In meditation, Leon keenly sensed that he seemed to have found what he was looking for among the many spell images inside the Ice-Slow Horn.
That White Unicorn horn contained dozens of spell images it naturally mastered—mostly beginner spells, with quite a few intermediate spells as well.
Beyond those, there were many "noise" fragments: inherited water- and ice-aspect spells the unicorn wasn't good at using.
Those fragments weren't clear; generally, the creature would only awaken them little by little as it grew into higher tiers.
So finding the spell image of Ice Deceleration through meditative resonance was not easy.
Earlier, Leon had already wasted one attempt during meditation—completely fruitless.
Which was normal. If humans could easily learn a powerful monster's spell imagery just by meditating on its casting organ, that would be absurd.
Most of the time, you got nothing.
And even if you did find it, you still needed a long time to understand it, learn it, and convert it into your own spell image.
After all, monsters' spell imagery and human cognition differed too greatly. Pure copying without personal understanding made successful casting unlikely.
Leon had already prepared himself for a long war.
He hadn't expected the Kraken brain core's effect to be so immediate.
Since he'd found it, he began to comprehend it—turning that spell image into something truly his.
The spell image he'd found looked very strange, nothing like the standard "freezing" imagery of ice magic.
It resembled the quantum-motion concepts from his previous life—both wave and particle, dual-nature; you could even call it a "string-particle" image.
So that was it.
The core of Ice Deceleration was to push freezing power down into the motion of "string-particles," dissolving and slowing magical attacks at that level.
But understanding the principle was only the first step.
He still needed to understand every detail—every moment—and grasp the essence of the image before it could become his.
Leon began trying.
Perhaps because of his previous-life knowledge foundation, his accuracy in transferring the spell image into his own mind wasn't terrible.
But the speed was painfully slow—like a snail crawling.
Even with Leon's patience, it was almost ridiculous.
"What a shame," Leon thought. "If I had Iris's Absolute Focus talent, I wouldn't have to learn this so slowly. Her meditation and mana-growth talent is top-tier even among heroines."
As Leon continued to replicate the spell image, time passed in a blink.
During that time, Iris came to check in.
She listened outside the door for a while, then peeked through the crack. Seeing Leon fully immersed in cultivation, she quickly went to meditate on the spell images for intermediate Light Healing and Light Purification.
She already had the complete spell images for both—she simply had never prioritized them.
Because even beginner Light Healing wasn't fully mastered by her yet; she still needed chanting to cast it.
Intermediate Light Healing was even harder.
Purification was manageable—medium difficulty—and she was already very proficient with the beginner version.
"I have to work harder," Iris told herself. "Leon has done so much for me, and I've given him nothing beyond being his teammate. For him, for Mother—I must become stronger!"
Never before had Iris desired strength as fiercely as she did now.
So she began her own meditation.
…
When Leon finished his meditation and prepared to leave, he happened to run into Grani outside Iris's place.
"Huh? You and Iris are already getting along this well?"
Grani stared in surprise at Leon—someone who really shouldn't be here.
"I'm here because of her mother's matter," Leon said, giving a small bow.
"You mean Aunt Hamla?" Grani's eyes flashed. "I understand. You wouldn't happen to have found her, would you?"
"Impressive, Miss Grani. How did you guess?" Leon was genuinely surprised.
"If your divination results were correct, then finding her isn't strange," Grani said. "But the biggest clue is that Iris actually allowed a man to stay in her house. That's not a normal event. Even if she likes you, she still has pride and restraint. So I guessed something far beyond that level must have happened."
Leon admired her.
"No wonder the Elven Holy Land entrusts its diplomatic authority with Holsha to Miss Grani. Astonishing."
Then he asked, "Do you have any leads on what happened to Lady Hamla?"
Grani shook her head. "I know no more than Iris does. I'm sorry, but I truly have no further information to give you."
"Understood," Leon said. "I still need to go back for something. If it's convenient, could you pass a message to Iris for me?"
"A message? Why not just greet her yourself?"
"She's still meditating—better not disturb her," Leon said. "And I believe Miss Grani will stay here waiting for Iris anyway."
