Duke Callum was really like a follower to Gabriel, even offering Spirit Stones to help Gabriel and win the young man's favor. So far, he didn't know the identity of the young man, but for some reason, he felt as if the man had the potential to be someone special in the future if he already wasn't one.
Gabriel was surprised to be offered the Spirit Stones since he hadn't even asked for them. However, he had already robbed all the Spirit Stones from the Academy of Elements. Spirit Stones was the last thing that he needed now.
"No need. Keep your spirit stones for yourself," Gabriel responded. "I just need information."
"Information?" Callum asked. "What kind of information?"
"Prepare all the information you have about the Royal Family, especially about their treasures and the whereabouts of the said treasures. I also want to know about the destruction of the Arecia Clan and information related to all the Clans that had a hand in that."
"If you also had a hand in that, I want your name in that information as well. Make sure you miss nothing. You only have one night... I want everything in the morning."
Gabriel had received some information from the girl he helped, but he was sure that a Duke could help him more with the information, especially related to the treasure he was looking for.
After issuing his instructions and was just about to go upstairs when he was stopped by the Duke.
"Master, there's one more thing I should mention."
"Oh? Do you have a family? Don't worry; I won't hurt them. I don't care how many people live here. Even I'm here temporarily. You'll still own this mansion even after I take over Arecia."
Gabriel didn't care about the people living here. He had no enmity with ordinary people. In any case, every Duke had some people in their mansions. Living alone would've been strange.
"Ah, that's not it. The people who live with me... It would be better if you just come with me..." Duke Callum seemed a bit hesitant initially, but after thinking for some time, he decided to take Gabriel somewhere to avoid some misunderstanding in the future.
Duke Callum took Gabriel to the basement, where a special hall was made. The doors of the hall were closed and locked. Only the Duke had the key to open the door.
After taking a deep breath, he opened the door.
"This... How did you get away with it until now?" Gabriel was shocked to see what was on the other side of the door. This guy was really playing with fire here.
"I took the help of a formation master to make a formation around this room, so no one else finds out. You're the second person after me who knows... I just don't want any misunderstanding in the future, especially now that the Holy Priestess is the Empire. I hope in the future..."
'This guy...' Gabriel could only scratch the back of his head. 'I don't know if I should call him stupid or brave...'
"Fine. Close the door. We'll see when the time comes."
Not speaking much, Gabriel turned around. "I'll take a room. Don't disturb me tonight."
He didn't speak much about what he saw. For now, he didn't want to get his hands on things like that. He had a mission at hand, and he wanted to focus on that only.
Gabriel went upstairs and selected a room on the Castle's second floor. The room he chose was in the middle of the Castle. It already had all the furniture that was needed for a Royal's stay, but the only thing different in this room compared to other rooms was that this room had no windows, and that's exactly what Gabriel wanted.
Gabriel closed the door before bringing out door stones from his storage.
Each of the four stones was only the size of an apple. They looked like ordinary stones, but only Gabriel knew that these blue stones were really special. These stones were something that he had robbed from the Academy of Elements.
It was one of the Numens of the Academic, known as The Four Cornerstones of Protection.
These stones weren't High Tier Numens, but their use was very unique. These stones not only restricted any aura from leaking out of the room, but they also provided protection so that the Owner of these stones couldn't be attacked when he was in meditation.
Gabriel placed all these stones, one in each corner of the room.
"This should be enough protection. Even if it can't stop a powerful enemy, it should hold on for long enough so no one can use sneak attacks."
He walked back to the bed and sat down. From what the mirror told him, his Soul was strong, but his body wasn't strong enough. That's also what hurt him whenever he used spells. However, now that he was about to get something that could strengthen his body instantly, he decided to work more on his Soul Strength.
Increasing Soul Strength couldn't harm him, but using High Tier Spells could. For now, he only wanted to increase his Soul Strength as much as possible while avoiding battles so that as soon as he got the treasure he was after, he could use the spells that he wanted without being restricted by Magical Strength.
Even Duke Callum was an Advanced Tier mage, but he... He was only a Mid Tier Mage when it came to Magical Strength. He couldn't even hope to fight the Holy Priestess of Summoning if things went south. He needed something to fall back to in case of emergency, and he could only rely on his own strength.
He brought hundreds of Spirit Stones out of his storage. He wasn't restricted by his Talents and could absorb way more Spirit Stones than others.
He closed his eyes and started absorbing the spiritual strength from each of the Spirit Stones.
Despite being High Tier Spirit Stones, each stone only lasted a few seconds before running out of energy. However, Gabriel's magical strength also increased at a pace that he had never seen before.
He kept bringing out more and more Spirit Stones whenever the old ones were all used up, not stopping absorption at all.
It wasn't until two hours had passed before he finally stopped, and that too only because he felt as if his strength had crossed a threshold.
He opened his eyes, which looked even more serene now.
"Advanced Tier? Could it really be that easy?" he wondered, looking at his hands.
He was covered in sweat and already extremely tired. He just wanted to go to sleep. Even staying up now was a hassle.
"Huh?" Even though he was sleepy, his sleep disappeared entirely as soon as he saw his Black Ring of Necromancy shining brightly!
"This is..."
The ring turned into specks of darkness that flew before him, transforming into the Forbidden Book of Necromancy.
The book floated before Gabriel as the pages of the book started flipping on their own.
"This... A new spell?"
Gabriel had seen this phenomenon even before. It often happened when he was receiving new spells.
"Now that I've become an Advanced Tier Mage, I'm getting another spell?"
Gabriel had already received around Nine Spells of Necromancy, more than half of which were High Tier Spells.
The pages stopped flipping after reaching an empty page, and the content started appearing. Before even reading the name, Gabriel moved straight to the tier of the spell. That's what he was more curious about.
[Tier: Core Tier Spell]
"Core Tier Spell? I thought there were only four tier spells— Basic, Mid, High, and Peak. What is the Core Tier?"
It was his first time hearing such a tier. Unable to find any clue from the Tier, he eventually read the name.
[Army of Undead]
