Chapter 60: Transition

William remained quiet for a short while after finishing his explanation about Azmoteo.

Then he looked directly at Karl, Leon and Mira.

"You three are going to Sovereign Academy."

Karl barely had time to process the sudden change before William added,

"And no, you don’t have a say in this matter."

Karl frowned. A few minutes ago, Sovereign Academy had only been a recommendation. William had specifically told him to consider it before making a decision.

"I thought you were recommending Sovereign Academy."

"I was."

William answered without hesitation.

"That was before this."

His attention briefly moved toward the Anathema Marks on their arms.

After discovering their connection to Azmoteo, William clearly had no intention of treating the academy choice as casually as before.

Asterion Central Academy possessed greater overall resources and influence, but it also sat directly inside the Capital, surrounded by the largest clans, organizations, political factions and religious forces within the Human Alliance.

Three Level 99 professionals carrying direct Anathema Marks connected to Azmoteo were not something William wanted thrown into the middle of that before they had even completed their First Transition.

Sovereign Academy was different, and more importantly, Abel was its Vice Dean.

Someone both Arthur and William had personally trusted for decades would already be inside the academy.

At this point, that mattered more than simply chasing whichever institution possessed the greatest resources.

Karl was still about to argue when Leon suddenly spoke.

"Karl."

Karl looked toward him. Leon had lost most of his usual casual expression.

"It’s not like Sovereign is bad either."

He paused briefly. "We’ll be together anyway, let’s just go there first and see what we do after that."

Mira gave a small nod.

"I don’t mind Sovereign Academy either, it’s a top heritage academy after all."

Karl remained quiet, in his previous life, he had walked a completely different road from both of them.

By the time he truly understood what those choices had cost him his best friends.

This time, the exact academy mattered far less than casually repeating the same mistake.

Sovereign Academy was still one of the five greatest academies in the Human Alliance. With Abel there as well, choosing it could hardly be considered a sacrifice.

Karl finally gave in and mumbled,

"Fine."

William nodded once, apparently considering the matter settled.

His attention then shifted toward Arthur.

"You have another month."

Arthur looked toward him.

"Use it properly and recover as much as you can and settle whatever is left in Ardent City."

Arthur’s condition had improved enormously after the Divine Elixir, but decades of damage and lost time had not simply disappeared overnight.

William had no intention of dragging him immediately back into larger Alliance affairs before he had properly recovered.

That did not mean Arthur could remain withdrawn forever either.

Now that his body and foundation were recovering, there would eventually come a point where remaining in Ardent City and ignoring everything outside it was no longer reasonable.

William left the matter there before asking,

"And Asher and Selene? Still away?"

Arthur shrugged.

"Still on a mission, same as always."

William gave a small nod, Arthur had already considered the local situation anyway.

Victor could handle most of the Reed family’s affairs while everything settled, especially now that Arthur himself was no longer bedridden and could intervene whenever something genuinely required him.

William turned back toward the trio.

"Now, until you complete your First Transition, none of you are leaving Ardent City casually."

"You also have about a month before the academy starts."

Leon opened his mouth, but William continued before he could interrupt.

"No wandering around, no unnecessary appearances and no personally dealing with academy recruiters, clans or conglomerates."

The results of the National College Entrance Examination would already bring enough attention toward them.

William could suppress most of that pressure himself, and there was no reason for three Level 99 Anathemas connected to Azmoteo to spend the next month walking around while half the Alliance tried to contact them.

"Your only priority now is First Transition."

That was something none of them disagreed with.

All three had already reached Level 99 and accumulated excess EXP, but actually crossing into the next Tier required completing the Transition requirements issued by the World Will.

Karl opened his status first, while Leon and Mira did the same.

Their Transition tasks had already updated during the six days Arthur had been away.

The first requirement was identical for all three, just as it was for every professional attempting their First Transition.

[First Transition Requirement]

[Accumulate 10,000,000 EXP.]

William barely reacted.

"That’s the simple part."

At their current strength, obtaining the EXP itself was mostly a matter of finding hunting grounds capable of supporting them.

