It turned out that even after securing Prince Aldrin’s surrender, the man had still managed to cause a problem for him. The prince had apparently refused to speak to the Alparcan forces about Prince Vhailor’s death and had simply ordered his own men to subdue them if they tried anything before he left for negotiations. By the time those negotiations were over, the Alparcan forces—led mostly by Mages—had already tried to flee toward Alparca to inform the royal family of what had happened.

  Prince Vhailor dying was no small matter, and it seemed they understood that with Aldrin’s surrender, they would either be captured or killed. Once Kai gained access to Fort Valemount, the first thing he did was move to subdue each of them personally.

  And the only reason they were still within the walls at all was because they had been caught attempting to steal Prince Vhailor’s corpse before making their escape across the border. Kai had caught them mid-act, and surprisingly, not a single Mage had tried to fight or run. They clearly knew they stood no chance against him.

  Only one had made an attempt—a Shadow Mage who slipped away quietly—only for Gareth to hunt him down and kill him in one strike. A few Alparcan soldiers had also managed to sneak out, forcing the Watchers to spend hours tracking them down and dragging them back, dead or alive.

  Kai couldn’t afford any message reaching Alparca before the civil war ended. He already had his hands full dealing with the remaining princes.

  He knew the Alparcan kingdom was going to try something, especially after he had killed Prince Vhailor, but that was a problem he would deal with later. His focus had to remain on the two remaining princes. Because of that, he and the Watchers had already prepared a plan to feed Alparca false information. Trade with them had already stopped due to the war, so blocking accurate messages wasn’t difficult. All he needed to do was assign the right people to the task.

  Once that was handled, Kai and the others didn’t spend much time planning their next move that same night. They sent out drones to inform their allies of Aldrin’s surrender, then agreed to hold a full meeting early the next morning. Every person under him—nobles, Mages, Enforcers, and common soldiers alike—were exhausted. A night of rest was the least he could give them, especially knowing they would be marching across the kingdom soon enough.

  Kai, however, didn’t rest.

  He knew there would be many battles ahead, and his mind kept circling around the same thought—how much easier Prince Vhailor would’ve been to deal with if he already had a fifth-circle Mana heart. Fourth circle had been enough to defeat Veridia, but it had left him completely drained… and had nearly destroyed his new robes. Only later had he realized they possessed self-healing properties—threads woven with subtle seals sewn deep into the inner layers, almost invisible unless he focused mana into them.

  He had already handed the robes to Balen to reinforce them further. The seals could be modified, and Balen had the talent to take them beyond their original design. Kai had already taught him the necessary knowledge and left him with a few Mages to assist with the enchanting.

  But that didn’t change the fact that the same thing would happen again the next time he faced a powerful opponent. Vhailor had been strong, yes, but he wasn’t as efficient or experienced as Veridia, and the shadow of Maleficia lingered constantly at the back of Kai’s mind. If he stayed at the fourth circle, then sooner or later, he would be killed.

  Every day, his name spread farther. Every victory made him more visible. And sooner or later, the rest of Maleficia would realise just how dangerous he was becoming. They might even move to aid Regina in killing him—if they weren’t already making preparations. In this era, with mana flooding the world the way it did, he wouldn’t be surprised if there were people quietly reaching the strength of a sixth or even seventh circle.

  Publicly, there was no information on how to achieve the sixth circle safely. From what he knew, a stable method had only been discovered near the end of the first golden era of magic. But just like the Mage arrays he’d found, there was a good chance that the knowledge of it was simply hidden, scattered, or locked away. Someone, somewhere, might already have pieces of it.

  So as he sat alone in his room, he focused on only one thing—cultivation.

  He shut out everything else. He breathed in the dense mana of the atmosphere and guided it through the pathways of his body, trying to shape the fifth circle within his Mana heart. He had been working on it for a while now, but he had barely reached thirty percent completion. At this pace, he was still at least a year away from forming it.

  For most Mages, that wasn’t a long time at all.

  But Kai doubted he had that much time to spare.

  By his estimates, he and Regina were going to clash in a month or two. He would have preferred to reach the fifth circle before that, but it was impossible, and Kai wasn’t foolish enough to force an early breakthrough. His Mana heart would never withstand it—he would cripple his foundation, or worse.

  Even so, the feeling gnawed at him: his current strength might not be enough.

  Even with his Enforcer side added to the mix, he was only a little stronger than before, barely brushing the edge of the second rank. That wouldn’t mean much against Regina. It wouldn’t even matter against someone at Shakran’s level, let alone the monsters Maleficia surely held in reserve.

  Kai knew he wasn’t alone, but aside from Killian, he doubted anyone in his forces could last long against a Fifth-Circle Mage, not in a direct confrontation at least. The thought made his cultivation harder than usual. One part of him continued cycling mana, shaping the fifth circle piece by piece… while the other part kept racing, searching desperately for a way to increase his strength in the little time he had.

