It was now afternoon outside the palace.
Fritz was turning more and more frustrated as he tried to decipher the spells on his notes. Testing and understanding it was difficult, so much so that Fritz wanted to instead use fire magic.
He couldn’t, of course—his affinity wasn’t fire magic anymore. Worse, everything in his mind had been trained to use that, so it further interfered whenever he tried to use spells from the notes.
He took a deep breath, placing the book that contained his notes back into the bag he bought with him. He took his wand, which was already attuned to his magic. Considering his low-level capabilities, he needed a medium to support casting spells. Without a wand acting to focus his mana, every spell he used would resemble a mere fart at the wind.
He prepared himself, as a purplish magic circle appeared in front of his wand. He tried his best to control and channel his mana to his wand, but it was a bit of a struggle with his current stats. Still, he held on, trying to stitch together the formulas in his head, visualizing the spell in his mind.
“Eclipse Burst!” Fritz chanted, sending in a barrage of three purple arcs of light on the forest ahead of him. While he wasn’t good at noticing it, he felt the ambient mana drop momentarily on the path struck by the spell. Unfortunately, the trees that were struck barely felt a whiff.
Fritz frowned.
“But that was designed to cause physical damage and disrupt mana according to my notes,” he looked at his wand, skeptical. “Alright, let’s try that again.”
The magic circle once again appeared in front of his wand, and with a quick chant of the spell, a barrage of violet lights once again struck the forest. He repeated it again and again, stubbornly trying to adjust and improve his control, until at last, a slice mark appeared on one of the trees.
“It’s working,” Fritz grinned. He went for his notes again, giving it a brief read to further adjust the formulas in his mind. When he was done, he returned to his practice session. Alright, if my understanding is correct, I should focus less on disrupting mana, and more on causing physical damage. He took a deep breath. “Eclipse Burst!”
The burst of three lights immediately rattled the trees, causing a wider slash mark on two of them. Unfortunately, it had an unintended effect. He noticed that the ambient mana in front of him was barely reduced.
“Okay…” Fritz frowned. “Perhaps I’ll simply have to settle with this reality then…it’s either I cause true physical damage, or disrupt magic itself. At least, since I can’t control this spell as precisely as I’d like yet.”
The spell was designed to both slice a target from a distance, and, because a lot of creatures used magic to strengthen themselves and resist attacks, it should somewhat dispel it. He could see the tactical implications of this spell.
A knight with powerful soul arts for example may use his arts to strengthen his shield and armor considerably. With this spell, those magical wards’ effectiveness would be reduced, allowing ‘Eclipse Burst’ to deal its damage. Of course, the downside was the fact that the damage itself wouldn’t be as impressive compared to what casters would do with their conventional magical affinities, but…
Disrupting magic is still more useful. Fritz nodded. Maybe I should focus on that. But how can I even accurately gauge if I’m disrupting magic well? I don’t have my old eye anymore…
Unfortunately, like most mages, while Fritz was sensitive to mana, he could only figure out its concentrations based on the vibes that his senses could give to him. Estimates. Ranges. He could get that, but not true figures. He could figure out if his spell heightened or reduced mana concentration for example, but how much…that would be impossible.
“This is going to be hard to refine in that case…”
He groaned.
“But whatever. For now, I’ll just brute force it,” he told himself, as he switched up his focus once more. This time, he’d try to maximize his understanding and refinement of using this spell to disrupt magic at greater distances. While he did have a skill for this, ‘Arcane Suppression’ had a limited radius of effect.
This spell, while weaker, on the other hand, could be used to target enemies from larger ranges. That was what he’d most likely need tomorrow.
“Alright, third try’s the charm…wait…”
He briefly checked his status screen, specifically, his available mana left.



[MP: F (44%)]



He certainly was using his mana points fast. He had only fired eight bursts, but that was enough to cut down his mana below half. Luckily, it was slowly ticking up, his improved MR stat helping a bit at regeneration.
He estimated that he could fire two or three more before he’d have to cool down for a while. Deciding that pushing himself to his limits would be worth it, Fritz decided to go on with it. He began firing his final spells, adjusting and improving after each burst until he finally felt his lightheadedness.



[MP: F (21%)]



He frowned, taking a deep breath to recompose himself. When he walked back for a bit, he felt somewhat dizzy. He stowed his notes back in his bag and grabbed his canteen to take a light drink of the water inside. When he was done, he briefly checked his stats.




Level: 19/70Stolen novel; please report.
Tier: I
Attributes:
HP: F - (100%)
MP: F (100%)
MR: F
STR: F -
SPD: F -
DEF: F
RES: F




