Limitless Sorcerer: I Stole the Supreme One's Vessel-Chapter 43: Decision

Jareth went home completely unsettled after listening to Annie’s pleas, which was like an unending preaching, to stay at home, warning him that Elias is a peak Lord arcanist—a Rank 4 Level 4—with a luck divination spell.

She even told him that he was 90% accurate most of the time. Elias merely gave him a short piece of advice to drop anything he had in mind, advising that living is better than losing his life.

When he got home, he went straight to his room, ignoring the empty house. He lay on the bed, locked in an intense struggle over making a decision.

Everything was telling him not to go, but he also knew that would leave him with two ’safe’ choices—reveal that he had two violet portals, or remain an Awakened arcanist.

If he didn’t have an oblivium source, he would have thought it was a peculiarity or mutation. It wouldn’t have been a problem to come clean. Unfortunately, his source made him wary.

A suspicious thought always resounded in his mind: ’What if it is a trait of those with an oblivium source? Does that mean I’m exposing and handing myself over? Would they kill me?’

However, not ascending didn’t sit well with him. Everything felt boring, making the life of an arcanist a bubbling excitement in this world.

Maybe he might take the risk and trust the uncertain gut feeling that he would come out fine despite entering an oblivium portal. He was fine despite absorbing oblivium from beast cores.

The internal struggle continued for hours without any definite decision, until he finally felt he needed to talk to someone.

Going downstairs, he happened to see Esta arriving, dressed in a white tracksuit, her snow-white hair bound in a tight ponytail.

"Good afternoon," Jareth greeted.

"Afternoon," she replied and began walking up the stairs.

She suddenly paused and tilted her head. "Hope you didn’t bother purchasing anything apart from your weapons and armor?"

"I didn’t. Liana already told me only Rank 1 and Rank 2 weapons and equipment are allowed," Jareth quickly replied.

Esta nodded before going up.

Jareth let her go first, now spending his time wondering what her job really was.

Switching the television on, he kept himself busy.

It took about thirty minutes before she came down, dressed in a casual shirt and pants, going to the kitchen to cook something.

’Looks like I would have done that. I need to learn how to cook in this world,’ Jareth thought, eyeing Esta moving expertly in the kitchen.

A few minutes later, she walked out with two plates of food.

"You’re hungry?" she asked.

Although not feeling hungry, Jareth still nodded.

He went and sat opposite her as they ate in silence. Putting his best acting on display, he pretended to be normal.

When they were done, Jareth took their plates to the kitchen before returning and finding Esta continuing her show. It was a detective series that made Jareth feel a bit nostalgic.

Sitting adjacent to her, Jareth asked softly, "Can I speak with you for a second, Miss Esta?"

Esta turned to him.

"So, when I went to buy my armor, and after a series of events, I met Sir Elias Vance, who read my luck... according to him. He told me it was bleak this week and my chance of survival is one percent," Jareth spelled out, staring into Esta’s eyes.

Esta quieted for a second before asking, "So, do you want to quit?"

Jareth also went silent for a moment before replying, "I’m not sure. That’s why I came to you for advice."

"Do you believe in divination?" Esta suddenly asked.

"A bit," Jareth replied. "Since there is a lot of supernatural stuff, one of his spells seems to be about luck divination."

"Then you should know that there are chances of survival. And for you, with a very low mana body percentage content, you have to fight tooth and nail for the spot. People with low mana body percentage content have a very meager success rate in ascension. That’s why body percentage is used for talent measurement," Esta explained.

"But Elias—"

"The choice is yours to make," Esta cut in. "I won’t force you. Just remember, I’ve already gotten the pass to join the test. You can reject it if you want."

With that, she focused on her series.

Jareth gazed at the floor, lost in his thoughts. A few minutes later, his distant eyes regained focus as he settled on a decision.

’I’ve died once. Even though I can get rich by just hunting Rank 1 and a few low-level Rank 2 beasts, living like that will be boring. Let’s take the gamble.’

He raised his head and faced Esta.

"I will join."

Esta turned to him and smiled. "You’re surprising me, and at the same time matching my expectation."

Jareth arched his eyebrows, not understanding her expectations from him. ’Does she know me well enough to set the bars? Or is it because of my spells’ control?’

Esta explained, "Still, it’s your decision, so you’ve to live by it and be responsible for the outcome. At least you know there will be danger, so you just have to be vigilant and—"

The door opened, Liana and Nadia strolling in as they argued about something he didn’t have the context for.

"—ruthless to yourself," Esta completed before focusing on her series.

"Jareth, I just got information. It stated that the depth of the ruin estate will be used as the testing ground," Liana said as she sat beside him.

Nadia butted in, "Stop speaking like you had an exclusive source. You just guessed from the poll of locations close to Terminis Dominion."

"Nadia, my intuition is clearly right this time," Liana argued.

"Which intuition? Or is it because of that percentage with those lists of convincing hypotheses? Unfortunately, our classmates have flooded the ruin estate. So, forget about that location," Nadia retorted, clearly exasperated.

"Which poll?" Jareth asked.

Liana activated the holographic screen of her comm band, showing him a list of locations with percentages beside them.

Ruin estate was at the top, with ’95%’ beside it and a list of convincing and plausible explanations. Jareth even found the explanations convincing.

Reading down the list, Jareth found other sites, but from their explanations, they had one problem after another, ranging from poisonous atmosphere to very high-rank roaming beasts.

After reading it all, it didn’t feel weird for Liana to believe the hunting site was the ruin estate.

Jareth turned to Esta. "Do you think it’s correct? I mean, from their hypothesis, it feels like the test would mostly be held at the ruin estate."

Esta turned to him and smirked. "They also surf the arcanist nexus. Besides, tutorials make the test less brutal."

Jareth instantly realized what she was pointing at.

"What does that mean?" Liana asked.

Esta huffed softly before glancing at Liana. "I told you to always think before speaking. It means the chances of them choosing the ruin estate are very low because many people expect it, and some of you have already hunted there—a free tutorial. But they might do the unexpected and choose it. It has happened before. However, if they choose it, they will artificially customize it in ways you never thought."

"Oh! So this list is deceiving?" Liana snarled at her holographic screen.

"Maybe. Maybe not. Ignore the percentage chances beside them and study the locations," Esta advised before focusing on her show.

And that was what Jareth did that night—studying the different locations, and watching many fire spells.

His reasoning was that his fire spell wasn’t fixed but versatile, changing fluidly according to his thoughts. One thing he hasn’t been doing is making use of this versatility in battles.

An untapped potential waiting for him to explore.

So he planned to blend range spells and close combat, as fire spears are for pure ranged attacks and aren’t instantaneous.

Infernal Torrent is an instantaneous spell, but the damage isn’t too excellent.

Unbeknownst to him, his compression ability led him to completely misjudge the damage of an Awakened arcanist’s spells, making uncompressed flames feel lacking in power.