"Eh…"
Mognog hesitated at Ritzy's overly excited exclamation.
"What's it?"
Ritzy grabbed Mognog with both hands and held him right in front of his face like he was trying to count the hairs on Mognog's bare skull.
"We've been thinking about this the wrong way! We shouldn't find something that compliments death and light. We should find something that clashes!"
"Kiddo, what are you on about?"
Mognog couldn't help but think he hadn't given Ritzy enough cred for his ability to think out of the box.
"Didn't ya' hear me?! We should use a Mognog method with life and darkness to create as violent of an explosion as possible!"
Ritzy spoke with crazed excitement.
"You're crazy, kiddo."
"I prefer the term free-thinking!"
Mognog sighed.
"There's no way that will work. But I can at least hear you out."
"Great! So, if we use a perfectly complementary method, that method and Little Specter will hopefully react and create a metaphorical armory that is as sturdy as possible. On the other hand, if we use a neutral Mognog method, there won't be much of a reaction, which is a shame, but it's almost guaranteed to work."
"Yeah…?"
They had already established as much.
"So, what we're really looking for is a reaction that will work, and the greater the reaction, the greater the potential of the combined method, right?"
Mognog hesitated. Put like that, it made sense.
"I guess…?"
"What we need isn't a perfect complement. It's balance! And we get that by using the polar opposites. I mean, think about it. Life and light go hand in hand, and death and darkness go hand in hand. To balance death and light, we'll need the opposites of each attribute, which just so happen to complement the other attribute. It's like a puzzle!"
"It's madness. Sure, it would be great if it worked. But it's like blowing up a mountain to look for diamonds. Just that the mountain is your body, kiddo."
Mognog spoke with a stern tone to try and get Ritzy to understand.
But Ritzy just waved Mognog's worry away.
"Meh. I'm sure it will be fine. Just get cracking, and let's try it out."
"No."
"What do you mean, 'no'?"
"I won't do it. If mana of opposite attributes like that mix within your body, they'll clash like hot oil and water. You're trying to kill yourself, kiddo."
"But won't this make the greatest method if it works?"
"I won't deny that it's possible, but only in theory. In practice, it will be impossible to find the right balance without exploding in the process."
"Ey, what's the big deal? I can just do it."
Mognog sighed in exasperation. He didn't understand where Ritzy got his insane confidence from.
"Wha— No, never mind. Even if I were to agree and let you do this, It's not like I have a method of life and darkness, you know?"
"Hmm."
Ritzy's face scrunched up in displeased thought.
"That's a problem."
Mognog felt like saying that it was the opposite. It was a good thing he didn't have a method like that. But words like that wouldn't even graze Ritzy's ears.
"And you're not lying?"
"Lying?"
"Yeah. You're not saying you don't have a method like that just to stop me?"
"Kiddo, you can tell if I'm lying, can't you?"
"Ah, that's right. My bad, Moggy. What do we do then?"
Mognog sighed. It was a shame, but they only had one option.
"We settle for a neutral method."
"Mognog! Do you hear yourself?!"
"What?"
Mognog answered with confused indignation to Ritzy's aghast outburst.
"You want us to settle? What are we? Low-class whores?!"
"Whoa!"
Mognog hadn't expected Ritzy to become so emotional or that he would lash out, and he could only respond with shock. Mognog's jaw hung slack as he stared at Ritzy. Well, it wasn't like his jaw couldn't be slack. If anything, it was about to literally hit the ground.
"Ahem. Lovely weather we're having."
Ritzy pretended like nothing had happened and put Mognog on his shoulder as he continued walking. Even if he realized he might have gone slightly overboard, he didn't admit it and just focused on leaving Benin behind.
"Moggy, you said you didn't have a method for life and darkness, right?"
Ritzy spoke after a while to break the unbearably awkward silence.
"Yeah?"
"What about two methods then? Or maybe even more to balance it out? Like, one life, one darkness, and one neutral to act as a mediator."
"..."
Mognog sank into silence as he pondered on what Ritzy had said. His first thought was that it would be too chaotic and messy and fail.
"Hmm."
But the more he thought about it, the more Mognog seriously considered the possibility of adding multiple methods to the mix. Of course, too many would just lead to a complete meltdown and Ritzy's eventual death. But finding the perfect mix maybe wasn't entirely impossible.
"I have to admit, kiddo, this time, you might be on to something."
Mognog was slightly reluctant to admit it after how hard Rityzy had tried to convince Mognog to let Ritzy try and kill himself.
But he grew eager and expectant at the possibilities and potential of what kind of method they could concoct. So, Mognog didn't hold back and put the past where it belonged, in the past.
"We still need to pick the exactly right methods to maintain a balance, considering Little Specter is alone and probably not the best method around, while the ones I know are pretty darn good."
Ritzy nodded with excitement.
"What are you waiting for? Start listing them!"
Since Mognog was the only one who knew the methods from the Mognog Empire, there was a limit to what Ritzy could contribute in that area. Mognog had to tell him about all the relevant methods before Ritzy could give his opinion.
Thankfully, there weren't that many methods with either life or darkness that would work, so they quickly decided on those two.
Ritzy and Mognog settled on a method called the Ten Petals of Growth for the life attribute addition to the mix. It wasn't the best method Mognog knew, and it couldn't bring the practitioner to the final rank in the Mognog mana mastery system. But, on the other hand, there were very few extremely elite methods that could do that.
Ten Petals of Growth was good enough. The fact that it couldn't reach the highest rank only meant that it wasn't too strong or overbearing. There would be enough room for it to interact and mix with the other methods, which should, in theory, promote the entire combination to a completely new height.
The choice for a darkness method followed a similar reasoning. It had to be good enough to blend well and make sure Ritzy's growth would reach unfathomable heights. But if it were too good, the method would end up taking over. That couldn't happen, so they chose a method called Crawling Shadows.
When it came to choosing a neutral method, however, Ritzy and Mognog felt that it would be better to choose something different. Not necessarily something strong, just something that could contain and control the mix of Little Specter, Ten Petals of Growth, and Crawling Shadows.
Eventually, they ended up choosing a method that would focus on laying down a solid foundation so that Ritzy's body could endure the magical clash of the different methods and attributes. They chose something called the Divine Armored Turtle King method.
While the name was overbearing and painfully ostentatious, the method wasn't as powerful as the name sounded. It was definitely a good method. It was even objectively better than Ten Petals and Crawling Shadows since it could bring the practitioner further.
But the Divine Armored Turtle King method only managed to do so by focusing on a single specialty, magical defense.
The Divine Armored Turtle King's only weakness as a living being was its weakness to magic effects and spells. Its body was strong and mighty, and its physical defense was unmatched. The Divine Armored Turtle King method was a method with the idea to make up for the lacking magic resistance.
And some ancient scholar of the Mognog Empire redesigned it for, well, the people of Mognog to use if they wanted. There weren't many that did for obvious reasons. Even if the magical defense the method provided was exceptional, it would be useless if one could die by falling and hitting one's head, even after reaching the higher ranks. It also didn't provide any offense, so only those in special situations or with special conditions practiced the method.
Still, Mognog knew of it, and he and Ritzy felt that the Divine Armored Turtle King's method would be the perfect base to build their volatile combination of methods on since it would ensure Ritzy could handle any fluctuations or outbursts of mana.
Well, at least that's what Ritzy and Mognog hoped. They had no idea whether it would work, or if Mognog could even piece together the methods in a way that would give them the effects they wanted. It wasn't even a guarantee that he could stitch together the methods. It was almost nothing more than a farfetched dream of turning Ritzy into an invincible monster using a possible combination of two different mana mastery systems.