Chapter 405: Letter of Consent

Once Ryan issued his skill’s command, the energy began to flow in perfect harmony from the palm of his hand directly into the grimoire’s central gem.

Despite having almost fifty thousand magic power points circulating through his veins thanks to the three buff spells, the dark wood of the cover did not even creak. There were no erratic sparks or heat leaks burning the courtyard air.

The entire process seemed to respond to a millimetric calculation. The dexterity Ryan possessed right now to feel even the most minuscule mana flows around him—coupled with the daily habit he had developed of suppressing his monstrous internal energy to the point of appearing like a simple, harmless human in front of others—had somehow granted him the ability to exert an enormous and absolute magical control.

He dosed that ocean of power as if he were letting water fall drop by drop down the neck of a glass funnel without spilling a single one over the edge.

"Splendid..." the dwarf murmured, unable to hide her professional pride as she watched the transfer proceed so smoothly without cracking the setting she herself had forged.

A couple of steps away, Alicia and Iris could not look away from Ryan’s hands for even a second. Even Mika, who knew inside out the theoretical fragility of the plant conduits they had assembled in the workshop, was amazed watching her new invention come to life without suffering the slightest rejection.

There was no need to prolong the process. Just two seconds were enough to fill the large central gem to the brim with the millimetrically measured energy Ryan transmitted from his hand.

’That is enough,’ Ryan thought, abruptly cutting off the mana supply before saturating the core.

He pulled his right hand back from the cover and held the grimoire by the spine, extending it forward to show it to its two creators.

The result was obvious. The main gem, which seconds before looked opaque and cold, now emitted a beautiful, deep color where flashes of electric blue and violet intertwined in constant harmony beneath the crystal’s facets, spinning slowly like a small trapped nebula.

"He truly could do it with such ease..." Iris murmured almost breathlessly, blinking at the total absence of overload in a stone that had just received a maxed-out SSS-rank spell.

Beside her, Alicia’s eyes shone with a mixture of admiration and enthusiasm. Although deep down it was a result she already expected from her lord, seeing it materialize right in front of her nose thrilled her immensely; especially because she knew full well that this grimoire project was something Ryan had been deeply interested in developing for quite some time to strengthen his territory’s ranks.

No one touched the book yet. The internal circuit had not yet finished its course.

For exactly ten seconds, the blue and violet glow remained concentrated in the heart of the cover, stabilizing. And right on the tenth second, a luminous thread ran through one of the upper veins: the energy stored in the central gem transferred cleanly until it lodged into the middle small gem of the three set at the top.

The small secondary crystal lit up with a steady flash and the book’s humming stopped completely.

"It works!" Runa blurted out, slapping her thigh sharply with a smile from ear to ear.

"There is no doubt about it..." Mika agreed, her face lit up with success, stepping closer immediately upon seeing that the flow was already stable.

The two artisans could hardly believe that a single attempt had been enough to get the prototype to record the technique without bursting. With obvious care, Mika asked for permission with a gesture and took the grimoire from Ryan’s hands to inspect it closely.

Her long fingers first felt the temperature of the newly charged small gem, and after verifying that the seal had no leaks, she opened the heavy wooden cover.

Ryan leaned forward slightly to look inside along with the others.

The change in the material was evident. The first of the six pages—the one that had the translucent texture similar to a pressed jellyfish—no longer glowed as much as the rest of the pages that remained empty and blank. Instead of that virgin luminosity, the mana had solidified within the plant fibers and now had a full text inscribed on it with crisp, dark strokes.

Ryan focused his gaze on the newly formed characters and read the content in his mind from beginning to end:

’I receive the power of the supreme being into my being; whatever happens, it is the path I chose. My desire is to serve my king’s purpose; I accept it. Use my body as a channel to receive your energy; I am the tool that serves my king’s plans. Recovery.’

Upon finishing reading the last line, silence fell over the group for a couple of seconds.

Ryan lifted his gaze from the gelatinous page and raised an eyebrow at the alchemist.

"A full incantation?" Ryan asked, somewhat confused, pointing at the paragraph with the back of his fingers. "Based on how you explained the circuit to me earlier, I thought only the activation word ’Recovery’ would appear on the page."

In front of him, Mika and Runa froze for an instant and glanced at each other out of the corner of their eyes.

The triumphant smiles both had worn for the past minute suddenly transformed into an uncomfortable expression, like that of two culprits who had just been caught hiding the fine print of a contract.

Mika cleared her throat delicately, averting her gaze a millimeter toward the snow on the ground.

"Actually, it is not a traditional magic incantation, Your Majesty," Mika spoke, carefully measuring her tone of voice. "To be completely precise about the text’s function... it is actually a letter of consent, and the spell’s trigger appears at the very end..."

Ryan blinked once, processing the legal term in the middle of an arcane experiment.

"A letter of consent, you say?" he repeated slowly.

"Yes, well, you see..." the elf murmured, losing part of her usual academic composure as cold sweat appeared on her temple. "Runa... please help me with this..."

Surreptitiously, Mika stretched her arm and nudged Runa’s ribs with her elbow to pass the responsibility to her workshop partner.

Runa let out a low grunt at being sold out so quickly, but she had no choice but to take a step forward. The dwarven blacksmith brought her closed fist to her mouth and faked a rather unconvincing dry cough before looking Ryan in the face.

Seeing so much beating around the bush between the two, Ryan frowned and dropped his arms to his sides.

"Go ahead, Runa. Stop beating around the bush and say what you have to say once and for all."