Leo stored his prize in his satchel. He then started walking out of the forest immediately. He knew that the forest was no longer safe. If there were now Magical Beasts even in the Outer Valkyr's Forest, then something big was going to happen. He would need to get stronger to survive.
He returned to the city safely without any trouble. He immediately went back to his cottage to get ready. He came back and saw that Daphne was still in her room, practicing. He entered his room and set everything up.
He placed the 3 Pseudo Beast Cores in front of him and took out the 1st Circle Beast Core. The real Beast Core was a lot bigger and shinier compared to the other ones. He took a deep breath and started.
He first grabbed the Pseudo Beast Cores and squeezed them dry instantly. He went through all of them in less than ten minutes. The magical power that he had absorbed was running through his body.
He forced the magic to enter his mind. He could feel a huge repulsion from the cloud in his mind and the magic that was entering.
He used all his power to force the magic he just absorbed to spread out and wrap the entire cloud in a thin layer. He then started squeezing all of the magic together. He also grabbed the 1st Circle Beast Core as a precaution.
As the magic was slowly fusing with the cloud, Leo absorbed a little magic from the Beast Core to repair the net that was squeezing the cloud together. The cloud was visibly shrinking a little.
The process continued without any hassle for an hour. This was when he felt a huge pressure from the cloud. He knew that he had reached the most important part. The star formation.
He stopped holding back and absorbed the rest of the magic inside the Beast Core. The Beast Core had a massive amount of magical power, and it instantly filled up his entire body. He brought it into his mind and wrapped it around the net to reinforce it.
He could feel the star starting to condense. A bead of sweat was starting to form on his forehead. Before it could even fully form, a ripple of magic flooded his entire body, evaporating the sweat.
He opened his eyes. He could sense the differences in his mind. He was standing in his mind, and he could see a star in the sky, shining brightly. He looked around and could see a lot more clearly compared to the dim lighting of the cloud.
He snapped back to reality. He stood up and could feel changes in his body as well. He felt a little bit stronger. He stretched for a while and looked at the cores. All of them were completely depleted.
He sat back down to test his strength. As a 1 Star Mage, he would be able to cast beginner magic like Magic Bullet and Magic Arrow. While this might sound simple, it could damage Magical Beasts from long range. This would make it easier for him to go into the forest and kill beasts without risking his life.
Spells cast after having stars were completely different compared to casting spells cast before forming one. Without a star, he would have to draw a magical circle and say an incantation. This was because it was harder to control magic without a star.
With the star, the magic circle as well as the incantation could just be done in his mind. All he would have to do is think about casting a spell and as long as he hadn't pressured his mind into using too much magic, he would be able to cast the spell.
He calmly summoned a magical bullet to his hand. He didn't shoot it anywhere because it would be destroying his house. So he took his knife out and put it on the ground. He shot the magic bullet into the knife.
The bullet pierced the knife before flying to the ground. He looked at it again and saw that the bullet had made a hole in the dagger.
He smiled. He had finally become a proper mage. He suddenly realized something. He would now have to start learning how to use Aura to cover up that he was a mage. He couldn't let anyone know that he was actually a mage after all.
He decided that he would start to train his Aura till he became an Aura Knight before going back to only training his magic. He would obviously also train his magic as well.
The next day, he went back into the forest. He was going to look for an actual opponent to test his magic. He also needed a few Beast Cores to train his magic.
Before entering the forest, he sat at the inn again, looking out for information. This time, the inn was completely packed. He could see that the people were talking about what they encountered.
"Did you hear about the dead 1st Circle Magical Beast in the forest?"
Leo heard that and immediately realized that he might have been part of the problem.
"Yes. I heard from a friend. You know what this means right?" One person said. "It means the Outer Forest is going to now have 1st Circle Magical Beasts as well. The only time that happened was 7 years ago."
Suddenly, Leo realized that the discussion wasn't about the dead Magical Beast. It was more important than that. It was about the significance of a real Magical Beast entering the forest.
A/N: I would greatly appreciate comments about the story at any point. I would also appreciate reviews.
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