had. Although this amount of money was a sizeable amount of money in the mortal world, on the Wandering Mage Network, most of the money Michael had was required just for the most basic investment into a potion crafting career. If Michael was any other person, this amount wouldn’t even be considered an investment, but simply throwing one’s money away. The average beginner potion maker would have to invest multiple times more just to grasp the most basic skills.

After that was done Michael looked through the ingredients for the life seed and began his investigations.

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….

Michael looked around as he waited in the lobby of this so-called magic post office. Many wizards didn’t like to leave addresses for their packages go be delivered, so these places were naturally set up. When asked for the delivery address, it was okay to simply leave the city name.

Michael was surprised that his items were delivered only a day after he ordered them, but they weren’t anything rare, so it wasn’t unexpected that the city had a warehouse containing some of the more common items. In fact, it was possible for many rare items were quickly delivered as long as they were available because of teleportation magic, but that usually came at a cost.

There were many wizard apprentices here and a few rank 1 wizards. They all gave Michael peculiar looks, because in their eyes, he was simply a mortal, who would usually have no business in this place. Some chose to ignore him, while others had malicious intent in their eyes.

Michael sneered inwardly at these people. Instead fearing the possible threat, Michael saw an opportunity.

“127, 127” The clerk announced.

Michael got from his seat and handed the clerk the USB he used to order his items. The clerk scanned the device before looking for Michael’s package. It was a fairly large box, but Michael had no trouble carrying it.

Michael walked home instead of taking a cab, because he was waiting for possible targets.

After walking for a while, Michael discovered the presence of a wizard in hiding. It was an immoral person that had grabbed the bait. Killing a mortal was one of the worst crimes in the wizard world, unless that person was a slave, and in the rare cases where that crime was discovered, the perpetrator would be heavily punished, and often enough, sentenced to death. But for wizards, the act was fairly easy to get away with, as long as they were careful and stayed away from mortals with status, so this wasn’t as uncommon as one would think in the mortal world. Even though the overall situation wasn’t bad, the crime still happens every once in a while.

This wizard had probably targeted Michael, for the items he just received. The rank 1 wizard probably thought Michael was a regular person who stumbled onto the Wandering Mage Network. The wizard wasn’t expecting anything big from killing Michael, but he was heartless enough to try his luck.

Michael walked into an alley with a sketchy attitude, away from any cameras, and found a quiet place before impatiently opening the package he received. After opening the package, he broke out into a mad laughter.

“Hahahah, yes!! I will no longer have to live as a weak mortal and I can start my life as a powerful wizard!! I’ll have as many women as I want, and live my life in luxury! Hahaha!” Michael cackled in an insane manner.

“What a pathetic mortal.” A voice sounded out, but no one other than Michael could be seen in the alley.

“What!? Who’s there!? Show yourself!!” Michael said in a panicked manner as his legs trembled. “Are you a wizard? Please, great wizard, have mercy, and I’ll surely repay you when I manage to join your ranks.”

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Michael seemed to have sensed something and abruptly turned around, but it was too late. A hand reached out with an unbelievable speed and grasped Michael's neck. “A pathetic mortal like you will never become a wizard.” The wizard said before beginning to activate a spell that would incinerate this mortal. But no matter how hard he tried the spell wouldn't activate, and before he could do so, it was his hand instead, that lit up in a multicolored flame, which spread as if the wizard was covered in gas.

“Aaaahhhhh!” A horrifying shriek was heard before an eerie silence settled in.

“Huh, he didn’t last as long as I thought he would.” Michael was hoping to make this average mugging scene more interesting by acting out a little drama, but Michael was disappointed that they didn’t even get to have an epic fight scene.

Michael's talent rune was called Control Field. It was a talent that let him inject and manipulate his element particles into any place within a certain distance from his body. Although this allowed him to form spells outside his body within a certain distance, it didn’t seem like a particularly useful spell. But it was different for Michael who had immense battle experience and understanding of the magic system.

Most wizards would choose a defense-type talent rune when they advanced into a rank 1 wizard, in order to have some degree of automatic protection from any malicious intent, and Michael was the same, as with his talent rune he could dismantle most spells before they could even reach him, which is why the other wizard couldn’t activate his spell. And the talent rune provided enough flexibility that he could easily form a physical defense spell to protect against physical attacks, at a speed that might be a little slower than the best automatic defense-type talent runes.

