The Legendary Mage novel Chapter 18

"How did I end up here?" He stretched lazily, feeling light and refreshed. The cold discomfort had gone.

"I dreamt it all. It must've been the alcohol. I should drink less next time."

Alavin sprung up, flexing his body in his usual training routine. He punched fiercely into the air, sparks flying in coordination with his Goliath Force for the first three phrases.

But as he continued, Alavin paused, staring at his arm crackling with unusually abundant arcs of electricity that felt strange to wield.

What was happening? Had he overindulged in the drink the night before?

Channeling his Energy, he dispersed the electricity and threw a few more punches, but this time, he was truly astonished.

"Did I... break through?

"Novice Mage... Stage IV?

"How is this possible?"

Alavin was incredulous, somehow having advanced to Stage IV of the Novice Mage rank without understanding how.

But soon, Alavin faced a new conundrum. Not only had his realm increased, but his Channel of Energy had widened, and within his Energetic Core, there was an addition—a small, pitch-black dagger shrouded in a dark mist, hovering silently above the subdued energy.

"What's all this about?

"Wasn't I merely dreaming last night?"

Alavin inspected closely. Indeed, he had truly advanced. But because the advancement was so bizarrely sudden, the magic within his Channel of Energy still lingered at Stage III, desperately needing replenishment. And there really was a black dagger inside his energy, identical to the one the old man had given him in what he thought was a dream.

It wasn't a dream? It wasn't a dream!

This mysterious black dagger was a gift from the old man!

"Thank you!" Overjoyed, Alavin ran back to the storeroom to give thanks. But strangely, there was no one in the storeroom. The old man was not there.

In the eight years Alavin had known him, the old man had either been lost in thought under a tree, mourning at the graveside, or sleeping in the storeroom—he had never strayed half a step from that place.

"Odd, where could he have gone?"

A bad feeling suddenly hit Alavin, and he searched carefully through the storeroom and courtyard, even scouring the hills around, but he found no trace of the old man.

"Has he left?

"That can't be right. How could he have left without a word?