An hour later… The conversation finally concluded.

During the course of this discussion, Simon learned of the origins of both Jake and Joe, as well as more information pertaining to the world of Island Ascension Online.

Jake originated from the Flamelight organization, and was a typical worker in the mines. Flamelight was a typical trash grade organization, as for their practices...

To put it nicely, their practices were not kind!

The world of Island Ascension Online is not a hospitable one; there were only so many resources to go around. As a result, it was not uncommon for entire organizations to use means such as enslaving minions to satisfy their greed.

Flamelight was one such organization who resorted to such despicable means.

To Simon, these organizations were rather unsightly. In fact, his sworn enemies of his previous life, the agricultural organizations, were no different.

However, that by itself was not enough to incite Simon's ire. After all, there were countless organizations who resorted to such means as well. If he tried to eradicate them all, who knew how long that would take? He was not a kind man by nature, even if he were righteous. He naturally had no reason to do so.

After all, his dedication to opposing the agricultural organizations of his past life was born through hatred and a desire for vengeance, not through a desire to stop their unethical acts.

What truly incited Simon on the other hand, was the fact that they were so blind as to not see Jake's talent! That in and of itself was enough for them to be completely wiped from the world!

But on a serious note, by wiping out the organization, Jake would be irrevocably dragged to his side which would already make it worth his time.

Plus, it was not like there were no other benefits to be gained from wiping out an organization. Upon taking them over, their islands, their manpower, and their resources would all be under his control.

In other words, he would simply be hitting two birds with one stone by wiping out the Flamelight organization!

As for Joe's backstory, he was essentially a fake existence; an existence created by the system on the spot, with no past life to speak of.

However, that was not to say that he had the equivalent of no experiences. In fact, the contrary was true.

He had a vast library of knowledge and skills equivalent to a veteran general at his age, which was well above the knowledge of most people in this world.

Plus, though he had no memories of previous experiences, he nonetheless had real emotions and knowledge of the world.

If one had to describe his mental state, it would be the equivalent to an NPC in this world who suddenly forgot anything important to them, but remembered everything else.

Simon patted Jake on the back. "Don't worry about it! When the time is right, I'll personally come over and avenge your family. Not one of them shall live! Plus, they seem like eyesores anyways, I'd have gotten rid of them eventually! They dared to send someone to raid me, after all"

"..."

At this point, Jake was incredibly moved.

After all, he had lived in fear and pain for all his years of life. Other than his own family, no one had treated him so kindly. This was simply too new of an experience for him, and left him feeling extremely touched.

Still, he was a tough man and managed to hold back his tears as he responded determinedly, "Mayor, you don't have to promise me such things! Under your teachings, I will make myself useful. If I drag you down, I would simply be a disappointment!"

'Heh, he sure reminds me of when I was young.' Simon couldn't help but to chuckle approvingly upon hearing Jake's response.

"Good. Then you can start off by watching me build arrays around the crop fields. This shall be your first true encounter with magic. Perceive the flow of the energy, of the various elements, and grow accustomed to them in this time!" he instructed Jake, who nodded vigorously at his words.

After a bit of thought, he then turned to Joe, saying, "Joe. You can begin cooking 5 meals a day for all of us and are in charge of collecting the replenishing resources and storing them. When you are left with nothing to do, you can also mine some stone."

Joe nodded and headed outside the house to carry out his orders.

Simon noticed that Joe seemed somewhat indignant about his duties. Although he hid it well, it was as clear as day to Simon, whose perception was well beyond a normal human's.

'Ah, he's still too arrogant... I guess Jake will have to show him his place." Simon thought helplessly upon seeing Joe's reaction.

It was pretty clear that Joe thought that he had greater value than being a cook. However, he was quite wrong. Next to Jake, his value really couldn't compare...

Simon then purchased a few light and dark runes for 10 silvers each and retrieved his other runes, before heading to the farmland with Jake.

By now, the field of crops was filled with burgeoning and verdant crops. As usual, they looked as healthy as they could be, and even the bugs didn't wish to taint these fields, due to the effects of Simon's many enchantments.

