"Perhaps I need to return to my roots. It is time to make a fake inheritance!"

While eyes of time didn't work on wizards yet. So he couldn't use eyes of infinity to pull them into his paradise. He however was capable of pulling any existence into his paradise regardless. As he had done with the rank 7 Iron Maiden.

This saved John a lot of time.

Why was this? He didn't need to actually make a physical inheritance. He could just make a simulation and pull in the person.

The main issue he encountered was spreading around the information on the inheritance. He had no reason to make a big commotion, and he didn't want to draw attention to Astor. So he came up with another plan. Have Astor get the inheritance and then manipulate time removing all clues that led to the inheritance, while allowing Astor to retain his memories.

John decided to have the mortals in this town dream about the details of the inheritance.

John could manipulate peoples consciousness. He went through the proper channels to acquire a shop in the town Astor was staying.

He sold some special 'cosmetics'.

His prices were dirt cheap. The gold was also real. So he sold his entire stock within a few days of being open. But there was something mysterious at play here.

The people that had bought his items... they would have very weird dreams.

Soon the guardian of the town was made aware of this anomaly. So he decided to check the source of this weirdness himself.

But what he found was an abandoned shop. When he questioned the managers of the town. They didn't remember authorizing construction of such a shop at all.

This made the rank 2 break out in a sweat. If someone was capable of bypassing his observation while he was using a wizard tower to generate an artificial divine sense.

This person must be rank 4 at the minimum!

John however was rankless. He just operated outside of common sense.

The guardian wondered just what the goal of such a person was. What could he gain through his actions and giving away so many relics? This made no sense.

The guardian's name was Jarne Stigur.

He easily paid a commoner some gold coins to buy his relic from him. He got a golden ring.

You must remember. John is basically a god when it comes to formations and has experience making return rings and magical objects. Jarne found the craftmanship impressive as he could see foreign runes engraved on the object.

What surprised him was that it looked as if there were pages of '0' and '1' folded and twisted into the ring. He had used his wizard tower to study the ring on a micro level.

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Jarne Stigur's POV:

"These runes... they aren't part of any system known to me."

"Could this be..."

"A magus from ancient times has resurrected!?"

Jarne was completely off the mark. But he truly believed that these runes were from older times.

John simply was using binary and his own system of formations. He had long grown past the stage of using other peoples formations/runes.

Jarne wasn't an idiot. Since reports of people having bizarre dreams after wearing these relics. He didn't plan to put on the ring at all.

He got an ordinary person invited to his tower and had them wear it.

He then would have them sleep and wake them up after a few minutes. He then took notes on the dream.

"A great tomb? The legendary Viv?"

"A rank 4 wizard!"

Jarne wasn't allowed to leave the radius of the shield of his wizard tower. He had to stay and protect the town as he was its guardian.

"I see... you even have the location!"

Jarne figured he wasn't the first person to get the location of the tomb of Viv. He was in a hurry and assigned some acolytes to dig up the tomb and recover the inheritance.

"This may be a trap."

There was a reason he didn't send any official mages on this trip. One was because he was suspicious. The origin of the person who sold the relics was unknown and his motives were even more unknown.

He thought maybe it was bait to get him to break the rules and leave his town. Or to lower the defenses by sending the qualified official wizards on a trip.

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

He was also greedy and knew that he could control an acolyte with the inheritance of a rank 4. But the same wasn't necessarily true for a rank 1.

There were backdoors in the techniques they had taught to the acolytes. It would be very easy to steal the inheritance from them.

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Astor Nelius's POV:

I was busy in my room meditating and focusing on the visualization technique. But no matter how many times I formed the runes in my sea of consciousness. The souls would consume them.

I hear a knock on my door.

"His excellency has asked us to go on a mission."

This was Astor's first mission.

He still had the physique of a knight, which was pretty rare among the common people.

"A tomb? I'm to retrieve an inheritance?"

Astor didn't find the mission too weird.

He was guided by an ordinary person by caravan. All the tools needed to dig up the grave were provided.

He and others found the location. It was an unmarked grave it seemed. There was no indication that a tomb was here.

But as they were digging. The dirt collapsed and an opening was created.

"Stairs?"

John had really went all out designing this tomb. It really looked like the tomb of someone important. It looked ancient.

Astor and some of his friends walked down the stairs and were surprised to see a throne that was completely deteriorated. John could manipulate time. So he had aged up the surroundings.

One of the acolytes put their hands on the wall triggering a trap. The opening that they had created sealed itself!

Despite being the tomb of a rank 4. There didn't seem to be any magical traps or illusions.

After walking in this huge space for a few minutes. They found a coffin.

In this coffin was a corpse.

"Something is weird..."

The corpse was John Destinatus!

He had used his real body...

He can create objects using spiritual energy. The same is true for other structures like a body. He changed his appearance and clothing.

