In the ruins of the residence, the sky was gradually turning dark. Only the four members of the Silverthorn Squad remained here.
After being rescued, Orcas found an excuse and hurriedly left.
Night Owl felt he didn't want to take the blame, but Nova felt they shouldn't implicate the person who helped them.
Ultimately, the destruction caused by this mana rampage was smaller than expected; it only ruined a few city blocks and a small section of the city wall.
However, no one dared to approach at this moment, and the outer perimeter was directly cordoned off by the guard captain who had retrieved his subordinates.
"He seems to be waking up."
On the temporarily cobbled-together mat, Ivan shook his head and sat up. The first thing he saw was Gal's massive shield.
Behind the shield, three familiar heads peeked out, staring at him.
"Am I... urgh, did we escape from Redstone City?"
The old mage's memory obviously still remained at the moment when they were attacked by the Storm Elemental Lord, and he used teleportation to pull everyone back into the city.
"What are you guys doing?"
"Guarding against you zapping us to death with a ball of lightning," Night Owl, whose body was mostly hiding behind Gal, said.
"What the hell?"
Ivan felt it was too dark around him and raised his hand, preparing to cast an Illumination spell.
But when his mana began to flow, he was stunned.
A ball of light rose from his palm, its colors constantly changing, ultimately rising into midair like a miniature artificial sun.
Enduring the weakness of his body, he climbed up and tried using other magic.
Seeing this, the trio squeezed even further behind Gal's shield.
Various spells came to Ivan with effortless ease. He could cast them easily without even needing to pass through the mana nodes within his body; it was as natural as breathing.
Among the other three, only Captain Nova, who was also a spellcaster, knew how inconceivable the scene before his eyes was: "Too amazing! How did you do it?"
Unfortunately, Ivan couldn't answer either. His brain seemed to have gained a lot of knowledge; Ivan could understand it, but couldn't explain it clearly.
However, when Ivan began attempting magic above the sixth tier, he got stuck.
He returned to his past state, unable to effortlessly play with sixth-tier magic in the palm of his hand.
Two streams of tears slid down Ivan's wrinkle-filled face.
He didn't know why he was crying; he just felt that he seemed to have missed something extremely important.
...
In the Puchi Dungeon, deep-level zone.
"Excellent, I gradually understand everything!"
Lin Jun, who had just given No. 10 a bath, felt he had already set foot into the realm of a Magic God.
Beneath No. 10's feet, mana was bound to specific routes, outlining a complex magic array.
And ten meters away, on another patch of fungal mat, the mana there was similarly bound, similarly flowing along the mycelium, forming a corresponding magic array.
With the activation of the magic array, No. 10's figure disappeared from its spot, appeared ten meters away, and then plopped onto the ground.
It wasn't invisibility or acceleration, but teleportation!
Relying on the fungal mat, Lin Jun temporarily constructed a one-time teleportation array and successfully transferred the Puchi!
Rounding it up, it was instant transmission!
No. 10 silently climbed up, hopped back on one foot, and reattached its left foot that was left at the original spot.
Not a big problem, just a matter of proficiency.
Of course, the wind-up was still a bit long. Comparing it to the speed at which the Demon King deployed teleportation arrays, it was still much slower. But Lin Jun dared to affirm that regarding the teleportation destination, the Demon King definitely wasn't as convenient as he was.
After all, teleportation magic required a target teleportation array. The Demon King could set up a temporary teleportation array at his feet, but the magic array at the destination had to be arranged in advance.
Unlike Lin Jun, theoretically, as long as it was a place covered by the fungal mat, he could teleport wherever he wanted.
Of course, considering the outrageous mana consumption, this definitely could only be used as an emergency measure.
Since the most difficult teleportation magic could be used out of thin air like this, naturally, there was no need to mention other lower-tier magics.
Lin Jun could now casually throw out various magics without relying on magic crystals; it was just that his proficiency was somewhat inferior to No. 10's.
Regrettably, the level-less skill [Pinnacle of Magic] did not appear on No. 10.
According to it, it was still lacking a little bit.
And this "little bit" was highly likely hidden within those pieces of information brought by the lightning ball.
However, this piece of information was very strange. It didn't contain any content itself; it was more like the key to a certain "treasure chest."
Yet, where was the treasure chest? What was inside it? Whether it was [Pinnacle of Magic] or not, neither Lin Jun nor No. 10 had any way of knowing.
Lin Jun also wondered if it could be that [Pinnacle of Magic] had uniqueness like the Great Sins and Virtues. A certain old slime geezer occupied the position, causing a genius like himself to be unable to obtain this skill.
This would only be known after he killed that detestable slime poser.
After a bout of research, Lin Jun let No. 10 return first to the Pink Puchi who had been constantly muttering about it.
Meanwhile, Lin Jun began pondering methods to conquer the Demon King.
Only after personally experiencing it did he know how formidable this ability to teleport at any time was. But... it wasn't as if there was no countermeasure...
...
Duke's Mansion, reception hall.
A young noble stood at the door, right hand over his chest, bowing to Inanna.
"Lady Inanna's reception today will be etched in my heart. Thank you, My Lady, for being willing to accept a nobody like me."
She nodded slightly, a flawlessly appropriate smile on her face: "Lord Baron praises me too much."
The noble raised his head, his gaze lingering on her face for a moment, then lowered his eyes and left the hall.
He wasn't Inanna's suitor, but a follower.
In fact, after the birthday banquet incident last time, there had also been some guys attempting to pursue Inanna.
But after a certain frivolous-acting guy was suddenly frozen into a rare-medium popsicle, no guy dared to act so boldly again.
And those relatively subtle guys, after all their hints were ignored by Inanna, could only back out in the face of difficulties.
As time passed, no one dared to dream of happily marrying the Duke's daughter anymore.
There were even rumors secretly spreading that Inanna didn't like men.
Regarding this, Alamar could only despairingly let it be.
Correspondingly, some nobles who saw clearly that Inanna possessed both strength and prestige began to bet their futures on her.
Just like this young noble who just left; he came to pledge his allegiance.
Although Inanna didn't like these things, she still tried her best to do what she ought to do.
It was just that, once the person left, she couldn't help but slump into the chair and take off that mask.
In the corner, No. 4, who was originally tossing and turning admiring a tooth—the trophy from its last duel—saw that the Pink Puchi was finally done.
With three bounds and two leaps, it scurried onto the chair and familiarly nuzzled into Inanna's embrace.
Inanna smoothly began kneading its mushroom cap and short feet, just like an instinctive reaction.
Kneading the Puchi, Inanna finally relaxed.
However, she still had some things on her mind.
Recently, only No. 4 was still keeping her company.
No. 10 said it had business and had been gone for a long time, let's not mention that. For some unknown reason, little No. 14 also always ran off to the Mushroom Garden alone recently. Although there was no evidence, Inanna always had a feeling of being avoided.
It's an illusion, right...
It couldn't be that she was hated by No. 14, right?
Suddenly, an intense mana fluctuation appeared in the middle of the courtyard, and various alarms in the Duke's mansion rang endlessly.
Inanna jumped up almost instantly, the fire clothes on her body flaring up abruptly.
However, she didn't expect that after arriving at the window, what she saw was half of No. 10.
(End of Chapter)
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