Chapter 144
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 144
Chapter Title: Preparation (2)
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Late at night.
Jun's room, illuminated by [Light] magic, was a chaotic mess of papers covered in all sorts of formulas.
Jun, who had just been considering tidying up, suddenly felt a wave of exhaustion crash over him. He closed his eyes for a moment and leaned back in his chair.
"Hoo."
Then, out of nowhere, he remembered the conversation he'd had with Cloi earlier that day.
'She said I looked urgent.'
It was only natural.
On this mission, he'd encountered 'that guy' from the Heavenly Cult.
'Our meeting happened way too soon.'
Of course, he'd crossed paths with the Heavenly Cult plenty of times before.
But the one he'd met this time was truly dangerous.
In the original game story, it was the guy who kept clashing with Aiden over and over, constantly dragging him toward ruin.
'Getting tangled up with that bastard already.'
Luckily, this time it seemed like the encounter was just for an experiment. Aside from implanting the erosion effect into the troll's body, there hadn't been any other interference.
'No, more accurately, he couldn't intervene further.'
All the Heavenly Cult members he'd seen up until now had been human, but this one was different.
Not human at all, possessing immense power—and thus bound by severe restrictions.
Of course, if those restrictions were ever fully lifted, it was someone he had zero desire to face.
'Looks like I'll need to raise my Mental Power stat faster than planned.'
Considering the abilities that guy wielded, Mental Power was the most crucial stat right now.
'I've been thinking about countermeasures for that side all along anyway. From now on, I'll have to focus even more.'
Finishing his deliberations there, Jun turned his gaze back to the desk.
He spotted the grimoire he'd been studying up until moments ago.
"I think I get why Eleanor dumped this responsibility on me..."
He felt an urge to grab anyone nearby and vent.
At least there was some good news: someone who could help Jun as he racked his brain learning these new spells.
"Shylock? What brings you here?"
"What do you think? The lady of the house told me to drop by and check on you."
"Cloi told you, huh."
It was right around the end of lunch when Jun looked up to see Enchantment King Shylock standing in his room.
Just like Jun had done with Eleanor before, Shylock entered naturally and clicked his tongue.
"Your room's a bit of a dump."
"That's how mages are supposed to be. If you've got the headspace to keep things neat, you don't have the brains for studying."
"Then why the tongue-clicking...?"
"Why are you studying magic all alone?"
"Mm."
"Because of that unique mana of yours?"
"Yeah... something like that."
"Well, among mages, there are always a few who sell their souls to demons just to boost their realm a bit."
"..."
Seeing Jun reluctant to open up easily, Shylock clicked his tongue again.
"Let me see... You're studying quite the variety. But the schools are absurdly diverse. Were you planning to master and use all these on your own?"
"No choice. To handle all sorts of situations, I need a broad repertoire even if my circles stay low."
"Crude, but undeniably effective. With your mana, you could wield them without tangling it up."
Just as an inexperienced warrior tenses up and messes up in battle, mages often slipped up too once combat began.
With life-or-death stakes right in front of them, their minds raced, leading to botched magic patterns or poorly embedded images that prevented spells from manifesting properly. It happened all too often.
Usually, there were two solutions.
One was getting accustomed to combat so you didn't tense up.
The other was endless practice until spells fired off automatically, no matter how nervous you were.
But with the latter, the more spells you knew, the higher the risk of mistakes...
"You're the former type."
Jun didn't fall into that category.
"So for you, this brute-force approach isn't wrong. I heard from the lady of the house that you're picking up spells at a decent clip too."
"Not like I'm some silkworm critiquing wrinkles."
"Ha! You've got proper manners drilled into you now, unlike before."
"..."
"Well, like you said, I've dabbled in multiple schools myself. Enchantment requires exposure to all sorts of magic."
With that, Shylock suggested Jun come check out his workshop sometime.
"My workshop? You sure that's okay?"
Obviously, barging into another mage's workshop to observe their research was a massive breach of etiquette.
Especially for an enchantment specialist like Shylock, where knowledge was everything.
"It's fine. What do you think you'll understand even if you watch?"
"..."
