Following our midnight excursion to the Capital and the subsequent exhaustion from clearing five dungeons, our designated week of rest began... unexpectedly quietly.

  Well, quietly for me, at least.

  Every morning, I woke up to the exact same predictable sights:

  Siren was already out on the training grounds, running through complex sword katas. Tara was right beside him, mirroring his every movement flawlessly. Miella and Kairen were relentlessly practicing their defensive parries. Finn and Edgar were aggressively combining magic and physical combat, arguing loudly the entire time. Elinia, Lucille, Reynar, and Astra held joint magical sparring sessions. Noah stood slightly apart from the group, silently weaving complex, terrifyingly realistic illusions.

  They were all working themselves to the bone. Even the students who used to slack off during the first few weeks of the semester.

  And me?

  I didn't see the point in "training." Throwing fireballs and swinging a wooden sword felt like a profound waste of my time.

  I was interested in something entirely different.

  The Academy Library: Where I Realized Why the Human Magical World is So Stupid

  Every day, while the others trained, I slipped away to the Academy's central library. It was a massive, two-story architectural marvel that smelled of old parchment, dust, and the lingering tension of competitive students.

  I pulled a stack of highly advanced magical theory textbooks from the restricted section... and I was absolutely appalled.

  Every single book described magic like this: "I feel the mana like a gentle wind in my chest." "Allow the energy to flow through your spiritual veins." "Visualize the shape of your desire."

  There wasn't a single rational explanation.

  No physics. No physiology. No structural breakdowns. No analysis of mana spectrums. Not even a primitive attempt at the scientific method!

  And then, it finally clicked.

  Humans do not actually know how to explain magic. They just do it, and then they write bad poetry about how it feels.

  No wonder the instructors couldn't explain the underlying mechanics of the lessons properly. They didn't understand how it actually worked either. They were just passing down centuries of trial-and-error intuition.

  Well, I wasn't human. And I didn't want to rely on "feelings."

  My New Target: Lightning

  As a former Demon King, yes, I could summon lightning. I could control it, absorb it, redirect it, and use electrical currents to violently tear apart enemy spells.

  But I wanted more.

  I wanted to create a localized Lightning Barrier.

  Among demons, such a technique was considered entirely useless—it was too fragile, wildly unstable, and consumed an absurd amount of mana to maintain. But right now... I was simply curious. I wanted to create something fundamentally new.

  I began pouring through the greatest texts available.

  1. The Great Book of Merlin An absolute disappointment. Merlin wrote things like: "I feel the current as a mere whisper." "I direct my power into the very heart of the spell." "An internal vortex of spiritual vibrations." NO formulas. NOTHING constructive. Even Merlin, the greatest legend in human history, wrote like an overly dramatic poet, not a scholar.

  2. "The Foundations of Lightning" by Erik Porukov This was slightly closer to reality. Porukov stated: "The current generates its own localized field." "The greater the tension, the stronger the field." "One can maintain the shape of the lightning through a lattice-like mana structure." BUT... half the text was still cluttered with phrases like, "I feel," "It seems to me," and "I pondered."

  3. "The Electrical Nature of Mana" by Shatald Rono Now this surprised me. Rono wrote things that were considered outright heresy by standard human mages: "Magic actively interacts with metals." "There are 'magnets'—metals that begin to attract other metals when subjected to a current." "The current physically alters the orientation of the metal's internal particles." "It is theoretically possible to reinforce magical barriers using magnetic fields."

  Rono was incredibly close to a monumental breakthrough. Unfortunately, according to the historical footnote, he had died in a laboratory explosion before he could figure out the core principle.

  The Experiments

  I gathered supplies from the Academy's storage sheds: raw iron ore, refined steel, copper wiring, charcoal, and a few strange, highly conductive magical crystals.

  Hidden away in a secluded corner of the library, I began testing. I applied currents. I weakened them. I amplified them. I altered the structural density of my mana. I changed the frequency. I manipulated the vibration.

  But... the results were weak. Pathetically weak.

  It felt as though something crucial was missing. It was as if the entire magical world had slammed headfirst into an invisible brick wall that no one even knew existed.

  Magnets... I thought, staring at a piece of copper. Tension... Fields... This isn't just raw elemental electricity. This is a doorway to something infinitely deeper.

  I didn't know exactly what I was looking for yet. But I knew one thing with absolute certainty: No one in this world understood what electricity actually was. Not Merlin. Not the Archmages. Not the Academy instructors.

  And I was going to be the first.

