A storm was raging over the Beast Woods. There were occasional clearings among the dense trees scattered throughout the Woods, where the sound of the torrential downpour of water crashing against the bare ground was particularly loud.

One such clearing was rectangular in shape and located relatively close to the elven village. At the edge of the clearing was a cliff, on top of which was a small cave.

Previously, this section of the Beast Woods was swarming with demons – specifically, the demons that were under Myra’s control. But now, it was mostly empty, with nothing but the occasional animal or demon passing through. Hence, this section was quiet apart from the echoes of the relentless drumming of the rain falling on the bare ground.

Suddenly, a loud voice laughed from the cave and disrupted the scenery.

“Ha… ha… hahahahahah! The greatest winner of this war is me! With this, I can finally enter the mage king realm!”

Myra Wan was wearing her usual white robes and sitting inside the cave. She was holding a jade container in her hand, inside which, a white sphere made of pure mana was glowing with a pristine white radiance.

Despite having the same three core aptitude as Damon, for some reason she could never figure out, she was unable to break through the bottleneck to the mage king realm. Perhaps it was due to the cultivation technique she practiced, or maybe there was another reason, but stagnating at a bottleneck in such a way was not uncommon.

However, she didn’t care about the reasons now. Once she formed an additional mana core, reaching the mage king realm would no longer be an issue.

‘Maybe I could even reach the mage emperor realm one day,’ she thought to herself.

Myra opened the jade container and tipped it over. The white ball of mana fell out and began hovering over her palm.

With a smile, Myra bashed her palm against her abdomen and the ball of mana entered her inner realm. Three mana cores were floating in her inner realm already, each tempered to the peak of the grand mage level, surrounded by a huge amount of mana around the size of a large lake.

The entrance of the new ball of mana agitated the mana cores. Normally, they would repel outside mana, but they didn’t reject this sphere. Instead, the three mana cores flew towards the new ball of mana, and all four began rotating in a circle.

The rotation became faster and faster and faster and faster, until…

BOOM!

The ball of mana condensed into a fourth mana core!

A wave of mana spread out of Myra’s body, passed through the walls of the cave, and flew over the surroundings, before dissipating into the air.

“I did it!” she exclaimed. She now had a four-core aptitude and could break through to the mage king realm!

There was still a small problem though. The new core that was formed was not tempered at all. Hence, it was still at the rogue mage level. However, due to her peak grand mage cultivation, she had a large amount of mana she could use to temper it very quickly. By her estimation, it shouldn’t take more than a few months to temper the last core to the peak of the grand mage realm as well.

However…

‘That is still too much time,’ she thought, before smiling.

Myra took out a vial from her pocket and opened it. A strong medicinal aroma filled the cave as she removed a small pill from within. It was a rare, rank three pill. The pill wasn’t rare because it was difficult to make; it was rare because it only had a very particular use and so wasn’t refined very often.

If a mage at a particular realm formed an additional mana core, then this pill would use their mana and cultivation foundation to quickly temper the additional mana core to the same level as the rest of their mana cores. So, with this pill, she could temper her fourth mana core to the peak of the grand mage realm within a few hours.

‘After that, it’s finally time for a breakthrough,’ she thought with a smile.

While Myra was busy advancing her final mana core, in a spot near the central point between the villages and the Beast Woods.

The aftermath of Damon Rogue using his thunder dragon spirit had left this area devastated. Numerous craters littered the ground which was charred black by the lightning, occasionally giving rise to smoke which was quickly put off by the rain.

Lying on the ground were several dead bodies. They were the corpses of the cultivators sent out by the villages to face the dark mages in the final battle. Most of them were burnt beyond recognition, and the smell of their burnt and rotting flesh had drawn several lone demons to this area.

But one body was surprisingly well preserved.

It was the body of a young-looking man with fair skin and pointy ears, who was lying on his stomach. Even his brown robes were preserved, although they carried the occasional holes, charred black by lightning. His silver hair draped down from the side of his hood as if to hide his delicate face which was covered with cuts and bruises.

Common sense would suggest that this man, like the rest, should be well and truly dead. However, he seemed to defy common sense, as his fingers suddenly started twitching.

“Aw.. aww!” Ray groaned softly. His body was in unimaginable pain, more than he had ever experienced in his entire life, as ferocious, lightning elemental mana assaulted him from the inside. However, another force in his body was rapidly fighting against the pain. It felt warm and healing, yet powerful. However, the lightning mana assaulting him was even more powerful than this mysterious force and Ray could detect that it would soon lose.

