Rumors concerning the 11th Laboratory in the basement of the Red Tower of Magic had reached Hera, causing her to tilt her head in curiosity.
Laboratory 11 was used almost exclusively by Eugene, but rumors about sounds of explosions and constant vibrations coming from there had been spreading since a few days ago.
‘The sound of the explosions and the vibrations can even reach the outside of the laboratory?’
The magical specialty of the Red Tower of Magic was summoning magic. This type of magic had a lot of variables that needed to be taken into account during the summoning process, so the magic as a whole tended to be rather volatile. As such, explosions and vibrations were common, so all the laboratories had been thoroughly secured against them.
‘With Eugene’s level of magic, there shouldn’t be any way to create an explosion that can be heard from outside the room, but….’
Recently, Hera had been preoccupied with various things. Although she had been taking a break after her previous research project, she had been greatly inspired by Eugene’s success in using a core in place of a circle. So Hera had stopped working as a librarian and focused on her preparations for a new research project.
She hadn’t been able to return to Eugene’s laboratory since her last visit because of this. However, thanks to a command from the Tower Master, along with these rumors, Hera could no longer remain in her own laboratory.
Young wizards were frequently faced with an issue. When someone first starts practicing magic, they could get caught up in repeating certain experiments due to their excessive enthusiasm and end up injuring themselves despite their great talent.
Hera didn’t want that monstrous boy with his overflowing talent to suffer a needless injury due to excessive use of magic.
“Sir Eugene?” she called out.
Rumors were often greatly exaggerated. The basement laboratories were as quiet as usual, with no signs of explosions or vibrations when Hera arrived. Having been relieved by this fact, Hera was soon knocking on the door of Laboratory 11.
“Are you in—”
Before she could even finish her question, there was a loud bang.
Kuooong!
Along with this loud noise, the door to Laboratory 11 began to shake. Startled, Hera immediately pulled out her staff and held it in front of her before throwing open the door without any further hesitation.
“Si-sir Eugene! Are you alri—”
Once again, she wasn’t able to finish her sentence. Hera’s jaw dropped at the scene that was taking place in front of her very eyes.
The floor was covered in fine cracks, with no spot seemingly left intact. Eugene had been left swaying in a thick, roiling fog of mana. It was obviously the site of an accident. With a frown, Hera swung her staff.
Fwooosh!
The entire billowing fog of mana was immediately dissipated.
“Sir… Eugeeene….”
Once more, she was unable to finish what she was saying. This time, Hera’s words trailed off as she lowered her staff. But in the middle of her voice trailing off, Hera was forced to swallow a gulp.
“Phew,” Eugene sighed as he shook his head and wiped away the sweat that covered his body.
Standing in the center of the laboratory, Eugene was wearing only a comfortable pair of pants. In other words, this meant that Eugene’s upper body, which was shining with sweat, could be seen plainly.
‘What kind of… seventeen-year-old has a body like that?’ Hera wondered in disbelief.
Taking another gulp, Hera slowly turned her gaze to the side. But before she did so, she subtly took another look at Eugene’s body. Although this wasn’t the case for all wizards, most wizards had poor physiques. Since most of their work was spent sitting around and researching, without anything that had them moving around and working up a sweat, their limbs grew ever thinner even as their bellies ballooned outward.
At least in the Red Tower of Magic, there wasn’t a single wizard with a chiseled body like Eugene. Even though Lovellian took regular care of himself, his muscles weren’t as cut as Eugene’s.
Hera counted silently, ‘One, two, three… s-six.’
This was her first time seeing a real six-pack. Hera gulped once more before taking a few steps back. Then, upon realizing her mistake, she felt a jolt of surprise and looked up at Eugene once more.
This just so happened to grant her another view of his bare torso.
Hera stammered an apology, “I-I’m so sorry. I should have waited for a reply before entering, but there was a loud noise, so I….”
“It’s okay,” Eugene replied with a nonchalant expression.
Calling on the sylphs who were frolicking in the air around him, he had them blow away the sweat dripping down his body.
