The Beating Grass incident shocked the entire castle.
Viscountess Nancy had suffered badly.
Both sides of her face swelled, and several of her teeth were knocked out.
Luna fared even worse.
Every one of her teeth had been knocked out, leaving her unable to speak properly.
Captain Ola immediately ordered an investigation, but ordinary soldiers had no hope of understanding what had actually happened.
Nancy wanted Wizard Amman to examine the scene.
The old wizard came, saw the Beating Grass seeds, shook his head, and left without saying a word.
Everyone else was left staring after him.
Rumors spread through the castle almost immediately.
The most believable version came very close to the truth: people whispered that Young Master Lance was no longer the harmless, timid boy he had once been.
Now that he possessed wizardry, anyone who offended him might suffer a terrible fate—and the First Madam had been the first person to learn that lesson.
Lance denied every rumor.
He even ordered the servants not to spread nonsense.
That stopped people from discussing the matter openly.
It did nothing to stop the whispers behind closed doors.
Afterward, the way the servants looked at Lance changed completely.
The contempt that had once followed him vanished, replaced by fear and respect.
The word wizard seemed like a mysterious crown placed upon his head.
While Nancy recovered, Lance paid her a formal visit.
She had clearly been badly frightened.
She refused even to meet him unless several people were present.
Biqi sat beside her mother’s bed and glared at Lance like a lioness ready to tear him apart.
Lance smiled politely and offered a few empty words of concern.
When the others happened to stand far enough away, he bent toward Nancy and spoke quietly beside her ear.
“You poisoned me.
I only collected a little interest.
Next time, if you intend to harm me, make sure I don’t discover it.”
Terror filled Nancy’s eyes.
Only then did she truly understand that the Lance she had once thought she could crush whenever she pleased had changed.
He was no longer the powerless boy she remembered.
In her eyes, he had transformed from a useless boy into an unfathomable wizard.
From that day onward, Fox never detected Red-Crested Cobra toxin in Lance’s food again.
Nancy scarcely dared leave her room.
At her insistence, Biqi even moved in to stay with her.
With Nancy no longer interfering, Lance enjoyed the peace.
Every morning he practiced swordsmanship relentlessly while also teaching Irene the basic style.
The awkwardness between them gradually faded.
Under Lance’s careful instruction, Irene learned quickly and soon mastered the essentials of all six basic movements.
Lance also continued working through the twenty-eight movements of Spirit Fox Swordsmanship.
Two weeks later, he had finished learning and understanding every movement.
Each time he practiced, he could reproduce the correct posture.
All that remained was repetition.
His meditation had continued throughout those two weeks as well.
The results of his spell-factor sensitivity testing, however, were discouraging.
Lance’s affinity for spell factors was poor across the board.
Water-aspected spell factors converted to mana at approximately twelve to one.
Fire was his best result, yet even that was only nine to one.
Earth was disastrous: twenty to one.
In other words, Lance absorbed and converted magical energy far less efficiently than most wizards.
He would need several times as much meditation to achieve what others could accomplish much faster.
That frustrated him.
His mental power was exceptionally high, but poor spell-factor sensitivity meant slow mana growth, and slow mana growth meant slow advancement as a wizard.
Two weeks of intensive meditation had increased his mana from only 30 points to 32.
That was especially discouraging because the earliest stages of the wizard path were normally the fastest.
‘Level 1 Wizard is also called Wizard Apprentice.
Wizard Apprentices are divided into two subtiers: Junior Apprentice and Advanced Apprentice.
I’m still a Junior Apprentice.’
A Junior Apprentice could advance to Advanced Apprentice once their mana exceeded 70 points.
At that stage, most people eventually encountered a bottleneck.
At 100 mana, an Advanced Apprentice could begin preparing to condense a mana pool and attempt the breakthrough to Level 2 Wizard.
Amman had told him that eight or nine out of ten wizards failed at that threshold.
Many spent their entire lives as Advanced Apprentices and never advanced farther.
