Comprehension Boost

Night.

Sure enough, the Peters Kingdom beyond the mountains had gathered its soldiers, intending to seize several northern towns while the Uruk Kingdom was weak and prepare for a future attack on the Uruk Kingdom.

Star relayed this information to Hekate. From thousands of kilometers away, she cast a Fire Curse Technique that burned the leading Commander to ashes, terrifying the Peters Kingdom's army into immediately retreating.

Before the campaign had even begun, their Commander had been burned into charcoal. That was clearly an ominous sign. Thus, the Peters Kingdom, which had planned to capitalize on the chaos, canceled the operation.

The Uruk Kingdom's entire Council of State was now little more than an empty shell and could not possibly resist. If she did not intervene, the whole kingdom would fall into war again and truly collapse into pieces.

With Dean Ornis currently holding things together, the situation had barely stabilized.

Hekate also checked on the movements of the other kingdoms. Only after discovering that none of them were making any major moves did she end the Star Speech.

The next day, the Gift of Fate yielded nothing, so she began working on the Magic Crystal Phone.

She glanced at Resonance Star on her status panel, then entered a resonant state with Earth Star.

Earth Star: Comprehension Boost 100%

With this effect, creating a Magic Crystal Phone should not be a problem.

Half a month later.

The Uruk Kingdom's decline had been temporarily contained. Count Fortes had risen to become a duke of the kingdom, the highest noble rank, while also serving as Prime Minister of the Council of State. His elder brother, Revolen, no longer needed to covet their father's title, as he himself had received the rank of viscount.

Betty, meanwhile, became the heir to the throne.

Of course, this was also because of Hekate. Dean Ornis knew that his great-granddaughter was friends with Hekate, so he directly declared her the next king.

However, Betty was still young and had no political foundation. King Brul had never expected Betty to become the heir, so he had never taught her such matters.

Therefore, Dean Ornis still handled major affairs, while Betty learned and dealt with minor matters at the same time.

As for the neighboring kingdoms, they knew that the Uruk Kingdom had a ruthless figure capable of instantly summoning thousands of lightning spells. None of them dared approach, and instead turned to invade the Chaos Kingdom.

During those peaceful days, Hekate's Magic Level successfully broke through to two-star Grand Magus.

Other than cultivating through Meditation and stabilizing the violent magic power within her body, she spent all her remaining time researching the magic rune design for the Magic Crystal Phone.

The Comprehension Boost was simply too powerful. Many things she had previously been unable to understand would become clear after a moment of thought, allowing her to roughly complete the magic rune design in just half a month.

Today, Betty came to the top floor of the Astrology Tower. This was the reward Hekate had requested.

"Hekate, I found the curse technique for the Soul System." Betty held a very old Magic Book in her hands.

She knew that Hekate was not only her savior, but also the savior of the entire Uruk Kingdom. Without her, the Uruk Kingdom could be said to have perished. Moreover, she was now the famous Storm Mage.

Betty had once thought Hekate was not worthy of her. Now, it had been completely reversed—she was the one who was not worthy of Hekate.

Besides, Hekate was already a Magus-level powerhouse, while she was still only a seven-star intermediate mage. Several major realms lay between them. Wanting to catch up to Hekate was nothing more than wishful thinking.

After all, Hekate was still young. Her great-grandfather had said that she was very likely to become the legendary Archmage in the future.

Hekate smiled. "Very good. Thank you for the trouble."

Betty shook her head. "It was no trouble. What have you been busy with lately?"

"Something that will change the era. It's almost finished."

Hekate's excited voice cut off what Betty had been about to say. She had been planning to ask Hekate to go out with her.

"Look."

A virtual image was projected into the air. It played a short video Hekate had recreated from her memories, and it was a rather suggestive one at that. When Betty saw the scantily clad woman performing a seductive dance, she froze.

This... this is far too indecent!

How could Hekate like something like this?!

"Unfortunately, the magic power consumption is enormous. The optimization is terrible."

Hekate complained. After only a few seconds of playback, the magic crystal became severely overheated, forcing her to stop.

The current magic rune design was far too crude. Too much heat was generated as the magic power circulated, making continuous playback impossible, not to mention adding more functions later.

Just the playback function alone had nearly caused the magic crystal to explode.

"H-Hekate... do you like women like that?" Betty's little face was burning red. Having grown up under royal education, it was her first time seeing such clothing and dancing.

Hekate blinked. "What?"

"No, I wasn't asking you to look at the girl dancing inside. I meant the image itself—a moving image. It's far more advanced than an ordinary still picture. Didn't you notice?" Hekate was somewhat speechless.

Still Magic Crystal photographs existed, but moving ones had yet to be developed.

Betty: "..."

She really had not noticed. Her attention had been entirely focused on that woman.

But after Hekate pointed it out, she recalled what she had just seen and asked in confusion, "So, you developed something that can make still pictures move?"

"Mm, that's right. Once I add some more magic runes and set up a server, we'll be able to use this magic crystal to communicate even when we're thousands of kilometers apart." Hekate smiled.

Betty studied Astrology Magic. Although she could not understand it, she still felt that it was incredibly impressive. As expected of Hekate—she was amazing.

When she left, Betty's face was still red.

The animation playing on the magic crystal lingered in her mind, impossible to forget.

"The functions are a little rough, but the design is finished at least. Which Resonance Star should I use for the server?" Hekate wondered, resting her chin on her hand.

The existing Resonance Stars were too far from the planet beneath her feet. She could receive the signal without issue, but ordinary mages simply did not possess enough magic power to activate a Magic Crystal Phone.

So, the closer the Resonance Star, the better. Ideally, she should choose a celestial body within this planet's own star system.

Hekate looked at the sun outside the window and fell into thought.

In fact, the planet closer than the star above her head was the planet beneath her feet. But there were too many mages on this planet, and no one knew how many Archmages were hidden there. If she resonated with it casually, someone might come looking for her.

After thinking it over, Hekate decided to choose the star above her head instead.

The next time she broke through to Archmage, she would resonate with that star.