Chapter 34: The S-Rank Patent Controversy 3

“No problem.”

Kweilin agreed without a second thought. The fact that Kent was willing to ask him for help so casually was proof enough that the two of them had grown close. That only made Kweilin look forward even more eagerly to the magical pet Kent might help him find in the future.

“Hahaha! I’ve got it!”

Kent suddenly stared at the wine in his glass as inspiration struck. He burst out laughing, jumped to his feet, and hurried back to his cabin.

The moment he entered, he shut the door behind him.

A short while later, however, Alice, Delis, and Kweilin followed him inside. The small sitting room instantly became crowded, but Kent paid them no attention.

A fireball appeared in his palm.

He wrapped it tightly in mental power, then began pouring additional mana into it.

Watching Kweilin pour wine had given him the idea.

If compressing a fireball was essentially a way of increasing its energy density, then what if, instead of physically compressing it, he simply forced more mana into the spell?

It was worth trying.

Kent fixed his eyes on the fireball.

As more mana flowed into it, the originally red flame slowly began to change color.

Red gradually turned to orange.

At the same time, the strain on Kent’s mind increased sharply. He kept his mental power locked firmly around the fireball, but had no choice but to slow the flow of mana.

From then on, he fed energy into it only a little at a time.

Eventually, the entire fireball became a pure, brilliant orange.

Kent could clearly sense that its temperature had more than doubled.

Sweat was already pouring down his forehead, but he still felt that he had some strength left.

So he continued.

By now, the fireball had consumed roughly ten times as much mana as an ordinary one.

As more energy was forced into it, a faint trace of blue finally appeared within the orange flames.

But the instant that blue appeared, Kent felt the spell slipping out of his control.

His expression changed.

Without hesitation, he hurled the fireball through the open window.

The orange sphere streaked through the darkness and plunged into the river some distance away.

Boom!

To Kent’s surprise, the fireball exploded even after entering the water, producing a deep, muffled blast.

Fortunately, music and dancing were still going on up on the terrace, so only a handful of particularly powerful people aboard the ship seemed to notice anything unusual.

Kweilin stared at Kent in shock.

“You can compress magic?”

That was no small matter.

Magical compression was something normally studied only by intermediate mages—those who had reached at least the fifth rank.

And Kent?

He was a first-rank mage.

The lowest formal rank on the continent.

Yet not only could he cast first-rank spells instantly, he had apparently managed to compress one as well.

Judging by the orange color of that fireball, its destructive power had reached at least the level of a third-rank spell.

Kent wiped the sweat from his forehead and grinned.

“Heh. That wasn’t compression.”

Kweilin immediately examined Kent’s magical fluctuations again.

First rank.

There was no mistake.

His confusion only deepened.

Still, matters involving another mage’s cultivation methods were private. Asking too directly would be considered extremely rude.

“It’s nothing particularly complicated,” Kent said. “I can explain it, but this isn’t exactly the safest place to talk.”

There were too many powerful experts aboard the ship. If word of this technique spread before he could register it, that would be a serious loss.

Kent was already thinking about filing another patent.

Kweilin smiled knowingly.

He stepped outside for a moment.

When he returned, he looked at Kent and said, “Alright. No one can listen in now. You can tell me, can’t you?”

After spending the past few days with Kent, Kweilin had already realized that Kent didn’t speak with the endless politeness and evasiveness common among nobles.

So this time, he didn’t bother being indirect.

“It’s actually very simple,” Kent explained. “You use your mental power to hold the fireball firmly in place, then keep feeding mana into it. You just have to be careful. I tried compressing one this afternoon, but it failed. Then, when I saw you pouring wine for me just now, the idea suddenly came to me.”

Kent knew Kweilin must have had a reason for stepping outside earlier, so he didn’t bother being secretive and simply explained the method in full.

“That’s it? It’s really that simple?”

Kweilin clearly didn’t believe him.

A fireball appeared in his hand. After only a short while, beads of sweat began forming on his forehead, while the flame slowly shifted from red to orange.

Kent stared at the fireball in surprise.

That had been silent casting.

He had clearly sensed Kweilin’s mana flow pause for the briefest instant before the spell formed. That tiny interruption was the hallmark of casting without chanting.

If Kweilin had known what Kent was thinking, he would probably have been even more shocked. The pause had lasted only a fraction of a second. In real combat, however, if someone disrupted the spell during that instant, the caster could suffer a dangerous backlash of mana.