He then created a body for this tomb.

What surprised Astor and the others was the fact that the corpse wasn't rotten. It was laying on its back with its arms crossed.

In its arms was a scepter.

Astor reached out and grabbed the scepter. His intuition that he had relied on was telling him that this was very important.

Time froze.

"Ummm... hello?"

He found himself surrounded by stars. There was a man sitting at a table drinking something.

The man looked just like the corpse that was holding the septer!

"Come! It has been thousands of years since I have had visitors."

"Where am I?"

Astor sat down at the table.

"You are in my inheritance! You can call me Viv."

"I-Inheritance?"

"Indeed. You were the first to find my horcrux. It is a special septer. I must warn you. I am rather unique among my peers. I have been a wizard for thousands of years."

"Tell me... what do you know about time travel?"

Astor was slightly confused.

'Viv' spoke:

"I am actually a reincarnator before a wizard. I come from another world. I actually quite dislike those who dig up other peoples tombs..."

The man frowned.

Astor felt a feeling of danger. But he also felt as if this man in front of him was familiar for some reason. He couldn't tell why though.

"Luckily for you... you never dug up my tomb."

"What?"

"Don't think too hard. I was known as a monstrous genius back in my era. Time manipulation is as easy as breathing at my level."

Astor couldn't hold back his curiousity.

"What level have you reached?"

"Huh? Oh... Just rank 9."

Astor was drinking a mysterious drink, but he almost choked.

"Rank 9!"

"Yes... I have guarded this world for thousands of years. You could say in a sense this universe exist because of me."

John was completely trolling Astor here.

He wasn't rank 9 at all! But who could tell him otherwise? You find yourself in a space surrounded by stars and a guy sitting in space who is talking to you and tells you he is rank 9. Is it worth offending him to call out his bullshit? What if he is rank 9!?

Astor felt like this was a great opportunity.

He stood up from the table and kneeled.

"Please! Teach me!"

Viv looked at the young man and laughed.

"For you to be able to touch my scepter... it means we are destined! Go ahead. Ask me anything."

Astor didn't fully trust this guy. But he had a lot of questions about being a wizard.

"Sir. I sort of collect souls... and I-"

"You collect souls!?"

John pretended to be shocked.

He coughed and his expression went back to normal.

"Sorry for my outburst... such an ability is rare. You should probably never tell others about this!"

Astor was surprised that he shocked a rank 9. Maybe his uniqueness was really special?

"Well... everytime I try to inscribe runes in my sea of consciousness. My souls eats the runes and I have to start over. I've been stuck at the start of my journey for weeks."

Viv frowned.

"This is my first time hearing about this issue. Let me see your visualization technique."

"How do I show you it?"

Viv tapped Astor's head.

"Imagine the runes now..."

"Ah. Ha! I see..."

"What do you see?"

"There are purposeful flaws in this technique. Your souls are likely seeing the imperfections and saving you from a bad fate."

"Really? I was taught this technique by a rank 1 wizard though."

"Exactly! But this sort of technique is meant for cannon fodder. There are all sorts of ways the creator or even operators can fuck you over."

Astor frowned.

"What should I do?"

"Since we are fated. How about I teach you my technique?"

"Really!?"

"Indeed. But it is too complicated for your mind. If you were to see the full technique, you would be transformed into an idiot."

"How about this. I'll package it into parts and brand it on your soul."

"Whenever you pass a major realm. The next part will be unlocked..."

John really hadn't designed a visualization technique that could make someone rank 9. But he didn't plan to reveal this. The 'brand' he would put on Astor's soul was there to provide random information when necessary.

"Also. I'll engrave my experiences and wisdom on your soul along with my brand. When you encounter a difficulty... maybe these fragments of memories will come in handy. Do you accept my inheritance?"

"I accept!"

Astor felt a feeling of ecstasy as he actually unlocked a new ability.

"I can see my soul?!"

Astor could now see his soul. It looked like a white ball of energy. But it became slightly blue as an infinity symbol appeared on it.

He was looking at it internally of course. It hadn't left his body or the otz room.

This infinity symbol sunk into his soul and it returned to its original form.

"Than-"

He stood up from his bed about to say 'thank you'.

"How did I get back to the tower?"

John had protected Astor's consciousness and manipulated time. He never even opened up the jewelry shop...

Jarne never found out about him. He never sent acolytes out to dig up an inheritance. None of that happened. But the brand on Astor's soul was real.

That conversation was still in his memory as clear as day.

"I see... this must be his time manipulation!"

As soon as he said that. In the tomb of 'Viv'.

John opened his eyes and got out of his coffin.

He held a scepter and thought to himself.

"Rank 9..."

He wondered how far Astor would go.

John had undone most of his physical actions that were a bait. He had just finished the tomb, just in case Astor felt like checking on it in the future.

He figured the reaction to seeing the body gone would be interesting.