Chapter Eighteen: The Tree of Life

  Upon hearing these words, a hint of disdainful cold smile floated on the face of Iron Blood Duke, who was chopping and hacking with his knife: "I thought you were an intelligent person, what a pity."

  "Maybe, but that's my attitude." Mide replied calmly and composedly, facing the strong pressure from the other side without showing any sign of backing down.

  The duke said no more, or rather did not deign to say any more, and returned once again to the desk, beginning to write anew. Meanwhile, the door of the study opened, and two knights stood in a pose that indicated they were there to escort him out.

  It's clear that the Iron Duke is not a man who likes small talk.

  Midi then bowed again in accordance with noble etiquette and walked out without looking back.

  "By the way, you're going to change jobs afterwards, right? I'll provide you with better materials than the academy as compensation for helping Fina." The duke said this at the end in a cold tone, without any gratitude, but rather like an order that brooked no refusal.

  Midi wanted to refuse again and tell the arrogant and autocratic old man not to profane his feelings for Fina with such worldly and vulgar methods. However, the words reached the tip of his tongue and were swallowed back - if the first refusal was for personal gain, then this second refusal would be offending the dignity of the Iron Blood Duke, and at present, the Ashterex family was still far from being able to do so.

  But also because of this, even after rebirth, when Mi Di went out, he still had a gloomy face that was beyond his control.

  "Are you okay? Did Grandfather give you a hard time?" Fiona had been waiting outside for some time, and as soon as Middy came out, she immediately went up to greet her.

  Seeing the red-haired girl with a concerned gaze, Mide's mood improved a lot. He bitterly smiled and briefly recounted this completely one-sided strong oppression.

  When Middy said that he had refused the Iron Duke's territorial demands, Fina, who was also a member of the Hamilton family, smiled in agreement.

  "It's better this way. Sometimes if you don't take a firm stance, Grandfather's personality will make him overstep his bounds. As for the Seth family's invasion, that is indeed a difficult problem."

  "That's right." Midy sighed.

  "Don't worry, I'll go with you." Fiona comforted, "Although personal strength is of little use in a war between nobles, at least my identity can give the outside world the impression that both sides have joined forces."

  "That's not very good, is it?" Mide said with some concern.

  Even if it's a once-in-a-century genius, the Hamilton family is ultimately controlled by the Iron-Blooded Duke. If Fina, as a young girl, were to take such actions, it would be like singing a duet with the head of the household, and it's unlikely that no control measures would be taken.

  "My family will definitely be dissatisfied, but I can't just not do it because they're unhappy, right?" The red-haired girl smiled slightly, still with her usual calm and confident tone. "Besides, when an important comrade is in trouble, how could I possibly stand by and do nothing?"

  Midi nodded, thinking to herself: I don't want to be your close comrade-in-arms, I want to be your lover, and hold you in my arms. However, the relationship between them was still far from that point, although they had been through life and death together, but that was clearly different from the ambiguity between men and women.

  "Then let's go." Fiona said naturally, "It's about time we prepared for our job change anyway."

  Midi nodded.

  Different choices brought about changes in history, and the results of rebirth have begun to emerge. However, there is one thing that will not change - power, which has always been the most crucial key point.

  Only with power can one make up for regret, stop disaster and protect the most important people.

  Even if the event has changed, relying on the experience of the past 20 years after rebirth, with the perspective of a second awakening to choose the most optimized route and seize the greatest power, that is what Mide now needs to do.

  Even if war is imminent, mobilization of troops, gathering of personnel, and allocation of supplies all take time. Middy believes that the family has also discovered the movement of the parliamentary faction, and as a defender of the territory, mobilization can be carried out more thoroughly.

  For myself, the top priority at the moment is still to use the Niebelungenlied Dragon Seal Array to complete a perfect job transfer.

  The principle of job transfer is simple, in order to stimulate the potential inside the body in a certain aspect, various related materials are used to infuse a large amount of magic power, finally successfully making the human body absorb magic power, improving its quality, and specifically upgrading abilities for a specific profession.

  This is career change.

  In the Principality of Bellmalle, such things happen almost every day, nothing special.

  The key lies in the properties of the material and the quality and quantity of magic.

  The rarer the material and the more unique abilities it contains, the more help it can provide to job changers. For example, if dragon eyes are used as job change materials, then after the job change, on the basis of the original skills, a true sight effect may be produced. And if snake eyes are used as job change materials, there will be no additional properties afterwards.

  As for magical power, it is necessary to pay attention to concentration and quantity. Naturally, the higher the better, and reaching the limit that a job changer's body can hold is best. In this regard, professions such as Ghost Swordsmen and Summoners have additional requirements because they not only absorb magical power into their bodies but also into the spirits inhabiting them and the contract coordinates connected to the void, so the impact is even stronger.

  In the previous life, Mi Di was an ordinary transfer student during his exile. The materials were very common, and only the Fog Magic Girl provided some rare items. As for magic power, it relied on ordinary magic arrays to extract from the air, which couldn't reach its limit at all.

  At that time, Mide's only thought was to quickly improve his strength, survive, and then continue his own fight. There was no room for pursuing perfection.

  Fina is relatively better off, at least when she changed jobs, the Hamilton family had not yet been destroyed, and they used a high-level family magic circle, with sufficient magical power and rare materials, which could support the terrifying destructive power of the future Magic Bullet Queen.

  In any case, neither of them can be said to have made a perfect career change.

  This world is completely different. Not to mention the rare materials provided by the Hamilton family in its heyday, just the magic arrays are quite particular.

