Sovereign of the Ashes

If it had been an ordinary mage watching him, Sein would have definitely sensed it. However, he did not even notice the gaze from the woman in the white dress.

Sein headed straight to the library designated for Rank Four mages, then walked up to the Arcane Light.

This time, he was here to upload a new batch of knowledge to advance his Arcanist rank.

Compared to the last time he visited Sky City, Sein's knowledge had reached a whole new level, especially after his experiences in Faeloria and the Faceless Mask's secret legacy realm.

Standing before the Arcane Light, the first thing Sein uploaded was the knowledge he had acquired in Faeloria.

The law effects he felt during the Avatar Crisis and the profound mysteries he explored in Purgatory in particular helped his Arcane points to skyrocket.

Magus World defined "knowledge" in a broad and inclusive way.

A refined spell model counted as knowledge, and so did information about a foreign plane.

The Arcane Light used its own unique set of standards to evaluate uploads.

There were Magus World knights and mages who were passionate about traveling to different planes, exploring the cultures, races, and marvels of the Astral Realm.

When they returned, they wrote detailed accounts of their journeys as references for future generations.

Surprisingly, these travelogues also qualify as "knowledge".

As long as the content included information about a foreign plane previously unrecorded by the Arcane Light, it would be rewarded with Arcane points.

Sein's uploads about Faeloria lacked specific location data like planar coordinates or nodes, but the knowledge itself was complete and verifiable.

Since Faeloria was real, then bizarre events like the Avatar Crisis, where Rank Four beings were swept from their altars, sounded entirely plausible.

In addition to the phenomena and mysteries he uncovered in Faeloria, Sein also uploaded the spell models he had received from Eluvira, the Goddess of Magic.

These models had been given to him as part of an equivalent exchange, granting him full rights to use and share them.

Eluvira was the one who had constructed the Weave in Faeloria, an extraordinary "lawful divine artifact".

In fact, the Weave qualified as a world-class secret treasure, which spoke volumes about Eluvira's strength as an Elementalist.

What made her spell models even more valuable was that they were entirely original, not based on any spellcasting frameworks from the Magus World.

As a result, many of her intermediate and advanced spells, though considered crude by the standards of Sein, were "novel" to spellcasters in the Magus World.

Creating an original spell was easy, but pioneering an entirely new path was another matter entirely.

Sein earned a massive number of Arcane points from the truths he obtained through Eluvira—not because her spell models were refined, but because they were "innovative"!

And innovation was the most valued trait among Magus World spellcasters.

After transmitting all the knowledge he had gathered over the past thousand years, Sein's total Arcane points surpassed 117,000.

One hundred thousand points was the threshold for achieving the title of Rank Four Arcanist.

Even Sein had not expected to break through that milestone in a single push.

He had known for a long time just how difficult it was to rank up as an Arcanist.

To put it bluntly, many Rank Four mages in Magus World were still only Rank Three Arcanists.

His sudden leap was thanks entirely to the Goddess of Magic—and to the fact that Faeloria was a large-sized world.

If he had relied solely on the knowledge he gained through personal research, the best he could have managed was to restore his status to a Rank Three Arcanist.

Once the upload of Faeloria-related knowledge was complete, Sein paused.

He still had a large amount of legacy knowledge from the Faceless secret realm on the Knight Continent, but that had come from Master Jorces.

Unlike the knowledge gained through equivalent exchange with Eluvira, that was a different matter entirely.

Sein would never casually sell or share the knowledge passed down by Master Jorces.

Besides, he had no intention of diving into the Rank Four and above mysteries stored within the Arcane Light just yet.

He had not even fully explored the Rank Four knowledge within the Faceless Mask, so he could not afford to get distracted now.

For now, he had no plans to spend his Arcane points. But that shiny new Rank Four Arcanist title would definitely come in handy.

After increasing his Arcanist rank, Sein did not stay long in Sky City. He soon departed, flying west.

Watching him leave, the woman in the white dress—who had quietly observed him earlier—also turned and departed, heading toward the Marmett Union Alliance.

Sein's promotion to Rank Four Arcanist would remain a private matter, unless he announced it himself.

Yet somehow, the woman in white seemed to see right through him. Judging by the faint smile on her face, she was quite pleased with Sein's achievement.

***

There were three major powers to the west of Sky City: the Ylli Knight Alliance, the Alveroth Empire, and the Capiche Business Alliance.

The Ylli Knight Alliance lay to the south, the Alveroth Empire sat in the center, and the Capiche Business Alliance occupied the north.

Originally, Sein had been flying straight toward the Alveroth Empire. But when he reached its border, he changed his mind and veered toward the Divine Tower of Dark Flame, which was closer.

The Divine Tower of Dark Flame had not changed much since the last time Sein saw it over a thousand years ago.

Dark Flame had always been a hands-off kind of tower master, nowhere near as dedicated to developing his divine tower as Lorianne was.

To him, as long as the tower was still operating, that was good enough.

After so many years, the Divine Tower of Dark Flame seemed to have recovered from the last interplanar war.

Sein still had a few old acquaintances there and was curious whether Keith was still serving as dean.

In truth, he was also hoping to poach Master Dark Flame's employees.

The divine tower academy Sein planned to build would need a solid backbone of mid and low-ranking mages.

Most of the mages he knew came from either the Divine Tower of Verdant Spring or the Divine Tower of Dark Flame.

Since he could not exactly poach talent from his mentor... the Divine Tower of Dark Flame seemed his target.

Unfortunately, once Sein arrived at the tower, his hopes were dashed.

Keith had left the Divine Tower of Dark Flame five hundred years ago to travel.

The tower had also seen unusually high turnover over the past thousand years.

That alone said a lot about the Master Dark Flame's inability to retain talents.

Few of the mid and low-ranking mages Sein once knew were still around.

The current dean of the Divine Tower of Dark Flame was also someone Sein recognized—Bob.

Before leaving all those years ago, Sein had personally recommended him for promotion.

Seeing Bob still holding the position after so long probably had less to do with outstanding talent and more to do with the Master of Dark Flame being too lazy to find a replacement.

Unlike Keith or Sein, Bob never had grand ambitions. He was perfectly content living a quiet life on a dean's steady salary.

"Really? Keith has started traveling the allied planes and exploring the Rank Four path?" Sein asked in surprise.

"Yes," Bob nodded. "About three hundred years ago, he sent me a message saying he had arrived in the Grand Elven World."

"I don't think he's exploring Rank Four path just yet, but when he resigned, Master Keith had indeed already reached the demigod level," he added.

More than a thousand years ago, he was a Rank Three mage. A thousand years later, he was still stuck at Rank Three.

If Sein had not hidden his aura, Bob probably would have taken an even bigger hit to his confidence.

Sein had been thinking of recruiting Keith, not Bob.

Just as Sein was about to ask whether the Divine Tower of Dark Flame was still poaching initiates, Bob suddenly received a message.

It was from Master Dark Flame, requesting his presence.

"Want to come meet the tower master together?" Bob asked with a smile.

"Sure. I happen to have something I need to ask him anyway," Sein replied with a nod.