  For the next three days, I practically lived in the library. I ate there. I drank there. I occasionally dozed off face-first in a pile of copper wiring.

  I was entirely consumed by the experiments.

  And then... the first true breakthrough happened.

  ELECTRONS.

  At first, it was merely a hypothesis. The idea that within the electrical current, there was something infinitesimally small, unimaginably fast, that constantly moved along the path of least resistance. Something microscopic that flowed exactly like a river of invisible water.

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  And then... using my hyper-refined mana senses... I actually felt them.

  Not with my eyes, but with the very tips of my mana-infused nerves.

  Tiny, frantic "sparks of life" racing through the metal, violently repelling each other and generating immense kinetic force.

  I froze. I completely stopped breathing.

  "...That's it," I whispered into the dusty silence.

  The fundamental truth that no one in this world had realized. Electrons. The entities of motion. The true essence of lightning itself.

  And suddenly, the entire chaotic, "feeling-based" world of human magic became coldly, perfectly logical.

  Energy always flows toward the path of least resistance. Metal is an almost perfect conductor. Water conducts, but chaotically. Wood is highly resistant. Air only conducts when subjected to overwhelming tension.

  And most importantly: Tension is simply the difference in energy pressure.

  This wasn't mystical, elemental magic. This was physics.

  I sat cross-legged on the floor, surrounded by piles of ore, driving microscopic currents through silver, iron, copper, enchanted steel, crystals, and—purely in the name of scientific inquiry—a small, highly annoyed rat I had caught in the archives.

  The biological result was terrifyingly consistent: electricity violently contracts the muscles of living creatures, completely overriding their central nervous system and paralyzing them.

  A completely new, terrifyingly efficient type of control magic.

  This... I thought, staring at the twitching rat. This is far too powerful for humans to have ignored for this long.

  An Unexpected Visitor

  I was buried up to my neck in notes, complex architectural diagrams, and strange glass vials when I heard a quiet voice cut through the silence.

  "So this is where you've been hiding."

  I looked up.

  Princess Elinia was standing between the towering bookshelves, holding two thick tomes to her chest. Her icy blue eyes swept over the absolute chaos surrounding me, lingering on the piles of metal and the frantic scribbles on my parchment. Her gaze was unusually curious.

  "I was looking for you," she said strictly. "And it turns out you've been sitting in the dark for three days. What exactly are you doing?"

  She stepped closer, inspecting a piece of charred copper. "Is this... another attempt to blow up the Academy?"

  I remained silent, casually flipping a page in my notebook.

  She leaned over my desk. "Are you studying... Lightning magic?" she asked, genuine surprise breaking through her aristocratic mask. "It's highly inefficient and incredibly dangerous. The kinetic impact is strong, but the trajectory is wildly unstable, and the control is notoriously awful. Even I struggle to contain it perfectly..."

  She scratched her cheek absentmindedly. "And if you miscalculate the tension even slightly, the backlash will electrocute you."

  I didn't say a word. I just kept writing down a new formula for magnetic resistance.

  Elinia stood there in silence. Much longer than usual.

  Finally, she spoke, her voice dropping to a softer volume. "Are you... actually taking this seriously?"

  I nodded once.

  She frowned. But a strange emotion flickered in her eyes. It wasn't her usual irritation. It wasn't royal arrogance. It looked surprisingly like... respect.

  "Do what you want," she muttered quietly, turning away. "Just try not to detonate the library. I actually like it here."

  She took two steps down the aisle... stopped... and looked back over her shoulder.

  "...Let me know if you need any help with the heavy lifting," she added, refusing to make eye contact. "Don't assume you're the only intelligent person in this school."

  And with that, she briskly walked away.

  I blinked at the empty aisle. It took me a full ten seconds to realize that the Crown Heir had just awkwardly, stubbornly tried to offer me emotional support.

  Day Five: Magnetism and the Problem of Expensive Metals

  I picked up a chunk of raw iron ore. I drove a highly specific, calibrated current through it.

  And suddenly... I felt it.

  A magnetic field. It was incredibly weak, but it was undeniably there. One metal physically repelled another. When I flipped the polarity of the current, it violently attracted it.

  I froze.

  Magnetism. His Majesty, the fundamental force of nature, had finally revealed himself to me.

  The applications raced through my mind at lightspeed. If I amplified the current... If I infused it with high-density mana... If I established a stable, wide-range field...

  I could forcefully attract an enemy's weapon directly out of their hands. I could repel incoming arrows mid-flight. I could shatter swords without touching them. I could create an invisible, impenetrable kinetic barrier. I could effortlessly manipulate the iron-golems Edgar was so fond of making. I could even stop the iron-rich blood from pumping through an enemy's heart.

