The Magi World is a High World, meaning that it’s laws are extremely well developed and the amount of natural energy it generates is immense. It can be considered one of the Principal Worlds of the multiverse, with the existence of Magi known to everyone as cruel, pragmatic, and warmonger’s that cause doom to many of the Middle and Lower Worlds and Planes.

The more complete a world is, the easier it is to produce strong life forms that not only protects it against invaders, but also attacks other worlds and planes.

The Magi World is incredibly huge, with hundreds of continents and the Magi are the dominant force of this world. There exist hundreds of organizations in the world but there are 3 that are the most powerful ones and divide the continents between themselves.

One of these 3 is the Aeternum Empire, an organization made of hundreds of Magi clans of all sizes that occupy the center of the Magi World.

The Zanabi Tower that Zatiel was previously a part of, was owned by the Zanabi family, a small clan that was part of the Aeternum Empire, and it was positioned at the periphery of the Empire.

When Zatiel left the Grey Swamp, he didn’t have second thoughts of going back. If he were to do that, being questioned by the Magus that runs the tower was something that would definitely happen. After all, it has been less than 3 months since he departed from the tower as a rank 1 Apprentice Magus, and now he was as strong as a rank 3 Apprentice. 

They may want to extract his memories and dissect his body to find out how he did it. As for the consequences, nobody will question rank 1 Magus if he kills an Apprentice no matter how strong the Apprentice is.

Luckily, he doesn’t need to worry about being searched for since those Apprentices that brought him to the swamp, and threw him to die will invent a story of their own, and say that he died due to some magical creature’s attack to cover their tracks.

So the destination that Zatiel was going to was the Sinux Magic Tower, which was controlled directly by the Aeternum Empire. This magic tower was a strategic point because it was close to the entrance to the Underground Zone but was also bordering the Endless Forest.

The Endless Forest was an uncivilized zone that was full of magical creatures, a few of them were as equally powerful as some of the strongest Magi that you could find in the Magi World.

Although it was dangerous, it was also a place full of opportunities and those that were powerful enough could obtain great wealth. So a lot of unaffiliated Magi and Apprentices go there. As for whether they could survive or not, it will depend on their ability and luck.

According to the information which Zatiel had, the Grey Swamp was around 10 thousand kilometers away from the Sinux Magic Tower. Luckily for them, most of the path which they had to follow was through some human kingdoms and danger zones that did not pose a threat to them.

They started to run during the day to improve the efficiency of their agility spells, and in the night, they rested. If they are close to a place with magical creatures, they kill and eat it to improve their strength.

The cultivation of the Chaotic Core can be done in several ways, the most common one being attracting the natural energies of the world inside the body and letting the Core absorb it to improve itself, and the amount of Abyss Aura in the body. 

Another way is by eating something with a high concentration of energy like magical creatures, so hunting serves to improve their battle skills and overall power.

Zatiel lets Ezequiel take care of the magical creatures to let the boy familiarize himself with fighting and battling powerful creatures. Of course, Zatiel was always ready to intervene if something bad were to happen.

Right now Ezequiel was fighting a Metalic Bear. This was a bear-like magical creature with hair that looks like metal. Although the beast was stronger than Ezequiel, the moment the boy activated Lightning Armor, the fight was one sided.

Ezequiel’s weapon was a double-edged dagger that he picked in the bandit camp, he chose it because it would complement his battle style. 

From time to time you could see how the weapon was covered with lightning, enhancing the damage that it gives to the opponent.

‘Impressive! His proficiency in the spell reached the level that allows him to cover other objects surpassing the original limitation of only covering his body. Lightning is suitable for him,’ Zatiel thought as he looked at the boy fighting the beast.

During the fight, Ezequiel only attacked when the time was right, and he could damage the vital organs of the beast, demonstrating his years of experience as an assassin.

As the fight was ending, Ezequiel’s lightning was starting to vanish, so he hurried up and took the opportunity when the beast was hurt to make an opening and attack it on the back of it’s head, and burying the dagger all the way into its head, killing the beast.

“Well done little EZ, but you have to remember to always have control over the amount of Abyss Aura you have left in your body, and never let it deplete entirely. Because if you were to do that you would be too weak to react to an unexpected situation,” Zatiel said as he judged the boy’s battle power.

‘With his abilities, fighting a rank 3 Apprentice should be easy, and if he takes them by surprise, perhaps he could even kill a Pseudo-Magus, not bad.’

Ezequiel nodded and started to reflect over the fight trying to see what mistakes he made and how he can improve his fighting style.

Zatiel and Ezequiel continue on their journey, constantly training their spells and killing magical creatures to either eat them or harvest their organs.

…

After a little more than 3 months, Zatiel and Ezequiel arrived at the area controlled by the Sinux Magic Tower, both of them were carrying huge bags made with animal skin filled with parts of magical creatures.

As they got closer and closer to the tower, more and more buildings began to appear in their surroundings. They could see inns and weapon shops and even some brothels in their surroundings.

When they were about to enter the city, a wave of energy went through their bodies scanning them, and disappeared just a second later.

Although most of the Apprentices that enter the city won’t be able to know what happened, it could not escape Zatiel detection.

‘This is a spell that detects the power of the individuals that enter the city. The moment it saw that our strength was inferior to a rank 1 Magus, it retreated immediately. It’s understandable since even the strongest rank 3 Apprentice poses no threat to the magic tower.

