Rebirth of the 8th-Circle Mage

‘Will this do?’

Building the Medical Spire was easy, since Henry could erect buildings as large and magnificent as the Magical Spire with just one Rising Grand Mansion.

Henry had built the Medical Spire smaller than the Magical Spire, considering the authority of the Magical Spire. There was no anthropology wizard who disagreed with this. To be frank, the size of the spire wasn’t important for the wizards moving to the Medical Spire. The fact that there was a spire just for them was all that mattered.

With the Medical Spire, Killive sparked with unprecedented vitality; the wizards walked around with sparkling eyes as they saw their test subjects. The prisoners, not knowing why some random wizards were looking at them with just enthusiasm, cocked their heads in confusion.

“Alright then, I’ll leave everything else up to you,” said Henry while patting Dracan on the shoulder. Henry thought highly of Dracan, considering him a fellow wizard he could depend on. As an enemy, Dracan hadn’t been that troublesome, but as an ally, he was exceptionally dependable.

Henry was planning to give him all the support he needed in order to achieve the 7th-Circle as soon as possible.

With the opening ceremony done, Henry looked up at the Medical Spire with eyes full of anticipation. It felt like he could see the future of the empire from it.

***

“Tch, those damn thieves!” said Karlson while brushing off the blood from his blade. He was a C-class mercenary who had been assigned to escort a merchant called Reveal. However, they had unsurprisingly bumped into a group of bandits at the crossing point of a mountain range.

Karlson had barely managed to chase them away, and he had been injured in the scuffle. At the end of the day, he wasn’t a Sword Master.

Karlson threw his sword on the ground and sat on a nearby rock. He noticed that his wound was deeper than he had initially thought. Just when he thought he had repelled the attacks of the bandits, a spear hit him from behind.

Reveal rushed over to Karlson and said, “Sir Karlson, your wound is quite serious. We need to get you a healing scroll for you!”

Reveal then took out the healing scroll. The palm-sized scroll had the word “stab” written on it. Karlson bowed as he took the scroll.

“Thank you, I was just thinking I could use a scroll.”

Karlson unfolded the scroll and placed it on his wound. Then, a ray of golden light emerged from the scroll, enveloped his wound, and then quickly vanished.

The scroll was still on Karlson’s wound, but he could feel that something was different. When he took the scroll off, he only saw a trace of dried-up blood as if he hadn’t been injured in the first place.

“It healed completely. Thank you,” said Karlson in a more relaxed voice.

“No, of course. I’m glad it helped you.”

“I’m really impressed by this scroll. It really is something. To be frank, I was shocked when I heard that something like this even existed.”

Karlson picked up the empty scroll and took a closer look at it. He couldn’t believe that this plain piece of paper, which had a couple of Runewords written on it just moments before, could treat a wound so seamlessly.

Karlson then looked around himself. All his fellow mercenaries were also using scrolls to heal their wounds.

“I didn’t care for it at first, but I eventually decided to give it a shot, since it’s so cheap. And after I used it, I realized that it was more effective than the potions sold at the temple and also easier to carry around,” explained Reveal in an enthusiastic tone.

“The Medical Spire made these scrolls, right?” said Karlson.

“Yes, I heard they were developed this year, and their quality is guaranteed, given that only the imperial palace sells them.”

It had been approximately three years since the Medical Spire had gone up. And in the meantime, it had achieved much more success than Henry had expected. This effective healing scroll, possibly more effective than healing potions, was proof of that.

Officially, this was called healing paper, but most people called it a healing scroll out of convenience. Regardless of its name, this scroll was an innovation for the continent. The fundamental principle behind it was to infuse healing magic in a blank scroll, just like with regular magic scrolls.

The old-school magic scrolls used for healing that were on the market were quite costly and less effective than potions, so people considered them rubbish. But fortunately, over the past few years, the Medical Spire had made great progress in healing magic.

This healing paper used less magic, had various types of healing spells, and was considerably cheaper because it was being mass-produced. This breakthrough completely changed the lives of the people of the empire, dramatically reducing the mortality rate while boosting population growth.

The scrolls brought about many miracles for the people, such as curing various infectious diseases and even allowing people who had been bedridden for years to walk.

The heyday of the Medical Spire had finally arrived.

***

Knock, knock—

Henry was in his laboratory, going through a stack of documents on his desk. He wondered who could be knocking at his door, so he opened it with a single wave of his hand.

Seeing who was at the door, Henry’s eyes widened.

“Dracan?”

He stopped shuffling through the documents and focused on Dracan, who smiled warmly and bowed.

“Greetings, Great Archmage.”

“Great? No, you’re great! Come have a seat!”

With that, Henry quickly prepared tea for both of them, but catching up was more important than drinking tea.

