After a quick visit to Silvy's office, Henry was back in his dorm room. She had given him a spare alchemy set but Henry had already repaired the broken one with the system's help. Although that and the mana storage ring set him back by almost fifty gold, he seemed to be able to gain four to six crystals each day from simply visiting Silvy.

Surprisingly, the broken alchemy set was of extremely high quality and the system slightly modified it to suit Henry further. Before he could start using the set, he would have to start learning basic alchemy as well as improve his soul strength to withstand concoctions' backlashes.

Noah and Aster had teamed up to do a supply mission and asked Henry to join them. Most of the supply missions provided crystals based on what they could find. Since Henry was on the path of an alchemist, the two thought it would be great for him to join them. After all, alchemists had to have extensive knowledge about different herbs.

Henry was happy to help as he had nothing else planned for the day. He wanted to check out the adjoining forest. Henry had yet to fight against any beasts since his birth on this planet. He never had an opportunity to roam outside the safe zones with his parents always trying to keep him safe. He was reluctant to sneak out as well since he wasn't confident he could defend himself either. Now, him being a grade 7 mage, a lot of things had changed. Before leaving he took out a body enhancing crystal and swallowed it. The sudden boost pushed his body from grade 5 to grade 7.

They registered their party at the mission dispatch and received a permit to enter the forest. They were also given a small storage ring to carry the items as well as a brochure of all crafting ingredients that could be found within the forest which contained the selling price of each item along with a description.

Showing their permit at the guard post, they entered the forest land. Henry's system, which had already absorbed all the data from the brochure, was able to identify all the useful herbs. He still had to make it look like he was diligently trying to discover more herbs.

'''Ding! Activating system mapping of the foreign grounds. Scout radius 3 km.'''

'A minimap function?' There were a huge number of dots visible on the minimap. Some were green notifying plants, some were yellow signifying sentient plant forms. The orange and red both signified beasts one more aggressive than the other.

"This one looks familiar, check it out." Henry kept pointing out different herbs in a subtle way. It had only been a few minutes but the three had already gathered enough herbs to exchange for a few thousand gold coins.

The three walked deeper into the forest. Thanks to the system scouting ahead they didn't face any beasts. Even if Henry was strong enough to kill a few monsters, he still had to account for his two companions. So, Henry put off monster-hunting for another day and proceeded to help the two gather more herbs. Aster and Noah were impressed by Henry's ability to identify herbs with a single glance. 'No wonder he was able to become an apprentice alchemist.'

By the time it was noon, the three had collected so many herbs that their 10 Square meter storage ring was almost full. Even by a rough estimate, they had collected some 4-5 crystals worth of materials. When the three returned the materials, it caused a huge commotion at the mission dispatch. A few first year's collecting a total of 4 crystals worth of herbs was a first in the history of the covenant.

Henry went back to his room after lunch. He was tired from walking around all day. The other two were too excited from the morning and rushed back to the forest.

Henry sat on his bed staring at a blue crystal in his hand.

'''Ding! Would you like to absorb the mana crystal?'''

He had two of those crystals. He wasn't sure what the effects would be but chose to absorb the mana within just to test it out.

The system started extracting the mana from the crystal and Henry started getting the same headache he had once before when he was forced to learn the alchemical journal. 'It's increasing my spirit strength.' Henry understood right away what happened followed by a sudden notification later confirming his hypothesis.

'''Ding! Your soul was strengthened. Current soul strength: 254. 746 points to reach the prophet tier.'''

'200 soul points per mana crystal?' Henry immediately started sucking the second crystal dry.

'''Ding! Your soul was strengthened. Current soul strength: 454. 546 points to reach the prophet tier.'''

'Thank you, Mistress Silvy!'

Soul strength was important if one had to learn arcane magic. Countless spells used soul magic to activate such as detect and identify spells. A higher soul strength was also important for mana crafting jobs such as tinkering and rune crafting. With sufficiently high soul strength it was possible to cast spells from other schools that one didn't have any affinity for.

