Ian's stagnant realm also began to show signs of a breakthrough.
"Tier 1 High Knight Peak."
"Tier 2 High Knight Realm."
"Tier 2 Peak."
"Tier 3 High Knight Realm."
His realm was skyrocketing at an extreme speed, almost violently. Fortunately, his mental power unconsciously acted as a catalyst, balancing the rhythm of the breakthroughs.
In the Knight realm, at the peak of the Tertiary stage, the body becomes strong enough to condense a life seed, marking the beginning of Tier 1 High Knight status.
However, after condensing the life seed, one needed to continuously absorb vital energy to increase its size and transform it qualitatively.
Previously, Ian's life seed was the size of a peanut; now, it had grown to a third of his fist, slightly smaller than the Ethereal crystal he had absorbed.
However, the transformation of the life seed was subtle, with its effects only noticeable when nearing the Grand Knight realm.
Ian reached halfway through the Tier 3 High Knight Realm as the crystal in his hand diminished.
Just as the process neared completion and the life seed's rotation slowed, the blue tinge in the crystal that Ian had ignored before suddenly shot through his meridians and vanished into his life seed.
From the outside, the only visible difference was the increased size.
"Hah..." Ian exhaled deeply as the crystal disappeared from his hand.
"That was one hell of an experience," he said, satisfied with the results.
Although he still prioritized the wizard's path, he began to pay special attention to his knight training after discovering how it accelerated his meditation process.
'I wonder how much it can increase the meditation speed now?' Ian thought with a smile.
His life seed had helped him greatly when he became a first-class Wizard Apprentice, although it had shriveled afterward.
However, this time he was almost at the peak of the Tier 3 High Knight Realm, and his life seed was as big as a third of his fist. The improvement should be obvious.
Although he wanted to try it right away, he had other things to do.
Ian stood up from his seat and went outside the training room. After arriving in the open space outside his courtyard, he took out his sword.
This time, his realm had increased significantly, so he needed to familiarize himself with it as soon as possible to avoid complications.
Once Ian took out his sword, he grasped it strongly and began to follow the Ironclad Discipline Codex.
He alternated between Steel Guard, Hammer Strike, Iron Strike, Blade Breaker, and Knight Cleave, steadily increasing his speed.
Suddenly, a strange sharp sword cry echoed around the courtyard, and the temperature rose sharply. Ian felt more and more comfortable as he practiced these moves with full force.
"Hah... hah..."
After an hour of extreme practice, Ian finally managed to control his increased strength.
"The power of a Knight is no joke."
Looking at the devastated area around him, he couldn't help but feel satisfied.
The infamy of the Knight's path compared to the wizards was mainly because Knights couldn't influence natural elements as easily as Wizards.
A Knight could influence their surroundings with their life seed, but it was ultimately limited.
Unlike Wizards, who, after forming a mana ring, could easily manipulate elements in heaven and earth for their own use, as long as they had sufficient mental power.
In theory, a Wizard could do anything within their domain.
After resting for a while, Ian stood up and returned to the training room. He still had two rewards to redeem, and if possible, he wanted to meditate using the mana nectar he had stolen from the Honeyfang Butterfly.
It was still sitting in his ring.
Once Ian entered the room and sat on the futon, he thought about the remaining rewards from the system.
Suddenly, two items appeared in front of him: a token and armor.
Ian first looked at the armor, which was made from the outer shell of a mysterious entity.
[Arcanium Shell: An armor made from the outer shell of a mysterious entity. It can absorb any kind of energy and, in turn, shield your body from damage proportionally (physical or elemental).
Note: Everything has limits. Please use with caution.]
"Soft!"
To Ian's surprise, the armor was extremely soft, like silk.
After seeing the armor's description, Ian injected his life energy into it to test it.
Suddenly, with the influx of energy, the armor that looked like silk hardened on the outside while its interior remained smooth.
"This is interesting! I can use it as inner armor," Ian decided internally.
After testing the armor for a while, Ian concluded it could withstand the powerful blow of a Peak Tier 3 High Knight head-on.
As for a Grand Knight, he had no frame of reference.
Of course, from the energy consumption, Ian realized it would cost nearly half his energy to operate it at maximum. Still, it was good armor with a passive activation mode.
Ian also tried injecting his mental power but noticed no significant difference.
'Maybe it could resist elemental attacks in this mode?'
After checking the armor, Ian quickly removed his outer clothes and wore them directly as inner armor.
Once everything was done, he finally turned his attention to the token.
[Starwell Token (Bronze): A mysterious token that can access Starwell. Use your luck points to draw the treasure you desire and leave it to fate.]
The bronze token was nothing fancy. It was pitch dark with multiple shining stars arranged in a specific pattern.
'However, this was given along with 100 luck points as a reward. So, it must have something to do with luck or destiny,' Ian thought.
After looking at it for a while and finding no clues, he finally separated a sliver of his mental power and inserted it into the token.
He felt that spilling blood on it was too crude for a Wizard Apprentice.
As his mental power penetrated the token, one of the stars patterned on it suddenly shone brightly, blinding him momentarily.
Ian instinctively closed his eyes.
After a while when the light faded, Ian slowly opened his eyes, and what he saw before him left him dumbfounded.