Descending Into A Novel-Chapter 45:Magic Research

"Raymond, aren’t you a little too good at fighting bare handed? And without using mana as well! Well if we could use mana I would win..."

He muttered that last part under his breath, but Raymond caught it anyways.

"Arthur, if I was serious. You wouldn’t be standing right now. Besides, its embarrassing for a warrior like you to lose to a mage in a fight like this."

He threw his hands up in frustration. The fact he even had the energy to do so showed that Raymond hadn’t truly gone too ham on him yet. Otherwise, as he had said—he wouldn’t even be standing here right now.

"Dude. You have a potential score over 100!"

"Potential score and fighting ability is different. Is that not obvious enough?"

What kind of logic even was that. Just because he had a high potential score it meant he was automatically good at fighting?

Was all the effort that Zachary and his gang put in for nothing then?

Raymond waved him off, it was the last class of the day and Raymond wanted to go back to the training hall he reserved. He still needed to meet up instructor Sienna, and afterwards work on helping Ellen form her core. This whole conversation was eating into his precious free time.

Ignoring Arthur’s attempts at conversation. He teleported straight away to the special class training hall, and immediately hopped right into casting more spells for her to analyze.

***

By the time he was finished, lying down on the ground—with no mana burn this time because she felt sorry for yesterday—he asked her again.

"I must admit, your mana type is proving to be an extremely difficult puzzle to solve. I still haven’t got any idea on what your type is."

He sighed, his time-attuned mana naturally wouldn’t really affect the strength of a fireball or the hardness of rock. None of the spells she had asked him to cast were even remotely time related. Mainly because the time magic discipline wasn’t even discovered yet in this dimension.

Sometime during class, Raymond had decided to look it up on the internet. What he found was as expected.

The concept of time magic existed, but there was not a single spell or known user of this magic discipline. Similar to Raymond’s home dimension before Raymond himself pioneered it.

At this rate, she literally wouldn’t be able to find out his mana type. leaving him no choice but to help throw out a bone here and there. Giving a few hints as to what he had.

But the problem was that, when there were literally no known spells for it. How could he possibly give any hints as to what he had?

After saying a simple thank you to his instructor, he quickly left the building. Making his way to his reserved training hall.

Seeing the dark night outside, he already knew it was too late to go and get a good nights sleep. Well, pulling a few all-nighters and sleeping for only a few hours wasn’t a new thing to him.

Back when he had first become a starter dimension and time magic mage with the system. He had tossed himself into his own magic research. He experienced massive growth during those few years, gaining nearly a whole level a day. It was also a great way to escape his responsibilities. The excuse of simply studying such ’dangerous’ magic worked wonders in scaring off anyone looking for him.

Even on the few days he was forced out of his tower, not many people came up to him. With only other mages in particular seeking out Raymond for help on their own research into his two magic disciplines. For new magic disciplines, who else better to ask then the very creator of said magic disciplines?

Slowly closing the door behind him, he heard the automatic door lock. Quietly looking around, he summoned his staff and set up a few privacy wards around himself.

Whispering to himself, "Unseal system."

[Unseal System? (Y/N) ]

[System unsealed, welcome back Rayleigh Von Mez]

Name:

Rayleigh Von Mez (LV 952)

Race:

Perfect Human

Classes:

-Prodigy Mage(LV MAX)

-Starter Dimension Magic Mage (LV MAX)

-Starter Time Magic Mage (LV MAX)

-Dimension Magic Savant(LV MAX)

-Time Magic Genius(LV MAX)

-Archmage of Dimension Magic(LV MAX)

-Archmage of Time Magic(LV MAX)

-Trailblazer of Knowledge(LV 127/500)

Title:

[The mage who stands at the top of two peaks]

Stats:

[press here to show]

Skills:

[press here to show]

Status:

[Weakened]

-all stats reduced by 94.15%

-all title bonuses reduced by 96.00%

-all skills have been sealed

-all class skills have been sealed

-status will slowly disappear over the course of 6525.22days

Clicking on skills, he felt his mouth turn dry at what appeared. Although he already had a hunch on what would happen. It still left him a bit surprised to see it.

