Re: Love & Magic

“Alright, one last time. You had already entered one time in your magic labyrinth yesterday, so usually, you can only enter a second time after thirty days from the moment you entered inside.

“However, strangely, you went in again with your physical body, so I want you to try and see if you can enter again,” the white-bearded old man spoke with his hands behind his back.

“Let me try,” Zevien nodded as he was also curious. Entering the labyrinth is just a matter of thinking after getting into meditation.

He sat down on the bed, cross-legged and focused.

Everyone looked at him as a minute passed, but he didn’t disappear. Zevien shook his head and opened his eyes, “I can’t enter again.”

“Mhmm. Anyway, you should get that familiar feeling where you can tell that you can enter inside your labyrinth again. If that happens before thirty days, then be sure to inform Touma about it,” the old man spoke before turning around and walking. “Let’s go. Now it’s time to check whether the phenomenon of strengthening your body happens here as well or not.”

“Touma, you will stay here and prepare those two serums again.”

“Alright,” Touma nodded, “but I’ll leave for the academy after two hours, so send someone to get the serums before that.”

On the other hand, Zevien and the other four walked out of the laboratory room and went upstairs into the building that was like a two-story house and arrived at the terrace.

There was a helicopter on the terrace, and the five of them went inside before flying off towards the forest on the city’s northwest side.

“Sir, you know that this experiment had some chances of dying, right?” Zevien asked as he thought of something.

“No,” Blondina, the blond-wavy-haired woman, spoke plainly, “there was no indication that this experiment was life-threatening if it failed. The possibilities were many, and we didn’t have much time to explore all of them. Anything could happen, and simply the worst-case scenario is death. People die by choking on food as well.”

“Cough…,” Zevien did a fake cough before he wryly smiled, “anyway, that 5th class magician is a volunteer, right? After all, if you do this experiment on an enemy, he might not co-operate with you as I did by telling you everything I knew.”

“Boy, get to the point,” Merax, the middle-aged man in the suit, spoke with a snicker leaving his mouth, “you want money, right? For the risk that you went through? How much do you want?”

“Eh… no,” Zevien shook his head, “I don’t want money, but instead, I just want some tier-1 alchemy materials and a single tier-3 alchemy material known as Nerfire Rose. I’m sure these are very easy for you to get, so if you don’t mind….”

Raven, the black-haired woman, activated her Digi-watch and waved her finger from her Digi-watch screen towards Zevien.

*tin…*

“I gave you my contact number. Send me the list of those tier-1 materials. I will send you two batches of those materials, including Nerfire Rose,” the woman spoke with a faint smile, “If you managed to create something, contact me, and I will give you a good deal.”

“You really don’t let even the most bull shitting opportunity go by, right?” Blondina spoke as she rolled her eyes, “do you think he can make something brand new?”

“Why do you want those materials,” the white-bearded old man inquired, “is it related to the experiment?”

‘This old man only has that experiment on his mind, eh,’ Zevien thought before shaking his head, “It’s not related to the experiment, but a wandering old man who once arrived at our orphanage gave me a recipe parchment that included those materials. It only had a list of ingredients and the details on processing them and crafting a potion. But there were no details about the potion or its name.”

“Must be an exile from another country or a wandering mercenary,” the middle-aged man muttered before continuing, “well, with those tier-1 materials and a single tier-3 material, it won’t be a ground-breaking potion.”

‘Alright, the smokescreen has been set up,’ Zevien sneered internally, ‘but I have to start working on those two things as soon as possible.’

“Time to jump out. Boy, you can jump down without hurting yourself, right?” Merax asked Zevien.

“No problem,” Zevien nodded.

Seeing him nodding, Cargil jumped out, and then Zevien jumped out of the helicopter.

The other three also jumped and descended slowly, with wings materializing behind their backs.

On the other hand, Zevien normally descended as he started creating a spell formation of a B-rank normal spell, [Spring Legs], inside him.

Just as he arrived five meters away from the ground, Zevien executed the magic spell as the magic formation dispersed while mana entered his legs and some gathered under the soles of his feet.

*Dhoof…*

As he landed on the ground, he bounced back five meters high before descending again and bouncing three more times before standing perfectly on the ground.

‘Damn, this mana control is awesome,’ Zevien was excited, ‘it’s better than my previous life. I guess I have already achieved stage-2 mana control.’

