With Mahama and the others roaming the Chaotic Star Sea as Demon Hunter Wizards, and the relatively high-level commission from Demon already dealt with, Ruger lived very comfortably on his little island.
Of course, he also had Lord Zorn to thank. The equally laid-back fellow had stayed here for years and already had everything in the Chaotic Star Sea under control. Nothing could stir up any major trouble, which naturally made life even more comfortable for them.
Ruger no longer bothered keeping track of how long he had been tinkering. In any case, he still had not reached what he considered his true limit.
He would never obsess over a single issue or task until his hair turned white, though he had already crossed the line he had previously drawn for himself.
When he optimized and streamlined that irritatingly bloated spell model down to three hundred and fifty nodes, Ruger was not overcome with joy as he had imagined.
Instead, he fell into a kind of momentum, walking around his little island lap after lap, sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly. Occasionally, he stopped altogether, as though admiring some rare scenery. In truth, he was constantly repeating the construction of sections of the model, testing optimizations, and thinking. Sometimes he stopped to think; sometimes he thought as he walked without pause.
He entered a state that was both disorderly and orderly, repeating the process over and over.
And, just as he had expected, optimization and streamlining inevitably became harder the further he went.
Every step was truly a struggle.
Yet he enjoyed it-until, gradually, he could no longer find any enjoyment in it.
Another six months passed after he optimized it down to the limit for a Second-Ring Spell. After several adjustments and optimizations, the spell kept improving, its structure becoming more