It has to be known that over the course of the island expansion, Simon had expanded his farm to nearly three times the size since the start - from roughly a tenth of an acre to three tenths of an acre.

He easily had enough space for doing so, as his island grew from having a diameter of merely 25 meters to having one of 125 meters. Though the diameter difference was only five times, the actual area of the island was in fact, 25 times larger than it was at the start.

Combined with the fact that he now had access to many new species of crops and livestock, his island naturally needed a makeover!

And so, Simon carefully decided upon the specific arrays that he would use as he sat down next to the farmland.

'Which arrays should I use? Perhaps the Sunshine Stroke array for light? No, that's too powerful. Maybe the Divine Ray-channeling array?'

Many famous arrays in his past life came to mind, but most of them were undoubtedly impossible with his current resources, while a few suited his needs well in comparison.

Eventually, after going through dozens of arrays within his mind, he finished deliberating on his choices.

"I shall use the Divine Ray-channeling, Celestial Penumbra, Basic Heat, and Nature-enrichment arrays!" Simon stated as he suddenly stood up.

Jake, who was patiently waiting, nodded, not knowing what Simon was talking about in the slightest.

"Make sure to watch carefully. I'll be creating a basic heat array first!"

"Alright, sir!"

Simon solemnly nodded, before taking out a hot rune on his left hand and a cold rune on his right, clenching both simultaneously.

Boom!

In an instant, the runes were crushed within Simon's bare hands, and a surge of hot and cold mana exploded out like a tsunami.

Woosh!

Before the energy could escape, Simon waved two bloodied hands, and the fiery, yet piercingly cold energy quickly condensed into an unstable orb, which looked rather unnatural.

It's color was rapidly alternating from a fiery red to an icy blue, and it was sometimes emanating a chillingly cold, or a scorchingly hot aura.

Expressionlessly, Simon then conjured a white stream of mana from his palms and wrapped the orb of energy within his streams of mana, before beginning the process of assimilating the three sources of energy.

At this moment, the orb seemed ready to explode at any moment and was expanding and contracting constantly.

Seeing this, Jake held his breath.

But it was not out of fear... Instead, it was out of excitement!

With the help of this dramatic show of magic, a new world seemed to open before him and he could now sense certain special fluctuations in his surroundings. He was not a dull man and he knew what this meant.

He now had magical talent, and was sensing the presence of mana in the air!

This was an earth-shattering revelation for him... After all, for the whole of his life - from childhood to adulthood, he was told stories of legendary Mages.

Even from a young age, he could tell that such figures had true power and potential. After all, who didn't wish to essentially have superpowers?

In fact, in the past, if he were found to be a mage himself then he could instantly gain an official position in the organization and free his entire family from a lifetime of work. Of course, that was only if he chose to align himself with the organization.

Nevertheless, Jake often dreamed of such a situation when he was young; at the very least, it would be far better than having his entire family enslaved.

However, as he matured, he realized that such a situation was so unlikely that it may as well have been impossible; the odds of being born a mage was one in 10,000.

And as one would expect, he had a negative result on a magic aptitude test and was crestfallen at the time.

But now... he miraculously gained magical talent?!

This only furthered his dedication to his master... After all, he reasoned that his sudden talent was in fact, caused by Simon. Otherwise, why would such a veritable expert take him in as a discipline?

What he did not know, however, was that he himself caused his own talent. It was just that he did not link the… 'commotion' in the mines that he had recently caused with his sudden talent. After all, there were no survivors of corrupted essence who would eventually become mages in this world, so information regarding the true nature of corrupted essence was therefore nonexistent.

Meanwhile, in Simon's hands, the orb of turbulent energy continued to fluctuate in color and aura, with the reaction gradually lowering in intensity.

Jake did not fear for his safety, as he trusted in his master's methods. He was not stupid; the authoritative and mysterious aura that Simon exuded could not be easily faked. And even if it was faked, it could only be faked by a capable figure.

Combined with the fact that Simon had cured him - a feat that was rumored to be impossible - as if it were nothing, Jake was rightfully confident in his master's abilities.

