If his guess was correct, that strange surge just now had been the other power slumbering within Charmy. He hadn't expected it to show signs of awakening under those circumstances.
Fortunately, he had reacted fast enough. Otherwise, the commotion would have been far more troublesome.
Yuuki lifted his head and looked toward the three chefs huddled in the corner of the hall, trembling in fear.
"D-Don't… don't come any closer!"
"P-Please, don't come over!"
"You rebels—once the Magic Knights arrive, our corps—!"
The moment they felt Yuuki's gaze fall upon them, their bodies shook violently as they spoke in panicked voices.
But in the very next instant—
Black spatial mana enveloped all three of them at once, and they were tossed away to the same teleport destination Charmy had just been sent to.
"Much quieter now."
Yuuki swept his eyes across the hall. Seeing that there was no one else present, he spoke calmly.
His gaze first fell upon the unconscious Yuno and Catherine. After confirming that both were still out cold, Yuuki walked over to the side and picked up Charmy's grimoire, which had been knocked away earlier.
"So the distance is too great for control to reach the grimoire, huh."
Looking at the completely unresponsive book in his hand, Yuuki found it mildly interesting. He wondered whether distance affected his ability to perform a complete replication.
His Complete Replication essentially used the grimoire as a medium to replicate the magic source within another person's soul. Situations involving extreme distance—this was something Yuuki had never tested before.
"Complete Replication."
Yuuki placed Charmy's grimoire atop his own and focused his mind.
Humm—
A silvery-white glow surfaced in Yuuki's eyes. Although Charmy herself was dozens of kilometers away, Yuuki seemed to peer through layers of space itself, instantly observing her soul.
So there was no distance limitation.
That thought flashed through his mind—and then his eyes suddenly lit up.
Within Charmy's soul, he saw two magic sources quietly floating there!
Aside from himself, this was the first time Yuuki had ever seen someone possess more than one magic source within their soul.
Cotton Magic! Food Magic!
"Two for the price of one. A profit."
A faint smile appeared on Yuuki's face. He was well aware of what these two magic sources represented—not just the strength of the magics themselves, but the fact that a single grimoire had allowed him to replicate two magic sources at once.
A short while later—
Yuuki completed the replication. Casually, he tore out a page from his grimoire, performed Reverse Replication, converted it back into Charmy's grimoire, and tossed it onto the floor.
Whoosh!
The mana within Yuuki's body surged noticeably, becoming somewhat unstable. This caught him by surprise.
He hadn't expected Charmy to increase his mana by this much!
Yuuki quickly adjusted his internal mana, then flashed forward to the unconscious Catherine and performed another complete replication.
This time, however—
He didn't use a grimoire page to create a replacement for her.
Previously, anyone he had given a reconstructed grimoire to was either someone he intended to recruit or someone who would become important combat power in the future. Catherine clearly didn't interest him in the slightest.
As yet another magic source finished replicating, the already surging mana within Yuuki swelled again!
Terrifying amounts of mana leaked from his body, causing the black robe wrapped around him to rapidly inflate—like a balloon being blown up in an instant.
Visible, translucent currents of air coiled around Yuuki's body. The restless mana churning beneath his robe gave him the distinct sensation of receiving a full-body massage.
"The feeling of power rising along with increased mana… it really is intoxicating."
With a quiet sigh of satisfaction, Yuuki continuously funneled the boiling mana into the Demon-Dweller Sword in his hand.
In just a short moment—
The mana within his body settled down. Meanwhile, the once-rusty Demon-Destroyer Sword now had far fewer rust spots, and the blade itself began to shine with a metallic luster.
"Still a long way to go."
After glancing at the sword, the illusion of strength brought on by his recent mana increase faded considerably.
"My mana ceiling should be just a little short of the Second Domain now."
Yuuki looked toward Yuno beside him. He knew that once he replicated Yuno's magic source, reaching the Second Domain would be effortless.
Yet at the thought—
Yuuki felt none of the excitement he had earlier.
This time, his true objective was Fuegoleon's magic source. If he could obtain that man's grimoire, it would be more than enough to propel him straight into the First Domain—Captain-level.
Compared to that, what was there to be excited about with the Second Domain?
Gaining three magics in one go—it was an enormous harvest.
