Deep within a remote forest far from civilization—
An astonishing surge of magic power was brewing at the forest's center, radiating outward as an overwhelming pressure that shook the surroundings.
The birdsong, insect chirps, and even the distant roars of wild beasts that had once filled the forest vanished entirely in that instant, plunging the area into an eerie, unnatural silence.
At the very heart of that terrifying magical disturbance sat Yuuki, having already left Sosshi Village behind.
Crack—crack—
Freezing magic spread outward from Yuuki's body, crawling across the ground. Wherever it passed, the earth froze solid, and nearby trees were quickly encased in thick layers of ice.
When the frozen area expanded to roughly twenty meters, the power of the magic finally began to weaken. At the edges, the ice melted into droplets of water, which then evaporated into mist, constantly shifting and changing.
Ice.
Water.
Mist.
The three attributes transformed into one another, forming a continuous cycle that enveloped the entire area.
Second by second, time passed.
The terrifying magic fluctuations gradually receded, and the strange phenomena born of that magic slowly faded away.
Yuuki's seated figure became visible once more.
"Replicating the magic sources of four Magic Knight–level mages in one go… I almost lost control of the sudden surge in magic power."
He exhaled a breath of icy white air and opened his eyes, faint silver light flickering within them.
At that moment, Yuuki could clearly feel the vast, surging magic inside his body. With a single thought, he could freely convert it into attacks of any attribute he possessed.
This kind of combat method—directly releasing pure attribute-based magic power—was something usually only powerful mages could achieve. In fact, such raw magic attacks were often more terrifying than the spell techniques developed by ordinary Magic Knights.
"The four Magic Knight–level magic sources boosted my total magic power enough to leap past the Fifth Domain… straight into the Fourth Domain."
"Tch… this time, I really struck it rich."
Yuuki couldn't hide his delight.
Judging purely by total magic power, he had already surpassed Yuno at the time of the entrance exam—and even Noelle, despite her royal lineage.
A mage's magic power was never fixed.
From the explosive growth that occurred upon receiving a grimoire, magic power would continue to increase with training and age, until eventually declining with old age. The total amount that could be gained throughout this process represented a person's innate talent.
Yuuki's method—continuously raising his magic power ceiling by replicating magic sources—was something entirely unprecedented.
"My magic power has already reached the level of a full-fledged Magic Knight. As for actual combat strength…"
Yuuki glanced at the silver grimoire floating in front of him, momentarily unsure how to define his exact standing.
With his wide variety of magic, ordinary Magic Knights were unlikely to pose much of a threat. Taking Revchi Salik, the Chain Magic user, as an example—if Yuuki encountered him again now, he was fully confident he could defeat him.
That said, Yuuki was well aware of one thing.
He was still no match for the Magic Knight Captains.
"Maybe I should find a chance to test it in real combat."
He raised his hand and clenched his fist slowly.
This breakthrough made him truly realize just how vast the gap was between the magic ceilings provided by different people.
At the Fourth Domain level, forget commoners—even ordinary nobles would offer him little benefit beyond adding new grimoire pages.
From the Fifth Domain upward, the gap between commoners and royalty became truly apparent. With every rise in domain, that difference grew exponentially larger.
There were strengths and weaknesses even among Magic Knight Captains—let alone across entire domain tiers.
When Licht unleashed his magic power at full strength, he could launch an attack that blanketed the entire Clover Kingdom, possessing the power to destroy a nation single-handedly—something no current captain could accomplish.
Yuuki believed that if he could replicate the magic source of even one elf, his strength might jump directly to captain-class.
Unfortunately—
Among the Eye of the Midnight Sun, the four elves currently possessing hosts were all far beyond what he could handle right now.
Still… that didn't mean there was no chance.
Once he succeeded—
He would gain the power to step off the chessboard and become a player who could place pieces himself.
Whoosh!
The silver grimoire flew before Yuuki's eyes. Its pages flipped rapidly as three new types of magic appeared, and four new pages were added.
---
Magic Inventory
1. Fire Magic
– Scorching Flame
2. Water Magic
– Flowing Body
– Narrow River's Current
3. Ice Magic
– Heaven-Piercing Ice Fang
– Ice Crystal Spike
– Crystalline Ice Shield
4. Mist Magic
– Phantasmal Mist Vortex
– Lost Boundary
5. Plant Magic
– Mandrake's Cradle
– Thorn Whip
6. Detection Magic
– Observation
7. Wind Magic
– Tower of Tempest
8. Spatial Magic
– Spatial Teleportation
9. Spatial Magic
– Subspace
10. Chain Magic
– Magic-Binding Iron Chain Formation
11. [Blank]
12. [Blank]
13. [Blank]
---
Among the four Eye of the Midnight Sun members, two were Mist Magic users. Yuuki converted one of the duplicate mist attributes into a blank page.
With his massive increase in magic power, Yuuki could now directly materialize spells through magic sources alone—no longer needing to spend time deducing or refining them as he had before.
Of course, these were not all of the spells those four possessed. Yuuki only replicated techniques that were either particularly powerful or had special utility.
For example, Flowing Body was similar to Suigetsu's liquefaction technique from the ninja world, while Narrow River's Current allowed rapid movement across the ground—or even underground—by exploiting a water-transformed body.
The Eye of the Midnight Sun member who had escaped earlier had relied on this very spell to break free from Magna's binding magic.
Looking at the spells he had acquired so effortlessly, Yuuki suddenly realized that developing magic on his own really was a waste of time and energy.
Now, he could finally understand why Rhya, the wielder of Copy Magic, was so notoriously lazy.
"Souls… huh?"
Yuuki murmured softly.
Magic surged toward his eyes, and in the blink of an eye, his pupils turned completely silver-white.
His perspective rose sharply.
In the next instant, he found himself gazing upon his own soul—floating within a pitch-black world.
This leap in strength had granted him the ability to directly observe his soul, without relying on the replication process.
Within it, clusters of light shimmered in various colors, each one representing a distinct magic source.
They did not interfere with one another. Each occupied its own small region, existing independently.
It filled Yuuki with a strange, almost wondrous sensation.
(End of Chapter)