“I was going to respond, but I wanted to finish what I was doing first,” Eugene explained.
“What you were doing…. M-may I ask what that was exactly?” Hera asked after getting a hold of her shaking thoughts.
She had thought that he might have been practicing summoning magic, but after looking around the laboratory, it didn’t seem like that was the case.
Hera observed, ‘I don’t see any magic circles… but what’s that?’
A fragment of some unknown metal was lying in the center of the laboratory. The surrounding floor had been cracked and overturned, but the area beneath the fragment was intact without any traces of damage.
“I was training my mana. I also combined that with some magic practice,” Eugene answered with a shrug.
It was a week after the incident on Bolero Street. Eugene had spent most of his days inside this laboratory. This was to train his magic and mana by using the fragment of the Moonlight Sword as a target.
The results weren’t very satisfying. Even the sword-light he created by mustering all his will would dissipate as soon as it got close to the fragment. The same went for magic, and even the sylphs that he summoned wouldn’t approach the fragment of the Moonlight Sword. When he tried to forcefully order them to do so, the moment they drew near, they would be banished back to the Spirit Realm.
However, it wasn’t like there were absolutely no results. At first, his spells would disintegrate before they could even explode, but now it was possible for him to forcibly hold onto the scattered mana and cause an explosion in the fragment’s vicinity.
That meant that the cohesion of his mana was growing stronger.
“Magic training…?” Hera asked curiously.
“Like this,” Eugene demonstrated.
Instead of explaining things step-by-step, Eugene immediately cast a spell. Over the past week, the spells he had been using the most were the First Circle’s Magic Missile and Fireball. Hera’s eyes shook at the speed with which he cast these spells.
‘He’s gotten even faster,’ she realized.
Even though Eugene was already unbelievably fast the last time she saw him when he first cast those spells, his current speed was even faster than back then. At first glance, the speed was enough to make it feel like he may have used a magic scroll instead.
‘But that wasn’t a scroll. Just now, did he really personally activate his mana… and totally use his cores like they were circles?’ Hera asked herself in disbelief.
The absence of an incantation was no longer a surprise. Although it might have been faster, that wasn’t the only thing strange about Eugene’s spells. Hera paid close attention to the structure of the mana that made up Eugene’s spell.
The structure was so tight and sophisticated that it was hard to believe that this was created by Eugene’s skills in magic. The cohesion of the mana was also incredibly strong, to the point where it would be hard to find a dispel capable of collapsing its structure. No one would believe that these were just a First Circle Magic Missile and Fireball.
“...Are you practicing magic dueling techniques?” Hera asked hesitantly.
The fact that his spells were difficult to dispel meant that Eugene would have an edge in magical dueling. Since this would also amplify the power of his spells, the current Eugene would be able to face a wizard at a higher level without backing down.
“Although it has had that effect, I was more focused on training the overall quality of my mana,” as he said this, Eugene allowed the spells to dissipate. Instead of scattering into his surroundings, the mana immediately engulfed Eugene’s body. The transition between using the mana for his spells and the White Flame Formula flowed as smoothly as water.
Hera eventually made the observation, “...It looks like you’ve achieved quite some results.”
“Yes,” Eugene replied with a grin.
As she calmed her chest, which was pounding from surprise, Hera stared at Eugene. The pure white flames that had engulfed his body were exuding a sense of intimidation that was difficult to describe. However, Eugene’s face still retained its usual naive impression because of his youthful appearance.
With a face like that, to think he had a body rippling with such muscles…. Hera slapped her chest, which continued to pound disobediently, and started coughing.
Hera reminded him, “It-it’s fine as long as you’re not hurt. But Sir Eugene, please don’t push yourself too far. If you do get hurt, you’re not the only one who will suffer; both the Head Wizard and the Red Tower of Magic will be placed in a difficult position.”
“Yes, I’ll be careful,” Eugene nodded obediently with a smile.
Hera wasn’t just being polite with this warning.