Soon enough, the orb of energy finally stabilized, forming a vibrant violet orb of energy the size of a fist. Unlike previously, the orb of energy was smooth and stable; rippleless, like a still pond.

Simon proceeded to separate the orb of energy into strands of now controllable energy before beginning to form an intricate and profound inscription in the air that spanned the entire plot of farmland. Like the carvings on the minion summoning pendant, these inscriptions gave off a mystifying and powerful aura.

Seconds quickly went by, and Simon drew the inscription swiftly and smoothly, as if he were an expert calligrapher. Within a dozen breaths of time, he had already finished the inscription.

Woosh!

Soon enough, the inscription faded away and mana began flowing into the array from the surroundings.

'Success!' Simon thought with a satisfied nod.

With his vast library of experience, it was a simple task to determine whether an array was working or not. Naturally, the array that he had just created was almost perfect!

Of course, it came as no surprise to Simon, as he had purposely used an advanced and difficult method to create the array, which also served to dramaticized the flow of mana to help boost Jake's understanding of mana. Using such an advanced method, there was no way that it would be of poor quality!

Simon then glanced at Jake and nodded, before lecturing him. "Not bad, your hot and cold magic levels reached 1% on the spot! It seems my demonstration was a success."

"Anyhow, I'll have you know that such a method for creating arrays is not customary - in fact, it's a very advanced method. One wrong move, and the energy will go haywire, dissipating into nothingness, or detonating on the spot."

"However, I will obviously make sure to teach you the best! Naturally, you will eventually learn of it. What you just saw was an array making method that is both extremely swift, and extremely potent, and only applicable to arrays that contain opposing elements: The Yin Yang Dragon Swallowing Sun Array Building Technique!"

"As compared to other methods which can take many minutes to form an array inferior to even this one, it is easily higher-level. However, to truly become a dragon among mages, you need a stable foundation. Naturally, I shall first teach you the basics, and you will be forbidden from trying such advanced techniques for the time being."

"Now pay attention. What I will show you next is called the Dark Lotus..."

-----

Time quickly passed as Simon imparted array building techniques to Jake.

Through his demonstrations, the arrays around the field of crops were all complete, and flows of attributed mana constantly graced the fields of crops, resulting in the crops flourishing further.

An added benefit of demonstrating these arrays was that Jake had made great strides in both magic proficiency and array comprehension. Just as Simon thought, Jake was an unparalleled genius!

He did not need more than one explanation for any one thing; magic seemed to be as natural as breathing for him.

In fact, Jake was already able to cast rudimentary spells, which was something that other mages would take at least a few days to learn… and it had not even been thirty minutes since his interactions with magic.

...

At this moment, the fields of crops were now emanating a mystifying aura which was capable of intimidating all who saw it. At the same time, the field of crops looked alluring and seemed to be bursting with vitality.

Meanwhile, two figures stood not far from this field of crops. One of which was explaining the fundamentals of magic to the other in a solemn and strict tone.

"Jake, to start off, you should know that the very act of absorbing mana is an act of defiance!" Simon said solemnly.

"Many things in this world need mana, including celestial bodies such as stars, moons and planets; gravity in fact, not only draws in physical objects, but mana as well."

"These celestial bodies can't exactly be considered alive. In fact, they are a mix between intelligent, and unintelligent - without thoughts, but operating out of instinct."

"They can only absorb a part of the mana that they draw in, and therefore, typically maintain a certain level of ambient mana in their vicinity. Naturally, absorbing such mana is akin to stealing from the heavenly bodies, and therefore is not easy. This is the essence of a mage! Though it is an unsightly comparison, we are essentially parasites to these celestial bodies."

"Think of celestial bodies like predators presiding over hunting grounds. As long as they don't lack food, predators don't fight too seriously with other creatures over prey. However, in an environment where food is scarce, they naturally will fight ferociously over every bit of nourishment."

"Likewise, celestial bodies that lack a sufficient quantity of mana will fight tooth and nail over every scrap of mana that is brought in, while celestial bodies that don't lack mana will not resist too much."