Instinctually, Ray used the sliver of consciousness he had, to gather the remaining mana in his body and fight against the lightning mana attacking him. Working together with the mysterious force, Ray finally managed to wear out and defeat the lightning mana attacking him.

“Ahhh…” Ray sighed weakly, as relief washed over him and his breathing returned to normal. His eyes twitched as if he was struggling to remember something.

What… happened? Ray thought to himself as his consciousness recovered. Soon, images appeared in his mind of an army of demons, a large, armoured bear, dark mages, a purple sky, and, finally, a monstrous dragon.

That’s right… the mage king… attacked us…

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

Ray slowly opened his eyes. His vision was blurry for a few moments, before clearing up. He tried to move but his body refused to listen. He had never felt this weak before.

‘How am I still alive?’ he wondered and then remembered the rank three artifact he had used in the last second. Ray could still feel the metal plate next to him, touching his hand. Slowly, Ray tried to grab the plate, but as soon as he exerted a bit of force, the metal plate crumbled into pieces.

‘So it’s gone…’ Ray closed his eyes and sighed. He couldn’t believe that the artifact had managed to save his life, albeit just barely. Ray silently thanked his master again in his heart, but then suddenly opened his eyes with worry.

‘Oh no! What did happen to master? And my village? And Drake? And everyone else for that matter?’ His mind finally returned to normal as he remembered everything and everyone. However, before he could process that information, he was interrupted by heavy footsteps rapidly approaching him.

“Grumph! Grumph!” A demon boar snorted loudly as it ran towards Ray emitting dense killing intent. Its eyes sparkled with delight at having found an easy prey.

Ray felt the earth vibrating underneath his body at its heavy footsteps. He could sense the boar’s aura and realised that it was a weak servant class demon. However, in his condition, he wasn’t sure he could fight one.

Hearing the boar approach closer, Ray’s heart started thumping loudly and adrenaline pumped through his body. Using this newfound strength, Ray managed to cast a spell.

“Iron shield!” he whispered weakly.

Just as the boar was inches away from devouring him, an iron shield appeared out of the blue directly in front of its face, causing the boar to crash heavily. The boar roared in pain and stepped back, wobbling around, disoriented.

This gave Ray the precious few seconds he needed to gather the rest of his mana and summon the most basic, rank one spirit that he was familiar with.

“Lightning bat!”

A ball of purple gathered above his palm before condensing into the figure of a small, bat spirit. It was the same spirit that Myra had previously gifted Drake with, which could shoot out lightning bolts.

Just as the boar recovered, it spotted a bolt of lightning shoot towards it. Startled, the boar jumped, narrowly dodging the lightning bolt. The boar eyed the spirit cautiously before becoming enraged and puffed a plume of smoke out of its nostrils. It swept at the ground with its hoof a few times before charging at the spirit.

However, the iron shield moved rapidly and appeared directly in its path.

With the previous crash painfully fresh in its memory, the boar dug its hooves into the ground to force itself to come to a stop. But this gave the lightning bat an opportunity to strike and it shot out another lightning bolt.

As Ray controlled the iron shield to support the lightning bat in engaging the demon boar, he slowly started recovering the strength to move. He reached into his pockets and pulled out several pills and consumed all of them. Slowly but surely, his mana and stamina recovered and his bruises closed one by one. Strength returned to his muscles and he could slowly move his legs and stand up.

The commotion caused by the battle started attracting other nearby demons which began approaching him cautiously. At his peak, he would have no problem disposing of them, but he was barely able to walk now, let alone fight so many demons.

With a sigh, Ray used all the strength in his body to slowly start walking.

‘I need to find a place to hide and recover my strength first.

Several hours later.

Ray was sitting inside a small cave located some distance away from where he had woken up. He was covered in more bruises now, no doubt from the various battles he had to fight to reach here, but they were not too serious. Ray leaned against the wall, crossed his legs, closed his eyes, and began meditating and recovering his strength and mana.

At the same time, Myra was still sitting in her cave, but she opened her eyes with a smile.

With the help of the miraculous pill, Myra finally advanced her new core to the peak of the grand mage realm as well.

Breaking through to the mage king realm wasn’t easy. However, the process was the same as with any other breakthrough - use your mana to temper the core, break it down and build it back stronger. Previously, her mana had been unable to break down her peak, grand mage mana cores. However, with the addition of the new core, she finally managed to break off a small piece of her mana core.

