How Could Such a Thing Be Possible?

Dawn Kingdom's highest council chamber.

Berlion Rogers, Hand of the Kingdom, sat upright in the large chair at the head of the reception room, waiting for the capital's two Legendary Mages.

For unknown reasons, the king had not shown himself for several days. The entire kingdom continued to operate normally under the control of its Hand of the Kingdom.

That was part of his duty. The Hand of the Kingdom was akin to a prime minister, wielding many powers: issuing orders in the king's name, exercising authority, commanding the army, overseeing criminal law, summoning ministers, and managing the kingdom's operations.

Though this Hand of the Kingdom was middle-aged, with graying hair and eyes as sharp as an eagle's, and carried himself with a gentle air, he still exuded an overwhelming sense of pressure.

Even the kingdom's only two remaining Legendary Mages felt slightly uncomfortable upon entering the council chamber.

"I heard your Rune Society is researching Magic Net Rings. How is the progress?"

After exchanging brief greetings, Berlion, Hand of the Kingdom, turned his gaze toward the old woman.

The expressions of both Legendary Mages changed slightly at those words.

The old woman sighed. "It has not been going smoothly. Many of the runes on the Magic Net Ring are unknown to our society, and we need time to study them... Completely replicating it is not difficult, but the replicated rings cannot be used normally. I believe there are special runes hidden within, or perhaps some special method we have yet to grasp."

Whenever she thought of it, she felt thoroughly uncomfortable. From the perspective of a Legendary Mage, she had replicated every rune without any issues. She had even reproduced the ring down to the finest details.

Honestly, she felt this was the crudest magical item she had ever made in her life, yet it should have been enough to reproduce it exactly... But it simply could not connect or activate.

Even while she was in the royal palace, her Apprentices were still constantly trying to activate it... At the same time, she kept replaying every rune in her mind, pondering those whose purposes she did not understand...

"Are you planning to have our Royal Mage Association work with the Rune Society to research these runes?" Wilton, who had just returned from the border cities, frowned deeply. "To be honest, that will not be easy. Divine gifts that require prayer to activate, even if they are gifts from the Magic Goddess, might still..."

Was there really no avoiding this?

Wilton felt completely numb.

Berlion, Hand of the Kingdom, noticed Wilton's expression and cut him off directly. "No. I want you to temporarily give up researching the Magic Net Ring and focus on these instead."

He opened the box on the table, revealing a large pile of crystals before the two Legendary Mages.

"Hm? Magic Crystal lamps? And discarded ones at that?"

"No, there are actually mana fluctuations inside them? This is?!"

Wilton quickly realized what they were, his eyes filled with shock.

Magic Crystal lamps were actually a type of natural mineral. Once mined, they could emit light for a long time, until the natural runes within them wore away.

These Magic Crystals before them had clearly lost every trace of light, yet mana still flowed through them...

"These are newly stocked items from Hedy the Coffin Bearer's little shop."

Berlion, Hand of the Kingdom, did not intend to keep them in suspense. He said calmly, "She calls them Mana Bombs. These are Flame Vortex Bombs, Vine Entanglement Bombs, Ice Thorn Jungle Bombs..."

The instant they heard the name Hedy the Coffin Bearer, the expressions of the two Legendary Mages turned solemn.

Anything involving a god became incomparably serious.

But when they heard Flame Vortex, Vine Entanglement, Ice Thorn Jungle... these relatively complex low-tier spells, their expressions changed again.

Would a god truly meddle with such magic?

No matter what these Mana Bombs actually were, they sounded utterly unbelievable.

They even suspected that Hedy's old bastard of a teacher had come up with some strange new invention and then sent Hedy to sell it.

That old bastard really was capable of doing something like this...

Berlion, Hand of the Kingdom, continued, "It may sound hard to believe, but as a High-Order Mage, I have only two words to describe these 'Mana Bombs': utterly revolutionary. They imprint the Spell Models of these spells onto discarded Magic Crystals and use special methods to inject mana into them. When using one, all you need is to inject a trace of mana and throw it to set it off."

"You may find it hard to imagine, but even a low-tier Apprentice who has only just learned meditation can use one... More importantly, no prayer is needed, and no chanting is needed."

He did not need to say anything further. The expressions of the two Legendary Mages said it all.

No prayer meant it was definitely unrelated to gods. At the very least, casting this spell had nothing to do with a god.

No chanting meant there was no need to draw upon much mana, much less control the flow and activation of mana oneself...

How could this be possible?!

How could such a thing exist in this world?

If anyone else had said this in any other setting, they would never have believed it.

They would only have considered it a clumsy joke.

But the one saying it was Berlion, Hand of the Kingdom, a man who never joked.

And he would be even less likely to joke in a place like this.

Several seconds later, his shocked pupils barely recovered. Wilton took a deep breath and finally asked, "Are you sure? You are not joking?!"

"You know me. I never joke." Berlion glanced at him. "Once we master this technology, all of our mage Apprentices can become combat power. The friction between us and the Graycastle Empire is growing increasingly serious, and Watcher's Wall is becoming more and more unstable. We do not have much time left. This may become our trump card, our most important trump card!"

"Therefore, I hope the Royal Mage Association and the Rune Society can work together and develop these Mana Bombs first."

"Since Hedy is selling them, why not ask her about the source of these Mana Bombs? Her teacher often tinkers with all sorts of strange things. Or why not simply buy them from her directly?"

The moment work was mentioned, Wilton's mind began spinning rapidly.

"We have already asked. Hedy said these Mana Bombs are also divine gifts. They were jointly developed by the Technology God and the Magic Goddess." Berlion's expression finally changed. Only after sighing did he continue, "They do not have many of them either. The number of Mana Bombs consumed in war would be astronomical."

"Especially against the Graycastle Empire's army of spellcasters!"

Goddess of Magic's Divine Kingdom.

Roger looked at Book in surprise. "Are you sure? Someone in the mortal world has already replicated a Magic Net Ring and tried to connect to you, but you rejected them?"