Arthur looked at his remaining eleven spirit stones and sighed, holding a beautiful crystal ball. It had been three days since he bought Mage Hand, and yesterday he had finally managed to achieve basic mastery over it.
[Level 0 Spells: Mage Hand (0/100)]*
When it first appeared in his system, he was excited, but after today's free lesson, he learned about spiritual purity, which terrified him.
Apparently, when an apprentice misunderstands any part of their meditation technique or makes a mistake in their cultivation, the spiritual energy they absorb is not fully purified, leaving it filled with impurities that could cause major issues in the future. This thought made Arthur question his system.
"When I leveled up the Wizard Apprentice rank, I hadn't even started absorbing spiritual energy properly, let alone begun mapping the meditation technique in my body. The system did that for me," Arthur thought as he focused on the complicated runic pathways within him.
He had his doubts and hoped he was wrong, which was why he had spent 30 of his last 41 spirit stones to purchase this crystal ball, which the old man in the exchange hall had called the Crystal Eye.
It allowed the user to check the amount of spirit energy absorbed, test elements, communicate with other apprentices, and, most importantly, grade spiritual purity and even soul purity.
Having his Golden Paper system, Arthur did not care about the first two functions, but the others were invaluable to him.
"Let's start."
Taking a deep breath, he touched the crystal, channeling a small amount of spiritual energy into it. A faint light appeared in the middle, red and black, signifying his elements. Then, Arthur spoke a small incantation the old man had taught him, causing the crystal to dim slightly before a faint number appeared.
[Spiritual Purity: 99%]
"Thank god!" Arthur exhaled in relief, smiling.
He knew where the missing 1% came from: his initial absorption when he first started. But it didn't bother him. A purity of 60% would have already made him a monster among apprentices, let alone 99%. With the body's natural cleansing during breakthroughs, that 1% would recover over time.
"Well, now I have no worries about the system."
Arthur smiled, then placed his hand on the Crystal Eye again. This time, he did not pass any spiritual energy, instead speaking another incantation.
Now, he wanted to test his soul purity.
[Soul Purity: 2%]
"What!!!"
Arthur's eyes widened, his relief and happiness instantly replaced by panic. He knew what this meant.
"I'm polluted…"
After reading about the war with the divine realm in the academy library, Arthur had learned that aside from angels, the gods invaded using celestial energy, gathering believers and followers among humans. Willingly or not, those who came into contact with a god's celestial energy would have their souls slowly morphed, unknowingly becoming fanatically loyal followers over time. The grand Magi had developed the Soul Purity test to identify these individuals.
"Fuck!!"
Arthur stood up, panic written all over his face.
"Which god got me? When did it happen?"
He was terrified.
"Now that I think about it, my actions lately have been completely out of character."
Arthur remembered the girl from the wizard family—how he had hung her alive from a tree after breaking her limbs and slitting her wrist.
"No matter how much I think about it, I should have noticed the change. I came from a modern world, barely got into fights… I was just an average man!"
Arthur was now sitting at his desk, reading a book.
"Purification of the soul requires resources I can't afford… Although I don't know which god got me, I need to fix this."
He kept thinking while scanning through books for a solution.
"I guess the first test held by the escort wizards didn't just check my elements but also my soul purity… At the time, the real Arthur took that test, so he passed. That's why they didn't check again."
Arthur began combing through his memories, searching for a clue. He was nothing but an apprentice with access to only common books.
"Is it me?"
He frowned.
"The only anomaly is my transmigration and the Golden Paper… Is it the Golden Paper?"
"Status!"
[Name: Arthur Collins]
[Pathways: Basic Knight (0/110) | Wizard Apprentice I (0/500)]*
[Spiritual Energy: 49]*
[Physique: 12]*
[Vitality: 7.8]*
[Spirit: 2.1]*
[Elements: Fire and Darkness]
[Meditation Technique: Abyssal Ember Codex (0/10,000)]*
[Level 0 Spells: Mage Hand (0/100)]*
"Are you the cause of my soul pollution?" Arthur asked, desperation creeping into his voice.
If anyone found out about his soul purity, he would be executed instantly. Even if there were resources to help, no one would waste them on a nobody like him.
His system would respond if a question was related to its functions or if it was something related to it, so he tried—and to his surprise, it worked.
[Due to transmigration, occupation of a body, and the merge with remnants of a dead soul, your soul purity has been affected.]
"How can we fix this?!" Arthur asked, relieved. Not only due to the system's response, but also because he knew that the pollution wasn't caused by an outer god.
[Soul purification is a system function currently locked.]
"How do I unlock it?"
[Certain conditions must be met.]
[Become a 2nd Rank Wizard Apprentice. Learn one Level 0 Soul Spell.]
Reading this, Arthur leaned back in his chair, sighing in relief.
"Thank g—"
He stopped mid-sentence.
"Maybe I need to stop saying that around here… They don't seem to like the gods."
Arthur chuckled, finally calming down.