Miss Silvy's tier became an even bigger mystery to Henry as he realised how high up the chart one should be at to emit pure mana like her.

With his soul strengthened, Henry was confident he could start to learn potion brewing from Miss Silvy. His principle of taking as much as he can, made him rush towards Miss Silvy's office as soon as he steadied himself from the burning sensation in his head.

Silvy was even more stunned seeing Henry so determined. She hadn't expected him to have strengthened his soul so fast. 'This kid, I should probably watch my back around him.' Henry started practising the basic healing potions taking out the alchemy set that she had given him.

Silvy was closely eyeing Henry making sure he was doing everything. Although she could feel the kid had a sufficiently strong soul to handle any backlash, it was still better to make sure nothing falls off. Concocting was a work of patience. He had to stir the potion for almost two hours before Silvy approved the quality. There was a light grey shallow layer of foam on top. According to the manuals, this happens due to the potion being slightly impure. Silvy knew this was from the lower quality alchemy set she gave the kid. That didn't stop her from scolding Henry anyway.

"The potion is a little impure. Make sure to clean everything thoroughly next time." Silvy took a small vial and poured a little into her mouth to test out the potency. The liquid surprised her as it was of market quality. 'Did he try practising it without permission?' From what Silvy knew, without sufficient practice, it shouldn't be possible for a beginner to craft a potion that was of market quality no matter how much of a genius he was.

Henry who was already draining in sweat took his leave as soon as he finished the potion. According to Silvy, the potion was of sufficient quality that she could sell it after altering it a little. She even gave Henry 20 crystals for the pot full of potions. To him, it was better to let the old Mistress sell off the potion as it would keep prying eyes away from him. From Miss Silvy's attitude, he was confident she wouldn't mind him coming over more often.

By the evening both Noah and Aster came back from gathering herb, a little tattered up. It seemed like they ran into a few low-grade magic beasts. From the looks of the patched-up wounds, it seemed they had a rough time.

"Henry, you have to join us next time. Your luck was insane. To think we ran into a single-horned rabbit herd, just after a few minutes! Those things are scary when they outnumber you." The two friends of his started giving him a rundown of what happened. They barely managed to gain a crystal's worth of materials after braving for an entire four hours.

For the rest of the week, Henry joined the two to help gather herbs. He would then join Miss Silvy in the afternoon to practice alchemy. By the end of the week, the three had collected more than 30 crystals worth of materials.

The midterms were approaching and Henry had already achieved a peak mortal tier cultivation in magic and body. He was looking forward to the testing exams.

The covenant old and monstrous building contained many secrets making it not safe for kids to roam around unrestricted. It wasn't uncommon for kids to go missing in the middle of a year making both the students and staff panic. A vast majority of the sections were often guarded or quarantined off trying to kids from sneaking in. This didn't usually stop the kids' explorative nature.

The lively campus became more and more deserted as everyone started focusing on their studies. Anyone could feel the tension thicken as the days for the testing became numbered. It had been a while since Henry had gone out to the forest, so he decided to get a permit for gathering. The dispatcher was a little surprised seeing a first-year go out for herb gathering this close to the midterms. Failure to show any improvement in one's cultivation during these tests negatively impacted the future of the student. If that happened thrice, they would usually be kicked out of the campus deemed unfit to cultivate.

Henry's purpose to enter the forest was to hunt some beasts. He had gone off on his own a few times lately to hunt. Hunting was a good practice to improve and figure out one's faults. His peak grade 9 body could resist most of the attacks from the beasts located in the forest. He too concluded that there weren't any higher tier monsters in the forest at how chilled the dispatchers were when distributing the missions. The lower grade beasts had started to avoid Henry after him decimating a few herds of mid-grade and low-grade animals. The fire spells were exceptionally useful when dealing with wood type monsters making these excursions enjoyable.

