Chapter 50 - 49: Ring Promotion Potion

Chapter 50: Chapter 49: Ring Promotion Potion

"What are these pages?" Gaode wondered as he picked up a small stack of yellowed papers placed beneath the Magic Potion Recipes. His spirits were incredibly high due to the massive harvest. The Magic Formulas and Magic Potion Recipes were all here. He truly couldn’t fathom what other papers could be worthy of Mage Seda placing them so solemnly in a wooden Magic box secured with a Secret Technique Lock.

Gaode flipped through a few pages casually, glancing over them, and couldn’t help but be stunned. They were actually a stack of letters. Most of them were letters from Bremen City. Among them was one in Mage Seda’s handwriting, likely a letter he had written and prepared to send off somewhere, only to die by Gaode’s hands before he could.

In Gaode’s understanding, Mage Seda was an evil, reclusive Mage with no family or friends. Because of this, Gaode had dared to confidently take over the Medicinal Garden. He wondered how such a person could have so much correspondence and who the letters were addressed to. A bit of worry sprouted in his heart. He feared that Mage Seda might have had some Mage friends. If that were true, this person might notice the sudden interruption in correspondence, sense something was amiss, and come knocking at his door. He had no confidence in his ability to kill another veteran Mage Apprentice.

Feeling a bit uneasy, Gaode’s curiosity was greatly piqued, and he hurriedly read through the small stack of letters in detail. After finishing them, Gaode breathed a long sigh of relief. They weren’t letters to a friend; rather, they should be called family letters.

"So you weren’t a loner after all..." Gaode couldn’t help but sigh.

This small stack of letters was entirely from Mage Seda’s wife, who lived far away in Bremen City. Starting ten years ago, Mage Seda’s wife had sent a letter roughly every six months. This had continued for a full ten years, totaling twenty letters. From the contents of these twenty letters, Gaode roughly pieced together Mage Seda’s past.

It turned out that Mage Seda was born into a Mage family in Bremen City, barely qualifying as a Second Generation of Magic. His family had once been prosperous. At their peak, the family boasted a Second-Ring Mage and nearly ten First-Ring Mages, making them a significant Mage Force in Bremen City. However, after multiple generations, the family began to lack capable successors. For the last four generations, not a single First-Ring Mage had emerged, leading to their gradual decline. By Mage Seda’s generation, the once-massive family had only him left as the sole male heir. Furthermore, his Magic talent was exceedingly average. Relying on the wealth and foundation left by his family, he consumed many a Magic Potion but only barely reached the realm of a Third-class Apprentice by the age of thirty-five, rendering his hopes of becoming a First-Ring Mage almost nonexistent.

Originally, Mage Seda had resigned himself to his fate. Although he lacked cultivation talent, he unexpectedly achieved minor success in the field of Magic Potion, successfully mastering a Magic Potion Recipe his family had obtained during their prosperous era. Making a living off of this, his days were decent enough—while incomparable to his family’s peak, he at least never worried about food or clothing in Bremen City.

However, for some unknown reason, a rumor inexplicably began to spread within a small circle, claiming that Mage Seda’s ancestors had passed down several precious Extraordinary Items through the generations.

Possessing a treasure is a crime in itself. Mage Seda detected that inexplicable spies were beginning to appear near his home and heard the rumor as well. Although his aptitude was poor, anyone who lived to his age was shrewd. He keenly detected that a hidden mastermind was definitely pushing this matter from behind. Left with no choice, Mage Seda had to take a risk and attempt the "Rising Ring" without any certainty and thoroughly underprepared.

What was the "Rising Ring"? It was the process of a Mage Apprentice advancing to a First-Ring Mage. A more easily understood translation would be "Foundation Establishment." Only by advancing to a First-Ring Mage could he possibly scare off those malicious spies and deter the hidden mastermind.

As a result, the advancement failed, to no one’s surprise. Because of the failure, Mage Seda’s vitality was severely damaged, his lifespan plummeted, and he showed signs of premature aging. The spies were already itching to make a move. His failure and extreme weakness only emboldened the villains secretly coveting his family’s wealth. Mage Seda understood this logic as well. Out of sheer helplessness, he had no choice but to explain everything to his wife, then flee his hometown and quietly settle into seclusion in Hogan City.

