Five of the spiritual power crystals were sealed with runes, while the remaining four were pure and translucent.
On the character panel, Ronan’s strength progress showed—[Level 3 Official Wizard: 100%]
Theoretically, he was now ready to attempt the breakthrough to Level 4 Dawn Wizard.
"How far am I now from a true genius in terms of soul quality?"
Ronan looked down at his right hand, muttering to himself.
Only he himself knew how significant his improvements had been.
The full replenishment of his spiritual cultivation was just the most superficial manifestation; the most significant enhancement was actually in the essence of the soul.
According to the classification of ancient wizards, the Mist Rank of Level 1 through Level 3 was just the foundational stage for wizards. It’s the Dawn that truly starts to widen the gap between wizards.
After the battle for the Genius seat of Heramus, Ronan’s soul foundation was greatly complemented.
Throughout the entire Southern Wizard World, it would be hard to find a wizard who had received as tremendous a boost as he had, considering he completed a cycle of bloody battles, defeating a number of opponents far beyond the reach of ordinary people.
The harder the process, the greater the benefits received in the end.
The issue of soul-bound separation caused by his transmigration had also been resolved, with most of the impurities in his soul now eliminated. If Ronan were to re-test his Talent now, the result would undoubtedly be much better than before.
"The enhancement of my soul quality has significantly boosted my intelligence..."
In Ronan’s understanding, "intelligence" did not equate entirely to "wisdom"; it represented more the ability to learn and understand, the rate at which new knowledge is absorbed and digested, the frequency of inspiration bursts, and so on.
At Level 1 Wizard, he had taken six vials of Murphy’s Kiss, which greatly improved his intelligence. With the empowerment of the Clear Sky Realm, his learning and thinking abilities were unparalleled among his peers, or at least hardly any wizard of the same rank could match him.
Now, Ronan’s "intelligence" level had advanced significantly.
He felt that the activity level of his brain now was almost comparable to the state he was in after activating the Clear Sky Realm.
This advancement was a considerable help to Ronan. It meant that he could greatly reduce the time needed to decipher the inherited runes in Heramus’ Mage Bracelet, and also fine-tune and upgrade his own magic system more easily.
After being purified twice spiritually, with his soul now complemented, Ronan’s spiritual strength had definitively reached more than a hundred times that of wizards of the same realm.
Based on his understanding of Dawn Rank Wizards, Ronan estimated that in terms of sheer volume of spiritual power, he was already comparable to an average Level 4 Wizard; it was just that he could not attach the effect of Elementalization to his released spiritual power like a Level 4 Dawn Wizard could.
This was something that Selena, who had condensed her tenth spiritual power crystal upon entering the Forbidden Mist Zone, could not match.
"And I still have room to improve..."
"If I can manage to train the Basic Meditation Technique to a Master Level Proficiency of over one thousand five hundred points at Level 3 Wizard, allowing my spiritual power to undergo a third purification, even if I cannot step into the ’Forbidden Mist Zone,’ I will far surpass the top wizard geniuses of the Central region in terms of fundamental spiritual strength..."
Ronan took a deep breath and slowly stood up from the ground.
The unparalleled spiritual cultivation brought a tremendously terrifying spiritual pressure. Even though Ronan was doing his best to contain it, a ring of Void around his body still naturally formed noticeable distortions and a sense of collapse.
Large amounts of free energy particles in the air spontaneously gathered, forming a thick energy barrier around him. This naturally-forming energy field was already nearly as strong as the Protection Magic released by an average Level 3 Wizard.
"The soul is the immortal destination."
Ronan looked at the naturally-formed protection energy field around his body, which was now many times stronger than before, and gained a deeper understanding of the phrase he had been familiar with since his apprenticeship.
Wizards chase the strength of the soul not because physical strength is useless, but because enhancing the soul is the most cost-effective path.
The soul is the foundation of everything; spiritual power is born from the soul, and besides offense, spiritual power can also provide a strong defense for oneself.
The bit of benefit that comes from Body Forging or altering the physical body is actually quite negligible compared to even a slight improvement in spiritual power.
All this assumes that there is always enough room for growth in spiritual power.
Once spiritual cultivation hits a bottleneck, the body may need to find another way.
Ronan gently dissipated his spiritual power, sending out an invisible ripple that quickly spread throughout the entire Damien Family castle.
Much to his surprise, he found many people within the Damien Family with "Wizard Potential," including his father, Count Feilie.
Before this, when he had examined everyone, these had all been "Acquired Formation" seeds for wizard apprenticeship.
"Is it because of the radiation from my soul’s anomaly?"
"This kind of ’radiation’ seems to only affect my kin who share the same bloodline..."
Ronan thoughtfully seemed to gain a deeper understanding of the concept of "Bloodline" inheritance.
He expanded his spiritual power to cover a nearly ten-mile radius around the castle but did not find Molli’er’s presence.
The "Symbiosis" link in his soul had also been severed.
It looked like, in the time during his seclusion, Molli’er had been taken away by someone, and their issue of merged souls had been completely resolved.