Leon took the Elemental Magic Ring out and placed it in his palm.
It was a naturally formed ring-shaped object, dark in tone. Its surface texture resembled glass; through the outer layer, faint magical glimmers could be seen drifting quietly inside, like a starry sky on an overcast night.
Balanced, abundant four-element mana overflowed from it.
With a single casual breath, Leon felt his mind sharpen noticeably.
To this day, humans still didn't truly understand what mana was. They only knew it was likely some mixture of bodily energy and mental energy, allowing one to draw on mysterious elements.
What it really was—Leon didn't know.
But after that single breath, he could draw one conclusion:
An environment filled with rich, balanced mana was amazing.
"Great quality, too."
Leon was very satisfied. The ring's internal balance property was stronger than it had been in Part Two—clearly, taking it early in the timeline had been the right move.
He placed the ring in the center of the array, removed his outer clothing until only tight underlayers remained, and sat down in a posture suitable for meditation.
"Bisce—until the ritual is finished, don't let anyone in."
"Leave it to me," Bisce said. "But you—after preparing this thoroughly, don't go failing."
Bisce knew this was Leon's critical moment and didn't fool around.
Advancement wasn't always smooth.
Many people failed because they lacked enough knowledge or skill reserves and didn't meet the basic conditions for the next tier, unable to withstand the world's enlightenment.
Fortunately, that wasn't much of a problem for Leon.
A four-element chantless + high-speed casting specialist like him had already met all the requirements needed to advance to a third-tier mage.
He had only lacked the right advancement item.
And beyond fourth tier—learning intermediate, advanced, and even king-tier magic—that was where the real difficulty lay.
As for the elementalist class-change now, the conditions were already sufficient.
Elemental magic was naturally stronger than ordinary magic because most "ordinary" magic only used mana to leverage elemental forces.
Elemental magic used mana to directly command elemental forces.
Leveraging vs. commanding—obviously not the same.
At low tiers, the gap existed but wasn't dramatic.
At high tiers, it became insanely huge.
That was why Iris—the Light Elementalist, one of the highest-tier elemental caster classes—could play such an enormous role in the future End War.
Of course, Leon's four-element elementalist, though lower in single-element ceiling than light, could still achieve tremendous power through compound-element magic—especially with his scientific knowledge from his previous life.
Leon checked the array three more times to confirm it was correct. Then he infused mana into it and began chanting.
"Let all things listen!"
"The order of the turning world—the poem of cosmic origin."
"I pray—let me become a vessel of elements, to grasp the mysteries of elemental creation."
"O world, answer this wish."
"Grant me enlightenment—if only for an instant!"
As he chanted, the magical radiance thickened at once.
BOOM!!
At the moment the chant ended, element light as dense as milk burst from the Elemental Magic Ring and poured into Leon's body.
In that instant, Leon felt as if an invisible hand of the world had forcibly lifted him to a higher realm.
A realm that was an ocean of knowledge.
Reach out, and it felt like he could touch the root principles of the deep world.
In just that brief moment, his mind was flooded with vast elemental-balance knowledge.
This was the "gift" of world enlightenment—born from analyzing the Elemental Magic Ring as his core advancement item through the ritual.
Choose the wrong advancement item, and after advancing, you could end up with defects—knowledge mismatches, missing pieces, distortions.
That was why the strong in this world treated every advancement with extreme caution.
After a long while, the glow of the array faded.
Leon opened his eyes slowly.
It worked.
That was his first thought.
His body was filled with surging mana.
His previously stockpiled four-element spell imagery—and the deep meditation state he had entered earlier—had helped enormously.
Without the advance training and that deep meditation, this class-change might not have succeeded so smoothly.
As expected—when you prepare everything, it feels incredible when it all clicks into place.
He opened his personal panel.
[Leon Bellron]
[Age / Lifespan: 17 / 143]
[Current Tiers: Elemental Mage (Tier 2) / Phantom Walker (Tier 2) / Trickster (Tier 1)]
[Primary Stats: Vitality 46 / Mana 43 / Stamina 39 / Strength 35 / Agility 47]
[Current Titles: Wyvern (Juvenile) Strangler; Minotaur (Juvenile) Chestbreaker; Sighing Faerie (Juvenile) Captor; Unicorn (Juvenile) Beheader]
[Core Class Skills: High-Speed Mana Recovery / Shadow Leap / Trust Aura]
[Skills Mastered: Water/Earth/Wind/Fire magic (chantless); Shadow Breathing, Shadow Sword Slash, Flashshadow Step (Tier 3) / Shadow Blade, Shadow Thrust, Shadow Shield]
[Active Quests: Chosen by Royal Authority (0%), Fallen Dark Elf (15%), Paladin Selection (1%)]
So even killing and capturing myth-recorded monsters could grant corresponding titles.
And the titles were closely tied to the method of the kill.
He just didn't know what the titles actually did.
"Huh… my lifespan went up by forty years?"
Normally, humans only gained lifespan boosts after reaching fourth tier.
A human at fourth tier typically lived to about 160, and fifth and sixth tiers didn't extend lifespan.
At seventh-tier legend, lifespan rose to 240; at eighth tier, to 320.
Only demigods reached something like five to six hundred years.
The racial cap was strict.
But on the flip side, many races had fixed innate lifespans.
Especially long-lived races like dragons and pure-blood elves—they generally needed to reach ninth-tier demigod before gaining any lifespan increase.
Of course, pure-blood dragons already lived at least three thousand years, and about one in ten could reach ninth tier and extend to six thousand—truly the strongest intelligent race on the continent.
Leon checked his stat gains. They were excellent.
Vitality and mana rose the most—both +12.
Stamina and agility were next—both +6.
Strength rose the least—only +3.
Generally, human tier gains in the first three tiers were around +5 to +8.
Gaining +10 was already extremely rare.
So it really lived up to the elementalist class—mana and vitality gains were outstanding.
And with advancement, training to raise caps would become easier too—another piece of good news.
In pure stats, Leon was now comparable to most human fourth-tiers.
The advantage of three classes was obvious.
Of course, what truly separated fourth from third was class amplification: the same skill cost less mana/stamina and hit harder.
So raw stats alone weren't enough—you needed both tier and stats.
Time to test the elementalist class amplification.
Leon raised a hand and cast a micro spell: Flame.
WHOOM!!
A surging column of fire shot upward, scorching the ceiling black instantly.
Oops. He'd have to pay for that.
Looks like after class-changing into an Elemental Mage, he'd need to adjust to the increased spell power—so he didn't accidentally open with a "big move."
As for his third-tier advancement item, he'd aim for something that improved precision mana control.
High-precision elemental control suited his compound-magic style best.
For now, before planning the next step, it was time to move Iris's quest forward.
Leon ignored the damaged ceiling and looked at Bisce.
"You said you already found Hamla's trail?"
"Yep."
And right then—
Knock knock.
A voice came from the door.
"This is Brellita. Lord Leon Bellron—may I see you?"
The Holy Maiden… actually came to his home?
~~~
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