So far, it was only MP, MR, DEF, and RES that had been improved. That meant his mana capacity was enhanced, his mana regeneration boosted, his body’s physical durability improved, and his resistance to magical attacks and effects heightened.
Otherwise, everything else was untouched. He was pushing himself hard to improve STR and SPD, but they weren’t budging yet, which meant he had to keep sparring with Mary and running around the fields. HP on the other hand should slowly go up as well, assuming he kept training and strengthening his body.
But…the problem was that he was facing someone at Tier III. That meant their stats would range from D minus to D positive. Hopefully, the potion he acquired would temporarily boost his stat attributes to E, but that was hopeful musing.
“No improvements yet for my skills and magic stats too,” Fritz sighed. “Whatever. I at least have a slightly better foundation for now.”
He picked up his bag and looked at the damaged trees ahead of him. Instead of being discouraged, however, he felt his spirits rise again.
“I wonder what he has in store,” Fritz smiled. “A Tier III caster-class mage…it sounds ominous, but it shouldn’t be.”
He dealt with worse opponents already after all.
+++
It was already deep into the morning, perhaps at eight o’clock when Fritz finally managed to wake up. His quarters in the palace weren’t exactly the best one there was, but it still included a sizable room for him to use.
Briefly, he checked his stats, which had finally been improved by the last phase of his training session last night. Running around the fields and swinging his sword to recalibrate his muscles and bones was indeed tedious, but…
It’s worth it.
He grinned when he looked at his stats.




Level: 25/70
Tier: I
Attributes:
HP: F - (100%)
MP: F (100%)
MR: F
STR: F
SPD: F
DEF: F
RES: F




That’s nearly two weeks of work by now. From level five to level twenty-five.
He also already spent approximately thirty marks in that period to significantly enhance his body’s response to his training and exercises. His finances luckily were pretty neat. It seemed that he had been quite the saver, and in his two years of service under Queen Cecilia, he had around six hundred marks stocked up.
Not to mention, he had quite a lot of money on shares for the Queen’s three newfangled “joint-stock companies”, which included the Royal Grain Corporation. He tallied up the value of the shares he owned last night, and, at least based on their prices a month ago, he had around seven hundred forty marks worth of shares.
The money he received from it was mostly based on the earnings of the companies he owned shares of, so they seemed to wobble around ten to forty marks monthly. With around sixty to a hundred marks of monthly income and perhaps ten to thirty marks of monthly expenses, Fritz felt somewhat comfortable at his training pace’s monthly costs.
I can just keep buying elixirs monthly. Fritz looked up at the ceiling. Unfortunately, I’m only getting the standard ones. Not the good ones that can greatly strengthen you. Those kinds of items are tough to find…
They certainly wouldn’t just be produced and sold on the open market willy-nilly. Which was why Fritz wanted to get back to his role as Royal Messenger quickly. Acting as Cecilia’s secret police would certainly give him a lot of discretion at ‘reappropriating’ seized properties from corrupt and opposing elements of the Kingdom.
Readying his sword, alongside the potions he needed for the upcoming duel, Fritz left his quarters in an hour after eating breakfast and preparing himself. It seemed that the atmosphere of the palace today was quite icy, with the stares in his direction more intensified than usual.
Soon, he managed to get himself to the Queen’s office, which was on the third floor, west wing of the Burgundy Palace. When Cecilia allowed him to enter, Fritz managed to see what she was doing early in the morning.
On her table, was mountains of paperwork, and the only thing she had was tea and biscuits.
“You’re having your breakfast?” Fritz asked.
“Yep!” Cecilia gestured for the guards to close the door. “So, you seem like you’re ready to take on…erm, my little brother.”
“Again, I apologize for the trouble I gave you,” Fritz replied. “But, I think some people need to be reminded of who I am, and who they’re messing with.”
“I understand,” she sighed. “Just…first of all, don’t die, and second of all, don’t kill him. Is that fine?”
“I have no intention to kill him anyway,” Fritz shook his head. “I intend to use this as an opportunity to show force to our opposition. They seem to think that just because of what happened to me, you’ll roll over so easily. I say that’s a complication that needs to be reversed.”
Cecilia smiled, going for her seat. She also gestured for Fritz to take his seat as well.
“You know, it’s fine even if they oppose me. To the commoners, I’m quite popular. Same with the burghers like you and your father, and, everyone else that isn’t a noble,” she looked down at one of the papers in front of her. “Though, I agree, it seems that tax revenues from the nobility went down. They sure are giving us quite the pushback, little by little.”
“Time to nip it in the bud then,” Fritz frowned. “Besides, all these acts of obstruction and intimidation are slowing down your reforms. For the past weeks, I’ve been gathering my thoughts about it, and I can say with full certainty that it is all imperative for Orellia’s survival. It must be enforced.”
“Thank you,” she smiled. “I guess even with your memories gone, you’re still truly on my side. It’s nice to hear that.”
So she doubted me greatly. Fritz internally gave a sigh of relief. At least, now, I’m demonstrating my loyalty more and more to her. Building trust and rapport is essential…then I can strike.
“Now if you’ll excuse me,” Fritz stood up. “I have a few more final preparations to do. Actually, are you going to watch the duel later?”
“Hmph, you people and your silly fights for ‘honor’ and ‘reputation’,” She looked away, taking a sip of her tea. “Men. Don’t drag me into your backward rituals.”
“What the hell, I thought I had your approval for this?”
“I consider duels a reprehensible thing that’s better off relegated to the past. I’m only letting you do this because he assaulted one of my workers and almost did the same to you, and you can’t exactly back out when that ape wants you dead,” she shook her head. “But I still protest this silliness."
“At least give me some support…” Fritz groaned.
“Whatever, just beat him or something. That’ll be the end of it,” she waved him off. “Now shoo, I have paperwork to do.”