  After passing through the academy's trial this time, I can use the Kingdom Magic Formation.

  The capital of the Kingdom of Velmor, Hertomar, is located in the center of the country and is said to occupy the center of the Dragon Vein. The Nibel Dragon Array that seals the dragon is also located under the capital, and it is said to occupy the core of the entire city.

  The magical power of the entire kingdom flows in the magic pulse, where the best ones will continue to accumulate, after layer by layer filtration, finally settling in the Nibelungenlied Dragon Array.

  And so this formation is called "Nibelungenlied's Dragon-Sealing Great Formation".

  The magic released from it is the most supreme and condensed in the entire duchy.

  Of course, such magical power, even if accumulated for a year, is not much in quantity, only enough for a very small number of people to change jobs. Apart from the college trials, most of the remaining quotas are used to reward meritorious persons or high-ranking officials of the state.

  Such rare resources will be fiercely contested by all major forces.

  And this time, Mide finally got what he wanted and got it in his hands.

  It has already perfectly integrated the spirits, and before even changing jobs, it produced a powerful skill like "Divine Demon Shock". This time, with the coordination of rare materials and superior magic power for the job change, what kind of result will it bring?

  Midi is looking forward to it very much.

  And he also wants to see what kind of improvement Feena will have after achieving a perfect job change.

  In her past life, due to her own circumstances, Feina was injured during the trial and ultimately missed out on the Nibelungen's Dragon Sealing Array. But this time around, she successfully and safely obtained first place in the trial, reclaiming what originally belonged to her. Looking at that one head of vibrant red hair, Midie couldn't help but feel a mix of shame, heartache, relief, and affection for past events.

  It seems that Feena noticed Meddy's gaze and turned her head around. Their gazes collided, so she asked: "What?"

  "What profession are you planning to convert to?" Midei asked with a straight face and a calm heart, as if the eye contact just now was just a coincidence.

  "Elemental Master." Fina's response was as expected, exactly the same as in her previous life.

  Elementalists are the masters of the four elements in the world. Various extreme, special and super magical skills are their forte. Coupled with different attribute magic and extremely high casting speed, they are absolutely the most feared heavy artillery on the battlefield. As for Feena, she is not a cannon, but a fortress of firepower.

  This is also the main reason why Fiona became famous as "Queen of Magic Bullet" in the continent of Arad.

  "What's your plan?" the girl asked back.

  "Jianhun." Mi Di replied thusly.

  In his previous life, his profession was Demon Slayer. He chose this path for two reasons: one, because the materials needed to change professions were relatively few; and two, because Mide's demonic spirits were particularly special, which is why he became a Demon Slayer.

  The biggest feature of Onimusha is that it doesn't require sealing the demons, but instead uses the power of tamed demons to cast a large number of dark attribute magic arrays to enhance oneself and allies while weakening and controlling enemies. However, after perfectly merging with the demon in this life, Midori only understood that in her previous life, she didn't tame the demon, but rather her own demon seemed to have consciousness, so it didn't need iron chains.

  After learning this truth, Mide immediately gave up the idea of reincarnating as a Ghost Cry in this life.

  The job change of Ghost Cry is mainly about enhancing control over the ghost gods, but since I've already successfully communicated with the ghost gods before changing jobs, what's the point of further enhancing control? Moreover, Midy's current understanding of the ghost gods is that they are communicable and exchangeable companions, rather than mutually restrictive and tamable parasites.

  So this time, Mi Di chose Sword Soul as his new transfer profession.

  Delve into the ultimate martial arts, without relying on the power of ghosts and gods, but with a sharp sword in hand as faith, constantly challenging the strongest path, this is Jianhun, a profession that requires extremely high individual quality and ability.

  This is exactly what Mide needs, constantly challenging himself, strengthening himself, and growing together with the ghosts.

  Although he didn't dare to be certain, based on his past life's experience, Mi Di believed that after transmigrating into a Sword Spirit, the bond between him and the Ghost God would not decrease but rather increase. The special nature of the Ghost God allowed him to still possess the characteristics of a Ghost Cry, while transmigrating into a Sword Spirit would enhance his own quality.

  Both combined, Mide may be able to obtain both Soul Edge and Soulcalibur's dual abilities at the same time.

  Of course, this is just an inference, and the history of the birth of Kishin on the continent of Arad is very short. In the previous life, there was no Kishin who crossed two domains, so Miti was just inferring based on experience.

  But he believes that the result of this carefully deduced conclusion will have a high probability.

  The reason why he chose a completely new career path is that Midei was very clear that he, the Bullet Queen Fina, and the future Fog Witch Alice had fundamental differences. He wasn't some kind of genius, his resources were extremely limited, and his greatest advantage lay in the experience after rebirth, as well as his limited foresight into the future.

  If we continue to follow the old path, even if the old path is walked to perfection, our achievements will still be limited.

  To truly become one of the "Hawk's Three Crows", to really have the power to protect Fina and Eris, I must make a huge change, on the basis of rebirth, no matter what the cost.

  Today, when facing Ironblood Count, Middy felt this even more intensely.

  Even at the peak of his previous life, Mi Di didn't dare say he was a match for the Iron Blood Duke.

  But even this iron-fisted duke couldn't protect Fiona; how could he possibly do it himself?

  Only through change, transformation, and metamorphosis can one achieve a fundamental transformation.

  As he thought so, a vast expanse of emerald green, which seemed to block out the sky and sun, came into Middy's line of sight.

  That is the location of Nibelheim's Dragon Suppression Array, the branch of Yggdrasil, the Tree of Life.