Imperial Crown.

Chapter 40 Four Elements Affinity

The medicine was clearly a liquid, but it tasted like jelly, cold and smooth, without any flavor.

Just as I was about to chew it, it flowed silently into my throat again.

It was a few seconds before Raven tasted it.

A hint of sourness, accompanied by a burning pain, spreads from the tip of the tongue to the entire mouth, and then extends to the esophagus. The heat penetrates through the esophagus into the lungs.

"hiss--"

With a low cry of pain, the muscles on Raven's shoulders began to twitch, as if he had eaten something he shouldn't have. Even his internal organs felt a churning pain, making his face turn pale and cold sweat break out.

In the midst of this pain, a chill suddenly spread from the lower abdomen and spread to the whole body. Wherever it reached, the pain was relieved. The cool feeling penetrated into the internal organs and soothed the invisible pain.

Raven felt as if he was slowly immersed in ice water. The coolness spread all the way up to his chest, throat, and then to his lips and teeth. The tense feeling made his breathing unconsciously speed up and become heavier.

"Hu...hu...hu..."

hum.

At the moment when the coolness passed across his eyebrows, the Eye of Truth was quietly activated, and then the cold feeling seeped into Raven's brain.

Lowering his head, through the Eyes of Truth, he could clearly see that between his chest and abdomen, the same silver stardust as that in the second-level potion were hovering and exploding continuously.

Every time a stardust exploded, an invisible energy swept across with chill, and the cold feeling became more and more intense.

Raven felt as if he had eaten a large bucket of ice cream. The blood vessels on his forehead were throbbing, but he could not feel any heat, only waves of cold pain.

And... a feeling of fullness!
This has reached the limit of what his body can endure.

Two lines of tears flowed quietly, and a hint of blood filled Raven's nostrils.

He stretched out his hand and suddenly saw a trace of blood on the palm of his hand.

In an instant, Raven made a judgment - this awakening had failed!
Without any hesitation, Raven opened his mouth and let out a long breath.

If you fail to awaken, you can wait for the next time, but you only have one life.

The cold feeling seemed to have found a way out, flowing up along the esophagus and gushing out of the mouth. An invisible energy permeated the air, and every time the stardust in the stomach exploded, more energy could be squeezed out.

The pressure on the body is quietly relieved.

"Huh!" Raven breathed a sigh of relief.

At least there is no danger to life now.

But just as this thought came to his mind, his eyes suddenly tightened, and the Eyes of Truth quietly started to work. The energy that had been filling the air was pulled invisibly and suddenly poured towards his brows.

"What is going on!?" Raven was shocked and was about to close the Eye of Truth.

But the expected painful feeling did not come. Instead, his eyes felt a sense of comfort, just like the first time he opened the Eyes of Truth.

So in this secret room, Raven spent his time in a strange cycle. He seemed to have turned into a humidifier, constantly exhaling energy from his mouth and then being absorbed by his eyebrows.

I don’t know how long it took, but when the last bit of stardust exploded, the energy in the house was absorbed.

"Is this... a success or a failure?" Raven scratched his head. He didn't feel any changes in himself.

After all, he had no magician or teacher around him, and no one told him what a wizard would look like after successfully awakening.

I don’t know, so I can only try it.

Raven picked up a scroll he had brought in and opened it. On it was recorded the wind magic [Wind Wall]. In addition, there was a short spell used to test the mage's elemental affinity.

"Omnipresent wind element, obey my command and gather in my palm."

Chanting the spell, according to the instructions above, Raven used his consciousness to mobilize a force that he himself did not know existed and merged it into his palm to "attract" the wind element.

After a brief silence, Raven suddenly felt his palms getting cold, and then the corner of his clothes was lifted up for no reason. A sound of wind echoed in the secret room and then disappeared without a trace.

"Successful? Succeeded!" Raven was still a little bit in disbelief. He stretched out his hand and clenched it, feeling a stream of air flowing through his fingers. It was as comfortable as if he had stretched his hand into the spring breeze.

If you lose focus for a moment, the airflow on your hands will disappear.