"You can think of this world that we are in as a celestial body, since there is resistance to the absorption of mana here, even without a physical celestial body being present."

"When absorbing mana, the mana flows through the pores and orifices of the human body and into the mana core, which resides in one's heart. However, you seem to know this much, as you have gone right ahead and absorbed mana already. Not bad!"

"There are seven main elements: Hot, Cold, Dark, Light, Time, Space, and Nature. Gaining enough enlightenments in any one element will allow one to…"

Simon continued on, occasionally pausing at times, to allow Jake to ask questions and absorb the information.

Eventually, Simon wrapped up his explanations, and gave Jake thirty minutes to experiment with magic himself.

Just an hour later, the sun was currently at its highest, shining its luminant rays down upon the world of Island Ascension Online.

There were two figures who were standing on the island, while one watched from the side. Of the two figures standing, one was currently barking out commands, while the other was struggling to follow with sweat dotted on his forehead and an expression of the utmost level of concentration.

"Summon a palm sized orb of flame on your left hand!" Simon barked.

Woosh!

An unstable, yet very real palm sized ball of flame appeared in Jake's left hand.

Simon shook his head. "You aren't accounting for the wind appropriately. It's supposed to be an orb of flame, not an orb sized flame! Now, condense a palm-sized orb of water on your right hand and don't dispel the flame!"

Woosh!

An orb of water began forming in Jake's right hand, but very quickly, he lost control and it fell to the ground.

"Try using gravity magic in conjunction with wind magic if you are struggling to keep it up! If you only rely on lifting the orb of water, it is akin to designing an airship without the skies in mind."

"Now, lift this stone to head level!"

Woosh!

Under Simon's guidance, Jake vigorously practiced various forms of magic. During this period, both Simon and Joe progressively became more and more horrified as they watched him practice.

After all, Jake's rate of improvement was too scary!

He went from not being able to cast spells at all to being able to cast rudimentary spells at an adequate level.

It has to be known that children with magical talent would typically take weeks, if not months to achieve the same thing... Yet, Jake had managed to do so within a mere few hours.

Despite the fact that Simon could point out many mistakes in his execution, it was perfectly normal… After all, he could even point out mistakes that fourth star core mages had. What was not normal on the other hand, was Jake's abnormal rate of correcting those mistakes!

...

Soon enough, the practice session ended. By now, the sun was once again setting, preceding the sea of stars that was to appear in the sky.

Simon, Jake, and Joe currently sat around a table in the island core, eating a meal of corn, berries, and bread.

Joe looked noticeably more subdued as he ate, while the master and disciple pair conversed.

After all, his master turned out to be an unfathomable mage, while his disciple... was similarly unfathomably talented as a mage.

He was undoubtedly startled that he was in such a den of tigers!

"Jake, your job is to train. In the four hours after sunrise, and the four hours before sunset, make sure you absorb mana to form elemental stars. In between those hours I shall guide you personally." Simon said in between bites of bread.

Jake solemnly nodded. "Thank you sir! I shall strive to improve as fast as possible."

In normal circumstances he might have objected due to how little he would be helping with the affairs of the island. However, his belief in Simon had almost reached the point of reverence, and thus, he trusted his judgement fully. If he said something, there must have been a reason for it!

Simon then took another bite from the plate of freshly baked bread and corn in front of him, and a bright smile immediately formed on his face.

"Joe, this cooking is excellent. I never knew that you were such a talented cook. You should do the cooking for the entire week!"

"..."

Joe was speechless.

But he couldn't deny that next to the two monsters sitting at the table, he was only as good as a cook...

"I have eyes, but failed to recognize Mount Tai." he muttered to himself, while shaking his head ruefully. It was preposterous of him to think that he had superior capabilities, when compared to the towering mountains that were Simon and Jake…

Simon chuckled heartily as he patted Joe's back. Obviously, with his heightened sense, he had heard Joe's statement.

"Don't worry about it too much! When we get regular civilians here, you'll shine like a star again."

"..."

Suddenly-

Ding!

[A group of refugees has entered the premises of your island]