The next day, he strolled over to his practice room on his floor. Yep, you heard it right – he's got his own practice space, pretty sweet, huh? Though the mana gathering setup in the room was still basic, only boosting mana concentration up to five times the usual. He figured he'd upgrade the formation later. For now, he was itching to test out his upgraded abilities.
Just like with the level 1 magic circle, the level 2 circle also came with an innate spell. In his case, it was [Hermes' Shoes - Talaria]. And just like Lightning Flesh, he set the spell to be always active. So those snazzy shoes you see him rocking? Yep, that's [Talaria]!
Basically, anytime he wanted, he could take a step and tap into the shoes' ability. Plus, one cool thing about [Talaria] was its ability to create a thin barrier around him, controlling the movement of wind or dust particles to avoid causing any disturbance to his surroundings.
Now, thanks to the always-active [Talaria], he had that barrier up all the time. Before, [Environmental Mimicry] handled the job of keeping the air undisturbed. But with Talaria in the mix, his Stealth became even more flawless, even during high-speed movement.
He revved up the nerve acceleration of [Lightning Flesh] and cranked up the output of [Talaria]. As the world seemed to slow down around him, he took a step.
Silently, he vanished from the spot. In the paused world, he strolled leisurely before coming to a stop at the other end of the room, where he dialed down the nerve acceleration of [Lightning Flesh].
Then, he kicked things up a notch by activating his [Body Enhancement - Mana] - MAX OUTPUT, along with [Lightning Flesh] and [Talaria] – his [Triple Enhancement] combo. It was the same setup he used when he squared off against the saintess.
Electricity surged through his veins, occasionally sparking outside his skin before snapping back in, coating his body in crackling lightning. Even his silver locks took on a bluish tint from the energy. Lightning danced in his sky-blue eyes.
The commotion stirred up by the lightning coursing through his body created a ripple in the air around him, making his robe and hair flutter. Now, you might be wondering what the deal is with [Talaria] if he's just going to stir up the air anyway.
Well, here's the twist: he was intentionally creating that air disturbance, having switched off the Talaria barrier. And that lightning showed on his skin and hair? Totally intentional. Sure, he could keep the lightning hidden under his skin to play it low-key. But hey, for now, he was all about that cool factor, you know?
Pleased with his electrifying appearance, he flicked the [Talaria] barrier back on before revving up his nerve acceleration. The world froze in its tracks. This illusion of a paused world was thanks to the nerve acceleration effects from his three spells, mainly [Lightning Flesh]. He could keep the body enhancements going while turning off the nerve acceleration, but that would mean needing full control over his body.
The beauty about [Talaria] was that even though the shoes were active, he could choose not to be accelerated by them. So, unlike when he first always activated [Lightning Flesh] and went uncontrollably fast, he now had more control over his speed.
But he still reaped the benefits of physique enhancement, thanks to the always-active barrier created by the shoes. It tempered his body day in and day out, making him stronger. So now, his physique was getting a double boost from [Lightning Flesh] and [Talaria] all day, every day.
Anyway, getting back to this frozen world scenario. He had a tighter grip on [Talaria], which in turn helped him control his body better, all thanks to making [Talaria] his innate spell.
Now, onto testing his spellcasting chops. He noticed a new ability after leveling up to a level 2 wizard: [Enhanced Computation Power]. He figured it had something to do with his spellcasting skills. So, he raised his arm and pointed in one direction. "Come, [Zeus's Thunderbolt]!"
In a flash, a lightning spear, about four meters long, materialized, hovering quietly in front of his finger, radiating immense power.
He was surprised. Usually, he could wrap up his spellcasting real quick, like in a moment or so. Thanks to the enhanced reaction speed from the triple enhancement he had going on. But this time, it wasn't about reaction speed.
He completed the spell pattern right after extracting mana from his mana core! Normally, for a spell, he'd have to pull mana from his core and guide it outside his body to form the pattern.
For simpler spells, he could shape the pattern as soon as the mana left the core. By the time the pattern exited his body, it was already fully formed. However, Zeus's Thunderbolt was a level 2 spell, boasting crazy complexity. Logically it's impossible to create the spell pattern before it gets out of his body.
He dispersed the thunderbolt in front of his finger before trying again. This time, he watched closely as he cast the spell. He noticed that when he cast it, both of his massive mana cores spat out mana, and once it passed through the barrier, it automatically transformed into the level 2 symbols needed for the spell, merging into a complete spell pattern.
The mana cores juiced up the completed spell pattern with mana. Then, the pattern zipped to his finger, and boom! The spell was a go. Dang! He wasn't even shaping the spell pattern; this was almost like casting an innate spell!
Dispersing his second thunderbolt, he couldn't help but feel pumped! With this new computational ability and the shortcuts from his two massive cores, he should be able to sling massive and complex spells right in the middle of a brawl. Talk about a firepower boost!
He was pretty darn sure that the computational leap he got from leveling up to 2 was way bigger than what ordinary wizards experienced. After all, he had a way larger core than the average wizard. And not just one – he had two ginormous cores! Yep, two whopping massive cores! Whoa... got a bit carried away there.
