"Of course; there's already a place prepared. Let's go."
The director replied in a calm and serious tone. At that moment, a powerful flash filled the room, and with it, everyone vanished from the meeting room. Everyone reappeared in a beautiful valley surrounded by enormous mountains where nothing could be seen but a gorgeous green lawn stretching as far as the eye could see.
Due to the sudden teleportation, Erik was caught off guard and nearly fell, as he had been writing intently. When he steadied himself on the ground, he couldn't help but send a resentful glance at the director, while Seraphina handed him his notebook and pen that had fallen to the ground, which he stored in his storage ring.
The director smiled slightly as he looked at the annoyed Erik. He felt how the Myst of the place 'got angry' and refused to fall under his control, almost like a resentful mother throwing a tantrum for having bothered her little baby.
"Well, Erik, this place is all yours to show a couple of spells." Thalia, who was beside the director, commented with a slight smile on her face and a hint of anticipation in her expression as she looked at the star-haired boy.
Thalia genuinely felt some anticipation about what Erik was going to show today. After all, he had already displayed impressive feats in the duel that had taken place not long ago. Something she now knew was that Erik had not given it his all, since he had not shown that exquisite connection with the Myst that she had witnessed in her private room, a spectacle she would love to see again.
"A spell?" Upon hearing the redhead's words, Erik couldn't help but ask in a low voice as he turned to look at his masters, a bit confused.
"Just show them a bit of your 'WarSigil' project." Sigrún commented cheerfully, with a slightly playful smile on her face that couldn't hide her pride and her evident desire to show off.
"WarSigil? Not MystFrame?"
Upon hearing Sigrún, Erik couldn't help but ask, somewhat confused. After all, when it came to showing off, as his master evidently wanted, there was something much more 'impressive.' But Sigrún shook her head and commented with a mysterious smile.
"No, WarSigil is more than enough."
"Okay."
Erik nodded while everyone except Eleonora, Sigrún, and Seraphina wondered what those strange names referred to. The truth was that, being a good engineer, Erik liked to give cool names to his projects, to the point where he spent more time than he was willing to admit choosing them.
As for the MystFrame project, it referred to his endeavor to develop rune circles, which his masters had joined some time ago, though without much progress to date. Despite Erik having developed several more rune circles and his masters trying countless ways to reverse-engineer them, there had been no luck; each rune circle seemed an impossible puzzle that only Erik could solve with the help of his absurd intuition.
Because of that, the MystFrame project was almost at a standstill, advancing at such a slow pace that it was demoralizing for Erik. Therefore, Erik was forced to look for other options to solve his problem of lack of affinities. He then thought of resuming one of his projects that was based on something with a solid theoretical foundation and ample development and testing time.
The first project Erik undertook to increase his efficiency with elemental spells was his [WarSigil] project, which was about developing combat applications of the runic-geometric refinement developed by his master Eleonora—a project he set aside when he started MystFrame.
Erik's idea with WarSigil was to take advantage of the great efficiency that geometric-runic refining achieved and apply it to combat, with the goal of reducing the cost of his elemental spells. Although he made good progress and really achieved several interesting applications. Not long after, he realized that as soon as his combat applications became popular, he would return to the starting point and once again spend more mana than mana users with the respective affinity to an elemental spell.
Because of this, Erik began studying ways to utilize his greatest advantage—his connection with the Myst—to nullify his disadvantages. He sought to create something that used the Myst as a central part of its structure rather than externally, like current magical systems, which ultimately led to the rune circles, or, in other words, the MystFrame project.
Thanks to his return to his WarSigil project, his masters were now able to help him more actively, where he developed different combinations of combat-oriented magic circles and runes. They helped him discover weak points and develop the theory behind them, and had even already started writing the academic papers about it.
…
Upon hearing Erik's response, everyone present turned to look at him with a bit of anticipation, waiting for what he was going to do, while he casually extended his hand. This small action seemed to trigger a massive reaction in the Myst, which gathered in large quantities around him, greatly surprising Jessica, who was seeing for the first time someone so young with such a deep connection to the Myst.
Not long after Erik extended his hand, an exquisite magic circle typical of sacred geometry formed in front of him, which was instantly surrounded by different runes functioning as microcontrollers. They recycled part of the mana that was usually lost, greatly reducing the mana expenditure needed to create the spell, and provided more precise control over it—an extra benefit that the group of masters and disciple had discovered along the way.
