Chapter 15: Mana Recovery Honey Candy
With his mana completely concealed by the Bracelet of Hidden Mana, Leon headed towards the city center. The bustling streets were as lively as ever, and as he passed by the towering mage tower where Arpina’s laboratory was located, he continued walking towards the outskirts until a large Gothic-style stone building came into view.
Unlike the mage tower with its single soaring spire, this structure was adorned with several intricately decorated spires, all connected to form a grand complex. Surrounding this imposing building was a wide expanse of land—this was the Widia Academy.
At the entrance, Leon saw people who were older than him but still young, holding books under their arms as they walked by. There weren’t too many of them, likely because it was a holiday.
Leon, his face filled with curiosity, passed through the main gate and followed Leah’s directions to the enormous circular arena located on one side of the academy grounds. As he entered the spectator stands, he noticed a scattering of people sitting here and there.
“I thought it’d be packed, but I guess not,” Leon mused. It seemed that since this was a duel between personal disciples who hadn’t yet enrolled in the academy, it didn’t attract much attention from the academy’s students. However, the arena wasn’t completely empty.
In the front row of the spectator seats, a line of individuals who appeared to be high-ranking magicians were seated.
“It looks like this duel is more for the interest of the senior magicians than for the students,” Leon thought as he noticed Arpina among them. He found an empty seat towards the back and sat down.
Soon, the duel began.
Contrary to Leon’s expectations, the atmosphere was quite solemn. The two disciples who entered the arena greeted each other courteously before starting their duel. Most of the participants appeared to be younger than the academy students, though occasionally, there were duels between 2nd-rank disciples, but most were still at the 1st rank.
Leah had mentioned that it typically took 2–3 years for magicians with average talent to advance from the 1st to the 2nd rank. By “average talent,” she meant those who weren’t single-attribute mages—this included those with dual or tri-attribute constitutions.
Leon had managed to reduce this time to just six months, thanks to the power of elixirs and the incredibly advantageous training environment provided by the Space-Time Orb.
“And they say it takes even longer to go from 2nd to 3rd rank...” Leon thought, reflecting on how he had achieved this in just five months.