Thump!
Thump!
Inside the royal capital's training grounds, two figures flashed back and forth at lightning speed.
They were moving so fast it was terrifying—so fast they seemed to disappear entirely.
To the average person, their forms were completely invisible—only twinkles of light, like distant stars, betrayed their motion.
Standing nearby, Marx had already grown accustomed to the spectacle. He watched calmly, completely unfazed.
For the past seven or eight days, Ethan Hayes had been coming here every day to spar with the Wizard King.
Sometimes, their training would continue until both of them were completely exhausted.
"You've improved. Your speed is even faster than before. It looks like you've begun to grasp the essence of Time Magic," Julius said, finally stopping.
He could now sense faint traces of time magic coming from Ethan.
It was still subtle—but it was there.
He was also quite intrigued by Ethan's current physical condition.
Not only could the energy within Ethan's body freely shift between magical attributes, but his body itself was absurdly durable.
Even lower-level spells couldn't harm him at all.
Such a transformation couldn't have happened for no reason.
Out of curiosity, Julius had asked Ethan for a sample of his unique golden blood for research.
The results were astonishing.
This golden blood didn't just contain magic—it seemed to ignore it entirely.
He had asked others to try influencing the blood with various spells to see if it would react.
But the golden blood appeared eternal.
Even his own Time Magic couldn't affect it—it would only dry up naturally with time.
And when he fed some of it to lab mice, their growth rates and physical strength increased dramatically.
It might even boost their magical capacity, though that part wasn't confirmed yet.
He hadn't tried it on humans… but he suspected the results would be just as incredible.
This golden blood of Ethan's—was a treasure.
Yeah.
"Let's wrap up for today, Ethan," Julius said. "You've got a mission tomorrow. We've tracked down the location of one of the magic stones."
Ethan stopped, slightly reluctant.
He felt like he was finally making real progress with Time Magic.
But truthfully, it was quite different from what he had imagined.
In his mind, Time Magic should be the ability to control himself and the surrounding space: speeding up, pausing, slowing down—or even reversing time.
But the reality was different.
Like all magic, Time Magic required a physical form.
Just as Fire Magic conjures a visible fireball—something tangible and observable—Time Magic manifested as time spheres.
Only within the confines of these spheres could time be manipulated.
It wasn't as simple as waving a hand and freezing time across miles of land.
And likely due to Julius' influence, the Time Magic Ethan acquired carried the same limitation:
He had to store time in advance in order to use it.
Without stored time, the spell couldn't activate.
He realized that instead of being able to switch between elements freely, it was more accurate to say he could mimic the attributes of others.
Like the Third Eye's Rhya with his Copy Magic—Ethan could replicate others' elements for battle.
But there was one crucial difference:
Rhya's magic could only mimic one element at a time. Once he switched to a new element, he lost access to the previous one.
But Ethan's ability let him record all the elements he had learned.
He could switch to any of them at will, anytime.
It was like having a master key that could open countless doors.
Rhya , on the other hand, needed to forge a new one-time-use key each time.
"…By the way, am I going solo again?" Ethan asked suspiciously.
He didn't mind doing missions—but after last time, he wasn't too eager to get ganged up on again.
"Don't worry," Julius said with a wink. "The Black Bulls will be going with you this time. Good luck—I'm looking forward to good news!"
With a wave of his hand, the Wizard King turned and left.
Marx, standing beside him, handed Ethan the mission documents that had been prepared ahead of time.
Ethan opened them. As expected, the mission destination was the Seabed Temple.
He wondered whether the Eye of the Midnight Sun would show up again to interfere.
Later, in a clothing store in the royal capital...
"Are you done yet? How long does it take to pick a swimsuit?"
Ethan yawned as he sat by the counter, drumming his fingers on the table in boredom.
It was supposed to be a mission…
But for this bunch of lunatics in the Black Bulls, it had turned into a beach vacation.
Nearby, Asta was howling as he tore through racks of swim trunks.
Charmy was wearing a prison-themed swimsuit and giggling at herself in the mirror.
And Magna—who was as skinny as a matchstick—was practically swooning over his reflection in a full-length mirror.
Magic Knights?
More like a troop of complete maniacs.
As for Vanessa and Noelle, Ethan was totally baffled.
They had entered the fitting room over thirty minutes ago—and still hadn't come out.
Were they… grinding tofu in there?
The thought made Ethan lick his dry lips.
To be honest, he wasn't exactly a kid anymore.
In this medieval world, many people his age already had kids of their own.
So… maybe it was time to start thinking about his own romantic prospects?
Just then, the curtain to the changing room slid open.
"Thanks for waiting!"
Vanessa and Noelle stepped out.
Compared to the bold and confident Vanessa, Noelle looked incredibly bashful.
Her head was lowered, her cheeks flushed deep red.
But honestly, Ethan couldn't figure out why she was so embarrassed.
"You call that a swimsuit?" Ethan blinked, glancing between the two girls.
Vanessa, as expected of a mature beauty, had everything on display.
Her revealing suit hugged her curves perfectly—it wasn't much different from what she normally wore in the Black Bulls' base.
But Noelle… had chosen a full-body suit.
She had even added extra cloth to cover the lower half of her one-piece.
Forget swimming—Ethan figured she could wear that outfit to the farmers' market and no one would bat an eye.
Not an inch of skin showing!
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