In the next few days, Zevien and Vernisia completed their quests and also absorbed magic crystals in a batch of threes.

The clan had also become a D-rank clan after Alucard used 2500 contribution points to raise the clan’s rank. The members completed many missions in the past week and gathered 3850 contribution points.

Of course, Zevien, Vernisia, and other students of the Skyward Academy who were members of the clan completed quests in the academy that resulted in that many contribution points.

Even though the quests from the academy only add 20 contribution points per quest to the clan, there were 12 Skyward academy students as members, and all of them had already completed over ten quests in the past few days, so that alone generated over 2500 contribution points.

Academy’s quests only gave 20 contribution points each because they were not as risky as guild missions due to arrangements from the academy.

…

When Zevien was two days away before he had to enter the Inviolable Blood Garden magic labyrinth…

“Finally, we have crossed the 5000 magic power mark,” Vernisia smiled as she and Zevien had just finished absorbing the last two magic crystals that pushed them past 5000 magic power.

Zevien’s magic power reached 5117, and Vernisia’s magic power topped him at 5288.

“Yep. Now, let’s complete a combat-related quest and consolidate our magic core before breaking through to 3rd class magicians,” Zevien grinned. “Tomorrow, we’ll enter our 1st magic labyrinth, and the day after tomorrow we’ll enter Inviolable Blood Garden.”

“Hmmm… we’ll have to stay for 6 hours minimum inside our magic labyrinths after becoming 3rd class magicians,” Vernisia frowned before she became determined. “We will definitely find a way to escape in six hours after entering your 2nd magic labyrinth.”

One part of Zevien still didn’t want Vernisia to come with him inside. But there was no changing it anymore. It would be disrespectful to Vernisia if he kept denying her entry with him.

An uneasy feeling would creep on him whenever he thought of that place, but there was no use overthinking it. ‘Opportunity… whether bad or risky, I’ll have to take it,’ Zevien remembered the words of Euclion and one of the three divine truths regarding the path of magic.

‘One must not be afraid when it comes to magic labyrinths and strive forward bravely. Although we are entering physically, so there’s a chance of dying, Tarto already told me that in the true path of magic, people will eventually have to enter their magic labyrinths physically. We are entering early to get used to risk and caution.’

…

Five hours later, Zevien and Vernisia returned to their magic abode after completing two quests and also consolidated their magic core in the process.

They didn’t have time to learn another tier-4 magic spell, so they weaved the tier-3 magic spell in their magic core for now.

“Let’s do it,” Zevien said before he took a deep breath and triggered the evolution, causing him to disappear from the bed. Vernisia saw Zevien disappear and also triggered her evolution as she disappeared.

…

Three hours later, Zevien reappeared on the bed with a blank expression. He failed! The evolution failed, and he lost 348 magic power.

“Vernisia!?” Zevien quickly looked beside him but sighed in relief after not seeing her; this meant that she was still in the process of evolution.

“I failed… sigh” Zevien sighed as he couldn’t keep his emotions in check during the test.

This 3rd evolution was not much different from the previous one. He had to comprehend a magic circle, but the situation was slightly different. After seeing the illusions, he knew that this evolution was about strengthening his mind. However, he saw Vernisia’s death in the illusion at a point, and that caused him to falter, which disrupted his focus.

Even if it was some illusion, the prospect of Vernisia’s death still affected him. He had lost her once, so he couldn’t lose her again. His mind and heart still wavered at that scene.

After sighing again, Zevien wryly smiled. ‘It seems that I’ll have to take a white-rank magic crystal from Vernisia to reach 5000 magic power again.’

After failing this evolution, he was left with 4769 magic power, so he needed to absorb a white-rank magic crystal, which would increase his magic power to 5245.

Zevien decided to talk in the [-Clan chat-] while waiting for Vernisia. None of the members, aside from Skyward Academy students, had seen him or Vernisia, so they were curious.

When Zevien opened the chat, they were talking about accepting some D-rank missions. E-rank and D-rank missions could be handled by 4th class magicians, but even if the clan reached Rank C, only 3rd class magicians would be able to accept C-rank missions.

However, the progress of every single magician in the existence was fast. Jonathan, Medro, Carmaine, and her two friends had already become 3rd class magicians. They broke through one by one in the last two days, probably because they got magic crystals from their magic labyrinths.

Dan and Erica spent some money to buy two white-rank magic crystals since they were just short of some magic power to hit the 5000 mark after they used their haul from Special Shop and their magic labyrinths. As such, they were also going to attempt to become 3rd class magicians tonight.

…

Approximately two hours later, Vernisia appeared on the bed.

“Zevien?” Vernisia was surprised to see Zevien lying on the bed while using Digi-watch. His posture showed that he had been resting for a long time.

“I failed, ha.. ha.. ha,” Zevien said as he let out a hollow laugh.

Vernisia was silent for a few seconds before she spoke. “Was it me?”

“Yes,” Zevien nodded.

Vernisia hugged Zevien and buried her head in his chest. “I almost failed too because of the illusion, but I managed to maintain my focus link.”

“It’s fine. I can pass it next time. It’s just, even if it was an illusion, I couldn’t ignore that,” Zevien weakly smiled.

“How much magic power have you lost?”

“Not much. It can be recovered with one white-rank magic crystal.”

“Alright,” Vernisia nodded as she got up from the hug and took out a white-rank magic crystal before giving it to Zevien. “I’ll also absorb the remaining white-rank magic crystal to get a boost.”