Magics acquired:
Fire Magic (Scorching Flames) Water Magic (Flowing Body, Narrow River's Current) Mineral Magic (Sword of Victory, Talos's Puppet, Nemean Aegis, Titan's Heavy Armor, Scimitar) Spatial Magic (Fallen Angel's Passage, Fallen Angel's Wingbeat, Spatial Teleportation, Subspace) Ice Magic (Heaven-Piercing Ice Fang, Ice Crystal Spikes, Crystallized Ice Shield) Mist Magic (Phantom Mist Vortex, Lost Barrier) Cotton Magic (Sheep Chef, Head Chef, Sheep's Soft Cushion, Sleeping Sheep's Strike) Food Magic (None) Ash Curse Magic (Ash-Absorption Array, Happy-Happy Bad Ash) Plant Magic (Mandrake's Cradle, Thorn Whip) ...
...
Flame Recovery Magic — Phoenix Feather Robe "Blank"
Yuuki glanced at his grimoire. Gaining three magic sources and then consuming one to create a replacement grimoire had expanded his pages from fourteen to sixteen.
Among the three newly acquired magics, Ash Curse Magic was fairly decent—but what truly caught Yuuki's attention were the other two.
This world was filled with magics that simply defied common sense.
As Yuuki himself liked to say, "Magic is a miracle." And miracles, by nature, were unreasonable.
Charmy's Cotton Magic belonged squarely in that category.
While it did possess offensive spells—such as summoning that massive cotton sheep to attack—its destructive power paled in comparison to Yuuki's Mineral Magic or Ice Magic.
What Yuuki valued was its support capability.
The spell "Sheep Chef" could summon several sheep to cook, each one highly skilled—any single sheep could easily run a restaurant on its own.
If that was still within acceptable bounds, then "Sheep Head Chef" was outright absurd.
It summoned a bearded sheep whose cooking could restore a mage's mana—
with no restrictions whatsoever.
In other words, even the caster themselves could recover mana simply by eating the food.
That was practically exploiting a bug.
Yuuki suspected there had to be some hidden limitation on how much mana could be restored through cooking. Even so, in battle, the significance of such magic was immeasurable.
Beyond that, the very fact that ordinary ingredients could be turned into mana-restoring dishes was already wildly unreasonable.
Yuuki could only sigh inwardly.
As expected of magic.
As for the other magic—Food Magic—it was the complete opposite of Cotton Magic: an overwhelmingly offensive and terrifying power.
Charmy herself had yet to awaken it, so it currently had no spells at all.
That said—
Yuuki understood its potential far better than Charmy ever had.
Food Magic possessed the ability to devour all magical constructs, converting the consumed magic directly into power that strengthened the user.
For example, Captain Rill's Painting Magic—Watercolor Phantom Deer—was completely countered by Food Magic. More precisely, the vast majority of magics were restrained by it!
"Ash Curse Magic can absorb others' mana, while Food Magic devours magical constructs… If these two were combined, it might be possible to develop an extremely powerful composite spell."
A glimmer of light flashed through Yuuki's eyes as he murmured softly to himself.
For now, he suppressed that line of thought. There were still more important matters to attend to—he would deal with the rest after finishing things here.
Yuuki stepped forward and arrived beside the unconscious Yuno.
If he could obtain the four-leaf clover Wind Magic without fighting Yuno, that would be ideal.
Reaching down, Yuuki picked up the four-leaf clover grimoire from the floor.
He placed it atop his own grimoire and softly spoke:
"Complete Replication."
Shua!
Silvery mana surged out, rapidly enveloping the four-leaf clover grimoire. Just as Yuuki thought he could absorb it directly—
Thump!
The grimoire shook violently. A burst of emerald-green mana exploded outward, scattering Yuuki's silver mana in an instant!
"What… is going on…?"
Disbelief spread across Yuuki's face. This was the first time he had ever encountered a situation where replication failed.
He clearly remembered experimenting with Yuno's grimoire before—it had worked.
So why not now?
Yuuki immediately turned to look at Yuno, only to find that he was still unconscious, showing no signs of waking.
Whoosh—
A gentle breeze suddenly swept through the hall.
At the same time, Yuuki felt a wave of mana that made his heart tighten.
He snapped his head back toward the four-leaf clover grimoire in his hands—
Standing atop it was the wind spirit Sylph.
"What do you think you're doing?"
Sylph crossed her arms over her chest, her gaze icy. Her green dress fluttered in the wind as a dangerous aura radiated from her small body.
Yuuki's pupils contracted slightly.
So even with the host unconscious, an elemental spirit could act on its own?
Or had his replication attempt stimulated her into awakening?
(End of Chapter)
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