"How do you know I'll wait for her? I'm busy."
Leon smiled. "Miss Grani, you jest. Since you've learned about Lady Hamla, you'll naturally raise it to high priority. You called her 'aunt' without hesitation—clearly the relationship is not ordinary."
Leon said it casually, but Grani heard it differently:
He's paying attention to every word I say!
He really is not ordinary!
Grani gave an elegant smile.
"Fine. You're hard to fool. What's your message?"
"I'm going to the Adventurers' Guild to meet a magical craftsman, then return to the mage corps to end my leave. If anything urgent happens, I'll contact her through my familiar—tell her to keep watch."
"Sure," Grani said. "That's easy. Next time there's a chance, you and I should have a drink—just the two of us. How about it?"
Grani finally couldn't resist making the invitation.
"If it's just a drink, no problem." Leon turned to leave. "See you, Miss Grani. You're as beautiful as ever today."
As beautiful as ever?
Grani felt intoxicated. What was happening—was this what falling in love felt like?
…
Less than five minutes after Leon left, Iris came out of her practice room and met Grani.
Regarding Hamla, the two quickly reached an agreement:
While Iris went to interact with Brellita, Hamla would be moved to Grani's residence for care.
After they settled that, Grani also passed on Leon's message.
"Oh? You talked with Leon that much?" Iris's expression turned subtle.
Grani cupped her face, dreamy. "That's nothing—I even asked him to have a drink with me another day."
"Oh."
"Iris," Grani said seriously, "I know you're interested in Leon too, but I won't back down."
"W-what are you talking about?" Iris panicked. "Leon and I are not that kind of relationship. You're overthinking it, Grani. If you want to make a move, go ahead—do whatever you want!"
Iris turned her face away.
"Really?" Grani wore a mischievous, I-see-through-you smile.
She didn't press further. If you want to be tsundere, fine—gives me room.
Don't blame me, sis. You're the one who refuses to face your feelings.
"O-of course! And why… why would you, someone who hated romance, suddenly change this much?"
Grani looked at Iris. "Iris—tell me. Is love a sin?"
"What nonsense are you talking?"
"See? You also think love isn't a sin," Grani said. "Otherwise you'd never question the premise. If it isn't a sin, then why are you afraid to pursue it honestly?"
Iris fell silent.
Some strange flame was quietly lit in her heart.
…
On the way to the Adventurers' Guild, Leon checked his panel and found the quest record had updated.
[Side Quest "Fallen Dark Elf" progress +15%. Current progress: 50%. Minimum reward threshold achieved]
[Mana Cap +5]
[Primary Stats: Vitality 46 / Mana 48 / Stamina 39 / Strength 35 / Agility 47]
"Huh?"
It jumped to 50% completion that suddenly?
Was it because Iris had decided to seek Brellita's help?
Or because she had started learning purification magic?
Either way—it was good news.
The clear rise of mana within his body told Leon it wasn't a hallucination.
A flat +5 at once—he could feel this wasn't just "normal training mana."
This increase pushed beyond his class bottleneck!
Completely different from mana gained through eating and training, which eventually hit a cap and stopped.
Even if he didn't have many quests, as long as he met enough heroines and stacked enough reward volume, he could break through humanity's racial limits through quest rewards.
And Leon realized: his raw mana was now close to the minimum threshold needed to cast advanced magic.
So besides Ice Deceleration, he also needed to work harder to master more intermediate spells to prepare for advancing to fourth tier.
Even for Leon, mastering more intermediate and advanced spells without relying on heroines' talents would take a very long time.
After that, under the Adventurers' Guild's supervision, Leon handed over the materials and the second-tier magic sword that needed repair to the dwarf magical craftsman.
With guild oversight, there was no worry about the craftsman running off with the money.
Leon returned home and focused on learning intermediate spells.
Intermediate magic was more than ten times more complex than beginner magic. Even with pseudo-intermediate mastery, he still needed full concentration.
This kind of progress was pure grind—aptitude or not, it had to be polished bit by bit, and it only got harder the further you went.