“How did you manage to come all the way here? I know you’ve been so busy these past few months that you probably didn’t have the time to visit,” said Henry in an excited voice.

It sounded like Henry was scolding him a little bit, but Dracan could tell his words were filled with affection. Even so, Dracan sagged his head, feeling a bit bad for not having visited Henry in months.

Even though people used to call him a ghost, Dracan looked completely different. He had cut his hair short and had even gained quite a bit of weight.

Henry liked this change in Dracan. It was much better to see him smile than having an expressionless face.

“I’ve come to share some good news.”

“Good news?”

Henry was eager to hear what Dracan had to share with him. Whenever Dracan said he had good news, he actually had incredible, groundbreaking news like the healing paper, which had significantly improved the lives of people.

“What do you have this time?” Henry asked in an eager voice, clearly excited to see what Dracan had come up with.

However, Dracan hesitated to give him an answer right away as if he was too embarrassed to share the news himself.

“Uh… That…”

“Wh-what is it?! What is it that you’re so hesitant to tell me?”

“I finally achieved it.”

“Achieved what?’

“I’ve reached the next level, Archmage. I’m finally a 6th-Circle wizard.”

“What?”

A moment of silence hung in the room. It had only been three years since the Medical Spire had gone up, and Henry couldn’t believe Dracan had advanced to the next circle in such a short period of time.

Henry’s jaw dropped to the floor, and his eyes were as wide as they could be. Exactly three seconds later, he enthusiastically congratulated Dracan.

“Woah! Really?”

“Yes, nothing but the truth, Archmage.”

“Y-you crazy-! I’m so proud of you! Really!”

Henry stood up and ruffled Dracan’s hair, congratulating him sincerely. Dracan had officially become an Archmage. Some people didn’t even manage to become mages in their lifetime, but Dracan had become an Archmage from a mage in just three years.

Only Henry had managed to advance so quickly.

“It’s not just me. A couple of mages I’ve been conducting research with have become Archmages as well.”

“Wha…? You’re saying there are multiple Archmages?”

“Yes, since we’ve done major research projects together.”

“Woah, this is the best news I’ve heard in a while!”

Hearing good news one after another, Henry wholeheartedly congratulated Dracan as if his own son had succeeded.

‘I couldn’t be any happier! I think I can finally leave the rest to him!’

Henry could tell that Dracan was genuinely happy, and Dracan could tell the same about Henry. The two congratulated each other warmly for a while, and they managed to talk about what they had been up to after calming down a bit.

“I can’t stress how proud I am of you, Dracan! So tell me, what kind of research are you mainly doing these days?”

“I’m conducting research on the human mind these days.”

“The human mind?”

“Yes. I initially started this research with the intention to rehabilitate prisoners with strong violent tendencies, but I’ve been devoting myself to this research because I believe that if I succeed, I’ll be able to help people suffering from mental illness.”

As Henry heard Dracan’s answer, he stopped smiling for a split second. Research on the human mind… That reminded him of what had happened back then.

‘It can’t be… right?’

Henry decided to not worry about his answer for the time being.

***

“So, have I done everything I could?”

Immediately after Dracan left, Henry just stretched in his soft, comfy chair, feeling refreshed and relieved.

On the day the wizards moved to the Medical Spire, Henry was surprised to see a mere 4th-Circle mage prove himself. But now, just three years later, Dracan had emerged as an Archmage and demonstrated his progress to everyone. It was truly incredible.

Henry couldn’t help but think how cool and amazing Dracan was. He lay in his chair for a while and took his time to reflect on what he had achieved since his return. As he went through his memories, he smiled, realizing how enjoyable his life had been ever since the day he woke up in that tent.

Indeed, Henry was surrounded by the people he had longed to see and those he was grateful for. After fully processing his emotions, Henry reached for his desk drawer, pulling out a piece of paper he hadn’t touched in quite some time.

‘Then I guess I can go see him now.’

Over the past few years, Henry had been working on each of the plans he had made after his return, not resting one bit. However, out of everything he had planned, he hadn’t managed to do some things, regardless of how much free time he had.

But now, approximately eight years had passed since the founding of the empire.

‘I think I can slowly get this one started.’

Henry checked the final names written on his planner. He had longed to meet these people for a while now. He stood up and changed into his most extravagant and elegant uniform, which he would normally wear during a major event at the imperial palace. Lastly, he put his ceremonial sword at his waist. With that, he was ready to go.

“Teleport.”

Everything in front of him turned white with a flash. The interior of his lab was replaced by lush fields. Henry recognized this familiar landscape at once. As he took a few steps on the soft ground, he muttered to himself, “This was probably… the three-way trading post?”

Henry nodded as he continued walking toward his destination.