‘But I haven’t even reached Advanced Apprentice, and my mana growth is already this slow.’
Lance shook his head.
He would have to find a way around the problem.
Then he reminded himself that Fox gave him advantages elsewhere.
Spell learning was the most obvious one.
During the past two weeks, Amman had taught him two Level 0 spells: [Mana Guidance] and [Spell Recognition].
Both were auxiliary spells.
Mana Guidance was commonly used when crafting magic items such as Beating Grass.
[Spell Recognition] was used to interpret magical structures when studying spell scrolls or spellbooks.
It was one of the basic tools every wizard needed.
The runes for both spells were comparatively simple.
With Fox’s assistance, Lance memorized them quickly.
His mental power exceeded two hundred points, so the ten points required to construct and stabilize each rune were trivial for him.
If he had not been worried about making Amman suspicious, he could have learned even more Level 0 spells.
Even so, the old wizard had been extremely pleased by Lance’s learning ability and diligence.
Only Lance’s poor spell-factor sensitivity made Amman shake his head and warn that the road ahead would be difficult.
‘I can spend the time Fox saves me on spell study on meditation instead.
Diligence can make up for weakness.
Until I find another solution, I have to keep meditating as much as possible.’
Lance settled on the plan.
…
“Young Master Lance, I brought the murloc blood!”
Bonnie’s voice pulled him from his thoughts.
She stood in the doorway carrying the container, breathing hard from the trip.
Lance took it from her and thanked her.
Over the past two weeks, Bonnie had continued helping him through the recurring side effects of the murloc-blood treatment, and the experience had made their relationship considerably closer.
Lance had also learned about her family’s situation and paid off the gambling debts left by her father.
She was genuinely grateful and now served him with far greater care.
Nancy had not contacted Bonnie since the Beating Grass incident.
Lance carried the murloc blood into the washroom.
…
Scarlet liquid surrounded his body as the treatment continued.
He could feel his physique strengthening. This chapter was taken from g.com without permission.
‘That should be enough.
Fox, scan my physical attributes.’
Two hours later, after finishing the bath, Lance issued the command.
[Scan complete.]
[Physical Attributes]
Constitution: 0.7
Strength: 0.7
Agility: 0.7
[Congratulations, Master.
Your physical attributes now meet the minimum requirements to activate another subchip.]
Lance smiled.
The second treatment cycle had done its job.
The recurring side effects had also produced an unexpected 0.1 increase in Agility after they passed.
Together, those changes brought all three attributes to the activation threshold.
[The following subchips are currently eligible for activation.
Please choose one.
Note: your present physical condition can support only one additional subchip.
Activating more will require stronger physical attributes.]
Lance reviewed the list only briefly.
‘I choose [Eagle Eye].’
[Confirm activation of subchip [Eagle Eye]?]
‘Confirmed.’
Lance clenched his fists in excitement.
[Subchip activation beginning…]
[DNA transcription in progress…]
[[Eagle Eye] activation complete.]
[Eagle Eye — Subchip 008]
Function 1: Precise target lock for accurate attacks.
Function 2: Threefold visual enhancement.
Cost: While active, physical stamina and mental energy are consumed at twice the normal rate.
…
Lance stared at the description and could not suppress his excitement.
This chip alone would dramatically increase his combat ability.
‘Even without learning a powerful attack spell yet, Eagle Eye combined with archery could turn me into a first-rate marksman.’
Another possibility excited him even more.
Among low-level spells, ray-type attacks had some of the strongest single-target penetration and destructive power.
Yet most wizards did not favor them.
The reason was simple: rays traveled in straight lines.
They were difficult to aim, easy to dodge, and normally lacked any ability to lock onto a target.
A spell that missed was useless no matter how powerful it was.
Lance did not have that problem anymore.
With Eagle Eye locking his target, ray spells could become terrifying weapons.
Raise a hand.
Fire a ray.
One precise strike to the head.
The image alone made his blood race.
Perhaps one day, enemies would learn to fear him as a true headshot specialist.