"A gold plated silver ring, 200 F-ranked mana stones, 63 E-ranked mana stones,an extra 1.2 million dollars on top of the previous 5 hundred thousand, your identity might take a bot longer but it should be done soon."
She handed over a small pouch, roughly the size of a football.
After opening it to confirm everything was inside, he nodded. With the amount of mana stones he had a little but of leeway with what he was planning to do. Just to be sure, be asked again.
"You know what to do right? And when to do it?"
She rolled her eyes, sick of his constant questions. Sigh wasn't she supposed to be grateful to him? He had literally turned back time for her!
"If you ask me again, I might genuinely forget. Just go and do your thing already"
Grumbling, he hid the pouch within his robes. Making sure it was secured. He turned a full 180 degrees and speed walked as far as he could.
Trying to ignore her intense stare as he walked away. He quickly returned to the apartment he had rented previously with the 5 hundred thousand.
Technically it wasn't his apartment, since he had to use one of her butlers because he didn't have an ID and thus was basically an illegal immigrant.
Not that it mattered, money could solve most problems. If the problem wasn't solved you just weren't throwing enough money at them.
Sitting down on the floor, he still didn't have any furniture. He grabbed the pouch from the inside of his robes and without any care dumped everything onto the ground.
The 263 mana stones, each around the size of a golf ball, tumbled out of the bag. Filling up his small bedroom.
Finding the ring in a small pile, he manifested his staff again. This time however, the shape of the staff slowly morphed itself smaller and smaller.
Rather then a staff, it looked more like a seeing needle made of wood. If not for the fact that it had a faint glow and was made of wood. It would be pretty hard to distinguish it from a regular sewing needle.
With the ring on his lap, needle in his right hand and a mana stone in his left. He quickly got to work.
Although he was a mage who primarily specialized in casting large scale spells. He was also an archmage. Someone who stood at the pinnacle of magic.
Even if he wasn't the best magic engraver. His raw intuition, skills and knowledge picked up from years upon years of magic was enough to carry him through most of the process of engraving.
The only problem was his reduced stats, his dexterity, mana sense and mana reserves were currently equal to that if a beginner mage. Which brought a few problems while engraving the magic.
Not that it mattered much in the end, that was what all the mana stones were for after all. If you can't do it properly then just brute force your way through it!
As he delicately carved the engravings into the surface of the ring, his brain continuously ran through the magic he intended to engrave onto it. Making sure there were no errors with what he intended.
Slowly, each nick and scratch pulsed with a dim blue light as his magic spell which he had to modify came to life.
After a grueling session, he wiped the sweat from his face as he admired the end product.
The outside of the ring now no longer glowed. A good sign since it meant there was no more mana leakage.
Looking around, he still had around a dozen of the E-ranked mana stones left. Just enough for the second engraving.
After resting for a brief while to regain some energy, he picked up another stone and soon got back to work.
Fortunately this time, the engraving was less complicated. It was smaller and sinpler compared to the first.
Unfortunately however, he bad used up all the space on the outside of the ring. Meaning he had only the inside left to work with.
Utilizing all of his focus however, he soon completed thesexond engraving. In the end, the 263 mana stones was reduced to only 2 E-ranked mana stones.
The end product however, was definitely worth it in Raymond's eyes. The plain golden ring now had become so much more.
The small carvings would pass itself off as a stylistic choice to anyone who saw it, unaware of its real purpose.
But he had to make sure it worked first. Taking a deep breath, he slowly slid the ring over his left pinky and channeled some of his mana into it.
instantly he collapsed into the floor. Raymond was no stranger to pain, his own magic experiments had had caused him numerous injuries. Once he was in a coma fighting off against hallucinations for the better part of a year.
Something like this was bearable, but it being bearable didn't mean he liked it!
But the pain was a good thing. It meant that his two magic engravings worked.
The first was a 4th circle spell he modified, called face morph, originally meant to just change the face shape to help with disguise. Raymond had modified it to affect his entire body. Once the morph was finished, his body would return to what he looked like at 10.
Not just that, the morph was also modified so that he would literally sound like and even be able to grow up following his original growth as a kid.
With all his modifications, the original fourth circle spell hand now become a fifth circle spell at the minimum. A high tier fifth circle spell which was the peak of what most mages would ever reach in their lifetimes.
