Slow footsteps echoed through the laboratory.

  Though he’d been pushed away from his first choice and would depart from this one again soon, Orion couldn’t help but feel some disappointment at having to leave Valderun and the embassy so soon.

  He had things to do back at the Sanctum. His friends were waiting for him, especially after the much longer stay than either of them had expected. Still, the freedom he’d experienced here, despite everything that happened, couldn’t compare to the oppressive gloom of the coven.

  “Things will be different,” he muttered to himself, but he knew his heart wasn’t in it. Yes, his mother’s rise to tier four and his own to tier two were sure to shake things up, and he doubted Morliana and her cronies would be able to push him around quite so much.

  But that didn’t change the fact that he wouldn’t have a future there. He had rejected that path when he pushed [Lucent Thaumaturge] away, and he couldn’t exactly get it back now.

  No, his return to the Sanctum would be a brief one, despite what he might have hoped for once. That just means I need to make it worthwhile.

  After everything was taken care of, he would be free to decide for himself what steps to take, even if a clear path to the Collegium had been laid out for him, especially after recent events.

  Nodding to himself, Orion returned to the desk and began jotting down a few of the ideas he’d had since gaining [Hypotheticism] and [Falsifiability Criterion].

  The first change, aside from the larger draw he could now get from the Mana Field, was that his approach to the same source was now different.

  As an [Empiricist], Orion spent some time developing a good formula, then pushed mana through it. If it worked, great. If it didn’t, he manually adjusted it in real time or tried a new approach, relying on fresh evidence for every change.

  That method was much better than what everyone else seemed stuck with, which was basically a long process of convincing themselves that some specific words or actions would cause magic to happen if enough mana was supplied, but it had its limits, as shown by his inability to perfect [Slow] and his need for external foci.

  He could still cast in that way if he chose to; his initial attempt with [Infinite Laser] proved it.

  But he wasn’t limited to just that. Not only could he adjust spells midway, but he could also essentially make a prediction, assign some weight by attaching measurements, and let [Hypotheticism] tell him how likely it was to succeed. This gave him the range to modify the new spell before he’d even cast it.

  Basically, unless he faced A-rank magic, his trait would let him learn how to counter it without fail, which was a big deal since A-rank was usually the purview of tier four or the rare few at tier three.

  With the addition of the Computing Crystal, he could run a dozen of these simulations simultaneously, working to perfect a template he could then apply situational changes to.

  The perfect example of that was, as always, the humble [Torchlight]. Previously, it had been a sphere of perfectly steady light, illuminating the space around itself without fail. A magical engineering feat, if there ever was one, considering how inconsistently most people cast.

  Now… Well, now [Torchlight] was something else. A large part of the formula still involved producing light, but it was integrated into a much more complex and modular system that accounted for the dimensions of the space he wanted to illuminate, surface reflection, haze, and even color cast, so that not a single drop of mana was wasted in providing the perfect amount of light to suit his preferences.

  More than that, once he’d cast [Torchlight], he could plug its readings into other light magic spells, which would incorporate all that data and improve them.

  “It might be a bit over-engineered, but I have much more room to move now when casting spells. Limiting myself to light production when I could achieve a better result in the same amount of time, and make my life easier for it after, felt very stupid,” Orion muttered, tapping his finger on the notebook containing the new and improved formula.

  TORCHLIGHT_v3(P)=Emit(λ_vis,Φ=P)°Stabilize(σ_flux→0)°AutoTune({ρ(λ),scatter(θ)}) ; METRIC={σ_flux,ρ}; STOP={σ_flux<10?3 ∨ t>5s}

  Compared to his initial attempts, which relied on basic physical principles to brute-force magical results, this was significantly more complex, but having a B-rank [Mana Manipulation] trait made it feasible.

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  With a flex of his will, Orion retrieved the notification he’d received after successfully assembling this new version.

  SYSTEM NOTIFICATION

  +1 Attunement

  +25.300 Exp

  Given how high his stats were at the moment, earning a new point from a simple rework of the most basic light spell was quite impressive, and the experience gained surpassed almost every other spell he had crafted.

  Yet the feeling of gaining experience for the next level was still fairly low, and he knew that simply perfecting his old magic wouldn’t allow him to leap through tier two like he had for tier one.

  “I can probably get a few levels out of this if I do it to all my spells, which I definitely should just for the benefits of having improved magics under my belt, but I need to keep my eyes on bigger prizes,” Orion muttered.

  There was a reason why tier two was the last milestone most mages and martial artists, even those in major factions, ever reached.

  Merely repeating the same skills and spells wouldn’t be enough to surpass level one hundred. No, people needed to reinvent themselves if they wanted to reach it without decades of work, and Orion had no plans to stay stagnant.

  Not now, not ever.

  Perhaps unsurprisingly, Orion had become a popular topic at the embassy. His rank-up had not gone unnoticed, even though he suspected Pauline had influenced the rumors. She seemed to have decided she should stick close to his mother and act as her personal relations manager.

