Chapter 14 - Experiment Continues
[Dean's Mage Tower - Level 1 (Under construction)]
Construction/Unfinished
This is the peak of the Magic Academy—the Dean's residence. As the Academy's symbol, it is one of the integral buildings of the Magic Academy.
Currently under construction. Completion in 22 hours.
…
"Sure enough, I shouldn't have any expectations of this fraudulent Academy System." Zwei couldn't help sighing as he looked at the information displayed on the translucent screen.
He had wanted to transform his unqualified mage tower into the Dean's Mage Tower. This way, not only would he not have to worry about the mysterious predator's intrusion, but his magic academy could also establish itself on Rockdoor Mountain. Naturally, with Rockdoor Mountain as a base, he could include the entire Angola Mountain Range in his academy's territory.
However, to his dismay, the Dean's Magic Academy that he had eagerly awaited wasn't actually built in the real world.
The feeling he currently experienced could most likely be equated to that of falling from heaven to hell.
"It seems I still have to figure out a way to deal with that monster."
Due to his previous extended meditation plus the mental fatigue he accumulated fighting inside the Trial Gate, Zwei currently felt anemic.
However, with the imminent monster crisis, he had to resist the urge to have a good night's sleep. Crossing his legs on his bed, he promptly resumed meditating.
Even if it meant injuring his spirit, he still had to prioritize raising his strength. After all, the power of the Mage Hand he just learned was proportional to his mana.
While Zwei didn't know whether the mysterious predator was secretly stalking him, not knowing was the most frightening part. Precisely because of this reason, he strove desperately to improve his strength.
The night passed by quickly. When he finished his meditation and opened his eyes, he gasped involuntarily as a splitting headache suddenly assaulted him.
Sure enough, my spirit suffered damage. However, I did gain quite a lot of mana, so it's not a complete loss.
While gritting his teeth and massaging his temples, Zwei headed to the bathroom to wash up.
As for the clutter he used to barricade his front door yesterday, he had a much easier time moving them back to their original locations, thanks to the Mage Hand he learned. At the very least, he didn't need to work up a sweat like he had yesterday.
Standing in the middle of the room, Zwei used Mage Hand to move a wooden wardrobe a head taller than him across the room. As ordinary people couldn't see the Mage Hand, it would look as if Zwei was moving the wardrobe, which was roughly five meters away from him, just by extending his hand. The scene gave off a supernatural feeling.
The wardrobe was the last item he moved. Once it was back in its original location, Zwei's work was done.
Wiping away the nonexistent sweat on his forehead with his sleeve, Zwei inspected the mana inside his body. He discovered that after moving all of the clutter, he had actually expended one-third of his originally abundant mana!
I have too little mana…
After a pointless sigh, Zwei suddenly thought of a matter.
If he could alter the fully mastered Mage Hand's performance simply by injecting more mana into the spell, what about the Magic Bullet and Lesser Fireball spells?
He decided to test this conjecture.
Opening the door, Zwei made his way out of the house. However, after taking just two steps, he suddenly turned around and reentered the tower. Only after grabbing a Mana Potion did he leave the building again.
It was better to be safe than sorry.
The first spell Zwei decided to experiment with was the Magic Bullet.
Under the bright morning sun, he stood in a small open space outside the tower. After readying himself, he created a bullet made out of pure mana in his hand.
However, deviating from normal practice, he did not launch the Magic Bullet as soon as he finished constructing it. Instead, he maintained it on his palm and slowly injected more mana into it.
As the amount of injected mana increased, the size and density of the Magic Bullet also began to change. Eventually, the Magic Bullet grew from the size of a baseball to the size of a basketball, yet it still didn't seem to be satiated. Unfortunately, Zwei's mana pool had already started warning him.
Hence, Zwei had no choice but to launch the Magic Bullet at the nearby forest.
Accompanied by a howling sound, the Magic Bullet smashed straight through a tree with a thick trunk and exploded only after flying for several additional meters. The resulting shockwave from the explosion shredded the shrubbery in a half-a-meter radius.
The display so frightened the birds that were originally perched on the surrounding trees, observing Zwei with curious eyes, that they fluttered their wings and made themselves scarce.
In terms of power, Zwei judged that the charged Magic Bullet rivaled the unmastered Exploding Flame Arrow. Moreover, so long as he continued charging the Magic Bullet with mana, its power should be able to rise even further!
This way, he would have a much easier time handling monsters that possessed fire resistance.
The only unfortunate part was that the charged Magic Bullet he just launched had consumed nearly one-third of his maximum mana. He would have to wait until he had a much larger mana pool to use this move as a regular attack.
After a short break, Zwei started experimenting with the Lesser Fireball.
Initially, he thought that since he had succeeded in his experiment with the Magic Bullet, he shouldn't face any difficulties with the Lesser Fireball. Even if he couldn't raise the Lesser Fireball's power to a point where it rivaled a fully mastered True Fireball, it was still worth looking forward to.
Unfortunately, once he injected more than the standard amount of Mana into the Lesser Fireball, elemental destabilization would occur for some reason. If he didn't get rid of the fireball quickly, it would undoubtedly explode on him. Meanwhile, although the destabilized Lesser Fireball had slightly greater power than the standard Lesser Fireball, it had a significantly longer casting time. The tradeoff simply wasn't worthwhile.
Is it because I only have Minor Fire Mastery, so I can't properly stabilize the fire elementals? After pondering for a moment and failing to come up with an answer, Zwei tossed the matter to the back of his mind.
At this time, he would usually head to the mountain for a stroll and to see if he could catch some wild game to supplement his meals. However, seeing as the predator problem had yet to be resolved, he decided to skip this routine.
Since Alyssa wouldn't be back until after noon, Zwei decided to rest to recover some mana.
Having made up his mind, he returned to his tower and dozed off. Maybe it was because he had learned new magic, but he behaved calmer than before. Instead of barricading his door with furniture, he merely locked it. In any case, Alyssa had a copy of the key, so she wouldn't have any problems entering the tower even if he overslept.
Like so, Zwei, whose mind was filled with all sorts of jumbled information, fell asleep.
When he woke up, he discovered it was already one o'clock in the afternoon. However, Alyssa, who normally would be listening to his lectures by now, was nowhere around.
Suddenly, an unpleasant premonition appeared in Zwei's heart.
Could the girl have encountered that monster?
Anxiety filled Zwei's chest. Without even a second thought, he grabbed the mage staff by his bed and rushed out of the tower.