The topic of the day was as hot as freshly made rice soup. Among the top headlines on The Wall in the local New Asturias City region, in addition to coverage of "The Mage's" death, there was one new headline that stood out.
Lucius Asturias, after being expelled from the Asturias, achieved the fastest Rank-Up Milestone in the city's history!
Notifications on The Link's interface kept popping up. The main thread already had over 1 million comments in just one night.
[HunterXDestroyer]: What the hell did I just read!? Lucius? The same Lucius they called "the Asturias' dead weight"? He jumped up 450,000 spots in one go! The system must be glitched—I demand a review!
[FireMage99]: Shit, that loser actually managed to beat his older brother Justin's record! What the hell did he do?
[SwordMaster]: Beating him by more than 200,000 spots really makes this guy look good. Who is he? Sorry, I'm new to New Asturias; I got here five days ago…
[The_Frog_Reports]:@SwordMaster Dude, you've been living under a rock. Lucius is the son the Asturians kicked out onto the street less than 48 hours ago for "lack of talent." Haha, looks like the talent just burst out of him the moment he stopped seeing his family's faces! I've got to write a report on this!
[JustinFan_Solo1]:@The_Frog_Reports Shut your mouth! Lord Justin is still the best. Lucius must have used some forbidden artifact or burned his life for a moment of fame. No one can jump 450,000 spots in less than 24 hours out of nowhere!
[AnonymMage]: Either way, the Asturians must be banging their heads against the wall right now. They kicked out a guy who just broke a historic record in less than 24 hours. It's pure cinema!
[IceQueen_Simp]: I just checked the official records… It's true. The milestone was verified by the system. Lucius Asturias has indeed made it to the Bulletin Board.
Among the millions of comments in the main thread, one stood out above all others. It shone with a golden gear icon featuring a verification checkmark in the center.
[General_Master_Vane (General of the New Asturias Armed Forces): Interesting. As soon as I received the notification, I reached out to @ValeriusAsturias, and he confirmed that it was true. Although there are suspicions that tools were used to achieve this, we might have a new genius on our hands!
His comment had one of the highest numbers of likes in the entire thread. In response to his comment, people became even more frenzied and excited.
[FireMage99]:@General_Master_Vane General Master, please accept me as your disciple! If you give me the chance, even Lucius's rise will pale in comparison to what you'll see in me!
[Anon_Hater]:@FireMage99 Hahaha, you bastard, you're so weak that even my little sister could beat you! And you dare to talk back to General Master!
With a comments section full of people insulting each other and others begging for opportunities, Lucius simply browsed for a while at dawn.
It wasn't his habit to browse The Wall, but since he had nothing else to do, he wanted to see what was being said about him and the Asturians for a little while.
After tossing and turning in bed for an hour, he got up, washed his face, and went downstairs for breakfast. He had to pay the grumpy old man a little extra to make him a decent meal, since he hadn't eaten lunch or dinner the previous day and the food had gone to waste.
"You look more lively," the grumpy old man remarked, looking him up and down.
"Really?" Lucius replied vaguely as he dug into his food.
"Before, you looked like a zombie who could die at any moment; now you look like a brave young man."
After swallowing his food, Lucius laughed. "Now that I've managed to give those who rejected me a little slap in the face, I feel much better. Maybe that's what's behind my current brave young man look."
"I saw the news. Lucius Asturias is the town's new sensation." The old man nodded in acknowledgment. "If someone had told me that was possible a week ago, I would have called them crazy. What's changed?"
Every bite Lucius took revealed just how hungry he was. They were big, and he tried to fill his spoon with as much food as possible. No one could blame him; the food was delicious, and since he hadn't eaten the day before, its flavor only whetted his appetite.
The grumpy old man didn't answer right away. Lucius took his time filling his stomach. Once the plates were empty, he wiped his mouth and stood up.
"There's a saying that when you have nothing to lose and have hit rock bottom, that's when people should fear you the most. Right?" He smiled, walked over to the counter, and placed a credit on the table.
The grumpy old man was instantly drawn to that coin. "Are tips that generous these days?"
"I need to use your yard from now on while I'm staying here. It's fenced in, so it's a good place to train."
"And you expect me to rent it to you for 1 mana credit?" The old man grumbled and slammed his fist on the table. "2 credits a day."
"Are you crazy?" Lucius glared at him. "You've never had a customer rent your yard before—where did you come up with that price? 1 credit for two days—don't try to haggle, or I'll look elsewhere!"
The grumpy old man wrinkled his nose in complaint, but took the credit. "Fine. We have a deal," he said reluctantly.
Anyway, it's not like anyone else is interested in it.
After striking a deal, Lucius went out to the courtyard.
If there was one thing to be said, it was that the grumpy old man liked things clean. The place was spotless, and the floor was polished. It had no roof, and the only things he had to train with were a few straw puppets and a handful of wooden swords.
"What do you need swords for? Have you ever seen mages use swords?" Lucius raised his eyebrows and looked at the grumpy old man behind him.
The old man looked back at him, but it wasn't a normal look. He was looking at him as if he were an idiot.
"Have you ever seen a mage come to stay in a place like this?" asked the grumpy old man, treating Lucius like an idiot.
Lucius laughed sheepishly when he realized it. "That's true. Though it's not like there aren't mages who use swords as secondary weapons," he said, grabbing one of the swords.
"It's just that I've never had a need to use one." He frowned. He didn't even know how to hold one.
The grumpy old man let out a derisive snort. "How are you supposed to know how to use it, when you've spent your whole life being a good-for-nothing?"
'Besides, I didn't use a sword in my past life either.' He protested mentally, though he couldn't say it out loud.
"I can teach you if you give me another credit. One credit for a week of training," the grumpy old man said suddenly, looking away.
Lucius stared at him. "Do you know how to use swords?"
"I'm a sword master, little Asturias." He puffed out his chest proudly.
"Tsk, sword masters are in the big cities teaching lots of people, not in the Iron Suburbs," Lucius scoffed.
His words made the grumpy old man's face flush, and he immediately protested. "You bastard, do you want it or not?!" He hadn't even finished speaking when a burst of mana struck him in the face.
"I have 15 days to train. So you'd better hurry up and teach me." Lucius knew that his current body couldn't handle using magic for too long; he wouldn't be able to do much of it.
The system didn't even show him the mana required to cast any of the spells he now possessed. It made sense. A part of his system was telling him he was losing 98% of his mana every hour. Practically speaking, he had no constant mana supply.
He could only rely on his symbiosis, which, as far as he knew, required a strong body.
Having a secondary weapon came in handy under these circumstances.
The grumpy old man smiled happily. He felt like he was getting richer with each passing day. He looked at Lucius. "Grab your sword, then. Because you're going to have to suffer a little." He joked… though it wasn't a joke.
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