This old man had a knack for pissing people off even when saying the same thing as everyone else.
Still, Jun had no reason to refuse.
'A little break to clear my head now and then wouldn't hurt. I've got enchantment spells on my list anyway.'
If anything, it was perfect timing.
Jun quietly followed Shylock to his workshop.
"Huh, mage? What's up?"
The one greeting them was Shylock's disciple, Mershar.
"I called him here, you brat."
"You, old timer?"
"What, I can't invite a guest to my own workshop?"
"Heh, who'd have thought. Don't you remember kicking noble asses back in the day when they begged to peek in?"
"Kicking nobles...?"
In this era, nobles' sense of authority made that downright shocking.
"Who are they gonna whine to? And what lunatic asks a mage to let them into his workshop? Idiots."
Shylock was a man who'd received a royal title straight from the emperor, after all.
Nobles couldn't exactly go around admitting they'd been smacked.
"Anyway, why'd you bring him? Is the lady of the house spying on our progress...?"
"Nothing like that, so don't worry about it."
Even Cloi treated these two with kid gloves, so that wasn't happening.
"Then?"
"Brought him to watch us work."
"Whoa, old man. You finally losing it with age?"
"You hog-nosed punk."
Mershar yelped as Shylock kicked his butt and scurried inside, with Shylock following.
Surprisingly, the interior space was vastly larger than the exterior suggested—impossibly so.
"An artifact?"
"Yeah, one I salvaged ages ago. Took some effort to fix."
"Space magic isn't something you tinker with lightly..."
Even Shylock calling it 'effort' underscored how tricky space magic was.
Not much was even known about it.
"Don't worry about that now. You probably couldn't grasp it anyway."
Jun nodded in agreement.
He already had a mountain of spells to learn; no need to covet space magic yet.
'I'd need at least [Advanced Magic Talent] to even touch the basics.'
Deeper inside, the scene was much like Jun's own room.
Scattered papers, cylinders, magic patterns, and mana flow bodies rolling on the floor.
"Take a seat, Mershar. Pick up from where we left off yesterday."
"Got it. But don't we need to explain for our guest?"
"He's a mage too. Needs hand-holding? Focus on the work."
"Your personality, old man..."
Chatty Mershar settled into his spot at the workbench, his expression shifting instantly.
"Yesterday was imbuing mana here, right? Making it trackable without drawing attention."
"Yeah, that's it."
"How about a separate magic circle? Like 'Lace's怨魂'."
"Good idea, but wrong materials, kid. Something as dominant as 'Lace's怨魂' would devour the others."
"Nah, I know that. But it's high-grade, so it should suppress the mana somewhat?"
"You idiot. Think we'll always draw all the mana at once with a flow body? It'll be used gradually too, and it'll corrupt mid-use."
"Oops. Forgot—we recharge periodically anyway."
The two were still refining ways to commercialize mana flow bodies safely.
The imperial family worried that if these high-energy items spread across the empire, they'd be ripe for terrorist abuse.
So they were tweaking the flow bodies for easy tracking and management.
'Hm. Their thinking's a bit different from mine. Prioritizing efficiency over raw power.'
Jun had mana to spare, so he chased performance; they didn't.
They were reshaping flow bodies so even mana-illiterate civilians could master them quickly, in various forms.
'Not just patterns—magic circles too. Enchantment's unique, alright.'
These processes sparked new insights for Jun.
He'd forgotten he even had [Exceptional Memory] as he pulled out his notebook and jotted down the revelations out of habit.
'No wonder enchantment draws interest from non-elemental mages too.'
Up till now, Jun had relied on patterns and his mana reserves for instant casts, but soon auxiliary spells like these would be essential.
Like the golem core he'd used against the orc lord.
'Seeing this, I can think of ways to improve that golem core.'
It might boost effectiveness at the cost of some power...
'But it'd stop me smashing cores every time. And it'd fool other mages.'
Golem cores didn't drop from the sky; they came from his pocket.
Sure, future mana flow body business was solid, but no reason to burn cash.
Thus, Jun lost track of time watching the two enchantment geniuses at work.
Like a two-man play, he was captivated, unable to look away for ages.