Creation

Petty planned to sell off the remaining possessions little by little over the next two months. Thanks to Zheng Yichen and Kesha, she had made it through this time without incident, but if she sold things too often, she would only draw more and more attention.

There were few secrets in the Black Market. A little asking around could uncover plenty.

With those eighty gold coins added to what she already had, she now held more than a hundred. That was enough to buy an ordinary house, let alone rent one.

Petty had no intention of buying an ordinary house. If she were on her own, that would have been fine, but now that Zheng Yichen was with her, it would feel like she was merely making do. For someone hoping to win over a dragon, that would be an utter failure!

Besides, the money had come from Zheng Yichen. Continuing to live such a pinched, penny-scraping life with it... that would not be right.

She would rent for now. It was only two months. She could find a very nice place without spending many gold coins.

"You're saying this thing can keep getting stronger?" Zheng Yichen held the Magic Weapon Lolise had returned to him, his voice faintly strange. He examined it closely. Sure enough, the magic power inside it was over half again as strong as it had been a few days ago. The limit on how much magic power it could gather seemed to have been broken.

"It can, as long as no one disperses it," Lolise said. She had spent the past few days studying the Magic Weapon and had come to understand its inner workings thoroughly. After all Zheng Yichen's tinkering, its internal structure had transformed into what was effectively a new kind of composite magical structure.

That structure could not be replicated unless Zheng Yichen could reconstruct its Magic Array Pattern. And the reconstructed pattern certainly would not be the original set of separate Magic Array Patterns. What was more, the effect of the magic-gathering enchantment had given the weapon the properties of Permanent Magic.

Permanent Magic, as the name suggested, was magic whose effects lasted a long time. It generally required materials to create.

"So the reason is... that so-called 'talent' again?" Zheng Yichen clicked his tongue. He had a talent akin to "theft," which was why he could seize hold of magic.

"Mm. The effect of your talent was imparted to the magic." Lolise nodded. That was also why she had been able to interfere with the spell Zheng Yichen had grabbed and thrown. Once it left his direct contact, the "theft" property clinging to it had faded enough for her to intervene. Otherwise, the power she used to interfere with it would probably have been assimilated too.

Even weakened, though, the effect was still remarkably potent. "This is only a basic Magic Weapon, so even if it can keep accumulating magic power, it will do so very slowly."

"That's fine. I'll just make a higher-grade Magic Weapon." Zheng Yichen waved a claw. "I happen to have a new idea I want to try. But you... why did you change clothes?"

He looked at Lolise in surprise. Her previous outfit had been ornate, but its main purpose seemed to be covering up most of her body. Now she wore something much simpler and cooler: black short shorts and a cropped top. It strongly reminded him of the way pretty girls dressed in summer before he crossed over.

Too bad she had such a tiny figure.

"Is that a problem?" Lolise looked up at Zheng Yichen and turned in a circle without changing her expression. "I had limited materials. This was all I could make."

"Uh... it looks nice."

Zheng Yichen flipped through his spellbook, found an illusion spell, and conjured up an image of an outfit with short shorts and a cropped top. "It just needs a few changes. Yours looks like underwear..."

"I see." Lolise studied the illusory image hovering above Zheng Yichen's claw and nodded lightly. The outfit was obviously from his world, but in this one, it would look rather "frivolous." It showed far too much!

As for what she was wearing now, there were no outsiders at home. Running around the house in her underwear was fine.

"I don't have enough material," Lolise said, staring at Zheng Yichen. A faint sense of unease rose in him.

"What material?"

"Your scales."

"Uh... I knew it." He scratched his head. When he first saw the cool, airy "underwear" Lolise was wearing, he had sensed something familiar about it: the presence of his own scales. He had never shed any scales, nor had he ever woken up to find a few missing. They must have come from the ones he had lost when he was surrounded and attacked.

He looked down at the scales covering his body. How to put it? Scales were more like fingernails than the fine hairs that grew all over a person's body. Pulling out a few hairs was nothing, but pulling out scales... that truly did not feel good.

"You don't need to pull them out. Scale dust will be enough. Also, I'm hungry."

"...Fine, take it." Zheng Yichen held out a claw to Lolise. Scale dust sounded like something she could scrape off his scales, so at least he would not have to pull any out. And if she was hungry, that meant he would have to give her some blood.

His blood counteracted the terrifying property Lolise possessed.

Food was no longer his responsibility. Every one of the Ghost Maids was an excellent cook, and Zheng Yichen never even got a chance to lend a hand.

After feeding the little girl who was not quite a little girl for the first time in days, Zheng Yichen turned to his own work. Petty had already started training in martial arts with her senior, so he needed to get moving too. It would be awkward if she made progress while he failed to follow through on what he had promised.

"Intermediate Magic Weapon Creation... Hmm, the difficulty seems manageable." Zheng Yichen studied the spellbook and muttered to himself. Magic was divided into several tiers, but once a spell reached its highest, most complete form, it lost its prefix. It was simply called by its name.

Casting magic did not depend on a person's rank, either. A spell used by a ranked professional could also be cast by an unranked one, provided they had the mental strength to control its Magic Array Pattern and enough magic power to activate it.

If they met those conditions, who cared what rank they were?

Compared with basic Magic Weapon Creation, the intermediate version provided not only an additional boost in strength but also a much longer duration.

To other mages, it was a complete spell. To Zheng Yichen, it was a blank waiting to be shaped. He could think of far too many possibilities for its appearance. The games he had played before crossing over alone offered plenty of examples.

Amber, Ten Directions Annihilation... Zheng Yichen could think of seven or eight weapons called magic swords alone.

So, for the appearance of the Magic Weapon he was about to create, Zheng Yichen chose a rather classic design... one called Frostmourne.

"..." Seated nearby, Lolise watched the new Magic Weapon take shape. An intermediate Magic Weapon was far stronger than a basic one, and its appearance was far better than that of the plain longsword he had made before. Though the icy blue glow it gave off looked deeply ominous at a glance.

"If I'm calling it Frostmourne, its attributes should match."

Zheng Yichen muttered as he leafed through the spellbook in search of the magic he needed. Frostmourne had to have an ice attribute, of course. He would need to enchant it with an ice spell to give its attacks a freezing effect. It also needed the power to draw in souls.

But to reach the strength he envisioned, he would need at least high-level magic. Right now, even using intermediate magic was a struggle for him. Every increase in tier made a Magic Array Pattern far more complex, and the mental strength required rose along with it.

Intermediate Magic Weapon Creation alone had taken Zheng Yichen nearly two hours, and that was with luck on his side: he had not failed once. If he had, it would undoubtedly have taken even longer.

If he failed near the end of the remaining work, the entire Magic Weapon would probably be ruined. At this level, he could not afford to be careless.