Of course, Zatiel was never worried about his Abyss Aura or his Chaotic Core being exposed.

His Abyss Aura was created from his Chaotic Core, using spirit force as the base. So everyone will just feel the spirit force when they detect his energy, and as for the Core, it was designed so that no external force could detect it. Unless someone incredibly stronger than him were to scan him, finding it out was almost impossible.

As they went deeper into the city, they were startled to see a mind-blowing 300-meter tall tower. Its exterior was made out of obsidian metal, and you could see inscriptions surrounding the tower that emitted a mystic glow on it from time to time. The tower emitted a majestic pressure that makes most people afraid to look at it directly.

It was the first time that Ezequiel saw something so impressive, and thanks to his high affinity for energy, he could feel the immense amount of energy that was concentrated inside the tower.

Zatiel saw the look on the boy’s face but said nothing. After all, even he was impressed. Of course, what impressed him was not the size of the tower or the amount of energy it had, but it was the runes that were inscribed on its surface.

‘Whoever inscribed those runes certainly has a high level of proficiency in them. Those runes are strong enough to augment the strength of whoever controls the tower to defeat someone a rank above them,’ Zatiel thought as he continued to walk towards the tower.

They headed directly to the tower to register as apprentices there, and decide their next step.

As they got closer and closer to the city, the number of apprentices increased exponentially, and by the time they arrived at the tower, the sight of rank 3 Apprentices was pretty common.

As Zatiel and Ezequiel get closer to the tower, more and more apprentices started to pay attention to them, after all, seeing two new people with a concentration of energy in their body corresponding to rank 3 apprentices with a bag full of precious parts of magical creatures is something you don’t get to see every day.

Although you could see greed in the eyes of most apprentices, none of them acted, it was as if they were waiting for something.

It didn’t take long for an apprentice to interrupt their path. He was a man of 2 and a half meters with a brawny figure, and according to the energy he released, he was a rank 3 Apprentice that followed the path of body refinement.

On his square face, you could see a vicious smile as he comes closer to Zatiel.

“Stop there little brats, you are new so I will do you a favor for you, and explain how things are done here. I am Nick and I am in charge of checking any type of material that comes to the tower. Now give me the bags so I can assess if there is anything wrong with what you have. If you resist I will be forced to consider that you are hiding something and will have to take them by force.”

This was robbery in broad daylight, but none of the other apprentices said anything, as if this was a completely normal thing to happen.

“The newcomer got bad luck.”

“Hmph, is their fault for showing their wealth so openly.”

“Nick always does this type of thing.”

“What can we do? After all, he has his brother as his backer.”

Nick just stood there, and didn’t say anything else. He was used to this type of bullying, and it always ends up in one of two ways, either the newcomers resign themselves to their bad luck or they argue and try to resist, in either case, he always got what he wanted.

But contrary to his assumptions, what he got today was something completely different.

“Ha ha ha, I’m sorry, it’s just that I never thought that such a cliche scene would happen just as I arrived here. But luckily, you arrived just at the right time. I was looking for a guide and you are perfect for the job,” Zatiel spoke as he laughed.

Nick was furious, not just because of the reply of the boy in front of him, but because of how the rest of the apprentice started to look at him. He knows that if he doesn’t teach these newcomers a lesson, he will become the laughing stock in front of everyone in the tower.

“You little shit, I will show you the price of insulting me.”

As soon as he finished speaking, Nick threw a punch with all his strength directly at Zatiel’s head. If this attack connected, it would be enough to kill any apprentice magi.

But before his fist could even get close to his opponent’s head, a lightning-covered figure showed up by his side, and threw a kick directly at his head.

It was so fast that Nick could barely react in time and raise his arms to block the attack. The lightning exploded on his arm, throwing his body 5 meters behind before he could stabilize himself.

“You bastar…” Nick was furious and was cursing at his enemy, but before he could even finish speaking, the lightning figure showed up again.

This time, it appeared right in front of him, and launched a punch directly at his stomach.

Nick didn’t have time to react as the punch buried itself on his body making him spit blood, but this was not the end. The lightning figure started to attack him from all directions, treating Nick like a punching bag.

Nick was feeling like his bones were breaking under the hits, and his body was burning from the electricity that was running through the fists.

Finally, the figure grabbed Nicks’s head, and crushed it against the ground, making some of his teeth fly away.

As Ezequiel retracted the lightning, he could be seen standing by the side of the now badly wounded Nick, and was acting as if nothing happened.

The rest of the apprentices were shocked, one of the reasons why Nick could bully newcomers beside his backer was his great strength. But who would have thought that of these two newcomers, the youngest one that looked like a kid would be so powerful that he was able to onesided defeat a Rank 3 Body-Refinement Apprentice and more so, using his body as the main weapon.

“He is too strong!”

“That boy is terrifying.”

“Nick is badly wounded, his brother won’t let this slide.”

Zatiel didn’t care for what the others were saying as he started to walk to the now wounded apprentice. Although he knows that getting attention could land him in some trouble, some degree of dominance has to be displayed or else it will be very difficult to establish a foothold in this place.

Once he arrives in front of Nick, he picks him up by the neck and speaks to him.

“Now be a good guide, and tell us where the center to register new apprentices is.”