But it was hard for this spell to be as effective for anyone but Michael. If Michael was being honest, this was the arrogance of a being that has lived for countless years, as using his talent rune effectively required foresight, skill, and insane reaction speed. Unlike the talent runes of most wizards, Michael's did not provide automatic protection, so if Michael had his guard down, anyone with a gun could easily kill him if they were quick enough.

Michael sifted through the ashes and found something interesting. “I didn’t think I’d get one of these so soon.” Michael said with a grin. It was a space-compression pouch! Now I don’t have to carry such a big box…

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…

After getting home, Michael looked through his newly received pouch. There were a few materials for what Michael assumed would be an enchanted weapon, several spell books on dark magic, various other random materials, and some worthless research notes on the soul.

There was also a wallet with the wizard's identification, bank cards, and a large amount of cash. Michael burned everything but the cash and a USB drive, while only taking note of the wizard's last name, in case he had to face a family of dark wizards in the future.

It was too risky to use the USB he found on his own computer, so he put it aside. He still had other stuff to do, so he could only ignore it for now.

Michael's research into the required materials for his dad's life seed was almost done, but he would need replacements for a few ingredients, and to get that needed much more currency than he currently had.

The quality of the life seed implanted into a knight was usually the determining factor for how far that knight could go, and as such, in order to produce high-quality knights, a certain level of wealth was required. Unfortunately, Michael was not as wealthy as he would like, and although the life seed he was planning on giving to his dad was of the most basic quality, Michael intended on modifying the life seed so that he could upgrade it in the future. This would eventually require more wealth than a regular high-quality life seed, especially if intended on keeping the life seed upgradeable, but Michael was doing this for his dad, and not for a disposable knight, so it was okay to spend as much as necessary.

After this, a boring routine of meditating, making potions, and selling potions took place, with the quality of potions slowly increasing in value.

Michael also took the time to make a weapon out of what he found in the wizard mugger’s pouch. It probably turned out much better than that wizard intended. Unfortunately he wasn’t alive to use it.

It was a short sword made out of some sort of mineral from an asteroid. Michael had analyzed the mineral and discovered its affinity to the dark element, so Michael enchanted it with a curse that would take away more of a person's senses the more that person was cut. Michael wasn’t too impressed with this sword but he could probably sell this for a significant amount if he were to sell it.

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…

“It's finally done.”

It was made using many parts, including a Great Slime’s core, the blood from various creatures such as a chimera, a lesser dragon-kin, and the heart blood of a shape shifter, in addition to herbs such as a Cyan Climbing Vine, Spirit Rejuvenation Mushroom, and a Fairy Peach.

Many of these ingredients weren't exactly what Michael wanted, so he was forced to modify those ingredients with alchemy.

Michael held up a transparent tube in his hand as he watched with admiration at his work. The potion within the tube was shifting from liquid to mist, in a cycle of multicolored light. Although it was in the form of a potion, this was the so-called life seed.

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…

“Remember, after you drink it, immediately start the exercise I taught you with all your strength. Unfortunately, you'll have to do this for several hours, but don't worry because you’ll have plenty of energy. I’ll watch you through the process to make sure everything goes well.” Michael explained before handing his dad the life seed.

Paul looked at the mysterious potion with suspicion. “Are you sure you know what you’re doing?” He asked with hesitation.

“What? You want to see my certificate from OnlineSchoolofWizardry.com?” Michael asked with sarcasm.

“Oh, are they a respectable school?” Paul asked. He would be much more assured if his son had proof of his qualifications.

Michael smiled wryly. “Yes, dad. They’re a respectable school. Now drink it.”

“Okay, if you say so.” Paul drank the potion and began the awkward looking exercise while exerting all of his strength. At first, it was quite tiring, but then, Paul felt a burst of energy, which wasn’t decreasing no matter how hard he punched or kicked.

“Aaaaah!” Paul couldn’t help but give a war cry but it didn’t help with the vast amount of energy he felt.

As Paul struggled with the rekindling of his youth, Michael called a delivery place and made a $300 order.

Even after the order was delivered, Paul was still going like a madman, visibly losing weight as the hours progressed.

Night time eventually came and Paul collapsed onto the ground, feeling more exhausted than he's ever felt. Michael picked him up and delivered him to the couch in the living room. There were piles of already cold food stacked up onto the small coffee table in preparation for when Paul woke up, so there wasn’t much else to prepare against, but Michael continued to watch over his dad, prepared for the worst.