  There were dozens of lethal, terrifying applications.

  But something was still missing. The system was incomplete. I had the electrons. I had the tension. I had the magnetic field. But the physical materials I was using were too primitive.

  Ordinary iron ore. Brittle chunks of stone. Rusty nails scavenged from the Academy's maintenance shed.

  I needed powerful, rare, highly conductive, and exceptionally heat-resistant metals.

  And later that afternoon, while taking a brief walk through the courtyard to clear my head, I suddenly realized exactly where I could find them.

  The swordsmen's blades... Complex engravings, enchanted silver inlays, reinforced magical alloys. Finn's signet ring... A gemstone woven into pure, highly conductive gold wire. Elinia's jewelry... Earrings forged from an unknown blue metal. A delicate bracelet that shimmered with dense, latent mana lines.

  Well, I thought pragmatically. That's where all the rare metals are. Hanging off the rich kids.

  But I couldn't just steal them. That would instantly ruin my cover and spark a massive Academy-wide investigation into the "suspiciously poor student stealing royal jewels."

  I needed a different approach. I walked over to Edgar, who was, as usual, aggressively hammering a piece of iron on an anvil in the outdoor forge.

  "Edgar," I called out. "Tell me about metals."

  He paused mid-swing and raised a thick eyebrow. "Did the Ice Mage suddenly decide to pick up a hammer?"

  "I just want to understand the composition of swords and armor," I lied smoothly. "I want to know which ones are the best conductors of energy."

  He instantly perked up. For a blacksmith, there was no better conversation starter.

  "Well... let's start with the basics," Edgar said, wiping sweat from his forehead. "You've got black iron—the standard base for cheap weapons. Then there's enchanted steel—it retains mana much better. Then you have lunar silver, but that's incredibly rare."

  He leaned against the anvil. "But the real power is in alloys. If you mix specific metals under high heat, you can create something fundamentally superior. For example, if you take high-carbon steel, infuse it with mana, and fold in a pinch of star-metal, you get a blade that will never dull."

  I listened intently, mentally categorizing the conductivity of each material.

  But then, Edgar lowered his voice, looking around as if sharing a state secret.

  "There is one other metal," he whispered. "Incredibly rare. Highly temperamental. And obscenely expensive."

  I leaned in closer.

  "Tungsten."

  I froze.

  "It's as heavy as solid stone," Edgar continued reverently. "And incredibly durable. But pure tungsten is too brittle for a blacksmith to forge into a sword. It has to be heavily alloyed with other metals to become nearly impenetrable armor."

  I felt a profound click in my mind.

  Tungsten... Heavy. Highly resistant to extreme heat. An unparalleled conductor of thermal and electrical energy. It could withstand the agonizing tension of the magnetic fields I wanted to generate.

  It was the absolute, perfect material for my experiments.

  "But," Edgar sighed, crushing my hopes. "It is astronomically expensive. Seriously, I've never even held a piece of it. Only the absolute highest nobility can afford it. They use it for signet rings, royal seals, defensive jewelry..."

  I slowly turned my head and looked across the courtyard at Elinia's shimmering bracelet. Then I looked at Finn's heavy gold ring.

  Then I looked back at Edgar.

  Edgar narrowed his eyes. "...Zen?"

  "Yes?"

  "Are you plotting something highly illegal right now?"

  "Ha... no, of course not," I smiled innocently. "I was just thinking about swords. Which one would suit me best."

  Edgar snorted, glancing at the wooden training sword strapped to my waist. "Take your pick. You never actually swing the damn thing anyway."

  I nodded politely. "Thank you, Edgar. You've been incredibly helpful."

  He frowned, crossing his massive arms. "You're absolutely sure you aren't planning to... 'experiment' on someone's property?"

  I offered him my most angelic, harmless smile. "No. Just the metal."

  As I walked away, the gears in my demonic mind were spinning at lightspeed.

  I need tungsten. Elinia's bracelet is definitely a high-tier alloy. Finn's ring has structural potential.

  I couldn't steal them physically. The risk was too high.

  But... what if I didn't need the physical object?

  What if I could use my highly refined spatial awareness to scan the molecular structure of the metals from a distance? I could map the atomic lattice using a microscopic thread of mana, memorize the exact composition, and then synthesize a functional copy using ambient minerals.

  Yes... I smiled sharply. That is entirely possible.

  But it would require extreme, meticulous preparation. And I would need to get very, very close to the Princess.