After all, the wind was somewhat illusory. To make sure it was not an illusion, Raven picked up the scroll containing the fire spell [Fireball].

The method for testing elemental affinity is also recorded at the beginning of the volume.

After chanting the spell, Raven used his mind to guide a certain power to his fingertips.

According to Lux, a wizard usually has an affinity for only one element. It's not that spells from other factions cannot be used, but their efficiency and power will be greatly reduced.

According to Raven's understanding, this is like a diesel car burning gasoline. Although it can barely run, it is a harm and waste to both the car and the oil.

The previous test of affinity with the wind element went so smoothly, so Raven did not expect to succeed in the test of the fire element. However, as soon as he focused his attention on his fingertips, a flame started burning from them!
"Eh?" Raven widened his eyes, slowly raised his hand in front of him, and blew gently.

The flame went out with a puff.

He chanted again, concentrated his mind again, and the flames at his fingertips suddenly burned, almost setting Raven's hair on fire.

"I succeeded again. Could it be that my affinity with fire is better than wind?"

That is indeed very good. After all, the destructive power of fire magic is well-known and much cooler than that of wind magic.

Two have been tested, and there are two left, so Raven is not reluctant to give them a try.

A few minutes later, Raven stared blankly at the dust under his feet and the water rippling in his palms.

Raven swallowed his saliva, slightly surprised: "It turns out to be earth, water, fire and wind, the four elements of affinity."

Earth, water, fire, wind, holy light and darkness are the six elements that make up the world. All other elements are derived from this.

The affinity between the four attributes of earth, water, fire and wind means that Raven can cast spells of any faction with almost no extra loss.

Raven calmed down and said to himself with a smile: "So, I have indeed become a mage."

But a doubt came to my mind again.

Where is my magic? Where is my magic and why can't I feel it?
He blinked and suddenly saw something flash by.

"what?"

After a slight pause, Raven closed his eyes again. At this moment, the Eyes of Truth no longer looked outward, but began to observe himself from a condescending perspective, as if his soul had left his body.

At this moment, he could clearly see a thin layer of silver light rippling in his mind. It represented his mental power, the most important energy for a wizard besides magic power.

Furthermore, between his eyes and between his eyebrows, there was a ball of invisible energy condensing - it seemed that this was his magic power.

“So that’s how it is.” Raven opened his eyes, still smiling, and exclaimed, “Now, I am finally a true baron!”

Why is it that even though Raven spent a large sum of gold coins to help him awaken, neither Old Gordon nor Denise objected?
Because there are many extraordinary people in the world who are not aristocrats, but few aristocrats who are not extraordinary.

Raven becoming a transcendent is a good thing for the entire Griffith family.

When the empire was first established, there was a rule that only extraordinary people could be granted a title. Now, with the luxury and decadence of the empire, many rules have been abolished or exist in name only, but this one remains unchanged.

Of course, it was not for the sake of the empire's prosperity, but because of the arrogance unique to the aristocracy.

You are not even extraordinary, how do you distinguish yourself from those mud-legged untouchables?
Moreover, the promotion of the title is closely linked to one's own rank and strength. In the empire, there is no viscount below the third rank.

Becoming a mage means that Raven is one step closer to becoming a viscount, although only a little.

But aren’t all the roads in this world made step by step?
"Also, I have some clues about how to solve the secret of the family curse." Raven closed his eyes and stroked his fingers across his brow.

At this moment, he could clearly see that a scarlet, dark energy was entangled around him like a spider web. It was not dense at the moment, but it gave him a sense of fatal danger, as if it was a noose that would tighten at any time.

His intuition told him that this was the shackles of the Griffith family bloodline.

Although Raven had heard before that no one in his family could live past the age of forty, he had never seen it with his own eyes, so he was skeptical about this unpredictable thing.

Now that he could see this clearly, it was already an improvement; at least it gave him a clear hint.

For some reason, Raven thought of Donald. When his cheap uncle died, he was already a second-level bloody knight.

"Could it be that you also saw these things, so you were forced to do such a crazy and cruel thing?"

He suddenly understood Donald a little bit. No one could remain sane while watching death approach step by step.

