〖 A newborn spirit needs to consume thoughts to grow 〗
'Negary' recalled the information within the [Theory of Spirit Summoning Rituals] book, spirits were closely related to emotions and the majority of the Principles they became entangled with would also be related to emotions; and so, most spirits required nothing but thoughts and emotions to sustain themselves.
And the specific emotion 'Negary's' spirit needed was the will to evolve.
Any discontent towards the present and will to grow stronger would suffice to stimulate its growth.
Which resulted in the spirit's ability: Lord of Evolution, capable of unlocking the limit of a living being to make them enter a state of evolution. During the period of the unlocked limit, as long as they had enough energy, that living being would be able to infinitely evolve to fit its environment.
This was extremely similar to the Gears of Impurity that Negary had created.
However, Negary's Gear of Impurity worked through utilizing the chaotic power of Impurity to break the equilibrium of the body and force uncontrollable random mutations, while the Lord of Evolution ability would only enable the body to evolve in accordance to their environment, which made it relatively more stable, emphasis on 'relatively'.
Nature was vast and varied with countless different environments, so each of these environments would promote very different organs to grow in order to adapt to them.
For example, gills and fins would evolve to adapt to an aquatic environment; wings for an aerial environment; a heat-resistant carapace for creatures living near lava; additionally, the better one's discerning eyes were to be, the more they would be able to evolve. For example, a vision that allowed one to see through the aspects of reality; or a heart that could use dark energy instead of carbon as fuel.
For a living body, as long as the environments allowed it, they would be able to infinitely evolve.
〖 That's why, you're greatly coveting my body, aren't you spirit? 〗
'Negary' suddenly said that, causing the spirit that was exuding an intimate emotion to freeze briefly before continuing to emanate the will to evolve.
〖 If that's the case, take every chance you have to obtain your opportunities to evolve 〗'Negary' didn't really care about the spirit's disguise.
If he truly had his body stolen by the spirit, then that would be the limits of his capabilities; but in return, as long as the spirit did not get an opportunity no matter what, then it would have no choice but to continue being taken advantage of.
An academy was, without a doubt, one of the places with the highest number of will to evolve, a large majority of students entered such academies in search of knowledge and empowering themselves. Of course, knowledge might only be a means to an end to fulfil their various desires, but that didn't deny the fact that they carried the immense will to grow.
As 'Negary' strolled across the main courtyard of the institute, he could sense all sorts of information being transmitted to him from the spirit, as it was able to continuously feed upon the will to grow in this place.
The gazes of several students who were in the know towards 'Negary' carried either envy or burning desires as they bowed to greet him. In their eyes, 'Negary' wasn't too much older than they were, but since he was Michael's heir, he would eventually come to inherit this entire institute. This sheer difference easily caused various thoughts to pop up in their minds.
'Negary' returned to Michael's office, which was now his personal office, where he would be able to watch over the entire campus through his window as he pulled open the curtains.
Right at this point, a small bird was knocking on the window glass outside as it carried a paper bag of documents.
After 'Negary' opened the window, this bird jumped into his office, neatly placed the paper bag in front of 'Negary', then slightly lowered its body almost like bowing before flying away through the window.
〖 This smell, the Mystic Demonesses? 〗
'Negary' opened the paper bag. Inside was a large number of documents that spoke in detail about Michael, including his biography, experience, the resources he held, as well as recent events.
〖 It seems Michael hadn't got it easy during this past while 〗
Reading these documents, 'Negary' had a general understanding of what had been happening in the Academic City as well as what had been happening to Michael.
The House of Mages, like other big organizations, consisted of many factions, of which Michael belonged to the Academy faction; the members of this faction were all responsible for an institute or academy of their own. In the recent past, Michael also had subordinates of his own, but during an occasion where they were exploring a certain ruin, all of them had either died or fled, while Michael himself became severely injured. While he could still originally prolong his last breath for a while longer, he was now forced to attempt radical methods to continue living.
Michael didn't have many allies in the first place, coupled with the suppression of other factions, he swiftly became a lonely man.
If not for a few of the House of Mages' public rules as well as how the others were wary of Michael's trump cards, Michael wouldn't have been able to survive so peacefully before this.
It wasn't until Michael literally had no other choices that he exchanged a large number of his resources for one opportunity to enter the Grand Library as a last resort. For the people of the House of Mages, while the Grand Library was created by the Great Magus, they didn't have the authority to enter it as they pleased.
During that trip to the Great Library, he obtained a book called [Metamorphosis Reincarnation Ritual], in which he found the method to gain a second life. Naturally, he also became infected by some of Life Bearer's passive radiation while he was inside the Grand Library.
After this, Michael then contacted the Mystic Demonesses and requested their help in exchange for the various live data during this reincarnation experiment.
Initially, there were still people who stood guard inside the sewers to help Michael ward off any intruders into his ritual, but due to the influence of the ritual, the humanoid maggots began to indiscriminately attack any living lifeforms that came close to the ritual, so those guards simply left.
〖 This is much better than I had imagined. Due to the last dignity of a mage, the resources I'd obtain would be quite plenty 〗
'Negary' was almost mocking them as he said that. Every person within the House of Mages perfectly understood the cruel relations between the mages, so none of them would hold anything back when it truly came time to act; however, before a fight truly broke out, they would insist on maintaining a so-called 'dignity' of an Upper.
They wouldn't try to attack a mage directly, instead preferring to use the circulation of resources to gradually isolate them. By the time a mage's death, or at least complete insanity, had been confirmed, that would be the time for them to truly act, 'taking over' all of the dead mage's resources, including their dead body.
According to them, a mage must have a dignified death.
Before that moment, the most they would do was send out spies or various factional isolation methods, this was a set of tacit rules that the House of Mages had created in order to prevent too many internal struggles.
These rules were appropriate for the mages from the House of Mages, but for 'Negary', they were instead restraints. This difference in vision was merely due to them not standing on the same height, and 'Negary' understood this well.
Knock knock knock…
The sound of knocking came at his door. The council members of the institute stepped to one side on 'Negary's' command, allowing Brewer to enter the room with his head lowered.
Brewer had a painful expression on his face as well as an ashen complexion. Field's attack from before had pierced through his shoulder, but before he could even recover, his superiors had already sent down their orders.
Looking at 'Negary' sitting behind his desk, Brewer half-prostrated himself in front of 'Negary' and spoke with a sincere tone: "I sincerely ask for Sir 'Negary's' forgiveness, it was the mistake of us enforcers that led to the current situation"
〖 Forgive? 〗'Negary' acted as if he just heard something laughable and replied: 〖 The one I want to take responsibility for this is the entirety of the enforcers, can you truly represent the enforcers alone? 〗
〖 If not, why must I forgive you at all? 〗
'Negary' disinterestedly turned away from the ashen Brewer. Giving up a scapegoat then acting as if nothing had happened at all, this 'Negary' wasn't someone they could brush off so readily.
