Time flew, and soon the day of the Departure Ceremony arrived.
Morning sunlight spilled across the campus of Glory Kael Magic Academy, bathing the ancient institution in a golden glow.
Deep inside an old laboratory building, two figures slowly dragged themselves through the doorway, all but crawling.
Greg and Victoria, the two elite students who would soon represent the Academy in the second-year and first-year divisions, looked nothing like elites at that moment.
Their hair was a mess, their clothes were covered in stains of every color, and dark circles ringed their eyes. Their gazes were vacant and dull, as though they had just endured a long, drawn-out war.
Behind them, the Laboratory was in utter disarray.
The workbenches were piled with bottles, jars, and scattered notes, while a strange odor-a mixture of potions and something burnt-still lingered in the air.
Alice slumped in a chair, her oversized professor's robe making her look like a deflated purple balloon. Her icy violet eyes were half closed; she was clearly exhausted.
Chloe lay sprawled over the edge of a workbench, her silver-rimmed glasses crooked on her nose and her slightly wavy brown hair scattered across the tabletop. Even in her sleep, she was still unconsciously mumbling about material ratios.
Although they all looked bedraggled, the outcome was good. They had succeeded.
After countless explosions, countless failures, and countless brushes with the brink of collapse, they had finally used golden radiance spider silk to create a new kind of Magic Device.
Its magic power conductivity was frighteningly high. It could even allow a Low-Tier Gem, which would normally shatter after a single use, to be used twice.
It was a breakthrough significant enough to rewrite the existing standards for Magic Device manufacturing.
Alice carefully cradled the finished product, her icy violet eyes gleaming