Extra's Path To Demon King-Chapter 57: A Year After

In a dark and dreary unknown jungle, a powerful, monstrous beast of large size lay dead as the subtle sunlight flickered. Gallons of blood were coming out of the magical beast, it flowed like a river.

The surrounding area was devastated, indicating the sign of a battle. Numerous scars were all over the body of the elephant-like beast. Many other beasts around the forest were attracted by the scent of blood and the remains of the dead beast. Their instincts took over as they rushed madly towards the gigantic corpse, wishing to be the first to arrive and eat the most.

But they did not realize that the predator that hunted the powerful beast comparable to that of a peak 3rd circle powerhouse was standing right beside the gargantuan remains.

Overshadowed by the large corpse of the beast, the figure was not noticed by the other animals. But they could not be blamed when such a delicacy was in front of them.

Many of the low-level beasts would directly jump levels upon drinking just a bit of that blood. Yet, the moment all the beasts entered a certain range, they sensed boundless killing intent pressed onto them. No matter how powerful or weak the horde of countless beasts, they froze and trembled in an unbound terror, such pure desire of slaughter made them shudder, and countless lost their sanity. freewēbnoveℓ.com

Their small minds were unable to handle the bloodlust of a superior being. All of them prostrated on the ground. It was an instinctive gesture. Something that went far beyond the simple difference of power. Rather, the quality of the killing intent hinted at the superior race of the predator.

The figure was covered in a mage cloak, only his eyes could be seen, and a strange golden runic pattern flashed in his eyes. There was a tint of crimson shade in the golden pattern. It was obviously Ashborn or Axel, one could say. He retracted his killing intent, and all the beasts ran away in trepidation.

Many of the beasts had died just from his killing intent. He let out a sigh and put the corpse of the large elephant magical beast into his space ring. This was one of the beast forests on the periphery of the rune tower’s supervised area. Just slightly far away. Walking back towards the mage city, he thought about the things that had happened in the past year or so.

Yes, one year had passed since the time he broke through as a First Circle mage. Many things happened between, but strangely for him, not many things changed. Akon was fully set on his school, a regular student. Since his little brother was mature for his age, he easily became the best student in the class and showed good talent in studies.

He was very proud of Akon. As for himself, because of the disgustingly high amounts of artifacts he needed to craft, too many materials were needed for his use. And the failure rate increased beyond comprehension for him. His initial assumptions turned out to be entirely wrong. He was currently at the peak of the 1st circle, having already completed more than 200 artifacts.

But as a byproduct, there were more than 50,000 failed attempts and countless materials wasted. His expenditure became too much for the tower to bear freely. Of course, if he wanted, he could request his master, and Cedric would make arrangements for him. But he wisely decided not to.

So, too many continued failures every day forced him to take some rest now and then. He had actively taken breaks when his mind was on the verge of insanity. So, he went out to hunt powerful beasts in the beast forests. In the process, he let out some steam while collecting valuable beast corpses.

In exchange for the beast corpses, he receives raw weapons made of quality materials. Of course, hunting the beasts doesn’t cover his expenses. The extra weapons he makes are sold, which generates most of his income, but most of it is again expended on various potions for his body and mind. Without those, he would not be able to continue his engravings like a mindless machine every day.

By now, most of the runic tower knew that he was a disciple of the vice tower master. But he only showed power slightly stronger than his level. He was portrayed as an initial 1st circle mage. His master created a few powerful artifacts for him that would cover his real power from anyone below the stage of a vice-tower master.

Every week, he attended some of the lectures of the mid-rank mages, which were often like a breath of fresh air for him. It helped him gain some new perspectives on his existing foundations. The insight of the experienced mages was indeed priceless. He also made friends of his own. The one named Emma, her brother Ezekiel, and a few other’s named Jason, Wang, Osborn.

They were all extremely talented runic mages in their own right. Surprisingly, despite being extremely talented, they were not like the arrogant young masters; he found himself getting along with them quite well.

The 5 of them also valued Axel highly; his insights and knowledge were extremely rich, as the only one who formed the 24th polygon circle. While Axel did help them with various topics from time to time, he did not reveal his full expertise.

Sometimes, listening to their discussions, he found himself discovering new ideas and ways of implementing the various symbols; he was surprised that, when he talked about some of his problems vaguely. A chaotic session of discussions starts, while solutions often emerge out of nowhere.

After he had made his breakthrough and heard from his master that he would need to engrave almost 13,000 unique artifacts. He had been in despair for a while, so he started researching other ways.

Something that would allow him to quicken the process. He had many ideas on it. But he wasn’t at a level to try them out yet. Another thing had happened, outside of the close circle of his life.

The orphaned little boy, younger than his little brother, whom he tested the necklace artifact on, was actually adopted by Detective Malric. The detective was now paying for his treatment, which wasn’t cheap in the slightest. But because of Axel’s generosity, the detective was extremely rich now, even more so than some of the mid-ranking nobles.

So, he was taking care of the little boy named Rugen. The boy was quite resilient as well. He held onto life. The detective had actually requested something of him, something similar to that necklace, which would stop the cancer for an extended period.

He conveyed to Malric that he would try; it was something already on his list, and he was working on it. To find a cure for it, he needed to create something of his own, which he would be able to use and stop the spread of the disease.

And a crude way that Axel found to shorten the time needed for his progress was to make achievements. Yes, the world itself seems to reward those who broke past any of their limits and completed a noteworthy, almost impossible task. Just like how he had made the 24th polygon circle by mastering all 24 of the basic runes. The world granted him incomparable strength.

So, as just a 1st or 2nd circle mage, if he were able to create a better halting solution for the disease of cancer, the world should recognize it as an achievement, right?

He was also working on another project, from time to time -

When the gaseous mana of a mage is filled to the brim in their core, it turns liquid through compression, so would it be possible for him to make another compression, while remaining on the same level, and turn the mana into solid?

No, ’solid’ wasn’t the right word here; solid won’t be able to move. It would be a death sentence for a mage if their mana were actually in their core like a block of ice. Rather, if the liquid mana could be compressed into countless specks of mana crystal.

Something akin to mana stones but different. In that way, a new and proper sublevel would be created. If the mana in the core was crystallized, far more of it could be stored in the core. The crystal mana should be far more potent and effective.

Yes, if he could accomplish something like that and create a new sublevel, the world should reward him very generously. If the world unlocked the higher levels of his runic eye and magic circuit, his speed of progress would skyrocket to a dangerous level.

Alas, it was far easier said than done; in fact, Axel found absolutely no way to accomplish those theories or attempt an experiment on them before creating his second polygon circle.

Coming back to his same old apartment, his little brother hadn’t come back from school. He was slightly sorry for Akon for not being able to spend much time with him. With a sigh, he entered the engraving room, and there were large runes drawn all over the walls of the room. His room was modified a few more times in the past year.

His experiments became more and more violent; all over the floor were countless failed and destroyed equipment. The room was extremely spacious, and space-related runes were used to widen the space within.

He picked up his rune-engraving pen and a raw sword, then started engraving it, without any further fanfare.