Late at night.
Jun’s room that was illuminated by a [Light] spell was cluttered with sheets of paper covered in various formulas.
Just moments ago, he had been thinking about tidying up, but the sudden wave of fatigue made him close his eyes and lean back in his chair.
“Phew.”
Then, he suddenly recalled the conversation he’d had with Chloe earlier that day.
– You seem to be in a hurry.
It was only natural.
Because during the latest mission, he had encountered that guy from the Heavenly Church.
We crossed paths way too early.
Of course, he had run into members of the Heavenly Church before.
But this particular guy Jun encountered was on a whole other level.
In the original game’s story, that person was someone Aiden constantly clashed with. He was a relentless force pushing Aiden toward ruin.
And now I’m already tangled up with that bastard.
Fortunately, this time, the guy seemed to be focused on some experiment. Other than implanting an erosion phenomenon into the troll’s body, he didn’t interfere further.
No…more precisely, maybe he couldn’t.
All the Heavenly cultists Jun had seen before had been human, but that guy was different.
He wasn’t human. He possessed immense power and as a result, he was also heavily restricted.
Of course, Jun never wanted to face him when those restrictions were fully lifted.
I’ll need to raise my Mental Strength stat faster than I expected.
Judging from the abilities that guy used, Mental Strength was the stat Jun needed the most right now.
I’d already been planning defenses in that area, but I’ll have to be even more cautious from now on.
With that line of thought concluded, Jun looked back at his desk.
The spellbook he had just been studying caught his eye.
I think I finally understand why Eleanor dumped all this responsibility on me…
He suddenly felt an overwhelming urge to grab someone, anyone, and vent.
***
If there was one silver lining, it was that there was someone who could actually help Jun, who was currently buried in new spells and mentally exhausted.
“Shylock? What brings you here?”
“What do you mean ‘what brings me here’? The owner of this house told me to drop by and check on you.”
“So Chloe told you.”
Just after lunch, Jun looked at Enchantment King Shylock, who had come to visit him in his room.
Just like Jun had casually barged into Eleanor’s room before, Shylock now made himself at home, clicking his tongue at the sight before him.
“This place is a bit of a mess.”
“A proper mage should be like this. If you have the mental capacity to keep things tidy, that means you’re not truly focused on studying.”
“Then why are you clicking your tongue…?”
“Why are you studying magic all by yourself?”
“Hmm.”
“Is it because of that peculiar mana of yours?”
“Yes, well…”
“Well, I suppose it’s not too surprising. Among mages, there are always a few who end up selling their souls to demons in pursuit of greater power.”
“……”
Seeing Jun remain silent, Shylock clicked his tongue.
“Let’s see… you’re studying quite a range of things. But the number of branches you’re tackling is ridiculous. Did you really plan to learn and use all of this on your own?”
“I didn’t have much choice. To respond to different situations, I had to learn a wide variety of spells, even if they’re low-tier.”
“It’s a brute-force approach, but certainly an effective one. And you’re probably capable of casting without your mana getting tangled.”
Just like how a warrior unfamiliar with battle might tense up and make mistakes, a mage too can often slip up in combat.
When you’re in the middle of a life-or-death fight, your mind races, and that can lead to miscasting a spell pattern or failing to project the proper image which would result in the magic not working at all.
Usually, there are two ways to deal with this.
One is to get used to combat so you don’t get nervous.
The other is to practice endlessly so that even under pressure, the magic comes out automatically.
The problem with the second method was that the more spells you know, the higher the chance of making a mistake…
“You probably fall into the first category.”
Jun didn’t.
“So in your case, this brute-force learning approach isn’t necessarily wrong. From what the house owner told me, you seem to be learning magic at a pretty fast pace too.”
“I feel like I’m trying to lecture a caterpillar about metamorphosis.”
“Ha! You’ve certainly learned some manners since last time.”
“……”
“Well, like you said, I’ve also studied various schools of magic. As an enchanter, I need to have contact with many different types of spells.”
With that, Shylock offered a suggestion. Why not come visit his workshop sometime?
“Your workshop? Are you sure that’s okay?”
Naturally, observing another mage’s workshop, especially during research, is considered a major breach of etiquette.
And with someone like Shylock whose field relies heavily on knowledge, that goes double.
“It’s fine. It’s not like you’d understand much even if you saw it.”
“……”
As expected, this old man had a knack for getting under people’s skin no matter what he said.
Still, Jun didn’t have any real reason to refuse.
Sometimes it’s good to clear my head like this. I’ve got enchanting on my list of things to study anyway.
In fact, it was probably for the best.
Jun quietly followed Shylock to his workshop.
“Oh? Mage. What brings you here?”
The one who greeted them upon arrival was Shylock’s apprentice, Marshar.
“I called him, you dumb disciple.”
“You, old man?”
“What, I can’t even bring a guest into my own workshop now?”
