Ruger blinked his canine eyes.
"Mahama, what would you like for dinner-" He casually picked a topic.
Mahama paused before turning his head toward him.
"Sir Ruger, I've already seen that thing," Big Guy said in a low voice, seemingly unconcerned.
Ruger pursed his lips and continued modifying his spell.
Even a single point that could be optimized required a great deal of experimentation.
An excellent spell model first needed a stable structure and a smooth flow of power. These were merely requirements for the spell model itself, and basic ones at that, with no bearing on the spell's actual effects. Taking those requirements a step further meant optimizing the spell model so that others could learn and modify it more easily. A spell model optimized to its utmost would have a high casting success rate even when the caster's mental power was unstable, and would perform better against spells that interfered with it.
When Ruger opened his eyes again, it was a faint fluctuation of magic that had roused him.
The moment he opened his eyes, he saw a dazzling expanse of golden brilliance.
Mona was releasing a slowly rising Light Spell from her fingertips.
The walls, the path beneath their feet, and the traces of buildings in the distance all reflected the light with an almost golden gleam. Yet neither those objects nor the path were gold; they still looked like stone. As light and shadow shifted, they merely reflected that glow at certain angles. A closer look revealed other colors in the reflections, though none were as dazzling as the gold.
It was an enormous cavern, with smooth walls and flooring. Even now, there was no sign of weeds growing wild.
Mahama was staring at the marks on the ground.
They were conspicuous marks, as though something