After traveling through the night, everyone present was utterly exhausted. Once Joanne had finished speaking, they each went off to rest.
Lynn was no exception. He picked a room that was still somewhat presentable, left the broken door loosely shut, ignored the dust covering the wooden bed, and lay down on it directly.
During the week since he had transmigrated here, Lynn had been constantly on edge. Even when sleeping, he kept one eye half-open, afraid that guards would burst in and kill him at any moment. Now, he could finally relax a little.
"Greenriel..."
Lynn murmured the name of the Land of Wizards Joanne had mentioned. Unlike Will and the others, who harbored doubts, he did not find it strange at all that a group of wizards who could wield magic had joined together, claimed a piece of land, and devoted themselves to studying magic there.
Or rather, it seemed perfectly normal to him... The theology faction of the Church, with all its faith-based nonsense, was what looked strange no matter how he saw it.
For Lynn, heading to the Land of Wizards was undoubtedly an excellent choice. In a place that revered magic and knowledge, he could better make use of his strengths, and he would not have to worry about being taken away one day.
Within the Secas Empire, which was controlled by the Church, he probably would not even be able to find a place where he could peacefully farm and advance technology.
If they really sent down a god, where would he even go to argue? Even antimatter weapons might not be enough to handle it...
After weighing the pros and cons, Lynn temporarily gave up on the idea of traveling alone. Yet a trace of unease still lingered in his mind.
He did not believe the sense of danger he had felt in the dense forest earlier had been an illusion.
Joanne, White Dove, Will, Buck, Barton... One figure after another flashed through Lynn's mind.
In the half year since becoming a Wizard Apprentice, he had only had shallow dealings with these people, and he had no grudges against any of them. That basically ruled out personal vengeance.
So who had made a move?
After giving it some thought, Lynn first ruled out Joanne.
It was not because of the faint fondness left behind by the original owner of this body, nor was he giving her special treatment. It was simply because she was the least suspicious.
As the apparent leader of the apprentices and the one who had proposed the escape plan, if even she had surrendered, then he should hurry up and run.
Next was White Dove. Her ability to control animals was crucial; she could be called the team's eyes and ears. If someone like her switched sides, it would be an absolute nightmare.
The parchment scroll that had warned him earlier had been written by Joanne and delivered by a gray crow under White Dove's control. If either of them had been a problem, Carl would likely have died before Lynn had transmigrated here.
Lynn was somewhat uncertain about the remaining three. Buck and Barton were twin brothers, so it should not have been difficult for them to cover for each other and deceive Joanne and the others.
He knew even less about the quiet and taciturn Will. All he knew was that Will was the child of some Count within the Secas Empire.
Lynn closed his eyes and repeatedly recalled every detail of his interactions with the Wizard Apprentices. Then he thought of the secret passage in the [Drunkard] tavern, Old Hawke, the Land of Wizards, Lame Laud...
A vague conjecture flashed through his mind. Lynn suddenly opened his eyes and sat up from the bed as an inexplicable chill gradually crept into his heart.
Creak~
At that very moment, the hinges groaned as the loosely shut door was pushed open.
Already on guard, Lynn instinctively drew the longsword at his waist and slashed toward the doorway.
Once he saw who it was, Lynn's movement abruptly stopped. The sharp blade hovered right before the girl.
"Joanne?" Lynn was rather surprised.
The silver-gray-haired Witch raised her right hand in front of the blade. Only then did Lynn notice that she wore a pitch-black leather glove on that hand, its surface inscribed with numerous intricate and mysterious runes.
It looked like some sort of alchemical item.
"Did you have a nightmare?" The silver-gray-haired Witch frowned slightly, unable to understand why Lynn had reacted so strongly. After a pause, she explained again. "I knocked just now, but you didn't answer."
Lynn nodded, sheathed his sword, and asked in confusion, "What is it, this late at night?"
"Teacher told me before that once you mastered the First-Ring spell Blade of Ice, I was to give this to you." Joanne spoke forlornly as she took a book two fingers thick from her robes and handed it to Lynn. On its cover, the words Basic Magic Compendium were scrawled in messy Common.
Lynn took it curiously. The entire book was made from coarse papyrus. When he opened to the first page, the first spell recorded there was called—Magic Missile.
Like Basic Material Deconstruction, Magic Missile was also a special type of Zero-Ring Magic. It was much less powerful than Blade of Ice and Fireball, but its advantage was that Magic Missile was a creation of pure magical power. It required no spellcasting materials prepared in advance, nor did it have a limit on how many could be controlled.
In theory, so long as one had enough magical power, creating hundreds of Magic Missiles at once was not impossible.
Of course, numbers alone were useless. Any wizard had limited mental capacity. For a Wizard Apprentice, creating and controlling two or three missiles at once to attack was already the limit. Any more, and they could easily become distracted in battle.
However, there was not no solution.
Lynn flipped through the pages. The second page of the Basic Magic Compendium was filled with graphs of curves, with quite a few Herlam Formulas resembling indecipherable scribbles beneath them.
After studying them carefully for a while, Lynn roughly understood what they were meant to convey.
To break through the control limit of Magic Missile, one needed to establish a three-dimensional coordinate system centered on oneself in one's mind, then pre-set the flight paths of the Magic Missiles.
Those flight paths did not have to be straight lines; they could also be curves. In other words, a caster could create a large number of Magic Missiles and form an overwhelming, irresistible barrage from different directions and angles.
This involved equations for straight lines and curves in three-dimensional space...
Lynn rubbed his chin. This one didn't seem very difficult...
Since Magic Missile was a creation of pure magical power, it was barely affected by gravity. He only needed to account for inertia and wind speed.
Seeing Lynn studying the page with great interest, Joanne could not help reminding him, "These are magical formulas created by Great Wizard Herlam. They can further increase the power of Magic Missile, but they are still too difficult for us right now. You'd better not waste too much energy on them."
"I'll keep that in mind." Lynn glanced over them a few more times. Once he had confirmed that his thinking was correct, he closed the book and replied casually.
Joanne could tell that Lynn was brushing her off. She shook her head helplessly. When she had first begun learning magic, she had also loved studying these complicated formulas, just like Lynn. It was only after she had hit a wall that she learned her limits...
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