Time Stasis

Perhaps to many people, spending more than a decade in a laboratory, researching a spell tens of thousands of times more complex than calculus without sleep or rest, would be unimaginably tedious. Especially during the final year or two, when one had to remain in a small "spell testing ground," repeatedly casting the same spell, even stacking various negative conditions upon oneself before casting it, until the spell had been forcibly honed into an "instinct"—that was even more monotonous.

But to Punk... such peaceful research was the best of times!

Watching magic's dazzling lights bloom before his eyes, feeling powerful mana flow through his soul, constructing a spell model worthy of being called a work of art from nothing, and finally bringing a miraculous spell into reality...

How could such things be boring? The sense of achievement that came from growing stronger every day was the greatest driving force behind spell research, while increasingly proficient spells were the final reward bestowed upon a mage. In Punk's view, compared to wondrous magic of unparalleled brilliance, compared to the joy of constantly becoming stronger, so-called delicacies, beautiful women, and entertainment were simply piles of utterly boring things. Forsaking such magnificent magic to study, abandoning so much knowledge not yet fully understood in favor of "eating, drinking, and having fun," was simply a torturous form of suffering.

Perhaps the Archmages of the Netheril era had been able to establish such a glorious and dazzling civilization because of this love for magic and madness-like obsession with knowledge.

Now, as a true inheritor of Netheril's spirit, Punk had also perfectly inherited this somewhat extreme but thoroughly mage-like way of thinking—study, study, and study again; research, research, and research again! There was far too much magic in Archmage Wedraxia's memories waiting for Punk to learn, and