Chapter 181 (1/2)
Chapter 181: The Calm Before the Storm
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
In the Celestial Pool of the Heaven’s Thorn Mage Tower.
There weren’t many innovative changes to the structural spell this time, so the whole modification process went smoothly. In merely one hour and a half, Link had completed his Supreme Magical Skills modification on the spell to improve its spellcasting speed.
And now, it was time for him to give it a final test.
Vulcan’s Hand!
As soon as the thought emerged in Link’s mind, the Glyph of Soul caused a momentary stun throughout Link’s body for a fraction of a second, then the spell structure of Vulcan’s Hand emerged fully formed on the surface for the controlling magic seal. Just before the fire elements began to coalesce, Link halted the process abruptly, and in that instance the Machine Gun Supreme Magical Skill took effect and his Mana began to reverberate!
The surface of the magic seal flashed in a dim white light, which was then closely followed by the emergence of the Level-6 Titan’s Hand and the roaring fire elements which then gathered and converged to form a miniature version of the Titan’s Hand.
Link then tested a variety of movements using this miniature Titan’s Hand. Eventually he tried about 200 different movements with it and they were all a success.
It’s finally perfect, thought Link with a smile. After all the experiments, his Mana had been depleted down to less than 200 points. Had he not drunk a vial of potion before, it would’ve been down to zero by now.
Just at the moment when he stopped the spell, a flash of light appeared on the interface. Link took a look at it and discovered that it was a congratulatory notification.
Player successfully broke through the spellcasting speed limit for Level-6 spells. 50 Omni Points rewarded.
Player successfully created a new Supreme Magical Skill—Inter-Spell Resonance. 20 Omni Points rewarded.
With 70 newly earned Omni Points, added to his existing 150 points, Link now had 220 Omni Points. He was always careful not to spend too much of his Omni Points as they might come in handy during emergencies.
“Since you caught me breaking through the limits,” he said to the gaming system, “that must mean that you recorded my spellcasting time. So how long exactly did I take?”
0.65 seconds. You have the potential to decrease it further by 0.1 seconds.
Link was very satisfied with 0.65 seconds. It was fast enough even if he had to fight against a Level-6 Warrior. As for the potential to decrease it further by 0.1 seconds, Link was sure that he would achieve that naturally just by practicing anyway. Thus, Link made a decision to call it a day. He looked at the time and realized that it was only half an hour before noon. He’d been busy all morning, and his stomach began to rumble in hunger, so he left the Celestial Pool to get himself an early lunch.
When he reached the great hall on the first floor of the Mage Tower, Link noticed the servants bringing food to the table. Selasse and the dean’s other disciples were all at the table ready to start the meal.
“Link!” Selasse greeted Link when he noticed him. “Want to have a meal together?”
Link thought it rude to refuse. Besides, it wouldn’t be his first time to dine here at the dean’s Mage Tower, so he went over to Selasse and the rest of the Magicians there and joined them at the table. The servants then promptly provided him with a plate and a set of cutleries.
“Have you been so busy that you can’t even trim your beard, Link?” a Level-5 Magician called Ivan teased.
Link immediately cast a magic mirror and checked himself with it. At a glance his craggy unkempt face with his untrimmed beard made it seemed as if he’d aged ten years in the last month!
“Ah, you’re right!” said Link. “I guess it’s time for me to visit the barber!”
“You can cut your hair anyway you want,” said Selasse, “but don’t completely shave off all of your beard. Otherwise you’d look like a teenaged boy and no one would believe your actual skill level and they might underestimate you!”
The Magicians around all nodded in agreement to Selasse’s remarks. Link felt quite uncomfortable having his beard being the center of attention. He mumbled a few words in acknowledgment then pounced on the bread rolls which had just been served up by the servants.
“I’m starving! Let’s eat!” said Link enthusiastically, eager to change the subject, to which all the Magicians at the table erupted in laughter.
During the meal, a few of them didn’t just talk about magic and spells but chatted about their past experiences as well. All of them were the dean’s disciples and they were all in their prime, the oldest being only 41 years old. With the exception of the poet Selasse, these Magicians were all of Level-4 and above. They’ve all traveled extensively and had seen much of the outside world. Most of them had achieved glorious fame and reputation and were regarded as the Elite Magicians among the human realm.
Link listened keenly to the tales told by these Magicians and gained a lot of new insights from their adventures and rich experiences.
“Have any of you heard,” said Ivan suddenly, “of the rumored signs of a high-level demons in the capital city of Leo Kingdom by the Southern Magician Alliance?”
“How reliable is the rumor?” said Selasse, doubtful of the story’s veracity. If there really were high-level demons, they would’ve caused certain cataclysms that would be hard to miss. Yet, the academy had not heard of such reports recently.
Link’s ears pricked up at the mention of this strange incidence. To his knowledge, no high-level demons should appear around this time. Even if they did, shouldn’t they be found here in Norton Kingdom? Why did they turn up in the South instead?
“Who cares how reliable it was?” said Ivan, who at the time had thought nothing of the rumor other than an amusing hearsay. “It’s none of our business anyway. I hear there were signs of not just one demon, but three of them! And you wouldn’t believe this, but they said one of those demons was so beautiful she managed to charm Wavier’s socks off! You all know the Wavier, the Magician in the South, don’t you?”
“Of course,” replied another Level-4 Magician named Arthur. “He’s the darling of the Magician Alliance!”
“Let me tell you,” continued Ivan with a mischievous smirk, “they also said that Wavier was so besotted with the she-demon that he was soon overcome by lovesickness and didn’t care to sleep nor eat! He’d gotten so thin now that the president of the alliance got so worried his hair turned white within weeks!”
“What a character!” exclaimed Arthur with a hearty laugh. “This Wavier was reported to be a man whose talents the world hadn’t seen in a century, but who would’ve thought that his taste in women was just as unique!”
Several other Magicians broke out in laughter at this remark as they all took this rumor to merely be a funny story. Only Link sat there quietly focusing on the food on his plate. He had, in truth, sank deep into thought and was brooding about the rumor from the South.
A high-level demon beautiful enough to charm Wavier off his wits, mused Link, could it be Celine? Link suspected that this she-demon in the rumors must really be Celine, and the other two must’ve been the demon soldiers her father had ordered to capture her back to the abyss.
Link wasn’t too pleased to hear of Wavier’s lovesick behaviors. He was also greatly disturbed by the thoughts of Celine being all alone while two of her father’s demon soldiers were pursuing her aggressively. If only he could drop everything and run to the South to find her now!
But he knew full well he couldn’t do that. Not while the academy was still shadowed by the threat of the Black Moon Conspiracy and the release of the demon Tarviss. Yet knowing this didn’t make him feel the urge to go to Celine less in any way at all.
After that, when Ivan and the other Magicians had moved on to other topics Link couldn’t pay attention to a word they said any longer. He wolfed down his food, said goodnight to everyone, and left the Heaven’s Thorn alone.
The sun still hung high in the sky when he came out of the Mage Tower. The glorious sunshine and the fact that he had solved the spellcasting problem of the Titan’s Hand had coupled to loosen Link up gradually. He took a walk around the academy for more than ten minutes, then when he walked past a barbershop he was suddenly reminded of Ivan and Selasse’s remarks on his appearance. Celine wouldn’t like to see me looking this haggard either, Link thought. And so, he decided to enter the barbershop and have his hair and beard sorted out somehow.