  Relying on cultivation was out of the question. He couldn’t climb an entire circle in weeks. Balen might have been able to construct a powerful golem, but not one strong enough to stand against a fifth-circle threat. And while Valkyrie’s Tower might have contained knowledge he could use, he simply didn’t have the time to sift through the books, inscriptions, and chambers, even if he badly wanted to. Not with all the threats that were waiting for him outside.

  All of it left him with very few options.

  He kept thinking and thinking, thoughts grinding against the quiet rhythm of his mana flow. His cultivation suddenly faltered for just a moment—only a fraction of a heartbeat—but it was enough.

  A mana vein along the side of his neck stung sharply as he accidentally pushed too much mana through it. The pain snapped him out of his spiral of thoughts.

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  “Fuck,” he whispered under his breath and stayed still for a second. With that, he stopped building the circle and pressed a hand to his neck, casting a soothing spell over the strained vein.

  Within seconds, the cooling pulse sank into his skin, and once he confirmed nothing had torn or damaged, he let out a slow breath. He had been too hasty, trying to cultivate with his mind full of chaos was asking for an injury.

  He sighed and pushed himself up from the floor, moving toward the bed. He doubted he would cultivate any further tonight. The moment he closed his eyes, all the thoughts he’d been trying to push aside came rushing back: Regina, Maleficia, fifth-circle enemies, his army’s limits, the short time left.

  He sprawled on the bed, but sleep didn’t come. His mind wouldn’t quiet. He kept circling around the same question—how could he increase his strength in such a short time?

  A mana battery was one option. He could build one strong enough to feed him additional mana, but in a fight against someone more powerful, it would become a target. Mana batteries were notoriously fragile; everyone knew that, even in this era. And he doubted raw mana alone was the answer.

  He could try to rely on spells instead.

  He had many unique spells now—things he couldn’t have cast months ago. But there were others… spells he had begun designing before he regressed in time. Spells he had made himself from scratch.

  One in particular came to mind.

  A spell that could manifest mana arms around his body. Arms that could cast spells independently as long as he connected them to his mind.

  Four spells at once. Five, if he counted his [Flight] spell.

  That kind of overwhelming casting speed could flip the tide of almost any battle. If he could refine it, stabilize it, and make it battle-ready, it would give him something close to a fifth-circle advantage, even without actually reaching it.

  As he thought more about it, for the first time in hours, the chaos in Kai’s chest shifted—not easing, but slowly narrowing into purpose.

  The problem was that he had never been able to figure out that spell, no matter how promising the idea seemed. Even the other Mages he had quietly consulted back then agreed the concept was brilliant, but far too complex.

  Not only would he need to mentally link the additional mana arms to his brain, he would have to construct entirely new pathways, additional mana veins branching out from his heart to feed those arms. It was like treating his own body as a living golem and trying to attach new components to it.

  Kai still remembered the designs he had drawn, the half-finished diagrams scattered across his old worktables. Replicating them wouldn’t be difficult. Starting the project wouldn’t be difficult.

  But seeing the spell become a real, usable thing? That could take months. Maybe years.

  New spells were unpredictable. Experiments could backfire, misfire, or become outright dangerous. And the more he thought about it, the clearer it became: this one spell wasn’t something he could create while racing against time.

  There were other spells he could attempt, but none were as versatile or as impactful, and several overlapped with abilities he already had. Every idea he came up with felt either too time-consuming or too underwhelming to matter.

  He sighed. Then sighed again. A headache throbbed behind his eyes.

  If his master were here, the old man would’ve smacked him on the head with his wand and ordered him to get some sleep.

  But the moment the thought formed, Kai’s eyes snapped open. Maybe that was what he needed. He sat up straight.

  A wand.

  How had he not thought of it sooner?

  If he wanted a sharp boost in power in a short amount of time, that was the way to go.

  A wand not only offered him additional versatility, it would also allow him to safely attach a core to it in case he ran dry during a battle. There were multiple functions he could embed into it, each one capable of boosting his combat potential by a significant margin. The more Kai thought about it, the more obvious it became that this was the answer he’d been looking for.

  The only reason he hadn’t considered it earlier was simple: he had barely used a wand in his past life. He had wanted one after becoming a Magus, but the world had been in ruins by then. Even ordinary wood was scarce—magical wood was practically impossible to find. And a wand needed a material sturdy enough to endure layers of enchantments. Some wands even carried spatial seals, storing items within them. Kai didn’t know much about spatial magic, but offensive magic and sealcraft? Those he understood better than most.

  The idea kept building in his mind, each thought sharpening into certainty. Before he fully realised it, excitement drove him off the bed. He grabbed a stack of clean papers from the desk and began sketching designs—old knowledge resurfacing through muscle memory.

  Line after line flowed, his hand steadying as the structure formed: conduits, stabilisation lines, seal anchors, mana regulators.

  Then he wrote down the first and most important material he would need. The wood that would define the entire wand. The only wood worthy of holding the enchantments he had in mind.

  Wood from the Elder Tree itself.

  ***

  A/N - You can read 30 chapters (15 Magus Reborn and 15 Dao of money) on my patreon. Annual subscription is now on too.

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