Chapter 296
Chapter 296: Excellent, I'm Gradually Understanding Everything
Ryan paused, his gaze falling on Viktor with a puzzled expression, then sliding swiftly downward to fix on the pitch-black scales in Viktor's hand.
You call this thing raw material?
No matter how he looked at it, this didn't resemble anything close to staff-crafting material.
Though the scales looked vaguely familiar, he still couldn't quite recall where he'd seen them before.
Ryan set aside his curiosity about the scales and asked what was truly on his mind.
"Is it just you here?"
"Where did Heim Horn go?"
Heim Horn was the Council's primary administrator.
Without any national citizenship, he had no need to reside in other countries the way his fellow Council Members did.
Ryan himself, for instance, though equally a Council Member, still spent the majority of his time in Miti City.
On top of that, Heim Horn possessed countless Phantom Doppelgangers, so the management of the City of Mages had largely been entrusted to him.
"The others are still in the Magic Archive."
Viktor answered concisely, then temporarily put away the black scales.
The scales vanished from his hand, slipping into his pack.
He then spoke to Ryan with not the faintest trace of guilt.
"Something came up. Couldn't get away."
Not a single shred of remorse from the one responsible.
Ryan listened to his explanation and let it go.
After all, this was a collaboration between him and Viktor from the start.
Whether Heim Horn was present or not made no real difference.
He reached into the pack on his back and pulled out a long, rolled-up blueprint, then handed it to Viktor.
"This is the blueprint I got from Rashel."
The pre-configured blueprint had been delivered directly from Rashel to Ryan Kent.
Which meant they'd both put real thought into Viktor's staff.
Viktor took the blueprint and slowly unrolled it in his hands. Green markings across its surface shimmered and leapt, constructing a spectral outline of a staff that floated in midair, presenting its form in vivid detail.
The body of the staff was a deep, lustrous black—slender to an extreme.
The tail end was wrapped in a thick metal ring, from which a sharp gem protruded, flickering with green Magic Power.
Above that, the staff continued upward until the top began to curve.
The curve was crafted with meticulous precision, forming 3 rotating tiers. These then extended rearward, like a pair of small, delicate wings.
From the center of those 3 tiers rose a golden-yellow protrusion, its tip carved into the likeness of a majestic bird's head.
The blueprint also detailed, in careful annotation, the materials required to forge this staff.
Magic Vein Dragon Blood, Blazing Rock, Hurricane Steel, and something called Chaos Dragon Scale.
All of them sounded extraordinarily impressive.
Items like "Blazing Rock" and "Hurricane Steel" were used to forge weapons of exceptional durability.
They were exceedingly rare, as these materials carried innate magical elements.
Weapons forged from them could absorb the corresponding elements.
Even Ryan had barely come across them.
The production sites for these materials alone were enough to deter most people.
"Blazing Rock" required retrieving the hottest fragment of rock from a volcano at the peak of a high-temperature eruption.
"Hurricane Steel," even more demanding, was a metal that had to be forged and solidified within the eye of a storm, suspended in the sky.
Magic Vein Dragon Blood, Ryan was at least familiar with.
You could find any dragon of the 4th Tier or above, draw some blood, and that was that.
Dragon's blood poured over a weapon could significantly reinforce it.
But even so—could something forged from all these materials still reasonably be called a staff?
Was Viktor thinking of switching to a warrior?
He raised no objection, however. After all, his role was simply to follow the specifications and forge.
"I don't know much about the sources of the other materials, but this 'Chaos Dragon Scale'—I have some memory of that."
"It comes from the Chaos Dragon King."
Like the Storm Dragon King, the Chaos Dragon King was likewise a magical elemental creature residing within the City of Mages.
In essence, not a true dragon.
Viktor naturally knew what it was.
Ryan continued:
"If you want the staff made right away, my recommendation is to start with the Chaos Dragon King."
"That thing, though—it's genuinely formidable."
He said this while casting a sidelong glance at Viktor.
For most people, the Chaos Dragon King was something no one would want to provoke.
But given the level of power Viktor had demonstrated, that creature would likely have no choice but to serve as raw material.
"Then let's deal with it first."
As expected, Viktor simply gave a nod and said casually:
"Sounds fine."
As though the dangerous magical creature didn't register in his mind at all.
At this point, Ryan was rummaging through his dungarees for something.
"You still remember what we agreed on from the start, right? One condition—in exchange for my help forging the staff."
Viktor naturally remembered.
As long as the condition wasn't unreasonable, he was prepared to agree.
So he asked:
"And what is your request?"
"Hmm... hold on, found it."
With those words, he pulled a Rubik's Cube from his trouser pocket.
The Rubik's Cube opened in his hand and gradually expanded.
Its intricately detailed cube segments slowly unfolded, spiraling outward into a Magic Power orb radiating golden-yellow light.
Ryan tossed it into the air, then spoke.
"Truth be told, I've always held an extremely keen research interest in large-scale area attack magic of the kind you use."
"So I've been thinking—if I could study it and find a way to infuse War Magic into items like this, then release it all at once through a trigger mechanism—"
"The power of something like that would be quite extraordinary, wouldn't it?"
The more Ryan thought about it, the more excited he became. His gaze drifted toward the distant sky, as if he could already see his research yielding tremendous results.
This was, after all, a form of War Magic that could bypass all the complex preparatory steps entirely.