“Ha! This is unbelievable. Don’t you remember, old man? You used to literally kick out nobles who begged you to let them into your workshop.”
“You kicked out nobles…?”
Considering the sense of entitlement nobles held in this era, that was truly shocking.
“Where would they even go to complain? And seriously, what kind of lunatic begs to be let into a mage’s workshop? They must’ve been out of their minds.”
After all, Shylock was a man who had been granted a royal title by the emperor himself.
Naturally, the nobles couldn’t even admit to anyone that they’d been rejected.
“Anyway, why’d you bring him here? Don’t tell me the guild master’s trying to check up on our research progress…?”
“It’s not that, so don’t worry about it.”
Even Chloe treated the two with such caution, like handling sacred relics, so that was clearly not the case.
“Then what?”
“I brought him to watch us work.”
“Wow. Old man, are you sure you’re not starting to lose it in your old age?”
“You cheeky brat.”
With a light yelp after getting kicked, Marshar hurried into the workshop, and Shylock followed right behind him.
Surprisingly, the space inside was far larger than it appeared from the outside. Almost incomparably so.
“Is this an artifact?”
“Yeah. Something I got a while back. Took quite a bit of effort to fix it up.”
“Spatial magic isn’t something you can mess with so easily…”
Even Shylock described it as having been a struggle, which spoke volumes about how difficult spatial magic really was.
In the first place, not much was known about it.
“Well, that’s not something you need to worry about right now. You probably wouldn’t understand it anyway.”
Jun nodded in agreement.
He already had a mountain of magic to learn. There was no need to get greedy about spatial magic so soon.
You’d need at least [Advanced Magic Talent] to even scratch the surface of it.
As they stepped further inside, a scene not so different from Jun’s own room came into view.
Papers were scattered messily; various cylinders, magic patterns, and mana conduits lay strewn across the floor.
“Get in position, Marshar. Pick up where you left off yesterday.”
“Got it. But shouldn’t we at least explain things to that guy?”
“He’s a mage too. Does he need a play-by-play? Just mind your own work.”
“You really are something else, old man…”
The usually talkative Marshar’s expression shifted the moment he took his place in the workshop.
“We were working on channeling mana into this part yesterday, right? The goal was to make it easier to track without drawing too much attention.”
“Yeah, that’s right.”
“What do you think about creating a separate magic circle for it? Something like ‘Wraith’s Remnant,’ for example.”
“The method’s fine, but the material’s all wrong, you idiot. Something as distinct as ‘Wraith’s Remnant’ would just consume everything else.”
“Come on, I know that. But this is high-grade stuff anyway, right? Wouldn’t the mana get suppressed to some extent?”
“You dumb brat. Just because you’re using a mana conduit doesn’t mean it’ll draw all the mana at once. Obviously, it’ll be used gradually too and if that happens, the mana could become unstable mid-use.”
“Ah, right. I was only thinking in terms of how we usually use it. For us, we just recharge it regularly and that’s that.”
The two of them were still in the process of figuring out how to safely commercialize the mana conduit.
What the Imperial Family remained concerned about was the potential misuse; if such high-energy mana conduits were to spread across the empire, they could easily be used for terrorism or other malicious acts.
So the two were working on modifying the properties of the mana conduit to make it easier to track and manage in line with those concerns.
Hmm. Their thinking’s a bit different from mine. They’re focused more on maximizing efficiency than raw performance.
Since Jun had an abundance of mana, he naturally prioritized performance over efficiency. But that wasn’t the case for the other two.
They were reworking the mana conduit into various forms so that even people with zero understanding of mana could easily learn to use it.
So they’re using not just mana patterns but magic circles as well. Must be because this is enchantment-based work. It really is a whole different approach.
And through that process, Jun gained a new insight.
Jun who was forgetting even the fact that he had an [Excellent Memory], pulled out his notebook and, out of habit, began organizing the insights he had just gained.
The enchantment school is said to attract a lot of attention even from non-elemental mages. I think I’m starting to understand why.
Up until now, Jun had been casting spells instantly using nothing but magical patterns and his overwhelming mana reserves. But with time, auxiliary magic like this would become essential in spellcasting.
Just like the golem core he used when facing the Orc Lord.
Now that I think about it, I can see ways to improve that golem core I used back then.
Of course, making those improvements might slightly lower its performance, even if the overall effect increased…
But at least it’ll stop the core from breaking every time I use it. And if I do it right, it’ll be easier to deceive other mages too.
After all, golem cores don’t fall from the sky like some divine gift. Jun had to pay for them out of his own pocket.
Sure, there was a promising future business in mana fluids, but that didn’t mean he could just throw money around.
And so, without realizing how much time had passed, Jun continued to observe the research being carried out by the two genius enchanters.
Like watching a two-person play unfold on stage, he was completely captivated. He couldn’t take his eyes off them for quite some time.
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