The Ascension Of The Celestial Priest

Ever since he woke up, Lukas was faced with many unforeseen circ.u.mstances. Some of them came as a nice surprise while others were quite impossible to comprehend how they had occurred. The first thing that surfaced was the remunerations Mira had promised him from the very start. At first it was only meant to be a few thousands gold which by then Geoff thought it was very generous but the twists, and turns their resulting journey took had banished such matters out of his immediate concern.

To be honest Lukas was already content that he had survived the journey. Most of the finer details have escaped him since he blacked out in the end but not everyone can boast to stand against 6 mages of the Tabernacle of Flames Sect and still live to tell the tale. Still at times Lukas couldn't help but sense that something was amiss between his friends but the rewards Mira brought him were more than enough to distract him completely.

Under the agreement of all 3, Mira was able to retain the corpse of the Fire Streaked Raven for herself. In turn she guaranteed to compensate with rewards of equal value or more than what they would have obtained if the beast was sold in the market place. Of course this wasn't discussed until Lukas was awake and after getting his permission Mira promised that he wouldn't regret his decision.

It was only later that Lukas learnt that Mira's master was a formidable alchemist and according to her; instead of trying to auction it within the City's Walls, the beast could prove more than useful in her master's hands . Personally Lukas didn't mind, as he had no need for it but Mira was insistent in repaying all of them for such a favor and so the rewards she prepared were more enough to take their breath away.

A few days after his stay at the Healer's pavilion, Mira came bouncing back with her gift prepared. First she revealed that she had prepared 5000 Gold as her remuneration for him, including the 3000 Gold they had previously agreed upon and the additional 2000 that was meant to be his take incase the beast was ever sold. Notwithstanding such a sudden surprise, Mira also decided to gift him a low-tiered spatial ring of his very own.

This effectively stunned him.

Spatial rings were one of the very useful artifacts that could only be bought with huge sums of money. Lukas had only learnt of their existence from Mira herself on the day they were on their way to the Caldera Mountain. But even then, Lukas didn't dare entertain the thought of possessing one of his own as his funds were already being invested in increasing his strength, readying himself for the end of the year Contest.

The rings were magically forged with runic markings that trapped a certain amount of space that allowed anyone to place their items within, removing the inconvenience of carrying them with their hands. As they were very complicated Artifacts to forge, they were rarely sold in the normal market. Lukas could only imagine that the resources of the House of Fyre allowed Mira an easier access in obtaining them compared to a normal person.

In his panic to deny such a gift, Mira dismissed his shoddy claim with only a few sentences that went on the line of 'it's just a cheap ring, and since it is of low quality, its price barely reaches the 5000 Gold mark'. But Lukas had a feeling that it might fetch for much more if it was ever sold in the first place. As if that wasn't enough, inside the ring, under Mira's insistence, Lukas found a small pile of glittering blue crystals lying in its void. When he summoned one out, he was met with a blue crystalline stone, perfectly sculpted, with a hue that vibrated with a single touch. It both felt incredibly familiar and foreign to his senses that he had to ask what it was and why was it causing such a reaction from his body.

It was then that Lukas learnt what it was. The glittering blue stones were mana crystals, a physical manifestation of concentrated mana mined from the ground. They were rare, used only by people on the higher hierarchy but they basically served two functions. Firstly, they could be used as currency as each crystal was valued at 100 gold something which boggled Lukas's mind. But the real kicker was the fact that the mana Crystals could also be used for cultivation purposes. The only reasons he hadn't heard of them was because they were intensely discouraged for low tier mages, especially those of novices and mortal ranks to depend on them. If used, they usually led to unstable foundations as mages of such ranks don't possess the strength needed to truly refine such crystals for themselves.

Since Mira had given him a small pile of 50 mana crystals; this meant that Lukas was gifted another 5000 Gold in monetary value, making it a total of 15000 gold he acquired in just one venture. It took Lukas more than few hours to wrap his mind around such a thing but when he finally did, he could only utter a simple gratitude that encompassed everything he felt and more.

Forgetting the fact that his pocket already had 5000 gold meant to be prepare him for his upcoming annual contest, the ring itself was intensely useful for him. No longer would he need to lug his staff around and worry that he might not be able to carry enough accessories meant for long journeys. Even though it only had an area of 5 cubic meters, it was more than enough for him to store his staff, his grimore, his other belongings and have still have space for other things as well. The crystals Lukas was determined not touch until he fully understood how to use them but in the span of only a few days later, another surprise would came heralding his way and this time it would be one he never saw coming.

** ** **

One night, after Lukas was finally released from the Healer's pavilion, he sat down to meditate in his rented room at the Greenery for the first time since he opened his eyes. The Healers back at the Pavilion had expressly forbidden him from absorbing mana into his body in fear that it would only aggravate his injuries, hence Lukas mostly had Geoff as his company the whole time he was bedridden inside the white room.

Clearing his mind, and calming his heart, Lukas quickly entered into his meditation as easily as breathing. He nearly g.r.o.a.n.e.d in p.l.e.a.s.u.r.e, as a familiar sensation coursed through his whole body. It almost felt like a reunion of sorts as the feeling of mana in his body brought an innate joy to his whole being, something that couldn't be compared to what he felt when he used to meditate back at earth. Stifling a self satisfied m.o.a.n Lukas veneered even deeper into his meditation, reaching the deep conscious* level of meditation in a heartbeat.

But something was meant to go different this time. As Lukas was busy refining and recollecting all of his lost mana, it didn't take long for him to notice something strange taking place within his body. His psyche was almost magnified, allowing him to sense and absorb mana from a wider ranger than last time. His refinement went smoother and quicker than he anticipated. And his own mana slowly ebbed and flowed in his body, almost as if it was a wave that slowly built momentum as time went on.

Unbeknownst to him, during the sudden changes, his whole body shone a brilliant silvery light. He was like a star as the ambient mana around him got so concentrated that it became a visible blue spiral that converged to him like a vortex.

Meanwhile the momentum of mana in his body kept increasing nonstop that Lukas didn't even have time to panic before an implosion occurred and he was a washed with so much mana that it coursed through him in a faint blue wave. He was forced out of his meditation where he immediately light headed and giddy from having too much mana in his body.

It took him a few seconds to collect himself but even then he noticed the differences. Everything from the lamp placed beside his bed to the stars glittering outside, almost everything seemed brighter and clearer than before. His psyche was easily able to roll out of him in waves and he felt his body almost afloat as if it was riding a huge wave of mana in the air.

By then it clicked.

Hurriedly crossing his legs, Lukas directed his focus inside and he was astounded. Where as in the past, he used to refine and collect mana inside his body like a battery, this time his mana showed faint traces of ebbing and flowing throughout his being like a wave. It was almost like a whirlpool had formed inside of him, automatically absorbing the ambient mana and refining it on its own accord without his influence.

Frozen from the discovery, he took a deep breath as he finally realized. Somehow he had advanced his cultivational stage and he could finally be said to be an Earth ranked Mage. At first he became ecstatic and almost immediately his mind was already making conjectures and plans for research and a whole new workout regime… but when the realization truly sunk in, he couldn't help but deflate a little.

How and why had it happened? He had no idea. He was expressively sure that he was a still late mortal Priest before he blacked out. So why did he wake up and suddenly advanced to be an Earth Ranked Mage, jumping a small stage directly? What truly happened to him when he was unconscious and was it even possible for such a thing to happen?

He was left with so many questions that he took another deep breath and decided to brush such thoughts aside for the moment. Testing his new strength he discovered a lot of nuances that the previous stages of cultivation could not afford him.

The Cultivational system of the Continent of Lush, (as Lukas had come to call it) had 5 major stages as far as he knew. The first 2 stages were collectively named the Foundational Stages and all mages who were on such stage were respectively called Foundational Mages. The First stage was the Novice Rank or the Apprentice Rank, where a Mage had just awakened his Elemental Gifts and could barely sense the ambient mana in the atmosphere. The following Stage, Mortal Rank was where the awakened mage worked to get the grasp on finally mastering their beginner spells after learning how to meditate and how to get their elemental gifts under control previously.

This was where those with higher aptitudes were quickly distinguished themselves from the rest. Those who were talented than most, could master many beginner spells and they could cast them well and adequately compared to the rest.

The next stage, Earth Rank was the 1st major threshold on the Cultivational system. To reach this stage, it demanded a lot of work, from refining and collecting mana dense enough to form a stable whirlpool within one's body which led to innate transformation that held Earth Ranked Mages superior to those of the lower rank. The next stages were something Lukas had only ever read about, including the Crystal Rank, that stood above the Earth Rank and the Mythical Heaven Rank which acted as another threshold the likes of which only a few could overcome. From what he read from books lining the 1st level of Hall of Insight, the requirements to breakthrough to Heaven Rank were so high that it was almost impossible for the most Mages in the Continent of Lush to fulfill.

But that was not meant to be his concern, for at least until a few years later as by becoming an Earth Ranked Mage, Lukas could finally begin his true journey. The Earth Rank was treated as true Step for any upcoming mage as it was here where Lukas could finally choose his own profession, (he already had an idea of what it could be) and it was a major step towards his goals. With his current strength, he will be able to open even more doors to the knowledge bequeathed in this world and work hard to find a trace on how to find his way back. It seemed unreasonable by now to cling into something so impossible, as he was already here for more than 4 months now but he still yearned for his old home. He had worked far too hard and survived far too much to carve a piece of his own place back at Earth and he truly didn't want to do it all over again in this fantasy world where magic truly existed and every monster he had ever read about existed.

The main perk that he looked forward to was that his guaranteed entrance to the Inner Sect. Whether he won the annual contest or not didn't matter much but the rewards would be immensely useful in super launching his path a few steps further ahead than the rest. He was lucky that he had more than a month to prepare and of course, he hadn't forgotten the debts he still had to collect...

Once Lukas broke the news to his friends, it became a cause for celebration. They were truly sincere as they congratulated him and Mira used that as a perfect excuse to visit the Slaughter Inn they once went with Rexsi and fully enjoy themselves into the wee hours of the morning.

*referenced from Chapter 5; Meditation Arts, just in case.