Skills:

[Grace Hand-to-Hand Arts][Level:2/5]

-A basic hand-to-hand arts taught to members of the Grace Family, it has been improved upon by Rayleigh Von Mez using the foundations of the Von Mez Fighting Style. Relying primarily on dodging attacks and punishing with hard hitting kicks and knee strikes. It is a suitable art for beginners looking to improve their fighting skills.

It was good to know that new skills learnt or created were usable despite his weakened status. But out of everything he had learned. The system considered this to be the only skill?

He resealed the system quickly. All of his ice magic over the years had basically gone down the drain. Even his Arena of Frost spell wasn’t considered as a skill by the system.

At least he had the knowledge that new skills were exempt from the weakened status. He would have to work on creating a few skills that he could use. This weakened status effect still showed no signs of returning his skills to him at all.

Which was a shame, he could think of several skills that would be immensely useful for his current situation right now.

Secondary Mana Reserves, Trailblazers Inspiration, Prodigy Mindset, Affinity to Time, Affinity to Dimensions. Each would be massively helpful for his research in helping Ellen form her core.

He shook his head, he would have to make do for now. Besides, it was a good chance to clean off his skills at least. Relying on such crutches would cause him to turn rusty. He hadn’t needed such skills in the first place when he first started!

Quietly engraving a new engraving onto the floor, he littered the components into each of the predetermined slots. Pumping his time-attuned mana into it. Appearing as a bright yellow circle on the floor, with several looping symbols.

Seeing the bright glow from the engraving, he observed each of the small changes compared to previously.

Scribbling down the several differences in a random sticky note. He frowned when he compared the changes.

"No, this isn’t it."

Too much leakage, and the engraving wasn’t able to fixate onto the specific point in the future he needed it too.

He sighed, he really needed to touch up on his engraving skills. He regretted not agreeing that time when Flare asked Raymond whether he wanted to learn magic from him.

He had declined at the time, he had only just begun his dimension hopping and wanted to travel some more. If he agreed, he would have been stuck learning under him for several years.

Approaching the engraving, he quickly changed several parts. Substituting new materials into some of the slots and trying again. He had almost exhausted his previous resources from the academy, luckily the Sky Soaring club and Mages For Life club was more then happy to provide for Raymond. All free of charge.

Interestingly, the New Elites club also helped in providing for Raymond. Thanks to Ellen’s requests, they had sent over just as much if not more in terms of value then the other two clubs.

It made sense, the New Elites club may not have been filled with exclusively geniuses but they did have money. Lots and lots of money, and money opened more doors then potential did.

This had basically been his schedule for the past few days. Trying to cast Borrow Future Strength at this level was impossible—even for him. But engravings relied more on the materials and skill for outcome. Making it much easier to skip ahead and cast higher level spells via engravings.

Seeing the bright glow again, he carefully observed the parts that he changed. Using his mana senses to detect even the most minute difference.

"Still no. Haah. Is it the lack of pure enough mana?"

He had even gone back to his habit of speaking out-loud to himself. Something which helped him organize his thoughts better.

Writing it down onto another sticky note, he stuck it next to his previous one on the table. Which was almost fully covered by random objects by now.

And so the process continued, each time he changed something. He would write down the differences, pausing every once in a while to perform a few calculations and make sure his magic was theoretically correct. Only for it to fail him due to some circumstance.

The lack of mana was the most pressing issue. Raymond substituted it with the resources given by the academy and his own mana. But it wasn’t sustainable.

Raymond grew up in a different environment, literally.

His magic wasn’t made to be used with so little mana. It was like trying to fuel racecars using normal diesel. Except in his case, the racecar was an entire rocket and the diesel was some low quality diesel.

Raymond’s only choice was to modify the rocket so it could function on such low quality diesel.

Quietly compiling all of todays sticky notes, he listed down everything on them into his notebook in a more simplified manner, making it easier for tomorrow him to continue where he left off.

He stretched his back, his hands in the air as he let out an exhale.

He still had to ask the academy for a bed to be moved into the training hall. It was getting cumbersome having to teleport back and forth from his dorm to the training hall. It would be so much better if he could just live in the training hall.

Finished with his listing, he looked at the time.

[4:51:51 a.m]

Nearly five a.m. Today was another repeat of special class fighting skills so he didn’t feel pressured to be present there.

Mobilizing his mana, he casted a teleport spell on himself and after taking a quick shower fell asleep on his bed immediately.

This time, there was no Ellen in his arms.