After leaving the cave, Grey was seen heading to the opposite side, where a dense forest with towering trees stood tall and silent. He had stumbled upon it the day before while hunting for their dinner, so here he was again, strolling casually into the woods.
Although it was a forest, strangely enough, there were only a few beasts roaming within, and the ones that did—merely level 3 or level 4 beasts—would instantly scatter the moment they sensed Grey's aura.
Walking a little further, he arrived at a wide clearing nestled deep in the forest, with a small mound off to the side. Making his way there, he sat down atop it and brought out the book.
"Time for reading," he muttered, and Noir began interpreting what he was seeing. One remarkable gift Grey possessed aside from magic was his razor-sharp, photographic memory.
He could recall anything he'd read once or twice and recite it word for word. It was how he had managed to form his mana core earlier without any guidance—simply because he'd studied it beforehand.
And now, he was displaying that ability once more. Since this task only required the fusion of two affinities, it wasn't supposed to take long.
Grey had already read the steps, slowly and thoroughly, for ten minutes—just enough for his mind to retain every detail—as he stood up.
"Time for the practical aspect," Grey muttered, conjuring a small swirling wind current above his palm, then channeling lightning into his other hand.
With wind spinning in one palm and lightning crackling in the other, he aimed the lightning toward the air current.
Three small bolts surged forward into the swirling wind—but the moment they touched, the lightning arced wildly in all directions before exploding in Grey's face. A spark nearly seared his cheek, but he dodged just in time.
"Well, that's a failure. Take two," Grey said, then summoned another wind current and attempted to infuse it with lightning again. But this time, the wind current immediately snuffed out the magic.
"Again!" he growled, conjuring another current and channeling lightning once more—but it exploded again, and the backlash of lightning surged into his body. Pain erupted across his muscles, nearly forcing him to his knees, but he grit his teeth and stifled his scream.
'I won't be a Supreme Mage if I can't take this much pain,' he thought, rising steadily to his feet. Instead of repeating the attempt, he stared ahead at a tree, deep in thought.
"What am I doing wrong here? This... this is just like when I tried practicing lightning magic before—always exploding in my face. Then I went to the elven town and learned mana control. After that, I could finally wield lightning magic." He muttered, and suddenly, his eyes widened.
"Right! I'm such a darn fool!" Grey smacked a hand against his head. "The key is control. I'm supposed to apply balanced control over the two affinities—they can't just mix like water and ice. The answer was always balance."
"Lightning is wild magic. Unstable, almost all the time. I just need to find a way to stabilize it," Grey murmured as he thought hard, until an idea sparked in his mind.
'This should work.' He conjured a spinning current of air in front of him—a miniature vortex swirling with condensed wind.
His hand crackled with lightning, and then—two bolts surged out, striking the vortex. This time, unlike before, the spells didn't cancel each other out.
The vortex spun faster, and lightning began cycling inside it, swirling like a storm. Occasionally, small sparks shot out, zapping him.
"This isn't an attack, you doofus—it's just static," Noir chided.
"A little progress is better than none," Grey replied. Right then, the vortex exploded outward in a burst of lightning, launching him backward until he crashed into a nearby tree. "Shit!"
"A little progress is better than none," Noir mocked with a laugh. "A little bolt of lightning is painful than none."
"Curse you, Noir," Grey groaned. "What the hell am I doing wrong?! I can't combine them, and I can't dump lightning into wind either—it just explodes in my face."
"The key—which you've completely failed to grasp because you're too daft—is precision, not raw power. Let the wind guide the lightning instead of trying to dump and mash them together. Didn't you even read the book?" Noir snapped.
"The wind should guide the lightning... Guide... a guide," Grey muttered over and over again, rising to his feet slowly. And then—an idea struck him like a literal bolt of lightning.
Spinning his hand counterclockwise, a spiral vortex of wind formed around his palm, sending powerful gusts tearing through the forest, even toppling nearby trees.
With a forward thrust, he launched the vortex outward. Just before it could disperse, he condensed it—slowing its movement—and then fired three sharp streams of lightning into it. The lightning slipped seamlessly into the narrow vortex passage and began spinning at its center.
Then—with a snap of his fingers—the lightning-charged vortex shot forward and slammed into a tree, ripping it apart like a hot knife through butter.
"Woah! That... that was crazy! And that is my power," he grinned, eyes wide as he stared at the obliterated tree.
"But that's just step one," Noir reminded. "That's like throwing a gust of wind in a direction. Now you need to create an actual technique—like your Wind Blades or something."
"Right. Let's get to work," Grey said as he dove back into training—determined to forge a destructive ability no opponent could withstand.
The , 😅 I can say something dangerous will happen... For the next few chapters, Grey will be thrust into danger one after the other starting with the which will be published tomorrow.
But if you want to read ahead and can't wait for tomorrow, then our mass release program is still active.
100 Power stones= 2 extra chapters plus the normal release rate making it a total of 4 chapters to be released.
50 Golden tickets= 2 extra chapters.
Magic Castle= 5 Chapters.
Spacecraft= 10 Chapters.
Golden Gachapon= 15 Chapters... Let's hit the goal legends!(Still trying to come up for a nickname for our little fan group 😅)