“Looks like this is my limit,” Kweilin sighed. “That one fireball already used up half my mana.”

He hurled the spell out of the window.

The fireball was orange, without even the faint trace of blue that Kent had managed to produce.

Even so, the result proved that Kent’s method worked.

More importantly, the technique didn’t seem to consume an excessive amount of mental power.

Kweilin looked at Kent with an increasingly strange expression.

His own magical talent was considered excellent, yet compared with Kent, the difference was almost absurd.

He was already a second-rank mage, but the fireball he had strengthened wasn’t even as intensely colored as the one produced by a first-rank mage.

“Little brother, you absolutely have to register this as a patent!”

Kweilin suddenly became excited.

“Anyone who learns magic in the future should have to pay for using this method. This is an absolute gold mine! Charge just a hundred gold coins per mage—do you have any idea how many mages there are across the entire continent?”

“Quickly, write the method down and send it to the Mage Guild headquarters. The sooner, the better. There’s a magical communication array right here at the port!”

“Master, take a look at this. That boy is really something.”

Inside the tallest mage tower in Alliance City, an elderly man handed a sheet of parchment to the middle-aged man before him.

“Oh?”

The middle-aged man skimmed through it, and a trace of interest appeared in his eyes.

“So this can be done as well.”

A fireball instantly appeared in his hand.

Within only a few breaths, its color began changing.

Red became blue.

Blue deepened into dark blue.

Then came purple.

Deep purple.

Finally, the fireball slowly turned white.

A moment later, even the white flame began to take on a faint, almost translucent quality.

Only then did the middle-aged man finally start showing signs of strain.

The old man beside him stared at the nearly transparent white fireball, and fear gradually filled his eyes.

The tiny sphere of flame radiated an overwhelmingly violent aura, as though the slightest loss of control would unleash terrifying destruction.

“Genius. Absolutely brilliant!”

Even the middle-aged man could no longer hide his astonishment.

“Other than the enormous mana consumption, this method uses only about one-third as much mental power as conventional compression. And this fireball is already close to reaching the level of Holy Flame.”

He stared at the nearly translucent flame in his hand, still amazed.

“But something this simple... how did no one think of it before?”

For a mage, mental power was far more precious than mana.

Mana could be restored with potions, magical cores, and various other means. Mental power, however, could only truly recover through rest.

In battle, every bit of mental strength saved could mean the difference between life and death.

The elderly mage naturally understood the significance of the discovery as well.

“Then how should we classify this patent...?”

In his eyes, the technique was nothing short of revolutionary.

Mages usually relied on warriors or knights to protect them while they cast spells. Even if this new method required a little more time and consumed far more mana, the increase in destructive power completely changed the equation.

Take a simple example.

In the past, if one second-rank mage and two second-rank swordsmen encountered a second-rank magical beast, there was a genuine possibility that someone would be killed or badly injured.

But with this new technique, the situation would be entirely different.

As long as the two swordsmen could hold the magical beast back for a short while, the mage could unleash a first- or second-rank spell with power comparable to a spell one rank higher.

Even if the attack failed to kill the second-rank magical beast outright, severely injuring it would be almost guaranteed.

That alone could save countless lives.

After considering it for a moment, the middle-aged man finally spoke.

“S-rank.”

“This method could save the lives of a great many low-ranked mages.”

“What?!”

The old man was visibly shocked.

“S-rank? Then we’ll have to notify every branch of the Mage Guild!”

The designation had not appeared in centuries.

Even legendary forbidden spells were classified as S-rank techniques.

The middle-aged man turned his gaze toward the distant Mage Guild headquarters and spoke calmly.

“Keep the inventor’s identity confidential.”

“As for those old fellows, send each of them a copy free of charge.”

A faint smile appeared on his face.

“This is a blessing for mages everywhere.”

That very night, Mage Guild branches across the continent received an official announcement from headquarters:

A mage affiliated with the Mage Guild has developed a revolutionary new method of magical compression.

The technique consumes approximately ten times the normal amount of mana, but requires only one-third of the mental power used by traditional compression methods. The spell retains its original size and shape, while its destructive power increases by at least one full rank.

Most importantly, the method can be successfully mastered and used even by first-rank mages.

After evaluation by Mage Guild headquarters, this patent has officially been classified as S-rank.