However, when he fled back then, to avoid leaving any clues and to deceive the public, Mage Seda had no choice but to leave his wife and child in Bremen City while he escaped alone. Moreover, to ensure his tracks couldn’t be traced, he did not contact his wife for a full three years. It wasn’t until three years had passed—when he estimated the hidden mastermind would have lost patience and concluded he had abandoned his family to flee with their fortune, thus no longer paying much attention to his wife—that Mage Seda reestablished contact with her using the method they had agreed upon before parting.

Forced to live in seclusion in Hogan City, separated from his wife and child, Mage Seda was already filled with grievance. Not to mention that failing to advance to a First-Ring Mage had decreased his lifespan, causing the vitality in his body to go from bad to worse. In order to reunite with his family, return to Bremen City openly, and increase his lifespan to avoid dying from premature aging, Mage Seda had to attempt the "Rising Ring" once more to advance to a First-Ring Mage.

But how difficult was it for someone with mediocre aptitude like Mage Seda to advance to a First-Ring Mage? Especially since he had already failed once and damaged his Origin; attempting the Rising Ring again would be even harder. His only sliver of a chance lay in drinking a Ring Promotion Potion.

What was a Ring Promotion Potion? If the "Rising Ring" was "Foundation Establishment," then the "Ring Promotion Potion" was essentially the equivalent of a "Foundation Establishment Pill." The problem was that the "Ring Promotion Potion" was just as precious as a "Foundation Establishment Pill." The commonly used Ring Promotion Potion in the Sean Duchy was named "Spirit Ascension Water."

Because the yield of one of the main ingredients of the "Spirit Ascension Water" was extremely low, the entire country produced very little of it in a year. The "Spirit Ascension Water" produced annually had to go through a round of internal consumption first, leaving only a tiny amount to flow into the market. It was simply not something Mage Seda could buy.

Fortunately, his ancestors had left behind a fragmented Spirit Communication Potion recipe. It was said to be an ancient Magic Potion from the Ancient Misir Dynasty. This gave Mage Seda hope. As long as he completed the Spirit Communication Potion recipe and successfully brewed it, he could use the recipe to exchange for "Spirit Ascension Water." No matter how precious and rare "Spirit Ascension Water" was, it absolutely could not compare to a One Tier Magic Potion Recipe.

After drinking the "Spirit Ascension Water" and attempting the "Rising Ring" again, if he could successfully advance to a First-Ring Mage, his lifespan issue would be easily resolved, and he could openly return to Bremen City to reunite with his family. Holding onto this hope, Mage Seda began to recklessly throw himself into completing the "Spirit Communication Potion" recipe, becoming almost obsessed.

Since reestablishing contact with his wife, Mage Seda entrusted a merchant caravan every year to deliver a letter to his wife in Bremen City, updating her on his situation for that year. Although Mage Seda still had some real estate in Bremen City that he couldn’t take with him when he left, he had left it to his wife. By renting out these properties, the collected rent was enough for her daily life. However, as a husband and father, Mage Seda always worried that his wife and child wouldn’t eat or dress well. Every year when he sent the letter, he would enclose 50 Gold Coins with it.

This was also the origin of the 50 Sean Gold Coins Gaode had seized from the wooden box.

.......

"My dearest Misu, I know it has not been easy for you to manage the household alone and raise Seer all these years. Your resilience and wisdom have always been my greatest pride.

"Please continue to manage the properties according to our plan and properly arrange the household expenses.

"As in previous years, I have arranged for 50 Sean Gold Coins to be included with this letter. I hope it is enough to support the family and slightly make up for my feelings of guilt.

"Living in seclusion until now, the brewing of the Spirit Communication Potion is finally infinitely close to success.

"If all goes smoothly, perhaps I will be able to return home this year to reunite with you both. Back in your warm embrace, we will never be separated again. When I left, Seer was only a little over a month old and couldn’t even call me father yet. Now, he is already thirteen, a little adult. He must have inherited your beauty and my wisdom. Hearing you say in your letters that Seer’s Magic talent far surpasses mine makes me incredibly happy. Once I return home, we will send Seer to the Magic Academy to study. Everything will get better.

"In these days of separation, though we cannot see each other, our hearts are closely linked. Just like the two wisterias in front of our window, our roots will be forever intertwined.

"With eternal love.

"Seda."