Meredith said, "The first version of Sofia is exactly as you see her now. Her original mind and character are in control of her body. Since she doesn't want to fight, I've given her three simple water magic skills in this form: creating illusions, making a water barrier, and healing with water."
These three skills were very basic and even apprentices could take them on. Adam didn't mind this; he knew that just because they were simple didn't mean they weren't strong. When used with his skills, they could be very useful.
"The second form is for fighting. Because she's made of water, she could grow to a hundred meters tall. But, the bigger she gets, the less stable her body becomes, so it's best to keep her around ten meters tall in fights. At this size, she can easily change how solid, pressurized, warm, or conductive her body is. Knowing how you use magic, I think you'll find this helpful."
This change was exactly what Adam wanted and why he decided to alter Sofia's abilities.
"She also has the high-pressure Water Blast, Whirlpool, and Evaporation, which use a lot of magic power but are very powerful. I made her ice powers stronger and used them to create a constant ice armor on her."
"I didn't give her a personality for her second form. Her body will be fully under your control. As long as your mind is strong enough, you can move her as easily as moving your own body. Also, the second form works like an avatar. If needed, she can act on her own, doing tasks as another version of you."
Meredith stopped here and pointed to Sofia's heart, saying, "Her core can reach the top of level four. If you can upgrade her to level five, you can come back to me to change the core. But honestly, I don't think that's very likely."
Adam felt the same way. Usually, creatures that lost their connection to their home plane find it hard to reach higher levels. Now, with the changes made to her, Sofia's chances of reaching a higher level were even slimmer. But for Adam, this was enough. Sofia version 1.0 would be a big help in his next task.
The mage gave Adam ten forest elves, including Lina and Kambi, and said, "This group has a lot of potential too. Don't you want to change them completely as well?"
Adam shook his head, "Not right now."
He wasn't sure what conditions he'd find in his next mission. The limits of plant powers were too big of a risk. If he ended up in a world where plants couldn't live, the forest elves wouldn't be useful at all.
Besides, Adam only needed them to collect information, and level two was sufficient for that.
After the last payment, Meredith showed Adam how to wake Sofia up and said he was excited to work together again before leaving the lab.
The devil popped out of Adam's thoughts, wanting to touch Sofia but was pushed away by her natural defenses. The devil felt a bit jealous and said, "She's level-three already? That was quick!"
Adam said, "It's no surprise," as he moved the devil aside and gently lifted Sofia into the air with one hand. "This isn't normal growth; it's pushing her limits. But I've realized you're not as helpful anymore. I'll change your body myself before we go on the next mission."
The devil hated himself so much for speaking up.
Sofia, who had been sleeping, fluttered her wings without knowing and slowly opened her eyes.
Her new body was amazing, making waves of water energy move through the room with each breath. The lab was filled with mist and looked like it was going to rain.
Adam wrote Meredith's magic runes on the summoning paper and softly said, "Second form."
Sofia started to shine softly, and her small body slowly turned into a form made of water. Water elements moved around her, shaping a huge figure.
Soon after, a dragon fifty meters long and ten meters tall appeared in front of Adam, covered in shining ice armor. The armor fit perfectly, with sharp spikes at each joint and dragon horns on its head that could shoot powerful water magic. The wings, longer than the dragon's body, spread out wide, and the five-meter-long tail hit the ground hard.
In this form, he couldn't see Sofia's gentle side anymore, replaced by a powerful and fierce beauty.
Her energy was strong, but it had nothing to do with magic.
Adam was very happy; Meredith's work was impressive.
"Wow, impressive!" The devil looked at Sofia in her battle form and couldn't help saying, "Ugh! Why does this dragon look so grand when it changes, but I can only turn into a wand?"
Lina, Kambi, and the other forest elves, who had been quietly watching from a corner of the lab, looked up in awe at the dragon.
Even though they were from a world of dragons, they had never seen such a grand dragon, and this dragon had been weaker than them just a little while ago.
The dragon lowered herself, her head reaching Adam's feet. As Adam stepped on, a saddle appeared automatically, putting him in the most comfortable spot. Adam gave a few orders, making her change her features easily, just like moving his own body.
With just a thought from Adam, the dragon's armor and body changed shape smoothly, and suddenly, he was inside the dragon.
"It can be controlled from inside, much like a big robot."
Once inside Sofia, Adam was completely safe. His own magic connected with Sofia's core, making him very secure unless an attack strong enough to defeat a level-three creature hit them directly.
After testing how everything worked, Adam came back down to the ground. The dragon's form turned see-through and quickly got smaller, until it was small enough to fit in his hand.
Sofia was awake and seemed a bit awkward with her new form, flying around a bit clumsily. When she noticed Adam, she was surprised and asked, "How did you become so large?"
