Idle Mage: Humanity's Strongest Backer-Novel

[Your Beneficiaries: Blake, Mary, and Alice, had finished their one-month seclusion comprehending Laws in a location that you prepared specifically for this purpose.]

[Blake had deepened his comprehension of the 'Virtue of Mountains'. His stability has increased tremendously. Not even an avalanche could shake him.]

[Mary's 'Virtue of Visions' deepened even further, now it gave her some pre-cognitive abilities which she could polish to make her even deadlier on the battlefield.]

[And Alice exceeded her known limits. She has mastered the 'Virtue of the Sword' — which should be impossible for her current cultivation rank. This enabled her to see the road at an even grander stage, allowing her to gain insights about the 'Primal Sword Virtue'.]

[These phenomenal achievements were all thanks to your meticulous preparations. And for that, a rare ×10,000 'Benefactor's Return'.]

[You received: Mountain and Sea Artifact ×1, Stargazing Pagoda Blueprint ×1, Sword Palace Blueprint ×1, Primal Law Vinyl ×1, 1000 Skill and Spell Points, 1 Billion High-Grade Spirit Stone Ticket ×1, 10-year Resource Ticket (Metropolis) ×1]

'Oh my...' Ashton was mildly speechless upon reading the system prompts just now.

He stared at a blank space for a bit out of shock. He never expected such rich rewards to bombard him out of nowhere.

Looking at the prompts, it is easy to pinpoint who was responsible for all of this. And that would be none other than Alice herself.

See, mastering a Virtue without breaking through the shackles of mortality was previously thought to be impossible.

Nobody, and it can't be stressed enough that 'NOBODY' in all of Humanity's History managed to achieve something like this.

Even Ashton, who's repeatedly refining his Law Insights with the help of his cultivation technique, didn't achieve something like this.

'Virtues' could be referred to as the surface-level of 'Laws' that governed the world and the universe at large.

Typically, human cultivators encounter the Virtues during the 4th stage of Cultivation (Warlock Rank for Mages and Master Rank for Knights). And in a typical fashion, they would only understand the Basic Level of said Virtues, which is the surface level of Laws.

Throughout the 4th Stage of Cultivation, they will try to deepen the comprehension of their Virtues so that they can use them as a foundation to break through to the next stage of their cultivation...

So on and so forth until they eventually gain mastery of Law...

It had been said that Laws aren't easy to comprehend, a cultivator can easily spend hundreds, if not thousands or even more years, just trying to trace a single law down to its Origins and they might not even succeed at all.

This becomes even harder depending on the particular Law an individual comprehended. Take Ashton for example...

He will comprehend a total of 9 Virtues by the time he becomes a Sorcerer. Nine! What kind of an absurd concept is that?

What's worse is that most of them are considered as a 'General' Virtues — meaning that they include a lot of concepts, making it hard to truly master them. These General Virtues were; Life, Death, Water, Fire, Earth, and Space.

Mana and Purity are pretty straightforward...

Take Water Virtues for example; Water includes the Virtue of Fluidity, Wavefolding, Stillness, etc. It can even be used as the basis to gain comprehension of the Ice.

With Fire, there's the concept of Heat, Conflagration, Warmth, Light, etc.

Any of these Virtues can be useful on their own and could take any cultivator far enough. Yet Ashton has to comprehend at least 6 or 7 of these...encompassing Laws which will seriously take a long-ass time.

Hence the understandable decrease in his cultivation speed...but this was neutralized by the Hymn of Enlightenment.

Alice managed to not only master the Virtue of the Sword but also gain insights about the 'Origin' of Sword Law itself - the Primal Sword Virtue, was something that shouldn't be possible yet it happened.

Understandably, Ashton was speechless.

'As expected...this Era might actually be hers.' He mused to himself.

He was about to inspect the rewards he got but he got startled by something.

BZZT! BZZZT!!

Ashton frowned and looked up only to see a dense formation of pitch-black clouds looming over where Alice was.

'A Heavenly Tribulation?' Ashton was shocked. 'I guess I should've seen this coming. After all, her achievements challenge the fundamental structure of this world.'

