Rowan and Riela were woken up the next morning by knocks on the door, Dragun and Vishirk had come to check on Riela.
Rowan woke up with a frown and went to open the door for them. He was a bit annoyed at their early knocking, but at the same time, he was grateful they had arrived.
Dragun gave Rowan a nod and proceeded to meet Riela, who was sitting up on the bed. Both of them smiled. Dragun began by congratulating her before checking her condition with healing magic.
Vishirk and Rowan exchanged nods before Vishirk walked in and stood beside Dragun.
"Your awakening was a success, Riela. You are now an apprentice-stage mage," Dragun began.
"The apprentice stage is further divided into three levels. Once you have surpassed these levels, you will experience a breakthrough that will improve your mana core and physique, marking the true beginning of magic cultivation as you become a 1st-tier mage," Dragun continued.
He explained many things to Riela and Rowan.
Vishirk also shared a few notes he had learned from his school, some of which were modified versions of Dragun's explanations, which even shocked Dragun by how effective they were.
Rowan was able to derive a lot of information from their explanations.
When Rowan observed others with magic powers like Vishirk, Dragun, and D'andre, all he could see were their special skills, not their magic cultivation realms. This was different with Riela, since the two of them shared a special link.
As they spoke, Rowan discovered that Vishirk, who had F-rank magic skills, was a Tier-1 mage, and Dragun, who had D-rank magic, was a Tier-3.
In his calculation: FF - Apprentice, F - Tier-1, E - Tier-2, D - Tier-3, C - Tier-4, B - Tier-5.
Dragun and Vishirk said there were only five tiers of magic, which means the rank after that would be Archmages and other superior mage realms.
"Does that mean D'andre is an archmage? I recall he had A-rank elemental magic among his skills, I think he had some B-rank elemental magic as well," thought Rowan.
At this moment, he realized just how powerful D'andre was.
If he actually wanted, he could destroy Winterseed in a matter of seconds.
Rowan couldn't help but feel a cold sensation drifting through his body as he realized the power D'andre held. He quickly thanked his stars that D'andre was on his side.
He returned his attention to the ongoing explanation, which lasted for another ten minutes before Dragun handed Riela a small bottle of pink transparent liquid.
"This is a soothing potion made for new awakeners. It will strengthen your physique and mana core over time, making it less stressful and painful to absorb mana in the future," Dragun explained.
Riela and Rowan thanked him sincerely.
Dragun nodded and announced his plan to leave the village for a few days to visit a faraway town and rent an Aether Crystal, which would be used to check Riela's elemental affinity.
He also promised to purchase a few apprentice-grade spells for her to begin practicing.
Rowan was very grateful for this and thanked him genuinely.
Dragun nodded and turned to leave, signaling to Rowan to come with him as he had some words to share.
Rowan didn't waste time and followed Dragun to the side of the house. Dragun then told him what he wanted to say.
"Huh? Why are you suggesting I shouldn't impregnate my wife?" Rowan asked, confused as to why such a topic was even brought up.
"Giving birth for apprentice and Tier-1 female mages is very difficult and could lead to the death of the mother in most cases. The babies are usually okay, but that's not the same for the mother," Dragun explained.
But Rowan was still confused.
"Rowan, during my journeys away from the village, I made a lot of mage friends, and most of them were women. A few of them got the sudden urge to have their own babies, but all of them died during childbirth," he began.
"I didn't learn about the danger until two years after losing my closest friend. I don't want that to happen to Riela, so I suggest you make your pull-out game stronger," Dragun concluded with a smile.
Rowan finally understood the reason why. He even found it similar to some xianxia novels where female cultivators go through hell at childbirth.
He tried asking Dragun if there was any explanation, but Dragun could only reply that there was none.
Rowan thanked him for the details before both of them went separate ways.
Rowan had a chat with Vishirk and learned that a few of the ingredients needed for his awakening potion had been found.
"I am not sure we'll be able to find some of the ingredients here in your territory. We would have to purchase them from outside, and they cost a fortune. Even if you sold everything in your village, you wouldn't be able to afford some of them," Vishirk explained.
"But you said you would be able to get them? Did you lie so I would let you stay in the village?" Rowan frowned.
"No, not that. I planned on searching for cheaper and less rare herbs with the same effect as the expensive and rare ones in the dark forest, but after several nights I could only find a few of them," Vishirk quickly replied.
He told Rowan that he would have advised him to go for the original ingredients, since the others had nasty side effects which might affect him later on.
"Just find the ones you can, I'll take care of the others later," Rowan replied.
Vishirk nodded, even though he wondered how Rowan would be able to take care of the other ingredients—some nobles in his hometown couldn't even afford them, so how would the lord of a backwater village be able to access them? he asked himself.
He didn't voice his doubts, though.
He waved at Rowan and left to prepare for the journey he would embark on with Dragun.