I am a pill container in the mage world

The ninth day of the fifth month of the year 1000115

Tonight, the full moon appeared once again.

Throughout history, only a select few have truly grasped the workings of the moon. Bertha was one of them.

She had learned it from Rachel, who, in turn, had learned it from the god of fate.

Simply put, The moon is where time and space first collided when the world was created. The moon is the source of all energy, whether pure, dark, or light.

...

Bertha was sitting under the moonlight while taking pills.

These pills were custom-made by the god of fate, specifically tailored to her physique.

"Now, take the rank 1 'stronger than it looks' pill!" Rachel said.

Bertha nodded, took it, and felt tremendous pure energy flowing through her meridians.

This type of energy is known as knight energy, which differs from mages' pure energy.

The energy moved through her meridians but didn't concentrate in her aperture.

After much experimentation and help from Rachel, she discovered how to reach the rank 2 knight.

Strengthening the meridians is the first step. Since knight energy constantly circulates the meridians, a rank 2 knight should have much stronger meridians than a mage.

After years of taking pills, her meridians are strong enough to handle even rank 3 energy temporarily.

"Bertha, I think it's time to reach rank 2 knight!" Rachel said.

Bertha nodded and took a deep breath.

Then, she took hundreds of 'stronger than it looks' and 'concentration' pills, along with many other pills, including 'bone strengthening pills,' 'muscle strengthening pills,' 'elves pills,' 'wood elf pills,' and healing pills like 'high-speed regeneration' and 'recovery.'

The second step of promotion to a rank 2 knight is flesh transformation.

Rank 2 energy is too powerful and can erode unprepared flesh.

The pills she had used were just a prelude to what was about to come.

After all the pills she took absorbed and circulated in her meridians, she took out a hundred 'stronger than it looks' pills. 'Stronger than it looks' pills were custom-made for her by the god of fate.

Bertha didn't know who invented them. She just received them from Rachel, who produced them.

"Don't worry, take them!" Rachel said, reassuring Bertha. Heavenly Rachel had already looked at the reflection and knew everything would go fine.

Bertha nodded and took them all at once.

A massive amount of knight energy entered her, bringing severe pain to different parts of her body.

Her robust meridians remained unharmed, but her body parts were still only at rank 1, so she felt severe pain throughout her body due to the enormous amount of knight energy.

The energy began eroding her body parts, but the generous supply of healing pills initiated the healing process, while the body-strengthening pills tempered any newly growing tissues.

Unimaginable pain ensued, but fortunately, she had already taken the 'concentration' pill. She was able to shift her focus from the pain and concentrate on controlling the different energy flows in her meridians.

This process continued, and every part of her body, including sensitive areas like her eyes and brain, received strengthening from all the pills she had taken.

The medicinal effects of the healing and body-strengthening pills were diminishing, so she swallowed hundreds more.

"Start the next part!" Rachel shouted.

The knight energy in her body was still at rank 1, so she needed to take more 'stronger than it looks' pills.

One can see how terrifying the resources required for knights are!

The concentration required for rank 1 energy to transform into rank 2 is extremely high. Mages only need to concentrate all the energy in their aperture to start the fusion process.

However, knight energy will leak out of the aperture, preventing it from fusing. Knights must increase energy concentration in their entire body to advance to rank 2, using their body as their aperture.

This process is incredibly challenging and only possible with mountains of resources. But once successful, knights far surpass the same rank peak mages in strength.

After waiting for the healing and strengthening pills to absorb, she took another 200 plus 'stronger than it looks' pills.

As before, her meridians were fine, but the incredible concentration of energy in her body caused her organs to hurt severely.

Just as before, she waited for the energy to erode her body and for the healing and strengthening pills to fortify her.

After a while, the effects of the healing and strengthening pills waned again.

"Now, the last part," Rachel said.

Bertha, who was sweating, took out two big bags of pills. The pills were so numerous that they didn't fit in the pill container, so she stored them in other bottles.

There were hundreds of concentration pills in one bottle, and in the other, there were hundreds more body-strengthening and healing pills.

She began by taking the healing and strengthening pills first and waited for them to be absorbed.

Bertha wiped her sweat, opened her mouth, and took all the concentration pills.

Concentration pills had two effects. They could help the mind to become more focused and the energy to be concentrated.

Now, Bertha wanted to concentrate her energy.

Slowly, she began gathering all the energy in her heart.

Her heart began to hurt severely as the energy peaked, but she persisted. Her heart tissues started to decay, but they were promptly regenerated and became even stronger.

The concentration of knight energy continued to increase, and finally, fused into rank 2!

Even a small amount of rank 2 mana is enough for mages to be considered a rank 2 mage.

The reason is that with a bit of rank 2 mana, the rest of the rank 1 mana in the aperture would easily be absorbed by it and transformed.

This holds true for knights as well.

With this small piece of rank 2 knight energy, Bertha effortlessly transformed all of her body's remaining rank 1 energy.

Soon, her heart was filled with rank 2 energy, simultaneously decaying and healing and strengthening her heart. Her heart had strengthened so significantly in just a few minutes that it stopped decaying altogether!

"Successful! The hardest part is complete!" Bertha shouted in joy!

Rachel, who had also advanced to rank 2, said, "Let's finish it; take the remaining pills!"

Currently, her heart is rank 2, allowing her knight energy to reside within.

