<em>Bang!</em>


    On the empty ground, Graystone was heavily thrown to the ground. He struggled to his feet, rubbing his sore arm.


    What kind of monster was this lizard-man?


    In their world, there were also lizard-men, but those were merely wandering bandits without civilization or aplete heritage. They were just a bunch of thieves who liked to ambush travelers or merchants in the wild.


    But this lizard-man in front of him was entirely different from any he had encountered before.


    Graystone, one of the strongest in his n, had sessfully be a dwarf heavy knight. Not just one lizard-man, even an entire squad of them, he could crush without hesitation.


    Yet, his iron fist, which could shatter stones, felt like it was hitting an impossibly hard piece of steel when it struck this lizard-man. His calloused fists ached terribly from the impact.


    Lauren narrowed his eyes, staring intently at Graystone.


    In their previous sh, he hadn’t held the upper hand in terms of strength. However, his defense was far superior, and the ws his master had modified could easily tear through flesh.Graystone stood up, his thick arms clenched into fists that he mmed heavily onto the ground.


    <em>Crack, crack~</em>


    The earth split open, and clumps of dirt mixed with rocks defied gravity, forming two thick arm shields that wrapped around his forearms.


    Magic—Earth Arm Shields.


    Graystone let out a low growl, a silver-gray glow shing across his body.


    A faint grayyer covered his skin and hair.


    Magic—Stone Skin.


    With the addition of two magic enhancements, Graystone charged at Lauren once more.


    The more he fought, the more rmed he became. Even with his magic defenses, he still couldn’t match the lizard-man in resilience.


    Graystone could sense no magic fluctuations from his opponent. This meant Lauren was fighting him purely with his physical strength.


    Graystone stepped back half a step, admitting, “I lost.”


    For him, failing to win was a loss. Graystone epted it without hesitation; in this battle, a draw and a defeat were the same because there was no victory.


    Lauren nodded silently.


    He narrowed his eyes, scrutinizing Graystone. Lauren realized he had found a worthy sparring partner.


    Since his transformation, the goblins were no longer a challenge, and even the demon goblins that had been transformed by demon bloodline reagents posed no threat.


    Fighting the four-armed brute force demon brought no joy either; the brute’s immense strength made Lauren feel like a mosquito, effortlessly swatted away despite his own formidable defenses.


    In contrast, the battle with Graystone provided a sense of evenly matched, exhrating meleebat that he hadn’t experienced in a long time.


    Graystone cautiously inquired, “What do we need to do next?”


    Lauren bared his teeth in a menacing grin, lips curling back as he leaned in close to Graystone’s ear, cing a hand on his shoulder. “Don’t ask unnecessary questions. Just do whatever the mastermands.”


    …


    Listening to the report below, Lynn rubbed his temples.


    “Hold off on purchasing weapons and equipment for now. Aren’t they dwarves? Let them forge their own weapons and armor. Once they settle in, have them craft a batch of weapons to practice and assess their craftsmanship.”


    Purchasing this batch of dwarves had nearly drained Lynn’s stock of magic stones. Fortunately, Liszt made Meditation Treasures that kept things afloat.


    Maintaining a group of followers was expensive. Simply keeping them alive was easy enough—food was cheap—but wizards needed followers capable of solving problems. Weapons, armor, magical tools, bloodline cultivation, transformation rituals, magic training…


    However, Lynn knew that this period of tight scheduling was merely temporary. Once the current experiment he was involved in was over, he would have more time.


    The experiments had reached a crucial phase recently, keeping Lynn extraordinarily busy and almost unable to find a moment for himself.


    Arriving at the inner court in the shadow world, Lynn made his way to Dragon’sboratory.


    Abraham had already been there for half an hour, having prepared the raw materials needed for the day.


    Abraham shed a bright smile and waved at Lynn. “Lynn, you’re here.”


    Lynn couldn’t help but reflect on how Abraham truly was an enthusiastic young man, a smile touching his lips as he responded, “Hm.”


    Since Lynn had mentioned his busy schedule, Abraham, despite making no formal promise, had taken it upon himself to arrive early and handle some of the preparatory work.


    “This is thetest array that Wizard Dragon taught us. I’m going to give it a try,” Abraham said to Lynn.


    Lynn watched as Abraham began setting up the new array. Every time Dragon introduced a new magic array, Lynn made it a point to study and observe closely. As he scrutinized the symbols on the array, his expression grew serious. He was about to warn Abraham, but before he could, Abraham had already infused his mental energy into the array.


    The air grew still, and the only sound in the room was Lynn’s breathing.


    Lynn reached out to ce a hand on Abraham’s shoulder, but the sound of footsteps outside interrupted him.


    Turning around, he saw Wizard Dragon standing at the entrance of theboratory, his deep, prating gaze fixed on Lynn.


    Lynn’s movement halted, and in the silence, he could feel his heartbeat quickening. Theboratory was within Dragon’s wizard tower, and Dragon was a seasoned wizard who had spent countless years as a first-level wizard. He had even transformed himself into a lich.


    Lynn had heard about Wizard Dragon. It was said that if Dragon hadn’t dedicated himself to a particr experiment, he might have be a second-level wizard long ago.


    Dragon’s decision to expend vast resources for the sake of a loved one could not be said to be right or wrong. For wizards, the merit of a decisiony in its alignment with their inner convictions, regardless of the oue.


    “Your experiment is over,” Dragon said slowly.


    “Go to the room outside and choose a source material you desire,” he continued, raising his hand to point toward the hallway.


    Lynn stood still for a moment before decisively leaving the room.


    In the hallway outside, he found a tableden with various source materials. At a nce, there were about a dozen items, all core materials for constructing a wizard tower. Although none were particrly valuable, they were essential for building a first-level wizard tower.


    Lynn’s gaze fell upon one of the source materials.


    “This one will do,” Lynn muttered to himself in the empty hall.


    He picked up the source material and stored it in his spatial ring. ncing at the closed doors of the wizard tower, he found a sofa in the hall and sat down to wait.


    After a while, he heard footstepsing from the hallway behind him.


    Abraham, looking somewhat pale, emerged from the room, followed by Wizard Dragon. Abraham casually picked up an item from the table.


    “I have some matters to attend to, so I’ll be outter. You go ahead,” Abraham said to Lynn.


    Leaving Dragon’s wizard tower, Lynn stepped into the cold outside air.


    A bitter smile crossed his face as he recalled the moment he noticed several rune errors in the magic array. The symbols on the array had a peculiar alignment—an inversion effect.


    If the array was like a conduit, the symbols altered it from channeling the wizard’s mental energy outward to drawing external mental energy inward.


    Lynn had a habit of scrutinizing magic arrays and had some knowledge on runes, which allowed him to spot the problem. But when he tried to warn Abraham, it was already toote.


    Dragon had appeared at theboratory door and effectively ordered him out. If Lynn hadn’t noticed the mistake, it might have been him instead of Abraham facing the consequences, given his superior aptitude.


    As Lynn walked towards thending point, he pulled his wizard robe tighter around him. The shadow ne was unusually cold that day.


    ——