It had been quite a few days since Ivan began testing things out with the newly acquired magic. What he wanted was range. And so he got to work on it. When he first started, the most he could achieve was four meters, nothing too special but still greater than Yue who could only achieve three meters max.
Along with practicing restoration with space magic, he started a little side project that'd take the stress out of it at times. Such as applying the same learnings but this time combining gravity magic. Space and gravity created the expected result, an oppressing weight Ivan could expel without moving. He thought it would be pretty cool should he ever need to present it.
'Anything that enters my space shall be crushed by the foolishness of their own decisions!' Or so he said inside his mind. It wasn't as cool as having people faint just by locking eyes alone but if he was smart about it he could make it seem as though he achieved the same feat. With this experiment his proficiency with gravity magic greatly improved so there was that too.
Ivan swung his fists, purple orbs engulfing them also swung around with his actions. Simply put this was also another combination of space and gravity, albeit on a much lower scale. The idea was that anything that came in contact with an orb would feel the ensuing punch on a gravity level several times greater than what would have been felt with his normal fists. Not that he lacked confidence in his already overwhelming space, this was just more of an assurance.
It was a great way of training both gravity and spatial magic. He of course forced this training upon the others who were less attuned with the magic already. Even with a pitiful affinity, it was possible to form basic copies of it. Though the force behind the attacks only multiplied a few times rather than the tens Ivan was able to output.
Even those who had no interest in melee combat were made to endure it, such as Felis and Ari. They both held rather pitiable expressions as they punched the air with only translucent orbs to show for their progress. The only thing that stopped them from outright refusing and running away was the intent as to why Ivan wanted them to learn this, an intent they believed was concerned for their well-being should he not be there to save him.
This was a prospect Ivan had introduced to the group numerous times over the time they spent together. Always foreshadowing his possible death or disappearance, something that caused the others to fear and stress but he felt was important to imbue before they got complacent. Their enemies were actual gods, beings that transcended their existence and ruled an era where even the average citizen was capable of taking down what could be considered the greatest knights today.
He had no proof of that aforementioned claim but neither did anyone have a rebuttal. Ivan wasn't averse to the possibility of death, he accepted it as a natural step of life. Without the concept of 'death' there wouldn't exist 'life.' Just as how in a hypothetical situation where everyone in the world had the same amount of money then the concept of 'poor' or 'rich' wouldn't exist.
As mentioned previously, he was fine with it so long as he accomplished his goals before finally croaking. Something that he has not obtained yet but was steadily approaching. So while he still had time in this world of uncertainty, he'd choose his remaining time with his family.
"Hm, perhaps phrasing it as so makes it sound like me dying is a near-future…" There was still a major promise he made for himself. That being he was going to spend the rest of his eternity with the vampire queen that stood beside him now. He turned his head down to stare at her, only smiling as he met her inquisitive gaze.
Yue was an immortal, Ivan was not. Even after drinking Ambrosia from that god rock at most, he would live for another couple hundred years. Becoming a vampire would extend his age even longer, but in the end, that life was also on an expiration date. He played with the possibility of creating multiple bodies and transferring through them as time went by, as did Miledi, but the thought of it made him quite uncomfortable.
Not to mention that Miledi wouldn't spill the beans of such a secret the last time he met her. Which most likely meant she achieved the feat through ancient magic and has refused to give up any information out of fear of spoiling anything. That seemed to be the most likely case as the more he pressed her the more annoyed she'd gotten, even going as far as to say 'I'll tell ya after you clear all the dungeons!'
Ivan wasn't sure if that confirmed his thoughts or not but it was enough to keep him content for the time being. Ah yes, immortality… Let's see, theoretically, Felis and Canis were created with faux immortality. Their bodies would regenerate so long as their mana cores had sufficient mana. The same applied to their aging process, as the only means of them ever dying was if the mana cores were emptied. As such, they were both unaging, immortal, and nigh invincible.
Truly broken cheats that would probably earn the attention of the gods should they learn of them.
That brought Ivan to another idea. He could always forge another body, that being one of a homunculus. And when he was taught by Miledi how to imbue the consciousness of a person into another object then all he would have to do was make the swap. It'd be a one-time thing that'd also be good in case of emergency. As if the need ever arose that his current body was incapable of inhabiting he could always swap to the other.
