Being told he needed to prove his worth or he’d be cut off was nothing new to Orion. That had been the understanding he’d operated on for much of his academic life, and returning to it felt like things were becoming normal again.

  That wasn’t to say he enjoyed being put on the spot without warning, but he had been waiting for the other shoe to drop for a while now, and this simply confirmed his suspicions.

  Elder Yue turned out to be less resentful than he had feared, but she was still an old monster who only moved when there was something to gain, and while he was grateful to her for explaining how things were actually unfolding within the Sanctum, that didn’t mean he expected her to be overly generous.

  I have only a few days to prove myself. If I fail, we’ll be back to square one, but if I succeed, she will do what no one else in the Sanctum would do: serve as the shield under which I can grow until I no longer need it.

  Seeing his mother’s conflicted expression, it was obvious she had secretly hoped her old mentor would just take them in, but Orion was more at ease this way.

  With the stakes clearly in the open, he knew what he had to work with.

  That was why he was busy finishing his calculations while eating breakfast. The frantic rush to Valderun hadn’t allowed much progress on the blood crystal focus, but now that he had some free time, he could knuckle down and finish the math.

  I still would have preferred to be in my lab for this. All the equipment I built would have been very useful right now, but let it not be said that I depend on such things.

  His meeting with the other prospective apprentice had ignited a fire in his soul, and given how much more advanced she was, it would have been understandable for him to feel despair, but Orion only had eyes for the end goal.

  With the abundant mana within Valderun at his disposal, he only needed a few more things to prepare for the final step of his project. Chief among them was discovering exactly what the elemental hue of the local Mana Field was.

  “Are you sure you don’t need my help, moonbeam?” Asteria asked, and Orion knew she was earnest. Her face was troubled by the sudden request to prove himself, and it was clear she was itching to help him out, to take some of the weight off his shoulders.

  Honestly, I suspect that if I asked her to run, she would abandon the Sanctum and her one chance to get back under her old master.

  Such devotion was admirable but unnecessary. He shook his head, smiling thinly, “No, I can do it. You should focus on information gathering, especially since tomorrow will be a busy day, what with the hearing.”

  That was a surprise. Orion had expected a request to discuss the attack to come sooner or later, as everyone had taken the breach of peace very seriously, but what should have been a simple visit to the guard station quickly grew into something much bigger. Just a short while ago, they had been given a scarlet letter, containing a summons to the High Council.

  The witch who gave it to them explained that Elder Yue would arrive that evening to discuss the implications, and she seemed genuinely concerned, which told him that it was a very big deal.

  Still, even though that was a looming problem, he only had so many hours, so Orion pushed it from his mind to focus on what he could actually do something about.

  Breakfast finished, he said goodbye to his distracted mother and returned to his room. This time, the space remained constant, and his journey was quick, only reaffirming his belief that Yue had meant for him to meet Zania.

  Once he was safely settled, Orion took the blood crystal out of his lab coat pocket.

  It reflected the light strangely, sending stray glints of ruby red all around the room, and he could see it respond to the altered Mana Field with [Verification Principle].

  The local element appeared to be highly compatible with the crystal, significantly narrowing the options. It essentially ruled out almost every basic element, since neither water, fire, wind, nor electricity reacted in this way, but that didn’t mean much when the secondary elements were still numerous.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  “Which means it’s time to experiment,” he muttered to himself, placing the crystal on a velvet cushion. It would work well as a control to tell him whether what he was doing was compatible with it, but he didn’t want to stress it until he was ready to craft.

  The math behind his mana computing had become increasingly complex over time, to the point where it was in a realm that he doubted even Earth’s scientists had explored outside of the most esoteric labs.

  However, with the help of [Verification Principle], he could continue gathering data and obtaining proof of his theories in real time, which meant he had actually built a complete model.

  The only things he lacked now were the method to engrave the model into the blood crystal—which he was coming close to, thanks to his progress with lasers—and finding an appropriate mana type to power the construct.

  At first, he had no doubt that Light Mana would work, and maybe it would, but he was becoming more convinced that it wasn't the best option.

  Admittedly, his experience with different mana types was limited, but he could see how the field here reacted to the blood crystal, and it was far too intriguing to settle for “good enough”.

  First of all, while Light mana naturally triggered a response from the crystal, causing it to propagate life in anything capable of it, that didn’t necessarily make it a good thing. In fact, too much attunement to life could make spells of a different kind very difficult, if not impossible.