But as a knight, every part of her body had to be able to tolerate the rank 2 energy.

She took out more than a thousand more strengthening and healing pills, swallowed all, and concentrated their medicinal properties in her heart, specifically in her blood.

All of the body's blood gets pumped by the heart, so by keeping the medicinal property in the heart, she was effectively strengthening all of her blood.

After a while, all of her blood was also successfully promoted to rank 2.

Then, she strengthened other body parts: the lungs, liver, abdomen, ovaries, brain, eyes, and even her fingernails.

After a long time, she finally let go of the rank 2 energy. It dispersed within her meridians and throughout her body. No part of her body hurt because it had become strong enough to tolerate rank 2 energy permanently.

Exhausted, Bertha simply lay down and fell asleep.

Rachel observed her and smiled.

She, too, was drained. The process had been highly stressful, as the risk of death had loomed at every moment. Even though she possessed knowledge of the future, she understood that the future was not certain, which kept her on edge.

She cared for Bertha, having watched her grow over time.

...

The following day, Bertha woke up and stood up.

"I succeeded!" She exclaimed, standing and jumping around.

"I feel so much lighter! I feel like I can punch a mountain to dust!"

Then, she went to the training ground and put on the heavy armor.

"I don't feel it at all! This thing can't help me train anymore!" She effortlessly removed the heavy armor, which could crush any legendary knight with one finger, and then threw it more than 100 meters away.

And this was far from her limit, as she restrained her strength, fearing it might accidentally harm someone if she threw it outside the training ground.

"Go and punch a mountain!" Rachel suggested.

"No, that would destroy the habitats of many animals!" Bertha replied.

She believed in not harming animals unprovoked.

Bertha smiled and headed to the Senate building.

The Senate met every 15 days, and today was one of those days.

The building was atop a Huge tree like the other Wood Elf houses.

Bertha entered and looked at the six seated people, three men and three women.

She smiled and said, "I reached rank 2!"

Everyone stood up and congratulated her.

After many congratulations, they sat down and started discussing.

A woman with green hair named Anne said, "Bertha, we have an invitation from the new Terry County's prime minister. They specifically invited you to their 'Stone Palace.'"

'Stone Palace' was the residence of the prime minister.

"What? Do they want us to go there? Would they even allow us to go like this, or do they want to force us to get clothed?" Bertha asked, frowning.

If they asked her to abandon her beliefs, she was ready to fight now that she was rank 2.

"No, they allow us to go there however we like. It was specially mentioned in the letter!" Anne said.

"It's very unusual for them to do this; it may be a plan of their new prime minister, Milan," said Otis, a man with darker skin.

"They have a new prime minister?" Bertha asked.

"Yeah, the new prime minister won the election in a landslide. His main campaign promise was environmental preservation and closer relations with non-humans," said a woman with yellow eyes named Iona.

Yellow eyes were rare among Wood Elves, but you can find some if you looked hard enough.

"This is good for us. We should use the opportunity and make treaties with them, so if in the future, some other, more hostile prime minister takes over, they find themselves bound by the treaties," said a man who was unusually big for Wood Elves, named Pearl.

Over these 15 years, the Wood Elves had begun to inform themselves about the politics of the Terry Kingdom.

"You're right! Even though I am now a rank 2 knight, it's better to keep the peace for as long as possible," said Bertha.

She hated war and preferred it never to happen, but she was ready if it did.

"Great, leave all the preparation for the trip to me," said Otis.

Bertha smiled and said, "Thanks."

Soon, they left the Senate building and went back to their business.

...

Milan was sitting on a chair in the 'Stone Palace,' reading some documents.

His clothes were casual, and his appearance hadn't changed at all from the years before. Mortals now have unlimited life, so they never age.

"This is wrong; I should change it," he thought.

The current law of Terry Country imposed heavy taxes on children, making it so only the rich can have children. But from Milan's point of view, this approach is entirely wrong.

"It should be based on traits like being hardworking, good at math, skilled in engineering, creative, etc. We should grade every positive and negative trait, with the positive ones adding points and the negative ones subtracting points. Those who accumulate the most points should be allowed to have children."

What is a talent? It is the right combination of traits. For example, writing talent requires imagination, hard work, and creativity.

As for how good of an author one can be, it depends on having the right combination of traits.

It's useless to be extremely hardworking without having any imagination or to possess great imagination and creativity but to write only a few words and become fatigued due to a lack of hardworking trait.

Everyone is born with traits, and if they are lucky, they can develop talents with these traits.

But not all traits are equal.

For example, some traits like hard work are useful in literally everything. In contrast, other traits like body coordination are primarily useful in physical activities.

In Milan's plans, they would rate traits based on how broad they are and how useful they can be to society. He intended to set up special tests that people could participate in for evaluation.

"This plan takes a lot of effort to pass through the parliament. It's would better if it could be bipartisan. I hope the 'Great Terry' party votes for it."

While contemplating these matters, someone came and handed him a letter.

He read the letter and smiled.

"So, she is coming! I'm looking forward to it!" he thought.

Fifteen years ago, when he first saw the Wood Elf who had saved his life, he could not sleep well for months. She appeared in his dreams every night.

After a year, he decided to pursue the highest position, that of Prime Minister, and do whatever it took to find her; and now, after a decade, his long-held dream was finally coming true!