Esdras decided not to hold anything back anymore. Anyway, he was going to recoup his losses soon.

With that being said, he’s consumed 360 EXP on those three skills to bring them all to level three. That left him with only 89 EXP.

He was poor again.

However, now that he spent that amount of EXP he strangely felt a sense of peace with another thought. He spent another 50 EXP on [penetrating vigor] bringing it to level 2 as well.

Throughout this whole time, his body and energy was going through multiple changes as if he had training himself throughout the years I’ve gained all of this legitimately.

Maybe that was the true nature of EXP. It was strangely mysterious, as if it brought him the results that he would have achieved anyway only in the future. Experience.

Are thinking about the three skills manipulation manifestation and control. The skills were very basic. Evidently that is why level three apprentices get them.

But there was something weird about them too, even the True mages including senior Ron did not have any of these skills at level 3.

Esdras thought that because these skills were basic, didn’t mean that they were unimportant. In fact, it was the exact opposite the way he understood it anyway.

Isn’t mastering the basics foundation to mastering, advanced skills and spells?

Of course, Esdras didn’t think that he was smarter or better than the people who study testing for much longer than he. So it might have been a waste of EXP.

However, in the current situation and present danger, he had no other choice.

It was frustrating, knowing that he could not only advance to level four apprentice, but even becoming a True mage and and it still wouldn’t increase his combat power that much.

A True mage was like a power plant that has so much power it could do anything however, it’s still relied on electrical appliances for it to be truly useful.

This was his situation without any spells as a True mage he would be like a cripple. Of course his magical output and control over the elements would transform several levels higher than what he was capable of currently as a mere apprentice.

With these considerations in mind he decided that as soon as he got enough EXP, he was going to use it and become a True mage.

After all, it was better to be even a little bit stronger, and who knows maybe with the prestige of that level he could weasel his way into the fort without being out here on the front lines.

Even with all the danger, you reckoned that the fortress must be the safest place.

Having felt all the changes that went through his body and mind, he reached into his shirt and took out a black ring that was inscribed with many mysterious runes.

His spiritual power entered into the ring and felt a reaction. This meant that it was truly a magical item, next, both his mana and spiritual energy filled the entire ring and inscribed a spiritual imprint on it, making it he’s Owen item in truth.

This may have looked like an easy process because it was, the ring had no owners, so it was very easy, but if someone took the ring from him and try to take ownership of it, it won’t be as easy at all.

Usually to steal a magic item takes a fairly tedious amount of effort to erode the spiritual inscription of the original owner over a long amount of time.

Of course, there was the brute method if the thief possessed an overwhelming advantage over the original owner.

Naturally, the easiest way is to directly kill the owner first and then take their things.

With that being done, he opened the two treasure chests. The first one had a strange silver orb that looked as if it was made of silver and water simultaneously.

[Tenfold steel mailable slime: uncommon grade item, an item that was forged by two brothers, an alchemist and a blacksmith. It has the ability to consume all sorts of metals and incorporate their properties onto itself. It is a growth type item created with the purpose to avoid the attention of Higher beings.]

Holding it in his hand, was unlike anything he ever touched before. It was a rare grade item. Without any ado, he branded it with his spiritual and minor mark as well.

Suddenly it was as if this thing had come to life, the form stabilized into perfectly spherical without any flaws.

To test its ability, he brought his mace closer to it and following his command, this vehicle slime spread all over the mace within two seconds the entirety of the mace disappeared, completely swallowed by the fist-sized slime.

With another thought, the slime distorted and turned into his mace. This was not the same weapon exactly it only look the same but right now it was not much heavier or bulkier, it just didn’t need any cleaning anymore.

Responding to another order, slime distorted for a moment, and then turned into a longsword, a great sword, a spear, a scimitar, a bow. All were of that same weight, not much heavier than his own mace.

A growth magic item was simply unheard of in this world, as long as he found rare and special magical metals, and fed them to this slime then it had a boundless future, and perhaps it could even follow him throughout his entire journey.

He opened the next chest with slight anticipation. It did not disappoint. It was stuffed with 100 basic mana stones.

Mana stones were grades from basic, low, intermediate, high, superior and supreme.

Basic mana stones were used as a sort of currency by mages, a single basic mana stone was worth 25 gold.

Naturally, he still had the two intermediate mana stones in his possession. These were much more valuable, and he was going to make sure to use them at the right time.

He collected the treasure chest containing the mana stones directly into his storage ring.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep