Supreme Magus novel Chapter 32

Two more years passed, Lith was now eight years old. During that time, he had mastered all the spells contained in Nana’s books, which brought his official skill set up to the most common tier three spells.

Books about superior tiers were extremely expensive, and Nana had no interest in acquiring them. She had her own grimoire, after all. The books she bought over the years were mostly for display, to show her clients what they could purchase.

But while his skill in fake magic stagnated, Lith used those years to deepen his understanding of true magic. His grasp on its profoundness and foundations had improved greatly.

By practicing true magic every day as a healer, he had gained such fine control on both light and darkness magic that he had finally acquired the necessary skill to permanently get rid of Tista’s congenital condition.

The problem was that despite all his efforts, his mana core was not strong enough to perform the treatment Lith had devised.

During those years he had used Assimilation whenever he could, making his mana core going through multiple cycles of expansion and compression, turning it from deep green to bright green.

But it was still green. Lith’s impurities had yet to reach the mana core, and until that happened both his mana and body would not undergo through qualitative changes.

He had reached a bottleneck, and had no idea how to overcome it.

Solus too had changed quite a lot. She was no more limited to her pebble form, but could actually turn into any shape while retaining the same overall mass.

That allowed Solus to take the form of a smooth stone ring, that Lith wore on his right middle finger.

When she asked him why a ring on the middle finger, Lith replied with an odd short poem related to a green ring of power. It was something related to his childhood, of which he was really fond of.

Along with some of her power, Solus had also regained a new function, something that Lith called Soluspedia. It was another pocket dimension, but specifically crafted for books and any means to store knowledge.

All the books that Lith stored in the Soluspedia, he could consult with but a thought. For example, by storing his grimoire he didn’t need to memorize anymore the magic words and hand signs for the fake magic spells he had learned.

Lith still had to practice the hand signs and pronunciation, but he only had to think about what he needed to remember everything up to the smallest detail. The same applied for maps, herbals and bestiaries.

Lith had given almost everything he had earned as a healer to his family, allowing them to have a much easier life and accumulate a decent dowry for Rena and Tista.

Whatever he kept for himself, he would use to buy the most detailed compendiums he could find about the most useful topics, like law, court etiquette and even a vocabulary.

As long as they were in the Soluspedia, Lith knew them inside and out. What made him inwardly gloating, was the fact that he could buy even those items that were almost crumbling or defective, resulting to be highly perishable.

That wasn’t a problem for him. Just like for the pocket dimension, they would be frozen in time, and hence potentially last forever.

After his eight winter ended, Lith received a call from Count Lark on Nana’s communication amulet. The event took him by surprise, the Count had never contacted him before.

Having had plenty of video calls and job interviews on Discort and Skope back on Earth, he was familiar with that kind of meeting. Lith bowed deeply as a salute, while cupping his fist.

"Dear Lith, you are always so polite. No need for all the formalities, you are among friends now." Count Lark had a convivial and friendly demeanour, making him seem more like an uncle calling his nephew rather than a Lord.

"Count Lark, to what do I owe the pleasure of this call?" Lith looked at Nana, standing beside him, in search for approval. She nodded while staring at the magical hologram of the Count.

"You have accumulated quite some merits, I wanted to know if you plan on using some of them." Merits were something that anyone who contributed to the welfare of the kingdom would receive and could be exchanged for privileges or commodities.

A convict could have his sentence shortened by serving in the military and earning merits, a farmer could get more land for free, a scholar could get a recommendation for a government job.

"Merits?" Lith was taken aback. "I didn’t do anything to earn such things."

"Quite the contrary, dear Lith. Every year I receive hundreds of commendation letters from the farmers and their families, about the outstanding job you are performing as a healer."

Since Lith had started to give treatments for half the price to the farmers, they would wait for Nana to leave the village before going to get medical care. Nana knew it and did not care.

They still needed her for the emergencies, and the house call extra fees covered whatever profit she may have lost.

"A letter counts for earning merits?" Lith asked, still confused.

"One letter, no. But dozens, hundreds of letters all about the same person for a prolonged period of time, off course they do. Do you have anything in mind the kingdom can help you with?"

Lith pondered for a while, while accessing the law book in Soluspedia. More land was suicidal, his family was already stretched thin, and they cannot afford hired help.

The kingdom would not trade merits for money, but Lith could still get the next best thing.

"Do I have enough for my family to be exonerated from taxes this year?" _{free𝑤ebnovel.com}

Count Lark dropped his monocle from the shock, the mouth ajar.

"Taxes? Your family still pays taxes?"