Chapter 209

Chapter 209: Chapter 209

Marshall currently had two major research projects on his hands.

One was saving Private Simon.

The other was finding a reliable way to help people unlock their Second Origin.

Simon’s condition was extremely complicated.

It involved not only the relationship between the soul and the body, but also the very nature of life itself, so Marshall still had no clear direction on that front.

Research into the Second Origin, on the other hand, had finally begun to show promise—and surprisingly enough, the inspiration had come from Ultear.

"You want to help other people unlock their Second Origin? Why didn’t you ask me? I’ve got experience with that."

Marshall looked at her.

"Since when?"

"Did you forget I spent part of my childhood at the Bureau of Magical Development? I had so much Magic Power back then that I nearly died from it. The method they used to keep me alive was to develop a second container for my Magic Power."

Ultear pointed at herself.

"That should be what you call the Second Origin, right?"

"If that container can continue expanding without a fixed upper limit, then yes, it should be."

"Exactly! As expected of you. You actually discovered a secret that the entire Bureau of Magical Development failed to notice!"

"All right, all right. Enough shameless flattery."

Marshall waved her off.

"Tell me how they did it."

Ultear nodded.

"The experiments they performed on me used Magic to stimulate the development of a specific part of the body. Their research showed that unlike the First Origin, which is difficult to pinpoint, the Second Origin belongs entirely to the Mage’s physical body."

She gestured toward Marshall’s lower abdomen.

"Its location seems to be basically fixed. Somewhere around here..."

Ultear pressed a hand against the spot.

And somehow, she actually hit it exactly.

Marshall tilted his head.

"The lower core?"

"What?"

"Nothing. I thought mine was unusual. So everyone’s Second Origin is in roughly the same place?"

Marshall had privately nicknamed his two Origins the upper core and lower core, based purely on where they were located.

His First Origin sat around his chest, while his Second Origin was located in his lower abdomen.

He had examined the First Origins of plenty of people before, and their locations were not fixed.

Because of that, he had naturally assumed the Second Origin varied from person to person as well.

Apparently, he had once again overlooked something obvious because it was right under his nose.

"Never mind. Keep going."

"All right. Since the Second Origin is located in roughly the same place for everyone, we should theoretically be able to awaken it by specifically stimulating that region."

Ultear smiled.

"I think the Arc of Time could do it."

"Using the Arc of Time on a human body... accelerating the development of one localized area..."

Marshall lowered his head and thought it through.

"Theoretically, that really could work."

If naturally awakening the Second Origin was somewhat like forcing open a blocked pathway through sheer internal power, then using the Arc of Time was basically cheating.

Rather than struggling to force the pathway open normally, Time Magic could simply accelerate the development of the relevant part of the body until it matured enough to function.

Once the pathway was open, it could be used.

Whether the localized tissue had technically been aged in the process was almost beside the point.

Marshall suddenly had another idea.

"But if everyone’s Second Origin is in the same place, could I just use my own Magic Power to forcibly open someone else’s?"

If opening the pathway alone was difficult, why not borrow somebody else’s strength and brute-force it open?

Marshall actually thought that method sounded more promising.

It might even avoid the potential problem of damaging the foundation through accelerated aging.

Ultear stared at him.

"Uh... getting someone else’s Magic Power inside your body is extremely difficult, you know."

"Then empty their own reserves first."

"That’s still dangerous. Letting another person’s Magic Power enter your body requires an enormous amount of trust between both sides."

Marshall paused.

"Hmm. Fair point."

He thought for a moment longer.

"Let’s test your method first. If the Arc of Time can successfully develop a Second Origin, then my approach should theoretically be possible too."

Ultear immediately brightened.

"So we’re researching Magic together?"

Her eyes sparkled.

"I get to do research with Marshall! This is great!"

After that, Marshall and Ultear began studying how to use the Arc of Time on a Mage’s body in order to stimulate the development of the "lower core."

After repeated simulations and adjustments, they finally produced a spell model that looked close to perfect.

Now they needed volunteers.

Marshall had a small selfish streak here.

Rather than letting any of the girls test the spell first, he posted a commission inside the guild.

[Marshall’s Power-Up Experiment! Increase Your Maximum Magic Power!]

[No risk of death. Mages over the age of twenty-five who still feel they don’t have enough Magic Power are welcome to volunteer...]

The first two people to show up were Macao and Wakaba.

Naturally.

Marshall examined them and confirmed that neither of these middle-aged veterans had awakened their Second Origin, so he approved their applications and tested the new version of the Arc of Time on them.

The results were extremely encouraging.

The spell worked!

Both Macao and Wakaba successfully awakened their Second Origin.

Aside from the process being unbelievably painful, absolutely nothing went wrong.

After all, the spell was forcibly stimulating physical development.

The sensation was apparently something like having every cell in the affected area sliced apart at once.

Fortunately, there appeared to be no lasting side effects.

So aside from being agonizingly painful, the method had almost no drawbacks.

After Macao and Wakaba succeeded, the two returned to the guild and conveniently neglected to mention the part about the experiment hurting like hell.

Instead, they spent all their time bragging about how incredible Marshall’s Magic was and claiming they felt several times stronger than before.

Thanks to those two shameless salesmen, even more volunteers came running to participate.

Marshall quickly accumulated a huge amount of experimental data.

And from those results, he discovered an interesting pattern.

The greater someone’s Magic Power and the older they were, the less pain the procedure caused.

That made sense.

More Magic Power generally meant the Second Origin had already developed further naturally, while age appeared to have a similar effect.

The closer the Second Origin already was to maturity, the less forced development the Arc of Time needed to perform.

With enough data to work from, Marshall decided it was finally time to test his original idea—using his own Magic Power to help someone forcibly awaken their Second Origin.

The first person willing to volunteer was Warren.

Marshall placed one hand against Warren’s back and began channeling his Magic Power into him, and using it to stimulate the Second Origin directly.

The experiment failed.

Warren reported that it barely hurt, but his entire body felt numb and tingly.

More importantly, he couldn’t control Marshall’s Magic Power, which meant he couldn’t sense the location of his own Second Origin through it.

Marshall immediately understood part of the problem.

For the second attempt, he didn’t empty Warren’s reserves.

Instead, he used Link Magic to synchronize their senses and share Magic Power between them.

Marshall then stimulated his own Second Origin with his Magic Power and tried to guide Warren into doing the same thing alongside him.

That failed too.

Warren still couldn’t properly sense where his Second Origin was located.

Apparently, this method required at least a little natural intuition.

Then Marshall had another flash of inspiration.

Why not combine both approaches?

The improved Arc of Time could first target and accelerate the development of the Second Origin, making its location obvious.

Marshall could then use his Magic Power to guide the volunteer through the final process of opening it.

That should dramatically reduce the pain while still allowing him to forcibly complete the awakening.

So they tried it.

This time, Marshall succeeded.

Warren awakened his Second Origin without experiencing anywhere near the level of pain Macao and Wakaba had endured.

Once word spread that Marshall’s new method worked that well, the younger men in Fairy Tail immediately became restless too.

One after another, they began lining up to book their own "operation," loudly insisting that if twenty-three-year-old Warren could do it, then so could they.

Marshall suddenly found himself suffering from an entirely new problem.

He had too many volunteers.

Still, thanks to the enthusiastic cooperation of his guildmates, he obtained an enormous amount of invaluable experimental data.

One week later, Marshall officially announced that his newest spell was complete.

Origin-Opening Magic!

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