Shaking his head slightly to collect his scattered thoughts, Raven opened a box next to him.

During this period of time, Philip would send a few magic cores every now and then, and Raven would often get some half-monsterized domestic pigs to make leather. Now, the warehouse has accumulated 63 complete monster leathers.

Raven did not use all the magic cores on leathermaking. He kept 5 of them, with the attributes of earth, water, fire, wind and holy light.

This was to test whether he could absorb more energy from the magic core once he became a mage. He chose a magic core with the power of the storm and held it in his hand. Raven exerted a little force with his fingers, and a crack grew from the surface of the magic core. The magic core quietly shattered, and the energy contained in it emerged.

“What is this…?” Raven frowned.

This time is different from all the previous times. In the past, the energy in the magic core was pure and clean, but today it was mixed with twisted strands of purple-black aura, just like pieces of rotten meat, which made people feel disgusted.

"Could it be that the magic core will also deteriorate?"

Raven laughed at his own thoughts.

To be on the safe side, he did not absorb the energy until it dissipated. Then he chose another magic core with the power of fire.

This time, there was still that disgusting purple-black, corrupt thing inside.

"Strange, this was just delivered a few days ago."

Ten minutes later, he smashed open another magic core with earth attribute, and found that thing inside again.

At this time, even if Raven reacted slowly, he knew that it was not a problem with the magic core itself.

"The Eye of Truth evolved after I became a first-level mage, allowing me to see things I couldn't see before?" Raven stroked his stubbled chin. "It's very likely. After all, when I closed my eyes before, I didn't have that kind of 'inner vision' state."

If this is the case, then there is no reason why the magic core energy that was absorbed before cannot be absorbed.

He summoned the power of the Eye of Truth: "Come."

The misty khaki energy in the air rushed towards his brows, and Raven could feel that the magic power he had consumed was replenished.

The purple-black aura also penetrated into the center of the eyebrows.

The moment it touched his skin, Raven felt the familiar tingling and numbness.

"I understand. It turns out that this is the thing that made me so painful when absorbing the energy of the magic core." A gleam of light flashed in Raven's eyes. While absorbing the energy in the magic core, he tried to keep the purple-black corrupt aura out.

As the thought came to his mind, an invisible barrier, or more precisely a sieve, was erected in front of Raven. The energy of the magic core flowed unimpeded, but the purple-black aura could not get in no matter what.

Raven's eyes would close for a short while from time to time.

He could clearly see that as the power of the magic core poured into his body, the strength of his body did not increase too much, but the magic power expanded little by little after being replenished to perfection.

Although the magnitude is not high, the total amount is actually increasing.

"It seems that the magic core can replace meditation and increase my magic power. I just don't know how efficient it is compared to meditation."

As he spoke, he opened his eyes and focused his gaze on the scroll beside him.

In addition to recording spells and methods of testing elemental affinity, these four scrolls also record a universal meditation method.

“Ouch…!”

Suddenly, Raven felt tired, as if he had not slept for two days. He closed his eyes slightly, and saw that the silver color in his mind representing his mental power had become extremely thin.

He quickly gave up absorbing the energy, and his mental power was finally no longer consumed. The purple-black aura that was about to rush to his forehead also stopped, circling around in a daze.

Absorbing the energy of the magic core itself hardly consumes any mental power, but blocking the strange smell of corruption will cause a great loss of mental power.

"Hmm... This aura is so strange. Does it mean that this is the culprit that caused the domestic pig to go berserk?"

As Raven muttered to himself, he added another goal to his agenda: to verify the feasibility of this plan on domestic pigs.

Picking up the scroll, a smile appeared on Raven's face, and he thought of Lux.

These scrolls are written in both Imperial and Elvish. Although the meanings are similar, the syllables used in Elvish are shorter.

This means that among all first-level mages, whoever is proficient in the Elvish language can cast spells at a faster speed, and his combat ability and self-defense ability can be greatly enhanced.

"It seems that she has thought about this day a long time ago, and the conditions she put forward are not just to embarrass me." Raven sighed: "Have I bullied her too much?"

"It must be boring to live in a church alone, otherwise I wouldn't have read so many books."