He went back to mull over his spell. He noticed that even though he used the same spell pattern structure as before leveling up, the spell's effect doubled without changing a thing. His guess? It was gotta be because of his purer and denser mana, doubling the spell power.
"Just you wait, Saintess. I'm gonna bombard you with massive spells one after another. Let's see if you can hide behind your barrier then!"
One minor perk of advancing to level 2 was gaining the ability to fly. He switched off his Triple Enhancement, then focused on making his body float – and sure enough, it did! It definitely felt different from stepping into thin air. Utilizing the floating ability from the mana cores, he truly felt like he was flying. He could move at a decent clip in this state, and it consumed very little mana.
But honestly, he wasn't all that impressed. I mean, he could always opt for [Lightning Wings] from his level 1 spells to fly like this. The snag? He'd lose out on his speed advantage. See, he could zip around at hyperspeed by supercharging his body to inhuman levels with lightning, then using his muscles to kick off the ground and zoom forward. Even his [Talaria] worked on the same principle – stepping on the ground or air to boost his momentum. So, maybe floating could come in handy for travel or just to look cool. But when it came down to a fight? [Triple Enhancement] was the way to go.
After putting his fighting skills to the test and feeling pretty satisfied with the upgrades from leveling up, it was time to see how his mana gathering skills had improved.
He shifted his focus to the depths of his mana core. There, he beheld the magnificent sight of two massive cores orbiting each other, like twin stars in a cosmic dance. The magic circles on each core spun so fast they formed a golden ball barrier around the cores, sending ripples of mana cascading outward.
He watched as the sea of mana on each core slowly circulated, forming an infinity symbol. And when I say sea of mana, I mean it! He's not exaggerating – he's got over 100,000 mana. Just to put things in perspective, a peak level 2 wizard typically has 7000-9000 mana. So yeah, he's sitting on roughly ten times the amount of mana a top-notch level 2 wizard has. As for level 3 wizard mana? Well, he figures he could still drown one of them in mana with what he's got.
As he gazed upon the oppressive aura created by the roiling movement of his mana ocean, he couldn't help but let out a sigh of amazement. He wasn't exactly sure how it happened, but during his advancement, the magic circles on his first core started resonating with his second core. This caused the circles on the second core to grow to the same size as those on the first, effectively doubling his mana capacity. What's more, the patterns and symbols on the second core matched those on the first, meaning its abilities weren't lacking in comparison.
That's why he referred to them as his "twin" cores. However, both cores were already brimming with mana. He couldn't cram any more in there for now, lest the cores expand beyond what the golden barrier could contain, potentially causing the same disastrous situation he faced before leveling up to 2.
So, he turned his attention to another empty space, planning to create his third core. He activated the suction ability of his twin cores, and instantly, a massive force sucked all the mana in his surroundings into the twin cores. Heck! He didn't even have to manually gather the lightning particles anymore.
The suction power from his massive cores was more than enough to draw in all the mana particles and filter out the lightning ones. Then, after compressing the lightning mana twice within the cores, he directed it to the outside of the cores.
This time, he decided to create the third core close to the twin cores. Since he had perfect control over the suction power of the twin cores, he wasn't worried that the newly created core would get sucked into destruction.
Since he wasn't technically meditating, which involved manually pulling lightning particles, and was only redirecting mana from the twin cores to the new core, he could keep up the mana gathering for much longer than 8 hours.
After a solid 12 hours of continuous mana gathering, he finally managed to gather enough mana for the third core to advance it to a level 1 mana core. He swiftly set up the level 1 magic circle and watched as the third core leveled up.
With that done, he ticked off his agenda for the day. Next stop: the mission hall to set up a level 2 lecture. Now that he had hit level 2, he had to do a few lectures each year on level 2 topics.
He planned to stick with his first lecture for a steady income of points. After all, who would say no to extra cash? Plus, he didn't have to do the mandatory lecture every day, just a couple times a year.
He scheduled his level 2 lectures starting from tomorrow, with one lecture per day for three consecutive days. He aimed to wrap up his obligations quickly before venturing out of the tower.
Word of his lecture spread like wildfire throughout the tower, along with news of his successful advancement to level 2. Many who had doubted him were left speechless. Not only had Zack managed to advance, but they didn't even know he was planning to in the first place.
Now, Zack was officially hailed as the greatest genius of the last millennium, surpassing even the current head of the tower, Evangeline Ashwood. Wizards from all corners flocked to his lecture. And it wasn't just because he was now a level 2 wizard; even without that status, his deep knowledge of spell patterns was well-known throughout the tower. So, his lecture was bound to be a hit no matter what.
Before he knew it, all 200 seats of his lecture hall were filled. And mind you, that's saying something, considering the tower boasted more than 200 official wizards!
Zack was taken aback. Sure, he knew there were plenty of level 1 wizards in the tower, but he hadn't expected there to be this many. He mused that perhaps it was due to the long lifespan of an official wizard – around 150 years – coupled with the tower's ability to churn out 3-5 new wizards each year.
And let's not forget about the peak level 1 wizards out on missions or those who perished during the massive war a decade ago. There should have been even more wizards than this. But hey, he pushed that thought aside and focused on his lecture.
He decided to delve into the intricacies of spell patterns, and three days later, he wrapped up his lectures. It was time to venture out of the tower.