A New Skill Is Born: Multiple Mirror Dimensions!

[Congratulations, host! You have obtained a mutated fusion spell: Multiple Mirror Dimensions!]

[Multiple Mirror Dimensions has perfectly inherited the power of both sets of Laws. Its level has risen to 3!]

Raine stared at the messages flooding his vision, stunned.

Skills could fight each other?

And the winner could devour the loser and merge with it?!

That was insane!

He might not have read many of Kamar-Taj's ancient magic texts, but he knew that spells fusing and mutating on their own was unheard of in the history of sorcery.

Raine quickly closed his eyes and examined the properties of his new skill.

A moment later.

His eyes flew open, delight flashing in them.

This mutation was a massive win!

Multiple Mirror Dimensions could be opened and closed at will. More absurdly, it gave him overwhelming control over who could occupy a space.

Put simply, if Grand Mage Wong pulled Raine into his Mirror Dimension now,

Raine could open a Multiple Mirror Dimensions of his own inside Wong's!

If Raine's mental strength surpassed Wong's, he could even seize control of the entire space!

Even if his mental strength fell short, he could still cancel out his enemy's home-field advantage.

Not even The Ancient One could pull off something that unfair!

Even someone as powerful as Kaecilius could only open a Portal inside another person's Mirror Dimension and escape.

And that wasn't all. His Portal had changed too.

Raine raised his right hand and drew a circle in the air.

Hum.

A golden Portal appeared.

But unlike before, a dreamlike transparent bubble covered its surface, while tiny ice crystals flickered around its rim.

It was a sign of space folding so densely that the effect spilled outward.

The nastiest part was still to come.

The Portal could now use Multiple Mirror Dimensions as a transit point.

If an enemy tried to chase him through it

without Raine's permission,

the moment they crossed the threshold, they would be exiled straight into a sealed mirror prison!

"The system really is a treasure."

Raine smacked his lips, thoroughly pleased with the mutation.

But one thing puzzled him.

If spells from the same source could fuse, why hadn't Magic Shield and Rings of Raggadorr merged?

Was the gap between their levels too wide?

Magic Shield was his hardest-working skill, absorbing energy day and night. It had already reached a terrifying level 6!

Even Grand Mage Wong's shield wasn't as thick as his.

Rings of Raggadorr, meanwhile, had only just gotten started.

"So fusion requires spells to share a source and be close in level."

Raine rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

If that theory held, then learning more spells of the same type and bringing them up to the same level would let him churn out all kinds of outrageously powerful fusion skills.

Imagining himself waving a hand and filling the sky with mutated spells until Thanos questioned his life choices, Raine couldn't help rubbing his hands together in excitement.

If Kamar-Taj had one thing in abundance, it was spells!

The Ancient One had lived for nearly a thousand years and collected more spells than anyone could count.

As long as he stayed here and studied diligently, sooner or later he would wring every last drop of experience out of them.

Raine took a deep breath and calmed his excitement.

After that skill fusion and mutation, he was in an excellent mood.

He was just about to head downstairs to the dining hall for something to eat.

Bang!

The door was shoved open from outside.

Raine looked up. It was Master Hamir, who had been missing for days.

But

Hamir looked terrible.

His usually immaculate goatee resembled a bird's nest, and his sunken eyes were bloodshot.

Even the senior sorcerer's robes that marked his scholarly standing were crumpled, and he smelled as though he hadn't bathed in days.

"Master, did someone... rob you?"

Raine stared at the haggard old man in disbelief.

Hamir was famous at Kamar-Taj for his obsession with cleanliness and order. He would stay impeccably dressed even if the sky fell.

Now he looked worse than a man sleeping on the streets.

"This is all your fault, you brat!"

Hamir glared at Raine, his voice thick with resentment.

Ever since Raine had produced a Chaos Orb with one hand in the Mirror Dimension and crushed his confidence with it,

Hamir had been unable to take the blow.

He considered himself Kamar-Taj's foremost scholar since Kaecilius had left!