The second engraving was a lot simpler, it was an engraving that passively absorbed mana to fuel the morph. This one required no modifications.
After a while however, it finally stopped. Stretching his body which felt sore all over. H
He casted a spell to summon a water mirror and looked at himself.
Perfect.
Raymond's original handsome face was now replaced with a much more cutesy face with hubts of his baby fat. His original 174.7 cm height was gone now . And his white hair which he had tied into a ponytail was now shorter.
All in all, Raymond had become an exceptionally looking ten year old. Just like what he remembered he looked like originally.
Mentally thanking his past self for deciding to engrave automatic fitting on his robes.he admired himself a little bit more. Making sure there was nothing wrong with his disguise. His ring too had now shrunk to fit his smaller pinky finger.
"Ah, ah, eh, oo, ee. "
Testing his vocal cords as well. He nodded in satisfaction. As of now, he truly had the body of a ten year old!
Wait that sounds wrong. He has now become ten years old!
Now that step one of his plan was finished, it was time for step two. This step required Ellen's help.
...
'If this woman doesn't show up in the next five minutes I'm going to barge into her room and forcefully drag her out into the streets to suffer with me.'
Raymond had been waiting out here for nearly an hour now. An hour doesn't seem like a long time but when the sun was scorching hot and he had nothing to help counteract it. One hour was basically the same as an eternity.
There was no shade to hide under, he didn't want to cast any spells in case he might get discovered and he couldn't go into any of the shops for fear of being kicked out and causing a scene. So he had no choice but to suffer the scorching heat in quiet agony.
Finally however, it happened. In the corner of his eye he spotted a family of three. All of which were wearing masks, sunglasses and hats.
Mentally comparing it to Raymond's own disguise, he scoffed at it. Holding up his cardboard sign, he tried his best to appear as homeless and miserable as possible.
Not that it was hard, the scorching heat was enough to make him go crazy.
Stopping in front of him, the young child. Who looked honestly laughable in her disguise stared at him for a while. Her sunglasses and mask hid her expression but she quietly tugged on her parents sleeves and whispered somthing to them.
Holding up his cardboard sign higher, he pleaded with as pitiful of a tone as he could muster.
"Spare change sir? Spare change? Anything helps even if its just a little. "
Hearing what Ellen had said, her two parents furiously whispered back and forth. Evidently they didn't want Raymond to hear what they were saying.
After a while, the man turned to Raymond and politely asked.
"Hey kid, why are you out here on the streets? Wheres your parents?"
Bingo.
"I don't know sir. Ive never met my parents. I was raised in a shelter until a few months ago when they shut down due to a lack of funds. "
"... whats your name kid."
"My name is Raymond Vance sir. "
Turning back to his wife and daughter he looked back and forth between them and Raymond. It seemed like he made his decision as he sighed before turning back to face him one last time.
"Hey Raymond, if you're interested uhm. We would like to foster you but there's a few conditions are you okay with that?"
"Yes sir! Ill do anything sir!"
Deliberately brightening his face, he stood up and dropped his sign.
"Okay then first of all, can you tell me what your awakening potential is?"
"Uhm, I'm sorry sir but I don't know. Me and the other kids were never tested before we were kicked out. "
This was the main hurdle, Rayez Grace was one of the few S-rank awakened within the while world. With his strength he could easily detect the mana within Raymond and identify him as an awakened as well.
He was banking on Rayez detecting him as an awakened and testing his potential in order to see whether or not he was suitable.
Sighing again, he extended his hand towards Raymond.
"Grab my hand kid. Ill test your potential right now. "
'YES'
Mentally having a celebration in his head. He grabbed his extended hand.
Raymond's mana was much much more pure compared to the mana in the world and that was due to a simple reason.
His body was too used to the much higher quality mana in his original home world. It literally wouldn't be able to function properly with lower quality mana. As such it had developed a natural ability to absorb and purify mana until it reached a level he could use.
Acting clueless, he deliberately stimulated some of his mana making sure that Rayez could sense it.
"This mana! Y-you! Raymond, do you want to come live with me? Ill give you anything you need just come live with us!"
"Yes sir!"
He maintained his childish excitement as best as he could.
He patted himself on the back. Finally, for the foreseeable future he would be able to live a life of absolute luxury!