The rest just kept talking, as if they didn't see her leaving.
"Ugh… is she always like that?" he mumbled to himself.
"S-Sir, I-I-I didn't cheat—"
"I know that. She's just like that," he said, shaking his head.
Jareth took 51 Rank 1 beasts and 5 Rank 2 beasts, but Finnian didn't agree, giving him all the Rank 2 beasts, claiming he did all the work, and took only the Rank 1 beasts.
'Smart,' Jareth commended inwardly.
Then he hurriedly left the room.
"So, what are your plans?" Jareth asked Liana's group as they made their way outside.
"To continue training and hunting. To ascend and become a powerful Elite mage, you need to get used to spells, or it might break your ascension. Moreover, our test is coming," Liana replied. Then she scanned around before asking sneakily, "But why is Finnian calling you sir? Your ages aren't too far apart."
"Umm… I don't know…" Jareth answered as they got outside, seeing Nadia sitting on the pavement opposite them.
'To be precise, I forgot I'm seventeen now,' Jareth thought.
"Let's go." Nadia stood up and walked away toward the inner estate.
Liana and Zelda ran to meet her.
Alven patted his shoulder while staring at Nadia's back before following them. Zelda's brother did the same and shook his head before following behind Alven. Nathan just walked away after throwing him a glare.
Jareth scratched his head. "Ummm… why do I feel like I have an apology to make?" he mumbled.
Shaking his head, he quickly left the ruined estate for the Terminis Dominion.
But he made a brief stop at an isolated building in the ruined estate and dug all the cores out of the beasts so that he wouldn't spill blood in the basement. He had a total of 61 Rank 1 beast cores and 10 Rank 2 beast cores.
On the way, he pondered. 'Arcanists in the wild forget rules; everybody is a wild beast in the skin of a human. Humans are beasts, eh? That is something I must remember.'
He had to book an expensive ride home with his remaining money because of his bloodied clothes.
Jareth first took a shower, which wasn't the best because of all the cuts on his body, before changing into big clothes.
"I should have begged Nadia to heal me," he hissed.
Going down to the basement, he dumped all his cores on the floor, relishing in the sight of looking rich, as if he had spread money on the floor. He slowly absorbed one core after another. Soon, he got a notification.
[Core Saturated!]
But he suddenly felt a pressing urge to absorb the remaining cores on the floor.
He tried to control himself, but under his gaze, all the cores dissolved into a white and purple haze, and surged toward him.
'This again?'
Jareth felt his limbs refuse to move, as if an invisible anchor held them in place. His pupils dilated as the haze engulfed him in its embrace.
His vision changed, and he found himself standing in the middle of a dark world, with two gigantic swirling violet portals on opposite sides.
'Where am I?'
Jareth's eyes roamed between the two portals, but he didn't notice any difference.
'What are those? Do they lead somewhere? Is it the process of ascension? But… they are violet! I have a bad feeling about this. I need to wake up. I need to ask Esta for clarification. How do I wake—'
As his thoughts swirled, his vision abruptly returned to the basement, staring at the expansive gray wall opposite him.
Jareth moved his limbs and patted his face.
"I'm alright?" he thought, uncertain.
He slowly stood up but felt extremely light. He jumped, but the level was a bit higher than intended, so he first spent a few moments getting used to the abrupt change.
Then he quickly summoned his Sorcerer's Chart.
–––
SORCERER'S CHART
[Name]: Jareth Idren
[Race]: Human
[Body]: ⟨5% Mana | 95% Oblivium⟩
[Source]: [Oblivium Forge], [Caniblaze]
[Spells]: [Weeping Ward], [Grieving Echo], [Quagmire], [Infernal Torrent], [Quintessence Claws]
Rank: Awakened
[Core]: 200/200
–––
He then winced from the wounds on his body.
Seeing the bare floor without a single core, he whined, "All my cores… why did I show off to the world? Is this the world's wrath? But I did no wrong."
"Let's go sell these bodies, pay Annie her money, and buy a healing potion for myself. Then I'll come back and research the ascension stuff," mumbled Jareth as he swiftly swapped his shirt for a big hoody and left the house.
Upon getting to the Arcanist Court, he didn't see Annie there. So he sold everything for 75,000 aures. Jareth felt surreal with all that money, finally having a feeling that equipment wasn't that expensive as he had thought.
Then he first transferred Annie's 30,000 aures.
Then he took a cab to the Smithing Abode street and went straight into the Arcanist Court Equipment Abode. The feeling of buying something ingestible, like a potion, from the street and an unauthorized place didn't sit well with him.
Searching through the huge hall of equipment while walking slowly and stiffly to lessen the pain, he soon found what he came for. And the potion was expensive too.
He bought two Rank 1 healing potions for 10,000 aures.
First, he went to the restroom and gulped the potion down. The potion worked slowly, unlike the previous one, and he had to gulp the two. So he spent about fifteen minutes in the restroom before he came out, feeling refreshed.
Exhaling, he left the shop and went out. He took his time to stroll through the Smithing Abode. There were many weaponsmiths and potionsmiths shops, with a few casual businesses like coffee shops.
He soon found a shop with a sign in front: Test the FP of your physique here!
Raising his palm to his face, Jareth mumbled, "Yeah. Let's test what my physique is at the peak of the Awakened arcanist rank."
Jareth strode towards the shop, meeting a female receptionist with short hair by the entrance.
"Hello, I want to test my physique," Jareth said.
"Yes sir. It's a thousand aures," she answered with a polite and lovely smile.
Jareth's stomach churned as he did the transfer. 'Jareth could do it… for free.'
"Follow me," she stood up and led him into a bright room.
Pointing at a three-meter cubic device with a rectangular screen on the upper part, with '0FP' boldly written on it, she instructed, "You just have to hit the center of it with all your strength, and the level of your physique will be displayed on the screen."
Nodding his head, Jareth flexed his arm as he approached the machine and smashed it with all his strength.
Tilting his head, he saw '25FP' on the screen.
"Congratulations, sir, on your ascension to the Elite arcanist rank," the receptionist said.
Smiling at her, he mused, '25FP is the physique of an Elite arcanist? The Supreme One really came with perks.'
After he left the shop, he bought lunch and went home.
'Time to research ascension. I don't trust anything violet. Maybe if I enter that portal, I won't return.'