  “Specific foci might be useful later, but if it were only that, I would settle for regular crystals. What I’m creating is something completely different, not merely an improved version of my current setup.”

  That was the core of the problem. If it had only been a matter of increasing mana output and concentration, Orion wouldn’t have bothered with all the mathematical modeling. His mind alone was fully capable of calculating all the equations he needed for normal casting.

  What he was trying to accomplish was something different. A revolution of sorts in the field of mana manipulation—creating a focus capable not only of channeling mana and adding its particular hue to it, but also of changing it, shaping it internally, and producing something new.

  Basically, it was a highly sophisticated computer. Not yet a thinking machine, but given the level of modularity and flexibility he incorporated, he anticipated being able to delegate nearly all aspects of his casting style to it. This would then allow him to concentrate on the spell’s origin and purpose.

  In a way, I’m leveling the playing field. Everyone here seems able to cast spells by wishing really hard, even if they do it in complicated and inefficient ways. I need to handle all the spells on my own.

  An ignorant man would have simply concluded that such a limitation meant his casting style was inferior, but Orion had seen exactly what it could produce. The fake gamma-ray burst was an order of magnitude beyond what he should have been capable of. That was something no one using traditional methods could hope to achieve.

  If he could fix the only weakness in his casting method… he’d have taken another step beyond what his “peers” were capable of, essentially gaining the power of a higher tier—if with the caveat of a status that didn’t necessarily reflect that.

  By all rights, he should have jealously hoarded this knowledge for himself, as it revealed far too much about his mind, but he was a scientist. Sharing his knowledge was one of the most important things he could do, and if that wasn’t enough, he seriously doubted anyone as set in the old ways as Elder Yue would be able to use his new magical computer.

  His decision reaffirmed, Orion began running his usual suite of tests for any environmental changes.

  The basic Torchlight matrix spun into being, and an orb of light shone brightly.

  “The output is lower than within the Sanctum, but higher than in the wilderness,” he murmured even as his journal opened on its own, and his pen began scribbling his words down.

  “Nothing I cannot account for, but this does confirm that this new mana type is not related to the Light.” He’d suspected that much, but it was always good to confirm. Everyone who had ever done math beyond fifth grade knew that getting one thing wrong at the start meant everything else that followed would be useless.

  The next attempt was to draw only from the local field. It still contained the familiar matrix of the Torchlight, making it quite easy to observe the changes.

  The light sphere summoned this time was, unsurprisingly, blue. Given how common the color was throughout Valderun, it was expected, but instead of the ultramarine of the seas or the murky shade of the Belt, it was a silvery blue, foggy and shifting.

  The shadows it cast were not as clearly defined as those of a regular Torchlight, and in fact, the more Orion looked, the more he saw them shifting without any obvious reason.

  “Alright, so some type of mutable energy that serves as a good source for most spells. It would make sense for it to be here, where the Arcane Collegium is located.”

  It would have been easy for him to find out the specific type of mana filling the local field by asking one of the witches or simply taking a walk through the city and stopping at one of the many bookstores that sold basic magical primers, but such sources were likely biased, and he was allergic to that.

  “I’m tempted to just call it Arcane mana and be done with it. It definitely seems mysterious enough.”

  All his attempts to learn more were met with similar responses. No matter what secondary variables he introduced, the energy always responded successfully, allowing him to cast nearly any spell, from warming charms to lasers, but everything took on a slightly bluish hue, which made him cautious.

  Eventually, on his tenth attempt, when he dared to use the mana to inscribe a simple enchantment, he discovered what was really happening.

  His hunch had been right, as it turned out. The local field could support nearly any kind of magic, but it imparted a sense of mutability that was absent in other mana types.

  The basic strengthening enchantment he cast on a pillow allowed it to resist much more damage than it normally should have, but when he lowered his hand, dismissed his laser, and wandered over to inspect the fluffy cushion, he discovered that it was no longer made of simple feathers and silk, but that it had become a slightly more durable material.

  That was not what should have happened with a strengthening enchantment. The base should have stayed the same, as the magic absorbed the damage.

  Instead, even after dismissing the magic, he ended up with a cushion able to withstand about ten percent more damage.

  It was nothing big in the grand scheme of things, but it stood out because he was looking for it.

  For a moment, he paused, recalibrating his every calculation to factor in this new variable. He’d need to test just how much he could push this natural adaptation before using the mana for anything significant, but maybe he had finally found the last tassel he needed.

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