Perhaps because of the beautiful memories left behind in the dream world, Rosalyn fell into a prolonged emotional slump after realizing she would never see her friends Hans and Mary again upon returning to reality.
She lost interest in outdoor adventures. Aside from diligently studying rune knowledge every day, she spent most of her time sitting on a chair in the manor, tilting her head back to stare blankly at the towering ruins of the Black Tower nearby.
Yvette didn’t offer much comfort; after all, such emotional reactions were perfectly normal. However, she occasionally accompanied Rosalyn to the shattered dome on the top floor of the Black Tower, allowing her to observe the post-apocalyptic scenery of Ish City and soak in the unique atmosphere of destruction followed by rebirth.
And so, time passed over the course of four months.
As Ish Island transitioned from late summer to early winter, Yvette finally grasped the fundamentals of the “Elemental Decay Restoration Technique” and began repairing the assorted element capacitors and energy storage panels they had collected.
The repair process was quite lengthy, mainly due to the numerous details inherent in this technique—any slight miscalculation could result in damaging the parts, turning them into unusable scrap. After several attempts that saw four or five large storage panels ruined, she finally managed to restore one to its original state—the kind taken from beneath a magitek motorcycle, which held a power value of 200, nearly a third of Yvette’s own.
In this way, the ambitions she had nurtured began to be realized.
From now on, she could finally use the energy grid to zap those pesky vegetable thieves!
Yet, it was difficult to refuse a teacher’s orders. For a certain period, whenever she saw the charred bodies of little squirrels, wild cats, or various birds appear on the outskirts of the garden, she could only bury them sadly, marking their graves with wooden sticks. Over time, this resulted in several makeshift grave markers popping up around the manor, giving the place a cemetery-like atmosphere, much to Yvette’s dismay.
Of course, for Rosalyn, there were plenty of advantages now that her teacher had mastered the Elemental Restoration Technique.
For instance, the manor no longer experienced frequent power outages; at night, streetlights could be turned on both within the manor and along the safe zone streets outside. Even in winter, there were warm air heaters available, sparing them from having to don thick layers and resort to using magic to warm themselves as they used to.
Had it not been for the dream ending so abruptly, leaving no time to save up for other specialty texts, Rosalyn might have suspected that her teacher could repair even more advanced technology like magitek soldiers or automaton constructs, effectively resurrecting the peak technology of the Origin civilization through her own efforts.
Indeed, there was never a doubt in Rosalyn’s mind regarding her teacher being a transcendent genius.
Another year had passed, and on a certain morning in early January or February, an unusually intense snowstorm swept over Ish Island. Fierce winds whipped up flurries of snow, coating the world in a hazy lead-white chaos.
However, for the duo who could now rely on the warm air heater for extended periods without worrying about power outages, this storm was devoid of its former lethality.
Yvette sat comfortably in front of the floor-to-ceiling window on the first floor, enveloped in the warmth emanating from the heater. A bone china cup in her hand released steam from the red tea within as she observed the swirling snowstorm outside, sipping her tea with a relaxed demeanor.
After a while, when Rosalyn came down from upstairs to prepare lunch for her teacher at the usual time, Yvette suddenly called her over and transferred three brand new spells into her magitek terminal. Thᴇ link to the origɪn of this information rᴇsts ɪn 𝗻𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹✶𝗳𝗶𝗿𝗲✶𝗻𝗲𝘁
“Teacher, what are these…?”
“Three new medium-sized spells. They haven’t been optimized yet, but the structures have been finalized. Since your ring still has plenty of storage space left, record them first and start mastering them.” Yvette sipped her tea, her gaze still on the tumultuous winter scene outside.
These spells were designed based on new ideas and inspirations Yvette discovered after her first trip to the Origin civilization, each fitting squarely within the 50,000 credit point range, genuinely qualifying as medium-level magic.
Of course, she could design spells with even higher specifications, pushing 100,000 points or even challenging super-specialized spells in the million-point range.
But it would be meaningless, as she wouldn’t be able to use them anyway.
This brings us to another crucial module of the magitek terminal—the “rune point cache.”
This is a special module connected to the terminal’s “element chip,” much like the dedicated video memory on a graphics card, directly limiting the maximum spell specifications a terminal can cast.
Rosalyn’s current ring is a fully restored version of the “Sky Ring Y2,” a high-end magitek ring with an impressive full capacity of 120,000 points. However, the rune point cache limits her to just 60,000 points.
Thus, there was no point in considering spells above 60,000 in specifications.
Even Yvette’s newly purchased high-end ring, the “Black Tower S3,” which she acquired in the dream before investing in the “Elemental Decay Restoration Technique,” offered a 60,000 rune point cache and 150,000 storage space—3,000 points was already the highest tier available in consumer-grade terminals, highlighting the strict technological monopolies in the industry.
This was naturally rational—if commercially available magitek terminals could casually cast spells exceeding 100,000 specifications, what would be left for military-grade equipment? How would the divisions be categorized, and how could high prices still be justified?
This also explained why assessing spell performance was crucial while conducting business with the welding gun. Often, gang members lacked the conditions to cast larger spells and could only gamble on the quality of medium to small-sized spell specifications.
Having prioritized the task of cooking for her teacher, it wasn’t until after lunch, when Rosalyn washed the dishes and dried her hands on a towel, that she finally sat down at the dining table, her heart racing with excitement as she began reviewing the three new spells her teacher had given her.
In terms of user experience, the four thoroughly polished spells—“Ice,” “Fire,” “Wind,” and “Thunder”—which had reached near perfection, were already exceedingly useful for the vast majority of combat scenarios.
However, even so, the excitement generated by the new medium spells made Rosalyn’s gaze sharpen with anticipation.
First was the first new spell—Regen Pump!
Simply put, it was a powerful self-recovery spell. Previously, Yvette had developed a similar spell called “Vitality,” and this was an upgrade based on that foundation. In addition to enhancing self-healing capabilities, it could also create an external regenerative heart, drawing out the blood that flowed from wounds and supplying it back internally, thus preventing various weaknesses caused by excessive blood loss.
Next was the second new spell—Crimson Armor!
This was a protective spell that enhanced physical defense. Upon activation, a multitude of dark red runes would appear on the surface of the skin, greatly increasing the body’s resistance to both physical damage and extreme temperatures, effectively preventing vague injuries from attacks by aberrations.
Finally, the third new spell—Muscle Release!
Similar to Crimson Armor, this was a self-strengthening spell, but it leaned toward offensive capabilities. When activated, it could significantly enhance physical strength and stamina, even improving reaction speed. When combined with Crimson Armor, the caster could transform into a melee mage, clawing through lower-grade aberrations with ease.
However, the downside was that both Muscle Release and Crimson Armor had a one-time mana cost of 20 points, with a duration of 10 minutes. Given that Rosalyn’s current mana pool barely reached 45 points, if she opted for this melee mage combination, she would likely be unable to use her traditional spells of Ice, Fire, Wind, and Thunder.
Thus, she could only hope that her teacher would optimize the mana cost ratios for these three spells promptly while also investing more effort into her meditation practice.
Once her mana pool was sufficiently vast, activating both Crimson Armor and Muscle Release while simultaneously casting her iconic Ice, Fire, Wind, and Thunder spells would surely let her dominate the island! At that point, she could venture into more dangerous areas of the island with her teacher.