“Hmmm, a recently awakened having that level of mana control is indeed good. The experiment was truly successful,” the white-bearded old man spoke, “you used a magic spell that was not weaved into your magic core, right?”

“Yes,” Zevien nodded with a smile.

“Sir Cargil, is the government planning to get more of those materials once we test this experiment two more times and get a 100% result?” Blondina asked.

“Indeed,” Cargil nodded, “once this experiment has been verified two more times with a 100% success rate, we will name this as Magician Growth Boost treatment. It will be a military-classified treatment for talented rising magicians below 5th class.”

“Well, first, let’s hope that it can be successful two more times,” Merax spoke before waving his hand to his left side into the forest as a dark pink whip materialized and shot forward.

After two seconds, he pulled his hand.

*Chreoooo…*

What came out was a magic beast with a rat-like appearance, two horns on its head, and the size of a dog trapped in the whip.

Merax then put that beast in front of Zevien and gestured with his hand while speaking, “kill.”

Looking at the bloodthirsty red eyes of the grade-zero magic beast, Zevien pointed his hand towards it and used Exploding Bullets magic spell.

*plop… plop… plo..*

However, after waiting for a minute, the beast didn’t decay or turn into motes.

Everyone looked at Zevien, who shook his head, “I guess that phenomenon only works inside magic labyrinths.”

“Catch a grade-one magic beast, Merax,” Cargil said to the middle-aged man in a suit.

Merax caught another magic beast and put it in front of Zevien. This time, it was a chubby, round, circular beast with lightning patterns on its body and sharp teeth with long ears.

‘Rakinpo,’ Zevien thought as he looked at the magic beast with a wry smile, ‘a vicious little bastard.’

Zevien pointed his hand towards the entirely immobile magic beast who was glaring at Zevien as its body crackled with little lightning, but the dark pink whip binding it was sucking its power constantly.

‘First Vehemence, Somatic Anger. Purple Blast,’ Zevien thought as he used his awakening magic spell.

A purple orb materialized in front of him, and he also increased his anger by reminding himself of that situation in his previous life.

He used all of his remaining mana as the orb got as big as the size of a basketball and…

*BOOM..*

It hit the magic beast’s head and injured it, but it didn’t die. After all, a Grade-1 magic beast possessed at least 500 magic power, and their bodies were also strong.

“Drink it and recover your mana,” Cargil old man gave a mana recovery potion to Zevien.

Zevien caught it and pulled out the chug before pouring it into his mouth.

But after a second, he puked most of it outside and looked at Cargil speechlessly, “old man, why did you give me such a high-tier mana recovery potion? I am just a recently awakened, not even a 5th class magician. I almost went into an overload mana state.”

“To check whether this experiment increased anything else like additional mana reserve, a more durable magic eidos body, higher endurance for the sudden influx of mana, and similar things,” Cargil spoke plainly.

Merax looked at Zevien with doubt and spoke, “boy, I’ve noticed that you don’t have that much respect, awe, or fear for us. I don’t think anyone would call city lord Cargil as an old man, especially those of your age or even more powerful magicians.”

Hearing that, Zevien was stunned and realized that his face turned blank, “you are right. I don’t think I would’ve spoken like I did until now. I wonder why?”

“Haha,” Raven chuckled and squinted her eyes, “maybe the experiment affected you mentally as well?”

“Whatever it is, for now, proceed to kill that magic beast,” Cargil spoke as he gestured to Zevien with his hand, “I sensed no rudeness in your tone or felt such intention, so it’s fine. Despite my tough manner of speaking, don’t take me as a stuck-up old man.”

“Mhm, mhm,” Raven sneakily smiled and nodded, “he is a softie internally.”

Cargil glanced at Raven but didn’t say anything as he turned to Zevien, “you attack and kill that beast.”

“Alright,” Zevien nodded with an awkward smile and attacked one more time with his Purple Orb attack of First Vehemence, Somatic Anger at its head before it finally died.

However, like the previous magic beast, this grade-1 magic beast also didn’t decay and turned into motes.

“Guess there’s nothing more to see now,” Blondina spoke as she materialized a pair of mana wings behind her back and flew up towards the helicopter.

“Let’s return,” Cargil nodded as he walked towards Zevien and grabbed his shoulder before flying up. However, the wings behind him were straight and sharp-eagle-like energy wings with abnormal dark gold patterns.