"So all I need is to stand alongside you during combat and record the process as you fight."
He pointed to the floating Rubik's Cube as he said this.
Viktor gave a nod.
This sort of condition carried no burden whatsoever. Agreeing was easy enough.
"Sure."
In truth, the Player Crafting Compendium did contain items capable of storing magic for single-use release.
Players frequently made use of this type of item during Dungeon missions, PvE content, and Raid Boss encounters.
But since PvP prohibited item usage, Viktor had rarely crafted or collected such magic items.
If everything in the Player Crafting Compendium were genuinely brought out into this world, the technological development of this world would be impacted in a truly terrifying way.
That said, such things could only be crafted by Viktor. No one else could replicate them.
Plenty of people had purchased potions from the Clavena Family and had attempted to reverse-engineer Viktor's Magic Potions.
Yet after all this time, they still had no idea what materials Viktor actually used.
The only conclusion they could reach was that his confidentiality measures were simply too thorough.
Seeing that Viktor had agreed, Ryan began rummaging through his dungarees again.
"Well then, I'd better prepare some weapons in advance..."
But before he could finish his preparations, a swirling vortex of purple suddenly formed beneath his feet.
The spiraling Magic Power gradually coalesced, as though the very void around them had begun to churn within it.
Ryan stared at the portal beneath his feet, feeling the surging waves of Magic Power rolling within it, and couldn't help but freeze for a moment.
Then he heard Viktor speak in an unhurried tone:
"I personally value efficiency."
"Let's head out now."
The next instant, the purple vortex didn't bother waiting for Ryan's consent. It swept over both of them by force.
The swirl dispersed, and high above in the clouds, the 2 of them had vanished without a trace.
***
The Magic Archive was no longer what it had once been.
After enduring a devastating explosion, it had been reduced to a field of floating rubble.
Bookshelves drifted shattered through the air, and countless books floated gently on the breeze, scattered in every direction.
Heim Horn surveyed the ruined Magic Archive, feeling as though his heart were bleeding.
Though the Magic Archive could be restored, that would take time.
It aches.
Worth noting was that all these magical texts had been specially protected, so the knowledge within them remained undamaged.
With so many disorganized magical works requiring someone to sort and catalogue them, this heavy responsibility fell, as though by the arrangement of fate, naturally upon Heim Horn's shoulders.
Staring at the countless books floating across the chaotic sky, Heim Horn felt a pounding ache in his skull.
Some books had fallen slightly open, freed from the confines of their shelves.
A few had even extended 2 Magic Power-constructed legs from their covers, hopping and leaping across the debris of shattered rock floating in the air.
A great many books had even begun drawing on their own Magic Power, continuously casting the spells recorded within them into the open air.
Countless spells collided and clashed overhead, as though a dazzling fireworks display had been conjured beneath the sky.
The entire archive housed no fewer than 10,000 distinct types of magic.
"How long is it going to take to sort through all of this..."
He had always known it—Viktor, that madman who brought destruction everywhere he went.
Bringing him to the Magic Archive had never been going to end well.
Beside him, Cocotte was stifling a yawn, the corners of her eyes shimmering with the faint traces of dried tears.
Gazing at the chaos in front of her, she had already begun to nod off.
She knew perfectly well that if she didn't find somewhere to sleep soon, Heim Horn would drag her into helping him organize all this magic.
Yet both of them found a new question taking shape in their minds at the same moment:
What was Viktor planning to do with those scales?
Though that was perhaps an understatement—the significance the scales carried far exceeded their practical function.
After all, they were the Goddess of Justice's Scale, the one that had stood watch since the earliest days of the Mage Council's founding.
Said to have been personally crafted by the Archmage.
Nearly every Mage who had ever joined the Council had had the fortune of seeing those scales at least once, yet everyone regarded them as nothing more than a symbolic object representing moral ideals.
No one paid them much mind.
After all, even bearing the name of the "Goddess of Justice," it was still just a counterfeit.
And whether this world actually had gods at all was genuinely uncertain.
In any case, what Viktor had done this time was rather egregious, but...
There were many ways to weigh morality. A set of scales wasn't strictly necessary.
So if it was gone, it was gone.
Mainly because he couldn't beat Viktor anyway.
"Haah, let's just start sorting the shelves."
Heim Horn sighed, and suddenly remembered that Viktor's Teaching Assistant, Heni, was still here.
He turned his head—and caught sight of Heni standing quietly on a floating cloud platform in the distance.
The books drifting nearby seemed to be responding to her direction, circling around her.
All manner of wondrous magic flickered around her in alternating brilliance, releasing layer upon layer of dazzling light.
At the sight of this, Heim Horn was rooted to the spot in utter bewilderment:
"???"
What was going on?
This was the first time the archive had been blown up, so it was his first time witnessing anything this unusual.
He didn't dwell on it too long, though—even as the various magical texts continued to jostle and compete, each apparently eager for Heni to study it first.
Heni remained thoroughly absorbed. She had even retrieved the enormous book she had been cradling in her arms all along, setting it down on the ground and lying on her stomach over it.
One hand held a pen, taking careful notes, while her eyes moved back and forth between the book and the texts surrounding her, cross-referencing with meticulous attention.
She murmured under her breath as she worked:
"I see, so that's how it is."
"Mm, mm... I understand it completely now."
Heim Horn: ?