Henry was stuck at the peak grade of the mortal realm as his system didn't seem to be able to upgrade his element drops any further. After attempting multiple ideas he finally concluded. He had to upgrade the system. The system itself had provided him with a solution by the means of a quest. He just had to kill 100 peak grade mortal beasts. This was a tall order since most of these monsters were impossible to find in these lower regions of the forest. He knew completing the midterm and receiving higher access was the only way to farm stronger monsters. Even his soul was stuck at 1000, ready to upgrade anytime. His rings were overflowing with the stuff he received every day being unable to use any of them.

The little grade 7 tusk deer, an earth element beast, tried a pincer attack on Henry as he was walking towards the doubled horned mantis' nest. The deer's horn couldn't even scratch him as he caught the deer by it. He whispered, 'fire blast', which instantly killed the poor thing. Henry stored the beast remains in his storage ring and continued towards the nest.

Double horned mantises were exceptionally territorial as anyone trespassing would be killed off immediately. The mantis horns were heavily valued as it was heavily used for heaps of grade 9 potions. Since there were bound to be a few grade 9 beasts in the nest, Henry usually picked the beast nests during his hunts.

The entire beast nest was killed off within a half-hour time. Had the mantises been a little less aggressive, he wouldn't have had to wipe the whole nest off. He was a little dejected when he returned that day. At least he had yet to visit Miss Silvy. The one bright light at the end of the tunnel.

"Did you find enough Mantis Horns?" Silvy was sitting right next to the large cauldron she often used to make concoctions in. "Yes, there were 32 grade 8 beasts in the nest." He took out the horns from the ring and placed them among the other ingredients. "Great. That should be enough to make at least 500 vials of strengthening potion." Silvy after witnessing Henry's massive talent at potion brewing joined hands with him and started mass producing different strengthening potions. Silvy kept introducing new and more advanced potions trying to see how much this kid could absorb. At some point, she eventually gave up testing and started enjoying brewing stronger potions with him.

"So, will you be entering the kingdom's first-year talent showcase?" Silvy suddenly asked, looking at Henry, causing him to stumble.

"Do I have to enter?" Henry tried to pull his concentration back to brewing.

"Why not? If you want to become a noble, you should stand out and try to make a name for yourself. Isn't that what you want?" Silvy's questions penetrated deep into his soul.

'A noble? Was that necessary?' In the beginning, Henry always felt that being a noble was the best way to gain power. But now, Henry was strong. He was stronger than most of the lower noble families. Would anyone try to attack him? A commoner that was on par with most nobles in strength. The more he saw how the world worked, the more he felt noble titles were a trap. Noble, were forced to serve in the military if a war breaks out. They had to maintain peace within their fiefdom. They were held responsible for most of the civil unrest within the country. And most of the time, these nobles were the one's the royal family sacrificed to prevent civil upheavals. The more Henry saw the life of nobles, the more repulsed he became. 'Become a puppet for the royals? Fat chance!' It only took half a year for Henry to realise how bad the noble's life was. He felt being a commoner might be better as long as one could protect himself.

'Become a noble?' Henry suddenly remembered the promises his parents asked of him. 'Sure, I will try. But if I don't like it, don't blame me if I leave.' Ever since he joined the school, his horizons had widened. With the 30 years of life experience, he carried over from the past lifetime, he could easily see through the nooks the powerful figures had placed around him. He knew when to stand tall and when to bend over.

"This might be your one chance to make a name for yourself. You could always step down after registration if you feel bad about it." Silvy reminded him again.

"Do you want me to join the matches, Mistress Silvy?"

"If you would get placed in the higher levels, our school's ranks might increase a little. I'm not interested in the prestige but we never seem to have enough resources with how little we get each year from the kingdom."

"Fine, I will compete then. But I need a favour from you as well." Henry asked Silvy for access to the stronger monster regions of the forest. He was already tired of the front forest which was more like a kindergarten playground.

"You are strong enough. Alright, I will give you a tier 2 permit for the backyards." Silvy smiled seeing Henry agree to the matches. The backyard was the forest towards the back of the campus. It was filled with peak grade 9 monsters as well as prophet tier monsters. Had Henry not had enough strength to stand on his own, Silvy wouldn't have allowed him to enter this place. This move was Silvy secretly acknowledging Henry's strength.

