[Ding! Threshold of upper initiate magician level reached. User advancing, stats increased]

He had finally reached the upper initiate level. His body and mind were feeling more in sync with each other, and he could feel the particles of energy around him more clearly than ever. Favian had hoped for his plan to come to fruition once he became an inner initiate level, however he found that he wasn"t able to learn any new spells from that level. Yet, what still gave him hope was that he could now scan what the fruits of his labour would be at the upper initiate level, and they did not disappoint.

[User stats – Const.i.tution: 1.4, Strength: 1.4, Intelligence: 4.0, Agility: 1.4, Arcana:5. Mana pool 500]

It seemed that after every breakthrough stages within a level, for instance inner and upper initiate magician, Favian"s Arcana stat would make the biggest breakthrough. It surged from 1.4 at his lower initiate stage, all the way to 5 once he reached his upper initiate stage.

He had now received three new spells again, being a light, dark and shadow spell each. The light spell was called "Cure minor wounds" and it would give him the ability to heal himself of non-critical damage; it would be completely useless if he was suffering from organ failure. The dark spell was "Rending claw", this spell would let him project a claw of dark energy that would deal damage, and could travel as far as 50 meters.

The shadow spell however had been the most interesting spell he gained, and was the reason why he could still see some light in this dark tunnel that was his captivity. "Time stop" was the spell he received, and would allow him to stop time for up to 3 seconds, up to twice a day. Yet, what came as even more of a surprise, was that this spell had levelled up naturally due to his captivity in a time-lock, and thus it had already reached level 10. This was mind-blowing, each level up increased the duration of time stop by 1 second, and the radius by 10 meters.

"System bring up information on spell Time stop."

[Time Stop (level 10) – 150 mana. Pauses time in a 100-meter radius around host for 13 seconds. Max level reached.]

Favian had spent a whole year writing up half-truths about the book "Darkness and Shadows". He didn"t want to give away all of the secrets he now possessed, however he had to convince Neith that he was writing up the truth.

Neith truly was what you would call bipolar. One moment she would be completely sane and have good conversations with Favian, and the next she would start cackling like a mad witch, and froth from her mouth like a rabid dog. Favian realised that he could use this to his advantage as it seemed that the sane Neith had warmed up to him. He had been able to prolong his imprisonment to a whole year by faking symptoms of burn-out, a state of emotional, physical, and mental exhaustion caused by excessive and prolonged stress. This usually garnered sympathy from Neith whenever she wasn"t a mad dog, and let Favian level himself up very slowly.

"All my preparations are complete. I"ll go through with my plan now" Favian was sure of himself to be able to complete his plan. He had spent a whole year meticulously carrying out his plan, and now was the time to finally release himself from this prison.

The first thing Favian did was to quietly shred the words he had spent a year writing up on the book. After he had done this, he immediately cast net of shadows on the now sleeping Neith, who quickly became immobilized in a dark black substance. Before giving her any time to wake up he cast Time stop. Wisps of purple energy lit up through Favian"s eyes as he cast this spell, and the surroundings all became the colour of purple. He felt a tiny wave of exhaustion take over him as he had just used almost half of his whole mana pool in one go.

"13 seconds left" he thought to himself.

Without waiting, Favian gathered energy into both of his hands, and let the dark energy particles seep through his body onto the surface of his palms, now being shaped into claws. The claws continued to grow in size until they were the size of a head, and he unleashed them at the altar of the G.o.ddess. He continued casting more rending claws until he was completely out of mana, and then waited for them to finally impact his target once the effect of Time Stop wore off.

"CRACK" "BANG"

The altar was. .h.i.t by four rending claws, and broke into smithereens. The noise woke up Neith who looked on in shock at the altar, rage quickly introduced on her face. However, it was too late for her to change anything. The time-lock had been broken, and Favian collapsed onto the floor after having used too much magic in a short period of time. Yet, as he collapsed, he also vanished from the prison.

….

Favian woke up on a bed, in an unknown room. The room was lit up by a window next to his bed. There was a cupboard, a desk and chair and some books on his desk. There was even some food left on the desk as well.

"Where am I?" he asked himself, still groggy after waking up.

Favian walked to the desk and started to munch on the fruits and bread that was left there, as his stomach was howling at him to eat something. "It"s been a year since I had some food to eat." He thought to himself.

The books on his desk were labelled "Meditation techniques" and "Introduction to Dark Magic". These two books were pretty hefty, and each weighed about a kilogram. There was a letter and amulet next to the books which read "Use the communication device once you wake up". That was all it said.

Looking at the amulet next to the letter, Favian guessed that this was the communication device. Picking it up in his hand, it felt pretty warm, and was almost weightless. "System, scan object."

[Ding! Object can be used as a communication device. User must first input some arcane particles into it before it can be used. Would user like to imprint themselves onto device?]

"Yes." Favian suddenly felt that some of his essence had left himself and entered the device. He could now feel that the device was currently linked to one other person"s device.

"Bring up my stats" he commanded to his system.

[Const.i.tution: 1.4, Strength: 1.4, Intelligence: 4.0, Agility: 1.4, Arcana: 4.5 (5), Mana pool 450 (500). Host imprinted on communication device, which costed 0.5 arcana. Rest will restore these temporary lost points.]

"Ah so that"s how arcana points work. So I"ll get them back after resting. I wonder what other uses it has except for imprinting onto a communications device"

[Ding! User successfully completed quest "Escape time lock" – 2500 experience received. Total experience – 3000]

Favian became elated at the noise, this meant that he was out of danger currently and could finally rest. The imprisonment had taken a toll on his mind, however. He then wondered how long he had been out of the time lock

"How much time pa.s.sed since I left the prison?"

[Ding! 336 hours 10 minutes and 17 seconds] it loyally replied.

"2 whole weeks? I must have missed so much by now" his body felt renewed and not at all stiff like he would expect himself to have been after a 2 week long coma. "It"s probably best that I get on with things here quickly at the academy. I don"t want to be left behind by my peers"

With that, he then activated the communication device. "h.e.l.lo, can you hear me?" he spoke into it with a small voice. It seemed that his body hadn"t fully recovered after his coma.

"Oh Favian, you"re finally awake" he could hear a female voice through the device which sounded like she was happy as could be. "Okay I"m going to send you the directions right now, why don"t you come meet me at my office. I know you have a lot of questions right now, and I promise to answer as much as I can."

"How are you going to send the ma—" just as he was asking, he could feel an incoming wave of information entering his brain. He now knew exactly where to go.