She flew to Adam's shoulder, looking at herself closely and said softly, "I am different now, right?"
Sofia got used to her new form and abilities quickly. The honest and naive dragon didn't miss her old shape and spent her time flying around the lab's large rooms.
Three days later, the special summoning space Adam had ordered was ready. After receiving it and marking it with his soul, Adam moved all the bound creatures into it, making more space in the lab.
After working non-stop for half a month, Adam came up with a magic tool to detect electromagnetic waves. He let most of his avatars keep studying radio and infrared waves while he and a few helpers went into a special lab with living creatures that were radioactive.
"Let's start the first energy test, get ready to take notes."
Adam decided to wait before testing the very strong level-four radioactive creature. Instead, he let out a weaker, level-two creature from its containment, and at the same time, his avatars got ready to use the testing equipment.
As soon as it was free, the creature ignored everything else and went straight for Adam.
The lab's safety measures were excellent; right when the radioactive creature made a move, two magical mechanical arms came out of the floor and held it tightly. The creature made angry noises and then shot an energy beam at Adam.
"Turn on the shields."
In that moment, shields made of different elements, including one from Adam's electric power, appeared. They weren't there to block the attack but to soak up energy similar to the beam.
The energy beam went through all the shields without being stopped, which Adam expected. This showed him the attack wasn't made of any elemental energy.
"Turn on the magnetic field."
Adam didn't use the magnetic field at its maximum because using all his power would have just stopped the energy beam right away.
"Reduce the strength by 20%."
"Reduce it by 30%."
"Similar or related energy detected."
The level-two radioactive creature kept giving off radiation for about half an hour until it ran out of energy, then it could only make angry noises at Adam.
"Get ready to let out all level-two samples. Make a zone that stops energy from getting out and get ready to check for changes."
Adam started to use the many living samples he had prepared. At his command, the seals on all twenty level-two radioactive creatures were opened. Mechanical arms went right into their bodies, taking over the parts that let out energy. Now, they could only attack when Adam said so.
"Let numbers one to seven start shooting at the same time."
"Now numbers eight to fourteen."
"And numbers fifteen to twenty."
Adam gave the control of the test to one of his avatars and went over to watch the data, paying close attention to every little change.
After two days, they started to understand what the energy beam was made of. The tools showed it was mainly three things, as Adam had seen before. By this time, the level-two creatures didn't have enough energy left to help with more tests, so Adam had them put back into their seals and taken out of the room.
The energy from level-three creatures was stronger and stayed together better, which meant the data from tests with them would be more useful and complete.
After being in a place with a lot of radiation for fifteen days, Adam found very high-frequency, short-wave electromagnetic waves in the radiation.
He stopped the test for a bit and got all his avatars together to work on making a new magic that could completely block or separate the electromagnetic part of the energy beam.
Since Adam didn't fully understand electromagnetic waves yet, creating the magic meant he had to keep changing the frequency of the changing electromagnetic field. The high frequency and short waves of gamma rays made this hard. Even a tiny mistake in the electromagnetic field could mess everything up.
To make sure it was completely quiet, Adam made the devil leave and set it so only he could get into the lab. After two months, he had a big breakthrough.
He didn't make the magic, but he figured out the frequency of gamma rays and changed his magnetic field for a short time to stop gamma rays effectively.
After coming back into the room again, there was about 60% of the energy that Adam couldn't fully understand.
Knowing that gamma rays were there, Adam also guessed that the other two types of rays might be present.
Alpha rays can't go through things easily from the outside; a piece of paper can stop them. Even though they're stronger here in the Mage World, it shouldn't be too hard to find a way to block them.
Four days later, Adam found a material that could completely block alpha rays without affecting the other types of rays, leaving just one-third of the rays to study.
Adam moved the level-three radioactive creatures out of the lab, and then let out the first level-four creature.
He remembered fighting Mage Stanley. As soon as the creature was freed, it sent out a strong beam of radiation.
His alchemical golem stepped in right away. They used shields to weaken the radiation layers, leaving just a third of it to hit a certain large creature.
That creature turned to dust instantly.
Adam went to watch things closely. Then he watched the scene again in very slow motion: The unseen wave of radiation hit the creature, causing burns on the skin, a rise in temperature, the liquids in the body turning to gas, and the inside of the body breaking down, leading to death.
He said to himself with excitement, "This is what happens when beta radiation hits flesh!"
"Intruder..." the creature groaned.
Adam didn't listen to the creature's words, "Be quiet, keep going!"
The level-four creature was quite smart. He bellowed, "When the lords come back, you and your world will vanish in misery!"
The threat, however, carried little weight on Adam.
The level-four creature didn't understand how scary the place was.
Adam simply told the golems, "Silence him, then move on."
...
After being kicked out of the lab, the devil quickly went to Meyer City.
