I couldn't take on the challenge right away, but an opportunity had come to upgrade myself, who had been stuck in the 4th class without progress for years. I checked the quest details.
[Special Quest – Teachings for a Leap 1/3 - First Part]
[Reward: Achieve 5th Class]
[The 5th class is a dramatic turning point for a mage. Seek out the wandering Grand Mage, Berhard, and ask about his time in the 5th class. He will teach you and reveal a second path.]
"Berhard's name pops up here!"
It was a familiar name. For any mage player in <Paradiso>, he was a notable figure you couldn't avoid. He was also a grand figure in the magic world, showing what overwhelming power felt like.
"To meet him, I need to go to the Rentus Empire. A long journey to the Rentus Empire at a time when a war could break out is impossible."
I sighed with regret. I knew exactly where Berhard was at this moment. Known as a wandering mage, Berhard was in the Rentus Empire at this time. He was traveling under the alias Beltan, visiting famous spots in the empire. In other words, he was on a journey.
He hated being tied down anywhere, so he lived as a wanderer all his life. The place he stayed the longest was the Rentus Empire, which had many sights to see.
"Should I send a heartfelt letter asking him to visit? Hmm, let's also send a good amount of gold coins."
If I couldn't go, I thought about inviting him over. Leaving the lordship vacant for a long time was a big burden. If something happened while I was away, the territory could be left defenseless.
For now, I decided to send a letter requesting his visit, along with a generous amount of gold coins. It seemed like the best option given the current situation.
One hour later.
It was well past 4 a.m. when Jared and Isabel's training finally ended. Isabel also had to constantly train her spell and manage her mana, so it was a beneficial training session.
As they were tidying up the basement and about to leave, Jared remembered something and spoke to Isabel.
"Isabel, there's something I need to tell you."
"What is it, you pervert?"
"..."
Isabel was on edge because she had caught Jared daydreaming about Hayes during their spell training. She didn't know when it started, but she liked Jared. It wasn't just because he was regaining his handsome looks as he lost weight. To her, Jared was a man with much to learn from and many mysterious aspects. He was also someone who set clear goals and constantly challenged himself.
She had never seen anyone like him before. Not even when she lived as a spirit. And... even in her past life, which she didn't want to remember.
Jared spoke up.
"When you're training your spells, use this artifact. I bought it through Aki yesterday. I thought it would help you."
"What? You bought an artifact?"
"It's not expensive. I used my personal funds, not the territory's budget, so you don't have to feel burdened. Just think of it as a gift from a master to his subordinate."
"What is it, what is it? I got candy today and now a gift... What's the occasion?"
"Exactly."
Jared handed the artifact to Isabel with an awkward smile.
[Whisper of Despair]
[Classification Grade: 2-star]
[Option 1: Doubles concentration on black magic and spells, reducing casting time to half.]
[Option 2: If black magic and spells are canceled at the casting stage, it consumes a minimum of 10,000 mana.]
Isabel couldn't see the options, but Jared could see them clearly. This artifact wasn't expensive. In fact, it was considered cheap. However, because black mages or spellcasters were rare on the Nas continent, it was an unknown artifact.
Jared, who had knowledge of <Paradiso>, had been looking for this artifact through Arkenes for a month. It was harder to find than expected, so he had almost given up, but Arkenes managed to buy it from a wandering merchant this time. Arkenes's skills were beyond Jared's expectations.
"What is this? It just looks like a ring made of obsidian."
"The reason you can't freely train your spells is because of the extreme mana consumption, right?"
"Yeah. It's incredibly stressful, but my mana doesn't increase as I want."
Isabel sighed deeply and nodded. It was just as Jared said.
"This artifact minimizes mana consumption for spells canceled at the casting stage. But as you know, even just casting is 90% of spell training, right?"
"That's true. The spell is in effect, just not refined."
"Exactly. The Whisper of Despair ring halves your spell casting speed and is specialized for repeated spell training."
"...How did you get this?"
"Let's keep the process of finding it a fun secret. But before I give you this artifact, you need to promise me two things."
"What are they? Tell me."
"First, to maximize your abilities, focus on training every day without me having to tell you."
"Before I died in my past life, I was called a promising spellcaster. Don't worry. I might have more ambition than you."
Isabel clenched her fists, burning with determination.
"Second, accept me as your master."
"What?"
"It's nothing grand. Just a simple contract."
Jared smiled as he spoke. What he intended to use was the master-disciple system. It connects a master and a disciple, allowing the master to gain experience from the disciple's achievements. Moreover, if the disciple's achievements are fast, the master can earn a special title.
In <Paradiso>, the master-disciple system allowed a master to have up to four disciples. Currently, Jared was applying the system to Lena, Mia, and Hayes, and now he planned to add Isabel as the last one. The method was to write a contract, just like during the ownership reset bug.