Altering his current body would be the last option. With his newly obtained restoration magic, there was probably a way to keep it always active on his person with minimal output for mana consumption. It had to at least be effective enough to reverse the effects of aging. Perhaps a tattoo similar to the ones made for creation and destruction would be the most suitable. In turn, it would absorb a minimal amount of mana at all times, perhaps even life energy, to reverse aging.
He could picture it now, it would likely have to cover the entirety of his back to prove effective in reversing the age of his whole body but so long as it looked good he wouldn't even mind it. Sure a constant mana drain seemed annoying, but it would likely be a barely noticeable factor if the consumption was less than he regenerated over time. Hardly a big price considering it could mean immortality.
"Maa~ In any case, I won't be hasty in any of my decisions until I see what ancient magics are still in store for us. I'd be pretty pissed if I went through all this effort and there was an ancient magic that could directly solve that problem." As Ivan said, he still held hope that he wouldn't have to make too many changes in his life to be with his partner.
If that were the case then it'd be difficult for everyone else in the group to follow suit should they wish to spend their eternity with them as well. As while Yue had been his main priority when starting this path, he now had two immortal daughters who likely didn't even know they would live forever.
In that part, Ivan did feel guilty. When they come to understand the concept of time and the abnormality of their lifespan what would they do? Would they blame him as their creator for cursing them with immortality? Thank him for giving them what humanity considered the greatest gift of them all? Or would they choose to end it all once they got tired of the neverending life…?
It was a dread he felt all too tight in his stomach.
Shoving those thoughts onto future him, Ivan left his training room. The others had left early on the basis that they were hungry or already busy but he already knew that was an excuse to get out of training. The returns the training was starting to provide them were minimal, of course with that prospect they'd start to lose motivation.
Something he wasn't too concerned about as he agreed that it was better for them to hone their specialties for now. When they finished clearing all the dungeons then they'd have all the time in the world to pick up new skills or techniques.
Though of course, that didn't mean he'd allow them to completely drop what he was having them learn now, at least an hour a day he was going to force them to practice both gravity and spatial magic. The restoration was kept aside as the complexities combined with the other two magic would just serve to stress them out.
And when he referred to them he was talking about: Claire, Ari, Felis, and Canis. As Yue and Tio were the other users of the magic that sat at the advanced level and were experts of magic themselves they didn't need a novice like Ivan telling them how to improve.
That was the dynamic they had as teachers to the others, Tio and Yue would teach them the magic aspects of the ancient magic while Ivan would infuse the scientific means as a means to improve their understanding and subsequently their efficiency.
It worked quite well.
At least for everyone other than Felis who could remain seated during the lectures. But other than that a ton of progress was made in a relatively short amount of time. So much so that it'd probably be considered irregular if they went and told Miledi about it but Ivan didn't need an expert on ancient magic to make that observation.
He whistled in the elevator loudly, slinging a coin from finger to finger. In his old world, this was a skill he had always wanted to learn but gave up on as soon as he realized his lack of dexterity. But with his cheating amount of skills and stats precision was a breeze
DING!
His leisurely activities continued as the elevator doors opened and he found himself inside the garage. With a hop in his step, he opened the door to the manor and made his way in. Immediately, he was bombarded by a rambunctious Felis.
"Father, father! Look! Another letter~!" She clung to his face while waving around a white envelope. Only passing it down to him after finishing her sentence.
Unperturbed Ivan went to his claimed chair and took a seat, not minding the peering Felis as he opened up the envelope by transmuting the ring he wore on his finger into a letter opener.
His eyes squinted once he laid his eyes on the contents.
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Stttarrrrrduuussssst~! Sorry, I was listening to that OP right now. It's pretty motivating, don't now if you'd agree if you knew which opening it was so good luck. My hint was that it may be considered a reference I suppose. But this isn't a music challenge show or some shit, so firstly thanks for reading.
Thanks for reading today's work as I mentioned in the last paragraph. Next time shall be chapter 100~! Waku waku. Honestly surprised I managed to make it this far. As a guy who procrastinates everyday being able to upload almost a hundred of these without ever having missed a day is surreal.
But I'll save the big speech for next time. Thanks for reading, and have a great evening! I'll see you all real soon~!
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