With William, Arthur and Edwin involved, arranging suitable locations would not be difficult.

The profession-specific requirements were another matter.

Leon brought up his remaining tasks first.

[Form a Martial Heart.]

[Complete Body Tempering beyond the normal Level-99 attribute limit.]

William read through both requirements once, neither was absurd in concept.

Martial professionals eventually developed similar foundations at higher levels and deeper Body Tempering was hardly some unheard-of path.

Having both demanded before First Transition was considerably less normal.

Fortunately, Leon was already in a better position than most people attempting the same thing.

The body-refining technique he had obtained earlier could directly help him push his physical body beyond the normal Level-99 limit.

Arthur and Edwin also had enough experience and connections to obtain whatever additional materials he needed during the process.

The Martial Heart would be more troublesome.

That could not simply be bought with resources or forced through enough expensive materials. Leon would have to form it himself.

Still, compared to what came next, his path at least looked straightforward.

Mira opened her own requirements and they were a bit more hard in a sense.

[Kill 100 Tier-2 enemies before being detected.]

[Each target must possess at least Second Transition strength.]

[If the target detects Host before the killing blow, the kill will not count.]

Mira had not even completed her First Transition.

Yet the World Will wanted her to assassinate one hundred enemies who had already reached Second Transition strength without being detected before delivering the killing blow.

It was ridiculous, not impossible but certainly ridiculous.

A normal fight would not satisfy the requirement either, the entire point was assassination.

If the enemy noticed Mira before she killed them, she gained nothing from that target.

Her second task was even more closely tied to the nature of her profession.

[Establish Shadow Body.]

Mira had to partially convert her physical body into shadow, maintain the transformed state without losing stability, and then successfully restore the affected portion.

Leon looked at the requirement for a moment.

"Isn’t Uncle Victor similar?"

Arthur nodded.

"Yeah, his profession is related to this he could help you."

Mira released a small sigh before nodding.

"It would be much easier with someone like uncle Victor helping."

Victor could not establish the Shadow Body for her, but he could guide the parts most likely to go wrong.

Mira would need to maintain a physical anchor while transforming part of herself, circulate mana through the shadowed portion and prevent the conversion from becoming unstable before restoring her body.

Then she remembered the Shadow Heart she had obtained earlier.

Its affinity with her profession might make the process considerably easier, although it was not part of the Transition requirement itself.

No matter how much it helped, Mira would still have to establish the Shadow Body through her own ability.

William moved on towards karl.

The universal EXP condition remained at the top, followed by his two profession-specific tasks.

[Personally create or evolve one Commander-rank undead.]

Karl paused briefly and big Rod immediately came to mind.

Unfortunately, the Golden King Tiger had been transformed into a Commander-rank undead not created.

William spent a little longer on that condition.

For an ordinary Level 99 Necromancer, producing a Commander-rank undead before even completing First Transition would already have been an extremely demanding task.

Commander-rank undead were not simply stronger corpses.

They possessed substantial intelligence and awareness, something most Necromancers at Karl’s stage would have no business producing.

Then Karl revealed the final requirement.

[Form and stabilize a Personal Death Domain.]

William focused on it intently, for someone who had not even completed First Transition, that was far from an ordinary request.

William eventually leaned back.

"Strange."

William remained thoughtful for a moment before continuing.

"Your tasks aren’t really easy or hard in the normal sense."

"Most of them are fundamental things professionals eventually need if they want to progress further along their paths."

His attention moved across the requirements once more.

"The strange part is when you’re being asked to do them."

" Martial Heart, Shadow Body, a personal Domain... these are all things that normally come much later, yet the World Will is forcing you to establish those foundations during your First Transition."

William looked across Karl, Leon and Mira.

"Seems even the World Will wants you three to become strong as quickly as possible."

He paused briefly. "I just hope you can finish everything within this month."

" Hunting grounds, materials, resources and whatever else can be arranged will be taken care of."

"The rest is up to you."

With that settled, William stood from his seat and looked toward Arthur.

"We’ll meet again in a month."

Arthur gave a small nod.

William raised one hand, the space distorted around him and his figure vanished from the villa.