Since the system window and messages related to the contract didn't appear to ordinary people, the official document contract served that purpose.
"You're my master... If the master commands, it's only right to obey. But I have one question."
"What is it?"
"Will you really teach me about spells? You said to accept you as my master. There must be a reason for that, right?"
Isabel's expression was serious. Unlike their usual light conversations, she showed a serious desire for her abilities and achievements, which Jared could see at a glance.
"Of course. I know ways to stimulate your achievements."
"What are they? Tell me."
"I'll tell you once you sign this."
Jared casually handed over the contract. The content was short and simple.
<I, Isabel, accept Jared as my master!>
All it required was a signature.
"Already a slave, so what's the big deal!"
Isabel quickly signed her name with the pen she received. She even made a silly mistake by signing as 'Isabella' and hurriedly erased a letter.
[The contract is effective, establishing a master-disciple relationship between you and 'Isabel'.]
[Based on the disciple's achievements, please set your preferred field for rewards.]
"Of course, it's magic power, no doubt."
Jared set the magic power field without hesitation. It would be nice if wisdom was rewarded with the same value, but unfortunately, choosing the wisdom field reduces the reward to one-fifth. It's very inefficient.
Jared was always considering ways to increase the high-value stat of wisdom through artifacts while focusing on magic power for additional and distributed stats.
[Preferred Field: Magic Power]
[When the disciple's achievements surpass a certain value, rewards related to the preferred field are granted to the master.]
"Okay, done!"
The contract was established. Isabel was sufficiently motivated, and she was diligently training her spells, so her achievements would be considerable.
Jared immediately taught her a trick to accelerate her training.
"Isabel, about the 2-star spell, the Black Body Summoning spell."
"Yeah. It's a spell that deals with small black flames."
"Try canceling the spell at the casting stage repeatedly to increase the size of the black body to its maximum."
"Why?"
"Don't ask, just try it. You don't know that the black body is a living black flame, do you?"
"It's alive?"
"Yes. It's the only summonable form of a sphere that a spellcaster can handle. If you grow it beyond a certain size, it won't disappear and will remain. Then you can train your spells using it as a punching bag without a separate target."
"Does that even make sense?"
"Just try it, will you?"
"How do you know... No, never mind. I won't ask how you know anymore. You'll just say it's knowledge from the ancestors of the Eastern continent or something."
"You know me well. Train as I said, and come back to me. Then I'll teach you the next training method."
Isabel tilted her head at Jared's confident words. She had devoted a long time to spell training, but she had never heard such a thing from anyone. It wasn't even in the old books she had read with interest.
What could it be? How could he, who walked the path of a mage in a family of white magicians all his life, know more about spells classified as evil magic than she did?
Isabel was puzzled, but since Jared had never been wrong before, she had no choice but to trust him.
"A trick to train spellcasters at lightning speed. In my past life, we used this to train quite a few spellcaster players in our territory."
Jared was confident. He had wanted to teach this trick from the start, but he had to delay it until he got the artifact for Isabel.
"Then I'll train here."
"Not sleeping?"
"You won't sleep anyway."
"I don't need to sleep anymore because of the artifact."
"I want to finish this today! To prove it in front of you. So our 'master' can feel the satisfaction of seeing his 'disciple'."
"Fine by me. Then start right away. I'll quietly watch from the side."
"Alright. If this turns out to be a lie, you'd better be ready."
"Just don't cry later when you're happy."
Jared crossed his arms and quietly took two steps back. Then he used the 2nd class Mute spell to block all sounds coming from himself. The basement became so quiet that it was as if Jared wasn't even there.
"Alright. I won't forget my resolve to live fiercely in this newfound life."
With determination, Isabel began training using the Black Body Summoning spell as Jared had instructed. Time quickly passed, and before they knew it, six hours had flown by.
Jared watched Isabel's training without moving an inch, and she also dedicated herself to training, sweating profusely. When Isabel finally ran out of energy and lay exhausted on the basement floor, Jared could immediately reap the rewards of his patience.
[You have acquired the title through the rapid achievements of your disciple 'Isabel'!]
[You have obtained the title 'Grace of the Master'. Magic power permanently increases by 50!]
[Your disciple 'Isabel' has mastered the Black Body Summoning spell. As a reward, 5 distributable stats are granted to the master.]
It was like the bear did the tricks, and the owner reaped the benefits. Jared was able to gain a lot of passive income just by giving Isabel a hint of enlightenment.
Right then.
[Your disciple 'Mia' has mastered the Mana Detection Visualization method. As a reward, 5 distributable stats are granted to the master.]
[Your disciple 'Lena' has mastered Basic Swordsmanship. As a reward, 5 distributable stats are granted to the master.]
"Thank you, my lovely promising students, for giving me strength!"
A smile blossomed on Jared's face. The promising student cultivation project. The master-disciple system-related window, which had been quiet for a month, began to buzz with reward messages.