NoveLight ™
There was nothing particularly special in the subspace pouch of the dark magician.
It contained mana stones, dark magic books, and a few F to D-grade artifacts. There was also a purple crystal that held the core of another magician, seemingly trapped like a vengeful spirit.
‘Better keep this as far away from my wooden sword as possible.’
However, Leon did find one useful artifact in the subspace pouch of the high-level dark magician.
Leon placed a round compass on his palm and used an appraisal spell.
The compass had the ability to reveal the direction and distance of a target once their blood was smeared on it. The red needle pointed toward the target’s direction, vibrating more intensely as the distance closed.
It was a C-grade tracking artifact.
‘If I can get their blood, I already have the upper hand, don’t I?’
Initially, Leon thought it might not be very useful, but then a practical application came to mind.
‘It doesn’t have to be someone I’m trying to kill.’
It could also be used to monitor a person of interest or to track the location of an ally. There would likely be many situations where it could prove useful.
Leon took the mana stones and the tracking compass, storing the rest back in the corner. Then he picked up Raidhra’s subspace pouch.
Leon didn’t open the pouch immediately.
‘Is he still alive?’
Raidhra, who stayed behind to fight the dark magician in Widia, was last seen by Leon summoning a massive storm cloud. That was the last image Leon had of Raidhra.
There was no way to know if he survived, but Leon leaned toward the possibility that Raidhra had perished. The situation had been that dire.
In a way, it was as if his master had died. Though there was no real bond between them, Leon was Raidhra’s only personal disciple.
‘Revenge…’
The thought of seeking revenge with his current power felt like a luxury. However, if Leon encountered a dark magician he could fight, he wouldn’t hesitate to kill them.
That was the extent to which Leon mourned for Raidhra.
‘He might still be alive, though.’
Inside Raidhra’s subspace pouch, the first thing Leon found was a blue-marked insignia. It seemed to represent the Widia Tower Master. Unlike the dark magicians' insignias, it had no other magical functions.
Aside from that, there were three grimoires:
All of them were lightning magic.
‘He didn’t only use lightning magic, did he?’
When Leon last saw Raidhra fighting the dark magician, he was using wind, water, and lightning magic simultaneously. Despite his use of multi-element magic, it seemed Raidhra had specialized his writings in lightning magic.
Perhaps Raidhra had only recently started combining multi-element magic, leaving him little time to compile it into grimoires. It was unfortunate, but Leon accepted it.
‘Glorious Thunderbolt… I’m already familiar with that one.’
Leon carefully examined the books. Surge of Currents was basic magic. The other was Glorious Thunderbolt, which Leon already knew. The final one was a higher-level lightning spell.
Glorious Thunderbolt was the upper-level spell of Surge of Currents, and Judgment of the Sky was the higher-level spell of Glorious Thunderbolt.
‘Since Raidhra was at the early stage of Insight…’
Judgment of the Sky was likely at least B to B+ rank.
As Leon skimmed through it, he saw that it indeed covered grand magic. The name of the grand magic was the same as the grimoire's title, Judgment of the Sky.
While Glorious Thunderbolt bombarded a specific area with lightning, Judgment of the Sky called down a massive lightning pillar from the heavens, devastating a wide area. It was truly a grand magic akin to a natural disaster.
‘With this, I won’t have any issues with lightning magic up to the early stages of Insight.’
Given its aggressive nature, Leon anticipated that it would be his main offensive magic until he developed something new.
The other artifact was a Lightning Shackle—a blue shackle that acted as a torture device, shocking the wearer with electricity whenever they tried to gather mana.
Additionally, there were three B-grade essences and various magical materials, including several herbs and minerals that Leon didn’t recognize. He set aside the materials he couldn’t identify for further study later.
In total, Leon now possessed 70,000 mana stones.
‘Is that a lot?’
He vaguely remembered that an F-grade essence could be exchanged for 50 mana stones, and an E-grade essence for about 350 mana stones. With each increase in essence grade, the value increased by seven times.
‘So, I don’t even have enough for five C-grade essences?’
Leon was confused—either essences were extraordinarily expensive, or 70,000 mana stones weren’t that much for a high-level magician.
‘Raidhra’s pouch didn’t contain any mana stones, so there’s nothing I can do about it.’
Since his immediate need for mana stones was to create golem cores, it wasn’t much of a concern.
Leon’s skill in creating scorpion golems improved day by day.