He made up his mind that even if it wasn't for the sake of paying off the debt, he would step up his study of the Elvish language.

On the one hand, it is good for my magical abilities, and on the other hand, it allows me to take this opportunity to spend more time with Lux.

This innocent and kind priest has done a lot for him and deserves his protection.

Holding the scrolls in his hand, Raven wiped them on his belt, and the scrolls disappeared instantly. He said lightly, "Hey, I can finally use the space belt without the magic core."

Pushing open the door of the secret room, Raven walked towards his bedroom with light steps. Through the window in the corridor, he could clearly see the rising sun.

In the bedroom, Petty was sweeping the carpet. When she saw Raven coming back, she was surprised and said, "Baron, you have finally finished your training. I have been worried sick for the past two days!"

"Two days?" Raven was stunned for a moment, then chuckled: "Then I can be considered as 'seclusion'."

Raven said the second half of the sentence in Chinese, which of course Patty didn't understand. She didn't know how to ask, and she didn't want to ask.

There will always be beautiful women around the Lord. Although she is also quite pretty, if she wants to serve the Baron for a long time without being disliked, she should always remember her duty.

"Sir, breakfast is about to start. Would you like to eat inside, or...?"

He didn't feel anything at first, but now when he heard this question, his stomach started to growl. "Tell Poirot to prepare something rich, and let's go to the restaurant to eat together. I also want to learn about the situation in the territory in the past two days."

"Understood, sir!" Patty saluted and retreated.

Half an hour later, Raven sat at the dining table and the maids brought the prepared breakfast.

The golden brown croissant is cut in half, with beautiful and fine pores on the cross section; the smoked pork is fried until the surface is slightly charred and the fat becomes transparent; the poached egg is fried on one side with the fat from the roasted pork until it is semi-runny, which is quite tempting; plus there is a bowl of potato and sausage soup that is delicious in color, aroma and taste.

This meal was quite sumptuous, with just the right combination of carbohydrates, protein and fat, which made Raven full, but he still felt unsatisfied.

Western food is good, but it always lacks in satisfaction, making Raven feel full but not full.

After all, no matter how well bread is made, it cannot be considered a staple food from an Oriental perspective.

This made him miss Chinese food a little.

Rice is hard to find, but you can still try steamed buns, steamed bread and noodles.

I must find a chance to teach Poirot a lesson.

"Lord Raven...?" Old Gordon called Raven's name.

"Oh, I was distracted just now." Raven swallowed the saliva that had just been secreted and raised his head: "What's the matter?"

"I'm calling you." Even after breakfast, Denise's makeup was still delicate. She asked bluntly, "Raven, did you succeed?"

After saying this, everyone looked at Raven.

The latter leaned back in his chair, uttered a few syllables with a smile, and suddenly, a cluster of flames began to burn on his fingertips.

"God bless the Griffith family..." Old Gordon was stunned, tears flashing in his slightly cloudy eyes: "Sir, you succeeded!"

"God bless the good man." Eric complimented, "I knew that with your nobility, sincerity, kindness and bravery, you would definitely become a magician!"

Denise looked at Eric with a strange look.

Why didn't she realize before that this seemingly rough guy could flatter so naturally.

Noble, sincere, and kind, how can you say such words?

Although she thought so, Denise did not look down on Raven's achievements at all.

Magician, a synonym for mysterious and powerful.

Every mage is a precious asset of the empire, and their status far exceeds that of knights of the same level, especially fire mages. Their lethality and destructive power on the battlefield are crucial. A high-level mage may even turn the tide of the battle with a high-level magic.

If taking back Goldshire was just a starting point, then Raven becoming a wizard was the first step towards the Griffith family's resurgence.

"It seems my investment was not in vain." Denise smiled: "This money was not wasted either."

"Oh?" Raven raised his eyebrows. "Could it be that... the sample I mentioned last time has arrived?"

"Yeah." Denise nodded and said, "It's stored in the workshop's warehouse."

“Let’s go then.” Raven slapped the table and stood up. “I hope they are of good quality.

Whether or not Angel's Tears can truly become a luxury product depends on this one."

……

(End of this chapter)