The first day of his training had left him completely drained.
His infinite magic only made it worse, as his master forced him to continue the circulation method even after he had passed out from pain.
It was incredibly miserable, but Furio could not deny the results.
It was only a few hours of circulation, but Furio already felt as if he had grown stronger.
'But, this kind of method really isn't suited for humans.'
He laid down in a bed for the first time in a while, being given a room in his master's hidden base.
Finally having a chance to go through all his notifications, his eyes widened.
The quest had been completed, even without him hunting the necessary monsters.
He assumed that blue eating a wyvern counted towards the quest in some way, far exceeding the necessary requirements and causing an automatic clear.
Looking at his finger, he only now realised that the ring he wore had been improved.
The worn out ring now seemed pristine in quality.
Taking it off, Furio instantly felt as if his body was heavier.
[Ruby Ring - Uncommon]
The ring's rarity had increased from common to uncommon, and it had lost the 'worn out' prefix.
Its description had also slightly changed.
Previously it stated that he would received a 'very minor' increase in body strength, this had changed to 'minor'.
"Well, that's good at least, I'll need this kind of thing for training."
Next, Furio saw that he had gained a new trait.
'FFF? I didn't even know it could go this low...'
Dragon-slaying certainly sounded like an impressive trait, but considering he had done nothing but cower in fear in front of the wyvern, he did not have any right to complain.
Opening up the trait window, his face crumpled.
[Dragon-Slaying - FFF
?]
Why even give him a trait if the result would be like this?
'Whatever, maybe it'll have a use in the future.'
Consdering it was FFF, perhaps he was lucky that the trait didn't in fact have a negative effect, like all dragons instinctively hating him.
Finally, he came to the last set of windows.
He had received a new quest, telling him to learn under... Lich King Xerxes.
'So that's who he is.'
He had not yet found a good time to ask for his master's name, but he was curious to see if he had ever heard of the man.
Xerxes...
It didn't ring a bell.
His title, 'Lich King' let Furio know plenty, though.
A Lich was one of the most powerful types of undead, and he had never even heard of a 'Lich King'.
'He probably wanted to use that Wyvern as an undead, but Blue ate a huge chunk of it.'
Knowing that his master was apparently the Lich King, he was slightly befuddled.
He had not once seen his master make use of undead.
On top of that, he did not seem to have the appearence of an undead.
He still had skin, although blackened and cracking with magic power, and atop his head was black hair.
Certainly, he had an ominous appearance, wearing a suit and black gloves, with a glossy black mask to finish the look.
But it certainly wasn't the appearance of what Furio thought as a Lich.
"Whatever, I doubt he'd answer if I asked."
Furio closed his eyes and fell asleep quickly, his mind and body exhausted from the ludicrous training he had been put through.
There was no doubt that he'd have to repeat said training the next day.
...
A month of ruthless training passed quickly.
In this time, I had become slightly more comfortable around my master.
Of course, every time we trained I ended up cursing him mentally, but at least I did not have to fear that he might suddenly kill me.
After we built a routine of training, he did not talk much.
I had not asked for his name, and he had not asked much about me.
I thought about telling him I was part of the Notoria family, but I doubt he'd care.
Still, I was curious as to why he cared so little.
"Hey, master... Are you not even a little curious as to the reason why I'm out here?"
In the midst of training, I asked him the question.
His mask was irritating, as I could not tell what he was thinking.
"Not really, I already assumed you were some kind of noble of the empire, probably got kicked out your family or something like that."
Huh.
He hit the nail on its head.
Perhaps this was the legendary intuition of an archmage.
"Well, that's pretty accurate... but then, why are you out here, master?"
"I was searching for something important."
It was a curt response, so I asked another question.
"Did you end up finding it?"
"Yeah, but then I found another interesting thing, so I decided to pick it up and begin training it."
Being referred to as a 'thing' and an 'it' felt quite insulting.
Not like I could do anything about it.
"Let's get back to training, complete another circulation."
"Wait! How long do I have to do this damn training method, isn't there something else you can teach me?"
"...That's a fair request. Don't worry, I'll teach you some powerful techniques soon, but first we need to widen your circuits to output an acceptable amount of mana."
In the past month I had already felt as great improvement in the width of my circuits, and I was being told that it was still not enough?
"Just how long will that take?"
"Probably... I'd say two months, give or take a week."
"Fuck."
---
LOG 13 - ENCHANTMENTS
Enchantments are spells which have been permanently engraved onto metals, jewels, or similarly durable materials which are able to conduct mana efficiently. The process is complex and difficult, with even a slight error causing the enchantment to be a failure or massively reduce in efficiency. Enchantments can range in effects massively, from something as simple as a sharpening enchantment to one which allows a weapon to duplicate itself, allowing for unexpected attacks mid battle.