Chapter 16: Mages and Adepts

Another year passed in the blink of an eye.

Earl was now 7 years old and quickly approaching the Advanced Mage level.

It was morning. Earl was in his training room. He wore a loose set of grey training clothes. With a wave of his hand, a portion of his arm changed into a shadow.

After discovering Shadow Magic, it had become Earl's main focus. While being taught by Ari, he was told that he would hit the Advanced Mage level as soon as he manages to completely turn his body into a shadow.

Different elements had different properties when fused with the body. Because Shadow Magic was technically a sub-element of Darkness element, it shared the property of body morphing and concealment.

As for the basic four elements, the Fire element gave the user's magic an explosive property. The Earth element reinforced the user's body. The Water element increased mana efficiency. The wind element increased mana agility. Of course, these were just baseline traits and each person may have more variations.

Ari, with her Frostflame, for example, was able to imitate Earl's shadow properties after he showed it to her. He remembered it was quite the terrifying sight to see Ari's entire body turn into flames. It was also at that moment that Ari taught Earl the characteristics of Grand Mages. Grand Mages were able to imitate the properties of other elements to a certain extent. Now, this may sound confusing but it basically meant that the higher one's attainment in magic, the more freely they are able to control mana to their will.

Earl continued to turn into a shadow from his right arm to his right shoulder, to his entire right side before stopping at the left shoulder. More than half of his body had successfully transformed into an intangible, black, shadowy wisp.

He appeared in front of his room's wall in an instant before whipping his arm at it. A similar effect to paint splatter happened where his shadowy arm fell flat to the wall, like a paint spill in the shape of an arm.

After his arm fused with the wall, the rest of his body continued to fall into the wall until only his human parts were left. If anyone walked into the room right now, the sight would be rather creepy. It appeared as though Earl had half of his body glued to the wall, with the other half unseen.

After a brief moment, Earl removed himself and removed his shadow transformation. A moment of thought would lead one to the conclusion that this ability was better for Adepts rather than Mages. However, he had other plans for this spell.

Adepts were those who mainly utilized their bodies. This could range from professions such as Swordsmen, Archers, Assassins, to Guardians. These professions were collectively summed up as Adepts, and just like Magecraft, they possessed the same structure with the lowest-ranked Adept being Apprentice Adept, and the highest being a Hero, which is Magecraft's equivalent of an Archmage.

To reiterate, there were 7 ranks to the order of Magecraft and Adepts. From the lowest to highest, they are Apprentice, Novice, Intermediate, Advanced, Expert, Grand, and finally, Archmage or Hero.

Since Earl had reincarnated into a world of Sword and Magic, his only interest was of the way of Magic. This is further reinforced by his mindset in his previous life which led to his success, which is to master the craft one is most interested in. The way of the Adepts did not interest Earl.

Having finished his morning session for the day, it was time to go to the Royal Palace.

Because Earl was now 7 years old, it was time for him to start receiving his education, albeit, a little early for his age. However, there was a reason for this.

He walked the red carpet floors to his mother's office. The interior to Court Mage Ari's Magic Tower was simple. The stone floors had a long, red carpet with gold trimmings laid down. There would be simple pieces of furniture here and there, decorated tastefully. In a few moments, he had reached Ari's office.

"Mom?" He called out.

His crisp voice lingered for a moment before the door opened on its own with the use of magic. Inside, Ari's office appeared just like when he first saw it as a child who had yet to learn magic, yet it was slightly different.

There were piles of parchment scattered on the floor and a big pile of papers on top of her wooden desk. The curtains were drawn open, illuminating the room with the morning sun and Ari's divine figure could be seen by the window.

She had her black hair tucked behind one of her ears as she took her eyes off the paper she was currently reading. Today, she wore a cream-coloured knitted sweater which exposed her deep cleavage. The sweater's length went all the way down to below her waist, dually acting as a dress.

Just like how Earl was steadily improving in Magecraft with time, so was the case with Ari. Or perhaps, it was the opposite. Because Ari improved without any signs of a slowdown, it acted as a motivation source for Earl to work even harder.

"Is it time already?" Ari looked at the clock as she placed her paper to the side.

"Not yet," Earl shook his head. "I wanted to spend a little more time with mom before we leave." He said as he planted his face into her ass.

"Ara, you naughty boy." Ari chuckled and patted Earl's head behind her. "Let me finish reading this first, okay?"

"Sure," Earl replied with a smile while continuing to sink his face into her heavenly ass.

And just like that, Earl spent the remainder of his time sniffing Ari's perky butt before leaving for the Royal Palace.