Now, he could successfully inscribe the core with the correct pattern on one out of every five attempts. Since he had nearly 100 materials for the golem bodies, he didn’t need to inscribe mana circuits onto minerals to create parts—he just needed to insert the cores.
By the time Leon had gone through 500 mana stones, he had created 100 cores. He inserted the new cores into all 100 scorpion golem bodies.
“What’s all this?”
“Scouts.”
Leon gave simple orders to 80 of the scorpion golems: to patrol near Kito’s lair and report any suspicious activity. The reports would come directly to Leon through a telepathic connection.
The remaining 20 were set to activate only when Leon commanded them. Since he didn’t have any immediate use for them, he stored them inside the orb.
The biggest advantages of the Secrets of Creation were twofold. First, once charged, the cores had a long operational life. Second, the magic allowed him to control dozens, even hundreds, of golems simultaneously. Without this magic, controlling even a single golem would require one thread of willpower.
At the first star, Leon could control up to 10 golems at once. Though he had created 20, Leon, still at the first star, could only control 10 at a time. The others operated based on their simple orders.
“….”
“….”
The scorpion golems, moving in a group, and the winged vipers that originally guarded Kito’s lair under Velix’s command, stared each other down. Neither side was willing to break eye contact, as if in a tense standoff.
Suddenly, a warning signal flashed in Leon’s mind. The scorpion golems were programmed to send a signal if they encountered anything unfamiliar.
Satisfied with the scorpion golems, Leon withdrew them and excluded the vipers from their patrol targets.
The core for the armor knight golem wasn’t much different from that of the scorpion golem. Leon had gathered over 100 armor knight bodies from the ancient lair’s manufacturing room.
The gargoyle golems were a bit more complex, with 30 in total.
The gargoyle golems could be made to use magic, requiring much more intricate patterns to be inscribed on their cores. The magic for the gargoyle golems was the C+ rank wind-element spell, Gale. It was so complex that Leon had used up 1,000 mana stones without mastering it.
‘At this rate, I really might spend a whole year here.’
While the Secrets of Creation was considered magic and progressed his training quest, Leon stopped making more golems after successfully creating the first gargoyle golem core.
It was time to start studying runic script and consider the remaining 300 rounds of rewards. Leon was planning to choose another grimoire. If an SSS rank one appeared, it was likely that the magical formulas would also be based on runic script.
“Kito, let’s go.”
Kito emerged from the orb.
Kito could now freely enter and exit the orb at will. It seemed Leon had grown more comfortable with her presence since their familiar contract was established.
Lying atop Leon’s head, Kito spoke to Velix, who had come to see them off.
“Are you coming with us?”
“No, Sister. You know my goal.”
“Oh, you mean that ridiculous goal of conquering the Beast Forest?”
“You know how important it is to me. It’s my lifelong ambition.”
“Lifelong ambition… all you do is slack off…”
Leon cut in, interrupting Kito.
“Let me know if you need help.”
Leon meant it sincerely. Thanks to Velix, he had solved his food supply issues and received significant help in his training. He felt genuinely grateful to Velix.
Sensing this, Velix awkwardly cleared his throat.
“Ahem, I don’t know if there will ever be a day when I need your help, kid.”
“Who are you calling ‘kid’?”
“Ah, Sister. Please don’t ruin my final words.”
One of Velix’s heads opened its mouth toward Leon and spat out a green orb.
“Keep this with you, and I’ll always know where you are. I’ll also know if you’re in danger.”
Leon was familiar with artifacts with similar abilities. They were often given by masters to their disciples.
“This means that as long as you’re in the forest, I’ll know if you’re in danger. Once you leave the forest, you can throw it away.”
“Thank you.”
After exchanging farewells with Velix, Leon left the area.
As Leon retraced his steps, a single gargoyle golem hovered around him—the only one he had successfully created.
Leon ordered the gargoyle golem to remain vigilant of their surroundings.
As they sped through the air, Kito suddenly leaped off Leon’s head, her body growing larger as she transformed back into her true form. With a sharp-toothed snarl, she glared ahead.
Leon turned his head in the direction Kito was looking.
A woman with long black hair had stopped mid-approach, standing still.
Leon hadn’t even realized she was approaching until that moment.
He blinked, trying to clear his vision.
But the reality before his eyes didn’t change.
The Witch of Despair was staring directly at Leon.
She uttered a single word in a low voice.
“Found you.”