Chapter 46: Looking for Someone

“A normal summon brought forth a magic weapon with only one to sixty-nine percent of the original weapon’s power. This stage was the regular summon. Anyone who signed a contract with the Magic Weapon Summoning Book gained the ability for regular summoning. While seventy to eighty-nine percent belonged to the Advanced Summoning stage, ninety to ninety-nine percent was Ultimate Summoning. The closer the summoned magic weapon was to the real thing in power percentage, the bigger the boost.”

“I won’t explain the requirements for Advanced and Ultimate Summoning,” Zheng Yichen waved his hand. The requirement for Advanced Summoning? It was naturally after he or Loris gave ‘approval’. For instance, those who provided a large amount of mana to the Magic Weapon Summoning Book, or people they personally approved after meeting them. The book held an etched, permanent Projection Spell.

As long as the summoner used the Magic Weapon Summoning Book, he could ‘interview’ them anytime.

As for Ultimate Summoning, this required strict control. “Right now, you meet the conditions for Advanced Summoning. For others, even after signing the Magic Weapon Contract with the book, they only have access to regular summoning.”

Additionally, Zheng Yichen wasn’t worried even if many people used the magic weapons and ended up fighting each other. The mana in the magic weapons came from the same source. If one projection was shattered by a stronger magic weapon during battle, the dispersed mana would be absorbed by the other weapon’s mana-gathering effect…

The mana maintaining the projection didn’t come from the magic weapon itself but from the summoner. Therefore, Zheng Yichen wasn’t concerned at all about battles between contract holders.

“Strange… where did those people hide?” Roaming in the Forest of Illusions, Zheng Yichen tried to find traces of the black-robed figures. Unfortunately, ever since the sudden decrease in accidents linked to his magic weapon forging, those people had mysteriously vanished.

Finding no trace, Zheng Yichen flipped through his Magical Grimoire and set up a sound Barrier nearby. At his current efficiency, he could produce a new magic weapon roughly every two days… He had already planned out the design for these weapons. He wouldn’t change the Basic Magic Weapons; those were sufficient. Users could adapt to their power, or have extra options when practicing weapon skills. Low-level weapons didn’t have overly special traits.

They had the simplest Elemental Affinity: Fire Element, Earth Element, Wind Element, etc. With this system, there was no need for a single weapon type to occupy multiple pages in the summoning book; one page was enough. Summoners could call forth a weapon of the needed element as required.

After that came the weapons beyond Intermediate Magic Weapons. These had unique traits, and future High-Level Magic Arms might have attributes similar to intermediate ones. While they might appear similar, their quality and growth rate would be much higher.

The strong grew stronger. If the Magic Weapon Summoning Book could exist and develop long-term, the power gap between each tier’s weapons would only widen.

Yawning, Zheng Yichen leaned against a tree, looking at his Magical Grimoire. Even though his improvement speed was very fast, that fantasy of making rapid jumps in strength wasn’t happening. No matter the Talent, getting stronger required time. Even though his growth over months equated to years for others.

This world didn’t have clear rankings. Becoming a practitioner of magic wasn’t a hard-and-fast class distinction, but a realm. The strict requirements for using Magic were Talent, Mana, and Spiritual Power. Once someone met the standards for a higher tier, they could use higher-level spells!

But accumulating mana was like training your body. Expecting instant results? Impossible. Even Loris built her current strength over an immensely long time. Therefore, Zheng Yichen simply wasn’t strong enough to create High-Level Magic Arms right now. He had to wait quite a while before starting, even though he had so many ideas.

Things like Pangu’s Axe or the Xuanyuan Sword. Zheng Yichen could probably craft severely weakened knock-offs based on what he understood about their attributes now. But his personal attachment made him unwilling to create such things yet.

To make them merely as Intermediate Magic Weapons… it would be disrespectful! If he made them, they would be the highest quality!

Carrying the newly forged weapon, Zheng Yichen returned to the Castle. He imprinted its information into the Magic Weapon Summoning Book and set it aside.

As long as it wasn’t destroyed, it didn’t matter where it was kept. He could use the summoning book too. As the top administrator, Zheng Yichen could not only draw upon the enormous mana gradually accumulating within it later but could also perform physical summons of the weapons without any conditions. The same applied to the Magic Weapon Summoning Book itself.

“Should I find a way to spread some information about this summoning book?” Zheng Yichen muttered, lying on the ground while using a large file to grind his claws. This file was a friendly offer from one of the Ghost Maids; not sure where she got it.

The fine filings from his claws were collected throughout by another Ghost Maid possessing wind power.

“If it’s for that girl’s safety, you can do so,” Loris said, having appeared behind Zheng Yichen without him noticing. “The protagonists of an era also need protective environments early in their development.”

“Oh… alright then,” Zheng Yichen paused, suppressing the urge to ask questions. A few days ago, he had stumbled upon the entrance to the Castle’s Underground Library. According to the accompanying Ghost Maid, most of the books inside were collected by Loris, many being rare, out-of-print treasures.

Leaking the information within this Library alone would draw hordes of Mages eager to ‘explore’. Apart from the valuable books, Zheng Yichen also found some strangely mixed-in books – novels from this world…

More intriguingly, those books seemed to have been touched recently!

“Hey, Loli,” he ventured, “did you ever write novels before?”

“Wrote some during boring times,” Loris glanced at him, unconcerned about the pet name. To her, names were little more than labels.

“I see.” Worried she might notice something, Zheng Yichen released a Projection. Considering the Projection Spell’s utility, he had already imprinted it onto his Mind Sea. Since he accumulated mana while practicing any magic rune array, it made sense.

The main difference was that frequent use of a particular spell led to familiarity, making it easier to perform fine adjustments and improvements once he Reached the Tier.

A tiny dragon shape slipped out of the castle under cover of darkness. Shrinking the projection’s power to its limit meant heavily reduced strength, but the benefit was drastically weakened mana fluctuation, making it extremely hard to sense. Zheng Yichen stealthily reached Sta City unnoticed. Then he started searching for suitable people.

Among the shadows, Zheng Yichen scratched his head. This was probably the first real solo mission since his rebirth. Flipping through his Grimoire, he selected an Illusion spell – its effect was to disguise his outward appearance.

The disguise was purely visual. Any physical contact would give it away immediately. Higher Illusion Magic could create tangible effects, but that was advanced magic. Zheng Yichen couldn’t perform it. This one would have to do; he only needed to find people, not make direct contact anyway.

The spell offered a bit of disruption against detection. Even if seen through by someone stronger, unless powerful dispelling magic was used, the illusion would grow distorted before fading, providing some interference.

“Too bad it’s not a real body,” Zheng Yichen looked down at the body his Illusion formed. His appearance was his pre-transmigration look. But an illusion was fake. Making any extreme movement caused it to fail. For instance, pressing his hand against his chest. With light pressure, the illusion could adjust to show the effect.

But pressing harder, beyond the spell’s disguise limit? This illusion hand would simply pass through the illusionary body… Might be good for scaring people.