To whoever finds this, I am most likely already dead, and you probably even saw my corpse when you found this journal of mine. If so, then you also have found my ring alongside this journal. It is my storage space that has everything I have ever collected and to open it you have to be at least at the King rank. However before you become too excited about this treasure trove, I want to ask you, even beg of you for something.

If you had read this diary then you might have noticed that at my time there was darkness approaching the world threatening to devour it whole. I don’t know how much time has passed, but if there are similar signs even now, or maybe they have already come to light, I plead you to try and stop it from happening.

Of course I can’t force you to do this and I don’t want to make you risk your life for my own reasons. Nevertheless, I hope when the time come, you will do everything in your power to finish what I have started…

This was the last page of the journal that belonged to the already deceased great mage Austin. From his diary Ariel found out his life’s story and how he came to be as powerful as he was.

Austin wasn’t born in some noble house or even among the middle class. He grew up in a simple village as a normal peasant, and would have probably stayed there if he hadn’t been found to be a mage. According to the journal, at the time Austin lived at mages were scarce and treated as important military assets, so all information about magic and mages themselves was strictly regulated.

However even if that meant less freedom, this new gift opened a new door for Austin, he entered a special magic school where he studied all the needed things to fight in a war as a mage. Just like today, although one on one mages are a bit at a disadvantage against melee personnel, but behind a wall of bodies their destructive power is enormous, especially against the masses of regular soldiers.

As Austin continued studying how to survive on the battlefield, he found out that the other young mages around him were always a step behind, only then did he understand that his talent in magic could be considered genius. With that realization his ambition began to slowly grow.

Soon after, when his home country got split by a civil war, due to Austin’s desire for freedom with no strings attached he chose to fake death and leave to travel the world after making sure that his parents were alright. From then on Ariel read many heroic tales and adventures Austin experienced over and over again during his travels.

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Strangely, as Ariel was reading through this segmented journal, even tough a lot of Austin’s simple life was left out Ariel still felt that the world in those times was being manipulated by an invisible hand. Austin seemed to have also noticed and he tried getting to the bottom of it.

After a long struggle Austin found out that there was an organization that worshiped an evil being and wanted to revive him somehow operating on the human continent, to do that, for some reason they needed a lot of malice and death, his home county’s destruction was actually their doing as well. Very soon Austin lost some of the people close to him due to the organization and began to fight them. The longer he continued to do this, the more determined he became to destroy them.

Unfortunately in doing so he found less and less time to continue improving his power. Of course he did become stronger in many different ways, but his talent wasn’t enough anymore to continue letting him improve in the field of magic with almost no effort.

Because of that he stopped at the Emperor rank, that’s right, Emperor. Another important thing Ariel found out from his journal was that the Emperor level wasn’t the end of the road like he initially though, after it there was still Legendary, Divine, Demigod and the speculated God rank.

Naturally, because reaching such heights was rare even back then, as years passed most of the people forgot such things. For Ariel however this was one of the most important pieces of information he had found. Back since he first came to this world he had many times thought about how or why or how he got reincarnated here, with his memories intact.

Now that he knew how powerful he could get it made him feel that if he reached the end of the road, he would find out these secrets. Still, Ariel knew that even a thousand mile journey begins with a single step so he shouldn’t be too hasty and first deal with the problem that Austin mentioned.

The evil organization from the journal felt really similar to the church of black magic that recently has been stirring up problems around the continent. The chances it is the same organization are quite high, since they have similar operating conduct.

Of course this was extremely bad news for everyone who is against such practices. What’s more is that even an Emperor rank mage could only slow it down, not destroy it. This shows how deeply rooted they are and that right now Ariel didn’t have what it takes to fight them.

Casting a look at the sitting skeleton Ariel let out a sigh as he spoke towards it. “We might have different reasons for why we stand against the same enemy, but since we are, I will see it through to the very last day until that organization becomes cinder.

He paid his respects in the usual way of the Galath kingdom and then turned to look at the water of the lake, excitement visible all over his face. In his journal Austin mentioned that this wasn’t some random water he placed for decoration before his death, but the Dragon Tear elixir.

Ariel, while reading those words immediately recalled that Dragon Tear was an extremely rare concoction of the ancient times with its main ingredient being a tear of a dragon. This special elixir didn’t influence your strength in a direct way, but it cleaned out your pathways of both martial energy and Mana.

As long as your body is refined in this elixir your rate of improvement will skyrocket even if your natural talent wasn’t that high before. Austin’s last words mentioned that this belongs to whoever finds his inheritance. That is if they can use it, since this elixir has effect on your body only if you are less than 40 years old.

Soon after examining the liquid Ariel took off his clothes and began getting into the pool without being polite. Because there was not enough for more than one person and according to the journal after the first entry this place will self destruct on leaving, so he couldn’t go invite Sarah.

Still, he felt that this will be extremely useful for him as he began his quiet refinement.