Once the runic-geometric circle was fully formed, which took only fractions of a second, a deep red fireball the size of a basketball materialized at its center. It shot out at blinding speed moments later, traversing several kilometers in an instant, ultimately crashing into the ground.
The moment the fireball struck the ground, it emitted a powerful flash of light, followed by a massive ball of fire and gases that expanded in all directions. Simultaneously, the ground shook violently, and a brutal shockwave burst forth, compressing the air around it and generating a white mist that shrouded the explosion for a few moments.
A few seconds later, the group heard the deafening sound of the explosion, which resembled a prolonged thunderclap, as they were hit by the shockwave. At the site of the explosion, a huge column of smoke rose into the sky.
Seeing the brutal destruction caused by a 'simple fireball', Erik couldn't help but marvel once more at how impressive magic was, even though it was a scene he had witnessed thousands of times. After all, that power was comparable to an explosive warhead in his past life, and he could release dozens of those fireballs without much difficulty, which basically turned him into a strategic bomber on legs.
For her part, Jessica couldn't help but look at Erik with surprise written all over her face. Although the power of Erik's spell was nothing extraordinary, his mana expenditure was. After all, it hardly differed from that of someone with a fire affinity—practically the same, perhaps even a bit less—which was undoubtedly insane in terms of efficiency. Normally, a person without the corresponding affinity would spend twice the mana of someone with it.
Similarly, Adrian and Thalia stared absolutely stunned at the magic circle surrounded by runes fading in the air. Great geniuses and talented researchers from all over the galaxy had spent millennia searching for ways to apply runic-geometric refinement to combat spells, but until now, they hadn't achieved anything. Yet, as if mocking all the work of those geniuses, they were now witnessing a perfectly functional application being carried out by a young Ascended-level disciple of only 30 years.
"Master Eleonora has truly taken another great step; the galaxy will be turned upside down when this great advancement becomes known."
After recovering from the surprise, Jessica turned to Eleonora and genuinely congratulated her with an elegant smile. To her surprise, the mother of runic-geometric refinement gently shook her head, then commented in a serious tone, while a proud smile settled on her face.
"I wouldn't dare take my disciple's credit for myself."
Upon hearing the shocking statement, Jessica's eyes widened in surprise. She turned to look at Erik, who seemed to be deep in thought with a hand on his chin, then looked back at Eleonora and asked, full of incredulity.
"Your disciple managed to develop that on his own?"
"Of course. Erik is my first disciple, after all; something like this is the least to expect."
Sigrún responded with elegance as she stepped forward, placing a hand on her beloved disciple's shoulder. A proud, arrogant smile graced her face, drawing a collective roll of eyes from everyone present. Inwardly, however, they couldn't help but feel envious of the blonde troublemaker. After all, having such a disciple was every mana user's dream. Just then, Eleonora stepped forward, resting her hand on Erik's other shoulder and adding her own 'graceful' comment.
"That's certainly the case. Our Erik has long been seeking ways to overcome his disadvantage when using elemental spells. Although his communion with the Myst prevents him from running out of mana, the more powerful spells are beyond his reach because they require more mana than he can produce at his level. And this is just one of his first achievements."
"Communion with the Myst...?"
Though it was obvious that Eleonora was 'humbly bragging', Jessica couldn't help but exclaim softly, absolutely stunned, as she closely studied the pensive, star-haired boy. After all, she had just heard that a 30-year-old youngster had managed to master a Master-level technique that many at that level couldn't grasp.
(What kind of monster are these two troublemakers raising...?)
"It's truly amazing, though even more astounding is where he finds the time. Right now, his inventions are spreading across the galaxy, and now he's going to turn it upside down with this..."
While Jessica was lost in her thoughts, Adrian commented softly, and Thalia nodded in total agreement. Without a doubt, that boy was more monstrous than his monstrous masters combined.
"Well, Master Jessica, what do you think of our Erik?" the director asked with a small, inscrutable smile, pulling Jessica out of her reverie. But just as she was about to respond, an angry female voice interjected.
"'Our'?" Sigrún looked incredibly angry at the director, standing protectively in front of Erik as she added, full of vigilance.
"That sounds like too many people; he's mine and Eleonora's, and no one else's."
"Hehehe, don't be like that; Erik is part of our Arcane Order, so he's one of us." Thalia commented with a mocking smile, watching Sigrún act like a mama cat protecting her kitten.
"Stay out of it, Thalia; it's none of your business." Sigrún retorted irritably, shooting Thalia a blank stare. Thalia couldn't help but laugh genuinely, thoroughly amused.
"Hahahahaha"