‘I can finally start breaking through!’

Almost a day later.

The rain had stopped and the sky was coloured with a beautiful, clear blue.

Suddenly, a huge aura radiated out from the cave, in waves. Various trees and boulders in the surroundings were pushed back by the strength contained in the aura. The few small animals and low-class demons which were wandering around became terrified and fled for their lives.

Soon, the aura retracted into the cave but was replaced by a booming laughter.

“Hahahahahahahah! I finally did it! I have reached the mage king realm!”

Myra Wan threw her hands up in the air with joy.

How many years had it been? She was almost 500 years old now. Every single pill or technique she could find that had a chance of helping her, she had tried out. But nothing had worked, leaving her stuck at the peak of the grand mage realm for centuries.

“But finally, FINALLY! I have succeeded. I have reached this stage!”

Myra couldn’t contain her joy anymore and continued laughing for a long time.

Finally, she stopped.

“Ahh… This feels good,” she said, clenching her fists repeatedly. The amount of mana she could feel in her body was incomparable to before. Where previously, mana the size of a lake was floating around her mana cores, now, it had expanded into the size of a giant river. All of it was flowing around in her inner realm, making her feel like a whole new being.

Myra enjoyed the sensation for a little while longer, before finally calming herself down. She took a deep breath and relaxed.

‘I wonder if anyone else survived the battle?’ she wondered to herself, before thinking of Ray.

That’s right, I gave that boy that artifact. Did it manage to save him?

‘Unlikely, but not impossible.’

She recollected where Ray was fighting the dark mages and decided to pay a visit.

An hour later.

The blue sky now carried hints of orange as the sun began to set.

Myra was standing in the place where Ray had woken up. She managed to find the bodies of all the cultivators from all the other villages, but not Ray.

‘So he must have survived!’ Myra gasped. She sensed the mana around her and soon found traces of some violent mana fluctuations. Myra quickly located the closest one and found the corpse of a demon boar. She could tell that it had been killed recently, less than a day ago.

‘This must have been Ray!’ she thought to herself, before following the trails.

Half an hour later.

Ray was still sitting eyes closed in his cave. He had recovered most of his strength by now. He just needed a few more hours to recover to his peak.

‘Then I can go out and look for master, the rest of the elves, and Drake,’ he thought to himself.

Suddenly, Ray felt an enormous aura pass over his cave. He opened his eyes widely.

Mage king!

‘What happened? Did he find me so quickly? Does he not want to let me go?’

Ray fell into despair. No matter how much he recovered, he knew he couldn’t fight a mage king. He thought Damon was done with them already and would move on. The last thing he expected was for the mage king to personally come and try to finish off a warrior mage like him.

‘I don’t even have the artifact anymore…’ Ray sighed. He was just thanking his fate for letting him escape, but he didn’t expect it to end like this. Thinking that he had no choice, Ray decided to leave the cave and surrender, however a completely unexpected voice called out to him.

“Ray? Ray, it’s me, your master Myra!”

Master…? Ray was very confused for a second but there was no way he would mistake the voice of his master.

Dashing out of his dark cave, Ray was welcomed by a scenery of green and orange. Standing right in the centre was a middle-aged woman dressed in white. The woman he adored the most in the world – Myra Wan!

Ray froze for a moment, before rushing towards her. He stopped when he was an arm’s length away. Myra smiled softly, leaving Ray speechless. Millions of questions ran through his mind. How was she alive? How did she find him? And when and how did she break through to the mage king realm?

The only thing more overwhelming than the myriad of thoughts and questions running through his brain was the flood of emotions flowing through his body. Relief, surprise, and joy, combined with all his thoughts and questions felt unbearable. Ray fell to his knees in complete disbelief, wondering if he was dreaming.

Myra gently laid her hand on his head.

“I’m glad you’re alive,” she spoke softly. Ray wanted to respond, but he was still speechless, so Myra just continued smiling. “I’m sure you have many questions, and I’ll explain everything on the way.”

“Where… where are we going?” was the only thing Ray managed to say.

Myra smiled and turned her head towards the direction of the Beast Woods and pointed.

“There. Deep within the Beast Woods.”

Ray was confused for a moment and wanted to ask why when Myra turned back towards him. He noticed a spark of excitement flash through her eyes.

“…To the elven kingdom of Eldanor!”