Development Complete

The next day.

Hekate drew another piece of trash and calmly refused the Gift of Fate.

After feeding Little Bubble, Furia went to class with Natasha. Only Hekate and Little Bubble in the fish tank remained on the top floor.

Hekate let her thoughts drift as she stared blankly into space.

At that moment, Lady Audrey rushed up to the top floor of the Astrology Tower, with Duke Fortes following behind her.

The moment Lady Audrey entered, she wrapped Hekate in a hug.

"Mother?" Hekate called out in confusion.

"...Hekate, your father told me everything."

Hekate stiffened. "Then..."

"What are you so afraid of? You are my precious child first, and only then my son or daughter. No matter what you become, if this is the result of careful consideration, I will respect you!" Lady Audrey said with utmost seriousness.

"Mother..." Hekate was touched for a moment.

Lady Audrey pushed her back to look her in the eyes, her rims red. "But you have to tell me, does this harm your body? I've heard that mages who advance too quickly usually have short lifespans. I don't want to see you sacrifice your health just to break through!"

Hekate shook her head. "There's no harm. It just changed my identity a little, and I won't be able to grow any taller in the future."

She also told them about the downside of immortality, so her mother would not have to keep asking about it later.

Upon hearing this, both Lady Audrey and Duke Fortes relaxed.

"It's fine. It doesn't matter much if you can't grow taller. I like how you are now."

Duke Fortes added, "You are a powerful person now. Not growing taller or changing your identity is nothing, because your strength will make them shut up."

Hekate smiled. "I understand, Father! Mother!"

Only then did Lady Audrey notice the fish tank sitting there, with an adorable little baby inside curiously watching them.

"Wow, what is this?"

Duke Fortes looked over and said uncertainly, "Is this a legendary Mermaid?"

Hekate nodded. "Yes, her name is Little Bubble. But Father, Mother, don't reveal her existence to the outside world."

The two nodded repeatedly, then stayed there for half the day before leaving.

Soon, a year had passed.

Hekate was still a 1-star Archmage. For some reason, the Gift of Fate had not produced a single gift that traded lifespan for Magic Level all year, leaving her somewhat melancholy.

Still, it was not entirely bad luck, because she had drawn several other things, such as empty slots for Resonance Stars and new magic skills.

By now, she had resonated with four more Stars: the Star of Light Element, Brute Force Star, Star of Wood Element, and Star of Ice Element. All of them had come from the Gift of Fate, and each had cost one thousand years of lifespan.

Hekate suspected that the Gift of Fate was trying to fleece her. She did not know whether it had seen that she was immortal and simply assigned numbers however it pleased.

Every time it deducted lifespan, it was either one thousand or two thousand years. It was terrifying.

She had also obtained Super Flash, which allowed her to instantly Blink elsewhere. Its maximum range was ten thousand meters, and it had no cooldown.

Finally, she awakened a new talent, Strong Physique. It had naturally awakened after too many Physique Enhancements had accumulated, and it enhanced her physical qualities.

With the Brute Force Star resonated, her strength was a full fifty times that of an ordinary person. It was terrifyingly powerful.

With all those good things in a row, that was why Hekate said that even without a magic breakthrough, she had not been unlucky.

What troubled her was that setting aside the fact that she could not draw a Magic Level gift, her body's magic capacity seemed to have reached its limit and could no longer break through.

But that was impossible. Since there was a 1-star Archmage, there had to be a 2-star Archmage. Why was she unable to break through?

Hekate was somewhat baffled. After asking Star, she became even more baffled.

Star said she was a freak, able to break through to Archmage without even having a Divine Spark.

The matter of Divine Sparks had entered Hekate's sights ten months earlier, but even after looking through a great deal of information, she still did not know what a Divine Spark actually was.

Just as Hekate was considering whether to seek out some senior practitioners for advice, her Magic Crystal Phone received a message.

It was from Earth Star.

The overall magic pattern optimization of the Star Chain had been completed, as had the magic pattern optimization for the Magic Crystal Phone. Furthermore, each additional Resonance Star would double the overall transmission speed and signal strength of the Star Chain. The more Resonance Stars there were, the more powerful the Star Chain Network would become.

Hekate let out a sigh of relief.

Each individual user had limited computing power per day, and she had needed to watch advertisements every day to increase Xiao Hong's computing power. After a year, the optimization was finally complete.

Forget it. As long as it was finished, that was all that mattered.

She received the magic pattern images sent by Xiao Hong. They contained tens of millions of densely packed magic patterns, all connected together into a complete whole.

Hekate's eyes went unfocused just looking at them. Artificial intelligence was truly incredible. It had actually designed such complex magic patterns. Looking across the entire magical world, there was probably no mage capable of designing them.

Just copying all those magic patterns onto the Resonance Stars would take her quite some time.

Twenty days later.

Hekate successfully inscribed magic patterns onto every Resonance Star. If not for the powerful mental strength of an Archmage, she truly would not have been able to do this job.

She then inscribed the optimized phone magic patterns into magic crystals.

Very good. There was no delay, and its functions were roughly comparable to the smartphones of Earth in her previous life. Soviel also served as an artificial intelligence, though its response speed was a little slow. Soviel was used to a slow life. Once it slowed down, tens of thousands of years could pass. How could it keep up with the rapid pace of human society?

What if she let Xiao Hong become the artificial intelligence for the Magic Crystal Phone?

Hmm... how to connect it was a major problem.

Magic and technology were different, after all.

She would consider that problem later.

Hekate made several more, then Blinked in front of Betty. Betty was currently buried in state affairs for the Uruk Kingdom inside Elais Palace. As the heir to the throne, she did not have much free time.

Betty was startled and asked, "Hekate, why are you here?"

"The epoch-making product I told you about before has finished development!" Hekate handed her an egg-sized Magic Crystal Phone.

"How do I use it?"

"Pour magic power into it."

Betty poured magic power into it. The magic crystal lit up, projecting an image that displayed a smartphone home screen. It also contained some books and materials, along with a few medieval movies and short dramas.

Hekate taught her step by step how to use it. Before long, Betty could not put it down and repeatedly exclaimed, "This is too amazing."

After leaving Elais Palace, Hekate gave one each to Puli, Natasha, and her father and mother. After carefully teaching them how to use them, they were all astonished as they clumsily browsed the contents of the Magic Crystal Phones.

At that moment, Hekate suddenly felt a slight loosening in the Magic Bottleneck she had reached at her limit.