How could he bear being humbled by a novice apprentice?

To reclaim his pride,

he had shut himself in the Library for days, poring over ancient texts without sleep and racking his brains over improvements. All to devise a fiendishly difficult spell that would finally stump Raine!

He had finished today and rushed straight over without even washing his face.

"Raine, I hear Wong has taught you the Mirror Dimension?"

Hamir went straight to the point, like a gambler desperate to win back his losses.

"Yes, Master. I only learned it recently." Raine nodded honestly.

"Good!"

Hamir's eyes lit up with a cunning gleam.

"Some dangerous spells can only be tested inside a Mirror Dimension. Open the way!"

Raine had no idea what the old man was up to, but since Hamir was a walking trove of experience, he raised his hand without protest.

Crack!

Frostlike fractures spread through the air.

A spatial doorway opened steadily, its edges wrapped in a transparent bubble and glittering with tiny crystals.

"Huh?"

Hamir stopped just as he was about to step through.

Frowning, he reached out with his remaining right hand and made a light grasping motion near its edge.

"The energy fluctuations in your Mirror Dimension... Why do they feel strange?"

Hamir was a leading scholar, after all. He could tell at a glance that this doorway differed from an ordinary Mirror Dimension.

There seemed to be some highly advanced spatial-folding technique mixed in.

But even he couldn't work out what it was on the spot.

"You really are a freak, kid. Even with a basic spatial spell, you manage to come up with something new."

Hamir shook his head and set his doubts aside.

All he could think about was stumping Raine with his new spell. He couldn't be bothered to investigate the doorway.

They stepped into the Mirror Dimension one after the other.

"Master, what secret technique are you going to teach me this time?"

Raine rubbed his hands, eyes shining with anticipation.

Seeing Raine look so hungry for another lesson,

Hamir snorted. Go on, smile. Let's see if you're still smiling in a minute!

"Watch closely!"

Hamir wasted no more words and thrust his right hand forward.

Hum!

A Magic Chain blazing with golden light shot from his palm.

Raine took one look, and his anticipation turned to disappointment.

That's it?

Isn't that the basic Magic Whip everyone at Kamar-Taj uses?

It's just Magic Shield energy stretched out. There's no skill to it!

"What's with that look of contempt?"

Raine's expression stung Hamir deeply.

"Look closely! This isn't the toy you lot normally play with!"

Hamir roared, and magic surged from him like water through a broken dam.

"Divide!"

The thick golden chain in his hand

suddenly bristled and split!

One became ten, then ten became a hundred!

In the blink of an eye, over a hundred golden whips, thin as silk yet radiating terrifying holy power, lashed wildly through the air like snakes pouring from a nest!

Each chain seemed to have a life of its own. Under Hamir's control, they precisely targeted points in every direction.

Raine's pupils contracted.

He knew this move!

In Avengers: Infinity War, Doctor Strange had used this very move against Thanos on Titan, multiplying his arms and summoning countless Magic Chains to pin Thanos down!

This was no basic spell!

"Heh. Speechless, aren't you?"

Hamir withdrew the chains smugly, breathing a little hard.

Controlling so many chains at once was taxing even for him.

"This move is called the Crimson Bands of Cyttorak."

"It isn't just energy shaped into a weapon. It draws directly on the Vishanti's Divine Power!"

"To cast it, you need extraordinarily precise mental control."

"You must split the Divine Power you summon into hundreds of portions, then control every one of them to attack at the same time!"

Hamir grew more excited as he spoke, nearly spraying Raine's face with spit.

This was the "Hell-level" test he had spent days crafting specifically for Raine!

Splitting Divine Power while directing a hundred things at once.

It was a supreme feat of precise control that only Masters with immense mental strength could achieve after decades of practice!

Talent and comprehension had nothing to do with it.

It took time and relentless work!

Hamir would bet his head on it.

No matter how monstrous Raine's talent was, mastering that degree of mental control would keep him stuck for at least half a year!

If he could stump the brat, his reputation as the foremost scholar would be safe!