'Does she need my help in dealing with that?'

As if to answer his question, a sharp Sword Intent filled with incomparable nobility and ancientness swept through the entire hall. It carried a simple message to those who felt it.

'Don't interfere. Yep, got it. Rooting for you bestie. Go get 'em!' Ashton rolled his eyes.

Suffice to say, the Tribulation Clouds didn't last long. From where he was, Ashton saw Alice pointing at the clouds a needle of her Sword Intent flew.

It pierced the cloud and cleared the skies in an instant with no fanfare whatsoever. After that, Alice just sat back down and consolidated her breakthrough.

'Man...she's quickly catching up to me.' Ashton pursed his lips. 'As expected of a Hero's Reincarnation. Well, at least she's not an enemy.'

Ashton then looked at Blake and Mary to see their reactions. And judging from their faces, he's relieved that they're just happy for her.

Sure there might be a sliver of disbelief and jealousy mixed in with that but that's normal. After all, Blake and Mary are considered an Anomalous Geniuses as well. Their pride wouldn't allow them to easily fall behind.

At least there was no ill intent among those, or else it would've been a huge problem for him.

'Only a few hours left before the seclusion actually ends.' Ashton reminded himself.

He stopped paying attention to his friends and took this chance to check out the rewards he received from the System.

[Mountain and Sea Artifact]

Type: Cultivation Environment

Description:

• This artifact comes in the form of a door that can be installed anywhere, on the opposite side of this door is where the Mountain Sea Realm is located.

• Those who enter can either choose the Mountain Path or the Sea Path. The Mountain Path has a strong gravitational force and the Sea Path is unpredictable. Together, they are perfect proving grounds for any challenger who wishes to become stronger.

This was simple enough, Ashton can just literally install this door anywhere and it's good to go, how convenient. Plus, he can also relocate it just as easily.

He already got a spot in mind for where he will put this, but that can be done later.

[Stargazing Pagoda Blueprint]

Type: Instant Build Blueprint

Description:

• A Pagoda that Wizards of the Old used to observe the movement of the stars. Allowing them to predict climate changes, observe the birth and death of the stars to gain inspiration for their magic, and even predict the future itself.

• Those who enter will be transported close to the Sea of Constellations. Allowing them to commune with their Birth Star.

'Astrology? Color me interested.'

Ashton's Scholar side was provoked by this thing. Astrology is another branch of Magic that has been lost to Humanity. It is said to be the progenitor of Divination Magic and Ashton couldn't wait to see if that's true or now.

He was actually itching to build it now but he has to wait.

[Sword Palace Blueprint]

Type: Instant Build Blueprint

Description:

• An ancient gathering place of Heroes where they can seek advice in particular to their sword-wielding. An otherworldly memory. Contains many Sword Legacies.

• Only those Sword Experts can enter this place. Inside, they can draw their sword and seek advice. The Palace will evoke its memories and manifest a phantom that the challenger must defeat to pass.

'Aw man...I can't exploit this.' Ashton pouted.

This thing was strictly for Sword Bearers. He wasn't one.

Well, he could be but... Nah, he already has a lot of things under his belt. He doesn't need more distractions.

But since the Artifact is here, he might as well let others use it.

[Primal Law Vinyl]

Type: Upgrade Material

Description:

• A little something for that record player of yours.

• Use this to upgrade the Hymn of Enlightenment, extending its playtime by 2 more hours and allowing it to play Hymns of the Primal Laws.

"Okay, wow."

Ashton will definitely use this. No questions asked. This reward was triggered by Alice for sure.

The rest of the rewards were great too. 1000 SP of both kinds, 1 Billion Spirit Stones, and a 10-year resource supply for a Metropolis.

The treasury sure has gotten fatter within this one sitting and he's not complaining. He thanked the System for its generosity.

All of this was something he got with just three genuises under him. Who knows how much more he could receive if he were to nurture more?

'I guess I have to go around and search for more Children of Destiny, huh?' Ashton mused to himself.

That can be achieved later though. For now, he could only wait until this seclusion was over so that he can make some more improvements for Fantasia.