  That somehow led to everyone knowing about his feat, which made walking through the embassy's public areas somewhat complicated, as people stopped and stared whenever he passed by.

  Normally, he would take that as an invitation to stay in his lab, but today he felt restless. Only a few days remained before he had to return to the Sanctum, and he needed to visit several people before leaving the city. However, he couldn’t find his mother anywhere. Every time he asked someone if they had seen her, they either stared with wide eyes if they were young, stammering that they didn’t know, or they asked probing questions if they were older, turning the whole thing into an interrogation he had no desire to endure.

  Witches, it turned out, earned their reputation for being antisocial weirdos. And that was saying a lot, coming from him.

  He was about to give up and sneak out of the embassy on his own when he sensed a change in the atmosphere in the garden, and everyone who had been enjoying the warm spring sun quickly disappeared, leaving him alone with just another for company.

  “Have you finally gotten tired of your petty power plays and decided to deal with me?” He asked, only half joking.

  He doubted Zania was here to kill him. Even if she could, which he doubted since she hadn't managed to make the leap into tier three yet, he knew her to be a spiteful woman, but not a stupid one.

  “If only I could do that, all my problems would be solved,” she muttered, rolling her eyes and pulling her dark purple shawl off, revealing a sundress underneath and the pale skin of her shoulders, which contrasted sharply with her crimson hair.

  Orion raised an eyebrow, keeping his eyes fixed on hers, and noticed a brief twitch at the corner of her lips.

  “I doubt you are here to make nice after all this time,” he pressed.

  “That’s right, I am not. I know making amends isn’t as simple as saying sorry, especially since I targeted you directly once it was clear your mother was under the Elder’s protection,” she acknowledged, which made him more than a little wary.

  Zania wasn’t really the type to have a sudden change of heart. Of course, he’d been waiting for something from her since she’d been lying low after Asteria ranked up, but this wasn’t what he had in mind.

  Wait, but this makes sense, doesn’t it? She hated Mom because her existence kept her from becoming Yue’s official apprentice, but now that Mom has reached tier four, she’s technically at the same level as a Veil Priestess, though not necessarily as powerful.

  That clearly opened her path to her desired position. Zania had become stronger since he arrived at the embassy, nearing tier three, but still hadn’t managed to make the leap. Since she was an extra ranker like him, it wasn’t surprising that she’d want to get back on track.

  Becoming Yue’s apprentice, especially since her class focused on alchemy, would be the quickest and most effective way to gain the experience she needed.

  The only problem was that she’d spent the past weeks antagonizing both him and his mother, who were still clearly under Yue’s aegis and whose opinion could ruin her chances.

  Leaning back slightly, Orion let a smirk curl his lips as he saw her realize he knew why she was there.

  “So that’s why you are here? To make amends the right way?” he asked innocently, letting his smirk widen when she nodded hesitantly. “You could start by telling that stuffy old lady hiding behind the trees to stop glaring death at me.”

  Zania whirled around. “Abella!” she yelled, and though no one appeared, a flicker of mana indicated someone had been there.

  “Oh, Mother, this is already tough enough as it is. Why does she have to make it so hard for me?” Zania whined, and Orion was honest enough to admit he enjoyed her discomfort more than a little.

  Yeah, let’s make you earn it a bit, shall we? I will eventually give her a chance, mostly because having anchors in the Sanctum will be more important than ever once I leave, but that doesn’t mean I’ll make it easy.

  She had come between him and his lab. That was an unforgivable act, in his view.

  “First, I have a mou party for you to organize…”

  The city of Valderun seemed to have gone through quite a few changes in the past couple of days. Orion had mostly been busy getting used to his new class and everything it entailed, so he hadn’t gone outside the embassy much, but he was still quite surprised by how relaxed everyone was.

  “Word has spread that all the Archmages voted together for Lord Antares, and nearly all the major factions have shown their enthusiasm at the choice of High Councilor,” Pauline explained, back to her role as guard and guide.

  She hadn’t been as busy as he was, so it wasn’t surprising, but he was a bit annoyed that he was still being babysat after breaking the Sanctum’s record for fastest rank-up in a century.

  “Huh, I guess his reputation is good for something. It certainly wasn’t quick or easy, I can tell you that much,” he muttered, earning a weird look.

  “Sometimes I forget you are his son,” she said, shaking her head. “You look like two teardrops, according to the rumors, but despite your success, I can’t seem to see you fitting in with such an august personality.”

  Orion pouted and was about to respond with what would undoubtedly have been a devastating put-down when someone interrupted.

  “That’s because he’s a terrible person. The kind of monster who doesn’t even warn his best friend that he’s about to be involved in a super important operation to save the Magocracy.”

  Orion felt a shiver run down his spine and slowly turned around. As he had feared, Ophelia was there, staring him down with a sneer worthy of legend.