"When is the match starting?"

"In a week or two. You better prepare fast."

The midterm tests started and Henry was tested along with the rest of his first-year classmates. The tests were much simpler than when compared with the enrolment test. It felt a lot relaxed.

Aster was the first one forced to go up on stage amongst the fire mage students. Continuous booing happened from the audience which by now became a regular event from the physical body cultivators. Most of the body cultivators had rapid progress considering how easy physical cultivation usually was as it only contained hard work. It didn't involve the tenacious hardships of learning and testing magic elements and continuous attempt to strengthen various spells. There was also little to no hard work involved apart from racking one's brain all the time trying to figure out how to maximise the power outputs.

Aster was a grade 2 fire mage when she enrolled in the school. There was a confident look on her face. She stretched her hands out and started to cast a grade 3 spell 'flame wall'. The crowd quieted down seeing the successful casting of a grade three spell. There was a triumphant smile on her face as she walked down the stairs seeing the look of approval on the many tutors' faces.

"Noah, School of Fire element. Grade 2 fire mage." The announcer spoke up, asking the second person on the stage. With a shy smile, Noah too walked on stage and cast another flame wall proving he two had improved by a grade in half a year. The first spell cast by Noah was a lot denser compared to that of Aster which was a result of higher grade strength.

"What is your mage grade?" One of the examiners asked just to confirm.

"I just became a grade 4 mage two days ago," Noah confessed. Seeing the examiners head shake in approval, he too felt a feeling of success as he stepped down from the stage.

It was finally Henry's turn.

"Henry, School of Fire element. Grade 5 fire mage." Some cheered. Some whistled. Henry walked on to the stage and stood still for a few seconds.

"You can start." One of the examiners motioned his fingers.

"Are there any wards' against grade nine spells active?" The school was very stringent on the budget and only the most required was provided. He had once gone through it and didn't want it to happen again.

"You can cast grade 9 spells?" One of the examiners asked incredulously. A grade 9 mage that was so young? He felt sweat forming under his skin. He was nearly 14 when he reached the peak grade of the mortal stage. It took him another six years to break through to the prophet tier and had barely reached the mid-grade. The child in front of him, if what he claimed was true, could upset even the royal academy geniuses.

The four examiners worked together to strengthen the magic wards and then once Henry felt the wards strong enough, he released the grade 9 fire spell 'flame meteor'.

Fire elements started merging in the sky, high above the stage. The surrounding air started heating up as everyone started sweating heavily. Soon a massive red globe formed far away above their head. The massive globe of fire fell towards the stage pushing the clouds back tearing up the sky.

The huge fireball that fell from the sky slammed against the wards strengthened by the four examiners. The ward shook heavily under the pressure but held. The crowd slowly relaxed seeing there was no danger.

"Such power. Looks like he is about to break through!" One of the examiners said excitedly seeing such a genius up close. The test carried forward and by evening it was all over.

"When did you become a grade 9 mage?" He was bombarded by questions from his two classmates back to the dorm rooms.

"Why didn't you tell us something that big?"

"Yeah, aren't we friends?"

Although they looked pissed, from the excitement in their voice, Henry could tell they were both happy for him.

"So, are you leaving campus soon?" Noah asked.

"Not any time soon. I intend to break through and complete the first term at the very least." They were the only three in the class. Through the past few months, they had become closer and the thought of parting ways brought moisture in their eyes.

"It was bound to happen sooner or later."

"That won't do. If you leave, who will help us collect herbs?"

"Yeah, you can't leave. We still need your help to collect herbs." The two started attempting jokes to elevate the mood in the room.

"I'm still here aren't I? If I can get some post on the campus, I won't have to leave." Aster split from the two, walking towards her room alone.

Henry received his updated id card the very next day. On it was his new status. A grade 9 fire mage. Henry never bothered to show how powerful his other elements were. It wasn't smart to put all his strength out in the open.